World of Warcraft - Healing In Cataclysm

Many of the frequently assigned healers in Wrath of the Lich King content have fallen in love with the way that healing works. It is relatively easy, in a few ways, but Cataclysm will change everything. Many of the healers today complain that healing is not so much about using the correct spell at the correct time, it is more or less just throwing spells out on everyone and hoping that what you have done works. It's often just spamming the same ability over and over again.

As Ghostcrawler states on several forum posts, healing in Cataclysm will not be based around the "whack a mole" system that many people complain about today, rather, it will be much more focused on the individual healers knowing and using the correct tool for the job. Different healers will have different spells, and they will almost always have a trick up their sleeve for use in certain situations - The skill comes in when the healer decides on which ability to use, and sometimes the mistake results in a dead party or raid member.

Mana management will also be another issue. If it were not an issue, people could go on playing with the same strategy that they do in Wrath - Stack throughput stats and just spam an ability regardless of whether or not it is the correct ability for the damage being taken. Healers will sometimes need to use spells that don't heal for nearly as much, but cost severely less mana. If you're effectively reducing overhealing, chances are, you are also effectively reducing mana used in a fight.

Most healers will likely be given a wider spellbook for healing. It will be more than just 2 spells for druids, 1 main spell for shamans, and 1 main spell for paladins. There will be multiple spells to use, and there will be a time to use each one, situationally of course.

Stat changes will be vast. Currently, for most healers, there is no need to worry about mana management and one should typically just stack the stat that gives them the most output. For shamans and druids, this is haste to a certain extent, and is Spellpower or Intellect for other healers. In 4.0, this changed to strictly haste, and intellect. When Cataclyms hits, stacking these stats will give you increased heals, but you will likely not be able to sustain mana for a fight with this stat choice. Healers will be focused on gemming, enchanting, and gearing around balance. You will need to mix throughput with efficiency, and maybe even have different gear sets for each, varying by the fight situation.

Mastery is another stat to take into consideration. Each healer has a separate effect from mastery, and some are worth getting, others are not. I would like into your individual healing class on another website for more information concerning mastery in terms of the Cataclysm expansion.

There have been many changes to the individual healer in cataclysm. Druids are still effective raid healers, and will now use nourish as their mana-conserving spot and tank heal. Shamans will probably be more of a spot-healer and tank healer than they were for most of Wrath, but with the addition of healing rain, can effectively do both. They can also now cast lightning bolt to gain mana, and will use healing wave to conserve mana. Holy paladins are still tank healers, primarily. Holy power is another source of healing power, and paladins will now use Holy light to conserve mana. Priests are much the same as they were before 4.0, with the addition of heal being their mana-conserving spell. Archangel is great in that it increases efficiency and throughput simultaneously by casting smite.

Good luck in Cataclysm, fellow healers!