I lied about Manor Lords
19 hours ago
A lot of healing is about instinct and reflex. While some damage is more predictable than other kinds, in general, raid healing at least is very reactive. When you rely on reflex to do your job properly, that means you have to develop certain habits, and train your fingers to respond without requiring too much forethought.
Of course, the problem with this, is that it is very easy to form *bad* habits. This is one of the things that makes it difficult to switch from Holy healing to Disc healing by the way... the styles are so different, though most of the spells are the same. What is a good response and a good habit for one spec is a truly bad idea for the other. For instance, if I'm in the habit of bubbling raid members when I have some down time as a Disc Priest, that's great. However, bringing that habit over to the Holy side is not nearly as great an idea.
So, in order to get us all in the proper mindset to think about our habits critically, I'll start by confessing all those nasty dirty healer habits *I* have.
One of the best ways to improve as a healer is to identify the bad habits you have, and try to fix them. So what about you? Be honest with yourself! What are some of your worst healing habits? Do you share any of my bad habits? I didn't even mention all my keyboard turning...
Of course, the problem with this, is that it is very easy to form *bad* habits. This is one of the things that makes it difficult to switch from Holy healing to Disc healing by the way... the styles are so different, though most of the spells are the same. What is a good response and a good habit for one spec is a truly bad idea for the other. For instance, if I'm in the habit of bubbling raid members when I have some down time as a Disc Priest, that's great. However, bringing that habit over to the Holy side is not nearly as great an idea.
So, in order to get us all in the proper mindset to think about our habits critically, I'll start by confessing all those nasty dirty healer habits *I* have.
- Circle of Healing. It's just so easy! It's instant, it's powerful, and I already use it so much, which is a good thing... that sometimes I just can't make myself stop. Everyone is at full health, and I see one person at 95% health, so what do I do? I cast CoH. Go ahead, laugh at me, I deserve it. I use CoH improperly and inefficiently all the time, because it is instant. If I see someone take damage and they need some healing right away, I have a bad habit of just CoH on them to get them some instant healing... even if there aren't 4 or 5 other people who need the heals.
- Prayer of Mending. If you are specced into it, the cooldown on casting this spell is much shorter than how long it can spend bouncing around. Granted, if it has "settled" on someone who doesn't need it, it IS a good idea to start it bouncing on the tank again. However, if PoM is still bouncing around, why cast it again if it's not needed? I have just wasted the charges that remain on my previous PoM.
- Renew. Because I'm specced into Empowered Renew, this HoT gets a nice little instant upfront healing portion to it as well. Sometimes, if I see that someone needs healing, I will just cast renew on them in an effort to take advantage of the initial upfront healing. In fact, sometimes I've even been guilty of casting Renew on someone once... twice... three times, right after one another, just to get the instant heals on them. Baaaaaad... that brings us to the next one...
- Healing through HoTs. I know I am not the only one who has this habit. Someone has a HoT on them, whether it be from one of your own Renews, or from a nearby Druid. In some situations, it makes perfect sense to cast another heal on the Hotted person, or they may take too much damage before the HoT finishes its heal - particularly on tanks. But, if someone in the raid takes some one time damage, and someone throws a HoT on them, don't Flash Heal them... let the HoT run its course, or you are wasting someone else's mana.
- Staring at Healing Bars. This isn't entirely our fault... part of this is simply due to how the Blizzard UI handles heals. I don't know a solution for it, mind you, but as a healer, how many fights have you actually *seen*? Most of the time, I have no idea what's going on in the fight, really, because I'm too busy staring at health bars. This lends tons of problems to situational awareness. Half the time I may not even notice my own health is low. But where this really sucks? Fights like Hodir where you need to look for soemthing around you to stand near it for a buff. I don't have time to look for a toasty fire! Mages are DYING ALL AROUND ME.
- Forgetting to Heal while in FailAngel Form. I know, sad isn't it? Why do I even spec for it if I'm not going to take advantage of it? But a lot of the time I'm so distracted by the fact that I just died, that I completely forget to, you know, use my free heals to save the group from a wipe.
- Not Bubbling Enough. This is only a problem for me when I run Disc... and I think it is mainly a problem because I normally run holy. Regardless, when i run Disc, I just cannot seem to bubble *enough*. I underestimate my bubbles, and I run out of mana, because I'm simply not shielding the way I should.
- Neglecting my Cooldowns. This applies for trinkets that have to be popped, but since I know this is a weakness I have, I usually avoid those trinkets anyway. No, the biggest problem are spells like Divine Hymn and Inner Focus. I don't spec into Inner Focus for a very good reason - I always forget to use it. Divine Hymn is a truly amazing spell... that I never remember to use. It has such a long cooldown, I just cant seem to get myself into the habit of using it. My goal is to use it during every boss fight for the next month, even if it's not needed, just to remind myself that it is there, and to get a handle on how powerful it is.
- Not using Binding Heal. This is not a problem I have, because I identified it in myself, and fixed it, but I see a lot of other Priests who do not use this spell nearly enough. There is little reason to ever simply Flash Heal on yourself. You might as well Binding Heal to someone else who has taken damage, or likely will while you are casting it. Binding Heal is your friend, priests! It is low threat, it builds stacks of Serendipity for Holy, it does all the fun procs... no, it is not the most efficient heal ever, but it keeps you from having to potentially sacrifice others while keeping yourself alive. If you are Disc, don't Penance on yourself! Penance on the tank, or another target, and Binding Heal if you have taken damage. Don't waste those potential juicy procs on yourself, since it is unlikely you will be taking the most damage.
One of the best ways to improve as a healer is to identify the bad habits you have, and try to fix them. So what about you? Be honest with yourself! What are some of your worst healing habits? Do you share any of my bad habits? I didn't even mention all my keyboard turning...
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This is a cute article Jess.
I found myself laughing about them because I can totally see me doing them too.
One habit that you did not mention that I've found myself doing is NOT using AoE healing spells when everyone is taking damage. Naturally I freak out, bubble everyone and flash heal until everyone's 100%. Is that AT ALL effective? No not at all.
Heck, I didn't even use an AoE spell until I started running CoS when the Zombies would be on me.
HOLY NOVA!
Now, Holy Nova is like crack!
I could totally turn Holy Nova useful situations into an awesome Friday Flowchart for "I like Bubbles" to use.
Other cool Binding Heal tips include:
As Disc, if you need to Flash Heal someone but want to keep Grace stacked on the tank, use Binding Heal. It's more mana inefficient, but if you can hack it, BH won't cause your Grace to switch to your new target.
If you are ever needed to spam single-target heals in a do-or-die needs HPS nownownow! situation, BH provides more HPS to your target than Flash Heal. So in between Penance CDs or as you stack Serendipity between Gheals, if your tank is in desperate need of single-target HPS, Binding Heal > Flash Heal.
I love binding heal. It is one of my favorite spells. I think these are all solid reminders for all priests and we should print it out and post it next to the PC to remind us. Good work!
@Fuu
Holy Nova is definitely like crack, and it IS way fun. However, it has a short range, so in order to heal people you need to be like right on top of them. This usually means that you have to be in melee range, and that is uber dangerous!
@Juzaba
Wow! I had never even thought of BH in regards to grace - what an awesome tip!
@Mister K
Thanks! It looks like I'm the only one with bad habits though - no one else wants to confess, haha
@Jess
Naxx raiding is Srs Bsns. No more Goofing off... Promise. Holy Nova will be taken off my Hot Key bar & will be replaced with business suits & briefcases
:P
Ugh, Inner Focus! I ALWAYS forget to use it. One of these days I'm just going to macro it to my spells like I do my trinkets. LOL
@fuu
INORITE? The other day in a VoA pug, I just repeatedly cast Prayer of Healing, over and over and over for the entire archavon fight (the easy guy) just for shits and giggles. ARCHAVON IZ SRS BSNS
@moar
Everyone keeps telling me they do that, tie macros to things but like, macros r hard, so after you've properly tied Inner Focus to something, please be so kind as to type out the macro for me so I can shamelessly copy you. Mwahaha.
Oh God - I do all of these. I am going to the special hell for healers.
By the way, thanks for leaving a comment on my blog - which was how I got to yours, which is fantastic. I don't know - being a holy priest and all - why I haven't been reading this blog, err, religiously before now.
I've managed to increase my situational awareness by plonking the health bars kind of just south of centre screen. It looks *really* bad, i.e. messy, like the worst designed UI ever. But it does mean instead of being fixated at the bottom of the screen, there is at least an element of being vaguely of what is going on, err, behind the health bars. Doesn't always work though - Hodir regularly snowballs me in the face.
Divine hymne is by far my worst healing sin. I have literally never used it. *shame*
I've very recently done a little bit of raiding and that's helped me learn to use my aoe-healing spells much more effectively. I used to be totally phobic about PoH - *such* a long cast-time on a 5-man timescale. But now as soon as serendity hits there I am praying for healing...
Hey! Got drawn to your blog by an article on wow.com. The thing about overusing renew for the little instant heal at the beginning is SOOO true for me!
But I wanted to say, for Inner Focus, if you want to make sure you're using it...tie it into one of your commonly used heals w/a macro. I have it on my Greater Heal (just in case I ever use it) and Prayer of Healing. Inner Focus is the only priest spell that is not affected by the global CD, which means it can be macro'd in w/another casting spell. So, a simple form of the macro would simply be
/cast Inner Focus
/cast Greater Heal (or whatever spell you want to put it with). Basically it ensures that you use the very valuable free spell every CD, and you don't have to worry about remember to click Inner Focus first, you just replace your Greater Heal (or whatever) button w/your shiny new macro! Hope this helps!