What would you like to see covered in a healing article?

[Amamaeth]

For those of you who don't know, I've been keeping a blog as sort of a healing article / mini-guides area (see signature for link). So far I feel I've done an adequate job, my writing skills improve after each blog but I'm wondering, what topics would you like to see me cover?

I can speak pretty plainly about healing in general, and more advanced topics as it relates to priest, have a basic understanding of every other healing class (having leveled them all to at least 70) and can provide deeper insights with some minor research. So please, provide some suggestions on what you'd like to see discussed and I'll see what I can write.

Thanks for reading
-Ama

[Airowird]

1) You need to fix the link in your sig, new forums broke it
2) Something about ... hmmm ... raid healing and triage, deciding who to heal when and what stats help you best to do that (thinking SP/haste vs crit proccing inspiration, disc bubbles & druid heal buffs, shaman AA procs, ...). With the amount of raid dmg in ICC I think that's about the most useful healing topic atm.

[Amamaeth]

1) You need to fix the link in your sig, new forums broke it
2) Something about ... hmmm ... raid healing and triage, deciding who to heal when and what stats help you best to do that (thinking SP/haste vs crit proccing inspiration, disc bubbles & druid heal buffs, shaman AA procs, ...). With the amount of raid dmg in ICC I think that's about the most useful healing topic atm.

1) Yeah, I thought that was the correct link to the new blog, however it seems to only work after I take out the name, so hopefully it is fixed, thanks

2) I think I've touched on triage a bit in my latest article, and I'm not sure I could really expand on it much more. Stats I can do though, it will require some research as I'd probably want to go beyond just disc priests and involve many styles of play (like for FL vs HL pallies, Haste or spellpower for priests etc). Thanks for the suggestions

[Arielin]

hmm healing article. I would like to see maybe a justification for eithier needing or not needing certain heals in today's encounters. I meet allot of raid "leads" lately that get very I need this specific kind of healer. But can't then justify it for me. They say things like oh well shamans can raid heal.... ya well 1) i is a druid so can I and 2) so can every healer now adays with maybe pallies having the hardest time but still being able to.

Is there any reason you really MUST HAVE a certain healer anymore cause I don't see one much but I am running lower content atm since I haven't been in ICC yet.

Yes certain healers are nice but nice and need are different.

Also I would like something about disc priest they are my secret love and obsession though I don't have one yet and I am a big fan but allot of people seem to get down on them I don't get it. maybe just a lack of player skill on my battlegroup has led to bad rep idk.

u know u liked that ramble -_- I ramble oh so much
~Ari

[Amamaeth]

I had actually had planned to do an article on healing assignments after some research, I will probably go into the strengths of each healer in it. Thanks for the input

[Maèl]

Healing in itsself has become well understood but what I have never seen is articles/blogs about healing in teams. In many fights healers get incapacitated/killed/sacrificed or heals collide with another(which has become worse for me since PoH isn't restricted to own group anymore).
In 10 man adopting to something like that is rather easy since you bring 3 healers at most.
I am thinking about 25man raids. Let's say Tank healer 1 gets spiked by Marrowgar. All healers see this in Grid and immediately start tank healing while breaking their own assignment. This usually happens before it has been called out in Vent. Healers often react to stuff the instant it happens and sometimes the reactions are wrong. The very observant see this in the miliseconds before Grid shows the debuff(the loss of HP prior to the spike icon appearing on Grid is a tell-tale sign). I also have seen this happen on Rotface, NRB, Jaraxus...
The next interesting thing would be how not to snipe heals from each other while assigned to raid healing. The biggest problem I had seen here was with Resto shaman and priests due to the different targeting mechanisms of chain healing and prayer of healing.

So basically I haven't yet seen a guide what a healing team needs to agree upon before the fight, how to react to unforseen things during the fight and so on.
In some cases you will need UI adjustments(like showing survival cooldowns on raid members via grid so you don't waste your GS while the warrior has already popped SW before announcing it in Vent).
We've spent some time maximizing our own "HPS" as individualy but very little thought has gone into maximizing our effectivity as a raid.

[Eressëa]

Hmmm, I've always wanted to see an article written about how to get the most out of log analysis (e.g. worldoflogs.com). I myself can get the basics out of it (Like my top healing spells, overheal amount, etc) but I'm sure there's more information there that I don't know how to digest.

Maybe part of that could also be tips on how to tell what's going wrong in the raid while it's happening?


Wow.com had an article either today or yesterday in the priest column about the author (who is a priest) passing on loot that's an upgrade for her, but she thought it would benefit a dps the most. Her overall feeling was that healer's don't need as much high-level gear to do well whereas dps do. It sparked a lot of debate in the comments.


Maybe an article about healer rage (see #6)? I know I get grumpy from healing-through-stupid.

[Josemi]

I'm now on the verge of getting my first healer to 80 (a resto shammie). As I level him, I have run some dungeons and find 5 mans relatively easy to heal because the number of healing targets is quite manageable. However, I have no idea what to expect on 10 and 25 person raids.

I know that raid healers are assigned specific targets or groups, but I'm not quite sure how that works in practice. Am I supposed to concern myself with those targets/groups only? When can/should I help to heal other targets? If a healer dies, who is supposed to heal that healer's targets? What panels should I have up on my screen? Should I try to put out small amounts of dps in between heals?

Therefore, I would be immensely interested in a beginner's guide to raid healing or article of that nature, that can answer some of those questions and many others that can potentially come up for a healer just beginning his/her raid healing ways.

Thank you.

[Amamaeth]

I'm now on the verge of getting my first healer to 80 (a resto shammie). As I level him, I have run some dungeons and find 5 mans relatively easy to heal because the number of healing targets is quite manageable. However, I have no idea what to expect on 10 and 25 person raids.

I know that raid healers are assigned specific targets or groups, but I'm not quite sure how that works in practice. Am I supposed to concern myself with those targets/groups only? When can/should I help to heal other targets? If a healer dies, who is supposed to heal that healer's targets? What panels should I have up on my screen? Should I try to put out small amounts of dps in between heals?

Therefore, I would be immensely interested in a beginner's guide to raid healing or article of that nature, that can answer some of those questions and many others that can potentially come up for a healer just beginning his/her raid healing ways.

Thank you.

There are actually many guides out there and they generally focus on beginning raiders. For assignments, as a beginner, you should stick to your assigned players exclusively. I actually just wrote a blog that goes into healing deviation, that is when you should stray from your assignments and it can be pretty complicated. Please take a read

[Blue]

Hi, Amamaeth,

I'd like to see something along the lines of positioning, for the various healing classes, especially Disc Priests. In 5-man, and/or raid encounters. Things like, what to look out for, and how to avoid needless damage, tips on how to heal, while moving, especially in fights like Faction Champs, or even Wintergrasp pug groups, and random Heroics...

For reference, I'm still pretty new to healing, and I'm finding that I seem to be able to "stay in range" to the tank, but will sometimes not be shifting to a better spot, at times. I know this probably comes with experience, but any insight would be helpful.

Thanks...

[Amamaeth]

Thanks for all the input so far, keep them coming