Revisiting the Healing Circle

Ever gone skydiving as a group before? That’s probably a no. I know I haven’t. Would crap my pants if I did.

There’s a whole element of trust that’s going on up there especially when pulling off different formations. People need to know what to do, when to do it and where they need to be. Healing in raids has that similar mindset.

Thanks to Rooster for asking me to fill out one of these for 4.2. It’s certainly been a while!

Name, class and spec: [A] Matticus, Holy Priest (Ner’zhul)

What is your primary group healing environment? 25 man progression raiding

What is your favourite healing spell for your class and why?

Guardian Spirit. Such an elegant spell. A snap of a wrist and what could be dead is instead alive. Under the right circumstances, it separates a mediocre Holy Priest from a truly exceptional Holy Priest. Use it for extra power and brute force healing or use it as a form of finesse. Only the ballsiest of healers would even consider using Guardian Spirit and intentionally stop healing to trigger the proc and resume healing again.

What healing spell do you use least for your class and why?

 Heal. I’ve started phasing it out of my spell usages. It just doesn’t do enough anymore. It’s level of efficiency is amazing but in this environment, that efficiency goes out the window when you’re relying on bomb heals or fast heals.

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why?

Our flexibility allows us to remain competitive and diverse. We can respond to any number of situations with different spells. We can squeeze into multiple demanding roles. If you’re out there recruiting a healer and you’re not sure which class to go for, you can almost never go wrong with recruiting a priest.

What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why?

The fact that we don’t have as much fashion selection as the other classes. The spirit cloth is lacking in drops. I know the rest of it comes from valor, vendors and crafting. On a more serious note, I can’t think of any significant weaknesses right now that I can’t play around.

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you?

I thrive under high pressure situations. I love having the hard assignments. Anything that involves moving, dispelling, dodging  or other complicated mechanics are the ones I volunteer for first.

Which healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why?

No preference! If I had to pick a class, probably Shaman. Can’t go wrong with Shaman. Actually, I’d rather just have their Mana Tide totem. Don’t need the Shaman!

What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why?

Druids. They make me look bad. Other than that, from a leads perspective, they don’t offer much raid utility other than Tranquility and Rebirth. Other healing classes have great mitigation or resistance cooldowns that I can use on a larger scale. I can use them pre-emptively and not be wrong. With Tranquility, if I use it too early I end up having wasted healing. If I call for it too late, I’ll have deaths. It’s not that I don’t like pairing with them in raids. It just feels like there is an extremely fine line in maximizing the spell.

What is your worst habit as a healer?

I tend to frontload my spells a lot. By the time we get to the last part of an encounter, I’m usually scraping the bottom of the mana pool barrel. I try to compensate for this by getting a better read of how long the fight is expected to take and coordinating my trinkets and consumables accordingly.

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing?

Getting blamed for healing problems when it’s not a healing problem. Apparently every problem can be solved with getting better healers. Sometimes it is a healing problem. But usually, the root cause can be traced to movement, coordination or assignments. I’ve written a healing blog for years. I’ve been hired specifically to contribute my expertise to WoW Insider as a healing columnist. Lack of healers has never been a problem because we have so much depth in place. I will never rest until I have a slam dunk healing corps. It’s difficult for non-healers to understand and read how healing meters operate. Because of this, we’re placed under a microscope and compared numerically across World of Logs.

Generally, it’s not a healing throughput problem. It’s a healing smarts problem except it gets magnified when it’s a tank or a healer who makes the mistake.

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing? Y

Yes. Considering Priests didn’t get any significant buffs or nerfs, it appears we’re right where we’re supposed to be overall.

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer?

• World of Logs: The logs don’t lie and I can see a list of details of what happened and what didn’t.
• Fraps: In addition to making kill videos, I use the footage just to watch myself play and see if there’s anything that can be improved on. In between attempts, I’ll watch the videos to see what events led up to a wipe. Sometimes it’s something as simple as using the wrong spell or being in the wrong place.
• Phoenix Style: It’s a type of fail addon that lists significant debuffs that players get

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class?

That Holy Priests are unable to tank healing and Disc Priests are unable to raid heal. We can do them. We may not be the best selection for it, but it doesn’t mean we’re completely crippled. Ask a healer to do the job and let them handle the method.

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn?

Decision making. Some healing spells are more “righter” than others to use. In other cases it doesn’t matter. For example, when it comes to single target healing you can use several combinations:

• A shield and a Renew
• 1 Greater Heal
• 2 Flash Heal
• A Prayer of Mending and Holy Word: Serenity

Pick one and run with it. If your spell usage is incorrect, at least you’ll know next time. A pattern I notice in new Priests (and new healers) is that there tends to be some cases where they just sit there and nothing is being done. It’s as if they’re overthinking it too much and trying to decide between the next move to use. Unlike DPS classes, healing has many right answers.

Remember that indecision is a decision and is rarely correct.

If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer via recount, what sort of patterns would they see?

I need someone to audit me. I tend to be all over the place. Perhaps the most common theme is lack of efficiency. I’m so paranoid of letting players die that I’ll use a bomb heal when a smaller one would’ve done the job. I end up paying the price for it late in the encounter anyway.

Haste or Crit and why?

Haste, no contest. Although Crit isn’t as bad as it used to be.

What healing class do you feel you understand least? They’re all overwhelming in their own ways. Even Priests.

What addons or macros do you use to aid you in healing?

Grid and Vuhdo are the two big ones I’ve traditionally used. For the time being, it’s just Grid. Look into the Grid_QuickHealth.

Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats or do you stack some much higher than others and why?

This really depends on the spec I’m playing. If I’m raid healing as Holy, I’ll dump everything into Haste. If I’m tank healing and Discipline, I’ll invest points into Mastery and Crit.

I’m directing the questionnaire to Lodur and the rest of the Matticast crew. If I have to do it, it’s only fair for the minions rest of the team to do it as well!