Good thoughts. Only thing I'd expound on is that raid leaders need to get familiar with heals to an even higher level than they do with tanks or DPS. Knowing what each is capable of allows you to make better choices about assignments for each encounter.

One thing my gulid tries to do is get on vent together and watch new encounters with all our healers. Many of them have raid CDs that can save a wipe, and knowing when to drop them beforehand means you're being proactive, not trying to play catch up. When I'm healing on my shaman, I find that the only times I go OOM are when I didn't adequately anticipate damage (which is sometimes caused by someone standing in the fire too long, but that's another issue). Once that happens, I get stuck making choices about who gets to live (and inevitably, I choose me and the tank).

Healers shouldn't be afraid to pre-cast their cheap heal. I use HW like an autoattack. If my target doesn't need a heal, I cancel the cast with a hop or a little juke to one side or the other. But I've always got one spell or another in progress so that if they do take a big hit when I'm not expecting it, I have a little cushion to work with. Once you've done this for a while, I think you find a rhythm to the incoming damage that lets you know when to precast that big heal and keep your heal targets topped off.

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