So last night I ended up chatting with the Raid Lead that I mentioned a few posts ago. We pretty much just went over healer basics like assignments and group comp synergy. While we were talking, I suddenly remembered a healer pop quiz I had made up for my crew many moons ago (when we were doing TK/SSC). I dug it up and sent him a copy but I thought you guys might enjoy it as well.
I'll post the questions today and go over the answers tomorrow. Feel free to post your answers and reasoning in the comments or just scribble them on a scrap of paper for later.
1) A mob AoE's the raid. The mage group 4 and the healing group 5 take heavy damage. What's the healing priority for your shaman, who's also in healing group 5?
a) Yourself, healers, mages
b) Mages, yourself, other healers
c) Healers, mages, yourself
d) The nub tank that pulled the AoE mob over you in the first place
2) A rogue aggro's a mob and takes 5k dmg. It looks like more damage is on the way. Your priest and paladin, assigned to raid healing, are the only ones in range to heal him. What should you do?
a) Priest should cast a HoT while the paladin casts quick, small heals
b) Priest should cast a quick, small heal while the paladin queues a bigger heal
c) Paladin should cast a quick, small heal while the priest queues a bigger heal
d) Rogues aren't meant to be healed
3) The boss is about to transition, his evil friend is counting down the seconds until an aggro-dropping fear, and you're on the verge of a thousand mobs spawning. The tank that your druid and priest are assigned to heal just took a crushing blow for 8k dmg. What should the druid and priest do?
a) Both cast HoT's and queue big heals
b) The priest casts renew and queues up a big heal, the druid continues to spam lifebloom
c) The druid queues a big heal while the priest casts quick, small heals
d) The priest fades and spams binding heal on the tank, the druid eats some popcorn and watches the show
4) The boss transitions, his evil friend drops aggro, and you're surrounded by a thousand freshly spawned mobs. About 0.05 sec later you land a giant crit heal, so you...
a) Laugh at the beatdown you're about to receive, being sure to announce the total damge you took over raid chat when the dust clears
b) Do whatever evasive/defensive actions the Blizz gods give you and stay put
c) Do whatever evasive/defensive actions the Blizz gods gave you and run full speed towards a tank, preferably one with swipe or consecration
d) Yell "Heal Me!!" over vent
5) Your paladin and shaman are the sole assigned healers for the MT on a weekly farmed boss. At the same time your tank takes a hit for 6k, the melee nearby each take 4k dmg. Zomg, what do you do?!?!
a) You continue to heal the tank, relying on the raid healers to cover the melee
b) Your paladin queues a big heal on the tank while your shaman chain heals the melee
c) Your shaman chain heals the melee while your paladin tops the melee off with quick, small heals
d) Your shaman queues a big heal on the tank while your paladin switches to heal the melee
6) It's the same situation as previous question, but you're on a progression boss. You consider your current mana pool for both characters to be reasonable for the amount of the fight that's left. What do you do?
a) You continue to heal the tank, relying on the raid healers to cover the melee
b) Your paladin queues a big heal on the tank while your shaman chain heals the melee
c) Your shaman chain heals the melee while your paladin tops the melee off with quick, small heals
d) Your shaman queues a big heal on the tank while your paladin switches to heal the melee
7) You're saving the world one raid member at a time when you see someone has gotten the sleep debuff on Magtheridon. So you...
a) Demagic that baby asap with both your paladin and priest, just in case it gets resisted
b) Keep on going about your business. There's nothing to see here
c) /poke him until he comes around
d) Whisper him to see if he's just feigning
8) Your druid and shaman are on raid healing. Your priest is healing the MT along with another shaman. Suddenly your priest is killed and all death recovery abilites are still on cooldown. What do you do?
a) Call out over vent that the MT needs heals
b) Heal the MT from either character when you get the chance
c) Call out over vent that your druid is going to cover on the MT, continue raid healing with your shaman
d) Call out over vent that your shaman is going to cover on the MT. Continue raid healing with your druid
9) You're raid healing on a trash pull with your priest and druid. You're healing using normal mana efficient spell selections. Suddenly another paladin's tv show ends and he starts spamming quick heals on everybody. Your overhealing starts climbing since his heals are landing before yours. What's the call?
a) Sit back and let him heal. It's trash, dude.
b) Switch to dps and get a few licks in on the mobs
c) Whisper the guy and explain that he's not really helping anyone with his X-games whack-a-mole
d) Switch to less efficient, quicker heals and beat his punk butt down
10) You look on the healing meter after a raid one night and are supprised to see that you're lower in total healing than the other people with the same class. What's the first step you take?
a) Whisper the raid leader and make sure they know you were DC'd/low fps/cat on fire the entire night
b) Compare your spells and their average amounts to other people with the same class in WWS
c) Chalk it up to healing assignments
d) Pretend it didn't happen
3 days ago
3 comments:
Interesting pop quiz :)
Having a think about it, my answers:
1) A, depending on assignments - if I'm assigned to cover some other group and I know someone is assigned to cover groups 4 and 5, i'll follow my assignment and trust them to cover theirs. If I'm just on 'raid healing', then A.
2) C, plus pally should consider BoPping the rogue. Stops him attacking, but it also stops him dying.
3) It really depends on how far away the aggro drop is, but probably C or D. Very situational.
4) C. :)
5) A, possibly B depending on the situation.
6) A, possibly B depending on the situation.
7) Sleep debuff?
8) C
9) B, depending on how much damage the raid is taking.
10) B, plus relative activity time and overheal (and consider differences in assignments).
A forewarning: this reply is not a short one. For those who don't care for walls o' text, feel free to ignore me. I won't take it personally. Also, Val is aware of this but for those of you who may not be -- I'm not a raider, I just play one on TV. My word is not law, far from it, in fact. If I'm wrong, tear me to pieces. At least we'll have a good discussion about it.
1) A
Healing yourself shouldn't take long at all, since you should have your Health Stone hotkeyed. You do have your Health Stone hotkeyed, right? You then can instantly go to Chain Healing the healers (who also should have blown their Health Stones) to 70% health or better. Mages get last heals, sadly, but that's just the way it goes. Unless your mages are bandage spec, they're no use to anyone without any healers.
2) D
First, why is the rogue pulling aggro? Second, assuming he's used to pulling aggro, as many rogues are, he should be well acquainted with using Vanish to get himself out of a jam, at which point he should promptly pop a potion and blow his Health Stone so as not to inconvenience the healers, who frankly have better things to do than keep his leather-wearing ass out of trouble. If absolutely necessary, send him a HoT, but devoting more time than a GCD on a non-tanking DPS is dangerous. If he's the only one taking damage, C works, but it relies on him not taking a killing blow in the next 1.5 seconds.
3) C
Healing Touch is incredible. Keep Lifebloom rolling on the tank and mix it up with large heals. The priest can fill in the gaps and pass out a HoT if necessary.
4) B
I'm torn between B and C on this one. As a healing paladin, I'll usually just stand there and let things hit me while I keep healing and announce over Vent that the tank has a few strays. My "Oh @#$%!" buttons should keep me out of too much trouble. Running to the tank might not work too well since you now give your pursuers a clear shot at your back. A poorly timed daze ensures you'll never get to the tanks.
Failing that, A also works nicely to keep raid morale from tanking.
5) B
While a large heal from a paladin may or may not be better than a large heal from a shaman, the shaman's ability to chain heal makes them preferable over the paladin for covering the melee. If the tank has (the soon to be obsolete) Blessing of Light on, the paladin has even greater incentive to keep healing the tank.
6) B
Same as above. Farm or progression means nothing in terms of tactics, one simply has the greater synergies than the other. Farmed content is not an excuse to slack off. Go all out or go home.
7) B
I've only ever done Mags three times, but what sleep debuff? Is that the one induced from boredom?
8) C
I may be misplaced in my tactics since I've never really gotten to run much with a healing druid, but it seems to me that Lifebloom roxxors boxxors. A Lifebloom/Healing Touch rotation is a very powerful combo and while a druid certainly can raid heal, it seems to me that a shaman is better suited for the task of tossing out chain heals.
9) A
On bosses, crap like this gets people killed. On trash, that's certainly possible, but far more unlikely. Let him inflate his epeen/ego. If he starts running out of mana routinely, though, I would make a mental note to discuss with him his mana efficiency to see if we could reach a better play style.
10) B and C
Healing assignments can play heavily into how much someone has to heal. For direct-damage heavy fights, tank healers top the peters. For AoE-heavy fights, raid healers and AoE healers will have colossal peters of epicness. At the same time, if there's a perceived deficiency in your healing, you owe it to yourself for the good of the raid to understand that. Studying your competition never hurts.
On a personal note, I was told the size of one's epeen didn't matter. Have I been misled? Your quiz has me rethinking that approach. =P
1) A mob AoE's the raid. The mage group 4 and the healing group 5 take heavy damage. What's the healing priority for your shaman, who's also in healing group 5?
a) Yourself, healers, mages
b) Mages, yourself, other healers
c) Healers, mages, yourself
d) The nub tank that pulled the AoE mob over you in the first place
Answer: b) A shaman's chain heal will jump between parties to those most requiring heals only if they cast it on someone in a party other than their own. If they cast it on someone in their own party, it will only jump between group 5 members.
2) A rogue aggro's a mob and takes 5k dmg. It looks like more damage is on the way. Your priest and paladin, assigned to raid healing, are the only ones in range to heal him. What should you do?
a) Priest should cast a HoT while the paladin casts quick, small heals
b) Priest should cast a quick, small heal while the paladin queues a bigger hea
c) Paladin should cast a quick, small heal while the priest queues a bigger heal
d) Rogues aren't meant to be healed
Answer: c) Priests are the most efficient (healing vs mana usage) big healer in the raid. Paladins are the most efficient quick healers. The priest HoT should only come into play once the rogue has a chunk of hp back.
3) The boss is about to transition, his evil friend is counting down the seconds until an aggro-dropping fear, and you're on the verge of a thousand mobs spawning. The tank that your druid and priest are assigned to heal just took a crushing blow for 8k dmg. What should the druid and priest do?
a) Both cast HoT's and queue big heals
b) The priest casts renew and queues up a big heal, the druid continues to spam lifebloom
c) The druid queues a big heal while the priest casts quick, small heals
d) The priest fades and spams binding heal on the tank, the druid eats some popcorn and watches the show
Answer: d) Fade tempers any healing aggro the priest plans on doing. Binding heal is the lowest aggro direct heal a priest has. Trees cannot outrun a thousand mobs once LB gets their attention.
4) The boss transitions, his evil friend drops aggro, and you're surrounded by a thousand freshly spawned mobs. About 0.05 sec later you land a giant crit heal, so you...
a) Laugh at the beatdown you're about to receive, being sure to announce the total damge you took over raid chat when the dust clears
b) Do whatever evasive/defensive actions the Blizz gods give you and stay put
c) Do whatever evasive/defensive actions the Blizz gods gave you and run full speed towards a tank, preferably one with swipe or consecration
d) Yell "Heal Me!!" over vent
Answer: b) You're not going to outrun a thousand mobs but a tank can intervene/charge/taunt off of you if you'd only hold still. Staying put also reduces the amount of raid damage you'll be dishing out when you run your friends over with that many mobs on the way to a tank.
5) Your paladin and shaman are the sole assigned healers for the MT on a weekly farmed boss. At the same time your tank takes a hit for 6k, the melee nearby each take 4k dmg. Zomg, what do you do?!?!
a) You continue to heal the tank, relying on the raid healers to cover the melee
b) Your paladin queues a big heal on the tank while your shaman chain heals the melee
c) Your shaman chain heals the melee while your paladin tops the melee off with quick, small heals
d) Your shaman queues a big heal on the tank while your paladin switches to heal the melee
Answer: a) Resist the call of the extraneous damage. There's only two of you in the entire raid responsible for the MT. That's one less than preferable but you're getting by because you all know the fight. Stick to your assignments. Don't try to be a hero.
6) It's the same situation as previous question, but you're on a progression boss. You consider your current mana pool for both characters to be reasonable for the amount of the fight that's left. What do you do?
a) You continue to heal the tank, relying on the raid healers to cover the melee
b) Your paladin queues a big heal on the tank while your shaman chain heals the melee
c) Your shaman chain heals the melee while your paladin tops the melee off with quick, small heals
d) Your shaman queues a big heal on the tank while your paladin switches to heal the melee
Answer: a) Same as number 5 for the same reason.
7) You're saving the world one raid member at a time when you see someone has gotten the sleep debuff on Magtheridon. So you...
a) Demagic that baby asap with both your paladin and priest, just in case it gets resisted
b) Keep on going about your business. There's nothing to see here
c) /poke him until he comes around
d) Whisper him to see if he's just feigning
Answer: b) Mag's can't sleep anyone. If you dispel that, you've just cancelled that player's Dreamless Sleep Potion. So much for their mana regen... The lesson here? Know what you're dispelling.
8) Your druid and shaman are on raid healing. Your priest is healing the MT along with another shaman. Suddenly your priest is killed and all death recovery abilites are still on cooldown. What do you do?
a) Call out over vent that the MT needs heals
b) Heal the MT from either character when you get the chance
c) Call out over vent that your druid is going to cover on the MT, continue raid healing with your shaman
d) Call out over vent that your shaman is going to cover on the MT. Continue raid healing with your druid
Answer: c) Druids are better MT healers than Shamans. Shamans excel at raid healing. It's always best to set priorities/assignments asap.
9) You're raid healing on a trash pull with your priest and druid. You're healing using normal mana efficient spell selections. Suddenly another paladin's tv show ends and he starts spamming quick heals on everybody. Your overhealing starts climbing since his heals are landing before yours. What's the call?
a) Sit back and let him heal. It's trash, dude.
b) Switch to dps and get a few licks in on the mobs
c) Whisper the guy and explain that he's not really helping anyone with his X-games whack-a-mole
d) Switch to less efficient, quicker heals and beat his punk butt down
Answer: d) First, it's trash. Mana is meaningless since you can drink every 40 yds. I'd much rather see a proactive healer that can turn a challenge into a side game than someone that uses it as an excuse to sit on their hands. Healing is as boring as you want it to be.
10) You look on the healing meter after a raid one night and are supprised to see that you're lower in total healing than the other people with the same class. What's the first step you take?
a) Whisper the raid leader and make sure they know you were DC'd/low fps/cat on fire the entire night
b) Compare your spells and their average amounts to other people with the same class in WWS
c) Chalk it up to healing assignments
d) Pretend it didn't happen
Answer: b) You should always start with what makes you different from those of the same class that are doing "better" on the meters. From there, figure out how you can incorporate their play style techniques into your own.
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