Some Healing Experience as Holy

[nsevit]

Hey all,

I've been reading many threads lately about healers, especially holy priests, running OOM in heroic dungeons, so I'd like to share some of my experience of healing through some of the difficult fights. Some of the things I am about to cover have been mentioned by others for countless times, but I hope there is still something new in there.

First of all, something about me: I have been running instances, both normal and heroic, after reaching level 85. Cleared all of the heroic dungeons as a healer except for Throne of Tides (which I haven't discovered for some reason), mostly in guild parties but also in pugs occasionally. Tried a few raids with guild and had no luck except for Barading Hold. Currently sitting at 338 item level, with about 78k mana and 2.4k spirit.

After talking with many other healers in my guild and some random ones on street, it appears that healing in general has become more challenging in Cata, and priests seem to have an even more difficult time than others. For example, an equally-geared Shaman healer in my guild is able to heal through all bosses in Hall of Origination with more than 20% mana remaining by the end of fight, yet I contantly run OOM before the boss dies and have to rely on potions or Druids.

And here are some suggestions for holy priests that are new to Cata:

Know the fights. If you ever want to clear a heroic dungeon without wiping for twenty times, you need to do your homework in advance. Take a look on all bosses' abilities and think about how they are going to affect your party members. Will the boss hit the tank hard? Will he use a large AOE on the whole party? How often does the party take damage? How long is the fight supposed to last? These are all things you need to know. With that information, you will know whether it's safe to leave a DPS at 20% health or you have to top him off. Also you need to tell the party what they need to do/not do for the fight, because there are always people who have no idea what they are getting into (and blame the healer when they die in fire).

Use the right spell at the right time. HEAL is now your default healing skill and should be used as often as possible. Unless there is something extraordinary (for example, a DPS gets hit by fire and is taking heavy damage), you should always be using heal on your party. The most mana-effecient way of healing the tank is: Chakra - Renew - Heal - Holy Word: Serenity - Heal. Flash heal should only be used in emergency situations or when triggered by Surge of Light. Greater heal is effective when you expect the tank to take heavy damange but still have some health remaining. A "Flash heal - Greater heal" combo will in most cases save a tank from dying. PoM is best used at every CD. Don't spam renew unless there is a DoT that your PoM and CoH together are not enough.

Read your meters. Especially when you are still trying to adapt to the new Cata style of healing, try check your overhealing after every battle. It's optimal to keep your overhealing rate below 5%. If yours is higher, take a look at your heal breakdown and see if you are using too many expensive spells on members that probably don't need them. Also, it is OK to not be casting the whole time in a fight. More activity doesn't mean better healing. When the damage is light, save your spells and mana for later. Another good way to use your meter is to look at what damage each member has received during the fight. This is especially valuable after a wipe, for you will be able to tell if someone has taken a lot of avoidable damage and remind that person to be careful, or if your party is using the right strategy in that fight.

Find good party members. I wholeheartedly agree that holy priests at this moment are very vulnerable to mistakes (of simply incapabilities) of other party members. A good Shaman of Paladin healer can probably save a dps whole stands in fire, but a holy priests generally can't, at least not without significant costs (large waste of mana or unecessary use of spell CD). To make your dungeon experience more enjoyable (or tolerable), you need a tank that is sufficiently geared for the instance and damage-dealers that can pull average amount of dps. This is why it is always a good idea to run through instances with people from your guild first, because these are people you know and (hopefully) are able to trust. LFD tool sometimes put you in really great teams, but in many cases you'll be stuck with at least one person that is either under-geared or has a very slow learning process.

I hope this thread has not become incredibly long and boring to read through. Again, I myself am also tring to adapt to the new Cata way of healing, so there could be many thing I forgot to mention or are completely wrong about. Please feel free to let me know and I will be happy to discuss with all of you.

Thanks.
EVIT

[ainra]

Very nice post! I agree with you on pretty much everything. Using the right heal at the right time is SO important. Sometimes one wrong move can cause a wipe. Heroics have gotten a lotlotlot smoother with gear, but I still wouldn't consider them easy. You've also gotta expect that melee DPS will probably die a few times in a run. I agree with you that other healers seem to be able to 'save' the DPS who stand in fire/cleave/etc much easier. One thing I have found key - life grip. That's really the best way to save a DPS who has no idea what's going on. You can also fix that by queueing with guildies

Very helpful post, thanks for slappin it all together!

[Volpit]

yah i feel like pallies are the strongest healer atm. cuz i honestly have between 80-100% mana by the end of all halls of origination bosses. but your mana usage mainly depends upon how geared your tank and dps are, as well as how smart they are.

edit for typo

[iLive]

yah i feel like pallies are the strongest healer atm. cuz i honestly have between 80-100% mana by the end of all halls of origination bosses. but your mana usage mainly depends upon how geared your tank and dps are, as well as how smart they are.

edit for typo

You mean heroic Halls of Origination? Also, can I see your gear?

[Deleted]

Very nice summary
Personally I only use PoM, when I'm sure it'll jump at least a couple of times before running out. Otherwise it seems too expensive, but that's just personal choice I guess. And yes, I seem to be a little unlucky with my jumps.

[iLive]

Very nice summary
Personally I only use PoM, when I'm sure it'll jump at least a couple of times before running out. Otherwise it seems too expensive, but that's just personal choice I guess. And yes, I seem to be a little unlucky with my jumps.

I don't want to cast any spells because of their prices. More than 1,000 seems like a lot inside my head (I am still used to WotLK), so I don't even want to cast Heal. Not a good thing. :P

[ProBubble]

Its a nice post with good information for NEW healers.. but those of us that have been healing for a while know most of this already.

We ARE the weakest healers of the pack by a long way and we have to work so hard to achieve that output as it goes. What you didnt post about is what the issues really are..

Mana regen.. our 'bonus' regen is based on our spirit so we must now keep that high meaning that our spells are going to be considerably weaker than others (not saying that they aent doing the same but that they have other ways of mana regen too), our talents have the longest cooldown and lowest return of them all, with one basically stopping us from doing ANYTHING for 8 secs and the other pretty dumb 'pet' that can only be used when the boss is infornt of you.

Throughput.. As said our spells are pretty much the weakest and longest casts out of all healers leaving us les mobility and lower throughput by design (with haste being so hard to build up) and the less said about CoH the better. PoH will soon be my go to spell as soon as i get to the point where i can cast it regularly and maintain full mana (3k+ spirit i think not counting any extra intel)

BUGS.. renew doesnt always seem to refresh with direct healing spells.. most notably Gheal, Serenity, Flash and Binding heal never seems to ever refresh it. Chakra bugs for a lot of us leaving us in a 'clear' chakra state losing us any benefit of the 10% extra healing which is a major part of Blizzards attempt to balance us. Echoes is bugged by design as the echoes it gives are no where near the level they should be.. @15 mastery should heal 600 per second and actually heals 300 per second, Glyph of dispel not healing 3% but only 1%.. The list goes on and these have been reported and not fixed.

PoM is a wierd, unique tlanet that i am glad we have and although seemingly expensive i still use it for midrange healing on the tank for that mini Heal that you recieve from it, the bounces will happen in most cases so i tend not to worry too much about it.

As for overhealing I tend to overheal on purpose at times to maintain renew, and renew itself overheals as do echoes.. if you are getting less than 5% of your healing overhealed you are either going in to fight underprepared or or overly cautious. Your echoes WILL overheal at a time and if you arent keeping the tank at 100% as a priest you are just plain lazy.. I mean how hard is it to hit the same button every 2 secs? my AOe's also tend to overheal as maybe i didnt stand int he fire or another melee is at full hp.. I usually operate around about the 10-15% mark just on heal, renew and echoes.

But yes with enough spirit we wont oom so i wihs ppl would shush about THAT being the problem with priests where it clearly isnt that which is making us poor.

Myself I follow Renew=> Chakra=> Heal etc routine with toppin gup of gheal and only really using flash on SoL procs or very low tank hp. I do try to keep my group at 100% but ont rush to theal the dps back up there if i dotn have the time or mana to spare. I cant count the number of times I have had dps lower than 1k hp for a part fo the fight before throwing them a PoH when i see the boss is getting ready to go down.

But yeah i think theres been too many confusing QQing going on with too many people complaining without giving viable suggestions on where the real issues are.. OOMing is a gear issue.. getting back from it is the class issue :P.