Raid Healing

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From the Author:
This is a bare-boned basic intro 'what to do' guide to healing top tier raid content. It is (mostly) generic to all healers.
This is not the only way to raid heal, it may not even be the 'best' way to do it, but it is a proven and effecitive way to do it.
All the information in this guide comes from my personal experiences raiding. Mostly as a warden in the MT or OT groups, but also as a defiler, inquisitor, brigand and coercer. ~ Jamisia 
==Raid Healing 101==
Healing in a raid is a bit different from healing in a group and a lot different from healing solo or healing molo.
Number 1 priority for healers in raid is Curing, curing, and curing. Did I mention curing? Unless specifically told otherwise, you should assume that curing has number 1 priority over everything except jousts out of insta-kill AoEs.The reason curing is so important is the many detriments with very nasty consquences if they are not cured and cured quickly. They range from killing or nearly killing the person with the detriment, power draining to the point of no power, to blowing up the entire raid. There are even ones that if you don't cure det A 'fast enough' when det B comes in (after det A would have fallen off naturally) you still blow up the entire raid. So, as a healer, you should be watching the detriment bars on your raid window closely.
(( In order to make this useful, you should have your raid window set to 'advanced' mode. Do this by right-clicking inside the raid window and choosing 'Switch to Advanced Mode'. This will show the detriments for everybody in the the entire raid. ))One key component to curing quickly (besides watching and being aware) is to macro your group cure(s) and your cure curse. Ideally you will have some text (group text for grp cure and raid text for cure curse), but minimally you need to put the line /cancel_spellcast BEFORE the actual cure in the macro. This will cancel whatever spell/art you're doing when you hit the cure to spot immediately so your cure can go off RIGHT NOW. Yes, this can be a little bit frustrating if you're near the end of a long cast, but it is crucial to keeping your group, and even the raid alive. Also, don't depend on your group cure to do it all. You will occasionally need to point cure individuals as well.
Number 2 priority is healing. (If you're a druid, number 2 is casting your AoE blocker (Tortoise shell) whenever it is up. If you're not specced for it and you're raiding, you should seriously consider respecing to get it. It will save you alot of curing and healing and help keep your group alive and in the green.)All healer types have a type of heal that is their speciality. Shaman have wards, clerics have reactives and druids have HoTs. Every healer has a group heal of their specialty and a single target (point) heal of their specialty. These heals work best when cast BEFORE damage comes in. That means that when the tank is counting down, you should be rolling the group one, and if you've got a tank or a particularly squishy toon, your point version as well.
After curing, healing is your next priority. For tough fights should always have some heal up on your group (the methods for doing this depend on the type of healer you are, but all healer types can and should do this). Frequently if you wait to start healing until after your group is damaged, you can have a hard time catching up and might lose a few people. Don't rely solely on your group heals. If somebody is spiking harder or down below the rest of the group, toss a point heal/ward/hot/reactive on them.
Number 3 priority is to debuff and dps. Many fights are dps checks and, aside from the fury, all healers have mitigation at least equal to the scouts in the raid. (Wardens are also in leather, like furies, but can put AA into their personal mitigation buff to give them mitigation equivelent to chain wearing classes.) Since the scouts can take being close enough to stab the mobs with their weapons, healers can get close enough to bonk the mob on the head with their sticks.
An easy way to get some 'free' dps as a healer is to reforge all the 'spell weapon <stat>' on healer gear into multi-attack, attack speed, damage per second, and AE Autoattack Chance. This can easily raise a healers dps by 20-50k, even if all they do is untimed auto-attack. (You do have to be in melee range for this, but as noted, except for possibly the fury, if the scouts can survive that close, you should be able to survive it too.) Multiply that by 6 to 8 healers in the raid and you can see it really adds up.
Glossary of terms:
MT: Main Tank. The tank that is generally tanking the main named.
OT: Off Tank. The tank that usually holds the adds.
Molo: Soloing with a merc.
AoEs: Areas of Effect
HoTs: Heals over Time, also called regenerating heals.
Auto-attack: Attacks that happen without specific key presses. Melee auto-attack is with a hand-to-hand weapon, ranged auto-attack is with a bow or throwing weapon. Spell weapon auto-attack is with a focus weapon.
Debuff: A spell or art cast on the mob that weakens the mob (either making it so the mob does less damage to the raid and/or the raid does more damage to the mob).
Spell weapon stats: These include Spell Weapon Damage Per Second, Spell Weapon Multi Attack Chance, Spell Weapon Attack Speed, and Spell Weapon AE Autoattack Chance
Primary heals examples: Warden: Healstorm (group), Photosythesis (point). Inquisitor: Malevolent Diatribe (group), Penance (point). Defiler: Carrion Warding (group), Ancient Shroud (point)