I have every healer in the game at level 50 and they are much more keybind heavy than the majority of tanks and dps. This druid I just finished leveling in the pre patch has 35 key binds I use to be effective. It could be more if I spec differently. Add to that that I shift forms changing my abilities in almost every fight. My resto shaman, which was my main for BFA, had around 35 keybinds as well and now blizzard gave them MORE abilities in the pre patch. I get that a lot of vet players think more abilities = better game but if you want to get new people playing and keep the game healthy and active pruning is a GOOD thing. The game just doesnât come off as accessible for a lot of people. I know, Iâve tried to get people to play and when they find out you might need to use more buttons than Microsoft Flight Simulator to play your class effectively they tap out.
As far as add ons go, I donât really feel the need to use many myself, but I will say Iâm in the minority as a healer. Mouse over macros and years of quickly switching targets quickly has helped me just get used to swapping a lot but I canât imagine having someone new to healing, let alone new to the game doing that. Iâve been playing for 14 years and itâs still a lot when compared to playing dps.
While I wonât deny it requires a fair amount of set up, healing without addons can be done very comfortably. The issue is the setup for it without addons.
For the curious, the method is to make mouseover macros for all your heals, place them on your action bar and set custom keybinds for the action bar in the keybinding options. This is the method I used to replicate WoW healing, in FFXIV which has no addon support.
So for example, you make a macro:
#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover] Flash Heal
Then put it on your bar and bind that button with say, SHIFT+RIGHT CLICK
Doing this allows you to cast Flash Heal on anyone you mousover on your raid/party frames by clicking shift+right click.
This is how I heal in WoW but I use the addon Clique which allows me to skip making the mouseover macros and putting my heals on the action bar at all (I do keep cooldown heals on the action bar just to see the timers on them though). Clique just lets me assign the heals to specific keybinds and skip the tedious setup and action bar clutter.
Thatâs not to say you donât have a point about healing without addons (or my above macro method) being a very difficult endeavor with just the base UI and how frantic encounters can be these days. I just wanted to point out that it can be done without addons.
Yeah! Honestly, thatâs been one of my bigger issues, in a sense. I ran with a guild when I did AOTC, but Iâve since left that guild, and trying to adjust to the sort of flow with different groups can be hard to adjust. I know boss damage is predictable, but that doesnât mean every group handles it the same way, yanno?
I should also add I donât think Iâm terrible or totally new or whatever. I got KSM and AOTC, which I know isnât huge for some people, but thatâs about the level I want to play at for now! I just also want to keep improving where I can.
Itâs good and bad with dungeons â I tend to know where Iâm going to need to hit my âoh crapâ buttons, but every now and then you get a route totally out of left field or something and then everything just feels off.
When people talk about mouseovers there talking about mousing over the raid frame, not the actual character model.
Just wanted to mention this bc it looks like thatâs the way you worded it plus I see a lot of people reference thinking this way about mouseovers.
Mousing over the actual character model would be ridiculously hard if not impossible.
However, mouseing over a raid/party frame cuts out the number of actions a great deal.
With proper mouseovers you arenât required to click on anything, you can keep the enemies constantly targeted and best of all you can keep your eyes on the playfield action and see health bars from periphrial vision.
I only use healbot for mouseover macros, i dont actually click on bars of anymore. For example my flash heal mousover is A, i hover over person on healbot and press A.
Ill add its good to see visually when there is a magic or disease effect that is able to be dispelled.
honestly idk how purists can heal effectively without being able to mouseover stationary name bars
mouseovers cut down on the number of actions(clicks, buttons pressed, eyes moved) by a great deal. With mouseovers you donât need to click any frames and you can keep mobs targeted in order to respond to whatâs going on faster. Also, you donât need to look around as much bc you can see health bars e your peripheral sight w some practice.
I went afk for a second and canât remember reason number 2 but reason 1 should be plenty enough.
This is why I use Clique (or mouseover macros in FFXIV). It greatly improves my response time for healing and I can still keep bosses targeted to see their cast bars so I can prepare for any mechanics I need to deal with.
#2 should be that it lets you use your offensive utility way easier. When you never have to actually target an ally, you can have the boss or the priority mob targeted and switch between healing the group, and purging/stunning/DPSâing the enemy seamlessly.
As someone who mains healer in FFXIV, where healing has been made piss easy and your only goal is to avoid casting GCD heals at all cost (oh how I love spending 90% of my time casting Malefic xD)⊠I really donât want the skill cap lowered any more than it is in WoW.
Iâve been playing wow as a main healer for years now and never really needed an addon for that roleâŠ
I do use addons like dbm, titanpanel, skada etc, but never, in the 6 or 7 years iâve been playing wow, iâve ever used or felt like I needed to use any addons to assist in my healing.
I do use raid frames (not an addon, but a setting in the client options) for everything and not just raids, it helps a lot, but thatâs about it.