[Resto] how do you make healing fun?

[Nynax]

Hello everyone, yesterday I finished building a resto off-spec set and started healing heroics (main spec enhance). I'm in mostly ToC 10/24 gear, with a 251 staff and some less than 226 pieces. Now I've never healed before...like ever. So after reading up as much as I could and making mouse-over macros, i figured I would need lots of practice and would generally suck. With that I jumped into my first instance slightly nervous and...

I'm bored as fuck. Most tanks i get are so geared i don't have to do much else but a riptide and earth shield. and the couple tanks I've had that aren't geared generally don't need much more attention than a riptide and lesser healing wave from time to time... idk, maybe my gear is too good? or maybe I'm just naturally awesome lol.

TLDR
So my question is, how do some of you veteran healers make healing more fun in an instance where your generally bored?

[Artsche]

i try to top the badass dps' on bosses, but still try to let everyone stay alive.
healing is funnier in raids ofcours, especially on aoe fights, where you have to switch between ch und lhw while spamming riptide

[kiwi.cozy]

When I find myself standing around in a group and doing pretty much nothing as my priest I usually will start throwing out a few dots where I can, wanding, doing something to add to the DPS so that the instance can finish just slightly faster. On a meter my DPS does hardly anything, but hey, at least I wasn't just standing there, haha. xD

My husband plays as a healer a lot, too, and sometimes he'll run up and start meleeing just for fun.

[Nynax]

When I find myself standing around in a group and doing pretty much nothing as my priest I usually will start throwing out a few dots where I can, wanding, doing something to add to the DPS so that the instance can finish just slightly faster. On a meter my DPS does hardly anything, but hey, at least I wasn't just standing there, haha. xD

My husband plays as a healer a lot, too, and sometimes he'll run up and start meleeing just for fun.

haha. yeah i figured all you could do was dps stuff. Maybe i'll get some hit gear to help with that... to bad hybrid specs are dead or i would have done that

[Deleted]

well if you have nothing to do just dps with then in a simpel ele rotation flame shock, lava burst, lightning bolt, and try to out dps someone.. or more :P

that is what i try usually, and when you out dps 1 or 2 dpssers and or the tank i find it funny :P

but healing in hc is usually boring as shit when the group is geared .. but be on the lookout for a fresh group.. low ilvl normaly you can spot them in the first few mobs to what dps they do and how hard the hp falls.

sometimes you get as a high gear lvl healer a low gear lvl group, alsways be aware of that, you don't want to wipe because you "forgot" to heal :P

[Mewbaraue]

I try to only use Riptide/Earth Shield/Healing Stream Totem, and NO other healing spell through the whole instance. Gives me a bit of a challenge, especially when there's "heavy" AoE damage.

Another fun thing is to go enhancement (both spec/gear) and heal as that while DPSing. Very easy in VH, but I have yet to try in any other instance.

"Moar Mobs!" is also fun to play, assuming you know the tank. Basically you make the tank pull as much as possible, and make him/her keep pulling/picking mobs up (hunters with Misdirect and rogues with Tricks of the Trade are great for this). This should increase the need for healing quite a bit, as the tank might have 10+ elite mobs beating on him/her. Also you can pull the mobs to the tank. Just make sure you don't die.

Apart from that there's also the DPS-thingy. It's better than nothing, but still boring.

[whowherewhat?]

I try to only use Riptide/Earth Shield/Healing Stream Totem, and NO other healing spell through the whole instance. Gives me a bit of a challenge, especially when there's "heavy" AoE damage.

Another fun thing is to go enhancement (both spec/gear) and heal as that while DPSing. Very easy in VH, but I have yet to try in any other instance.

"Moar Mobs!" is also fun to play, assuming you know the tank. Basically you make the tank pull as much as possible, and make him/her keep pulling/picking mobs up (hunters with Misdirect and rogues with Tricks of the Trade are great for this). This should increase the need for healing quite a bit, as the tank might have 10+ elite mobs beating on him/her. Also you can pull the mobs to the tank. Just make sure you don't die.

Apart from that there's also the DPS-thingy. It's better than nothing, but still boring.

I try to do this first thing too. When I'm healing a herioc as my offspec I try to do the entire instance while jumping 8)

[Mewbaraue]

I try to do this first thing too. When I'm healing a herioc as my offspec I try to do the entire instance while jumping 8)

Oh yea, jumping is fun too. You can never jump too much in a heroic :3

Of course I try not to jump when I'm doing "Moar Mobs!", at least not when the tank has a lot of mobs on him/her. It can be quite dangerous.

[Hypernetic]

I just jump in circles spamming water shield.

[ThunderBlunder]

you can do last-minute saves. You heal tank when he's under 10% or less. have fun! it worked for me for 90% of the time

[Jubite]

I play limbo with the tank
Try to keep him around 2-3k

Ofc you need to know the tank, and pallies make it a little bit less painful when you 'lose'

[Lucarn]

I just jump in circles spamming water shield.

This.

If i want the instance to go quicker and the tank has solid gear, I will swap to my elem offspec and try to out dps everyone only topping the tank in between pulls, maybe even once or twice on a boss.

[The Ject]

On my Druid I keep regrowth/rejuve on the tank and I go boomkin and out dps the group with my heal gear on.

On my Shaman I go Enhancement and outdps the group while tossing the tank/group heals through MW procs and if anyone dies, I usually tell them to suck less.

On my Priest I Shadow form and keep them alive with VE/random healing here and there as needed, again topping meters usually.

More often than not they die of their own stupidity.

Unless of course someone who isn't a moron joins, then I am usually just under because the dpsing still takes a back seat to the healing.

On my Paladin...I stand there confused as there is nothing I can do aside from auto attack and judge/shock.

[krillianlol]

I usually just pop a movie with a small windowed mode-wow, and of course the mandatory jumping in circles spamming water shield.

[Litori]

When I'm told to heal in a 10 man, or if we're short a healer or something.. I run up to the boss and put on my MH fist wep and melee the boss for kicks.

I just jump in circles spamming water shield.

This. Or talk in /s around other healers and bug em.

[Zarleck]

I spec Elemental and deal more damage than the DPS, while keeping stuff alive. D:

[Litori]

Or if you have a geared tank, go as Enhance and use Maelstrom heals

[Zarleck]

I use Elemental simply because I don't have an Enhancement set and Elemental benefits more from my Restoration gear. :c
Now, people might occasionally die, since you don't have Riptide, but that just adds to the fun. When people die when I'm Ele-healing, it's most likely because they don't move from fire. Then they'll either say "Sorry, my bad" and you move on, or they'll start rampaging and you can point and laugh at them.

[Moxal]

I usually do one of the following:

1) See how long it takes the mouthy dps (you know the ones I'm talking about) to realize I'm not healing them.

2) Find interesting ways to kill mouthy dps.

3) Thwart mouthy dps' attempts at wiping the party.

4) Attempt to see how many times I can get my Druid tank friend to have to pop her survival CDs in one instance.

5) Get tank friends to tank in DPS gear in an effort to actually need to heal them.

[Cyno]

Not so much a shaman but myself as a disc priest I'll either dps or go afk during non aoe pulls pulls/bosses. In the case of having a good tank I'll start running ahead and tagging more mobs and pull them back to the tank as well as in Hup I'll make the tank go straight to the third boss while I start the event for the second so we can kill both at the same time. ;D