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!