Healing tips?

[Elissawe-draka (Elissawe)]

Has it been improved lately? I seem to remember something about it being really clunky. I went back to setting up mouseover macros.

[Tristold-proudmoore]

I’ve been using nothing but it since last season, at least. Can’t speak for any time beforehand. My spells go to whoever I point them at (model or frame) otherwise default to enemy/me as usual.

[Pandadol-nagrand]

I have strayed into healer territory this expansion and despite the changes am having a blast.

I started off mentioning in runs or raids that I was a new healer and mostly always received a chill response or good advice - don’t be afraid to mention you are new and looking to learn in game - I was surprised how generous and helpful people were.

I also second the don’t feel guilty or blame yourself when people die - I was very wrapped up in trying to keep people alive and keeping them above half health when I started - now I am more relaxed about it all. If someone dies I try and see if it was a me thing and if I can improve or learn from it or if it was a case of “can’t heal stupid” as I have become more relaxed with - in a light way - I main a DH mostly - I know all about stupid

[Penny-blood-furnace (Penny)]

Mouseover macros. Once I learned about those healing felt smoother, not having to click on every unit frame individually. This allows you to keep the boss targetted so you can help dps, or even just see what it’s casting, and still heal just by mousing over your target and using your healing spell.

To add on to mouseover macros, help/harm macros are also a space saver for your action bars. For example, on my paladin I have a help/harm macro for Holy Shock/Judgement- if I have a target it will cast Judgement unless I mouse over someone, then it will cast Holy Shock. I use help/harm macros on all of my healers now, for every dps spell I’d use.

[Tristold-proudmoore]

@Pandadol-nagrand

I also second the don’t feel guilty or blame yourself when people die

This is a BIG one.

Healers are here to replenish your health when you take some damage, not make it so you can ignore m+/raid mechanics. That frontal will still kill you and nomatter how good I am, you still have to kick those nukes lol

[Pandadol-nagrand]

I also found groups of friends and eventually a guild to run with that allowed me to try stuff out - different specs, different talents etc until
I felt more ready and confident to enter LFR or pugging mythics.

I am no no means accomplished and still feel nervous about healing but would still recommend giving it a go - it provides a whole new level of satisfaction when you are the one who keeps a group up which makes it all worth it for me

[Evilmuffin-uther (Evilmuffin)]

@Gunship-dathremar

What tips would you give to someone wanting to try healing?

Honestly? Start a new toon, and learn things on your way up. Trust me, it helps a LOT. Lower level dungeons nowadays are stupidly forgiving, so you’ll be able to practice things and get the hang of it.

I highly recommend VuhDo, but ymmv. I’ve been using it for so long, that anything else just feels weird now. Tidy Plates. Decursive if you want a separate addon than one that is enmeshed with a healy addon, because of placement or whatever.

@Mythosaur-frostwolf

with blood dks dont look at the hp but runic power

That weak aura that’s out helps immensely with this.

Also, OP, learn to triage heal. If someone is standing in bad constantly, they are a drain on your mana and time. Let them die if need be. Don’t feel guilty over it. Just view it as a needed learning experience for them.

[Whelptress-sargeras]

In my experience It works fine stand alone but doesnt like to play with other macros on top of it. So if you have a lot of shift. Help/harm or learned macros for easy swapping/keybind savings its still 50/50 if the mouseover setting will work with it.

As for tips, in raids if youre pugging look for something like raid tools that you can use to see other healer cooldowns; you can use it to make sure youre not all overlapping cooldowns on fights where they need a rotation when no one discussed it cause pug.

[Adventuring-illidan]

@Rita-velen

The tip is be like 4x pickier than you are as dps because you can afford to be now. The better the group, the easier it is for you (by an insane amount). The worse the group, the harder it is for you (also by an insane amount).

This is also a good point. You get jaded fast as a healer. Lol I’m doing 10’s and 11’s right now on my MW. People. Stand. In. Literally. Every. Mechanic. Tanks face frontals towards the group, people run crap through the middle of melee, giant swirls on the ground? They just stand in it. People kick absolutely nothing.

The hardest part about healing low keys are the players in your party, by far.

[Ventorath-wyrmrest-accord]

@Gunship-dathremar

What tips would you give to someone wanting to try healing? I’m paranoid i’ll overheal so much that I’ll go OoM at the stupidest times.

If it’s a dungeon, this doesn’t really matter. Overheal all you want if it keeps your group alive. Is it something to work on? Sure, but keeping them alive matters more. You can drink for mana between pulls. It doesn’t have to be drinking to full mana, just drink for a few ticks until the tank gets to the next pack or whatever then go catch up. A few ticks of drink mana regen between pulls should be more than enough to keep you in the game even if you’re abusing your mana pool.

Mana Management is more of a thing in Raids and it’s going to depend more on the specific spec you are and the specific encounter how you handle that.

[Ventorath-wyrmrest-accord]

@Adventuring-illidan

Lol I’m doing 10’s and 11’s right now on my MW. People. Stand. In. Literally. Every. Mechanic. Tanks face frontals towards the group, people run crap through the middle of melee, giant swirls on the ground? They just stand in it. People kick absolutely nothing.

The hardest part about healing low keys are the players in your party, by far.

Doing this key range in 10.0 is what made me swap back to my Ele Shaman instead. The good groups were still pretty painless at that level, but the bad or even average groups messed up enough that the increased damage from it being a +11 or whatever vs a +5 made it more stressful than fun to continue healing (at least with pugs, which is mostly what I do).

[Ianthus-farstriders]

While I have dabbled with healers, a friend who really likes healing since the beginning uses Healbot, which I like.

Another thing to consider is try out the PTR now. The NPC dungeons might give you a good no-pressure test drive of the healer and give you some practice as to rotations, button presses, etc.

[Plagiarist-stormrage]

A good tank won’t let you run out of mana because they’ll stop pulling when you’re low.

Also, I’d suggest you do some LFR as a heal to start. You won’t be the only healer so you can work on your healing without the pressure of being the only one.

[Nairdowel-dawnbringer]

@Bullsnott-uther

I play a resto shaman because I like the way it heals. It is a great aoe healer and there is strong instant and direct heals.

with help/harm macros for easy DPS between heals

RESTORATION SHAMAN MACROS

#showtooltip
/use [@mouseover,nodead,help] Chain Heal; Chain Lightning

#showtooltip
/use [@mouseover,nodead,help] Healing Surge; Lava Burst

#showtooltip
/use [@mouseover,nodead,help] Healing Wave; Lightning Bolt

#showtooltip
/use [@mouseover,nodead,help] Riptide; Flame Shock

[Nairdowel-dawnbringer]

@Plagiarist-stormrage

A good tank won’t let you run out of mana because they’ll stop pulling when you’re low.

Arent a ton of good tanks in pugs. Most that I see the last couple expansions couldnt give two squats if the healer is OOM or there are a couple dead bodies in his wake.

[Adventuring-illidan]

@Nairdowel-dawnbringer

Arent a ton of good tanks in pugs. Most that I see the last couple expansions couldnt give two squats if the healer is OOM or there are a couple dead bodies in his wake.

I’ve had tanks pull bosses while I have like 3% mana in keys a lot higher than tanks should be doing that in. lol Yeah, with 90% of PUG tanks, your mana bar is your own problem–they will pull 3 packs 6 rooms away from you while you’re at 15% trying to drink for a few seconds.

[Sultani-laughing-skull]

Tanking is the easiest role in the game. Plus if you tank, you get to act superior for standing in the right spot and basically being invincible. I wouldn’t worry about tanking. Just try it once in a low key and you’ll see what i mean.

For healing there are tons of addons, and healers all overheal. I personally only use grid2 for frames. Many isnt usually an issue for hpal. If you’re worried about overhealing, check out some logs. Everyone does it

[Membêrberry-zuljin]

So the best advice for healing is play proactively and not reactionary. Know when damage is going to be going out before hand having drs, hots, ramps ready. Know when and where you will need cooldowns available. Playing proactively will save you allot of stress and increase not only your hps but your dps and giving you more free uptime. Healing reactionary is just a recipe for disaster

[Whelptress-sargeras]

This is when you sit down anyway and watch them die, bonus if you bring a dps friend along, you can tell them so its only the tank in combat.

Occasionaly youll get a “heals?!?” And you just type back mana. If they dont get the point after that its their repair bill.

Now if you have like 50% mana and you just wanna be safe because its a big pull i usually just tell whatever aoe stun the group has to use it on pull so i can get 3 seconds of sip in.

[Nairdowel-dawnbringer]

@Whelptress-sargeras

This is when you sit down anyway and watch them die,

I used to just plop down on the floor and wait till they stopped chain pulling till I could mana up.
Makes me laugh when theres four of them pulling everything in site, then when you OOM they have the audacity to pull that ‘git gud’ hoax…as if chain pulling every mob in site, including ones that dont need to be pulled, is how the game is designed to be played.

The clowns seem to get they heads wrapped around the concepts of max DPS and CDs when its damage output, but for some reason they brain cells all go dark at the mention of CDs and output max when healing is the topic. lmao.