Matticus brought up an issue he encountered in a Naxx pug the other night regarding healing add-ons. (This ones a bit more of a wall of text than normal, I hope your resistances are high...)
I have experienced this myself, back when the big ol 3.0 patch hit before WOTLK released, our old guild was in Zul’aman, and the guilds main priest healer came in to help on the tiger boss. We spent half an hour on our asses because he had never healed without Healbot. I’m sure many more out in the big wide world of War craft have experienced this, or even encountered the problem themselves.
My wife and I have discussed this many times before, as we both have healers in our arsenal of characters.
In our old raiding guild it was pretty much insisted she had healing add-ons. She has never healed with an add-on in her life (and has been a resto spec druid since… ooh… Level 10 – where that first talent point went into the resto tree and we had a leveling duo with me on my rogue, and her healing.) and only occasionally used them when she eventually DID get them to try them out. Her preferred method of healing has always been to use the in game raid grid or party frame and select those that need the heals, and do the healing.
She is one of the best healers I have ever worked with, and certainly the most experienced restoration druid I know.
Her point of view has always been that good healers don’t need add-ons. I can’t argue this fact, but I have always believed that it is good to have add-ons that at least help you monitor, and that you can use, but that you should NEVER rely on.
I’m sure a lot of people hated that patch for the complications it encountered, but every healer should at least know how to click on a person, and press the desired healing spell from their action bar.
Myself? I have always had healbot there when on my priest – in small groups I try to stick to party-frame healing although when the shiz hits the fan, I always revert to spamming via healbot because it’s more natural to me, and this is a bad thing.
I recently respecced full discipline – this requires me to dish out Penance and Pain Suppression – both of which I cannot get to work via healbot. The result? I am not a sad mixed up hybrid healer. I use healbot for flash/greater/binding heals, Prayer of Mending, shielding and use it for TARGETING party members when they need Penance/PS to cast it from my action bar.
I am trying my best to get out of this habit – Healbot for me is there to act as a good health monitor and let me know when heals are incoming from other healbot users – but the style of discipline, as mentioned in previous World Of Matticus posts is a pro-active style, not reactive. I need to be watching the battle, see who is about to take damage and react accordingly. I don’t have any problem keeping people alive, but a habit I need to get out of is this hybrid style of healing, and playing whack a mole, instead of putting a noose over the buggers hole so it gets throttled when it pokes its head up.
Conclusion? I am a good healer, but will likely not be a great healer without a LOT of practice. I really wish I adapted to not using Healbot sooner, but I am still a capable healer. I do know what spells to cast, where they are on my cast bar, and regularly play just using them – but when things get tough? I naturally revert to what I had “grown up with”. My mission is to become adept for at least 5 and 10 mans without a mod. I recommend everyone else out there does as well!
For additional information relating to healing, I thoroughly recommend paying a visit to the Plus-Heal forums. It is a veritable minefield of information, regardless of your class when it comes to healing.
-V
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