Its amazing to see how other people think and grab new ideas from their comments.
So I've pottered with healbot as I said I would moving from this:
I tried switching PW:S and Renew - but it just didnt feel right - plus my mini top ups between pulls (with Renew) just weren't readily available. To be constantly thinking about spells doesn't allow me to relax and I have always believed that I need to be comfortable to heal at my best.
I quite enjoy having Pain Suppression and Power Infusion at hand - I'm already using these a lot more often which means I am already a better healer and a better raid member. It's important when undergoing changes that you can see successes at each step - it gives you impetus to keep developing.
Holy Nova is just to have a spell in that slot - the only time I use the spell is in places like Culling of Strathholm or fighting Krik'thir the GateWatcher in Azjol Nerub - where annoying mobs with low HPs attack and you just want them gone. However I want to replace it.
As I have said before I use decursive to dispel magic and abolish disease. I know others do as well. I know that Healbot will do the same if configured correctly - but thats where I struggle.
Decursive is a great little addon - tiny squares that flash red if I can dispel a magic effect (removed by left click) and flashes blue if its a disease which can be cured (right click).
Healbot can perform these - and doing so has advantages - far less mouse movement for a start. If you can stick just to the area of your healbot window you will be able to cure/dispell more quickly - which is always good.
However I have struggled in the past using healbot, for a variety of reasons:
- Decursive tells you what the magic debuff/disease is - and I think this is very important. It also tells you how many stacks on the debuff a person has. Some debuffs can just be healed through and others need removing ASAP. Some debuffs can be ignored and aren't worth wasting mana to remove. And as Dispel Magic removes two affects - its far more mana efficient to remove two stacks once than one stack twice
- Whenever I have used the 'cure' option tab. I have struggled to get it to display specific debuffs. I tried it with 'Mutated Infection' the last time we tried Rotface but wouldnt change the bar colour - I just got the red X and blue triangle coming through from DBM. Decursive is very much in your face about - it doesnt care what the debuff is it, shows it up if it can be abolished/dispelled
- As I've outlined before I sometimes fumble when I need to use a key modifier to cast spells. I love decursives unmodified left/right click spells. Often speed is vitally important when removing debuffs - I dont want to be fumbling for keystrokes.
SIDE THOUGHT - It would be nice sometimes to have the ability to add NPCs to healbot - The adds of the Instructor fight in Naxx for example (easier healing), or Faction Champs in ToC (easier removal of buffs) - but I've never found a way to make it happen
6 comments:
At the end of the day it really doesn't matter what spells you put where - as long as it works for YOU and your brain.
That said, I like to try and enforce best practise healing by making the spell I should use easier to use. But I also need something easy to spam when stuff is going downhill.
For that reason I think it's important to keep Flash Heal on your left click, no modifier, option. I would never recommend putting a spell with a cooldown on that button. When everything hits the fan your brain can't process *Spell Not Ready Yet* error messages. At least mine can't.
I would suggest making Prayer of Mending easier to cast than what you have set up.
Greater Heal isn't even on my click casting options. If I'm going to use that spell I'll usually have that person set up as my target well in advance.
But, yeah, if what you have works for you - that's what matters.
(I also have Pain Suppression bound Ctrl-Right Click - but that's because I PVP a bit and like to use PS for more than boss-is-at-5% moments)
And finally, I just have to try and convert you to Vuhdo. It's very good at letting you add debuffs (and poisons and stuff) you want to track but otherwise is a lot healbot:
http://www.hotsdots.com/2009/10/improving-the-interface-using-addons-vuhdo-raid-frames/
I've been raiding ToC and ICC for about a year as a Disc now Disc/Holy priest and feel like I have mastered my interface and casting style so I thought I would share my experience with you.
The salient points are:
1) Instead of using my keyboard to cast, I use a "gameboard." I've tried both the Belkin n52te and the Logitech G13 and the Logitech is the hands down winner. Best money I've every spent. The controller also comes with an analog "joystick" which you comfortably control with your left thumb and which gives you smooth 360 degree movement.
2) I use mouseover macros to cast everything that isn't bound in Clique. I've tried every thing you can imagine and found nothing compares in terms of reaction time and efficiency of action.
3) Grid is front and center for everything (I don't use decursive, smart defuff, et al)
First of all I am required to say "Grid Rules!." I have grid configured to show me all the important information in a very compact way. For instance I use icons to indicate who has PW:S and Divine Aeigis, who has disease or dispellable magical debuff, where my PoM is and how many bounces it has left and who has renew ticking. DBM is integrated with Grid so important raid debuffs show up graphically in the center of each raid members grid. I have a thick red border indicating aggro and the alpha (transparancy) for each grid indicates whether or not the target is out of range and to what extend. In terms of healing I'm simply mousing over a grid and casting with the bound key on my gameboard or the bound click configured with Clique.
4) I use Bartender and have it configured to be the same shape as my G13 gameboard so it is very intuitive.
5) I use Clique but in a limited way
I have tried to really go crazy with Clique but experience has shown that, for me, mouseover is far superior in terms of reaction time and easy of play. That said, I still use right click for Flash Heal, shift right click for GreaterHeal, ctrl left cick for Abolish Disease, ctr right click for Dispell Magic and mouse rolling forward for PoM (b/c is "seems" like I'm throwing, or pushing the spell to the person, if that makes sense). The left-right orientation of the mouse binding cooresponds to how I have the icon show up for diseases and magical debuffs on Grid.
Anyway, that's how I do it and right now I honestly cannot think of a way to improve it for how my playstyle and tastes. Some people are intimidated by the Grid configuration but honestly if you give it 20 mins you'll find it very intuitive and its not difficult to setup. The guys over at Elitist Jerks have a nice post on how to bootstrap a Grid config for a Priest (in the Priest class forums).
Cheers,
PreyForMe of the Jolly Rogers on Blackhand
I am also a huge fan of Grid. I haven't used Healbot, so I can't say it's definitely better, but it has met all of my needs. I thought I'd point out a couple of things I use with grid that might also help you with Healbot.
1. Magic and Disease. I have Grid set up to put a dot in the lower left corner if my target has a Magic debuff that can be dispelled. Likewise, a dot shows in the lower right for Disease. I then use ctrl-left for Dispel Magic and ctrl-right for Cure Disease. Half the time, I don't even know if I 'm dealing with disease or magic, but I click the correct button because I just look for the dot in the left or the right.
2. My main spec is Holy with and offspec of Discipline for some specific fights. I keep all of my buttons the same in my configuration where possible. Therefore, the only 2 variations are that COH is replaced with Penance and Guardian Spirit is replaced with Pain Suppression.
3. I recommend a mouse with more than 3 buttons for a little extra flexibility. I have PW:S mapped to button4 (thumb). I also use POM with alt-button4 and guardian spirit with shift-button4.
4. I agree that using what works for you is the most important thing, but in case it is useful at all, I will briefly describe the pattern I use for assigning my buttons. Basic spells with no modifier (FH, Renew, GH). Group Heals use the Alt-modifier (COH, Holy Nova, POH). Dispels use Ctrl as mentioned above. I use the center button for the instant spells (Renew, Holy Nova) that I don't use as much because I don't like trying to click the little wheel. As an after-thought, I added binding heal to shift-right because I didn't have it mapped and I need to use it more.
5. I use the same setup for my leveling priest and just fill in the spells that I have (initially replacing FH and GH with Lesser Heal and Heal) so that the same configuration always works. Now that I'm used to this setup, I don't even have to think about it. It's almost like the buttons click themselves.
6. As noted in the previous comment, Grid has lots of great addons that will show you raid debuffs and POM and other useful bits of information. If Healbot doesn't give you the same kind of information in one compact place on your screen you might want to look into Grid or Vuhdu. I can literally do all of my raid healing by looking solely at the grid on the screen.
Good luck and happy clicking!
HealBot does pick up NPCs....sometimes. Razuvious' understudies (in Naxx10 at least) have shown up for my druid 4 fights out of 5 in the last two weekends. I'm not sure why they didn't the 5th time. They only appear once they've actually been turned.
Other than spell location, I'm fairly sure my Healbot is default config.
Adding enemy NPCs is an interesting idea...
I was decursing with Healbot on my priest but I've been meaning to use Decursive for that, just haven't gotten around to it. It should simplify my Healbot configuration significantly.
I've been following your healbot thread dude... and I have to say that although it looks awesome and effective for heals : I still don't get it. Healbot just doesn't work for me.
Maybe I do something wrong but I'm a healbot'tard and stick to heals by keybinds.
Question is - is keybinded heal casting as effective as healbot?
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