Hey guys!
You can find many guides on healing, I personally like Icy Veins for the generic healers guide as well as their fairly indepth class specific guides myself but I figured I'd put my own take on healing and then give a few examples as to how I address certain situations.
As a disclaimer, the classes I have the most experience healing and raid healing on are Mistweaver Monks, Holy Paladins, and Restoration Shamans. Any advice I give for the other healing classes is purely opinion and game knowledge not based on true experience with them. Heavy sarcasm in reference to preists especially. Please keep in mind this is not intended as a class guide, more like a somewhat in depth generality of healing guide with heavier focus on the classes I do know, namely Monks and Paladins.
First and foremost, healing is not rotational when compared to say a DPS class. There may be certain combinations or spells you chain together within a rotation, but sometimes the best thing for a healer to be doing is not healing at all. This is because of overhealing. Overhealing for many classes is inevitable, but to see if you are doing good as a healer I personally find gauging my overhealing as the best marker. Overhealing is just wasted mana and time, both things a healer desires to manage well. Understanding when to heal, and when not, is a core concept for all healers to employ.
There are 6 healing classes in the game, all with their pros and cons. Since I have experience with 3 of them I will briefly mention what I feel they are strong and bad at personally but I will be trying to get the opinions of my fellow raiders here as well.
Mistweaver Monk:
A healing spec best described as a mix of all the previous spec's before MoP and is both a reactive and proactive healing style.
Pro ÔÇô High mobility, high burst, high range, high raid coverage, unique mana management with near infinite mana at high spirit, ability to swap stances for substantial dps if healing not required, Revival and Life Cocoon are solid cd's, potential to stun with talents
Con ÔÇô Unique Mana management with poor mana at low spirit, Spells cost alot due to mana tea mechanic, ramp up time for healing requires both proactive and reactive play style, like all monks very few personal CD's, thunder focus tea is a very lackluster short cd, healing between 3-5 targets substantially less efficient and clunky than healing 6+ targets which is more prevalent when trying to do 5 man content than in raids. Fist-weaving requires proper planning as you now must swap to Crane Stance in order to have access to your melee abilities and simultaneously lose access to your healing abilities (CD's and dispel still accessible but weaker).
Holy Paladin:
Highly reactive, with some minor proactive spells with very strong single target healing
Pro- Immortal like CD's though Devotion aura, Avenging Wrath, Blessing of Protection, Blessing of Sacrifice, Lay on Hands, and Blessing of Freedom. Very efficient and strong tank healer thanks to double beacons and the way that mechanic works. Strong single target healing and healing between 1-5 targets
Con- Worst mobility of all healers, only one actual heal that's usable while not moving but outside of cd's everything requires a cast bar. Worst raid healing WHEN COMPARED to other healers, still fully capable of raid healing but it's a much more demanding task on pallys than say a monk, druid or priest (both specs). The DPS from a pally is very boring, you only have one attack and it's denounce.
Restoration Shaman:
I like to think of a shaman as the jack of all trades personally for healing. A reactive healer, they are good at everything, specializing in nothing. They have good healing all around, but don't excel at one particular heal more than other classes. Strong raid CD's, Personal cd's, access to a HoT but also solid single target healing.
Pros ÔÇô Spirit Link totem is both a unique and strong cd to Shaman, Healing Tide is a strong raid heal, Shamans handle all forms of damage fairly well as they have solid single target healing through Healing and Surging Wave, Chain heal + riptides for 3+ targets, Healing Rain for extra 6+ healing as well as the personal healing boost provided by Ascension towards all the aforementioned spells. Mastery for shaman is very strong for progression content. DPS on a shaman healer is nearly the same as Elemental making not healing phases more enjoyable than a pally imo.
Cons- While better mobility than a pally thanks to ghost wolf speed and spirit walk cd, Shaman are still very turret style healers with lower mobility than monks, druids, and priests. Shaman mastery is a double edged sword, if the raid takes less damage (A natural occurrence due to knowing the fights better etc) they also will heal for less.
Origins Thoughts...
Spoiler: show
Restoration Druid:
From Gilroykilroy - Druid healing is more pro-active than re-active since it is mostly all HoTs. You will overheal. Its also more group oriented than single target since you just try to keep HoTs up on as many people as possible.
Pros ÔÇô Lots of healing. A well played druid heals for a lot. High mobility, on par and arguably higher than a monk due to having access to 80% of healing spells while on the move. Very proactive healing style is easy to understand but challenging and difficult to master. Raid healing through Tranquility and HoT's is the best of all healers imo and many others as Tranq easily overheals 50% of it's total healing while topping off the raid.
Cons ÔÇô Overhealing will happen, an unfortunate but unavoidable side effect of the sheer amount of healing provided. Burst healing from druids while strong is weaker imo than other classes IN COMPARISON for single targets.Changes to druid this expansion have placed a higher emphasis on mana management as they lost Innervate (though spells were apparently adjusted to compensate).
Gilroys thoughts...
Spoiler: show
I don't use Genesis much because it requires Rejuv's on people first. Alas for Tranq you have to be able to stand still while it channels. Nothing like casting Tranq and then getting poo under you. Sometimes, for the good of the raid, I will just stand still and heal through it.Holy Priests
( I hope to have either Mox, Grim, or both comment on how this spec plays but I will post what I do know about the spec in the mean time)
Holy priests have their own stance mechanic through Chakra's and are strong raid healers through their hot's and cd's in one Chakra while being strong for single target/tank heals int he other.
Pros ÔÇô Higher mobility, though lower than monks and druids, still have access to a few spells while on the move. High raid healing, comparable to druids and monks in strength.
Cons ÔÇô I can't name specifics, but the biggest con coming from a raiding perspective is that they don't excel currently at anything that isn't already covered by or better by another class. While they are solid and strong healers at both single and raid, for the most part the respective healing roles can be fulfilled easier/better by other classes. Their big raid heal is numerically weaker than both Revival, Healing Tide, and Tranquility. They have no single target mitigation like their Disc counterparts in Pain Suppresion. The biggest con that I can think of for preists atm is how underrepresented and unappreciated they arel at no fault of their own. IMO Blizzard has done a poor job in balancing Holy Priests with other healers and I would like for them to gain a new, unique raid CD that helps to balance out the issue that is currently the driving stigma towards Holy priests being the inferior healer to bring to a raid. I feel something along the line of an angel form of infinite mana (currently their death mechanic) becoming a 3 min cd instead of being accessed upon death would alleviate basically all issues of Holy Priest healing.
Grimmie Thoughts...
Spoiler: show
Spoiler: show
The most proactive healer of all time. Their bubble is known across the land as OP, sniping all the heals and topping all the charts. Playful jest aside, Disc is currently one of the strongest healers in the game, with very strong proactive heals, cd's, and utility for the raid.
Pros ÔÇô Mobile, the highest heal on their charts, Power Word: Shield, is instant, huge, and can crit with their mastery making it even bigger AND it's an absorb so it basically can't overheal. Lack of a healing raid CD is made up for with their Power Word: Barrier and the ability to blanket the raid preemptively in bubbles. Combined with their crits also causing absorbs through their normal healing, Discs make excellent additions to the raid for both tank and raid healing. They also have Pain Suppression, I believe the strongest external mitigation useable on tanks/ high damage intake targets.
Cons ÔÇô Again, this is highly opinionated but because PW:S is so strong it is also all that you are doing as a disc the majority of the time leading to a very repetitive play style. They also heal better before damage has occurred, so improper planning will make a disc priests healing not nearly as impactful. Their dps is limited to smite spam and Atonement got the nerf bat this expansion to the point of near uselessness.
In the following paragraphs I will address what I consider the main scenarios a healer will encounter and how I feel best to use your time for each scenario.
The following are each scenario I will be discussing
1. What to do when you don't need to heal
2. What to do when only light healing is required
3. What to do when moderate damage has happened
4. What to do when 3+ have taken moderate damage
5. What to do if your tank is dying
6. What to do if your raid is dying
1. What to do when you don't need to heal
Mistweaver Monk (MW) :
The highest dps healer by far this expansion. What they lack in utility offered by other classes they make up for in their ability to deal a fairly substantial amount of damage to the target/boss when their healing is not required. This is of course the class I main and love to death.
MW's actually have a rotation to follow while dpsing that very closely resembles the dps spec of monks, the Windwalker. You want to maintain uptime on your self buff Tigers Palm, as well as the buff gained from Blackout Kick, Crane's Zeal. Once those two abilities are in place you just hit Rising Sun Kick until you can't, and generate chi with Expel harm or Jab respectively.
Holy Paladin (HPal):
Their dps is not nearly as exciting, nor as high, as a MW but compared to other classes Paladins are capable of noticeable dps. You simply spam their ranged attack Denounce when you aren't healing.
Restoration Shaman (RS):
A more exciting dps healer, though the actual damage output isn't fantastic it's still better than doing absolutely nothing. A resto shaman's rotation is actually nearly identical to an Elemental shaman, the only spell they use instead is Frost shock over Earth shock. You put up flame shock, place your searing totem down, cast Lava Burst on cooldown, and otherwise you are using Lightning Bolt/Chain Lightning as all your damage spells cost 0 mana when glyphed (it might be all the time now).
Restoration Druid (RD):
Druid healer is the one I know the least about, but I know enough about their class to know what spells they have available to dps. My understanding is you can throw up a moonfire for the DoT and then you spam Wrath, which when talented actually heals similar to the Fistweaving MW. At lower levels going cat form is a completely viable dps option but I don't know if that holds out at higher levels. Since you are still considered ranged it probably endangers the raid as well so I wouldn't advise it anyways.
Holy/Disc Priest (HP/DP):
Though the specs play vastly different, the way a preist dps is the same for the most part no matter which spec is chosen. You still have acces to Shadow Word: Pain, Holy get Holy Fire as an extra spell but you are otherwise spamming the ranged spell Smite if nothing needs heals.
What to do when only light healing is required!
I consider light healing scenarios any situation where HoT's and smaller smart heals are sufficient healing. Usually you can mix in what you do when you aren't healing into this as light heals won't require the bigger heals from any class
MW :
Fortunately for a MW, what you do when light healing is required is essentailly the same as what you do when no healing is required, as MW get to heal through their passive and Statues Emminence for a total of 100% of their damage delt as healing to nearby allies. I like to swap to the healing stance and throw out my renewing mists just for the HoT but this isn't specifically required nor always the best option
HPal:
HPal's are the worst contestant for light damage in my opinion as non of their heals are particularly light or resource light. I tend to use Holy Shock on CD and if I can Crusader Strike for more holy power, and use Eternal Flame on targets with 1-2 HP. Honestly for a paladin you might be better off just pooling HP and throwing out Holy Lights where appropriate. Place your beacons on the tank as well as a 3 holy power eternal flames and you're all set for light damage.
RS:
Using healing stream totem and placing riptide on the injured allies is the lightest you can go for healing as a shaman.
RD:
Light healing can be covered by a RD's Rejuvination and Lifebloom spells. If you talent it even the dps healing from Wrath is fine for here
HP:
Use of circle of healing, with renew probably covers what I would consider light healing. Continuing dps during light damage is probably optimal
DP:
Disc is similar to a Pally in that they don't really have a light healing option. With the way Disc healing works however, using the light healing phase to cover the raid in what DP does for basically all damage is likely a great use of your time i.e. Spam power word shield on everything and your mom. Otherwise, DP do still do small atonement healing. You can prep the angel wings from Atonement for higher damage phases that are coming as well.
What to do when moderate damage has happened
Moderate damage is damage taken that light healing will no longer suffice in restoring the allies health pool. This is basically for 1-2 targets who have taken damage that is netiher lethal nor light and can no longer be sustained via small HoT's or similar spells.
MW:
This is where a MW can really shine, but also fall short depending on what exactly is going on.
If it's just one target (i.e. Your tank) and they are not in immediate danger of death, placing a renewing mists and using soothing mist should suffice. If the target is in danger of dying, you can also use surging mists while channeling soothing, and if they are still dying you can place enveloping mists on them and continue channeling soothing. MW are extremely bursty when it comes to single target healing compared to many other classes.
HPal:
The beauty of HPal really shines when there' s only 1-5 targets in need of healing. Thanks to their double beacons, they actually efficiently can heal up to 3 targets with just a single cast of Holy Light or Flash of light. If a target is in danger of death, the best thing to do as a HP is spam Flash of Light on them.
RS:
Strong healer for this kind of damage, as riptide + healing wave/healing surge spam for is usually enough. Be sure ot have Earth Shield up on a tank (the one currently taking damage)at all times as it's nearly free healing.
RD:
Another strong contestant for consistant damage, but they don't specifically heal single targets any better than they do multiple. Rejuv blankets with wild growth being used is great for basically any healing for 2 or more targets. Use of Regrowth when the free one procs or if the target is in danger of death on single targets is also what druids can use
HP:
Continuing circle of healing and renews for healing 2 or more targets. Use of Heal, or Flash Heal, binding heal if the priest needs healing themselves. Holy priest also has access to Power Word Shield, but should be wary of that spells use should they be in a healing team with a DP.
DP:
As I mentioned before, DP heals the same basically for all scenarios. The biggest difference here is you can probably weave in Penance where needed as it is a strong single target heal. Otherwise contiuning the use of Disc's OP Power Word Shield is your best bet.
What to do when 3+ have taken moderate damage
MW:
A MW heals 2-5 targets almost the same as they would heal just 1, as none of their spells are particularly optimal for only 2-5 targets of healing. The weakest point for a MW is absolutely if only 2-5 targets require healing as Uplift is not very efficient without 6 targets being healed by it and the other heals cost alot for less results. You use your single target healing for this amount of targets
6+ targets MW heal by using Renewing Mists on 6+ Rushing Jade Wind in groups and otherwise spamming their chi on Uplift which is god like for 6+ raid damage
HPal:
More than 5 targets you technically can heal but even I'm pretty sure you just leave that to your monks and druids and shamans and priests. Sorry Pallys. If you are raid healing you continue doing what you'd do for only up to 5. You can throw out their aoe spell but it's pretty bad compared to any other aoe heal ever.
RS:
Chain heal spam for 4-6 is a pretty great amount of healing. Placing down a healing rain on clustered group is also ideal for sustained damage.
RD:
Rejuv blanket, Wildgrowth, and the effect from Swiftmend on the ground is great for 6+ targets. The mushroom is also good to use during this amount of people taking damage
HP:
You begin to mix in Prayer of Healing when this amount of people are taking damage, continuing your use of circle of healing, and renews as well.
Disc:
Dat bubble doh
What to do if your tank is dying
MW:
Life Cocoon + Soothing Mists + Surging Mists + Enveloping Mists. If they are still dying start praying to RNGesus because nothing should still be dying after all that
Hpal:
Lay on Hands and basque in your awesomeness. ALTERNATIVELY Wings + Flash of Light spam + Blessing of Sacrifice on the tank
RS:
Unleash life Buff + Natures Swiftness/Healing wave combo+ healing surge spam. Riptides and Earth Shield should already be on your tanks. Possibly use Ascension if it's really bad, ideally used for raid healing though.
RD:
All HoT's should be on tank + Swiftmend + NS Regrowth. Possibly Genesis. Ask Gilroykillroy for this one folks
HP:
Power Infusion + Spam heals... right? (I don't know HP emergency heals sorry Priests)
DP:
Power infusion + Bubble+Penance+Pain Suppression. I guess you can use heal from your spellbook too because I know it's not on your bars Discs!
What to do if your raid is dying
MW: Step 1 ÔÇô Make sure Revival isn't on CD
Step 2 ÔÇô Wait until everybody almost dies, and be within 40 yds of everyone
Step 3 - Cast Revival
Step 4- Nuclear explosion of heals
Step 5 ÔÇô Top charts (see RD)
Hpal: Cry, hit wings, hit holy prism, spam stuff, stop crying because you are awesome at healing with wings on and use Devo Aura.
RS: Healing Tide + Spirit Link + Ascension + all the healing everrrrrr
RD: Make sure you don't have to move, cast Tranquility. Laugh at monks who think they top charts with Revival
HP: Go roll a druid... if you don't do that use Divine Hymn and then cry because HP's really got the short stick this expansion
DP: Lull bubble. I guess they have Barrier too. Power Infusion?
Hope this helps anybody who's interested in healing, or at least gets a few chuckles.
- Dhaxis
