In 10 years, I have never healed. Til Today. Need big help, please.

[VeganHunter]

Today, I was in Violet Hold with my 74 ele shaman, and the healer asked me if I would switch and heal, as he never gets a chance to DPS. I told him I didn't have a healing spec. But he asked me to try anyway, so I did..... and I did just fine.... no deaths, and I had fun doing it.

OK, so I don't want to heal on my shaman - I never dual spec - so I broke out my 10 year old dwarf priest, that has been sitting in dust since I hit 90, early on in MoP. I cleared everything about him so that I could solo spec with holy.

The problem is that I am overwhelmed. I went to noxxic and learned which talents and glyphs to use. I looked at dungeon healing rotation too. But what I can't seem to find is how I should set my bars for solo PVE and dungeon PVE. I don't dungeon much, and I am kind of afraid to jump right in and heal MoP dungeons, having never healed before. Well, that is not 100% true.... I once healed 2 dungeons on a friends account, on his computer.

Where should I visit to learn before I look stupid? I just am bewildered at this point.

Like Sgt. Schultz, "I know NOTHING!"

[Jimjam38]

First of all, you shouldn't trust noxxic, they're notorious for getting everything wrong. For example, they've told you to gem spirit. Completely wrong, spirit is currently our absolute lowest priority until we reach level 100. Even in 5.4 it was by far our lowest priority. Another example, their entire section on atonement healing is outdated, and still wouldn't have been correct in 5.4. Archangel is not at all limited to atonement healing, in fact, since atonement has been nerfed so much, the only reason to use atonement healing is to build archangel to use with 'normal' healing. The next thing is that it doesn't really address the fact that basically all healing these days in raids is AoE healing (at least until level 100) so single target is basically redundant unless you need to heal a spike on the tank or a random raid member, otherwise just spam that holy nova.

You may think the following image guide for disc is a joke, but the reality is that it's closer to the truth than anything you'd find on noxxic or icy veins:

http://i.imgur.com/QbCmDc2l.jpg (credit to Larynx)

If you actually want to learn to play a real healer, you should go holy or another class. Disc is a joke right now, you'll top the meters with 1 button. I'm not saying don't play it, but it's not going to be representative of what even a half thought out healing spec would play like.

If you don't believe me, here is the log of the current top ranked disc priest and top ranked healer overall for mythic garrosh: http://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/...ling&source=19

In a few weeks in WoD, disc will change a bit for a number of reasons that I don't need to bog you down with right now, but for the time being its a 1 button wonder. Just stack crit and mastery, which won't be too hard now that spirit is gone from most items.

My UI looks like this: http://i.imgur.com/1wOVRAl.jpg
obviously I'm not in a raid so you can't see my raidframes. UI is very personal and no one thing is going to be right for everyone. I choose to mostly use blizzard UI because I find relying on addons is very jarring and hard to adjust if they stop working for any reason. UI aside, what you were asking for was how to set up your bars. Again, there's no right or wrong way to do this, its whatever you find works for you.
As you can see I've put PWS, Penance and Holy Nova as 1, 2 and 3 respectively, other's will choose to do things differently. I only use the numbers 1-5 and then combinations of shift 1-4, q,e,r,f,c,g,t,x,z, and their respective shifts aswell. I put my most used spells on my most comfortable keybinds and my less used ones on less accessible keybinds. It's not really all that different to what I do for dps either, however I don't use raidframe addons like grid or vuhdo.

I can tell you what spells you'll use most, but I can't tell you where to put them on your bars. Still, I hope this has helped.

[Goshko]

http://i.imgur.com/QbCmDc2l.jpg (credit to Larynx)

That's hilarious. Also true.

On topic - healing is less about rotations and more about knowing what your spells do, knowing the fight and choosing the correct spell to do the job (well not right now it isn't it's all shields and skill nova all over the place but you get the idea).

The built in raid frames are perfectly fine although less customizable than addons, but you don't need a 40 minute video guide to set it up and it doesn't break every patch so it's a tradeoff. It's very easy to set up just open the options grab a friend so you have a group and mess around with it a bit.

If you're really never healed splitting your attention between the raid frames and what happens on the screen can be a problem at the start but you get used to it.

Please keep in mind that right now mana regen is not really tuned and you essentially get infinite mana (not the case at 100) so the situation with healing right now is really not indicative of what healing really looked before 6.0 or will look like after a month.

[Ratyrel]

Id recommend using healbot or something similar rather than clicking people and casting from the bars: http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/heal-bot-continued
Could also use Vuhdo, for example, if you prefer that.

[Deleted]

I really don't understand how noxxic gets so much traffic, as fast as anyone mentions the site there's atleast 3-4 people in the thread/chat to say that its utterly and completely terrible.

But yeah stay away from Noxxic, they are clueless.

[VeganHunter]

OK, Atonement.... I did actually state I went holy in my OP.

[bandetyouko]

I don't main heal, but doesn't anyone just use grid + mouseover macro's to heal. Heal Bot has some weird button combo system that I have never liked.

[Laqweeta]

Id recommend using healbot or something similar rather than clicking people and casting from the bars: http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/heal-bot-continued
Could also use Vuhdo, for example, if you prefer that.

I've been using Healbot since very early Wrath, it's amazing. VERY easy to setup. I'd give it a go :3

[Jimjam38]

Id recommend using healbot or something similar rather than clicking people and casting from the bars: http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/heal-bot-continued
Could also use Vuhdo, for example, if you prefer that.

A lot of people do find Grid/vuhdo/healbot style raidframe addons helpful, but they're not required. I haven't used any all of 5.4 and still don't, that's just my personal preference. I recommend testing them and seeing if you like the way they work, but certainly don't feel like its mandatory to use them if you don't think it works for you.

- - - Updated - - -

OK, Atonement.... I did actually state I went holy in my OP.

My apologies, you did too :/ I probably do have a case of disc tunnel vision as some have accused me in the past...

WELL, holy is another matter entirely, but the same stuff still applies.
You still want to put your most used abilities on your most comfortable keybinds and your less used ones on your less accessible keybinds. I haven't got a holy spec at the moment on live, but I'll show you one from my beta account. Most addon's weren't working for beta when I was on it, so my UI is pretty bare: http://imgur.com/v9cAcyo

Some healer specs lend themselves to raidframe addons more than others. Disc doesn't really need it as much, but Holy on the other hand, I'd put more into the category that really does tend towards using raidframe addons like Vuhdo. I personally still wouldn't, but only because I'm so used to playing without them. For someone just starting to play a healer it's worth putting the time in to try it out and see if you like it, in the long term its probably better if you can get used to it. There will also probably be a lot of youtube videos showing you how to set them up and giving tips how to set them up for particular specs.

- - - Updated - - -

Anyway, the best thing to do is just start healing and practice it. If you're worried about healing in dungeons, don't. MoP dungeons will be a joke at the moment. Maybe don't do UBRS until you're a bit more confident, but either way just get in there and try it out. Just like any new spec, you'll feel slow and a bit overwhelmed to begin, but you'll quickly pick it up.

- - - Updated - - -

The built in raid frames are perfectly fine although less customizable than addons, but you don't need a 40 minute video guide to set it up and it doesn't break every patch so it's a tradeoff. It's very easy to set up just open the options grab a friend so you have a group and mess around with it a bit.

Yeah that's one of the main reasons I use blizzard raidframes. Remember malk prog? Every healer using addons got completely fucked over because they couldn't see the shield debuff and it was a few days before all the addons had the various plugins and such necessary for it. And at the moment our shammy is bitching endlessly about how his addons dont work anymore and he cant do shit without them.

If you're really never healed splitting your attention between the raid frames and what happens on the screen can be a problem at the start but you get used to it.

This will be the hardest thing for sure. Eventually it just become second nature, but I remember when I first started trying to heal in LFR and LFD it was soooo hard to keep on top of the raidframes without standing in stuff.

Please keep in mind that right now mana regen is not really tuned and you essentially get infinite mana (not the case at 100) so the situation with healing right now is really not indicative of what healing really looked before 6.0 or will look like after a month.

Yes, while this does give a misleading impression of WoD healing, it's actually a good thing for someone who's never healed before. If they don't have to worry about mana they can focus on getting used to the role and when mana becomes important again they'll be more ready for it.

[Begrudge]

the raid frames works. thats about all it does. vuhdo is pretty good but i prefer healbot as i hvae used it the most and am accustomed to it. I tried ti use grid once with mouseover macros, never really read about that after i got into healbot. i think grid is the most complicated atm, but has the most customization.

[Deleted]

I don't really heal any more so don't want to give you out of date advice, but I still use Grid and mouseover macros when I do, I feel most comfortable with that.

I did want to suggest though, as you're (understandably) nervous jumping in to dungeons, have you thought about trying to heal some random battlegrounds first? It'll give you the chance to get used to what all your different heals and abilities do as well as trying out different UI setups until you find what you're comfortable with. People don't really expect to get healed in them anyway so there's less pressure. It's what I did when I switched to healing for a while and I found it really useful.

[otterfluff]

I'm just gonna toss in a shameless plug for HowToPriest.com. It's got everything you could need from guides to theory crafting to mog to anything you could think of. Check it out if you're legitimately interested in the real nooks and crannies of the class.

[Dole4011]

I use Vuhdo, so to penance someone, for example, I just right click on their unit frame. If you want to stick with Blizzard's unit frames, try Clique for similar functionality.

[Rude Hero]

Do any of you quest in your healing spec?

It might be different for priests, but on my paladin Ret is so much smoother than Holy at any remotely similar gear levels- same deal with my druid and shaman

[Aqua]

Do any of you quest in your healing spec?

It might be different for priests, but on my paladin Ret is so much smoother than Holy at any remotely similar gear levels- same deal with my druid and shaman

Holy paladins get the rawest deal when it comes to damage. I've leveled all the healers as healers now and I can safely call it a giant turd next to mistweaving and disc. And even druid and shamans lower but still playable damaging skills. Dennounce got nerf batted before mists launched and it was refused a rebuff when it became clear it was scaling poorly.

[Vermicious]

I use Healium for my healers, I prefer the visual button clicking style, I never could get used to keybinds, I forget which one to use, I'd rather click on the picture of the spell I know.

[Nzete]

For 5 man healing as holy, I'd recommend some mouseover macros and the yellow chakra state. If you have gear choices, put mastery last since that doesn't affect renew barring the initial "rapid renewal" tick. Use renew, holy word: serenity, heal, and flash heal on the tank. Keep the rest of your party up with binding healing, renew, and circle of healing as much as possible. That's a decent start on healing.

[Deleted]

I use Healium for my healers, I prefer the visual button clicking style, I never could get used to keybinds, I forget which one to use, I'd rather click on the picture of the spell I know.

Cool for you, but its terrible advice for a new healer. It encourages not only bad habit, it will also never allow a player to achieve anything on any half serious level.

[anon5123]

Healing is stupidly easy in all current dungeons, including level 90 MoP ones. (mostly because 9/10 times, the rest of your group will vastly outgear the dungeon)

Just keep healing dungeons, read spell tooltips, etc. Practice makes perfect.

[Deleted]

Healing is stupidly easy in all current dungeons, including level 90 MoP ones. (mostly because 9/10 times, the rest of your group will vastly outgear the dungeon)

Just keep healing dungeons, read spell tooltips, etc. Practice makes perfect.

Yes, true. Sorry my prev post wasn't really adding much for the OP. Try Proving Grounds. Whenever you fail there, nobody gets hurt so its a good place to set up and test your UI and get used to the basics of healing.