Howdy,
after some time of playing the game as dps, I decided to switch to a healer. However, I dont know how to actually learn healing, since anything below M0 requires almost no healing(and/or is a shared responsibility like timewalking raids), and M0 is a massive brick wall. As a result I received plenty of hate messages, death threats and bold statements about my mothers source of income.
So, how can I learn healing?
M0 is only a brick wall if the rest of the players are doing mechanics completely wrong. The way I originally learnt to heal was in 10 man bgs back in TBC. Best advice would get a guild group and learn that way.
Make your own mythic 0 group and title it Chill or Learning to Heal. youâll find people easily.
M0 needs to hit hard. Most people only learn mechanics if at least 90% of their HP disappears in a single hit. Otherwise they just ignore the damage, thinking itâs a healer mechanic.
If you want to learn your spec in general, the proving grounds is a good place to start. Itâs not 100% updated so some of your spells may not work properly. Normally you can enter through your class trainer but atm it seems you need to go to the temple of the white tiger in pandaria and talk to trial master rotun directly.
Proving grounds is a good starter as was said. You can also access it from your garrison if you have one.
Healing can be a bit weird. Lower dungeons have nothing to heal because the damage isnât high enough. M0-2 are impossible because people are utterly clueless and higher it can be a crapshoot, either a dream or like juggling flaming chainsaws in a washing machine.
Have you installed healbot? Just do heroics donât go to mythics right away
Depends on the person, I like having a safe easy space to learn in, that means something easier than these mythic dungeons but if youâre okay with learning and failing at an appropriate for your gear difficulty then make mythic groups and warn people youâre learning the role.
Also itâs not always your fault. Iâm sure youâve noticed thar sometimes peopleâs health is going up and down and sometimes itâs not moving. It very much depends on the group paying attention and using the appropriate cooldowns. Chances are that you might be good enough for the difficulty but people arenât. Them finding attacking you and being mean only supports my theory about their mediocrity.
Iâd level a new character exclusively through dungeons, as a healer. You can top people in leveling dungeons with pretty much any healing spell, even HoTs, so this gives you a relatively stress-free environment to get the hang of the interface, keybinds, and mouse-over macros. I use Vuhdo with Clique as my main tools for healing.
Then do heroics, LFR, timewalking dungeons, then tackle M0. Do you have friends that play a tank? Or even dps? If so, ask them to run a few dungeons with you, just to build confidence and be able to communicate.
Itâs actually a good question, though. It was definitely easier back when the game was new, nobody had any expectations, and everyone was equally inexperienced.
Have you considered checking out one of the Discord communities like No Pressure? Thatâs where I find my groups and everyone is chill and welcoming to people learning a new role or class in M0. I tanked 2 dungeons for the first time tonight with groups made in No Pressure and everyone was very accommodating.
Did you try heroics? They are supposed to be the old m0âs in difficulty.
Either way, the best way to know is by watching videos on how to and dungeon guides.
The crux of it is knowing when there will be big damage and plan your cdâs for those moments.
For more advice you need to tell us which healer you are playing.
It is likely players in m0 donât know any better as well and donât know what to stun, interrupt, or boss mechanics which will mean more weight on the healer to shore up mistakes.
Healing an m0 with no one doing mechanics is more stressful than healing a +10 with a good group.
Heroics and LFR are you schools.
Try some of the communities
Why do people still use mouse-over macros? The default UI has a much better option available:
That allows you to cast everything using mouse-overs. No need to create macros for every spell, or create specific mouse-button key-binds that only work for a small subset of your available spells.
You ought to stick with Normal and Heroic LFG & LFR till youâre familiar with your UI, Macros, Spells&Abilities, etc.
Once youâre comfortable with that hop into M0+.
The last HC dungeons and LFRs I was running with my holy priest I was just jumping through the groups spamming holy novaâŚ
OP is right about the ramp in difficulty. People donât take any damage in queued content so you canât learn your healing spells. Then you enter m0 and people simply refuse to live.
The simple solution is like others mentioned: Premades. Use some of the learning communities, find some experienced and/or relaxed players.
PuGs literally stand in oneshots, die and blame the healer. Or tanks not using any mitigation⌠One of the main reasons why I refuse to heal without premade tank⌠The amount of death coil spamming BDKs that I have seen is traumatizingâŚ
Itâs true that the difference between heroic and m0 is staggering. Even as a fresh ilvl 440 or whatever the requirement was I experienced little difficulty in heroics.
A good example I experienced is the orbs on chrono lord Deios in Murozondâs rise. In heroic failing the mechanic does maybe about 25% hp damage to the group while in m0 itâs closer to 75% (and then thereâs the DoT you have to deal with).
Blizzard does not do a good job in introducing you to the healer mini-game to begin with. It has nothing to do with dungeon difficulty on its own.
Follow these steps :
If you can un-talent them better. If you cant, then just remove them from your bars (for now). Focus on throughput and throughput only.
Clicking on party frames certain spells as opposed to selecting the player and pressing a button is a massive improvement in quality of life, and performance.
There are better, more sophisticated ways to use configure your UI. But, that will come later. So first, for beginners, its better to use VuhDu because 99% of the âdefaultâ setting are more than enough.
Many times the guides you read are too complex for a beginner. Because part of the healerâs game is also to be mana efficient. But in low keys and people learning its seccondary.
So focus on using mana inneficient direct heals and overheal a lot. Depending on the class you play. But basically you want to spend the whole combat just smashing buttons.
In the case of the RShaman for example, I have Healing Surge (fast but inneficient) and Healing Wave (slow but efficient). Just remove Healing Wave from the bar. Spam Healing Surge.
Buy yourself water and drink after every pull if you need to. In time, you will learn what is used when and become more efficient.
Next time you do the dungeon, you will use a CD before damage comes and you will be ready for it.
And so⌠welcome to the healer club. Have FUN. 
Here is the issue : By using the built in mouse-overs you still need 1-2-3-4 buttons to cast a heal. As oposed to macroing it to the mouse click buttons.
That means that the most accessible buttons (1234) are used for spells you are literally spamming all the time.
I prefer to free up those buttons and use them for important CDs or Deffs instead, when you need lightning reflexes or someone dies.
And that is why I dont use the default blizz UI.
My advice, at least for your first healer, start from scratch.
Make a new alt at level 10 (allied race or just level to 10), and then start doing dungeons as a healer. You start with something like only Heal and Flash Heal or whatever the equivalent is for other specs and gradually get more spells.
I feel itâs a more natural way to learn than be given all abilities and try to make sense of them.
sorry but I find that funny. Not that they abused you, but they way you chose to phrase it, well done!
Now more on topic: as a carreer healer-main since 2008 I can only give you the advice to throw yourself into content youâre afraid of. Like you said yourself if you feel hcâs give your no challenge Iâd move on to a m0 or a +2. Ignore toxic player or just tell them a one sentence reply in the like of âpretty new to healing and hc dungs provide no challengeâ.
If they donât understand itâs on them.
Ofc the above advice to start fresh and level through dungeons is also sound, but that can be quite a long and tedious way to do. The first hours you wonât have your full kit to heal. This might be a good thing to learn step by step, depending on which healer you went with.
In the end experience will come and healing will feel easy. Good luck!
I would try some of the communities, they tend to be more understanding for someone learning a new role. Maybe youâll even jump on voice chat and can get tips as you go for when big damage is coming and when to use defensives and so on. And like Uda said, just heal heal heal in the start, dont focus too much on all the utility and damage spells you have. Learn the basics and then move on. I tend to choose alot of passive talents in the beginning and then add more active ones as i know the role better. Good luck 