I'm new to MMO's, but I've played maybe 200 WZs with a DPS spec, and recently switched to healing. Here's what I've learned as a healer:

1. Tank-Healer combinations are very powerful. Use Guard.

When you (The Tank) takes damage if gets reduced. When I take damage it goes straight to my face. It's more efficient for you to take the damage and then me heal it.

If you are a tank, find a healer and put them on Guard. Talk to them before the WZ starts and coordinate with your healer. A weird part of the UI is that I can't tell who is Guarding me, so let's talk.

I will follow you like a puppy keeping you alive and un-interrupted.

Healers without tanks are not nearly as efficient.

2. All I want to do is keep you alive.

Honestly, it's hard for me to keep up with objectives on the map, it's hard for me to deal much damage. I spend about 90% of my time looking at your health bar. I need you to stay goal oriented, I'll try to get you there.

And for f's sake don't throw me the huttball. Throw it to my tank.

3. I work best in groups.

I can generally keep 3 or 4 of you alive at any time. If I'm alone I die. I need to follow a couple of you around. Coincidentally, generally attacks go better in groups, so group up. I'll get your back.

4. Give me some props.

I earn way less medals than I'd do if I was DPS. That's cool, and I don't mind not getting MVP votes or anything like that. But once in a while say 'thanks for the heals'. It seems simple, but that really keeps me going. I'll be sure to thank you for the Tanking.

One thing i would add here is that it is important for healers in PUGs to not expect people to help them.

You need to ask. If you can use sparkle dust in spawn so people can see you.

As its hard to tell who is an actual healer and who isn't, speak up.

Ask to be guarded and stick with that person.

I hate it when healers expect someone to lead for them in a pug.

Everyone wants healers to heal effectively but its damn complicated to get 50% of the of the pug to listen to any request much more so to make sure that the each member knows how to take care of their basic needs.

Its also difficult to get guards arranged in the middle of combat.

In WZ's we often have more than a minute in spawn or on speeder bikes.

ask for a guard while we are in spawn not after you have been getting slaughtered for a while.

dear healers, if a tank guards you HEAL them.

tbh i've given up guarding healers in wz's on my juggy because they don't heal me.

i'll guard the healer, the healer will start getting damaged, he will spam heals on himself when he's at 80% health (most healers seem to panic when they are taking damage and ignore everyone except themselves, or try and run off) meanwhile i am at 20% health from taking his damage and he's ignoring me completely.

i know it's hard to understand, but healing me is like healing yourself, and if you're a sorc put a bubble on me too, it's like a double bubble

Yeah, it annoys me when the healer heals himself at 80% and not me at 20% or less when I put guard on them!!! Seriously I can kill the guy hitting you if you keep me up

In a pug once I see a healer healing I drop my guard on them. If they keep me healed when in those 80 20 percent situations then I will keep my guard on them. If they don't keep me healed then once I get the medals they don't get the guards and only get the taunts Cause seriously whats the point in hampering my dps when and effectiveness when you don't know healing priorities!

Fair point.

I find myself letting myself die (As the healer) to keep someone else up a bit longer. Maybe not the best strat, but as the healer your priority is keeping the fighters going.

I dont mean to be so down on you. A good healer is a game winner and they get my mvp on my side and they get my respect on their side.

but i have had some bad experiences with cranky healers that just expect to be taken of in a pug. Likes in my fault for having the audacity to be chosen as the OPS leader and to ask people to stick on the doors.

90% of the PUG doesn't even know you can heal, much less that there are left and right bikes or the basics of huttball, and other 10% has no guard to offer if they haven't already.

Fair point.

 

I find myself letting myself die (As the healer) to keep someone else up a bit longer. Maybe not the best strat, but as the healer your priority is keeping the fighters going.

As a healer, your first priority is to keep yourself up, first and foremost. If you go down, your team goes down. Of course, the situation could force you to prioritize a little differently. For instance, if I have a low health ball carrier that's about to score, I might prioritize them over myself to help them make those last few steps to the goal line. I saw a great example of that last night.....The ball carrier made it across the line and went splat just as he crossed. And then I went splat. It was awesome to see.....And it earned us the win. But generally speaking, you'll want to prioritize yourself first.

I have one more:

Do NOT display your legacy name as a Surname. When I see someone in front of me who needs healing, I need to find them in my Operation frame as quickly as possible. This is hindered by having to distinguish between their character name and their legacy name (bonus points for hiding your title too).

I would add.....Be aware of LoS (line of sight) and range. Don't run away from me or put pillars between us, especially if I'm pointed at you and casting. If I'm up on the catwalk, I will heal you....But not if you disappear out of line of sight and I can't reach you anymore. If you grab the ball, I will heal you.....But not if you panic and leap 50 miles away from me so that you out-range my heals.

Of course, it would also be nice if the UI would help with this by letting us see incoming heals on our health bars.

Also, if you have lead, it can be a very good idea to mark the healers on your team. Raid markers help everyone to see where we are so that they can peel for us. It also helps people not to LoS/out-range us.

This is a more of a tip to tanks than anything but will help the healers out some too, use your guard effectively.

This means not just setting and forgetting your guard on a healer, this means guard rotation, when a target is getting focused, switch your guard, a lot of the time the healer is not getting hit and you can mitigate damage from other targets.

I play with a healer 100% of the time I queue (Hybric spec Juggernaut) and he is always telling me how much of a blessing my guard rotation is because he always knows to keep an eye on my health bar, but everyone elses is going down a lot slower, making for much more manageable heals.

Also what I cannot stress enough is: Make sure your taunts are ALWAYS on cooldown, intercede healers frequently for max damage prevention as well.

A lot of you already probably know this, but this is a tip for new tanks playing with healers.

Just wanted to say that I am thrilled to see a post like this on the PvP forums! Thank you everyone who's posted so far.

I'm a healer too, but I split my time between attacking and healing. I rarely function as a healbot for any one player, unless we're both guarding the same objective in Aldaraan or Voidstar.

My primary goal is to win the match, so I'll also stop healing to shoot at cappers, run to an unguarded door, slow down the opposing ball carrier, or get into a better position to receive a pass when we have the ball. That means that I'm much more likely to heal people who are doing the same things. If I know that you'll take care of the Imperials who are trying to place a bomb or take over a turret, then I'm happy to ignore them and focus on keeping you alive. But I have to trust you first.

I would also encourage people who want healing to stay within 30 meters of cover. That's the maximum range for most heals. I, and many of the other healers I know, like to lurk near pillars, corners and similar line-of-sight-blocking obstacles. They hide us from view and give somewhere to retreat when we're attacked. We're reluctant to run into the open to heal you.

Finally, if you see a healer run out into the open, look to see if someone's chasing them. They may be bringing you a new chew toy.

Dear healers, when I'm slowing the guys on you and generally keeping them off you...PLEASE KITE THEM, don't stand there and take damage when you don't have too, remember it's my health bar too!

Excellent point, and a great tactic.

Ok here is the deal it's as equally hard for the tanks and healers to get their game on in PUG WZ.

Now good Tanks and Healers should automatically clock one another and asses the whole group within those first few seconds before the proverbial hits the fan.

During this time Tank and Healer don't need to speak to each other as they know whats going down, however I would recommend making yourself know to your fellow breth·ren.

For the DPS classes take this time to get familiarised with the healers and other classes. You might see you only have one healer in which case you need to peel from them where possible. You could always ask your OPS Leader to mark the healer to help identify him/her.

Then this is where the art comes into it.

Healing is not whack a mole! And is very situational, plus you get a lot of line of sight issues... the list goes on. I Tank and Heal but there are far better healers out there than me and when I see the work they do for what little thanks they get..... I salute you!

So communication at the start of your WZ is always the best strategy. Come up with a defence & attack plan then change it on the fly if it's not working.

Healers do have a lot work to do it's skill,art. with sudden onsets of epiphanies, my wife is an awesome healer and now she's got me into it and I can empathise now.

I have one more:

 

Do NOT display your legacy name as a Surname. When I see someone in front of me who needs healing, I need to find them in my Operation frame as quickly as possible. This is hindered by having to distinguish between their character name and their legacy name (bonus points for hiding your title too).

This absolutely true. Turn off all the dam titles and extra names. In PvP it is too hard to see your name as you run in circles and i am trying to heal you.

Ohh and stop LOS'ing your healer.

Excellent tips. It's so good to see this rose of a thread growing in the desert of PvP Ragedom.

I'm a shadow tank and when I play with my healer buddy we are nigh unstoppable. I've played only about 20 matches overall and am still frequently overwhelmed by what's going on, but that doesn't stop me from finishing in the top three almost every single time we play together.

When I PvP without him, I'm in the bottom three.

So pretty much, a good healer can carry an inexperienced tank to glory.

One thing I've noticed is that it's not ideal for the healer to lead the way around the map because I have to look for where he's going (to stay close enough for guard to work) on top of looking for objectives and targets. This causes me to either lose sight of the healer, or miss crucial objectives. Thus, your point of having the healer following the tank around (and not vice versa) is a very good one. Hopefully I'll be able to take the lead a bit more as I get more PvP experience.

As a healer, your first priority is to keep yourself up, first and foremost. If you go down, your team goes down. Of course, the situation could force you to prioritize a little differently. For instance, if I have a low health ball carrier that's about to score, I might prioritize them over myself to help them make those last few steps to the goal line. I saw a great example of that last night.....The ball carrier made it across the line and went splat just as he crossed. And then I went splat. It was awesome to see.....And it earned us the win. But generally speaking, you'll want to prioritize yourself first.

Umm no, your priority is to keep the GROUP alive, not just yourself. This means that you always should prioritize whoever has the lowest health first. The tank guarding you is likely getting hit by their ranged dps and is also taking the damage that the melee dps is doing to you while trying to interrupt your heals etc. If the person guarding you goes down you go down. The situation awareness is much more in depth then what you have described.

One of the things I love about the vanguard is it is easy for me to guard the healers and infact it should be the ranged tanks job to guard the heals. It is much more important for a melee tank to rotate their guard since it is harder for them to stay within the 15m range of whomever they are guarding etc.

"And for f's sake don't throw me the huttball. Throw it to my tank."

A-friggin-men

Ok here is the deal it's as equally hard for the tanks and healers to get their game on in PUG WZ.

 

Now good Tanks and Healers should automatically clock one another and asses the whole group within those first few seconds before the proverbial hits the fan.

 

During this time Tank and Healer don't need to speak to each other as they know whats going down, however I would recommend making yourself know to your fellow breth·ren.

 

For the DPS classes take this time to get familiarised with the healers and other classes. You might see you only have one healer in which case you need to peel from them where possible. You could always ask your OPS Leader to mark the healer to help identify him/her.

 

Then this is where the art comes into it.

 

Healing is not whack a mole! And is very situational, plus you get a lot of line of sight issues... the list goes on. I Tank and Heal but there are far better healers out there than me and when I see the work they do for what little thanks they get..... I salute you!

 

So communication at the start of your WZ is always the best strategy. Come up with a defence & attack plan then change it on the fly if it's not working.

 

Healers do have a lot work to do it's skill,art. with sudden onsets of epiphanies, my wife is an awesome healer and now she's got me into it and I can empathise now.

The marking of people appears to be broken although i havent checked it since last patch.

it was working once per log on at one point but now doesn't work at all.

thats way i say use sparkle dust or something to get people to see you.

maybe we can work out some basic calls.

Umm no, your priority is to keep the GROUP alive, not just yourself. This means that you always should prioritize whoever has the lowest health first. The tank guarding you is likely getting hit by their ranged dps and is also taking the damage that the melee dps is doing to you while trying to interrupt your heals etc. If the person guarding you goes down you go down. The situation awareness is much more in depth then what you have described.

My point is that it's impossible to keep the GROUP alive if YOU are dead. Please remember that I didn't say that you should only heal yourself.....I did say that you should usually prioritize yourself first for heals because when you go down, your team goes down. As with anything, it's not completely black and white, but I think any reasonably intelligent person ought to be able to figure out that much for themselves, so it goes without saying.

I figured it was obvious that you should target someone who's about to die before you target yourself if you're not in danger of dying imminently.

I'm new to MMO's, but I've played maybe 200 WZs with a DPS spec, and recently switched to healing. Here's what I've learned as a healer:

 

1. Tank-Healer combinations are very powerful. Use Guard.

 

When you (The Tank) takes damage if gets reduced. When I take damage it goes straight to my face. It's more efficient for you to take the damage and then me heal it.

 

If you are a tank, find a healer and put them on Guard. Talk to them before the WZ starts and coordinate with your healer. A weird part of the UI is that I can't tell who is Guarding me, so let's talk.

 

I will follow you like a puppy keeping you alive and un-interrupted.

 

Healers without tanks are not nearly as efficient.

 

 

2. All I want to do is keep you alive.

 

Honestly, it's hard for me to keep up with objectives on the map, it's hard for me to deal much damage. I spend about 90% of my time looking at your health bar. I need you to stay goal oriented, I'll try to get you there.

 

And for f's sake don't throw me the huttball. Throw it to my tank.

 

 

3. I work best in groups.

 

I can generally keep 3 or 4 of you alive at any time. If I'm alone I die. I need to follow a couple of you around. Coincidentally, generally attacks go better in groups, so group up. I'll get your back.

 

 

4. Give me some props.

 

I earn way less medals than I'd do if I was DPS. That's cool, and I don't mind not getting MVP votes or anything like that. But once in a while say 'thanks for the heals'. It seems simple, but that really keeps me going. I'll be sure to thank you for the Tanking.

I usually don't have the luxury of a tank following me around, and I do really well with healing in some groups and I have a miserable time in others.

This is due to the fact that some DPS on my team just will NOT get enemy DPS off of me, then I start having to heal myself, my teammates die while I can usually get away, but whatever we were trying to accomplish has then been lost.

I mean, is it really that hard to watch out for the person healing you and get the 3 melee DPS off of the healer?

Dear healers, when I'm slowing the guys on you and generally keeping them off you...PLEASE KITE THEM, don't stand there and take damage when you don't have too, remember it's my health bar too!

Kiting is useless in this game for a number of reasons.

As a commando healer, I have one heal that can be casted on the move and kolto bomb is only good for the buff it gives. So if I choose to run, I am effectively CCing myself because it is likely that ranged and melee attackers will still be able to do some form of damage to me while I am on the run and unable to heal myself.

Or I will run into a bigger crowd of people.

The only exception to this is when I can safely run around a pillar or something while the other player is snared.