Norjak wrote:Honestly, just keep your target(s) alive, don't die & know the boss mechanics for each fight. Some classes will just naturally have better numbers based on a multitude of factors - gear, spec, raid assignment (single or multiple targets), the particular fight mechanics, etc. Meters are almost always an epeen thing - I found I perform better when I don't see any meters at all & I can focus completely on healing, movement etc. Meters can be a useful tool for improving your play, but they are far from being the only tool at your disposal. Do your research into spec, stat priority, farming your BiS (pre or raid), healing mechanics and the meters will mostly take care of themselves.
Taladril wrote:Healing meters are some of the worst metrics there is out there. Yes you can tell when someone isn't putting in effort but if everyone is then 1st, 4th, 5th, who cares? Focus on getting faster, more efficient, and think about how you can anticipate fights and know what is going to happen, where you should stand or move, etc. That's what's important.
Like you say the meters are pretty overrated when it comes to performance, but some useful info can be deducted from them tho. Here's some general deductions from the most extreme healing "styles":
high RH (raw heal), high OH (overheal), high EH (efficient heal): aggresive healer who always tries to top off the raid. Probably uses a lot of fast heals and/or AoE heals like chain heal.
High RH, low OH, high EH: less aggresive, uses pre-healing or predicts when damage is incoming. Probably using fast heals and/or AoE heals.
Low RH, high OH, low EH: Conservative healer who only heals when damage is dealt, but doesn't precast/ cast fast enough and thus lands his/her heals too late. May also use a lot of HoTs, and is probably assigned to tank healing
low RH, low OH, low EH: Is either dispelling a lot, a clutch healer or just simply slacking.
Also, of course there's a lot of variance between trash, bosses and raids (not everyone always plays equally consistent), but I've found that by studying the healing meters, (over multiple raids!) you do get a pretty nice idea of what kind of healers you are dealing with. This can be useful info for example when doing healing assignments.
For example, it's probably not a good idea to put a shit load of type 1 healers (see above) on an MT because:
1. They will go OOM too fast, and may cause the other dudes to overheal a lot
2. Possibly they are stroking their e-peen/ get bored, and will start healing other raid members to increase their healing output, which may cause the tank to die due to insufficient healing.
So yes, even though the meters don't tell the whole story, I do think they yield some nice information. Of course, healing isn't a race like dps, and if everyone would start healing over aggresively, things would turn to crap pretty fast