Atkins
User
Posts: 26
Karma: 5
|
Being a Healer; Multiple Healers - 2005/10/19 16:43
(These are the draft introductory 2 sections of a long article on healing that will appear on this site in the future. Please add corrections, comments and questions.) Thank you.
==(1) ==BEING A HEALER ==2005.1018== Healing is a group endeavor. All classes can heal using bandages, potions or other items. Healing classes are those that cast healing spells and can resurrect fallen players - this article is about using those spells to heal groups of 2 - 40 players to win the fight, whether PVE or PVP. This article focuses on PVE healing, but much of it is relevant to PVP healing (and Section 11 covers PVP healing).
The Healer’s objectives are to keep people alive and fighting, prevent a wipe, or recover from a wipe by resurrecting the fallen. All healing classes can do damage as well as heal, but a primary healer in PVE generally does not do damage in order to conserve mana for healing and avoid creating added Threat. A secondary healer is expected to assist the primary healer and should keep mana (e.g., half) in reserve for that, but also contributes by doing damage or off-tanking. At times, everyone needs to help finish off mobs, and a healer out of mana can switch to damage while regenerating - Priests can use Wands for ranged damage, Druids, Shamans, and Paladins can melee.
The attitude of the Healer and the attitude of the group towards the Healer are both important for success. Some people find keeping people alive fun and meaningful. Other simply want to excel in whatever they do. Others find healing and buffing tedious, or resent being forced into a healing role because of their class when all they want to do is enhance their individual survivability. Some players prefer to be a secondary healer and resent being cast in a primary healing role. Good groups know not to push the healer too hard and to let the healer get enough mana to do his job, while haste or sloppy group tactics increases the healing burden and risk of casualties or a wipe. Sometimes a healer falls down on the job, but often a death or wipe is not the healers fault. Often, however, incompetent or immature players blame the healer, worsening an already tense situation. It is not surprising that some healers develop a resentful, defensive, temperamental or even arrogant attitude. However, the mature player realizes a humble common-sense “Please let me keep you alive, OK?” request for cooperation usually works better for the success of the team. Group management issues are discussed further in Section 5 below.
WOW healing skill comes both from knowing the principles and extensive healing experience. Priests have the advantage of being drawn into group healing early in their careers in relatively forgiving situations. Even if you intend to do no more than secondary heal in your career, still hone your skills by main healing when feasible as you level up so you know what the main healer faces.
==(2)== MULTIPLE HEALERS == (2005.1018) == Multiple healers offer the opportunity to dramatically increase group survivability and healing effectiveness, but can also create issues of missed heals and wasteful healing conflicts. A very efficient solo healer can easily be inefficient in multiple healer situation without coordination.
The first step in coordination is deciding who are primary (dedicated) healers and who are secondary (support/backup) healers. Primary healers are assigned first-line responsibility for healing particular players. This is commonly a 5-man party, but can instead be an individual (e.g., the main tank), a class (all mages, all rogues), or the entire raid (e.g., touchup renew or rejuvenation), depending on the mix of healers, tactics, and healing needs. Secondary healers assist in one or more ways, such as stepping in when the primary healer dies, runs out of mana, or is overwhelmed by needed heals or providing ongoing support by spamming HOTs or small heals to offset incoming damage. Shamans and Paladins are often both a secondary healer and off-tank, thus acting in two ways to help the primary healer. One thing secondary healers should always do is monitor the primary healer’s mana and health and the overall health of the players for whom the primary healer is responsible.
On-screen raid group health bars available through CT-Raid or the default interface allow healers to monitor players outside their own party. This allows multiple healers to magnify their effectiveness by cross-healing the other’s group if needed (e.g., out of mana, or mob aggro). Healers should commnicate about healing styles to avoid conflicts - for example, a Druid and a Priest both winding up a big cast heal on the same player is wasteful, while one player throwing a Heal over Time (HOT) spell while the other casts another HOT as well as big heals with an auto-interrupt feature can be very synergistic. “You heal your group, I’ll heal mine.” is not a good response to friendly discussion.
Cross-healing helps prevent deaths and control aggro. A healer who pulls aggro and frantically heals himself only cements aggro -- it is better for another healer to heal him in order to make it easier for the tank or off-tank to pull off the mob (the healing aggro from this heal can help secondary healer off-tanks pull off the mobs).
Priests and Druids are designed as primary healers and often fill that role. Shamans and Paladins can primary heal, their healing skills are less versatile and they normally focus on buffs or damage and off-tanking alongside a secondary healing role. Having a variety of healing classes is good because of their different healing skills and buffs. For example, a good Priest and a good Druid are a more effective healing team than two of either class. Their HOTs stack, the Druid can do early heavy healing until he pulls aggro and regenerates in Bear if necessary while the Priest moves up from renews to full healing mode with much reduced risk of pulling aggro. The tactic of rotating primary healing responsibility to allow the healers to more rapidly regnenerate in turn is important.
Communication is always important. Discuss roles ahead of time and communicate while fighting -- voice comms are extremely valuable, chat announcements less useful except as healing publicity. Typing and reading chat logs takes valuable time and distracts the players from healing. Announcements can easily be missed, so don’t get mad if someone misses them and ask first to avoid players becoming angry when healing announcements clog their chat.
|
Forums
