Is Healing Surge the new main heal spell?

[Deleted]

Hey there

Yay for new patch! always exciting to try out the new stuff.

Anyway since LHW have been changed to Healing Surge and cost a lot more to cast, is this spell now considered more of a "Oh shit HEALZ!!!" spell than healing wave since the low casting time Healing Surge have?

I was in a dungeon to try out healing after the new patch and it seems like Healing Surge will take your mana quick if you spam heal it while Healing Wave wont.
Also now i like to have the glyph that heals yourself when you heal with Healing Wave since i use it a lot more now.

Anyway is it still Healing Surge spam or is it Healing Wave now?

[geek]

Healing Surge is an expensive heal, Healing Wave is the shaman's main spell (besides Chain Heal). HW can be spammed with worrying too much about mana. Although, using Healing Surge is better for encounters where mana regen isn't a problem such as Dreamwalker.

[Awyee]

Healing Surge is an expensive heal, Healing Wave is the shaman's main spell (besides Chain Heal). HW can be spammed with worrying too much about mana. Although, using Healing Surge is better for encounters where mana regen isn't a problem such as Dreamwalker.

I've found my healing wave to heal for so little it's pointless to use a lot. People are still getting spikey damage in ICC and we've had our tools nerfed. Not having fun with my shaman.

[geek]

I've found my healing wave to heal for so little it's pointless to use a lot. People are still getting spikey damage in ICC and we've had our tools nerfed. Not having fun with my shaman.

Yeah, I don't think our healing style will changed that much until level 82. Chain heal is still our most effective spell and Healing Wave is used to tank healing, Healing Surge is nice though but too costly.

[Deleted]

I've found my healing wave to heal for so little it's pointless to use a lot. People are still getting spikey damage in ICC and we've had our tools nerfed. Not having fun with my shaman.

ah havnt tried raiding yet with the new changes but its a problem with Healing Wave then?
I was in PoS and i often had to heal a lot more with Healing Surge than Healing Wave, but okay those instances does some pretty heavy dmg

[molinator]

I've found my healing wave to heal for so little it's pointless to use a lot. People are still getting spikey damage in ICC and we've had our tools nerfed. Not having fun with my shaman.

ICC is the incorrect place to be "testing" your healing spells for Cataclysm.

ICC was based around haste-capped healers who could spam the hell out of any healing spell they want without thinking about mana.

Current healing is all molded around the Cataclysm raid encounter in which players take a less spiky, but steady amount of damage. Hence Healing Wave will be appropriate in some situations. Healing Surge will be appropriate in others, as will Greater Healing Wave.

My experience with healing dates back to Burning Crusade, before downranking was nerfed, which is the model they're attempting to bring back with these changes.

---------- Post added 2010-10-13 at 08:34 PM ----------

Anyway is it still Healing Surge spam or is it Healing Wave now?

To beat a dead horse:

IT IS NO-SPAM NOW

That's the whole reason Blizzard changed the healing model for every single healing spec. Healing got retarded because of the rat race between haste and damage output, making Healers think they needed to constantly spam a heal.

Healers back in the Burning Crusade could use lower-rank spells which had lower mana cost and a different healing range. If you neglected to use lower rank heals, you would quickly OOM. It meant considering whether or not you really need a full-rank Healing Wave or Holy Light on a tank, or if you could get away with a slightly lower rank given their health.

This is clearly the model they are trying to return to, given their statements about a) how they want healer mana to matter and b) how they want to see more players in states of injury in a raid rather than a binary dead or alive.

Healing is going to get harder. But the challenge makes it more fun. To me at least.

[tusker]

Your not going to want to be spamming Healing Surge or you'll go OOM quickly. Use it when it's needed. If someone's taking damage but not likely to actually die, throw them a Riptide or HW, you'll be better off that way.

[Deleted]

ICC is the incorrect place to be "testing" your healing spells for Cataclysm.

ICC was based around haste-capped healers who could spam the hell out of any healing spell they want without thinking about mana.

Current healing is all molded around the Cataclysm raid encounter in which players take a less spiky, but steady amount of damage. Hence Healing Wave will be appropriate in some situations. Healing Surge will be appropriate in others, as will Greater Healing Wave.

My experience with healing dates back to Burning Crusade, before downranking was nerfed, which is the model they're attempting to bring back with these changes.

---------- Post added 2010-10-13 at 08:34 PM ----------


To beat a dead horse:

IT IS NO-SPAM NOW

That's the whole reason Blizzard changed the healing model for every single healing spec. Healing got retarded because of the rat race between haste and damage output, making Healers think they needed to constantly spam a heal.

Healers back in the Burning Crusade could use lower-rank spells which had lower mana cost and a different healing range. If you neglected to use lower rank heals, you would quickly OOM. It meant considering whether or not you really need a full-rank Healing Wave or Holy Light on a tank, or if you could get away with a slightly lower rank given their health.

This is clearly the model they are trying to return to, given their statements about a) how they want healer mana to matter and b) how they want to see more players in states of injury in a raid rather than a binary dead or alive.

Healing is going to get harder. But the challenge makes it more fun. To me at least.

By spam i meant for regular use when in a fight but i didnt maked myself clear so nvm

[Ceazyface]

By spam i meant for regular use when in a fight but i didnt maked myself clear so nvm

He covered the answer to that in his post if you read it.

It's situational. There is no 'regular-use' heal. You use the heal that the situation dictates.

[Deleted]

Greater Healing Wave - Rarely used (still can use to top off targets you know will stick around alive and have time to spend on casting it)
Chain Heal - Still very powerful after any kind aoe damage to top off people.
Healing Surge - Expensive (only use someone that will die any second to top it off)
Healing Wave - Best healing spell for any regular damage.
Riptide - We all love this one.

So this makes healing in regular fight as: single target=Riptide, Healing Wave. multiple target=Riptide(if can spare GCD), Chain-Heal.
Any heavy damage out healing can be done with Riptide, Healing Surge or Instant GHW.

[Wartaur]

The changes will take some time to get used to. I have been busy and haven't really even had a chance to get my addons straighted out. It seems like healing is interesting now though. I look forward to actually getting a chance to try it out.

This may have changed, but I know the Tidal Waves buff before this patch made Healing wave almost as fast as Lesser Healing wave. If this still holds true to healing surge, I don't seem myself using this spell often.

[frester]

This may have changed, but I know the Tidal Waves buff before this patch made Healing wave almost as fast as Lesser Healing wave. If this still holds true to healing surge, I don't seem myself using this spell often.

you are right you won't be using healing surge all that much, but it may save the day if you happen to not have tw buff or instant ghw

[Magicochon]

For now the regen allow every caster to spamm their expensive spell.
And encounter aren't tuned around the spamm of your "cheap" spell.

But when cata will comes out I highly doubt you'll be able to cast for 6min healing surge

[Deleted]

Better you get used on proper usage now than in Cata. There will be enough of new players and all sorts of otherwise nabcakes to deal with.

Like Arma allready stated and i quote:

"Greater Healing Wave - Rarely used (still can use to top off targets you know will stick around alive and have time to spend on casting it)
Chain Heal - Still very powerful after any kind aoe damage to top off people.
Healing Surge - Expensive (only use someone that will die any second to top it off)
Healing Wave - Best healing spell for any regular damage.
Riptide - We all love this one.

So this makes healing in regular fight as: single target=Riptide, Healing Wave. multiple target=Riptide(if can spare GCD), Chain-Heal.
Any heavy damage out healing can be done with Riptide, Healing Surge or Instant GHW. "

Allthough i will add that with riptide active, even your big bomb, GHW^^ is hasted ( in line with HW ) so use these on tanks if in need of biggest single target heal OR good example is healing Dreamwalker ( mana isnt issue there )

But i did found something else lately. I’m finding that Healing Surge and Greater Healing Wave are close in terms of actual throughpth.So although Healing Surge should be coming out lot less, with the amount of crit that Restos have at this point, it’s much more a narrow difference between the two at this moment. Anyone else having opinion on this one ?

Samax

[Seriss]

By spam i meant for regular use when in a fight but i didnt maked myself clear so nvm

Healing Surge is just as much for regular use as the old Healing Wave was. You used it when you needed the amount of healing it provided, you didn't use it when Lesser Healing Wave spam with Riptides did the job (I'm talking about tank healing here, since I did that a lot).

Now, we can spam our low heal new Healing Wave endlessly. But we always have to be ready for a quick Healing Surge.

At the moment, I have my Greater Healing Wave only bound to my Nature's Swiftness as I haven't yet felt the need to use it. Healing Surge heals for slightly less but is oh so much faster (fyi, I currently use Healing Surge for healing Valithria. No clue if it was the best choice, but it felt like a good idea to try out on my first raid after the patch what with cast time being so ridiculously short and all. What do you guys think?).

So, for WotLK that works just nicely. Come Cata, we might need to throw in more of the occasional Greater HWs though.

And I do have to say: As much as I used to hate Riptide as a spell per se... now I like it loads. The HoT crits like crazy and it's just awesome for heroics and helpingn with keeping up on the tank in raids. Also, having the HoT duration prolonged by the glyph makes for a series of nicely boosted chainheals.

Gotta say, I like how shaman healing feels. I was afraid they'd break us with this patch, but so far... now that I've re-learnt my slightly adjusted keybinds and healed a heroics marathon with crazy guildies without tank spec (Halls of Reflection tanked by a fury warrior is insane but FUN, I tell you O_O), I think they did a good job with my shammy here.

[op3l]

The healing model has changed somewhat back to the TBC model. In TBC I was constantly precasting a spell, then canceling it because the tank's health wouldn't necessarily go from 100% to 30% in 1 hit(exaggerating of course) so you can afford to cancel heals and such.

Now it's probably more of the same but instead of canceling you just keep casting those smaller heals and if you need to, use a quick big heal to offset some of the now more steady stream of incoming damage. Spiky healing never really felt fun cause as a healer, you'd just be spamming spells.

Cata I think equals the end of the spiky constantly smashing button playstyle, which for me is a good thing cause I hated having to just constantly spam buttons.

[Buzzinjoe]

The changes will take some time to get used to. I have been busy and haven't really even had a chance to get my addons straighted out. It seems like healing is interesting now though. I look forward to actually getting a chance to try it out.

This may have changed, but I know the Tidal Waves buff before this patch made Healing wave almost as fast as Lesser Healing wave. If this still holds true to healing surge, I don't seem myself using this spell often.

If it weren't for healing surge doing twice the healing that healing wave does I'm sure you wouldn't use it much. But it's an expensive heal for a reason. Quick top offs that have a high chance of critting after a riptide. Greater Healing Wave is most likely going to be the spell you'll use the least.

[Deleted]

If it weren't for healing surge doing twice the healing that healing wave does I'm sure you wouldn't use it much. But it's an expensive heal for a reason. Quick top offs that have a high chance of critting after a riptide. Greater Healing Wave is most likely going to be the spell you'll use the least.

I believe Ive read somewhere that HS wont be the most used spell on lvl85 anymore. it uses a lot of mana and heals less than GHW. HS will be for the fast expansive heals when AE takes somebody right before death. HW will be to keep the tank up at little cost and HW will be to get him up again if he took more damage. Chainheal wont be used much in 5man i suppose as one usually doesnt have 4 targets to hit, also it heals to little on the first target atm, dont know about 85 though we will see in given time

[phai]

What about Enhancement Shamans?
My Healing Wave heals for like 1000 while my Healing Surge heals for several thousands!
What the heck? :/

[Embermoon]

For me, I've been using GHW, CH, Riptide, ES, and HS. I haven't really touched HW. I find myself dominating the healing meters, and using mana tide totem halfway into a fight. The only fight I went oom on was a pug where people couldn't figure out to move out of rotface's slime spray.