Questions on Healing

[Tifone]

Ok having healed a couple raids now including an ICC with ni I have some questions...

As a discipline priest I usally am assigned as a tank healer so:
1) when you heal as a tank healer how much do you help on other healer/raid? Right now I try and bubble other tank when ever debuff is down and put my hot on them and then start bubbling melee b/c they seem to take most damage - other than that it is a as available and mana level decision on whether to do melee/ranged dps heals at all.

2) That being said I save my instant cast big heals (penance) for the tank unless I am sure I can handle it without out - even if it means watching a mage get crushed under some bosses boot and crushed into the ground - is that the right way to go?

3) How much coordination does our healing team do - or did it just come out of xp playing with each other? When you pug what is the normal level of coordination - it has varied from ni style down to just don't let anyone die...what is right and as a pug member should I be stepping up and coordinating the healers?

4) any other suggestions for stuff I am missing?

Thanks for all your help.

-Stynus

[Shortngeeky]

In my opinion & keep in mind i avoid healing raids, tank healer heals tank unless the raid healer is A) struggling B) OOM or C)CC'd [feared, trapped, blocked, ect] & living with a tree this is why... it bothers him soooooo much if he gets much help because it's his job and he knows it's his job so if someones taking damage he's going to heal them BUT when someone else drops a big heal, he's wasting his mana if his big cast goes off & the target doesn't need it anymore. I don't think shields or occasional aoe heals bother him, but I know big heals do. I know in pugs he gets mad especially when say Tank Healer Pally keeps healing Huntard if he drops to 95% then yells "I'm going OOM, I need innervate!"

You definitely get in sync with your raid group. That's why I try to keep same healers on certain tanks. You learn what hits your tank hard & what you can /afk heal. If you're not overworking too much you'll notice other patterns. Example a raid life bar hitting 85% before shooting up because that healer knows their big heal will fill target 15%.

Another reason I say "worry about your assignment and not so much about anyone elses" is from guild experience. Sometimes we get bad healers, not because they just suck, but they need to learn a better rotation or spec different or gear up. We put them in a raid & suddenly the other healers are doing their job AND failheals job. Other healers pull it off but get grey hair doing it while failheals thinks he did awesome & never changes.

[Griffygriff]

In guild raids, I only heal someone I'm not assigned to if my tank is in no danger and someone else gets really low. At that point I'll pop Riptide (instant cast small direct heal + hot) or a Lesser Healing Wave (small, short cast heal) to keep them from dying. However, if your tank's health bar is moving at all, pulling off him to heal someone else will only result in someone else having to rescue your tank, which is sort of devastating.

A lot just depends on the fight, though. The damage is hardly ever spread evenly. On Saurfang, only one tank at a time takes damage, and the raid potentially takes a lot of spikey damage, so the extra tank healer can help out with whoever has the mark or is being eaten by a blood beast. On Festergut, the whole raid takes a lot of damage, but it can take two tank healers to keep the main tank up, so you just have to trust the raid healer. Then there are fights like Marrowgar where Feaver could just solo heal the whole thing.

As for coordination, stuff happens too quickly to communicate much out loud. If I've been taken out of commision and my tank is in trouble, I'll call it out in vent just to make sure no one missed it, but usually someone is already on it by the time I key in. Having an addon that shows incoming heals helps a lot with this. I can see when someone is casting a big heal on that melee that is about to die, so I know it's taken care of.

Like Short said, it helps a whole lot to raid with the same tanks and healers all the time. I think I know pretty well when Feaver has it covered and when he could use some help. Pirt and I know which tanks may require an extra heal now and then to deal with spike damage. This sort of teamwork is my favorite part of healing.

For pugs, I only pug 25 mans, and then I'm always a raid healer. There is no coordination there, just lawlchainheal.

[Pirtuk]

I agree with Grif,

Right now we are benefiting from the fact that Grif, Feav and I have been healing together as the progression group, and we really don't talk much we just know when the other is down and need to pick up slack.

As we bring new healers on we need to communicate those unspoken agreements, like when Festergut hits like a mac truck, both healers heal the active tank....

There are a lot of fights like that.

The advantage to the 3 of us progressing together is all Grif or Feav have to say is "I'm a blob" and the other two of us knwo exactly what to do, the downside is that no one else does.

Just speak up if you are unsure and we will be more vocal.

Pirt
OH NO herdsman
(I don't tell the sheep where to go, I practice creative following)

[Waytoopimp]

I agree with everything, but as the most unofficial member of OH NO (Damnpimp my holy paladin), i do twice as many heals thanks to beacon. there fore, if i have beacon up on tank, and heal tank, it just does 1x the heals. but if i can heal another raid member that is injured, then it is 2x the heals and 2x the effectiveness.