Raid Rx: Settling the over healing question
by Matt Low 
Jul 19th 2009 at 4:00PM
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a new WoW blog for all things UI, macro, and addon related. So is over healing a really bad thing? Or is it overrated? Let's discuss!
First, a quick apology is in order. I goofed on the last Raid Rx post. I play an Elemental Shaman during my off time. Everything I read pointed me to the original conclusion which is clearly not the case. Ergo, I must apologize.
Today's Raid Rx is a discussion and a debate that's centered been a focal point for many raiding guilds and raiding healers. The point of contention?
Over healing.
Yes, there is a segment of healers who believe that healing too much can lead to bad things. Is over healing bad or is it just being blown out of proportion? I'll do my best to outline arguments and main points from both perspectives.
But before I get there, let me define quickly what it is.
Over healing is the act of excessively healing damage that a player has taken. So if a player is down by 5000 health and your heal lands for 11000, then you've over healed that player by 6000. As such, the extra 6000 is then considered wasted.
Over healing is bad
Efficiency. This is the view of players who believe over healing is a bad thing. They don't like wasting mana. Every point of health restored should mean something. No heals should ever be wasted. Healers strive to use the right spells at the right time in response to different attacks. There is an underlying belief that it is all about the efficiency of spells.
I've seen raid leaders and healing leaders point to over healing meters as an indicator of overall bad healing. It's one of those unbiased signs and a typical lambasting proceeds something like this:
"You're over healing too much. Because of that, you're costing us the kill. We're going to have to replace you with another healer who doesn't over heal as much and knows how to control their spells."
Alright, maybe that example was a bit too dramatic. But there are some players who do take it to that extreme. Part of the reason is that over healing is a symptom of bad mana management and such. So the more over healing a player does, the more mana is being wasted. Mana is a precious commodity for us and it shouldn't be thrown aside like that.
At least, that's the prevailing theory.
There's nothing wrong with over healing
Here's the other side of the argument. Do whatever it takes to get the job done. In this case, the primary goal is to make sure your tanks or impact players (anyone who's important to the fight) do not die. There is an understanding that bomb healing is a necessity at certain points. Obviously the negative side of this aspect is that healers will cut through their mana fairly quickly.
Besides, most fights don't last that long anyway for mana to truly matter.
Right?
Okay, so let's get back to the question at hand here. Which school of thought is correct and which one isn't? Does over healing truly matter? Is it an indicator of a bad player? The correct answer is it depends. Like any other question about healing, the answer is always going to depend on context.
A quick history
A long, long time ago in raid instances not so far away, over healing was a predominantly bad thing. The game mechanics were different then what we have today. Managing mana and healing back then was extremely micro intensive. Pop open your spellbooks, and you'll see different spells have different ranks. It was fairly common for healers to have a rank 2, rank 5, and the max rank of Flash Heal. Multiply that by Greater Heal and Prayer of Healing (I'm using my Priest as an example) and it populated the keybinds by a good amount. Another thing is that casters were allowed to chain chug potions. We didn't have replenishment either. We had to farm hours on end for Mana Oils or Dark Runes especially if you were on a top raiding guild. May as well call it Grindcraft or Farmcraft or something along those lines.
Anyway, the issue I wanted to get at here is that over healing actually meant something during this period in raiding. Raiding then is different then it is now.
(As an aside, I heard rumors and myths of a notorious Priest on one of the servers I played on. Back during Molten Core, he'd consistently receive props for doing a large number of healing. Unbeknownst to everyone, he was standing at the entrance just healing himself the entire time!)
At the present
The raid bosses are slightly different now. It's up to each individual healing class to determine how long they can go with every possible buff and flask they have at their disposal.
Try this. Heal yourself or another player with your max rank spells and find out how long it takes before you run out of mana. Most raid bosses nowadays have enrage timers. Gone are the times when we had 20 minute fights with Illidan. Enrage timers are shorter now. Some encounters even have soft enrages.
There are some fights where you just have to let go and blast everything. What difference does it make if you end the fight with 90% mana in the tank versus 5%? The thing about healing is that it can be a delicate balance to many people. You don't want to run out of mana. I understand that. But what's the flip side? You don't use enough of it resulting in player casualties.
How nit picky is it to go after players who are over healing? What's the alternative? They under heal? I never really understood that. At this level of content we're facing, we just have to blast our tanks.
The only time when over healing becomes a problem is when your healers run out of mana. Even then, as a raid leader you need to ask yourself why. It could be a gearing issue. They could be way out of their league in the content you're working. More often not, a simple healing assignment switch can help resolve that. Or the problem could be deeper. Most encounters have the raid taking X damage. Your healers have to be able to heal X (well, give or take) to successfully get through it. If there are ways to avoid damage, then emphasize it.
It's always been easier for me to dial back on healing output once I get a feel for an encounter. Figure out what your limits are as a healer. That's when you can gradually scale down if you find that you're over doing it.
Want some more advice for working with the healers in your guild? Raid Rx has you covered with all there is to know! Looking for less healer-centric raiding advice? Take a look at our raiding column Ready Check.Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, Raiding, Raid Rx (Raid Healing)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
TheMediator Jul 19th 2009 4:09PM
"The only time when over healing becomes a problem is when your healers run out of mana. "
This should be the TL;DR of the whole article. Overhealing has its uses - In fights where the tank is going to be 2-shot (which is a fair amount of the hard modes), overhealing means that you're keeping him effectively topped off. HOWEVER, that doesn't mean you want a lot of overhealing. Optimally you would want a bit of overhealing but not a huge amount - that would mean you're keeping the tank topped off all the time, without blowing your mana and OOMing. It all comes down to the healers coordinating to ensure you keep the tank at 100% at all times, without overdoing. It makes the difference between spending weeks on a hard mode, and beating it your second attempt.
Treason Jul 19th 2009 4:44PM
I'd say optimally, your eyes stay off the overhealing meter unless healers are going oom or tanks are dying.
alex Jul 19th 2009 4:47PM
^ Yes.
Did you finish the fight successfully? Then overhealing doesn't matter. Your healers did their job.
Did you wipe? Did this happen because your healers weren't doing their job? Then overhealing might be a part of that problem.
TomWolf Jul 19th 2009 4:47PM
"The only time when over healing becomes a problem is when your healers run out of mana. "
Well actually it's not really true. Overhealing is a symptom of another problem as well. If you overheal you have used 'more powerful spell then is nessesary'. This is not only a mana problem but also a time problem.
A more powerful spell either costs more mana or takes longer to cast...often both. While the mana isn't really an issue until you run out of it time management is always an issue. If you spend 4 seconds casting a spell when a 2 second spell would have been enough then you might not have time to save the dying rogue (and there is always a dying rogue around).
I'm not one of those that use healing/dps meters to decide who to bring along but I do use them to help myself and others become better players. So if you find yourself over healing you should consider learning when to cast faster heals.
But then again, as the previous poster writes...sometimes overhealing has its uses...or atleast it's a nessesity.
TomWolf of Occisor-EU
TheMediator Jul 19th 2009 5:22PM
"Did you finish the fight successfully? Then overhealing doesn't matter. Your healers did their job."
I don't accept that AT ALL, especially considering there are hard modes fights. That sort of logic is why lesser guilds get into trouble when they jump from normal modes to hard modes. You would tell your raid that your healers just aren't geared enough, when you could be pushing your healers to be better.
Your DPS shouldn't be weak on fights that don't have tight hard enrages, your tanks shouldn't be lazy when tank switching quickly doesn't wipe you immediately, and your healers shouldn't overheal when you don't need them to, or you will not have success jumping into the hard modes when they are tight hard enrages, when your tanks do have to trade off aggro very quickly or quickly grab adds, and when your healers do have to get a large amount of effective HPS.
Tom Jul 19th 2009 6:15PM
You all, including the Author of the column, completely miss the most important point.
The article essentially says: Overhealing is not always bad because sometimes it's better to bomb heal and overheal than to not overheal and have somebody die.
But there are many many situations where overhealing is actually a good thing:
1. A spell may be so efficient that even with substantial overheal it's the best option. For example, Prayer of Healing is the best spell to use to heal 4 people even if it overheals on the 5th. It's better than casting, for example, 4 flash heals. It's not that overheal is a "lesser evil". Overheal is simply not a bad thing at all here.
2. Casting an AoE heal may be substantially faster than avoiding overheal. Time is a resource just as much as mana is.
Anyway, I've written an article on overheal at:
http://spotheal.wordpress.com/2009/06/18/overhealing-and-why-its-not-all-bad/
Check it out.
Xephos Jul 19th 2009 7:16PM
@TomWolf:
"A more powerful spell either costs more mana or takes longer to cast...often both. While the mana isn't really an issue until you run out of it time management is always an issue. If you spend 4 seconds casting a spell when a 2 second spell would have been enough then you might not have time to save the dying rogue (and there is always a dying rogue around)."
While this is true that time management IS important, in a raid environment every person has a role: tank, dps, and healer. Some of these roles have sub categories (OT, dps adds, etc) and healing is no different and, usually, every healer has their own assignment. Generally, from the point of view of a MT healer, its not my job to heal a dying rogue (which, yes, there is always one). I have one job and that is to ensure the tank doesn't die. If I can do that and not go OOM, who cares what my overhealing is.
Gothia Jul 20th 2009 2:58AM
One of your better articles.
I love it when people on the comment section talk about a job they do not do. Situational healing is easier that constant healing where you throw heals because the damage is across the board or your tank "needs" constant healing from tank healers and hots from raid healers. In the constant healing situation overhealing is much better than underhealing vice versa if you are in a situation where damage is not being taken across the raid then healing becomes mainly single target whack a mole style then overhealing is worse than underhealing. The fact remains that the only time overhealing comes into a raid discussion is when the RL is playing the blame game. Our Rl looks at healing taken stats and not surprisingly many dps are taking "much" more healing than the tank. I hate to play the blame game, but healers and tanks make up 1/4 of the raid so 9 times out of 10 the reason for wiping will be on Dps.
TheMediator Jul 20th 2009 10:45AM
"I love it when people on the comment section talk about a job they do not do. "
Totally agree with you here. Too many comments about overhealing being awesome were uprated and comments from actual healers saying that overheal isn't always beneficial were downrated - makes me think tanks or DPSers who don't understand how healing works are just downrating comments that don't agree with their view that healers should just heal them as much as they can.
Tes Jul 20th 2009 11:14AM
Overhealing is something to watch if you want to excel more by having mana last longer in fights.
For example, my overhealing is typically around 12%.
This happens pretty easily when AoE heals are available as usually a CoH or Prayer of Healing will push some people over the top.
Also in the current era of avoidance tanking, we can't let tanks drop very low just in case they miss a couple dodges or parries in a row. So we'll be throwing stuff that'll push them abit over the top regularly, unfortunately. Gone are the days of waiting for your tank to hit somewhere between 40% and 60%, topping them off, checking everyone else, and watching the tank again.
Overhealing will skyrocket in raids if there is little or no healer coordination.
If you and your fellow healers are hitting 20% you need to coordinate more so you don't overstack heals on people.
Of course it doesn't matter too much as long as the party succeeds but watching overhealing even on fights you're commonly successful on can give you that edge to endure longer for the later bosses.
dawnseven Jul 20th 2009 11:55AM
@ Tom
"Well actually it's not really true. Overhealing is a symptom of another problem as well. If you overheal you have used 'more powerful spell then is nessesary'. This is not only a mana problem but also a time problem."
Maybe true, maybe not. It depends on the situation. I think it WAS true back when you could downrank spells without a penalty, but since you can't, it isn't. Example: I'm a holy paladin. My max rank of flash of light is my most mana efficient. If a player is down by 3k and I Flash for 6200, I've just overhealed by 3200, however my mp5 is such that in 1 tick I'm back to 100%, so no harm, no foul. A Rank 3 or 4 Flash might have actually healed for around 3k yes, but it would have cost me more. And since I'm back to 100% my "wasted" mana is moot. Now, if I heal like this throughout the instance or raid my overhealing by the time all is said and done is going to be pretty significant. But did I endanger the group any? No. I would consider an example like this to proactive rather than reactive healing. Back when you could chain chug mana pots did you not take one before or around the time your mana pool was half gone to get the cooldown on it running so it would be up again when you needed it? Or did you wait until you were completely oom before taking one so as not to 'waste' it? I don't see the difference. I'll heal someone down by 3k and take the 3200 overheal meter "penalty" on a 6200 heal because it's proactive and doesn't hurt anything.
ToyChristopher Jul 19th 2009 4:16PM
I really don't think overhealing means anything unless your effective healing is very very low because you are picking the wrong targets. Most often overhealing means there are too many healers.
The purpose of healing is to ensure raid survival not make sure end the fight with 30% mana. To me that means that if you have extra mana you should heal someone even if they are almost at full health in anticipation of them taking damage.
wdelaney Jul 19th 2009 4:19PM
Like i always say, better to overheal then underheal
TheSipe Jul 19th 2009 6:59PM
Don't Forget, Holy Paladins with Their Beacon and Judgment means they should have tons of over healing. My holy pally also stacks crit heavy for the Mana regen purposes. I overheal constantly because the point of my crit is for Mana replenishment, the extra healed is just bonus.
Graham Ribchester Jul 20th 2009 4:40AM
Thesipe, you should be stacking intelligence on your holy pally, not crit if you want more mana over a long fight. This is especially true after the patch.
hanster007 Jul 20th 2009 10:47AM
He probably means he stacks more +crit gear than +haste. I stack intellect but then I go for the crit over the haste gear.
Manatank Jul 19th 2009 4:20PM
Overhealing is not an issue, and is one of the most inane things to waste a healer's attention on. If overhealing in Wrath is causing wipes it isn't because of mana efficiency it is because of poor division of labor betwen healers (i.e. too many people healing the same target at the expense of healing other people who need heals).
Excessive cross healing is wasteful and should be more of a concern now than overhealing is (though overhealing can be a symptom of excessive cross healing). The propblem isn't so much the wasted mana (it is a concern, but a minor one), but the real resource that is wasted by excessive cross healing is time. Having 3 healers waste a GCD to heal the same target when the amount of healing needed could be provided by only one of them is a waste of raid healing time.
Shionia Jul 19th 2009 4:20PM
One cause of overhealing that you (perhaps wisely) sidestep is the overhealing as a by-product of healer "competition" to top the "Healing Done" healing meter.
In addition, almost every multi-target heal is going to have some overheal. Example: Discipline Priests may apply Prayer of Mending to their primary target frequently in order to increase chances for Divine Aegis to proc when the PoM "bounces" away (where it will potentially overheal other raid members who aren't taking much damage).
Gessilea Jul 19th 2009 4:22PM
Overhealing is really only an issue if a) you run out of mana or b) you have an anal GM/RL/healing lead who keeps their nose stuck to the healing done meters as a way to decide who the best healers are, without taking overheals and class differences into account (or has a stick up their butt about all overhealing being bad, as the post mentions). If A is the case, it's time to start being more careful. If B is the case, you've got bigger issues, because it means your GM/RL/healing lead is a dumbass.
Treason Jul 19th 2009 4:44PM
>If B is the case, you've got bigger issues, because it means your GM/RL/healing lead is a dumbass.
And the winner is, Gessilea for hitting the nail on the head.