I haven't been able to find this on these forums or others. I am currently a level 27 ret pally (and tanked my first instance, deadmines, the other day around level 22ish....was fun).
I assume one of these days someone is going to need a healer and that will fall onto me. So I have Flash of Light, and Holy Light (and of course lay on hands as a last ditch effort I assume). Also gift of Naaru since I'm a Draenei.
So my question is how do I heal? Do I just spam flash of light at first until the tank is losing health and then hit him with the longer casting holy light or just spam holy light?
Also, once I hit level 30 I assume I'll be throwing on a judgement of light or do healadins not even worry about seals/judgements?
I have ZERO experience in WoW in healing (Rogue, Lock, Mage) so any advice I receive will be very much appreciated. Thank you!!
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Don't throw a heal if someone's at full health. It just wastes mana.
When someone (tank, yourself, anyone) is losing health, then spam Flash of Light or Holy Light if FoL isn't getting the job done. However, HL really drains your mana so be careful. I'm not Draenei so I don't have the HoT spell you do so I can't say where that'd come in.
Lay on Hands wipes your mana so it's a last resort unless you've got über mana regeneration. It works best when you're very low on mana and want to give your tank that final push. Then put seal of wisdom on and lay into the mobs
If you have to prioritize heals, dps people should be bottom of your list. If the tank dies, generally your group will wipe. Your role is to keep him alive so I put myself 2nd on the list.
Judgements only (seem to) refresh the seals when you're hitting the target so unless you're active in melee, they are probably a waste of time and mana (except in the example above). This is just my opinion, if anyone else has thoughts on it, I'd like to know.
When someone (tank, yourself, anyone) is losing health, then spam Flash of Light or Holy Light if FoL isn't getting the job done. However, HL really drains your mana so be careful. I'm not Draenei so I don't have the HoT spell you do so I can't say where that'd come in.
Lay on Hands wipes your mana so it's a last resort unless you've got über mana regeneration. It works best when you're very low on mana and want to give your tank that final push. Then put seal of wisdom on and lay into the mobs
If you have to prioritize heals, dps people should be bottom of your list. If the tank dies, generally your group will wipe. Your role is to keep him alive so I put myself 2nd on the list.
Judgements only (seem to) refresh the seals when you're hitting the target so unless you're active in melee, they are probably a waste of time and mana (except in the example above). This is just my opinion, if anyone else has thoughts on it, I'd like to know.
As a disclaimer to this post, I never healed an instance until I got to level 60 on my paladin. But I'll try and give some advice from the other alts I've levelled.
1. Carry around (or have in your bank) a second set of gear that focuses on healing stats (intellect to start with, but later you'll be able to find some +healing and mana regen items).
Trying to heal in ret gear probably won't end very well for anyone.
2. Use Flash of Light when the tank (or someone else) has lost a little bit of health, try and use Holy Light more spareingly as it is less mana efficient (but will heal for more, so handy if the tank has taken a lot of damage (these are relative values and as you practice healing you should get a 'feel' for when each spell is appropriate).
3. The tank is the priority for healing (assuming they are holding agro properly), if the tanks is fine health wise then start worrying about the other dps. It's generally better to sacrifice a dpser for yuor tank rather than the other way around.
4. Remember you can use blessing of protection to make other party members immune to physical damage for it's duration (if you use it on a caster they can continue to attack with it on). Don't use it on your tank or they will lose agro.
5. Seals do only refresh when you strike that target in melee (and I believe it's only a chance to refresh, not certain), so generally I don't bother with using seals unless it's a fight that requires next to no healing (probably won't see a lot of these at lower levels unless you have an awesome group).
But at higher levels you could keep a judgement up if there is a ret pala in the group as they will be able to refresh it's duration with crusader strike. But still I'd only use it on boss fights, as most other mobs won't live long enough for it to be worthwhile.
6. Lots of people like to blame the healer when things go wrong, remember it's not always your fault someone died (as you get more experience you'll be able to tell when it is your fault and when it's someone elses).
7. Gift of the Naaru, I'm not a draenei on my paladin but this spell is quite nice because it has no mana cost. I'd try and use it fairly often (rather than waiting for an emergency) as it has a fairly short cooldown. Normally I'll start off with a hot with a healer that can cast them (so for example tank gets to 90%, cast a heal-over-time spell and then see if they need direct healing).
(Not sure how much you know about mana regen, so apologies if this seems 'dumbed down')
Paladins don't regenerate mana from spirit during casting, making spirit a not very useful stat for paladins, but you might find you have some on your healing kit anyway. Mana free spells don't count as 'casting' for regen purposes. So basically if you've not cast a spell for 5 secs and then use Gift of the Naaru your regeneration will carry on as though you haven't cast anything (but of course your target will be getting healed). So it could be quite handy in a longer fight when mana becomes an issue.
Hope this helps
1. Carry around (or have in your bank) a second set of gear that focuses on healing stats (intellect to start with, but later you'll be able to find some +healing and mana regen items).
Trying to heal in ret gear probably won't end very well for anyone.
2. Use Flash of Light when the tank (or someone else) has lost a little bit of health, try and use Holy Light more spareingly as it is less mana efficient (but will heal for more, so handy if the tank has taken a lot of damage (these are relative values and as you practice healing you should get a 'feel' for when each spell is appropriate).
3. The tank is the priority for healing (assuming they are holding agro properly), if the tanks is fine health wise then start worrying about the other dps. It's generally better to sacrifice a dpser for yuor tank rather than the other way around.
4. Remember you can use blessing of protection to make other party members immune to physical damage for it's duration (if you use it on a caster they can continue to attack with it on). Don't use it on your tank or they will lose agro.
5. Seals do only refresh when you strike that target in melee (and I believe it's only a chance to refresh, not certain), so generally I don't bother with using seals unless it's a fight that requires next to no healing (probably won't see a lot of these at lower levels unless you have an awesome group).
But at higher levels you could keep a judgement up if there is a ret pala in the group as they will be able to refresh it's duration with crusader strike. But still I'd only use it on boss fights, as most other mobs won't live long enough for it to be worthwhile.
6. Lots of people like to blame the healer when things go wrong, remember it's not always your fault someone died (as you get more experience you'll be able to tell when it is your fault and when it's someone elses).
7. Gift of the Naaru, I'm not a draenei on my paladin but this spell is quite nice because it has no mana cost. I'd try and use it fairly often (rather than waiting for an emergency) as it has a fairly short cooldown. Normally I'll start off with a hot with a healer that can cast them (so for example tank gets to 90%, cast a heal-over-time spell and then see if they need direct healing).
(Not sure how much you know about mana regen, so apologies if this seems 'dumbed down')
Paladins don't regenerate mana from spirit during casting, making spirit a not very useful stat for paladins, but you might find you have some on your healing kit anyway. Mana free spells don't count as 'casting' for regen purposes. So basically if you've not cast a spell for 5 secs and then use Gift of the Naaru your regeneration will carry on as though you haven't cast anything (but of course your target will be getting healed). So it could be quite handy in a longer fight when mana becomes an issue.
Hope this helps
In the lower level instances, try to keep your tank at ~90% health by spamming FoL. If he drops to <50%, throw in a Holy Light or two and then resume spamming FoL. In all cases, keep Blessing of Light up on the tank at all times.
Try to keep DPSers alive as best as possible. While in combat I seldom keep their HP bar topped off. When they drop to <30% health (e.g., are 2-3 hits away from death), I'll usually drop a Holy Light on them to bring them back up to full. Remember that you can bubble the casters to buy yourself a little time to heal them.
Watch your positioning. Try to stay in Line of Sight of everybody, but particularly your tank. If he moves forward with a boss, you will usually need to keep pace with him. The talent Aura Mastery is a real help for identifying when your target is within range of your heals. If the aura is up on him, he's within range.
A main healer's judgments aren't going to make a difference in the outcome of the battle. If the battle's that close, you're better off saving the mana for another heal.
It does take a bit of experience to learn how much your spells will normally heal and how much they crit for. It's also a relatively simple learning curve before you stop fixating on the length of a party member's health bar and come to appreciate the different degrees of squishiness separating the leather-clad from the clothies. These'll come with practice.
Also, don't forget: Keep Cleansing, Cleansebot! When you see someone has a poison/disease debuff, cast Purify asap. When you get Cleanse at level 42, you will also be able to remove magic debuffs (e.g., most DoTs).
FYI, I use Lay on Hands to heal myself more often than I use it on the tank. Rank 2 and above will give your target mana as well as health. If you save it for yourself, at a point when you're nearly dead and OOM, you'll instantly have a full health bar as well as enough mana to start healing the tank again (it's still a last resort spell though, for use when you've already bubbled and potioned).
Try to keep DPSers alive as best as possible. While in combat I seldom keep their HP bar topped off. When they drop to <30% health (e.g., are 2-3 hits away from death), I'll usually drop a Holy Light on them to bring them back up to full. Remember that you can bubble the casters to buy yourself a little time to heal them.
Watch your positioning. Try to stay in Line of Sight of everybody, but particularly your tank. If he moves forward with a boss, you will usually need to keep pace with him. The talent Aura Mastery is a real help for identifying when your target is within range of your heals. If the aura is up on him, he's within range.
A main healer's judgments aren't going to make a difference in the outcome of the battle. If the battle's that close, you're better off saving the mana for another heal.
It does take a bit of experience to learn how much your spells will normally heal and how much they crit for. It's also a relatively simple learning curve before you stop fixating on the length of a party member's health bar and come to appreciate the different degrees of squishiness separating the leather-clad from the clothies. These'll come with practice.
Also, don't forget: Keep Cleansing, Cleansebot! When you see someone has a poison/disease debuff, cast Purify asap. When you get Cleanse at level 42, you will also be able to remove magic debuffs (e.g., most DoTs).
FYI, I use Lay on Hands to heal myself more often than I use it on the tank. Rank 2 and above will give your target mana as well as health. If you save it for yourself, at a point when you're nearly dead and OOM, you'll instantly have a full health bar as well as enough mana to start healing the tank again (it's still a last resort spell though, for use when you've already bubbled and potioned).
Thanks all and I was a little confused on the spirit regen stuff so thanks Tynuv for clearing that up.
I've been keeping a set of healing gear, as well as tanking gear, in the bank for whenever I need it. Though the healing gear that I have been collecting is all mail armor with +int, should I be willing to throw on a leather piece or even cloth is the +int is good enough? This is the first time I've been able to wear some mail (can't wait until plate) so I've been excited about seeing all of that armor on me (coming from mainly a cloth wearer in my alts).
I've been keeping a set of healing gear, as well as tanking gear, in the bank for whenever I need it. Though the healing gear that I have been collecting is all mail armor with +int, should I be willing to throw on a leather piece or even cloth is the +int is good enough? This is the first time I've been able to wear some mail (can't wait until plate) so I've been excited about seeing all of that armor on me (coming from mainly a cloth wearer in my alts).
With a decent tank, you can wear all the cloth you want since there's no way you should pull hate with your incredibly low healing threat (pally heal generates 1/4 as much threat as a normal attack). Just use whatever gives you the best bonuses. I wore a dress for like 7 or 8 levels.
Don't spam FoL. While your tank and other melee characters are getting beat on, they can lose that 150-or-so-health during the very time it takes your character model to cast FoL (I'm not talking about the cast time, I mean the casting animation when the spell is ready); it may have a very small mana cost, but when you're using 5 FoLs in a row and seeing no results, you suddenly realize how that 250 mana could've been better spent. Use HL, but use it moderately b/c of its mana cost.
Edit: Use FoL as well, but use it moderately as well because of its weak healing. Switch back and forth between the two as the situation demands. HL heals for massive amounts, so you won't have to attend to that character for a little.
The tank is always your first priority, because, if he/she is doing the job right, he/she should be your only priority.
Don't neglect your Blessing of Protection. Sometimes you might not always be able to heal the character in time, so just pop the bubble and then heal. Same thing goes for Divine Protection. As a healer you can't afford to die, because if you die then the others die. At least if the others die and you don't, you can resurrect them.
ALWAYS make sure you have Blessing of Wisdom on; it restores more than you think (if there's a second Paladin in your party, ask for Blessing of Salvation. Or, if they don't have it but you do, use it on yourself and ask the other Paladin for Blessing of Wisdom). Devotion, Conscentration and Retribution Aura all work wonders for healing:
Dev -> Less likely you'll die from a mob that takes interest in you, less damage taken by your party members = less healing needed = more mana saved for later.
Conscentration -> Less likely you'll get messed up by a stray mob that takes interest in you when your tank is in the red zone. It also helps any other casters, but IMO, as long as your melee party members, especially the tank, are doing their job right, the value of this aura plummets. It's still good, but there are better auras.
Retri -> More damage the enemies take = the faster they die = the less damage they do to your party members = less healing needed = more mana saved for later.
Edited, Jan 17th 2008 2:00pm by PsydonX
Edited, Jan 17th 2008 2:01pm by PsydonX
Edit: Use FoL as well, but use it moderately as well because of its weak healing. Switch back and forth between the two as the situation demands. HL heals for massive amounts, so you won't have to attend to that character for a little.
The tank is always your first priority, because, if he/she is doing the job right, he/she should be your only priority.
Don't neglect your Blessing of Protection. Sometimes you might not always be able to heal the character in time, so just pop the bubble and then heal. Same thing goes for Divine Protection. As a healer you can't afford to die, because if you die then the others die. At least if the others die and you don't, you can resurrect them.
ALWAYS make sure you have Blessing of Wisdom on; it restores more than you think (if there's a second Paladin in your party, ask for Blessing of Salvation. Or, if they don't have it but you do, use it on yourself and ask the other Paladin for Blessing of Wisdom). Devotion, Conscentration and Retribution Aura all work wonders for healing:
Dev -> Less likely you'll die from a mob that takes interest in you, less damage taken by your party members = less healing needed = more mana saved for later.
Conscentration -> Less likely you'll get messed up by a stray mob that takes interest in you when your tank is in the red zone. It also helps any other casters, but IMO, as long as your melee party members, especially the tank, are doing their job right, the value of this aura plummets. It's still good, but there are better auras.
Retri -> More damage the enemies take = the faster they die = the less damage they do to your party members = less healing needed = more mana saved for later.
Edited, Jan 17th 2008 2:00pm by PsydonX
Edited, Jan 17th 2008 2:01pm by PsydonX
Tynuv wrote:
5. Seals do only refresh when you strike that target in melee (and I believe it's only a chance to refresh, not certain), so generally I don't bother with using seals unless it's a fight that requires next to no healing (probably won't see a lot of these at lower levels unless you have an awesome group).
Seals always refresh when you hit the creep they've been judged on. However, let's say you hit a creep you previously judged Seal of Light onto. What happens then is you have a chance to gain life (about a 40% chance if I recall correctly) but your judgement will be refreshed anyway.
PsydonX wrote:
Don't spam FoL. While your tank and other melee characters are getting beat on, they can lose that 150-or-so-health during the very time it takes your character model to cast FoL (I'm not talking about the cast time, I mean the casting animation when the spell is ready); it may have a very small mana cost, but when you're using 5 FoLs in a row and seeing no results, you suddenly realize how that 250 mana could've been better spent. Use HL, but use it moderately b/c of its mana cost.
I'm gonna go ahead and disagree with the first bolded part. Yes, the healing done by FoL is weak, but its mana cost is proportionately low. As for the second part, the only time you'll use 5 FoL's and see no results is if your target is already at full health, in which case why are you healing them? Ok, so that was a bit of a reductio ad absurdum, but my point is if you are keeping everyone topped up and good to go, there isn't really a better way to have spent your mana. FoL spam is far more likely to leave your mana pool in good shape than casting a smaller number of HLs will. However, you do need to learn when to use which heal, and that's why this line
PsydonX wrote:
Switch back and forth between the two as the situation demands.
is pure gold.
The reason I go into the size of the heals you use is that I've been tanking on my warrior alt lately, and I've come across a disturbing amount of healers (of various classes) who think that the only time a someone needs healing is when their health is going south of the halfway line. This is a bad idea for a number of reasons, but primarily because it leaves your group unnecessarily weak. If you get adds during a fight, the odds are far better that you'll survive if your team is at full hp than if half of you are already knocking on death's door. And I've never had a tank complain that I was keeping them too well topped up and that I should let their hp drop a bit more "cuz big heals are better".
Quote:
the only time a someone needs healing is when their health is going south of the halfway line. This is a bad idea
100% agree.
I've leveled a Holy Pally, and that is the worst thing you can do. You don't have an AOE heal, so once multiple party members start loosing health, it is a struggle to get everyone's health in check. If you keep the tank topped off, then giving a DPS (or yourself) a heal is much easier.
The last thing you want to see if the tank's health plummetting while you are casting a Holy Light on a DPS. Then you may have to cancel your Holy Light, and re-start one for the tank.....result = a big loss of time.
Your best strategy is to keep the tank topped off. This will always give you time to heal DPS (and yourself) without risking the tank.
I must just miss a lot on my paladin :)
Regarding armour type, it's perfectly acceptable to wear lower armour levels than needed, as a healer you shouldn't be getting hit often (and there's always bubble for an emergency).
At lower levels you'll probably mostly come across cloth or leather with healing stats, rather than mail or plate.
However, once you get to outland (58+ ish) the itemisation becomes much better for paladins and shaman healers. You start to see items with spell crit and mp5 aswell as +healing and int. At high 60's I'd really suggest you try to get mail or plate items. Most of the cloth and leather I've seen has quite a lot of spirit on it (great for priests and druids, but not beneficial for you), at this point you'll be better off looking for mail or plate items as they have better itemisation for paladins (mail won't have much crit on, but will probably include a lot of mp5, and crit is fairly useless unless you spec a bit in holy anyway.
At higher levels you probably won't have enough time out of casting to let spirit based mana regen work well, so you'll want to switch to mp5 which regenerates a static amount of mana every 5 secs regardless of whether you're casting or not. I didn't mention this earlier as it's quite rare to find it on lower level gear.
Plus plate = sexier than cloth
Regarding armour type, it's perfectly acceptable to wear lower armour levels than needed, as a healer you shouldn't be getting hit often (and there's always bubble for an emergency).
At lower levels you'll probably mostly come across cloth or leather with healing stats, rather than mail or plate.
However, once you get to outland (58+ ish) the itemisation becomes much better for paladins and shaman healers. You start to see items with spell crit and mp5 aswell as +healing and int. At high 60's I'd really suggest you try to get mail or plate items. Most of the cloth and leather I've seen has quite a lot of spirit on it (great for priests and druids, but not beneficial for you), at this point you'll be better off looking for mail or plate items as they have better itemisation for paladins (mail won't have much crit on, but will probably include a lot of mp5, and crit is fairly useless unless you spec a bit in holy anyway.
At higher levels you probably won't have enough time out of casting to let spirit based mana regen work well, so you'll want to switch to mp5 which regenerates a static amount of mana every 5 secs regardless of whether you're casting or not. I didn't mention this earlier as it's quite rare to find it on lower level gear.
Plus plate = sexier than cloth
just updating this as I know EVERYONE has been on pins and needles waiting to hear how I healed my first instance......
Anyway, SM library was my first heal (I'm a ret build for leveling) but I throw on my best sunday dress (it was freaking pink OMG) and a bunch of other int gear I collected in my bank for just such a time.
Our warrior "tank" was level 31 and never really tanked...in fact I spent all of my time healing our hunter and mage and balance druid. So I think it was more difficult then should have been if I could have just focused on one target...like a tank.
Anyway, it was a freaking blast. The first time I ever healed an instance. We did wipe one time but someone aggro'd about 12-15 mobs. I just wanted to thank those who gave me some tips on what to do, can't wait to go at it again.
Anyway, SM library was my first heal (I'm a ret build for leveling) but I throw on my best sunday dress (it was freaking pink OMG) and a bunch of other int gear I collected in my bank for just such a time.
Our warrior "tank" was level 31 and never really tanked...in fact I spent all of my time healing our hunter and mage and balance druid. So I think it was more difficult then should have been if I could have just focused on one target...like a tank.
Anyway, it was a freaking blast. The first time I ever healed an instance. We did wipe one time but someone aggro'd about 12-15 mobs. I just wanted to thank those who gave me some tips on what to do, can't wait to go at it again.
Congratz. Welcome to world of healing :)
Oh, and get used to healing DPS. At the lower levels, it is almost impossible to find a good tank. It's even harder to find threat-aware DPS (they just constantly pull aggro).
That being said, it keeps things interesting. I love healing too - been doing it since I started this game.
Oh, and get used to healing DPS. At the lower levels, it is almost impossible to find a good tank. It's even harder to find threat-aware DPS (they just constantly pull aggro).
That being said, it keeps things interesting. I love healing too - been doing it since I started this game.
In line with healing your tank before they start losing big ammounts of health...
I don't know how well I'd be keeping threat as a pally tank if I wasn't getting relatively steady heals... If half of my HP bar was gone before people even started healing, I'd have wiped my mana already. I'd need that healing to keep enough mana to put the pressure on mobs.
One Holy Priest once told me in some mid-60s instance PuG that I should just "tank at 35% health" because it wouldn't cost him any mana to keep me there. With Ardent Defender, a HoT was enough most of the time apparently. That's all fine, except for the fact that without a steady stream of incoming heals, mana regen goes out the window and takes threat with it. I've never seen how that would work with a shadow priest feeding the mana though...
I don't know how well I'd be keeping threat as a pally tank if I wasn't getting relatively steady heals... If half of my HP bar was gone before people even started healing, I'd have wiped my mana already. I'd need that healing to keep enough mana to put the pressure on mobs.
One Holy Priest once told me in some mid-60s instance PuG that I should just "tank at 35% health" because it wouldn't cost him any mana to keep me there. With Ardent Defender, a HoT was enough most of the time apparently. That's all fine, except for the fact that without a steady stream of incoming heals, mana regen goes out the window and takes threat with it. I've never seen how that would work with a shadow priest feeding the mana though...
Glad you had fun :)
Ouch, surely that talent is meant to be an extra boost to survivability rather than a strategy for healer mana conservation. Unlucky spike damage, lag or an incapped healer would lead to a rather painful death I'd imagine.
I like to keep my tanks +80% and similarly when I'm tanking I like my health distinctly +50%
Quote:
just "tank at 35% health"
Ouch, surely that talent is meant to be an extra boost to survivability rather than a strategy for healer mana conservation. Unlucky spike damage, lag or an incapped healer would lead to a rather painful death I'd imagine.
I like to keep my tanks +80% and similarly when I'm tanking I like my health distinctly +50%
YJMark wrote:
Congratz. Welcome to world of healing :)
Oh, and get used to healing DPS. At the lower levels, it is almost impossible to find a good tank. It's even harder to find threat-aware DPS (they just constantly pull aggro).
Oh, and get used to healing DPS. At the lower levels, it is almost impossible to find a good tank. It's even harder to find threat-aware DPS (they just constantly pull aggro).
I don't know if it's so much finding a 'good' tank as it is that tanks are not necessarily 'specialized' enough with gear and talents to do the job as well as they can later on. It's also overzealous DPS who don't necessarily care about threat, kill order, etc. At least those are my observations. Scarlet Monastery in particular tends to be a massive chaos-fest. Fun, but a chaos-fest.
There's been a lot of good advice dispensed here. As for the FoL v. HL debate, you'll ultimately have to find what method works best for you, whether you lean on one spell more than the other or not. Be flexible, and use what works best for the situation. The best way to learn is to practice, a lot. I wish that I had spent more time healing while at a lower level than I did, it would have saved me (and my groups, lol) a bit of heartache (and a fair amount of gold in repair bills) when I started healing Outlands instances.
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