In short addons and design.
In long… Once upon a time last week. I had the idea that I might heal in the next expansion. So, I started by joining the healing discords and so on. Everything was happening as planned and I thought this would be a nice challenge. BIG MISTAKE. Finally got to a youtube video about how to set up your healing UI and oh my god. In high lvl M+ content here is a list of ways and addons you will need to have. In order to track your tanks CDS, resources and all the rest. Your grp CDs and so on. When your tank is most likely to get swatted for giga damage. What pulls are dangerous and at what points.
Its actually insane… I can fully understand why there is an absolute gulf, a chasm between healers at the top, mid and bottom now. In terms of damage, mana and HPS. If you know your DKs CDs and resources. You can watch them dip to 30% health and not care because you know in one global, he gonna be full again. You can dot your group, use a CD or just carry on with the damage. Thats just one tank and one example.
I personally can’t see healing becoming something the average wow player can do without over gearing the content. Because it seems that way by design, you have to jump through so many extra hoops. Just to have the information you need. Then you have to learn how to play hahahaha. The time investment just to know if it’s a class you want to play is kinda broken.
Am I missing something here? Cause there just does not seem to be an entry level healer with none of the fancy stuff. Something that says, hey if you wana give this a go without all the hoops. This is the healer for you. The healer that is basically, my hps and mana is giga chad but I bring nothing to the group in terms of cheese, damage or fanciness. You and your group can have fun, make mistakes and still do content.
I would really like to know, or I can’t be bothered. I am not doing a second job just to try something new.
5 Likes
You’re telling us you’re not willing to study quantum physics, go through SAS training and hate yourself just the right amount to be able to cope with getting the blame for everything? Yeah maybe you’re not cut out to be a healer in the current wow enviroment. Same boat here man.
12 Likes
Decent DPS players use all the same auras/trackers and should have the same knowledge about pulls and mob abilities. If they don’t rotate their interrupts, know when to use personal and defensive CDs, use their CC abilities at the right time in the right place, know what the priority targets are, etc, then runs don’t go well, either.
It’s more apparent if healers don’t do/know these things, but I feel the actual issue is the assumption that damage dealers can just stand there and tunnel without paying attention to the group, the group’s CDs, etc. I know people actually play that way in lower keys, and that is what makes healing lower keys hard.
The difference between healing in a group with competent DPS (who use these trackers, auras, are knowledgeable about mobs and pulls) and a group without competent DPS is absolutely massive.
2 Likes
I fully understand and concur I have had similar experience for a decade tbh, I have been a good healer (priest in wotlk) then average since that time trying others too like shaman is awesome healing and druid, I tried the drakthyr healing but it feels like that class should be played using a console controller…
Anyway not sure what really happened I just feel worse as a healer and changes in talents the way everything works like casting some things while moving and others not diff cleanses buffs etc etc just hard work.
I think the best way to get “good” is to have a great team around you too… people who will have your back when its tough.
Hard to find that in wow these days tbh, everyone already has their mates.
If you can’t be bothered to do all the work, maybe don’t attempt +20s?
Idk, maybe it’s because I heal all the time but I don’t think healing is that much harder than DPSing, at least as a shadow priest. You focus on different things but the mental load is similar.
- Entry level content barely requires any healing
- Mid content will test you because people don’t die when they make a mistake
- High end content annihilates everyone who stands in a swirlie which isn’t a healing issue.
And if you need a major healing CD for a tank on every pull, it’s because they suck.
1 Like
You are probably overthinking things a bit. There really are no healing addons that are absolutely needed, especially not for the “average wow player”
3 Likes
?
That would be holy priest.
1 Like
Some healers thrive on being more than a healbot and others would prefer not to have to do a million tasks at the same time.
I have seen some comments from high end healers that they have a lot to do and they would love for things to be simplified somewhat. Not dumbed down to a silly level.
2 Likes
Unless you are planning to push very high you do not need everything in the list and at end of day its down to a player pref and knowledge.
1 Like
Honestly tempted to try healing sometimes. Usually preservation or disc. But when I get into doing and there’s so much going on and so much pressure. I’m just like nope no thanks. Stick to dps and occasionally tank. The 3 chars I’m playing atm are fury prot pala and brew
1 Like
This is my issue, done my M+ achievements with dps and tank. 20+ was easier on a tank tbh. Was able to do heroic ahead of the curve and 4 mythic raid bosses as dps and tanked heroic raids. So I would say. Your average player.
If I am looking at healing and thinking, why lol. Where do I start, amongst other things. U will never have enough healers.
Dps has a starter class. Bm hunter. Tanking has guardian druid. Healers have …
totally wrong, i play without any addon.
you dont need addon to heal
just open your eyes and play the game.
4 Likes
There aren’t any “mandatory” addons for healers. But things like HealBot and VuhDo improve performance by orders of magnitude.
Even for “average players”.
I have suggested to make these type of “click on party frame” key-binds the default ones for healers. And a basic default UI specifically for healers.
All the rest that OP mentions about tracking CDs is also mandatory, but only on high keys. In lower keys its not necessary, so I would not bother with default UIs for that.
1 Like
Could you elaborate why addons like healbot or VuhDo improve healing performance that much? I have never used any of them, but I also feel very comfortable with the standard party frames.
As Elahra said, Holy Priest is a good starter healer. Doesn’t require anything complicated. Resto Druid is never a wrong choice for M+. Resto Shaman is another I enjoyed but I’ve only played it in low keys, don’t know how they do high up.
My goal every season is to get 2,5k M+ rating, I’ve never pushed much higher than that. So from that perspective, the only addon you really need is for mouseover healing.
DBM or dungeon related WAs are just visual clutter imo, you will learn dmg patterns by running the dungeons over and over.
I do track CDs of my party members but honestly I don’t look at it. I’m not going to rely on DPS to survive something I can heal them through.
Then get BigDebuffs to see 6 buffs in party frames, maybe get Quartz for castbars. After that it’s just practice.
1 Like
Of course. Its gonna be a long post though, so get ready :
Its not the add-on itself. Its the “default configuration” of that add-on that makes it so powerful, especially for beginners.
The three important thing those add-ons do is :
-
Presents the party frames in an obvious way. With stacked boxes in the middle of the screen that you can easily move around.
-
It creates default keybinds : XXX spell == click on party frame icon.
-
It colors the party frames with important information by default. For example : things you can dispel, and hots/buffs you apply to party members…
The party frame configuration and “click on party frames keybinds” are 2 features that can be configured with wow UI. But none of them are by “default”.
The “default” way of healing according to blizz is to click-target the party member and press a keybind (1,2,3… ect…). The “efficient” way of doing it is simply clicking on the party frames itself and cast the heal automatically. With out having to target anyone.
And the “default” location of party frames is left and circles around party members. And its not obvious how to configure it into boxes in the middle of the screen.
And the 3rd important thing is not available at all by the blizz UI. Just to mention dispels, its an important mechanic for the healer to do. And instead of having a million small boxes next to the party member and you have you eye-ball which one is the one you have to dispell… you simply have the addon paint the box of the party member some colour that indicates “he has something you can dispell”.
If you want something like that on the blizz party frames (assuming you configured it optimally) is to have a Weak Aura.
The power of HealBot and VuhDoo is that once you install them, all those 3 important components are set be default. You can tweek and optimize it further, and THE most optimal UI is one you make specifically only for you with ElvUI and Clike.
But for beginners, the “default” configuration is more than enough.
And that is why its so much more optimal to use.
2 Likes
I don’t find healing that much more challenging or harder than other roles but it all depends on your goals and expectations so what are those for you? Kinda curious. If it all seems overwhelming, start low and grow from there.
As for addons, yes those can be handy but not mandatory. There’s a lot that can be done with the default UI nowadays. CD tracking is useful at all levels but unless you’re going for like current +15/16 and higher, not that mandatory, at least not for someone that’s new to healing.
I’m fairly sure that anyone that wants to heal (with a big emphasis at ‘wants’) can do it to a certain degree if you’re also willing to learn. Yes you maybe need to track a bit more and/or have a bit more class knowledge but every role has their challenges and soft requirements. Like for a example a tank having to know all the proper routes.
Will give it a go, ty. Will try and see how i get along.
The sheer time investment needed to figure out if you even like healing is a major hurdle.
I absolutely loathe every healer being “forced” to dps in high keys too. Not why most think though, I just hate getting my butt in melee and almost every healer is so streamlined with their “m+ dps rotation” nowadays.
3 Likes