Healers and their extra heals
by Mike Schramm 
Sep 22nd 2006 at 1:28AM
Hal over in the WoW Ladies lj forum posts a really interesting question: What is a priest's (or other healer's) responsibility on all those "extra heals"? For example, it's when a pet needs healing, or when a warlock lifetaps their way down to almost no health. To those, I'd add healing for warriors and other melee classes after a fight, when everything is dead.Personally, I'm pretty conservative. On one side, I've played a priest and a resto shaman, and I will throw a lifetapped warlock a heal only when I'm at full mana and impatient to start the fight. Otherwise, he should be eating-- I shouldn't have a responsibility to heal him after he's hurt himself. Now, some guildie warlocks I like, and I'll do it anyway. But I don't think there should be a responsibility there. As for pets, I'll heal them in a fight 1) when we need them, and 2) when I've got mana left. If I'm healing the main tank with little to spare, sorry, but your kitty is gonna die. But if your VW is the only thing between me and a melee add, I'll keep him alive. Still, I don't think any pet class should ever count on heals unless the situation has called for it. Pet classes have ways to heal their pets for a reason.
On the other side of things, as a warrior, if I'm out of a fight and still hurt, I make it a point to be eating or bandaging before the priest even has a chance to look at me. With mages around and food extremely cheap, there's no reason a priest should have to waste mana in between pulls, even if it's as simple as throwing a HoT on. Carry some bandages (no excuse for not having runecloth), or eat that bread ASAP.
Of course, there are lots and lots of exceptions. Most priests I know will heal me anyway out of combat. And as a priest I'll usually throw off a few extra heals before I drink, including a few to the pets. But as for responsibilities, I think there should be as few as possible on both sides. Your thoughts?
Filed under: Priest, Shaman, Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, Tricks, How-tos
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Sour Sep 22nd 2006 2:31AM
Wow no comments yet? I believe that every situation calls for different styles of healing. I see throwing a HoT on a warlock a very efficent way of overall productivity, and to keep things moving.
Andrea Sep 22nd 2006 10:04AM
I'm one of those crazy life-tapping warlocks, but I never expect to be healed. I have a lot of options for regaining life after all. If my life is really low, I will just slap on a heavy runecloth bandage, otherwise I will just use Siphon Life and maybe Drain Life at the next fight. I like using Drain Life, it makes Nightfall proc more often.
Our priest heals us anyway on our guild runs, mostly using Renew, and that's fine, but I never expect heals. Only rude people would.
Shalkis Sep 22nd 2006 3:06AM
In my experience, the wakeup call usually comes when people start raiding. Healers will understand due to trial and error not to waste mana on useless heals, and DPS classes start to painfully learn the ugly truth about DPS: You're expendable. During raids, DPS classes are supposed to be taking care of themselves. Unless there's AoE involved, getting hit with a DPS class means that you're doing something wrong. If you get hit, you're supposed to be able to patch yourself up. The healer is not your nanny. My main is a mage, and I'm satisfied if I have more than 0 health when I go out of combat. Depending on the encounter, the healer might have burned more mana than me, and it would be selfish to ask for a heal when food will do the trick more economically. The less mana the healer wastes, the sooner we are ready for the next pull.
Lori Sep 22nd 2006 5:20AM
Am I reading to post wrong? Sounds like someone had a bad raid. My main is a lock and I have explained, in raid chat, when the priests were running out of mana, that I don't need healing unless a mob is beating on me. Cause usually life tapping is the reason I'm down on health. With the plan being a bandage or Health Stone when it gets low enough.
When the fighting is done, I will frequently Life Tap health down to match mana and have a nice Mana Biscuit to get both bars back to max. And nearly as frequently, priests will heal me while I'm doing this. Their choice, I guess.
The only pet I have out is my Imp and he/she (haven't figured out which yet) is off in some other dimension.
I'm curious about the part where there is a lock guildie you like. Do healers have favorite people they put more effort into keeping alive?
Poirot Sep 22nd 2006 11:46AM
I constantly heal while in raids, even during downtime, i can usually mana up faster than most ppl can get bandaged and fed. Healing during downtime speeds up raids which means that MC only has to take 3 hours. Warlocks need heals while mana whatevering cause they like to wander about high level instances with no health and are prone to being one-shotted by their own nubishness. In fact i will throw a renew on mana less warlocks before they start mana whatevering just to give them some of a safety net.
Sylythn Sep 22nd 2006 7:36AM
As a Warlock, I really only expect two things from my priests...keep the Renew on (as it pretty much negates my life-tapping unless I'm in serious resource trouble). The other is emergency heals in long fights. I expect the priest to ignore my lifebar completely the first two times it goes really low...why? Because I have two tactics, healthstone - and health potions. If the fight's still going on, and I get low again - that's when I need the saving heals...but they're just extra bonus prior to that. As for in between fights...I sit down and eat - no sense in healing when we all need to regen.
synack Sep 22nd 2006 7:40AM
I play a priest. I rolled a priest because I wanted to heal. I heal people at every opportunity I get, yes even lifetapping warlocks.
Why?
Because that's what priests do. The way I see it is if you have a problem with healing, then why the eff did you roll a healer?
I don't see warlocks bitching because they have to throw another shadow bolt, or rogues complaining that they have to dps. THAT'S WHAT YOUR CLASS DOES.
Jean Sep 22nd 2006 7:46AM
Don't put up a dramaqueen scene about how YOU decide who gets healed and how OTHERS should take care of themselves and more of that rubbish. You're invited to the party to heal, not to start a discussion...
Just make sure everyone knows what and what not to expect from others, that's the way to go. Communicate with your partymembers!
Ravven Sep 22nd 2006 7:49AM
As a warlock, I handle my own healing, but I do appreciate healers who understand the warlock class and know that much of our gear has +stamina rather than +intellect for a reason...we have to lifetap to replace mana. Anyone who says that a lock should sit out part of a fight and eat just doesn't understand how effective a lock can be when DoT'ing and DPSing. Lifetap, for me, doesn't replace health fast enough. If I had to sit out part of every fight, my damage levels would drop drastically. It depends on the fight, though - if it's not a fight where locks are essential, then I handle my own healing. If it's something like Battleguard Sartura, where all locks are on the boss, spamming her with searing pain, or anywhere where you're needed for crowd control, then keeping locks up is important. In our guild, druids tend to supplement healing on locks, etc., while the priests are healing tanks and other essential members. And personally, I always make sure I have plenty of bandages and health pots.
Gill Sep 22nd 2006 10:37PM
In a 5-man group, as a priest, I've made it my motto that it's my job to keep everyone alive. Of course my main priority is the main tank but I do my best to keep everyone in top health (+INT bonuses FTW!!!!)
I also have a DPS warrior that raids. And even though I'm not top priority on the healing list and often tell our healers not to waste mana on me, I still get heals from our priests during fights cuz they say "it's their job".
Just as #6 says, Priests = Healers. Do your job.
Tigrainw Sep 22nd 2006 8:56AM
As a Warlock, I can only say that in later Raid encounters it is to some part essentially to get healed.
When I'm low and in need for mana I throw a Healthstone in, but that Healpot cooldown should not be touched unless I need it to survive, so I can only bandage. But.. 2k mana are really fast spent.. So I need Healing to keep up DPS.
And yes.. there is no real reason why a Healer should heal me through a Strat run .. I can eat.
But .. while fighting Nefarian, my Mana is spent after 10% and I need to Lifetap to continue nuking, and a Renew or a Rejuv is really doing the job, so I tend to run into the healer zerg to get some sort of heal while my Bandage is still on cooldown.
greetings Draghkar
Glowing Sep 22nd 2006 8:55AM
I don't think it's proper to completely discount a player on a heal. When I played my paladin and I wasn't the healer I would heal out of battle all the time no matter who needed it. I don't care if they have their own ways of healing I will still throw up a heal for them. On the other side of that I expect everyone to have ways of healing themselves because it's just moronic to go into a raid without potions or food.
However, when someone pisses me off and tells me that I need to heal more or pay better attention to the team and not myself when I haven't healed myself the entire time...I'll let them die because they deserve it...epecially if I am not the healer.
Dyyne Sep 22nd 2006 9:38AM
stupid healers, HEAL MY SEWERBEAST!!!!11!!oneone!!!
ProblemChild Sep 22nd 2006 10:57AM
I'm a priest. I heal. If your bars are low, I fill them up. It's what I do.
If you are lifetapping during a fight and I have time and mana, I'll slap a renew on you (414 a tick helps).
Most of the warlocks I run with appreciate but don't expect this.
jpc Sep 22nd 2006 9:58AM
lotta locks here...
Well as a priest, I can answer Lori's question about healers having favorites. Yes! We do. While I am incapable of going out of my way to *let* someone die, I am quite capable at putting extra effort into keeping my favorites alive. My list for *extra heals* is:
* RL buddys
* in game buddys
* mages who give me 2 stacks of water instead of 1
* mages who buff me (is it just me or are mages the slowest buffers?)
* locks who summon me without me asking in vent over and over
* locks who give me health stones and soul stones
* priest class officer (to get brownie points)
* Guild leader (to get brownie points)
jpc Sep 22nd 2006 10:03AM
Oh yeah, and I agree with synack (#6). During fights I heal everyone that needs it; it's really hard for me to tell whether a warlock is getting hit or lifetapping. Esp if said lock taps himself really low. Between fights I rarely heal because I am too busy trying to keep buffs up and get my mana up (priestly buffs are very expensive mana wise).
Phule Sep 22nd 2006 10:50AM
As a hunter, I appreciate every heal my pet gets, but I go out of my way to earn them and I don't ever expect them. As a priest, I only heal pets if they've been used well. For instance, if I'm playing my priest and have 3 mobs on me, and the hunter in the party has his pet on one mob and none attacking him, I'll let the kitty die. On the other hand, if the pet comes and takes a mob or two off of me, I'm much more likely to give it some attention.
When I play my hunter, I make keeping the Healers alive my top priority. I take the aggro of whatever mobs are attacking me, with my pet or myself if necessary, because if the healer falls, you're pretty much done. I wear mail, the priests wear cloth. It's more mana efficient to have them attacking me anyhow, and I can keep using my bow if I have things hitting me, while the priest's spells are slowed.
In other words, EARN your *extra heals* if you want them. And bask in the feeling of a job well done if you've made the healer's life easy enough that they can afford to give them to you.
Tim Sep 22nd 2006 11:08AM
Another lock here. In raids, most locks are pretty much self sufficient, but getting a HoT when we are lifetapping is very efficient for the raid in general if u look at some basic math. (ignoring +dmg/heal modifiers). This is just a quick analysis, so if I missed something, be nice.
A rank 10 Renew gives 970 health over 15 seconds for 410 mana.
A warlock with 2 points in lifetap talent can convert 970 health into 1164 mana.
The warlock can then cast three Rank 10 shadowbolts for 1140 mana.
So a single HoT for 410 mana from a priest can be converted into around 2500-3000 damage (no crits) to a target by a warlock with about +350 spell dmg. That is extremely efficient use of mana, IMHO. This is really useful when chain-pulling trash in MC to minimize downtime due to bandaging and/or drinking.
So I say to my healers.. if you have the mana to spare, hit me with HoTs, but don't strain yourself, and it helps me keep a far higher sustained dps.
Baloc Sep 22nd 2006 11:16AM
as a priest, i have no prooblem throwing out the extra heals between battles. During battle it all depends on # of mobs, mana reserve, DPS MT is taking, etc. If im not crucial at that exact second and the heal can be used elsewhere it will be.
LadyMulder Sep 22nd 2006 11:25AM
To heal or not to heal? What a dumb question for a priest! It's your job. With my priest, I heal everyone in my party unless I'm getting low on mana during a long fight then I let my party know that I'm low and I'll heal the main tank only when he/she's getting low on health so that I can concentrate on getting mana back up in case we run into to trouble.
Like #6 says--Priests=Healers. It's your job to make sure everyone stays alive. But as other chars, be the good "scout" and BE PREPARED--Have a back-up plan with potions and bandages.