The ABC’s of Raid Healing – the Evens

 
Image courtesy of RobK

After spending my precious non-WoW time on Age of Conan, I felt it was time for a break. For a blog post, why not write up the ABC’s of raid healing? But it was late. This column was penned at around 12 in the morning. 

For once, I needed help. A quick glance at the Blog Azeroth chatroom showed some idle activity but I found the name I was looking for. Anna, with speed that not even Nature’s Swiftness could rival, agreed to team up with me to write this post. She tackled the odds and I took the evens. Here’s what I came up with. Don’t forget to check out the other half on Too Many Annas when you finish!

Brain heal: When in doubt, bring more Resto Shamans.

Don’t lose confidence in your abilities as a healer.

Forget the naysayers. Break your healing problems down to the simplest level and try to solve each one individually.

Heal. Heal more. Heal fast. Heal smart. Heal now.

Just when you think it’s over and your raid will wipe because you’re fresh out of mana, the boss will die. Good work!

Line of sight. Don’t ever lose it. Precious seconds lost because you were readjusting to the tanks position could mean an imminent wipe.

No matter how tempting it may seem, don’t try to over extend yourself. You’ll end up burning up your mana faster when it should’ve been saved for your main assignments.

Prayer of Healing, Chain Heal, Binding Heal, Circle of Healing, and Tranquility are some of the best multi-target healing spells in the game. Understand the most opportune times to cast those spells on your group. Start forcing yourself to use them. A 3 second cast to heal the entire group is better then Flash Healing for 7.5 seconds to get your group to full.

Read up on raid strategies and boss fights before hand. Knowledge truly is power. By understanding what kind of damage you’re up against, you can develop countermeasures against it.

Use your Mana Potions, trinkets, and other mana returning abilities wisely. Time them well and the mana you get back will sustain yourself for the entire fight. Time it poorly and the raid will sit around not laughing as you stand, manaless, in the comedy spotlight.

‘Xamine your UI. Do you really need all that crap on your screen as a healer? What can you do away with? What can you not heal without? Are you being overloaded with information that you don’t really need?

Zealous healers make the best healers. It’s hard to show enthusiasm and excitement. But the ones that do are the ones your Guild wants to keep.