So, I am starting to do keys this season, and I was enjoying it.
But today I logged in and froze momentarily while looking over the dungeon finder. I want to play and gear up, but the stress from healing is preventing me from applying to groups. I don’t think I’m that bad at healing; I have the UI and setup for mythic + dungeons, but they’re still stressful as hell.
Usually, this doesn’t bother me, but I woke up today and want to chill out.
How do you get over the stress?
I’m probably just going to grind in PoE for today lmao.
idk if anyone can tell you how to overcome stress. you either heal, or rely on someone else to do it. for me, relying on someone else to heal is way more stressful.
Join a guild who does M+ Keys, it seems more likely you’re stressed from the players reactions to your healing opposed to actually healing.
Guild runs are generally more relaxed even when trying to push themselves and if they need to pug it will introduce you back into the bigger fish bowl.
Also try running with your own key - then you can dictate your own stress level, nobody cares if it’s your key that breaks.
Find a group of players that know what they doing.
Pugs will always be stressful especially if they take a ton of avoidable damage and lack interrupt priorities
If your pugging just know that people are going to die to being not smart. Like I tell my friends, you can’t heal stupid. If x person standing in sanguine pool dying, it’s their fault.
Honestly, just practice and start small. Definitely knowing/mastering the mechanics will ease your anxiety I feel, plus knowing your class pretty well in regards to them. The last thing I think is don’t let angry players scare you from pushing your character, that’s a them problem!
Practice small keys for a while. As long as you need to, honestly. Assuming you’re playing Holy Priest in keys, a few pointers for you.
Your Boon burst window is important. When you’re doing that, do only that. Remember that the explosion at the end is going to save everyone.
Don’t be afraid to use Apotheosis on CD. Don’t be afraid to use Serenity on CD. If you’re spamming flash/heal (or even just tossing flash here and there between smite/holy fire to keep your stacks up) the chances are excellent Serenity will be there when you need it.
Also, use spells in tandem. For example, circle on it’s own is useless. Circle with divine star and/or sanctify is OP AF.
The new dungeons are relatively healing intensive, and it took me some time to really work out where the dps portions (for me) would be and the healing portions would be.
Again though, practice small keys. You’ll start to learn the other classes too (esp the tanks) and see who needs what sort of attention. For example-I largely ignore blood DKs.
You need to have thickskin and stand up for yourself. A lot of people in pugs auto blame the healer. DPS players have very very fragile ego’s due to the damage meter. Anytime they die, its automatically the healers fault.
I just had a priest blame me because he died to disintegrate on last boss of Upper Kara. He said I should of dispelled the debuff but he ended up taking the 85k instant kill to the face.
You need to have thickskin and stand up yourself as a healer. Throw some slurs if you need to as well. You just heal dungeons and don’t worry about what the dps players think.
It can be stressful but it shouldn’t be causing you to feel like you’re about to have a panic attack. Which by your description it sounds like.
Nothing wrong with taking a a day or two or however many you need to just chill and relax. It’s the end of the expansion, gearing up should be for fun at this point.
For me, when I get totally stressed and a bit freaked out about healing m+ I step back. Take a day or two to do something else and then come back to it.
healing pugs is stressful sometimes. today 3 groups fell apart on Lower Kara: +15, +14 and finally the +13 we didn’t beat the timer.
Right now a lot of people do not know how to handle trash or boss mechanics on top of that grievous makes healing harder.
Example: Moroes the smart dps helped me interrupt and spot heal, otherwise you will be eating a 45k smite or mana drain… thats not the healers fault. plus I find the bleed to be very high damage, even on fortified week.
The more runs and experience you get you’ll get less stressed out over failure and more aware even if it falls apart. As you go up in key level it gets harder but the players are more capable to help you out.
You get used to it. Think of it like this, you have the power you’re the god of the dungeon and raid. You have the power to decide who lives or dies, yes, I know this sounds bad but if someone is being stupid then it’s okay to let them die. Some people have to die, but you should try and save them, and just not heal them at all. But you get used to it, just be sure to memorize your emergency keybinds and such.
If you want to chill but still feel like healing, just run 9 or low keys. Also, make your own groups, and state in the listing something like, “Chill run. No stress, no drama.” I have been doing variations of that since Legion when I just want to heal and chill and not worry. Works a treat.
Start small. Basically do lower level keys as much as you want until you feel you’re able to climb up a level. I feel that’s the best way to handle the stress level. You could always play with friends too, laugh at some mistakes you’ll make. Don’t sweat if you get a jerk group or mess up, pick yourself up and keep going at it.
Usually it gets easier the more comfortable you are with your character and the content. If you have a friend or two (or guildies) that can ease it a bit. For me, knowing what is going on helps the most…for instance, knowing if they took a big avoidable hit, or did I miss something? As you get more comfortable with the content, you will know the answer very quickly, but in the beginning it helps me to run avoidable damage meters etc. It tells me when I do dumb as well. I don’t have anything output to party chat-- I know eh can be set either way, but you can use details as well. Keep in mind that while you will make mistakes, so will others–we are all human. Don’t put up with any negativity if you encounter it, but do consider helpful advice. Don’t be afraid to ask questions or look something up. Don’t be afraid to fail. We all have, we all do. Just try to have fun!
I remember having a lot of stress around M+ in Legion, I hadn’t played the game in years and I thought I wasn’t good enough for them. Barely touched them in season 1, but after that I started running with a group of friends and they’ve been my favourite form of PVE content ever since. Practice makes perfect.
I found it useful to know which casts needs to be interrupted so I could tell the DPS to make sure x and y don’t go off. Trash is dangerous on fortified weeks, and interrupts are key. Eventually you’ll know everything about every dungeon, and when you need to use cooldowns and such.
Like anything, things become more natural/less stressful with practice. I’d compare it to stage fright. Once you get up there a few times and know for sure what you are doing, it’s not such a big deal. Take baby steps if you have to. Pug a few random dungeons, then pug a heroic etc.
For reference, I started getting into healing only two months ago. the idea of going into a plus 5 mythic would stress me out and i’d be like super stressed. Now I can time a 15 while listening to music and just vibing.
