Using Healing Cooldowns

Healing cooldowns — the big, minutes-long buttons — answer a single question: when does the raid actually need this much healing? Every healer has them; the difference between a good and a great healer is mostly when they press them.

Planned versus reactive

• Planned cooldowns answer predictable damage: a boss ability on a timer, a phase transition, a known burst. These should be assigned before the pull.
• Reactive cooldowns answer surprises — someone failed a mechanic, a cast went uninterrupted. Hold something back for these.
• The mistake is treating every cooldown as reactive: if the big damage is scheduled, so is your answer.

Do not overlap

Two raid-wide healing cooldowns on the same second is one wasted cooldown. In guild raids, cooldown order is a five-second conversation before the pull — 'I'll take the first blast, you take the second'. In dungeons, stagger your own kit the same way: big cooldown for this pack, efficient healing for the next.

Communicate

Call your cooldowns out loud or in text — 'rallying now' tells everyone the safety net is deployed and they can spend their own attention on mechanics. Silence makes people burn personal defensives they did not need to spend.

Stuck on something here? Post a note on the Academy Learning Board — someone aboard has been exactly where you are.