Kelynaria finally made it to level eighty at the end of last week. Last Friday, to be precise. Just between us, I nearly ran out of steam at the end there.
Having accomplished that, it was time to open Pandora’s box and learn how to heal. After putting it off for a couple of days, I jumped in with both feet – healing for a Heroic Culling of Stratholme run.
It was an interesting group. We had a new Tank (Malanore) and Healer (Kely); and then a good experienced tank DPS’ing (Undeniable) and a good experienced healer DPS’ing (Katreya) and Jojoba to round out the group.
From my standpoint, having Katreya there was a godsend. She did DPS, but she also – very quietly – did a lot of fill-in and back-up healing for me. I really appreciated her being there. It gave me some time to get used to the spells and the change in focus that healing requires. For example, I very rarely watched my own health bar – and when I did glance up at it Kat was already tossing a heal on me.
We only wiped once – on the first boss. After that, Kat reassured me that she’d be there to help out healing – and I quickly learned a few lessons about Druid healing – and we made it through the rest of the instance just fine.
So, what did I learn on my first run out?
Lesson One: While I have to watch the entire party – I really, really need to pay attention to the Tank and to myself. I did a good job on watching the tank – did a bad job watching myself. Kat won’t be there next time to keep me topped off – and if I die, then the tank dies.
Lesson Two: If you’re going to spam something, then spam Lifebloom and Rejuv; not Regrowth. I started the run with lots and lots of Regrowth and Nurture… that really didn’t work out too well, and I ended up having to play catch up far too often. There is a time and a place for regrowth, but not as the primary heal spell. Once I started to get the hang of the spells I started using Lifebloom and Healing Touch a lot more, with Regrowth thrown in just to HoT up the Tank if he started to take some serious damage.
Lesson Three: With a party, Wild Growth is my friend. Seriously. Once we were past the second boss I started to keep the tank targeted, and between Lifeblooms and Rejuv, I’d hit the party with a Wild Growth. Kept everyone topped off, and I didn’t have to CTRL-TAB through targets to do so.
Lesson Four: Don’t blow ‘Nature’s Swiftness’ on Trash. Not unless you’ve got at least three minutes until the next boss.
Lesson Five: Druids are not Mages. Druids do not have Evocate or Mana Biscuits. I need to purchase some good Mana food before runs, and I need a really good stack of Runic Mana pots. That said, I only actually ran out of Mana once during the run, and I was able to Pot and keep healing.
Healing really requires a completely different mindset than DPS. Yes, that is an obvious statement, but still one that I find myself saying today. It’s one thing to be aware of it – intellectually – and another to actually face it and realize the finesse that healing requires.
I’m really not sure if I’ll be a good healer or not. I enjoyed the challenge, and I’d like to give it a go again soon. After all, once the research and reading is done – doing it is the only true way to learn.
Beyond the Horizon 