Practicing healing?

[Yoshimiko]

So, I got my rogue to level 110 and thought I needed to learn my rotation. Hour n a half on the dummy and I'm pulling within 5% of my Simmed dps. Now I'm ilvl 858 and regularly dps around 300k.

For tanking I just practiced in Heroics - they may have hit softer, but I could practice rotation my CDs as they came up to smooth out damage income as much as possible. Once I hopped into heroic raids I found those skills transfered fairly well.

And then...there's healing. I simmed myself out and it gave me an absolutely ludicrous number - 490k HPS at ilvl 830. I followed it's suggested 'rotation' on the 3 heal dummies in the druid area and found I was regularly pulling 330-400k HPS, but those numbers are completely meaningless in practice. I tried jumping into LFR but I honestly feel like 1 healer could solo heal that with everyone ignoring the mechanics and still find themselves very bored. I hopped into a normal raid but again - simply nothing to heal. I'll likely be coming to my guild run next week as a healer and I have almost zero confidence.

What's a good way to practice raid healing? I don't want to hold my guild back from being out of practice, but everything that I can do seems pointless. :/

[palthis]

queue for M+. Overflowing is a nice way to ensure everyone is topped up without overhealing.

[Deleted]

Heal all the things... Roll some normal mythic dungeons people always need healers there...

[LightBR]

So, I got my rogue to level 110 and thought I needed to learn my rotation. Hour n a half on the dummy and I'm pulling within 5% of my Simmed dps. Now I'm ilvl 858 and regularly dps around 300k.

For tanking I just practiced in Heroics - they may have hit softer, but I could practice rotation my CDs as they came up to smooth out damage income as much as possible. Once I hopped into heroic raids I found those skills transfered fairly well.

And then...there's healing. I simmed myself out and it gave me an absolutely ludicrous number - 490k HPS at ilvl 830. I followed it's suggested 'rotation' on the 3 heal dummies in the druid area and found I was regularly pulling 330-400k HPS, but those numbers are completely meaningless in practice. I tried jumping into LFR but I honestly feel like 1 healer could solo heal that with everyone ignoring the mechanics and still find themselves very bored. I hopped into a normal raid but again - simply nothing to heal. I'll likely be coming to my guild run next week as a healer and I have almost zero confidence.

What's a good way to practice raid healing? I don't want to hold my guild back from being out of practice, but everything that I can do seems pointless. :/

Please don`t take this the wrong way. Best way is to acctually heal in a Raid. No sim, video, dummy etc will give you enough practice/experience, you may be a little bit more prepared as in knowing your rotation and such but nothing beats practice. I am sure your guild will understand that you are not a full time healer and you may ünderperform"a bit in your first raid or so. Just get in there and keep those HP bars away from 0%.

If this is a personal choice than yeah maybe your guild won`t be so comprehensive but if you were put in a healer position to benefit the raid team then they should give you time to adjust. Best advice I have is watchout for your mana, depending on class you can go oom pretty fast. Goos luck in there.

Cheers,
Light

[Nazrark]

High pressure environments will make or break you. You can't sim or practice on a dummy. PvP, Mythic+ and Raids. Once you get the hang of it. Its a feeling that never leaves.

[Saverem]

What's a good way to practice raid healing? I don't want to hold my guild back from being out of practice, but everything that I can do seems pointless. :/

Same as tanks, do dungeons. If H is too easy, go to M, if that's to easy do M+. You can also queue for LFR and practice there or join N EN raids.


As a healer main I will say dummies are useless for practicing. The real thing is MUCH harder. You'll have to know which spells to use on which situation on which player all while avoiding fire.

[melzas]

Big battlegrounds like AV and IoC are good for healing practice, especially if you get into one of those "turtle" games, where two raids clash and it basically turns into PvE dummy healing, but with more dynamics and CC to dispel. Some other BGs are good too (like Deepwind Gorge, where at the start most people go to mid), but with smaller BGs there is bigger chance you will be noticed and trained.

So yeah, I'd suggest going AV and hoping for turtle game. Just stick to the biggest sheep zerg and run with the pack.

[Dawnshadow]

I simmed myself out and it gave me an absolutely ludicrous number - 490k HPS at ilvl 830. I followed it's suggested 'rotation' on the 3 heal dummies in the druid area and found I was regularly pulling 330-400k HPS, but those numbers are completely meaningless in practice.

The key thing to remember is that HPS is not DPS. As a DPS, you have a nigh unlimited pool of health to damage, and running dry on resources isn't typically a concern; you'll usually go all-out for the entire fight. As a healer, your team's maximum HPS is equal to the total damage the raid has taken (exception: fights like Dreamwalker.) You have a finite mana pool. It's possible to "snipe" heals to both inflate your HPS and waste mana (both yours and the other healers'.) Generally, it's more important to use your healing in the right spots at the right times than to top the HPS meters-- focusing only on minmaxing meter positioning will only lead to bad play.

Also, the better the rest of your raid team is the less healing you'll do, because good players take less damage. If your raid team is hitting 95th percentile on healing and you're not deliberately focusing on ranking a healer for fun, the raid is collectively taking too much damage.

[Tolian]

Go do Proving Grounds.

No, stop laughing. Seriously. Getting Endless 30+ in healer PG is probably harder than most of the "Real Content" that you'll do. There's even a hunter who stands in fire to make it realistic!

+1 for this. Whenever I have tried messing around with a new healing class (I main RSham) like Disc, or HPal, etc, the proving grounds are a great place to practice until I know which spells to use in what kind of situation, and the key combination for that spell (presuming you use Grid/Clique like I do or something similar) is second nature and requires no conscious thought. Once you've reached that point, then it really is just a matter of time spent really doing it in a raid. But the proving grounds are great for getting that initial abilities understanding and muscle memory in place. Some of the NPCs do tend to talk some shit when you wipe which is kind of annoying, but it's not as bad as other players can get... ;-)

[ThePants999]

Personally I find that 5-man healing is massively different to raid healing, and although it's a help, you can be an amazing 5-man healer but you'll still suck in raids until you get some practice there.

[Deleted]

Do random BGs. Imo they are by far the best learning ground for healers. Unlike few posters above, I prefer the smaller ones, especially Gulch, Twin Peaks, and Gilneas.

BGs develop awareness and adaptability the most out of any type of content, which are the two most important skills in a healer's arsenal.

If you get into it, try RBGs as well. They will provide a comparable experience to raiding. Honestly, after learning how to position well as a slow ass paladin in RBGs, keeping awareness for PvE mechanics seems like a relaxed holiday