So, I’ve created the ‘Healer’ of my Warband as a Holy Priest (maybe Resto Druid), but over the twenty years playing this game off-and-on I have never really tanked or healed outside of a dungeon setting.
So how does raid healing work, exactly? Do you have like five stooges or have to look after a tank? How do people filter down the who heals what/who at certain times?
In LFR through heroic, the highest hps healer is the one that can snipe heals on the whole raid the fastest. There are not group breakdowns (like healer 1 heals group 1, healer 2 heals group 2 etc, everyone just heals anybody), but most healers will have some ST heals on the active tank because it’s the most consistent way to get some healing out. Drag and drop aoe heals usually go on melee dps just because it is easy that way.
So, chaos it is then?
What? No, no, no.
Raid healing is a competition. You ramp before the pull and blast your “emergency” CDs on the first AoE. You’re wanting to look better than the other healers, not manage mana or “save the day” with a well timed CD.
I’ve grown used to it and it’s pretty easy as Discipline to rob the other healers of their chances to get any numbers. Good times.
You’re going to learn a lot more by simply doing it than you will from anything the forums will tell you. So, sign up for lfr and let fly, lfr brings 5 healers which is overhealing the raid, so you have plenty of room to learn
Well yes & no.
In some fights the group is split due to boss phases like half the raid being shot over to a platform, so you gotta go heal that group while another group stays behind.
If you don’t have a guild that has a leader of some kind, then there isn’t much to worry about. In lfr pick a tank and stick with one side of the group.
Heal who you can but always keep Renew & PoM up on as many as possible.
always keep yourself alive, can’t heal much if yer ded<3
That’s a good point, I should say you heal whoever is in range of your character. In fights like assault of the zaqali, the groups might split in half. For that, look at what the raid leader assigns, and go to whatever side has the weaker healers so you can heal more than them and cackle!
The ideal case is you getting to heal one side while the other four go to the other side, then you look the prettiest and everyone else gets kicked out while you giggle
I haven’t seen that happen since S2 
Groups just zerg him right into P2 everywhere up to and including heroic.
That said, yes, there are a few fights where groups are split and this is the only time that “who heals who” enters the equation.
I’m starting to think Healers are more sadistic than DPS when it comes to competition…
There is one healer in the group, me, and four other smelly hps thieves
(80% kidding by the way)
I’m not saying this made me smile…
…
But it made me smile.
You’re that healer that grips other healers out of melee range, aren’t you?
There are those, sure. But that seems ineffective. They will just run back in and continue stealing your hps. Instead, it makes more sense to grip them off the edges of platforms… mwahahaha!
“Brez healer” they will say in the chat. That is when you use your brez to revive that dps who is undergeared by 80 item levels!
Raid frames are enabled an in a place where it’s easy to see and target folks.
Make sure you can also move your character/pay attention to dungeon/raid mechanics while also glancing at party/raid health.
Also make sure to dispel/cure whenever you can, looking at the debuffs on the raid frame.
I find healing large groups (especially in PvP and raids) to be the most rewarding activity in the game. It’s quite literally not possible to succeed without you and it’s a good feeling to have.
Folks generally decide who’s healing what based on class/spec and gear, some classes like Resto Shaman are better at AoE healing (Chain Heal) rather than single-target as well, similar strengths and weaknesses as any tank or DPS.
It’s mostly an experience thing as well. The forums can give advice but that’s it.
Get out there and heal, and with time you’ll become a natural and folks will rain you with invites. Healers are always valued.
110%
We can only heal the amount of damage that goes out, so if say the raid takes 100 damage, we can only do 100 healing. Unlike dps where you can constantly do more, you can only heal so much.
In other words, for every 1 point of healing I do, that is one point less healing someone else does. This is the healer fight. This is the healer competition.
The bigger problem, as players learn fights and do better, the less overall healing is needed (less mistakes, less avoidable damage), so instead of 5 healing a heroic fight, you can safely 3 heal it. Who do you have heal it: The guy able to do thier fair share? or thr guy that does more? The healers that can react faster, more knowledgeable, and are able to prepare better are the ones that stay healing, while although the other healers can do thier fair share, they will be made to dps as thier share can be covered by the better performing healer instead.
A better healer means less healer spots needed and more dps is braught resulting in a higher overal raid dps. So not only are you fighting other healers for damage to heal, youre also fighting them to be able to continue healing vs being made to dps on farm/reclears.
Healers are more competitive than dps when it comes to metres. DPS can parse by playing better, Healers parse by having less healers
Its different for every class/spec.