Raid Rx: The limits of cognitive bandwidth for healers
by Matt Low 
Oct 8th 2010 at 2:00PM
How much cognitive bandwidth does a healer need? At what point is too much "stuff" actually too much?
In terms of information processing and responses, healing is a pretty demanding position to play. We're getting additional spells to work with in the expansion. That means there are more situations we need to learn how to "read". But first, let me try to paint what goes on in the mind of a healer (or at least, in my mind). I'll use Sindragosa as an example of an extreme case, in terms of encounter mechanics to watch for and healing that needs to be done.
The healer's stream of consciousness
If anyone here has played Mass Effect 2, then the following might sound suspiciously like Mordin. But this is a short snippet of what goes on through my head as I'm attempting to heal through heroic Sindragosa.
Here is a typical phase 1. It can be fairly hectic, but nothing too dangerous.
Three healers with Unchained Magic -- two of them are tank healers.
Switching to tank healing to compensate. Casting Renew. Casting Prayer of Mending.
Switching to melee group, casting Prayer of Healing.
Deus Vox Encounters alarm fires off and am getting pulled in to the middle due to Blistering Cold. Mouse-turning and running away. Rogue is behind me by 6 yards. Will not escape the explosion. Casting Power Word: Shield with Body and Soul. Should be safe.
Hunter* is standing directly in the middle. No attempt to escape. Possible disconnect. Explosion in 3 seconds.
Casting Guardian Spirit.
About to run into player with a two-stack of Unchained Magic. Casting Holy Nova twice to mitigate and survive. Explosion has gone off, running back to the ranged area.
*Note: I picked a hunter randomly as the class. It easily could have been any other class.
After that, it becomes a straightforward rinse-and-repeat process. I'm going to skip over phase 2, as the cognitive requirements on that phase aren't as high.
This is phase 3, and this is where I get taxed to my mental limits as a healer.
Boss is now at 35 percent, entering phase 3. Stacking Renews and Prayer of Healing glyphed HoTs on as many people as possible. Firing Prayer of Mending. Frost beacon is up, on a different player. He is moving to his assigned location.
Going to refresh his Renew just before the ice block encases him. Players are moving behind the block.
Paladin call stating he has Unchained Magic. Discipline Priest calling out he also has Unchained Magic.
Switching to tank healing (via Binding Heal) to compensate, not going to shake off Mystic Buffet yet.
Ice block has been destroyed, Sindragosa being taunted by second tank. Switching targets. Timer shows Blistering Cold soon.
Unchained Magic debuff gained, stopping all spell casts. Pulled to the middle, running away. Standing behind ice block and waiting for Mystic Buffet to fall off.
Directing the mental traffic
You get the idea though, right? The furthest I've ever gotten was taking down heroic Sindragosa on both 10- and 25-player mode. Heroic Halion is something that I'm hoping to get before Cataclysm. This encounter is extremely daunting because there is so much stuff going on. At the peak of the encounter, you have to watch for:
- Unchained Magic
- Dodging Frost Tombs
- Tank switches
- Overall raid health (and waiting for defensive cooldown use)
- Mystic Buffet
- Line of sight with Frost Tombs
- Blistering Cold timers
How the UI can help us
Last week, I mentioned the changes and additions that are being introduced soon to help us manage any procs and cooldowns. If we can just take things a step further and add the ability to customize any spell or ability name (such as boss abilities) , it would cut down on the amount of bars and timers to watch for. I don't know about you, but I'm getting to the point where I'm watching six different timers, my own debuffs and the tank.
Another idea I just thought about off the top of my head: sound usage.
Any Counterstrike players out there? I used to invest hours of time just mindlessly playing online before WoW came out. When the bomb was planted, players could hear audio beeps. They could rely on the intervals between beeps to determine how much time and urgency was left before the C4 detonated.
The development team has made great strides in introducing default boss modifications into the game. If there were a way to play a tone or a sound file and have it gradually speed up or change pitch, it could be one less bar to watch for. Hearing the beep start going every half-second might make us actually run out on time.
I'm positive that Halion and Lich King on heroic modes require just as much (if not more) mental bandwidth. Again, though, this is just the top end of things when it comes to progression raiding. Most of the encounters are challenging in their own right, and they do keep us busy and engaged. There is enough going on and enough work to keep everyone on their toes.
I don't know how complex future raid encounters will be. I just hope they don't get any more complicated than they are now. As a healer, being pushed is fun. Having the opportunity and time to react is fun. I enjoy reacting to scripted and random events as they occur. However, what isn't fun for me is watching eight timers on my screen, keeping an eye on debuffs, and keeping my other eye on my frames while figuring out if I have the time to use a medium heal or a fast heal. You might find that fun. But don't forget that the definition of fun will vary from person to person.
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: Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, Raid Rx (Raid Healing)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
feniks9174 Oct 8th 2010 2:10PM
Our best tree said something after our first heroic ICC boss kill (10 man Marrowgar) months ago:
"heroic ICC is Blizzards way of saying that they hate healers".
. . . Reading through the first part of the article, I have to say I agree.
Russell Oct 8th 2010 2:21PM
Given the changes that Blizzard has made to healing in Cata, that isn't far from the truth. While they don't HATE healers, they saw a problem with healers having infinite mana and infinite spammability, so they created encounters that would still challenge them.
In Cata, everything should be challenging (at least by design), so I feel they are going to focus more on DPS-punishing mechanics for most bosses (damage avoidance stuff...they've talked about this a bit).
Boz Oct 8th 2010 2:58PM
@Russell - Making the game more challenging for any class - Tank or DPS - means making it more challenging for healers.
I stopped leveling my healer when Blizzard moved away from the "heal players that are screwing up" design to a "raid-wide damage + screwing up" design. Healing has gone from being, "Hah! Lolegolas stepped up by the tank and got cleaved again; better pop a cooldown on him." to, "Oh man, oh man, oh man heal heal AoE heal AoE heal Cooldown heal heal - stop heals so I don't take damage let debuff fall off - No! Lolegolas! Heal (ow, damage!) heal" model.
It's not even fun anymore; it's just stress. As a tank I say bless you, healers, I don't know how you do it.
Saeadame Oct 8th 2010 3:25PM
@Boz, I wouldn't say it's not 'fun', depending on who you are. It definitely is something that favours people with good computers/internet and fast reaction times, though. There are many people who are confined to playing DPS classes simply due to their lag, because while your computer is catching up to who's taken damage they could have already died. I think in Cata, while it will be more difficult, it will also make healing more accessible to people with average computers/internet, because it will be about making good decisions and anticipation rather than pure reaction-based spamming.
Russell Oct 8th 2010 3:28PM
@Boz
I suppose it depends on your point of view. Blizzard has stated quick clearly that they want to create a situation where the healer does not have sufficient mana to heal every DPS screwup. The non-screwup damage being enough of a challenge to keep the healers busy and do not have the time or the mana to heal said screwups.
That puts the responsibility for avoiding them in the hands of the DPS. If the DPS cannot avoid unnecessary damage, the raid will wipe until the raid outgears the encounter. You could look at this as putting additional strain on the healers, but that is not the intention and that is not the design.
Boz Oct 8th 2010 3:44PM
To be a bit more clear, it is not fun *for me* due to the reasons I mentioned. I absolutely appreciate that it is fun for a lot of people, but to me it's very stressful, which is why I say thank you to every healer with whom I group.
Some people love cooking, and some people view it as work. It's like that with healing, and I'm thankful for every heal I get!
swordshatter Oct 8th 2010 3:58PM
@Russell problem is, so long as "punishing the dps" = "damaging the dps" it will harm healers. If standing in the fire pacified the dps for 5-10 it would actually put the problem where the problem lies. Damaging the dps for their screwups will put pressure not just on them, but on the healers, stopping them from doing dps keeps the pressure on the people it should be on.
Russell Oct 8th 2010 4:00PM
@swordshatter
As I already said, Blizzard is aiming to shift the responsibility to the DPS. Their job is to avoid damage. The responsibility is intended to lie with them and not with the healers to heal them.
Whether the playerbase accepts that paradigm shift remains to be seen. Based on the responses in this discussion, it sounds like a lot of people aren't ready to accept that.
thpthpthp1 Oct 8th 2010 4:43PM
Still, lord knows whenever someone runs out of hp the blame is still gonna go to the healers, though I love all the new abilitys an such DPS will actully have to use to keep themselves alive at the cost of a slight dps loss (Recuperate, Word of glory, ect)
Jesse Felt Oct 8th 2010 4:44PM
Honestly the only reason healing stupid is even a concern is because wrath made mana inconsequential. You would continue to heal stupid because you just want to get through it, and since there was no real negative impact to your overall gameplay (just another bar to fill) a lot of dps became increasingly lazy.
I know that in cata I will be able to easily get away with saying "you stand in fire, you will die, resurrect will cost less mana than keeping you alive" and hopefully dps player mentality will go up *crosses fingers*
Dendaris Oct 8th 2010 4:51PM
@Russell
I understand what you're saying, but even with the current mechanics, healers often beat their heads against the desk because of DPS players who just don't understand not to stand in the fire. Certainly not all DPS are bad at raid/dungeon-awareness (just as there are bad apples for every role), but I think most healers can list of plenty of examples of these players.
Healing in Cataclysm (especiall for druids) is going to be considerably more challenging for many reasons. Like you said, it remains to be seen whether or not the DPS player base embraces the changes coming that will require them to obey tank pulling more stringently and utilize crowd control options. But as long as the propensity for things to go wrong is higher, healers will be working that much harder to keep everyone alive.
The truth is that it sounds like everyone is having to step up their game in Cataclysm, but as a healer, I feel personally responsible most of the time when someone dies. "Sure they were standing in fire with a huge debuff stack while the boss did a whirlwind attack, but if I could have only healed a little bit harder....." It's going to be interesting to see how things play out.
Jesse Felt Oct 8th 2010 5:41PM
"The truth is that it sounds like everyone is having to step up their game in Cataclysm, but as a healer, I feel personally responsible most of the time when someone dies. "Sure they were standing in fire with a huge debuff stack while the boss did a whirlwind attack, but if I could have only healed a little bit harder....." It's going to be interesting to see how things play out."
Lord I hear that one. Whenever someone dies in a raid I am constantly replaying things in my head to see if there was something I could have done differently to prevent it. I think that the difference in Cata will be that Blizzard is sort of giving healers a license to be jerks about it.
As nice as I like to be about things, once we are in Cata I have no problem with the concept of telling someone that the encounter mechanics dictate that my mana is precious and those who are playing correctly are higher on the priority list and that if they want to stop dieing they can stop being stupid.
Hansbo Oct 10th 2010 1:37PM
Actually, I think it's still fun. As I am a student of mathematics and physics, the logical analogy of healing is to doing a math exam.
The first times you run an encounter is like doing an exam while being badly prepared. You have to keep your mind activated at all times. You can still pull it off, but it's extremely taxing for your brain, since you have to keep it active ALL the time.
Then, when you learn the encounter, it's like having an exam in a course you know. You can then put the brain in a passive mode, keeping it in the background to check for errors (or in the case of WoW healing, check for things that do not go according to plan), but for the main part, you think with your hands. It's like a dance. This is when healing is fun.
And man, is it fun. You are still stressed out, kind of, since it's hectic and there's a lot to do at all times, but it's not that anxiety, it's not the unpleasant feeling in your stomach. It's just fine.
Then again, I do believe I like to torture myself from time to time...
Wild Colors Oct 8th 2010 2:15PM
As a druid healer, I find Sindy frustrating in three ways.
First, as you've said, cognitive overload is only fun for the first couple of attempts. Then it's just draining.
Second, I don't have any "save-this-player" spells. I just need to stack more HOTs and pray IRL.
Third, I'm a 10-man raider, and it's hard to express the pain that's felt when Sindy is at 10%, things are looking good, and then my fellow healer gets ice-blocked and I get unchained magic. Sindy is just a painful 10-man fight. DPS is low if you 3-heal it, which causes problems breaking blocks in time, depending on who gets blocked. Healing is really iffy in the final phase if you 2-heal it.
Even more than Putricide, I feel like Sindy's final phase is a slow train wreck. The healers just hope to keep enough people up to finish her off before we all go over the cliff.
It has it's place; it's meant to be a challenging fight, and it is. I hope we don't have too many encounters like that in Cataclysm, though. (And I don't think the new healing model would support them very well.)
Bahska Oct 8th 2010 2:40PM
am i the only healer that doesn't get unchained magic in the 3rd phase? if you stay at max distance and only run in to get mystic buffet off, you shouldn't get unchained magic.
murmaiderxx Oct 8th 2010 3:03PM
Then the balance for healers should be noticed.. if we get to a spot where we need to cleanse so many people but we have a priest and a shaman... not who have no cleanses we're screwed. It will shape how we all handle raid set up.. if we have tremendous amounts of damage we need to 'spam' for looks llike we could be in trouble..
matthewggrammer Oct 8th 2010 3:01PM
Incorrect, sir. Unchained Magic will go on one healer and one caster (in 10-man). It's random. You're simply lucky.
Saeadame Oct 8th 2010 3:26PM
@Bahska - you're just lucky with the RNG then. It has nothing to do with how far away you are.
Finnicks Oct 8th 2010 5:10PM
"Even more than Putricide, I feel like Sindy's final phase is a slow train wreck. The healers just hope to keep enough people up to finish her off before we all go over the cliff."
I tell this to my raid constantly. Phase 3 Sindy isn't about perfect execution. It's about mainintaing perfect execution for as long as possible. It isn't about not screwing up, it's about going as long as possible without screwing up.
Because at some point a screwup will happen (unless the encounter is overgeared or the entire group is very pro++), and it will just cascade down from there.
Finnicks Oct 8th 2010 5:16PM
Comment system at the rest of my comment... I always forget you can't do hearts on here. It parses it as HTML and everything after the opening bracket gets swallowed.
I basically said: Our overall goal is to make it to 20% or so w/o any mistakes.
And how you 2-heal it I'll never know. Kudos if you successfully down her w/ 2-healers (in an ICC-10 geared group). We always run with 3.
The way we keep up on iceblocks in phase 3 is to have melee stay full time on ice blocks (they get that nasty debuff if they DPS Sindy anyway) and have ranged stay on Sindy full time. The only time ranged do ice block in phase 3 is if the melee fall behind on them, and that usually only happens when one of the two melee get ice blocked themselves. Oh, and if someone screws up and chains the ice blocks, we put ranged on the extra block to break it fast.
And get a complete frost resist set made for both your tanks. You'll thank yourself later when the frost aura and frost breath attacks get 75% resisted constantly.