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BG healing--what do you do?
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Post by
betx
My altaholism has finally led me to try out some (low level still....teens and twenties) healers, after playing plenty of melee DPS and tanks. I keep hearing about how healing is king in battlegrounds....but clearly I suck at it, as I don't seem to be making a big difference. Oh, occasionally I feel useful (guarding a flag bearer gives a nice focus, for example, until I get focused on and taken down).
But more often what seems to happen is one of:
- I'm near the edge of a group, tossing out shields and trying to flip through those near me in some sort of productive way to see if they need healing, when suddenly an opposing warrior charges and stuns me, nobody comes to my aid, then while I'm trying to heal through and throw out some damage a hunter also opens up on me, and I'm dead in no time.
- I'm separated from a group (typically coming back from a graveyard), and seem to be a magnet for any opposing player over half the field, and never make it back to where heals are needed.
Yes, I suck at this at the moment, so I'm not really needing you to tell me that ;-) Instead, if you heal battlegrounds and feel you don't suck, care to share how your typical battleground goes, things you look out for, particular things you you do, etc? Or else if there is a good guide somewhere, point me in that direction (I don't see one here). I'm looking for general approach more than specific details about specific class abilities.
Post by
255458
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Post by
Kujo
I recommend installing Healbot addon to save you having to flip through your team mates. As for their unwillingness to help, most players seem to have such little awareness that they don't know what's happening 2 yards behind them, so if possible stay right on top of a friendly hunter.
Post by
cloudp
If you do not have a healing UI mod for WoW and use regular raid frames, by all means toggle Range in Raid interface option. It's CRUCIAL.
Battleground experience from a Healer's point of view... Hospy covered it well. Healers aren't designed to work alone. And I mean, WORK. If said warrior jumps on you, there should be a friendly mage sheeping him nearby. If they allow the warrior to open on you, it's their fault, and not inherently your issue. Might I add Druids and Shamans actually have decent tools to keep players off of their range, Earthbind Totem/Frost Shock and GWolf for shamans, Travel form, roots and Cyclone on the Druid's.
I believe the best advice I can give you, adding to Hospy's words, is to get a small team of 2-3 trusted DPS. Trust me, it can lead to absolutelly hillarious moments. I remember going Discipline / Protection back in patch 3.0.x days into an Eye of the Storm match we were losing by about 400 points. Me and my partner got into one of the bases, and held 2 players. Prot's Spell Reflection talented and reflecting Sheeps from the mage, more players joined the fray, horribly annoyed... In the end, and after 2 full cooldown rotations on my side (Counting Pain Suppression) it took a total of SEVEN players to down us, and we won with a 300 or so margin, because we essentially left the rest of the team on a 13 vs 8. My warrior would pop every single cooldown he could, while I discretelly went behind whatever LoS thingy I could find, and their CCs were constantly deflected, at which point they simply focused the prot (Big. Freaking. Mistake.).
Just as that idiocy is disheartening, you can make it into a strength. :)
Post by
betx
Yep, I expect to die a lot in PVP, I don’t let it bother me. It is being useful after rezzing that is the issue. Most of my attempts to heal so far have been in WSG, because it usually pops first, and that may be part of the problem. In AB, or later EotS or AV, it is generally easier to go from a graveyard to a concentration of team mates. In WSG they may be far away, and a healer who is not around team mates is not being very useful (to them or himself).
I was wondering about asking for those rezzing with me to wait for me to buff them and to wait until we’re all ready to head out together (typically I’ll get one buff off, then they are mounted and over the cliff, and I’m falling behind). Or even for one rez wave to wait for the next one, to make a stronger group. Ever do that in PUGs, and if so how has it been greeted? *
Another question, do you make any effort to contribute damage typically, or totally focus on keeping up teammates? (the two heals I’ve run so far are Discipline Priest and resto shaman, so both have some damage tools, and looking at re-speccing one of my druids to heals** to give that a try, and again have some damage tools available)
*I’ll be the first to admit that as DPS I’ve not been good at keeping an eye out for our healers in BG (well, normally I just assume that we have no dedicated heals)…if nothing else I’ve hopefully learned something in that regard.
** I admit that his is mostly so I can use stealth to get the toon into a useful position for healing, keep thinking how handy that could be….just send the priest off to get the recipe for gnomish cloaking device for the same reason.
Post by
cloudp
Supporters don't have to be restricted to healing. If a Holy Fire+Shadow Word: Death snags a kill, why not? That being said, you usually should help during burst situations, since healer sustained damage is horrible and only hurts your mana. But if a guy is at 10% heal and just ate a full duration Silence with your dps are out of cooldowns, lending a hand is awsome. this is more about Discipline, which is able to score pretty impressive numbers for a supporter. Borrowed Time shields + Penance-Holy Fire/Shadow Word Death finishers score some pretty decent damage. Your best supporting tools are, however, better at dispelling (Removing slows form your DPS yelds more DPS than you reaching directly to your enemies) and Mana Burning, or offensivelly Dispelling . Support DPS does take some experience to pull off effectivelly.
Waiting for buffs is relative. Sometimes people can take the time, but no priest buffs are super essential (And are all magic-dispellable, which will happen). I wonder, however, how you buff? Because they should be in range long enough for shadow prot/spirit/fort. I suggest you buff inner fire/will last, since it's your self buff. They shouldn't really be leaving you alone, and that's only asking for 5 seconds or so; trying to ask them is nice, but do not count on it.
The DPS's job isn't to merelly do damage. It's to disrupt the team. The best way to do so is #1 surviving (duh) and #2 doing damage to the right targets (Rogue sitting on a prot paladin=BAD). The best way to ensure #1 is to save your healer. The mentallity to FOCUS THE HEALER FOCUS THE HEALER that most DPS have is sometimes not the right way to reach victory.
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430527
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255458
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524705
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720576
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