10 More Tips For Cata Healing

I rather like this picture. Thanks Google!

I wanted to have my "How to Paladin" guide updated by today, but alas, work has gotten the better of me, and between that and gearing up, I just haven't had time to properly finish it. Expect it early next week. Anyways, thanks to some links, and a big thanks to the people who linked to me, I've been receiving a ton of e-mail in response to my Cata healing tips for Paladins. People have still been expressing some concern to me though, and I've been asked several times for more, so I wrote up a few more general tips to survive through these beginning gear levels on my Blackberry at work today. Hurray smartphones! Anyways, here's a few more tips that will hopefully help somebody out.

Spirit to Hit Conversion: Best Thing Ever? Quite Possibly.

When I say I love all things healing, I am conveniently forgetting to mention something: I hate leveling. Leveling healers is pretty much the worst thing ever. Sure, you can sit there for an hour while ten mobs beat on you, but that's about how long it takes to kill them. Yea, you can group up and instance easier, but isn't that what dual specs are for? I'm sure plenty of people level as a healing spec just fine, but I'm not one of them. It's pretty much the only time I DO bust out a dps spec, as most of my toons are usually dual specced healing, whether that be for pve and pvp, or simply utility for different fights. So, how does this change affect the hardcore health bar junkie? Do we need to start building up an offset just to level without missing every other shot? Short answer: Nope.

Mana Management - Tips to Avoid Going OOM

While mana management becomes fairly obsolete at high gear levels, it's something that lesser geared players and newer raiders do need to concern themselves with. Having an endless mana pool is something that many geared players, myself included, can easily take for granted, and that can come back to bite you. For example, as a Holy Paladin on hard mode LK, if I stop casting at the wrong time, my tank will die. Because of this, I need to be aware of my mana pool and my surroundings, and know how to manage my resources so that I don't run out in this long fight. With Blizzard wanting to make mana management part of a healer's routine again, I want to take a look at some strategies healers can use to maximize cooldowns and intelligently manage their resources.