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So you
have never been to a raid before, but have been to
lots and lots of instances. The two things are very different from each
other.
When it comes to raid healing you have other healers among you to work
with.
You all have your roles to play and must adjust accordingly. Sometimes
healers
make a big race to get that person healed before the other healers do,
good
thing to do sometimes.

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style=""> style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Know your
Role style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">


In
many raids, healers will call out healing assignments or
be given healing assignments.
You have Main Tank healing, Off Tank
Healing,
Raid Healing and Floaters. As a Holy Priest you have the luxury of
being able
to fit pretty much any assignment given to you or pick one you would
rather do.

style=""> style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Main Tank
Healing style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">


When
it comes to healing your Main Tank, you have to stick
with casting Greater Heal above Flash Heal. Main Tanks will tend to
charge in
first to groups of trash or when tanking a boss. Before the Off Tank
has a
chance to be able to pull any extra mobs off of the Main Tank, he/she
will be
taking lots of damage at first. So get Prayer of Mending on the tank
before
they charge in, this will handle any spike damage they may take in case
they
really do charge and are out of healing range for a couple of steps.
Keep Renew
on the tank as much as possible, this will help with spike damage that
occurs
from crits or special abilities that the boss or trash mobs do.
Don’t be afraid
to use Flash Heal every now and again, if the tanks HP is not falling
in large
chunks, Flash Heal can be a good spell to use when outside of a Boss
Fight. As
a Main Tank Healer you also will be doing a lot of over healing, you
can never
know sometimes when the tank will lose a lot of health.

You
also have to keep track of your range, and special
abilities from bosses. Tanks will have to move every now and again to
accommodate for things that are happening. That’s why Renew
is a great spell to
keep on the tank when they move slightly out of range. Keep an eye out
for
Emotes letting you know when an ability is coming and spike damage is
going to
occur, requiring you to start casting Greater Heal to hit after the
tank takes
the damage. Or have protective spells such as Power Word: Shield or
Guardian
Spirit up so they do not die.

style=""> style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Off Tank
Healing style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">


Off
Tank healing is very similar to Main Tank healing and
just as important of a role. Off Tanks, when dealing with most trash
mobs, will
not require much healing and so you must raid heal until the Off
Tank’s role is
required. In Ulduar there are many trash mobs that require an off tank,
compared
to Naxxramas. You heal your Off Tank just the same as you would a Main
Tank,
lots of Greater Healing, Renews up and possibly a Flash Heal every now
and
again. In some cases the Off Tank will run in before the Main Tank, to
take
care of extra trash mobs while the Main Tank pulls out the bigger and
badder
one. So get that Prayer of Mending on, and spam in some heals until the
Main
Tank pulls the hard hitter out of there.

In
boss fights when tanks will have to switch, listen out to
when the tanks are going to be switching, so you can start getting
those heals
ready to be cast on your Off Tank. Keep track of the Emotes and your
environment as well, to know when spike damage is going to occur or if
you end
up having to move out of range of your tank to get some protective
spells up on
the tank while you cannot heal.

style=""> style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Raid
Healing style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">


When
you do not have the task of healing either of the
tanks, you have to heal the raid. This is where your Circle of Healing,
Prayer
of Mending and Prayer of Healing shines as a Holy priest. Though you
rarely
ever get to use Prayer of Healing, it is still a good spell to keep
ready to
use, especially if something goes wrong and lots of raid damage is
going to
occur, because Prayer of Mending is not always dependable in bouncing
from person
to person and Circle of Healing does not heal for very much and has an
annoying
cooldown.

To be
able to properly use Prayer of Healing in raid wide
damage that takes a lot of HP away from your raid members, you will
need to
have a good Haste Rating set as the spell takes a long time to cast. If
you
know that the raid wide damage is going to be coming soon,
it’s best to start
casting it early, so it gives you time to cast it on the other group(s)
before
their HP gets too low.

With
Prayer of Mending, it can all depend on the situation
or boss fight on who you should best cast it on. If the tank is going
to be far
away from the other raid members, keep Prayer of Mending within a crowd
rather
than someone out by themselves.

Circle
of Healing is much of a smart heal, will heal the
closest members with the lowest HP, so who you cast it on can sometimes
not
matter, but casting it on the tank is usually not recommended, again
keep it
where there is a crowd of other raid members, so it will be used to its
full
effect.

style=""> style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Float
Healing style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">


Healers
who are floaters are normally back up healers to
take the spot of any healer who dies, but if one doesn’t die
then your job is
easy. Heal anyone who is taking damage, help other healers by keeping
Renew up
on the tank, or Prayer of Mending up in the raid crowd. Flash heal will
be your
number one spell, giving some health boost to the tanks you see with
low HP. Do
not do their job for them, it’s pretty annoying sometimes.
You can use any
spell at your disposal, Circle of Healing for tiny raid wide damage, or
Prayer
of Healing for larger damage. Flash Heal for the one person in the raid
who
took damage. Greater Heal will come into play if a Main Tank or Off
Tank healer
dies or runs out of mana and you step in to take their place.

style=""> style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Be
Prepared style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">


Flasks,
Elixirs and Potions

Many guilds require
their raid members to bring consumables with them. Flasks will be more
useful
than elixirs, lasting even through death. Potions are always good to
have with
you, to give you a boost of mana when you are running low.

Water – Always good to have water with you, even in a
raid, sometimes you never know if there is going to be a mage there or
not, so
you will have to depend on your own resources to regain mana between
fights.

Food – Many times in raids there will be someone
there who brings a Fish Feast or Great Feast with them. Just in case
they run
out, or you would rather have a different type of food buff, bring lots
of food
with you. Of course, it’s always helpful if you know someone
who can cook or if
you are a cook yourself.

Candles – Very important to have! It’s never good
when you run out of candles in the middle of a raid and
there’s no other priest
that can share theirs with you.

style=""> style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Conclusion


That
is pretty much all there is to healing in a raid. It
can be harder than it sounds having to watch for so many things
happening at
once. As a healer, your job is to stay alive and keep others alive as
well, so
it is not an easy task having to watch your surroundings, watch
everyone’s HP
and keeping in range. You sometimes even have to chase down that
someone who
runs out in the middle of nowhere. Though that could not be considered
your
problem, their jobs are to DPS and stay alive and don’t run
away from the
healers. Compared to healing a Main Tank or Off Tank, healing the rest
of the
raid or being a Float Healer is a very easy job to do. Get good loot
without
having to put forth too much effort, but we all like to have the
important
roles. Main Tank healing and Off Tank healing can be stressful and hard
to do,
but also easy, you only have to watch one person’s health,
rather than 10 or 25
health bars.



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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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