Post by camia on Apr 2, 2008 9:48:36 GMT -5
Greetings everyone!
I’ve been asked a few times about healing techniques as a priest, so I thought I might write a concise guide to help our up-and-coming priestlings. When I was learning to heal pugs, I spent countless hours on the forums – hopefully I can save you the trouble : )
1. The Pull and the Tank
The first few moments of a pull are a critical time for a healer. What you do or don’t do here will set the tone for the rest of the pull, so it is key to get off the spells that will give you some fudge time.
Let your tank get some threat built up, and open with your Prayer of Mending (PoM). POM is truly the greatest spell EVER. Not only does it heal your target, it will also jump around the party healing folks. When the spell hits your tank (or anyone else), he will get the threat associated with that particular heal instead of you – (the threat mechanics of the spell acts as if he (the target) casted the heal on himself).
Some folks cast the spell on the tank before he goes into battle. I find this to be wasteful; the spell will proc when he takes the first hit, and if that hit is minor, then the healing power of the spell is wasted. Let him take a little damage first, then he benefits from the full power of the heal and receives the associated threat. Did I mention PoM makes a neat noise every time it jumps around?
At this point I will put a Renew on the tank as well. Renew buys you the time you need to get off bigger spells later, and I generally try to keep it up on the tank for the entire length of the fight.
2. The Fight
Greater Heal (GH) is your friend. Embrace this spell. Not only does it provide you with the great healing per mana point spent, but it also comes in many flavors, allowing you to tailor it to the situation. When I say “flavors”, what I mean is Ranks. On my button bar, I have a Rank 1 Greater Heal (GH1) and a Rank 7 Greater Heal (GH7). Rank 1 is the real workhorse of my healing, it costs half the mana of Rank 7, and still heals for a respectable amount. Switch to GH7 when the mobs/boss are putting out too much damage for GH1 to keep up.
The problem with Greater Heal is the time it takes to cast it. You can mostly negate this downside by preemptively casting the spell BEFORE it is needed. By the time the spell is ready to go off, your target should have taken enough damage to warrant it – if not, simply move/jump/ESC to stop the spell from casting and start over with another cast. Continue to do this, stopping only to re-apply Renew and PoM and you will rarely see your tank drop much.
3. This is a 5-man isn’t it?
In a perfect world, your tank will hold agro, your DPS’ers will never try to “beat their personal damage record” and a patrol will never get accidentally added to the melee.
Sadly this isn’t a perfect world….When a member of your party attracts the attention of a mob, you have to make some very quick decisions:
“If I stop healing the tank long enough to heal the party member, will the tank die?”
“Do I have enough mana to heal him and still keep the tank going through out the fight?”
“If I heal the party member, will it be enough to save him?”
As a healer, you have to be ready to triage patients. The rest of the party counts on you to keep the tank alive, and keep yourself alive. If you fail on either of these two counts, the party will most likely wipe. Sometimes the good of the many outweigh the good of the one : )
Let’s assume you have the time/mana/threat to spare. As soon as you see a mob peel off for someone, hit them with a Renew. It is an instant cast, and will buy the tank some time to pull it off of the errant DPS’er. If PoM is up, you can also use that – but remember, they will get the threat associated with that heal, making it even harder for the tank to regain control.
Healing party members is the only time you shouldn’t feel dirty about using Flash Heal
. It is quick enough to land on the party member and hopefully packs enough healing punch to pull them out of harms way. In an emergency, or on extra squishy party members, Power Word: Shield might be the only choice (often the case on Mages). The key is to get that off the instant you see them taking significant damage.
You’re PoM should also be running amuck and healing party members on its own. That is why it is important to keep it up, remember: target the tank first.
4. Tools of the Trade
There are some folks out there using the stock blizzard interface, who deride people who use addons. I call these folks the “get off my lawn” crowd. They are silly, in the same way a person would be silly if they chose to write letter with a chisel in solid stone instead of using a typewriter or email. Blizzard’s stock interface is nothing more than their own set of addons.
As a healer, you need every advantage you can get. There is nothing out there that will do the work for you, but there are some tools that will make it easier on you. Take a look at the screenshots I have uploaded. That is what Camia sees while she is healing (Admittedly a little cluttered, but hey, it works).
I can use the BeneCast buttons that are over each party member, or use Clique to click-keyboard combo on any party portrait to cast a spell. This is extremely powerful in that I don’t have to target, and then heal – one click and it is done. This also keeps my original target, so I can get some wand love going if time permits.
If you are a true AddOn hater, then use can still use mouse-over macros to speed things up. However, I will still laugh and point at you. Sheesh, get with the times!
In Summary
Think ahead, know your spells, and remember the WoW mantra:
“If the tank dies, it is the healer’s fault. If the healer dies, it is the tank’s fault. If anyone else dies, it is their own damn fault.”
EDIT: To prevent a formatting nightmare, I have uploaded the screenshots to this thread. Please be sure to take a look at some great healing/playing addons:
remnantsofhonor.proboards75.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=screens&thread=1207147999
I’ve been asked a few times about healing techniques as a priest, so I thought I might write a concise guide to help our up-and-coming priestlings. When I was learning to heal pugs, I spent countless hours on the forums – hopefully I can save you the trouble : )
1. The Pull and the Tank
The first few moments of a pull are a critical time for a healer. What you do or don’t do here will set the tone for the rest of the pull, so it is key to get off the spells that will give you some fudge time.
Let your tank get some threat built up, and open with your Prayer of Mending (PoM). POM is truly the greatest spell EVER. Not only does it heal your target, it will also jump around the party healing folks. When the spell hits your tank (or anyone else), he will get the threat associated with that particular heal instead of you – (the threat mechanics of the spell acts as if he (the target) casted the heal on himself).
Some folks cast the spell on the tank before he goes into battle. I find this to be wasteful; the spell will proc when he takes the first hit, and if that hit is minor, then the healing power of the spell is wasted. Let him take a little damage first, then he benefits from the full power of the heal and receives the associated threat. Did I mention PoM makes a neat noise every time it jumps around?
At this point I will put a Renew on the tank as well. Renew buys you the time you need to get off bigger spells later, and I generally try to keep it up on the tank for the entire length of the fight.
2. The Fight
Greater Heal (GH) is your friend. Embrace this spell. Not only does it provide you with the great healing per mana point spent, but it also comes in many flavors, allowing you to tailor it to the situation. When I say “flavors”, what I mean is Ranks. On my button bar, I have a Rank 1 Greater Heal (GH1) and a Rank 7 Greater Heal (GH7). Rank 1 is the real workhorse of my healing, it costs half the mana of Rank 7, and still heals for a respectable amount. Switch to GH7 when the mobs/boss are putting out too much damage for GH1 to keep up.
The problem with Greater Heal is the time it takes to cast it. You can mostly negate this downside by preemptively casting the spell BEFORE it is needed. By the time the spell is ready to go off, your target should have taken enough damage to warrant it – if not, simply move/jump/ESC to stop the spell from casting and start over with another cast. Continue to do this, stopping only to re-apply Renew and PoM and you will rarely see your tank drop much.
3. This is a 5-man isn’t it?
In a perfect world, your tank will hold agro, your DPS’ers will never try to “beat their personal damage record” and a patrol will never get accidentally added to the melee.
Sadly this isn’t a perfect world….When a member of your party attracts the attention of a mob, you have to make some very quick decisions:
“If I stop healing the tank long enough to heal the party member, will the tank die?”
“Do I have enough mana to heal him and still keep the tank going through out the fight?”
“If I heal the party member, will it be enough to save him?”
As a healer, you have to be ready to triage patients. The rest of the party counts on you to keep the tank alive, and keep yourself alive. If you fail on either of these two counts, the party will most likely wipe. Sometimes the good of the many outweigh the good of the one : )
Let’s assume you have the time/mana/threat to spare. As soon as you see a mob peel off for someone, hit them with a Renew. It is an instant cast, and will buy the tank some time to pull it off of the errant DPS’er. If PoM is up, you can also use that – but remember, they will get the threat associated with that heal, making it even harder for the tank to regain control.
Healing party members is the only time you shouldn’t feel dirty about using Flash Heal
. It is quick enough to land on the party member and hopefully packs enough healing punch to pull them out of harms way. In an emergency, or on extra squishy party members, Power Word: Shield might be the only choice (often the case on Mages). The key is to get that off the instant you see them taking significant damage.You’re PoM should also be running amuck and healing party members on its own. That is why it is important to keep it up, remember: target the tank first.
4. Tools of the Trade
There are some folks out there using the stock blizzard interface, who deride people who use addons. I call these folks the “get off my lawn” crowd. They are silly, in the same way a person would be silly if they chose to write letter with a chisel in solid stone instead of using a typewriter or email. Blizzard’s stock interface is nothing more than their own set of addons.
As a healer, you need every advantage you can get. There is nothing out there that will do the work for you, but there are some tools that will make it easier on you. Take a look at the screenshots I have uploaded. That is what Camia sees while she is healing (Admittedly a little cluttered, but hey, it works).
I can use the BeneCast buttons that are over each party member, or use Clique to click-keyboard combo on any party portrait to cast a spell. This is extremely powerful in that I don’t have to target, and then heal – one click and it is done. This also keeps my original target, so I can get some wand love going if time permits.
If you are a true AddOn hater, then use can still use mouse-over macros to speed things up. However, I will still laugh and point at you. Sheesh, get with the times!
In Summary
Think ahead, know your spells, and remember the WoW mantra:
“If the tank dies, it is the healer’s fault. If the healer dies, it is the tank’s fault. If anyone else dies, it is their own damn fault.”
EDIT: To prevent a formatting nightmare, I have uploaded the screenshots to this thread. Please be sure to take a look at some great healing/playing addons:
remnantsofhonor.proboards75.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=screens&thread=1207147999
