I wanted to share an observation with the healing community to help put an end to toxic behavior that is hindering our gameplay and those who would seek out a healer.
A time ago back in vanilla healing was a different animal. We would rank down our heals, use what we thought was the right spell for the moment and our job above all else was for the good and health of the raid.
Many years later in a environment that has seen days of gear score and item level, intro to parsing, we live in another world. In this world you are measured not by how well you respond to a situation. Not by how well you can recover the raid from a large burst or strain but by how man numbers you can generate over the course of a fight.
This behavior has become toxic. It creates specs, geming/refroging errors, it makes players cast spells at the wrong times all to try to generate the most numbers. A lot of people live by their ability to beat out someone else as a healer by the numbers they can put out.
Is it bad to put out the most healing? My answer to that is not if you are gemed/reforged, talented and casting the right spells at the right time and you can honestly say you are casting nothing extra than what is needed.
An example:
I when I was new to my guild I played along side another Holy priest, I Holy myself and we had a disc priest. They fight I want to bring up is Heroic Tortos. Thres priests might be a bit much but we were going to make it work and Tortos is a holy fight for the most part. So anyone who knows this fight, you have to cast a spell on a crystal to gain a shield buff and healing down to you after that grows this buff to it's cap. At this point in the fight there is not much damage going out and a few simple AOE spells would top the shields off. The shields are there to survive Quake stomp were the whole raid will die without the shield and dip low with it. Myself and the disc priest saved our Halo for quake stomp. It is the right time to use that powerful spell and when timed right is amazing at topping everyone off after that mechanic. The other Holy priest who had a toxic playstyle popped halo as soon as everyone was refreshing their shields. When you first get the shield as far as the meters are concerned you are almost dead. Any heal will count 100% as healing and not overhealing. So you can imagine this would make you look really good on the meters.
Toxic play style is thinking of how to heal more than anyone else at the cost of healing at the right time with the right spell. You should think of how I can get people topped off from this mechanic.
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Is your playstyle toxic? Lets find out
If you ask
when is there time to regen?
How can I increase my burst for that mechanic?
How can I increase my constant throughput for this fight?
What talent would work best for that mechanic?
Am I casting when I don't need to? Could I lower spirit to increase my burst?
Do I have worked out with the other healers who is best to heal the tank and who the raid?
These are non toxic questions that you should be asking
If you ask
If I pick up more spirit I could i spam heals the whole fight?
If I use this spell then will I beat the other healers?
If I heal the raid instead of the tank will my healing be higher?
How can I roll more HoTs to get the heals first on those little bits of damage that go out?
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These are toxic questions this play style will gimp your healing When it counts!
There is a difference between being able to pump out the most numbers and being able to pump out the most numbers at the right time. In some fights it might be a pure long term throughput (garalon in HoF). In some cases the mechanics might be bursty and you need more haste, int or even some crit.
I challenge you to think about why you are doing something, whether it be in your gear, talents or what you are casting and when. Are you doing it because it is good for the survival and health of the raid? or because you can beat the other healers with it?