I Can Haz Instanz?

When everyone starts healing they suck. Like a lot. A lot lot. You will probably freak out, you will more than likely overheal, you will go oom and you will die, not necessarily in that order.

So whaddya need to do? Not freak out. End of story /lessonover /demandspayment ... ok, maybe there's more to it than that.

First thing is to wait, if you start spamming quick heals .5 seconds after the start of a pull you are going to pull aggro and die. So wait. I know it's hard, people are losing health, you're going into cardiac arrest, just chill. Tank reaches 70-75% health, start a "long bomb" (whatever your big heal may be). If you be a tree druid in the later levels you can start that regrowth a bit later cause it be quicker and properly specced will probably crit, thus the aggroes. At this point you evaluate; the heal lands and your tank is now at: A. The same level of health or above; B. Less than 50% health; C. Dead.

Special Note to Priests and Shaman for da' later levels: The aggro component of Prayer of Mending and Earth Shield is not attributed to the healer, but to the person healed, so you can start that baby off from the get go (and I suggest you do) and re-up it on the tank whenever you can

Special-er Note to Priests: For tanks that haz anger issues aka "Rage" Power Word: Shield = teh noes. Damage they take generates rage which translates into potential aggro for them, and nothing pisses them off more then a Power Word: Shield fuggering that up. If things look really dire mid-fight, like they've been affected by something that lessens healing and you can't keep up, you do it no matter what the hell they say.

SO what do you do?
Situation A: Awesome, you haz a real tank, wait a sec and start yourself another long bomb. Druids can just finish HoT'ing the tank up. (Rejuvination, Lifebloom, etc)
Situation B: Eh, your tank maybe be squishy or the pull may be big, throw out a quick heal or two until they're back to 60% or so and start up a long bomb if the situation doesn't look deadly.
Situation C: Your tank is nearly as squishy as you if not squishier. Get out, Get out now


What about the DPS? Can't just let them die can you? Maybe if they annoy you, but you gotta at least make it look like you're trying. /shiftyeyes

Quick question: Why is the DPSer taking damage?
1. Did he/she get antsy/st00pid and pull the group themselves?
2. Did he/she start attacking .01 seconds after tank and is continuing to go apesh!t?
3. Is he/she attacking the wrong target?
4. Did he/she wait 3-4 seconds like a good lil' minion of doom and the tank can't hold aggro off someone swinging a wet paper bag at the mob?
5. Was he/she trying to keep something under crowd control and it resisted/got out on him/her?
6. Something unavoidable like sudden AoE?

These don't all require their own strategy, just allows you to split them into categories.

1-3 are Dipshit DPS, they need a good /rolledupnewpaper, but for now hopefully they're doing enough damage to warrant the mana output. Stick to instant casts and quick heals when necessary, and do your best to weave them in between tank heals. So after a good long bomb on the tank toss them an instant or a quick heal and then go straight back to the tank, maybe tossing an instant or quick on him/her to make up for the lost time if he's/she's below that 50% mark.

What about 4-6? They be the good guys/gals. You want them alive because they aren't making your job a pain in the ass, and that's about as much as you can ask most of the time. They deserve a little more spammination than the others, but if you have to throw more than a quick or two and an instant they're doing something wrong, or something in and of itself is wrong.

So whaddya do if you're constantly in situations B,1, 2 and 3? Ya get good or ya get gone. End of story. If you wanna learn to heal, these situations (as much as they will piss you off) will teach you a lot about what to do when sh!t hits the fan. So if you're starting a new healer, learn to use the LFG tool and get yourself in as many PUGs (Pick Up Groups) as possible. You'll spend a lot of time frustrated to start off with, but eventually what to do and when to do it will become as natural as breathing. And if you can do both the healing and the breathing thing at the same time you are golden.

Now does this mean you should always stick with a terrible group for the "learning experience?" Fawk noes! If the tank is the squishiest of squishbots and/or the DPS can't manage their threat worth a damn, tell them so and GTFO, Hearthing whenever possible for comedic/dramatic effect.

/lessonover /demandspayment ... /tapsfoot ... fine

Squishbots, Roll Out!