Healing Sunday, When Things Go Well

Whenever I'm learning new fights and with a group of people I've found that I often run out of mana shortly before everyone dies. Running out of mana tends to be a big indicator for me that the fight is not going well. This often occurs because learning new fights means that people are taking damage from boss abilities that they should avoid. Having to heal through that additional damage means that I'm healing more than I should, and as a result my mana bar dwindles in the process.

This reminds me of my groups first attempts on the Lich King. I would constantly run out of mana before the first transition phase, and it was evident why when we wiped shortly thereafter. It took a lot of attempts before I became comfortable enough with my healing and the fight mechanics to slow things down and realize that I don't need to go all out. Slowing the pace of the fight down in my head means that I'm using my less expensive heals more often, and I'm not worrying as much when people are taking a lot of damage because I know that I have other healers to help me keep up.

Slowing the fight down makes me more efficient, and as the group gets better at dealing with boss abilities I can afford to be more efficient because they aren't taking as much damage. The two go hand in hand. With practice and becoming familiar with a fight the group takes less damage and the healing strain isn't as intense. This became more evident to me when my group recently downed the Ascendant Council from Bastion of Twilight. We would consistently die in the third phase, and when we did my mana was consistently running low. When we killed the boss, however, everything just seemed to click. My mana was around 30% when the boss died, and the group executed the fight better than any of our other attempts. These two outcomes did not happen by coincidence.

The group's performance has the biggest influence on your healing decisions, and those decisions impact your mana efficiency. If you ever find that you're running out of mana and just can't keep up with the healing don't be too harsh on yourself. Sure your gear, spec, and enchants are important, but if you're group is taking unnecessary damage it doesn't always matter how much mana regen or spell power you have. There are times when you can't keep people alive. But, if you're making sound healing decisions and your group is working well, then everything is going to be okay.