Scared of healing...

[Kelesti]

Sorry for the confusion chrth, I only meant the first part as an address to you. The rest was more my general take on the state of "omg pugs" which is in guild as well. I wasn't part of the first group of my guild to get up to 85, so I PuG'd my normals for gear, and then a fair chunk of heroics before we started to cycle enough members through guild groups. The biggest problem is usually lack of explanation for people unfamiliar with what to watch out for.

But guildies suffer that too.

My address is not to you, chrth, but to everyone. A wipe isn't that bad, give them a bit of credit and they might just surprise you

[Kalcheus]

Sorry for the confusion chrth, I only meant the first part as an address to you.

Ok, I'll let it slide ... this time

[Kelesti]

ok, i'll let it slide ...<sunglasses> this time

yyeeeeaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!

[AmosMoses]

I was put off by the horror stories myself to begin with.

But I've been healing in normals fine and just hit 330 ilvl. One the the main issues for me is that melee seem to get punished real bad. I have trouble if i have to tank heal and heal a rogue and a warrior who get cleaved or stand in AoE or whatever happens to them.

I think your stats prior is about fine. I have found juggling inner will/fire quite useful for mana conservation. For example, if there is AoE or add wave incomming on a boss fight I switch to Will, Shield and Renew everyone and then switch back to Fire, an extra 15% mana on 10 or so spells is quite some saving in the end. I'm also trying out the glyph of PoH to help out on the group healing a bit (inner focus plus PoH is really effective).

I have found myself hardly using flash heal at all. That ooms you like crazy. If i have to use it, it more or less means that I or someone else screwed up.

For tank healing Shield>renew>Heal is really mana efficient (although smite healing with attonement is fun too ). I'm really falling in love with that talent that drops the weakened soul effect when you cast Heal. Obviously I use GHeals if dmg is heavy. I often save penance for topping of melee as it's quick to lay the heals down and lets you get back on the tank quickly. Def not using Penance as often as I was in LK.

Anyway those are my impressions, I'd get into it and see how you go. Just rememeber to ignore silly melee who stand in the fire expect heals and then say "omg, you oom fast". That is THEIR FAULT and you shouldn't be afraid to tell them so (or just start griefing them with life grip )

[Speshuled]

From a resto druid point of view, it can be nervewracking seeing everyone take a ton of damage and not being able to catch up while seeing your mana pool just drop. This expansion has taught me to heal in a more efficient manner. Not everyone needs to be topped off for the entire fight if you can't spare the mana. Just make sure you're getting all your gear and practice healing in normals before you jump into heroics and you should be ok. Even normal mode bosses can be a challenge to heal at times.

If you're having a problem where the dps is taking a ton of damage, you need to make sure to tell people to gtfo of the fire. There's only so much you can do to keep people alive. Tanks need to pop CDs, dps need to kill adds and stay out of void zones and keep in mind you have some CDs to use yourself. Once you get used to healing the way its meant to be done in Cata, you'll be fine, just don't give up.

[Obtuse]

You should get Heartsong- it's proc gives you 400 spirit, the healer enchant really unless you have no problem with mana.

I had heart mender on my staff for awhile and I love the spirit proc I do; I had a second staff which was my shadow dps staff (same staff but with hurricane) and when I swapped out a bunch of gear and dropped pretty much all the haste I had for spirit, I opted to go with the haste proc instead, more or less just to test out some different ideas. No doubt when I start raiding I will be back to having heartmender on my staff. For now however I'm enjoying the almost consistent haste procs that I receive. No doubt the issue of more haste leads to more casting which leads to going oom faster and I had stacked haste off the get go with many more spirit procs. Now it's just reversed with consistent spirit and "by chance" haste which I find is helping immensely. But you are most diffinitely correct in that it will be a more appropriate enchant for me in the future.

[BishopXQ]

This is the BEST time for you to learn healing. Don't be scared. The first and most important thing is to NOT LET PEOPLE THAT BITCH ABOUT HEALING GET TO YOU. There are far,far,far too many spoiled Wotlk-rejects out there,who were carried or just figured the healer would heal them if they did something stupid.

Start off in the LFD and practice healing. Your one and only task is to keep the tank alive. After that you can heal dps. Sometimes the damage they take is unavoidable,sometimes they are stupid. Let the stupid ones die and heal people that actually run out of the fire,get behind the boss,ect,ect. Too many people will only learn from deaths..it is sad but true.

If a group gives you the slightest grief...LEAVE. Your a healer and queue times are so fast it is just amazing.

The second thing is to know the fights. As a healer you really need to know what a boss/mob does. Pick a instance,read up on it and learn the fights. Run it over and over till your comfortable with it.

Third thing....FIND A GOOD GUILD. Healing people is fun when you can train them. Guilds are great for this. Think of your guildies as little puppies (or kittens if your that type) that need to be trained. A nice example of this is my Disc Priest...my tank that I raid with with not pull mobs or a boss without a PWS on him. He will stand there waiting till the shield pops..then zoom! He is off. When you heal the same people over and over,in time they get used to you just as you will get to know them. Knowing one tank and how they will react is something that really makes a healers job alot stressful.