I was flicking through my reader, when, lo and behold, I discovered Erinys (thankyou!! <3) had tagged me for this meme that is floating around many of the healy blogs.  Good thing I noticed it in my reader, because I never would have known otherwise (hallo, incoming link feature, are you working?)

Anyway, let’s get the ball rolling and see whether this quiz reveals just how much fail I am made of!  Oh… and maybe you want to take a bio, because once I get rolling, it’s hard to shut me up *hawhawhaw*.

What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer?
Hermia, Restoration Druid

What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
I’d have to say 50/50 between 25 mans and 10 mans.  I don’t do very much healing of heroics these days… and when I am in there I don’t heal much anyway .  (In fact, I am usually the one doing the pulls.  True story.  And, yes, I am often pulling while Resto.  Tree –> Barkskin –> Pull! “Hey, tank, you paying any attention over there?”)

What is your favourite healing spell for your class and why?

Y’know, this is a really challenging question (you aren’t the only one Erinys!)  I guess I would have to say Swiftmend.  I pull it out when it’s one of those seat of your pants, ‘oh my god this guy is gonna DIE unless I do something drastic’ moments… like heal them for some obscene amount in less than 2 seconds.  In the time of one GCD, as a matter of fact.  Nothing like knowing that you just saved someone’s LIFE… even if they don’t always notice!

What healing spell do you use least for your class and why?

Regrowth.  It feels too expensive, too inefficient, and in that time I could probably have cast Rejuv on a couple people at least.  Perhaps this is a bad mindset, but it’s one I have stuck myself with.

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why?

Our wonderful combination of being proactive and reactive healers.  I think Druids are the ultimate example of a class which shifts seamlessly between proactive healing (rolling HoTs) and reactive healing (Swiftmend, Nourish).  I think that some of the changes made in Wrath have really embraced the versatility of the Druid class – no more being pigeon holed into ‘Roll Lifebloom on the tanks kkthx’.

What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why?

Not so crash hot at spamming big heals when they are needed.  If I have to spam large heals on a tank, it means I often have to ditch a lot of the more useful tools in my arsenal and resort to direct heals.  It makes me feel gimped, and so many other classes do it better (hallo, Paladin!)

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you?

Raid healing.  I generally really get a kick out of taking care of the melee group – they seem to enjoy taking a shit load of damage, and I equally enjoy taking care of it.  In all honesty though – rolling HoTs everywhere is good fun.  Reacting when something goes awry and fixing the situation quickly is also good… although I still have a bad tendency to heal the crap out of people that I should have let die.

What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why?

Priests of any persuasion, but especially Disc Priests.  I like my bubbles… and it’s strange that I enjoy healing with a class that is also a bit more proactive than the other classes (although I would argue that Druids still have the edge in that regard).  We just have a good synergy going on – I guess Priests do like their wood!

What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why?

Shamans – I feel little synergy with Shaman healers, and their chain heal often causes my overheal to shoot through the roof.  If I got to heal exclusively with Priests and Paladins, I’d be a happy little camper.

What is your worst habit as a healer?

There is a revolting number of bad habits.  I guess the worst of them is not ever trusting the other healers to complete their assignments properly.  The good thing about being a Druid is that it’s OK to do this (in my mind) – throwing a Rejuv on someone else’s target is perfectly acceptable!  So I guess that’s not a bad habit…

Maybe my massive amount of overhealing?

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing?

Wasting time and mana on saving someone when they then go and stand in the god damn fire.  Mr ‘I don’t know how to run out of my legion flames’, I’m looking at you.

I’m going to cheat and throw another in here: healers who blame other healers when there is a wipe.  A great example was my ToC25 run I did last night – no one was interrupting the fireballs of DOOM, and the Shaman berated the rest of the healing team for not healing the tank enough.  We were healing his ass… he was just taking a metric fuckton of damage.  And we don’t have the luxury of spamming Chain Heal and facerolling *snorts and walks off*.

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing?

I think so.  I know some healers feel that we are over powered, but I honestly believe that the nature of our healing style makes it difficult for us to appear perfectly balanced based on a meter – we either heal for enormous amounts, or little at all.

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer?

I’m not at all scientifically minded.  Is everyone alive?  Did I go OOM? (Bad)  Did I go OOM without Innervate being up? (REALLY BAD)

I typically analyse as I go.  ‘Oh, I should have cast x there instead of y’.  Meters are very deceptive, and overhealing is difficult to analyse because Druid overheal is affected more by what the rest of the healers are doing than what you are doing.  For example, I had a 60% over heal rate in raid last night, which sounds terrible… until you realise we had 2 resto Shamans who chain healed over half my Rejuvs, and a couple Priests who healed over the HoTs on the tanks.

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class?

That our only ability is Rejuv.  If I have ONE more raid leader tell me to ‘Rejuv the raid’ if they are discussing healing assignments, I’m going to scream.  Y’think I couldn’t work that out all by myself, buddy!?! Then they yell at you if you use any other spell all raid.  *sigh*

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn?

Um… I don’t think I have the whole tree thing down pat to be honest.  It took me a while to grasp the concept of being able to move while casting.  I see lots of trees over using direct heals, but that may just be their healing style.  I honestly think Resto Druid healing is what you make of it.

OH!  And the Crit talents in the Resto tree?  They lie, my friends!  Stacking Crit is…. um… yeah.  Stack Haste!

If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer via recount, what sort of patterns would they see (i.e. lots of overhealing, low healing output, etc)?

I typically have a high amount of healing on the charts (although Resto Shaman can often push me out, and on fights that are primarily tank damage based, a good Pally can beat me easily).  My overhealing, as I said before, can be quite massive (I usually sit at about 30% of my healing being overheal), and most of that overhealing is Rejuv ticks (usually a good 60% of it).

Haste or Crit and why?

Haste haste haste.  Well… until your GCD is 1 second.  Then Crit I guess.

What healing class do you feel you understand least?

I don’t have much beyond a basic understanding of the other healing classes.  I’m learning as I go, mainly through looking at parses after a fight (Oh, so THAT’S what spell they favour most!)  I’d probably say Resto Shaman though… I strongly suspect I oversimplify their job (see above)

What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing?

I’m naughty.  I’m REALLY naughty.  I don’t use macros (seriously… as soon as I have more than one thing bound to a key, I get confused).  I just use the X-Perl raid frames… they aren’t pretty, but I am not a Grid fan, and X-Perl shows me everything I need to see.

Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why?

I’m always on the hunt for more spellpower and haste, but that’s a given.  I’m not haste capped yet, and a bit more oomph to my HoTs would be awesome (although I suspect I have an effective amount of +heal, and any more would just contribute to larger overheals).

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Well, I hope you had as much fun as I did! (although… you probably didn’t.  I’ll say it’s because I have wood, which means it’s almost ALWAYS better for me!).  This awesome memequizthing was started by Miss Medicina, and if you head over to her post you can see everyone who has responded.  As for my tagging?  I’d really love to know how that whole PvP Shaman deal is going for Squidly… aka Gnomeaggedon.  Of course, if he’s really not feeling like doing it (since, well, he IS actually a Mage!) I’d also be interested in hearing what Bell at 4Haelz has to say… since I think it would be good for you all to hear from a competent Druid!