Healers, tips on healing in BGs?

[zergslayer69]

So I don't do any sort of arena at all, primariliy bg healing. Decided to take up resto druid as a test drive for healing as all my other clases are dps. HOW DO YOU GUYS TARGET TEAM MEMBERS? If this were some 5 man dungeon then sure you can say hotkey f1-f5 or something. But when you have multiple groups in a raid I can't expect everybody to be near me at all times so I have to try and manually click on people. But it's a bit difficult to click on someone if they have another enemy sitting on them, or maybe a bunch of wolves on them, etc etc.

So long story short, how are you guys healing in BGs? Any tips outside of knowing what your skills do and when to use it? Doesn't help if I know all my skills but can't apply it on someone in time.

[Spiritvs]

Well, get an addon like HealBot, set it up, activate raid frames and just click raid frames and heal.

[ellieg]

I have everyones health bars displayed over their heads. I also have the group frames light up when they are close, and grey out when they are out of range. Between the 2 of them its not too hard.

[zergslayer69]

Yea I briefly played with the Alt V thing to have their heathbars above heads but the bars move around too much to effectively click on it. Sometimes if another player gets near them the bars pop upwards or downwards. I'll give healbot a look. With my approach to healing I have NO idea how they did 40 man raid heals back in the days.

[Nofo]

just use regular interface not heal bot like a scrub
make sure ur dispelling all u can and watch for swaps
make sure u can peace out if u see a horde zerg to you dont dive to deep into the clash
heal...
and thats about it

[ellieg]

Yea I briefly played with the Alt V thing to have their heathbars above heads but the bars move around too much to effectively click on it. Sometimes if another player gets near them the bars pop upwards or downwards. I'll give healbot a look. With my approach to healing I have NO idea how they did 40 man raid heals back in the days.

I healed as a resto in a raiding guild that did naxx 40 in vanilla. We were assigned groups, and you were responsible for keeping them up. tank group had more than one healer in it. spam rank 4 healing touch all day, innervate the priests.

[Faenskap]

I've used Grid for a very long time, way before Blizz introduced the raid frames. What I prefer with Grid over Blizz frames is that it's looks prettier, you can make them smaller (so if you do IoC/AV you don't get it across half your screen) and you can set it up to show which target has Lifebloom, who's CCd etc (which, to be fair, Blizz' frames do too).

[Stompalomp]

Yea I briefly played with the Alt V thing to have their heathbars above heads but the bars move around too much to effectively click on it. Sometimes if another player gets near them the bars pop upwards or downwards. I'll give healbot a look. With my approach to healing I have NO idea how they did 40 man raid heals back in the days.

Haha - 40mn healing was mental, but the reply to you above is correct. You need a decent raid frames add-on. Personally i dont like Healbot and use Xperl Unit Frames (more options I find). I then configure so that if I mouse over a raid frame it casts my spells on that frame; if I don't mouseover a raid frame it casts on my selected target; and if I have no target and am not mouse-over-ing any frames it casts on me. This is the same setup I use for raiding and means I can have a target selected, (ie tank or warrior/melee in pvp) and still throw fast heals on other teammates or myself). Xperl sets up as standard to fade out anyne not within range, which is soooo helpful for BG's.

Edit: Forgot to mention you will need the Clique add-on to enable click-casting and hover casting!

[zergslayer69]

Ah yes x perl, I used to use that, but it's been abandoned. Currently using elvui. They have a pretty minimalistic raid frame. I'll add clique to my addons to check out.

[dryankem]

I just use the default raid frames and you have to position them so they are visible while being able to keep a eye out for what's going on. For people that get out of range their frame will fade a little so you only have to worry about people in your area (or the ones that moved slightly out). Mouse over macros would work but I don't really use them and I'm a decent enough healer (although I would likely be better if I went with a group frame add-on and mouse over macros).

My only recommended add-on is decursive since I would be a terrible dispeller without it.

[Reveries1]

So looks like everyone does things different. Personally I use the standard raid frames and place them under my character in 2 or 3 rows for rbgs/bgs After that you can create a heal over macros for each of your spells. that way you hover over the target in your raid frames press the normal button you use for a spell and it will cast at whoever you are scrolled over. The good part about doing this is you dont loose anything in the process of teaching yourself to do it. You can still click target if you want. Once you get used to it you will never go back and you will wonder how you ever lived without it. nothing like blanketing your team with rejuvs using heal over macro

#showtooltip regrowth
/use [@mouseover,help,nodead][help,nodead][@player] regrowth

You can replace regrowth with each of your spells and dispels. I find targeting macro's in BG's to take up to much space and I like the default raid frames with adjustments to placement size and boarders and you dont have to worry about blizzard not displaying a debuff you can dispel.

[zergslayer69]

All excellent ideas. People in my bg were complaining "horde sucks and heals isn't doing that hot (referring to me as i was the only one healing for the first time)" and then someone else said "you just spam 1 on people how hard is that?". I suppose that's how people think people heal.

[warlockiii]

I'm a big fan of Grid as well. I set mine to show only my Rejuvs and Lifeblooms on the target. It is also very clean has a nice fade out of bars of players that are not in range (I think nicer and more obvious than the default UI).

[Deleted]

I really don't see what addons like grid and healbot bring that the standard UI doesn't. Addons are a minor part of being a good BG healer.

Anyway here are some tips for healing BG's:
-On the first major clash (unless you outnumber the opposition), use everything you have. Every single cooldown should be popped and if you get focussed, run away until they stop chasing you and run back to heal.

-In a big fight, be aware of who's being nuked, don't bother healing the mage at the back, focus the ones getting nuked.

-Find out which DPS have the gear and do their job well. This can mean protecting you, killing everyone or completing objectives. Then follow them and prioritize dispelling and healing on these guys. As a healer, you are only as productive as the people you heal so pay good attention to your allies.

-Don't care about your mana, just use your expensive heals.

The best addon for healing in pvp I found to be interruptbar. it tracks cd's of interrupts of your opponents (doesn't really work if there is more than 1 of the same class). This will help you juke a great deal. (if you don't know, juking is basically starting to cast a heal and cancelling it right before your opponent casts his interrupt)

[Deleted]

1. Use mouse over macros for your heals
2. Use raid-frames (no actual need for healbot, but it might help setting up inexperienced macro writers)
3. Use keybinds while mouse-overing the raidframes (they do show who is close)

On top of that set up target next ally instead of enemy.

[warlockiii]

I really don't see what addons like grid and healbot bring that the standard UI doesn't. Addons are a minor part of being a good BG healer.

For me, the two biggest benefits are location, location, location and size. Grid allows me to size and position the those health bars where I want on screen. So I can glance at a 2 inch x 4 inch grid near mid screen where I am already looking anyway vs looking over at the side and having to look up and down a big portion of the screen to assess who needs triage. I also find it easier to click on said squares closer to the center, and I can move from person to person quickly, since they are small and grouped together.

By no means am I saying the default UI is lacking in function. Instead, I'm just saying using Grid allows me to be more efficient for how I play. YMMV.