Need help with healing mechanics.

[visceral89]

Hey guys, first time i make a thread on theese forums.

Little history on me, played WoW from Vanilla to Wrath, and now i have come back to Nostralius. However I need some help understanding how i should heal and how i can optimize my healing.

I have always played druid healer before, In raids i usually just apply regrowth and rejuv to party members when needed. Majority of my raid experience is from Wrath where i just applied nourish stacks on tanks and (i think it was called that) and hots.

Now i play a priest, lvl 20 but whatever. My goal is to be raiding so i want to get rid of some bad habits and learn how the pros heal.

My setup has been like this. Shield and then renew and then just flashheal when needed. Some tanks tell me shielding is bad, and i totally understand that. But on the lower level dungeons it just help me save so much mana in fights. So this is obviously a bad habit i want to get rid of.
In this post i want to focus on raid and late game dungeon healing and dont get too stuck in with low level dungeons.
I just want to learn to do it proper now so i dont have to relearn my class when i ding 60.

Any suggestions?

[res]

Power Word Shield is mana-inefficient and bad for your tanks rage.

You should only use Flash Heal in emergency situations.

Only use Shield if there is going to be a big burst or if you will wipe your group without it.
It scales TERRIBLY with healing, has low base shielding for mana cost and as I mentioned before is bad for tanks rage.

While leveling, try to wait for your tank to lose a big chunk of his health and hit him up with a big heal followed by a renew, so that you can regenerate a lot of mana while you wait for his health to drop down low again and then repeat.

At higher levels you down-rank spells since they become more mana-efficent with spellpower/healing.
You should get the addon called "TheoryCraft", it will tell you how much healing per mana different spells currently gives you.

[varth]

Res's advice is solid, you generally at 60 downrank to Heal rank 3-4 depending on + healing. You use shields for OH SHIT burst, flash for people that are about to die but don't need an instant cast shield to live, and inner focus + prayer of healing for when the entire group is getting damaged.

[visceral89]

Ahh okey i get it, so i should spend as short ammount of time possible acctually casting. Makes sense.
Does this apply to raid healing aswell?

[AgentMulder]

As others have mentioned...shielding your tank (Warrior) will affect their rage generation, negatively, because getting hit is their primary source of building rage. For all of the low level dungeons don't even bother to shield the tank so that he/she could properly build aggro at the start of each pull.

One tactic I use is to save my shields for that Rogue and/or Mage that might pull aggro if they get a little too aggressive lol. A shield and a renew on those folks is pretty much all you need, and then you can turn your attention back to your tank.

It's not so much that you shouldn't be casting...it's more about not overhealing which is how you waste mana. Get into the practice of cancelling your casts (just move yourself) if you think that heal your casting is overkill...

Start with these habits as you level up, eventually playing around with downranking All the other advice here is solid.