There is much debate over how to measure a healer’s performance. Some utilize healing meters, some go by the old adage that “if no one dies the healer must be good,” some actually attempt to run prospective healers through trials and see how they fare, and some don’t even bother to think twice about it. Obviously there is not a clear, concise test that can objectively be applied to any healer and gauge their ability. How, then, can a healer be measured?

Step One: Forget About Healing Meters

Typically a druid or holy priest, and occasionally a shaman, will top the healing meters. This is due mostly to the nature of their abilities, and being able to quickly put out a lot of healing energy. While meters can be useful, and often encourage friendly competition among healers, they cannot provide an adequate idea of how a healer will perform.

As an example let’s examine a basic raid (25-man) with five or six healers. A druid could do nothing more than toss Lifebloom as much as possible in between Wild Growth cooldowns and easily be at or near the top of the healing meter. In fact, if their sole responsibility is raid healing this might even be the method used. Does this necessarily mean they are a good healer, or even that they adequately performed their duty? Not necessarily. Certainly they contributed a significant amount of healing to the raid, but at what expense? Were the other healers feeling pressure to heal as a result? The meter alone does not provide us with any answers.

Take the same scenario to a ten-man raid with two healers and the results may vary significantly. There is much less room for error, and a single lifebloom or wild growth may prove to not be anywhere near enough to heal the members of the raid.

Step Two: Don’t Forget the Value of Mitigation

Discipline Priests often get snubbed by those lesser-versed players who think meters matter most, or by most anyone who does not understand what the spec brings and then looks at healing meters. Fairly simplistic, but think about it in terms of damage absorbed equals healing done. Although it is not really a direct correlation, it gets the point across. On fights where large amounts of damage are being absorbed and healed through (think fights like Patchwerk) or fights where mana conservation is of the utmost importance (think fights like General Vezax), a discipline priest can make a significant impact on whether a group is able to complete the encounter smoothly by lessening the strain on the other healer(s).

Step Three: Situational Awareness. Situational Awareness. Situational Awareness. Situational Awareness.

I cannot emphasize this point strongly enough. It is the same value that contributes to making good tanks and good damage-dealers. If a healer does not pay attention to their surroundings and stays in the “big circles of hurt” that are prominent in so many encounters then they are not a good healer.

I do want to mention an exception to this particular one, however. There is one trait that relatively few healers, or at least those I have been exposed to, possess: self-sacrifice for the survival of the group. If a healer dies to an environmental ability due to a decision to get that extra healing out to a party member in order to finish an encounter, knowing that they will not be able to escape the damaging ability in time and will subsequently die, I can support that decision. Sometimes it happens. However, if the healer constantly dies doing such an act they need to reevaluate their healing style and adjust to not be constantly in such a situation.

Step Four: Observe Reaction Time.

Any healer should be able to swap assignments on the fly in a raid situation. They may not be best suited for the change in assignment compared to someone else, but they should still be able to adjust quickly to the situation as it unfolds.

In <devnull> there have been numerous times where our healers have had to adjust, and even times when our tanks have had to pull off some pretty miraculous saves working in conjunction with our healers. That type of synergy will obviously not be present in random groups, but in groups that run content together often it is a wonderful thing to see, and it is directly a result of adaptation and reaction time.

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While there may not be a clear-cut method for measuring a healer’s performance, it is easy to see where simply the knowledge and application of some basic concepts will produce good healers. Over time those that apply that knowledge and adjust to find what works best for them will be the healers people remember.

Great healers are an entirely different story, and one that I’ll address soon… ish… probably… *grin*

There are numerous places for people to find mountains of semi-useful and useless information with regards to class mechanics, how-to guides on end-game playing, quick ways to level, and breakdowns of talents and spells. While the end-game is certainly an important aspect of play, especially given how quickly a determined player can reach the level cap, acquiring the skills to be effective at the end-game level is not always as simple a concept as reading the aforementioned material. I’m going to focus on developing a healer for this particular post, primarily because of the numerous times I’ve encountered people with questions or misunderstandings about the role as of late.

Step One: Deciding to Heal.

It sounds simple enough. The thought process may even be along the lines of “well, I’ve gathered this gear set and have this other spec I never use, I’m going to give it a whirl and see what happens” to the far more determined who research everything before they even create the character. The primary point is, quite simply, that you have to want to heal in order to be a good healer. Certainly being effective is important, but the mindset of a good healer will translate into the development of the skills to become a good healer.

Step Two: Heal an Encounter.

Whether successful or not, the man thing to remember is that nothing can prepare you for actually healing in-game. Stress will manifest itself in numerous ways, sometimes even on the part of other group members hurling insults toward you (or even potentially being replaced). This is where many people give up or develop a fear of healing again (it is worthwhile to note that new tanks are often subjected to the same experience).

While certainly it does not feel good to be ridiculed or replaced, everyone had to start somewhere. Some people show a natural propensity for certain roles (or bring comfort with similar roles in other games) to the table and seem to have no issue adapting. Others need assistance or guidance in figuring out the best way to progress. Regardless of where you fall, if you want to heal don’t stop at this step because of the idiotic tendencies of the general player (and if you’re that concerned feel free to look me up in-game).

Step Three: Objectively View Your Performance and Learn.

This is a never-ending process. You have to be able to step back and look at a situation that went wrong and know whether it truly was something that could have been avoided with some changes on your part or not, and yet at the same time you have to be able to assess a successful encounter and know whether you contributed to the success or just tagged along. There is a fine line within the scope of this debate that I want to address as an entirely different subject all-together (next post), so I won’t elaborate much on it here. Suffice to say, it is possible to be a healer in a 25-man raid with significant healing numbers without actually being anything other than a heal “spammer.”

Step Four: Understand Exterior Sources of Information and How to Use Them.

This one gets a lot of people in trouble. Certainly the WoW Community is very good at providing places to go for very detailed levels of understanding all things in the game. However, just because something is mathematically more efficient or effective does not mean it is the superior way to do things. The same concept applies to everything you read: authors of any type of material provide guidelines and thoughts that are applicable to their experiences in the game and/or are rooted in scientific/mathematic theory. Use them as places to get ideas and experiment with new processes, but never think of them as the only way to achieve something in-game.

Druids and Priests are known for their sheer healing power in a multitude of settings, but they achieve results with quite different healing styles. Even among themselves there are many different ways to approach healing, such as the Druid who emphasizes HoTs versus the Druid who emphasizes powerful direct heals, or the Holy Priest versus the Discipline Priest, or even the Priest who decides to heal Shadow and the Druid who decides to heal Balance.

What makes these two classes such strong healers, and yet have so little in common from the way they approach healing? Part of it is simply the tools available, but the primary reason healers who excel with one or the other of the two classes, or those who find healing enjoyable on one and not the other, is absolutely related to the style of healing and the challenges each style poses to the player. Neither class is easier or more difficult to play than the other, although going from one to the other will definitely seem as such. Neither class is drastically better or worse than the other, or even marginally better or worse.

There are some very distinct areas where each class excels and some abilities that each class possesses that are easy to fall in love with and prefer to have than not. This is where most healers develop a preference for one class or the other and become markably better with either Priest healing or Druid healing (or Shaman or Paladin, but this is aimed at differences in the other two classes).

Ability Differences:

Druids are king when it comes to fights where stuns, fears, silence effects, or any other form of crowd control is a dominant component of the encounter. The ability to have continuous healing on a player, even if the Druid is unable to cast at that moment, plays heavily into the Druid’s ability to survive such an encounter with relative ease. In addition, tools such as Nature’s Swiftness and Swiftmend allow a Druid to easily catch up on healing when the CC effect has passed.

Priests, on the other hand, have two abilities that make it really tough to discount them as strong contenders in heavy crowd control encounters: Guardian Spirit and Prayer of Mending (and a slight nod to Fear Ward). Although Prayer of Mending relies on damage being done to players during this time, and is somewhat reliant on luck, it is a very strong spell in any encounter where damage is being taken across the party.

Priests are much stronger AoE healers than Druids. As powerful as Tranquility is, especially when talented, Druids simply do not possess as strong an ability to heal strong AoE damage across the entire party. Druids compensate by way of instant-cast HoTs and a subpar equivalent to the Priests’ Circle of Healing in Wild Growth. Yes, Wild Growth heals for more (using base values), but in an encounter where there is more than one healer the trailing ticks of Wild Growth will almost inevitably be overwritten with another heal.

Style Differences:

This is perhaps the most difficult difference between the two classes to attempt to explain. Both classes lend themselves to adaptive healing strategies, and yet both can be somewhat successful skating by with a heavy reliance on “spamming” direct heals. Both classes have a multitude of tools at their disposal, and both classes are generally looked to as the go-to healers for difficult encounters.

What, then, makes these two classes so different?

Without firsthand experience “behind the keys” it is difficult to relate the feelings and thoughts that go on in a healer’s head to others. In many ways it is comparable to the nervousness and anxiousness associated with the first few, or many, times someone has sex. Everyone has some type of idea of what to expect, but no idea how things will actually go. With some practice things start to feel far more comfortable, and then one can focus on improving instead of simply surviving. The parallels do not end there, however. Experimentation and spontaneity in both can prove to be immensely rewarding, but can also go horribly wrong.

Generally speaking, the best way to describe the difference in styles of healing between these two classes comes down to a very basic idea: Druids have to be proactive in their healing because they do not have the healing power to “catch up” if they fall behind, whereas Priests blend a combination of proactive and reactive healing.

Concluding Thoughts:

Both classes are very strong healers. Both classes can easily heal the same encounters in the hands of a capable player and when combined with a competent group. Both classes can be extremely fun to play. The primary reason players choose one class over the other generally comes down to which class feels more comfortable to play.

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This is an interesting time for me, because as of late my roles have changes somewhat on my characters: Byaghro has become a dedicated tank/off-tank and damage dealer, and I have migrated healing to Deamhan (my priest). There will definitely be more information coming for both, and for now Byaghro will maintain a dual-spec feral/restoration combination (until Deamhan’s gear is at an equivalent level). Talk about a huge departure from my norm!