I love healing in Cataclysm.

[Griffmstr]

I see so many threads on the official forums and such about healers whining about the difficulty of heroics and I've been meaning to make this post for a while.
As I've mentioned in an earlier thread of mine I am a Holy priest healer who is about 3/4 of the way done with heroics (gear wise). In WotLK I healed heroics in the beginning then was picked up in a raiding guild and did 25 naxx before Uld, then 25 uld, and 10 ToC. My computer fell apart after that and I had to leave but needless to say I've had some healing experience from Wrath.
Without a doubt in my mind I love healing in cata much more then I did in Wrath. As a priest I've always had a lot of spells but in wrath once we got into raids all I've ever used is Prayer of Mending, renew, and flash heal. It was very boring and repetitive. Even in heroics I rarely used any other healing spells, there was rarely a need.
But now? In every heroic I go to I honestly use every healing spell in my arsenal except Holy Nova and Binding heal. But even with binding heal I'm thinking of trying to use it as there have been many cases where me and the tank are the only ones taking damage. I'm just not sure if it would be better to use binding heal rather then say two greater heals (one me, one tank).

Yes Heroics are much harder than they were in wrath, but once you get people who know what they are doing or PUG people who are not stupid (which I don't pug many stupid people as much anymore) you can down them pretty without too many issues. The key is communication and even better, cooperation.

I hope I'm not the only one here and maybe another healer or two finds their job much more interesting now.
Interesting may not be a good way to word it, more... entertaining?

[mypally]

Im really enjoying healing, and I think a large part of that is the fact that im a holy pally. Im really the only healer that can actualy heal through things correctly in pvp and pve. The changing of spells used (still only use 4, though thats better then the old 1) along with the amount of damage that is 100% avoidable is what is making the game fun right now. Also, when there is aoe damage, its actualy like "o shit" and you really have to hold your water and realie you have 10-15 seconds to heal people, not 1-2.

All in all, best healing experiance yet in pve, and annoying but still fun as hell in pvp.

[snegro]

I enjoyed gearing up and healing through heroics - it's fairly simple now, however, although in terms of raids it really is frustrating to play either a restoration druid or shaman as priests and paladins excel above and beyond at the moment in high-end guilds. Shamans have it the worst, they're really only invited for the totem at the moment.

[Rekthed]

I feel ya, I love the way Resto druid's have changed.

[Baron01]

I enjoyed gearing up and healing through heroics - it's fairly simple now, however, although in terms of raids it really is frustrating to play either a restoration druid or shaman as priests and paladins excel above and beyond at the moment in high-end guilds. Shamans have it the worst, they're really only invited for the totem at the moment.

Is it really that bad for resto shaman? I have chosen my resto shaman (out of 7 characters at 80, 4 possible healers) as my main for this expansion. I sure as hell dont want to be the underdog shaman were at the beginning of WOTLK.

[Yagamoth]

@Baron01: I can not really tell you whether Shaman are "bad" relative to the other healers. I can only tell you, that it certainly is not easy to keep up with a very good Holy Priest and Resto Druid. But you synergize really well. And I'm fairly sure, the other healers are not much easier/better to play (if at all) - Healing wise. However, you have so much other things you can do, the other healers can't.
- Adding a little of DPS through the flametotem-thingy or Fire Elemental
- Earthbind Totem / Frost Shock for slows
- Grounding Totem
- Interrupt! (My favorite - Learning to quickly set focus and focus interrupting makes some Trash/Bosses nearly trivial)
- Purge
- Many buffs

I love healing now. I can't tell you it's because I'm in an awesome raid team, because the encounters are good and versatile, I'm playing Shaman now or because of the new mechanics. The best thing I've found so far is, that as a Shaman/Druid/Priest Healing-team there is no set tank-healer and a set group-healer. Each one can equally good heal the tank but has some advantages in this or that other role.
For example, we had our Holy Priest heal the Tanks at Halfus, myself as the Resto Shaman as tank healer for Magmaw, no dedicated tank healer at omnotron and the druid as tank healer for Chimaeron.

Additional note: I also really liked healing in Wrath, simply because I could carry a big part of the raid through the encounters as a resto druid. (as in: Carrying players that are "only" average.).

[Osmeric]

Healing in Cataclysm is ok. The expansion itself, not really, overall.

[Ynna]

Did we really need another topic like this?
Anyway:
First of all, you were doing it wrong in WotLK raids. A good Holy priest used ALL of his abilities in raids.
I certainly don't find healing more entertaining. I find healing to be boring at the moment, and I've found so the moment I could cheat the ilevel requirements and do heroics. I actually feel completely the opposite of you. In WotLK I used all of my abilities in order to be the most efficient healer I could be, now I just use Heal, Serenity, Renew and Prayer of Mending on most fights.

[Deleted]

Did we really need another topic like this?
Anyway:
First of all, you were doing it wrong in WotLK raids. A good Holy priest used ALL of his abilities in raids.
I certainly don't find healing more entertaining. I find healing to be boring at the moment, and I've found so the moment I could cheat the ilevel requirements and do heroics. I actually feel completely the opposite of you. In WotLK I used all of my abilities in order to be the most efficient healer I could be, now I just use Heal, Serenity, Renew and Prayer of Mending on most fights.

Makes no sense..

[Jademist]

I'm loving healing on my resto Shammy! I love the challenge instead of mindlessly spamming chain heal here and there.
Time to actually think and manage our mana! woooo. Its our most valuable resource.

[snegro]

Is it really that bad for resto shaman? I have chosen my resto shaman (out of 7 characters at 80, 4 possible healers) as my main for this expansion. I sure as hell dont want to be the underdog shaman were at the beginning of WOTLK.

I can see them buffing shamans to a great extent. I think it's really worth sticking to it for now and braving it out because when it comes to healers in current content they're not going to leave a class/spec behind (think tank shortage on WoTLK release and all the buffing/balancing they did then for the 3D encounter).

[Katana Angel]

I dunno. I think shamans are fine. I'm all done with heroics and just waiting for the guild to start raiding.
I mean, the mastery is supposedly pretty weak? But with a decent amount of crit, some patience, and knowing what to use at specific times, it's not -too- bad.
Also OP: Yes, I like healing too. My next 85 is my holy priest.

Isn't it Disc that's supposedly lagging behind right now?

[snegro]

I dunno. I think shamans are fine. I'm all done with heroics and just waiting for the guild to start raiding.
I mean, the mastery is supposedly pretty weak? But with a decent amount of crit, some patience, and knowing what to use at specific times, it's not -too- bad.
Also OP: Yes, I like healing too. My next 85 is my holy priest.

Isn't it Disc that's supposedly lagging behind right now?

Any healer can deal with heroics just fine, it's raiding where rDruids and rShamans are currently being benched for hPriests and hPaladins.

[Katana Angel]

Any healer can deal with heroics just fine, it's raiding where rDruids and rShamans are currently being benched for hPriests and hPaladins.

Well, good news, I can't be benched.. but why do you say this? I mean, is it because the heals aren't as fast? The group heals are weak comparitively? I need actual evidence so I can understand why folks are saying this.

[Ynna]

Makes no sense..

How does it not make sense?

[snegro]

Well, good news, I can't be benched.. but why do you say this? I mean, is it because the heals aren't as fast? The group heals are weak comparitively? I need actual evidence so I can understand why folks are saying this.

Just can't keep up with the two PvE champs right now. Resto shamans will be brought along for mana-tide but in terms of serious progression given two equally skilled players it would come down to class and there is a real difference. Priests are AoE kings with gear right now, Paladins single-target.

I don't see this lasting too long, however.