how long can you heal?

[shammypie]

healing requires a great deal of patience along with extreme micro managing. many healers don't last in guilds nearly as long as dps (those that make past trial). Many healers get upset when another healer is complimented as if implying that they weren't doing a good enough job.

so my question for all those healers
how long did you before quitting or taking a break?
if you are still healing, how long have you done so?
how long have you been in your current guild and what is the level of raiding/pvp that you do?

[ramennoodleking]

I started healing full time during ToC--before it was just casually as my main was a tank.

Have healed all heroic content since ICC heroic, and am currently putting attempts on Sha of Fear heroic.

[Korrah]

I've offhealed since wotlk. Switched to main healing with my Mistweaver.
Love it. Allways tops the list. And with the changes to fistweaving, I won't get bored of it in this xpack. Depends on what they will do with the class in the next xpack.

So you can heal untill you get bored of it. And that limits if different for everybuddy. And when I get compliments on my healing, I give creds to my dedicated healerbuddies. Not on spiritkings tho, as I solo heal it. but otherwise c: * a bit braging, I know :3 *

And my guild cleared the normal tier and we'll probably go back to doing heroic modes in the next patch as it seems more to our liking of what a raid should be like c:

[Servasus]

Started in TBC as a Retribution Paladin. Halfway into WotLK I discovered I was actually a very natural healer with fast reflexes and, gasp, I enjoyed healing. I healed all the way from middle of WotLK to the end of Cataclysm, where I switched my main from Holy Paladin to Mistweaver Monk. Have been healing, and loving, my monk ever since. My level of raiding has always been full clear of normal content and then dabbling in heroics when we find the time. I raid twice to three times per week with my guild and run LFRs for valor and/or gear. I haven't really ever gotten tired of it.

Some people are natural healers and it just works for them. Others just aren't. Dunno what else to say on the subject. :/

[bklutz]

I healed all of wotlk as a druid. the account got hacked before i was even able to get to 85 in cata, i ended up releveling and began healing as a holy/disc priest. and now in MoP i have an 88 resto sham a 90 mist monk at 482 and another resto druid at lvl 83. I've always had a dps off spec and a full dps toon, but i've never liked to dps more than i've liked to heal. I heard a quote a while back from somewhere on the internet saying "dps is science, healing is art, and tanking is skill"

[Tziva]

I think you're going to see this in any higher stress situation, whether it's roles people typically find more stressful (like tanking or healing), or whether it's super cutting edge raiding. I don't think it's as simple as "healers don't heal for very long." If people are too stressed, they cease having fun and they want to stop, and sources of stress can be far beyond one's role.

Most people I personally know who raid on healers do so because they actually enjoy healing and either they don't find it that stressful or the stress doesn't bother them as much. In that line, almost all of them have healed for years and probably will continue to in the future. I do know a few people who swap roles every expansion, but that's for variety. Of the people I can recall who healed and then quit because they hated healing... well... that's mostly DPS who volunteered so swap because they wanted a spot in the raid and heals was the only opening.

I have healed since classic, but this is the first expansion where I've been heals in my primary raid. I will probably go back to DPS next expansion, but that's more because I miss playing my rogue rather than because I don't like healing (I quite enjoy it actually). I PvP almost exclusively as heals.

I raid at a casual-but-serious level, and I PvP at rank LOLterrible

[Strakha]

I healed from WOTLK to end of Cataclysm, but I've always enjoyed every role in the game fairly equally. Now I'm tanking raids and healing on my alt.

I think every role brings a unique challenge, and it's hard to disparage any of the roles for being easy, since they all have a different niche to overcome.

[Osmeric]

I've been healing since halfway through BC. I did take a break from WoW and played Rift for ten months, but I healed there too.

[Defaulty]

I had healed from ICC through Dragon Soul. During Cataclysm I had focused on progression and ranked on multiple fights as a Holy Priest during that progression. When MoP released I decided I'd switch it up since I was raid leading and I looked the coolest looking tier for T14 and decided to play a Warlock.

I've enjoyed healing, but I enjoy DPS far more from a Raid leading position because I can provide an example to the raiders on performance.

[Gags]

I've healed on my resto druid since mid WotLK, with heroic progression in Cata and now MoP. Haven't stopped healing, don't think I ever will as I prefer it over 'insert standard rotation here'. The feeling you get when you're healing off fumes on a progression boss and get that first kill, awesome.

[PrairieChicken]

Healing is fun in different ways that I cannot describe in words(other healers would know that)

Also healing gives sense of importance because "you suck = instawipe" and there is much less number of healers compared to DPS

[Firecrest]

Healing is fun in different ways that I cannot describe in words(other healers would know that)

Also healing gives sense of importance because "you suck = instawipe" and there is much less number of healers compared to DPS

I am kinda surprised to hear that there's such a thing as Healer Burn Out. Paladin was the first character I rolled and, aside from the janky Ret/Prot spec I leveled up as, I've been Holy since my very first raid on MC. Through hours and hours and hours of bleeding edge progression in BC, Wrath and Cata, the thought of picking another role never even occured to me. I quit healing when I quit the game. If I hadn't, I'd be healing still.

I wouldn't call healing stressful. More challenging, yes. But the stress was always reserved for making sure the raid was ready to go, solving guild drama and fretting over encounter strats. When all that other crap was taken care of and I was able to just go and heal...? Those were the good times.

[Sevyvia]

Who knows! I started as a Holy Priest in classic, and I still play healers to this day. I've changed from raiding to PvP mostly, though. Can't deal with the schedule of raiding right now.

And I'd definitely say healing in PvP feels more stressful than PvE. After doing arenas for 2 hours, my head feels heavy and I feel drained. I can raid for 4-5 hours and not feel any real (momentary) burnout. Raid healing is more about pressure, though, if that makes any sense. The entire raid taking damage over a prolonged period of time is pressure, and PvP healing is stress. I love both, just for different reasons. PvP gives more immediate thrill when you do well, while PvE healing (to me) is more of a long-term, concerted effort.

[Firecrest]

Aslong as the healing meter shows that our Guilds healers are relatively close to each other, they don't care who "out heals" who.

Obviously I don't know your Healers, but I think you'd be surprised. We have our competitive streak - we're just smarter about it. Healers generally understand that a lot of things can have an effect on your HPS. Boss mechanics, assignments and more all weigh heavily on a Healer's performance. Healers don't often get to compete on an even playing field where one can diretly compare themselves to another. But I bet if you pay attention, you'll see them doing it when the chance arrises.

In my guild, this was usually when a boss was on farm. Assignments were looser and healing became more of a free for all. We'd snipe each other's heals or try to sabatoge each other by talking Rogues into MD'ing Healers. I never tried to discourage this. It kept things interesting even on stale old content. Personally, I can tell you that some of my best, most gloriously frantic healing came on some 5 month old boss when I'd go head to head with our other Holly Pally or our smack talking Resto Shaman.

[Tziva]

Obviously I don't know your Healers, but I think you'd be surprised. We have our competitive streak - we're just smarter about it.

It depends on the context a lot, too. On my main raid, I usually feel (or prefer to feel) like us healers are singular badass unit, rather than competitors. For starters, because it's fun to feel like you're apart of a team; that cohesive synergy is awesome. But also because I already know we're all good at our jobs, so that sorta minimises the desire to prove yourself.

I can be really competitive subbing into other raids though, especially if I'm on a lesser geared alt. And also I am in LFR, both because it's hard to feel camaraderie with total strangers -- many of whom are terrible, or are dicks, or both -- and padding the heal meters gives me a little something more to occupy myself with since it's otherwise fuckall boring (although in LFR I bounce between that and total apathy).

I probably shouldn't be competitive as a healer ever, since that's not what it's about... but competition is fun

[Khaza-R]

I healed throughout the course of the BC on my resto Shaman. While I found progression as a healer to feel rewarding and fun, healing becomes very monotonous when revisiting content you've already cleared. Far moreso than for DpS.

Suffice to say, I did not try healing again in WotLK and beyond. And I'm probably not likely too ever again. But I may dabble in healing in PvP. I've always found that more fun.

[truedzx]

Have been healing since raiding scholomance (lol) and the rest of classic. I have found that I can do the other roles alright, but no matter how frustrated I have gotten with healing over the expansions I have to say I have the most fun when I am healing. Regardless of what happens to the tank or the dps, whether they take dmg that is unavoidable or if they take dmg that is very avoidable and laughable I consider it an extra challenge that I personally want to overcome. I can always be a better healer no matter how well I do.

It's not for everyone that's for sure, but in my opinion it's so fun to play a role that is always changing, forcing me to adapt to whatever situation happens.

[Trassk]

I never offheal in heroic dungeons and raids. I tried it once in lfr and it was a mess, theres even less organization in that then an heroic raid.

I just stick to it casually, I use it to level faster to max, and do scenarios to make it easier to complete, thats about it.

[muto]

how long did you before quitting or taking a break? 3 years
if you are still healing, how long have you done so? Not playing at the moment. I got burned out from WoW, and school is more important at the moment.
how long have you been in your current guild and what is the level of raiding/pvp that you do? I was only ever in three raiding guilds throughout my WoW played-time.

Also for me, healing is easier than dpsing or tanking.

[Rusken]

I've healed a few times over my WoW time, first was in BC, healed all of T4 and some T5 before respeccing my shammy enhance. Went back to it in Wrath in ToC/ICC and healed through to DS. Got bored of it then and retired my Shammy.