There's still some difference between the two gymsta. sRaidFrames supports the showing of numeric values, while GridManaBars will only show a bar and thus a relative value. The difference is minor but there, and sometimes knowing the difference between whether someone has 500 mana left or 5% mana left can be very useful.
I do personally prefer Grid however, but that's because I need to cram my UI with as much information as possible while still keeping it clear, which Grid is a bit better at.
You should try to trim out the things that are terribly obvious, and endorse more of a "just win the best way you know how" attitude. If there is a unique strategy to a fight, make sure everybody knows to do what they're told, when they're told, and leave the details to them. Micromanaging healers will do more harm than good.
I completely disagree. Since Naxx, I've found that the more precise I am in regards to healing assignments, the better people perform. Even down to trash clears, a clear, concise, but unequivocal assignment does wonders. With the reduction in raid size, I think its even more important that people not necessarily think outside the box, because they don't really have room to do so without abandoning their duties. I don't attempt to play people's classes for them, but I will give instructions to the point of describing incoming damage on a particular target and suggesting which heals/conservation methods to use. My raiders aren't stupid, but if they have the playbook in front of them, it makes execution that much easier. I only want people to really step outside that playbook when things go wrong, or an unexpected event arises.
So while in general I agree with the constant "heal me" is very annoying and tiresome. I mean do raid leaders yell "dps the boss!"
In our raids on fights with a dps timer component we do yell "burn burn burn go go go!!" and stuff like that. When I see a tank going low and NOT getting heals, I call for heals on that tank. There are appropriate times to remind people wtf is going on. Usually in complicated fights with a lot of damage or tanking it can be appropriate to get the attention of more healers when one of the tanks is having health problems.
I agree that dpsers shouldn't be constantly calling out "heal me!" every time they pull aggro and all that, but there are appropriate times for that phase to be called out. The same as there are appropriate times to remind your dps that it is time to burn.
If you were a warlock in my guild and you whined at my healers on a serious fight about healing you because you lifetapped and your pots are on cooldown you'd be told to stfu in no uncertain terms, or spec affliction and be self-sufficient. If you pulled aggro on morogrim adds you should expect to run like hell to survive, not expect to tank them (unless you are specifically geared for a warlock/mage tank who is supposed to tank them, I suppose some people do this). In general dps yelling for heals either means the healers switch targets which can lead to tank deaths, or the healers are smart enough to ignore you and will probably hate your guts.
Let me clarify, since I was apparently unclear:
I'm not an idiot (well...). I don't lifetap down at inopportune moments and blindly shout for heals on vent while people have better things to deal with - it's completely bizzare to suggest this is what I meant.
There are occasions where an attentive player can see that he's going to take a big ol' nasty damage spike before it happens. There are times when watching DHB makes it pretty clear the healers have either forgotten about you or decided someone else is going to heal you or that you're not urgent or, really, whatever when, in truth, you'll die if a heal doesn't come. In short, any given DPS is (or should be) aware of his own situation better than whoever's assigned to heal him, since those healers have 24 other players to worry about; this means that occasions arise where you know you need/will need a heal and your healers don't. In this case it's surely appropriate to ask for it. This is especially noticeable if your assigned healer is dead, out of range, has just had a cat jump on their keyboard and you explicitly ask the guy standing next to you for a heal - even people with excellent situational awareness can't be realistically expected notice and heal you under their own initiative in that kind of circumstance.
Hopefully the OP is still looking at this thread, since my comments pertain to his post and not to the current discussion.
After reading through, everything there is good, but it seems a bit pedantic. I would find this a very useful and interesting read if I was just starting to raid. However assuming that most of your healers have already been healing in raids for quite some time, the majority of the information in there is not necessary and may come off as slightly degrading. The stuff about mods and consumables is really more about "being prepared to raid" and doesn't have much to do with internal healer strategies or organization.
Now some of my tips: I've done healing assignments back in MC and mostly all of TBC and there are a few rules which I go by to keep it running smoothly.
Firstly, I am not the "boss" of the healers. In the scheme of the encounters I am just another healer. I don't attempt to micromanage what spells to cast. I let people play their own style and try learn how each person heals so that I can put them in roles where they can succeed.
Second, I try to facilitate discussion in the healer channel. Nobody's ideas are treated as inherently better simply because of their standing. I try to remember to ask people how they felt they did at a particular job. Sometimes asking about random things can start discussions which enlighten me.
Third, make a macro in the healer channel for assignments. I know there are a lot of mods out there for assigning healers, but a the blank canvas of a macro is an indispensable tool. You can put specific instructions and reminders in it. If someone dies in the heat of battle, just click the macro and everyone knows what needs to be covered.
And lastly, the ultimate goal is to beat stuff. Don't assign just to assign, and don't skimp when details are necessary. If you can beat the encounter with minimal assigning, then keep it simple.
I'm not an idiot (well...). I don't lifetap down at inopportune moments and blindly shout for heals on vent while people have better things to deal with - it's completely bizzare to suggest this is what I meant.
There are occasions where an attentive player can see that he's going to take a big ol' nasty damage spike before it happens. There are times when watching DHB makes it pretty clear the healers have either forgotten about you or decided someone else is going to heal you or that you're not urgent or, really, whatever when, in truth, you'll die if a heal doesn't come. In short, any given DPS is (or should be) aware of his own situation better than whoever's assigned to heal him, since those healers have 24 other players to worry about; this means that occasions arise where you know you need/will need a heal and your healers don't. In this case it's surely appropriate to ask for it. This is especially noticeable if your assigned healer is dead, out of range, has just had a cat jump on their keyboard and you explicitly ask the guy standing next to you for a heal - even people with excellent situational awareness can't be realistically expected notice and heal you under their own initiative in that kind of circumstance.
Hmmm, ok I guess this is a difference between our guilds. Xperl (or some other good raid frame with a range-finder) is mandatory for healers in our raid and I find that in general I have more problems getting healers to focus on their assigned tank as opposed to healing the raid (and other tanks) from any random damage that may happen. This is especially true on fights like morogrim let's say when after an earthquake there are plenty of people to heal and the tank is usually sitting at max hp and maybe has been taking almost no damage the past 10 secs because of a lucky avoidance streak, but can still die before anyone reacts without 1-2 people prehealing him.
And tanks can ask for heals - it's just usually useless since by the time you ask for heals you'll die, although it doesn't hurt. Yelling at healers who let their tanks die afterwards and scrutinizing closely what they were doing as opposed to what they should be doing (what spells, who were they healing), is more useful in my experience. If your tank dies you can simply look at how much healing he recieved from what healers - if one of the healers assigned to him is barely there that's a good person to grill .
As for the strictness of assignments it depends on the fight, some fights just are more complicated (although not necceserily harder, i.e. Maulgar, karathress), and require detailed assignments. Others are fine without overly strict assignments.
Hopefully the OP is still looking at this thread, since my comments pertain to his post and not to the current discussion.
Still here, Matari. Thanks for the great ideas.
I'm currently re-writing the original text to be less pedantic. As a long time RL manager and small business owner, I tend to be very specific in my instructions. Clearly that's not necessary or effective in a gaming environment.
Also, some of my comments were intended to educate non-healers (for example, the explanation of why we allow the tanks to pull even though they are at less than 100% health) who tend to stalk our discussions. I think that was good intentions poorly executed.
All of the comments have been useful, and I'm flattered that my post has provoked so much spirited and informed discussion. I don't think we're drifting off topic, since ALL of the subjects discussed here have been relevant and useful to healing leaders. Let's keep this going.
If there's one thing I've learned in recent months of guild/raid leadership, it's that assuming something is blatantly obvious or redundant is probably the biggest mistake you can make. A lot of raiders, especially if you're in a somewhat lower end guild, are unbelievably dense and unlikely to think outside of their own private bubble.
Or to quote a rather bad B-Movie: "All desasters start with an assumption."
I absolutely agree. I have known absolutely top players in terms of performance who didn't know basic mechanics (such as a mage who didn't know the 5 seconds rule - and he is and was probably the best mage I've seen in the game). Good players aren't necessarily all solid theorycrafters. And average or below average performers often don't have a clue about how the game works in terms of dynamics and synergies, not to mention they often don't even have basic knowledge about their class.
Regarding the yells "heal xy"....this always gets slightly out of hand when we fight Morogrim...sometimes it sounds like a collective heartattack to me and its quite funny that those shouts come from healers as well as from nonhealers. As MT I'm mostly just to busy to push my push to talk button though
This allows you to save up to 30 healing assignments. Getting up to speed with the mod take a bit of time but the ability to save sets, quickly switch to an alternative set (for phase 2 of a boss for example), adding a note to assignments and spamming it to our healer channel is a god-send.
Definitely worth looking at, I'd suggest you experiment a bit with the buttons and stuff in Kara or similar farm-status instance.
For those of you who have been following along, I am enclosing the current lean/mean version of the guide.
Note that a lot of this information is aimed helping new healers. We've got a couple of open slots and it will be important to get these new people up to speed quickly.
Raid healing is all about working as a team. Each class has advantages and disadvantages that force us to work together for the success of the raid. To support this effort, I'm enclosing some basic thoughts that will hopefully maximize our performance.
These are just thoughts, not commands. We all know how to do our jobs. Your feedback is appreciated.
CHAT:
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Please join the DTHEALERS hat channel so we can keep healing instructions out of /ra chat.
HEALING ASSIGNMENTS:
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Assignments are considered priorities. You won't get yelled at for occasional cross healing. As we grow and get to know one another we will develop good instincts for when to cross heal.
BUFF ASSIGNMENTS:
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This is a list of 'typical' buff assignments. Of course, rosters vary from raid to raid, so this is just a basic list. We will adjust the list according to the needs of the evening.
<<< Cut for brevity >>>
CONSUMABLES:
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Part of being a good healer is knowing what consumables to use in different situations. It's important to keep a balanced set of gear and then swap out secondary gear and consumables according to the needs of the fight.
These consumables are by no means mandatory and are suggestions only. Feel free to post if I missed anything.
I recommend that everybody keep the following in inventory:
- Super Mana Pots (Bring enough, times two plus 10%)
- Magesblood Pots (MP5) and Healing Power Pots (+Heal) -OR- the flasks of your choice.
- Fish Sticks (+Heal) and Sporefish (MP5) plus your favorite stamina food. (Note that Sporefish is somewhat difficult to find on this server).
- Dreamless Sleep Potions (For mana naps)
- Swiftness Potions ("Run Away!!! Run Away!!!")
- Nightmare Seeds can be expensive, but are very useful when you know you're going to get whalloped.
- Superior Mana Oil
- Bandages (I'm not kidding. It keeps you outside the five second rule.)
- Reagents. (Of course)
I don't carry healing pots since I prefer to keep my potion cooldown available. Instead, I use desparate prayer + healthstone + nightmare seed. But YMMV.
It's usually okay to bring materials instead of potions, since we have several alchemists who can make stuff on the spot. Just be sure that you arrive early enough to have things ready before first pull. (Let's keep those alchemy discoveries inside the guild!)
ADD-ONS
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Your chice of add-ons is an individual decision. This is a matter of style and our diversity gives us strength.
Lots of people in Dream Team like Healbot. It's a great help when healers run healbot or compatible add-ons so everybody can see your incoming heals.
TOP THEM OFF
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Prayer of Mending is a great healing tool. When done right, it will bounce between two tanks giving decent aggro generation (for them) and outstanding mana efficiency (for us).
When you are assigned to general raid healing, please make sure that your people are topped off before the tank pulls. It's frustrating to see PrOM go from the MT directly to some DPSer who's at 99% health.
REZ ORDER
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Ocean, our fearless leader, is always looking for a way to speed up raid progress. One way healers can contribute to speedy post-wipe recovery is to rez people in the proper order.
1. Other Rezzers
2. Spellcasters who have to mana up and/or buff the party.
3. Pet classes who have to rez/summon their own pets.
4. All others.
I realize that it's tempting to rez Ocean first since it's good to suck up to the boss. But you will notice that Rogues are not a priority on this list. Besides, he's too busy yelling at us for wiping to accept the rez.
It's also important to quickly identify people who died in awkward or dangerous locations so we can ask them to run back and wait for summon as early as possible.
WHY TOO MUCH NON COMBAT HEALING IS BAD
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Another way to speed things up during raids is to minimize healing AFTER combat.
It's okay to top people up after a fight, but how often do you see the following sequence of events:
1. Wipe or near wipe. Everybody is LOH.
2. Healers drain all their mana healing.
3. Healers drink while everybody buffs.
4. Healers drain more mana buffing.
5. Healers drink to top off while everybody waits.
It may sound silly to focus trivial details like this. But fast recovery translates directly to more time on the boss.
PERFORMANCE BENCHMARKING
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I'm sure that everybody has already heard my rants about healing meters, so I will be brief: There is no such thing as "winning" the healing meter. Healing is not a contest. Meters are tools for performance improvement. *end of rant*
Personally, I currently use SW Stats to track combat effective healing, target selection and mana efficiency. I also review our Wow Web Statistics (WWS) postings. I like to track things like overheal, ratio of flash heal to greater heal, sources of damage incoming, etc.
07/11/07, 6:44 PM
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