God – and I thought tanking was scary. It’s a walk in the park compared to healing. I’ve been healing Cata dungeons quite a bit recently – including one Cata heroic. What a nightmare. I really didn’t know my heart could remain in my mouth that long.
I started out with a few ordinary Cata dungeons using Luxmi my resto shaman. Just dipped my toe in the water as it were – didn’t realise it was water infested with poorly equipped tanks and dps with no situational awareness at all & a universal “what the hell is a cool down” approach – but there you go.
I found it so depressing at the outset when I realised at 85 you don’t see the health bars leap up in the same way you do when healing the lower levels. Or am I just doing it wrong? Everyone says a good riptide and two healing waves is a great opener as a shaman- my tanks yesterday were on their knees at half health with that after just one blow from a trash mob. So I continually had to throw out much bigger heals (my original typo there said “I had to throw out much bigger head” which is an entirely different way of bringing tanks to their knees but frowned upon in game) and then ran out of mana.
With my holy pally it was no better. By the time I remembered to also judge & use crusader strike to get mana back everyone was dead. That might have been my fault. The mage in the group also seemed to struggle unnecessarily. When I’m playing a mage I very rarely need healing. Why then do other mages fight toe to toe with mobs and take lots of damage. Yes I know – they are idiots who think they rolled a Paladin. Simple really.
Is it me? I don’t know- I follow Icy Vein tips regarding rotations & I think I’m doing the right thing with my gear & stats- I listen to Mr Robot’s advice more than I listen to my mother (not hard admittedly), although not when it comes to enchants – the day I have that sort of money is the day it turns out I’ve won Blizzard in a raffle.
It’s not all bad of course. In one Lost City run the group said “well done healer” and I blushed for four hours solid.
But I don’t help myself. I totally humiliated myself in Grim Batol – not on the healing front as it happens. I was with a great group so the healing part was fine. But the bit at the beginning when you run to the dragons to go and bomb the crap out of everything – well I lost my sense of direction, ran in the opposite way (yes I know…) and fell of the edge and died. We’d only been in the dungeon about five seconds. I confessed in party chat – had no choice really since someone had an addon that had already flashed up “Luxmi dead- cause unknown” and the group all lolled at me. I was totally humiliated.
It’s really not easy this healing lark – even when you’re not falling off edges. I did heroic Shadowfang Keep the other day. The first boss – the one that asphyxiates everyone in sight and makes you cry if you’re the healer – was nervewracking enough but we survived it. The tank continually running out of line of sight to pull three rooms worth of mobs was hard too it has to be said. But that bloody boss that does that green poison thing that means you have to run around and heal at the same time!!!! How? When I’m running I have to concentrate on running or I fall over & die (as Grim Batol above showed). I can’t heal as well- even if I just cast instants – it’s just not happening. I am not in this game to multitask. I just want to stand there and cast pretty heals and see green bars fill up quickly and easily.
You know saying all that makes me realise what I should be playing – and I have got a real hankering at the moment to return to it. It’s The Sims. I should just start a new character- loosely based on me of course. Set her up in a nice little house and just enjoy keeping all her green bars nice & full. No stress. No fuss. An ordinary life in an ordinary house. Maybe I’m just a bit burned out but more and more that appeals to me – in gaming and in life. With plenty of whoohoo too of course 🙂
Bravetank 
Healing is brutal at that stage. After 80, health pools and enemy damage skyrocket while every other stat plummets, resulting in a situation seemingly designed to make healers cry and beg for mercy.
Everyone struggles, so I don’t think you’re doing anything wrong. Although I will note that using crusader strike is probably unnecessary. Auto-attacks are all that’s needed to proc seal of insight, and even then, it’s sort of optional. And you only need to judge once a minute, so it’s not hard to keep the buff up.
The good news is that it will get better. Once you get some decent gear, things will get exponentially easier. I’m at the point now where I do most runs with a strength weapon so I can have a challenge again. Divine light healing for 5% of a person’s health wasn’t fun, but divine light healing for 70% of a person’s health is little better.
Hint: Spirit is your friend.
Yes I think it’s definitely the gear. It’s particularly worse for my pally as she had all strength & stamina gear so I had to buy a lot of cheap stuff off the auction house. Will perhaps do some as Ret & build up my JPs/VPs & then get some decent gear first.
Crusader Strike is a net loss of mana, and Judgements are also a net loss of mana. Tyler is correct, you just need to auto-attack to proc Seal of Insight. Divine Plea is really your only other best bet. The trick, though, is ensuring you’re using your Holy Power. They’re free heals! Use Holy Shock on cooldown to ensure at a minimum of 3 Holy Power every 18 seconds, and for 5 mans at least, beacon the tank so that your bigger heals also generate Holy Power.
If you’ve just dinged 85 and have blues, healing is super tough. Like super, super tough. Stack spirit, and hold onto your hat. Get good at using Hand of Sacrifice to save your tank. Get the glyphs for Lay on Hands that give you mana back and reduce the cooldown. And stock up on Mythical Mana Potions. Once you get some gear, it gets a lot easier.
Resto shaman I’m not so good at, so no tips there.
I’m going to definitely try & improve the gear. I think that was the root of the problem…plus annoying mages who thought they were tanks of course!
One thing to reflect upon is where healing is at the different levels of gear because you will more or less be there. At 85 early Cata it was all about mana and they tried to run you dry. Later they added in gear to smooth it out but that came in slowly.
Since your healing look at the crafted PvP gear and picking up epic gear to fill in slots and help your heals. Resil is a 0 value but often the other raw stats make it worth it.
That’s a great idea. Thanks. I have got a few PvP pieces for my Resto shaman because they were better for healing than she had – will look at more of that until I get “proper” upgrades. And thanks for your tweet too. Yes I forgot about the dailies for honor.
When I first started wow, my friend said, “Here, be a tank, it’s easy….” Since then I have killed him, repeatedly (and I was scared off tanking for over a year). Now I’m leveling both a healer and a tank with only dungeons. The healer grows in leaps and bounds, the tank is just pitiful. I’ve been grinding JP to get heirlooms for the tank (healer’s on a different server), and on nearly every dungeon, either the healer or tank will quit half-way through, or after the first pull! So even though it’s hard, I’m very grateful for the people who stick it out! Better gear will help, just keep it up!
Yes I’m grateful for the people who stick it out too. Not sure that will be me! Bravetank hasn’t tanked in ages & the healing experience at 85 was seriously off putting. But I’ll try to do aseveryone is suggesting & see how better gear improves things. And at least you are still levelling both healer & tank – you’re sticking with it. Well done – it really isn’t pleasant sometimes!
Haha – as soon as I read the first line it reminded me of what I said about tanking when I first tried it out! =P As a long time healer, I’d say that healing is very much a living-on-the-edge kinda deal since you never know how things will turn out. It kinda makes it exciting but nerve-wrecking all at once. You’re not alone in experiencing that side of things!
However, it gets better and the more you heal, the easier it gets. Early cataclysm heroics were brutal in particular – they went to the extreme of making every bit of drop of mana count and having even a single mistake be fatal. Things get better from there.
The best advice I can offer for healing while moving is to focus on instant casts during that period. Sometimes pre-emptively putting a heal over time on the party members or a bubble can help and if those aren’t an option, then aggressively topping them up before that phase should work.
Finally, kudos on tanking 🙂 Whenever I’ve tried it, it always seems like controlled chaos at best! >.<
Yes controlled chaos is a good word for whenever I tank too- I apologise after every pull! I sometimes like the excitement of healing but other times it’s just too much and I think “Why am I doing this? This isn’t fun!” I’ll have another go at the healing on the move/instants thing – must be a way to get my brain, mouse and keyboard hand all working together…..! Thank you for the comment 🙂
Ah yes – that gory stop from “lvl 79 healing Wrath instances” to “lvl 80, you want me to do WHAT?!?!”
That’s when my disc-priest actually quested for two-and-a-half levels or so. Needed that Deepholm thing anyway for future shoulder enchants. Very friendly and patient guildies helped me run a few of the “normal” Cataclysm instances and then turbo-geared me straight into the HoT heroics.
Filling a health bar is bad enough as a Disco-Priestess. I’m supposed to prevent damage, not heal it back up, darnit! And those non-HoT dungeons? If anyone messes up a little, it’s a wipe? Ungh. Thanks!
Also, it’s late in the expansion, where people forgot that their alts aren’t really geared at all, where the less-played alts think they can tank, and where “everyone” thinks they don’t need to pay attention to the game mechanics, because their main just glides through.
All I can say is that it will get drastically better as soon as your gear improves. Don’t be shy, allow your friends to make you some of those neat ilvl 377 PvP things. No, they’re not what you want long-term (the things, not the friends), but they’re a huge boost and will get you to the “things that you really want” a whole lot quicker.
Oh, and the tank that keeps running away from you? If you’re nice, there’s an addon to let them know. If you’re like me, they’ll find out soon enough >:)
It is definitely hard. The first time I ever healed in Cata was h Shadowfang. They decided to interrupt the boss right away before he could heal anyone. I was just appropriately geared for the dungeon at the time and couldn’t get their health back up before the boss killed us.
Couple things you might want to keep in mind:
Shadowfang boss that brings people’s hp to 1% (I can’t remember their names for the life of me): Concentrate on the tank. He’s the only one really taking damage. As soon as you get dropped from the stranglehold, hit him hard with your heals as he’ll be taking damage from the boss. Don’t worry about healing the dps up before the boss turns into that dark demon form thing; you’re only wasting mana as they shouldn’t be taking damage and will go down to 1% again.
Green gas thing: Yes this is hard and annoying as well, even as a disc priest that could bubble and renew on the move. What made it hard was people who kept taking damage. I’d done it with a group who were actually intelligent enough not to take unnecessary damage–it was incredibly easy. If you’re struggling and you have someone standing in the bad or doing the wrong thing (you will notice because he takes a TON of damage–more than everyone else combined), it’s better to stop healing him and concentrate on the others, rather than lose everyone in the effort to support the one standing in bad. (Cold, but hey, he should have asked the mechanics if he didn’t know them.)
Finally, if you can get hold of Cata ilevel gear from the AH, it is a lot easier. They can get pricey though, so it would have to depend on getting lucky if you want them cheap.
P. S. Healing is rewarding, but yes, it is the most punishing if you get a bad group. Since the penalty for bad play affects people’s health, which the healer takes care of. So they’re all–HEALER HEAL ME–and continue standing in bad.
Thanks for this advice – it’s really helpful- particularly about the boss who reduces everyone’s health. And yes on the green gas thing – there was one dps who didn’t move. But I only knew to move when I first did that dungeon as dps because I had an add on that told me (I think I’d read a strategy somewhere) – if they didn’t do that & were too shy to ask I feel bad for them because I’ve been in that situation in other dungeons. I know you should ask about the stats but usually the Tank has pulled before you can even type it! It’s just difficult all round when you’re new to these dungeons. But yes I’ll try it again – with my fingers ready to hit the instant heals of course!
No, its not you. As someone who loves healing, those Cata heroics with the “appropriate” gear level were the most difficult and frustrating things I’ve ever done in my 3 years of WoW….Heroic Raids included.
That said, Ellori has it right. Being a healer means you are at the mercy of your group in a way that tanks and DPS simply aren’t. If the group is skilled/geared/knows the fight(s) being a healer is so easy you could do it with your eyes closed. The less true each of those becomes, the more success or failure depends on you, the poor healer who has to pick up everyone else’s slack.
And yet, I still do it. Why? For the same reason you remember that Lost City run. Coming through with the clutch heals that save a wipe gives me a level of satisfaction that I can’t get from DPSing or tanking, whether the group thanks me for it or I’m the only one who realizes it.
Yes there’s no hiding place- if the group perform badly it’s the healer who looks like they’ve failed. I just hadn’t realised that until level 85. Definitely easier in the dungeons on the way up. I have huge respect for all end game healers – I’m glad people like you do it & get satisfaction from it – particularly when it all goes well & you save the day!
Healing @ 85 Heroic Instances & Raids is a big pair of shoes to wear. I love healing and i will always play healing classes. The thing with Cata Dungeons ( non heroic) People are under-geared and most of the time its their first ever 85 and no nothing about their class.
After gearing out my first 85, the next two 85’s i just bought the new 377 pvp gear/whatever boe pve gear i could find on the AH/craft. Just so i can skip the madness of regular instances, and go straight to Hour of Twilight heroics.
How to make your Hour of twlight heroics go a bit smooth:
Ask a friend that is a good DPS/TANK to come along with this makes up for anyone else that joins the heroic doing terrible dps.
If you are in a guild that is equipped with a lot of 85’s, ask them to que with you, running with the guild makes wiping in an instance okay.
Other than that, bring lots of mana pots, maybe even a flask.
Yes I wondered about the under geared side of things too – some of the health drops were ridiculous. I should pluck up the courage to ask my guild to do some HoTs with me healing. There are lots of 85s there & they are all really friendly. Don’t think I’ll ever do it via LFD again!