Ask WoW Insider: Should healing be competitive?
by Barb Dybwad 
Sep 7th 2007 at 4:30PM
Gather 'round the screen, orcs and gnomes, it's time for another edition of Ask WoW Insider. Last week we debated the post powerful character in Warcraft, and this week we return to contemplating game mechanics with a question from Valyre, healing lead of the Ascent guild on Scarlet Crusade (H): Is healing competitive? And should it be?What do you think, people -- are healers just as competitive as face-melters? How do you determine the "best" healer?
The fundamental mechanics of playing a dps class seem to encourage competition. Your target has an unlimited pool of health to act upon, so if you have the mana/rage/energy, you always have an outlet. Each ability you use to create damage stacks with the other fifteen people in the raid doing the same thing. You never hear "Your melee attack made my spell worthless." Some buffs will aid your party members, but for the most part it's individuals striving to do the most damage. And there are meters to chart your progress.
Healing mechanics tend to work against themselves. Your target may or may not have enough of a hp deficit at any given time for you to act on. Your abilities don't universally stack. If your heal tops off someone's health but beats out another healer's heal, you've just wasted their heal on a healthy person and threw their mana in the trash. To make things worse, "divide and conquer" assignments are more based on being able to heal through an encounter than to actually provide a level playing field for all healers. How many times do you see 3 healers on a tank that might take 30k damage, but 4 healers on the raid that takes well over 100k damage? At the end of the night, meters show love to the people with the highest damage assignments.
With this system, can you be competitive? Should you be competitive? If so, how?
WTB your questions! Send us what you want to know and we just may publish it next week. Send them to us at ask AT wowinsider DOT com.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
#1Healadin Feb 12th 2008 2:13PM
Is healing competitive? Lawlz, of course it’s competitive. It’s more competitive than DPS because it’s easy to learn, but difficult to master, so in 25-man raids you can truly see who the talented healers are.
Sorry if this offends you DPS classes, but wow, you’re job is so simple. The sheer mechanics of healing multiple targets, taking consistent damage for a prolonged period of time, is much more of a challenge then learning a spell/shot/energy or rage rotation on a boss fight. I have eight raiding toons, but the one I take to clear Black Temple is my Holy Paladin, simply because it’s what benefits the raid group and guild the most. On my Mage, Warlock, and Hunter I can put out 900+DPS on a boss fight on a bad day, but since everyone loves to do dmg and it is such a simple job to learn and master, it’s imperative that I play my healer for serious raids because of my ability to heal effectively, efficiently, and still be leagues above anyone else on the healing meters.
It’s clearly not fair to compare DPS charts and Healing charts because the two are apples and oranges on an individual basis. That being said, I personally use Recount and I have my officers use recount in order to monitor our healing classes. Regardless of what anyone says, “Oh this fight favors this and this fight favors that.” Total BS. Doesn’t mean a thing to me if you can apply HoTs, Group Heals, Chain Heals, whatever you have in your arsenal doesn’t mean a thing to me because I am going to crush you on any fight in terms of healing. Period.
I know people are probably going to think I am full of myself, which I am, because over the past several months of progressive raiding and having everything in TBC on farm status and 11 Bear mounts in our guild, the one consistent factor I have noticed is that recount is great for determining who the best healers are over the long run. Yes, someone might perform well in a specific boss fight more so than another person, but calculating healing done, over healing done, healing percentages, and top targets healed for raid boss fights is an excellent way to determine who your truly great healers are. Also, in my experience I have not had anyone come close to beating me in healing done or my healing percentages. In terms of efficiency I am always the lowest or second lowest in over healing done, being the second lowest on over healing to someone who normally is 12-15% below me on healing done. We’re talking about hundreds of thousands and sometimes a million plus hit points behind me.
Consistently being low on the healing meters over the long run doesn’t mean “Oh I know how to conserve mana.” What it does mean is that most of the time you are standing around doing nothing but taking up space and not casting heals and subsequently knowing how to cancel them if someone is going to beat you to the punch. If you are consistently at the bottom of the healing meters and the difference between you and anyone else in your raids, 25-mans specifically, is along the lines that two of you couldn’t equal one of them… /healerquit ftw and roll a meathead dps class where you can just smash buttons like in Street Fighter or Tekken and hope to get a combo move or special ability off. You are doing a disservice to your guild and raids being that much of a noob and if you raided like that for three weeks in my guild you would be removed permanently from raids as a healer and would have to look somewhere else for people who want to carry some dead weight. Three weeks of consistent raiding is more than enough time to monitor any healers abilities and see if they are capable of improvement, or if they just blow harder than Jenna Jameson on Valentine’s Day and you need to send them down to the farm league. 25-Man raids are for All-Stars and MVPs, so all you bat boy healers can continue to try to heal Karazhan where you won’t get in the way.
Holy Paladins FTW!
Ryan Sep 7th 2007 4:39PM
It's not that it isn't competitive, it's that all you're doing is staring at little boxes and not engaged in the fight at all. I've played DPS/Tank and Healer in raids and healing is by far the most stressful and least enjoyable. I'm very curious about how the way Warhammer will be handling healing will play out, where you actually have to perform some offensive moves in order to build up the energy for your healing and buffing moves.
rinks Sep 7th 2007 4:40PM
Yup. Rogues/locks/hunter/warriors/mages have their damage meter, I have my healing meter.
You determine the best healer by looking at applied heals, and percentage of overhealing. It's a bit more complex then the highest number wins factor of DPS, but it's fun and gives us something to shoot for.
Blake Sep 7th 2007 4:41PM
There should be some sort of competition. After a wipe on Moroes earlier this week, I whispered the raid leader the overhealing stats as one of the pallys had run out of mana. He had been way overhealing and it wasn't because of overlapping assignments. Even if it isn't competitive, there needs to be people watching how healing is being handled at the very least.
rinks Sep 7th 2007 4:43PM
Although @1, it has turned almost entirely into watching the healing bars. I swear I've gone through instances where I haven't actually looked at any of the scenery, and it's a pain when I really have to monitor my placement.
But again, I need something to counter the incessant posting of DMG meters and the arguments that ensue.
Ghen Sep 7th 2007 4:47PM
healers with crowd controlling abilities are more fun to play of course, but healing isn't an epeen contest, it takes way more finesse to heal the right amount than to overheal and get huge numbers.
Freehugz Sep 7th 2007 4:53PM
Healing meters are the same as dps meters. They're not completely accurate, but they will point out who the best healers are over a few reports.
draeth Sep 7th 2007 4:58PM
healing isnt competitive, its a royal pain in the butt.
Epiny Sep 7th 2007 5:06PM
Healing meter's are not accurate. PoM for priest's don't show as there own healing. Plus Paladin's heal differently than priests, druids and shamans. A paladin can't be expected to heal the entire raid.
Although in my guild the healers try to cut in one someone's healing and make them over heal. Two of our healers out gear the raids we run, so it doesn't cause much risk.
Making the paladin geared for SSC overheal our tank on Moroes for 7k is fun for me. :)
pokute Sep 7th 2007 5:25PM
I've played both healer and DPS, and I must say that as a healer I never got to "see" the instance or encounters. Playing through BWL again as a mage was definitely an eye-opening experience.
Dave Sep 7th 2007 5:35PM
Success for a healer = their target doesn't die.
period!
Healing meters aren't accurate at ALL, nor are they a sign of successful healing. If you're healing a rogue every 10 seconds, you're going to throw more heals than a tank who's well geared and barely taking any damage. Double so, if you're healing all the DPS'ers who eat damage and there's just one dedicated healer on a tank. It's very dependent on other things that you can't control.
Conversely, DPS'ers can have that sort of compeititon because they're all focused on the same target (so their baseline is equal) and you can accurately measure who's not performing as well based on numbers. It just doesn't compare, and I'd feel really uncomfortable being with a group that tries to measure up healers with each other. (and I don't even want to get into the varying degrees of healing by classes...)
Tronn Sep 7th 2007 5:38PM
It definitely seems like competitive healing based purely on the healing meter can be counterproductive in raids. The whole point of being a healer is to prolong the life of the raid, and especially to be able to save the raid when things inevitably go wrong.
For instance, my guild's Kara group usually includes 2 holy priests (me being one of them) and a holy pally. I have approximately 1800 bonus healing, with the next closest healer having 1500 bonus healing. I am consistently third on the healing meter, even though I feel I am healing almost all of the time.
I suppose I'm always last of the three healers because (1) I'm always trying to conserve mana when possible, in the event that extra group aggros and things get crazy, and (2)with my mods, I can tell when a target has a heal incoming from another healer. If the tank is down 1k health on a non-boss, and he has a heal incoming, I back off.
Last night, as an experiment, I decided to see if I could top the healing meter. I eventually did, but it took constant healing in unnecessary situations. And I found myself spending a lot more time drinking, which can slow up the raid.
I'm not saying the healing meter is pointless, or that healing shouldn't be competitive. But there are more factors that go into what makes a good healer than just who can spam flash heal faster. So it bugs me when someone tells me that our other priest is the "best healer" because the healing meter says so. I guess they didn't notice his overhealing was almost as much as my actual healing.
nav Sep 7th 2007 5:39PM
@3, no there still shouldn't be. If you sneak heals in in front of mine before I have a chance to cancel, I'll go up on the overhealing. It's too easy for you to screw with my stats, especially if you're a class with faster (but possibly less efficient or otherwise useful) heals.
Examine things carefully, watch the healers to see how they do, but it's not a role where there should be competition. It's about keeping the team up, not competing within the team.
Tridus Sep 7th 2007 5:40PM
Healing meters are not accurate at all, they're meaningless. On a fight like Void Reaver, I'm #1 by a mile.
Is it because I'm the greatest healer ever?
No. Its because I've got Circle of Healing, and my job is spamming heals on the melee DPS group after pounding. That means I do a ton of healing, but it doesn't make me better then the tank healers, who do less but more important healing. On another fight the melee might take less damage, and I'm now in fifth on the meters. I didn't suddenly become a worse healer, the situation demanded less healing.
The bottom line is that healing is cooperative. All the healers are a team, working together. Trying to make it competitive is counterproductive. Trying to make it competitive by using meters is flat out stupid.
theoy Sep 7th 2007 5:54PM
I agree with Tridus. Different healers have different strengths, which can shine in some encounters but be less evident in others.
Likewise with previous comments - Prayer of Mending gets credited to the player who is healed. However, most sane priests don't complain, because that player also receives the threat from that healing *grin* - making Prayer of Mending sensational for threat management.
I agree that any decent healer needs to learn about overhealing and appropriate downranking. However, the current meters are way too flawed to make analysis of healing stats constructive.
Nails Sep 7th 2007 5:54PM
when i run 5 man instances (my priest is only 41), i always set DamageMeters to show Damage Taken
that way i always know who is most likely to actually NEED a heal throughout the instance
watching actual healing results is kind of a joke, and doesnt mean a whole lot
ive never raided, so im assuming it's quite a bit different with healing assignments, timing things right, etc.
Salty Sep 7th 2007 5:55PM
Healing is very competitive, but in a different way as DPS. Mostly it's healing quality determining whether you get a raid spot, who you're healing, etc. If you get assigned to main-heal the main tank, you are obviously very reliable and on top of your game and your other healers, but if you're the 3rd healer on the main-tank, it may be because the raid leader doesn't trust you to a dedicated role.
Healing can't simply be judged by the healing meters, which only measures healing opportunities. There are a lot factors that go into determining a truly good healer and the metric is trust. I think you would have to do some heavy statistical analysis in the combat logs to really see a good healer's quality from numbers, but it can easily be felt.
1) Healing classes should use everything they can in their arsenal.
2) Raid healers should understand the concepts of downranking for endurance fights and focus macros.
3) Healers need to be acutely aware of healing aggro, which abilities and when they can use them without causing too much threat.
4) Healers should not be stingy with the mana pots and should drink them early so they can chain them later when they need it.
5) Healers should lead their long-cast heals when healing the main tank, interrupting them if no damage is taken.
6) Healers should decurse/cleanse/anything unless told not to for mana purposes or focus-healing. Be aware of unstable affliction. Call out to your backup if you die, etc.
7) Healers should use appropriate plugins like perfectraid, decurisve, KTM/omen.
8) Raid healers should be instance-specced with a proven spec, no soloing or pvp talents, please. Unless you're the bee's knees or your raid leader's best friend, don't go with cutesy talents, spec hardcore for your role.
9) When not needing to chain heal or lead heals on a friendly player, target the tank's mob and watch his target of target, assisting to heal when needed. Be aware of aggro changes and be ready to assist the mob to its new target and have a shield or a heal ready when it strikes.
10) Watch your squishies, they die quickly and you can't just watch the green bars and heal reactively. Squishies exist to test your proactive healing abilities.
There is plenty more to say, but if you have a good raid healer, he will look for these qualities in you and rank you accordingly in his own mind. That is your measure of healing.
Seperioth Sep 7th 2007 5:58PM
I just went through this a little while back. Healers cannot use healing meters.
A healers job is to keep people alive. In some cases healers are assigned to a person, in others it might be heal whoever. Regardless.. healers dont have a single target usually.
I was really big on the healing meters while our guild was attempting lurker. I realized that.. I was usually the last one to die, thus i either had alot more time to heal then the others.. or since i was healing just the MT for most of the fight.. that they had more targets to spam things on.
Also I noticed that certain classes over heal most of what they put out. As a druid I have small medium and large heals to throw. As a paladin they seem to only throw big heals. Thus there overhealing 50-70% of there total heals whereas i only overheal 20-40%.
So technically i'm the better healer because i'm conserving my mana and making better use of my heals then the pally spamming large heals? No.. you can't compete in healing because if someone dies.. you just failed. I mean.. its great you topped the healing meters in 1st place.. but your all dead and no phat lootz for you right?
vern Sep 7th 2007 6:11PM
Healing meters mean something only if you set them up to show effective heals in combat.
The one I use is SW Stats.
Overhealing means nothing at all as far as I am concerned.
The real question is if you can afford that overhealing or not.
Healing competitive ? Mmmm
There are healers that blind heal the main tank no matters what.
Of course, the guy takes 80% of the damage so is a nice way to stuff you healing numbers.
But a healing priest with COH can't be only healing the tank.
Do you realize that COH heals for 4200 health every second? And you could spam it 4 or 5 times.
That's 21000 healed within 5 seconds!!
But a healer can not be limited to his healing assignment.
If no one is flexible and only heals his assignment then its a guaranteed wipe if one of the healer dies.
His death creates a domino effect in the raid and its over.
To evaluate a healer performance, I usually look at his healing breakdown and total effective healing.
How many people does he effectively care healing?
Where is he (the healer himself) in his own breakdown? (that reveals if he knows where to stand in the fight). The overhealing % could be interesting to check.
Also healing Karazhan and SSC (or TK) are 2 different things.
COH is pretty worthless in Kara but shines in 25 men raids.
From the comments I can read here, a lot of the people have no clue what healing really is.
Healing is more than just healing your assignment!
Healer A heals only Tank A.
Healer B heals only Tank B.
The boss is at 5%
Bad luck for healer B, an add cleaves and insta kills him. Tank B that was on that add is not healed as healer A does not want to heal tank B who is not his assignment... Its a domino effect and a wipe.
You have to be super flexible
To conclude, there is a difference to make about healing trash mobs kills and bosses kills.
Trash mobs favor fast healers. There is almost no mana management on trash.
Which is not the case on bosses.
I look at the complete raid numbers, as well as for each attempts.
BTW, the best of all meters is WWS:
http://www.lossendil.com/wws/
Jashin Sep 7th 2007 10:36PM
It gets competitive, but it shouldn't be. People are kept alive, we beat the encounter or dungeon. We all win.
As a shaman, I didn't really care anyways. Pallys, priests and druids can gloat all they want. I am throwing totems, chain healing and tossing earth shields around (especially when the other healers pull aggro on those big heals).
I must say, the healing meters that show overhealing make me giggle. Wow you did the most healing during the raid. Most of it was overhealing though.Gratz on blowing your mana trying to out heal other people.
Sure, mana tide inc.
Either way, and like the druid above put it. I have to conserve my mana. Shamans are weak without a decent amount of mp5. So you won't see me throwing a lot of heals. Just smart ones...where it counts.