i noticed a lot of people asking the question what i think healer skill is, i will tell you all, il also go deeper into why this season fails so hard for skilled healers that do not have good people to play with.
What is healer skill
Firstly i need to point out im talking pre vendor which is when i played hard, pre versa is bis
Healer skill to me is more than just healing, its more than just dpsing, its both, depending on week depending on party depending on dungeon to know your class that deeply that you can create a gearset built to be the best it possibly can for both dps and healing changing every dungeon,
All healers are being judged based on healing and dps right? perfectly fine,
every single dungeon my first job is to ask "where is the most dangerous part" "which stat balance will be best for the dungeon/week" first priority to have enough of the correct stat/build to survive the part where your needed most, ie witches
so i set up my gear depending on party utilities, fury warrior self heals alot, dh obviously doesnt need much healing, is there a ret pala? is he running wog? priest? is there a hunter? how high is his hp, does he have any avoidance, an example of all the kind of things i look at when creating a gearset for that dungeon.
The rest of the stat/build once judged that theres enough healing for the dungeons setup goes into dps.
The biggest problem for people like me that dont just blindly copy top ranking players of my class is that if one of the dps is going to bathe in stuff (which they nearly always do) or not use a defensive then i may not have enough healing, does that make me rubbish healer? in the dps mind yes it does, because the healer last week covered his fails.
Then the flip side, if i take too much healing stat and the key depletes by 1 second, people going to be looking at healer dps, yet whenever you check pot usage are they using pots? almost never, are they standing in stuff thats taking up alot of time that could be spent dpsing? almost always.
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massive example of this communitys mindset, freehold 24/25/26/27 ranged you can take legit zero damage from first 3 bosses, so on that notion the healer should be able to go very aggressive, but whenever i did this the ranged would bathe in stuff then i would spend most my time spam healing instead of dpsing because my healing was weaker due to being in a more aggressive build.
boss1 blast outrange (obvious)
spit - you can watch the timer on the spit to premove so it misses, players actually worth there salt will know this, the majority dont, even 5k players ive seen bathing in it.
boss 2 los the eudora shot
rest is obvious too. so why was it every dungeon i needed to stop dpsing myself and heal up the range that was failing?
everybody makes focus fails, everyone is human, but god damn, this season got super average players in keys where they dont know half of the mechanics.
frost blast, you have 1 thing to interupt in that pack, 1. why is it never interupted?
mending rapids in shrine, missed interupts, check the interupt logs and people are interupting tidal wave. or protection with a hunter mage and dh in party (water blast is ok to interupt) damn
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so in a nutshell, if your party is good, your dps have the right mindset, are fully knowledgable and are happy to use a gcd with a utility there is nothing to heal, your dps as a healer can fly (hence the pala in 28 shrine 100kdps 20khps overall)
If your dps are bad, then there is nothing you can do as a healer other than cover over the fails with a strong healing gearset, and even then the level you can go with that party is capped because there comes a point where them fails they are making become 1 shots. the precautions they arent taking become 1 shots.
you are truly restricted to how good your party is as healer, and there is nothing at all you can do about it other than guess, that and you can make freinds with people that actually understand the depths of the game enough so to make all the keys rank purple. and its not just 1 you need, you need 4 others on the same level.
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what have i achieved in game? nothing i am proud of, the best thing i have on my record is healing 21underot tyranical 7months ago with party 469/470 ilvl 40 corrupt resistance no vendor no sockets, i was never able to meet ppl to build on that so i paid £50 to go horde. now i log in and go that key with people that are 480, full socket bis corruption 125 corruption resistance level 90 neck and they cant do it....too hard. while im sat there trying not to implode mentally. what do they fail on? not soaking bloods, season 1 mechanics. yet they think they are good because they blasted it on 23 on the easy week with the healer carrying the failing.
i suspect im not the only one that feels this way and is frustrated like this, so if your the sam on alliance or horde (i would transfer if i met the right people) and want to take shadowlands seriously drop me an inbox.