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!

Part one set the stage for delving into the single most important skill any healer should work to master: adaptive healing. With the proliferation of ten man raiding there is no longer a strict set of healing assignments, but rather a reliance on healers who know and understand their class and skills well enough to quickly react to any given situation. Two well-geared and competent healers should have no problems in any of the ten man raids, the Obsidian Sanctum encounter plus drakes aside.

Many healers look for “rotations” to use, or on specific instructions detailing how to heal every encounter. While Shaman and Paladins may very well have a very structured approach to healing, given their overall lack of variety in available heals, Druids and Priests do not. Certainly either of the latter classes could simply use one or two heals and manage to make it through an encounter without too much difficulty, but the mark of a good healer lies in their ability to utilize their entire arsenal in the best possible way.

“Adaptive healing” is nothing more than what many describe as “healing by feel.” In essence, it is simply the possession of an intricate knowledge of the skills and abilities at their disposal, and an ability to apply those skills and abilities where they are best suited. For example, using Lifebloom for raid healing in conjunction with Wild Growth will most likely be the ideal approach for both efficiency and sheer healing throughput. On a similar note, using Healing Touch to raid heal will still get the job done, but at a much higher cost to efficiency as well as potentially not allowing time to react to any change in the encounter.

In twenty-five man raiding this becomes even more important. Healing assignments are more often used than not in the larger raid groups, but an “adaptive healer” will be able to compensate and help cover other assignments in addition to their own. In many cases this proves to be enough of a difference to save a group from probable death. Loatheb is a perfect example, where a skilled Druid will be able to cover not only those they are assigned to keep alive but also aid others who are struggling to heal their assignments.

“Adaptive healing” is not something that can be taught, but instead must be developed through practice and familiarity with the class played.

This is not to say that rotations are necessarily a bad thought. Most healers find a rotation of sorts that works well, especially those that heal the tanks specifically. What rotations breed, however, is a sort of tunnel-vision that locks a healer into not being able to react quickly and adapt to a situation.

The topic has already been written about in a general sense before, but after running multiple ten and twenty-five man raids it is quite apparent that things are not nearly as difficult from a single player’s perspective in a twenty-five man raid. Instead of rehashing an existing debate, however, this post is meant to provide a solid understanding of the different techniques that restoration druids will most likely utilize in the two, very different, raiding situations.

Section One, The Spells:

• Lifebloom – Even with the upcoming changes in 3.1 (Nerf this Druid has a wonderful write-up on her testing numbers on the PTR) Lifebloom is still going to provide a significant role in raid healing.
• Rejuvenation – Especially with the Tier 8 Set Bonus forthcoming.
• Regrowth
• Healing Touch
• Wild Growth
• Nourish – This may become a larger part of a druid’s healing profile, though not until playing more with the changes once patch 3.1 hits live will we know for certain to what extent.

Section Two, Healing Setup:

• Glyph of Rejuvenation
• Glyph of Swiftmend
• Glyph of Regrowth
• Talent Build (Wowhead link)

Section Three, 10-Man Healing Style:

There are multiple ways for restoration druids to heal, of that there can be no doubts. For those that utilize different talent builds (typically the Dreamstate based builds or those that place more emphasis on Healing Touch) things will be a little different.

The Raid Healer – Currently will utilize Wild Growth, Rejuvenation, and Lifebloom the most, except in cases where heavy, direct damage is being taken (which, honestly, is a great time to use Nourish for a nice, quick heal). After the 3.1 patch it is doubtful this will change much.

The Tank Healer – Currently utilizes a rolling stack of Lifeblooms, Rejuvenation, and Regrowth most often, with the occasional Nourish or Healing Touch to make up for the difference in damage versus what the HoTs will heal for. Note that this is where Swiftmend is extremely useful, and should be a large component of any restoration druid’s direct healing arsenal. After the 3.1 patch there will be some modifications to this approach, although depending on gear and the duration of the encounter it is quite possible to see no changes on this style.

The Mixed Healer – In a typical 10-Man raid many groups only utilize two healers. In this type of situation things change greatly. Typically Lifebloom will be rolling on the tank or tanks, with the occasional one tossed on raid members. In addition, Rejuvenation, Wild Growth, Regrowth, Swiftmend, and Nourish all end up being utilized in varying degrees across encounters. This is where the ability to adapt and react quickly becomes most important, especially in a situation where one healer could end up having to heal through an entire encounter due to death, a disconnect, random patrols, lag, or even a zombie outbreak.

Healing assignments are helpful in this situation, but not necessarily able to be followed. When two healers know their class(es) well assignments are often ignored anyway, aside from making certain their primary healing focus stays alive. A well-adjusted healing team will not normally need to communicate much, aside from something as specific as “when melee dps one and melee dps two get frozen by KT I’ll heal one and you heal two.” Granted, this will contribute to a lower overall efficiency and more overhealing for the raid totals, but those numbers should be ignored on an overall raid level unless there is a very, very specific reason for needing to evaluate those topics.

Section Four, 25-Man Healing Style:

The Raid Healer – Currently will utilize Wild Growth and Lifebloom the most. Not only is this extremely efficient, but in most cases is all that is necessary for the typical 25-man run. The occasional Regrowth as needed rounds out the primary abilities used.

The Tank Healer – Currently utilizes a rolling stack of Lifeblooms, Rejuvenation, and Regrowth most often, with Swiftmend tending to make up the difference on damage taken versus what HoTs or another healer has healed. Many druids go to Healing Touch in this scenario, but without it’s cast time reduced it is not very efficient, and will lead to a lower healing output.

The Mixed Healer – Practically the same as the raid healer in a 25-man, with the difference of adding Swiftmend and Nourish where applicable on the tanks or on a raid member suddenly taking abnormal damage. The primary difference in this scenario is that the mixed healer will most likely be maintaining a rolling stack of lifeblooms on the main tank in order to help absorb the damage while using the other time available between refreshes to heal raid members as needed.

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Part two, which will be posted later this week, will go more into the difficulty of 10-mans versus 25-mans. This series is not intended as a definitive guide, especially with patch 3.1 looming close, but as an overview of what abilities fit well for the types of healing one will encounter in T7 raid content, and to provide a basis for understanding “adaptive healing” (which will also be detailed in part two).

Phaelia over at Resto4Life has a post up (link) that summarily explains why utilizing the Tree of Life form is a no-brainer. Honestly, I would never recommend being a restoration druid without taking the Improved Tree of Life talents either, but I’m setting my opinion aside for a moment to address healing without the “wilted broccoli” look:

It is possible, albeit much more difficult, to be an effective healer without using the Tree of Life form.

Section One: Talent Build – HoT Based Healing Wowhead Link (28/0/43) – HT Based Healing Wowhead Link (28/0/43)

These talents are not optional for healing without Tree of LIfe form (the other talents in the build above may be applied differently if one is so inclined):

• (5/5) Genesis
• (3/3) Moonglow
• (2/2) Nature’s Majesty
• (1/1) Nature’s Splendor
• (3/3) Lunar Guidance
• (3/3) Dreamstate
• (5/5) Naturalist
• (3/3) Intensity
• (1/1) Omen of Clarity
• (5/5) Tranquil Spirit
• (3/3) Improved Rejuvenation
• (1/1) Nature’s Swiftness
• (5/5) Gift of Nature
• (5/5) Improved Regrowth
• (3/3) Living Spirit
• (1/1) Swiftmend
• (5/5) Empowered Rejuvenation

In looking over these talents two primary themes should be quite evident: mana conservation and increased healing power. Without the reduction in healing cost provided by the Tree of Life form mana conservation will be much more important, just as the lack of the increase in healing power from spirit means increasing spell power through gear, gem, and enchant choices will be a very close second.

The only difference in the two builds above is the migration of two points from Empowered Rejuvenation to Empowered Touch in order to boost the healing of Healing Touch by an additional forty percent.

Section Two: Overall Healing Approach

Aside from the lack of any AoE healing (Tranquility is a great spell, but it is not going to be able to fill the hole Wild Growth fills. With this build / style go ahead and accept that there is no AoE Healing potential), the approach is basically the same as any other resto druid. The main differences lie in the need to really, really be mindful of mana consumption and regeneration and the need to really stack as much intellect and spirit as possible to boost mana regeneration and spell power.

Emphasis: I do not, in any way, recommend this build for raiding. Repeat, I do not recommend this build for raiding. Ever. Under any circumstances.

Keep the above statement in mind now, as the following is pretty much contradictory: this could be a viable build for all of the current content in the hands of a capable player.

Leveraging a combination of increased mana regeneration from Living Spirit + Dreamstate, reducing mana cost of as many heals as possible through talents, and increasing spell power with Lunar Guidance actually makes a solid combination for healing. This becomes even more pronounced as gear levels change, and allows quite a bit of flexibility in gem and enchant choices as one becomes more comfortable healing in this manner.

Section Three: Miscellaneous Notes

• I highly recommend Tree of Life + (3/3) Improved Tree of Life if you want to play a restoration druid.
• With enough spell power and mana regeneration any talent spec can work, technically. Just because it can work does not mean it should be done. Remember that there is a reason one typically sees restoration druids in tree form.
• Using the above talent specs, you could heal any heroic currently in the game in caster form as long as the tank is adequately geared and can keep you from being one- or two-shot.
• One of the main concerns with attempting this scenario is survivability. There is a very good reason why Improved Tree of LIfe grants an armor bonus also.
• Did I happen to mention I highly recommend Tree of Life + (3/3) Improved Tree of Life if you want to play a restoration druid.

Conclusion

Yes, healing without tree form is possible. Yes, a person can be effective without tree form. It is not, however, the most efficient or most effective method of healing as a druid, and certainly not something I would recommend.

I wrote a guest post for Bellwether not too terribly long ago (and that post can be found here) about the use of Nourish versus Regrowth. With the recently announced changes to Wild Growth and Nourish that are planned for the 3.0.8 patch (listed below) this is a good time to add a little more to that post.

• Nourish: Wild Growth applied to a target now increases the healing done by this spell by 20% like other heal over time effects.
• Wild Growth now has a 6 second cooldown.

My conclusion in the original post can be summarized as follows: using Nourish is going to end up coming down to preferences in healing style, comfort level with HoTs, gear, glyph selection, and time needed to land a heal. (Alright, so I expanded that slightly too!)

With the changes referenced above, Nourish is looking more and more appealing, and honestly the spell is starting to feel useful now that my gear has grown substantially (i.e., I have no mana issues and can pretty much play with whatever spell I want instead of having to go with the most efficient healing route I can).

There are times, even without any HoTs on a target, that Nourish is a solid choice to land a quick heal. We can talk about efficiency, HPS, HPM… pick a topic and insert it here basically… all day long, and in the end it still comes down to what gets the job done that you can consistently repeat.

I should interject here that I am not a fan of “rotations.” If all you are doing is memorizing an order for button presses then I’m pretty sure you won’t understand what I mean. If you, instead, are the type of healer that “feels” their way around then you’ll know exactly what I mean.

I use a fairly typical process for determining what spells to use:

• Lifebloom will always be rolling on someone taking consistent damage (the tank).
• Someone who is not taking consistent or heavy damage I generally toss Rejuvenation on.
• Regrowth is normally my direct heal of choice. If I needed to get a direct heal on someone that is not taking consistent damage I like having the trailing HoT. On someone who is taking consistent damage, but that I have plenty of time to cast, I also use Regrowth because it is (typically, especially counting crits) a stronger heal.
• Enter Nourish. I use it in two very different scenarios: when I need a fast heal or someone will die, which means I don’t have the time to wait the extra half-second for Regrowth (or, more accurately, that I’m afraid to wait that extra time) or in the event that I already have a full compliment of HoTs on the tank and just want to top them off again.

I play by feel. My theory-crafting generally is done by gaining a feel for what I need to compliment my style of play, with a little bit of math to make sure I’m not completely off-kilter, and then putting together a set that ensures:

1. My heals are strong enough to heal through anything I have to heal through.
2. I do not have mana regen issues.

With that said, Nourish is an effective heal when it is needed. It will be even more appealing with Wild Growth adding to the bonus healing, especially in spots where you can’t really take the time to drop Regrowth on each of the party or raid members taking damage. It is very situational, but that is part of the beauty of our arsenal of spells.

If nothing else, just remember to try out the spell under various circumstances and see how it works for you. You may never use the spell, and that is perfectly fine. If you are like me, however, and you find a niche where it works (and works well) in your style of play, then you’ll find Nourish to actually be a very nice addition to your repertoire.

Now your UI is setup in a way that you are happy with, or at least it seems that way for now, and you’re ready to get to the real meat of this series. Good for you. I’m going to warn you, though, don’t be surprised if you end up changing your UI again after this post!

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Style One: The Clicker

The most basic way to heal is by clicking the spell you want to cast and then clicking on the intended target (or clicking on the target and then clicking the spell). Although this style works, my opinion is that this is the most inefficient method of healing available to any player. Some common side effects include:

• Feeling rushed to get heals on everyone.
• Feeling like a horrible healer because DPS is constantly dying as a result of not catching a heal quite fast enough.
• A sudden urge to drink. Heavily. And often.

The clicking style of healing is not necessarily a bad way to heal. Instead of giving up, or thinking there is no way one can possibly become a better healer, let’s look at one simple to make this playstyle work much more efficiently, and without trying to turn a clicker into another style player:

Use Clique (Curse Gaming Link). This addon really is a wonderful tool. I even use it for buffs so that I don’t have to keybind/macro Mark of the Wild, Gift of the Wild, or Thorns.

Clique allows the user to open the spellbook and, using any combination of buttons+clicks of the mouse, assign a spell to be cast when said combination is pressed. What’s that? Adding a button press changes the style of play and makes you uncomfortable? Yes, it does slightly. However, this is something that is very easy to grow accustomed to, and having one or two spells (Lifebloom and Rejuvenation would be my minimum recommendation) in a quickly and easily castable manner will make healing much, much easier.

Style Two: The Masochist

This is the person who never touches the mouse. The person who scoffs at the idea that there is any reason whatsoever to ever, ever move one’s hands away from the keyboard. These people can be very effective healers, although in my opinion they still are not the most efficient. Some common side effects of this style are:

• A need to drink. Seriously, learn to go have fun.
• Severe callouses on the fingertips.
• An inflated ego.

There really is not much to suggest for this playstyle. If you really just want to use the keyboard that much by all means do so. It makes things harder by requiring more keypresses to get the job done than needed, but you are should be a relatively efficient healer (although slower than my healing style, I guarantee it!)

Hopefully you are at least using macros to make your life a little easier, and if not here is an example to get you started:

/cast [modifier:ctrl] Rejuvenation; [modifier;shift] Regrowth; Lifebloom

This macro will cast Lifebloom when pressed, Regrowth when shift is held down and pressed, and Rejuvenation when control is held down and pressed. (Note that I’m not the best with macros, so if this is wrong let me know!)

Style Three: The Hybrid

The hybrid healer typically uses some combination of the keyboard and mouse, and covers many, many variations. There is no way I can truly cover them all, and so instead this section will focus on my style of healing.

I am a “mouseover” healer. I use macros/keybindings for my spells, and I use the mouse to “select” the recipient of my spells. When combined with something like Grid (hence my strong recommendation that it should be a part of anyone’s UI in the first installment of this series) makes for very efficient and quick healing.

An example of a macro I use:

#showtooltip Lifebloom
/cast [help][target=mouseover,help,nodead][target=player] Lifebloom

This macro casts Lifebloom on the target I have selected (if friendly) with the highest priority. If I do not have a player selected it casts Lifebloom on the friendly target I am hovering over with the mouse, and finally on myself if neither of the prior requirements are met. I use this priority simply because I find I make more mistakes having the mouse accidentally over someone instead of accidentally having someone targeted.

#showtooltip Rejuvenation
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/use 14
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear(); UIErrorsFrame:Show()
/cast [help][target=mouseover,help,nodead][target=player] Rejuvenation

This macro takes things a step further. I rarely ever use my trinkets manually. Although not necessarily ideal, I find that this macro is the best approach for me personally. Basically, everytime my trinket is on coooldown and I cast a Rejuvenation my trinket is used also. The extra couple of lines simply keep the annoying “You cannot use that item yet” text from appearing when I cast a Rejuvenation while the trinket is still on cooldown.

Some common side effects of this style of healing seem to include:

• Praise from others.
• Time to go afk during fights (briefly of course… that Lifebloom stack still needs to stay up).
• Plenty of time to read boss strats or blog posts while in combat.
• Mobile healing (otherwise known as jumping around like a fool and healing anyway).

Obviously I’m biased toward the “Hybrid” style of healing. In all honesty any of these styles will work fine, they just require some different techniques. The “Clicker” will probably feel more comfortable using some combination of Regrowth, Rejuvenation, Healing Touch, Swiftmend (and maybe Nourish). The “Masochist” will… well… to be honest I have no idea what this person would do. I’m sure it would be a challenge to them to be able to do it all. Regardless, if you want to cause yourself more anxiety and stress than necessary feel free, I’ll stick to my hybrid ways!

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These are all very generalized overviews. I’m happy to go into more detail if someone would like, just let me know. Until then look forward to the third segment of this series: The Healing Rulebook