Six simple tips for getting started in healing

A little while back, we had six simple tips to getting started in tanking. In the brief introduction to that, I asserted that tanking was among the more stressful and pressured roles in WoW at the moment, just because of the low numbers of tanks compared to others in situations like raids, particularly the Raid Finder.

While the same is not true for healers in the raid finder, you're the only one of your kind in 5-man content, where you're likely to start to learn to heal. Healing's a little tricky to get started with, just because there's not much scope to practice out in the world, without other players. I would definitely have a go with all your spells out in the wild, just to see what they do, but it's only going to be when you get into an instance that your skills are actually tested.

Starting as you mean to continue

One of the things that's going to affect your gameplay and learning experience as a healer is how you're getting started. Leveling a new healer from scratch is a great way to go, as the low level dungeons are pretty well stress free, and you'll get your abilities little by little, so you can learn how each one works and, just as importantly, weaves in with the other spells at your disposal.

If you're going straight in at max level, then you've got all your spells at once. It's a touch more tricky! Do check out the core spells in the spellbook's new tab to see just what you're dealing with, it won't explain how to heal with everything you've got, but it's a good start.

If you can, run 5-man normal dungeons, or easy heroics, with friends or guildmates. The best will be if you can get someone in your group who plays your healing class too, and they can give you tips on healing in certain situations. For now, I'd recommend grabbing all your abilities and dragging them straight onto your bars from day one. You won't use all of them all the time, but it's a good point to start from.

There is no rotation

If you're coming from a DPS role, you may well be wondering about your rotation, you know, the order in which you cast spells to get the maximum healing output from your spec. Unfortunately, healing isn't quite like that. The best spell to cast at any given time is the spell that is the best one to cast! Yes, there are some elements that are predictable, your class of choice may have a set of spells to use for AoE healing, for example. But, largely, it's a case of knowing what's in your toolkit and being aware of when to use it.

What's more, it's not just the type of damage flying around that you've got to consider. That's pretty obvious, really, and will differ from class to class. There will be times when it's better to use a few single-target spells, and times when it's better to use an AoE, and the best place to find this out is in class guides. Often there's a minimum number of people to be affected by an AoE heal or suchlike. But, apart from those sorts of things, there's no real rotation. It's a case of being adaptable, and knowing what tools you have for every situation.

Don't set too much store in healing meters

Our very own Dawn Moore wrote an article a while back about how to top the healing meters as a discipline priest. While it related to discipline in Cataclysm, the message is the same, snipe heals to get ahead. Sniping heals, though, isn't OK. It's not nice, it's not being a team player. If you're part of a healing team, rather than a solo healer, and you're with friends, then you should work together to put as little of your blue bars into everyone's green bars as possible. The way you get to be top of the healing meters isn't necessarily the most mana-efficient.

Healing Per Second isn't everything. There's no point, if you're a priest, in flash healing away your entire mana bar then hitting the report total healing button. HPS in that instance means very little! For starters, what you're after is effective healing, not just raw throughput. There's no point smashing out 100k heals into players who only need 50k to fill up their health bars. Only 50k of that 100k is effective. Efficiency is something to monitor on meters, some classes have it harder than others, but watch your overhealing, and try to keep that low. There's an overhealing measure available on most meters.

Keep your party under control

It's nigh impossible to heal people when they're not in range. It's also remarkable how often players forget this! You really do need to have your healer in range before pulling, particularly if there's a door that closes! Protip for behind closed door healing, though, if you're a shaman your totems and Healing Rain go through doors, as does priests' Prayer of Healing. I'm not exactly sure on other classes, but indirect heals are probably good!

So, if you're drinking for mana, say so. And don't be afraid to ask for mana breaks, you need mana in order to heal, and if a tank is going hell for leather through a dungeon with you chasing frantically behind them with all but no mana, that's not going to optimize your healing if it all goes wrong. Most healers have mana cooldowns, but not all of them get those cooldowns particularly early on, if you're starting a new character to heal. Learn what they are, and use them, but don't be afraid to stop for a drink!

Be aware of your utility

Speaking of cooldowns, while I don't play every healer, do also be aware of your utility. If you're PvP healing, this is particularly important, as you'll be more to your team than green numbers. To be a good PvP healer, you need to know what else you can bring to the table outside of just pure heals. Slows, interrupts, crowd control, purges, all these are examples of utility.

And it's not just for PvP either, utility is very handy for PvE in certain situations, particularly those where it all goes horribly wrong. Aggro drops, slows, roots, cyclones, other CC, stealths, fades, all those sorts of things can save your behind when things get out of hand in a dungeon just as much as they can in PvP situations.

What's more, be aware of your throughput cooldowns, your OMG cooldowns, your big party trick that saves the whole situation. Always take a second to bind new spells so they don't just sit languishing in your spellbook!

Consider healing addons

There will inevitably be a slew of comments saying "you don't need healing addons, I've healed since 1974 with just the standard UI." True, you don't need them, but they might make your life easier. I know when I first started healing, healbot made my life so much more straightforward. I now heal with a mixture of target healing (the standard UI method), click healing, and macros.

Neither one is inherently better or worse than any other, although I'd encourage something other than click healing for arenas, as it ties up your mouse, which you should really be using for movement. Nonetheless, if you like to click heal in arena, more power to you.

If you're finding target healing a bit of a struggle, I wrote a two-part series on raid healing addons, so you can make an informed choice! Do try them out, they might make your life a whole lot easier! Or, you might hate them. Everyone's different!
Visit the WoW Rookie Guide for links to everything you need to get started as a new player, from how to control your character and camera angles when you're just starting out, to learning how to tank, getting up to speed for heroics and even how to win Tol Barad.
Tags: featured, guide, healing, healing-guide, how-to-heal, how-to-play-wow, new-to-world-of-warcraft, noob-guide, raid-guide, raid-healing, raiding-guide, rookie-guide, world-of-warcraft-guide, world-of-warcraft-help, world-of-warcraft-noobs, world-of-warcraft-rookies, wow-guide, wow-healing, wow-help, wow-noob-guide, wow-noobs, wow-raid-guide, wow-raid-healing, wow-to-play-world-of-warcraft

Filed under: WoW Rookie

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Six simple tips for getting started in tanking

Tanking is arguably one of the more stressful roles in WoW, particularly in the raid finder. You can't just waltz in and hit some things or heal some things and everything will turn out rosy, you do actually have to know the fights. Not that healers and DPS don't, it's just that they can generally get along a bit easier if they aren't exactly sure what's going on. The same is, alas, not so true for tanks. The fact that there's only two tanks, and that, even in the heady days of Dragon Soul, they had to be relatively co-ordinated on some, if not all the fights, puts the spotlight firmly on their performance. Some groups are forgiving, some less so.

The same applies in smaller dungeons, tanks are expected to lead the pack, to take control. Of course, there are exceptions to this, it's a generalization which is not true 100% of the time. But I don't think it's unreasonable.

All this makes it a little harder to get started in tanking. So, WoW Insider has put together some tips for the novice tank.

Pulling
Pulling is the term given to getting a group of mobs to hit you, instead of that mage over there. For most early dungeons, and several of the later ones too for that matter, the pull is half the battle. As long as you can get those baddies latched on to you, you're doing alright.

So how do you do it? Well, that is, of course, highly dependent on your class, but there are a few kinds of pull that I can run you through here.

Single target pulls: These are the easiest, usually. All tanks will, at some point, be given a single target taunt ability, and if that isn't available then there will be a big hit that "generates threat". Threat is what you want to generate! So, you have a couple of options open to you. Option one is to walk, charge, or saunter up to the target and whack them on the head, hopefully gaining their attention, and save your taunt in case one of your DPS is over-eager and grabs the target off you. Option two is to use your taunt to pull them. Taunting will cause the target to fixate on you for a short time, but only a short time, so don't taunt and think you're all sorted and can get a cup of tea. Taunt, then build "aggro" or "threat". How do you do that? Hitting them!

Multiple target pulls: These are a little trickier, simply because you have more targets to consider. They're often trash, so the first step is to figure out if any of them are casters.

Casters are often pretty obvious, thanks to their names. If one member of a trash pack is called healer, or priest, or anything that sounds magical, they're probably the caster. Why do you need to know which are the casters? Because, when you do damage to a caster, they don't come running towards you to bash you on the head. Instead, they stand on their own, casting. The trouble with this is that if you've got all the other mobs in a neat group, and are AoEing as you should, the caster may well get bored of shooting you with fireballs, and shoot your healer instead.

What can be done about this? Option one is to move the caster to you, either by gripping them, if you're a DK, or by interrupting them. An interrupted or silenced caster will move towards whoever they're targeting. Ranged interrupts are perfect for this. Your other option is to gain control of the melee group, and then take them to the caster. Keeping any kind of ranged damage on the caster helps a lot, too.

Other than casters, you need to do something that makes all the mobs hit you. AoE spells, so any spells that hit several targets at once, will always be good, as will any damage over time effects, even better if they can be spread to multiple targets. Try saving your taunt for any that escape, as taunting a single target in a large group will make them all run towards you, but you won't have much aggro.

Line of Sight Pulls: These come under the advanced pulls section, but can be a great way of stacking up several mobs in an easy-to-manage pile. You need two things: a wall or other obstacle that breaks line of sight, i.e. that you can't cast through, and a cooperative group. Leave your group the mob-free side of the obstacle, you go in and taunt or hit one mob, then run back around. Once you see them coming and they get in range, AoE like mad. If you have a ground-based AoE, drop it so they'll run into it. They're all stacked up for you! You definitely need a cooperative group, because if your DPS start hitting them before you are done getting aggro, this pull won't work.

Watch your group

Particularly when traveling through gates or doors, around corners or down steps, try to make sure you've got your group, particularly your healer, in range. If you leave a DPS behind, particularly in lower level dungeons, you'll be absolutely fine, but you won't survive for that long without a healer. Sure, you'll likely make it through one or maybe two pulls, unless you're a warrior, but not much more.

Also, keep an eye on your DPS and your healer, where they're standing, what they're up to. If you're getting more trash packs or adds than you can handle, it could well be that there's a "helpful" DPS or healer bringing them to you. This may be a help, but it may also be a hindrance. If it's a hindrance, say so, don't remain silent.

Watch your position

By this, I mean both your position in the dungeon or raid, and your position relative to the things hitting you. Think of your group as a ship that you're steering. Yes, other players have their own minds, but if you park a trash fight in the middle of a patrol's path, that's not ideal. Also, when positioning trash outside bad things on the floor, remember that melee DPS need to be able to get behind them. Move yourself out, and the trash out, and then keep going a bit further.

What's more, the reason melee DPS want to be behind their targets is because their attacks can't be mitigated nearly as much from behind by dodges, parries, blocks and the like. Guess what, the same is true for you! If you've got mobs stabbing you in the butt, you won't be able to mitigate that damage. Try to keep mobs in front of you.

Communicate

My first max-level character was a paladin tank, and I wish someone had told me when I was new to tanking that it's OK to be new. It doesn't matter, we were all new once. If you've just landed in an instance that you've never tanked before, or don't remember, tell your group if you're not sure where to go. Chances are one of them will know. Do use the maps, too!

And the same applies if you're not going that fast because you're waiting for a patrol, or trying to figure out which one is the healer or spell-caster in the group, or trying to work out where you're headed next. If a DPS rushes off and pulls something, ask them not to, or simply explain that you're waiting for something to happen. Yes, you may get some muppet telling you to "go", but try not to get stressed about it. They're the muppet.

Lastly, if you keep losing aggro to a pet, be it a warlock pet or a hunter pet, ask them to turn off their pet taunt. They shouldn't mind!

And, if you're looking for more class-specific help, check out WoW Insider's tanking articles!
Visit the WoW Rookie Guide for links to everything you need to get started as a new player, from how to control your character and camera angles when you're just starting out, to learning how to tank, getting up to speed for heroics and even how to win Tol Barad.
Tags: featured, guide, how-to-play-wow, new-tank, new-to-tanking, new-to-world-of-warcraft, noob-guide, rookie-guide, tank, tank-guide, tank-help, tankadin, tanking, tanking-guide, tanking-help, world-of-warcraft-guide, world-of-warcraft-help, world-of-warcraft-noobs, world-of-warcraft-rookies, wow-guide, wow-help, wow-noob-guide, wow-noobs, wow-to-play-world-of-warcraft

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Rookie

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Four simple steps to get started with twinking in PvE or PvP

Twinking doesn't have to be about PvP. This common misconception likely emerges because a lot of twinking information sites focus on PvP. But, twinking, while definitely great fun in a PvP context, is prevalent in PvE too. What is twinking? Well, it's simply focusing your gameplay and gearing efforts on a different level than the maximum. Popular PvP twinking levels are based around arena brackets, which are only accessible at certain levels. 70, 80-84 and 85 are the brackets as they stand for arena, and PvE twinking largely follows these brackets. For PvP, there is also the level 19 "bracket", which is hugely active thanks to the free-play accounts.

Turning off your XP

While not strictly necessary if you're only planning to twink temporarily, this is really important if you want to take your twinking seriously. If you accidentally ding, you're going to bump yourself out of your bracket, and there's no going back. To turn off your XP gains, visit Slahtz for the Horde and Behsten for the Alliance. They're located in Orgrimmar and Stormwind respectively, and will stop you earning XP. Don't worry, though, you can turn XP back on if you change your mind for a few gold. Another approach some might take is to simply not upgrade their account to the next expansion. Since Blizzard changed their character policy to allow players to play any race, not owning expansions beyond Wrath is less restrictive than it used to be, although the monk class will still be unavailable. Edit: Cynwise enlightened us that a recent change means you need XP on for arenas. Don't forget to switch it off again afterwards! Thanks Cynwise!

Class Considerations

While it's generally the case that you should play what you want to, there may be certain considerations for classes. The good new is that, for PvE, the classes are generally fairly even. There used to be quite the spec consideration required for level 70 twinking, as it was possible to hit the end talent for some specs, where that was a good talent to go for, but that isn't really a valid element any longer.

As far as PvP twinking goes, there are certainly some that are stronger than others, but you should still look to play what you like. If you're looking for current strong classes and specs, this forum thread is a decent resource. For level 19, there are definitely several overpowered specs, check out what's popular, hunters are one specific class that stands out! The game is very hard indeed to balance at level 19.

Gearing your twink

With twinking, gearing is where the fun really starts. For PvE, there are various considerations for the would-be twink. Twink raiding guilds will often impose certain item level requirements, based around twink raiding achievements, as some cannot be done if your raiders are over certain item levels or wearing certain gear. Guilds with these restrictions will generally be pretty clear on them during the recruitment process, as they are so key to their goals.

For PvP, the best gear is the best gear! There is an interesting choice to be made between going for resilience versus damage, with resilience gear being fairly widely available at the moment, but a distinct lack of PvP Power to cut through it. Because of this, the elevated stats on some PvE gear can be preferable to PvP gear to maximize damage output. Level 70 gear is purchaseable very cheaply for honor, while level 80 gear shows a huge increase in cost and is unfavorable at best compared to Cataclysm greens. However, there is a point where the resilience gains from PvP gear outdo the damage gains from the greens. There are several guides available to getting the best gear, such as this forum thread.

Finding fellow twinks

For a would-be PvE twink, this is certainly one of the hardest tasks. There are a few well-known twinking guilds out there, one being iToons, on Korgath-US, being the guild run by the Convert to Raid podcast, and viewable on the forums section of their website. They are currently focused on level 80 content, having finished off Burning Crusade recently, and are running their first Wrath raid on the 6th of January. Twinkinfo is also a great resource, where many guilds go to recruit for twinking activities. There are a few guilds listed on twinking.net, too, and the Blizzard realm forums are often good places to start if you're not interested in realm changing.

For PvP twinking, your life is a lot easier, simply because you only need one friend to do arenas with! If you don't know anyone who's into PvP twinking, there is no real hardship in rolling a few alts on a few servers and getting them to level 19, and keeping an eye out for other PvPers.
Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Tags: low-level, pve-twink, pve-twinking, pvp-twink, pvp-twinking, turn-off-xp, turn-on-xp, twink, twink-class, twink-gear, twink-guide, twinking

Filed under: PvP, Raiding, Mists of Pandaria

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