How to: Healing.

So since i won't be around forever, Buc thought it'd be a good idea for me to give my thoughts on healing as a Druid and healing in general for future healers in the guild.

So. Healing. Where to begin....

Well my views on healing are simple, i enjoy it and find it the most rewarding and fun role to play.

So Akaris....how on earth do you heal a raid or heroic? How do healers keep healing long after the DPS is OOM and 10 mins into the fight? How do healers do it? Magic beans?!

Well some simple tips that i've always held are:

1. Experience - The more encounters you heal the better, some encounters can be healed the same way. The more you heal the better you get, aslong as you actualy pay attention to the mobs your fighting, the damage they do, the amount of pulls your tank can handle, how yout tank handles mass pulls, how your DPS handles with mass pulls, when and for how long you can take " knaps ". Letting you regain mana on longer fights or to leave the five second rule to prepare for different phases - Learn from it all.

2. Gear correctly, to your playstyle and class - All the classes need different gear and playstyles, this upto you to find out and decide what works best for you.

Don't look at other Paladins are go " Hmm he's socketed different from me, why's he got +Int in his sockets, why has he got +spellpower in all sockets? Hmmm...i've got all +Mp5 in my sockets... ". Remember its down to that persons playstyle, not that your doing it wrong.

3. Your not alone, stop watching the healing meters - " Whys that priest way ahead of the healing meters then everyone else? Why am i only 3rd? Am i geared propperly? Am i doing something wrong? "

As i said before, healing comes down to your playstyle and class. Dont expect to be ontop on the healing meters just because you have epic gear.

An example:

For me, as a Druid, i get trampled on by Priests and Paladins when it comes to sheer direct healing power. They're there to continously pull out the big heals to keep everyone up.

I'm there to keep the whole raid topped up. To soak up the aoe damage. To constantly heal the tanks, making it harder to wipe from damage spikes. To heal the healers and DPS, making sure that the tanks always have a healer watching them.

" Sounds like Druids dont do much, why take them? "
Simple. Druids make awesome endurance healers, we can't work without the other healers. They cant work without us. Put together = Win.


This next part is for the 5 man groups and the common issues that arise

I've often had HEAL! Screamed at me by the DPS. Thea reason they're screaming that often:

1. They've started DPSing too early, before the tanks had chance to build up enough threat on the target.
2. They're not attacking the same target as the tank.
3. They've had aggro, i've healed them to half heatlh and the tanks got aggro off them.

Solutions:

1. Wait for them to take enough damage before healing - Often DPS will see they're health going down and not stop or slow DPS down, but try and nuke it down asap. Wait till they've took enough damage so that your sure you wont get aggro from healing them.
Afterall, 1 dead dps is better then a dead healer.

2. Nothing you can do but suggest that they assist target. Ie. Target the same target the tank's targetting.
Ask them to enable " Target's target ". Ie. What your target it targetting.
Or let them die. If they've been attacking a random pulled mob, then the chances are they're gona die. The tank will have to build up alot of threat on that target to stop it from attacking the DPS.

3. HoTs - Heal. Over. Time. That person shouldn't of had aggro in the first place, unless that person takes aggro again then theres nothing to worry about. Let your HoTs...well...HoT.

Obviously its not always the DPS's fault, sometimes the tanks are to blame. But in general, its the DPS.


So heres an example of a recent encounter me, Tesh, Buc, Sil, and Zu did. Old Kingdom HC, last boss. From a Druid's point of view.

Boss starts. ( Boss does a random insect swarm-like attack to eveyone, a lifebloom on everone negates it ).

Nothing realy hard, keep the HoTs on the tank. Lots of little non-elite bugs will come attack the Tank. If you cast a heal they'll attack you. ( They can be aoed down very easyily ).

Keep Rejuv on yourself, to soak up the damage from the adds.

Melee DPS will get stunned and the boss will do a cone of damage infront of him, doing about 20k damage. ( DPS should be at the sides, near the back ).

Boss goes underground. ( The ground will randomly shake and if standing on it, will cause 3/4k damage and send that person flying into the air ).

Adds start to appear. These range from flying adds, poison casters adds and ground adds.
Make sure you all stay close.
Make sure you keep yourself healed. ( Rejuv + 1 lifebloom ).
Make sure the tank picks up the poison caster adds or they'll fire stacking, very powerful poison DoTs that do 3k+.
( I choose to cleanse the DPS and me, while leaving the tank poisoned. Out healing it is very very risky )
The flying adds apply a DoT that does damage every second too.
Ground adds do normal, physical damage for 1.2k damage on me.

Boss will come back up and the cycle will continue.

HoTs alone won't get you through this fight, you'll need regrowth the tank so that the DPS and you can be kept healed. The DPS are going to have aggro, theres no way the tank can hold aggro of all the adds.

End of the day. Heal through it and make sure everyone's on the ball.

( For Buc ;] )

My build: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0VG0uZZf0IuwuxVuVhst

Addons i use purely for healing:

http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/decursive.aspx

http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/grid.aspx

Other then that make sure you keep the tank /focused. Allowing you to constantly have the tank easy to get to, you can see how long you HoTs have left.

Akaris the Wise Halfgod fails to disappoint me again.

Thank you very much mate Great job As I said I might try to get Nahi from 75 to 80 over next few days to have another resto drood in the guild for the days when you're not around and I also hope this guide will help other members who are considering healing class too. Nahi might not be back to wow for a long time now due to IRL stuff so I'll just use her druid

Would be great if you list few addons as well I'll respec Nahi from balance to resto today/tomorrow (using your build) and my leveling will only be in instances I need to install addons for healers too so any advice will be appreciated

Thanks once more

Well until you get Akaris' list of AddOns, I can recommend Grid (party/raid frames), Decursive (cure disease/poison/remove curse etc) and possibly Deadly Boss Mods (http://www.deadlybossmods.com/features.php).

Well as long as Aka's healing goes I am feeling best when he is my healer. Realy, was reading some posts on tanking forums about tanks favourite healer class and druid comes last on many peoples list!

Now I know that all players have a different style and that is very individual but for relaxed 5 mans druid is great. Now not just couse I got to know Aka pretty well in instances and so forth its becouse he said druids ability to heal all party and heal on the move!

Another thing is when Aka heals i almost always stop looking at my health bar and I can concentrate more on other things!

So, I know Aka will leave us some day when his army career takes wing and he is off to see the world and on the way to make his dreams come true and I am ready for it, will be kinda challenging with new healer, but I will be sad when he goes regardless!
(aint life funny; Aka plays healer and he is off to army driving Tanks maybe and stuff, and I am a healer (animal doctor but the point is there), and playing Tank)

Hehe Tes true ironi there...

Hmm i dident realise we hade sutch a shortige of healers i think whene im done lvl Lea i will move over Nizo shes a lvl 59 pala and lvl her between raids...

Or do we have any healers on its way up i saw some pala and priest in the lvl 70-80 area...?

Btw Akar whene are you of for the army?

Well we have Cywiel who is prot pally but he isnt aroun any more, We have Silahco who is protection also and its good that guild have 2 active tanks (he has an alt priest dont know what is his spec), we also have Sacrament (akas alt so when Aka is out of the picture so this one will be too), And Zushenks little Pally but he aims to make him protection as well!

well i guess i move over Nizo thene, Just a quick question on the subjekt i have read that pala makes boring healers? I knowe its aquestion of playing stile and i like my pala but in my point of view the end game for this alt will be importent. And at least i think that lvl a new alt from 1-60 is about as hard to lvl one from 60 to 80 and if that gives me a fun healer in the end game that might be worth it in the end.
So i guess what i throwe out ther is what healers are good and fun to play shaman, druid, pala or priest (i dont knowe if i forgot one)?
As i understand from Akar thread druids are more versetile healers and have good AOE heals (Whitch i dont think pala have, or am i wrong here?)

Ill stay quiet here since I dont know anything on the subject except from Tanks point of wiev. as long as player know to play his class Ill stay alive! And thats that!

Gredy : Thanks for adding deadly boss mods

Tesh : Yeah its strange how peoples preference on healers can be so different. I guess, like you said, it depends on your experience of that healer. From a Pug to a guildy healer. Also i think its the same for tanks.
Gota love the irony hehe

Leanah : We definetly need more healers if we're to start doing 10 mans. As for the Army, i've got second interview on tuesday and then i'll be put up for assessment.

Nice guide mate (:
You must have some pretty good gear then from all these hcs? ;]
going to check peoples armorys once I get home

You been to naxx yet? Theres this boss there where you can only heal every 17seconds or something xD
well funny boss, you get a buff that increases your crit by 50%

I have a 'secret weapon' pally alt that I am intending on introducing to the fold when Pers hits 80, I'm happy to make him a healer as and when needed. I possibly won't keep him in that spec all the time but don't begrudge re-speccing him for runs at all.

Ive always faniced a Pvp healer, as on my rogue ive always hated those pvp geared healers that just heal through your damage while having a dot on you which suprisingly kills you pretty quickly xD

This was the point of leveling my priest!!
Though once I actually got to 70 with him I was bored lol ><
Maybe one day!!

Leanah, you asked if there's any more healers on their way up.. I am soon I started this shammy with healing in mind, I've always loved healing and I always will. ^^

The healers work quite differently but they're basicly like this:

Priest = Good all-round healer
Druid = King of the HoTs
Paladin = You can't beat one in single target (main tank) healing, they simply outlast everyone in that.
Shaman = Good raid healers due to Chain Heal, totems also give raid-wide buffs which is really nice. Resto shamans also have Mana Tide totem which makes them a "mini-manabattery" for their group

I used to think paladins are a boring class to play, at least to heal with but I don't know anymore. They only have a few healing spells, basically two but the real challenge is (as far as I know, I'm no expert here) choosing the right auras, seals and judgements for the situation. If you think you'll get bored of spamming two different healing spells, then I'd advice against rolling a paladin..

thx for the tipe mates...

And Pers what is this we bouth have main mages and we bouth have holy pala alt .... dont tell me you have a hunter somwhere...

Leanah1 wrote:thx for the tipe mates...

And Pers what is this we bouth have main mages and we bouth have holy pala alt .... dont tell me you have a hunter somwhere...

Hunter, shammy, warlock...... the list goes on

My UI that i use for my raids >

The focus target Meov ( Bear Druid ) and next to it is decursive (all the small boxes ). The portraits below mine ( Top left corner ) are my party members and below that, are the raid members.

Also i have my target's target. ( Meov > Grotbewoner ). My buffs to the right and my custom minimap.

All spells, forms, potions, etc etc are on the action bar block, where the achievement is.

I use Xperl unit frames over Grid because i find it easy to use, clear and good for both, raid and partys.

Couldn't agree more with how Gredy summed up.

Priests:
Very good single target and multi target healer.
Good buffs.
Good cleansing abilitys.
Powerful undead CC.
Slow casts.
Fast heals
Slower, more powerful heals.
Quite mana intensive.
OK endurance healer. ( IMO )
Good burst healing.
Ok HoT.

Paladin:
The best single target healing.
Very good buffs.
Good cleansing abilitys.
Cheap casts.
Fast heals.
Slower, more powerful heals.
No multi target healing.
Good defence ( Plate, sheild, bubble etc ).
Very good endurance healer.
Very nice burst healing.
No HoTs.

Druid:
Very good single taget and multi target healing.
Instant casts.
HoTs.
Powerful, yet mana intensive cast heals.
Cast heal+HoT.
The best endurance healer. ( Imo )
Good cleansing abilitys.
Very good burst healing, yet mana intensive.
Good defence abilitys. ( Imp tree, Barkskin )


Note: I like Paladins, just find them annoying to level.

Aka - my UI (after you helped me to sort it out) looks almost the same Need to work out how to move my buffs from under my portrait to the right hand side where mini map is

Got my first few runs as healer today Only UK and Nex as I don't feel like going into lvl75 stuff yet Need a lot of training but love it so far Was great fun In both UK and Nex I had dps geared DKs trying to tank (literally not a single piece of tanking gear...) XD At the end evryone was tanking as ''tank'' couldn't keep aggro and was taking huge damage (on my first UK run tank got two shotted by first boss - no mitigation XD) so I was healing my ass off overhaling a lot to keep everyone up but I had great fun at the same time

Tbh I can't use healing touch on such runs as I never have 3s to cast it I just use rejuv + lifebloom combined with swiftmend (with glyph it doesn't remove my HoTs now ) and wild growth plus regrowth when I have time (2s for nice healing and HoT) I forgot to pull out nourish on my bar XD Not sure if I even have it in my spell book Might need to visit trainer

Anyhow - was great fun even though we didn't have proper tank It'll be looong way to lvl from 75 to 80 in instances only XD

Thank you for all your help Aka

Aka - my UI (after you helped me to sort it out) looks almost the same. Need to work out how to move my buffs from under my portrait to the right hand side where mini map is

If I recall correctly, there is an option to turn off the buffs on Xperl. That way you'll only see the normal buffs.

Thanks mate Got it sorted now

Thx for the guide aka, very nice.
My priest is almost 76 now, and he is holy spec. I will try and work on him some more but it is a draaaag...once i hit 80 with the pally it is so much easier to grind and play a prot pally than grinding with a holy priest...but that is no excuse he is almost there.