Beginner's Healing Guide
I. The Basics
1. Monitor player health bars
If your primary role in the group is to heal, your primary focus should be on the health of your party members -- not the health of the mobs they fight. Vigilently monitor everyone's health bars and heal them accordingly. Later in this guide, you'll learn which heals are most efficient for which classes. But you'll also base your decisions on how quickly a player's health is dropping.
Also note that while you don't want to ignore your own health, try to reserve your heals for other players whenever possible. You have other options to preserve your life beyond healing, as you'll discover throughout this guide.
2. Monitor pet health bars
The pets of hunters and warlocks can be as important to group efforts as their masters. Treat them as such, especially if the pet is tanking or off-tanking for your group. Hunters and warlocks will appreciate not having to spend their time, mana and possibly a soul shard to revive or resummon their pet.
However, pets do tend to come second to players in terms of life-saving priority. So let the warlock or hunter know that their help would be appreciated in healing their pets.
3. Use appropriate gear
Your effectiveness as a healer is highly dependent upon your gear. You want lots of intellect, spirit and possibly some +healing spell gear to maximize your healing potential when grouped. Higher intellect will increase your total mana, while more spirit will improve your mana regeneration rate.
So if your particular talent build calls for stats other than intellect and spirit, consider carrying additional gear to equip whenever you're asked to be the primary healer. This is especially important for feral-specced druids, who prefer strength and stamina to intellect and spirit.
4. Know who's expendable
All classes bring something unique to a group. And your ultimate goal is to keep everyone alive. But unfortunately, the roles that people play in your group are not all equal when it comes to expendability. Your priorities, listed from most important to least important, include the following roles, generally played by the following classes:
Yourself - Remember, the group's survival (and possibly revival) depends on you.
Main Tank (MT) - Warriors, Feral-specced Druids in bear form, Protection-specced Paladins (and Shamans to a lesser extent)
Off Tank - Secondary Warriors, Druids in bear form, Paladins, Shamans, Hunter Pets, Voidwalker or Felguard (Warlock pets)
Melee Dps - Rogues, Shamans, Druids in cat form, Fury-specced Warriors (often wielding 2-handed weapons), Survival-specced Hunters, Hunter Pets (often cats or raptors), Succubus (Warlock pet)
Range Dps - Hunters, Mages, Warlocks, Priests, Imp (Warlock pet)
Use the above listings as a loose guide. Often you'll discover that a certain class brings something crucial to a specific encounter. That may make them a higher link in the chain. For example, a mage with her 'Polymorph' spell may become more important than a rogue or shaman because the crowd-control is essential in that particular encounter.
II. MANAGING MANA & MOBS:
5. Use efficient healing spells
Your mana is your lifeline as a healer (and the lifeline of everyone else). So it must be managed carefully. Different spells will heal more efficiently when used on different classes and armor-types. This is governed by casting speed, type of heal and the heal's potency.
Note that other healing spells are available with certain races and talents, but for the purpose of this guide, we'll focus on the spells available to all priests/druids, regardless of build:
Priest Healing Spells:
Renew - (buff) instant heal over time (HoT), less potent
Flash Heal - fast heal, less potent
Lesser Heal - regular heal, less potent at lower levels, obsolete at upper levels
Heal - slow heal, moderately potent at lower levels, less potent at upper levels
Greater Heal - slow heal, very potent
Prayer of Healing - slow group heal, less potent
Binding Heal - fast heal + self-heal, less potent
Prayer of Mending - (buff) instant [group] heal, less potent (designed for in-combat use) - heals up to 5 players, but 1 at a time
Druid Healing Spells:
Rejuvenation - (buff) instant heal over time (HoT), less potent
Regrowth - (buff) regular heal/HoT combo, moderately potent
Healing Touch - slow heal, very potent
Tranquility - channeled group heal, less potent to very potent (depending on amount of time channeled; maximum of 10 seconds)
Due to a reduced variety of healing spells, some druids will hotbar an additional lower rank of either 'Healing Touch' or 'Regrowth' to improve their healing options. During the mid levels, Healing Touch ranks 3 and 4 are a particularly good choice, since these have a faster casting time than higher ranks.
If you want to get the most bang for your buck, consider using the following spells on the following armor-types:
Cloth-wearers
Mage, Warlock, Priest (note that some Druids and Shamans may wear cloth depending on their build)
Because cloth-wearers are so fragile, it's beneficial to use faster heals like 'Flash Heal' (priest). And because they generally have less hit-points, HoT spells work wonders when cast as soon as the player begins taking damage. 'Regrowth' (druid) works well on both counts, since it's quick and an HoT spell.
Leather-wearers
Druid, Rogue, Hunter (pre-40), Shaman (pre-40)
Leather-wearers can take a bit more of a beating, but also tend to be fragile. Use a combination of quick heals, HoTs and regular heals with an occasional slow heal when the situation warrants it.
Note that Druids in Cat form also follow this model.
Mail-wearers
Warrior (pre-40), Paladin (pre-40), Hunter (40+), Shaman (40+)
Players in mail can take a fair beating. Regular heals such as 'Heal' (priest) and lower ranks of 'Healing Touch' (druid) mixed with slower heals like 'Greater Heal' (priest) and higher ranks of 'Healing Touch' (druid) do wonders for them when they begin to fall below half of their total health. HoTs may also be useful shortly after they begin to take damage. |