The New Heal Metagame Strategy

Ahh...the power of healing

No doubt you've all been seeing people using the summoner skill Heal in their games, and you probably thought they were trolling you at first. I know I did. But after seeing the effectiveness of heal, I tried running it a couple times in-game and wow, it's definitely not a troll summoner.

Let's take a look at it:

Restores 140 + (lvl x 25) Health to your Champion and 50% of that to nearby allies. All targets healed will have a 50% reduction in heal amount from other summoner heal spells for 20 secs.
AoE range: 600 

Compared to Ignite:

Targets a single champion dealing 50 + (lvl x 20) true damage over 5 seconds. Also reduces the target’s healing and regeneration by 50% 

This means that even with the 50% healing reduction, at level 1 Heal restores 40 more health instantly vs Ignite's tick damage. This means that in a 1v1, Heal will actually benefit you MORE than an Ignite as a solo. Not only that, but later on in the game it scales better and is also an AOE skill.

At level 5, Heal with the mastery will do 265 heal + 133 AOE. this compares to the 150 ignite tick damage over 5 seconds. Sure the fact is that they eventually deal 17 extra damage to you if you heal while ignited, but the fact that it's over 5 seconds give you time to kill your opponent before it ticks you down.

It does however have 90 seconds longer on cooldown than ignite. But the fact that it's an AOE team heal just makes it so much more versatile than a single ignite. Sure ignite has its uses against heroes like Dr. Mundo and Ryze, but overall, Heal is just a much better spell in my humble opinion.

In the end, it's a spell that has comparable stats to its more favored cousin, ignite. However, heal is infinitely more useful in team fights and the surprise that it creates is equally invaluable.

Pro QQ:

Captain Healer on Duty!

Apparently the increased usage has even been noted by pro players and the forum QQ has started with Reginald, leader of The Solo Mid team a few days earlier.

Original Post Below: (Warning! Brospeak ahead!)

I DONT DIE TO HEAL baits or anything.
BUT The summoner heal makes this game fken boring.
PPL get heal... and it makes the laning phase boring as hell. 
THIS SUMMONER ONLY MAKES LEAGUE OF LEGENDS LESS FUN. 
Remove summoner heal. 
Heal baits are sooo last year. PPL dont get baited anymore to that shiz.. It just makes the laning phase boring and makes me cry somewhere inside. 

- ReginaId 

In response, RiotPhreak responded responded with the following Red Post:

Clutch healing is quite fun, IMO:
You feel very good for using it and honestly you sort of accept, "Yeah, okay, good play, I shoulda known you had heal up." 

Plus, it really helps newer players who can't remember to anticipate Ignite. They say, "Oh crud! Ignite!" and pop Heal. It'll out-scale it until level 15 or so.

Heal being a good spell gives more choices to players. Instead of 10 Flash all day, you may still want to hold on to something offensive like Surge, Ignite, or Exhaust, and then on the defensive side, pick something like Cleanse or Heal as they now compare to Flash meaningfully. Will I still take Flash on Alistar or Janna? Yes. Will I consider Heal on say... Malphite or Dr. Mundo? I can see the logic in that. 

As far as anti-fun, well sure losing a kill is a little bit sadface. But design is an optimization: Is the inclusion of Heal fun? Yes. Is the anti-fun greater than the guy Flashing away from your perfectly constructed gank? Probably not.

What do you guys think about heal? Comment below!