---
title: 'Explaining The 4 Levels of Healing in WoW'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=85T3iNioKig'
video_id: '85T3iNioKig'
date: 2026-06-15
duration_sec: 736
---

# Explaining The 4 Levels of Healing in WoW

> Source: [Explaining The 4 Levels of Healing in WoW](https://youtube.com/watch?v=85T3iNioKig)

## Summary

This video explains healing in Mythic Plus across four levels of complexity, from beginner basics to advanced counterintuitive strategies. It covers how healers progress from reactive health bar management to proactive cooldown planning and damage optimization.

### Key Points

- **Introduction to Healing Levels** [0:00] — The video will explain healing at four levels: beginner, intermediate, advanced, and expert, showing how the role evolves.
- **Level 1: Beginner Healing** [1:02] — Beginners focus on topping health bars reactively, using maintenance heals (HoTs/shields), spot heals, and AOE heals, treating cooldowns as emergency buttons.
- **Adding Damage to Healing** [2:07] — Healers must also do damage. The simplest approach is to damage when no health bar needs topping.
- **Level 2: Intermediate - CC and Interrupts** [2:57] — Healers should use crowd control and interrupts because their opportunity cost is lower than DPS, leading to less damage taken and more damage output.
- **Cooldown Planning** [4:32] — Intermediate healers plan cooldowns around scripted dungeon events instead of using them reactively.
- **Level 3: Advanced - Proactive Play** [5:54] — Healers develop foresight to anticipate damage, use OmniCD to track group cooldowns, and proactively manage mana.
- **Level 4: Expert - The Goldilocks Problem** [9:08] — Expert healers balance healing and damage by using cooldowns aggressively to enable damage, and they don't always top health bars if no damage is incoming.

### Conclusion

Healing in Mythic Plus evolves from reactive health bar management to proactive cooldown planning and damage optimization. The best healers know when to break the rule of keeping everyone topped to maximize group throughput.

## Transcript

today we're going to explain healing
Mythic Plus at four different levels of
complexity starting with the very Basics
explaining what healing is like as a
beginner and then how it should progress
over time as you start pushing higher
keys in your journey you gain experience
as you develop a better understanding of
what it actually means to be a Healer
because at the highest level healing is
kind of weird and in some ways almost
backwards but more on that later some of
the information we'll cover today comes
directly from our courses at skillcap
tocom our website teaches class
fundamentals roll specific tips Advanced
dungeon guides mistakes to avoid and
much more you can even try everything
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you waiting for click the link in the
description below to get the r you've
always wanted now let's explain what
healing feels like for most beginners
okay so maybe something went terribly
wrong in your life and you decided you
want to heal Mythic plus we're totally
kidding of course we love healers anyway
if you are a beginner you are probably
paying a lot of attention to health bars
while having this feeling that they
always need to be topped I mean that's
your job right you do the hard work to
make sure your team is always safe and
there's no safer feeling than having
everyone at 100% HP at this point
healing feels like an arcade game you
see a bar go down and you want to
instantly go back up you know that there
are different categories of heels and
you know how to use them you have your
maintenance heels like Hots or Shields
which you know to keep up all the time
and then when one person drops low you
have your spot heel which you can use to
top them quickly if more than one person
is dying you then have an AOE heal right
now we're not too concerned about Mana
because we can just drink anyway and you
probably treat your cooldowns like
powerups maybe you notice someone about
to die and so you reactively pop a
healing cool down to save the day at
this point healing seems pretty
straightforward this is healing in its
non-GMO organic form but then you
realize something wait I need to be
doing damage too after all we're playing
Mythic plus and we have a timer to be
and every time you watch A Healer on
Twitch they seem to be doing damage all
the time but this seems kind of weird
right I mean how can you even find the
time to always do damage when you have
health bars to top as a beginner the
simplest way to solve this problem is to
just damage Whenever there isn't a
health bar to Top This makes total sense
and it works if you play Disc priest or
mistweaver monk you have a cheat code to
skip this step automatically but no
matter what as long as you're hitting a
priority Target while balancing out your
heals then you're doing a good job and
now it seems like we're progressing we
started with this basic idea that we
need to be healing and now we've
progressed to doing damage as long as we
have some general knowledge about trash
and boss mechanics we will feel like
we're doing our job with just keeping
health bars top reactively using
cooldowns and doing our damage whenever
it's convenient so how can we do better
let's dive into level two and if you
were paying attention you probably
noticed we were missing something from
level one it's our CC and
interrupts okay priest we know you don't
have a kick but pay attention anyway mob
control as a Healer is more important
than most people realize and we have to
go back to economics 101 to understand
why we all have to come to terms that
DPS players have well Egos and they can
be a bit sensitive World of Warcraft is
a game about teamwork helping your
fellow key Pusher achieve their goals
and for DPS they want one thing and one
thing only to get those juicy pink
parses and if they don't then they're
going to get their feelings hurt and we
don't want that so how does economics or
being healer have to do with DPS wanting
to do more damage well you can think of
every Global cooldown as having a cost
so for a mage to give up a damage Global
in order to CC or interrupt they're
losing out on a global that they could
use to do damage this is what we call
opportunity cost and for DPS this cost
is higher than it is for us now you
might be thinking skill cap is saying d
DPS should never kick let's be clear DPS
should be using their kicks and stops
but there are a few reasons why your
interrupt is extra valuable as a Healer
especially in this intermediate level
number one sometimes you can't even
trust DPS to use their kicks in the
first place number two by kicking your
group can do more damage remember lower
opportunity cost number three your CC
causes everyone to take less damage
which means less healing for you and as
an added bonus now you can do more
damage safely it's kind of a neat little
way you can see secretly carry in the
background and speaking of carrying at
this point you're probably doing a
better job with your healing rotation
and being smarter about how you
distribute heals you're probably also
used to the dungeons by now which also
means you're thinking about cooldown
Cadence remember back in level one you
were pressing your CDs very reactively
not really planning to use them for any
specific reason just as an emergency
button when someone drops low but now
you have more dungeon knowledge and are
starting to feel the actual strength of
your abilities and because of this you
know how to plan your cooldowns based
around the scripted events of the
dungeon you're no longer Panic pressing
your CDs randomly but instead saving
them for very specific moments maybe you
know a boss will do a ton of AOE damage
so you plann your biggest raid cool down
in advance or if you play a class like
Resto Druid you know when and how to
properly ramp your heels in order to get
those big flourishes or maybe you know
there's a boss that does a big one shot
so you see who they're
targeting and you use your external to
save the day this is what happens when
you start to get better at wow you
realize that planning for the future
really pays off the further you can plan
your moves out in advance the easier
Things become all right let's go back to
the drawing board we're still keeping
health bars topped after all that's our
job but now we're using our cooldowns in
a more logical way saving them for when
they're actually needed because of this
we're now more comfortable at dealing
damage especially now since we're
focusing on Mob control but we're still
on level two how could we possibly do
any better than this let's graduate to
level three and here's where things get
a bit weird every experienced healer
starts devel veloping this strange
superpower that allows them to see a
little bit into the future but instead
of being able to do anything useful with
his power like winning the lottery it
gives them the ability to feel when
someone is going to die because the more
you heal the more you can feel the
weight of your HPS and you can feel it
side by side to how much damage someone
will take at this point it sounds like
we're discussing some spiritual hippie
stuff but bear with us we don't have to
tell you that World of Warcraft isn't a
balanced game some classes are made of
titanium and diamonds and could survive
a nuclear event without pressing a
button but other classes they'll die to
a small Breeze as a Healer we can't
change game balance but what we can do
is try and change outcomes which will
involve some proactive play and this is
the theme of level three becoming more
proactive in order to make smarter
decisions this is the exact reason why
omnic CD is so powerful since it allows
you to make the best decisions for
proactive gameplay remember back at
level one we were only using our
cooldowns as emergency buttons but then
as we gain knowledge of every dungeon we
learned to prioritize them for specific
moments
and now at level three our goal is to
proactively use our cooldowns on
specific targets making sure that we
trade efficiently and minimize overlaps
because of this we need to understand
that some classes need a bit more
babysitting and even some players
themselves need more attention before
every dungeon starts you should be
thinking about who is most vulnerable to
damage some classes will be squishy and
others are going to be passively tanky
then there's even some classes who can
be both depending on the skill of the
player for instance Mages have an entire
arsenal of defensive cooldowns but if
they aren't actually using them then
they're going to be no better than a
level one boar in elwin forest and this
is how Omni CD comes into play because
it allows you to dictate your externals
and raid cooldowns in the most efficient
way possible when there is no
communication you now have the
information to fill in any defensive
gaps being ready to trade before the
damage happens and to take it a step
further you'll even use Omni CD to fill
in the gaps of your team's kicks and
interrupts by passively monitoring who
has their stops ready and who doesn't
you can even avoid overlapping mob
control even even when there is no voice
communication and if you do have the
luxury of playing in voice omnic CD
makes you the conductor of your own
Orchestra you become the inventory
manager of your group's cooldown budget
which might seem like a stressful task
at first but is actually the best way to
keep a calm ahead because you can plan
more in advance and speaking of planning
in advance you are now more aware of
your Mana this is one place that often
gets overlooked by healers if you are a
druid for instance you have probably
realized by now that innervate is almost
best used on coold down even when you
are high on Mana to begin with if you
plan to ramp your heels then you know to
use inate to proactively conserve Mana
as a shaman you've learned by now to
plan around tidal waves realizing that
you can't just slam your heels without
weaving in rip tides here and there it
might not seem like a big deal but
anytime you spend drinking is time you
don't spend doing damage which will slow
the run down again we have to think
about opportunity costs now we've
leveled up again instead of just playing
cool down usage we're now dictating it
by being proactive even with our Mana
but since we started we're still keeping
health bars topped and maybe we're not
super confident on when exactly to do
damage safely we said level three was
weird but level four is where things
become
counterintuitive there's something in
World of Warcraft that we've called the
goldilux problem and it's everywhere
here's how it works with healers some
healers are too cold they want to sit in
the back and vape with their heels alone
damage that's for the DPS but then
there's the timer and the realization
that slacking on damage could mean a
depletion on the flip side other healers
are too hot with their damage they want
to press W with their group and pump the
meters while this can definitely be fun
it's sometimes a bit Reckless and can
end in a disaster if people die because
of it these players sometimes try to
copy what they see on Twitch because
there it seems like everyone is pumping
with their group but it's important to
remember that healers like royben theer
and elmir are playing with highly
coordinated groups everyone is cycling
interrupts and stops pressing defensives
and actively avoiding damage playing
with good DPS is an absolute luxury as a
Healer and you can't really copy paste
play styles from twitch into everyday
groups while it might be tempting to
play aggressive remember that group
stability is going to be more important
than doing marginally more damage if
your group isn't playing in a
coordinated way but you might be
wondering how do I know when it's the
right time to be aggressive because
obviously you can't be cold and need to
do more than just heal to beat the timer
to solve the gold Deux problem you need
to rethink how and when you use healing
cooldowns there's a tendency for healers
to hold on to their healing cooldowns
assuming that they will be needed for an
upcoming boss thinking that because
damage isn't going to be high then it's
better to save them for later when
damage will be high but by doing so it's
possible that they are losing out on
multiple chances to press their
cooldowns these dead spaces might seem
minor in isolation but over the course
of an entire run they can cost time this
is because cooldowns are more than just
survivability tools but also act as
safety nets for offensive play watch
here as royin presses flourish on this
trash pack which allows her to play more
aggressive with damage she does this
knowing that the cooldown is basically a
throwaway anyway and won't be needed
until much later and let's go back to
where we started remember this whole
time we were concerned about keeping
health bars topped well here's where we
can break that rule the best healers
realize that health bars don't always
need to be at 100% HP if there's not
going to be any damage in the next few
seconds then you can afford to be more
aggressive and only heal when it's
actually needed if there is no future
damage about to happen it's fine for
someone to hover low and let your Hots
do the work this is why healing is so
weird in dragonflight the game isn't
really designed around rot damage
anymore like it used to be but instead
these big isolated events where someone
might get one shot but as long as you
know when those events are going to
happen you have a much better time
knowing how and when to balance your
healing job with the other five jobs you
didn't know you signed up for when you
decided to become a Healer and as a
reminder we're continuing to roll out
brand new courses at skill cap.com you
will learn everything you need to rank
up in Mythic plus whether you're a true
beginner or a seasoned veteran we're
also offering new members one free VOD
review a month where you can get expert
feedback from some of the world's best
players to celebrate this we're offering
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always wanted anyway guys hope you found
this video useful and as always we want
to thank you all for watching see you
soon