If you've ever wanted a close-up look at the game's healing zeitgeist, Miss Medicina has it -- she recently
started up a survey/meme of healers around the
WoW blogosphere, and
the answers are now in and posted on her site. They make for some interesting weekend reading, especially if you're interested in healing and what healers think of it. I'm sure there's lots of conclusions that could be drawn out of this (I'll let you all come up with some in the comments as well), but just reading through them on my own, it seems like there's a few threads between them. The majority of healing seems to be done in 10-mans, which probably isn't too surprising, given that's where
most of the endgame players are right now as well. There's no clear winner on class or spec (all four healing classes are represented pretty evenly, though I didn't really crunch the numbers), though there are quite a few priests, and of those, things seem to be split between holy and disc.
In terms of a favorite spell, there's almost no crossover at all -- people are all over the place, from
Beacon to
Penance to
Circle of Healing. To hear these guys tell it, healers have all kinds of fun spells to play with. In terms of
a weakness to healing, two main answers appear:
mana regeneration (always an issue with mana-heavy classes like healers) and mobility. Shamans and druids have problems with big burst healing, and paladins say they need more group healing strength, but almost everyone mentions either mana or movement. There's a lot more to look through, too, in terms of how healers evaluate their performance and addon recommendations from everyone. As a look inside the healer "scene," there is a ton of information in there about what healers are up to out on the realms.
Tags: addon-recommendations, addons, beacon-of-light, blogs, circle-of-healing, druids, endgame, healers, healing, mana-regeneration, meme, miss-medicina, mobility, paladin, penance, performance, priest, priests, shaman, survey
Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Virtual selves, Classes, Buffs
Oct 31st 2009 at 2:00PM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Cyanea Oct 31st 2009 2:05PM
My answers would be all screwed up. My current main healer is my geared out resto Shammy, but by favorite healing class at the moment is my Disc priest that I'm working on. I love the bubbles.
Thander Oct 31st 2009 2:23PM
Well I think healers are pretty balanced right now.
Movement
Paladin - low movement
Shaman - low Movement
Priest - high or low movement depending on spec
Druid - high movement
Mana Longevity
Paladin - very long
Shaman - medium
Priest - long or medium depending on spec
Druid - long
Looking at just these factors, shaman seems like it could use a little boost. I think they are still pretty good though. Of my three 80s, my healing class is shaman and I haven't had much trouble.
Flath Oct 31st 2009 5:07PM
Shaman are fine. We got a much needed boost in 3.2 with the changes to Improved Water Shield and the amount of mp5 on gear. The only times I have mana problems are either when I ankh/battle rez or when I forget to refresh water shield, and both situations warrant mana problems IMO - and that's after shedding much of the mp5 I had before the chain heal buff patch. If they should make any changes to mana, it should be to nerf everyone else. Nerfing Spirit didn't do much in the current situation of "spam big heals all the time so the tank doesn't die".
That said, mana regen is MUCH harder as a fresh 80 than a Shaman in ToC10/25 gear, but then again what class isn't that true for?
Stone_Rhino Oct 31st 2009 5:23PM
Truth be told, I found healing to be unbearable on my paladin once I hit 80.
Every few trash pulls I had to drink, even using divine plea on cooldown. And it just got worse on bosses. I couldn't even last half the fight before I had to mortal strike myself for mana. Stacking int gems for bigger plea ticks and a larger pool did nothing. I eventually gave up. And that was before illumination was nerfed from 60 to 30.
My shaman on the other hand has been an absolute joy. Upon hitting 80 and doing some toc 5, I could easily reach 400 mp5 in combat. Chain heal makes healing through aoe dps bearable, and the buff to healing cast times and crit you get afterwards is a godsend.
On top of that I can keep a decently geared tank topped off with earth shield and riptide alone for most 5 man runs, giving me plenty of time to focus on the group. Throw in cleansing totem so I dont have to waste a global for every poison and disease on the group, and Its an absolute joy to play.
Dazaras Oct 31st 2009 7:38PM
You forgot to account for group heals, which is one thing shamans are good at. I know this because it's a holy paladins biggest weakness.
ladygamertn Oct 31st 2009 2:27PM
Excellent info and advice for newbie healers, like me - holy priest/resto druid. At this point I know so little I don't know what I don't know!
Thanks!!!!
The Giant Oct 31st 2009 2:58PM
One of the drawbacks of being linked to by wow.com seem to have hit Medicina. Seems to be too heavy traffic heading her way.
elimeny Oct 31st 2009 3:15PM
Oof! It could also be that I keep trying to update the list of responders - so if you have problems loading it, just try to refresh it again, it may have just been updated. I've been trying to stay on top of all the responses, but it became a lot more popular than I expected!
nekorion Oct 31st 2009 3:26PM
speaking as a restro shaman I think our biggest strength falls under when a group is well geared for the encounter. Mana is actually terribly hard to come by compared to other classes from what I've seen, and our heals aren't very mana efficient either, but we can produce lots of "oh god we're gonna die" healing on the spot, without much trouble at all.
Just waiting for the day tidal force gets reworked into a healing "mana tide" totem. :P eh won't happen.
muddy Oct 31st 2009 3:46PM
You must be either misinformed about how to gear a shammy or your doing something very wrong.
I honestly can't recall the last time I went oom.
Self buffed I'm around 600mp5 while casting, you should not run out of mana unless your unlucky to have under geared healers & tanks and NO replenishment specs in your group.
Mp5 food and flask of mojo are a must as well.
Ari Nov 2nd 2009 12:34AM
Nekorion's comment is very odd. My healer is a resto shaman and I love him. I never go OOM. Shamans are by far the MOST mana efficient healers. With buffs, pots, and food, I can get over 1000mp5 and can spam chain heal non-stop though any raid in the game... Which is great for my numbers, but is extremely boring. In 5 mans, between ripride and earthshield I dont have to cast another heal (on a well geared tank). In a raid, riptide often gets wasted when another healer just tops the player off. Tidal force is useless as well geared shamans have a ton of crit as it is - I am at 45% with 25 man raid buffs. Heck, the only time I use mana tide is when another healer runs out of mana. Tidal waves was a lame attempt to get us to cast something other than chain heal, but our healing waves dont compare to a holy Paladins single target heals.
PodPeople Nov 2nd 2009 4:50PM
I have to agree with Ari, although i don't think i've ever seen my Mp5 get to 1000, i'm mostly 232-iLvl gear. the only time i get even close to oom is if the DPS totally suck and we're close to the enrage timer, or i realize i don't have water shield up anymore. i don't waste food buff on Mp5 food, i go for the standard fish feast or haste. i also found tidal forces to be a completely useless talent, i keep meaning to go respec and move that point into something a little more used/useful. if it gave me 60, 40, 20% Haste, or reduced cast time by 100, 60, 30% on next 3 healing spells with cast time of more than 1.0 sec THAT would be worth taking, but 60, 40, 20% Crit bonus on a "medium" CD is just not worth it really. it always seemed to me to be a much better mage talent.
Alja Oct 31st 2009 8:22PM
honestly since the mana buffs for shamans the last go around - my shaman ends most fights with 20K+mana , this goes for 5mans, 10mans and 25mans - There are some fights where mana is harder to come by, but that can be said for every class. However, for any resto shaman that isn't a fresh 80 you shouldn't be having mana issues. I don't use mp5 food/flasks and still don't have a problem. If you are geared in Naxx25+ and you are going oom every boss you are doing something HORRIBLY wrong.
Maxpowr Oct 31st 2009 9:04PM
Holy priest is probably the most mana intensive healer of the bunch. The problem with holy is that mana regen is more passive. Back in Vanilla and BC, getting oo5sr was actually a possibility or we could downgrade spells to save mana. In LK, it has been "spam your biggest heals as fast as possible".
Sure we have talents that reduce spell costs. I hardly notice Holy Concentration or any of my mana return items procing to significantly adjust my mana pool (I'm sitting at ~26k raid buffed). Hymn of hope is situational at best (due to it being channeled). SoL is nice though. We get a bunch of regen from spirit but the reality is, we are NEVER oo5sr in a boss fight to utilize it. That mechanic is broken in the current raiding scene. Hopefully, Blizz's itemization changes in Cata will fix the holy priest's mana regen.
Sean Nov 1st 2009 8:36AM
Well he's my experiance on healing
My guild is working on a (The dedicated few achievement) this is our team
Tanks
Prot Pally
Prot Warrior
Healers
2 Holy Pally (I'm one of them in Tier 7 gear)
Range DPS
1 Arcane Mage
1 Balance Druid
Melee DPS
1Blood DK
1 Combat Rogue.
We got up to construct down before we called it for night one the only hard bosses we had were the Safety Dance where the Healers mage and Prot warrior survived the dance so a slow fight. and the last boss in plague just took forever to kill
I like Holy Pally fun but we need a raid healer so i thought of trying a new healing class pehaps a Shaman or a druid even a priest i dunno at this point i have a
63 Priest
63 shaman
66 Druid
Apra Oct 31st 2009 11:05PM
As a holy priest myself, I felt like gouging my eyes out reading her answers to her own survey:
1. "Divine Hymn - I just can't seem to get myself to use it, or find a situation in which it would be useful!"
Seriously. This is probably a healing priest's best spell. It will pretty much guarantee that the raid will be topped off for its duration.
2. "Lack of instant burst healing... I'm thinking Penance or even Holy Shock. I wish we had a single target instant burst heal, even if it were on a long cooldown. Something like desperate prayer, but for someone other than ourselves."
Power Word Shield? Circle of Healing? Prayer of Mending? Surge of Lights? Holy Priests have the best instant cast burst healing out of any class/spec. It is possible to stay completely mobile while raid healing in many cases. If anyone needs instant burst healing, Prayer of Mending and Circle of Healing is usually more than enough to buy time until you get a flash heal off (which will most of the time be instant cast after CoH anyways)
3. "Druids. Don't get me wrong, I think Druids and Priests play quite well together - we have Divine Spirit, which I'm sure they like, and they have Innervate which makes me drool with love, not to mention combat rezzing. It's just that it can be tricky to heal well with druid priests, because it is difficult to resist healing over their HoTs. I try not to do it whenever possible, because I don't want to waste their mana, but Circle of Healing does not take HoTs into account, and just heals whoever is at the lowest health within range anyway."
Ugh. For one, a priest should not expect a resto druid's innervate. Secondly, you "resist" healing over a druid's HoTs?? Why should HoTs take priority over faster heals? The idea is to keep the raid alive, not to avoid overhealing at all costs. Think of HoTs as a buffer allowing peoples' health to always be on the increase if your heals do not make it quick enough... It's not a competition. In many cases people can take 90% of their health in damage in under a second. Get those health bars topped off as fast as possible!
4. "People make the assumption that Holy Priests are only really good at AoE heals, or raid healing. Holy Priests are fantastic at raid healing, but it's not just because they have good AoE heals - it's also because they can react well to changing fight dynamics, and MT heal if needed. I cringe whenever I hear someone say "holy priests can't MT heal!". Of course we can - it's a waste of our abilities to put us primarily on MT if there is a disc priest or holy pally around, but we can still do a good job."
No. The only situation in which a Holy Priest should be MT healing.. is when the raid consists of only Holy Priests. As the game currently stands, every other healing class is better suited to MT heal.
Tacohat Nov 1st 2009 1:48AM
Agreed. Gouge my eyes while you're at it.
Chris M Nov 1st 2009 1:51AM
I'd agree with everything you say minus the last point- A holy priest is a solid main healing assist if nothing else. I bounce ProM off of our main tank and keeping a renew rolling certainly doesn't hurt. I admit, we're no holy paladins or disco (lights and lasers) priests, but likely better suited to the job than a resto shaman, as it were.
Hagen Nov 1st 2009 3:52AM
Pick up the Healing Way talent and glyph appropriately and there are Shaman Resto builds built around MT healing. It can be done and nicely. Also, Chris M, pitching a shield and a Renew is helping someone else heal the MT, not being the main healer for the MT, which was the point you were referring to. Also, if you are Holy and pitching shields toward a target that should be receiving them from Disc (if present), please make sure not to in the future :)
Anonymoose Oct 31st 2009 11:29PM
What armor set is that in the picture?