Healing Etiquette
There are a good many things that are considered rude to do in groups, and sometimes I find myself quite surprised that people do not know better. Although this post is potentially rant-ish in nature, I think it is something that we all should understand and know going into any grouping scenario.
- Never, ever, under any circumstances, call out for healing during a fight. I am quite aware of who is taking damage, and monitoring everyone in the party. If I don’t heal you it is because I have to heal someone else first, or because I don’t have the ability to get a heal off on you at that point.
- Be prepared to use healthstones, potions, bandages, etc. Yes, I’m going to try to heal everyone without having to worry about it. That is not, however, always possible.
- When adjusting to a fight in progress where you are about to take an add or something reactionary to avoid a wipe, and you know you are about to really need some heavy healing, then it is permissible to mention it once, and only once, in case I did not already see the move coming.
- I do not like to hear “OMGIMDED,” or any such variation alluding to a lack of heals, ever. EVER. When that happens you will most likely end up not receiving healing from me for the rest of the evening, or very scarcely at best. Go back to the first item in this list and you’ll understand why.
- Some people are bad about buffing. I can understand asking for them on occasion. However, wait until you see that the person is bad about buffing (even if it means going a couple of trash pulls without buffs) before you start asking for buffs. This gets irritating quickly. I wait for everyone to be grouped before I buff so I don’t waste consumables.
- Asking for being revived is generally bad form. It is acceptable in the case of not knowing whether you should run back or wait, but leave it at that.
Now, for the longer, more robust explanation:
I am a healer. I will do what I can to keep everyone alive. That is my role, and I do it well. However, there are many circumstances where this is, quite simply, not possible.
Sometimes healers have to decide who lives and who dies. It is that simple. Even with instantly castable heals, albeit HoTs, I cannot always keep everyone alive. I will heal you as I can, but if you die then it is because I had to heal someone else first, or I was silenced, or my spell was interrupted, or I ran out of mana, or… you get the point.
Tanks and healers have the first priority on my heals, because if they die it is pretty much a guaranteed wipe. If we lose a dps or two that same case can be made, but it is much easier to recover from than losing a tank or healer. There will be times when I cannot focus on giving heals to someone else because of the sheer amount of damage being taken by said tanks/healers. In these case you, unfortunately, are on your own.
There is also the argument on self-healing techniques. There is a reason those are in the game to begin with, and that is because there are times when that is the only way you are going to receive any healing for a moment or two. Use them.
And finally, on asking for healing: Do you hear me asking for more dps, or more defense? Why not thank me instead?
Hi there,
OK, I haven’t read you entire guide.. and will do.. however I’m a RESTO Druid, I like the guide and I too use a mix MOUSE/KEYBOARD approach. However I like the challenge of manual healing, which gets my heart pumping in a run. My general methods is letting the group go ALL OUT, and healing everyone who needs it. In some ways, this can backfire, as I can draw agro, but with a group who is all out, all the time, I find that I am trained to deal with mostly anything that comes up, and I obviously don’t draw agro too often – by keeping an eye on something like omen.
My heal methods are pretty simple, but never really follow a pattern, as I enjoy the randomness of mixing the resto combinations. For example, I will generally always have a Wild Growth floating around on the tank, or on someone taking damage. If I see a big battle coming, and multiple loss of HP, I will Rejuv all members, starting with tank post Wild Growth, and return to Lifebloom stack on the tank, and one or two on others. I swiftmend often, and I get away with this because I map rejuv/swift mend to the mouse button where my thumb sits – which lets me spam swiftmend quickly, and fast enough to catch it when available. There is obviously the occasional miss with swiftmend – i.e. 10 seconds can be an eternity when things are bad, but in these situations, I usually should have a few lifeblooms, and Wild Growth which cover me. In these situations, I also hit a trinket and tranquility, which gets me over the timer with swiftmend, allowing my thumb to quickly click rejuv/swiftmend within 1 second.
I select targets by mouse, but keep a focus on the tank. As I only use rejuv/swiftmend by thumb/mouse, I do keep a finger strictly on lifebloom to be able top spam quickly. So, mouse also selects any other heals/spells, therefore, mouse is used for targets and all other heals/spells, finger on lifebloom, and thumb on rejuv/swiftmend.
Macros – I use three – 1st, target self/natures swiftness/healing touch (highest rank), which usually saves me when I agro, 2nd, as above but I target tank (updated per run), 3rd target self/innervate. I innervate and have enough spirit to be able to heal everyone without complaining about mana too often. I also run with conjured water, so I drink whenever needed.
Combining the above – isn’t possibly the best way to heal, as I liked some of your automated mouse overs etc, but I do find that this is all manual enough to make it full of challenges – and perhaps gives the dps enough confidence to go all out next run, and give the healer more or a challenge than just healing a tank! I find that so boring, I may as well heal by spamming healing touch rank X, like the old school druids did in Classic WoW. They really were in for a shock with the tree form – utilising the HoTs more so, exactly how I used to enjoy healing. Lastly, I don’t put any talents in Healing Touch, or Regrown, atm I am also not 80 yet, so less to spare, but I find Regrowth is rarely used, only when a tank or dps is under extreme damage and needs anything and everything I have – Regrowth is last, and Healing Touch even behind that!
Well, that’s that – Druid healing is not boring – like some of the other healing classes, it’s a constant dance on fingers, spells, combos, and so on.. no spam one spell boredom for me.. I’d have rolled a pali or priest for that! LOL. (might update again when I hit 80).. but so far, no real issues.. or and HEY don’t forget rebirth glyph! Nothing like dropping a toon on a boss, and reminding them that we druids can battleres.
Ahh and imo keep a lock around, SS with battleres is very powerful, and we all know that wipes can happen – and in actually fact, can be fun, they mean you are still learning the content, which is fun and hey summon always helps if someone is leaving love it.
-Vat
P.S. – Lastly, WOOHOO re druids can now RES post battle, finally making us a viable choice for runs.. best thing they ever did!