Category Archives: Healing

Eluna does challenge modes

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As I have stated before, I’m back to healing on my druid Elunamakata; it’s really my favorite thing to do on her…if the content is challenging. Well Kurby is always up for a challenge!  He has started us in challenge modes and heroic scenarios lately. They are indeed challenging!

My first challenge mode was Mogu’shan Palace, and we finished it on bronze the first go through.  We managed to redo it and nab a silver that same night.  However, I could have performed so much better if I had actually prepared ahead of time. Here are are a few things I wish I had done before embarking on challenge modes.

1. Reevaluate my talents and glyphs. I went in the instance with the exact talents and glyphs I use for raiding. In fact I haven’t reevaluated those talents in a while period. Not the most wise choice!

2. Consumables. I brought a few mana pots, yes, but I didn’t have any water, buff food, elixirs or other useful consumables geared towards timed runs at all.

3. Awareness. I knew it would be challenging but what I didn’t prepare for was stepping up to assist more with crowd control and even dps as needed.

Admittedly I still need to work on my spec, both for raiding 10 mans as well as challenge mode heroics. I have since read up on consumables such as restorative amber and invisibility potions that I would normally never use. I have plans to improve my user interface to allow easier spell usage between healing and casting, though not quite implemented yet.

All of these things will make our challenge modes run smoother along with strategy of course. What tips do you have for someone just heading into challenge modes?

There’s this patch on the PTR and it’s driving me crazy!

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As my regular readers know, I’ve went to work full time!  Yay!  However, this leaves me with lots of obligation and very little time.  Boo!  I will be taking my Guides down until I have time to update them, however, I will leave some great links up for the various healing blogs being written out there!  If you write a healing blog that you’d like shared, please let me know!

I will leave my farming/cooking guide up for now, as *most* of the info it contains is not going to be outdated when the patch drops!

While I do NOT plan to stop writing entirely at this time, my posts are going to become even less frequent as a result of little time and minimal time healing this expansion thus far.  I do plan to update my guides and have them back up once the patch hits and there are resources to link to (and I have time to actually put them together!)

My Healer Resource Guide as is:

http://healingmains.com/guides/healer-resources/

We are always looking for more resources, so if you’d like to be included, OR know a source that would be a nice addition, please let me know in the comments!

Two Weeks!

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Not only has it been two weeks since I’ve last posted, I’ve also got two weeks before I start a new full time job!  Merry Christmas to me!  Woo!

However, this does mean that my posts will be fewer in number, and very much less focused on healing unfortunately.  While healing is still the thing I enjoy most in game, I have been playing as Guardian/Boomkin since Pandaria launched (other than a few times healing while we had a healer on vacation).

I’m still very much planning to heal on my Shaman and Priest and possibly a Pally and Monk, I just don’t know how much time I’m going to have to focus any energy on them specifically while running the guild and keeping my main character raid ready.

That being said, I will still be here and maintaining the blog!  I just may post more about generalized stuff than healing specific things.  If any of you readers would like to guest post, please drop me an email at eluna @ mydomain.com  ;-)

LFM Resto Shaman and Mistweaver Monk Bloggers!

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I am looking to update my guide sections over the next couple of weeks!  However, I am lacking in Resto Shaman and Mistweaver Monk bloggers!  If you are, or know any shaman or monk bloggers who would like to be a part of my guide, please have them contact me (or leave their link in my comments!).  If you happen to blog about other healing classes in wow, and would like to also be included, please let me know!

I will be converting my Elemental Shaman to Restoration over this week, and hopefully I will have a nice blog about it up before Christmas!

My new healer is max level…now…how do these buttons work?

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Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve gotten two of my alts to level 90…first my shaman, then my hunter.  Now my hunter is a gatherer and she was maxed specifically to gather.  My shaman on the other hand..well, I want to play her as a healer/dps…but the truth of the matter is I’ve never really done much healing on her.  What to do?  Well…currently I’m playing her as elemental to gather some gear.  But also I’ve got a few other things I’ve been doing to help me transition.

First, since I play another healing class that I’m quite familiar with, I can head over to  Cannot Be Tamed where Jasyla has compared the various healing spells of all the classes….I can learn to shaman by looking at the chart to see what spells compare to healing like a druid.  While it won’t teach me the nuances of the class, it will help me to start healing.  If you’ve never healed before, it will take more time to learn, but it will help you to figure out how to compare your spells to other classes.

Next I would head over to Icy-Veins to check out what most people are using for stat priorities and glyphs, as well as gemming…but while it can help me with quick glyph choices and such, I will head to Mr Robot to look at my reforging needs.  Generally I start with the recommended things, then I customize to my own play-style.  Both sites are great  for people like me who trust other people to do the math, and thus don’t need to know the equation, just the answers.

Lastly I also tend to go to the Class specific blog, in this case, I would head over to Life in Group 5.  While I like the quick, no nonsense ease of using generalized guide for getting my glyphs and such lined up, when I’m learning a class I find reading about the class by someone who plays it makes it easier to identify.  I also can read the comments to their blogs to see if others had the same questions as I may have.

If you are a new healer, having never healed at all before, the best way to learn is to honestly get out there and heal.  I’ve seen suggestions of hopping into pvp, where folks are used to dying, to learn how your spells work.  I have not tried that method, as all of my other healers were leveled as healers until at least level 85!

Who’s the best healer for the job?

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As someone who went from a shadow priest who’d never raided before, to co-leading a guild within the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, I’ve had my stumbling ground when it comes to deciding how to best approach the healing assignments in a fight.  And it was stumbling at first…I really didn’t know much about the other healing classes, and not only that, I was making my decisions base on the healing class, not the healer.  While healing today is much different than healing in Wrath, overall, some classes are suited to one role or the other.

Paladins are, in general, better suited to tank healing, they *can* successfully raid heal, but in general, they thrive better with tank healing.  Discipline priests are strong tank healers, but they lack the aoe of a holy priest.  Holy priests can be wonderful tank healers, so long as they aren’t also responsible for cranking out raid aoe healing at the same time…which can be said about all healing classes.  They can perform both roles, just not at the same time.  (I haven’t yet healed on my Monk, so I can’t really talk about the state of monk healing!)

More importantly though, is the play-style of the healer.  Some people are really great at tank healing (no matter their class) and others *coughs* Kurby *coughs* can’t focus on just one person and make much better raid healers.  Talking with your healing team is a good way to find out who may be suited to a particular role.  Also observation is key, if you’re trying to figure out how your team is going to work together, look at the logs and see who tends to focus and who tends to spread the love.  If your assigned tank healer spends most of their time healing the raid, and the other healers are healing the tanks, perhaps the assignments should be adjusted.  Don’t be rigid in your decisions if it isn’t working!

 

Guide Section Added

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We’ve added pages with links to the Mists of Pandaria Guides!

Gear Lists for Pre Raiding:
http://healingmains.com/mists-of-pandaria-gear-lists/

Guides for Healing after 5.0.4

http://healingmains.com/mists-of-pandaria-class-guides504/

Be sure to check there if you are looking for information on your healing class and/or gear going into Mists of Pandaria!  If you’ve got a gear list or guide you’d like to have featured, drop me an email at Eluna (at) healing mains (dot) com (without the spaces and with the symbols!) and I’ll get it added :-)

I do still plan on adding a guide of healer consumables and the mats needed for them in the near future!

Big thanks to the linked blogs/sites for publishing their content for us to view.  I do not own, nor claim to have contributed to any content linked.

 

The secret meaning behind healer comments

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This post is meant entirely to be funny, no actual raid members were harmed in the creation of this post….mostly

How about a nice light post for today?  Well here you go:

What your healer says:
Guys we need to avoid more damage
What your healer means:
GET OUT OF THE FIRE BEFORE I STAB YOU IN THE EYE WITH THIS KEY!

What your healer says:
Can we focus some?
What your healer means:
I can’t hear DBM please STFU!

What your healer Says:
The tank just suddenly started taking a ton of damage
What your healer means
I was thirsty, and looked away from the screen long enough to open my soda…sorry!

What your healer says:
Did you change your spec?
What your healer  means:
You’re dying and I don’t know why but likely you have a fishing pole equipped like the last time this happened…..(kurby).

What your healer says:
Oh of course you’re easy to heal
What your healer means:
Yes, yes indeed I am very drunk right now

What your healer says:
Sure I’ll heal your new tank through some heroics
What your healer means:
*eye twitch*

*eyetwitches* And that is the secret behind the calm and collected healers of of our guild!  *drinks more rum*

Mists of Pandaria Cooking: Healer buffs cheat sheet

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This is not an all inclusive post by any means, all of the information was gathered from other sites and brought to one place for ease of  reference particular to healers.  A link-back to the specific sites will be provided :-)

Previously I posted about the cooking specializations in Mists of Pandaria in regards to healers.  Today I’m going to make you a short and easy cheat sheet so to speak, of what fish are beneficial for leveling your cooking in both the Intellect specialization and Spirit specialization, so that you can know what to bank while leveling/farming.  As well as where you should go to get started on your specialization.  For the most part, you are going to want to read the guides I am linking from to fully understand what is going on, as many dishes require more than just meat.  The majority of this information is from El’s Anglin and WoWhead News and none of it is from my own work.  At the time of this publication, the MoP expansion is in beta, so it could very well become outdated information.  All disclaimers out of the way now, here we go!

For Spirit specialization:

Once you reach at least 530 Cooking, you are going to want to learn Way of the Steamer: Spirit. Taught by Yan Ironpaw. (see link for location)

You’re going to want to keep the following types of meat/fish for this specialization:

For Intellect Specialization:

Again, once you are at 530 or higher cooking, you’re going to want to train Way of the Pot: Intellect. Taught by Mei Mei Ironpaw

You’re going to want to keep the following types of meat/fish for this specialization:

Keep in mind, you can only level one specialization at a time.  I’m thinking most of us will level spirit first, as generally at the beginning of a new expansion that is the buff we need the most, you’ll need to max out your rep with Way of the Steamer before you can begin to max out Way of the Pot.  If you start with Intellect first, you’ll have to max it out to get to Spirit food.

Cooking is Serious Business!

While doing the quests on the beta myself, there was a daily quest to turn in stacks of vegetables to the cooking award vendor (they are turned into grocery packs via a basket bought by the basket vendor) which rewards you with a cooking award.  I do not know if this will make it into live, but I’d suggest holding on to all “used for cooking” materials until you are sure you can’t use them!

For more indepth information please visit the El’s Anglin guide to cooking as well as the wowhead guide mentioned above.  They also cover all specializations, as well as guides to leveling cooking and links to all the recipies and foods that are needed that have been datamined/verified on the beta servers.

Don’t worry, once MoP goes live, I’ll have a cheat sheet for your (healing) consumable needs!

 

 

Earning your Plus Sign

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There are some things you must learn before earning the “plus sign” role of healer.  ”Dear goodness this woman is mad”, you may be thinking, “anyone can click the plus sign and get through ok enough”.  You would be right, but selecting the role and earning the right to select it are two different things entirely.

Sometimes, Good Healers Must Let Someone Die

Not out of feelings of vindication “that jerk hunter won’t feign so I’m just not going to heal them”…no, that is something entirely different.  However, Mr Melee shaman and tank are both taking heavy damage, if I stop healing Tank he will die!  Is fine…you whisper the shaman and apologize if you feel the need, but it happens.  Now in the case “jerk hunter” are you entirely sure his aggro is his fault?  Because if not, you’re going to look like an ass.  I’ve been there, we’ve all been there.  Don’t be vindictive, but do triage.

Healing Gear is Vital

I don’t care if you are a dps spec healing your way until dual spec drops.  As long as you are keeping everyone alive, most people won’t even notice.  But if you’re doing it in gear not designed for healing, you’re doing it wrong.  Make sure you have the mana to be able to pull it off.  This is also true for people with a healing spec trying to heal their way up.  Know what stats you need.  Healing gear is vital, but not so vital that you should be taking gear from dps classes.  Ask before needing on +hit gear.  Ask before needing on gear that isn’t your intended type (ie cloth, leather, mail).

Be Vocal About Your Needs

If you need mana, be vocal about it.  If you can keep going, let the tank know.  Tanks have it just as hard guessing if 50 percent mana is a need to stop and drink as we do trying to reach them when they forge ahead while you are drinking.  Let the group know what you need.  If its your first few times healing, tell them.  Most groups are pretty understanding if they know they are working with someone new, or know ahead of time you may need to drink often.  If they are abusive or won’t listen?  Leave.  The timer is better than a group who can’t take 5 seconds for a healer to drink or use some crowd control to help even out the damage.

You WILL be Blamed

When people die, they will blame you.  It will happen.  It doesn’t matter that that person was standing in the fire, or tanking the mob that was supposed to be sheeped.  They will BLAME you.  It doesn’t matter that the tank is a ret pally in holy gear, they will blame you.  Usually pointing out what actually happened can result in one of two things.  The person stops doing what got them killed or one of you will be vote kicked.  Don’t let it get to you.  If you did everything you could and people died because their play-style is…well…bad, there’s nothing you could have done differently.

But…Sometimes it IS Your Fault

Sometimes you could have done better.  It’s a learning experience.  If you are having a hard time, ask if there’s a strategy you could be using to do it differently.  Perhaps there is a dispel you are are missing, or a cool-down you could use to improve your ability to get through the rough part.  You’ve already let the group know you’re a new healer right?  Usually people will offer some pretty good insight you may not have thought about.  They may have some tricks that help you out be it crowd control or interrupts or a good strat.

Know Your Abilities

If you can dispel, make sure you have your UI set up to show you when there is something you can dispel.  If you have some pretty awesome spells to use on other people, read up and find out when or how they should be used.  Don’t be that guy!  You know the hunter who, when asked to use flare, states they didn’t spec into flare.  (Yes that was me on my hunter at one time!).  Healers usually have a huge arsenal of spells at their disposal, which are easy to overlook when you get used to using a few spells all of the time.

 

Earning your plus sign can be a hard and discouraging road, particularly with people who are not understanding.  But it’s also a rite of passage.  To become a good healer, you’ve got to earn it.

 

What other examples do you have for earning the plus sign??