Help - What am I doing wrong in healing group

[Zapest]

<p><span style="font-size: 9pt; color: #ffffff;">I just started using the Advanced Combat Tracker, and am amazed at what seems to be my poor healing.  What numbers should I be looking at to judge how well I am doing?  I was in a group last night, and thought I was doing pretty well keeping the main tank alive and healing the group but when I looked at the ACT numbers when we were done, it didn't seem like I wasn't doing all that well.  I was looking at the columns for "Healed", Healed%, and CritHeals, and in every one of those categories I was beaten, (sometimes by a lot) by the Fury in the group.  It was an 80 pickup group for some TOS instance.  What could I be doing wrong, or what numbers in ACT should I study?  I usually put all my efforts into keeping the main tank up.  I figure if the MT goes down, the group goes down.  In a normal encounter, I usually rotate through these spells Meliorate, Arch Restoration, Vital Intercession, and Word of Redemption for group and Holy Intercession for group.  These seem to be the core spells I use in most encounters for the group. I also provide as many cures as I can, and debuffs on target.  So, what can I do to improve my numbers, and exactly which numbers should I be looking at?  I do cast shield ally, but it is hard for me to tell how well it is working.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 9pt; color: #ffffff;">Thanks for the help.</span></p>

[Brindle]

<p>Reading a heal parse is not in the same ballpark as reading a parse for DPS.  You have to consider the tanks gear, damage types, aoe vs single target.  Shield ally won't show directly but you can right click the tank in ACT and look at the avoidance report.</p><p>It is likely the instance you where doing had a ton of AOE damage hitting the group and the druid was keeping the group regen going.</p><p>For another example, I'm a MT group templar in a raiding guild.  Our MT has good gear and good buffs, so in an easier raid like Shard of Hate the mobs rarely get through the defilers wards so my heal parse looks like crap. (I started loading a DPS AA spec for those zones) However, when we are working on newer content and pushing our limits trying the hard mobs, I can out heal the defiler.  I don't always outheal the defiler but templars are great at countering high spike damage.</p><p>I mostly only look at the heal parse every once in awhile, especialy if we have a new healer recruit.  When I do that though I'm not looking to see them at the top of the parse, just parsing about where they should be for the group they are in in the raid.</p><p>One other use for the parse is looking at your individual spells, you might be suprised witch heals are healing for how much.  It can help pioritize buying masters and your cast order.</p><p>Bottom line, don't get to wrapped up in heal parses, it takes some interpritation to understand what it is saying.  DPS parse is just much more cut and dry.</p>

[El Conquistador]

<p>Zapest, since you mention a level 80 pick-up group I assume you're level 80 also.  In that case, I think you should add Repent to your healing rotation.  With Repent and the two intercessions, you may not need the direct heals at all.  Repent also 'counts first' on the parse since it's a ward, so that might improve your parse numbers a bit.  As stated above though, don't sweat the parse as long as the group stays alive and its goals are accomplished.</p>

[SpineDoc]

<p>You can't leave out Repent, it is amazing on spike damage.  The long recast means you have to time it though.  Once you get in a rhythym you can tell when a ward caster is in his recast phase, and you can time repent when the tank is somewhat low to maximize your healing dps.  It's very satisfying to see the tanks health spike up from red to max in that lull when both healers are waiting for their timers to refresh.</p><p>Also don't forget we have some great buffs, arguably the best in the game.  And the damage NOT DONE does not get parsed, as well as the extra damage done by our debuffs.</p>

[Giliad]

<p>Repent has a 30 recast and duration meaning if it doesn't take all the damage allowed it will still be partially up when recast is available.  Obviously it is gonna take spike damage and disappear.  Every 30 sec repent should be cast.  Will totally boost up your numbers.  Some like to use reverance like me, some don't.  On the pull the tank is gonna go all out with cas and taunts.  that converts to 210% health at the ad3 version, followed by shield of faith which wards arcane damage.  Follow with a group reactive then place, mark, invol, fate and reproval.  Also have glory on as many peeps as the focus spots you have left after buffing.  get your HCrits maxed because your heal crit will increase causing bigger numbers.  looking at my parses I usually crit about 500 a trash fight in raid and named over 1000 crits.  imagine the numbers of those crits.  OLH also helps but has been nerfed and not sure if fixed yet.</p>

[Zapest]

<p>Thanks!!  This has helped a lot.  I hadn't been using "repent" that much.  I was just in a several hour tour of chardok with a pick up 80 group.  I was using the ACT program.  Affter we were done I was looking over the numbers.  "Repent" was right at the top for heals, followed by "word of Redemption, Supplicat Prayer, Meliorate and Arch Restoration and out healed the Fury in the group (not by much though).</p>

[Agnar D'Shar]

I play an 80 fury and templar (and zerk and swash and defiler etc). My experience of PUG healing is this: - On most heroic fights a fury may well out parse the templar on heals but not by much - On the tougher/longer heroic fights the templar will likely outparse the fury, sometimes by a lot - I have never seen a templar regularly outparse a defiler/mystic on any type of fight Your mileage will vary. It all depends on gear, the way the toon is played, the mobs you are fighting, etc. But this guidance may help you work out where you probably "fit" in the healer tree. Also, for most heroic PUG situations, this is my healing cast order. Some have said it above: - Repent (single target ward) - group reactive - single target reactive Rinse and repeat. No need for direct heals. Very little need for the Mark or Involuntary lines. However, the more debuffs and Mark/Involuntary you do, the better your group will do.

[Tenchisama]

<p>I find that spamming heals is a last resort when incoming damage is way too high</p><p>balancing and timing your heals are far more important - knowing when you need to use certain tools in your kit are crucial in battle here is a list of tools that I use a lot</p><p>1) as mentioned REPENT is a fantastic tool - our only direct ward (we have some spell mitigation as well) Repent is both a ward and lotto heal and when you first START healing in an encounter can help buy you time to get longer casting heals into play.  REPENT is also very handy when healing avoidance style tanks like brawlers or saving squishy cloth casters who have stolen aggro because of its fairly quick cast and high heal prevention/lotto healing</p><p>2) DIVINE ARBITRATION - one of the best tools we have as well - it is not restricted by line of sight or range - but it does have a few key risks to be aware of - if you are in the MT group it will distribute health based on all group members (the MT is usually the highest) and since it does so equally it may actually LOWER the MT's current life depending on the situation.  secondly - if you have aoe damage incoming you may save one person to doom the group - say you are in the MT group and the MT joins the purple club so you hit arbitation - saves the MT but after sharing back the HP say the group now has ~3k hp each and then the damned aoe hits for ~3500 each - group wipe instead of just losing the one person....and of course it is also possible to kill someone with arb too =P</p><p>3) Sanctuary - used to help block AOE's - learn it, use it, love it</p><p>4) Death Prevention - like Holy Salvation - fast casting when you see someone redline you can have a chance to prevent their death at least for a little while - also usefull against deathtouch style encounters</p><p>5) other heals such as Healing Fate can help you in combat when incoming damage or aoe is overwhelming what you already have - also a power effective heal as such.</p><p>your primary reactives are single target faster cast and groupwide slow cast - learn how to time them as overspamming is wasting power.</p><p>your gear choices depend on your spec of course - as a full heal spec templar I go for +heal crit and +heal in that order.</p><p>hope that helps you find a better place to start than the parser =P</p>

[SisterTheresa]

<p>Does anyone here use Marks?</p><p>I'm only 77 now ... not a raider in the least and neither is my guild.  But I find when healing the MT (normally a good geared Pally more defensive than anything) if I throw my Mark, the uh ... Hand thingie (both that do healing when they get hit) along with the other reactives I have.</p><p>Keeps them up pretty darn good as well as the group.</p>

[PRALL]

<p><cite>Katryina@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Does anyone here use Marks?</p><p>I'm only 77 now ... not a raider in the least and neither is my guild.  But I find when healing the MT (normally a good geared Pally more defensive than anything) if I throw my Mark, the uh ... Hand thingie (both that do healing when they get hit) along with the other reactives I have.</p><p>Keeps them up pretty darn good as well as the group.</p></blockquote><p>The "hand thingy" is called Involuntary Healing (or some variant depending on level.)</p><p>As always, my rotation is greatly based on the situation. These are not in my rotation if we are mowing through trash mobs. For as long as it would take for me to cast that spell, the mob goes down before it can be much help. My power in this scenario is better spent on the reactive that procs a group heal when the mob dies.</p><p>On heroic or harder mobs, I will most likely toss in some of these mob reactives you mention. If I have Glory, Repent, and the single target reactive on the tank as well as these debuffs on the mob, then it greatly reduces the power I have to spend on big one-shot heals. I like the Involuntary Healing line better than the Mark because the proc heals the whole group. Also, having Glory on more than one group member (preferably melee classes with fast primary weapons) will save you a lot of power.</p>

[Artist]

<p>Involuntary Gift <span >is one of my favorite spells. It really helps to out-heal huge AOE damage. I cast Involuntary Gift and Holy Intercession before AOE and Word of Redemption after it. The AOE trigger Involuntary Gift, Holy Intercession and Allied Prayers. Word of Redemption trigger overloaded healing. With 100% crit heal and bonus from the healing stance in means full out-heal of any AOE in 2 seonds. Without Involuntary Gift it would not be that easy.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span >Also Involuntary Gift trigger well on nameds with reactive damage.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span >Now looking in the last Druushk parse. Involuntary Gift is about 10% of my heals. Mark of Divinity is about 5% of my heals.</span></p>

[Agnar D'Shar]

<p>Some people may not realize the difference between Mark and Involuntary Healer/gift. Mark triggers when your group hits the mob. Involuntary triggers when the mob hits your group. Big difference.</p><p>Imagine you are in a group with a fabled tank and a mezzer. The mezzer keeps the mob stunned and interrupted, and the tanks avoidance is so high he rarely gets hit anyway. In this case. the mob hardly hits the tank, so Involuntary is not worth casting.</p><p>So only cast Involuntary where you are sure the mob will be hitting the tank often.</p><p>Whereas Mark is a lot less situational. It triggers when your group hits the mob. No matter how tough the encounter is, your group has to hit the mob to get it dead, right? So Mark is worth it in most situations. Unless the mob is dying so fast you hardly need to heal anyway <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Tenchisama]

<p>whats nice about involuntary is its a large group heal at the end of the fight - means you worry less about topping off - especially those [Removed for Content] choker people</p><p>its all situational and takes practice - know all of your tools and use whats appropriate when you need it</p><p>ACT is a nice tool - dont get me wrong - but it is NOT the end all be all especially for templars</p><p>the real measure of a good templar when all is said and done</p><p>1) we keep as many people alive as is feasible</p><p>2) we know who is more important than who - so if push comes to shove Im gonna save the more important one first</p><p>3) we react well, cure quickly, and apply arbitration and death prevents at the right times to the right peeps</p><p>4) we know our spells and abilities</p><p>5) we use power efficiently</p><p>the reason ACT is not the best tool for us is that it fails to measure a lot of what we are capable of - also - it is biased against templars actually because of the way our heals work when in use with other healers.</p>

[PRALL]

<p><cite><a href="mailto:Tenchisama@Mistmoore">Tenchisama@Mistmoore</a> wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>its all situational and takes practice - know all of your tools and use whats appropriate when you need it</p><p>ACT is a nice tool - dont get me wrong - but it is NOT the end all be all especially for templars</p><p>the real measure of a good templar when all is said and done</p><p><span style="color: #00ccff;"><<snip>></span></p><p>the reason ACT is not the best tool for us is that it fails to measure a lot of what we are capable of - also - it is biased against templars actually because of the way our heals work when in use with other healers.</p></blockquote><p>This is worth mentioning because a heal parse means nothing unless you look at group structure, difficulty of mob, duration of fight....  you get the picture. A quick fight where only the tank is being hit will make your heal parse look malnurished compared to a parse on a boss mob using AoE spells throughout a long fight. And how many hps did you save your group when you cured that AoE arcane effect? ACT won't tell you that. It can't.</p><p>Tenchisama has the right outlook on this. A group is more concerned that you keep the group alive than they are about how you did it. Whether you heal 20k or 80k makes no difference if you are preventing deaths and curing quickly. If your group never has to use rescue abilities/spells then you are doing your job.</p>

[Perrigrin]

<p>Also look at what you're comparing. You're comparing a Templar's heal parse to a Fury's heal parse. Templar's heals, with the exception of the direct heals, rely upon someone getting hit to get the heal from the spell. Furies on the other hand, have heal over times, both single target and group, so the party is getting healed through AOE's, dots, hits, everything. Heal parses are highly inaccurate in my opinion, unless you're comparing same-class healers, because of the very different ways each type of priest heals.</p>

[Jevangal]

<p>As well as all the factors just mentioned, your position on the parse also depends who is in the group with you and what effects (such as coercive healing and time compression) are on who. </p><p>Heal parses are therefore an inaccurate way to measure healing performance <em>between healers</em> but are more useful in measuring the performance <em>between abilities</em> of the same healer.  To that end, the pie chart element of ACT is useful in determining what heals are doing most of the work.  But again, there are numerous mathematical factors that skew the figures (as mentioned by others in this thread) so view it as a rough guide rather than a healer's Bible.</p>

[Arielle Nightshade]

<p>Raiding Warden and Templar here.   </p><p>As others have said, a Templar's parse depends on the target actually getting hit in order to show 'big numbers'  My Warden's heal parse will pwn many clerics if I'm healing choker wearers, or cloth wearers taking a lot of damage.  If I'm targeting the MT or the OT, I can forget it - I'm last after wards and reactives...assuming the tank in question actually took any damage.  My chances of sneaking a heal in are pretty much nil.</p><p>Don't worry so much about numbers, but see what heal/spell did what during the fight.  Dont get depressed if you didn't have a chance to heal.  As a Warden, if the Templar wasn't kind of holding the line of spike damage, I would not be free to look across the raid to heal those that might need it - and I'd never parse anything since direct heals and regens get 'read' last.</p><p>You can /flex at topping the parse, but it doesn't actually tell the whole story.  Bottom line is the raid is all alive with no deaths at the end of any fight.  If that's the case, then the raid's healers are doing their job.  How they got there is only sketchily outlined by a parser.</p>

[Nodecodiver]

<p>Just for the record - in line with what everyone else is saying, I will add another tidbit about a Parser.</p><p>I'm not proud of it, but I headed up a very successful guild in WoW for a long time, and at a few points the going got rough and a lot of my guys were overly concerned with the DPS and Heal parses.</p><p>DPS parses in general lead to pulling agro, and all sorts of not fun stuff, especially with the WoW crowd.</p><p>But, at least in WoW - all three healer archetypes performed mainly the same function.</p><p>Direct Heal / HoT</p><p>There were some wards, and other utility spells, but for the most part, everyone tossed out big or small directs, and HoTs. Some classes were better at one than the other.</p><p>This means that you could run a heal parse, and get a pretty good idea which healer was sitting in the back of the raid tossing out the ocassional heal waiting on loot, or was AFK.</p><p>The only way one class got screwed is if someone else healed their target first, causing their heal to land on a 100% target. (Which means they were either slow, picked the wrong heal, or someone else is healing someone they may or may not be supposed to be at that point in time)</p><p>When the heal parse got into everyones head, it turned into an all out power-blasting brawl to see who could put up the biggest numbers. We had MT healers patch healing DPS groups while the MT was dying, MT healers waiting until tanks got to 30% to dump their monster heal on for the most spike healing possible.</p><p>I eventually got the nonsense under control with the parsers, and told everyone that the next time I pulled a report down and saw MT group or OT group healers with more than the occassional heal thrown at a DPS group (who by the way had their own healer who was fully capable) they would be sidetracked from raiding for a week.</p><p>Anyways, I told you that to tell you this.</p><p>In EQ2, the manner of healing is not at ALL compatible with a heal parser.</p><p>For one thing, Shamans Ward damage. As far as I know, Warded damage does not show up on a heal parser as HP healed.</p><p>Templars reactives don't parse if the target is at full health.</p><p>Druid's HoT's don't parse if the target is at full health.</p><p>(And none of these things should parse, just saying)</p><p>So you have a templar who is constantly dumping reactives, while throwing small DD heals and Involuntary and Mark, and the tank stays full a lot of the time, or at least near enough to full to prevent the Temp from wasting their time casting a big long heal.</p><p>You have a Shaman who is warding tons of damage, and waiting for that critical moment when the planets align and the wards and reactives and HoT's are all down and the tank gets spiked. Then the shaman dumps some major heal on him.</p><p>The druids patch heal constantly, and put out some sick HoT's. But HoT's have the possibility to be operative long after your health bar is full.</p><p>What it boils down to is, in this game there is so much more going on that just simply "Health Points Healed" like in WoW.</p><p>It's just not possible to watch a heal meter and figure out whos really doing all the work.</p><p>Good example:</p><p>We just raided that Spirit of Vox yesterday with some of our newer folks in the guild.</p><p>During the fight, our 80 tank went below half twice.</p><p>The rest of the time, reactives and wards kept him above 90-95%.</p><p>Everytime he dropped, I know our shaman was dumping bigger numbers than me, he was at the time, a higher level than my Templar.</p><p>But at the end of the day - if our spells combined kept the tank alive and we won the fight, what difference really does the heal parser make?</p><p>The shaman by himself would not have been able to keep the tank up, especially not hovering around 95%.</p><p>My point is that the heal parse is junk in EQ2. There are too many variables, and too many "what if's" to really get a good feel for what the heal parse is saying.</p><p>If you reduced everyone to direct heal / HoT only, you could use it to see who is not AFK or who is the fastest on the buttons, but other than that, EQ2 doesn't lend itself to a heal parse.</p>

[EQPrime]

<p><cite>Nodecodiver wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>For one thing, Shamans Ward damage. As far as I know, Warded damage does not show up on a heal parser as HP healed.</p><p><span style="color: #ff0000;">This is incorrect.  Wards show up on the heal parse and that's why shamen almost always lead the heal parse unless there's a lot of AoE damage.</span></p><p>Templars reactives don't parse if the target is at full health.</p><p><span style="color: #ff0000;">True, we lose reactive ticks if a ward is on the target and he/she doesn't take any damage.  If he does take damage the reactive will heal.</span></p><p>Druid's HoT's don't parse if the target is at full health.</p><p><span style="color: #ff0000;">True, there's nothing to heal.</span></p><p>(And none of these things should parse, just saying)</p><p>So you have a templar who is constantly dumping reactives, while throwing small DD heals and Involuntary and Mark, and the tank stays full a lot of the time, or at least near enough to full to prevent the Temp from wasting their time casting a big long heal.</p><p><span style="color: #ff0000;">It really depends on the fight.  On most fights repent, single reactive, and group reactive are all you need to keep the tank alive, assuming the shaman is doing a good job with wards.  On tough fights you may have to burn everything you have to keep the tank up.</span></p><p>You have a Shaman who is warding tons of damage, and waiting for that critical moment when the planets align and the wards and reactives and HoT's are all down and the tank gets spiked. Then the shaman dumps some major heal on him.</p><p><span style="color: #ff0000;">In a raid, the shaman's primary responsibility is keeping wards and debuffs up.  They occasionally use direct heals but probably not too often.</span></p><p>The druids patch heal constantly, and put out some sick HoT's. But HoT's have the possibility to be operative long after your health bar is full.</p><p><span style="color: #ff0000;">We usually don't have a druid in the MT group (or oftentimes in raid at all these days <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />) but you're right that most HoTs on the tank will not do too much.  On the other hand, in an AoE heavy fight or in a choker group druids can top the parse just healing their groups.</span></p><p>What it boils down to is, in this game there is so much more going on that just simply "Health Points Healed" like in WoW.</p><p><span style="color: #ff0000;">You got that right.  I use the heal parse more to see where my healing is coming from and also to see how new recruits are doing than anything else.</span></p><p>It's just not possible to watch a heal meter and figure out whos really doing all the work.</p><p>Good example:</p><p>We just raided that Spirit of Vox yesterday with some of our newer folks in the guild.</p><p>During the fight, our 80 tank went below half twice.</p><p>The rest of the time, reactives and wards kept him above 90-95%.</p><p>Everytime he dropped, I know our shaman was dumping bigger numbers than me, he was at the time, a higher level than my Templar.</p><p>But at the end of the day - if our spells combined kept the tank alive and we won the fight, what difference really does the heal parser make?</p><p><span style="color: #ff0000;">That's the truth.  Beating the encounter (with as few repair bills as possible) is the main goal.</span></p><p>The shaman by himself would not have been able to keep the tank up, especially not hovering around 95%.</p><p>My point is that the heal parse is junk in EQ2. There are too many variables, and too many "what if's" to really get a good feel for what the heal parse is saying.</p><p>If you reduced everyone to direct heal / HoT only, you could use it to see who is not AFK or who is the fastest on the buttons, but other than that, EQ2 doesn't lend itself to a heal parse.</p><p><span style="color: #ff0000;">There's also no parsing of cures which are oftentimes more important than heals.</span></p></blockquote>

[Valrose]

<p>I will toss in my thoughts and experience with raiding, I am always in MT group and I believe only once was I topped on the heal parse by a druid of some kind and that was my first time in PR.  Currently I only use adept 3 heal spells, aside from a couple of masters I have like reverence.  The difficulty is making sure to use all your tools from your box at the right time.  Placing reverence on the MT for the pull then keeping it on a Necro after that is a nice use of that particular tool.  Mark and Invo heal your targets, reproval and salvation them as well.  Your experience may vary slightly but there are only a few rare instances in a raid boss battle where I might use an attack spell and that is Turn Undead if an apropriate target.  Normally you will have enough to do in dot management and healing to keep you busy.  You should always keep your group reactive up and available, usually my single target reactive I can save for the OT if I am the only cleric in the raid, Repent and Group react should take care of the MT with spot heals now and then. </p><p>Don't forget about your emergency heals either, I macro'd the single target and group reactive to one key since they both have a five minute reuse, I proc it off on the Boss battle almost imeadiatly since that is when you need the most time to get your rotatation of heals started.  The emergency heals are instant cast and will keep MT group going quite well while you get your big casting spells in place.  Always keep an eye on the other healers in the raid as well, toss out direct heals on them or dot maintanance should you not be stunned and they are.</p><p>Most of the time topping the heal parse is simply a matter of how alert you are and how well you use your tools.</p>