The Healing Meme-not-meme

Thank you, thank you, thank you Miss Medicina. This is a fascinating questionnaire and reading all the responses has helped me to realize that I am not alone in all this stuff.

• What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer?

Ugh, every bone in my body is screamin’ “stay anonymous.” I mean, I take enough crap in-game, the last thing I need is take more in my outlet, but my brother blogs (and I pop up over there, a lot) so it probably wouldn’t last long anyway. Zlanya, Holy Pally.

• What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)

I do a bit of it all. I’ve been runnin’ randoms a lot lately (good gold, nice batches – this is how I will always always always refer to emblems, badges, tokens, etc. –, etc. etc.), but I also raid 10 and 25s weekly.

• What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why?

Beacon, baby. It’s not technically a healing spell, but it frickin’ rocks.

• What healing spell do you use least for your class and why?

Divine Intervention. I honestly don’t think I have ever used it once. I suppose there are a few good reasons to get in the habit, but…

• What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why?

‘da nukes! I can tank heal like a champ (which is a figure of speech only – I kill people, so I ain’t braggin’). Seriously, my class is fantastic at having a large number of big heals available to keep one (and usually two) tanks up.

• What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why?

The weaknesses are a bit situational, so I’m going to be a greedy gus and take 2: lack of AoE heals and movement fights.

Lack of true AoE doesn’t really matter in raids (unless for some inexplicable reason the RL decides the holy pally should raid heal). However, in 5 mans it’s disastrous. Try healing Gun’drak or HoL in heroic gear and you’ll see what I mean. Thank god those days are over!

Movement issues, though, they always matter. This really came up when we were 25 mannin’ Marrowgar a couple of weeks ago. The discussion moved to how many heals we could use while runnin’. The druid mentioned something in the neighborhood of 6, the priest 4, me… I have one, once every six seconds. Oh yeah, baby. (Ok, I know this doesn’t take into account the potential free FoL from crit and haste effects, but still…you get the idea).

• In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you?

Tank heals, all the way. I usually like to be able to beacon one tank, heal the second tank, and have whoever is healin’ the third toss a few HoTs on the first two. Otherwise, I feel like I’m snipin’ heals. (Which, I’m not… it’s just more efficient to beacon one and heal another.)

• What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why?

Druids. It’s a love/hate thing, really. There’s a lot less for me to do with the constant HoTs rollin’… which is good and bad. I like needin’ to keep on my toes, but more coverage is better for the group which is always the priority.

• What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why?

Hmm… I don’t think I have one. Druids HoTs rock and the b-rez is always good (besides, the tree form is hella cool), Shammy chain heal is wicked good and I would like to have cleansing totem’s babies, Priests have some of the wickedest buffs in the game and for pure AoE I simply must /bow, and other Pally’s bring a double beacon situation which (if you can ignore overhealing) is a beauty.

• What is your worst habit as a healer?

Blaming myself when people die. Sometimes, it’s my fault. I know it and I know I deserve the yellin’ I get about it. But, sometimes, it isn’t my fault. Yet, for some reason, I have bought into that stupid, ridiculous mentality that says it’s always the healer’s fault. I’m gettin’ better at it; I now recognize stupidity and understand that if they insist on standing in the green/purple/red/ice/shadow/fire/laser shit they probably will (and should) die, but every time it happens something inside me shrivels a little.

And, not speakin’ up in-game enough. Believe it or not, I’m a shy chickie. I would never, ever, ever… ok, I would rarely have the balls to say things like this in-game. Usually, it’s fine… I can grumble about it to my brother or fiancé (both of whom play) later and it spares a lot of hurt feelings and potential drama that way. However, there are some things I should speak up about, and not just for my own sake, either. I should tell dps that the “just heal through it” mentality isn’t going to fly in ICC – at least, not for a while. I should be more vocal about making sure healing assignments are given out (I raid with 3 or 4 different groups of people each week and one group is notoriously unorganized). I mean, the more I can, gently, inform players about the realities of the healing situation, the better it will be on all of us. Hmm… New Year’s resolution maybe?

• What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing?

Meter-whores. No, really. I think focusing on the numbers so much isn’t really beneficial to anyone. I mean, you’re either in a bleedin’ edge content guild or you’re not. If you are, you must feel secure enough not to need to spam Recount or discuss it endlessly. If you’re not, accept it. (And this isn’t just healin’ numbers, either. I abhor listenin’ to endless dps comparisons, too. I mean, grats that you hit 8k, really, but Vent need not be updated after every fight. If we care, we have Recount. If you care, you should, too.)

• Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing?

Yes, and no. Given what we can do in a raid with the right assignment (i.e. big, sustained tank heals), it’s only fair that we don’t have what we don’t have (AoE and HoTs – and Ima smack the first person that says we do have one. I know we do, but it’s a bit like Paris Hilton’s brain – it’s there, but it’s small and largely irrelevant.). However, in a 5-man situation I’m inclined to think Pally’s have the biggest handicaps. I’m not completely sure, because I’ve never healed as a Shammy and have only my brother’s word on Priest heals, but I suspect I’m right.

• What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer?

I’ve been trying not to repeat anything I’ve previously read, but for this one it’s unavoidable. 1) Is my tank up? (or) Are my tanks up? If yes, yay! 2) I look at the raid… could I have helped out more with the odd holy shock or FoL? 3) I look at the mana… any fight I don’t need to ask for an Innervate (i.e. I Divine Plea’d my way out of trouble) I consider a success (assumin’, of course, the first two questions turned out well).

• What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class?

That we’re an overpowered healer. We’re not. We have one sort of, kind of overpowered heal, but we’ve given up A LOT to get it. (See the above moanin’ about AoE and movin’ or the explanation about mechanics below.)

• What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn?

The mechanics of it all… especially, if they have healed on another class. Pallys have no (and I mean no) ability to heal before the damage is taken. (Ok, I know… technically no class can heal before damage is taken, but roll with me for a minute.) What I mean here is Druids and Priests can put a HoT/PoM on a player or players prior to damage and then spot heal/cleanse, etc after the damage. Pallys can’t do anything until the damage is done. This means we can know big damage is coming or group damage is coming and all we can do is start casting and hope that our big heal is timed exactly right. It means if we’ve started early and are a half second too fast it’s a heal, a CD, mana, and time wasted. It means we can see those things that need to be cleansed ticking away on you, but we can’t do anything about it because we don’t have a GCD to waste (so, please, stop yellin’).

Which also leads in to the not blaming yourself for everything. The holy Pallys I know that have worked their way up through healing heroics have always, at some point, gotten unbelievably discouraged. It’s always hard to convince them (just as it was hard to convince me when I was there) that in places like HoL or Gun’drak or anywhere else where there is hot, heavy, and fast AoE damage people WILL die. It’s just part of the deal. Someday, though you’ll be in a raid and you’ll shine. Then you’ll outgear the content (at least, HoL, etc.) and it won’t be so bad.

• If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer via recount, what sort of patterns would they see (i.e. lots of overhealing, low healing output, etc)?

That I don’t give a fuck about overhealing and, when it comes to Pallys, you probably shouldn’t either. With the mechanics on BoL, overhealing is inevitable. Sometimes, we must use HL on a player that only needs a FoL because what the tank needs is HL. Sometimes, one tank needs a big heal but the other doesn’t. This happens. Not only that but we have 3 heals. That’s it. I can’t really tailor the size to fit the damage and I can’t bring myself to let them sit at 70 or 80% because even my small heal will overheal them by 1 or 2k. (I only have so many GCDs when the shit hits the fan, after all.) Unless your holy Pally is always beggin’ for innervates or spends more time oom than not, this should not be a concern.

• Haste or Crit and why?

Oh, I miss the days when Crit ruled my world. These days I’d rather have the haste, but I try to keep an even balance. The free FoL does come in handy and sometimes that crit can make all the difference.

• What healing class do you feel you understand least?

Shammies. I don’t really have one (the poor little tot is sittin’ at 11 and has been for months and months.) I did try to level her, but, wow, that’s complicated.

• What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing?

Pally Power. Every Pally should have this (or whatever the one that works with it is called). Decursive (although these days it’s annoyin’ me and I’m currently searchin’ for something different).

OMFG, I love macros! I’m addicted to them… I hate that Blizz limits the number you can have. Not all of my macros are for healing, but many, many, many of them are. I’m currently trying to work up one that will allow me to use Divine Plea (2) in conjuction with a trinket (5) or Avenging Wrath (8) as well as Divine Illumination (3), depending on what’s up. (i.e. when I have mana issues I pop 2, 3, and 8 or 2, 3, and 5, or just 2 and 8 or 2 and 5 depending on CDs.) What I really want is one macro that does it all such that instead of pressing 3 hotkeys in a row, I need press only one. Anyone have any ideas as to whether this is even possible?

• Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why?

Intellect. Yummy, yummy, I likes it , I loves it, I wants more of it. I get a bit of everything out of it and it’s certainly more beneficial than any other single stat.

Beginnings and explanations.

It’s New Year’s Eve (well, officially, I guess it’s New Year’s Day now) and I should be blissfully intoxicated like the rest of the world. However, I drew the short straw and I’m not, so I’m on here creatin’ this beauty. It came up because just today this fascinating little healer meme-not-meme was brought to my attention and wowza! I simply had to create a blog just to fill this little sucker out (only two months too late, meh).

First, I should mention this is going to be an adult blog. Not because there will be fun stuff like sex and boobs, but because I say fuck. A lot. Second, I swear I will try to keep the bitter ranting to as little as humanly possible, but I’m PuGin’ a lot these days (I really do love the new random dealybob) and that’s gonna be quite the challenge. Besides, as any healer that’s ever healed knows, it’s always our fault… even when it isn’t and couldn’t possibly be it simply is. I need an outlet for all this pent up $#^% and this is gonna be it. Hence, the title. Anyway, on to the meme-not-meme that started it all. Enjoy.