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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Light and How to Swing It: Dissecting the melee healer myth
by Chase Christian 
Oct 30th 2011 at 4:00PM
Back in the day, the paladin and shaman classes were exclusive to the Alliance and the Horde, respectively. The two classes were designed to be polar opposites, highlighting the differences between the factions. Paladins were designed to be defensive melee hybrids with tanking as one of their talent trees and no true ranged build. Shaman, of course, were offensive ranged hybrids with a caster DPS option. Because of this original bifurcated design, paladins have inherited several traits and abilities that have caused us to be typecast as the melee healers.
While the truth is that holy paladins don't need to stay in melee range to get the job done, the ideal has always persisted that paladins should be getting down and dirty with their foes. The gap between that dream and reality hasn't been a serious issue for us, but Mists of Pandaria might change that. The new mistweaver healing spec for the upcoming monk class has been described as a unique healer that relies on melee attacks to do their job efficiently. With another healer moving into our melee territory, do we have any reason to be jealous?
The difficulties of healing in melee range
Ranged classes have an advantage in nearly every situation. They can swap their focus between distant targets with ease, they can exhibit greater control over their positioning to avoid damage or gain buffs, and they're just as effective when they're in melee range as well. All conventional healers, by nature, are ranged classes, since we need to be able to heal targets that are spread across the battlefield. Holy paladins actually have the longest range of any of the healers via Beacon of Light's 60-yard range, giving us unparalleled flexibility in terms of positioning.
When we enter melee range, we give up all of that. If we're standing with the melee group, we're adding yet another target to the already dense melee cluster, which can spell doom if there are targeted AOE attacks like Chain Lightning. Our view of the battlefield is hampered by the boss blocking our sight. If there's some boss ability that forces the melee classes to run away, we are forced to stop casting while running. We're also limiting the total area that we can cover with heals by fixing our location.
PVP healers will tell you immediately that melee range is the last place you want to be, as it makes you vulnerable to incoming melee damage and interrupts. Mobs can also decide to attack you in PVE, and being in melee range means they can start pounding on your immediately. Melee range simply isn't a friendly spot to heal from.
The benefits of melee range
The number one reason for a holy paladin to enter melee range is Seal of Insight. When we strike our targets with melee attacks, our Seal of Insight has a chance to proc, healing us and returning some of our base mana. The bonus mana we see from Seal of Insight isn't insignificant, yielding 937 mana per proc. With an estimated proc rate of 15 procs per minute, we can generate almost 1,200 MP5 simply by swinging at our enemy.
The issue is that we can't heal and swing our weapon at the same time. Any time that we spend generating mana via SoI is time that we're not spending healing. The pace of healing has definitely slowed down since Wrath, but we still need to be casting something with the majority of our global cooldowns. Unless there's a specific scenario where there's no healing necessary, attacking the boss with SoI is usually a waste of time. If you're running low on mana or if there's really nobody to heal, you can score free mana, but it's definitely not going to break the bank on most encounters.
I know there are a lot of holy paladins who enjoy running into melee range in order to spam Crusader Strike, and that's fine. I personally don't like spending my mana on Crusader Strike in exchange for some weak damage and a holy power point. If you're looking to deal damage at any cost, though, Crusader Strike isn't a bad option. I used to hit Shield of Righteousness all the time in Wrath, trying to squeeze out whatever damage I could. We simply don't have any abilities that support holy paladins' doling out any serious melee damage, which explains why the shockadin strategy of spamming Exorcism is the de facto choice for dealing damage as holy.
Holy Radiance is the final reason that you'll find holy paladins in melee range. The healing from HR scales up as we get closer to our targets, so popping HR inside of the melee stack ensures that they get as much healing as possible. On encounters like Beth'tilac and Rhyolith, where there's a ton of AOE damage being dealt in phase 2, the entire raid can stack up in melee range and our Holy Radiances will generate some insane healing numbers.
Monks aren't a threat
Holy paladins might have a few melee tendencies, but we're definitely a far cry from being melee healers. While I do duck into melee range from time to time to generate a few Seal of Insight procs, it's definitely not a required technique and is often impractical. Even when we're running into melee range to spread the Holy Radiance love, we're actually playing as a ranged healing class that just happens close to the boss at that moment.
I don't see a problem with monks taking over the melee healer niche. The other healers are already running into melee range with their AOE heals when it suits them -- what's one more healer added to the pile? We're better healers when we're positioned further away, and I don't see a reason to break what's already working.
The Light and How to Swing It: Holy helps holy paladins become the powerful healers we're destined to be. Find out just how masterful mastery healing can be, gear up with the latest gear, and learn how to PVP as a holy paladin.
Filed under: Paladin, (Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
paulmewis Oct 30th 2011 6:54PM
Whats the de jure way of holy dps then?
Barachiel Oct 30th 2011 6:57PM
I've got a question. I've decided to try my hand at healing, and to be honest, I'm kinda clueless.
I'm a holy paladin with a Elitist Jerks healing spec. I'm spamming Holy Light to conserve mana, but the healing is neglible compared to the damage being dealt in Heroics. (I can run Normal dungeons and Old World Raids without a problem; been using that as a training ground of sorts.) Divine Light works better, but even with spamming Judgment, I'm low on mana at the end of every major pull. I use Holy Shock on every CD for Holy Power, and really depend on Word of Glory to top off the DPS.
I know Divine Plea is a mana regen tool, but it SERIOUSLY nerfs my healing rate, and so for most engagements, I just don't see the point of using it, except in rare occassions when boss damage output is at a low, and I can afford to take a 50% loss to my HPS. So ultimately, my question is, what am I doing wrong? My ilevel in Holy gear is 355 (not Firelands raid worthy, but better than a fresh 85). I'm an amateur at this, but I've tried to do my research. I feel like I must be missing something *really* obvious.
Deathknighty Oct 30th 2011 7:18PM
With regards to the Divine Please issue - DL the tank to full health during a time when there's not too much damage coming in. In a raid environment, just ask for your fellow healers to help with the tank for 10 seconds.
Emophia Oct 30th 2011 8:19PM
Just got do some PVP and get the 371 ilevel gear.
My holydin hit 85 on the Altrec Valley Weekend and I grinded him a full set and went straight into the troll heroics easy as pie to heal with that gear and the justice trinket.
Barachiel Oct 30th 2011 10:07PM
@Emophia
Eh, I try to avoid the "take PVP into PVE instances" thing. True, I'm Holy not Ret, so i'm not gimping my DPS, but still.
Teaspoon Oct 30th 2011 11:09PM
I don't play an endgame holy paladin myself, but I've been in a few runs where a good, experienced holy paladin was on his mage and trying to help a new(b) holy pally get into the right habits...
Have you got Beacon of Light on the tank? Remember that Tower of Radiance means you get Holy Power from casting Flash of Light and Divine Light directly on your Beaconed target, so if you're healing the tank directly you should use those spells and Holy Shock to stack your Holy Power, then spend the Holy Power on Word of Glory for nice big free heals.
Heals on the rest of the group should be using Holy Light, or Holy Shock and Word of Glory if you don't think you need to save those for directly healing the tank.
I agree with not wearing PvP gear to PvE content. You might end up with high int, but half of the secondary stat budget is wasted on resilience instead of bumping up more useful stats like crit, haste, mastery or even spirit and you're about as effective you would be in PvE gear from a tier below.
Erebos Oct 31st 2011 12:12AM
You basically just reiterated what every healer was going through at the beginning of Cata... But seriously, it just takes practice to know when to use which heal. Yes, HL's healing is almost negligible, but in times when there's steady but fairly low damage and mostly on the tank, keep spamming it and throwing a HS to a DPS who might take a hit. When the tank's taking heavier damage, try to stick with DL instead of FoL, since DL is more efficient (more healing/mana), unless you're getting into a tight situation. And like you said, use HS on CD to get nice, big WoGs. Like someone else said, keep the tank Beaconed at all times, and that'll let you take advantage of Tower of Radiance when you DL them and help you get Holy Power faster.
Just remember that practice will really help, and with better gear it'll get easier. Don't make yourself think it's always your fault that the tank is taking a lot of damage. Eventually you'll see the difference between good and bad ones, and you'll know what to expect as far as healing (and that it isn't necessarily your fault if you wipe). Don't forget your CDs, too. Hope I helped, and I hope you stick with it :) Healing's a lot of fun.
jacob.rabjohns Oct 31st 2011 5:13AM
Okay, please ignore the previous comment about throwing HL's to the tank. NEVER HL THE TANK. Beacon transfer of HL is 100%, so if you HL him your wasting it. If a dps is missing around 2k hp, its worth it to heal the dps, our mastery is that weak. Another hint is that you will rarely need to spam DL. Look at the incoming damage, would it be possible to mitigate that with just one DL then back to a normal healing rotation? Thirdly, the overzealous use of holy power. This is going away in 4.3, so get used to it and love it while you can. Protector of the innocent is currently transfered through beacon. So you want to, when this is possible, cast small fast heals to maximise its free healing. And we have those, oh we have those. Use holy power when its on one rather than three. Obviously, if there is serious OMG THEYRE DYING healing to be done, dont. Otherwise its great. Holy power for holydins stacks linearly, so using one is 1/3rd of using three, so all your wasting is a bit of a gcd, and conserving a lot of mana. Also, try and line up your light of dawn for this use too. It heals more than WoG if you manage to catch everyone (6) and theres always a pet of some form knocking about. Finally, judgement. I know you say your hitting it on CD, but really look at that. Go into recount and divide the fight length by 8. That was how many times you could have judged. Now compare to how many times you did. Shoot for 90% + efficiency.
Erebos Oct 31st 2011 12:15PM
Okay, please ignore the previous comment about not throwing HLs to the tank.
As I said before, if the tank is the only one taking damage, and it's mostly light and steady, yes, you should be casting HL (or HS, if you want the Holy Power and chance at Infusion of Light procs) on them constantly, canceling it to cast something else if necessary. This way you're healing them as soon as they're taking damage by constantly casting your mana-neutral heal, but if someone else in the group takes damage or the tank takes heavier damage, you can stop the cast for something bigger or a HS or whatever.
No, you aren't wasting HL if you cast it on the tank. You'll miss out on the transferred heal you'd get through Beacon, but if no one else is taking damage, there's no point in healing them, even if it does also heal the tank (what's the point in healing twice as much if half of it is overheal?)
Healing also doesn't have "rotations", other than weaving spells without CDs in between HSs and Judgments. Like I said, you should always be casting your mana-neutral spells and interrupting them when you need to.
Also, like I said before, once you get into a group and see what kind of damage your tank is taking, you'll know whether you can be throwing 1-HP WoGs or if you should be building up Holy Power to get stronger ones.
Jyotai Oct 31st 2011 4:09PM
Just get into melee and target some mob, and let auto-attacks regen your mana in between your healing casts.
If you've got clique, healbot, Vudho, or macros going - you can heal without losing target on your given mob, so you'll still get back a -LOT- of mana even chain spamming your heals on every GCD in heavy moments.
And use Blessing of Might, not Kings, regardless of what your group wants - until you're at gear where you can ignore any mana issues. Once you're way up there, go for Kings if desired. But your blessing spell is for your own toon first, especially as a healer.
Barachiel Oct 31st 2011 6:36PM
@Jyotai & Erebos
Thanks for correcting the HL comment. I just did a run of Heroic Grim Batol (first time). Got to the last boss. Only reason we couldn't finish was the DPS was massively undergeared (rogue only doing 9K, mage only doing 11K). There were a couple DPS deaths, but i kept the tank and myself alive, with only one wipe prior to the final boss. So all in all, a good first time.
Mana Regen is still a pain, but I'm juggling Judgment a bit better, and actually remembering to blow my CDs during boss fights. I'm currently using Healbot, and it's pretty intuitive. My second biggest problem is watching both the bars and the battlefield. Stupid fire. :)
Teaspoon Oct 30th 2011 10:43PM
"The issue is that we can't heal and swing our weapon at the same time. Any time that we spend generating mana via SoI is time that we're not spending healing."
This is where the instant-casts come in. You can't swing while you have a castbar up, but you can swing while you're waiting for the global cooldown.
Given that caster weapons typically have short swing times and casting a spell only pauses the swing timer instead of resetting it, having an enemy targeted and in range with auto-attack turned on means you can typically get one or two melee swings in per instant-cast heal.
Boobah Oct 30th 2011 11:50PM
When did that change? Last I knew casting reset the swing timer, except in some rare cases which have since changed to not affecting the swing timer at all.
brain314 Oct 30th 2011 11:38PM
As a disc priest, sometimes I run into melee range to gets heals off of my own smite heals since heals only hit those around your smite targets.
Boobah Oct 30th 2011 11:48PM
Non-tanks shouldn't be taking more damage than Holy Light can easily heal most of the time. If they are, it's either a specific boss mechanic, or they're standing in the bad. And with the tank beaconed, you are also simultaneously Holy Lighting the tank, so you'll have less ground to make up when you get back to them.
Don't forget to use Light of Dawn when you can; if you have a couple melee in your heroic, you'll almost always get a bigger heal to your beacon target from Light of Dawn than Word of Glory.
If you're not sure what to do, start casting a Holy Light on somebody. You can almost always afford the mana and you can interrupt it yourself if you decide you have to.
And you've got a number of nifty cooldowns; Hand of Sacrifice rarely threatens you, since you have a lot of automatic self-healing, between Protector of the Innocent and your judgement heal. Wings every three minutes, IIRC, Guardian every five, and the haste buff (which makes Holy Radiance really shine!). And, of course, the ultimate in healing cooldowns, Lay on Hands every seven or ten minutes.
And the other issue is that the problem may not be you. There seems to be an attitude the last few weeks that the launch heroics are cake, and that therefore you don't need to pay attention to anything. While that can work with your character decked out in a full suit of 378s... well, when you're just barely squeaking in with a fresh 85 in iLvl 330 gear that's kinda cheating with some PvP pieces... not so much.
Albert Hosier Oct 31st 2011 6:12AM
A very good example of one of his quatrain's.There is prpbably one to be found for Bhutto's Assissination today too !..
http://rejuvenexcream.net
whalt Oct 31st 2011 10:23AM
There is a larger point here. If Monks DPS and Heal, or DPS to heal, they are still doing one thing that most other healers don't generally do during encounters - DPS. Priests can Smite heal somewhat (as seen on Heroic Halfus, although when H Halfus was cutting edge - prior to outgearing it and the massive nerf - the Smite healer was usually an SPriest with a Smite heal offspec that provided damage and healing rather than a full-time Smite healer in my experience) and Resto Druids and Shaman have talents allowing them to cast cheap DPS spells sort of as an afterthought, but no other healing class actually does DPS as a part of it's healing.
What does this mean? To me it seems very clear - there is the potential for Monk healers to become the required healers of progression content in MoP. Each healer brings something unique to the game besides simply thier ability to heal. Druids can rebirth (and AOE heal like almost no other class), Shaman have unique Totems and heroism (although this is shared with Mages and the occasional BM Hunter), Priests provide some of the most potent damage reduction CD's in the game both for Tanks and Groups/Raids, and Paladin's have Hand spells. But what do none of them bring - DPS as a major contributing part of thier healing.
If monks bring DPS, and it doesn't even have to be meaningful as we might think of it in relation to other DPS Classes (who might average something like 27k+ on heroic Firelands fights) but meaning full in that it could be half or even 1/3 of the dps of a normal DPS class, then they are far more valuable to a progression raider than most other healers would be. Progression often requires healers be replaced by DPS to meet enrage timers (assuming that a raid group understands and adheres to a fight's mechanics and doesn't wipe to "standing in the fire/void zone/poison cloud/disappearing ledge) or that dps switch to a heal spec that allows dps (as was the case with smite healing on Halfus).
And I would stop and give my definition of progression, because that doesn't mean only Cutting edge Heroic Raids in my judgement. Progression is in the eye of the beholder and differs greatly. Progression could be cutting edge heroic encounters, but most likely it means the "tough" boss or bosses in a raid tier whether on regular or heroic. Progression to a raider is downing whatever boss his or her raid is consistenly either unable to kill or has an incredibly difficult time killing. It's just as likely to be regular Baleroc, as it is to be Heroic Ragnaros.
Now back to my point. If a Monk healer brings 1/2 to 1/3 of the DPS of a "normal" dps class as a regular part of his/her healing and still does competitive healing (which right now we can only assume 'will' be the case as we haven't been given any indication that Monks will be support healers like Vanilla Holy Pallys and Resto druids were) then Monks will be the most desired healers and will likely take raid spots from other "non-dps" healers.
I don't expect every healer will be a monk (unless they are incredibly OP, which would likely only last as long as it takes to "patch away" thier OPness) because some fights will have mechanics necessitating other healers, such as Druids for AOE or Shaman for a Fear Break, but given what we currently know it is not a stretch to think Monk Healers will be the healer of choice for progression.
Sumitra Oct 31st 2011 1:25PM
Agreed. This *is* the most important point, and it keeps getting missed.
One way to fix is to make the melee do healing instead of damage, but that too has issues.
Jyotai Oct 31st 2011 4:15PM
My Disc priest in 5-mans is usually #3 or #4 on the meter, not #5 where you'd expect.
Of sufficient gear that I can do 80% of a heroic just slapping my 1 key that is bound to smite with this macro:
#showtooltip Smite
/startattack
/cast smite
Its like the 'arcane Mage' of healing... a 1-button class/spec.
Its only when somebody goofs up and stands wrong, pulls an add, or whatever, the I break out the toolkit.
There've been 'Heal by DPSing' classes in City of Heroes (Dark Dark Defender, or Fire Corrupter) and Guild Wars (Ritualist) for years. And while the Ritualist gets no respect as a healer, the CoH classes that do it are considered on par with other choices - neither better nor worse.
Bond Oct 31st 2011 2:12PM
Chase, I am not sure I understand how your reconcile your dual heal model with this dismissal of Crusader Strike procs of Holy Power? In my healing world, any Holy Power is good holy power, and the tradeoff in mana for HP is basically a wash in terms of MpHP.
I am not saying that closing to melee to charge HP through Crusader Strike is THE BEST way to heal, but it is A way to heal, and certainly should be an option on those fights where the melee stack is going to take some damage but you do not have to worry about a cleave or stun (or if there is a shared damage ability and you need to be there anyways).
Granted, gone are the days of Ulduar to ICC where Judgement/BoL and melee swings topped off the mana pool most efficiently. But saying that you don't need to be in melee range to heal isn't the same as saying you should never be in melee range to heal. It just depends. Besides, as you have also pointed out in the past, standing back 30 yards and Judging every 90 seconds while topping players off gets boring. Some times it is fun to go in and mix it up, when you can afford to.