Raid Rx: Is addon-less healing possible?
by Matt Low 
Jun 18th 2010 at 6:00PM
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand pooh-bah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a WoW blog for all things UI-, macro- and addon-related.
I see a fair number of emails and messages about this topic. Is it possible to heal without using any addons of any sort? Naturally, the default user interface (or UI) includes a limited number of features where this is possible. Is it recommended in dungeons or raid instances? No, not quite. I've seen opinions from some players where they practically insist that healing without addons should be the way to go. Anyone who does use addons is relying on a crutch. I don't think that's quite fair to say. It's not like these addons are scripts or anything that can "think" and heal for you.
When it comes to addons for healing, the biggest factor for us is all about information. With the right information, we can make the right choices which will keep raids and parties alive.
Essential components of a healing UI
Raid frames: I don't quite know where to start on the default healing UI so I figured I'd go with the frames first since they're the most important part. The raid frames need to be dragged out and positioned accordingly from the raid window. At a glance, it becomes difficult to see which players are affected by what buffs and debuffs. If we can zero in on a player to see who has a Mortal Strike effect or something, then we can focus increased efforts on keeping that player alive. Healers also come with different preferences. Some players like their frames larger and others like it condensed. The lack of customization kills it and drives us to search for other solutions. It would be really nice if we could see some actual numbers on the raid frames itself (either percentages or absolute health). Grid, Vuhdo, and other raid frames all do the same things. In the end, it's preference. But they all enhance and present key information.Buffs and debuffs: We don't need to know every raid buff that is applied. They made great strides when it came to compacting various raid buffs into something smaller. As it stands, it looks like we can only see one or the other. On the one hand, I need to know when to dispel something off of a friendly player. On the other hand, I also need to be able to find out when things like my shields or healing over time spells are going to expire. Not only that, in order to see how long is left before my beneficial spells expire, I need to move the mouse over it in my frames. It just isn't really practical for us to mouse over each buff to see what is going to wear off first or stuff like that.
Timers: The introduction of clearer boss emotes by Blizzard has made anticipating phase changes and special boss skills easier. Yet things like timers are an incredible asset when it comes to anticipating when the next super attack is going to land. Sure we can peel our eyes off of the raid for a few seconds while we watch for the bosses hands to glow or for his head to move. In the end, that will fry the mental bandwidth of healers. It would be nice if there was a component where we knew when the abilities of a boss would fire. I don't mean random abilities where the boss just pulls an attack out of no where. I mean abilities that can actually be measured on a timer. It would be nice to know how long before that air phase or how long before they enrage.
I remember over a year and a half ago when my guild was working on Sartharion with his 3 drakes up. I had a hell of a time trying to predict his powered up Fire Breath on the tank who was on Sartharion. Over time, I noticed that his head seemed to "snap" up when he was about to breathe. That was the signal to use a defensive cooldown on the tank. I wish we had a death knight tank back then as it would have made that encounter considerably easier. But having to watch for that head movement, keeping the raid alive, and dodging assorted abilities was pretty darn taxing.
In any case, having timers and advanced warnings of when really important stuff is about to happen would be a big benefit.
Currently, in order to successfully heal challenging encounters without healing addons, you need to be well versed in encounter mechanics, your own skills and everyone else around you within your raid. A bit of blind luck doesn't hurt either. The last time I healed without addons resulted in me coming back after a mid fight disconnect. I was healing the raid as they were taking down Freya. I logged back in without any visible frames. At least my keybinds were still working. I ended up toggling nameplates right away (and believe me when I say that you have never truly healed until you have healed constantly moving raiders while resorting to nothing but name plates for targeting). It didn't occur to me to drag out raid frames, but I was just simply too busy healing to even consider doing that.
It isn't really a crutch to heal with addons. What it all boils down to information presentation. If we can view everything we need, then yeah, I can see healing addons as being completely unnecessary.
I think one day I'll actually give it a try in Icecrown Citadel or some other instance and see how hindered I get. Do addons really make the player? As a healer, what else would you consider extremely important in your addon list? What can you not heal without?
Want some more advice for working with the healers in your guild? Raid Rx has you covered with all there is to know! Need raid or guild healing advice? Email me at matticus@wow.com or follow me on Twitter and you could see a future post addressing your question. Looking for less healer-centric raiding advice? Take a look at our raiding column, Ready Check. Filed under: Raid Rx (Raid Healing), Analysis / Opinion, Add-Ons
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
Jormund Fenris Jun 18th 2010 6:10PM
Blizzard has admitted that they nowadays create their bossfights assuming that the players that's fighting the bosses uses addons like Deadly Boss Mods to help them. Not that they have said anything specifically, but in my book it would be a stretch to assume that they have the same philosophy when it comes to healing; So if you look at it that way, it's actually those who heal without addons that's on a crutch.
Jormund Fenris Jun 18th 2010 6:10PM
Wouldn't be a stretch, silly typos that changes an entire sentence's meaning.
Mike Jun 18th 2010 6:13PM
Actually, it's the other way around. They've said time and time again that they don't expect anyone to have any addon, and many employees actually use the default UI to great power with no addons at all.
Stephen Jun 18th 2010 8:38PM
Yup. Is it possible to raid heal without addons. It's also possible for people to main tank a raid on a Shaman.
We've got a pretty decent healer who uses a stock UI to raid. He has keybindings & mouseover macros built in (as most good healers do as a backup or to deal with patch days). He's a solid healer, and can MT heal or raid heal. He's putting up slightly above average numbers but can lag on things like dispels or casting situational buffs.
I've known several players over the years who have healed only using stock UI, but they always seemed to fall a bit behind the others.
Blizzard reps like GC have been saying for a while that they are not happy with the UI for healers. Healing is the one role that does require a different display than the others because healers spend the raid looking at health bars & often change targets up to 30+ times per minute among 25+ characters. That's why no one asks if it's possible to raid as a tank or dps without addons.
PeeWee Jun 19th 2010 12:20PM
It's also possible to drive your car with your with your feet if you want to. That doesn't make it a good fookin idea.
Thank you, Chris Rock for that one.
Lameboat Jun 18th 2010 6:11PM
Im proud to say, iv never used healbot, or grid, anything like that. I just use the standard UI with DBM. To me people, who use addons to make your job easier, makes you less of a healer, and your not healing the way the designers intended you too.
Just Sayin.
Don't get me wrong, whatever floats your boat. But i think every healer would benefit from healing without the addons.
Al in SoCal Jun 18th 2010 6:16PM
You're no BETTER or worse than someone who does play with addons. Thanks.
Alden Jun 18th 2010 6:17PM
You can't say "whatever floats your boat" and also say "it makes you less of a healer."
Either say, you're fine with people doing whatever they want, and you don't care.
Or, say that its a crutch, and they are not as good as you.
They are mutually exclusive views, however, and render your comment a bit useless.
Hawk Jun 18th 2010 6:26PM
Actually, you're wrong. Blizzard designed the game with the intention of allowing users to alter the interface in simple ways. That's part of what makes WoW so great. Find some part of the interface awkward or clumsy? Design a addon to simplify it or find one that already exists.
Blizzard intends for users to customize their interface so long as the addons operate within a set of fixed rules. Using addons, whether for healing or any other purpose, is condoned and even encouraged by Blizzard in their game design for WoW.
Eisengel Jun 18th 2010 6:27PM
Not necessarily. You can say, "hey, I won't actively persecute you for doing X, but I honestly think you would be better off doing Y - but hey, that's just me"... in other words, whatever floats your boat, but I think doing Y is better.
Nopunin10did Jun 18th 2010 6:32PM
I would say you're only halfway correct. You do benefit, as a healer, by learning to do it the hard way. By forcing yourself to use the default raid frames and keybinding your heal spells, you train yourself to be quick on your clicks... and you realize the seriousness of missing a heal by just a split second.
But then, after you're proficient in that manner, it's time to look into a better interface. Whether you use Grid, Xperl, Healbot, and/or Clique (or something else entirely), you will be a better healer for it.
From a simple human-computer-interaction standpoint, a better healing interface means a speedier reaction time... and thus a better healer.
So yes, running without addons, you can still be great. You could even be the best healer in your guild. But you could always be better. Don't be so full of yourself that you can't see that. And mastering a better healing interface is one step towards bettering your performance.
nikdaheratik Jun 18th 2010 6:30PM
>To me people, who use addons to make your job easier, makes you less of a healer, and your not healing the way the designers intended you too.
I use two addons to heal: Grid and Clique. I don't think it makes me any less of a healer to not have my screen cluttered by a 25 big rectangles instead of 25 small squares. In fact it allows me to see more of the game then the default UI does. It also removes the huge number of buffs and debuffs that I don't care about and lets me choose to only display the ones I do care about.
And clique is awesome because it lets you set up keybinds so instead of selecting a player and pressing "3" to heal, "4" to cleanse and "5" to put a bubble on them, you hover over the little box and then right click, or shift-click, or alt click to do the same thing without even changing your main target. It's the same thought process, but with less keystrokes so you can do more in less time.
The bottom line is that the default interface gives you too much information to filter through and forces you to heal inefficiently, but macros and addons allow you to spend less time figuring out what's going on and more time actually healing. Which is a good thing as far as I'm concerned.
LXj Jun 18th 2010 7:39PM
Designers intended you to fight bosses, not clumsy UI
jv_gdesign Jun 18th 2010 8:08PM
I healed 25 man heroic ICC without special unit frames for the first few months. It wasn't until I was assigned to dispels on Heroic Rotface that I finally took the time to do my UI. Before, I was searching all my frames for the debuff logo. Now their raid frame glows orange when they have the debuff.
Could I heal heroic ICC without the frames? Yes, and I did. And I did a damn good job. But my unit frames now give me so much more information than I had with the default. And the fact that I can condense them to take up a smaller allotted space allows me to see all 25 people without moving my eyes. I think this is the biggest benefit of all. My raid awareness has increased drastically.
Hassashu Jun 19th 2010 5:38AM
I've never healed with addons so i might not know what i'm missing, but so far i've never had any situation where i thought something like grid would better my experience.
Do people who have addons automatically have less skill? I have no clue. That needs research. There's nothing claiming that's correct or incorrect yet.
Sleutel Jun 19th 2010 11:53AM
@nikdaheratik
"And clique is awesome because it lets you set up keybinds so instead of selecting a player and pressing "3" to heal, "4" to cleanse and "5" to put a bubble on them, you hover over the little box and then right click, or shift-click, or alt click to do the same thing without even changing your main target."
You don't need Clique to do mouseover healing, FYI. You can do it with mouseover macros. On my healer (granted, only a 55 Priest), I use Grid + macros that use a fall-through targeting priority that starts with @mouseover.
(Note: I'm not saying Clique is a bad addon--I've never used it, but I hear great things. I'm just saying that Clique isn't required for mouseover healing, as long as you're okay with using keybinds instead of mouseclicks.)
Arkhill Jun 19th 2010 12:14PM
Sorry, I don't want to be the other healer in your raids. You may think using Grid is a crutch for me, but when I can easily see everything going on around me (and react to it) and you can't, I become your crutch.
bknab Jun 19th 2010 5:45PM
@Lameboat
"To me people, who use addons to make your job easier, makes you less of a healer, and your not healing the way the designers intended you too."
I'm sorry but you are terribly wrong. If you think Blizzard designers intended for you to use the stock UI then please explain to me why they implemented an API that allows people to create 3rd party addons. Why did Blizzard develop the "World of Warcraft Interface AddOn Kit," which helps with the creation of addons, especially for beginner developers? Why is there an official "UI & Macros" forum where people can discuss the development of addons.
And also, just for good measure, the splash screen that you are presented with when you open up the official addon kit states, "The World of Warcraft interface is customizable! AddOns allow the game to look and behave the way you want."
Blizzard made the stock UI so you could play the game out of the box, and that's about the extent of what they intended you to do with the stock UI.
In conclusion, you can sit on your high horse all day, and say you are a better healer, hell, maybe you are, but I'll still out-heal and out-dispel you any day.
Heather Jun 21st 2010 3:28AM
@jv_gdesign
With that said, I would -never- allow you to heal in a progression raid that I was in if you're not using Addons. Hard Mode fights are, for the most part, simply too fast-paced and frenetic not to use a healing UI. I wonder how you would have healed Yogg-Saron without a healing UI to allow you to quickly dispel the many debuffs on the fight - and most people will tell you that effective dispelling is actually what wins that encounter.
visitingl337n00b Jun 21st 2010 10:12AM
I'm sure I could heal ICC quite competently without any add-ons at all, but I think it would be silly to do so. I certainly don't think I could lead a raid as effectively or alert others to important information about the fight.
The metaphor of a crutch is extremely inappropriate. People walking with a crutch usually walk more slowly than people who don't need crutches. This is not at all the case for healing with addons. If you feel addons are somehow unfair then compare them to performance enhancing drugs if you must, but the people in the best guilds in the world use addons. People who heal with addons heal better than people who refuse to use them.
But furthermore, addons don't just makes things easier, they can also challenge you by giving you more information than you could possibly get with the default UI. On heroic Sindragosa I decide where to stand and who to heal and with what spell based on the number of stacks of Mystic Buffet that everyone in the raid has. On heroic Lich King I need to be looking at my environment to determine the relative location of the necrotic plague target and the ghoul pack, as well as shadow trap locations, and without having all the other information I use (tank health, incoming heals, who has shield and weakened soul, time to next infest, whether anyone has aggro on a ghoul, boss health percentage) in one compact box I would just have to make decisions based on less of that information because doing the wrong thing quickly is better than doing nothing at all while you think about it.
Use addons to get more information about what is going on and use that information to make better decisions. If you aren't using addons you are choosing to get less information than you could have. That's not to say you can't be very good, because you can. But most likely you won't be as good as you could be.