Downranking

[KingBoogaloo]

Hello fellow Priests,

I never played one in Vanilla so I am excited that I now get the chance. Back then downranking of healing spells was something I heard about often - how important is it when healing on Nostalrius? Do you have to downrank or is it not needed?

[res]

The more +healing you have, the more healing per mana you'll get out of lower rank spells.
If you have low +healing, higher rank spells will generally give more healing per mana.

I suggest you download the addon called "theorycraft" which can show you your general stats, such as healing, mana per five, etc. but also spell-specific stats such as healing per mana, healing per second etc. This addon takes into account your talents and gear bonuses.

Generally slower casting spells get more healing power from +healing.

[KingBoogaloo]

Thank you very much for the reply. I always thought it was more down to some "basic rules" regarding which ranks of what spell to use. Never thought about connecting it to the +healing a character has.

Will get me that addon to start checking it out. Only 50 more levels to go.

[Garfunkel]

With decent gear, you hardly ever need to use the Greater Heal spells and can manage with Heal rank 1 and Heal rank 4, with Flash Heal for emergencies, though I still have GH's keybinded for those situations when a DPS takes a ton of damage but is not in risk of immediately dying, so I can top them up in one 2.5sec cast.

[Uzephi]

Downranking has it's advantages in lower levels as well. Like already posted, get theorycraft. It will tell you the healing each spell will do. I use a UI addon to show health deficits for healing as well, so when a DPS gets hit in a dungeon, I can use the correct downranked spell instead of a higher rank more expensive spell. This will help in removing unneeded overhealing which will prevent you from sitting down and drinking after most battles. So, it will help you save some money by not spending so much on water in a lower level dungeon run.

E.G. In a previous Sunken Temple run, a dps got some splash damage that was only 300 damage, with my plus healing theorycraft showed rank 1 of heal would heal for 360 and max rank is 960. Rank one costed a fraction of the mana and would have done a lot less over healing. This saved me that extra mana for later and I didn't need to drink after that pull. Level 45 water isn't cheap, so using lower ranks to your advantage to prevent wasting mana would help your pocket and help the run go by that much quicker by not having to drink. It may also get you on people's friend list as they know you are a good healer by not going oom every battle.

[varth]

Greater healing is still very useful when used with inner focus for a mana free big heal.