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So we have a DPS thread, but no healing thread and a few people who are new 80s or new to healing and ready to learn!

Healing a raid is like DPSing in the sense that each fight is different and has its basic mechanics to learn but instead of filling the time when you're not standing in a fire with hitting buttons and doing damage, you're hitting buttons and healing it. The similarity stops there, because DPS may have the luxury of stopping DPS to move out of a fire (although if you're doing it right, you shouldn't) healers usually cannot, except in the case of special encounter mechanics.

As someone who has three of the four healing classes at 80, I can go over some of the basics of each (perhaps someone else can fill in for holy and discipline priest healing). But first, there are some common things every healer needs before stepping in a raid.

1) Addons: Besides DBM (which every raider should already have), you should have some sort of UI modification and/or casting mod. I personally use Grid and Clique. Grid takes a while to get custom tailored to your own preferences, but is very useful even when not healing as a compact replacement for the default raid UI. The Grid addons I also use are: GridManaBars, GridSideIndicators, GridStatusHots, GridStatusMissingBuffs and GridStatusRaidDebuff.

2) Experience with those addons: Just having Grid and Clique isn't enough. You need to use them a lot. It needs to become second nature that when someone needs a decurse which key+mouse combination you hit on their square to make it go away. I tend to have every single helpful spell mapped to a key+mouse combo, although there are a few I'm hard-pressed to remember (like the lesser used Hands on my Paladin). In most cases, I will hit a heal, and by the time that heal is finished casting (or the GCD is finished if it was instant) my mouse is already over the next square and the modifier keys are already pressed, all I have to do is click.

3) Experience with your spells: Of course, all of that is meaningless if you don't know your toolbox. The different healing classes differ in amounts of available heals and available cooldowns. Healing heroics is a good way to learn the basics, but sadly most heroics now are not a true measure of healing, unless you get an undergeared tank.

Part One: Druid

Druids have seven different healing buttons: Rejuvenation, Lifebloom, Wild Growth, Swiftmend, Regrowth, Nourish and Healing Touch. Technically you also have Tranquility, but it's not very often you'll use that in a raid setting as it is group-only. In a typical raid situation I end up with about 45% Rejuvenation, 20% Wild Growth, 20% Lifebloom, and the rest all jumble together. My grid shows the following statuses on Werehamster: HoT status on Rejuvenation, Regrowth and Wild Growth (which dims out as they are about to expire), HoT status and timer on Lifebloom (a hold-over from when keeping Lifebloom at 3 stacks was the tactic to use), aggro warning, thorns, Mark of the Wild being absent, Abolish Poison, Living Seed, poison and curse. Plus the big icon in the middle that GridStatusRaidDebuff puts in the middle depending on the fight. Basically everything I possibly need to know about the target which could change how I heal the target.

Rejuvenation: This is your go-to spell. If a single target in the raid takes damage, hit them with a Rejuvenation (and hope someone else doesn't snipe the heal making it wasted). It should always be up on the tanks. If you know there's about to be damage coming then pre-heal the person, like if a decimate is coming or you see they have aggro on a trash mob.

Lifebloom: I personally keep this up on the tanks as much as I can. If you were a druid healer in BC, you may remember that stacking to three and keeping it there was the way to go. This is no longer the case as it is not mana-efficient. There are two viable strategies: Stack to three right away and let it bloom, then restack to three, or stack to two and right before it would bloom, put the third stack on, then let it bloom and repeat. The first is good for fights where the damage isn't as severe and you don't need that third stack, as it saves you GCDs in the long run (and also you can optionally let it bloom after two if you notice the healing would be useful at that moment), and the second is just for more throughput. It's hard to time the bloom, there are only a few cases where it really matters... like Loatheb or General Vezax. In most cases the bloom is just gravy, but it is a good cushion because you know that the Lifebloom stack is on the tanks, you can focus elsewhere and know that if things go south, that bloom can possibly save a tank that isn't being attended.

Wild Growth: The vaunted AoE heal. It goes without saying you should only use this on groups of people, and depending on the fight people might not be grouped enough to use it. Or also you may not need it at all; some fights don't have AoE damage. The hardest part about this spell is choosing which target to cast it on to get maximum coverage, and this is something I still have trouble with. Because I'm staring at a grid, all I know is whether or not that person is in range, not how far they are in range from each other. I get sad when I cast Wild Growth on someone and I see only them light up with the HoT. Because this spell has a cooldown, it should be used strategically and a mis-used one can mean you get behind on raid healing. It's also a good setup for Nourish, as you can put a HoT on multiple targets at once then hit them with a buffed Nourish if there's massive raid damage. (This is an extreme case that does not come up often.)

Swiftmend: There are two schools of thought on Swiftmend. The first is that it is an emergency button that should be saved for when it is needed: if you use it aggressively but then the tank needs an emergency heal while it's on cooldown, you could have a dead tank. The other is that it can be used as yet another tool in your arsenal and Nourish can be used if you get caught with it on cooldown. I tend to use it fairly aggressively. Because the first thing you should be doing when someone takes or is about to take damage is cast Rejuvenation on them, it should always be possible to Swiftmend them if Rejuvenation isn't pulling them up quickly enough.

(Intermission: Mobility): All of the previous spells are instant cast. This means that in many fights, you have all the tools you need to heal without standing still to do so. This is the mark of an good Druid healer. An excellent Druid healer can do so while also dodging slimes, fires, mind controlled DPS and other hazards without becoming flustered. (To be honest, I still have room to improve in this regard.) The two heals that follow cannot be cast while moving, but are typically only used when things start going badly.

Nourish: You get this spell at 80, so new Druid healers may not be used to it. It is a 1.5 second cast, which means it technically takes the same amount of time to cast as an instant, but you have to be standing still to do so. It heals for 20% more when targeting someone who has a HoT on them, but you've already got one on everyone who should need to be healed, right? If glyphed, it does even more if there's more HoTs on them, so it becomes an excellent tank heal when you've already got three or four hots on. (I personally swapped that glyph for rapid rejuvenation, but since I've got more crit than haste on my gear, I might switch back until I remedy that.)

Regrowth: Until you get Nourish, this spell fills a similar slot: a spell that's not nearly as long to cast as Healing Touch, but still packs a punch. Once you get Nourish, you stop using it for that, but it still can get used for its HoT component. I almost always use it on a tank, as it is usually wasted on anyone else. If you're about to cast Nourish on a tank, and you realize that the tank is taking constant damage, you might want to cast Regrowth instead. The extra .5 seconds is worth it to put the HoT on.

Healing Touch: Don't cast this spell. Unless someone else wants to chime in to disagree with me... if you're in combat, don't cast this spell. You're better off casting three Nourishes. Unless you use it with...

Nature's Swiftness: This is your "oh crap" button. You are almost always going to cast a Healing Touch after activating it.

So, a typical raid fight for me is as follows: Keep Rejuvenation on the tanks at all times. Keep a 2-stack or 3-stack on the tanks at all times. Rejuvenation anyone who takes single target damage, or Wild Growth if it's a group. That's if things are going smoothly. If things are not going smoothly, learning how to prioritize heals and who to heal first and with which spell is something that is hard to teach.

Okay that was probably more text than i was expecting to type and there's still Paladin and Shaman healing to look at (although I would gladly pass Paladin healing to someone with more experience.)

A very good quick guide for Resto druids went up on wow.com today. See link below for all you baby druids coming up!!

(hopefully this is linking properly in the forum)

http://www.wow.com/2010/01/26/shifting- ... ation-101/

I can take up Paladins. My main was originally Amarillian (holydin) back in the BC days. While paly healing has changed much since then, I have since dusted off my spell plate and gotten back on the healing scene (if only for pugging).

The paladin healing kit is arguably the smallest of the 4 healing classes, with 3 direct heals, 1 shield, 1 pseudo-aoe, and a handful of cooldowns.
Smaller is not necessarily simpler. Paladin healing is mana efficient, and has huge throughput, but it's bursty and single target. It requires a lot of attention and damage anticipation. And woe be you if you have to heal a large number of targets.
One last thing about paladin healing spells: there is a lot of synergy between them. Understanding that synergy is key to being a good healer. However, be careful not to ignore half your toolkit due to said synergy. Even if you don't have the synergy going, each spell retains its use.

So looking at the toolkit:
Direct heals
Holy Shock (instant): only instant heal, means its the only heal you can cast when moving, it heals about as much as Flash. When it crits, it'll make your next Flash instant -or- your next Holy Light faster. Some paladins don't use this very often, other than when on the move, but with synergy, it is a throughput increase (more heals faster).
Final note: yes it can be used to attack... no, you shouldn't be attacking the boss unless you're really really bored (it hits for piddly amounts anyway).

Flash of Light (short cast): quick heal, small heal. Great to top people off. Does NOT match Holy Light spam in throughput. If you need to catch up (tank at 10%), use shock then spam holy light. Flash will also put a small HoT on your shield target (which should be the MT).

Holy Light (long cast): Big heal. Biiiig heal. This is what paladins are known for. Will overheal on DPS most of the time, will bring tanks back from the brink. Most expensive heal too. For long fights, be conscious it and don't use it to top off DPS. It synergyzes with itself, making subsequent HLs faster. This is what I was alluding to earlier. A lot of holy paladins build around holy light spam, which is great. But remember you still can and should use the rest of your spells. Light's grace (the HL speed buff) lasts 15secs. Which is plenty of time to cast other spells before returning to HL spam.

Passive heals
Judgment (of Light): Technically an attack, acts as a raid buff. Judging (any of the 3) will also give you some haste. Combined with its long range... means there's no reason not to use it (unless you absolutely CANNOT spare the GCD).

Flash of Light HoT: free HoT for Flashing your sacred shield target (most likely the MT). It heals for half of the amount flash hit for. Which is not much to begin with. Treat it for what it is: a synergy between Flash and shield. Do not try and prioritize it when you start feeling pressured. A Holy Light has more throughput than the Flash cast to refresh it. Keeping up HoTs is not what paladins do

Shield
Sacred Shield: Already mentioned synergy with FoL (HoT). Note: it won't prevent the first hit. It needs a hit to 'activate'. You can think of it as blocking only one of every two hits. Bottom line: only use it on a raider that is taking consistent damage (almost always, the MT). It'll be wasted on others.
Last thing about the shield: It doesn't get better from holy talents, but the holy-only Flash HoT will apply to any sacred shield. Bottom line: Ret and Prot paladins should Shield themselves~!

AoE
Beacon: Along with Holy Light, is the defining feature of holy healing. This will copy every heal you do to the wearer of beacon (except for the ones you do directly to the beacon wearer). Basically: stick it on the MT, and heal everyone but the tank, confident that you are still doing your job, (careful not to let it fall off obviously...)
Note: It costs about as much as a Holy Light, making it pretty pricey.
Note2: Applying it generates a significant amount of healing aggro. Be carefully about putting it on right as your tank pulls.
Beacon is incredibly powerful in some scenarios, and a complete waste in others. Use it wisely.

holy light: Already covered, but it also does a small AoE heal when glyphed (and it should be).

Cool Down
Favor: next heal will be a crit.
Illumination: spells are cheaper for the next 15 secs.
I personally macro these into my main heal spells (shock and HL respectively). This is the lazy way of doing it~!!! Saving them for the right moment can save the raid. If you're never gonna use them though...

general paladin CDs: wings, bubble, lay on hands, bubble sac, hands....
These all have their place in the healer toolkit, but i won't cover them in this (already too long) post.

The current conventional wisdom on resto shammy healing is pretty simple.

1. Keep earth shield on the MT all the time. Or alternatively the person you need to be hitting the most regularly with bigger heals.
2. Spam lesser healing wave like no tomorrow. You should gear, gem, and enchant for as much haste as your mana can stand. Currently 900-1000 haste is a good stat baseline with spikes higher on procs etc.
3. In emergencies use riptide on main target; then nature's swiftness, tidal force, and chain heal (all macro'd into one easy button). This should result in 30k of healing on the main target in just over 1 second, plus incedental jump healing.

When there is not a lot of actual damage hitting yet you should always be in the process of casting a healing wave or chain heal on somebody likely to get hit. If they aren't hurt by 1.5 seconds into the spell abort and start again. The always be pressing a button theory applies to shammy healers as much as it does to DPS.

A quick addendum to Hung's post:

My emergency macro is Divine Favor+Holy Shock, and I immediately hit Flash of Light after it. 1 GCD for about 16k healing isn't to be scoffed at as an emergency button. Holy Shock is, however, incredibly mana-inefficient, so it should only be used if you're worried about whether or not your next heal will land.

Aura Mastery and Divine Sacrifice are great cooldowns but you should be conscious of when to use them - for example, during a Marrowgar Bone Storm I tend to pop Aura Mastery with Frost Resistance Aura on, then the next bone storm I hit DS.

Divinity affects how much healing people get from JoL - it's minor but significant.

Wings should almost always be used in conjunction with Divine Plea, to take the edge off of the divine plea 50% penalty. Divine Plea should be used whenever you have a spare GCD with no healing needed (IE it's not an enrage or 3-stack inhale/etc.)

Hand of Sacrifice can kill you, so you usually bubble in conjunction with it but you can also just Sac your bacon target and spam heals on yourself until the HoSac is gone. Divine Sacrifice specifically will not kill you, but it can take you low enough that raid damage can kill you, so be conscious of it but don't be afraid to use it without bubble.

Lay on Hands is an interesting tank cooldown if you talent into it - if you don't talent into it, feel free to use it as a mana pot.

I macro Divine Illumination to Holy Light, just because it's free. There's no reason not to use it on every cooldown.

I like what Ga and Hung have said.

Just a small point here: I like to /focus my tank (usually MT) and I have 2 macros that cast Sacred Shield and Beacon of Light on my /focus target.

It's not a bad idea to make sure you reapply Sacred Shield on your tank when it drops, even during the fight (thus the /focus macros for those spells). If it's talented, you should have 9 seconds of +50% crit on your Flash of Light spells, which, as Hung states, synergistically synergizes with the Flash of Light HoT. It's small, but it's free and when raid buffed you should be seeing 7-8k (or higher) FoL crits, which, when properly hasted, or after using Holy Shock during a wasted GCD, can be instant or almost so. That HoT is our only real preventative heal, so a free 4k heal over 15 seconds (266hps) after a near-instant 8k heal, isn't totally atrocious. Like Dom said, couple that with a Holy Shock crit, and your looking at 20k (the last 4 of which would take 15 seconds to apply). So even though you're focused on healing someone other than your Beaconed tank, it's nice to throw in a FoL crit directly on him when you can.

The only other thing I would say for 10 or 25 man raiding is to try to keep track of where large groups of raiders are. The Holy Light glyph allows 10% of your heals to apply to up to 5 raid members nearby (within 8 yards). So it's good to pop Beacon on the MT and then hit a nice big (and most likely an overheal) heal on a raid member surrounded by at least 4 other people. If you heal for 25k on the raid member, your tank will also get 25k, and 5 other raiders near your healing target will each get 2500. This can crit. (So theoretically, your 25k heal turns into a 66k heal. 25k + 25k + (5 x 3300)) This is also affected by other healing modifiers which means you could heal them for much more than the original 10%.

Also, keep in mind that some of your abilities are on a short cooldown. DivSac is on a 2 min CD! You should be able to use it 3 times on some boss fights. Aura Mastery is as well. Once you know a fight's burst damage areas, pop either of those abilities without hesitation. That's an incredible amount of damage diverted.

Finally, In BC, I had Divine Illumination on my Holy Light macro, but took it off for Wrath. That was a mistake (at least for me). It's now back on my HL macro (as Ga recommended), and I'm finally using it again. If you're just starting out, or at a medium level, I would suggest keeping your mana-saving, crit-giving, and spell-power-proccing (trinkets) abilities on your HL macro.

Thanks for the healing tips, guys! (Especially Dom since I queried about LK resto druid healing, since I am a "sprout" when it comes to current healing strats) I still don't think I'd ever heal as a paladin(though my alliance one on Argent Dawn has a holy off-spec)...it seems to constrained and stressful. I think I find myself being more the aoe/group healer versus single..though I seem to do that anyway. And as far as healing as a shaman...don't have a shaman that high yet, and it seems way complex for me with all the totems. (but it is probably simple)

I will have to eventually get more experience with raid healing....last night, Meiko got a workout and boy that was kinda a shock since I had not healed with Meiko since, um, Karazhan? ^_^;;; So, the XT fight was like OMG OMG especially at the tantrum part. Prayer of Healing spam anyone? Heehee

Hm... I guess I'm the 'main' holy priest around here, so I guess I'll mention something. Not seriously raid healed since the stupid zone with the bugs back in burning crusade, but I've filled in a few times and have done a pile of heroics. Therefore I'd not consider this the end-all guide to holy healing.

Your job:
For the most part, holy is not so good at MT healing. When the big hits just keep coming, we'll be outclassed in healing or damage prevention by the other healing classes or specs. OT healing or raid healing in general is where we should be seeing most of the action.

First up: Personal Buffs
You'll want to keep your own buffs up full time. Both Divine Spirit and Inner Fire contribute to your effectiveness. You get a large chunk of spell power off inner fire and a some more spell power as well as mana regeneration from divine spirit. Power Word: Fortitude is your friend for the same reason as always - more HP.

AoE Heals? You bet:
We've got two good ones here. Circle of Healing and Prayer of Healing. By far, I cast CoH more than PoH. It's instant, has a six second cool down and hits the target and up to four more people for a decent chunk of healing. When the damage starts going around, tossing a CoH in between other casts is simple and quick. PoH, on the other hand, starts out at a three second cast but has no cool down, hits harder, and if glyphed will also HoT the targets for another 20% of the amount healed. Unlike CoH, PoH targets a specific person's party and not just the five lowest in range.

Preventative Healing:
Prayer of Mending is your main tool here, although Power Word: Shield isn't terrible to throw around unless you've got a bunch of Disc priests along. It's instant cast, but has a seven second cool down, so you can't spam it around too much. You should cast it on a tank or off-tank since it'll do them the most good, but throwing it out as another instant cast isn't bad if you know someone else is going to get hit. It'll sit on that target for a bit of time, then when they take damage, it'll heal em and bounce to someone else and repeat. You can have several of these on the raid at a time, cool down permitting. Can't hit the same person twice though. The shield is nice prevention, but as holy spec it's not as good as the disc version. If you've got one or more disc priests along, be limited with the use of your shield.

Next: Maintenance Heals
Similar to the other healers, we have a HoT. It's not nearly as wonderful as the shammy's, but it's still really useful. Keeping this up on the tanks is a requirement. For light periodic damage, you can set this and forget it. It's instant cast so tossing it on a raid member and letting it take them back to full is often better than wasting a full cast heal.

Flash Heal:
This is your 'main' spell. You'll toss this around while waiting on cool downs and when raid damage isn't going on.

Greater Heal:
Some people like this one more, but I don't really care for it. Sure it hits harder, but not only does it take longer to cast, it's also less mana efficient and if you're casting this on someone, chances are another healer's already casting a heal on that person and you'll end up over healing. YMMV, but I almost never use this spell.

Surge of Light
Occasionally when a spell crits, you'll be affected by surge of light. This will make your next smite or flash heal free and instant cast. Unfortunately, it also ensures that the cast won't crit. Even so, I often keep an eye out for this so that if someone is low, I can throw the instant heal on them.

Other Spells:
Guardian Spirit: If you know someone's about to get the tar beat out of them, this is a great thing to toss out. All heals on the target of this spell are stronger and it'll prevent the person from dying and put them at half and end the spell early. Lasts ten seconds but on a three minute cool down.

Holy Nova: AoE heal that also does damage. Instant cast, so if you're going to be near the people to be healed, possibly not a bad idea. A little too situational for me, so it almost never sees use.

Binding Heal: Hits target and you. Useful if you're getting beat on and still need to heal since it's not much threat, but if you're getting beat on, chances are this isn't going to help the overall situation much.

Divine Hymn: Another one I rarely use. Channeled and hits three lowest within radius for a decent heal amount and also increases their incoming healing. Typically this is another one where the time spent casting this could be better spent elsewhere.

Hymn of Hope: Yet another of the dusty hot keys. Restores some mana to a couple raid members. If the raid is out of mana and are relying on the holy priest to save the day, something isn't being done right. You'll probably never need to use this.

Rotation:
Typically in combat I throw out a prayer of mending out on every cool down. If there's any raid damage going on, CoH will also be on every cool down. Renew always up on MT and OTs. Typically renew specific raid members taking random or light damage. Heavy damage countered by flash heal while waiting on other cool downs. PW:S if you're light on disc priests or things are going really poorly. Long fights, don't forget your shadowfiend for the mana restoration. Be ready to fade if you get aggro. Be ready to psychic scream if fade's on cool down and you still have aggro. If one of the tanks is about to perish, toss out guardian spirit and hope for the best.

Glyphs:
I'm personally glyphed for prayer of healing, circle of healing, and flash heal with minors of shadowfiend, fortitude, and levitate. That gives me the HoT for the prayer, an additional person on the circle, and cheaper flash heals for moar spam.

I felt pretty good about Rila's healing in ICC10, but I was wondering how to analyze my performance to improve. For dps, it's easy to compare optimum (simulated) results to actual performance to see which spells you should be casting more or less often, but I'm not sure how to do it with a healer.

Other than with Saurfang, I wasn't running out of mana, so I assume my mix of flash and holy light is about right. On Saurfang, is it okay for me to stand with melee for the occasion Seal of Wisdom mana boost from auto-swing?

We had a fair number of random individual deaths, which I expect will improve as I get more comfortable with the rhythm of paladin healing.

Adam

You just addressed one of the hardest things about raid healing: no direct measure of success that can't also be attributed to something else. The bottom line on whether or not your healing was sufficient is if nobody died. But since people can potentially stand in fires, get exploded by ghosts, stand in fires, move into cleave range or stand in fires, you can't save everyone. The amazingly optimal never going to get there perfect best healing team would heal everyone as quickly as possible with minimal overheal, sniping or competition and not run out of mana during the duration of the encounter.

Healers need to realize that you aren't the only person making those green bars fill up. Ask your fellow healers, especially those of us who have been doing this a while. We can tell how hard we're trying to keep up with raid damage and whether or not we see people's health going up when we're personally not focusing on them. Of course, discipline priests mess that whole perception up, unless we're really paying attention.