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@ adam: as far as i know, paladins do not autoswing while casting. so standing in melee is probably not going to give you much mana at all. Maybe a handful of swings during down time, but that's probably not worth putting yourself in melee range.

Regarding mana efficiency and 'rotation': unlike with DPS, healers do not optimize for max throughput. So there isn't a 'perfect' rotation of abilities. Basically, when the raid takes more dmg, healers will spend more mana in response. In other words, the 'right' mix of spells to use is the mix that will prevent people from dying, while spending the least amount.
Mana efficiency as a healer is more about careful throttling of your mana expenditure. Spend more only when the raid needs it.

If i were to piggy back on hamu's post, i'd say that the biggest lesson healers must learn when stepping into a raid is: working as part of a healing team. Its a very different experience than healing a heroic. Unlike tank teamwork (which is mostly hot potato swaps and/or coordinated movement) and DPS teamwork (which is mostly passive synergy gained from hitting the same target), healing teamwork is an opaque mess...

Those complexities makes self analysis very difficult, and progression healing the most stressful thing in the game. I'd council trusting the other members of your healing team. Andy touched on this, but an experienced healing team (that is: healers used to working together) will know almost instinctively who will heal what. Once you get there, you'll know when to throw big heals out, and when you don't need to (reducing overheals while helping mana efficiency).

That's synergy created by the players themselves, and not some in-game mechanic. It's pure teamwork, and as such is not going to happen overnight.

Raw #'s from a log/recount can be misleading (no absorbtions recorded) when it comes to healing, but it's a good place to start. If you are millions below the other healers perhaps you aren't getting the most out of your time.

There are some videos of the elite guilds kills from a healing perspective, and for most difficult fights, not a single global cooldown is wasted. I like to be always casting something. This isn't always practical based on class. Where I can make power word shields pretty much forever, that may not translate as well to Holy Light bombing. I VERY rarely waste even a single global cooldown on a boss fight, even easy ones. Always shielding, or flash of light, or penance.

Learning the nuances of your class are very important. I've raid healed first wing of ICC on my priest paladin and druid and it's all VERY different experiences. Divine Plea timing, when to pain supress, the benefits of preshielding the melee on explosion/stomp mobs etc etc.

I favour proactivity as a healer over reacting. Learn all the mechanics of the fight, not just the thought of keeping specific people healed. If icehowl has a CHANCE of enraging, then have a big heal started going toward the tank as soon as you become unstunned. Or have pain supression ready. Or natures swiftness + big heal. Even if it's only a 1 in 10 chance he'll enrage, that 1 time could save the raid.

Our ability to prevent a disaster can make or break a phase/boss/night of raiding.

Short memory and an eagerness to learn is also very important. I feel that I improve a little bit every time I do a hard encounter, or a successful raid. And if you screw up and your tank dies, just learn that for next time, perhaps you can't "roam" heal as much on this encounter. I've personally probably killed our 10 mans dozens of times, you just have to adjust and move on.

Terry/Delnar