Last night I did something for the first time since the release of Cataclysm. I healed a dungeon. No not a heroic, Elgar doesn’t even qualify yet. But he does qualify for all the normal dungeons, so I tossed myself in queue and thought, what the heck. I asked in guild if anyone wanted to come to a normal, but no dice. So I went it alone.
I got a great group, they were a guild group, 4 people, and I explained that I haven’t healed any instances in Cataclysm yet and please let me know if there is anything I should do or anything I need to know about the fights. They went slow, were very patient with me, used CC. All good things. But…
It was horrible.
I was going near OOM on most trash pulls (oh this was Halls of Origination) but I had read this was sorta typical for most healers, so I wasn’t too concerned. We get to the first boss. Chaos. People are out of range, I can’t find them even, I am panicking to keep everyone alive, my heals seem so trivial to their 105 to 145k health pools. I’m trying to work in smite to keep my heals larger and get back mana, but there isn’t time. I’m using Inner Focus every 45 seconds…it’s just chaos. The tank dies. I keep mashing buttons and somehow between the two hunters pets we tank and kill him.
I am less than encouraged at this time. I didn’t even let a tank die the first time I did ToC 5-man on heroic. Clearly things have changed. I try to remember this, but I feel literally sick to my stomach as I’m rezzing the tank. I want to cry and barf. I make some comments into guild chat and soon people are telling me that disc priests are broken, it’s not just bubble people anymore. And I do realize this already, and I think I’m doing the right things, but all my heals cost so much mana and heal for SO little. But basically it’s a resounding, disc is broken or you need high gear to play it. Great.
We continue on, it’s horrible. By the end of the instance (we killed everything – there are optional bosses??) my recount is showing that there have been 20 deaths, 6 of which are the tank. I was literally barfy. I wanted to delete Elgar (don’t worry, I didn’t, I won’t really do it). Someone suggests that I try holy, but unfortunately disc wasn’t the only think broken last night. My spirit and confidence in healing was also broken. I literally sat there stunned in my chair, ready to barf, and possibly my hands physically shaking.
Is this what healing has become? Or is it just that disc really is that broken? Either way, I couldn’t believe it. Something I used to love so much has now become something that I never want to do again. And I sat there thinking that Elgar’s endgame experience is going to be transmuting, fishing up Mr. Pinchy, farming up herbs, and digging up artifacts. Hardly what I expected.
I logged over to Rossini to DE a staff Elgar won. I like Rossini, but he’s not Elgar. No one is Elgar. I logged out and looked at the loading screen. I know Elgar still has some gear improvements, but this was a normal dungeon. Normal. And it was so horrible. I looked at him. How is it that my favorite character has now become a placeholder on the log-in screen? I truly am broken.
I guess the one positive thing about the night is this: I know what NOT to dual spec the shaman, paladin, and druid as…heals.
Crits and Giggles 
March 4, 2011 at 10:49 am
Oh, man, I am so sorry you had to go through that without a guild group. Listen, ask us sometime and we can go through and treat you RIGHT.
You had two hunters. How often did trash mobs get iced?
Disc isn’t “broken”. You just can’t spam bubbles and do nothing else. Granted it’s been a bit since I healed on my disc priest but it’s very viable. It just takes a little relearning. Healing is very very different in Cataclysm but believe me, when you’ve got a good group it gets fun again.
It’s possible that you just don’t have the gear yet. I know that’s a terrible answer but it’s true. What I’ve found is first I need a mana pool to support some frantic-heal-spamming, then the stats that make my heals hit harder so I don’t have to frantically spam.
But. I will lay you odds that the tank wasn’t doing what he should have to help you out, the dps weren’t ccing and using self heals, or even, the dps weren’t killing things fast enough. EVERY failure of EVERYONE else in cataclysm ends up looking like “Healer went OOM/Healer couldn’t keep us alive” but that is NOT what’s really going on. DPS takes too long? Healer is OOM. DPS stands in fire? Healer “lets them die”. Tank is not using his debuffs right? Takes too much damage, healer’s fault.
BUT – it does get better. Don’t give up yet, and don’t delete Elgar!
March 4, 2011 at 11:00 am
Ha ha, I’m not going to delete Elgar, but I can promise you it’s going the be a long time before I queue for anything as a healer again.
The hunters did a really nice job keeping mobs CC’d in ice, on pulls there were ALMOST always two mobs in ice traps on the pull.
I didn’t really spam bubbles in LK (boring) and I’m certainly not doing that now. I try to use ‘Heal’ to reduce weakened soul and save mana. I actually felt that sometimes I was so busy actively healing that I don’t get out enough bubbles! I have read some guides, I look at my talents and such, I use smite often to get archangel…it’s just well, I didn’t have any fun, and I wanted it to be over SO badly.
20 deaths. Because I couldn’t keep one person up, let alone 5. Lucky hunters at least had feign death to avoid a few deaths. When bosses died I felt relieved not excited. It broke me.
March 4, 2011 at 10:54 am
From what I’ve seen disc is best as a support heals or single target heals. If you’re healing a group, holy is the way to go. One thing that I try to keep in mind when healing is that flash heal is my enemy and the less I use it the better!
March 4, 2011 at 11:01 am
I don’t think I used flash heal all night, maybe like twice? I am aware it’s the mana enemy.
March 4, 2011 at 11:05 am
Ok first of all are you gemmed, enchanted and using stat food?
When I first started healing normals on my druid I made sure I had at least green level gems and the lowbie enchants. I was rocking a mojo flask from Wrath and was nomming on Whitecrest Gumbo.
What you need to do is focus on one person, using the cooldowns that you have. It is possible to heal as Disc even without the gear. Yes Holy is easier, but Disc is doable.
When you first start healing you have to focus on the tank and yourself. The DPS will die or watch themselves. Trust me, they learn quickly.
I wouldn’t throw in the towel just yet. As Analogue said, it does get fun again. 🙂
March 4, 2011 at 11:17 am
Ha ha, yes, I am gemmed (only one socket) and I have more enchants than I would on gear that I would replace. I normally don’t spring for enchants at this point, but I decided to make sure I was ready. I always use food–max cooking, and since I’m alchemy I have plenty of flasks/potions at my disposal. I used mana potions as needed. I did focus mostly on the tank and myself, but there was SO much AOE at times–like some sun burst thing?!? The whole room seemed filled with fire and oh man that was brutal.
So I’m pretty sure I was stacking things in my favor, but I still couldn’t keep up.
I was using cooldowns liberally, I don’t think I’ve ever used pain suppression so much before and PW:Barrier during every boss. Shadowfiend couldn’t come off cooldown fast enough and Inner Focus every 45 seconds hoping for a crit on Greater Heal for big Divine Aegis.
It just all felt futile. Like no matter what I tried to do, no matter how I adjusted it was bad. I felt really bad for the group that they got me as a healer. I wanted to give them all money for having to have to go repair during the middle of the dungeon. It was just…well terrible. 😦
March 4, 2011 at 11:19 am
That particular boss is BRUTAL! There are interrupts that need to be done and DPS has to burn him, or you will die, a lot.
That is when you have to blow cooldowns. I usually saved Tranq for that fight.
March 4, 2011 at 11:31 am
I feel your pain 😦
I love my Disc priest but I can’t seem to keep up either, and there’s really no place to “practice” healing that doesn’t involve putting everyone else through hell.
*polishes up Jeweled Fishing Pole for End Game”
March 4, 2011 at 1:02 pm
Ouch trout.
I feel ya better my main is priest and for 95% of wrath i was disc. cata comes out and boom…it was painful. I switched from Disc to Holy.
regardless of Holy or Disc…early healing is rough. Everything about Wrath has to be forgotten and relearned. I had to learn…dont top people off if they are not the tank etc.
It does get better and easier, Trout! Believe it!
For disc..shield the tank only. Only shield others as needed, its kind of like using FH, only when absolutely needed. Penance, PoM all the time. rememeber Grace can be applied to multiple targets now. PoH as well, as it always applies Divine Aegis.
Heal, heal, GH, seems to help stabalize tank dmg. Heals on other members/renew.
Once you get the gear…heal can be regulated to somewhere else. I don’t even use it atm.
March 4, 2011 at 1:15 pm
I would also recommend taking the 2 points from Strength of Soul and placing them into Mental Agility.
If you have any questions Trout. Just holla!
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/draktharon/liyhe/advanced
If the specs I use etc.
March 4, 2011 at 1:24 pm
You type faster than me!
Honestly, I never used Heal, even with my 2-piece set bonus. The synergy with Greater Heal and Inner Focus is just better IMO.
March 4, 2011 at 1:30 pm
LOL I agree. GH is better, but at the lower gear lvls I still found heal to be needed at times.
March 4, 2011 at 1:12 pm
Looking over your gear looks ok to me, only recommendations I would make would be if a piece has not spirit on it, to reforge to get some spirit on it. Crit is a good canditate to reforge away.
March 4, 2011 at 1:34 pm
Yeah, I’m still trying to get spirit on everything, but it’s a lot harder than it seems it should be to get that. It would be better if they had craftable armor that was better other than that crappy PvP stuff.
March 4, 2011 at 1:35 pm
I think Slice and I both used PvP stuff before we got better stuff from heroics. So it has its purpose if needed.
March 4, 2011 at 1:23 pm
It gets better, honest. The biggest problem right now is that your mana pool and mana regen can’t keep up with how huge their health pools are.
In the beginning, CC is absolutely VITAL. Anything that can be locked down should be; deal with mobs one at a time as often as possible. When I do dungeons with the guild (pretty rare right now) we’re all almost full 359 and we still will CC things just to keep encounters less chaotic.
Right now, make sure that all your gear has spirit on it. Use the spirit flask (Flowing Water) until you’ve got the mana regen to support yourself.
The atonement spec takes some practice getting used to (and it’s getting buffed in 4.1). Keep a bubble on your tank and no one else. If someone gets nailed hard (less than 25% HP left), toss them a bubble and pray that they remember they have bandages. Get a rapture tracker and use it to train yourself away from refreshing bubbles. If you’re using a raid frame that allows for it, set it to show who has a bubble on them already.
If you know group-wide damage is coming in, use Prayer of Healing to get Divine Aegis bubbles up on people. If group-wide damage has already gone out, use Inner Focus with PoH.
If you have taken damage, Binding Heal is your best friend. Make liberal use of it.
If you have a lull in healing and can afford to Smite, do so, but don’t pop Archangel automatically at 5 stacks. Being at 5 stacks keeps the mana cost of smite and Penance lower. Save Archangel for when you need the burst to healing or you’re about to lose the stacks anyway. I recommend a tracker for stacks and duration of the Evangelism buff.
Smite also reduces the CD on Penance. If the tank needs big heals, remember to use Penance and then Greater Heal (with Inner Focus when available). Penance will get you a fast 3-stack of Grace.
Remember Prayer of Mending. Get it up on the tank and keep an eye on it. If it hops to a useless target (hunter pet), recast on the tank when possible. Otherwise, let it jump around as long as it can, don’t automatically cast it every time it’s off CD.
I recommend running with Inner Will instead of Inner Fire. The movement speed boost is nice, but the reduction on your shield and PoM really adds up. Also makes me feel less guilty for the occasional Renew.
If you went with Power Infusion, be greedy and keep it for yourself. Faster casts and lower mana cost, it’s a good deal.
Stat weighting in the lower gear levels is pretty much a moot point. Get gear with Int (dur) and Spirit. As for Haste/Crit/Mastery… the disc school is really divided on the worth of haste. Yes, it makes you go OOM faster, but it allows you to get those Greater Heals off faster. Personally, I have a haste sweet spot that I will insist on keeping regardless what EJ says. As for crit and mastery, you want the two to be balanced. Mastery increases the strength of your bubbles, both PW: Shield and Divine Aegis. But you only get DA if you crit or cast PoH and you’re only directly shielding the tank. In the beginning, I reforged all my mastery to crit and slowly started moving it back to mastery as my crit levels went up on my gear.
Hang in there! Healing is not just in the hands of the healers any more, every player needs to have better awareness and personal responsibility. It will get to the point where you can save the day and heal through stupid again, it just takes a lot of gear now.
March 4, 2011 at 1:32 pm
Agreed.
Also dont be afraid to use Life grip on a DPS who likes to stand in fire.
March 4, 2011 at 1:43 pm
Psshhh… LG is on CD from snagging sprinting rogues and leaping warriors.
March 4, 2011 at 1:47 pm
I did use Life Grip on a Hunter who kept running out of range for heals, he got the idea after that and hung out closer to me from then on. 😛
March 4, 2011 at 1:40 pm
These are basically all the things I am doing. I rarely bubble anyone other than the tank, I use prayer of healing during AOE damage, etc. etc. I feel I’m doing all these things people are suggesting. Greater heal was in my top three heals along with Penance and Atonement (I think). I do use power infusion on myself for the reduced mana costs and run with spirit drinks/elixirs. I mean what you described is basically what I’m doing. And yet it seemed horrible. I honestly can’t believe anyone feels like healing if this is how it is. Of course the irony is that Elgar is apparently geared enough for heroics per the LFG system, but I don’t even want to heal another normal. 😦
March 4, 2011 at 1:43 pm
I checked out your gear on the armory (yes I stalked you) and I think you might have a somewhat easier time if you finish enchanting everything (complete with head enchant & shoulders) and possibly reforge.
Until you hit that magic spirit level mana regen is just killer.
Do you read Rades’ posts by any chance?
March 4, 2011 at 1:45 pm
If you’re following the “rules” then it means that your party wasn’t.
I’m raid geared and I still hate healing heroics because people are more likely to screw around and be stupid.
Keep your tank up if you can, but they need to be using their defensive cool downs as well. When I started healing heroics, there was one tank that was great to heal in raids and horrible in heroics, turned out he only used CDs in raids and not in heroics. I told him to knock that shit off if he wanted heals. Life got much better.
March 4, 2011 at 1:46 pm
I’ll look into the head and shoulder enchants, I might have to head back to Northrend for those. I have like no Cataclysm rep because I leveled solely with Archaeology.
I have not read this Rades post.
March 4, 2011 at 1:55 pm
http://www.orcisharmyknife.com/2011/03/healing-philosophy-value-of-bad-pull.html
Very interesting post aimed towards healers.
I would start with Hyjal. They have your head enchant and lots of tasty spirit gear. I mean LOTS. Just by questing through Hyjal you end up as revered. Probably higher for you since you are human and have your guild rep bonus.
The shoulder enchants can be learned at honored with Therazane in Deepholm. By the time you open up their quartermaster, you will be at least honored.
If both of those options are not for you, then I know you can get the stuff from Tol Barad as well. I am not sure what rep you need to be. What I do know is that by just doing like one or two days worth of dailies you are pretty damn close to honored. The rep there is insane.
Check the AH for really cheap enchanting scrolls. A lot of the enchants that you can use to help yourself out are the ones used to level enchanting. You can probably get a sweet deal (if you don’t already have an enchanter).
March 4, 2011 at 2:11 pm
Of course I have an enchanter. You don’t have 10 toons on one account without having at least one enchanter (I have two). 😛
I have been slowly working on questing with him to get reputations and fill in gear holes. So I’m working on it! 🙂 I’ll get there eventually.
March 4, 2011 at 2:15 pm
I’ve leveled enchanting on 3 characters and yeah >.>
It is hard to not have at least one when you have so many toons on one server.
You might have just gone into the healing game a bit too soon then.
I feel confident that once you get everything set up right, you’ll kick ass and wonder why you were so stressed. ^_^b
March 4, 2011 at 2:18 pm
Thanks Koala! 🙂 We’ll see, but for now I’m just gonna hide for a bit, work on some quests and maybe I’ll try healing again when they start passing out free epics before the next expansion. 😉
Okay that’s a bit dramatic. Ha!
March 4, 2011 at 1:48 pm
I will say this: IT GETS BETTER. All off our guild’s healers seemed to have went through the same shock and awe phase as we started to run intances, but as gear has improved, they seem to be getting the groove back.
March 4, 2011 at 2:16 pm
Thanks, I guess that’s part of the beef I have with it too, why is there such a steep gear requirement for a healer when a DPS can basically roll face and do alright in all greens? (I’m sure I’ll get some lash back there – but even classes I’m bad at–hunter–I still was always able to pull my weight)
Why is it that healers need to have awesome gear in order to accomplish things? I’ve felt that in past expansions I was able to make up for gear gaps by play style, by being a good healer, but it seems that’s not an option anymore or is much harder? And since I’ve really never been “gear driven” this really is a paradigm shift for me.
I really want to try again and believe it will get better, but Elgar has been a healer since his first talent point, I leveled as holy back in the day, and I’ve never EVER had a healing experience this bad. I think that’s why I’m taking it so hard…it’s really killed my spirit…no pun intended. 😛
March 4, 2011 at 4:09 pm
Hey there! Sounds like it was rough going, but don’t let it get you down! I’d really recommend healing an earlier instance first rather than the 85 ones – those are NOT easy, despite being regulars! In my opinion, even if you’ve been gathering a nice healing set on your way to 85, leaping right into 85 regulars without time to get used to Cata healing is like going from the ICC 5-mans right to Heroic Lich King. That step inbetween is so, so crucial for learning, especially if you’re still relearning the ins and outs of your various abilities and how they all relate to each other. Having a level 85 mana pool to deal with level 81 incoming damage will be a nice buffer to let you get used to Cata healing. Even if you don’t need any gear from the early 80 dungeons, the healing experience will be invaluable!
As Smite spec, I found the rotation very straightforward: Put up PW:Shield on tank if able, Penance anyone who needs it if it’s up, and otherwise spam that Smite button! When I was Smite spec I didn’t bother with Strength of Soul because I never cast any of the related spells. I relied very heavily on the healing from Atonement to keep people topped up.
As for popping Archangel, I actually found it useful to pop it as soon as I was able to when my mana was below, say, 80%, for the instant mana regen but mostly so that its CD would be up again sooner, likely when (in a long fight) I would really need the mana again.
I saw in a comment that you leveled solely through Archaeology? What is your gear like? I did this as well my druid with gathering XP and found myself completely screwed at 85, since I didn’t have the nice assortment of quest and rep gear I would have had if I had leveled normally. I had to go back and knock out a good chunk of Uldum/Twilight Highlands quests to get some replacements for my ICC gear that I was still packing around.
March 4, 2011 at 4:42 pm
Thanks for the tips. Yeah, I might have to re-evaluate Strength of Soul. A lot of my healing last night came from Atonement, which seems to be appropriate, so that’s good to hear. I feel like I try to use smite whenever I can get it in to keep Archangel ready for mana regen and boosted healing. I try to use Inner Focus during Archangel too, especially during AoE.
My gear isn’t “too bad” I got myself pretty much in Cata blues at this point–a few are PvP, but not much. Weapon from the Ring of whatever in Twilight Highlands. I knew I would have been screwed right off the bat which is why I waited so long to acquire gear before attempting to heal. Maybe I didn’t wait long enough. >.< Thanks for the comment.
March 4, 2011 at 6:56 pm
Something else you may want to do (if you haven’t already) is pick up some of the healing BOEs, nothing crazy expensive or anything, but I’ve noticed a few blues dropping quite a bit in price lately. I was also extremely anxious about my first Cata healing attempts, and used +90 Int food from my main, leftover spellpower Wrath flasks, semi-decent Cata enchants, you name it. Oh! And be sure to bring the best water available, which is super cheap. I chug Starfire Coffee at every free moment to top up my mana, so as to reduce actual downtime. 😀
March 4, 2011 at 6:07 pm
what were your hps numbers?
I’ve been disc since wotlk and never went holy in cata.
I’ve healed my way up through regulars and heroics and am now at ilvl 350.
You are doing regulars so I don’t remember what numbers should be there.
In heroics, 6k hps should be enough for most trash and bosses with some exceptions.
If you are doing more hps than that and people are dying, it’s probably the group’s fault.
A big part of it as well is the gear of the rest of the group and ESPECIALLY the tank.
If the group isn’t taking as much damage, then you don’t have to heal as much.
If the tank is awesome you barely have to focus on him.
When I first went into Vortex Pinnacle on Regular there are some AOE star things that killed the group before I even knew what was happening.
Now, as groups have better gear (including me) I can heal through those on heroic with no problem.
Of course, I use a power word:barrier and tell ranged to stand in it.
So it’s definitely a combination of familiarity with the encounter mechanics and gear.
—
Regards,
Potatoe
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/lightbringer/potatoehilla/advanced
March 8, 2011 at 12:34 pm
I’m not sure what my HPS numbers are. I’m not really a numbers guy, I didn’t really look at any of the other information but I am now hearing I should have. I just looked at the total deaths count.
March 8, 2011 at 12:18 pm
i didn’t heal heroics … i let a guildie heal the group so i would get carried through and ninja the 346 spirit gear. :()
March 10, 2011 at 2:30 pm
[…] https://crits.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/broken/ […]
March 10, 2011 at 2:36 pm
Hi there! I just started a blog about WoW, and I quoted you and then linked to this post in my first post. You probably won’t get much traffic from me, but I wanted to make sure that you don’t mind being quoted on someone else’s blog. 🙂
This is also the first time I’ve replied to someone’s blog here since getting an account, so I’m not sure if it will automatically link back to my blog… So here’s a link, just in case:
http://blogofthetreant.wordpress.com/
Don’t lose heart! Healing will get easier for you, I promise. 🙂
March 10, 2011 at 4:45 pm
Thanks for the comment and the link! I realized I had a punctuation error in the part you quoted, whoops! He he. But your article was very well put.
March 10, 2011 at 5:09 pm
I honestly don’t even see the punctuation error myself, so maybe it’s one that I would make too. I’m glad you liked my article.
Oh, and I absolutely love the names Elgar and Rossini! Are all your toons named after composers?
March 11, 2011 at 9:18 am
Not all my characters are named after composers. But 7 of my 10 are. 😀