Hey guys I’m a fledgeling healer and I’m wondering If I should help the party do damage while healing, or should I solely focus on healing? I like to keep the party topped-up on health and watch them like a hawk. I make it my point to not do any damage so that I can solely focus on keeping everyone healthy and maintaining enough mana to do so. Is that good or bad? Obviously if we’re overleveled for the situation, I will just deal dps with them to speed through quicker but if there is even a MODERATE delay, I like to hang back and observe like a friendly medical vulture.
It depends. If you’re a disc priest, you’re expected to do damage because you heal by doing damage. If you’re a monk or holy paly you will also do damage just by the way your heals work. Other heals you can damage if you’re just standing around bored, just be aware of everything that’s going on.
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Resto Shaman is what I play. What would you say about that?
To play optimally, you will be doing damage when you can. Obviously, the situation does dictate what you can do.
When you’re first learning an instance, it can be better to just focus on healing. Throwing in damage becomes a lot easier when you know what damage patterns to expect from a fight.
In most casual content, healer dps isn’t going to be a huge factor, so if you skip it, you’ll be okay. In organized raid content, ideally you will have just enough healers to cover incoming damage, so there won’t be a lot of time for healer dps unless there are low incoming damage phases. However, in higher Mythic+ dungeons (which are on a timer) healer dps can have more of an impact.
However, I would probably say that as a Shaman, you first non-healing priorities should be learning when to use your interrupt and purge. Both can be very powerful tools. Learning to use them well will be more important than any dps you do.
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It really depends on the content, the group, and your class.
If you’re running a dungeon, everyone is full health, and you’re just pressing spacebar to jump around them while they kill mobs, then obviously you should be doing some DPS.
If the group is pulling half the dungeon at once and you’re doing all you can to keep everyone alive, just focus on healing.
If you’re a healer that heals based on doing some DPS, then dps.
Really it’s that straight forward. @Udiza also provided good info. Depending on the content depends on how the group perceives you not dpsing. Again, if the group is doing fine then usually it looks like the healer is slacking off (which is fine) if they aren’t DPS’ing. Especially for M+ a good healer that can churn out some DPS is awesome because it helps the groups progress.
Good luck!
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I try to dps hard on all my healers In dungeons, but not in raids. In low level dungeons, people don’t really care and would never call you out on it. That said, it’s rare for a healer to not dps at all, and almost everyone has a dps meter. So they will assume you are either lazy or new but it’s not a big deal. Keep in mind the more damage you do the less you have to heal cause the mobs die faster.
Resto shaman should ideally be using flame shock, lava burst, lightning bolt (ST), and chain lighting (AOE). Start by throwing in Chain Lightning’s on trash packs and then try to add flame shocks and lava Bursts on cd when your comfortable. Shaman is one of the two healers with a ranged AOE so try to take advantage of it! See the Icy Veins Resto shaman class guide.
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