Healing Tips

[guilty pleasures]

Originally Posted by Kaey

To tie in with the above, learn mana management.

Mana management - never leave home without a gazillion mana pots

[Unbreakable]

Originally Posted by Yuna

Lol, this happened to me as well in Guild Wars. :P

Good article btw.

One thing good bout guild wars is their secondary professions.. Healing works great for a monk/warrior

[Obscure_User]

Depending on the game, healing can be used in very different ways, but if I had a tip to add it would be "keep your eyes open". For instance if you know your tank is being targeted and you see an enemy warming up a spell/skill/ability that's likely going to be painful, time your heal against it to counter negative movement on it's HP bar.

Waiting until a player is at 50% health to heal it may work when you're up against enemy AI, but if you're playing against other users that's a heavy spike target (noted in the initial post). If playing against a more talented group you may see a spike against the healer and this low hp target simultaneously which will overstress the healer. This forces a healer to decide what the priority target is solely on reflex. Different situations will dictate which is needed given the player has a good grasp on using the skills/abilities/spells available.

Certain times you'll need to act more offensively to prevent damage by deterring the attacker. A good, well timed buff (damage reversals, blinding/spell fail against attackers, damage reduction, etc.) will pay off much better than a heal given the situation.

When it comes down to it, nothing ever goes as planned and there really is no perfect way to heal, but none the less this is a good article to reference for the novice healer. But if you are new to healing, my best advice is to find your own niche as a healer whilst avoiding the aforementioned pit falls of bad healers.

[Kaey]

Thanks for all the responses guys! We are developing quite a database on healing here (: Keep them coming!

[Sarielle]

Originally Posted by Kaey

You are a Healer, a critical member of a group. You don't need to put up with crap, if the group is bad or bossy, leave.:

Please don't encourage this mentality. I -still- don't know why so many healers think that being a prima donna is okay since they tend to be the least class played. You already tend to get groups faster than anyone else; no need to be an *** on top of it.

That said, there are some good tips here. I wish I'd had something like this to read instead of having to learn the hard way over the years. It's a solid starting point for a new healer.

In PvP (group) I tended to be on the front to mid-range in AoC (I played a PoM); partly because of the nature of cone heals, and partly because I had a lot of survivability tools, a very fun AoE knockback, and pretty good kiting skills. In WAR I stayed as far away as possible to be effective on my green guy. I only made it about mid-level in that game before I got utterly bored with the PvE aspect, though, and just couldn't make myself level anymore.

Disclaimer: I'm not saying there's never a group that deserved to be left, but that holds true for any class you happen to be on. I'm saying don't go around expecting special treatment because you play whack a mole with health bars.

[JonyL]

Very helpful even for an old healer^^
Thanks for the guide, really helped

[imahoot]

Originally Posted by Sarielle

Please don't encourage this mentality. I -still- don't know why so many healers think that being a prima donna is okay since they tend to be the least class played. You already tend to get groups faster than anyone else; no need to be an *** on top of it.

Yea, let the bad/bossy ones die repeatedly until they leave.

[Malais]

It's been my experience that in most groups they end up trying to make the healer lead. Once in a while you get a decent tank(who should always lead IMO) who steps up, but most times a PuG is just everyone for themselves unless the healer takes charge.

Personally I take any death as a failure of my abilities. Maybe I'm just a perfectionist.

[LoneStar]

Your already perfect, your elyos

But yeah i feel pretty pi$$ed if i let a friend die. I find it equally amusing letting those I dont like die tho lol.

[Cocowoushi]

I hate being leader. The Tank should be the one to lead and call targets in my book and if someone should try to give me lead I'm going to pass it to the first tank I get in group. I have enough to worry about healing people than inviting more people or calling targets.

[imahoot]

Originally Posted by Cocowoushi

I hate being leader. The Tank should be the one to lead and call targets in my book and if someone should try to give me lead I'm going to pass it to the first tank I get in group. I have enough to worry about healing people than inviting more people or calling targets.

Agreed. Tanks should always be the ones calling targets and even pulling IMO, for PUGs at least.

[Malais]

Originally Posted by imahoot

Agreed. Tanks should always be the ones calling targets and even pulling IMO, for PUGs at least.

Maybe we should all add something like this to our sigs. I mean seriously don't we have enough to do keeping people alive without having to direct everyone else too? I mean if I wanted to play a pet class I would have.

[Cocowoushi]

Originally Posted by Malais

I mean if I wanted to play a pet class I would have.

Lol, QFT.

[Kaey]

Ok, I threw in a little text at the end explaining why I attached that quote (:

[Manicai]

I just hope they make healing in Aion a little bit more engaging that WAR.

My main was a Disciple of Khaine. The DoK was the original outcast healer in the game. So much so that groups would much prefer the other healer archetypes.

Now the healing of the DoK is OP. All I have to do is bind my group heal to 1-0 and nod off to sleep every couple seconds.

I'm hoping that if there are any group heals in this game, that they have a considerable cooldown.

Picking and choosing the right targets to heal during triage moments is what makes healing fun IMO.