Healer Fundamentals For Mythic Plus! Healing Basics For New Healers!

[00:00] This video is for the new healers and

[00:02] this video is for the healers that want

[00:04] to refresh themselves on some of their

[00:05] fundamentals. My name is Bowser the

[00:07] healer and I got about eight points here

[00:09] from little things like add-ons to big

[00:12] things like how to manage cooldowns and

[00:14] how the eb and flow of healing works in

[00:16] a typical combat. Now I just want to be

[00:18] clear. I'm mostly talking mythic plus

[00:20] but a lot of this will just

[00:22] automatically apply to raids. So, if you

[00:24] are looking for more raid focused

[00:26] advice, you'll get something out of

[00:27] this, but I come from the perspective of

[00:29] somebody who pugs a lot of mythic plus.

[00:31] So, let's get right into it. The first

[00:33] major point I want to talk about with

[00:35] healing is death, which I know sounds

[00:37] really silly, and as silly as it sounds,

[00:38] I do actually mean this one quite

[00:39] seriously, but watch the clip right now.

[00:42] Could I have saved this warlock? And

[00:44] feel free to watch it again if you'd

[00:46] like, but the answer is no. They died to

[00:49] an avoidable attack, a circle that goes

[00:51] on the ground from Cinder Brew toss.

[00:52] Their objective was to just walk a few

[00:55] feet out of it and they'd be fine. Now

[00:57] look, they died instantly. Yeah, maybe I

[00:59] could have hit Guardian Spirit if I knew

[01:01] they were going to get hit hit, but

[01:02] realistically, this is the player

[01:04] responsibility. I'm not in charge of

[01:06] this person's death. That's sort of in

[01:08] their own hands. But also, it's not too

[01:10] big of a deal, right? It's the start of

[01:11] a dungeon they were clearly blasting.

[01:14] It's not really a problem. But for a new

[01:16] player, it can be really hard to tell if

[01:18] that was a problem. My recommendation is

[01:21] to use the add-on details, which is

[01:22] usually for checking how much damage

[01:24] you're doing. But you can use it to

[01:26] check your healing, damage taken, or my

[01:28] favorite, deaths. Check the death log to

[01:31] see how quickly somebody died. Was it

[01:33] something you could have prevented? Was

[01:34] it something obvious? Or did they die in

[01:36] like 2.1 seconds instantly, right? You

[01:40] can't really save someone from dying

[01:42] instantly. A lot of the times that

[01:43] probably means a mechanic was failed,

[01:45] they stood in something, you name it.

[01:48] You'll know when somebody doesn't use

[01:49] their cooldowns. And as you get really

[01:50] good at using details, you can actually

[01:52] check healing meters and damage meters

[01:54] to look at auras to see how much a tank

[01:57] had on uptime for one of their

[01:58] mitigation tools. That's more advanced

[02:01] down the line, but just learning how to

[02:03] look at the stuff and starting to

[02:04] understand the spells that are hitting

[02:05] people will help demystify some of the

[02:08] damage coming through. When some DPS

[02:09] goes, healer, where were my heals? And

[02:11] you see they took their whole life bar

[02:13] in a third of a second, well then that's

[02:15] that's a skill issue. You don't have to

[02:16] worry about that one. They're just going

[02:18] to be a little mad about it and they'll

[02:20] get over it. But now, let's talk about

[02:22] damage, specifically damage done to

[02:24] players. Let's talk about lethality. I

[02:27] like to look at health bars when they're

[02:29] on lethal. So, let's say there's a spell

[02:32] coming out and it does a third of

[02:33] someone's life bar. Okay, that's cool.

[02:35] What if there's three enemies targeting

[02:37] one player? Okay, that's a little

[02:40] dangerous. If all three of those spells

[02:41] hit, they're probably going to die. Even

[02:43] if they don't die, the next thing that

[02:45] hits them probably will. That's called

[02:47] lethal or they are on lethal. When

[02:49] they're sitting at 1/3 health and two of

[02:51] those spells are being cast on them,

[02:53] right? That is a lethal situation. I

[02:56] like to think about triage, the act of

[02:58] figuring out who you can save and who's

[03:00] got to die. I like to think about

[03:01] lethality and how close someone is to

[03:03] lethality for figuring out who needs to

[03:05] be healed or how much healing I actually

[03:07] need to use. You might have some

[03:09] coolowns you can use to save someone's

[03:10] life. But if they took 80% of their

[03:12] health bar, but they're fine and there's

[03:14] no other damage coming in, you don't got

[03:16] to panic heal them. You can just heal

[03:18] them with your more efficient spells and

[03:20] get the job done. When you get better at

[03:22] healing, and we're about to talk about

[03:23] cooldowns, but when you get better at

[03:25] this, knowing where your cooldowns go

[03:27] typically goes handinhand with

[03:29] lethality. Where are there bad lethality

[03:31] lineups where there's unavoidable damage

[03:33] or hard to stop damage while players are

[03:35] taking like consistent damage from other

[03:38] sources, right? Maybe a boss fight, like

[03:40] a major mechanic or something like that.

[03:42] That's where you're going to start

[03:43] going, "Oh, this will put players on

[03:44] lethal. Oh, maybe I should commit a cool

[03:46] down or a setup or ramp or whatever it

[03:49] is that they need to

[03:50] do." The next one is fairly simple, but

[03:53] it's crowd control is healing. So, I

[03:55] want you to think about this. Those

[03:56] three enemies are targeting one of your

[03:59] allies and you know it's going to kill

[04:00] them. Okay, you could try to save their

[04:03] life with an external defensive. You

[04:04] could use a cheat death or something

[04:06] else that your kit has to save their

[04:08] life. Or you could stop them from going

[04:11] off, hitting something like your psychic

[04:13] scream, your leg sweep, your tail swipe,

[04:15] whatever it is that you need to use to

[04:17] stop cast from going off. A lot of the

[04:19] times this will reset the cast, allowing

[04:21] those mobs to pick new targets. It's

[04:23] much easier to heal three people taking

[04:25] stagger damage than it is to heal one

[04:27] person who's about to die

[04:29] instantaneously. Which is why I want you

[04:30] to use your crowd control and your

[04:32] interrupts as a healing cooldown. Use it

[04:34] to save people's lives. Sure, you might

[04:37] have multiple tools and you can afford

[04:39] to expend one to make the DPS life a

[04:41] little bit easier. Yeah, absolutely. But

[04:44] when the going gets rough, don't ever

[04:45] forget that you have these crowd control

[04:47] moves that can stop problems. Also, for

[04:50] those of you blessed with a kick,

[04:51] there's going to be a lot of priest

[04:52] footage here. Priest doesn't have a kick

[04:54] unless you're shadow. Here's the thing.

[04:56] A kick or also known as an interrupt

[04:58] skill specifically turn off a school of

[05:00] magic when they successfully connect.

[05:02] So, when you see those colorful cast

[05:04] bars that you can actually kick, when

[05:06] you hit that, it turns off the school of

[05:08] magic. So, they can't cast for a little

[05:10] bit from that school of magic. This

[05:12] typically means that the mob will walk

[05:13] in. Using your interrupts to help

[05:15] organize mobs is, I think, a really good

[05:17] thing to do at the start of a pull, but

[05:19] then the next time your kick is up, you

[05:21] might want to consider using it just to

[05:22] save lives. Hold it to literally just

[05:25] prevent more problems from happening.

[05:27] Thank me later. For the newer player

[05:29] watching this video, before I talk about

[05:31] the flow of a healer, kind of what a

[05:33] typical pull is going to look like, I do

[05:36] want to note something. If you want to

[05:37] practice any of this, go into a delve.

[05:40] tank brand plus you is enough damage and

[05:42] healing to make it through any delve in

[05:44] not a long amount of time. I mean it

[05:46] like it won't be too incredibly long and

[05:49] if you're contributing damage you will

[05:50] also notice that the delve kind of falls

[05:52] over. You do need to do damage as a

[05:54] healer. So this is a great place to

[05:55] practice both the healing and damage

[05:57] aspects. Bran, however, doesn't heal

[05:59] very much. This means you're going to

[06:00] really feel the impact of your heal on a

[06:03] tank and your heals on yourself. It's

[06:05] going to give you an idea of like how

[06:06] much they actually do and what they feel

[06:08] like to use. If you have a combo or an

[06:11] interaction you get to use, you're going

[06:13] to see the fruits of your labor in front

[06:14] of you. Sometimes it can be a little

[06:16] hard with people having self-healing and

[06:18] automatic defensive talents. You might

[06:20] not necessarily know what you're doing

[06:22] in a dungeon at first, so I think it's

[06:24] good to get your feet wet in a delve

[06:25] just to truly feel it. But let's talk

[06:28] about that healer flow. How does a

[06:30] typical poll go? Well, the start of a

[06:33] poll is always going to be preparation

[06:34] spells. Anything you got to do. I know

[06:36] as a preservation evoker, I hit hover. I

[06:38] throw temporal anomaly. Holy priest is

[06:40] going to maybe renew some people for the

[06:42] healing boost and put their prayer of

[06:43] mending on cooldown. Maybe a discipline

[06:45] priest wants to get atonements out. You

[06:47] know the vibes. Everyone does something

[06:49] different here. Then it's time to do

[06:51] damage. Healer damage isn't crazy, but

[06:53] it's also usually typically front-loaded

[06:55] and not too hard to do. The best time to

[06:57] do it is when the tank has gathered mobs

[06:59] and everyone gets to just blast all the

[07:01] cylinders for a moment. Get whatever

[07:03] your damage is out and then it's time to

[07:05] heal when things happen. Reacting to

[07:07] healing is the first thing I want to

[07:08] talk about. As long as there's no other

[07:10] planned instance of healing coming up,

[07:13] just react. When someone gets chunked,

[07:15] go heal them. If you're expect

[07:16] anticipating people to take damage, you

[07:18] can quickly prep before they get hit and

[07:20] then you can go and heal them. But let's

[07:22] say there's a mechanic coming up or

[07:24] there's, you know, a boss fight and it's

[07:25] about to hit really hard and you got to

[07:27] get ready. That's prepared healing. This

[07:30] sort of overwrites any triage you have

[07:32] to do and that yeah, you might need to

[07:34] save someone's life, but if everyone's

[07:36] going to die, you kind of need to focus

[07:38] on everyone and not the one person,

[07:40] unless that one person's the tank, but

[07:42] then you might all still die in that

[07:43] scenario. Preparation is so important

[07:47] when the polls get harder. They're not

[07:48] going to necessarily be hard at first.

[07:50] So, when you're first going through the

[07:51] dungeons, you might need to go like,

[07:52] "Ooh, we all took a lot of damage there.

[07:54] I bet in a higher key that would hurt

[07:56] really, really bad." Cuz it probably

[07:57] does. Then afterwards, when the going

[08:00] gets kind of quiet and you're back to

[08:02] doing damage, yeah, do damage yourself,

[08:04] right? Patch anyone up you need to and

[08:06] hit any of your important spells. Some

[08:08] of your important on cooldown spells,

[08:11] you're not actually pressing when you

[08:12] need to do serious amounts of healing.

[08:14] So, you might find that your prayer of

[08:16] mending has been ready to be pressed for

[08:18] a few moments, but you were in the

[08:20] middle of saving lives. Now, it's time

[08:22] it's calm. Hit your essential spells

[08:24] again, and then get back to doing

[08:25] damage, restoring your mana, or whatever

[08:27] it is you absolutely need to do until

[08:29] there's something to react to. Every

[08:31] single poll works like this. Some are

[08:32] going to start maybe a little heavy at

[08:34] first, so maybe you don't got a lot of

[08:35] time to do damage. And then,

[08:36] furthermore, there are some polls where

[08:38] you have these extreme downtimes where

[08:40] there is nothing to do and you are just

[08:42] blasting damage. And that happens every

[08:44] once in a while. It's not a big deal,

[08:45] but you're going to see this flow happen

[08:47] all the time. So, be prepared to react.

[08:49] Figure out where you'd want to plan in a

[08:51] more difficult, more challenging

[08:52] environment, and you're good to go.

[08:54] Beginners, I mean it. This does come

[08:56] very naturally. So, just start noticing

[08:58] as you go through boss fights, where are

[09:00] those problematic points you're like,

[09:01] "Ooh, how do I deal with that later?"

[09:03] Yeah, write that stuff down, mark that

[09:05] stuff, remember it. It'll come back.

[09:06] It'll be very useful the next time you

[09:08] approach it. Now, let's talk about

[09:10] cooldowns. This is a really interesting

[09:12] section because if you've ever seen a

[09:14] damage dealer, they have cooldowns, too.

[09:16] And how they typically work is they send

[09:18] their cooldowns as often as possible.

[09:20] You see, DPS basically always have a

[09:22] target to hit. So, if they're going to

[09:24] get 80 to 90% uptime on most of their

[09:27] cooldowns, they'll just send it. They'll

[09:28] only save it for special occasions.

[09:30] Healers, on the other hand, play a very

[09:32] different video game. You don't always

[09:34] have something to heal. And if you did,

[09:36] this game would be painfully, painfully

[09:38] difficult for healers. So, it's

[09:41] important to know how much healing you

[09:42] have and how much you actually need to

[09:44] use. The problem with telling you about

[09:46] your cooldowns is that they're useful.

[09:48] They work differently for every healer,

[09:50] but where you use them is also very

[09:52] different. I'm going to talk about this

[09:53] more in one of the later segments, but

[09:55] realistically, when you pug, you use

[09:57] your cooldowns very differently than you

[09:58] do in a good coordinated group. When

[10:01] you're playing in a good group, they're

[10:02] kicking things, they're crowdontrolling

[10:04] things while they're using defensives.

[10:05] You might not have to do as much

[10:07] healing. When you're in a pug and it's a

[10:09] little more chaotic, you might have to

[10:10] do a lot more healing. So, my

[10:12] recommendation is use the cooldowns as

[10:14] you feel like they're needed until you

[10:17] find a spot where you should probably

[10:18] save it for a harder, more difficult

[10:20] encounter, like a higher level dungeon.

[10:23] Use them to know how they work and then

[10:25] start saving them as you don't need

[10:26] them. The bigger suggestion really is to

[10:28] work on your low end and high-end

[10:30] healing. Learn how to work with your

[10:32] cooldowns when you're blasting and

[10:33] getting as much healing as possible. And

[10:35] then work on your low end when you don't

[10:37] have as many tools. What can you do and

[10:39] how can you play efficiently when you're

[10:40] lacking cooldowns? And as a quick aside,

[10:43] if you have like a 30-second cooldown or

[10:45] less, there's a chance that you can send

[10:47] it off rip most of the time. When I talk

[10:50] cool downs, I'm really talking about the

[10:51] 1, 1 and 1/2, 2, and even 3 and 4 minute

[10:54] cool downs. The big ones, the smaller

[10:57] ones might be a part of your typical

[10:58] general rotation. So don't be worried

[11:00] about using those. It'll probably be a

[11:02] part of your kit and how your class

[11:04] operates. For instance, for preservation

[11:06] evoker, you have some 30 and 20 second

[11:08] cool downs that are part of your natural

[11:11] rotation. You're going to use them

[11:12] pretty often and you're going to be

[11:14] like, "Wo, that's a 30-second move. Do I

[11:16] need it?" And yeah, sometimes you do

[11:17] wonder if you need it, but you're going

[11:19] to be using it a lot. So don't like

[11:20] don't fear those lower cooldowns.

[11:23] Now, I want to talk about things like

[11:25] plater in details, but I want to talk

[11:27] details for a moment because this is one

[11:28] that's going to save your buns whenever

[11:30] you get to raiding, and it's just as

[11:31] important in dungeons. Healing per

[11:33] second isn't a very important stat. So,

[11:36] healing per second tells us a few

[11:38] things. It tells us how much healing we

[11:40] can pump out when we're blasting in all

[11:42] cylinders, and it tells us relatively

[11:44] how much healing we had to do in a

[11:45] fight. Remember, damage dealers always

[11:48] have something to hit. Healers, no, not

[11:51] really. They don't always have to heal.

[11:53] This means that HPS doesn't tell you how

[11:55] good or bad you were doing. If somebody

[11:57] came up to me and was like, "Oh my god,

[11:58] Bowser, look at my healing parse in a

[12:00] Cinder Brew metery." I would ask them if

[12:03] they need help. I'd ask them if they're

[12:04] hurt. Like, are they okay? Do they need

[12:06] like a hug? Because that means that

[12:08] there was more damage going on, more

[12:10] people taking damage, more people

[12:12] getting hurt. The healer has to work

[12:14] harder. And that's not necessarily a

[12:15] good thing because in a good world you

[12:18] only have to do essential healing and

[12:19] then you can just go and do damage.

[12:21] That's never how this goes. But I think

[12:23] it's important to remember that.

[12:24] Especially in raid. Sometimes people

[12:26] will be like, "Wow, this healer really

[12:28] isn't performing very well." But the

[12:30] answer is you're comparing them to a a

[12:32] parser, somebody who's trying to get

[12:34] good raid healing parses, which means

[12:37] sometimes it's only one or two people

[12:38] actually trying to heal in a raid, both

[12:41] trying to parse to the best of their

[12:43] abilities. And while that is fun, it's

[12:45] like high score chasing. It is cool.

[12:48] It's not necessarily saying that you're

[12:50] a bad player cuz you didn't hit those

[12:51] numbers. They hit those numbers playing

[12:53] a very dangerous game. So, just keep

[12:56] that in mind whenever you're thinking

[12:57] about it. Now, onto the other kind of

[12:59] bars, Plater. I mentioned Plater. I

[13:02] don't like talking about add-ons too

[13:03] much for healers, but details and Plater

[13:05] are the two I really recommend. And the

[13:07] reason is Blizzard still hasn't

[13:09] implemented a feature to the default

[13:11] name plates. They really want default

[13:13] name plates to tell you who is being

[13:15] cast on. With Plater, a lot of profiles

[13:18] you can import will tell you who is

[13:20] attacking who. This is how you know that

[13:22] that one person in your party is getting

[13:24] attacked by three different mobs, and

[13:27] they'll instantly explode if those casts

[13:29] get off. This information might be hard

[13:32] to parse when you're new, but as a

[13:34] veteran of the game, you're going to

[13:35] need to see that information. It will

[13:37] help you save lives. Now, technically,

[13:40] the mobs do literally look at the target

[13:42] that they're casting on, but you know

[13:44] how this game goes. Sometimes you're all

[13:46] in a nice little bubble, a sphere of

[13:48] players, and you're not going to know

[13:50] who the hell someone's targeting. So,

[13:52] it's very important to have something

[13:53] like Plater. But, I really do hope that

[13:55] Blizzard adds this feature into the

[13:56] game, as a lot of people like the base

[13:58] Blizzard name plates aesthetic, and I

[14:00] don't blame them. It'd be nice if this

[14:02] feature could be a part of the default

[14:04] UI, but that's important. If you do want

[14:06] any of my interface stuff, by the way, I

[14:08] have an interface video that I release

[14:10] like every season or two. I'm probably

[14:11] due for updating it, but all my info is

[14:13] in there if you'd like it. I always have

[14:16] to make a section about healer damage,

[14:17] and people always get frustrated with

[14:19] me. But too bad. I'm I can't be too nice

[14:22] about this one. As you get better at the

[14:24] game, you're going to need to do damage.

[14:25] Now, for a new player, don't be too

[14:27] worried about it. Learn what your damage

[14:29] buttons are. Learn how to do your

[14:30] damage, and it'll just come naturally

[14:32] over time. I mean it. Healer damage is

[14:34] very front-loaded and easy to do. You

[14:36] can just kind of press all your buttons,

[14:38] get it all out there, and then get back

[14:39] to healing pretty quickly and pretty

[14:42] often, actually. If a healer is doing 5

[14:44] to 7% of a dungeon's damage, or heck,

[14:46] even 3% of the dungeon's damage, if you

[14:49] asked any DPS player, "Hey, would you

[14:51] bring an extra 3 to 7% damage every

[14:54] single time you ran a key?" They'd tell

[14:56] you, "Yeah, every single time." You

[14:58] really do affect things. And more

[15:00] importantly, there can be calculated for

[15:02] how much time save you do. Now, this is

[15:04] a little complicated, so I might make a

[15:06] whole video on this. It might just be a

[15:07] fun little side video, but you really do

[15:10] take multiple minutes off a timer,

[15:12] somewhere in the range of two, three,

[15:14] and even four minutes sometimes just

[15:16] because you contributed damage. If you

[15:18] ask yourself or ask any like top player

[15:20] how many runs have come down to the last

[15:22] couple of seconds, right? All of those

[15:24] runs could have been in the wheelhouse

[15:26] of how much damage the healer was able

[15:28] to do. So, always keep that in mind.

[15:30] Your damage is important, but if you're

[15:32] learning, again, learn how your damage

[15:34] works. Don't overthink it. You will find

[15:36] the free time to do some damage and get

[15:38] some kind of contribution in. Anything

[15:40] helps. Anything always

[15:43] helps. And for my final point of the

[15:45] video, and arguably maybe one of the

[15:47] most important, pugging in World of

[15:49] Warcraft is an entirely different game

[15:52] than playing coordinated. In a

[15:54] coordinated group, especially in Mythic

[15:55] Plus, you're going to be able to, you

[15:57] know, get your crowd controls off in

[15:59] exactly the order you want. You can all

[16:01] interrupt things and call what you're

[16:03] going to interrupt. You can use your

[16:04] cooldowns. Well, a good coordinated

[16:06] group makes a really hard key look

[16:09] trivial to the spectator. It's an

[16:11] awesome sight to see. And if you've

[16:12] watched any top players, you've probably

[16:14] seen the kind of stuff that they can do.

[16:16] When you're pugging, you lose all of

[16:18] that. There's no coordination. There's

[16:20] minimal coordination. If anything,

[16:22] people might not use their defensive

[16:24] smart. They might not know the dungeon

[16:25] as well as you. There's so many missing

[16:27] gaps of information. I still recommend

[16:30] pugging. I do it all the time. I think

[16:32] it makes you a really, really sharp

[16:34] healer. And I think that's pretty

[16:35] important. But on the contrary, when

[16:38] you're pugging, just remember that

[16:40] players can be mean. Players can be

[16:42] exceedingly nice. You might get a really

[16:44] good group and then followed by a really

[16:46] bad group. I don't want you to just

[16:48] immediately blame yourself or

[16:49] immediately blame others. Use the tools

[16:51] we talked about today, like checking

[16:52] details and looking through your logs

[16:55] and understanding what you could have

[16:56] done better. Even when you're new, you

[16:58] might not understand everything, but if

[17:00] you notice there was a button you never

[17:01] pressed the entire dungeon or you didn't

[17:04] get any value out of something, figure

[17:06] out where it might go and re-evaluate. I

[17:08] think I can make a whole video though

[17:10] talking about just how different this

[17:11] game is pugging than playing with like

[17:14] other people and kind of what that

[17:15] experience is like. But let me know in

[17:17] the comments if you want to see that.

[17:19] That's going to do it for this one,

[17:20] though. I hope the healing video helped.

[17:22] Sorry for the slow content. I've been

[17:24] just a bit busy, but with any luck, I

[17:26] should be getting more videos out. I'm

[17:27] going to try to make a few more

[17:28] beginners guides on other healers that

[17:30] I've been really enjoying. And uh I have

[17:32] this whole tank arc that you're all

[17:34] going to have to experience. So, I hope

[17:35] you're excited about that one. Take

[17:36] care, everyone. I'll see you soon.