First off, I want to apologize again to the cast of thousands that read my blog (ok, maybe not that many…I’m no BRK) for my lack of posts lately. I have been really under the gun at my RL job (the one that pays) and just haven’t had the time. That will be behind me soon, however, and I expect to be back on track within a week or two.
Also, I’ve changed the name I will use when writing posts, as people end up calling me PTD anyhow. I also only recently realized how close “Pummra” is to a certain animated pig. Though the physical comparison is close, I’d rather avoid it.
On to the topic at hand. I have a tendency to peruse the official druid forums to try and keep up on any developments in the druid community. While dodging posts whining about arena left and right, I also notice a lot of posts that ask this question: “When can I heal heroics?” The answers run the gamut from 900 or so healing to one guy who actually suggested a minimum of 1500. Quite a range, there. So what is the answer?
Heroics Are Tough
I’m sure we all know this. A well geared healer can sleepwalk his way through any 5 man (well, any 5 man outside of Magisters’ Terrace) but can end up getting his or her head kicked in once that difficulty is changed over to heroic.
In heroics, you have to be on your game. (Unless you have the fortune to be paired with a fully T5 geared tank and DPS. Most of those guys aren’t interested in running five mans anyhow.) In a realistic group though, you have to be on your toes. The tank is going to be taking a LOT more damage, and quicker. There will be more overall splash damage to the group, and clothies and healy types can often go down in one or two hits. The bosses will often have new abilities to boot, and everything has more hit points.
It’s tough.
It is called HEROIC after all
Numbers Do Matter
Obviously, gear plays a big part in mitigating a lot of this difficulty. A well geared tank goes a long way in making things easier, as well as DPS that can manage threat AND pump out the damage. Then of course, there is you. I really don’t put all THAT much stock in numbers, but with a gun to my head, I’d say you need the following:
- 900+ Heal for Slave Pens, Ramparts, and other “easy” heroics
- 1100+ for the next “tier” including Blood Furnace, Steamvaults, and others
- 1400+ to comfortably heal just about any heroic (though some are nasty, regardless of your numbers)
Still, these are just numbers. They aren’t hard and fast rules. I didn’t get real comfortable healing heroics until I got around 1200 or so, then it started to get a little easier. I’m still a little scared of the tough ones, like Arcatraz, Shadow Labyrinth, Shattered Halls and the new bad boy, Magisters’ Terrace, but I’d step into any one without reservations.
Skill Matters More
Sadly, there is no real way to quantify this. You can’t do it by gear, you can’t do it by how long someone has played the game, you can’t do it by whether or not they’ve killed Lady Vashj. The only real way to measure skill in WoW is to see it.
Heck, even then, it can be difficult. Sometimes, a really good healer is kind of transparent. If he’s really good, you might not even notice it. You just keep pumping out your DPS and get used to the heals being there when you need it. Of course you’ll notice the healer if you are wiping repeatedly, but when things are going smoothly sometimes we are forgotten.
That’s a good thing.
A skilled resto druid can keep a 3 stack of LB and Rejuv on the tank, spamming Regrowth and Swiftmend when necessary, and be quick enough to toss out a few spare LBs or Rejuvs to the party, without letting that 3 stack of LBs on the tank expire. A skilled resto druid is aware of what’s going on all the time, and can anticipate damage to mitigate it early. A skilled resto druid knows when to blow Nature’s Swiftness, or when it’s time to hit Tranquility.
Again, none of this can be measured. But when you get down to brass tacks, I’d take a SKILLED druid with 1200 heal over a doofus with 1500 any time. Things can go south in heroic in an instant, so you can’t afford a slouch.
Conclusion
Still, after all this rambling, I’ve concluded that I haven’t concluded anything. Heck, this post seems more about what the answer ISN’T than what it is. A lot of this is due to the difficulties in gauging skill. IMO, skill is the REAL determining factor in success in heroics. You may be reading this and wondering “So when the heck can I heal heroics?” Well Chachi, there’s really only one way to find out.
“Resto Druid LFG for Heroic Slave Pens.”
Trust me, it’s the only way to really know.
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I also find that having good CC is very important to making a heroic easier for a tree healer but I guess that goes for all healers. But with our lack of repeatable quick heals it’s important to minimize as many attacking mobs as possible.
my first heroic ever healed was Sethekk Halls. That was where i realized that experience really does matter. Where you would usually stack on the Lifeblooms once the fight started (i usually do), the ravenguards rip your tank apart too fast (esp when you first start heroics).
Gd luck to all!
so i think PTD got it absolutely right- gear is only, i’d say, 30% of the entire package. As a resto druid, it becomes ever so important to ANTICIPATE damage, since our HoTs take some time to apply. E.g. when a hunter’s trap breaks, i cast a rejuv on him, and pre-cast regrowth (cancel if he retraps). Or I’d keep rejuvs going on everyone to swiftmend off instantly if we’re in an aggro sensitive fight. All these methods will go a long way in making heroics a much more pleasant place for tree druids.
One word of advice though: know your tank, and make sure your tank knows you. I’ve wiped many times because the tank didn’t realize i would be rolling LBs before the fight began, or that i would be holding back my big heals slightly. But once you do, the synergy can be an incredible experience.
I have to agree that there is no magic number and sometimes even experience can’t save you. Even at +1950 Heals if you go into Heroic Steam Vaults with an under-geared or inexperienced tank you will most not succeed. The goes for your Crowd Control for example in Heroic Magister’s Terrace if your Using a geared hunter who does not know how to chain trap it won’t matter how good your tank and gear is when you are dead because the mobs got to hit you twice before anyone could pick them up.
I personally don’t get emotionally locked into a group or instance until we’ve handled a couple of hard pulls or downed the first boss. If we wipe because the tank is under-geared or one player is unable to pull their weight I have no qualms about NICELY replacing them. Usually I wait for them to fail twice so that it is obvious to the player that they are not cutting it then I say something like “Leethunter, I’m sorry man I just don’t think you’ve got the gear for this yet. Your traps aren’t holding and we won’t make it very far like this. Would you mind stepping out? Thanks and I’m sorry.” If the player or group disagrees with me I take my leave. It’s that, easy, no hard feelings and I rarely get nasty whispers after the fact.
I’m not going to Heroics to drag anyone else along with me and I don’t want to spend a whole night doing what should take just over an hour, and I will not spend an hour when I am certain that my time will accomplish nothing.
I think PTD’s numbers are pretty much where they should be. I started heroics around +900, and boy, Shattered Halls was brutal. A few weeks later, at +1300, it was… almost easy, but credit for that goes to the tank. Even the +900 run I had my wife backing me up with Boomkin heals on the largest pulls, or I’m not sure we would have ever finished.
Very true. A friend of mine was noting that he was in Heroic Shadow Labs with a Tree that had “a ridiculous amount of +healing but he was having issues keeping me up. I know I’m not the most fantastically geared tank, but most people don’t have an issue at all. At max there were two mobs hitting me… what was he doing wrong? Or I”
To that, I had no answer for him. (I wish I could say that I have no issues with healing him, but I have yet to group with him as my tank (he just respec’ced to tanking not too long ago) so I can’t. But I trust him and his word — as far as the game goes, anyway.)
So while gear can help / ruin a group (on both ends too, as Lifebloomer has pointed out), it is skill that matters more than anything else. I don’t think I would have noted it as anticipatory heals quite so much as just when to use what heal (I’ve been known to look down on a Tree for massive overhealing, especially when HoTs don’t register on most healing meters), and anticipatory healing is just a small -part- of being a good, efficient healer.
But, still, a good point you’ve made.
Yeah, I think technique is remarkably important for resto druids. I’m not an amazing healer, but with some tips on my spell rotation from an experienced tree, I can push through a lot of fights that have caused better geared druids to cry out for more CC. Funny thing was the other night having to offer to bring in my pre-kara geared druid to help out someone who’d been raiding SSC when they were having to constantly use panic heals rather than using HoTs to anticipate and pre-empt the damage.
Maybe just differences between raid healing and handling large amounts of AoE damage, but that technique separates the trees from the useless piles of twigs.
PTD, nice article as always.