These are just other bits of info I can think of that don’t really fit in other categories.

Most people have prayer beads, some will have other clicky items as well. Don’t forget to use them!! At the peak of a fight is when these things are of the most use and that’s also when you’re most likely to forget to use them.

40 candles is a good amount to bring for a raid.

Don’t forget to repair before every raid.

Don’t be a DPS Monitor watcher, if you want to look at the healing stats as a guide to your own healing that’s fine, but don’t think that I or the other officers use it as much of a guide. Anyone can spam flash heals on trash mobs to be the first to heal and top the healing on monitor. You will find I reset it a lot before boss fights, that’s about the only place it’s of use and even then it’s only a guide, shields don’t appear for example, mage healers will blow more mana on less healing, the renewer will lose a lot of healing to over heals. In simple terms, you can check net healing as a guide and for info on your own healing, but don’t think toping the list means anything at all in terms of “being the best healer”

Potions – Major mana potions cost a fortune and I know not everyone can afford to use them, so buy greater and superior potions instead, check the AH when you logon/off and you can pick up very cheep potions, greater for 10s each, superior for 25s each, those kind of prices. There’s no excuse not to turn up with mana potions and not to use them. Again I don’t expect you to use them every fight, especially not the ones we have on farm, but if we’re struggling to get a boss down, everyone is alive so far and this try is going ok and you’re low on mana, you should be using potions and you’re letting the healers and the guild down if you don’t. We shout and moan about everyone else using bandages but bandages cost about 10s each to make, so make sure you’re using mana potions. As a healer, healing potions should only be used if you’re going to die, so low on mana, or shielded and being bashed so you can’t get a heal off. If you have time it’s always better to pop a mana potion then heal than it is to use a healing potion. 

Jargon buster and explanations

Spikey damage – when a boss does say 2k damage over 10 seconds, then does 5k damage in 2 seconds, then does 2k over the next 8 seconds, then kills the tank in 2 seconds. This is spiky damage, the opposite is consistent damage, when the tank takes the same amount of damage per second the whole fight. Imagine a graph, increases in damage would show higher, thus making a spike.

AE or AOE – Area of effect. This is when mages and warlocks cast their spells that hit everything close by, usually when the raid has pulled 4 or more mobs at the same time with the intention of the mages to kill them with AE spells. This is extremely tough for healers because the mages take all the damage and we have to keep them alive. It’s usually a lot of damage in a very short time, the mages do a lot and they receive a lot.

MP5 or Mana per 5 or mana/5 – The effect on some items where you get “X mana per 5 seconds”. This style of regeneration is not affected by the 5 second rule, so is extremely useful in long fights where you’re continually casting. Remember tho that 5 MP5 is worth MUCH less than 5 spirit out of combat.

5 second rule or FSR – You do not regenerate any mana from spirit 5 seconds after casting a spell. This means in a fight where you cast 1 spell every 5 seconds, all of your spirit is worthless the whole fight. The meditation talent lets us regenerate 15% of our normal amount while in the 5 second rule. This also means it’s sometimes better to cast 1 big heal instead of two small ones, as you have 5 seconds not regenerating instead of 10. Or in a long fight you may chose to cast 5 or 6 heals straight after each other then rest for 15 seconds, so that you get 10 seconds of regen. The FSR does not stack, so if you cast 10 spells straight after each other, you don’t have 50 seconds of no regen, you have 5 seconds after the last spell.

+healing – This adds a set amount to each of your heals but is based on the cast time on the spell, with some special rules for HOT’s. Most of our spells get the full bonus but flash heal only gets 40% because of it’s quick cast time, another reason not to use it unless you have to (+500 healing only adds +200 to a renew).

DOT – Damage over time, dots such as shadow word: Pain are cast once then do damage every tick until they run out, so they do their damage over time, rather than all at once.

HOT – Heal over time, renew is a hot, other classes have their own HOT’s. Stacking HOT’s on a tank while someone else throws greater heals is the ultimate in healing power.

Stacking – Stacking simply means both/all things effect at the same time. For example, if two people cast the same rank renew on a tank, the 2nd one will “wipe” the first. This means the 1st is removed and the 2nd takes effect. These two spells do not stack. If a priest casts renew and a druid casts their own HOT, both spells will take effect at the same time and the tank will get heals from both the HOT spells every tick. These spells stack.

Tick – a tick in WoW is 5 seconds. It’s the timing system everything in the game is based on. You regenerate health and mana every tick, MP5 items are based on giving mana every tick. DOT’s do whatever they do every tick, renew heals every tick, the 5 second rule means you don’t regenerate for a tick.

LOM – Low on mana

OOM – Out of mana, oom should never be the first thing you call in a fight, always call LOM before it. If you are LOM you give the healer leader or other healers time to assess the situation and get someone in to cover you. If you are OOM, the person you are healing dies.

Cross Healing – This is where multiple healers randomly heal. There is no order of heals or specific assignments, it’s the combined job of all the healers to keep everyone alive. We usually use assignment and cross healing mix, so people will have specific jobs while others cross heal, or you’ll be assigned to 1 tanks while cross healing the randoms. These are two of the main 3 styles of healing, the 3rd being rotation, where you select an order for healing and the people involved only cast their heals in that order.

Randoms – These are members of the raid who don’t have a specific job, so not healers, not tanks(but maybe warriors), not anyone who has to do something like hunter at hakkar pulling the sons or the AEing mages at bat boss. The term randoms for us is usually used when we are deciding if “randoms” get healed or not, often they have to look after themselves.