healer
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Forum Post of the Day: Who's your main healer?
Poster Runeolth asks forumgoers whom they'd pick as their main healer: a druid, paladin, priest, or shaman? There seems to be little agreement on the subject, with players answering every option, a few saying that all are viable, and a few answering with options that weren't offered. So what does each healing class bring to the table?DruidPros: Excellent variety of HoTs (especially talented), MotW a very nice all-purpose buff, leather armor (and ability to shapeshift into bear if needed) makes them fairly durableCons: Can only rez once a half hour, no damage shields, group heal on a cooldownPriestPros: Most versatile array of healing abilities (a HoT, direct heals, a damage shield, and group heals), PW:F an excellent stamina buff (great for group survivability)Cons: Squishy, and with no good way to dump aggro if neededPaladinPros: Very mana efficient, excellent variety of buffs (blessings and judgements), very durable (plate!), low threat healsCons: No HoTs, no group heals, short duration buffsShamanPros: Versatile buffs with totems, quite durable (mail), can self-rez to save a corpse run after a wipe, good variety of healing abilities (direct heals, group heals, and some healing over time via totem)Cons: Need to be in range to get totem buffs, can't always give players the buffs they would want because of element restrictions, only damage shield is a 41-point talentWhat's your opinion -- is there anything important left out of this little chart? And do you have a healing class of choice?
AddOn Spotlight: Grid
I used to raid heal using mainly the CT_RaidAssist emergency monitor. Call me a bad healer if you want; it was a lot nicer than having 40 health bars all over my screen. The emergency monitor is not clickable in WoW 2, and thus began my hunt for a way that I could see everybody's health and still see the fight. CT_RA bars, Blizzard's bars, and the like were all out due to being simply too big. Furthermore, I find them a bit overwhelming, making it hard to spot who's low on health. I mostly heal main tanks, but I like to be able to easily see if a Rogue or something takes a big hit. So where does one turn for a set of raid health bars that's small, legible, and informative?
Playing healers (or not)
Relmstein had an interesting series recently on why healing classes are so unpopular. I know from experience that healing classes are rare, because some days there's a lengthy queue for my time starting from the instant I log on. The following is representative of my daily login attempt -- and is usually enough to make me go log on my rogue!Welcome to World of Warcraft![Guild] Friendlymage: Hey Lizzy - want to heal Scholomance?[Randomshaman] whispers: need healer for BRD! last spot!![Randomhunter] whispers: LBRS?[Randomwarlock] has invited you to join a group.You have declined [Randomwarlock]'s group invitation.[Guild] Lizzy: Okay!You whisper to [Randomshaman]: Sorry, going to Scholomance.[Friendlymage] has invited you to join a group.You whisper to [Randomhunter]: Can't, heading to Scholomance.[Randomshaman] whispers: pls!!! will pay 5g.You whisper to [Randomshaman]: I can't -- I'm already committed to going to Scholomance.[Raider] whispers: Hey, we need more priests for Razorgore, wanna come?[Randomshaman] whispers: 10g?You are now ignoring [Randomshaman].[Raider2]: We need healers for BWL!You whisper to [Raider]: Sorry, busy atm.[Raider3] whispers: BWL?
Healer Psychology
As a healer myself (with two level 60 priests at my disposal), I find this post discussing why so few people have a desire to play healers to be rather interesting. The favored theory, by both the original poster and subsequent responses, is that staring at health bars isn't very exciting and playing whack-a-mole with the health of your party members just isn't very much fun. In my case, I find the importance of the healer role to be the exciting part - your action (or inaction) has a very real impact on whether your party lives or dies. However, perhaps I haven't played the class to the point of burnout yet, which seems to happen to many healers at some point or another.
Learn2play: a guide to class roles
While trying to explain the difference between MT, OT, DPS and healer to a new player, I found this well-written guide to party roles in WoW. If you're unsure quite what the difference between a main and offtank is, or which classes are considered "DPS", it's a great read.As a druid, I love the fact that my class appears under all headings, but as a recent instance run taught me, it's best to ensure you know which you are before you begin. Hybrid classes can cause no end of arguments when they fail to remain hybrid, too, so don't be afraid to switch roles if necessary -- a healing class that refuses to heal when the only other healer is out of mana is a great party annoyance.
