I mean, this game doesn’t look all that great but I feel like I am looking at health bars more than the actual game.
The only time I look at the game is to dodge things or follow someone because I instantly get lost if I am not following someone.
I use mouse movement because I can’t get used to keyboard movement.
If you feel like you can’t get a good view of the battlefield, there are lots of UI options you can use to better accommodate yourself. Lots of them are actually built right into the game now, and you have pretty good control over your raid frames. But there are also tons of UI mods out there that let you fully customize in even more unique ways. I use very close to vanilla frames, so I’m not one to ask, but I’m sure there are people who could give you recommendations.
Yeah I do literally incapable of keeping focus on health bars non stop x3
This is why I use Healbot. It’s in the middle of my screen off to the right hand side as little health squares. I can see what’s going on and still watch the health bars.
Maybe it’s just me but I find I see a lot more in the game as a healer then any other role. Maybe it’s because I mouse over macro to heal but click to DPS/tank so I look at my action bars to click. I just feel like healing is a lot more chill, there’s lots of breaks when people don’t need healing. I just find healing the most relaxing/easiest role
I only heal small content anymore, like 10 or 15m raids max. 25 man raid frames just cover so much space, the smaller group stuff is far more enjoyable and makes it easier to see and have fun with whats actually happening
Yeah it takes a while but once you get the system down it’s gravy. On my priest it’s basically just muscle memory I don’t really need to look at my action bars because it’s like playing a song on piano. D for dispel 12345 buttons r for trinket and I use a 12 button mouse so everything is keybound. Ez pz lemon sqzy just que up and play a song
Some of my abilities are required to be looking at the position people are standing but mostly yeah I’m looking at the health bars.
spend more time prepping for content before you do it. Know what damage is going to go out and when, if you want to use addons to track timers that’s an additional option but typically there’s a ingame cue for major things, like phase transitions.
Playing whack a mole with raid frames is an okayish way to heal but if you’re healing someone and you don’t know where they are or what damage they’ve taken, you’re just noticing the fact that they have taken damage, then your capability to analyze your groups and content you are doing is going to diminish.
As a healer you should be the first person to notice if a group is making mistakes (although that responsibility can be split with a tank, especially in less tank hectic content). If you see a hunter moving slowly out of things then you know to preemptively hot/shield them, if you see people aren’t prioritizing kicks on X spell then you know you have to have a heal queued for right after. LFR is probably the worst content to learn how to heal, the damage isn’t high enough and you’re just competing over who can spam raid frames the fastest. Normal is similar unless you’re talking week 1 or 2, heroic the same minus a few mechanics here and there, but eventually that can be outgeared / out damaged to the point where you can spam cast the entire time and the fight is over before you go oom.
Focus on 5 mans, practice mouseover healing, move up to 10 man raiding with another healer, maybe look for one who is comfortable telling you how you are splitting the responsibility, for example during X mechanic you top up melee, during Y mechanic you use A cooldown, during Z cooldown the tank. Then its a simple matter of reading the dungeon log, understanding the damage that comes between those major assignments and applying your healing pressure evenly accordingly.
You know you need a break from healing when you look up from the game and your family all have HP bars over their heads and all they ever say is “Can I get a heal?”
you didn’t reroll bdk in slands? Memory of a Vampiric Aura - Item - World of Warcraft (wowhead.com)
In pvp you do… ive never been able to enjoy healing enough to raid with it. There it feels like watching bars.
It depends on what you’re playing. Druids are doing HoTs so it’s a little easier for them to look around. But healers usually still see less than others since hey need to keep people alive.
Muscle memory and repetition on fights should help over time to lessen your need to watch hp bars at the exclusion of all else. When you know damage will peak then ease up, you’ll be able to prepare for it and maybe even have less catchup work to do.
This can be a bit of a hindrance as for most people it would require extra effort and mental load to use instead of keys, but it’s manageable.
As others have mentioned, a good ui is key.
If you centre things around the middle then your eyes spend less time travelling. You can also have character bars go a little dim when someone is topped off, which could help your brain quickly identify if anyone needs healing without having to actually look at everyone directly.
I don’t know what level of content you’re in at the moment, but try to remember that even as a healer, you’re not someone’s excuse to not pay attention or make constant mistakes.
You’re there to patch people up and get them healthy before a mechanic /big damage event. You’re not there to pump heals into someone so they can ignore everything else. If it’s between their life or yours (having to watch your feet, etc) keep yourself up first. Once you get more experience you’ll learn if a death was your mistake or theirs, and hopefully apply that to your next go.
For about .5 seconds every 2-3 seconds, yes!
I don’t think I’m an amazing healer, but this is how I play:
If you haven’t done it yet, change turn left and right to strafe left and right…
Then use w, a, d in combination with holding down your right mouse button.
I do use an MMO mouse. So, I suppose things are easier for me.
I use ‘Tab’ for friendly targets and middle mouse click for enemy targets. I also use Bartender, it has an option for Auto-Assist casting, so I can target an enemy and cast heals onto their target. I have keybound ‘F’ to swap between my target and their target.
Heroic Dawn of the Infinite MW PoV:
Admittedly, it’s the first time I’ve done this dungeon. I have to say, I hated the dodge ball room.
But I find dungeons fairly boring, if you want to see what I normally see, this is a Battleground Blitz WSG:
Yes, I know I made a lot of mistakes. But we won, so there’s that.
TLDR, yes, I watch the game all the time, I only use raid frames as a reference.
Resto Sham feels like healing is a side thing you do. My eyes are always watching the nameplates of mobs to get ready to stop casts.
The trick for healers (or any caster really) is to look around when you’re hardcasting stuff.
You only have to look at the health bars when you’re casting the spell. No reason to keep looking once you start casting.
Base UI has a click cast option keybind for the party/raid frames to cut down on cast steps. Like healbot or other healing addons.
If everyone is taking damage you should be casting aoe heals anyway. Usually ground targets or just pick someone in the pack.
Single target damage events are usually avoidable in low to mid pug keys, so that actually he’s better as your groups get better.
If you’re staring at health bars all the time you’re playing with anxiety and not your skill. Control your nerves.