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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsRaid Rx: A rock and a hard place
by Matt Low 
Sep 2nd 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. If you're looking for more healing advice, check out the Plus Heal community.
Stop me if you've heard this one. You're taking on some dragon. Some really powerful spell is about to hit you and the rest of the raid. You don't have any cooldowns to use because you had to pop them earlier. The tank who is busy yelling obscenities at said dragon just took a massive fireball to the face and is down in the red. You know for a fact that the next blow is going to be lethal and you have maybe 2 seconds to react.
If you move, you may well have condemned your tank to death. If you stay and heal, you'll end up taking some damage which could be lethal.
Normally, this isn't that big of a deal, but we're in an age where we have so many informative addons that tell us which attacks successfully hit a player and when it happened. What's worse is that this data means the difference between staying and getting cut from a raid (or a guild).
This is a topic of one of the emails that I received from a healing shaman.
So what is a healer to do? Is he wrong for making the decision to take avoidable damage to keep the raid or the tank alive? Is he better off just taking the damage so that he doesn't look bad? Either way, you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. Lots of players don't understand that these are some of the decisions that have to be made.
I've been in my share of these situations myself. As a healer, you have to get accustomed to it. Your leaders will ask questions, and they'll often reach conclusions based solely on hard data, without any thought about the circumstances. Data only tells one side of the story. Context is just as important.
From your perspective
So thinking back to the original scenario, you're essentially down to two options. Granted, you can rely on your other healers; for the moment, we are focused on you and what your options are. You have zero cooldowns available. Your options are to either eat the damage and keep your tank alive, or be a good raider and run out with the rest of the team, potentially condemning your tank.
If your tank falls, it is a wipe.
I know that in an ideal situation, healers are constantly aware and will always have a response ready for the tank. That tank would never fall into the red in the first place. Situations aren't always ideal, and you're not always going to have the perfect attempt.
I was in a situation once taking on Sindragosa in heroic. I had just gotten pulled in with a Blistering Cold. The tank was low, the raid was low and it looked like we were going to wipe. I ended up lighting a Guardian Spirit on myself and unloading a Divine Hymn in desperation. I took a lethal blow, but the ability kept me alive. Naturally, this makes me look like a baddie -- but it was either that or lose the raid.
The priority here was to keep the necessary players alive. Typically, those tend to be the tanks. If you die, your raid can still carry on. With druids or well-planted Soul Stones, it is possible to recover. If your tank dies, it is a wipe, straight and simple. As a shaman, you don't have an out. Actually, I suppose you do, if you keep keep your Reincarnation handy. It'll be a clutch move to intentionally eat a death and then pop up when the coast is clear.
From the leadership perspective
In a progression guild, you're looking to keep everyone sharp. Having disconnecting players? Players who seem to die on every attempt because they're slow? Can't get out of fires? If they show no signs of improvement, then you don't have much of a choice. You have to cut them. A raid will only progress as fast as the slowest player.
Evaluating healers tends to be a process that takes longer. One of the key attributes you want to focus on is player skill in addition to numbers. Naturally, a recruit healer who makes the conscious decision to stay in, take the hit and keep the tank alive is something special. But looking at combat logs or meters, you'll see someone who was slow, stood in the fire or did something else. Context is always important.
The full story is always important. I try to make a habit of delivering a quick recap on the events that led to a wipe. Keep an eye on your healers. You can't really gauge them after a raid or two. The best you can do is try to distinguish between a genuine fail versus a non-genuine fail. Keep track of them as best as you can either by writing down the circumstances or relying on your memory.
So going back to the original question, if you're going to get fired after one transgression, there isn't really much you can do. You tried to do your best. Besides, if that guild is going to can you after you tried to keep the raid and tank alive, then you won't want to hang around them, anyway.
Of course, the best case is to not get in such a situation in the first place. Keep those HoTs and heals on your tanks as much as possible so that you do have that buffer. Better to not have to decide between your well-being and that of the raid.
Need advice on working with the healers in your guild? Raid Rx has you covered. Send your questions about raid healing to matticus@wow.com. For less healer-centric raiding advice, visit Ready Check, and don't miss our strategy guides to Icecrown Citadel and Halion/the Ruby Sanctum.Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Raid Rx (Raid Healing)
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
tkokesh Sep 2nd 2010 10:02PM
I've done the same thing on my resto shaman: OOM, already used my mana potion, Mana Tide Totem, etc., so I kill myself and Reincarnate with more mana.
Tina Marie Sep 2nd 2010 6:58PM
This is really a symptom of a bigger problem - the "I have to heal everything!" attitude.
If you are a raiding shaman, you weren't brought to the raid to fill the "bring the tank back from the red while moving". No one single-heals Sindy, so you have 1 or 2 other healers with you who are much better equipped to do that then you are. Priest can shield or Penace, Druid can swiftmend, pally has Beacon up, whatever. Throw a Riptide at the tank, and then move. Just because you're out of cooldowns doesn't mean all the healers and the tank are all out of cooldowns. And if they are, you're going to wipe soon no matter what you do.
Trust the people you're healing with. Don't try to do it all.
Pyromelter Sep 2nd 2010 7:43PM
"No one single-heals Sindy"
WoL would disagree with you. (there are logs of a 1-tank, 1-healer, 8 caster DPS zerg strategy on 10man, and these are the top dps'ers for that encounter).
More to the point, if you are doing it with 3 healers, when you have 1 with unchained, and one that is in a tomb, you are now effectively solo healing. This is one of the few encounters where triage is really what healers are doing in wrath; I've sat at or below 50% health on that fight more than I care to remember.
"A raid will only progress as fast as the slowest player."
One below average healer on sindragosa hardmode basically means you can't do it, because when that person becomes the solo healer, you're raid is going to die.
Saeadame Sep 2nd 2010 7:57PM
It's true that you can trust your other healers, but they may have also blown most of their CDs, or have a hard time healing a lot while moving just like you. A druid could probably save the tank and run fairly well (Rej+Swiftmend+Lifebloom stack - 2 GCDs would probably get the tank out of trouble, and frankly a druid probably would already have a HoT on the tank to swiftmend with), but other healers would probably have trouble, especially if they don't have their instant CD buttons because they've already used them (Pain Suppression, Guardian Spirit, etc).
Consider this a complete 'worst case scenario', and take the article form that angle, rather than a 'this person obviously feels they must heal everything' angle, imo.
Columhcille Sep 3rd 2010 11:25AM
When I read this I was thinking, "Yah, that's how I am sometimes!" but also feel that it's a push to be more competitive/ effective as a healer. And what if both healers were expecting the other healer to pick up the low HP person.. then you get the 'OMGWHYDIDN'TIGETAHEAL!?'. As a tank I would appreciate more seeing BOTH healers blowing CDs on me to keep me alive. That would encourage my trust in them more to know that all my healers have good reaction time.
I tend to find the 'trying to do too much' less of a problem and more of a positive trait. I mean.. why be bored as a healer if the DPS always gets to go 'balls to the walls' and the tanks are always swinging away for threat generation. Hopefully you'd never see a tank ignoring adds swinging at the clothies just because 'ohhh I assumed the other tank would pick them up so i didn't do anything'. And by then all the clothies are dead. And mad. >:(
So if all the others get to have excitement and be able to push themselves to the limit, why shouldn't the healers ? :D
Also remember you don't always have a pally in the raid, or a disc priest or a druid. I've seen 25 mans without a priest or without a druid. And especially in ten mans, The shaman MAY very well have been brought to Tank Heal. No class alone can be said to only be able to heal one specific thing in one way. We all get a whole plethora of abilities that allow us to be good healers in many different situations; you just have to understand how to utilize and apply those abilities.
whitfan Sep 2nd 2010 8:38PM
I really hate what Saedame was talking about. It turned me off of healing on my priest. I'd get into a ToC 25 with maybe a druid and a pally. I get assigned the offtank and spot healing/bubble spamming on the raid. Anyway, I find my self constantly getting sniped by the over-zealous pally, who then gets into raid chat and starts chewing us out for healing the whole raid on his own. Little does he know I'm waiting for PW:S to break, PoM to pop and then the OT to drop enough to Penance. Not that that ever got a chance to happen. Got kicked because I was low in the meters...*sigh*
Columhcille Sep 3rd 2010 10:18AM
If you feel like you're 'getting sniped ' by other healers being highly proactive and on-the-ball, then that may mean your group needs one less heal in the group and one more dps to make the run go faster and more efficient.
With healer output is the one 'output' in the game that's determined equally by what other healers are or aren't doing as it is determined by what you are doing. Healer output currently is absolutely freeeeking insane and if you have healers that can just about solo heal ten man or 4 heal 25 man, even on some HMs. Go for it! The more DPS you can pump the less time they have to be worried about what's going to happen to the group and the faster you can get loot..
in addition, if your healers are so bored because all they're doing is overhealing, they're going to lose their edge when it comes to difficult encounters later on. If you have so many healers in the group that you aren't giving your healers a challenge, then no only are they bored but all they're doing is spamming a single heal because they don't have to think to do anything else... don't want your heals getting lazy. ^.^
Personally, if I'm in a ten man ICC with that redunkulous 30% buff, I will refuse to join a group to heal if they insist on bringing more than two healers. I can very easily do 70% of the heals by myself.
If it's a ten man ToC or lower I solo heal everything unless a boss encouter requires more because of the strat. lol in fact, what's funny is that solo healing ToC ten is actually far easier than solo healing trash in ICC on the frost and blood wings [the only issue with blood trash is if you get sheeped by the casters 0.0].
Anyway, that's my 2c. But I guess there's no 'right' answer necissarily because it looks like most input on solutions to this issue revolve around personal play style and enjoyment.. which is good! I'm glad to know so many healers out there are passionate about their role in raids
Vladeon Sep 3rd 2010 11:13AM
Same thing happened to me the other day in a 25 man icc pug. It was a very good pug and I was the only one with a gs lower than 5800. But I was doing about 3.5k hps while all the druids and the shamans were doing 6k and above. I was just doing my job, healing the tanks but the problem was that I didn't need to. There were 6 healers in total and a 6.1k gs ret paladin who was healing too for some reason. it doesn't matter cause I got that damn healing shield finally and some other good loot, but it just sucks getting kicked because you're doing your job.
Lon Sep 2nd 2010 10:56PM
As a resto shaman, and a player who will hold onto Reincarnation for such a time that a stand will affect the fight result, I would take the death and pour heals into the tank in question for as long as I could. Especially in an environment where a tank death can/may/likely will mean a wipe, using ALL of the tools at your disposal should result in a greater chance of success.
If that means you get booted from the raid, or dropped from the team for eating an avoidable attack, then I guess you have very short sighted decision makers.
Maxpowr Sep 3rd 2010 1:33AM
It is why I love spirit of redemption on my holy priest. definitely saved the raid a few times.
freyal Sep 3rd 2010 2:09AM
First things first.
Remember that as a healer you are not the only healer in the raid. Communicate with your fellow healers, BEFORE you get to a zomg!**@$ time. This is absolutely, 100% vital.
If you're a small guild, utilize vent to communicate if you're out of CD's and the tank is going to need one for a forthcoming special ability of the boss, so the other healer knows to use theirs. For 25 man raiding guild/environment in which vent use is limited to officers etc -- Have a healer text channel for your raid. A simple x CD used on y tank in healer chat, does wonders to let the other healers know the tank is going to be in trouble.
Second, don't leave the communication measures to just yourself and the other healers. Include your tanks!!! Either download an add on which does notifications for you, or macro a brief whisper to your tank to your cool down spells, that you've used a cool down. Some tanks are amazing and have software that already lets them keep track of buffs they receive from healers so they will already know to use their last stand, shield wall, etc - but others don't. Don't leave your tank in the dark. He or she also has cool downs to use, and if you had to blow yours early -- let them know.
Next, don't go into encounters unprepared. Pack health pots or rejuvenation pots, depending on your typical need. If you have a warlock in group, make sure to pick up a health stone. Have an emergency button that macro'd and keybound or mouse bound that gives yourself a shield, uses lay on hands on yourself, or divine prayer, etc. Whatever kind of emergency self heal you have. So that if you do take a hit you can top yourself up as quickly as possible.
Learn to strafe. Or learn to rapidly turn/move with your mouse. Sometimes you have more than the 3 secs you think you do. The more preemptively you move, the better off you'll be.
Last but not least, use Deus Vox. Best boss mod there is. Better than DBM even. And can be used WITH dbm. Easy to customize alerts and different sounds from each.
Ok well one last thing: If you make a mistake, an error in judgment, etc. Own up to it. If it's really lag or your computer, okay -- that happens sometimes, but don't use this as an excuse. There are always fixes, or things you can do to improve your performance even with these issues. If you legitimately mess up, own up to it. Your raiding team may groan or moan about it, but they'll respect you a lot more for being honest.
Neyssa Sep 3rd 2010 5:37AM
Thank you for the article, really well written.
As the commenters above mentioned, its easier with a druid to heal on the run, however sometimes HOTs are not enough, you need a 40k heal from a nice pally healer :)
As a druid, I have a macro to pop Barkskin and Lifeblood or whatever the herbalist heal is called. Its not much but sometimes it helps to save your life.
My boyfriend is playing a paladin (right now retri, although he is a really good healer), and since we are playing in the same room its easy to tell him to drop me a protection bubble when necessary, but Vent can be used for that as well. Its not a shame to ask for help from the dps out there (if they are not way too obsessed with damage meters). DPS will not pay attention to protect you so you have to ask.
Other commenters might drop some more ideas where a dps can help, I am not too much informed myself, I just know how my paladin can help me.
HDPriest Sep 3rd 2010 8:59AM
It's true that it's not a shame to ask for DPS's help, but it IS a shame how often (in PuG groups, not guild runs) that they absolutely refuse. I had a ShadowPriest who would NOT drop Shadowform to use a Divine Hymn on HMarrowgar after the last Bonestorm when I was the only healer still up. Another time a Boomkin refused to Decurse during LDW because "That's not my job!" Ugh...thank goodness I'm not forced to PuG often, but I truly feel for the healers and other players out there that are. I truly wish every raider was forced to play as a healer and/or tank before being allowed to DPS....or @ least read Matt's awesome articles and Scattered Shots "DPS meters and You" (which is copied onto our New Raiders page on our guild website.)
Skadja Sep 3rd 2010 9:00AM
"The tank was low, the raid was low and it looked like we were going to wipe. I ended up lighting a Guardian Spirit on myself and unloading a Divine Hymn in desperation. I took a lethal blow, but the ability kept me alive. Naturally, this makes me look like a baddie -- but it was either that or lose the raid."
No. No it does not. If you did that in one of my raids, I'd be dancing a jig!! Quick thinking, good awareness of the raid and the abilities you have. This in no way, no way at all...makes you look like a bad!
I don't know, maybe I was trained differently from some. My old raid leader (now I'm raid leader, argh) basically told us this: "Healers. If you feel the need to take damage to keep the raid from wiping, this is at your discretion and I trust your judgment. Move if you can, but if you need to get a critical heal off before moving, do that." Then he told the DPS "DPS. I don't care what you're doing, stop doing it and move out of the fire!! Do not finish your cast, do not get in just one more hit, move. Do not make extra work for the healers so you can get an extra hit in."
When I healed with him leading, I knew that I was trusted to do my job.
Reminds me of a situation we encountered on my first run as RL, though. We'd just lost a bunch of people, so we've got a ton of people in new roles. At this point our tanks haven't tanked ICC before, or, honestly...tanked raids much at all.
Anyway, at one point, I see our DK dps run out to range and deathgrip a Blood Beast. I wonder "WTF", as he chains it and begins kiting it. It turned out that he'd seen something I missed. Our MT, not accustomed to tanking ICC...had hit Maul without thinking about the glyph. Without a moment's delay, the DK realized what this meant and moved to correct it. He knew that the hit he'd take between the Deathgrip and the Chains, before he began kiting it...would be less harmful to our raid than having the Beast stubbornly stuck in the melee group hitting the tank until it died. He knew that his damage was less important than managing that beast. By kiting while it was on fixate, he didn't take any more unnecessary damage or grant unnecessary points, and by getting it off the tank he gave the ranged the ability to peel it off of him and kill it as the fixate ended.
I was thrilled with him, and told him so.
That kind of raid awareness and quick thinking? I can work with that!!
Sanat Sep 3rd 2010 6:12PM
Really I am waiting for Cata to come out when Healers won't have the mana to heal DPS constantly and DPS will have to learn to play the game again.
There are way to many people who do stand in fire so they can get that extra DPS out, and while right now due to mana it really doesn't matter that much, very soon it will.
As a tank there are a few things you can do to help. If the boss your dealing with isn't massive and you have room to kite it a little, you can give your healer an extra second or two when you don't have a CD to blow, and they don't either. While this takes massive awareness and quick thinking, and an understanding of the boss your dealing with, you can avoid damage for short periods using movement. This is especially true if the boss has a spell with a cast time, as you can move and they can't. Granted there are some bosses this doesn't work on.
zubbiefish Sep 3rd 2010 9:19AM
"I ended up lighting a Guardian Spirit on myself and unloading a Divine Hymn in desperation. I took a lethal blow, but the ability kept me alive. Naturally, this makes me look like a baddie -- but it was either that or lose the raid."
Don't know how that qualifies as looking bad. If it works you're a hero.
echna Sep 4th 2010 6:53PM
This isn't a healing predicament. All healers should have a priority list, with none of them with themselves at the top. Tanks always first, yourself second. All good raid leaders who know how healing works should know that sometimes, you have to sacrifice yourself.
Don't try and make yourself "look good", just keep the raid from wiping. No discussion.
HunterFromTheStart Sep 7th 2010 3:04AM
I rolled a paladin, and I've been 80 for a few weeks. Even before that, I have been a healer, running 5 mans and working on gearing up. At this point, I've got several Epic pieces, some of which I bought of the AH, and some that I got in Instances. As far as learning to get the gear, it's not a big deal, I can learn that. The problem I am having, is that I believe I may be one of those people, that for whatever reason (Because I don't believe my ADD is an acceptable excuse.) I cannot do an adequate job of healing. It's not DBM's fault that I completely miss the message to move because I am focusing on healing. That in itself is a problem. I can heal alright, but I don't have good situational awareness at the same time, unless someone specifically mentions to me what to look out for AHEAD of time. Obviously, this isn't really a good thing.
My question is this. Do I keep trying, hoping that one day, everything will "fall into place" or do I stop healing and become a DPS? I'm taking it all slowly, because I don't want to get other people killed, but eventually, I'm going to have to decide what exactly I am going to do. I like healing, it's in my blood, unfortunately, I don't feel I am a very good healer. Suggestions?