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Teyalia

Teyalia's Healing Guide (Public)

Table of Contents

     1. Introduction

     2. Resources

  • Mana
  • Health
  • Other

     3. Types of Healing 

  • Preemptive
  • Reactive

     4. Being Efficient 

  • Mana
  • Healing

    5. Making Decisions

  • Who
  • When

    6. Tempo

    7. Advanced 

  • Cast Canceling
  • Abuse The game
  • Playstyle Swapping

 

 

Introduction

I have always written a guide at least once in whatever guild i join and i think now is probably the best time to write this guide as the expansion is over and a new one is around the corner. This guide will not explain how to play a specific class now or later and will never teach class specific tips and tricks. This guide will combine all of my healing knowledge from WoW to Guildwars 1 to RIFT, and other MMOs as well as other non MMO games. I have been healing in computer based video games since about 2005 starting with both WoW and Guild Wars 1. That's almost as long as young Bramuss has been alive. Being that i'm not particularly aged myself, this covers a majority of my life growing up. No matter when i stop healing or take a break from healing i always come back and it doesn't take me more than a few weeks or even days to get my rhythm back. I have healed from casual PvE and PvP up to Top 5 PvE, on both RIFT and WoW, and competitive level PvP on both WoW and Guildwars 1. I have met countless healers across the years and i have compensated, played around, played for, played under, and played with all of them without fail. I have also out healed and out sustained majority of healers i have come across in both PUG PvE, Guild PvE and PvP environments regardless of the game, patch, expansion, or time frame of my entirety of healing. I've also taken other healers raid spots in guilds as i have never failed any trial. The reason i'm explaining this is i want you(the reader) to take the time to seriously look at this compilation of comprehensive knowledge about healing and not take it with a grain of salt. Instead i want you as the reader to take this information and apply it to your own play or learning. This guide is meant to be read in order as each concept builds on the last. Thank you for taking the time to read the introduction.

 

For the curious, the healers i've played in popular MMOs

 

    US/World Top 5 PvE Classes

  • WoW - Paladin
  • RIFT - Purifier / Warden

     Classes played over the years.

  • GW1 - Ritualist / Monk - PvP
  • WoW - Hpal / DiscPriest / Rdruid / Hpriest / Monk - PvE + PvP
  • RIFT - Cleric -- Purifier / Warden / Sentinel / Defiler / Oracle | Rogue -- Physician / Bard - PvE + PvP

 

Resources

There are generally two types of resources in most classes in most games however there can be a third healing resource but i will cover that at the end of this section. When talking about resources i want to make it clear that i firmly believe that a healer should not end a fight completely drained of the resource they use as a primary to cast their healing spells. The reason i say this is because in a dynamic situation there can be an uncountable amount of factors that could lead into a situation where a healer who is out of their primary healing resource is longer able to heal and it will lead to raid wipe. I always look at every fight farm or progression with progression eyes, as such i conserve in the ways i do to create advantages for myself and the rest of my healing team.

 

Mana or Primary Resource

As a healer it is commonly viewed that healers ability to heal is based on their remaining mana. This is mostly true and will bite most healers who do not utilize this resource properly later during a fight. There are multiple ways to look at how to save mana and multiple ways to blow mana. In some games there are also many ways to regain mana as well as negate the costs of mana. 

 

These are techniques that can be used to control the flow of mana throughout any fight

 

  1. The best way to not use mana is to not heal. Now obviously as a healer you must heal. While true, that is not entirely the case as fights will always have "low points" as well as places where other healers are not being conservative. However with this being said there is never a point where sitting on 100% mana is viable unless the fight has just begun. In most games mana will regenerate while casting so as long as you keep mana above 95% and below 100% you will always be regenerating mana safely and never "wasting mana regen". This technique is completely viable at any mana range and not just 95% or 100% mana. Even down to 20% mana taking a few seconds to breathe and let mana regenerate is the most effective way that any healer of any class in any game can regenerate mana. However never do this during points of heavy damage.
  2. Picking the right spell cast for mana saving is critical. There are more times than not when i will see other healer cast only their version of a fast hard heavy heal. Most of the time this faster harder and heavier spell costs more mana for a trade off of about 1 second less cast time and maybe 20-30% more healing, but at about a 15-20% increased mana cost over the slower version of a similar spell. Some classes actually don't have or use these kinds of spells and rely on other types of spells such as HoTs and Channels. Using the correct HoT or the correct Channel for the situation can actually dramatically improve the mana management. As a general statement when damage is low the cheapest weakest spells should be used, and this is especially true when working into creating a mana window to then create regeneration. If there comes a time when using the heavy spells is the only way to heal the raid or target up then weaving in the weaker spell or spells will actually create a better healing flow and reduce the overhealing on your target while keeping your mana ideal. Also never use you're super heavy costed healing spells on any target that it would dramatically overheal. Always pick the right spell for the situation.
  3. Watching other healers mana will give the best information on how to work with your own mana. I am always watching every single other healers mana bar. I don't want them 100% of the time but i always make sure im aware of what other healers mana looks like. This information will give an absolutely key amount of knowledge that lets you take the steps you need to either save mana or create a window for other healers to save their mana. If the other healers in a raid are sitting on 80-100% your own healing should be light, you should not be taking this time to go ham or waste mana. Keeping a steady pace with healing while other healers are also high will ensure you dont run out of mana early. On the flip side if every healer is sitting at or below 50% mana while you're sitting above 90% mana, this is the time to start compensating for them and give them time to regenerate their mana so that when you are sitting on 50% mana they can create a window for you to take it easy and regenerate your own mana. This seesaw effect is absolutely critical to lasting long fights which can honestly go on for over 15 minutes. I have seen 15+ minute fights where healer mana does not get reset and its all about how you manage your own flow in relation to your healing team. 
  4. When another healer is using their Cool Down take this time to regenerate mana. Never is it worth to go hard during another healers CD. This is not only rude to the other healer but it will actually cause problems later in the fight when you're out of mana and the seesaw mana effect is completely diminished. When another healer is using their CD this is your time to take a step back and only heal anyone who is in danger of getting killed or preform light easy low cost healing that can compliment the other healers CD.
  5. Be aware of your own mana at all times, if you lose track of your mana there is a good chance youre going to run oom. I would never advise staring at your mana bar or always thinking about exactly how much mana X spell costs. Never do this. However, i would advise being aware of your general situation and what kind of techniques you should be using with your current mana percentage to then adjust to this percentage. This will also allow for smart decisions that can lead to ending on what i would consider safe mana levels.

 

Now that you know some techniques used for saving mana what percentages of mana would i consider safe? To be honest i never know an exact percentage value and neither should you. I never know the actual value of my mana, but here are some benchmarks i will mention.

  • 100% --> You're not healing, do something at least dps.
  • 90% --> Nothing special keep doing what you've been doing.
  • 70-80% --> Start playing safe with your mana, but not too safe.
  • 50-60% --> This is when you need to play safe, if you dont this is when you are "magically oom"
  • 20-40% --> Critical mana, if the fight isn't over soon you will oom
  • 0-20% --> You're basically oom and can no longer strong arm the raid, its now on the other healers.

 

These values vary based on the type of healing class that you're playing however its generally true. You can even apply this to looking at other healers mana. If other healers are reaching critical mana its your time to shine, congratulations you're now the primary source of healing the raid is receiving at this point.

 

Health as a Resource

What do i mean by health as a resource? Well to be honest as one of the only members in a specific raid team or group with the ability to take that green bar and move it, your health is almost trivial as you an replenish is whenever you like. This is exactly what i means, and it means take damage to heal other people in need as needed and only as needed. In the case that you have a health transfer spell you can also use your own health bar as a secondary mana bar to create mana advantages for yourself and your healing team. There are times when your health will need to be sacrificed to save another raider. As a healer it is your primary object to make sure everyone else on the raid team stays alive. Even if that means sacrificing your own health to save someone else from death. There are multiple situations when this is viable and when its not viable.

 

These are some techniques that are used to create advantages using your own health

 

  1. Stand in fire for the greater good of the raid. Standing in fire is bad, its really bad actually. However if there is a situation where another player is about to die and their only chance of staying alive is you as the healer and youre sitting pretty on 90-100% health but youve just got a fire mechanic under you and you cannot cast on the move. Knowing that this fire will not kill you, but will kill the other player it is actually the best possible move to take a second to stand in the fire to cast a heal that will save someone else in exchange for 25-50% of your own health bar. As long as no other mechanic that will kill you comes up next this is proper usage of your own health.
  2. Your defensive cooldowns are now ways to create ways to save other players. Now what the fuck does that mean, let me tell you jimmy. When your class as a healer has way to reduce incoming damage there are times when using this damage reduction to tank a non lethal mechanic to heal other players is absolutely the best possible move to make. This helps in multiple ways, using this damage reduction will esnure you survive and give breathing room to heal more than just one person who needs healing. This can also be used in ways where if the class youre playing can transfer health in any fashion this damage reduction or mitigation will create space to do additional healing and potentially save other players. This can also be used such in ways if the healing class has a way to mitigate most damage, tanking up a lethal mechanic knowing that youll survive for the sake of saving another player will be the best play for that situation. Never use these methods if your defensive cooldown is required later in the fight or you die doing this. Your death is not worth this technique.
  3. Healing potions or similar instant self heal abilities are actually insane. In the event you need to heal both yourself and another player because both of you are low on health, you should start healing the other player and use your potion to create breathing room for yourself and save both yourself and another player. This should never be used when a critical situation is not happening. This is only viable when you are about to die and you also need to save someone else from death. There are also other implications of this that i will explain later, however for now use this only when required as it can save both your life and your friends life.
  4. Fear no damage, but be smart as to what damage is lethal and what mechanics you cannot ignore. If you are lagging behind the group because youre healing, depending entirely on the mechanic, this is generally okay as long as you have some form of movement ability or cooldown to compensate and only if the mechanic permits this. You can also use your own health to create advantages for your raid team for certain types of mechanics. If you have an ability that drops fire every 1 second for 5 seconds. You better damn well stack those fires into a single pile or only make 2-3 piles of that fire. You could even stack these fires into someone elses fire. This is entirely dependent on your ability to outheal the mechanic in a way that doesnt endanger the raid. Dont do this on mechanics that it cant be done on or you will kill yourself.

 

While this isnt every single technique available for using your own health this should give ideas on how your own health becomes a way to create advantages for yourself or your healing team. Some of these techniques physically cannot be done by some healing classes in some games, but most are applicable in some fashion or extent.

 

Combo Points and Other

Throughout all of my time healing, this has only happened to me a few times, however that doesnt mean i dont have tips for combo points or extra resources that need to be managed. These tips will be short as i do not believe many healers use this, or will be using this in the future.

 

  1. Use this extra resource to create mana advantages for yourself. In every situation ive ever had to manage a second resource this is exactly the kind of play this promotes and should be the most used form. Any chance you have to use a non mana heal when the situation makes sense of course there is no drawback and can create breathing room for your own mana.
  2. Dont waste mana to build this resource. There are times when you may feel the need to build this resource or generate combo points, but if there is nothing to heal there is nothing to heal. I would absolutely advise against wasting mana especially if below 90% on generating a resource that in the end should be used to save mana. This would be an extremely poor use of this resource even if it leads up to some empowered heal.
  3. Waste low CD cheap spells to build instead. These spells are usually desinged with the resource or combo point generation in mind and are the best way to build them. However, i would never go crazy and build max resource only to dump it immediately.
  4. Save your resource for when it makes sense. Just like regular healing, you had to do something to gain these combo points or resources so dont blow them on nothing. Save them for when it makes the most sense to use them.

 

Overall im pretty sure most healers have moved completely away from systems like this however smart usage of such resources can lead to amazing sustain and throughput.

 

 

 

Types of Healing

There are so many different types of heals and ways to heal. I have however touched just about every single type of heal there is. Throughout my time healing i have had to deal with some very strange healing mechanics as well as some of the most interesting and boring. There are HoTs, Shields, ST Throughput, Channels, Channels with Shields, Cast time HoTs, Cast Time AoE, Instant ST, Instant AoE... etc... The list goes on and on and i have touched all of them at one point or another. The problem here is every single one of these heals are used in dfifferent ways and should be used in different ways. Some of these spells need to be used in certain ways while others are more general. Luckily every single spell that exists can be classified into two categories, Preemptive and Reactive. Some spells will actually cross into both categories. These categories actually completely shape the flow of healing and what spells are cast when. Were going to dive right into it and figure out what exactly Preemptive and Reactive healing are and how to use both.

 

Preemptive Healing or Predictive Healing

This type of healing has a few names, these are the most common ways to describe and classify what this type of healing is. Some spells are actually insanely bottle necked by this concept while others can be flex between this and reactive healing. The biggest take away from this type of healing is that this type of healing is used to predict damage before it happens and heal the damage or mitigate the damage entirely before it even happens so to speak. The biggest problem i have seen with most healers is that they do not know how to use this method during a random damage encounter and it can be hard. However there are techniques that make reactive spells predictive or preemptive. There are also techniques that can be used to maximize spells that are only this type of spell. This is without a doubt much harder than reactive healing and require much more skill than reacting to damage. I would also say this type of healing is also what some players who have no idea how to use it would call "sniping" because the damage is visible for only a split second and the reactive player will never get to heal these targets. 

 

So why preemptive or predictive healing? Well to be honest this is one of the best ways to get ahead of damage and not fall behind which is called tempo. This type of healing can also catch damage that would otherwise kill players in literally 0.5 seconds. If you correctly use this type of healing and a player takes 50% of their health then another 50% in less than 0.5 seconds, but you've already predicted that player to get demolished, you can heal them at 0.3 seconds and save without having to react to the damage.

 

  1. Shields and Timed Healing (not HoTs). This is absolutely the most common type of preemptive or predictive healing there is. The way this type of healing is used is to shield a target who is suspected to take damage and when the damage hits they either are shielded from the damage or they are healed on a timer so that you never have to pay any attention to that player and can focus on reacting to the healing that needs to be done to players that were not predicted or were unable to be predicted. The proper usage of this type of spell is to use it either on a few targets before damage goes out, on targets that are holding the bosses attention like a tank, or on a target who will otherwise die if they don't receive this type of heal. 
  2. The tricky part about putting HoTs into this category is they are both predictive and reactive by nature. The way HoTs behave make them great at reacting to damage that has already happened, but at the same time they are very bad a reacting to damage because they heal slowly over a period of time. HoTs should be applied to targets before damage goes out but not too early so that they do no healing what so ever. This way when the damage comes many targets are already receiving immediate healing and will not be in as much danger as they would be had the HoTs gone out as reactive healing instead. Preemptive HoT'ing can also create problems as such if targets are not predicted correctly then mana is wasted and time / tempo is lost which causes problems for other healers down the road. Proper preemptive or predictive HoT'ing should be done around damage spikes raid wide or to targets who are guaranteed to take damage, or you know suck at the game. Wrong use of this method will result in running out of mana.
  3. Healing someone at full health, kind of. This is where things get tricky and a fine line is drawn between someone being a vegetable and actually doing healing. When using a spell or class that has no HoT's, no shields, or no timed heals, extra steps are needed to ensure that healing this way isn't a lost cause. Reactive cast time spells such as ones that take over 1.0 seconds to cast can be used to create preemptive and predictive healing instead. This means casting a spell on a target who you think or know will take damage within the cast time of your spell. Using this method is challenging because there is only one target and if you guessed incorrectly extra steps need to be made to correct your mistake. These extra steps involve a technique known as Cast Cancelling which i will get into much later. At that point after the spell is canceled it is no longer preemptive or predictive and is now reactive. The best way to make this method work is to heal targets you know for a fact are about to take damage from a debuff or mechanic, and time your healing to match that.
  4. Channel spells are very rare for healing however they can be the strongest preemptive or predictive heal aside from shields. Depending on the channel spell the timing needs to be adjusted however if a target is about to take damage, start the channel so that the delayed first hit of the channel immediately hits your target when they take damage. Most channel spells have a small delay from when the spell is cast to when the first hit arrives at the target. Using a channel preemptively like this will create instant stability on the target which is one of the biggest drawbacks to a channeled spell. The biggest drawback to this method is that if the channeled spell target is predicted incorrectly then there is more time between resetting the channel spell onto a new target than another other spell type due to the initial delay most channels have. However if the channel first hit is instant than the channel must be used as a mix reactive preemptive heal. This means you know your target will take damage, and continue to take more damage through the duration of the channel. The first hit of the channel is a reaction to the damage done and the rest of the channel is what i would consider being predictive as you are predicting the damage to continue on the target.
  5. Using this type of healing to generate mana. Most of the time its not possible to generate mana, however casting a heal before the damage goes out and catching that damage immediately gives room to react less and manage more. This allows for a cast of a long slow but cheap spell instead of having to react with a big fast mana hungry spell. Doing this will generate mana over a fight instead of use it as long as you cancel casts that are predicted wrongly.
  6. Some spells have damage mitigation or reduction qualities to them and should be used in this fashion. If any spell healing or straight CD creates any kind of damage reduction or mitigation of any kind this spell should be used to create the mitigation or reduction before damage goes out onto a target. This type of heal or CD absolutely must be used correctly as uses it incorrect such as as reactive healing is an absolute disaster. Proper use of any spell that creates this will not only create room for yourself but for your healing team to focus healing elsewhere and on different targets. The best way to use this is to make sure these kinds of spells are on targets expected to take heavy damage very soon. Never reactive this kind of spell unless you're absolutely sure of what you're doing.

 

There are more techniques, but this covers predictive and preemptive healing for the most part. Not all healers are completely capable of providing raid wide healing in this form, however every single healer in any game is capable of providing this healing on a personal level to someone in a group and should be done as such.

 

Reactive Healing

This is the kind of healing that makes up the majority of what healers do and a majority of where peoples mistakes are. Every healer does reactive healing as this is the healing that is in direct response to the damage the comes to the raid or target. Not every spell works in a reactive manor and not every spell can be used within a time frame to save someone who needs reactive healing. I will get into this later as this is where being efficient with your spell choices and managing and manipulating your GCDs can make the difference in reactive healing. Reactive healing also relies heavily on your ability to make a decision every GCD worth of time in a fight. Every single reactive heal is a choice that you as a healer must make. These choices made during reactive healing phases are what makes or breaks a healer and is extremely obvious when flawed. I will go into detail on this in a later section. This kind of healing is where I see the most mistakes when it comes to new healers and weak healers.

 

Reactive healing techniques rely heavily on advanced techniques and proper decisions making otherwise reactive healing will fall flat.

 

  1. Proper spell choice will make the difference when a heavy reactive healing phase is required.  The choice not only to heal a specific target, but deciding what type of heal that target needs to stay alive is all done right here in the pre-reactive healing mental state. Based on the target chosen in the same split second you must also decide if this target will die within 1 second, 0.5 seconds, 4 seconds, or in no danger of imminent doom. This split second choice of what spell to use is completely what decides if someone doesn't get enough or no healing and dies shortly after. When deciding what spells to use make sure if multiple targets are low and damage will be coming again using fast casting or instant cast spells will be the best and most mana hungry approach. The spell you choose will be based on your class's kit as a whole and you will need to take some time to study these spells to make sure your spell choice matches the situation.
  2. Tracking incoming healing on a target can be key. There have been an uncountable amount of times where i see a target who has an incoming heal from another healer so i change my priority and heal another player so that there is less healing overlap and the raid is properly stabilized after damage during a reactive healing phase. I have seen healers heal the same target while another person dies on the side. Depending on the addons you do or do not use, tracking the incoming healing of a target will vastly improve your own play as well as create a stronger healing team synergy which will allow for much stronger healing.
  3. Always keep track of shields. If you keep track of shields that carry over from the preemptive or predictive phase it not only allows for better preemptive or predictive healing, but it also will allow for a much more educated choice when healing a target in need of reactive healing. Even if the shields are personal, it will allow for a visual representation of who is the most in danger player in the raid. There are times when I've seen a healer heal a target who is super low health but has a massive shield while another player who is slightly higher hp without a shield gets no healing and later dies. Properly tracking this will improve your play and targeting skills.
  4. Cast cancelling in a reactive fashion to reset a GCD to then target swap when needed. What a mouthful. This technique combines multiple advanced techniques to create one of the least used and strongest techniques for reactive healing. I will explain in depth how to properly achieve this later in the guide. For now though, canceling a cast time spell when the target you're healing receives unexpected healing or instant healing from an external source, be it a healer or potion, and immediately swapping to a target in need is one way to use this. Another way is if you're healing a target with a cast time spell and another target takes critical damage and drops extremely low, canceling your cast time on one target to then instant heal the new lowest critical health target can save lives in a group. Despite losing 0.1 to 1.5 seconds of time this is worth it for saving a life. As ill explain later there are times using this can be a problem and should not be used all the time.
  5. Temporary health or reactive shielding and you. Sometimes you can use a shield to give a target temporary health so to speak so that they can survive with low health while you take the time to go heal someone else who is in critical condition. This can also be done by other healers and you should keep an eye on this so you can make the right choices.

 

As always there are more techniques but these are the most important for now and every single one of these applies to every single healer I've ever played in every single situation I've ever played them in. Reactive healing is the back bone of healing and as such there is difficulty getting it perfect. You will never get perfect at reactive healing as such no one would ever die if it was perfect. Reactive healing should be the most practiced healing you do as it will encompass every single aspect of healing and combine them here.

 

 

Being Efficient

Efficiency is the difference between overhealing, going oom, and providing proper healing to the proper people. This is where a lot of healers will go oom or will end up with absurd amounts of overhealing. I have seen so many healer run their mana bar down and be doing abysmal healing for their lack of mana. I have also personally experienced this where my mana bar is taking a beating, and my healing is absolutely shit. So whats going on here, why does this happen? Well the short answer is efficiency. There are so many healers out there who cannot play efficiently and will struggle on any fight that strains their healing over a long period of time.

 

I will give you my best advice on how to remain efficient and relevant with any healer on any fight to the best of my abilities but this really comes down to play style and healer / game specific mechanics that you must abide by.

 

Mana or Primary Resource

Once again were here at mana or primary resource. This is the lifeblood of a healer and the raid or group so using it wisely is required to be a good healer. Too many times i see healers run oom or stay at 100% mana the whole fight and do nothing. This is probably the most important part because running oom makes healing impossible and a healer that runs oom will only bring down the healers around them as they will have to compensate and no longer have the options available to them that i described above.

 

These tips and techniques will most likely overlap with previous tips and techniques, but they are all relevant.

 

  1. Casting the correct spell for the correct amount of damage. If you cast only your biggest heal for the smallest damage, you will run oom and you will dry out faster than every single other healer no matter how "effective" you think you are. Don't do it. Instead make an educated decision based on your class and the damage you need to heal and base that on the amount of healing you know your spells do at any given time. If you do not know how much healing your spells do then you should take the time to heal yourself and learn the healing model you currently have. This will greatly increase your ability to pick mana efficient spells appropriate for the damage.
  2. Over committing to healing a group of people, or the full mongo healer. If you heal as hard as Sith eats beams every time anyone takes damage you will run oom. The other healers in the raid are there for a reason and while it is always nice to be the top healer there is absolutely no reason to heal that hard every single time. Not only will you run yourself oom but you will actually oom your other healers through a process that every veteran healer is familiar with. The why am i low on mana and low on healing syndrome. This happens because someone else is going too hard and the other healers don't notice so their heals are getting "sniped" or are being less effective. The proper way to handle this is take a look at your class and determine with your kit what kind of healing should you be providing to your raid team. Depending on your class there are different class specific techniques to create advantages and proper situations for other healing classes to benefit from. If you are unsure what kind of healing your class should be providing look around and ask your fellow healers.
  3. If you have a full mongo healer being a pleb play around them instead of trying to fight them for healing. If you do this you will actually benefit the raid team. Eventually that full mongo healer is going to run out of mana and it will be up to you to compensate for the sudden lack of healing because they're oom. Try to perform light healing and dont over commit to using crazy amounts of mana. This can happen at any level of healing and can happen by accident.
  4. Play to your class strengths and mana efficiency thats built into the class. I have played some very strange mana features in classes. Some such as a 10min CD that gave me back a percentage of mana. Always play to the mana strengths and mechanics of the class when it makes the most sense to do it. Sometimes it doesnt make the most sense to play to the mana strength if its a strange way to do it, but it can also pay off big time on longer fights.
  5. Cancel any cast that would be wasted on a full health target. If you let every single cast you cast go through onto a target regardless of if they gain full health during your cast you will not only have wasted mana, but time. Wasting both mana and time can be the difference between killing a boss or losing a member of your group to damage. While not 100% practical or possible this method will save an absurd amount of mana over long fights and other healers who do not do this will oom while you still have over half of your mana.

 

There are a ton of mana techniques and some are extremely dependent on the class that you play and the game that you play. There are times where saving mana is bad, however in just about every single situation saving mana by being efficient will improve both your mana and your overall play.

 

Underhealing and Overhealing

I want to start upfront by saying some classes in some games are much more prone to this problem than others and its less the fault of the player than it is the developer, however there are ways to mitigate this and proper play can assist in being efficient with who receives the healing. The biggest factor in this section is all about using the correct spell for the correct situation as well as making sure you are targeting the correct targets with your spells. I will go into proper targeting later in the guide. For now this will be like other sections and include techniques for reducing overhealing and making healing efficient.

 

As this guide does not tailor to a specific class some of these will be very generalized and contain previously covered information.

 

  1. Wrong spell choices lead to overhealing and underhealing. When healing and choosing a spell to use on a target, making an incorrect choice will lead to either death or loss of mana. In general it is always better to overheal than to underheal. The best way to avoid doing either is to again sit down and look at how much healing your spells do and to feel that out so the decisions are quicker and there is a more accurate heal being cast for whatever damage happens. The worst thing to do is to cast a long slow heal on someone and it hits weak so you have to cast on them again with another casted heal. This will most likely lead to another player being underhealed because it took too long for you to heal your first target. I see this happen all the time and it is always a good idea to make sure you are casting the proper spell for the damage.
  2. Poor targeting will cause overhealing and underhealing. Even if your spell game is on point if the targets you heal dont need the healing at that exact moment when someone else does this could lead to an overheal on a target who is getting healed up by passive healing effects and while not directly your overhealing this could cause overhealing for other healers. At the same time healing that wrong target could also cause another player who needs healing to then bleed out from a lack of healing. This is a rare occurrence as it takes all healers on a given team to fail at their job at the same time. However if all your other healers fail and you do not it will save lives.
  3. Keep track of other healers targets. I will put this point in here again as showing incoming healing on targets is absolutely critical to not overhealing them or causing other healers to overheal them. This also can prevent underhealing of other targets. If you notice a target is receiving direct healing attention from another healer then it is best to focus your attention elsewhere where underhealing could become a problem.

 

There isnt much to be said about this section as this ties directly into many other sections. Overhealing and Underhealing are not major causes of wipes in groups however they can cause a chain of events that lead to wipes. I would recommend as always making sure you are very familiar with the healing of your own spells to then determine the best spell to use to not create overhealing or underhealing sitatuions.

 

 

Making Decisions

This section is going to be different from other sections as it will be discussing how to make proper choices when healing targets. All throughout this guide and my time as a healer i have mentioned choosing the right targets to heal. This section alone will make or break most healers and is the leading cause of why most healers don't succeed. There is never an easy way to explain this section and i will always advise that this section is becomes experience and is hard to teach. However i have taught this to people over the years and there is no easy trick or technique to making the correct decisions as a healer. Every single second of any fight as a healer there is more decision making that any other role in the game. I say this with confidence because there are layered steps with every single cast that you will make as a healer. Improper ability to make these decisions will lead to wipes, player death, and low healing or high ineffective healing. In any given section of any fight, you as a healer must not only analyze the entire groups health bars but you must then decide which target is the best to heal on top of deciding which spell is the best spell for the situation based on damage taken and mana cost. It is not possible to do this step by step for every single spell you will cast, however you can integrate these steps into a single split second decisions with proper play.

 

Who do you heal?

Now that you know all about the process of making a decision, the first step is to select who. Who you heal is the primary way to separate a good healer from a bad healer very quickly and its extremely obvious when the who is incorrect. I have healed with an absolute mass of healers in every game that do not know a proper who decision making list. There will be times however where the choice of who becomes impossible and a choice must be made which can cause the death of another person. These situations are common and sometimes unavoidable, but the goal is to minimize this from happening by choosing the correct who from the get go. This is not specific to any class or spell this is generalized to the highest degree and applies to all healers regardless of Single Target, AoE, or HoT based. The timing of spells based on preemptive and reactive is what defines the difference between these kinds of healers and will be covered later in another section.

 

The most basic list which i always teach a brand new healer is this, Tanks > Healers/Supports > DPS. This is the absolute most basic healing list and requires no real thought and should be something you are familiar with. As it comes into question between a tank, a healer, and a dps player eating shit you will always focus the tank. Unfortunately i cant leave this the way it is and i need to explain why or the later sections of who wont make sense. The tank is the most important person in the group at any given time unless otherwise specified by mechanics. If your tank dies the group will most likely die and as such requires the decision of letting the other two players die for the greater good. Now in the event that the tank is fine and will not die, the next target is the healer. The reason you always target a healer before a dps is because that healer can be assured you will heal them while they heal that dps if they dont heal themselves. Also if a healer dies it becomes that much harder to continue the fight for both you and the rest of your healing team.

 

Stepping up the complexity of this easy to use flow chart there comes the more complex version. Active Tank > Non-Aggro Tank > Guy with mechanics > Top Healer > Healers/Supports >= Top DPS > DPS. Already the flow chart is becoming fleshed out and is not even as fleshed out as possible. This is the last easy to use flow chart as the next section of who will focus directly on the active process of making the decisions based on dynamic factors. In this flowchart however it is obvious that the tanks are still more important than the rest of the raid or group. The main difference here is making sure someone who is doing any mechanics is kept alive at almost all costs behind the tanks. The reason is most of the time if this guy dies its a wipe anyways. You should always prioritize the top healer over the rest of the healers in a do or die situation as you can trust that healer to keep outputting as long as their mana is good, i will go into this later. Depending entirely on the fight sometimes your top DPS is equal to a healers life and i say this with a grain of salt. Sometimes this is true if the DPS check is huge, however there can be times when this isnt true, i will also go into this later. General DPS are always least priority on making the decision to heal someone. 

 

With all of the basic and expanded basic lists of priorities out of the way its time to really dive into this age old healing question, who do i heal and how do i make that choice. In most raid environments that i have healed in the most common groups are 10 man and 20 - 25man and as such this section will be based directly on these raid environments. 

 

Raid Wide Spike Damage

Raid wide spike damage which hits the entire raid requires some levels of decision making both before and after the damage. Depending on how your class's kit is designed you will either preemptively set up the entire raid or you will prepare to become a reactive healer.  I will cover preemptive or predictive healing because this is the first step that happens in preparation for this kind of damage. One of the best methods for choosing who to preemptively set up on is to begin by taking into account who is not at full health or who is on a class that cannot defensively work with the incoming damage. The players gear also comes into account as most MMOs will dictate a players health pool by the gear they have on. To really drive these points in here is an easy to read check list for looking for the who during this type of damage.

 

Preemptive or predictive healing for raid wide damage spikes. 

  • You must take into account every target who is not at full health and make those targets your priority based on the knowledge you know have about who is the most important person in your raid.
  • Each class will also play a huge factor into what players can survive what kind of damage or play around certain damage models. Always take into account what class you are choosing to prioritize for this type of healing. As this can mean life or death for other players.
  • Know when players are least likely to have their defensive cooldowns available to them. Most players will use their own defensive to survive a raid wide hit, however not always. Its not your fault if they die and had their own defensive CD available and died. However it is your fault if they have no CD ready and you do not properly set them up for this incoming damage. I highly advise against tracking other players cooldowns, however know how the fight works and know when people are likely to use their CD.
  • If a player has any kind of lingering damage debuff or a mechanic they will be a prime target for this kind of healing.

 

Reactive healing for raid wide damage spikes is where a lot of healers will make critical mistakes and lose players. There are times when overriding the priority list is a must and there a times when making a proper decision of who will mean the difference between a wipe or not in most cases. This decision comes mostly from the direct visual representation of the raids health on your screen, your healing addon or raid frames. Reactive healing priority can and will change based on the class you play but the general idea is the same for all healers when it boils down to it. 

 

Reactive healing for raid wide damage spikes.

  • The obvious who choice is the man with the lowest health in the raid. This is the most basic who choice as it makes perfect sense. This choice however can be completely manipulated by an insane amount of factors such as, someone else is already healing that person, that person has a shield, that person doesn't have a damage mechanic etc... Making an educated decision about this can become difficult.
  • When multiple players are sitting on critical about to die health, do not AoE heal those 2 people, ill get into why later, but you should pick one based on all of the information available to you and make sure they are stable or if another healer is already healing them give them some small love to ensure stability.
  • As is stated above earlier in the guide your health is a tool and you should never heal yourself unless critical before stabilizing everyone else. You are in complete control of your own health, and you know best when you will take damage and as such need to heal according this this. Just to drive this point home, the other healers on your healing team will heal you because you're in their priority list just like they are in yours. You should let the other healers slowly bring you up while you slowly bring them up. 
  • If a Tank is critical they are above everyone else no matter what. You will always heal a critical tank after raid wide damage because the boss will continue to melee that tank and the raid will most likely not get melee'd by the boss.. If the tank dies then the raid will get melee'd

 

Most reactive healing spikes are accommodated by a healing CD and as such you need to adjust accordingly so that you do not cause your fellow healer to overheal or cause yourself to run out of mana. If you are not the primary CD your job is to stabilize low health targets and provide support healing such as healing the healer who is doing their CD. This applies to preemptive healing as well because if that healer who is supposed to do their CD dies with the raid spike then you're just fucked anyways.

 

Raid Wide Pulsing Damage

This type of damage is not as common as spike damage but this kind of damage is the most deadly kind of raid wide damage there is and will cause new healers to panic. This type of damage can be extremely hard to heal and is becoming more common as time has been going on. This type of damage is when the raid takes an initial hit, and then continues to take damage over a period of time. This damage is usually substantial and requires very fast reactive healing to keep players from eating shit. This type of damage can also be a preemptive blessing because the damage is usually on a timer and if done correctly can be weaved very well. Preemptive healing always comes first, however do not do this if another healer is already doing this and your class is not suited for this kind of play style. This play style is class dependent and will rely heavily on your kit.

 

Preemptive or predictive healing for raid wide pulsing damage.

  • Setting up on the same targets as raid wide spike damage will be viable here. The biggest difference is every single member of the raid will be taking damage over the duration and as such using preemptive healing patterns to sustain various targets to allow for reactive healing to catch up is key. When deciding set up for preemptive healing for pulsing damage it is you who decides the pattern of what players drop low first and what player will drop low next. Make this choice based on previously discussed techniques. 
  • Once the damage is happening keeping a preemptive play style will be near impossible, but if you keep choosing targets who will become the next lowest target before they become the lowest target will create breathing room for other healers. Making sure the next lowest target before they're the next lowest target will keep key targets stabilized throughout the pulsing damage. Do not focus on just one target and spread it out to create rhythms of who falls low first and second.
  • Every class can start out by creating a single person who will become a second tier target for pulsing damage regardless of kit if you use the preemptive techniques i discussed above. These targets need to be based on above discussed priority lists.

 

Reactive healing during pulsing damage is the backbone of this type of damage by far. The targets you choose for reactive healing can be defined by very good preemptive healing and healers. There are so many times where reacting to this kind of damage can become insane if a preemptive set up is lacking and as such i will do my best to create a detailed way to make proper decisions on who to heal with this style. You should always be healing someone during pulsing damage and never letting up. The spells you use should be defined entirely by above discussed points and later discussed points in the advanced healing section.

 

Reactive healing for raid wide pulsing damage.

  • The lowest target has priority over the other targets because the damage will hit again shortly and any target who is low will die on the next pulse. This strict priority is not modified by the above lists other than tanks and healers under the basic list. If you lose a tank, you will wipe. If you lose a healer, you will probably wipe. Do not concern yourself with highest dps or highest hps healer. Use only the basic list during heavy pulsing damage.
  • If someone has a debuff or DoT or mechanic they will need extra attention as they will always become a low health target every single pulse unless they are topped off in which case they can usually survive a single pulse before dropping to critical again. 
  • Try not to heal the same target as another healer, however during pulsing damage every second counts. If you make a mistake are are healing the same target as another healer do not cancel and start planning your next target while you're current cast is casting. 
  • Know which targets will become low next. This is absolutely key to proper pulsing damage healing. If you know who will become the next low health person you can react to them faster and make your decision faster.
  • Play with your health as stated above in the previous section about resources. You are in complete control of when you receive healing and as such should have yourself as a low priority target unless critical.

 

There are much more split second decisions that can be made and this raid healing requires a lot of experience however this should help streamline you into a better experience and allow you to integrate with stronger healers faster.

 

Random Raid Damage and You

I wont go into reactive or preemptive healing for this section as its explained earlier in the guide. This section is a general who discussion on how to find the right who for random damage as well as other damage that can be semi predictable. If players are taking random damage it is generally with in your best interest to respond to their health being damage immediately and picking the right spell to do this. If its only one player at a time at random taking damage then know that the other healers in the raid will be seeing this also and you may not need to respond immediately with a huge heal. Vice versa if someone takes critical damage suddenly then you must react to this regardless of the other healers. Even if both healers heal the same target with a big heavy spell its better than both healers waiting for someone else to do it and that person dies of no healing. In the event of small raid dots, its generally advised to keep an eye on their health bars but do not heal them every single tick of damage. This ties into efficiency as you want to make sure you can always use the best spell for the damage and healing someone every single small damage tick will drain you. If there is a heavy DoT on a target once you heal that target they are now your responsibility. When you heal someone who is taking heavy single target damage over time and you heal them it is an unspoken way of saying, "i have this guy". Other healers will heal other players if you're the first responder to such a situation. The general priorities apply to random damage in general if two players take critical damage you must choose the target who is either not receiving another heal already or the target who is more important based on previously discussed lists.

 

Throughout this section i have talked about health thresholds and i want to make that visible so you can see what i consider critical health and what i consider safe.

  • 100% --> Absolutely perfectly safe
  • 90% --> Requires no real attention prior passive healing will sustain this person.
  • 70-80% -->  Low priority healing, its possible to take your time or use efficient healing.
  • 50-60% -->  Medium priority healing, depending on the situation this can be considered critical.
  • 20-40% --> Critical health, these people need healing and they need it probably now.
  • 1-20% --> Absolutely critical, if anyone hits this threshold they will die within a 1 - 2 second window usually. 

 

 

When you heal matters

The entire previous section is great and teaches a lot about making the decision on who to heal. That is only half of the decision you must make when you heal someone. The other half of the decision is when you heal them. This concept is actually not as commonly understood by a lot of healers and is something i find myself explaining a lot. This section will contain a fair bit of math as this is a math based concept and completely time based concept. This kind of play will help you diversify your own play style as well as make you a much better healer. You will save more lives with this part of decision making. Have you ever wondered why you always have 2-3 spells that always do the same thing but are slightly different in cast time and healing. The reason is not because one costs less mana and that's how you save mana, the real reason developers do this is to give you the option to place your heals on targets at different timings. In most MMOs the global cool down is roughly 1.5 seconds which can be modified by other stats down to an average of 1.0 seconds.

 

Your Global Cool Down

Your GCD will average 1.1 to 1.4 seconds in most games with a modifiable GCD. This means that when you start the cast of any spell you cannot cast or use any other spell for 1.1 to 1.4 seconds on average. This is very noticeable with spells that cast at 0.9 or less seconds. Despite being shorter than the GCD the timer starts when the spell is cast and because that spell is shorter than the GCD you will have to wait 0.1 to 0.6 seconds till you can cast another spell. Instant cast spells work the same way, when you cast an instant cast spell the spell leaves your character immediately but leaves you on GCD for 1.1 to 1.4 seconds. 

 

There are multiple way to modify and abuse your GCD that i will go over later. Right now i want to talk about why this matters and how to use this to your advantage as a healer. Lets start by creating our own custom healer with some random spells. Lets say we have..

  • Cast Time 1.5 seconds 40% Spellpower -- Lets call this Quick Heal (Quick Heal's cast time is modified by the same modifier as our GCD)
  • Cast Time 3.0 seconds 35% Spellpower -- Lets call this Slow Heal (Slow Heal's cast time is also modified by the the same stats)
  • HoT that lasts 8 seconds and ticks every 1.0 second (7% spellpower) -- Lets call this HoT Heal (HoT Heal's tick rate is modified by similar rates that modify the GCD)
  • Instant Cast heal 30% Spellpower -- Lets call this Instant Heal (This heal has no scaling factors and no cooldown)

Our custom healing class also has a GCD of 1.26 when we are using our raiding gear. This means our Quick Heal (QH) has a cast time of 1.26 seconds, our Slow Heal (SH) has a cast time of 2.1 seconds, and our HoT Heal (HH) ticks every 0.8 seconds. Our Instant Heal (Inst) however remains unchanged.

 

Using a 10 second window as our control we can see exactly when our healing reaches our target. This example will show you how to properly implement this into your own class kit. Any timestamp that exceeds 10 seconds even if by 0.1 seconds is ignored. 10 seconds is the absolute limit.

 

Quick Heal

With our custom class it is obvious that we will get the most healing out of spamming QH. If we spam this spell we will not only run oom, but we will heal out target at the timestamps.

  • 1.26 / 2.52 / 3.78 / 5.04 / 6.3 / 7.56 / 8.82 seconds. We cannot squeeze another heal into our 10 second window 
  • With this we do a total of 7 casts which gives us 280% spell power exerted.

 

Slow Heal

Our next spell is slow and weaker than QH so spamming it also doesn't make sense, but if we did these are the timestamps we could expect from doing this.

  • 2.1 / 4.2 / 6.3 / 8.4 seconds. We cannot squeeze anymore into our 10 second window
  • With this we can only do 4 casts which gives us 140% Spellpower exerted. 

 

HoT Heal

We will cast HH only once and then again twice to refresh it as we can only have 1 stack of this heal on a target at any given time.

  • single cast tick 0.8 / 1.6 / 2.4 / 3.2 / 4 / 4.8 / 5.6 / 6.4 / 7.2 / 8 This spell does not last longer than 8 seconds so it stops here. 
  • With a single cast we receive a total of 10 ticks for 70% spell power. This is extremely efficient but its slow
  • double cast tick 0.8 / 1.6 / 2.4 / 3.2 / 4 / 4.8 / 5.6 / 6.4 / 7.2 / 8 / 8.8 / 9.6 The next tick would exceed out 10 second limit
  • This adds 2 additional ticks for a total of 12 at 84% Spellpower exerted.

 

Instant Heal

This spell isn't effected by our GCD manipulation but has no GCD as such can be cast every single GCD, here are the timestamps for this.

  • 0.0 / 1.26 / 2.52 / 3.78 / 5.04 / 6.3 / 7.56 / 8.82 The next cast would exceed our 10 second limit.
  • This has a total of 8 casts because 0.0 is when the first hit happens and starts the GCD this gives us 240% spell power exerted.

 

The biggest question you might have at this point is why would we ever use SH as a healer? The answer is this kind of heal becomes preemptive by nature or a low priority cast heal that can be weaved in to create and generate mana. These types of heals are usually efficient and have some kind of modifiers attached to them, please refer to your own class kit to decide how to use these kinds of spells based on that. They have great use and most healers will ignore them and as such you can also use these kind of heals to create GCD advantages or healing timing which we will talk about now.

 

What does all of this actually mean?

Using our above model custom class i will now demonstrate what all of this means when you put it together. When you look at a health bar in a raid sometimes you need to make the correct decisions and chain them together to create a proper flow of spells so that healing doesn't get weird. For these example i will shorten the healing blocks to 6 seconds and demonstrate the different timings you can achieve with every single spell in conjunction with one another

 

Quick Heal Slow HealInstant Heal

We can use these kinds of combinations to adjust when our heal will hit our target. I will use these 3 spells to create a couple examples of how to do this. Remember the timestamps show WHEN the heal reaches its target.

 

  • SH(2.1) QH(3.36) Inst(3.36) QH(5.88) Inst(5.88) ----- 175% Spellpower
  • This is what i would consider a preemptive chain into a reactive flow. This is an extremely natural flow for hitting big fast reactive healing. The SH is used to predict damage that will happen and the QH Inst combo is used to clean up low health targets

 

  • Inst(0.0) QH(2.52) Inst(2.52) SH(5.88) Inst(5.88) ---- 165% Spellpower
  • Despite having the same amount of casts as the first example this example has different timing in the middle. What this kind of healing does is provide a much faster impact for reactive healing which can save up to 2 different targets much faster as well as deliver a third power drop at the end with the exact same timing. This kind of difference can cause people to die. The biggest draw back is the gap between the first instant cast and the next heal.

 

  • QH(1.26) Inst(1.26) QH(3.78) QH(5.04) Inst(5.04) ---- 180% Spellpower
  • Something you may have noticed is that we are getting 5 spell casts into this window almost every time. There are tons of combinations and knowing how to weave these combinations together can create timing differences that save lives.

 

The take away from this section.

The reason that this matters is you have complete control over what time your spell hits your target, there will be times when you're casting a spell and you just say to yourself "god damn it i just needed 0.2 seconds more". This happens all the time and its because you didn't set yourself up to hit that 0.2 second difference window that left that person to die. This also could be a situation where you chose the wrong spell. In the case of my first example if you start off with a slower casting heal that heal will not hit your target until 2.1 seconds later. That means there are 2 seconds that person could die. Same thing with using an Instant cast right before a quick cast. There is a 2.52 second window of no healing at all from you. The decision to use certain spell at certain times is tricky and depends first on who. This section is without a doubt one of the most underrated sections of healing. Mastering Who and When will give you an advantage over every situation and you can create advantages for you and your healing team like this. 

 

If you require further help in this section here is a shortcut to helping you get a handle on learning what spells to use when..

  • 100% --> Preemptive slow seals or preemptive heals in general.
  • 90% --> Slow reactive healing, cheap costs. Preemptive healing works here too.
  • 70-80% -->  Slow reactive healing, cheap costs backed by instant heals or just a quick heal in general.
  • 50-60% -->  Quick heals, heavy heals and instants. Stop using slower healing around here.
  • 20-40% --> Quick Heals + Instant chains and flows
  • 1-20% --> Instant into Quick Heal, you will lose people if you try to cast slow here.

 

 

Tempo

Tempo is whenever you hear "healing is behind" or "healers need to catch up" or "healers fell behind". This is all directly related to tempo. In this section i will share with you how to create Tempo for yourself and how to create Tempo for your entire healing team. Creating Tempo can be one of the hardest things to do as a healer because its very easy to fall behind and lose all of your Tempo in a matter of seconds. I can honestly say that healing Tempo is the difference between a sloppy pull and a boring pull. Tempo also isnt completely controlled by the healers, the raid or group can cause gains or losses of Tempo. When healing Tempo can also refer to how you feel as a healer and whether or not you are in a rhythm. Getting into a rhythm for healing will make sure your game is on point.

 

Creating Tempo

There are a couple ways to create Tempo, and to be honest sometimes its impossible to create Tempo. I have never heard any other healer talk about Tempo in my entire time healing and this is something i think most healers don't realize or look at differently

 

  • Healing the right targets at the right times creates Tempo. If you heal the right guy and no other healer heals the same guy and that guy is now stable, you have just created a small bit of Tempo. Chaining strings of proper healing will generate enough Tempo for you and your healing team to then leave the reactive phase of healing and enter a preemptive or predictive phase of healing again.
  • Preemptive or predictive healing generates Tempo. When you properly set up during a preemptive phase of healing you can mitigate the damage before the reactive phase which will mean that healing covers the raid faster than when a preemptive phase is not handled correctly or missed. This is extremely obvious with fights that have back to back damage mechanics. If the healers "fall behind" they will never hit those preemptive phases and will continue to struggle to get back on par with the timing of the fight.
  • Using your own smaller cooldowns will boost your teams Tempo. If your smaller CD is cleaning up extra healing then your other healers can then start to finish up other targets and begin their preemptive healing phase sooner. This is a great way to catch up on lost Tempo.
  • Too much Tempo is real. It is actually possible to out Tempo a fight completely and cause problems such as overhealing, underhealing, mana management problems and unexpected death. The reason is the fight will become too stable and with every healer working to generate Tempo whether they know it or not in a longer fight when your Tempo gets dumpstered by someone else in the raid hitting something they shouldn't then your probably going to start losing people.
  • Recovering your on personal Tempo using cooldowns that are mitigation or extreme heals. This ties directly into the section about using your own personal CD to heal other raiders by using your health pool. This can be used in various ways to generate Tempo and catch back up on healing faster than normal. Another example is using an External CD on a tank who is currently active even if they dont call for it so you do not have to spend the time healing that tank as much and can take this time to heal other players. This will generate Tempo for every single healer as they will also no longer need to heal the tank as much anymore.

 

Now that you have all this Tempo how do you create an advantage out of it? There are a couple ways to do this and one of them is to DPS the boss. If you have created enough Tempo where the raid is extremely stable you can now safely DPS the boss and ignore a preemptive set up phase which will help in the long run on the fight. Another way to disperse your Tempo is to regenerate mana. One of the biggest ways to disperse tempo is to take this time to regenerate mana and play chill. This ties directly to your mana management skills and will come in clutch on super long fights. My personal opinion is to not think about Tempo during a fight, but instead understand what it is and how you can use it to advance your other skills as a healer to create advantages for yourself and your healing team.

 

 

Advanced Techniques

This section will go over some ways to abuse game mechanics for your own advantage. Throughout this whole guide you've seen me throw out the term Cast Cancelling. I love abusing this game mechanic and its in every single MMO usually. There are other things you can abuse and i will detail those things out here. This section will be short and it will just teach you some small tricks and tips you can apply to your own game play. I always look for healers who use these kinds of techniques in their own healing but its far and few between. Lets get right into it, its been a long journey.

 

 

Cast Canceling

This is extremely simple to preform and it works like this. While youre casting a spell hit any movement key and your character will stop casting. Easy as that, but its not as easy to get proper usage out of doing this. I will detail the best uses i have found over the years for this technique and i will advise against a cast cancel macro as it is slower than movement inputs.

 

  • Cast Cancel to adjust reactive healing targets. I mentioned this earlier in the guide, and ill expand on it here. When you cast cancel your GCD is reset completely and allows you to cast a new spell. What this means is that using the knowledge from above in the "When" section you can start casting a Quick Heal on someone and then cancel to throw out an Instant cast on another player who suddenly becomes critical health. This technique is not the most common use for cast canceling but this is how you save lives in a raid. This is where you can make big plays. (that no one ever sees)
  • Cast Cancel to prep preemptive healing and save mana. I also mentioned this in the preemptive or predictive healing section. You can begin your cast on a full health target and if they do not take any damage, cancel your cast and start it again. This costs no mana and when used correctly is a very strong tool. Do not stand there all raid doing this. You must know damage timing and if you mistime anything this is how you correct that mistake to save me.
  • Cast Cancel to save mana and change targets. You can also use this method to cancel a cast mid cast on a target another healer uses an isntant cast or "snipes" from you. This will save you mana, save you time and save players lives.

 

There are other ways to use this technique than whats listed here but thats for you to learn as you discover your own play style. This technique is an absolute must though if you plan to heal anything beyond a casual level as it creates versatility and allows you to sustain your mana pool for longer.

 

Abusing the Game

Depending on your ping and your reaction times and what patch or game you are playing there is without a doubt in my mind that you can abuse the GCD system or latency and coding for the games. This includes but is not limited to cutting 0.1 seconds off any cast time, moving before a cast finished but the cast finishes, and dispelling a target without a dispell going on CD.

 

  • Abusing the cast times can shave literally seconds of time wasted. When you cast a spell that has a cast time that inst GCD locked you can actually abuse the way the game queues up spells together. If you cast a cast time spell and while its cast spam another cast time spell or instant cast that spell will begin its cast or cast during the last 0.1 seconds of your non GCD locked cast time spell. This is a problem in most MMO games and can be abused easily and unintentionally. This is easier to abuse with low latency.
  • Abusing the game to cast on the move without finishing your cast. You've done this at some point in any game, and some are not possible to do this on. The game only checks for consistency with what your doing every some odd milliseconds. This is just how online games function in a nutshell. The server and your client talk to each other and update what you see and what the server thinks you're doing. This can be abused to cast a cast time spell and move as it finishes. If this is timed correctly the spell will say "Interrupted" but it will still go off because the server doesn't know that you've interrupted your cast yet, and then updates with your new position and a completed cast. This is most obvious when mounting. If you don't believe me try mounting up right now and move just before it finishes casting, you will mount up still despite it saying "interrupted". This is harder to abuse with low latency. (jumping is the easiest way)
  • Abusing the game to get a free dispell. If you know the exact timing that a debuff will go out onto a target, you can time your dispell to go out exactly when the debuff does. What this does is doesnt put your dispell on CD because the target isnt debuffed yet, however the debuff will be applied during the dispell and will be dispelled. This will generate a free dispell. The problem is if this is timed incorrectly your GCD will prevent you from dispelling your target quickly, and you will lose mana. This is harder to abuse with low latency.
  • Abusing the game to get a free GCD on off GCD abilities. When you cast a cast time spell you can abuse the game in a similar fashion to casting early by casting your off GCD spell as the cast time spells have a slight delay and this can generate free GCDs during timed windows that should not have this extra GCD. This is not latency dependent and may be removed from WoW in BFA

 

You can abuse the game in other ways but at that point it gets weird. These are not exploits and they work on just about every single MMO. They are usually interactions between client and server or code base that is able to be abused easily for the benefit of healing.

 

Playstyle Swapping

This section wont have bullet points like the others instead this is something that you can do as a healer to adjust to the situation based on everything ive talked about in this guide. You can swap playstyles around 60-70% mana to become conservative and regen mana. You can also go from AoE healing to ST healing mid fight. If another healer dies in a fight you should change up your playstyle to compensate for their death. Same with if another healer runs out of mana. You must change your playstyle to compensate for this. This is opinion and as such is up to you as an individual to learn how to swap mid fight for the greater good of your raid team.

 

Conclusion

This guide while it doesnt talk about a specific class or specific game and only makes small references to WoW at the end is meant to be a generalized in depth guide to healing that can applied to every single healing class in every single game that is in the format of WoW type MMOs. This guide is timeless as it also uses no specific information about any patches or games and its completely based on healing concepts. This guide also will not make your average healer a god, but will instead give them the tools to start becoming an amazing healer. My hope is that with time anyone who uses this guide can use my techniques ive learned from 13 years of healing as of the time of writing this to advance their own play.

 

Thank you for reading, and i apologize for any grammatical errors and spelling errors.

 

Written by Teyalia - 6/11/2018

 

Disclaimer: All of the information i have included in this guide is subject to change and can also be viewed as an opinion. None of the information provided is the "right way to heal". This information is "my way" to heal.

Edited by Teyalia

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