The Egotistical Priest
An irreverent and opinionated discussion of the many classes
in the World of Warcraft gaming universe.
A Good Priest (Healer Version)
by Vonya
What makes a “good” priest?
I took an impromptu survey of the people around me to find out. The reason I did this is because to ME, what I do seems…well, if not “easy” exactly, it’s definitely not rocket science.
And yet people constantly seem amazed when they find a good healer, as though they’d found a four-leaf clover (or perhaps a two-headed cow).
So I asked them, “What makes a good priest?”
A good priest, I was told, will always “sacrifice warlocks before hunters in the healing pecking order.”
After the guffaws died down, I did manage to get a few real answers (I’m sure the above answer was no less real for the hunter who voiced it, mind you.)
“Timing, attentiveness, and care”
“fast reactions, the ability to prioritize between healing dps and keeping the MT up. Ability to remember encounters and boss events that can kill a tank in a few seconds.”
Notice first what they didn’t say. They didn’t say anything about gear. They didn’t say anything about downranking, or stats, or reading random online blogs.
Attentive
What they asked for was a healer who is attentive. Someone who watches the fights and notices when things take a turn. Notices when people need heals, even if it’s unexpected. Knows enough about their class and their spells to know what situations call for what reactions. Knows how to deal with AOE damage, when to cleanse. Understands other classes well enough to know when to depend on them, what they’re capable of, and how it can make your job easier or more difficult.
Flexible
They asked for someone who was flexible. Someone who could evaluate a situation and react with the right heal at the right time. Who knows when a trapping hunter will need heals more than the lifetapping warlock, for example.
Someone who won’t panic when the chips are down and the shit hits the fan. Reacting to a fight gone bad takes experience (everyone panics, don’t feel bad if your brain shuts off temporarily…but do your best to overcome that feeling so that you can pull the group from an early grave). Your reactions will become crucial when everything around you is going to hell. You must strive to become a center of calm in the midst of the storm. Know your panic buttons, know your healing priority, and know your spells.
Knowledgeable
They asked for someone with awareness. Who can learn from encounters and react swiftly to unique encounters. Someone who knows that Illhoof’s sacrifice needs immediate healing, and who knows that the Myrmidons in Scarlet Monastery enrage when they get to low health and the tank will need some extra heals to compensate for the extra damage.
Someone who can learn from experience. Who can look at a wipe and find out what they can do to prevent it from happening again. Who can learn when a timely Cure Disease can keep a fight from blossoming out of control.
“Measuring” Success
One of the most difficult things about being a healer is that you’ve got no way to determine your relative skill. As an Egotistical Reader pointed out, healing meters are nearly useless and everything else seems to be binary. You die or you don’t die.
TRUST
You have to trust your tank. And your tank has to trust you. Your dps has to trust you. And you have to trust yourself. If you’re raiding, you have to have a LOT of trust in your fellow healers. As a healer, your group puts more trust in you than anyone else…they trust you to keep them alive, and they trust that if they die, it’s for good reason.
That kind of trust has to be EARNED. Prove that you are worthy of such trust, and you’ll find that your group is capable of miracles.
Love
This isn’t a job for the faint of heart. You have to love it. You have to love every minute of it, every panic-filled second, every hour of mind-numbing whack-a-mole.
Healing is so much fun. If you don’t understand that, then you’re probably playing the wrong role.
Summary
They asked for the things which I cannot teach you. Which no one can teach you, except practice and care.
I cannot teach you to be a good priest.
But I hope…that somehow…I can help you become a better one.
P.S. THIS post in particular I wish to foster a healthy discussion in the comments. What do YOU think makes a good priest? Let me know, give your opinions. I have portable soapboxes for everyone.
P.P.S. If you’re reading this and don’t plan on reading the comments, you’re missing out. There are some that I was half a hair away from just straight copy-pasting into the article. READ THE COMMENTS, PEOPLE. Thank you, come again.
August 21st, 2007
A good Healer likes playing wack a mole… A more serious thought later.
August 21st, 2007
When I rolled my priest (my main is a rogue), I was very confused as to how to “measure” my success. Healing meters were generally uncompetitive, and it seemed like a very binary measurement (we’re either wiped or we’re not). It was actually really frustrating at first, coming from a pure dps-metrics oriented class like a rogue.
However, I’ve come to really enjoy the action of playing a priest, and a healer. While it’s a totally different experience for me than playing my rogue, it definitely is a learning experience for me that I enjoy.
My only quibble about your post is that you really seem to be talking about “healers” instead of “priests” in general.
August 21st, 2007
This aspect of priesting is what I call finesse. When to sacrifice DPS and when to let the tank get a little low to save them. When a well placed Abolish Disease will make the Bog Lords on Steamvaults easier on the tank. This is the hard stuff. All the math in the world relating to mana regen won’t teach you this stuff. The only way to learn is through expirence. I’d like to think my super BAMF (yea….. riiiiight…. whatever you say Gala) skills come from the many, many, MANY hours I’ve spent running instances. That was how I leveled from 67-70, didn’t do a single quest that wasn’t instance related. We ran 2 sometimes 3 instances a night for I don’t know how long. So because of that brutal trial by fire, I know which bosses hit hard and fast and which ones I can relax a little. My Lock has learned that he won’t always get a heal after he lifetaps and he knows that my decision is based on what is going to be best for the group. My hunter also knows that all he has to say is “trap resisted” and I know his pet is going to be off-tanking and I need to keep an eye the both of them.
I’ve come to a new conclusion while writing this, the most important part of being a good healer is trust. The tank has to trust you will keep him alive. The DPS’ers have to trust that if you can’t keep them alive, there was good reason. That trust can only be earned. Do your best to earn and deserve the trust you are given by your group-mates.
August 21st, 2007
Okay more serious thought now that I can think.
While your blog my be called Egotistical “Priest” I believe you seem to be teachings the basic to becoming a good healer. Because in order to be a good healer every single class has to be able to pay attention and react accordingly, be able to pick in that rare situation who gets to live and who we can live without. There has to be a priority for example a boss with almost no armor and low life its going to favor melee DPS thus the melee DPS should be kept up over say a mage or some other caster. Or realize that a boss might do an AoE that takes everyone down to 50% life and silences, who are you going to heal? A good healer will realize who gets healed first. The biggest problems I find healers have is they don’t pay attention they lock on to one target and go all out and wonder why people wipe or why they go oom so fast.
A classic example for me is the best healers always forget about themselves they are so concerned about their party that they don’t bother to heal themselves unless someone says something. To many times do I recall a run going smoothly and all of the sudden the healer dies… while everyone else is at full. AoE bosses for the loss.
A good healer doesn’t freak out when the shit hits the fan, the buckle in and try to heal through it. No matter what using whatever they can to their advantage. And when that eventually aggro comes to them instead of running around like a chicken looking for its head, they run to a tank or a hunters trap and makes everyones job easier.
Without the healer the group goes no where, while if someone goes AFK the group can most likely do a couple pulls before having to wait for who ever went afk.
Good Healers are rare because everyone freaks out when no one dies on some boss when they are use to at least one person dying or it coming so close that they should have wiped.
Whatever the class a good healer is the one that remains calm and just heals doesn’t do more then that. Most want to hit things too, its rare that they just sit back and play wack a mole.
It’s why good raiding guilds let healers in with greens if they are good because its that rare to find one.
My two cents.
August 21st, 2007
I do love healing so much. Well, i love it when we’re not all dying due to somebody’s incompetence, quite possibly my own. I have just had a -taste- of healing once in a while lately, when people accept my feral druid to heal their 68 instance (or 70 with a shadow priest along) and i’ve done all right. People tell me i’m a good tank (although i don’t know if i believe them), but so far i haven’t been complimented on my healing skills like i used to back in The Day when healing was What I Did (i even had a good time in Guild Wars as a sexy hunk of a monk). Still, healing has been and will forever be my first love and i will not long be parted from it!
I’m hoping that i can gain enough experience again to be a good healer, but first i have to get my priest up there. He’s currently level 42. Then i have to get him the gear.
Sometimes, i wonder why i should bother playing any other character besides my druid. He can do it all, or at least he can with a quick 50g-maximum respec, and he’s already reasonably well-geared to be a healer including for karazhan. In some ways, it was a great class to choose as my first, but it does leave me with that feeling of pointlessness whenever the levelling grind gets a little boring. I can only hope that healing with a priest is more fun, or at least playing the priest in healing or shadow spec is fun enough to keep going. So far, it has been. There’s nothing for me to DO with my druid when we’re not raiding, so i guess i do need something to occupy my time.
August 21st, 2007
[...] wanted to respond to Ego’s Post (and try out this spiffy trackback function). He asked for player’s definitions of a good [...]
August 21st, 2007
I think that a big part of what makes a good healer is when you love to heal. I leveled my priest up to 70 holy because I really enjoyed healing. Lately I’ve taken a break from him because I no longer want to heal, which leads to my not paying enough attention and stupid wipes.
August 21st, 2007
What a great topic, Ego! My priest, Osprey, just hit 70 last night. For almost the entire time I leveled him, I was teamed with a Warrior (LOL…fury spec, I think, but not positive) and an Ice Mage. We have made a helluva good team–but then, we’ve been questing together with all our characters since early in release.
But going Healer for me was a huge change–my “mains” are rogues and hunters. Tried a mage but didn’t care for it. So I have had to gain their trust (both have level 70 Druids–Balance and Restoration)–and I have. I’m not sure exactly when, but probably the first or second time we ran an instance with other guildies, and no one died. Now I won’t say that was entirely due to me–it was Ramparts and we were all 63 or higher–but still, no one died.
And as we’ve finished these last 2-3 levels before nailing 70 last night, they’ve made a point of telling me they never look at their health anymore (well, that’s not true–the tank quaffed a heal pot the other night, but got hit by my GH4 immediately after).
So knowing they trust me to get those heals and dispels on them when needed, has done tons for MY confidence. So much so, that I’m truly excited about going into Botanica on Thursday, not with my rogue, but with my priest.
August 21st, 2007
Gah…apologies for the rambling above: I totally forgot the main point I wanted to make. As my (small) guild’s only Level 70 priest (we have a few up-and-comers), I want to ask the same question of my guildies and see what responses I get. It’s going to be very interesting, I’m sure. Thanks again, Ego, for raising such a great issue.
August 21st, 2007
Aside: I agree with Zasp when he says that although you call yourself the Egotistical Priest, I think you’re more the Egotistical Healing Priest.
A good healer is:
- Aware of not just healing and their mana pool (although that is important) but also of what is going on around them. Is there AoE damage? Is there a mob coming to chew on their face? Is there a void zone spawning under their feet? A good healer is aware of their surroundings as well as glued to the little green bars that move back and forth across the screen… which brings me to my second point.
- Adaptable to fluid situations. Do they modify their healing to deal with AoE damage? Do they fade and run towards the tank when that mob comes for a friendly facial nibble? Do they run out of the unexpected void zone? A good healer does things like adjust their healing to the damage taken. They know the difference between situations where tossing out a frisbee and a renew is sufficient and situations where perhaps a greater heal or three might not go amiss.
- Open to advice. A good healer can look at what happened after a wipe/a lost party member who perhaps should not have died, and then ask themselves what they could have done to prevent it. They are also more than willing to listen to the advice of others and incorporate that into their healing style (with the caveat that they are thinking of how to do that and not just blindly applying said advice Because She Said So But I Don’t Understand What It Means).
I feel that the mark of good healing is a situation where nobody notices that you -are- healing. The hunter accidentally butt-pulled that pat while the tank was busy? Sure, that might be a little difficult and unexpected, but a good healer won’t freak out. A good healer will do their level best to keep their party members up while they work out damage control. Good healing is most apparent in unexpected situations, because people expect to wipe, and good healing prevents that. In normal, ho-hum, run-of-the-mill encounters, people don’t expect to wipe, and so good healing is not noticed.
A good healer is somebody that tanks and DPSers can trust. A good healer has little to do with gear or spec (although those can help) and more to do with skill and experience hand-in-hand. A good healer in an off-spec and in greens can heal more effectively than a mediocre one in epics, and that’s a fact. =)
August 21st, 2007
1. Knowledge
2. Anticipation
3. Selflessness
Knowledge - You gotta know everything about everything. Every other class’s ability. Every boss encounter. Not to mention how to use all your spells effectively to cleanse, heal and crowd control.
Anticipation - Knowing is not everything. You also have to anticipate how your group will react in certain situations, and deal accordingly. Not so with other classes. Playing a rogue? The hard part is getting the good gear. During the fight, all you gotta do is make sure you’re hitting the mob.
Selflessness - Healing is quite boring, because you spend most of your time looking at health bars. That’s why not a lot of people do it. But the reward isn’t in the uber-crits or finishing blows. Its in knowing what you do really REALLY makes a difference in a fight. And even though it’s not something you can ever boast to anyone about, you still feel the satisfaction inside.
August 22nd, 2007
A good healer?
That is very easy. A good healer choose a priest because this is an awesome class >:-)
Beside this (this not a complete joke if you think a little about it) I think you will see a good healer, when he is moving (because of the aggro management, you sometimes want to get the 110% aggro barrier, when you want to get rid of a mob while you will want to heal from within 130%).
Or a good healer chooses to go away from the tank and then do fade (sacrileg!) because he knows, that some mobs do AoE damage (even worse: AoE mellee damage which tends to crit ALWAYS when I’m near) and buy the group some extra time when the mob is running back (btw: in these situations circle of healing is AWESOME because it is instant and you can cast it while running - this is a tremendous advantage. There is a reason why blizzard has so few instant healing spells in the game. It is a pity that CoH has such a bad reputation when it is such a great spell).
There are so many examples what a good healer will do or will never do, basically it can be summed up to: a good healer will always learn new ways to heal more efficently (in the limits of the class).
A skilled priest can do anything, a skilled other healer can be good as a priest (but that is really hard because there are many spells lacking which need to be substituted by creative healing). And this implies that a skilled priest can be not replaced by any other class in the game (this does not mean that other classes can heal in raids/groups too). People do not understand this, they think priests are weak healers because blizzard had buffed the other healing classes (right so!) - priests are still awesome. Unfortunately will be the work of a good priest totally invisible.
PS: the reason why healing meters are bad for priests because they are summing up. It is very easy for a holy paladin to lead the healing meters but this skips the fact, that a priest with not so efficient group heals is healing the whole group (but he can’t do that too often or he will run out of mana). This means that a paladin healer needs a skilled group because he can only heal one person at a time while a priest can push even “not so skilled” players to a dungeon and there is still no wipe. Healing timing (when to heal what and how many people) will never be summed up accurately in healing meters but exactly this will make the difference between a good healer and an excellent healer.
August 22nd, 2007
I like the flexibility of the priest class and I think that this is the point where good priests can show their full potential. HoTing wounded damage dealer who will not take damage in the next >10s, shielding in emergencies, bursting big heals on the main tank or our Prayer of Healing spell. And with Burning Crusade a few other spells added (Prayer of Mending -> Can be used to help the tank with building aggro or as a very manaefficient spell with 5 charges; Binding Heal -> When the next AoE damage would kill you and another player you can save both in 1,5s).
Certainly you should know when burst damage is coming and so a good knowledge about the actual encounter is important.
August 22nd, 2007
@Zasp
lol, sad but true.
@Bendyr
I agree, a measurement of success and whether or not someone is a “good” priest shouldn’t be as binary as that. That’s why I had this post, because sometimes just surviving isn’t a good indicator of skill.
Also, you’ll find that the majority of my posts go in a funnel formation.
WoW -> Healing -> Priest
I daresay this post was useful to priests. If other healers happened to find it useful too, I’m certainly not going to complain.
Granted, it doesn’t cover how to measure the skill of a shadow priest. But that skill can be measured the same way as other dps classes. I cannot encompass the entirety of every facet of the priest class with all of my posts, nor will I try and make a post more specific than it wants to be. Heck, my Friday Punishment posts aren’t even WoW related, and some would say they’re an offense against nature.
@Galadria
Very nice. Add finesse and trust to that list for sure. It’s amazing what a difference instancing will do to your skillset. =]
August 22nd, 2007
@Zasp
*laughs* Priests ARE healers. In order to be a good priest, you first have to be a good healer. The two are not mutually exclusive. (even shadow priests heal, though I’ll agree the basics of healing are less important, the ideals behind them should help ANY class. )
I had the problem with healing myself for a VERY long time.
My solution was to use a unit frames that allowed me to make my own health bar the same size as my group’s bar = the size and position difference using the default UI meant my eyes just swept past my own health bar without seeing it. =]
And not freaking out when the shit hits the fan definitely comes from practice and self-confidence. A learned skill, not an inherent one. So anyone reading this - don’t think panicking makes you a bad healer. Practice will tell you how to channel that panic energy into the right actions.
Mel
A “mere” 50 gold respec is very expensive for me, at least. Plus you’ve got to have the gear for all those different roles.
And you get new toys and new strategies by playing other classes. =] Even if you could fill any role with your druid, it’s always fun to have a different skillset.
August 22nd, 2007
@Joel
I think you’re very right there. You’ve got to love it. Inattentive or unhappy healers = exactly the wipes you’re talking about.
@Kestrel
Loving the bird theme.
So knowing they trust me to get those heals and dispels on them when needed, has done tons for MY confidence. So much so, that I’m truly excited about going into Botanica on Thursday, not with my rogue, but with my priest.
Amen!
August 22nd, 2007
@Lauchis
THAT is very true. I’ve only done piddling shadow, I love healing too much. I kept one of my old level 60 priests, I think I’m going to respec her shadow just so I see how the other side lives.
But healing will always be my passion.
@Mar506
I agree with all but the Selflessness - well, the definition of it. I don’t find healing boring at all, I get all kinds of adrenaline rushes out of it.
But I don’t get the big crits or dps to brag about. That quiet satisfaction of knowing that you enabled those big crits or dps , that you saved the day, that you MATTER and cannot be replaced….that’s the reward for being healer. =]
@Lehm
*nod* Healing meters were discussed in an earlier post, and some of the comments brought up things I’d neglected to look at. They also don’t take into account frisbee or bubble hits. =]
@Pasco
That flexibility is what makes us strong, I think.
And that’s a superb explanation of priest healing. =]
August 22nd, 2007
To be honest, I’m not sure what makes a good healer. I know how to tell when you’ve found one, though.
It’s when, given a set of choices for healer (of similar or better gear) the group says, Hey, let’s get XXX.
It’s when you’re grinding, and you get a whisper, “So and so says you’re a good healer, and we need one. Are you free for YYY?”
It’s others who will decide you’re a good healer. Just as it’s peers who decide you’re a good tank, or a good mage, or a good…
I don’t care if the hunter’s got the sonic spear or what talents they’ve got. I care about the job they do. If they can’t trap, kite, and give sustained dps just short of pulling aggro off the tank, then they’re not good. I can do that for every class. Which means, on thought, I do know what a good priest (healpriest) is, after all.
A good priest is the one who everyone trusts to do the job of healing the party consistently and effectively - who, if a party member dies, everyone knows it’s not the priest but a really bad situation and oboy at least the party didn’t wipe.
August 22nd, 2007
Now I’m not of the healing persuasion, but I’ve had to go as healer to a few PUGs and even a couple guild runs too, whenever going as DPS has been impossible. I’ve had my share of ‘wow, you’re a good healer’, especially since I’m upfront about being specced shadow and everyone knows shadow priests can’t heal, and what I’ve noticed draws forth those comments is… well, not always based on the right things. I was, for example, once hailed as a super healer because ‘that other priest didn’t even give us the shadow protection buff’. I would have much rather been praised for, you know, healing decently.
I have the fortune of being in a guild with one of the best paladin healers my realm has ever seen, though, and if I were to say what makes him so good, it’d be his attentiveness. Hands down. He’s always on the ball, always making sure the tank is taken care of before he’ll throw a heal to any DPS’ers. Whenever shit happens and the tank dies, he evaluates the rest of the group instantly and either begins healing a viable offtank if the mobs health is low enough or he steps forward to tank himself with me hopping out of shadow to heal him or he suicides to give me Divine Intervention so we can do a controled wipe. All that in one split second, and man, I bow down with my nose in the dirt for that ability. Lord knows I’d never be able to react that fast and that acurately, every single time.
He is also the man who could keep me alive alongside everyone else on that pesky thunder-casting naga in Coilfang back when my gear was sucky. I could never seem to spot the thunderclouds over my head before it was too late and said so when I first went there with him in my group. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘but you’ve never died on my watch before.’ And I didn’t. Even if I still suck at noticing the AoE, I’ve never died with him there.
August 22nd, 2007
Imo, at the moment a good priest melt faces
Seriously, I played a priest (and other classes too) for the past 2 years, and after the expansion I feel that the holy priest got the short end of the stick. And right now spriests bring way more utility to a group than holy priests.
August 22nd, 2007
Great Article and comments. I get discouraged sometimes though as a preist when I see a Healing meter. Altho our raids go well thru Kara with very few deaths I am always on the bottom of the meter. I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong. Also the Pallies. They beat us every single time.
How can I improve my healing on these darn meters? Or should I even care?
August 22nd, 2007
I just wanted to add that healers DO get to have the excitement of a big crit - when I am playing my shaman and a big crit heal goes off that brings someone from 25% to 100%, that is a huge rush for me.
August 22nd, 2007
Broomy - as discussed on another of Ego’s threads, no you shouldn’t care - sorta.
Healing is a quality thing, not a quantity thing.
That said, quantity has a quality all its own. So based on your post… few deaths is not no deaths. Are the ones dying your responsibility? If so, we’ll have to ask more questions to help. If not, see the first paragraph of this comment.
August 22nd, 2007
@Zing
/agree
/applause
@Mana Battery
lol, shadow can’t heal? Maybe no so much while in shadow form, but it’s not like they take your heals away from you. And spelldamage gear is also plushealing gear. Sorry, I’m probably preaching to the choir here.
Sounds like you’ve got one helluva healer there. I tip my hat to him, that takes a great deal of skill.
@Jao
lol, we’ll have to agree to disagree there. I think main healing is a great deal of utility. BC did somewhat nerf the raid usefulness of a holy priest, but it didn’t completely destroy it, nor did it make holy specs laughable and useless.
Loves me some shadow priestage though, don’t get me wrong. The utility they bring as a DPSer is never in question.
@Broomy
Pretty much what Zing said is true. Healing meters aren’t the best way to determine how well you’re doing as a healer. If you find yourself standing around twiddling your thumbs through most of the fights, your other healers may be working overtime. Talk to them, see if you can work together and come up with a strategy that works for both of you.
The meters aren’t the problem. Don’t try to compare yourself to a pally, they have their own class-specific reason for the sheer volume of heals they output.
But if you know that you’re not doing much healing, then there may be a problem. Talk to your raidmates and see how you can get better. Just knowing you’re on the bottom of the healing meters doesn’t tell me where you might improve, but the people who raid with you probably can.
@Esoth
Well, okay, I’ll grant you that. But for me it’s more of a “Hoohah, one less heal” than a “zomg, I just crit for a bzillion more than my previous record!” It’s not like the warlock gleefully shouting that his Curse of Doom hit for over 20k on Netherspite…not really. =]
Zing
*nod* /agree
August 22nd, 2007
I have +900 and some change with my healing gear, but they still turn me down as a healer for PUGs and tell me I can’t heal ;P Go figure. I say it’s their loss!
Re: the Healadin - we usually run with a Tankadin as well, and I’ve frequently heard non-guildies we bring with us comment on how skilled they both are at tanking and healing. Even people from guilds running 25man raids are awestruck at them (which I find… kinda sad?). I couldn’t be happier myself, and the other priest in our guild feels the same, cause it means we get to kill things instead!
Anyway, I really like your blog and I’ll continue to prowl it to pick up tips for the occasions when I do heal. You were the one that introduced me to the Frisbee and how to use it and I’m happy to report that we’ve now bought a house and are pregnant with our first child. Match made in heaven, as they say.
August 23rd, 2007
@Mana Battery Bitch
As far as Paladins go I’ve notice a lot of them when healing just spam Flash of Light because they can get away with it in certian areas. And 90% of Paladins just spam Flash of Light in raids because they can do it forever. Healing a 5 man as a Paladin is prolly the hardest out of all the healers espically Heroic 5 mans because they don’t have a group heal so heavy AoE is usually going to end up with someone dying if the Paladin can’t figure out how to time his heals so it’s a constant stream instead of reacting they have to predict damage.
As far as your Tankadin most of them don’t know how to hold aggro consistently. Also most people don’t realize the more mobs beating on them the better off they are going to be tanking, and in the day of age where you MUST have cc to do an instance to so many people its hard to adjust to. Also most “hardcore” raiding guilds bring Paladins to heal and nothing else it’s the only “hybrid” that most guilds don’t want the other spec because they prefer Warriors to tank and Druids to tank. So it wouldn’t be that surprising to me if someone didn’t realize how awesome Tankadins are.
Lets not forget you are a Shadow Priest which enhances both your Paladins abilites ten fold with a consistent stream of mana they wont be looking for any
My two cents.
August 23rd, 2007
@ManaBattery
I’ve never seen a healadin in a five-man (not much room for two healers in there) but I’ve healed for a tankadin and I’ll hotly contest anyone who says they can’t tank.
lol at the frisbee comment. I’m sure you’ll be very happy together. *grins*
@Zasp
It all depends on the player, my friend. I’ve seen tankadins that locked down aggro so strongly that it was nigh unpossible to steal it from them.
And I’m sure there are plenty of others who think spelldamage is for mages.
You’re right though, mana starvation is pretty much the biggest liability of tankadins. Gotta keep that mana goodness flowing.
August 23rd, 2007
Ego,
re your response to ManaBattery… one of the reasons I was comfortable running Shadow for so long was the healer with whom I was working - a Healadin. I’ve worked with bad ones - though more frequently the ‘bad’ paladins have been tankadins. (Like warriors, they CAN but far too few DO, well.) As noted above, however, it takes more than “just spam Light”, just as a priest had better be able to more than “just renew and interrupt-cast Greater Heal.”
August 23rd, 2007
Oh I know Ego but sadly its just like every other class in the game if they don’t know what they are doing they get a bad rap, but since Tankadins are rarer most people get scared off after the first one.
As far as spell damage I’ve seen ones that refuse to use any and then the others who think they need over 1k to be able to tank.
August 23rd, 2007
Ego: “I’ve seen tankadins that locked down aggro so strongly that it was nigh unpossible to steal it from them.”
That’s ‘my’ tankadin, right there! Though of course I have managed to a handful of times, but one click on fade fixes that situation. Sometimes he even encourages me to try and steal aggro and there’s a little DPS contest going on.
Zasp: “Lets not forget you are a Shadow Priest which enhances both your Paladins abilites ten fold”
That’s true. And that’s really our standard setup for heroics and 5mans these days - Tankadin, Healadin and the Mana Battery teamed up with whatever guildies are interested or randoms. We plow through pretty much everything and in non-heroics we don’t even bother with crowd control anymore. We’ve scared the living daylights out of several randoms - especially last time we went to Shattered Halls and the two Paladins decided to see just how much they could pull at once and survive. In heroics we do wipe occasionally, but I think everyone does. Not to mention that Healadins lightning speed DI reactions make it a breeze.
You’ve given me a new appreciation for my Tankadin and Healadin though, I will go /hug them now.
August 23rd, 2007
@Zing
*nod* I’m working on leveling up a shadow priest and a hunter, hopefully I’ll get the chance to instance with a healadin to see what it’s like. =]
I’d say that tanking is one of those roles where if you’re doing a crappy job, it’s obvious to everyone. If you’re a crummy rogue, not many people are going to notice (Unless they know what they’re looking for) but a crummy tank will be glaringly obvious.
I don’t think that introducing the Death Knight class is going to fix the good tank shortage, though I hope it inspires people to look up the class since it will be all-new.
@Zasp
Very true, very true.
August 23rd, 2007
I didn’t mean it was destroyed… BUT, what would you bring 4 paladins and a holy priest, or 4 priests and a paladin? (talking about buffs only, assuming they can heal as equals - because right now this is not the point), 4 druids and a holy priest, or 4 priests and a druid?
In my experience if you have one priest to buff IDS in your group and spriests with improved fort. You can bring other healing classes, you might as well do that. Since you get more blessings and auras, more innervates and brezes (and the cool tree party buff), more ankhs (allowing you to really use SS as brezes) and earth shields.
another thing, spriests utility is not exactly the dps they bring, but what else they do because of the dps they deal. VT and VE are very powerful spells (even with the latest shadow weaving nerf) - you get, close to 125mp5 back to your party, while pushing 500ish dps (thats a regular spriest with less than 1k +spell damage and a solid spell rotation)
and yeah, we can agree to disagree any time, i’m not trying to impose anything
August 23rd, 2007
@Jao
Ah! I misunderstood. As you’ve laid it out here, I agree. When it goes beyond just pure healing, multiple priests do not bring additional unique utility to a raid. You are 100% correct, and someday I’ll do a rant on the things that are wrong with priests, and you can bet that’ll be one of the things I mention. =]
Also, we’re arguing the same point on the shadow priest. The “utility” they bring as a dpser is exactly what you mentioned. I didn’t state that very clearly, but you’re absolutely right.
So, in the context of the way it’s been worded, you’re right. And that’s why most high level raiding priests are shadow - because raids benefit more as a whole from bringing other classes to heal, and priests to melt faces.
August 23rd, 2007
Wow…hadn’t been back here in a couple days, but am doing some research for my blog today, and I’m amazed at the breadth of this discussion. I am learning SO much just reading all the comments. And…much as I am NOT a caster-type…the temptation to roll a shadow priest is growing. Must…resist…altaholicism…
August 24th, 2007
It is still very important to have at least one GOOD holy priest though
Frisbees are awesome!
August 24th, 2007
@Kestrel
I learn a ton from my comments too. *winks*
@Jao
Very true! Though my worth cannot be measured in frisbees alone!! *winks*
August 27th, 2007
this might be a generic answer but IMHO… it takes a good player to be a good priest (or any other class for that matter)…
what makes a good player?
knowing their limits and potentials… knowing their teammates limits and potentials… being able to improvise… assess the situation and turn things around…
most people won’t notice if you’re a good or otherwise until a potential wipe (bad pull?) is in their faces… it’s in those situations where the good players stand out and recover from it…
August 31st, 2007
Comments have been Assimilated
September 7th, 2007
[...] if you find a good tank, spoil him. What’s a good tank? It’s kind of like asking what a good priest might be, but in basic a good tank is one who never, ever lets the bad guys muss your robes. Help [...]
September 11th, 2007
A great blog/thread!
For me, a great healer is someone that has the situational awareness to use whatever they need from their bag of tricks to keep a group up during a bad pull. This is one of the great benefits of the Priest class - you have it all: big heals, small heals, fast heals, HoTs, AoE heals, dis-spell, disease cleansing, shackles and even the random fears.
Also, one that knows that sometimes you shouldn’t throw a heal at that hunter that is trapping a mob and getting ready for Feign Death - but keeping an eye out for their pet that just pulled another mob off of you or when their Feign Death gets resisted.
September 26th, 2007
You’ve made the comment that a lot of being a good healer is the mutual trust with the other members of your raid or party. You also mentioned that becoming a good healer is something that you have to learn via experience rather than reading a forum somewhere or working out the mathematics.
I would just like to make the suggestion that once great way to learn to heal is to throw yourself into complete PuG’s, where you know nothing about the capabilities of the other members, or are even sure of their specs. This really tests your adapability.
Also, if you have the time, play other classes. Roll up a tank, roll up a DPS, study up on their abilities, get advice on how to play that class from other people you respec in that class. Know exactly what the other classes can and cannot do helps a lot. If your running with a warlock for example, learn to recognise when they are life tapping, but also know that a destruction warlock is going to gain much more benefit from you throwing a heal on them after they life tap than an affliction lock will (who will probably be throwing out a drain life as much to do some damage as to recover from their life tap).
Anyway, just some suggestions for ways to get that practice
September 28th, 2007
[...] what I - and I hope WE - need. Therefore I’m going to ask the Egotistical Priest’s question again, only this time intentionally searching for quantifiable measures that can be used to obtain [...]
November 14th, 2007
I haven’t had the chance to read ALL of the comments, but I know what a good healer is and what isn’t. My main was a druid, been resto for a long time and healed quite wonderfully. I know this because wiping was a rarity. I’m not bragging, but the reason I learn to be a good healer was because I learn who needed more heals and who needed less. Like most of you say, prioritizing is key. Who are we willing to sacrifice.
I love healing so much, I then rolled a priest and still, healed good, even as a shadow preist. If healing took up too much mana for one person, i’d throw a bubble to buy me some time. That always works. A lot of bad healers don’t utilize their spells and forget that their a priest for a reason. Now I’m currently a mage, and having to experience a run w/a bad healer is just so terrible. It’s not like I pug all the time, as a matter of fact, I run w/Real life friends. Sadly, our priest, does NOT know how to prioritize, does NOT know how use the spells, i.e. shield/abolish disease/magic. It is, in my opinion to target just one member and focus healing and forget about the rest of the group. Healers should realize and remember that if heals are not spead wisely, it will cost the lives of the whole group, thus a wipe. After playing w/these types of healers, bandages have become a reliable source of repleneshing.
February 26th, 2008
I am an ex-tank, and I tend to think I was just ok at it. Part of it was that I never found great advice for tanking (unlike what I’m seeing here for healing), but I think that maybe my heart was never in it. Tanking is a real front-and-center role, and I found the pressure (combined with what I thought was mediocrity on my part) to be almost too stressful to enjoy the game.
So I thought I’d try healing, and rolled a priest. I levelled it to 70 with shadow spec, but I basically grinded from 65 to 69 so that A) I could have the mats I needed to make my PMC and whitemend set the moment I hit 70, and because B) as a holy/disc priest I’d have a whole bunch of lower level quests to farm for cash later on without needing to respec.
I’ve been a priest healer for less than a week, but already I find it vastly more enjoyable than tanking. Part of this is due to my pretty sweet +healing (for a toon that has yet to even set foot in Kara), but the other part of it is I find it much more enjoyable to watch my party’s healthbars, strategizing about what each member needs (if anything), learning to choose my heals based on timing and damage spikes. I enjoy the challenge of looking for curable debuffs on the portraits of my party members, working behind the scenes to make everyone’s job that much easier. I like trying to decide when/if to hit up my mana pots, whether the situation demands a PoH, PoM, BH, GH, FH, or just a quick click and renew.
I think priest healing fits my personality. Healing is never a me thing, it’s an us thing. How can I keep US trucking along. So for all the strategy and tactics, I think maybe there’s little bit of that love for your fellow woman and man (and orc) that helps make a great healer. I feel like I give my party members their 14.99/mo’s worth.
But I still enjoy watching a great tank do their thing
February 26th, 2008
@Spect
I feel the same way, actually. I wouldn’t touch tanking with a ten-foot pole, I’d probably collapse from the stress.
And I admire the hell out of those who do it and love it. I think they may be slightly insane, though.
March 25th, 2008
[...] be doing . So off to Ego’s Palace of Enlightenment we went and I found a post entitled A Good Priest (Healer Version) . Oh this look good, I thought and started to read. It started me, not no much as [...]