So last night was my first true Deadmines run.. and my first real party. I just got to 20 druid so I wanted to try out DM instead of having my guildmates run me through it, which teaches me nothing but how powerful 60's are. :P

The party consisted of me (druid), two paladins, a warlock, and a mage. I know, not the best party setup in the first place. And boy, did we have problems. I was using my healing gear set (mostly +int, is there +healing at this level??). Anyways, I had problems keeping up with healing, the paladins had problems keeping aggro off the mage... it made for an interesting night. But everyone had fun. Nobody jumped all over me for letting anyone die. I, however... felt horrible.

I dunno, maybe its just my own egotism or my strive to be the best, but I hate being a healer and letting anyone get killed. I played FFXI and was a White Mage... and I was damn good at it, imho. Very rarely would anyone die unless it was a stupid pull or something that I couldn't control. My point is though, I need to get better. I'm looking for tips on how to heal, whats the best spells to use, mana effeciency, etc.

Also, what method do you use to cast your healing spells? Right now I am targeting using F1-F5 and then clicking the button (which I have moved to middle of screen just underneath character). I would actually prefer to use keys to cast spells but when I use the 1-9 keys I get all confused. Any recommendations?

Your level 20. Stop worrying about trivial stuff such as deadmines and get to 60. You will eventually learn what to do by playing your druid, trust me. Enjoy the game....you can worry about all the details when your done leveling.

It all takes time to learn what works best. Not everyone's playstyle is the same.

If you are wanting to just hit keys, then I suggest changing/using the key bindings to whatever keys best suit you....since 1-9 don't help. I just recently got the Logitech G15 keyboard...and I'm learning how to set up the extra keys....not sure if I will use them for healing or not....but I will probably set some up for pots and bandages and all.

Since you are fairly new to the druid, I would recommend trying out all sorts of addons yet....try and get the hang of things first.

As far as I know there is no +healing at level 20....I think it's in the 30's or 40's when you start to see +healing.

As you play, you will learn what methods work best for you...plus that doesn't matter as much until you are closer to 60.

Just keep enjoying the Druid and have fun!

I also enjoyed learning each new dungeon with a few PuG runs before getting guildies to run me through (sometimes I would finish with the PuGs and avoid getting run through, which I preferred).

Remember Deadmines is the very first instance, and it is not inconceivable that other members of your party were just as new to it as you. The main reason for such a low level instance is to start to learn group dynamics, ie how to let the tank build a little aggro, how to make a good pull, how to keep the dps classes below the aggro ceiling.

If anyone was dying with 3 healers in your group, it was probably because the lock and mage didn't know how to keep their damage down to avoid drawing aggro. Its much more group dynamic than your healing style. Trust me, even in much higher level PuGs you will occasionally get suicidal mages that just don't get it, and they can be very hard to keep up (since they're so squishy).

Next time try talking to the group about why things are happening and give suggestions howto improve on the next pull. For instance, you probably should have been sending a pally to build aggro for 5-10 seconds before the dps started. You should also have them focusing fire on one mob at a time, this drops them faster meaning less incoming damage that needs healing, and helps the tank focus on holding aggro on that mob, rather than when everyone has their own target and is pulling aggro in a couple directions.

Yea....suicidal mages. I've run into some of those....and a few suicidal rogues.

Kain...don't worry too much....I bet you were doing great. Some groups go smoother than others....trust me...I know! If you find a great group....try and stick with them if you can....it helps to understand how others work and know what to expect. If you don't find a great group....just keep movin' on 'til you do.

Also, what method do you use to cast your healing spells? Right now I am targeting using F1-F5 and then clicking the button (which I have moved to middle of screen just underneath character). I would actually prefer to use keys to cast spells but when I use the 1-9 keys I get all confused. Any recommendations?
Whatever works for you is what you should use.
Personally, I can work faster and more efficiently just clicking on the portrait then clicking my HT button. It becomes mechanical after a while, and my whole focus is on the party or raid and keeping them all alive. That's actually my favorite part of healing, just being able to keep everyone at well above 50% life, dropping rejuvs and regrowths on someone, quickly jumping over to another target, casting HT, then back to the first one to finish with a swiftmend. Just the challenge of keeping everyone alive, even through the worst pulls ever, is fun and enjoyable for me.

But I digress;
I agree with lorath. Don't worry about it. You're level 20. You have 40 more levels to develop your own playing style.

Oh and in case I didn't make it clear, you should let suicidal mages die. Typically the mobs will then return to the tank, if you haven't generated tons of healing aggro trying to prevent it. After those guys find themselves running from the graveyard a few times, they might figure it out.

Letting that one go might save the rest of the group though.

Nice GW! I kinda agree with what GW is saying. I had to actually do this a few times on my priest (some idiots wouldn't listen to the more experienced people....so I made them pay....but it didn't help them learn the lesson - oh well....they saved us by leaving the group :)).

When you have people that obviously don't care about the others in the group....sometimes a sacrifice is in order. Don't worry if you lost someone in a fight....chances are you couldn't have saved them if they are a DPS'ing fool.

Leveling is a learning experience....and it trains your for the end game (if that is your thing). Just enjoy the time it takes to level....and make sure you learn some things along the way.

Oh and in case I didn't make it clear, you should let suicidal mages die. Typically the mobs will then return to the tank, if you haven't generated tons of healing aggro trying to prevent it. After those guys find themselves running from the graveyard a few times, they might figure it out.

Somtimes the Priests (in Deadmines) in the pugs get suicidal too....I just tell them my re-birth is still timed out or forgot my maple seeds.."so sorry" :)

LOL. Yea I've seen a few in the raids I was in. I wouldn't bother healing them....I figure they caused the mess they should know how to get out of it....and they can heal themselves (they had plenty of mana).

You should have been tanking, as you will easily do better than either paladin. One paladin would do main heals, the other support heals/offtank/utility.

The real problem with this group setup is that it lacks dps. Swap one paladin for any other class. If it's a dps or healing class, you tank. If it's a warrior, you heal and the remaining paladin serves in a general utility role.

With two dps casters, a group really needs a warrior/druid tank. Alternatively, give the paladin at least a 5 second headstart to build aggro.

My healing tips:

1) use rejuvenation a lot. anyone that is getting hit, at all, should have a rejuvenation on them at all times in battle.
2) if someone's health gets to 50%, cast a regrowth. if it goes back to 50% with the regrowth AND rejuvenation HoT's active, cast a healing touch.
3) Inform everyone before you go that druids only res every 30 minutes; that tends to make them be more careful
4) Tell everyone that night elves are ressed last (spirit wisp runs 50% faster), and that rogues also get ressed last (stealth past patrols). This generally keeps rogues from trying to tank.
5) Use macros to tell your party when you're casting a regrowth or healing touch, what they do (big heal, or small heal/HoT) and the duration of the spell.
Ex:
/p I am casting Healing Touch (big heal) on %t in 3 seconds.
/cast Healing Touch(rank 3)
6) take mana pots in case of emergencies, but use them sparingly, not to do something regular spirit regen can handle
7) if you get attacked, tell the party, go bear if it will keep you alive.

I can't really think of anything else for deadmines.
Also, make sure you say "healer" in your LFG line. Gets invites like crazy ;)
(I get whispers randomly now for healing in deadmines)

The party consisted of me (druid), two paladins, a warlock, and a mage. I know, not the best party setup in the first place.

That sounds like my typical instance party makeup. I'm in a very small (but expanding) guild mostly made up of real-life friends, and we rarely have a full-time healer with us. Our usual tactics are for me to tank in bear form, one paladin takes on healing duty, looking after me. The other paladin takes over healing when the other is out of action or low on mana. The mage and warlock are great for crowd control and damage. We don't have too many problems and I can usually manage the aggro fairly well. We have the occasional wipe, sure, but considering we don't have a healer, we do alright. But most of all, we have fun. Everyone's playing the roles they want to rather than being pigeon-holed into something they don't want to do.

One good way to help focus fire is to create an /assist "x" macro, where x is the primary dps (rogue most likely, your case maybe mage). Then everyone can use it to target the same mob as x, so instead of hunting around for which is getting hurt, you mash the button and then the tank can sunder it and everyone else can tear it down quickly and move to the next target. Only x has to really worry about the order of targets, etc... and many rogues really get into the strategy of pulls once they feel like they are driving the group.

5) Use macros to tell your party when you're casting a regrowth or healing touch, what they do (big heal, or small heal/HoT) and the duration of the spell.
Ex:
/p I am casting Healing Touch (big heal) on %t in 3 seconds.
/cast Healing Touch(rank 3)

I am using healix right now for this. Almost 90% of the time there is at least one person in the party who bitches about the announcements of healing spells in the /p. I always say, "It's a new mod and I have not figured out how to turn it off, sorry". Then the same complainer stops complaining after I save thier arse in battle.

Yea....and when raiding....alot of guilds won't like it. There are some guilds that will not allow this type of thing.

On my priest the only macros I made with any sort of tell were for rezzing and when I was going to Shackle.

Good abilities to combine with party tell macros for druids would be
- Hibernate
- Roots
- Combat Rez (so there isn't any confusion on if you have it available or not)

In my opinion the abilities that need to have some form of tell/communication with the party/raid is when you are doing crowd control or Rez'ing (just so you don't waste it on the same target that another was already rezzing....happens to priests all the time unless you have something like this). I might have left off some Druid abilities....I'm not totally awake yet...the caffeine hasn't kicked in.

Thats probably because announcing in any chat channel, what you are healing is stupid and incredibly annoying. Just heal your group members and cancel the spell if someone lands a heal before you.

Yea...I totally agree. It does get annoying seeing a window full of heal announcements....however, announcing CC and Rezing isn't so stupid....this helps the group out and lets others know what you plan on doing. Then if they attack the target you had asleep or rooted....it's their own fault.

I would agree that a few would find it annoying, especially if you are the only healer in the group...almost as annoying as Guild recruitment in the /lfg channel.

I do think it is somewhat beneficial to overall mana management where there are multiple healers in a party.

..and cancel the spell if someone lands a heal before you.

It would be nice if there was some form of auto cancel if your target was healed .002 seconds before yours lands.

I can understand about the mana management issue....but if every healer had that type of macro in a raid....it would be just as bad if not worse than if you were the only healer. Also...there are times when you land a heal and you don't see a movement in the health bar because they took just about the same amount of damage as your heal at that same time.

aybe if you have a healer channel set up for all healers in a raid and send the announcements to that channel it might work....then it will only clutter the healers windows.

I understand that mana management is an issue for all healers....especially in tough fights. But there are ways around this....make assignments to groups/tanks before the raid starts....and then if you are getting low on mana have someone help out until you get Innervate off or something. I just know that coming from 2 healing classes now....I could not stand seeing "so-and-so is being healed for x amount" all the time.....of course that is my personal preference and others may think differently.

On a side note....on Shadow Moon the LFG channel is the only truly annoying one....I haven't seen too much going on in the Guild Recruitment channel lately.

I dunno, I've only had one instance where someone complained about the healing macros, and everyone else likes it.
The tanks like to know when their heal is coming.

And I don't think it's that "stupid" since most of the time in the instances I've ran, the group channel has had absolutely nothing in it. It's not like I'm drowning out someone else trying to talk.

I haven't ran any high-level instances yet, however that doesn't really matter since what he's asking about is deadmines.

I know how ya feel. :D My main is a priest (albeit a low level, but still a priest.), I was a healer on Guild Wars, and for the short time I played FFXI I was a WHM/RDM.

Point is, in WoW, if you wanna heal, you need to think as a priest.

First, get ANYTHING that has +Spirit if your going to heal; faster mana regan is a must. I guess you could go +Int, but I prefer +Spirit.

Second, keep older ranks of your spells; they have slower casting times, and heal less, so their great if your mage is taking damage but you don't wanna unload your highest healing touch.

Also, HoT's are your friend. I use to just PW:S + Renew, but obviously, druids don't have the luxury of that. :P So, use rejuvinate if your tank is taking damage. Often times I find -good/well specced- tanks don't take much damage, and if your casters are smart and staying outta harms way, theres no harm in helping a LITTLE bit.

But remember, if your gonna heal, you need to be VERY mana efficent; Don't waste Healing Touch 4 on a mage 5 levels lower than you who only needs 50 HP back; also, there's a '5 second rule' which is something like you don't get mana back 5 seconds after casting...:D

I know it's kinda a lot to take in, but I'll some it up: You want spirit, keep lower ranks of your spells, and use HoT. A lot. When played right, my priest felt like he had an ENDLESS supply of mana, unless I used Mind Flay and killed them! >:D

Hope I helped ya. :D Oh yea, theres a good UI mod called 'preistbar' that switches to your second actionbar when you target an enemy, so you can have all your heals/buffs on one, and when you target someone hostile, it takes you to your other shtoof.

--WeissPraline

And I don't think it's that "stupid" since most of the time in the instances I've ran, the group channel has had absolutely nothing in it. It's not like I'm drowning out someone else trying to talk.

Funny and true, at deadmines the most typical /p chat is "Why the f^$% did you need that!!...your a mage, you can't wear mail!!"

Since using healix, I have also had some lowbies ask ?'s about the rejuv and regrow heals I throw at them, occasionally leading to other "druid" topics.

Thanks for the ton of input guys! Hopefully it'll help me improve my druid skills. ;)