At some point, I do want to pick up dual spec, but I don't have it yet. I'm currently Shadow, partly for leveling purposes, and mostly because I just think it's cool.
So, I went into the Scarlet Monastery Armory and made a total fool of myself. Part of it was my propensity for getting lost . . . but I also had a healing problem that caused a wipe. It was partly the tank's fault -- he was in a hurry, and decided to aggro the whole room (but did ask in advance, although he did not wait for everyone to answer -- I was still thinking about it when he ran in) -- but it was definitely more my fault -- I was casting greater heal, but it didn't land until he died. I cast Renew right before the Greater Heal, but it obviously wasn't enough. The rest of the group was irritated that I, a priest, had full mana (because the spell was taking time), but hadn't managed to heal him. I felt awful, because I'm really trying to do a good job.
I want to heal well, as I really enjoy healing in dungeons, but I don't want to be causing wipes, either. Obviously, the easiest way to avoid causing wipes, when I know I'm inexperienced and don't really know what I'm doing, is to stay out of dungeons, but I want to be a good healer. I love it when I do a good job and keep people alive. It's a wonderful feeling! I know the best way to learn is to just do a lot of instances and practice, but I feel bad causing problems for my group. In this case, when I got lost, I went out of the dungeon and ended up back in Booty Bay, so I wasn't able to even make up for my earlier problem. I didn't mean to do that either, but I'm sure they think I'm a total jerk/idiot. Maybe I am. But I was trying my best.
Unfortunately, it seems my best isn't enough.
I looked at the Priest Healing guide, but there were a lot of things/spells I don't have yet, and I wasn't really able to make sense of it. I was wondering if you more experienced priests had any tips on how to avoid wipes at earlier levels. At this point, I'm kind of afraid to try again, even though I know that's what I should do. At least I know to warn them of my inexperience!
Thanks in advance for any ideas! (and I apologize if there are already topics on this issue--I only looked at the first page of posts).
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Healing at level 41 (shadow)Follow
At a low level you do have PW:Shield. Cast it on the tank before the pull. Put renew on the tank after combat begins, and keep refreshing it. Use some faster heals on the tank, earlier. Greater heal is a good spell, but timing is crucial and it takes a long time to cast.
Keep PW:Shield on yourself during all combat. Get a raid frame addon like Vuhdo. It will allow you to instantly see who needs healing, or is affected by a magic or disease affect that you need to cure. The other good one is Grid, but you may find it a bit more complicated to configure as a beginner. I also highly recommend you load an addon called GTFO, which will warn you when you need to move out of bad stuff.
Be aware that especially at early levels, you may pull some aggro. Try to hold off a second or two before you start healing. The tank most likely wont have a good hold on adds, so have Fade bound to a key and be able to hit it quickly when you see adds coming for you.
Resist the temptation to do dps. If you start to focus on dps, people are going to die. Once you become better skilled at healing, you may change your mind. In general though, your job is to keep people healed, not add mediocre dps.
Lastly, low level dungeons are where you learn. I didn't really learn to effectively use fade for adds until another priest gave me some pointers in a low level dungeon. I also caused a wipe in Dire Maul, because I thought it would help if I shackled a skeleton. As the group wiped, I have the words still burned in my mind.... no heals???
So don't give up!! You have a great chance to learn. Also, sometimes tanks or dps will pull a bone headed move and you wont be able to save them. It happens.
Keep PW:Shield on yourself during all combat. Get a raid frame addon like Vuhdo. It will allow you to instantly see who needs healing, or is affected by a magic or disease affect that you need to cure. The other good one is Grid, but you may find it a bit more complicated to configure as a beginner. I also highly recommend you load an addon called GTFO, which will warn you when you need to move out of bad stuff.
Be aware that especially at early levels, you may pull some aggro. Try to hold off a second or two before you start healing. The tank most likely wont have a good hold on adds, so have Fade bound to a key and be able to hit it quickly when you see adds coming for you.
Resist the temptation to do dps. If you start to focus on dps, people are going to die. Once you become better skilled at healing, you may change your mind. In general though, your job is to keep people healed, not add mediocre dps.
Lastly, low level dungeons are where you learn. I didn't really learn to effectively use fade for adds until another priest gave me some pointers in a low level dungeon. I also caused a wipe in Dire Maul, because I thought it would help if I shackled a skeleton. As the group wiped, I have the words still burned in my mind.... no heals???
So don't give up!! You have a great chance to learn. Also, sometimes tanks or dps will pull a bone headed move and you wont be able to save them. It happens.
As shadow, you're taking the hard route to healing instances. It's doable and will make you a better healer quicker (since you have less tools and safety nets to rely on, you need to perfect everything to keep the group alive), but it does indeed make your job harder. Dadanox has already given some excellent tips, but I just wanted to stress the point of big vs small heals.
If the tank pulls an entire room, he's quite likely going to take massive amounts of damage rather quick. The key to knowing whether to use Flash Heal or Greater Heal (If you're holy or shadow) - Greater Heal is at low levels a decently effective heal, but it has indeed a scarily long cast timer. Which means you should only be casting it if you know for sure that the tank is going to survive three seconds without heals (aside from PW:Shield or Renew which might still be running). If you're unsure about this or think not, you should always go for a Flash Heal (and when it finishes yet another Flash Heal). Especially when an entire room is being pulled, unless you start the Greater Heal really early (and keep in mind that the tank might move out of your line of sight), it's not going to cut it.
That said, something the situation is really hopeless. Some tanks have the habit of just charging in and pulling three groups when you simply aren't ready yet and at that point, unless you have Penance in the discipline tree, there really isn't anything that can save them. If your tank suddenly rushes off, pulls three groups and hits the dirt in a second or three, you can barely be blamed.
If the tank pulls an entire room, he's quite likely going to take massive amounts of damage rather quick. The key to knowing whether to use Flash Heal or Greater Heal (If you're holy or shadow) - Greater Heal is at low levels a decently effective heal, but it has indeed a scarily long cast timer. Which means you should only be casting it if you know for sure that the tank is going to survive three seconds without heals (aside from PW:Shield or Renew which might still be running). If you're unsure about this or think not, you should always go for a Flash Heal (and when it finishes yet another Flash Heal). Especially when an entire room is being pulled, unless you start the Greater Heal really early (and keep in mind that the tank might move out of your line of sight), it's not going to cut it.
That said, something the situation is really hopeless. Some tanks have the habit of just charging in and pulling three groups when you simply aren't ready yet and at that point, unless you have Penance in the discipline tree, there really isn't anything that can save them. If your tank suddenly rushes off, pulls three groups and hits the dirt in a second or three, you can barely be blamed.
Some of this is a rehash of what has already been said, but:
Shield/Renew the tank before he pulls. Have your Fade button hot-keyed because at that level the tank may not be able to keep the aggro of a whole room off you when that Renew ticks the first time. Once you've cast those spells and he starts pulling, wind up your Greater Heal immediately.
The key to using Greater Heal is to be very proactive about it. Have one winding up any time you are not casting something else. You can always cancel it if you don't need it. (You can use a cancel-cast macro or just cancel it the old fashioned way, by jumping.
)
Flash heal as a stop-gap when you just don't have time for the Greater Heal, or someone just needs to be topped off.
I'd also emphasize Dadanox's point about getting a healing add-on.
Healing is hard at this level. You don't have a lot of healing spells (although you already have as many as a level-capped pally
), but worse yet, you are really woefully short of panic buttons. If things go wrong, your ability to avoid a wipe is somewhat limited. Tanks should be a bit cautious at this point.
The good news is, you get the basics down really well when the basics are all you have.
Well, I hope you'll keep trying. I agree it's really uncomfortable while you're learning but low-level dungeons are designed for learning, and people's expectations aren't the same either. What's uncomfortable at 41 is downright painful at 80. I've made the mistake of not learning how to heal with some of my characters until I hit the level cap and it's not something I'll be repeating when I get around to leveling my shaman.
Shield/Renew the tank before he pulls. Have your Fade button hot-keyed because at that level the tank may not be able to keep the aggro of a whole room off you when that Renew ticks the first time. Once you've cast those spells and he starts pulling, wind up your Greater Heal immediately.
The key to using Greater Heal is to be very proactive about it. Have one winding up any time you are not casting something else. You can always cancel it if you don't need it. (You can use a cancel-cast macro or just cancel it the old fashioned way, by jumping.
) Flash heal as a stop-gap when you just don't have time for the Greater Heal, or someone just needs to be topped off.
I'd also emphasize Dadanox's point about getting a healing add-on.
Healing is hard at this level. You don't have a lot of healing spells (although you already have as many as a level-capped pally
), but worse yet, you are really woefully short of panic buttons. If things go wrong, your ability to avoid a wipe is somewhat limited. Tanks should be a bit cautious at this point. The good news is, you get the basics down really well when the basics are all you have.
Vesaera wrote:
I want to heal well, as I really enjoy healing in dungeons, but I don't want to be causing wipes, either. Obviously, the easiest way to avoid causing wipes, when I know I'm inexperienced and don't really know what I'm doing, is to stay out of dungeons, but I want to be a good healer.
Well, I hope you'll keep trying. I agree it's really uncomfortable while you're learning but low-level dungeons are designed for learning, and people's expectations aren't the same either. What's uncomfortable at 41 is downright painful at 80. I've made the mistake of not learning how to heal with some of my characters until I hit the level cap and it's not something I'll be repeating when I get around to leveling my shaman.
tl/dr: Levelling = Learning
Just my $.02, but I find it quite condescending of others when they expect the skillset of an experienced, level-capped healer when in lower level dungeons. It is soooooo easy for a tank or dps to fall into their role while grouped, yet the healer needs to assume a completely different mindset from the outside, quest-levelling, dps-til-your-butt-falls-off world.
Many of the lower level groups will force a healer to adopt to their playstyle and their standards. If you are unable to fulfill their wishes of a fast, ferocious run, then they will question your skill, your gear, your choice of soft drink, your political affiliations...
Or not. If they are mature enough to realize that everyone is just here to have fun, then maybe fun is what you can achieve.
Just my $.02, but I find it quite condescending of others when they expect the skillset of an experienced, level-capped healer when in lower level dungeons. It is soooooo easy for a tank or dps to fall into their role while grouped, yet the healer needs to assume a completely different mindset from the outside, quest-levelling, dps-til-your-butt-falls-off world.
Many of the lower level groups will force a healer to adopt to their playstyle and their standards. If you are unable to fulfill their wishes of a fast, ferocious run, then they will question your skill, your gear, your choice of soft drink, your political affiliations...
Or not. If they are mature enough to realize that everyone is just here to have fun, then maybe fun is what you can achieve.
Vesaera wrote:
In this case, when I got lost, I went out of the dungeon and ended up back in Booty Bay
Be aware that you can use the LFG icon on your minimap to teleport out of a dungeon, or in your case back in. Some people actually do that intentionally when they need to make a quick trip to town to repair or get something.
Wonderful!
Dadanox: Thank you for telling me about the LFG -- they probably really thought I was an idiot, then, but maybe it was for the best -- just one group. Good point about PW:S, too. I think now that I'm remembering, it was actually 2 years ago that I played, and it was before the change that allows tanks to keep rage with PW:S -- so yeah, I completely forgot about it. I didn't do a lot of groups (obviously), but the ones I did, I was very careful about using it. I know that's not an issue now, though, so you're right: I should have been using it. Also thanks for the advice about add-ons. I will definitely get those.
"Be aware that especially at early levels, you may pull some aggro. Try to hold off a second or two before you start healing. The tank most likely wont have a good hold on adds, so have Fade bound to a key and be able to hit it quickly when you see adds coming for you.
Resist the temptation to do dps. If you start to focus on dps, people are going to die. Once you become better skilled at healing, you may change your mind. In general though, your job is to keep people healed, not add mediocre dps. "
Yes - that part went well. I also remembered to run to the tank when I got aggro, and for the first time ever in a group, I remembered to heal myself, too. So, I guess there was some improvement on my end, which makes me feel better :). And yes, I'm very glad I wasn't trying to DPS, too.
Mozared and teacake:
The information on Flash Heal and Greater Heal is very useful. I had the suspicion (afterwards) that I should have used Flash Heal, but teacake, your point about getting Greater Heal ready earlier is also good. When the tank said he was going to aggro the whole room, I should have thought about that. Still, my mana wasn't an issue, so I'm thinking that since I didn't, Flash Heal would have been a better option when Greater Heal was too late.
Also, teacake, I've been thinking that maybe the best way to learn is to start over (well, not all over) with a new character and start with even earlier instances on a newer priest -- then come back to her when I feel more comfortable about it. I did notice on my 19 rogue in Ragefire Chasm, that people were a lot more understanding. Or maybe I just got a good group :P.
Trylofer:
Thanks! And I've already decided that I'm warning people in advance that I might not be uber perfect yet. I think people are a lot more understanding if they're given the chance to be and if they know what's going on.
Thanks to everyone! I am definitely going to try again, and hopefully, it will go better. If nothing else, at least I'm more aware of what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong -- and how to fix it! I know a lot of this still takes practice, so I'm sure I'll make more mistakes, but hopefully, they won't be as drastic.
Dadanox: Thank you for telling me about the LFG -- they probably really thought I was an idiot, then, but maybe it was for the best -- just one group. Good point about PW:S, too. I think now that I'm remembering, it was actually 2 years ago that I played, and it was before the change that allows tanks to keep rage with PW:S -- so yeah, I completely forgot about it. I didn't do a lot of groups (obviously), but the ones I did, I was very careful about using it. I know that's not an issue now, though, so you're right: I should have been using it. Also thanks for the advice about add-ons. I will definitely get those.
"Be aware that especially at early levels, you may pull some aggro. Try to hold off a second or two before you start healing. The tank most likely wont have a good hold on adds, so have Fade bound to a key and be able to hit it quickly when you see adds coming for you.
Resist the temptation to do dps. If you start to focus on dps, people are going to die. Once you become better skilled at healing, you may change your mind. In general though, your job is to keep people healed, not add mediocre dps. "
Yes - that part went well. I also remembered to run to the tank when I got aggro, and for the first time ever in a group, I remembered to heal myself, too. So, I guess there was some improvement on my end, which makes me feel better :). And yes, I'm very glad I wasn't trying to DPS, too.
Mozared and teacake:
The information on Flash Heal and Greater Heal is very useful. I had the suspicion (afterwards) that I should have used Flash Heal, but teacake, your point about getting Greater Heal ready earlier is also good. When the tank said he was going to aggro the whole room, I should have thought about that. Still, my mana wasn't an issue, so I'm thinking that since I didn't, Flash Heal would have been a better option when Greater Heal was too late.
Also, teacake, I've been thinking that maybe the best way to learn is to start over (well, not all over) with a new character and start with even earlier instances on a newer priest -- then come back to her when I feel more comfortable about it. I did notice on my 19 rogue in Ragefire Chasm, that people were a lot more understanding. Or maybe I just got a good group :P.
Trylofer:
Thanks! And I've already decided that I'm warning people in advance that I might not be uber perfect yet. I think people are a lot more understanding if they're given the chance to be and if they know what's going on.
Thanks to everyone! I am definitely going to try again, and hopefully, it will go better. If nothing else, at least I'm more aware of what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong -- and how to fix it! I know a lot of this still takes practice, so I'm sure I'll make more mistakes, but hopefully, they won't be as drastic.
A real healer UI will help you a lot. In some fights you will be dispelling magic effects or abolishing disease within 1 second of it being applied to a group member. You'll also see when 4 people are affected simultaneously and a mass dispel is an option. At 80, raid debufs can tick off more than 100% of a person's health within 5 seconds. Healing is half the battle. Having a full awareness of what is happening is the other half.
For my primary heals (shield, renew, penance, etc), I use mouseclicks to heal. I can just left click once on a player's frame to apply a shield, or right click for renew. It is very fast. If you should start click healing with your mouse, I suggest the 5 button variety. 5 buttons gives you a good number of spells, and then you can shift-click or Ctrl-click for even more.
I still keep a few things keybound, mostly my oh sh*t buttons like fade, shackle Undead, holy nova, or my boot's rocket boosts. Mostly my keybindings are for things that don't affect just one player.
Remember if you don't do it too often, respecs are cheap. You may want to spec healing for the weekend. I find disc fun, but leveled as holy and it is certainly effective as well. If you should choose to stay in a healing spec for leveling, you have your choice. There is also a smite spec which many people find useful.
Have fun.
For my primary heals (shield, renew, penance, etc), I use mouseclicks to heal. I can just left click once on a player's frame to apply a shield, or right click for renew. It is very fast. If you should start click healing with your mouse, I suggest the 5 button variety. 5 buttons gives you a good number of spells, and then you can shift-click or Ctrl-click for even more.
I still keep a few things keybound, mostly my oh sh*t buttons like fade, shackle Undead, holy nova, or my boot's rocket boosts. Mostly my keybindings are for things that don't affect just one player.
Remember if you don't do it too often, respecs are cheap. You may want to spec healing for the weekend. I find disc fun, but leveled as holy and it is certainly effective as well. If you should choose to stay in a healing spec for leveling, you have your choice. There is also a smite spec which many people find useful.
Have fun.
Vesaera wrote:
Also, teacake, I've been thinking that maybe the best way to learn is to start over (well, not all over) with a new character and start with even earlier instances on a newer priest -- then come back to her when I feel more comfortable about it. I did notice on my 19 rogue in Ragefire Chasm, that people were a lot more understanding. Or maybe I just got a good group :P.
I have a 75 priest who hasn't healed a thing. I started a new priest for that reason. Didn't want to start healing at level 75 when most people figure the healer has a clue. Going well so far. Only 17, but have done RFC 3 times :D
*edit
clique + *your unit frames here* works wonders.
Edited, Apr 16th 2010 8:08pm by Ambarius
Edited, Apr 16th 2010 8:09pm by Ambarius
Thanks again, Dadanox! And good point about respecs. Also, I did get VuhDo and GTFO. Vuhdo does have a lot of options, and I'm not entirely sure how all of them function, but most of it was pretty clear. I'm definitely glad I went with it instead of Grid, if Grid is more complicated.
Ambarius - I didn't quite understand what you meant when you wrote "clique + *your unit frames here* works wonders." Could you explain more? And yeah, I've pretty much decided to start fresh, and when the new character gets to 41, switch back over. Once I get to level 15, I can just use the LFG tool and quest in the interim. I made her an enchanter, too, so that she can disenchant BOP items (like the ones in the satchel) that aren't needed.
Ambarius - I didn't quite understand what you meant when you wrote "clique + *your unit frames here* works wonders." Could you explain more? And yeah, I've pretty much decided to start fresh, and when the new character gets to 41, switch back over. Once I get to level 15, I can just use the LFG tool and quest in the interim. I made her an enchanter, too, so that she can disenchant BOP items (like the ones in the satchel) that aren't needed.
Clique allows you to assign spells or macros to mouseclicks, for frames that don't normally do that. With clique, you can make Grid, XPerl, the Blizz unitframe, and others utilize mouseclicks for activating your spells. So, if somebody really liked to use XPerl for their interface, Clique lets you click heal with it. Another example is if you wanted to mouseclick on the Blizzard Focusframe to cast a spell.
Clique is actually a very nice addon and works well.
Vuhdo has this functionality built in, so you don't need Clique with its frame. Also, the Vuhdo forum is over on Plusheal, which you may find useful.
Clique is actually a very nice addon and works well.
Vuhdo has this functionality built in, so you don't need Clique with its frame. Also, the Vuhdo forum is over on Plusheal, which you may find useful.
Dadanox did a good job of explaining it. I tried Vuhdo. While it worked ok, I really didn't like the unit frames it used. Clique does the same thing as Vuhdo with just about any unit frame.
*edit
Up to level 22, pretty much all from healing RFC, WC, Deadmines and SFK. Having a blast using the LFG tool. This experience as re-energized my desire to play.
Edited, Apr 18th 2010 10:11am by Ambarius
*edit
Up to level 22, pretty much all from healing RFC, WC, Deadmines and SFK. Having a blast using the LFG tool. This experience as re-energized my desire to play.
Edited, Apr 18th 2010 10:11am by Ambarius
Dadanox, I rated you up for that- it was an excellent description. I'd heard of Clique before, but never knew why people used it (usually read a post where someone said, "I use Grid and Clique for raids). I didn't really bother to look at it before, since I tried Grid and while I liked its functionality, I couldn't get into the simple look of it. I'd also tried DeCursive,for some reason again, I didn't really like it. It didn't help that I was too stupid to figure out how to turn off the default frames, and didn't like having two sets of unit frames up. I am currently using XPerl, and now plan to try this out on my healers, so I can get used to healing more often. 
Ah, it's an add-on. Thanks! That makes much more sense. I was thinking it was a verb . . .
I checked out the forums for VuhDo, but I think some of my difficulty is just the fact that I haven't done a lot of instances. That is, I understand how it all works, but I don't yet know how to configure it for myself, since I don't really know what I need yet. I expect I'll figure it out as I go, so long as I look at either the manual or the options regularly enough. Right now, I'm just using the default configuration, although I did turn it off for soloing.
As for the mouse, I don't have a 5 button mouse yet, unless you're counting the scroll wheel as 3 buttons (but I doubt you are). As it is the scroll wheel, for some reason, doesn't work for keybindings for the up and down rolling -- I've tried binding things to the down and up scroll (moving backwards, in particular, on characters that need to kite) and nothing happens. I ended up binding auto-run to the keyboard and move backwards to pressing the scroll button (which does work -- just up and down don't). So, I really only have 3 functional "buttons" at this time. That said, I probably have enough to work with my current spells, what with the shift, ctrl, etc.
Wondroustremor - let me know how XPerl works for healing!
I checked out the forums for VuhDo, but I think some of my difficulty is just the fact that I haven't done a lot of instances. That is, I understand how it all works, but I don't yet know how to configure it for myself, since I don't really know what I need yet. I expect I'll figure it out as I go, so long as I look at either the manual or the options regularly enough. Right now, I'm just using the default configuration, although I did turn it off for soloing.
As for the mouse, I don't have a 5 button mouse yet, unless you're counting the scroll wheel as 3 buttons (but I doubt you are). As it is the scroll wheel, for some reason, doesn't work for keybindings for the up and down rolling -- I've tried binding things to the down and up scroll (moving backwards, in particular, on characters that need to kite) and nothing happens. I ended up binding auto-run to the keyboard and move backwards to pressing the scroll button (which does work -- just up and down don't). So, I really only have 3 functional "buttons" at this time. That said, I probably have enough to work with my current spells, what with the shift, ctrl, etc.
Wondroustremor - let me know how XPerl works for healing!
By 5 button mouse, I mean a mouse with 2 side buttons, like my Logitech G5, although I know there are newer models on the market now. I haven't had a great deal of luck with scroll up and down for spellcasting, so I'm not assigning spells to those actions.
I would recommend that you do use your healing raid frame when soloing. You should use it to watch your own health and to heal yourself. It should become so second nature to you, that you refuse to do it any other way.
I would recommend that you do use your healing raid frame when soloing. You should use it to watch your own health and to heal yourself. It should become so second nature to you, that you refuse to do it any other way.
What glyphs are you using? If you get the glyph for PW: Shield you will get a bit of healing each time you apply it.
There is also Flash heal and a glyph for FH which saves you mana if that is a problem.
There is also Flash heal and a glyph for FH which saves you mana if that is a problem.
I do have the Shield glyph. I'm pretty sure my other glyphs are shadow-related because of my eventual plan to dual spec. I realize now that my money making skills aren't quite as good as I anticipated, and I probably should have just gone with healing glyphs, since they'll matter more in the long run. I'll definitely look into that! And I'm glad my mouse is fine as is!
I did make the frames viewable while soloing. I can see how that makes sense.
Thanks again!
I did make the frames viewable while soloing. I can see how that makes sense.
Thanks again!
Okay, so my new priest is up to level 17 and I've done RFC three times.
The main issue I ran into was figuring out who the tank was in VuhDo, and getting out of sight of the people I was trying to heal. The first few fights were weird because it was just me and the tank, so I did use my wand a little. I have no idea where the other players (i.e. DPS) were, but eventually they showed up, and things went a lot smoother then.
We downed Taragaman, which told us the instance was over, but some people still wanted to do the other quests. Personally, I'm just waiting for the books to drop off the Searing Blade guys (the Undercity quest). Anyway, so we regrouped, but everyone besides me and who I thought was the tank left the group. I hadn't realized he switched to DPS, and there was no icon indicating who was whom, so I started to get really frustrated when the new DPS (my thought) kept getting damage and getting away from me. It turns out he was really the new tank---whoops! We ended up wiping, and the old tank said he was going to tank, but everyone left group again. The old tank also said that the main issue was people not targeting the right target and the new tank being inexperienced.
We got a new group, and this time, I was paying more attention, so I saw that the old tank was DPS. Still, it took me awhile to figure out who the new tank was. We did pretty well that run.
This is a really long way of saying: how can I know who the tank is right away with VuhDo -- I'm guessing there's some option I should have enabled or changed, but I'm not sure where it is.
Oh, and I love VuhDo otherwise. It is really great to be able to click on the targets I want to heal and heal them. Thanks again for letting me know about it!
The main issue I ran into was figuring out who the tank was in VuhDo, and getting out of sight of the people I was trying to heal. The first few fights were weird because it was just me and the tank, so I did use my wand a little. I have no idea where the other players (i.e. DPS) were, but eventually they showed up, and things went a lot smoother then.
We downed Taragaman, which told us the instance was over, but some people still wanted to do the other quests. Personally, I'm just waiting for the books to drop off the Searing Blade guys (the Undercity quest). Anyway, so we regrouped, but everyone besides me and who I thought was the tank left the group. I hadn't realized he switched to DPS, and there was no icon indicating who was whom, so I started to get really frustrated when the new DPS (my thought) kept getting damage and getting away from me. It turns out he was really the new tank---whoops! We ended up wiping, and the old tank said he was going to tank, but everyone left group again. The old tank also said that the main issue was people not targeting the right target and the new tank being inexperienced.
We got a new group, and this time, I was paying more attention, so I saw that the old tank was DPS. Still, it took me awhile to figure out who the new tank was. We did pretty well that run.
This is a really long way of saying: how can I know who the tank is right away with VuhDo -- I'm guessing there's some option I should have enabled or changed, but I'm not sure where it is.
Oh, and I love VuhDo otherwise. It is really great to be able to click on the targets I want to heal and heal them. Thanks again for letting me know about it!
Vesaera wrote:
This is a really long way of saying: how can I know who the tank is right away with VuhDo -- I'm guessing there's some option I should have enabled or changed, but I'm not sure where it is.
Not sure about Vuh'do, in Pitbull there is an option for "role icon". If you still have the normal unit frames, there is an icon by each player that shows which role they entered as. Sometimes people change, so the best way to know which person is the tank is to look and see which person is holding a shield or if there is a druid in bear form.
Doing a quick "inspection" doesn't hurt either. Just remember that in the lower level dungeons, a tanking spec is not necessarily needed to actually tank, but if someone tries to make you heal them while using a 2h instead of sword and board, they are making you work so they can have fun.
Thanks!
Yeah, I know that there are little symbols in the regular UI---I was looking for them at first, which caused problems, because I kept randomly healing people before we got started (*rolls eyes at self*), since I didn't (at that time---do now!) have a way to target with the mouse without healing. But those little symbols weren't there.
Inspecting might help, but you're right: at earlier levels, people might have leveling builds rather than tanking/DPS builds -- and of course, the first tank switched to DPS, so he could have "looked" like either one on an inspect: if you have more than one that looks like a tank, how do you know which one is the *real* tank (other than asking, of course)? It seems like a healing add-on ought to have a quick and easy way to identify the tank, so I'm sure I'm missing something somewhere.
I also forgot to mention that I shamelessly stole advice from LGarth's post on leveling spec, and I'm pretty excited about it. It seems to be working well right now; although of course, at level 17, I only have 8 points so far.
Yeah, I know that there are little symbols in the regular UI---I was looking for them at first, which caused problems, because I kept randomly healing people before we got started (*rolls eyes at self*), since I didn't (at that time---do now!) have a way to target with the mouse without healing. But those little symbols weren't there.
Inspecting might help, but you're right: at earlier levels, people might have leveling builds rather than tanking/DPS builds -- and of course, the first tank switched to DPS, so he could have "looked" like either one on an inspect: if you have more than one that looks like a tank, how do you know which one is the *real* tank (other than asking, of course)? It seems like a healing add-on ought to have a quick and easy way to identify the tank, so I'm sure I'm missing something somewhere.
I also forgot to mention that I shamelessly stole advice from LGarth's post on leveling spec, and I'm pretty excited about it. It seems to be working well right now; although of course, at level 17, I only have 8 points so far.
Who's the tank?
Sorry, couldn't resist.
I also don't know about VuhDo, but I try to keep the tank targeted at all times so I don't have to search group/raid frames for his bar. I have a ToT frame showing and ToT is built into my macros, so I can still easily throw out offensive spells without ever untargeting the person I'm healing. This also works in reverse; sometimes I'll be in AV and it's unclear who's tanking Van, so I just target Van. Whoever Van is targeting is who I'm healing.
However, I think if you need all these fancy icons to tell you who the tank is, your group has a larger communication problem. I would solve this the old fashioned way:
/p Who is tanking?
That way everyone sees the answer and everyone is clear. And ask the tank to mark mobs in low level instances. They need to learn to do it the right way. Rumor has it that "who cares about marking, just tank them all" will go back to being the wrong way in Cata.
Sorry, couldn't resist.
I also don't know about VuhDo, but I try to keep the tank targeted at all times so I don't have to search group/raid frames for his bar. I have a ToT frame showing and ToT is built into my macros, so I can still easily throw out offensive spells without ever untargeting the person I'm healing. This also works in reverse; sometimes I'll be in AV and it's unclear who's tanking Van, so I just target Van. Whoever Van is targeting is who I'm healing.
However, I think if you need all these fancy icons to tell you who the tank is, your group has a larger communication problem. I would solve this the old fashioned way:
/p Who is tanking?
That way everyone sees the answer and everyone is clear. And ask the tank to mark mobs in low level instances. They need to learn to do it the right way. Rumor has it that "who cares about marking, just tank them all" will go back to being the wrong way in Cata.
Yeah, I'm feeling pretty stupid. I probably should have asked, but by the time I realized I didn't know, it was too late. Actually, the biggest problem is that I didn't know that I didn't know . . . until the next group, and suddenly the guy I *thought* was tank was telling me it had been someone else. It didn't occur to me (the stupid part) that the tank might have changed, and since everyone was rushing right from the get go, I didn't even manage to get Fortitude up on everyone until much later (figuring healing was more important, but perhaps not).
So, here I was thinking some crazy DPS was aggro-happy, and it was really the new tank.
The way I have VuhDo set up, based on Dadanox's suggestions, is that when I put my mouse arrow over a player and right-click, it shields that person (and targets them at the same time). So, no, I don't have the tank targeted at all times, just most of the time, and it's true that I had to get used to that while soloing (I was used to the auto self-cast and was trying to damage myself *rolls eyes*, without realizing it). I did pretty much base my healing on who was taking damage, but I imagine that my feeling that it was a DPS probably affected my perception of the run as a whole.
And yeah, I'll probably try to remember to ask, but I'm worried I might still forget. The way people go through instances, there's not always time to talk, if you actually want to keep people alive. I'm not very good at multitasking, either.
I'm trying to learn---that counts for something, right?
By the way - the video was great!
So, here I was thinking some crazy DPS was aggro-happy, and it was really the new tank.
The way I have VuhDo set up, based on Dadanox's suggestions, is that when I put my mouse arrow over a player and right-click, it shields that person (and targets them at the same time). So, no, I don't have the tank targeted at all times, just most of the time, and it's true that I had to get used to that while soloing (I was used to the auto self-cast and was trying to damage myself *rolls eyes*, without realizing it). I did pretty much base my healing on who was taking damage, but I imagine that my feeling that it was a DPS probably affected my perception of the run as a whole.
And yeah, I'll probably try to remember to ask, but I'm worried I might still forget. The way people go through instances, there's not always time to talk, if you actually want to keep people alive. I'm not very good at multitasking, either.
I'm trying to learn---that counts for something, right?
By the way - the video was great!
Vesaera wrote:
I didn't know that I didn't know . . . until the next group, and suddenly the guy I *thought* was tank was telling me it had been someone else. It didn't occur to me (the stupid part) that the tank might have changed
IMO this was not you being stupid whatsoever. When people decide to change roles, they need to say something. Sounds to me like you got a couple of idjits to run with, which is always good practice, because, you know. They're everywhere.
Vesaera wrote:
The way I have VuhDo set up, based on Dadanox's suggestions, is that when I put my mouse arrow over a player and right-click, it shields that person (and targets them at the same time).
Why does it also target them? I don't know VuhDo. Can you make it not do that? Doesn't it annoy the crap out of you? I use Clique and if it targeted a person every time I clicked their frame to heal them, I'd say bad words to it. In my angry voice.
Yeah, the thing is the first tank (who changed roles) was a *really good* tank. So, he might have been an idiot about not changing roles, but he wasn't an idiot as a tank. Guess that shows that idiocy can vary. And you're right: getting used to it is the whole point of starting a new character :).
As for VuhDo, I used to have it set up where the clicks represented just healing without targeting, but then it didn't heal at all. I had it set up the way I do now (right click = shield, left click = renew, etc.), but if I clicked people (or myself), nothing happened. Then I read in the VuhDo forums that Dadanox had the "auto-target" set up, and once I did that, my clicks started working. Maybe there's another way, but I'm not sure what it is.
As for VuhDo, I used to have it set up where the clicks represented just healing without targeting, but then it didn't heal at all. I had it set up the way I do now (right click = shield, left click = renew, etc.), but if I clicked people (or myself), nothing happened. Then I read in the VuhDo forums that Dadanox had the "auto-target" set up, and once I did that, my clicks started working. Maybe there's another way, but I'm not sure what it is.
In Vuhdo, if you are in a group, you can right click and hold in the frame area that surrounds the players. That will show role icons.
Typically I just wait and see who runs in first. I then check his class. I use Shadowed Unit Frames for myself and target on the top of the screen. I've got the text set to display the target's class along with his name. I like to know what type of tank I am dealing with. If it's a paladin, I'll usually go easy on his shielding to give him back more mana.
The thing I do find critical is to have Vuhdo indicate who has agro. I use a red border and text to indicate agro on a player. The one first grabbing agro should be the tank. Otherwise, you have an overzealous dps in your group.
It's also nice to create a separate private tanks group. You can use Vuhdo's menu on a player (menu option assigned to some mouse click combo) to assign him as a private tank, adding him to the separate frame. I like to show the private tank's target, so I can select the hostile mob (mind sear, wanding, or shadow fiend). If you set focus, it will also show up in the private tank's group. This way you can set focus on a friendly NPC and use your Vuhdo heals on them.
I put my private tanks group to the left of the normal raid frame like below. You can see the red agro border around my player frame in Group 1.
![Screenshot]()
Edited, May 11th 2010 6:52pm by dadanox
Typically I just wait and see who runs in first. I then check his class. I use Shadowed Unit Frames for myself and target on the top of the screen. I've got the text set to display the target's class along with his name. I like to know what type of tank I am dealing with. If it's a paladin, I'll usually go easy on his shielding to give him back more mana.
The thing I do find critical is to have Vuhdo indicate who has agro. I use a red border and text to indicate agro on a player. The one first grabbing agro should be the tank. Otherwise, you have an overzealous dps in your group.
It's also nice to create a separate private tanks group. You can use Vuhdo's menu on a player (menu option assigned to some mouse click combo) to assign him as a private tank, adding him to the separate frame. I like to show the private tank's target, so I can select the hostile mob (mind sear, wanding, or shadow fiend). If you set focus, it will also show up in the private tank's group. This way you can set focus on a friendly NPC and use your Vuhdo heals on them.
I put my private tanks group to the left of the normal raid frame like below. You can see the red agro border around my player frame in Group 1.
Edited, May 11th 2010 6:52pm by dadanox
I'm pretty sure that at one point I did have it set up to show aggro, but I don't know if that was before I started my new character or not. I'll have to check. The right click thing sounds useful, too. I like the private tank thing, too -- I had wondered what that was for!
Thanks! All of that should be very helpful.
Thanks! All of that should be very helpful.
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