So many times I run across healers who are not confident in their abilities and they under perform, but those who are sure of themselves tend to heal better, that’s something I have been exploring and researching as of late. What truly makes a great healer, is it skill, gear, or something else entirely?
This will be even more true in Cataclysm when cleansing will eat your mana if you do it at the wrong time, and heals are going to cost a lot more. Which means skill will play a part in this, but having the confidence to do the right thing will make a healer a better player, and the gear will come in time.
For me I have an alt Paladin. I play him on occasion, he is not well geared, he has some ilvl 232 gear, some ilvl 213 stuff, nothing spectacular, but I have successfully healed ICC25 and ToC25 runs. Is it because I have the gear? Clearly not. Is it my skill? Well if you call reading elitist jerks on healing, maybe. But I think its when I go into an instance, I can size up the raid, know who I need to watch, and am confident I can pull out all the stops and keep people alive.
Having that confidence has gotten me invites to raids and groups that technically I have no place being if you listen to the Gear Score faithful, mind you I hate gear score and feel it has partially ruined WoW, I even wrote a little something on Gear Score a while back. Back to the topic at hand, one doesn’t gain confidence over night, so how does one get it? Well there are multiple ways to help build up your confidence with healing:
- Run your first heroics with only friends / guildies – they will support you and won’t sit there calling you a noob like a random PUG would
- Run the weekly raids, most of them are lower level raids now and many folks outgear them, so its a good way to get your feet wet and put yourself to the test
- Push yourself, run something that you haven’t before and step up and say who you are healing and what you will be doing, that command puts your abilities in your own hands
- Run battlegrounds and try to keep everyone alive, try to be the top healer in the battlground
I am sure there are many other ways you could gain confidence, having a great support network, a healing guru mentoring you, but in the end you need to rely on yourself and your abilities, because you are, as the healer, the last line of defense against a wipe.
Indeed. I do believe that healing is all about confidence in yourself. It’s not an easy job to get in there and be responsible for other people’s “lives”. I am a healer who is very used to the Druid healing style, but when I’m on my priest, I don’t feel the same. And not feeling comfortable, leads you to not react properly when needed, always taking a second more to think and evaluate the healing choices.
I know this is over a year old but it’s an interesting post & I have to comment! I definitely agree confidence is key. I have been stressing a little because I don’t use Clique, or Grid, or Heabot or anything like that & everything I read seems to say they are essential. I’m only level 52 on my Holy Paladin but when I heal I want to do it right. So one day I tried Clique & Grid. What a nightmare. I felt out of control, scared, confused! It was not great. At one point I got so disoriented I ran into a pack of mobs!! I apologised & said I’d leave so they could get a better healer. They all said no you’re great etc – but I felt out of my comfort zone. Went in again another day and just healed as I prefer – click on person, click on button, very simple – & I felt great- confident, in control, no one died & I refrained from storming into mobs! I was comfortable & confident & it seemed to make all the difference. So I’m sticking with that way of playing no matter what the best advice is!
TeriShelly´s last [type] ..Pulling Power
It’s important to play how you feel comfortable. If grid is too much, try configuring clique to just use with the default UI. I recently started doing this on my alt pally and it’s worked great in raids.
I have tied my most used heals to mouse clicks, then used on mouse over macros for others.
I have been playing a Paladin ever since its release to Horde Side. Since hitting, then lvl70 cap, I have been holy. I started out healing raids Kara and Gruuls. By the time T5 was released I was still alittle unsure of myself. I managed to get into a pretty good raiding guild that had a very skilled Holy Pally that pretty much told me everything I was doing wrong. Over time I began to see myself high and higher on the healing meters. By the time Wrath was realeased I was one of the Best Holy Pallys many people had seen. Now come Cata, everyone knows my name, and openly ask me questions on how to become better. I openly give advise to pallies when im raiding on alts, and often see immediate improvement. I do not play with any addon other than grid, so it all comes with skill and confidence. My advise to anyone learning to play a healing class, find the best one on you server and ask alot of questions. Skill comes with time, not overnight! Good luck to you all.