Hi all! I’ve always wanted to like healing but have struggled even in dungeons to not watch health bars the whole time. Even with UI Addons to make it easier I still feel like I could never do Dps or not stand in bad stuff.
Also health bars aren’t fun to look at - the boss is way cooler.
What resources guides videos etc would you recommend for someone like me? Something that helps guide someone away from health bar funnel vision maybe?
It comes with experience imo. Set your bars/ui closer to the middle if it helps.
Thanks for the perspective Meezer!
Any other suggestions to think about?
use the addons Neatplates, Flyplatebuffs, and Nameplatecooldowns. These addons allow you to see the health over the player toon, and any cds and cd timers left over their name plates. Extremely helpful in PvE and can be in PvE as well, specifically neatplates.
This way you can watch the players and be aware of things without staring at your raid frames.
Aren’t nameplate addons turned off in M+ and raids? I use those addons for world content and pvp, but when I go into instanced PvE, it puts me back into blizz nameplates. I understand it’s intentional to avoid people abusing nameplate functionality in pve encounters.
No nameplate addons/weak auras aren’t “blocked” from instanced content in any way shape or form.
It’s just the party/raid nameplates that lose the addons in instanced PvE. Not mobs. I thought it was intentional to avoid exploitation.
Are you sure you can use nameplate addons in dungeons/raids to see your party members/raid members health bars? If so, I guess it’s an issue with my UI setup? Weird though because it’s only the party/raid member nameplates that are affected.
I would love it if I’m wrong because I’m not a fan of the nameplate format it switches to in instanced PvE.
From NeatPlates addon FAQ:
Why do my friendly nameplates change/not work when I enter a dungeon?
Somtime in Legion, Blizzard blocked the ability to alter friendly nameplates while in dungeons and raids. This is the same for both Classic and Retail.
Moving the health bars to right below your character is huge. I also put my ability CDs right there too so all essential information is within a few inches of each other and my eyes don’t have to move around as much. Do you heal through mouseover? I dps through mouseover as well. That way I can keep an enemy targeted (whose health bar can also be right there next to the raid bars) and not have to look around much at all.
False, I have nameplates on Enemies and Party members in M+. Everytime.
The friendly health bars are your addon ones not the blizzard ones?
the Friendly are Blizzard but the enemy are Neatplates.
Ok. Right - that’s what I was saying - you can’t customize friendly nameplates in M+/Raid.
I misread your post then. I thought you were saying Enemy and Friendly weren’t available in M+ at all.
IMO, a lot of this is a matter of practice. Tunnel visioning is very common for new(ish) healers. They’re notorious for standing in stupid as a consequence. My situational awareness is much, much better now than it was my first year or so.
For example, you can usually tell when there’s going to be a lot of damage going out and focus more then. Big boss windup. Blast wave going out. Green crap getting puked all over the floor. Etc. That’s “Hey, better pay more attention to the health bars” time.
I put my party/raid unit frames in the lower center of my screen, more or less just above my hotbar. My own unit frame and my target’s are located there, too. So, it’s the go-to place.
All that said, if you really find paying attention to health bars that unappealing, you may just not be destined to enjoy healing. It’s its own mini-game, in effect. Can’t play Frogger without watching for cars.
If you prefer looking at the boss more than health bars, you will likely become a better healer than most other healers. You will learn to preemptively time your heals and know when openings occur for doing damage (i.e. when the boss does not do heavy damage.)
Watching health bars alone is a tactic that will get you through normal/heroic content, maybe not even heroic. The highest level of healing play has know boss mechanics and damage phases to heal preemptively. Otherwise, you lose out on well-timed heals and can overheal, spending more mana than necessary.
So I urge you to continue paying attention to the boss and its abilities, but you should have your team’s health bars shown in a non-distracting way. Play resto in pvp for training, and also try out elemental shaman PvE to learn the damage rotation. A great resto shaman will have mastered both dps and healing specializations.