Raid Basics: Healing and Silent Heroism

Raids are like cars.

I really wish I could think of a better metaphor, but I have a headache. I hate cars, really. It will become painfully obvious to any and all who read this that I don't know the slightest bit about them.

Think of the the raid as a car. The tanks are the chassis, protecting the occupants from the environment during any given trip.

The dps are effectively the wheels to make sure that the car can move.

Healing is the all important engine. Without it, your car is going nowhere, except maybe downhill (see what I did thar?).

Today we're focusing on healing. For anybody wanting to become a healer I always follow this exercise:

• Pick your favourite hero (Batman, Spiderman, etc.) and ask yourself, do you want to be a hero like that? YES/NO
• Think about how that hero is almost never thanked for their efforts, and always blamed when things seem to go wrong, despite it never being their fault. Still wanna be a hero? YES/NO
• Now think about the constant, everyday struggles that they have between saving people as a hero and fighting to keep the tiniest bit of "normal" they have in their lives outside of saving people. Think about the stress they're under, trying to manage these things all at once, including the point above... Still wanna be a hero? I mean, really? YES/NO

If you answered NO to any of the above, you're likely not cut out to be a healer. If you answered YES to all three, congratulations! You're likely not cut out to be a healer either. You're a fool and a sadist, and maybe, maybe, you have what it takes to be a healer but only the strongest survive in the world of healing. This is your first lesson, never forget it.

Basics:

As a healer there are three cards constantly in your hand that need to be managed.

1. Triage. This is the golden rule of healing. Healers need to decide on the fly who can and can't be saved. We also need to decide whether someone should be saved. Essentially, we decide in a matter of split-seconds whether you get to live or die.
2. Mana. The second most important resource on this list (the first being the hp of your group). Zero mana equals death, and this is something that the healers must manage alone. You can rarely blame someone else if you've gone OOM (out of mana).
3. Threat. This is an almost trivial thing for most healers, but you still need to know how it works. A healer pulling aggro is like having your car break down in the desert - you and everyone with are boned.

How to Handle Them:

Triage is the sole basic skill that can only be learned through experience. It is the downfall of many would-be healers as well and the cause of most of the stress healers have to deal with.

Say you're in a raid encounter and six out of your ten members, including yourself, have just taken severe damage. It's your responsibility to heal them all, but where do you start?

First, you need to understand the healing priority. Out of everyone in the raid, your priority list should be something like this:

1. Yourself
2. Other healers
3. Tanks
4. Anyone else whom you need to complete the encounter
5. Dps

There are also two main types of healers as well: Tank healers and Raid healers. The priority above is for raid healers. Tank healers simply ignore priorities 1 and 2.

I'll let you decide on why this healing priority is effective, and whether or not you wish to follow it. Knowing roughly how long any given member can survive against an encounter mechanic is the tipping point of triage and can only come with experience. If you've read this far without giving up on healing then we already know you've got the stones to heal - from here you have to take every opportunity you can get your hands on, whether you think you can do it or not. Challenge yourself!

Mana is relatively simple when compared to Triage. In order to ensure you'll have sufficient mana for an encounter, you'll need to do some studying. Do some research, find out what gear/stats/talents will most greatly benefit your healing style. Odds are that if you know these things, put them into practice and have gear roughly appropriate to the encounter you're facing (so gear that is slightly below the quality of gear that drops from said encounter) then there is nothing holding you back from doing your job perfectly well. Of course, knowing the encounter helps as well, but we've covered that off in triage already.

The other mana related issue is overhealing. Casting your biggest heal onto a target that has full hp (or soon will) is a waste of mana and can contribute heavily to raid wipes if not managed. Countering overhealing comes down to study again. Know how much mana each and every heal in your arsenal costs, how long it takes to cast and how much it will heal for and you can basically avoid overhealing completely - unless someone stomps your heal, but we'll save that for later.

Still here? The last issue is aggro. This is something that no healer ever really needs to worry about, though I must point out one thing: If you begin to heal as a tank body pulls (aggro's a mob by running over to it) the beasty will take one look at you and then rip your squishy body to pieces. Car breaks down, journey stops, everyone complains at you for over-revving the engine.

That's about all there is to know about raid healing. Check this post for links to your class to get help on the appropriate stats/gems/talents/etc.

Lastly, as a healer you will be the hero who remains unnoticed and unthanked - but you will begin to recognise other healers for what they really are, and they too will know you to be such a hero as well.

-Ahz