I talk about disc healing

I am a healer again. Okay, I never really stopped being a healer, but I wasn't healing in raids, or 5 mans, or pvp. In fact until last night the last time I'd healed was Oscar Night.

But we had a bit of a raid problem. There's been some reshuffling, and well, you don't really need two shadowpriests in a 10 man. So our awesome resto druid has gone to the dark side, summoning demons for fun and dps, while I've gone back to bubbles.

I managed to top the charts with hps, which does not feel right. I suspect it has something to do with how my shields are counted vs normal heals. My guess (based partly on the overhealing numbers) is that when a shield absorbs X damage and is used up, all X is counted as a heal. It'd actually be quite interesting to see if that even takes armor and other mitigation into account. I know that disc priests have gone from looking horrible on the meters to looking a little too good, which is sad. I honestly do not feel OP. In fact, I feel underpowered, at least when it comes to effective raid healing tools. I end up resorting to shields, simply because I don't feel like I have much else to do. Even with popping Inner Focus, my PoH hits for laughable amounts, so my shields end up being the only way I have to buy time to get people up with Penance and/or Greater Heal.

50% of my healing done last night was PW:S, with the PW:S glyph being another 12%. That seems like quite a bit for one spell, and given the incoming nerf in 4.1, it worries me. I generally have Weakened Soul up on about 3 targets at a time, two of which are our tanks. I'll keep practicing, and working on using my other tools more, and hopefully I'll get to a place where my comfort level is higher.

And in other news....

5/12! Elementium Monstrosity down, with a couple sub 1% wipes.

Druid vs Priest healing

My baby druid went broccoli. And then I healed some dungeons. And then I got a hot tracker (hotcandy in case you were wondering) and healed some more.

Druid healing is different. Not bad, just different. It may have something to do with the fact that I haven't reached the bottom of the resto tree (I figured I should get the balance talents first), but it's kinda panic-inducing, mixed with periods of boredom.

So let's lay out the difference...
As disc I shield the tank, start POM bouncing, and if the dps takes damage I shield and flash heal them. The tank may get a penance or greater heal, but mostly everyone gets flash heals.

As a tree I hot the tank. Then I wait to see if I need to use a Rejuv or a Healing Touch. I hot the dps as needed. My healing touch casting time varies for some reason so that makes my life a bit more interesting. And I run into mana issues (Innervate is the best spell ever) and I'm overhealing like crazy. The mana issues are a gear thing, I know.

Both disc and tree are best if you can think ahead and predict the damage. I'm not so good at this in 5 mans, since it requires me to actually remember fights beyond run out of the ick. If I ran the instances enough, I probably would retain the "ick about to happen, shield/hot!" information, but who wants to run Outlands stuff that much? But tree is kinda brain-hurty in that I have now been trained to DO SOMETHING when a health bar starts dropping. But if there's already a hot there, I don't need to do anything unless the damage is greater than the hot's healing. And that just seems wrong.

Now, this is not a critique of tree healing at all. I kinda like it, other than the panic bit. It gives me time to go get that yellow dot (ooh herb!). Plus I can pull of miracles in tree that I couldn't have in disc at the same level. One tank and one idiot dps trying to tank? It's a problem, but no longer a "oh god we're all going to die" problem. More of a "grr, I liked having a full blue bar and will you stop trying to kill the nice mage along with you!" problem.

But boomkin is more fun. Heehee hurricane and stuff is dead.

The Mindset Difference Between Healing and DPS

As Lyllea (my disc priest) continues to level and run dungeons (Nexus, Mechanar, and Botanica last night), I've really noticed a massive mindset difference.

It's easy to figure out whether you're a decent dps or not. Are you winning the Omen game (aka pulling threat off the tank)? Are you killing the things that are supposed to die in the marked order? Are you staying out of the bad stuff on the floor? Are you doing decently on recount? If the answer to the first one is no, or yes with the immediate reaction of an aggro dump or bringing the wayward mob back to the tank (for those times when your aggro dump is on cooldown), and the answer to the other three is yes, then congrats, you're a decent dps.

Now, are you a decent healer? This question's much harder to answer. Can you keep the tank alive? But is he appropriately geared and speced? Because if he isn't, well, then the best healer in the world's going to have some issues keeping him alive. And guess what, if he dies, then it's seen as your fault, even if his defense is so low that the boss one-shot him. Now, it is not your fault. Tanks range from the frighteningly idiotic to the inexperienced to the awesome and you're going to run into and possibly attempt to run a dungeon with all of them.

And then there's the rest of the group. Are the dps dying frequently? Are they pulling off the tank? Are they all in cloth and really squishy and gorram it I do not have enough heals to keep all these idiots alive? Then you look above and see that winning the Omen game and not doing anything about it makes them bad dps (or there's an inexperienced tank and if that's the case, the mobs are probably trying to eat you too). And bad dps go lower on the healing list then good dps (who are lower still than the tank). Now that probably won't stop you from going "Frack!" (or the non-work safe curse of your choice) and it probably won't stop them from blaming you, but at least you know why they died (and can stick them on the No Heals list (aka the Ignore List) should you wish to).

What this all amounts to (for me anyway) is that I feel like a good healer after a good PUG and a bad healer after a bad one. Now, I have my healing flaws. It took me too long to figure out where the heck Greater Heal was (apparently I don't have it keybound in Vuhdo and I need to figure out how to keybind to my 4th and 5th mice buttons) and I still don't know all my keybindings. Levitate does not substitute for Circle of Mending. Though it was kind of funny to see the floating dps just before he died. And don't even get me started on Dispel Magic and Abolish Disease and when each one is required. I should figure out what Vuhdo's trying to tell me with the changing box colors, I really should, but in the middle of a battle it's just easier to hit both and see if that fixes it. And if neither one does, I shield them. Because PW:S fixes everything. Except death, sadly.

I'm attempting to cultivate a "Any PUG I learn something from is a good PUG" attitude, and apparently I don't suck as a healer, but when the only real feedback I get is from my fellow PUGers, it's a bit of an ego rollercoaster. But in the end, the lasers make it all worthwhile. Yes, I can heal you with LASERS! It's awesome.