Why are we being forced to use Heal

[boxhead]

So logged onto my priest last night for the first time since the patch and tried heal which blizz wants us to use now and boy does it suck.

I don't see why we would use a Greater Heal cast time heal that heals for 1/3 of a Greater Heal or half a flash heal.

So is anyone actually using 'Heal'

[saberon]

Mana efficiency. The spells are all about mana efficiency.

[Psykewne]

you didn't look at the mana cost then?

healers are now given 3 choices when it comes to direct heals.

a) Fast + medium size + expensive
b) Slow + Huge size + expensive
c) Slow - Small Size + very cheap

a and b will often cost a similar amount, and the b spell often carries the description ("good for periods of heavy damage")
b and c will often have a similar cast time.

Healing is a very different animal in cataclysm, mana consumption and efficiency will be a big issue for healers again and using the right amount of healing per mana per time will be the mark of a good healer. Tanks will not be getting spiked quickly to death constantly in an encounter, damage will fluctuate and it will be important to react to and understand the shifts in how a tank needs to be healed in different scenarios.

[Fyurie]

What Psy said. But Heal is in no way designed for ICC-style healing though.. It is, in my opinion, a waste until you reach Cataclysm, as the way damage will be in Cata suits this spell much better.

[Djolisimo]

How do they force you to use it?
Did they take away all your other heals?
Anything preventing you from using greater heal or flash heal?

[Deleted]

Only thing you are now forced to use to some extent is your brain... Try harder

[Airlick]

It's the same as with shaman's Greater Healing Wave against Healing Wave, mana costs for GHW and Healing Surge, which is Flash Heal equivalent, are roughly the same, but the cast times and heal amounts are different. Healing Wave is like your Heal, it's slow and heals for low amount, but if you don't have to heal up fast and don't want to waste mana, you can use them instead of other heals.
I think with t11 gear Heal/Healing Wave/whatever else will not be used though, since mana regen is ridiculous on 85, we just will be able to use other, more expensive heals without as much penalty as it is with pre-HC gear (yeah, we won't be able to queue for HC the second we ding 85 :P).

Edit: Above poster already beat me to write it.

[boxhead]

I saw the mana cost and that is why they are forcing us to use it, so we don't go oom. But healing last night I found that heal was to slow for the amount it healed. I was finding I was still having to use flash heal to keep the tank up because of the incoming dmg. Heal would have been to slow and we would have been wiping more then we did.

[Deleted]

Forget about "Heal" spell. In the existing content is virtually useless. By the time your cast has finished the target is either 100% or Dead

I can only imagine that in Cata things are going to happen slower than ICC - i.e. you can embark on the epic adventure of a 2 second cast for a "small heal" under certain circumstances without risking a dead raider

[saberon]

I saw the mana cost and that is why they are forcing us to use it, so we don't go oom. But healing last night I found that heal was to slow for the amount it healed. I was finding I was still having to use flash heal to keep the tank up because of the incoming dmg. Heal would have been to slow and we would have been wiping more then we did.

The spells are designed around Cataclysm-level healthpools, so until then, you won't be using them as they're designed.

[boxhead]

So damage is going to be that low that we can afford to cast that slow of a heal that will heal for that little. hmm

[Xs]

You can just about get away with 10 mans using heal, anything more and you'll never touch it

[Wizler]

I was worried about the same thing so I healed a couple heroics last night using Flash Heal as always and it was fine. I was concerned it would eat my mana too fast but it didn't. Never used Heal once.

[Deleted]

You are not forced to do anything...

[Diaxx]

Same for Shamans, except ours is actually decent.

[Moxal]

As both a shaman and a holy priest, I can certainly feel the difference stacking haste makes on the shaman.

I've gone though a bit of non-challenging and challenging content, and overall I'm happy with the new heal setup on the shaman. Haven't done much on the priest.

That said, I'm not looking forward to testing things after the stats start to decline at 81. Healing wave casts at under 1.2 sec are acceptable now, but I'm not sure how I'll feel at 2.0+ second casts...

[Autumn xD]

In terms of PVP, I dont use it.

I actually questioned their new mana system in PVP Terms, as there is no way you can be casting that ability in a PVP environment. It's slow, and it heals for half of what classes can Melee, or DoTs can tick, leaving you not only susceptible to interrupt galore, but meaning your target will either die, or you fall behind on healing.
"So fake cast herpderp"
You have now turned a ~2.3s Heal into a 3s+ Heal that only heals for 4-5k. No. Just no.
Which further leads me to Raging on the Beta about my Disc Priest, but thats another story.

[Razac]

its all about efficiency.

WotLK - you use a single healing spell because you never run out of mana and it heals very effectively...why use anything else?

Cata - healing will be situational, there will be a risk of running out of mana so you as the healer will need to use your brain to determine what heal is best to use.

mild tank damage...no group damage, top tank off with the slow cheap heal

high tank damage, use the slow expensive heal

raid damage, better suited for the quick heal so you can get back the tank asap.

of course depending on your class you have an assortment of shields and hot effects etc that play into it.

Also, you wont feel the true challenge of this change until you reach level 85 when spamming 10 expensive heals will make you oom

I love the change, it turns mana back into the valuable resource it should be.

I actually questioned their new mana system in PVP.

remember at level 85 in pvp gear you will probably have 100k hp. with damage not going up too much from where it is now on live plus the buff to resi, bursting down will not be an option. PVP ( in arena at least) will be about chipping away at the enemies hp and mana, and timing fishing combos when hp is low enough.

Timing of heals wont be measured on the edge of a knife anymore, so unless you're at 15k hp its unlikely a spell inturrept will kill the game for you.

[Kaysha]

So, essentially, we have been forced into using a much more mana expensive Flash Heal for the current raiding content, until Cata comes out?

[Kelesti]

Not to mention at 85, when "tank healing", it's going to be a multi person job instead of just spamming Divine Light/Greater Healing Wave/Healing Touch/Greater Heal.

Weaving multiple spells in, with multiple people, to balance around what "needs" to happen makes the entire healing setup Triage, something that's been lost since 2.4