WildStar Healing Beginner’s Tips

WildStar Healing Beginner’s Tips by Yleina

At this point this is not any type of theory crafting or build guide. I just wanted to give some starting tips for new healers in Wildstar. I have both healed and tanked in beta and this is a combination of things that I missed at first and common mistakes that I see.

– Get ahold of a support weapon.

It should have higher support than assault power. While its a good idea to accumulate as much other support gear as you can, the weapon will     make the biggest difference.

– Don’t forget about Utility abilities. 

It is very easy to look at your support abilities and look at your LAS and stack as many heals as you possibly can. I definitely did this at first. Others who are unfamiliar with fights might also encourage this. However, utility abilities are necessary for many fights. On my spellslinger, I usually run enough interrupt armour removing abilities to lock down a 2 interrupt armour mob by myself. There are many mob abilities where getting a coordinated interrupt off is more effective than putting out more heals.

Running a cleanse is almost essential unless you know otherwise (many healers miss this because currently de-buffs are not shown in the default party UI- but there are mobs with stacking de-buffs and it is also good for getting people out of stuns). *Edited to reflect most recent patch.

– Know your CC breaks and movement abilities.

You might not need to use them on every fight, but be aware of what is available to you so that you can adapt to the situation.

– Remember that you can swap abilities in your LAS. 

Swapping one or two abilities takes seconds and can allow you to adapt to the current fight.

– Remember that you have a heal that provides interrupt armour and use this to your advantage.

Is an unavoidable CC coming up? Remember that all healers have a longer CD ability that provides interrupt armour. A good example of an excellent use of these abilities is on the first boss in Stormtalon. If you put an interrupt armour on your tank right as the last channeller dies, the tank will not be subdued and you are less likely to end up tanking the last phase (if you are a medic and you can position yourself right – and the servers aren’t lagging- you can get an interrupt armour up on both yourself and the tank so that you can heal right away too).

– Think predictively and creatively.

This is kind of an obvious one and it goes for pretty much every role in the game. But most bosses and mechanics can be predicted and learned. Telegraphs follow patterns etc. This seems intuitive, but I think many forget this when they look at something and find it overwhelming. If something isn’t working, think about what abilities and strategies might work. Look for patterns so that you can better anticipate movement and healing challenges.

– Don’t always blame yourself, but DO think about how you might improve.

Many MMOs teach us healers that we can be little gods if only our skill is good enough. Obviously there are some things that are unsaveable, but generally my experience has been that I can power groups through a lot. Wildstar is not one of those MMOs. Most encounters require teamwork, communication, and a moderate amount of ability and effort on the part of the DPS and tank. The only time that I have been able to play god mode healer is when rallying broke and I was drastically over level. Learn to communicate and give helpful suggestions to other players (like reminding them that your heals are freeform and what that means – sometimes they listen and sometimes they don’t) and don’t beat yourself up too much. However, always thinking about how you might improve or better use abilities, LAS etc for a fight will help to get through the small mistakes that can happen.