HealBot/Mouse Over Macros/ and Others.

[gymrat2005]

I used Healbot in WOTLK, what is your take on it? good or bad?, Also what are Mouse Over Macros exactly?, Either ive never used them or ive used them and didnt realize,also anyother addons that are useful to a holy pally in Cata or in General?

Im coming back to WoW after 1.5 years, and im planning on coming in and playing as iff ive never left. Ofcourse i wont be able too, but hey i want to be better than i ever was.

[y02mustang]

Personally, I like vuhdo, but I haven't tried healbot so I can't honestly compare. I just know I like vuhdo - a bunch - in that I can't imagine how I healed for four years on my druid without it.

For mouseover macros, that simply means you have a macro using [@mouseover] for your spell cast target, and you can have your mouseover the physical player in front of you or over that player's raid frame. I don't know myself if it works with Blizzard raid frames or Pitbull frames, etc, though you can make the macros work with vuhdo.

An example of mouseover macro would be:

#showtooltip Divine Light
/use 13
/cast [@mouseover] Divine Light

This would use your trinket in top slot [numbered as slot 13; bottom trinket is 14] if it's off CD and cast Divine Light at your mouseover target. You can also add options, like adding a /cast [@focus] Divine Light line to make it work on your focus if you have one. The stickied macro threads in this forum have more help and resources on creating macros. Sites like wowwiki have some examples, too, to give you ideas.

[lawomous]

I've used Healbot since Kara and every day I see a post on here about someone trying to do something with Grid and they need this plugin or that plugin or some pipeline information.

I think it's a good addon to start you off in the world of healing because it's very beginner friendly, and if you prefer maximum customization then have a look into Vuhdo or Grid+Clique. But I absolutely recommend some kind of healing frames to click heal.

[Deleted]

All the main healing addons can do the job: Grid, Grid+Clique, VuhDo, Healbot and even Blizzard's new raid UI to some extent. Try them all.

I used to do high level progression raiding in mid-WotLK (during which time I used Healbot with mouseover backup). Not having addons to heal because a new patch was out was no excuse at all! So, if you're serious about raiding, you will have and be comfortable with multiple methods of healing. In particular, mouseover macros should be the backup of all healers since it is completely addon independent and can be used with all healing interfaces. It's also handy in case you ever want to heal seriously in arena - it would only be a minor transition to heal solely by keybinds (something that is useful to heal yourself in pvp anyway).

As of patch 4.0.3 (last time I played WoW),
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I personally recommend getting used to either VuhDo or/and Grid+Clique. Grid+Clique are extremely lightweight, low maintenance (if you only use those two addons), and are easily the most responsive addons. VuhDo is ridiculously featureful and comprehensive out of the box, by comparison, but it is slightly less responsive, though more responsive than Healbot. Healbot is pretty user friendly and more than sufficient for all situations except possibly the most intense raid level decursing. For heavy decursing (pvp Alterac Valley raids at chokepoints are a reasonable test), I preferred mouseover macros with Grid.
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NOTE. The reason why you should prefer a mouse click healing interfaces and addons over keybinds for general healing in pve contexts is because of the large amount of almost constant movement and environmental awareness required, rather than extremely rapid decision making between a small number of targets and constant use of utility (pvp). Being able to isolate moving only with your keyboard, while allowing your mouse to do all the rest can make a significant difference in many situations ("keep out of the fire, stupid!" etc.).

[y02mustang]

I wanted to add: for decursing, Decursive is awesome, especially now that healing classes have a single cleanse spell (Remove Corruption, Cleanse, etc) as opposed to a specific curse/poison/disease removal spell. Single-click descurse ability, great for encounters like Argaloth.