Light
vet
Last up dated 5/9/2018
Prologue
This guide was intended for a player who already understands some basic mechanism it includes but is not limited to someone who: Does NOT click their spells, Does NOT move with arrows keys but their mouse, KNOWS how to keybind, and KNOWS how to make basic macros.
This guide was inspired by a new member to XPOFF asking for basic tips on how to be a better healer. I then realized that are some very basic things you can do to drastically improve your healing. So this guide is not only for twinks but for anyone on any level trying to be a better healer in WoW in the competitive 10v10 scene, whether it is RBGs or wargames in a twink bracket.
A little bit about me: I main a 20 paladin and have been healing since cataclysm (the expansions F2P started). In MoP I got into endgame and really enjoyed. In WoD I got competitive in endgame with mostly arenas and in legion I got more interest in RBGs. I healed RBGs in 2500+ mmr and have healed in many twinks wargames in WoD. Truth be told I love it, and its actually a lot easier than being a dps with a heavier role. I think you will be convinced after this guide that healing is actually pretty easy compared to the jobs of other classes. With ease comes opportunity for growth in other areas such as awareness and positioning. With all the growth and ease, your gonna find healing to be a lot more fun than any other role.
This will actually be a short guide because: I'm only giving you the tools; Your gonna have to go and do the work to get the experience and improve. I can't promise multi gladiator/hero in one guide. What I can promise is putting you in the right path to which you should be gaining experience. With nothing further to say lets just dive into it, I like to get really technical and just get the point. No time to waste.
UI Set Up
This is pretty much the 1 of 2 keys to really heal optimally in BGs ( the 2/2 key is macros but will get there). Lets just dive in: You can't go around clicking party frames or messy raid profiles and then proceed to heal, dispel, or whatever it is you have to do. That simply takes too much time, the optimal thing to do is to use mouseover macros, which I will teach after the UI set up, to just put your mouse cursor over the raid frames of a player and cast whatever you need to cast, without targeting, and simply move your mouse an inch to heal any other player in your raid. Targeting works fine in arenas but not in BGs.
The Setup is Simple
CLICK SPOILER for visual representation
1. Open up UI from the interface Settings
2. Go to Raid Profiles.
3. Make a New profile for Healing (optional)
4.Check the Following: Keep Groups Together. Display Incoming Heals. Display Class Colors. Show Debuffs. Show only Dispellable Debuffs. Optional But recommended: Show Raid Party Style Frames & Check everything else Off, you really don't need extra distractions.
5. Choose between Health Percentage, or Remaining Health to display the players HP. (I prefer percentage, less messy)
6. Set the Raid Height ALL THE WAY UP, the raid with is up to you but do not make it to small.
That was basically it, so when you enter a BG it should look something like this.
Move the raid frames anywhere you'd like by clicking unlock as I showed above in the image, just make sure to lock it back.
It works really simple as I said, you just move your mouse over the raid frames that I highlighted above and cast whatever spell you want on whatever player you'd like, no need to target them. As you can see from above if a player is too far away their frames will be grayed out. So there will never be a guessing of whos close and whos far. You want to free up your target and focus for more important things, including enemies, but that's another topic.
Macros
So this is the last step to complete your optimal healing.
When you move your mouse over the frames and cast a healing spell, it will just cast it on yourself. To prevent this you need a macro that will heal the target your mouse is over. That macro is called a mouseover, the name is self explanatory.
Lets just dive in, the simplest mouseover macro format is:
/cast [@mouseover] Healing Spell
Its really simple, [@mouseover] means whatever your mouse is over, is what your gonna cast the spell to. [Healing spell] can be replaced with any spell you'd like.
However there is one small issue, healing yourself tends to be a pain and it doesn't feel right when its strictly mouse over, it will always say invalid target if your not targeting anything.... your gonna have to do one more thing to make it feel natural:
/cast [@mouseover,exists][] Healing Spell
The ,[exists][] part just makes sure that even if your not mouseovering anything, your gonna heal yourself and still cast the spell like you normally would.
Here is a full example of what it would look like for a paladin's holy shock spell, along with a visual representation.
/cast [@mouseover,exists][] Holy Shock
Addons
I'm no a big fan of addons. They are unnecessary and slow performance.
Contrary to the popular advice, I don't recommend you get Healbot. That being said there some addons that are game changing and useful.
However there is one addon you cannot simply live without or miss out on if you want to be best healer in bgs, that it was necessary for me to give it its own Addon Section.
BattleGround Enemies
In essence it shows your enemy players in a bar.
Why is this important?
In legion when you click targets it shows their location by showing their name plates wherever they are (exception of stealth of course). This is huge because with this you build up awareness quickly. It is vital and important for you to know the positioning of your enemies, what they are doing, and were they are heading.
With a good group you will always know were to be, but there is the rare occasion were everyone is scattered and you have no idea were to go. This comes in handy with a rule of thumb if your ever lost: If you see are aware of the enemy hitting a base or certain area, you go there, you don't wait for incommings to be called, you instantly know were to go.
With all that being said. You now see how simple healing is.
You can now easily have room for improving on awareness through the method I gave you (using bgenemies) and practice positioning. Pay more attention to were your standing. Can the enemy harm me if I'm standing sigh? Am I safe behind this pillar? Am I in the right range to heal my allies and avoid my enemies?
Epilogue
I hope if you enjoyed this guide. Do give it like if you did.
Thank you for reading, the main intention for this guide was to make the average twink healer a more decent healer because BGs are more fun when you have good healers.
If you have any questions for me feel free to ask and I will reply as soon as I can.
If you have any tips that would be helpful to a beginner healer, do post down below and ill add them and credit you.
Praise the light.
Let the light bless you.
This guide was intended for a player who already understands some basic mechanism it includes but is not limited to someone who: Does NOT click their spells, Does NOT move with arrows keys but their mouse, KNOWS how to keybind, and KNOWS how to make basic macros.
This guide was inspired by a new member to XPOFF asking for basic tips on how to be a better healer. I then realized that are some very basic things you can do to drastically improve your healing. So this guide is not only for twinks but for anyone on any level trying to be a better healer in WoW in the competitive 10v10 scene, whether it is RBGs or wargames in a twink bracket.
A little bit about me: I main a 20 paladin and have been healing since cataclysm (the expansions F2P started). In MoP I got into endgame and really enjoyed. In WoD I got competitive in endgame with mostly arenas and in legion I got more interest in RBGs. I healed RBGs in 2500+ mmr and have healed in many twinks wargames in WoD. Truth be told I love it, and its actually a lot easier than being a dps with a heavier role. I think you will be convinced after this guide that healing is actually pretty easy compared to the jobs of other classes. With ease comes opportunity for growth in other areas such as awareness and positioning. With all the growth and ease, your gonna find healing to be a lot more fun than any other role.
This will actually be a short guide because: I'm only giving you the tools; Your gonna have to go and do the work to get the experience and improve. I can't promise multi gladiator/hero in one guide. What I can promise is putting you in the right path to which you should be gaining experience. With nothing further to say lets just dive into it, I like to get really technical and just get the point. No time to waste.
UI Set Up
This is pretty much the 1 of 2 keys to really heal optimally in BGs ( the 2/2 key is macros but will get there). Lets just dive in: You can't go around clicking party frames or messy raid profiles and then proceed to heal, dispel, or whatever it is you have to do. That simply takes too much time, the optimal thing to do is to use mouseover macros, which I will teach after the UI set up, to just put your mouse cursor over the raid frames of a player and cast whatever you need to cast, without targeting, and simply move your mouse an inch to heal any other player in your raid. Targeting works fine in arenas but not in BGs.
The Setup is Simple
CLICK SPOILER for visual representation
1. Open up UI from the interface Settings
2. Go to Raid Profiles.
3. Make a New profile for Healing (optional)
4.Check the Following: Keep Groups Together. Display Incoming Heals. Display Class Colors. Show Debuffs. Show only Dispellable Debuffs. Optional But recommended: Show Raid Party Style Frames & Check everything else Off, you really don't need extra distractions.
5. Choose between Health Percentage, or Remaining Health to display the players HP. (I prefer percentage, less messy)
6. Set the Raid Height ALL THE WAY UP, the raid with is up to you but do not make it to small.
That was basically it, so when you enter a BG it should look something like this.
Move the raid frames anywhere you'd like by clicking unlock as I showed above in the image, just make sure to lock it back.
It works really simple as I said, you just move your mouse over the raid frames that I highlighted above and cast whatever spell you want on whatever player you'd like, no need to target them. As you can see from above if a player is too far away their frames will be grayed out. So there will never be a guessing of whos close and whos far. You want to free up your target and focus for more important things, including enemies, but that's another topic.
Macros
So this is the last step to complete your optimal healing.
When you move your mouse over the frames and cast a healing spell, it will just cast it on yourself. To prevent this you need a macro that will heal the target your mouse is over. That macro is called a mouseover, the name is self explanatory.
Lets just dive in, the simplest mouseover macro format is:
/cast [@mouseover] Healing Spell
Its really simple, [@mouseover] means whatever your mouse is over, is what your gonna cast the spell to. [Healing spell] can be replaced with any spell you'd like.
However there is one small issue, healing yourself tends to be a pain and it doesn't feel right when its strictly mouse over, it will always say invalid target if your not targeting anything.... your gonna have to do one more thing to make it feel natural:
/cast [@mouseover,exists][] Healing Spell
The ,[exists][] part just makes sure that even if your not mouseovering anything, your gonna heal yourself and still cast the spell like you normally would.
Here is a full example of what it would look like for a paladin's holy shock spell, along with a visual representation.
/cast [@mouseover,exists][] Holy Shock
Addons
I'm no a big fan of addons. They are unnecessary and slow performance.
Contrary to the popular advice, I don't recommend you get Healbot. That being said there some addons that are game changing and useful.
However there is one addon you cannot simply live without or miss out on if you want to be best healer in bgs, that it was necessary for me to give it its own Addon Section.
BattleGround Enemies
In essence it shows your enemy players in a bar.
Why is this important?
In legion when you click targets it shows their location by showing their name plates wherever they are (exception of stealth of course). This is huge because with this you build up awareness quickly. It is vital and important for you to know the positioning of your enemies, what they are doing, and were they are heading.
With a good group you will always know were to be, but there is the rare occasion were everyone is scattered and you have no idea were to go. This comes in handy with a rule of thumb if your ever lost: If you see are aware of the enemy hitting a base or certain area, you go there, you don't wait for incommings to be called, you instantly know were to go.
With all that being said. You now see how simple healing is.
You can now easily have room for improving on awareness through the method I gave you (using bgenemies) and practice positioning. Pay more attention to were your standing. Can the enemy harm me if I'm standing sigh? Am I safe behind this pillar? Am I in the right range to heal my allies and avoid my enemies?
Epilogue
I hope if you enjoyed this guide. Do give it like if you did.
Thank you for reading, the main intention for this guide was to make the average twink healer a more decent healer because BGs are more fun when you have good healers.
If you have any questions for me feel free to ask and I will reply as soon as I can.
If you have any tips that would be helpful to a beginner healer, do post down below and ill add them and credit you.
Praise the light.
Let the light bless you.
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