I was wrong about WHMs.

[DreamWeaver]

Other than "Knowing when not to heal, not when to heal", I would like to add "what to heal with" as well .

Unlike Scholars with their 2/3 Physick : 1 Adlo ratio (Please correct me if I'm wrong in thinking a Scholar's healing rotation for normal healing, not tank buster damage healing can be simplified into a set rotation of physick and adlos), there's no such thing as 2/3 Cure I : 1 Cure II ratio for WHMs.

Many WHMs I see usually use Cure II right after a tank buster attack (Death Sentence, Raven's Beak), and while this is standard procedure, I would think there's still improvement that can be done.

If you're able to analyze the current situation and pay attention to what debuffs are on the boss/buffs are on the tanks, you can actually make a snap decision whether to use Cure I or Cure II to heal the tank buster attack damage:

1) Only your stoneskin is applied, tank has no adlo no personal CD, Boss has no debuffs? Better prep that Cure II!
2) Tank has Stoneskin+Adlo+Sentinel, Boss has E4E, virus debuffs? A heal spell may not even be required, but why not just throw a Cure I just to feel safe .

Obviously the 2 top examples are extreme cases on when to Cure I (Maybe don't cure at all!) and when to Cure II, but these are decisions a WHM have to make on the fly based on what buffs/debuffs are active currently.

Your reward for doing all the above? Possibly 133 Mana because you decided a Cure I is more than sufficient and will not use Cure II.

Sound's like a PITA just to save 133 mana right? But this is the game of the WHM, every little decision you make (Cure III/Medica/Medica II or Cure I / Cure II or Cure I / Regen to heal DPS up) will impact your mana in the long run : That panic Cure II spam on the OT/MT on the 2nd Minute of the fight may come back and haunt you during the 8th Minute of the fight.

....Or you can just ask a Bard to be your mana battery and all your mana problems will go away.
.....Until you wiped at 0.3% of a boss and you realize if the bard wasn't required to sing MP song for you previously, you could have killed the boss already

[Tranquil]

-snip-

Truly excellent post right here, very true stuff. What you mentioned about "snap decisions" is one of the biggest factors in all healing game in general, at the top level. That kind of adaptibility is very important for max synergy and minmaxing mana usage, every GCD and so forth.

Overhealing never kills anyone (literally), but some times there might be some unnecessary MP strain due to the thing you mentioned: Ie. overkilling a heal after tank killing move. For instance, for a T12's Revelation, if there's a Virus, E4E proc, Rampart, Stoneskin and a fresh Adloquium up - there might or might not be a need to queue up that Cure II then, depending on whether or not you also camp your co-healer's casting bar and if you can see they are pre-casting Physick/Adloquium to land post-impact. If they are not, it might be a safe bet to land that Cure II - stuff like that. Some of it is also RNG of course, with Blocks happening or not happening, even with CDs on. Adapting mid-combat requires good awareness and snap decisions so it might not always be so easy to not default into that Cure II. All of this adds up and it sounds like that 0.3% you mentioned could have come from experience, first hand.