I know that sounds stupid right? But seriously how do you play a priest.
I know how you're suppose to play a priest. But I am having a hard time doing it.
To relate a story, my first time really healing a 5 man run was this past week in Ramps at level 60. It doesn't help that I have a crappy group. Where the tank doesn't mark well and the DPS think they are tanks too. But it was good practice and showed me where I was lacking.
Basically to sum up the problem I am facing it's like this.
I have my heals bound to 1-7, +Shift, +CTRL, +Alt respectively. Not really using all of those buttons, but basically if I want a heal I press 2, flash heal press 3 greater heal press 4, renew is shift+2, cure disease is alt+3. Pretty much along those lines.
Now to switch party members I press F1(me) through F5.
The problem I run into, or at least in this group was switching between all those targets and then going back to the heals felt slow. I had the tank as the focus target, so if I needed to target the focus for heals I just needed to press F(yeah I changed my key bindings), so switching to the tank wasn't that big of a deal, it was switching back to the DPS to heal them that was the problem. It seemed like I was healing too slow for such an easy run. I couldn't imagine myself healing 10 mans and 25 mans with how I felt I performed on this simple 5 man run.
There wasn't a wipe, the tank died a couple of times, because of a bad pulling(pulled the 1st boss and 2 groups with it, and pulled while everyone else was OOM drinking) and running out of LoS at the wrong time. So the run wasn't a failure. It just wasn't as smooth as I would liked it to be.
Is it just me and something I will grow more comfortable with. Or is there a better binding/macro system that I might want to think about trying out.
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Wow, I am really impressed with how you are healing with just the keys on your keyboard. It sounds like alot of work! For now, I use Healbot and it is so much easier than what you just described. It is merely a matter of clicking on your party's boxes - Flash Heal(left mouse button), Renew(middle button), Greater Heal(right mouse button)and so on. Give it a try and you'll find playing a priest so much easier. I downloaded mine off of wowmatrix.com. I have yet to figure out Grid, another healing add-on.
Yeah I have grid. I'm not to impressed with it really, find my party screen to be easier on the eyes than grid is. I see it's potential in the raid, but I'm not to impressed with it really.
Two things that will help immensely:
1. An addon called Clique. It lets you set various spells bound to your various mousekeys if you are mousing over a target frame (like the party frame, Grid/Raid frame and so on). This will let you just mouse over that AoE-happy-moronic-little-mage-that-overaggroed's partyframe and leftclick/rightclick/middlemousebuttonclick/sidebuttonclick/whatever to cast whichever spell you've keybound to that particular button.
Personally, I can throw out Renews and Dispels on the entire party so fast that GCD is my limit. Keeping half an eye on the main gamescreen, I keep the rest of my attention on the party/raidbars, and just clickheal where needed. No changing of targets required or anything.
2. /stopcast macros. Browse the first or second page on the forum to find a thread with all the necessary information. It will help you be a far more powerful healer than you are now.
Edit:
Grid is indeed a bit hard to get used to, but with proper setup it is so much more powerful than any other normal raidframe. Personally, I think only Pitbull's raidframes can compete, if you set that up properly too.
Edited, Oct 3rd 2008 4:40pm by NorthAI
1. An addon called Clique. It lets you set various spells bound to your various mousekeys if you are mousing over a target frame (like the party frame, Grid/Raid frame and so on). This will let you just mouse over that AoE-happy-moronic-little-mage-that-overaggroed's partyframe and leftclick/rightclick/middlemousebuttonclick/sidebuttonclick/whatever to cast whichever spell you've keybound to that particular button.
Personally, I can throw out Renews and Dispels on the entire party so fast that GCD is my limit. Keeping half an eye on the main gamescreen, I keep the rest of my attention on the party/raidbars, and just clickheal where needed. No changing of targets required or anything.
2. /stopcast macros. Browse the first or second page on the forum to find a thread with all the necessary information. It will help you be a far more powerful healer than you are now.
Edit:
Grid is indeed a bit hard to get used to, but with proper setup it is so much more powerful than any other normal raidframe. Personally, I think only Pitbull's raidframes can compete, if you set that up properly too.
Edited, Oct 3rd 2008 4:40pm by NorthAI
Grrr North. Now you've given me choices to make.
I've looked at both healbot and clique. They look to do pretty much similar things. The difference is clique let's you click on attackable mobs and do different spells, where healbot is well strickly healing.
Totally new experience for me. From my warrior, to my hunter, to my rogue, every one of them, clicking is a no-no, mouse is for turning, keyboard is for spells, that's how it goes. Now priests are the opposite. This is definately something I am going to have to get adjusted to.
I'm probably going to try both add-ons out and see which one I prefer. Thanks for the help guys.
I've looked at both healbot and clique. They look to do pretty much similar things. The difference is clique let's you click on attackable mobs and do different spells, where healbot is well strickly healing.
Totally new experience for me. From my warrior, to my hunter, to my rogue, every one of them, clicking is a no-no, mouse is for turning, keyboard is for spells, that's how it goes. Now priests are the opposite. This is definately something I am going to have to get adjusted to.
I'm probably going to try both add-ons out and see which one I prefer. Thanks for the help guys.
I use mouseover macros in conjunction with Pitbull. I have the macros bound to keys, and I just keep my fingers over A (Prayer of Mending), S (Renew), and D (Greater Heal 7) most of the time, so I can just A-S-D (cancel-casting D until I need it to land) over the tank the majority of the time. Still mousing over the tank for Binding Heal if I take damage, so I really only move my mouse to toss out Renews, Prayer of Healing, or the occasional Dispel.
I never waste time actually targeting anybody for heals. The only time I really have anything targeted is if it's an easy instance and I'm using offensive spells occasionally, or it's Kara and I'm keeping something shackled.
Also important to have bound to easy-to-reach keys: mana pot and shadow fiend. :)
I personally am a bit of a goober, so I don't use Shift or Ctrl for healing spells because I like to keep it as simple as possible and don't like putting more than one key into that equation. I also have Renew on Mouse Wheel Up and Greater Heal on Mouse Wheel Down, but I usually just use the keys because I'm just in the habit of tapping those three fingers in a row.
Edited to add:
I'm not the opposite. I use my mouse for turning and hovering over unit frames, but I do not ever click spells. It's really just a matter of finding the style you're comfortable with and will be quickest with.
Edited, Oct 3rd 2008 4:56pm by teacake
I never waste time actually targeting anybody for heals. The only time I really have anything targeted is if it's an easy instance and I'm using offensive spells occasionally, or it's Kara and I'm keeping something shackled.
Also important to have bound to easy-to-reach keys: mana pot and shadow fiend. :)
I personally am a bit of a goober, so I don't use Shift or Ctrl for healing spells because I like to keep it as simple as possible and don't like putting more than one key into that equation. I also have Renew on Mouse Wheel Up and Greater Heal on Mouse Wheel Down, but I usually just use the keys because I'm just in the habit of tapping those three fingers in a row.
Edited to add:
Quote:
clicking is a no-no, mouse is for turning, keyboard is for spells, that's how it goes. Now priests are the opposite.
I'm not the opposite. I use my mouse for turning and hovering over unit frames, but I do not ever click spells. It's really just a matter of finding the style you're comfortable with and will be quickest with.
Edited, Oct 3rd 2008 4:56pm by teacake
Quote:
How I heal in a nutshell:
* Keep Renew up on the tank at all times.
* Prayer of Mending on the tank pretty much every time it's off cooldown. You don't have this quite yet but you'll love it when you do.
* Cancel cast Greater Heal. (This means I am almost always casting Gheal on the tank - if I get about halfway through the cast and the tank doesn't need it, I cancel and start over. A macro with stopcasting, as I recently learned, is your best friend here.)
* Flash Heal only in emergencies where I won't have time to get a Gheal off. As Dadanox notes, people's mileage varies on this; I just don't like the inefficiency.
* If DPS takes damage that PoM doesn't fix, Renew, a downranked Gheal, or Prayer of Healing, as appropriate. I'm Holy/IDS so I don't have Circle of Healing.
* If I take damage, I'll throw a Binding Heal on the tank.
* Keep Renew up on the tank at all times.
* Prayer of Mending on the tank pretty much every time it's off cooldown. You don't have this quite yet but you'll love it when you do.
* Cancel cast Greater Heal. (This means I am almost always casting Gheal on the tank - if I get about halfway through the cast and the tank doesn't need it, I cancel and start over. A macro with stopcasting, as I recently learned, is your best friend here.)
* Flash Heal only in emergencies where I won't have time to get a Gheal off. As Dadanox notes, people's mileage varies on this; I just don't like the inefficiency.
* If DPS takes damage that PoM doesn't fix, Renew, a downranked Gheal, or Prayer of Healing, as appropriate. I'm Holy/IDS so I don't have Circle of Healing.
* If I take damage, I'll throw a Binding Heal on the tank.
As said by Teacake. That summary is so complete and so well wound up I've actually got it bookmarked. We need it in the sticky, imo.
As for key-bindings... I'm left-handed personally, so my hotkeys are bound around the arrow keys. I've got numpad 0 (or insert) bound to Greater Heal, this is the key I use most and never needs sudden pushes, so my pinky pushes it. Page down is my Renew, I use that one a lot so my ring finger just sneaks up and pushes it when needed. My delete button is extra large, and because of that I use it as a panic button; fade. Flash heal is bound to middle mouse to I always have it at hand. Shift+Middle mouse is Prayer of Mending since it's an easy key combination and I can use it while on the run, and shift+insert is Binding Heal (insert is Greater Heal, so shift+insert feels like an 'alternate' Greater Heal that also heals myself). Shift+Delete is a 'heavy' key combination for a heavy heal, Prayer of Healing. Last but not least I've got page up bound to Power Word: Shield.
Mouseover macros =/= clicking. Two different concepts. One is acceptable as a healer, one is not acceptable for anything. Mouseover macros have the advantage of not requiring more than one keystroke+click for any single spell on any single target, while with only using the keyboard or truly clicking you must both select a target and press a spell with two separate keystrokes.
Honestly, clicking your spells and then using keybindings on your spells seems like it would be faster than keys for bindings + keys for targetting. Especially since if you ever get into a group of more than 5 people, your keys can no longer be used to target.
Honestly, clicking your spells and then using keybindings on your spells seems like it would be faster than keys for bindings + keys for targetting. Especially since if you ever get into a group of more than 5 people, your keys can no longer be used to target.
I use Grid and agree it can be complicated to setup at 1st but now that I've gone through that pain, I would never go back, it really is great. I use a few macros for cancel casting and adding my trinkets into the mix which you should do regardless of class tbh. I never tried clique because I not seen the need so far. I am left handed also and use my left on the keys and right on the mouse (for movement and clicking etc).
I've bound my high use healing spells (GH, Renew etc) to 1-2-3 etc yet I find with the healer spec (prior to wotlk when downranking becomes pointless) there are a lot of spells we can use, so to make sure I dont have to move my hand much around the keyboard I've bound my all important CoH, PoM, Binding heal and Shackle (for kara etc) to F1-2-3-4. My oh sh*t button aka the Desperate prayer is bound to "\" and my Fade/Scream are both bound to "`" (one fires off depending if I'm targetting a friendly or an enemy).
I click on the Grid frame, using PoM initially on the tank, keeping renew up at all times, and using GH or CoH when needed...
It works for me, have limited healing experience as this is an alt, yet have been fairly successful in Heroics and a few Karas so far.
I've bound my high use healing spells (GH, Renew etc) to 1-2-3 etc yet I find with the healer spec (prior to wotlk when downranking becomes pointless) there are a lot of spells we can use, so to make sure I dont have to move my hand much around the keyboard I've bound my all important CoH, PoM, Binding heal and Shackle (for kara etc) to F1-2-3-4. My oh sh*t button aka the Desperate prayer is bound to "\" and my Fade/Scream are both bound to "`" (one fires off depending if I'm targetting a friendly or an enemy).
I click on the Grid frame, using PoM initially on the tank, keeping renew up at all times, and using GH or CoH when needed...
It works for me, have limited healing experience as this is an alt, yet have been fairly successful in Heroics and a few Karas so far.
In about 12 hours i wont be playing a priest.
Quote:
In about 12 hours i wont be playing a priest.
Back to the blizzard forums mate. Priests are looking very good indeed in the patch, even shadow is getting some attention.
Quote:
Back to the blizzard forums mate. Priests are looking very good indeed in the patch, even shadow is getting some attention.
I would like to know exactly what it is you think looks good
is it the disc tree putting all its survivability into an easily dispelable form of damage mitigation.
Or the shadow tree getting the worlds best 51 point tallent, half a mana pot and a 6 second self cc.
Or maybe you think these changes look good at 70 with 70 mele pounding on the priest.
sadly at 80 these changes are just small droplets in a huge bucket of problems the priest has.
In order to truly judge how we are looking we must first look at every other class, and predict how we will stand against them at 80.
I think many folks are missing that.
Please dont take offense. Im just not as jazzed as many are about the changes. that does not make me a bad person or a player.. and it most certainly does not make me an idiot. as i value the positive opinions i hear as much as i do my own. and god knows i hope your right and we do turn out fine.
Edited, Oct 14th 2008 5:55am by Freefire
Well you do have some valid concerns, Things like pain suppression and inner fire can be dispelled, which is tough, but just one of those balancing concerns. They still have the best range of heals available to any healing class with the possible exception of druid. Despite the possible lack of survivability, priest are still one of the most highly represented healing classes in the game pvp-wise.
As for the 51 point shadow talent. Yes, it isn't great, but then blizzard has said that they aren't making 51 point talents a class defining thing, and for the most part I think they have succeeded in that.
Either way, these 'vs every other class' discussions are almost always a PvP thing.
PvE wise priest is going to have 3 very viable trees. Either as tank healers, group healers or as competitive dps.
Shadow has got:
A total aggro dump for a period (a nice change)
Improved dps to bring it in line with 'pure' dps classes
Improved spell pushback
Improved survivability in dispersion
Fixed gear scaling
AoE
Limited resistance to snare effects
Holy was fine already as one of the most powerful healers in the game but now also has:
CoH being able to heal raidwide and not just partywide
Discipline has:
Added raid utility in the form of grace
More importance placed on spirit making it a desirable buff (at least in its unimproved form)
Added tank healing talents
Added emphasis and power to shields making it a much more desirable option in pvp
Its not like any other classes have been improved out of proportion by comparison.
As for the 51 point shadow talent. Yes, it isn't great, but then blizzard has said that they aren't making 51 point talents a class defining thing, and for the most part I think they have succeeded in that.
Either way, these 'vs every other class' discussions are almost always a PvP thing.
PvE wise priest is going to have 3 very viable trees. Either as tank healers, group healers or as competitive dps.
Shadow has got:
A total aggro dump for a period (a nice change)
Improved dps to bring it in line with 'pure' dps classes
Improved spell pushback
Improved survivability in dispersion
Fixed gear scaling
AoE
Limited resistance to snare effects
Holy was fine already as one of the most powerful healers in the game but now also has:
CoH being able to heal raidwide and not just partywide
Discipline has:
Added raid utility in the form of grace
More importance placed on spirit making it a desirable buff (at least in its unimproved form)
Added tank healing talents
Added emphasis and power to shields making it a much more desirable option in pvp
Its not like any other classes have been improved out of proportion by comparison.
This is a great thread to me, TY for patch views, but really I have googled this kind of question a few times for guidance on keys and styles, and had to wing it.
My BF brought me to WoW. He is a feral druid and I have the job of healing him, but no help in that.
I will look at the stickies here shortly too.
I have been using Perl frames and clicking on party members and member > target for heals. I like the look of Perl, but I know I am a bit inept. I am appreciated, though a little worried.
At one point all game buttons became totally useless (including 'except rez'). I deleted those 3 game folders, all other addons, but used Perl again. I am ready to try another plan just because I haven't had an informed plan yet.
I love tilde for fade, and key 1 for shield. With a caring tank I don't die a lot. Renew is key 3. Flash Heal is key 4.
This is like my personal set of def keys
I am shadow so far because I gather herbs and it is a small confidence in PVE, but I took the uninterrupted 70% and improved renew and a little faster heal/gheal. I am level 50. I think that spec was linked here.
I am very interested in mouse over now, but my mouse is full of shadow damage. Maybe I can repec holy, level 50, I do like shadow though.
game is down, sorry if I am too wordy
My BF brought me to WoW. He is a feral druid and I have the job of healing him, but no help in that.
I will look at the stickies here shortly too.
I have been using Perl frames and clicking on party members and member > target for heals. I like the look of Perl, but I know I am a bit inept. I am appreciated, though a little worried.
At one point all game buttons became totally useless (including 'except rez'). I deleted those 3 game folders, all other addons, but used Perl again. I am ready to try another plan just because I haven't had an informed plan yet.
I love tilde for fade, and key 1 for shield. With a caring tank I don't die a lot. Renew is key 3. Flash Heal is key 4.
This is like my personal set of def keys
I am shadow so far because I gather herbs and it is a small confidence in PVE, but I took the uninterrupted 70% and improved renew and a little faster heal/gheal. I am level 50. I think that spec was linked here.
I am very interested in mouse over now, but my mouse is full of shadow damage. Maybe I can repec holy, level 50, I do like shadow though.
game is down, sorry if I am too wordy
Teacake, if you use A, S and D to heal, how the hell do you move?
I'm not sure I'll like the answer.
I'm not sure I'll like the answer.
Please "talk up" if your comprehension white-shifts. I will use simple-happy language-words to help you understand.
Mazra wrote:
Teacake, if you use A, S and D to heal, how the hell do you move?
I'm not sure I'll like the answer.
I'm not sure I'll like the answer.
Let me start by saying I use a Wolf King Warrior instead of my keyboard, so this isn't as weird as it sounds.
Space to move. Mouse to turn. Shift-Space or middle mouse button to back up. Ctrl-space to autorun. Mouse buttons 4 and 5 (the ones on the side) to strafe.
The way the keypad is designed, I can hit my spell keys and just keep my thumb on my space bar at all times, no limits to mobility.
But I still suck at PVP.
Hello, I am a clicker. It has been 72 hours since my last click.
~~~WARNING! Incredibly long-winded post~~~
I just want to say that not clicking is difficult for me. I have painstakingly created my mouseover macros (big thanks to a thread here that I have searched for, but cannot locate for some reason). Tailored a few to match my style (I add an empty bracket '[]' in my targetting conditional (I think it's a conditional!) to allow undefined target to be selfcast. But it has been a long road to get me here.
I used just one macro, a castsequence macro, while levelling shadow. Its order and composition changes over time, but is currently SW:P, VE, MB, MF, MF, MB. I rarely get through it all before wanding, but it is there in case of beefier enemies. I save plague for adds. I just have regular gear from quest rewards, plus a couple of items from a JC friend. (Which didn't seem so fun after the patch... I liked having stuff exlusively for shadow power. It kept my Outfitter addon busily shuffling me in and out of items as I shifted into and out of shadowform!) I didn't run instances often and didn't really need to heal when running with a partner. When I needed an occasional dispel or psychic scream, my mouse went to the proper button and clicked, no problem.
Trouble was in my future and I knew it, for I clicked. I knew I shouldn't but I couldn't stop myself. Grinding through mobs was just a matter of clicks and then run to the next one and start clicking again. About midway through the 50s, I sat back and recollected on my levelling. I had originally rolled the priest to be a utility toon- the guy in the background that kept the machinery well oiled. I had not accomplished that. Soloing was easy and didn't require much planning for the actual fight. I wasn't playing the role I had intended. I needed to develop and grow.
I jumped in the LFG queue and was grouped with people that seemed to know what they were doing and expected me to know how to play my role. Boy were they in for a surprise! A few wipes and some heated discussions usually left me alone in an instance with a message saying that I am not part of this instance's group and will be transported out shortly. I knew that I wasn't healing in a timely manner. My fingers were unused to finding the appropriate keys and clicking was definitely taking too much time. I saw many good players die with my Gheal halfway cast. Getting the message 'Your target is dead' was welcome while grinding... while healing, not so much. I needed to change and adapt.
The patch, for me, was the best thing to happen. I replaced all of my out of date addons and built my UI fresh. I sat outside of Darnassus and played with my macros until I felt they accomplished what I needed. Many poor, dumb animals gave their lives so I could improve. (I must complete the /love poor, dumb animal quest to atone.) Now the hard part... where to bind them. I am not a keyboardist by nature. My fingers do not stray too far from the WASD configuration that every game utilizes for movement. I used the number keys like the default UI does, but when I tried to heal, I kept hitting the wrong button and cast the wrong spell. I wanted to have the ability to move and the ability to cast. I needed to do both simultaneously.
I bound the healing spells under my movement keys so I may remain mobile while healing if I need to. Shift-A for Renew, Sh-D for Shield, Sh-W for Gheal and Sh-S for Fheal. I found this works great with the mouseover macro. I can shield/renew a player that has wandered out of range as I run to close the distance (or myself if I must disengage from a bad situation). Gheal and Fheal cannot be cast on the run, I put them under the buttons that involve movement. I do turn with mouse for the most part. Other oft-used spells, including my castsequence macro, are bound under the keys around the WASD keys (including the cancel cast macro, which is a must-have imho). I ran a couple of instances with PUGs over the weekend with much better results. I did have an almost wipe in UB when I relaxed during a boss fight -everyone was green and I was considering opening up with my wand. My jaw dropped when I was informed that I was dead. Guess I need to watch my health, too!
After these runs, I checked my stats. Now I have to do something about my overhealing...
Well, I didn't intend on this being so long. For me, How? and Why? have always travelled together.
~~~WARNING! Incredibly long-winded post~~~
I just want to say that not clicking is difficult for me. I have painstakingly created my mouseover macros (big thanks to a thread here that I have searched for, but cannot locate for some reason). Tailored a few to match my style (I add an empty bracket '[]' in my targetting conditional (I think it's a conditional!) to allow undefined target to be selfcast. But it has been a long road to get me here.
I used just one macro, a castsequence macro, while levelling shadow. Its order and composition changes over time, but is currently SW:P, VE, MB, MF, MF, MB. I rarely get through it all before wanding, but it is there in case of beefier enemies. I save plague for adds. I just have regular gear from quest rewards, plus a couple of items from a JC friend. (Which didn't seem so fun after the patch... I liked having stuff exlusively for shadow power. It kept my Outfitter addon busily shuffling me in and out of items as I shifted into and out of shadowform!) I didn't run instances often and didn't really need to heal when running with a partner. When I needed an occasional dispel or psychic scream, my mouse went to the proper button and clicked, no problem.
Trouble was in my future and I knew it, for I clicked. I knew I shouldn't but I couldn't stop myself. Grinding through mobs was just a matter of clicks and then run to the next one and start clicking again. About midway through the 50s, I sat back and recollected on my levelling. I had originally rolled the priest to be a utility toon- the guy in the background that kept the machinery well oiled. I had not accomplished that. Soloing was easy and didn't require much planning for the actual fight. I wasn't playing the role I had intended. I needed to develop and grow.
I jumped in the LFG queue and was grouped with people that seemed to know what they were doing and expected me to know how to play my role. Boy were they in for a surprise! A few wipes and some heated discussions usually left me alone in an instance with a message saying that I am not part of this instance's group and will be transported out shortly. I knew that I wasn't healing in a timely manner. My fingers were unused to finding the appropriate keys and clicking was definitely taking too much time. I saw many good players die with my Gheal halfway cast. Getting the message 'Your target is dead' was welcome while grinding... while healing, not so much. I needed to change and adapt.
The patch, for me, was the best thing to happen. I replaced all of my out of date addons and built my UI fresh. I sat outside of Darnassus and played with my macros until I felt they accomplished what I needed. Many poor, dumb animals gave their lives so I could improve. (I must complete the /love poor, dumb animal quest to atone.) Now the hard part... where to bind them. I am not a keyboardist by nature. My fingers do not stray too far from the WASD configuration that every game utilizes for movement. I used the number keys like the default UI does, but when I tried to heal, I kept hitting the wrong button and cast the wrong spell. I wanted to have the ability to move and the ability to cast. I needed to do both simultaneously.
I bound the healing spells under my movement keys so I may remain mobile while healing if I need to. Shift-A for Renew, Sh-D for Shield, Sh-W for Gheal and Sh-S for Fheal. I found this works great with the mouseover macro. I can shield/renew a player that has wandered out of range as I run to close the distance (or myself if I must disengage from a bad situation). Gheal and Fheal cannot be cast on the run, I put them under the buttons that involve movement. I do turn with mouse for the most part. Other oft-used spells, including my castsequence macro, are bound under the keys around the WASD keys (including the cancel cast macro, which is a must-have imho). I ran a couple of instances with PUGs over the weekend with much better results. I did have an almost wipe in UB when I relaxed during a boss fight -everyone was green and I was considering opening up with my wand. My jaw dropped when I was informed that I was dead. Guess I need to watch my health, too!
After these runs, I checked my stats. Now I have to do something about my overhealing...
Well, I didn't intend on this being so long. For me, How? and Why? have always travelled together.
Trylofer wrote:
I add an empty bracket '[]' in my targetting conditional (I think it's a conditional!) to allow undefined target to be selfcast.
Soooo... if I'm not mousing over anyone, it'll just cast on me? Can you post that?
I enjoyed your post. I can see how healing would be almost impossible for a clicker. When I started getting really into healing, I played with a few sets of key bindings before I found the one that works best for me. A tip for getting used to new bindings: get over to Halaa some night when there's action there (a bg would probably work equally well or better for this) and just spend a half hour or an hour healing. By the end of that you'll know them so well you won't have to think about it anymore, and you'll just be on autopilot the next time you run an instance.
Edited to add: Oh, and overhealing is pretty much inevitable now. I wouldn't worry about overhealing per se, just good mana management overall.
Edited, Nov 4th 2008 8:05am by teacake
i beg to differ :)
for myself anyways
gheal at 4k, flash at high 1k area, pom is 1.4, shield/renew when none of those apply
im doing very well not overhealing in all actuality.... and glyphed holy nova is worth (to me anyways) losing the renew glyph
itll only get easier when i get that renew glyph back :D
cant speak the same for holy, but im watching carefully and kinda...not using gheal much anymore
for trash n ****, reflective shields and pom do so much of the work gheal isnt needed usually
no trouble keepin people alive, its just a lot of reaction.... div aegis shields add a large chuck when i crit (turns a 4k gheal into a 6k crit+2k shield)
so then ill end up just goin pom renew pw shield and regen mana
still missing downrankin a bit, but im making due quite well :)
for myself anyways
gheal at 4k, flash at high 1k area, pom is 1.4, shield/renew when none of those apply
im doing very well not overhealing in all actuality.... and glyphed holy nova is worth (to me anyways) losing the renew glyph
itll only get easier when i get that renew glyph back :D
cant speak the same for holy, but im watching carefully and kinda...not using gheal much anymore
for trash n ****, reflective shields and pom do so much of the work gheal isnt needed usually
no trouble keepin people alive, its just a lot of reaction.... div aegis shields add a large chuck when i crit (turns a 4k gheal into a 6k crit+2k shield)
so then ill end up just goin pom renew pw shield and regen mana
still missing downrankin a bit, but im making due quite well :)
mongoosexcore wrote:
cant speak the same for holy, but im watching carefully and kinda...not using gheal much anymore
Yeah, we were talking about this in my guild the other day: the whole Disc healing playstyle now is based around what used to be priest no-no's: shield and flash heal. I like to call it the n00bspec.
(kidding!) I use gheal less than I used to and flash heal more, because now flash heal tends to be my go-to guy for DPSers who take too much damage for CoH/Renew to handle. But I still think that for Holy gheal will continue to be our bread and butter, particularly for tank healing. After all, we're not exactly facing real boss fights right now, so I don't think it's a fair indication of how things will be in Wrath. And without downranking, overhealing with your gheal becomes, as far as I'm concerned, a non-issue. I'd rather heal my target to 110% with a gheal, having gotten briefly out of the 5SR to cast it, then to 90% with a flash heal I have to cast more often. Especially if I've got serendipity returning some of that mana to me.
Again, it's all about mana management overall, and depending on spec, overhealing may no longer be a good metric for that.
teacake wrote:
Soooo... if I'm not mousing over anyone, it'll just cast on me? Can you post that?
Something like this; will check and edit later if it is incorrect.
#showtooltip Greater Heal
/stopcasting
/cast [target=mouseover,exists][target=target,help][] Greater Heal
*edit this is actually what i have. I don't pretend to be a macro guru; this was by trial and error, but it will heal a mouseover, a hard target that is friendly (i.e. tank is targetted) or selfcast, in that order. As soon as it finds a defined target, or no target by [], it fires the spell at the appropriate target. This does assume that auto self cast is enabled. I mostly copy, paste and play around with them, but when I get bored, I read Cogwell's guide on the WOW site just to get my head spinning again.
Edited, Nov 4th 2008 9:58pm by Trylofer
1 post
Quote:
I can see how healing would be almost impossible for a clicker.
I am a clicker (i guess I am)...and a healer. So far I haven't run into any problems, mind you I'm not healing outlands yet or raids.
I target with the F keyes (very frustrating when the tank is not the group leader,I tell you) and cast with the number keys. The frantic clicking starts when everybody in the group starts to aggro...god bless payer of healing. But overall I have no problem with my system.
Xaissa wrote:
I target with the F keyes (very frustrating when the tank is not the group leader,I tell you) and cast with the number keys.
This is going to fall apart for you in larger raids. You already mentioned the frustration you currently have depending on who is leader.
If you like to cast with the number keys, ok. Let me suggest a slight alteration. I also heal with my number keys, but I target first by clicking with the mouse on the raid frame (I use grid). One mouse click and a key press with the other hand is pretty fast, and I have no problem targeting multiple people in succession.
I lay my left hand on 2 through 5, and have quick, eyes off the keyboard access to keys 1 through 7 for shield, my single target heals, and dispels. Other things are bound to other keys I can quickly press (shackle on numpad "-" key, fade on the numpad "+", and other stuff scattered around).
I can't imagine trying to use the function keys to target a 10 man (or how about 25 man) raid. You should start getting used to some method that is going to scale, before you get there and find out you are too slow to keep people healed.
Edited, Nov 5th 2008 11:27pm by dadanox
Xaissa wrote:
I am a clicker (i guess I am)...and a healer. So far I haven't run into any problems, mind you I'm not healing outlands yet or raids.
I target with the F keyes (very frustrating when the tank is not the group leader,I tell you) and cast with the number keys.
I target with the F keyes (very frustrating when the tank is not the group leader,I tell you) and cast with the number keys.
I wouldn't call that a clicker. I think when most people say clicker they're referring to using the mouse to click spells and abilities, instead of binding them to keys. The flip side of this is the dreaded keyboard turner. In general it's great fun to judge people who use their mouse for what their keyboard should be doing and their keyboard for what their mouse should be doing.
And speaking of doing it WRONG*, if you can heal using your function keys to target, well, bless you, you're a lot quicker than I.
*That's a joke.
Edited to add:
Dadanox wrote:
This is going to fall apart for you in larger raids.
It'll be downright impossible won't it? Won't the function keys only target party members? Dadanox makes a great point here. If you ever intend to raid, you may want to get comfortable with a new system. If you end up trying to Tab through 25 people you're going to be so frazzled and sad.
Edited, Nov 6th 2008 8:57am by teacake
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