AddOn Spotlight: Visual Heal
by Elizabeth Harper 
Nov 4th 2007 at 2:10PM
...okay, now that we've run them off, we can talk. Just you and me, healer to healer. Visual Heal isn't what I'd call a must-have addon, but it does provide useful visual cues that I've found found helpful on more than one occasion. With Visual Heal installed, whenever you cast a heal, an additional health bar comes up near your cast bar showing your target's current health and your target's estimated health after the heal has been cast. As you can see in the image above, the green bar under my cast bar is Visual Heal. The green section is my current health -- full -- and the red portion is the amount the heal I'm casting will land for. (Color-coded red because it's all overhealing.) For me, it means instead of looking back and forth from my cast bar to my target's health, all I have to keep an eye on is Visual Heal, which is nice, since I've yet to be able to train my eyes to watch both bars at once.
While it's a nice toy to have in single-healer situations, it starts to shine in larger groups. If multiple healers in a group all have Visual Heal installed, the Visual Heal bar will show not only your heals on a target, but others' heals -- allowing for, potentially, much better cooperation on your healing team.
If you're interested in giving it a try, you can download Visual Heal from the WoW Ace Wiki, just scroll down to the bottom of their downloads page to pick up the latest version.
Filed under: AddOn Spotlight
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Cairnehoof Nov 4th 2007 2:26PM
Pitbull as a built in module that does this as well which works very well if you do not want to have to watch 2 unit frames while healing. Good add-on though!
Daneras Nov 4th 2007 2:37PM
hmmm, might give it a go myself, might be useful, thx for the info
Dipstick Nov 4th 2007 2:44PM
Does this work even if you're not targeting the player the heal is about to land on?
A lot of healers use Healbot or Grid+Clique, which means they're unlikely to be targeting someone (although I guess they'll usually have the boss mob or MT targeted in a raid situation). Furthermore they'll likely be throwing heals out to a variety of people in quick succession. Does this mod allow for that?
Snailking Nov 4th 2007 3:19PM
#1 beat me to it but I'll say it anyway.
Welcome to Pitbull
Neowar Nov 4th 2007 3:38PM
I use the good old CTRaid, and set it so it shows the health deficiency of people in the raid (-1500) for example. Based on that I figure out which heal to use, since I know the average amount healed by my spells.
This works great for me, but I want to experiment and try "Healbot or Grid+Clique" which poster three mentioned =)
Stephen Nov 4th 2007 3:44PM
@3 I'm a healbot user. With healbot you don't have to target someone to see their incoming heals. I would assume the same with Visual Heal, or it wouldn't be that helpful.
I believe these mods use a raid communication data channel (like KTM, ORa or CTMod) to send information about what is being cast. A player with the mod will cast a heal and the mod will transmit data to the other mods "Raid member 8 is casting a 2.5 second heal for approx X damage on raid member 4".
Most of the healing mods seem to use the same kind of language. I've had raid members use clique and I could see their incoming heals on my healbot frames. Visual Heal is an Ace mod and they usually play nice with each other.
Elizabeth Harper Nov 4th 2007 3:52PM
Hmm, interesting -- I may have to upgrade my AG unitframes to Pitbull and try that out! And, yes, Visual Heal shows the target your heal is being cast on regardless of your current target.
Jericon Nov 4th 2007 4:04PM
I am a healbot user as well, and when others heal someone in my raid or group, it shows on healbot and shows me the estimated amount of healing left if my current spell was cast. It allows me to see if there is estimated overheal (+xxxx) or if my heal is going to be placed well (Ideally showing 0 deficit, or a low negative number). I know that other guildies who do not use Healbot show up on there as well. It'd be nice if all the healers used the same mod, though.
Geoff Nov 4th 2007 6:46PM
I highly recommend this for TANKS. That way you can see heals are incoming (how much and when) as soon as the healer clicks the button. So you know if they've forgotten you or if you're about to be over-healed and can smash that bloodrage
Argent Nov 4th 2007 8:24PM
there's a mod for grid that does the same if you go that route:
http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info7666-GridStatusIncomingHealth.html
Cthun Nov 5th 2007 1:08AM
Read #1
Pitbull > all
Foussa Nov 5th 2007 5:48AM
I've been using VisualHeal for a few weeks, and It's really helpful. Worth noting is also the fact that VisualHeal handles debuffs like Mortal Strike and buffs like trinkets when it shows your heal's effect.
MartinC Nov 5th 2007 7:52AM
Actually, telling only healers to care about VisualHeal is a gross misstep. VisualHeal should be installed by everyone in the party/raid, that's right EVERYONE.
It is especially helpful for tanks to know when an incoming heal is being cast, before it hits. Also good for DPS, so they know if they are getting an incoming heal, or if they need to quickly pop a health potion to stay up. I wouldn't classify VisualHeal as a "healer only mod". I actually require all people who raid with me to have it installed, no matter what class/role.
fenla Nov 5th 2007 9:33AM
Have always liked healbot for showing overheal and used it alot in Kara. That said, I find the data lags a little more in 25mans and in some cases it's not picked up atall. Anyone else found this an issue?
thanks for the nod though, I'm likely to give this a go as it is important info and less REM the better ;)
Capitalgain Nov 5th 2007 9:58AM
Elizabeth,
Nice addon. I'm will give it a try... perhaps after 2.3 :)
I am a bit curious about your GH-4 vs. GH-7. I've always downgraded to regular ol' Heal-7. Is GH-4 more efficient? I also tend to spam FH-1 on the MT for a "free" inspiration.
Thanks very much
siorai Nov 5th 2007 12:36PM
In my previous guild we had the healers start using this on their own accord. From their standpoint I see the benefit. Less overhealing means less wasted mana which means more mana for more healing all around. Awesome. Wicked beans. Score one for the healers. From my standpoint as a tank I think it sucks and it's basically pointless for me to even bother installing. There's a time and place for overhealing. When the healers start putting more stock in VisualHeal and less stock in what is actually happening, people die. When the tanks die, the raid dies. It's very simple math, but try telling that to a healer.
When I did voice my opinion after several wipes on easy Kara bosses and *gasp* even Kara trash, it produced a complete s**tstorm. The healers got their panties ina huge knot because they got it into their heads that I was saying they sucked when infact I repeatedly said that VisualHeal sucks. Oh well. To proove a point, I stopped asking for heals. The heals trickled in and wipes became a regular occurrance.
While VisualHeal is a helpful mod, I think it's far too easy to become reliant on it. It's almost like the healer's version of a DPS meter. Instead of DPS though, they compare how little overhealing they did. Unfortunately they don't factor in how many wipes such little overhealing caused.
Mellisande Nov 5th 2007 2:59PM
@Argent
Does that Grid mod work for just your own heals, everybody's heals, or some people's heals (where somepeople means people with a certain addon(s))?
If it works for some people, what addons do they need to have to get it to work? Thanks in advance! ;)
Mellisande
Mellisande Nov 5th 2007 3:05PM
@Argent
Do you know if that addon works for only your heals, everyone's heal or "some" people's heals? If it only works on some people's heals what addon(s) do they need to have to get it to work?
I agree that I wouldn't use this much on the main tank, but it's helpful to me to know if some random dps'er is going to be healed by someone besides me and, if so, for how much.
Thanks in advance!
Mellisande Nov 5th 2007 3:06PM
Arrgghh!! Sorry about double post...but the one post just wasn't showing up and I couldn't figure out why...refreshes etc didn't matter. /sigh
MartinC Nov 6th 2007 2:43AM
LOL at #16. Do I smell a noob tank?