Guide to Healing, Leading, and Progressing in WoW Raids
Matticus I’m on my retribution paladin and I’m doing 3v3’s with a few friends. My team is 1300 rated. We just finished this EPIC battle against 2 rogues and a warrior. We were a Ret Paladin, Prot Paladin, and a Resto Druid. We beat the crap out of that team. Maces were flying, seals were being cast, bops were all over the place.
And all we got? 6 rating.
I wanted to try something new today. It’s going to be a fairly eventful 5.5 hours tonight. It occurred to me that anyone who has never raided in 25 mans might not know what it’s like. The atmosphere, the players, the fun, it’s different then normal WoW playing.
15:55 – All the players are holding position outside the instance summoning stone. The plan tonight is to hit up SSC, TK, and Azgalor with whatever time we have remaining. This is going to be an interesting night since we’re trying out this Resto Druid and Resto Shaman. The mood sounds good. Everyone’s cheery and upbeat. Even though we’re tired of SSC and TK, we still have to do it for attunements and trials of these new players.
16:01 – We’re all in. Resuming where we left off at Leo.
16:04 – WIPE: The trash pack right before Leo? We killed off two of the mobs and one of our warriors blew a fear. It’s right next to his last stand. I’m guessing he panicked. One of the mobs feared directly into Leo’s goons. Cue Benny Hill.
16:15 – Leo engaged. We’re trying something new and using a Paladin tank instead of a Druid tank. The general thought here is that the Avenger’s Shield toss will help center Leo better.
16:22 – Leo down. Yup, worked like a charm.
Tsunami Talisman
Champion and Defender glove tokens
16:30 – Let the long Vashj explanation begin. Benching the Prot Pally and bringing in another Holy Priest. 3 new healers. This will be rough.
16:45 – Still explaining Vashj. We’re packing 8 healers today instead of 7. Might be a little longer then usual. At least these new guys are double checking. A couple of them have never done it but they know the theory. I’m going to say we do two wipes before we move on.
16:50 – Vashj engaged. It’s about time.
16:57 – WIPE: Some confusion on where some of the new DPS stands as well as positioning. We’ve had a player die in phase 1. Absolutely unacceptable with 8 healers. No one should be dying that early. Rebuffing and stuff now.
17:24 – WIPE: Badly timed net in the middle. Getting overwhelmed. I’m going to start up my fraps.
17:45 – Vashj down.
Krakken-Heart Breastplate
Lightfathom Scepter – Guild first. Went to our Resto Shaman
Defender and Hero token
17:50 – Forming up outside of Tempest Keep.
18:00 – Inside TK now clearing to Al’ar.
18:16 – Glancing at recount, our top 3 healers are within 0.4% of each other. They’re our resto druids and shamans in particular.
18:32 – Al’ar engaged.
18:41 – WIPE: Some idiot blew up the phoenixes during phase 1. Good game.
19:00 – Pseudo Wipe: Al’ar despawned. That’s the first time it’s ever happened.
19:17 – Al’ar down.
Fire Crest Breastplate
Talon of the Phoenix
Phoenix-Wing Cloak
19:48 – Trash to Al’ar cleared. Boy do I feel uneasy about this. New healers. Not only that, they’re new to the encounter. No amount of homework will ever prepare anyone for a boss fight. There’s about an hour and 10 minutes left in the raid.
20:14 – I got benched. We have one too many healers and we need to get these guys keyed. I spent the past 20 minutes explaining to each individual healer what to do, who they’re healing, and etc. I don’t normally handle assignments but the main guy’s sick so I opted to help him. What’s even stranger is that I’m doing this remotely. When’s the last time you heard of a healer assigning heals when he’s not in the raid?
20:21 – WIPE: Amazed they lasted this long. 35 minutes. Hmm…
20:44 – They’re on phase 5. Everyone’s still alive. I think they almost got it.
20:49 – Kael down. Wow, I can breathe again. Our MT died at 1% but there was enough alive to finish him off.
Royal Cloak of the Sunstriders
Twinblade of the Phoenix
Champion and Hero token
20:54 – We took down Vashj and Kael down in one day with 5 new players who have never done those fights before. That’s absolutely amazing. As a result, now we’ll hopefully never have to back and kill Vashj and Kael ever again. We’ve also signed a new resto shaman, resto druid and a mage to an entry level raiding contract. Score! Thanks for reading! (All 3 of you guys!)
Photo courtesy of dnabil
Each Saturday for the next five weeks, I will be writing about one barrier of the raid healer. Healers are often overshadowed and looked over since we are expected to simply know what to do. With luck, this five part series will help you to become a better raid healer whether you are a varsity or a freshman.
I want to share with you a real life example. The connection will become apparent soon enough. Whenever I go out to the mall with my friends, we would idly go through every single clothing store in every part of the mall (especially true when travelling with companions of the female persuasion)
The guys would mill about at the front of a store like American Eagle and the girls would actually go into the store to do their shopping (and gossiping). Us men would talk business such as the latest sports news (“did you see that last fight at the game?”), discuss recent stuff in tech (“do you think that video card makes my PC look fat?”) or chat about gaming (“she thinks I pay more attention to that level 70 warrior from Tichon then I do to her!”).
And then 12 PM would strike.
Someone (usually me) would clasp their hands together and say it’s time for lunch! This is inevitable followed by a chorus of “where to’s?”. All that walking around (and shopping bag holding by the guys) does work up a healthy appetite. And no one would have any idea where to go for lunch.
Everyone had all sorts of ideas. Here’s a typical example:
“Let’s go for dim sum!”
“Fast food sounds good!”
“Food court will be packed. How about the pub?”
“I’m okay with anything. You guys pick!”
“Sushi!”
“I don’t care as long as I eat something in the next 15 minutes!”
(For bonus points, can you guess which one was my catch phrase?)
Does this sound similar to your healing channel? I often find myself unsure of who to heal when I’m the odd Dwarf out in another Guild’s raid. There are no assignments being issued. It’s quite apparent that there seems to be a lack of an infrastructure. No one was taking charge. No one knows who to heal. All the healers are free healing which leads to an occasional tank death or 2.
During the 40 man raid chaos era, I found out quickly that it was impossible to do it all. I restricted myself to a set number of targets. Learn which players are most likely to take damage and stay on target. Don’t wander around with your mouse. Every spell, every action, every movement should be done with a purpose. Heal with a player and a purpose in mind.
This does not mean that it’s against the rules to heal outside your targets. If I notice another player in the raid who isn’t a part of my assignments take a big hit, I will switch to that player to shield and PoM them. That’s generally enough time to absorb another hit and it keeps that person alive long enough for someone else to pick them back up again.
Playing the transition game from 5 to 25 players is a big leap. It can be very difficult to adjust to. The problem isn’t your healing. It’s who you’re healing. And until you get those targets straightened out with your colleagues, you’re going to continue to suck without the proper direction.
Signs of an indecisive healer:
If you begin displaying any of these symptoms, take a step back and analyze your technique. Ask for help. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. There are times I’ve wanted to scream at players in my own raid because we wiped when they didn’t know what to do and they never spoke up about it. So the next time you’re in a raid and no one appears to be taking charge, announce your intentions about who your healing target is. It’s one step in the right direction.
Do you know when you’re considered popular?
When people on your server send you tells and in game mail asking you for advice and telling you that they read your blog. That’s when you know you’ve hit the big time.
In other news, I finished Professor Layton after 2 straight days of mental elastics. Now you know why the lapse in posts recently.
Several of my colleagues have already reported this. But players no longer need a key to get into Karazhan. What you do need is 1 player with a key to let everyone in. The concept is similar to that of Arcatraz.
As Eyonix said:
It’s not a matter of difficulty, really. We wanted to make it more alt friendly at this point. I’ve gotten my kara key on four characters, and have helped a dozen others. I’m really quite content with never having to work on the attunement quest for kara again. Also, you should note that at least one person in the raid will need the Master’s Key, as the gate will function much like Arcatraz or Shattered Halls.
My stance on this is that you’re responsible for the raid group you’re joining. If you’re leading it and don’t agree with having an undergeared player with the group, then you can just remove them from the raid. Karazhan isn’t as hard as it used to be when TBC first came out. A lot of the trash in the instance got removed. A lot of players understand how the fights work now. I wouldn’t be surprised to see players on their 5th alt running Karazhan (I’m on my 3rd).
I suppose the argument here is similar to that of noobs going into Black Temple. So what if they can get into Karazhan and BT and such? It doesn’t mean they’re going to succeed most of the time. And if they happen to be holding back your raid group, you have the right to remove them. If I get pickups who are interested in joining my group, I typically screen their gear and their spec first before saying yes or no. A simple check before hand can save many heartaches later.
It seems to me that there are some players out there who are too darn nice and don’t know how to uninvite someone from a party or a group. All that needs to happen is for the raid leader to right click their name and uninvite. Voila!
Problem solved.