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  1. #1
    Mechagnome
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    How hard is it to heal

    Honest question, I have only healed in (1) MMO which was Rift and have never healed in any other game. I am currently leveling a priest and was thinking about actually trying out healing this time around for both PvP and PvE. So I was just curious how hard it actually is to heal. I have played just about every class in the game and played just about all content including PVP at the 2K mark and mythic raiding as an alternate due to schedule. I have just never once tried healing in WoW.

  2. #2
    It's really not hard, especially in lower level dungeons up to regular mythics. It's a lot of fun too, I find it much more interesting than DPS. And it's not nearly as stressful as tanking/leading a group.

  3. #3
    I find it easier than DPSing in raids. That said, I can heal on muscle memory alone.

  4. #4
    It's pretty easy. I'm leveling up a holy pally and even without any aoe heals (just the cleave from my beacon so far) it's fun. I've run a couple dungeons and there's even time between heals to throw out some damage still.
    I'm a thread killer.

  5. #5
    I highly recommend some sort of addon to manage healing. I personally prefer Clique, though a lot of people I run with use Vuhdo, which does more of a UI overhaul. Being able to mouse over the unit frame and hit a keybind to heal the target is very helpful in eliminating extra clicks, at least in PvE. In PvP it can cause greater issues if you get too distracted by unit frames and don't pay enough attention to the environment.

    I swapped to healing at 56 back in original WoW and basically only do group content on characters with healing specs after that point (I swapped from shaman to druid around mid MoP, so I also do tanking now). It has changed a lot since then, but in general it's not too difficult to heal. Holy will probably be "easier" to learn on, but a lot of priests I know really love Discipline.

  6. #6
    In arenas healing is easier and less stressfull than DPS.

    In battlegrounds its the other way arround.

    In raids they are ALL easy to some extent, because there are specific mechanics you need to deal with as healing, dps or tank.
    Thanks for the heads up!

  7. #7
    If you've ever healed before in pretty much any other game, you'll do fine. The main thing (IMO) about healing is simply have the right mindset when you're doing it, as in thinking and acting like a healer. Obviously skill is required as well, but that's the same with any class or role and is something that happens with time as you get used to your class.

    With that said, it's not any harder to be a healer than it is any other role in this game.

  8. #8
    Holy has been made a lot easier to heal with now, having Circle of Healing made a base ability, and Prayer of Mending being made instant, and such.

    And with the Talent Light trail, it's like a minor version of Paladin's Beacon.

  9. #9
    Merely a Setback Adam Jensen's Avatar
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    I raid healed Ny'alotha as a Resto Druid and frequently brought my H Priest to our alt runs. Healing takes some getting used to, but it isn't really hard. You really just have to learn what healing spells to prioritize, the right situations to use them, and who in the raid needs the heal first. Which can sound complicated, but really only takes practice. Knowing when to blow the long cooldowns and not being afraid to use them is also key. Knowing the boss fight is also important so you can predict large damage phases and be ready for them.

    I know I said I mained as a Resto Druid and this is a Priest sub forum, but what I said really goes for all healing classes.
    Last edited by Adam Jensen; 2020-10-15 at 04:54 PM.
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  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by evertonbelmontt View Post
    In arenas healing is easier and less stressfull than DPS.

    In battlegrounds its the other way arround.

    In raids they are ALL easy to some extent, because there are specific mechanics you need to deal with as healing, dps or tank.
    It's the same for me.

    Just take some low lever char and try it OP. Or take a maxed toon and run a few heroics/mythics 0, it's a lot of fun and feels very rewarding.
    Once I started healing it became my favourite role.

  11. #11
    The Insane draynay's Avatar
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    Like a lot of things it sounds daunting until you try it and see that its no big deal. Holy priest has pretty great tools for keeping people alive despite their aggressive pursuit of death.
    /s

  12. #12
    Mechagnome Gonder's Avatar
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    Up until you're doing content that's actually difficult, it's quite easy really. The only time in easier content where it might become more challenging is if the tank is pulling a stupid amount of mobs and/or is really bad at damage mitigation. Once you do start getting into the harder stuff though, like high-level M+, it can definitely get challenging but in a good sort of way, nothing that I would call "too hard" (gear will always make a difference of course).
    Quote Originally Posted by evertonbelmontt View Post
    In arenas healing is easier and less stressfull than DPS.

    In battlegrounds its the other way arround.

    In raids they are ALL easy to some extent, because there are specific mechanics you need to deal with as healing, dps or tank.
    It might depend on class and spec but I find healing in PVP to generally be really hard compared to PVE unless you have people properly backing you up. Players are always much less predictable than NPCs and are a lot more calculated, able to throw you off and constantly interrupt you, disrupting the flow of your healing. Personally, I don't cope very well with this and my healing suffers big time. Truth be told though I don't have a tonne of experience healing in PVP, so it might be one of those things that simply takes a lot of practice and adjustment.

  13. #13
    For PVE content I find healing less stressful for everything but progression. Tanking obviously has it's stresses. For DPS, the stress is self inflicted because I'm always trying to top meters or top my previous best. For healing, you just have to heal the incoming damage. And if it's not progression where you are wiping, it's normally pretty care free, other than those few times when too many packs get pulled, etc.

    "Take the time to sit down and talk with your adversaries. You will learn something, and they will learn something from you. When two enemies are talking, they are not fighting. It's when the talking ceases that the ground becomes fertile for violence. So keep the conversation going."
    ~ Daryl Davis

  14. #14
    Honestly I find the hardest thing about healing is staying focused on healing, especially since it's now customary to try and do as much dps as possible as a healer.

  15. #15
    The Lightbringer Jazzhands's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Talon8669 View Post
    Honest question, I have only healed in (1) MMO which was Rift and have never healed in any other game. I am currently leveling a priest and was thinking about actually trying out healing this time around for both PvP and PvE. So I was just curious how hard it actually is to heal. I have played just about every class in the game and played just about all content including PVP at the 2K mark and mythic raiding as an alternate due to schedule. I have just never once tried healing in WoW.
    It really all depends on how good the people you're playing with are. I've had +10s feel worse than +15s because people were shite.

    With a solid group though, it's relatively easy as most incoming damage is known well ahead of time and is easily planned around.

  16. #16
    I played a cleric for a while in rift mostly during nightmare tide I did play defiler for a while and warden and other builds, and a priest in wow. I think defiler is somewhat comparable to disc (maybe purifier) but from what I remember the nightmare tide heroic dungeons were probably about the same difficulty as a maybe lower than +10 mythic. depends on the group as well ofc. its the same principle where you have a rotation that works best, just learning which abilities to use in order for maximum effect. you have your fast heal, your slower bigger heal, instant casts etc etc. disc is pre-emptive while holy is reactive. as disc you have more absorb and can anticipate spike damage and lower it. holy is better at AoE healing damage thats already been dealt. how hard is it to heal was the main question, its comparable, when I played rift last, there was a lot of fluff abilities or cross spec dupe abilities (getting the same ability just a different colour twice from two trees) wow has mostly shaved down its ability set to what is relevant and doesn't have much bloat anymore, you pick a spec, you get the main abilities for that spec. (less confusing = easier to learn) one thing to mention aswell maybe is that the UI addons for wow are more robust than rifts Gadgets addon, the healing assist addons for wow make healing in general a lot easier, healbot/Vuhdo/Grid etc etc whatever the kids use these days, I've always used healbot and setting up click binds is easy, you can just bind most of your heals to click left/right/middle + modifier ctrl/alt/shift. you don't have to manually target and press keybinds unless you want to.

    the biggest difference between holy and disc is that for disc you'll spend more time doing damage and applying atonement with shields and shadowmend (so that your damage heals those ppl) while for holy you won't need to do damage and can focus entirely on the traditional direct healing. disc is a bit harder to play well because it requires that you know what is going to happen, while your focus is also split between tab attacking and the healing addon. compared to just playing whack a mole as holy. holy is pretty much the same as a sentinel cleric in rift, just with less OP cooldowns.
    Last edited by Heathy; 2020-10-16 at 09:23 AM.

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Gonder View Post
    Up until you're doing content that's actually difficult, it's quite easy really. The only time in easier content where it might become more challenging is if the tank is pulling a stupid amount of mobs and/or is really bad at damage mitigation. Once you do start getting into the harder stuff though, like high-level M+, it can definitely get challenging but in a good sort of way, nothing that I would call "too hard" (gear will always make a difference of course).

    It might depend on class and spec but I find healing in PVP to generally be really hard compared to PVE unless you have people properly backing you up. Players are always much less predictable than NPCs and are a lot more calculated, able to throw you off and constantly interrupt you, disrupting the flow of your healing. Personally, I don't cope very well with this and my healing suffers big time. Truth be told though I don't have a tonne of experience healing in PVP, so it might be one of those things that simply takes a lot of practice and adjustment.
    Ironically it can also get easier in higher level content when the player caliber is different - people actually know how to mitigate damage, DPS players don't stand in shit and actually avoid mechanics so you don't have to waste time controlling entirely avoidable damage and you can contribute to DPS meters and pay more attention to the tank.

    Doing low m+ is actually a bad thing for new healers because usually the kind of people that play those low mythics due to lack of skill rather than ambition are also usually trash at doing mechanics, so they take a shitton of avoidable damage and don't interrupt shit that needs to be interrupted so you're stressing all the time to keep them up.

    Healers in WoW are kinda 50/50 for me - some need to heal AND do DPS to not be a burden, and some, like Holy, can just heal entirely without dealing any DPS because there's barely any DPS for you to deal as said spec. Resto or Holy Pala are a huge no-no for me - if i wanted to DPS in M+, I'd play an actual ranged DPS and not be half as stressed as when playing a heal that also has to DPS in MELEE range. That's just ass.
    Last edited by mauserr; 2020-10-16 at 02:46 PM.

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by baelok View Post
    It's really not hard, especially in lower level dungeons up to regular mythics. It's a lot of fun too, I find it much more interesting than DPS. And it's not nearly as stressful as tanking/leading a group.
    Funny
    I have the most fun with healing but my pulse is through the roof during it. Tanking on the other hand is rather chill IMHO^^

  19. #19
    It's not too bad. Just like DPS or tanking, you learn your toolkit, and learn the fights...but also know that the experience you have as a healer varies greatly depending on the quality of your group. Probably the hardest part about healing is getting used to NOT getting caught up in staring health bars and being just as aware of your surroundings. If you use a UI mod, great, but if you use the default UI, I recommend using the raid-style frames even in dungeons and moving them to a place where you can see the health of the party and see your toon too.

    Being new to healing, I'd recommend Holy over Disc because it is a good jack-of-all-trades kind of healer with a wide toolkit.
    "We must make our choice. We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both."
    -Louis Brandeis

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by baelok View Post
    It's really not hard, especially in lower level dungeons up to regular mythics. It's a lot of fun too, I find it much more interesting than DPS. And it's not nearly as stressful as tanking/leading a group.
    100% this. I get really bored playing dps but I always feel like I have something to do when I'm playing one of my healers, It's occasionally stressful but not nearly as stressful as the one or two times I've attempted tanking (never again).

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