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

[Callypso]

I would suggest taking a look at your healing spells to get a feel for how they work and making sure you have raidframes that allow you to keep good track of everyone in your party (or raid) without cluttering 90% of your screen. Healbot, Vuhdo and Grid are popular options, but for a beginner the default raid frames can work fine too (especially if only healing 5m).

After that, by far the best way to learn healing is by getting advice from a friend/guildy that knows the class and spec you're trying to get familiar with. Even better is getting that friend to go with you into an instance together with a guild group, so you can get the feel of healing with some people that will not jump at your throat the moment something goes wrong.

This is the perfect moment to get the basic experience with healing going. Everyone outgear everything, and people are bored anyway waiting for the xpac so likely willing to help you out.

Once you get a feel of healing you will notice things that work, don't work, and UI options that you would like to add/remove. Unlike DPS, Healing is a bit less of an exact science. The core thought behind healing is adjusting your actions depending on the situation, and planning ahead. Covering the entire raid in hots during a low damage phase is useless, but brilliant just before a massive damage spike for example. Situational awareness is key as well, I can't count the number of times I saved some idiot in my raid from getting hit by <random effect> by lifegripping them out a split second before, or tossing a shield on them.

Proactive healing >>>> Reactive healing. But proactive healng is not the same as mindlessly spamming / overhealing (as that will just result in an empty mana bar when you need it....)

[Calenel]

I'm in the same boat, i'm fine with 5-mans but i tried a couple of LFR's yesterday. First one went ok, Second one we were wiping on the fallen protectors (DPS were trying to kill them in order so it was res-tacular) and someone mentioned a "healer in scrub gear single healing" (i've got boosted-90 greens, a staff from Sha of Pride and some timeless epics so not amazing). I have no idea if it was even aimed at me as everyone raged and dropped out but it's made me think. I was using PW:S and trying to predict incoming damage as much as possible and shield as needed, using PW:B where people were stacked up, smiting the boss for Archangel and topping people up with heal/flash heal as appropriate - is that wrong? should i just be concentrating on keeping shields up on people? Should i switch to holy?

Appreciate any tips, criticism, l2p comments etc :P

[speehs]

Healing is more about intuition than it is a set method or rotation. You have to play around with your spells and get a feel for how much they'll heal a given target, how they interact with your other spells, how fast the cast will finish, etc. That way when the tank takes a damage spike or someone steps in something they weren't supposed to, you don't have to stop and think "well should I use Flash Heal or Greater Heal?" After some practice, you'll just know which heal to use in what situation and do it automatically. Sometimes those split second decisions can make the difference in a wipe and a kill.

Although it may seem hectic at first, LFR would probably be your best bet on learning how to properly raid heal without the stress of a real raid. The other healers will be able to keep the raid up if you make mistakes, so it's not all hinging on your performance. Try to heal people who are taking a lot of damage to get a feel for your heals. Go for the easiest raids first, then work your way up, even if your gear is good.

Also, try mouseover macros for all of your heals. Being able to cast a heal without clicking a raid/party frame saves a LOT of time and makes the gameplay a little more fluid.

But most importantly, don't get discouraged. Like anything else, learning to heal takes a lot of trial and error. But once you master it, there's nothing more rewarding in the game (imo). That's why I've been doing it since BC.

[Calenel]

Healing is more about intuition than it is a set method or rotation. You have to play around with your spells and get a feel for how much they'll heal a given target, how they interact with your other spells, how fast the cast will finish, etc. That way when the tank takes a damage spike or someone steps in something they weren't supposed to, you don't have to stop and think "well should I use Flash Heal or Greater Heal?" After some practice, you'll just know which heal to use in what situation and do it automatically. Sometimes those split second decisions can make the difference in a wipe and a kill.

Although it may seem hectic at first, LFR would probably be your best bet on learning how to properly raid heal without the stress of a real raid. The other healers will be able to keep the raid up if you make mistakes, so it's not all hinging on your performance. Try to heal people who are taking a lot of damage to get a feel for your heals. Go for the easiest raids first, then work your way up, even if your gear is good.

Also, try mouseover macros for all of your heals. Being able to cast a heal without clicking a raid/party frame saves a LOT of time and makes the gameplay a little more fluid.

But most importantly, don't get discouraged. Like anything else, learning to heal takes a lot of trial and error. But once you master it, there's nothing more rewarding in the game (imo). That's why I've been doing it since BC.

Thanks for the reply i'm using Grid and Clique at the moment and also have everything keybound. I'll get stuck into some more LFR tonight!

[Sekhmet]

Kinda same situation for me.. I used to be ele untill we ran out of healers in.. ulduar, I think. Tried it, was lots of fun and its been my mainspecc since

Many people heal with the UI raidframes. However, if you want a really easy time of it, get a healing addon such as HealBot or VuhDo. They have their own more customizable raidframes and can be set to show certains spells (ex for shamans, wich targets has riptide and Earth Shield running). You can also use them to cleanse and show targets under certain effects. The main benefit is that you can bind your heals via the mouse keys and click-heal (with some extra buttons)(4+ button mouse recommended) There are some tutorial vids on these addons on the tube I think. There used to be an addon named clique that allowed you to do this with any raid frames you like, but I dont know if its still around.

[Danner]

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.

This question takes me back!
Ultimately, you are going to have to learn this the "hard" way. I can only offer some tips on what works for me. Whether or not it works for you is not something I can answer.

Spells

The fun thing about the holypriest in particular is that all our spells are useful. Unfortunately, that means that unlike a certain other two-button spec (liable to change), Holy has to deal with all their abilities.

What I like to think about is healing situations.

Someone is hurt! Help, what do I do?
Short answer:
Cast Flash Heal on that player.
In fact, you can't go particularly wrong with that answer. If you are new to priest healing, if you spam this one button for most levelling dungeons, you will do... adequate. I like to think of Flash Heal as my main healing spell. Just remember to bring lots of drinking water.

Long answer:
If you are hurt yourself, cast Binding Heal instead of Flash Heal. That way you heal two flies in one spell!

Prolonged use of Flash Heal will drain your mana pool. You might want to use Heal when things are not in immediate risk of dying. It's far cheaper, but heals slower.

If someone is SERIOUSLY CLOSE to dying, Guardian Spirit is a great alternative. It pretty much guarantees that target's survival, and you can focus on saving someone else for the next 3-4 seconds. Or you can heal that target at increased efficiency, allowing you to build a buffer of healing.

Lots of people are hurt! Help, what do I do?
Short answer:
Circle of Healing. It's moderately cheap, very fast, and heals a lot of people at the same time. Use it and abuse it. Don't cast it on cooldown though, that's a waste of mana!

Long answer:
Circle of Healing has a cooldown. Sometimes this means you cannot cast it. That's where Prayer of Healing comes in. If multiple people tend to take a lot of damage, I tend to start off by casting Prayer of Healing on an appropriate group, then immediately following it up with a circle of healing. Bam: 11 targets healed. It's almost orgasmic to see all those green numbers pop up on the screen at the same time. Then try the next group, and repeat until everyone is within "safe" levels. Prayer of Healing is can be considered your heavy gun. It eats a lot of mana. But it's a very awesome spell. Love it.

If you want to really pull your weight, spamming 10-12 Prayer of Healing after eachother does an amazing HPS. Just remember - mana is finite (though rather abundant right now). You can't spam this spell much. When you do run out, ask yourself if you could have used another spell instead. (See Renew below)

Nobody is! Help, what do I do?
Short answer:
Prayer of Mending on the tank.

And that's really all there is to it. The "Frisbee" is our most original healing spell, and it is really excellent when it pings between people getting hurt. I'd almost recommend casting it on cooldown, but you really shouldn't cast anything on cooldown. It's still a great spell though, and has saved my bacon more times than I can count. I just hate the new cast time on it :P

The more advanced technique is to start looking at the boss cast bar. If it is casting a huge ability, start healing people so that the heal lands 0.2 seconds after the ability lands. Or just smite someone to the face. Or use the shadowfiend for some mana. There is no reason to be bored as a healer!

But what about renew?
I like renew, but I don't use it enough. How much you use it is a personal choice.

The way I see it, renew offers an alternative playstyle that offers the target the promise of heailng in the future, but doesn't save your target right away.
This adds risk - but it also adds the prospect of healing damage that hasn't happened yet as you can cast it before the damage really hit.

If you master its quirks, you will find that Renew may replace Flash Heal as your goto-spell. It's cheaper, though it heals for less.
It may also replace certain situations of group healing, where Prayer of Healing just ain't picking the right targets. And it's cheaper.

If you negate it, you can get away with just throwing renew on the tank once, and forget it ever existed otherwise. You are then avoiding a large tool in your toolbox, and for no good reason I might add. But it's an option. It tends to work out!

If you feel you are running out of mana, you should try to rely more on renew, and less on Flash Heal / Prayer of Healing. A combination of everything is the way to go. Pick the best spell for the best situation.

Anything else?
Place a lightwell. It's basically free healing. No reason whatsoever to not place one out.

Power Word: Shield is rather worthless as Holy. A renew usually does the same job. That's not to say that PWS is utterly useless, especially not if you pick the "Body and Soul" talent. But it's rather pointless nonetheless.

Divine Hymn is your big gun emergency cooldown. Use it, love it. It's not really that powerful anymore, but if you feel stressed out, just cast it, let it do its work for 8 seconds, and you get a chance to analyze what is going on.

Dispelling is generally only done in select raid fights. Not important until you get to a boss tactics that explicitly tell you to dispel.

Keybinds:
Everyone has their own way of healing. Personally, I use mouseover macros.
http://www.worldofmatticus.com/a-gui...seover-macros/

That means I just park my mouse on top of a player (ingame or his unit frame) and press a healing button. The healing spell will then be cast on the player marked by my button. Or on myself if no target exists. This means I do not need to "click" anything, and this saves me valuable time; possibly a fraction of a second. This saves a life every now and then.

I use my number keys for various attack spells (smite, holy fire, sw: pain etc).
I use my letter keys for various healing spells. it makes the separation easier

The spells I use often - Heal and Flash Heal - are thus placed on my immediate keybinds. F and R.
The spells I use almost as often - CoH and Prom - are placed right next to those. G and T.
And then the spells I use slightly less - Renew and PoH - on H and T.
Q for guardian Spirit, being an emergency spell. And Fade on E.
With the rest just taking spots on the keyboard wherever after that.

So, what do I do about Chakra?
Absolutely nothing.
Stick to Yellow or Blue when healing. Yellow is more useful if you use more renew, Blue is more useful is you use more CoH. Either way works.
Heck, you can even heal in red chakra if you want to smite a little. Switch as needed, but in general Chakra is meaningless.

The spell HW: Sanctuary is useless. Cast it when you really really want to, but it almost never makes a notable difference.
The spell HW: Serenity is excellent. Really really awesome. Best reason to stay with the yellow stance.
The spell HW: Chastise is extremely situational. Almost all non-soloable mobs are immune to it. It means this is a PVP spell.


Raidframes

While Blizzard's internal raidframes are a heckload better than what they used to be, I still don't particularly like them because I don't think they are visually good enough at highlighting situations I care about. So for me, I have tried a ton of different raidframes. None of which I have found particularly excellent.

The easiest to get started with is definitively Grid. It comes with a clear default setup that is very easy to understand. But it still suffers from cramming info into the frames in odd ways IMO.

I landed on Shadowed Unit Frames eventually, which I have heavily modified. It is not perfect though. I think the perfect healing UI hasn't been made yet.

If you are a fresh healer, I'd recommend using the default unitframes while running dungeons. And keep using them while running your first LFR raid.
After that, check out some proper raidframes. They really make a lot of difference.