One of the main reasons that I'm trying this re-roll experiment with another Shaman is to practice the caster-playstyle on the way up, rather than respec Exelus and have to noob it up at 70.So today at level 22, Haelus entered the LFG channel and found a Deadmines group. We had all healing hybrid classes (two druids, a priest, a paladin and myself) - and I was designated main healer. I just thought it was funny that 1) the priest insisted on being DPS (which was fine by me) and 2) one of the druids was named a variation of the word "hots" (heal over time) but also insisted on being kitty DPS. Lolz.
The feral tank did a good job tanking, and I was lucky that both the ret paladin (shout-out to guildee Tyr!) and priest (bubbles ftw) have my back on several occasions. I did seem to pull aggro too often, which I'm sure had to do with my choice of healing spells and frequency of heals in general. I have to learn to start slow before dropping the big bomb heal - especially as a Resto Shaman (in-training): there's no aggro dump like Fade or protective measures like Power Word Shield available.
So afterwards I made this macro, hopefully it'll help in the future:
/say Healer is under attack!!! (might change that to a yell?)
/cast Stoneskin Totem (would Stoneclaw help pull mobs off me?)
There was also the issue of Mr. Hots running off in his own direction (often ahead of the tank), which forced me to split large heals between two folks, leaving my mana too low for comfort by the end of the fights. I burned through a lot of water in between pulls.
All in all though, a great experience, no wipes. (Just one accidental overpull which resulted in a dead tank and priest, but the rest of us made it to the ship's wheel - and within resurrection range, thankfully). Looking forward to healing other lowbie instances like Stockades, Scarlet Monastery, Shadowfang Keep, etc.
Also considering first taking Resto talents up through Healing Grace before returning to Elemental, as I think the 15% threat mitigation might come in handy if I heal a lot of instances on the way up.
Now off to read the Elitist Jerk's Resto Shaman megathread...
5 comments:
Welcome to the world of healbots, Exelus!
Don't base your healing talents or spell selection on one iffy PuG. Even at low levels, there's no reason for DPS in a group to expect you to bail them out when they don't work within the group. If you find yourself repeatedly having to heal one DPS as much as the thank, ask them to shape up, or let them die. :)
The real key to controling agro is controling the secondary targets. Any tank can out-agro you on one target; the problem is generating enough agro on all non-CCed targets to stay ahead of your heals. Shammies, more than any other healer, are dependent on their tank to establish and maintain agro.
A "help" macro is OK if you like. No totem will help you, though, once you have agro. Well, I suppose you could drop Earthbind and run around in circles. :)
I would strongly recommend against taking talents in the resto tree before about level 40 (when you can have 31 in Ele) unless you are grouping the majority of the time. If you still solo a lot, stick with Ele.
Consider getting a healing addon. I use Healbot. Most serious raiders recommend using Clique with Grid. You probably have a threat meter already, since you usually play DPS.
I strenuously disagree with depending on addons to heal. Learn the hard way (not that healing is in any way "hard"), then add the frosting to your cake as you see fit. It's not rocket surgery either way, but a good foundation is built with basics. Take it for what you will, but I've seen a lot of terribad healers sitting in a booster chair behind a control panel of mods.
That said, I personally macro HoT's to mouseover and a few other spells for my xperl wall of raidframes (Grid looks like a parker brothers board game to me), which is more or less what clique is doing for you. The blizz macro system is fantastic now, as you well know, and you can peace together some incredible healing macros.
"Xperl wall of raidframes?" Isn't that an addon? That's beyond my computer science level, I'm afraid.
Shammies don't have HoTs, but the point is valid: using mouse-over macros you can do most of what an addon does. I have experimented with that route (the biggest bonus being that you don't have to depend updates for an addon) but there are two main reasons why I use Healbot.
1. I can configure it anywhere on the screen, any size. I have found that I work best with right handed healing, i.e. with the frame on the right side of my screen, rather than the default group frames on the left. I know that you can get addons that allow you to reconfigure the frames, but they are beyond my skills. Healbot does it easily and simply for me.
2. It shows me healing levels and poison/disease on one bar. With the default frame, I always miss the tiny little debuff indicators.
Neither my brain nor my computer are adavanced enough to handle a lot of mods and addons. Why not go with a single addon that gets the job done? Healbot gives me exactly what I need in a simple, intuitive interface.
In any event, I would not discourage anyone from trying various options. See what works for you. However, I don't recommend anyone attempt "rocket surgery" -- it sounds extremely dangerous.
So far all I've used is Clique, shift-clicking for small/big heals, control-clicking for poison/disease, etc.
I've heard a lot about Healbot (and others), but to Sellmeapig's point, I've been holding off on going too nuts with addons while I learn the basics.
One thing's already perfectly clear: when people understand their roles and control their aggro, it makes life much easier for the healer. :)
The hardest thing is figuring out what to do when fights are going well. Since my main is DPS, I feel weird standing idle waiting to heal. I can jump in there and stab things, but the aggro threshold is lower for meleer's. WTB wand skill plskthx.
Rocket surgery is an advanced science and should not be attempted by the sober.
Xperl the package, is a lot of stuff. Xperl raid/party frames enabled alone, are pretty well mirrored to the default blizzard raid/party frames. The transition in the event of a patch infused mod 'splosion is smooth. That was my point with that, sorry for confusing you there, Goeb?
<-- doesn't play a shaman, just comes here to look at pics of Exe's hooves.
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