Right to the point:
I seem to be struggling with a balance between Mp5 and +Healing; downranking heals too often (meaning I have too much Mana after a fight), or going OOM to quick on bursty fights.
Gear situation:
3/8 T1
2/8 T2
Some pre-BiS for phase 1 and some substitutions for pre-BiS.
I have looked up two Shamans such as Egregious and Melderon on their YouTube channels.
Sometimes I do pretty well (not looking to top meters, looking to do well more consistently.)
WoW experience: Mid-Wrath, quit until Mid-Cata and then stayed from the beginning to the end of MoP. My first experience to healing was MW monk PvP healing at a semi casual level in 3s for pure fun (not eating) and RBGs. So a completely different environment. A basically a different game.
I find myself to do better than casual in 5 mans, and UBRS and Ony. But MC and BWL (progression for BWL) is again, inconsistent.
Thanks for your time.
If you know the fight you can switch gear around before the pull.
Prioritize the stats you would rather have for the encounter
Bro . You use consumables correctly you shouldn’t run oom . Runes / major pots etc.
Also overhealing is a big issue in raids sometimes.
Just spam rank 1 ch or rank 3 if big dmg inc
3/8 T2 is for chain healing / raid healing.
8/8 EF is for tank healing, stack up fights and fire resist fights.
This doesn’t sound like a gear problem, it sounds like a role problem. Yes, you should be flexible should the need arise, but you should ask your class lead / healing lead what your role is for the raid and gear accordingly. If you are purely raid heals, generally ignore the tank and look to cast chain heal as much as possible to stabilize overall raid damage. (downranking is important for efficiency, but during oshi moments, max rank chain heal and nature’s swiftness chain heal is appropriate)
if you are needed for tank healing, such as on ragnaros, plop on 8/8 EF (I hope you are specced for healing way) and spam the tank. If you do not have full 8/8 EF but you ARE specced for healing way, there is a way to help teh raid by spamming rank 1 healing wave on all the melee, which makes the job of those that do have 8/8 much easier. You are contributing a valuable buff if not raw numbers.
It’s really difficult to do both at the same time since these require definitive “modes” of gearing and speccing. Don’t try to do both, just pick one and do well.
Inconsistency will also arise depending on your raid’s strategy and positioning during certain fights. If everyone is super spread out for Garr and NOT WHERE THEY SHOULD BE, your chain heals may clip and only hit one or two people instead of the full chain. The solution is to yell at people to be where they need to be.
On other fights, where you are a raid healer and the raid is simply not taking very much damage such as Ebonroc or Chromaggus, you just sit there and pick lint out of your bellybutton and dream of windfury procs. Seriously, don’t worry about bumping your numbers if people aren’t dying.