Some healing questions and discussion

[Elenca]

All of the fighting (for lack of a more PC term) the other day got me thinking again about something that I've been pondering from time to time, so I finally decided to bring it up.



I have a lot to learn. I know, I do pretty decent on the healing scene, but I know I have a lot of room to improve, and I've generally been too afraid to take the first step to that improvement: asking questions.

A few times in the past, I've had some of our senior healers offer me advice, and almost all of it good (I say almost, but I can't actually think of a bad example, but hey, I'm gonna cover my butt in case I remember one), but not a lot. One that sticks out in particular in my mind was Mylen telling me about the "5-second" rule on casting heals for mana regen, when I went in on the learning run in Kara and we tried to fight Prince. Constantly casting spells will drain mana *so* quickly if one doesn't take time when possible to let their mana regen pop. It's such a simple concept, but I'd never thought about it - I'd never needed to.

I didn't think about it too much at the time, because I was still frantically trying to learn how to raid (my first time!) and obsessively cry off and on from finding out that night that I failed my actuarial exam, but the difference from thinking about it later is obvious to me. That night, I was popping potions as quickly as I could and burning innervates whenever possible to try to stay mana-ed up, and still failing. Now, I don't have nearly the same problems. A few weeks later, on our third Kara with Raid Shiz, we were fighting Prince again, and I was able to stay well within the green on my mana without even having to pop potions. Not just there, but every time I heal, it's so much easier when I make the effort to let my mana regen when possible.

Just that one piece of advice has made such a difference to me and to the way I heal, and it's made me greedy enough that I'm not going to shy away because I kinda feel like a kid sometimes compared to everyone else. Please, other healers, senior or not, tell me what works well for you! What tips have you picked up along the way, what problems have you come across? What helps make Heroics suck less? What have your learned that's helpful for raid healing, for tank healing?

Shamans, Priests, Paladins, what is healing like for you? I feel that if I knew more about how your spells work, I could mesh with my fellow raiders better on healing. I know that a large portion of what we Druids cast are all the HoTs, little to big chunks per second and supplements from Regrowth healing for a big heal then HoT, or Lifebloom proccing when broken or the timer runs out on the HoT portion, but I don't know who else can really do what. I know that Priests have a single HoT, and that Shamans have some healing and mana totems and chain heal, but that's about it. My paladin is level 22, so I'm still far behind on knowing what those can do as well.

What can everyone dispel? As a Druid, I keep my eyes open at all times for poisons and curses, because I know I can clear those, but who else can? I know some other class has curses, (Mages? Priests?) and I know that Paladins can clear diseases and poisons, but what about magic effects?


I could probably think of more questions, given time, but I am in the middle of packing - I start my drive back to college tonight - so I'll leave this open for now to start discussions and hopefully get some really great, helpful information flowing.



One final thing: Anyone mentions *any* of that drama bullshit from earlier this week here will be skull-punched. Seriously. I don't care who hates who or is personally affronted or just has a bug up their butt or whatever. I want to suck less, and share the info around in case anyone else wants to suck less too. (Not that any of us really suck, ROR TEAM HLS!)

[Sol]

awesome insight!

i hope that everyone can strive to improve in such a manner. we still have lots to learn if we are going to progress past gruul's and Magtheridon.

I'd like to focus the discussion on 2 different types of healing scenarios.

1) spam healing rotations
2) more strategic conservation healing (using 5 sec rule)

list some examples of where its best to do #1 and where its best to do #2 in raiding in BC.

Also, what kind of gear sets you need to be the best you can be as an endgame healer.

[Shizma]

GREAT threadstarter C :)

I'd like to add a couple things to what Sol said, because I'm curoius and would like to know too.

1. Mana regen vs +int on gear. Should a new healer steer one way more than another?

2. Mana + vs + to heal stats on gear. Is there a preference one way or another.

3. Crit heals. How do you mitigate the crits without reducing your mana pool, since +int goes to crit (is that correct? I think so anyway).

CooL!

[Myrkris]

Hmm, from a shaman point of view...

I can cure poisons and diseases with both totems (AE for my party only, 30yd range with talents, cures every 5 sec for 2 min) or direct instant cures. I can also purge buffs from enemies, which happens to also include many (but not all!) charms mobs use on friendlies.

I can do an AE HoT with a totem that is the most mana efficient heal in the game. Depending on gear and buffs, it'll heal every party member within 30 yards (with talents) up to 100+ health every 2 seconds for a minute, for 71 mana. It does prevent me from using my cure poison/disease totems or mana regen totems, though, since I can only have 1 of each totem type (air/earth/fire/water - healing, mana regen, and cures are all water totems) up at a time.

I also have a single-target "shield" I can put on the MT, which has 10 charges for 900 mana. Each charge heals around 550 (plus can crit, number isn't precise since it's affected by +healing and I never cast it on myself when in healing gear), with around a 3 second cooldown before the next charge can trigger.

My main heals are both direct heals. The fast heal (Lesser Healing Wave) heals about 1k base with talents (plus +healing items of course), with a 1.5 second cast time. With current talents and gear, I probably run around 1000health/second when spamming this spell (more due to crits).

The big heal (Healing Wave) heals around 2.5k base with talents (plus +healing), with a 3 second cast time (2.5 sec. with talents). Currently specced and geared, I run around 1400health/second when spamming this spell (assumes no crits).

I used to use the fast heal almost exclusively, since prior to BC release it actually resulted in more healing per second, though at a cost in mana. Now I use the big heal almost exclusively, since it is both more mana efficient and a faster heal. That MIGHT change in larger raids, hard to say since we've done so few since BC release and I've missed most of them. On some mobs, I find myself pre-emptively healing or just spamming (Bog Lords in Heroic UB, for example) but usually I can cluster my heals to allow for some regen.

The other "trick" I use is that I gear for sustained healing, not max healing. My current setup runs around 1250 in +healing (buffed, with totems down), almost 12k mana, and over 150 mana/5 seconds while casting (over 260 when not casting, higher with flasks and the pally buff). I also have Mana Tide Totem (regens 3500 mana in 12 sec) and a trinket that regens 900 mana over 12 sec or so. As a result, I almost never need to drink a mana potion, even on longer boss fights (except Moroes, the f**ker!).

I could gear for maximizing my healing impact and efficiency, but I don't like the tradeoff. To gain a few hundred more +healing (net impact, about 10% more healing done per HW) I'd lose 20% of my mana and 2/3 of my casting mana regen. Not worth it, IMO.

I also really like using Clique, an addon that allows me to bind spells to mouse buttons. Especially when raid healing, it allows me to more quickly target and cast than even mouse-clicking and hotkeyed heals.

[Aessina]

Let's see...

Cleansing:

Paladin: Poison, Disease, Magic (all in one spell)
Druid: Poison, Curse (abolish poison is nice!)
Shaman: Poison, Disease (including totems for the same, very nice spells)
Mage: Curse (I think I'm missing some here)
Priest: Disease (I think I'm missing some here)
Felpuppy: Magic


For a paladin, there are 3 heals. Flash of Light is our fast cast heal, it doesn't heal for a lot, but it's only 180 mana. Holy Light is the big bomb heal, 2.5 secs without talents, 2.0 if spamming it with holy grace. This will drain your mana fast. Finally, Holy Shock is instant cast, 15 sec cooldown, pretty expensive and not very big. Also, it requires a significant investment in holy to even get.

On raids I spam Flash of Light over and over again. It hits for 1500-2200 usually and I can spam it for about 10 minutes without using potions before I run out of mana. It's not enough to keep everyone topped off, but if someone is taking light damage, a HoT will finish the job. On someone who takes heavy damage, it buys enough time for someone else to land a big heal.

[Gorrack]

I am also interested in the healing dymanimcs in wow.

I have a 65 priest, and i have healed with my 64 shaman quite a bit, and have seen what works as well as what doesnt, but thats for 5 mans.

Most of my healing experience comes from a little bit in everquest, and a lot'a'bit in DAoC. (2 boxed an aug/mend shaman and healing healer)

I personally try to stay ahead of the damage, for me it is easier to heal 60% ->100% rather than trying to play catchup. If i am preisting it up, i like to lead off with a Renew and just toss small heals flash heal. I just got binding heal with berog so that is super handy too if i end up picking up healing aggro. Now Granted, I am a priest NEWB, so to fit all those spells in my tiny little melee brain, i basically have my keys set up like 6-holy nova, 7-renew, 8-flas heal, 9-greater heal, 0-binding heal, - Prayer of healing. Since i use an ergonomic keyboard my keys are split at 6 and 7 so i can keep dmg spells on oneside, and heals on the other.

I also learned from playing a shaman you cant have enough spirit. on the shaman i would actually sacrifice +int for +sta because my mana would regen so fast i didnt need a huge mana pool. Healing sub 60 i used the full set of green dragonscale, because the spirit was so high, AND it had like +23 mana/5 seconds. When i was resto specced with him, i was ALWAYS tossing down mana stream as well, it is uncanny how those mana tics help out when you dont think that 15 mana would really do that.

If i notice i get behind on one of my healing targets, you really need to triage them, Who is the most important peerson or persons to keep up. Generally it falls like this, Tanks, DPS, Myself. Generally on Berog, I can bubble/fade/trinket and i am good to go. Also, when trying to catch up, i toss the short flash heals. I also might hit innerfocus and hit a prayer of healing to give me some cushion on everyone if i think i can get it off in time.

I am interested though to hear what the 5 second rule is.. make sure you pause every 5 seoncd between heals if pace allows to regen mana?

[Myrkris]

GREAT threadstarter C :)

I'd like to add a couple things to what Sol said, because I'm curoius and would like to know too.

1. Mana regen vs +int on gear. Should a new healer steer one way more than another?

2. Mana + vs + to heal stats on gear. Is there a preference one way or another.

3. Crit heals. How do you mitigate the crits without reducing your mana pool, since +int goes to crit (is that correct? I think so anyway).

CooL!

Most of these are balance questions, to me. For long fights, I think regen is the most important stat. 100 regen/5 sec is 1200 per minute, or 6000 during an Attumen fight. It just gets better from there, and neither larger mana pools or more +healing gear can replace regen on boss fights. Potions are the only substitute, but I don't like relying on consumables with cooldowns. For reference, spamming Super Mana potions will average 2400 mana per 2 min in recovery (1800-3000 range), the same as 100 regen/5 sec. However, relying on that puts your healing potions on cooldown, and if you have high mana regen you can still use potions to get even more.

That said, you really need all three stats. A small mana pool can create problems if you run OOM before you get much benefit from high regen. Low +healing reduces mana efficiency and healing rate, which either forces more casts (thus running down the mana pool) or allowing your target to die because you can't keep up with incoming damage. I'm still messing with the balance of stats, though I do value regen very highly.

As for crits, I don't worry about them. I'm not going to gimp my mana pool to reduce my spell crit chance. That said, I don't gear to increase spell crits, either.

[Myrkris]

I am interested though to hear what the 5 second rule is.. make sure you pause every 5 seoncd between heals if pace allows to regen mana?

Natural mana regen (from spirit) does not occur while casting or for 5 seconds after casting. That's why I don't bother gearing for spirit. :)

[Gorrack]

i have always looked at heal crits as icing on the cake. when it happens, cool, but nothing to count on. So I agree with Myrk, i dont think it is THAT benneficial to sacrifice other stats IE spirit/mana regen, int, or plus healing for crit chance.

[Moozipan]

It's really difficult to accomplish the 5 second thing as a druid, since we're constantly casting. But, it is still beneficial for us to gear for spirit (which happens naturally with druid gear - it has a lot of it), since our tree bonus is based on a % of our spirit.