Cataclysm Healing

I just hit 84 last night and tried to go back to the Stonecore to try the last boss again (who i havent been able to beat yet) before bed... I was able to smoke this dungeon (up until the last boss) at 83, and am unable to clear the 2nd boss at 84... i just run out of mana. Its very annoying. I know I need some more gear upgrades, its just very disconcerting to level up and go backwards in power though.

I know itll be fine when i get some better gear... just complaining... blah.

Very interested in seeing how my disc priest healer is going to feel at 85.

Healing is very different than wotlk. You may not have a gear problem and more an issue with learning the new mode of healing. It sure took me a while to learn it.

Healing is all about triage now. Keeping your group topped off 100% of the time is going to run you OOM insanely fast.

You need to keep your healer and dps with enough life that they stay alive, but don't waste time and mana healing them to full health pools are much larger now, and heals are slow and steady or fast and costly.

Your tank is really the one you want to keep topped off, and don't just spam fast heals like WOTLK you will be oom. Ideally you want to be casting shields/hots and mana efficient small heals constantly on the tank where your mana barely moves, and then the slow big heals for the "spike" boss damage.

Healing isn't the only issue make sure you manage your tank cooldowns accordingly.

I understand the complaints. I tore up stonecore at 82, except for the last boss, and now at 85 I'm having mana issues trying to finish the place off. I've noticed similar issues with other zones. VP was a faceroll at 82, but has actually gotten harder the more I level.

I've noticed three annoying details:

• My tank's damage mitigation is amazing compared to 82 but the casters have not improved at all. So the trash mobs with AOE skills can still take 10% off everyone's health if you don't move fast enough.
  
• My casters are around 92-95k health each, but they only have mana pools around 66k. I've been equipping everything I can find with int/spirit/haste trying to get their mana pools up and cast big heals fast. Most of my team is in caster cloth.
  
• Nothing I do, atm, is helping heal scaling or mana. I'm running 2x resto and have moved away from chain heals to direct heals for everything (since so many talents buff direct heals) and I'm still having issues. Currently I direct heal the 2 dps, with the 20% self heal from the resto, then I self heal, and I still barely scratch my health pools.

I'm trying different combos of waves, trying to find a balance between good heals and good cast speed. It's very frustrating. On a plus side, the 2x healing stream totems generate 1800 hp or so per tick, so minor aoe can be ignored.

I'm able to finish zones but I stop to drink all the time.

I'm working on an update to my 2x resto build. I've got a bizzare talent and macro setup that really helps with mana regen but I haven't found a graceful solution to group heals yet. I'm also about 10 item points from entering heroics, so my time is spent farming drops and reps for gear.

I'm changing my healing model to adjust to Cata, too. However, the complaint that the non-heroic instances get harder the more you level is real and annoying.

A healing spell's power doesn't go up, just it's mana cost. Everything is a % of the pool now. So the strategy that works at 82 breaks at 83, then you get a strategy at 83 that works and it breaks at 84. I'm at 85 now and reworking my strategy, yet again, for 85 normals.

If anything else was breaking, like caster dps pools, then that would be something. Punishing healers for leveling doesn't make much sense to me, but I'm on the tail end of it and putting it behind me.

I'm assuming I'll reconfigure yet again for heroics until the gear scaling helps with the current-non-scaling mana pools.

Not to rant too much, but here's something else that bothers me.

I'm running a frost mage because of frost's survivability and mana replenishment. Sometimes he's arcane.

Frost is the worst dps of the 3 specs. I know that and I'm cool with it; however, my frost mage will 1-2 times a fight proc a 55k hit. Not only that, but it's instant cast and mana free.

If my healers would proc an instant, mana free heal that was only 20k I'd be happy. They don't.

I've got no problems with a design change that says one resto shaman can't chain heal a group to full health anymore. That's fine. But two dedicated healers have issues direct healing three characters?

Currently 5 arcane mages can clear normal instances. I can clear them on a mixed team, but boss fights take 3 times longer.

If healing is meant to be a challenge, why can you make successful groups without healers?

I will say that it DOES get better with gear, at least for my Holy Paladin, for sure. However I also had to adjust my macro for more mana conservation over better healing (which puts me into the "Oh Shit!" situations alot more often). Once my Paladin started collecting 346/359 gear, it got better and better.

The thing I'm wondering now is wether I want to start stacking INT or Spirit gems.

The few upgrades I've got have helped.

From some research on elitist jerks, I'm enchanting/gemming/reforging for int/haste on my team. Spirit seems to only help mana regen out of combat. I'd rather have more mana in combat. And I'd rather have faster heals than the occasional crit.

Does anyone have a better strategy for gear? I'm trying to find items with more int/spirit than stam, but the ratio seems to be 2 stam for 1 int atm.

Spells scale with level so if you aren't upgrading your gear as you level your mana last less and less

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Originally Posted by gunsun

The few upgrades I've got have helped.

From some research on elitist jerks, I'm enchanting/gemming/reforging for int/haste on my team. Spirit seems to only help mana regen out of combat. I'd rather have more mana in combat. And I'd rather have faster heals than the occasional crit.

Does anyone have a better strategy for gear? I'm trying to find items with more int/spirit than stam, but the ratio seems to be 2 stam for 1 int atm.

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Spirit helps your not casting regen.... if you stack spirit just stop casting and it will go up.

I'm a fan of Int and mastery right now.