People don't know HOW to be healed?

[Vaught]

Hello folks,

Id like to touch on something that isn't spoke about too often but I feel plays a large part in all settings on PvP.

I have played WoW since vanilla and always had interest in player vs player, I have played both damage roles and healing roles extensively and as a

healer there is something I have picked up upon that is common regardless of the class I am healing or even the class I am using to heal;

Some players do not know how to cope with being healed.

Seems silly doesn't it?

But for seasoned players and other players its very obvious in practice.

A large contributor is the misuse of cool downs. Whether they are damage cool downs or defensive cool downs, ploughing through their binds with little attention to enemy and player health or resources but also their healer's current state of affairs can cause more headaches and be so inefficient.

Another factor is the lack of awareness. This can can lead to the above but more importantly, things like line of sight can often mean the difference between surviving and dying and is so important when being healed. Pulling someone from enemy healer LoS is an effective way to score a kill, don't do it to your own healer!

Recognising you are being healed in the first place should create a shift in play style. Your healer must be assumed to be able to keep you alive forever. With this in mind, pay your way! what i mean by this is use your spells and abilities to ensure your healer is looked after while they look after you. Peels and CC are imperative to a healer's wellbeing and they are GREATLY recieved in the heat of battle.

Good players will do this subconsciously.

I made this topic to perhaps give some players a friendly reminder but also to offer some insight into a different role in the battleground and arena.

Improve your game by learning and revising the actions you take.

What do YOU as a player make of this mindset? Do you have any tales of poor execution in battle grounds, or perhaps some uplifting stories of brilliant play by strangers or friends in arena or in the gulch.

Let us know!

[pkm]

I like to roll with the healer in bgs but I gotta admit sometimes the heat of the battle gets me carried away and forget about the healer. It's different in 2s though more co ordination and small compact environment.

[Honnycorns]

When I play ret in 3s, my main problem was the fact that I didnt know what my healer position was, altho I only play ret with healers that I know are better than me. So now im aware of my problem, I dont get many chances to fix it as I dont do 3s often but I think you are right, If you have any tricks to help improve both friendly and foe awareness id love to work on that, as I know its one of my weaknesses in pvp.

[Vaught]

Hey Honnycorns, I don't want to pretend I am a gladiator or anything, just that I am well versed in what Im doing. A great tip for players such as yourself that realise there are areas they want to improve upon (the first step) is using raid icons to help with your visual awareness. Positioning is a very very big part of 3v3 arena, as mentioned above its how people score kills and how people stop getting cc'd. Knowing where the healer is can allow you to predetermine things like rogues moving into Blind distance or priests moving in to psychic scream. Another tip is to decide where you want to fight before the gates open. "Im going left pillar" lets the healer know that this is where you wish to play and give the healer all the planning he needs to begin the arena.

[Deleted]

Good players don't really do this subconsciously, you always have to have healer in mind. Soo many people los their healers, also they usually don't know when to pull back to their healer, and los enemy. Marks on people help a lot, and maybe after you play together for very long, then you don't have to pay so much attention to movement of your healer, but still very important.

Use of cd's is another topic, and good usage is to pop them when enemy has their offensives up, usually low rat players just pop them at any sign of danger, so you just pop ur offensives than and they fall like leaf from tree. Of course to not use ur cd's at once with healer is another thing, and much harder to cooperate, it's usually just about good communication. Good players just keep talking, without too much focus, and can line up this things pretty easily, but with new players they keep forgetting to talk, and when they talk they lack focus on play, and back and forth. Some people like raidleaders pick this up rather easily, and some just satisfy with mediocore play, or just give up pvp completely because they are bad.

Anyway, this makes huuge difference in arena, and people should focus on this much more, because they usually just tunnel and follow enemy mindlessly, only to be killed in inferior position, this happens even to good players, and requires constant focus, when you can push or cannot push forward.

[Naughtt]

Great thread. I play a lot of arena on a few different toons and on of my biggest gripes is DPS LOSing heals or not retreating when CC chains go off or I am knocked out of position.

Clearly it is more difficult for melee to do this but you need to be aware that you chasing that target behind the pillar leaves both you and your healer open for CC or switches.

[Johnmatrix]

Great read. I'd say one thing I've learned the hard way during these years is also communicating with the healer when using cooldowns. A mistake I sometimes see in arenas is the simultaneous use of defensive cooldowns. By that I mean stuff like warrior using shield wall and at the same time shaman using healing tide and ascendance to top him up of that. That's the most effective way to get out-cooldowned by the opposing team. If you know you are getting bursted hard, it's better to communicate. A warrior could shield wall and fear for example, leaving the shaman in a free spot to just normally heal him up. Then he can use Healing tide or ascendance on the next burst/high pressure. There is hardly ever a reason to pop all defensive cooldowns at the same spot. Same thing with trinkets. Communicate when you have to trinket. Healers can dispel most of the cc you get so you need to save it for a situation where you really need it to save yourself, your healer or strike a kill.

[Dungflinger]

I think a lot of "noobs" don't know how to do a lot. Having spacial awareness, where your teammates are, and where your actual position is located in relevance to them is something that noobs don't quite get the grasp of just yet. Everything you say is pretty much true. It's just the difference between good players and bad. They really should be peeling back towards their healers when being focused or taking heavy damage in addition to ensuring they're not LOSing you.

[Vaught]

I agree. Having the situational awareness to respond productively is something that comes in time. Voice communication is something I didn't want to engage because of the general approach to PvP this thread conveys. It is unlikely in a random battleground to be able to Skype your team! However communication is indeed a brilliant area to work on.

How many of you have done arena with someone and gone on vent or whatever and been presented with silence in battle?

Its very difficult to create synergy when you don't know what your team mate is doing or has done!

Communicating cc and enemy cooldown usage is big. Progressing to calling cc durations on enemies is better still.

"im feared, full"

This is brilliant, healer knows to dispel.

"im blocking now"

This lets the healer know he can relax for the moment.

Things like this make good players better.
Great responses btw

[Deleted]

In a bg, I tend to forget about the healer (Mainly because when you notice them, it's because they're not in the BG, atleast not on your team) But I try to putting some freeze spells up around the healer, like Ring of Frost and Pet freeze (I play mage) I actually play BGs with a IRL friend of mine who is a resto druid, we tend to skype or play to each other and that way we can focus on each other (Selfish maybe) but it works out. Because of him I got Wrecking Ball today in AV

In an arena it's a lot different, especially with voice. You focus on each other and make sure neither is under heavily attack you can't withhold.

[postalp]

When I'm in a PUG, just before the match starts I say to the group "Remember to peel, and I'll remember to heal"

[Snuggli]

Communicating cc and enemy cooldown usage is big. Progressing to calling cc durations on enemies is better still.

"im feared, full"

This is brilliant, healer knows to dispel.

"im blocking now"

This lets the healer know he can relax for the moment.

Things like this make good players better.

Or better:

"I'm feared, do you have a dispel?"

and

"I'm in a bad position, do I need to block?"


More often than not, just announcing that you've already blocked will cause your healer to still use CDs because he/she wont react to you being blocked until at least 1 global after, and that 1 global might be a BoP or lifeswap.

Communication isn't just one-way, and whenever I play a Healer I LOVE people who ask if I can keep them up, or ask me if I have the CDs to let them go offensive, or ask if they need to block, rather than just doing it. An even better way of seeing it, is if you see the enemies popping CDs, it's likely you'll need to block, so you can say "I'm running out of defensives, I'm going to have to block soon", and you can coordinate when you block completely with your healer (when he eats CC for example).

[Utinil]

Great thread. I don't do areas often at all. In BGs I primarily heal or tank. It amazes me how I can follow someone around healing and basically turn that person into an indestructible god, yet the instant I get CCed that person will sprint across the map to finish someone off rather than miss that killing blow and save me, even if I ask for help. Everyone in BGs loves to have a healer, but having one comes with responsibility. As much as a healer is responsible for keeping you alive, DPS are MORE responsible for keeping a healer alive.

[dacoolist]

Love this <3

PVP is win

[Exeris]

I never really know how to respond when a healer thanks me for something as simple as using frost nova or sheep on something nasty coming their way, usually just end up with a ";p" respond. It's not something I expect to be thanked for, I have been getting heals after all.

But like others have pointed out it's very easy to get tunnel vision in pvp, even more in big battles.

[Vaught]

Love this <3

PVP is win

Glad you enjoy the thread, interesting to hear people's take on it.

Keep the stories and experiences coming

Do you make the effort to look after your healer or perhaps you prefer to play your own game, afterall, healers are for the weak right?!

[Exeris]

Glad you enjoy the thread, interesting to hear people's take on it.

Keep the stories and experiences coming

Do you make the effort to look after your healer or perhaps you prefer to play your own game, afterall, healers are for the weak right?!

I found that the best way for a healer to get my attention is by picking up a flag if there is one, I pretty much always try to peel for the person holding a flag.

I don't pay as much attention to healers as I should, I tend to forget about others when I get attacked. :\

One more thing, if you play a healer try to get the leader to mark you. That helps a lot.

[Dcruize]

Really nice thread. Make sure you tell your healer every time you trinket/pop defensive CDs - I usually shout "They're switching to me, I've got nothing" if things are looking bad or just "I'm scared" if I have defensive CDs I can pop. It can help them if you let them know when defensives are back off cooldown too. My healer always shouts out "Careful" if he knows he's not going to be able to help us for a short time, really useful to hear as we can turtle as hard as we can until he's on top of the situation.

[pld]

Yup! I played a healer for every arena season I participated in except this one so I was able to get a nice perspective from both sides.

It's amazing how many people (especially in BGs) complain about lack of heals when the healer is getting pummeled by 4 people. Or, they'll be running around a giant pillar LoSing you. One thing I noticed in arena (especially) is that people in danger will run away from everyone yelling, "I NEED HEALS!". I understand that running towards me may keep you in danger for 1 or 2 more seconds, but LoSing the healer isn't going to help the situation.

General rule of thumb for arena/pvp, communicate EVERYTHING. It may feel weird and it's annoyingly repetitive sometimes, but it allows all teammates to know who is where and what's going on. As long as you're not clogging vent/skype/whatever, it won't hurt to say stuff that may sound obvious. I also found creating verbiage (that the entire team will understand), helps a lot. Some examples I've heard are, "baby cooldowns" or short 30-60 second CDs, "set up CC chain" (everyone should know the preordained order), etc.