Healers! little advice please.

[AGSThomas]

I just got my Op to 55, and I decided I would like to try healing. I've done a few matches but I've run into sort of a goofy problem. I'm a half clicker half binder. I bind important spells to my mouse and move with the mouse. Other things that I don't use too often I click.

 

My Problem is targeting. In a Warzone it becomes more of a problem then in a flashpoint. I want to know how healers out there target. There are 3 ways that I know of.

 

1. Physically click the target running around the screen. (A terrible way to try and pick targets.)

 

2. Tab targeting. You can set it up to target next friend or nearest friend. (Both are not very reliable)

 

3. Clicking on raid frames. If you watch raid frames, you aren't watching that Marauder setting up his slam on you. Or the red thing under you.

 

Is there some other way to target? All of these feel goofy while healing.

[chuixupu]

I guess I just kind of got used to using peripheral vision in watching health frames as well as my surroundings. Someone with more advance keybind knowledge could probably help you set bindings for switching to raid members....maybe. I've never been good at that.

 

Also, I use a Razer Naga mouse, and my heals are bound to the button grid at my thumb.

Edited July 18, 2013 by chuixupu

[Jeweledleah]

you get used to being able to watch both ops frames and your surroundings at the same time.

 

of course it helps to modify your UI so that you don't have to move your eyes too much - make it more compact. I think there's a website where a bunch of people already posted their presets that you can look through for inspiration or just direct upload (UI presets are stored on your hard drive, which is how its possible)

 

personally, when healing in warzones, I tend to alternate between "tabbing" to friendly target and clicking raid frames, depending on a warzone (basically - when I'm protecting a ball carrier, etc and have to be almost entirely on the move - I tend to tab to my target, but when I'm in void star or hypergate, etc - aka situation where I tend to have more opportunities to stand still and have larger number of people in range - I use ops frames)

 

its a balancing act and believe it or not, you learn a lot about ability use while not standing in bad from pve.

[Yungscion]

I guess I just kind of got used to using peripheral vision in watching health frames as well as my surroundings. Someone with more advance keybind knowledge could probably help you set bindings for switching to raid members....maybe. I've never been good at that.

 

Also, I use a Razer Naga mouse, and my heals are bound to the button grid at my thumb.

 

I have a G13 and a Naga and used to bind tank heals to my G13 and AOE/DPS heals to my Naga via @focus and @mouseover macros. Wish I had those here.

Edited July 18, 2013 by Yungscion

[Alavastre]

You first problem is that you're using spells. That should help out a lot.

 

Also, I just use the party bars to heal in warzones. I'm generally #1 or a close #2. All I do is click and at 55.

[Hamatula]

I click raid frames..

 

it prolly feels weird because you bind the important abilities to your mouse.

[TheNahash]

I personally use a mix of raid frame clicking and just physically clicking the target.

 

In situations where a lot of people are around you, it can be really hard to physically click on the target you want to heal. That's when I use my raid frame which I've made big enough for me to see the ball carrier buff (in Huttball) and just generally be able to tell if I can avoid using a big heal, by removing dots.

 

To be honest, tab targeting to nearest or next friendly target is not something I'd do. Tab targeting even as a dps is not as helpful as I'd like it to be so I just avoid using that. I suppose that using it in a situation where you're trying to cap with only 1-2 friendlies, could be useful, but I'd still much rather click them or the raid frame.

 

As you pointed out yourself, all three options have their advantages and disadvantages.

 

Raid frame clicking is easier (I suppose) but it has two major issues:

The one you mentioned (not being fully aware of what's happening beneath your own character) gets better with experience, because as you go up against good teams that focus the healer (that would be you ), you get used to looking both at the raid frame and yourself ( on a side note, I would suggest using "target yourself" - default key F1 - instead of clicking on your portrait or raid frame)

The second issue, which for me is the worst one, is that if you're paying too much attention to the raid frame and not enough on your surroundings, there will be a LOT of times when you'll be trying to heal a friendly who shows up as nearby but might be hiding behind a pillar or something. That way you lose precious time.

 

Physically clicking on your allies, is tough when there are a lot of enemies around them (like how it normally happens at the start of a Novare Coast match).. It is, however, better when you are not fighting against an entire team because you keep track of where your teammates are and you are more aware of AOEs and what's happening around you in general.

 

So, again, I'd suggest a mix of both.

 

The way I handle it, is by trying to stay in areas where I have better view of my team mates while at the same time staying crouched and as out-of-sight as I possibly can be. That way I still use the raid frame but I can also physically click on them if they are not surrounded by enemies, which most of the time is what makes it a pain to target them.

 

Also, some general tips:

• Don't just run into the fight helter skelter, we are NOT supposed to be in the front line. If they realize you're the healer (and they have half a brain) you'll get focused easily.
   
  
• Staying crouched for as long as you can is really, really important and an EXCELLENT tool Operatives/Scoundrels have to avoid getting jumped on by lolsmashers. And that's one of the things that neither Sorcs nor Mercs have so use it to your advantage. Smashers will have to walk all the way to you and you have more chances of seeing them and running away.
   
  
• When you see the enemy team bundled up together getting healed by a Sorc/Sage puddle, start casting your Orbital Strike. You don't have to actually finish casting it, though. 9 out of 10 times they'll get scared of the aoe, and scatter around, so you're essentially making the sorcerer AOE useless without spending any energy AND you save your Orbital Strike for more important moments, like when you've planted the bomb on one of the doors in Voidstar.
   
  
• You don't have to be the top healer all the time. You can (and in my opinion, have to) sometimes sacrifice some of your HPS to help bring down an enemy if it's just one person that's stopping you from e.g. capping the Voidstar door. Don't just stand there and heal your teammate. Help make the kill. And also, if you're defending and you are with 1 more friendly, don't try to keep him up against a whole team. You won't be able to do that. Just go Stealth and when they start capping flashbang or grenade them. That will buy you some time.
  
• Last but not least, Get. A. Razer. Naga.
  

Edited July 18, 2013 by TheNahash

[Joesixxpack]

you get used to being able to watch both ops frames and your surroundings at the same time.

 

 

^ This, healing requires a different kind of situational awareness and responsiveness, just like tanking, ranged turret, etc. do from other disciplines. Practice'll develop it.

 

Expanding ops frame health bars and putting the frame where easily visible is useful. For me that's off-center right, above target bar corner. I do ops frame clicking or tab, whatever works best at the time. For example, looking at a furball at an NC node you might not be able to see or quickly tab to the right teammate so use ops frame.

Edited July 18, 2013 by Joesixxpack

[Omisri]

I just got used to it.

 

I use the raid / party Window and also click abilities that I have grouped together.

Clicking has never been a concern for me as Im usually spot on.

Good thing to learn is when its appropriate to use a certain ability.

Trying to anticipate hits onto certain members also helps so that you are not spamming every single heal to bring him back from a slither of health.

[Ocho-Quatro]

3. Clicking on raid frames. If you watch raid frames, you aren't watching that Marauder setting up his slam on you. Or the red thing under you.

 

If you set up your UI so that as a healer your raid frames (health width/height/text) are obnoxiously large, you really can't miss them, even if you are only looking out of the corner of your eye.

[frankiejo]

If you set up your UI so that as a healer your raid frames (health width/height/text) are obnoxiously large, you really can't miss them, even if you are only looking out of the corner of your eye.

 

And that's when you notice that team mates within your range have lightened up raid frames, which makes the whole thing really really easy.

[Jeweledleah]

I don't know if I would call my own frames obnoxiously large, seeing as I actually want to see what's going on around me, but they ARE large enough for me to be able to read health percentages and see buffs/debuffs (I also have it set up so that debuffs are larger and therefore are more glaring) I also have my skill bars and ops frames centered on the bottom of the screen

[ImpactHound]

If you're losing in huttball get up to the higher platforms with fire and stand in them with full life for just 1 or two ticks to wreck your life bar, then step out quickly and heal yourself, INSTANT MEDALS

 

If you're losing other warzones you'll need a sorcerer to drop their own lifebar for force gain to fuel the healtrain. Ask and they'll usually hop on the choo-choo

[ObiJuanShenobi]

I just got my Op to 55, and I decided I would like to try healing. I've done a few matches but I've run into sort of a goofy problem. I'm a half clicker half binder. I bind important spells to my mouse and move with the mouse. Other things that I don't use too often I click.

 

My Problem is targeting. In a Warzone it becomes more of a problem then in a flashpoint. I want to know how healers out there target. There are 3 ways that I know of.

 

1. Physically click the target running around the screen. (A terrible way to try and pick targets.)

 

2. Tab targeting. You can set it up to target next friend or nearest friend. (Both are not very reliable)

 

3. Clicking on raid frames. If you watch raid frames, you aren't watching that Marauder setting up his slam on you. Or the red thing under you.

 

Is there some other way to target? All of these feel goofy while healing.

 

Click Raid Frames. Go to your UI and make them large enough so that moving the mouse over to click them doesn't reallyt cause you to take your eyes off of what are doing for more than a microsecond. I have my Raid frames set up large and in 1 vertical line. Doing it this way works great for my peripheral vision.

 

I keep TAB set to "Nearest Enemy Target" so I can handle business with anyone that comes at me while I'm trying to heal almost immediately. Which is why I'm never worried about being leaped at. Every time I'm healing someone and a Smashmonkey leaps to me, I'm quick enough with TAB + Stun to where he won't even get a hit in after the leap.

 

And don't worry so much about the Marauder setting up to slam you. You have 2 stuns, a combat stealth, and a roll. He can go screw himself

Edited July 18, 2013 by ObiJuanShenobi

[MidichIorian]

There's a 4th way; Bind ops frame positions. I believe they're F1 and so on by default.

[ObiJuanShenobi]

There's a 4th way; Bind ops frame positions. I believe they're F1 and so on by default.

 

This, too. Unless you are like me and are not completely able to be lightning quick about hitting buttons that aren't near the ones you typically use to play without taking your eyes off the screen. Taking my eyes off the screen to hit a button that isn't near my usual play buttons just wastes my time really.

Edited July 18, 2013 by ObiJuanShenobi

[gorstram]

I don't really have anything else to add to this, since all of the stuff being posted here is good stuff, I just wanted to say that this is a great thread.

 

Carry on.

[TheNahash]

There's a 4th way; Bind ops frame positions. I believe they're F1 and so on by default.

 

I think it only goes up to 4 players.

[Feztonio]

ive got a razer mouse and have alot bound to it. as for targeting.. use the UI interface to make your raid frames and health bars as big (tall and long) as you can tolerate and still see the screen. you can see debuffs as well this way and it's easiest if you just target through the raidframe rather than hunting and trying to manually click your teammates as you're running around.

 

ive tried all 3 methods to target but the raidframes max sized and using raidframes is the best of the bunch and i've pvp'd as both a scoundrel healer and an ops healer literally thousands of pvp matches, as well as open world pvp.

 

raid frame FTW

[Count_Haake]

The first few F-keys on your keyboard are by default bound to to targeting your groupmembers. F1 by default is target yourself, F2 is target group member #1 and so on. Quite helpful.