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My fault as a healer?

Post by Adrianpb

I'm new to healing, we were doing a 5-man dungeon, we were killing the Mindbender Gush'nar or that guy and we wiped every damn time, I went out of mana, or people died while I was silenced or spread out and I needed to chase them.
Is it my fault? I got blamed everytime, we had like 4 tries but I couldn't do anything about it, specially about the mana issue, everyone kept getting hits n stuff.
How do I get better at healing? any guide or tips? I'm a lvl 83 holy priest.

Post by bearmug

Post by Asylu

Post by Adrianpb

Mindbender is annoying if people don't pay attention:
- tank will always get hit by the flame breath for about 15k+dot, and so will anyone standing behind tank
- if noone interrupts the lava blast it will most likely kill someone in one hit
- if people don't get out of dust on the ground before spikes come out it will hurt a lot

And that's just in phase one.

Only thing that might be your fault in the fight is not healing the tank immediately after the fire breath or staying in aoe yourself. Everything else is most likely dps or tank's fault.

I healed the tank inmediatly, but the other members started taking tons of damage aswell, so I needed to heal them aswell, wasting a lot of mana, and when he silenced me while shooting the shadow rays, everyone went low and I had a hard time getting all of them full hp

Post by Adrianpb

Welcome to Wowhead, firstly.

Secondly, remember that the first rule of healing is to not panic. No matter how rough it seems keep your cool and thing will smooth out.

Next, here is a great starting off guide on what to do.

Lastly, until you've mastered your class there will always be some deaths. And no matter your skill there will always be people who tend to wear their rectums on their heads in WoW.

Edited for grammar and stupid sticky keyboards.

I'll read it ASAP, I just can't believe I was screwing up that much, I got blamed everytime and I get frustrated easily, I was planning on quitting the healing position, but just seemed unfair how everyone got spiked, or stood in the firebreath, I didn't think it was my fault, but the higher lvls said it was.

Post by CaoimheX

I'll read it ASAP, I just can't believe I was screwing up that much, I got blamed everytime and I get frustrated easily, I was planning on quitting the healing position, but just seemed unfair how everyone got spiked, or stood in the firebreath, I didn't think it was my fault, but the higher lvls said it was.Here's something that many people simply refuse to understand: Blizzard made those Cataclysm dungeons with the idea of them being more difficult. Survival is a group effort, not just the healer's responsibility. Interrupting, as bearmug says, is part of the fight and part of survival. Blizzard tuned those dungeons so that the group is not likely to survive if people think they can slack. On top of this, Blizzard didn't want the limitless mana situation of Wrath. They wanted healers to be very mindful of their mana, and any extra healing was a waste of precious mana.

So, if people slack, they either die due to avoidable damage, or they die due to an oom healer. Blizzard gave the healers enough mana to deal with unavoidable damage, and a little bit more, but not enough for everything that the boss can throw at the group.

Post by bearmug

but the higher lvls said it was.

Don't believe everything people say. Higher level doesn't mean a thing, especially if they never played a healer or are standard pug idiot dps. Just know your class and role and learn from your mistakes.

One good addon for pug healers is Recount. It has a tab that shows what happened to people's health for last 15 seconds before their death. If you see them taking a 60k hit or 6 10k hits in 3 seconds, there is nothing you can do.

Post by JDLKY

As the others have said this does not look like your fault. People who stand in the fire should damn well expect to get burnt. But all in all the key thing seems to be you don't know in your heart who is at fault and without a lot more info nobody here can really say for sure.

Its just barely possible that you are under-equipped since (last I heard) the match maker device for LFD ignores spec when calculating your item level but even so this really sounds like lazy players piling on a new guy.

If at all possible go through the content on a DPS toon first. That will help avoid any problems arising from being unfamiliar with the content.

Post by GeorgeBob

remember that the first rule of healing is to not panic. No matter how rough it seems keep your cool and thing will smooth out.

I find that this rule also applies to tanking. Having played a resto druid for seven years, and now a prot warrior for two, I can honestly tell you that things take a tail spin when you let people make you fly off the handle. You forget spells, miss interrupts... while you are "chasing" people down you tend to leave out the others. From your description it sounds like other members of your group made it an episode of the three (four) stooges.

You probably would have done fine if they hadn't made your nerves bad by constantly berating you. I remember that fight. It used to be a show stopper, and I was often blamed as a tank when I died because they healer also had some difficulty. It is just an all around hard fight, and I have been in many groups where it has fallen apart at that exact point (usually if you get an in progress instance the group is on that boss).

You should keep in mind that this is just ONE fight out of many. Never let someone talk you down to a point where you actually believe it yourself. I remember a time on my resto druid when I was laughed at by a large group of people in Dalaran for geming for spirit...one expansion later, the laugh was clearly on them and my gear was already properly gemmed ;P

If you still have issues on other boss fights, I would recommend checking some of the guides offered here at wow head. There are also many other guides online. If they don't make sense, there are people here always willing to help (including me).

Post by 331902

This post was from a user who has deleted their account.

Post by GeorgeBob

one expansion later, the laugh was clearly on them and my gear was already properly gemmed ;P

That has to go down as one of the most idiotic statements I have seen in a long time.
If you gemmed incorrectly you should have been laughed at, just because your poor gemming choices became relevant a couple of years later does not prove they were right.

(Ask any tank about the rise and fall of Stamina in their role, and currently Stamina is back on top again but you would be rightly called a noob if you stacked Stam in Cata.)

I did not gem "incorrectly", and it was less than a month later. It was my personal preference to have regen over SP because of my healing style. Back then you could spam hots like crazy and I was ALWAYS the last healer to go oom. Thusly, I was also usually the last healer that was relevant during boss encounters like mimiron. Unless you have played with me, don't attempt to judge, and certainly don't say that I am idiotic.

Post by Adrianpb

Post by Strandvaskeren

It's a team effort.

- If the tank isn't properly geared you have to heal extra and risk running oom.
- If the dps kills the boss too slowly you have to heal for a longer time and risk running oom.
- If the tank/dps doesn't interrupt spells they take more damage, you have to heal more and risk running oom.
- If the tank/dps stand in nasty stuff they are taking more damage, you have to heal more and risk going oom.
- If the tank/dps doesn't know the specific fight they might not avoid avoidable damage, you have to heal more and risk going oom.
- If the tank fails to handle the aggro properly or the dps fails to watch their aggro and gets pummeled, you have to heal extra and risk running oom.

There is a myriad of ways that a team can make stuff harder on the healer.

..oh and there is always the possibility that they are right, that you are undergeared and not skilled enough for the task, but most times it's the team making stuff too hard on you.

I used to struggle quite a bit healing the first boss in Halls of Reflection Heroic back when wotlk came out. Wave after wave of mobs and I just couldn't get it to work. We wiped a bunch of times and I was ready to throw in the towel, declaring that I simply didn't have the mana to pull it off. The team talked it over and decided to spread out more so the aoe damage taken would hit fewer, the mage silenced caster mobs, death knight helped the tank pull some mobs closer, everyone paid better attention to line of sight to draw in those caster mobs and so on. A bunch of small stuff but suddenly everyone took less damage and I ended up keeping everyone alive.

Post by semperfi

I completely agree with what the others have said.

I just wanted to add that I never chased anyone when I played. If someone ran too far away and started dying, it was his problem. We can't really heal well if we have to run around too much.

Post by Sunlepard

Well, I do accept that I'm a new healer, but I never had so much trouble healing people as I did that time, and I've been going to dungeons since lvl 30, that one was a nightmare and got blamed for everything.[/quote

As a long time healer I can say it sure doesn't sound like it was your fault. People will always find it easier to blame the healer rather than admit that they themselves caused the issue. Players have a multitude of options for healing themselves in such situations but most just wont do it and believe its up to the healer 100% of the time. Trust me when I say you will run into great dps players and tanks, though not as often as you run into just dorks.(No offense anyone, lol) I'll share something with you that a dear friend shared with me. Its what I live by when healing.

If the tank dies, its the healers fault
If the healer dies, its the tanks fault
If the DPs dies, its their own damn fault.

Remember you can only do so much. Just dont give up.

Post by t2teddy

So you tried healing for the first time ever in Throne of the Tides? Ouch. I think most people either start off their wow career as a healer and then dual into another spec or the other was around, so you have plenty of time to learn the ropes.

How much higher level than YOU were the others you were trying to heal? If they were high end 80s or level 90 then no wonder you couldn't keep up. High level hp pools are enormous compared to low to mid level 80s.

Post by DaniahsMommy

Are you using a addon called Healbot? It helps out SOOO MUCH!.. Good luck OP

Post by Strandvaskeren

How much higher level than YOU were the others you were trying to heal? If they were high end 80s or level 90 then no wonder you couldn't keep up. High level hp pools are enormous compared to low to mid level 80s.
Doesn't the boss hit the same no matter how big a health pool the tank has? A 100k tank gets hit for 20k means you have to heal 20k. A 300k tank gets hit for 20k means you have to heal 20k. Same deal for the healer.

My fault as a healer?

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