I was able to wake up early again and play more on Sevotarthe. Today's goals were to explore the Jasperlode Mine, continue to level up my professions, and continue to make progress through the quests in Elwynn Forest.
I was excited to be able to mine and use the copper ore to craft gear and equipment for my character and my alts. I really like the feeling of being able to work towards acquiring items to make my character stronger. Not having to rely solely on quest rewards and random drops is really nice because I know I can get the gear I need by putting in a little time and effort.
The Jasperlode Mine did not disappoint in the rewards I found there. I managed to get a fair amount of copper, two chests, and I was able to take down a rare spider in the back of the cave that dropped a nice item that I could send to one of my other characters. I'm definitely going to be back in this cave in the future. Not only is it less populated that the Fargodeep Mine because it's off the beaten path from Goldshire, the caster kobolds have a chance to drop candles that have a ranged ability. This will come in handy when I'm trying to tank as a paladin since they don't have any ranged abilities to pull mobs with.
After completing the quests in that area of the zone, I headed south to try to kill Princess. This endeavor was a fun lesson in reading carefully. I scanned the quest text and I saw a farm mentioned. So I went to the farm, and since there were boars there, I figured Princess would spawn eventually. Another player was also in the zone killing boars, and I figured she was on the same quest. She was and we grouped up. Continuing to kill boars for at least five minutes, there was no sign of Princess. The warlock then realized that we were at the wrong farm. We were at the Stonefield's farm, where the quest turns in, while Princess is at the Brackwell Pumpkin Patch to the east. So we went in that direction and finished the quest without a hitch.
It was a funny moment, and one of the reasons I'm glad that I've been fortunate to have such nice people in my groups. Otherwise I might have been killing boars for a lot longer before I reread the quest text a little more carefully.
I managed to get to level 10 during this play session, and I was pretty happy with how much progress I had made in my profession leveling. The only problem was that I had been training to learn new recipes and skills that I was all out of coin to do much more crafting. In the future, I'll need to focus more on making money and less on spending it all.
Showing posts with label Paladin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paladin. Show all posts
Thursday, August 29, 2019
Day Two of Classic WoW
After playing my Human Paladin, Sevotarthe Einkill, to level 8 in the morning, I was happy to take some time to play with my wife on a pair of Dwarves. These characters are intended to be played in dungeon groups that we do, and as such their primary source of experience will be dungeons and dungeon quests once they get up to about level 17 or so.
My wife is playing a priest, and I'm playing as a warrior with the intention to tank. Odaren Dankil, brother of Otarthen and Ochiren, will be a protection warrior and serve as the tank for our group. We were able to quest through Coldridge Valley without too much trouble, and we made good progress in Dun Morogh until we came to a pair of quests that required the acquisition of items from a small set of monsters. With the high population of other players in the area, it got to be frustrating to wait for respawns and be under so much competition.
We did manage to get to level 8 during this play session, and then we switched over to other games for the remainder of the night. We were playing with the intention of following the quests and completing all of the quests. After encountering the competition due to the plethora of plucky players, we decided that if that kind of situation happens again, we'll just skip those quests and grind experience by killing monsters that more rapidly spawn.
My wife is playing a priest, and I'm playing as a warrior with the intention to tank. Odaren Dankil, brother of Otarthen and Ochiren, will be a protection warrior and serve as the tank for our group. We were able to quest through Coldridge Valley without too much trouble, and we made good progress in Dun Morogh until we came to a pair of quests that required the acquisition of items from a small set of monsters. With the high population of other players in the area, it got to be frustrating to wait for respawns and be under so much competition.
We did manage to get to level 8 during this play session, and then we switched over to other games for the remainder of the night. We were playing with the intention of following the quests and completing all of the quests. After encountering the competition due to the plethora of plucky players, we decided that if that kind of situation happens again, we'll just skip those quests and grind experience by killing monsters that more rapidly spawn.
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Day one of Classic WoW
The launch of the long awaited classic wow servers felt like New Year’s Eve. There were dozens of streamers ready to log in, and it felt like there was a buzz in the community. I had the character selection screen up and ready to go for when the servers went live. When the time came I was happy to be able to login without any trouble. I thought it was really cool to see so many people, as Northshire was packed with humans beginning their journey.
I didn’t play for very long as I had a DnD session, and when I tried getting back on later in the evening I was met with the familiar queue time I remember when I was in high school playing on a high population server. Nothing like the classic experience. After about a half an hour I got to play some in Dun Morough until I got disconnected and wasn’t able to reconnect. By that time it was time for bed.
This morning, though, was not problem. I was able to login without a queue, and I could play for about two hours leveling my paladin through the first part of Elwynn Forest. I made a group to kill Garret Padfoot with a nearby warrior on the quest, and later I was trying to group up with a warlock to make killing Goldtooth in the Fargofeep Mine easier. The warlock wasn’t on the same quest as me so we just killed kobolds until we went down a tunnel and stumbled upon a rare spawn. We were able to get the boss down, but we fell with him, and when we recovered our bodies the respawn rate was more than we could handle. I made myself some armor and leveled my blacksmithing and mining, and I’m looking forward to venturing to the Jasperload Mine to the north and fine the treasures the await.
Currently, I’m level 8, and my goal is to finish the zone completely before heading to Westfall. This way my professions should be high enough, and I’ll most likely be a higher level which will make the transition into the higher level zone smoother.
I didn’t play for very long as I had a DnD session, and when I tried getting back on later in the evening I was met with the familiar queue time I remember when I was in high school playing on a high population server. Nothing like the classic experience. After about a half an hour I got to play some in Dun Morough until I got disconnected and wasn’t able to reconnect. By that time it was time for bed.
This morning, though, was not problem. I was able to login without a queue, and I could play for about two hours leveling my paladin through the first part of Elwynn Forest. I made a group to kill Garret Padfoot with a nearby warrior on the quest, and later I was trying to group up with a warlock to make killing Goldtooth in the Fargofeep Mine easier. The warlock wasn’t on the same quest as me so we just killed kobolds until we went down a tunnel and stumbled upon a rare spawn. We were able to get the boss down, but we fell with him, and when we recovered our bodies the respawn rate was more than we could handle. I made myself some armor and leveled my blacksmithing and mining, and I’m looking forward to venturing to the Jasperload Mine to the north and fine the treasures the await.
Currently, I’m level 8, and my goal is to finish the zone completely before heading to Westfall. This way my professions should be high enough, and I’ll most likely be a higher level which will make the transition into the higher level zone smoother.
Tuesday, June 4, 2019
Paladin Tanking in Classic WoW
One of my favorite features from the former versions of World of Warcraft is the talent specialization trees. I enjoy earning a talent point every level, and playing around with the structure to see what kind of combinations of abilities I could find that might work well together. As a paladin player for the vast majority of my time playing WoW, I have tried out countless combinations of talent builds to theorize the perfect arrangement of points for my desired play style.
Thankfully there are plenty of sites available for classic talent trees and I have contributed a significant amount of traffic just playing around with the paladin. Because the paladin has a hybrid set of skills, there is a lot of variability with how one decides to play the class. You could select for mostly damage points with some off healing, mostly damage with pvp oriented talents, mostly healing with some damage talents for soloing, mostly healing with some pvp talents, most tanking with some off healing, or mostly tanking with some damage. That’s a broad overview, as there are tons of slight variations that players will make, but you get the idea.
My goal in classic it to try my hand at tanking dungeons on a paladin while having some utility when soloing quests and pvp. I will play two paladins, one by myself and one in a group. Both will try to tank primarily, but the one going solo will have more Retribution take ya to help with killing things quicker.
Paladins are fine tanks but they have some weaknesses. They have armor and self heals plus a plethora of buffs to support their group. However, they lack a taunt, and because mana is their primary resource maintains threat over longer fights is a struggle. With that in mind, I have an idea for a spec that aims to alleviate some of the mana and threat struggles that the tanking paladin faces.
https://classicdb.ch/?talent#syVz0MZV0xhZVfe00bo
Going down the Holy side of the talent tree, I opted for Divine Intellect 5/5 and Divine Strength 4/5. The bonus to intellect will help my mana pool, and the bonus to strength will improve my block value. The 4/5 in the Divine Strength is to move down the rest of the tree to pick up the Improved Blessing of Wisdom 2/2. I anticipate using Wisdom as my primary blessing to help with mana regeneration. Consecration is an obvious choice as it does holy damage over an area which will make tanking three or more mobs a lot easier. Improved Seal of Righteousness 5/5 is also desirable as it will increase the holy damage I deal, which is where my threat generation will come from.
Moving to the Protection portion of the tree, I am picking up a surprisingly low amount of talents considering I'm trying to tank, and I've debated about what to focus on here. Should I focus more on damage mitigation or hit rating. I've opted for the damage mitigation, which is why I'm going with Toughness 5/5 to increase my armor contribution. I've also picked up Redoubt 5/5 to increase my block chance after receiving a critical hit, and those ten points will unlock the Improved Righteous Fury 3/3 to increase threat generated from holy spells.
To build on the threat from holy damage and to help manage the mana I use, I went with Benediction 5/5 to reduce the mana cost of my Judgement and Seal spells. Moving down, I've got Deflection 5/5 for the parry chance to help mitigate damage, as well as Improved Judgement 2/2 and Improved Seal of the Crusader 3/3. Being able to Judge more often plus increasing the holy damage a target takes by an additional 15% should both be useful in helping my threat, especially on a boss fight. I'm going to opt not to pick up Seal of Command even though it is one of my favorite spells in the game because it's not really useful while tanking. This also frees up a point to spend in Vindication 3/3, which will help reduce the damage I take. I'm then getting Improved Retribution Aura 2/2 for the increased holy damage taken by attackers. This opens up one point that I can put into Sanctity Aura which increases the holy damage done by another 10%.
Between the increased damage from Improved Seal of Righteousness, Improved Seal of the Crusader, plus Sanctity Aura, by holy damage from Seals and Judgement alone will be a bunch of bonus holy damage not including Consecrate. My planned rotation on a boss fight is to start with Retribution Aura. Since the boss will probably be hitting me before I'm able to start hitting him this will be some initial holy damage. Once I Judge with Seal of the Crusader, I'll swap auras to Sanctity and cast Consecrate followed by Seal of Righteousness. Then I'll be Judging on cooldown, and using lower ranks of Consecrate throughout the fight if I need to. On trash pulls I plan on using Retribution Aura and not worrying about Seal of the Crusader since it will use more mana without very much yield since the fights will be shorter. Consecrate will be my go to with more than two mobs, and lower ranks will be used after the initial pull.
The key to all of this working as I have planned is that the damage players give me some time to get the initial threat built up on boss fights, and I'll be using markers to prioritize kills on trash to help ensure they are attacking the same target that I am. Consecrate and Ret Aura should produce enough ambient threat to keep mobs on me even if I'm not attacking them. I still plan on tab targeting to get a couple of melee swings with Seal of Righteousness up to ensure that they ancillary mobs are taking holy damage, but I think this set up will work well.
If it doesn't, I'll be swapping to a more conventional tanking spec. My main concerns are that I will be squishy since I won't have the bonus shield block, I won't have Blessing of Sanctuary, and I won't have Holy Shield which all provide added mitigation. Gear wise, I'll try to accumulate a mix of spell damage through rings, trinkets, and weapons, while maintaining a solid amount of stamina and armor. I'm excited to see how this build works out, and I'll keep updating on how the spec is progressing through leveling and eventual end game.
https://classicdb.ch/?talent#syVz0MZV0xhZVfe00bo
Going down the Holy side of the talent tree, I opted for Divine Intellect 5/5 and Divine Strength 4/5. The bonus to intellect will help my mana pool, and the bonus to strength will improve my block value. The 4/5 in the Divine Strength is to move down the rest of the tree to pick up the Improved Blessing of Wisdom 2/2. I anticipate using Wisdom as my primary blessing to help with mana regeneration. Consecration is an obvious choice as it does holy damage over an area which will make tanking three or more mobs a lot easier. Improved Seal of Righteousness 5/5 is also desirable as it will increase the holy damage I deal, which is where my threat generation will come from.
Moving to the Protection portion of the tree, I am picking up a surprisingly low amount of talents considering I'm trying to tank, and I've debated about what to focus on here. Should I focus more on damage mitigation or hit rating. I've opted for the damage mitigation, which is why I'm going with Toughness 5/5 to increase my armor contribution. I've also picked up Redoubt 5/5 to increase my block chance after receiving a critical hit, and those ten points will unlock the Improved Righteous Fury 3/3 to increase threat generated from holy spells.
To build on the threat from holy damage and to help manage the mana I use, I went with Benediction 5/5 to reduce the mana cost of my Judgement and Seal spells. Moving down, I've got Deflection 5/5 for the parry chance to help mitigate damage, as well as Improved Judgement 2/2 and Improved Seal of the Crusader 3/3. Being able to Judge more often plus increasing the holy damage a target takes by an additional 15% should both be useful in helping my threat, especially on a boss fight. I'm going to opt not to pick up Seal of Command even though it is one of my favorite spells in the game because it's not really useful while tanking. This also frees up a point to spend in Vindication 3/3, which will help reduce the damage I take. I'm then getting Improved Retribution Aura 2/2 for the increased holy damage taken by attackers. This opens up one point that I can put into Sanctity Aura which increases the holy damage done by another 10%.
Between the increased damage from Improved Seal of Righteousness, Improved Seal of the Crusader, plus Sanctity Aura, by holy damage from Seals and Judgement alone will be a bunch of bonus holy damage not including Consecrate. My planned rotation on a boss fight is to start with Retribution Aura. Since the boss will probably be hitting me before I'm able to start hitting him this will be some initial holy damage. Once I Judge with Seal of the Crusader, I'll swap auras to Sanctity and cast Consecrate followed by Seal of Righteousness. Then I'll be Judging on cooldown, and using lower ranks of Consecrate throughout the fight if I need to. On trash pulls I plan on using Retribution Aura and not worrying about Seal of the Crusader since it will use more mana without very much yield since the fights will be shorter. Consecrate will be my go to with more than two mobs, and lower ranks will be used after the initial pull.
The key to all of this working as I have planned is that the damage players give me some time to get the initial threat built up on boss fights, and I'll be using markers to prioritize kills on trash to help ensure they are attacking the same target that I am. Consecrate and Ret Aura should produce enough ambient threat to keep mobs on me even if I'm not attacking them. I still plan on tab targeting to get a couple of melee swings with Seal of Righteousness up to ensure that they ancillary mobs are taking holy damage, but I think this set up will work well.
If it doesn't, I'll be swapping to a more conventional tanking spec. My main concerns are that I will be squishy since I won't have the bonus shield block, I won't have Blessing of Sanctuary, and I won't have Holy Shield which all provide added mitigation. Gear wise, I'll try to accumulate a mix of spell damage through rings, trinkets, and weapons, while maintaining a solid amount of stamina and armor. I'm excited to see how this build works out, and I'll keep updating on how the spec is progressing through leveling and eventual end game.
Friday, May 31, 2019
Morning Warsong Gulch, Better PVP Experience
This morning, I had woken up a little later than normal, which meant that I had a little less time to play before leaving for work. I had already gotten my warlock to Kalimdor to start questing in Darkshore and working on the Loremaster of Kalimdor achievement, but I didn't want to start that process if I wouldn't be able to make significant progress on those quests.
Instead, I hopped on my now level 85 Retribution Paladin for some random battlegrounds, and a lot of mining in Pandaria while waiting on the queue. After a fair amount of farming for Ghost Iron, I was worried that the queue wouldn't pop before I would run out of time. No sooner did that thought cross my mind, I was in and ready to deliver righteous justice in the name of the Alliance.
Getting into the group, I was so thankful to see not one, not two, but three healers supporting our group. This was a welcomed sight because in my previous queues there were no other healers, while the horde would be the ones with the support. This might have contributed to my bad experiences, but at the same time in previous battlegrounds we didn't have healers and still did fine. At any rate, I was ready to play with and around my team, and I wanted to focus on sticking with other people to accomplish our objective.
It helped that a few other players on the team were helping to call out directions which helped the team focus our efforts. We stuck together well, and whether it was due to a gear advantage or a numbers advantage, we were able to pick off stragglers, and isolate their flag carrier in most instances to win with an easy 2-0 capture differential. I felt good dealing damage, helping to keep my teammates alive in a pinch. There was one instance where I went in with a rogue to take out the enemy flag carrier, and while we were outnumbered, I was able to take their attention and keep the rogue alive while we took back our flag.
It was a fun time, and it reminded me why I enjoy battlegrounds so much. I am wondering how the changes that have been made will effect my enjoyment of battlegrounds when I play the WoW classic version. Since in the original version of Warsong Gulch there was not time limit, there were no damage and healing debuffs by carrying the flag, and the graveyards were in a different spot. I'll need to make sure I have the time to devote to potentially longer matches for sure.
Instead, I hopped on my now level 85 Retribution Paladin for some random battlegrounds, and a lot of mining in Pandaria while waiting on the queue. After a fair amount of farming for Ghost Iron, I was worried that the queue wouldn't pop before I would run out of time. No sooner did that thought cross my mind, I was in and ready to deliver righteous justice in the name of the Alliance.
Getting into the group, I was so thankful to see not one, not two, but three healers supporting our group. This was a welcomed sight because in my previous queues there were no other healers, while the horde would be the ones with the support. This might have contributed to my bad experiences, but at the same time in previous battlegrounds we didn't have healers and still did fine. At any rate, I was ready to play with and around my team, and I wanted to focus on sticking with other people to accomplish our objective.
It helped that a few other players on the team were helping to call out directions which helped the team focus our efforts. We stuck together well, and whether it was due to a gear advantage or a numbers advantage, we were able to pick off stragglers, and isolate their flag carrier in most instances to win with an easy 2-0 capture differential. I felt good dealing damage, helping to keep my teammates alive in a pinch. There was one instance where I went in with a rogue to take out the enemy flag carrier, and while we were outnumbered, I was able to take their attention and keep the rogue alive while we took back our flag.
It was a fun time, and it reminded me why I enjoy battlegrounds so much. I am wondering how the changes that have been made will effect my enjoyment of battlegrounds when I play the WoW classic version. Since in the original version of Warsong Gulch there was not time limit, there were no damage and healing debuffs by carrying the flag, and the graveyards were in a different spot. I'll need to make sure I have the time to devote to potentially longer matches for sure.
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Classic WoW Beta Stress Test Part 2
Last night I was able to log in during the second round of the Classic WoW Beta Stress Test. My main goal with my play time last night was to create some more of the characters I intend to play if I get the chance to play in the beta, and to see if I can even log in.
I got into a 3800+ queue, and it said that it would take about a half an hour to enter the realm, but it seemed like it only took about 10 - 15 minutes. I didn't pay too close attention, but I did feel like the wait was not too long. Once in the real test would be to see if I'd be able to log in to the dwarf that I had already made last week. The first attempt failed, so I created a human to see if logging into a different zone would help. I was able to log in without a problem, and I was surprised by how few people there were in the starting zone. There were still plenty of people, don't get me wrong, but since the level cap had been raised to level 10, the starting zone was less congested compared to the screenshots I had seen from last week.
I didn't really play much on the human, and swapped to the dwarf. I had logged off in the Gurubashi arena last week, and upon logging in, I didn't see anyone, so I hearthed back to the starting zone. Since my dwarf is only level 2, I want to try getting to a higher level before trekking back to Stranglethorn. I will definitely park an alt in the area, but I have low hopes of ever getting the chest from the middle of the arena anytime soon.
I didn't have very much time to play last night, but I was able to get online this morning. When I played this morning, my goal was to test out how macros and keybindings could work on my paladin. I tried out using a mousewheel keybind for casting my Devotion Aura. The idea is that by using the mousewheel, I can quickly swap between auras in a pinch. My thought was that a quick swap to Concentration Aura would help my be able to cast heals with less pushback when my health was low.
I also tested equipping a one handed weapon and a shield macro, and I also tried binding that to my mousewheel. If I need some extra defense that might be a useful option. The main testing I was doing was to see how Seal of Righteousness behaved with one handed weapons versus two handed weapons. It seems like it does about twice as much damage per hit with a two handed weapon. I had a hunch that the faster weapon would be more procs and would out pace the two hander, but it looks like in most cases the two hander will be more damage. I plan on doing more math on this in future testing. To see how fast the weapon would need to be to pull ahead.
I got to level four just grinding mobs. I didn't want to do any quests, so I can save that for when the game launches, and I mainly wanted to see what I could handle as far as level disparity. Grinding was a slow go for me, but I wasn't really rushing. I did find that the mobs dropped some useful loot for vendoring and getting enough silver for training, If the starting zones are congested early on, I might just grind to until I can train professions as a way of leveling.
All in all the stress test was smooth and fun. I'm looking forward to more bite sized testing as the beta continues.
I got into a 3800+ queue, and it said that it would take about a half an hour to enter the realm, but it seemed like it only took about 10 - 15 minutes. I didn't pay too close attention, but I did feel like the wait was not too long. Once in the real test would be to see if I'd be able to log in to the dwarf that I had already made last week. The first attempt failed, so I created a human to see if logging into a different zone would help. I was able to log in without a problem, and I was surprised by how few people there were in the starting zone. There were still plenty of people, don't get me wrong, but since the level cap had been raised to level 10, the starting zone was less congested compared to the screenshots I had seen from last week.
I didn't really play much on the human, and swapped to the dwarf. I had logged off in the Gurubashi arena last week, and upon logging in, I didn't see anyone, so I hearthed back to the starting zone. Since my dwarf is only level 2, I want to try getting to a higher level before trekking back to Stranglethorn. I will definitely park an alt in the area, but I have low hopes of ever getting the chest from the middle of the arena anytime soon.
I didn't have very much time to play last night, but I was able to get online this morning. When I played this morning, my goal was to test out how macros and keybindings could work on my paladin. I tried out using a mousewheel keybind for casting my Devotion Aura. The idea is that by using the mousewheel, I can quickly swap between auras in a pinch. My thought was that a quick swap to Concentration Aura would help my be able to cast heals with less pushback when my health was low.
I also tested equipping a one handed weapon and a shield macro, and I also tried binding that to my mousewheel. If I need some extra defense that might be a useful option. The main testing I was doing was to see how Seal of Righteousness behaved with one handed weapons versus two handed weapons. It seems like it does about twice as much damage per hit with a two handed weapon. I had a hunch that the faster weapon would be more procs and would out pace the two hander, but it looks like in most cases the two hander will be more damage. I plan on doing more math on this in future testing. To see how fast the weapon would need to be to pull ahead.
I got to level four just grinding mobs. I didn't want to do any quests, so I can save that for when the game launches, and I mainly wanted to see what I could handle as far as level disparity. Grinding was a slow go for me, but I wasn't really rushing. I did find that the mobs dropped some useful loot for vendoring and getting enough silver for training, If the starting zones are congested early on, I might just grind to until I can train professions as a way of leveling.
All in all the stress test was smooth and fun. I'm looking forward to more bite sized testing as the beta continues.
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
I am not good at PVP
This morning, I tried my hand at some battlegrounds on my level 84 ret paladin. I had played some over the weekend, and I had some fun playing as ret, since I could do damage and heal my team. Today was not as much fun.
In general, it was difficult for my teams to get very much momentum as the horde were much better at being grouped, focusing down a target, and they wiped the floor with us. Our team was all over the place. People (me included) running in haphazardly without the group, and we got picked off so easily.
I queued as a healer to see how that played out, and let's just say that entering a battleground is not the right time to situate one's action bars for pvp healing. I've played a holy paladin for years, but having rarely pvped since cata, I was very unprepared.
I will keep trying to pvp, as that is something I am looking forward to when classic comes out. I'm going to try to focus on helping my team coordinate better, so that we aren't just lambs to the slaughter. Fingers crossed.
At the very least, it gives me time to farm some Ghost Iron.
In general, it was difficult for my teams to get very much momentum as the horde were much better at being grouped, focusing down a target, and they wiped the floor with us. Our team was all over the place. People (me included) running in haphazardly without the group, and we got picked off so easily.
I queued as a healer to see how that played out, and let's just say that entering a battleground is not the right time to situate one's action bars for pvp healing. I've played a holy paladin for years, but having rarely pvped since cata, I was very unprepared.
I will keep trying to pvp, as that is something I am looking forward to when classic comes out. I'm going to try to focus on helping my team coordinate better, so that we aren't just lambs to the slaughter. Fingers crossed.
At the very least, it gives me time to farm some Ghost Iron.
Sunday, May 26, 2019
Trying to Solo Gnomeregan, and some PVP on my Ret Paladin BFA
Now that I’ve completed the quests in Stranglethorn, my hunter had a couple of quests from the dungeon Gnomeregan that have been nagging my quest log since level 30, so I made the trek there and tried me hand at soloing the trash mobs so I could get to the dormitory and turn in the grim encrusted object. After not using my hunter pet for a lot of my leveling, I pulled out my trusty Talboc and gave it a try. Since mobs scale in dungeons now, I had to be sure to kite and use my pet to take the brunt. I died a couple of times, but eventually made it to the point where I could complete the quest. There was a follow up quest in Ironforge, so I took that as an opportunity to get the heck out of there.
Then the question was what to do now. I haven’t pvped on my human paladin in a whil, I thought, so let’s give that a go. I mined for ghost iron while waiting on the queue, and had some fun playing ret, helping to heal, returning some flags, and capping one to boot. It reminded me of when I used to play that paladin more in Wrath of the Lich King as a twink. I twinkled at 39, 60, and 70, and had such a fun time. While I wasn’t as dominant as I was then, this time still gave me the feeling of supporting my team while delivering justice to the filthy horde.
This was especially fun because I have such fond memories of playing this paladin in battlegrounds. He was my very first character, and I loved pvping on him and dominating. Recently, though, I've been reviewing classic wow ret paladin game play, and I've realized that the paladin is meant to be more supportive. I remember when I used to play, I'd pretend to be a warrior, and I'd often forget to heal myself, and rarely would I think to heal or buff someone else.
In playing in a more supportive role, I'm enjoying that more versatile role, and I think I'm going to try playing as holy and prot in battlegrounds more, just to mix it up. Plus it'll help with group balance since it seemed like the horde always had a bunch of healers while the alliance had one if that many. Also, if I don't select healer when I queue it won't let me swap to holy before the battleground has begun, so selecting those specs will help me be more flexible.
I also enjoyed the new Warsong Gulch. The updated graphics and models looked really good, and that is probably the battleground I've played the most, so to see it all new and shiny is awesome.
After the quest turn in, it was off to the Wetlands. I run from Thelsemar, and when I came to a fork in the road I chose the road less traveled. It was between safely going through the Algaz tunnel, or make a jump for it and hopefully time disengage before hitting the ground. I jumped, and because I didn’t get far enough from the side of the cliff I disengaged too soon and my screen went gray. I didn’t feel like running all the way to my corpse so Rez sickness it was, and I logged out at the first quest hub in the zone.
Then the question was what to do now. I haven’t pvped on my human paladin in a whil, I thought, so let’s give that a go. I mined for ghost iron while waiting on the queue, and had some fun playing ret, helping to heal, returning some flags, and capping one to boot. It reminded me of when I used to play that paladin more in Wrath of the Lich King as a twink. I twinkled at 39, 60, and 70, and had such a fun time. While I wasn’t as dominant as I was then, this time still gave me the feeling of supporting my team while delivering justice to the filthy horde.
This was especially fun because I have such fond memories of playing this paladin in battlegrounds. He was my very first character, and I loved pvping on him and dominating. Recently, though, I've been reviewing classic wow ret paladin game play, and I've realized that the paladin is meant to be more supportive. I remember when I used to play, I'd pretend to be a warrior, and I'd often forget to heal myself, and rarely would I think to heal or buff someone else.
In playing in a more supportive role, I'm enjoying that more versatile role, and I think I'm going to try playing as holy and prot in battlegrounds more, just to mix it up. Plus it'll help with group balance since it seemed like the horde always had a bunch of healers while the alliance had one if that many. Also, if I don't select healer when I queue it won't let me swap to holy before the battleground has begun, so selecting those specs will help me be more flexible.
I also enjoyed the new Warsong Gulch. The updated graphics and models looked really good, and that is probably the battleground I've played the most, so to see it all new and shiny is awesome.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Holy Paladin 4.2 Changes. Some fun possibilities
After looking at the patch notes for 4.2 the changes to holy paladins for PVE and PVP healing.
Starting with the nerfs
These obviously are aimed at reducing our efficiency, and while the increased mana costs don't look great, I don't see them making us any less viable. This nerf is really just making other healers more able to compete with our awesomenss.
Starting with the nerfs
- Divine Light mana cost has been increased to 35% of base mana, up from 30%.
- Flash of Light mana cost has been increased to 31% of base mana, up from 27%.
- Holy Light mana cost has been increased to 12% of base mana, up from 10%.
Now to the Talent Changes
Denounce has been redesigned. It still reduces the mana cost of Exorcism. However, it no longer has a chance on Holy Shock of making Exorcism free and instant. Instead, it has a 50/100% chance to prevent the Exorcism target from causing critical effects for the next 6 seconds. This effect can be dispelled.
This is pretty interesting. I talked previously about possible pvp specs that I was going to go with Denounce. This talent allows us to put out some damage without sacrificing to much mana to do so. It still makes us able to use Exorcism liberally, but now the debuff applied can be pretty powerful. Casting Exorcism every 6 seconds will prevent the target from landing a critical. While this is obviously great for pvp, I'm thinking about the possibilities in dungeons and raids. This talents could allow Holy Paladins to tank (potentially). Better yet, if there is a dps trying to tank, the holy paladin could make it so they don't need to worry about being critted on. The change is probably more designed for pvp, but the other option is fun to think about.
Some other interesting changes
- Infusion of Light can now lower the cast time of Flash of Light by 0.75/1.5 seconds, in addition to Holy Light and Divine Light. In addition, the old Denounce spell overlay effect has been transferred to Infusion of Light since Denounce is no longer a proc.
- Speed of Light now increases movement speed when Holy Radiance or Divine Protection are cast. In addition, this talent now reduces the cooldown of Holy Radiance by 13/26/40 seconds, up from 10/20/30.
I am looking forward to the speed boost from casting Divine Protection, that will definitely come in handy. And on top of that, being able to cast Holy Radiance more often will definitely help our Raid healing ability, but it could hurt our mana if it's used too often.
Current outlook
As it stands I think think that Patch 4.2 will be a positive one for holy paladins. We may receive a heavy mana increase, but the changes to some of our core talents should help us to forget about the nerf,. I am looking forward to these tweaks, and I am interested to see what changes manage to go live with the patch.
P.S
I know I haven't posted about holy priests for a while. I haven't been able to play that character very much lately, and there aren't any interesting changes coming to holy priests in the newest patch. I hope that I'll have some good material to post about with regards to holy priesting so stay tuned.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Am I fickle or what
My last post was all about my new pvp spec for my holy paladin. After running a dungeon with that spec, I changed it getting rid of Denounce, and later I ended up reverting back to my original healing spec. I tend to do this often, I try something new and then end up changing back to the original spec. Often times I find out that what I tried didn't work, or I decide that I just liked what I had before better.
The way that I figured it is this; I spend most of my time healing in heroics, why change my spec so that I can better heal in pvp when I only do that once a week or so. If I end up finding out that my current set up isn't working you might see me post again about a new pvp spec, but until then I'm going to keep Light of Dawn and see how it goes.
The way that I figured it is this; I spend most of my time healing in heroics, why change my spec so that I can better heal in pvp when I only do that once a week or so. If I end up finding out that my current set up isn't working you might see me post again about a new pvp spec, but until then I'm going to keep Light of Dawn and see how it goes.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Trying out my Holy Paladin PVP spec
Yesterday I decided to change my spec to suit a PVP playstyle. I chose to go with a hybrid between PVE talents and PVP talents because I still plan to heal dungeons and such. I am planning on organizing
Here it is http://www.wowhead.com/talent#scfbdrduubohbZcb:acVkfz and I think it will work pretty well for me.
I think that the spec is pretty solid. it all came down to a choice between Tower of Radiance and Enlightened Judgments and Improved Judgment. Tower would have increased my holy power generation, but I really like the longer range on my judgments. I also decided to go with the increased healing from Conviction and Divnity instead of going with the bonus holy power from Pursuit of Justice. Most of these decisions stem from keeping the PVE in mind.
I decided to go with Denounce as a way for me to add some fire power to the mix. With that talent I feel more confident when I am going one on one with someone.
All in all I feel pretty good about the spec. I might find that Tower of Radiance and Pursuit of Justice are more needed than I thought, but we'll see.
Here it is http://www.wowhead.com/talent#scfbdrduubohbZcb:acVkfz and I think it will work pretty well for me.
I think that the spec is pretty solid. it all came down to a choice between Tower of Radiance and Enlightened Judgments and Improved Judgment. Tower would have increased my holy power generation, but I really like the longer range on my judgments. I also decided to go with the increased healing from Conviction and Divnity instead of going with the bonus holy power from Pursuit of Justice. Most of these decisions stem from keeping the PVE in mind.
I decided to go with Denounce as a way for me to add some fire power to the mix. With that talent I feel more confident when I am going one on one with someone.
All in all I feel pretty good about the spec. I might find that Tower of Radiance and Pursuit of Justice are more needed than I thought, but we'll see.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Holy Paladin Mastery, is it really that bad?
I know that for my holy paladin that I go for Intellect> Spirit> Haste> Critical> Mastery. That set up seems to be the accepted best way to go, but I like to think about other options. Could Mastery end up being our best stat (if we're able to get a ton of it?).
What does it do?
Our Mastery is Illuminated Healing. At level 80 our direct healing spells will give a shield that absorbs damage. It lasts for 15 seconds (as of Patch 4.1), it starts at absorbing 10% of the heal, and increases at 1.5% per point of mastery (also as of Patch 4.1). Essentially this replaced Sacred Sheild for holy paladins, and I find it to be an interesting mastery compared to other healers.
Why is it so bad for us?
There are a few reasons. First, the sheild isn't terribly powerful. Absorbing for 10% of a 7k heal is only 700 damage absorbed, and that's pretty lackluster. Second, in comparison to Haste, Mastery appears to be very weak. To give you an idea, If I have a Shadow Priest, Boomkin, or Elemental Shaman in my heroic group I am sitting around 30% haste. That's right around where my haste was at in Icecrown. Heals are faster, the global cooldown is smaller, and Holy Radiance ticks more often. A lot of positives going on, all at once. Mastery isn't really keeping up.
What to do now?
The buffs to Mastery in 4.1 are going to help it out. Currently it is pretty even with Critical, so I would gague the buff to push it behind haste. I want to see if it can pass haste, and maybe even spriit. If the shields can become powerful enough to prevent us from casting as many heals, then we won't need the mana regen from spirit because we aren't casting as often.
So, I plan to head over to the Public Test Realms. While Blizzard is still testing for patch 4.2, I'm going to copy my paladin, and make a premade one to see how powerful Mastery can be. I'm going to gem exclusively for it, gear and reforge for it, and test my skills as healing with it. I'll be sure to record my numbers on recount, and I'll report my results as soon as I am finished.
Hypothesis
Everything is better when you have a ton of it. I hope to find that with a ton of Mastery you can be completely viable. If I am wrong, well it wouldn't be the first time.
What does it do?
Our Mastery is Illuminated Healing. At level 80 our direct healing spells will give a shield that absorbs damage. It lasts for 15 seconds (as of Patch 4.1), it starts at absorbing 10% of the heal, and increases at 1.5% per point of mastery (also as of Patch 4.1). Essentially this replaced Sacred Sheild for holy paladins, and I find it to be an interesting mastery compared to other healers.
Why is it so bad for us?
There are a few reasons. First, the sheild isn't terribly powerful. Absorbing for 10% of a 7k heal is only 700 damage absorbed, and that's pretty lackluster. Second, in comparison to Haste, Mastery appears to be very weak. To give you an idea, If I have a Shadow Priest, Boomkin, or Elemental Shaman in my heroic group I am sitting around 30% haste. That's right around where my haste was at in Icecrown. Heals are faster, the global cooldown is smaller, and Holy Radiance ticks more often. A lot of positives going on, all at once. Mastery isn't really keeping up.
What to do now?
The buffs to Mastery in 4.1 are going to help it out. Currently it is pretty even with Critical, so I would gague the buff to push it behind haste. I want to see if it can pass haste, and maybe even spriit. If the shields can become powerful enough to prevent us from casting as many heals, then we won't need the mana regen from spirit because we aren't casting as often.
So, I plan to head over to the Public Test Realms. While Blizzard is still testing for patch 4.2, I'm going to copy my paladin, and make a premade one to see how powerful Mastery can be. I'm going to gem exclusively for it, gear and reforge for it, and test my skills as healing with it. I'll be sure to record my numbers on recount, and I'll report my results as soon as I am finished.
Hypothesis
Everything is better when you have a ton of it. I hope to find that with a ton of Mastery you can be completely viable. If I am wrong, well it wouldn't be the first time.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Holy Paladin Healing,
As my guild has gotten closer to leveling to 25, my girlfriend and I have jumped back into running guild heroics. This has allowed me to heal heroics again, and I have really enjoyed it. So, I wanted to share my strategies for healing heroics, and healing in general.
Holy Powah....err Power
Holy Power is your friend. You want to generate Holy Power as much as you can, so you'll want to use Holy Shock as much as you can. Being able to generate Holy Power often, allows you to use Word of Glory more often. More Word of Glory means more free heals, and that is always good. You can also use Light of Dawn with your Holy Power, but unless you're going to heal at least three of your group members with it the output isn't as good. I compare Light of Dawn to my priest's Circle of Healing, only it's a lot less useful.
Beacon of Light is a must
Always, always, always put this spell on someone who is going to take high amounts of consistent damage. Typically this target will be your tank, and you will be so glad that it is. I remember when this spell went live near the end of Burning Crusade, and it was a lifesaver when I was healing heroics then. While it will provide the majority of your overhealing, if have the glyph all of that healing is free. Even without the glyph since it lasts for 5 minutes if you cast it before a fight the mana cost won't really be an issue. Use it, use it, use it, you'll forget about it when it is up, and notice your tank dying when it's not.
Holy Light is your friend.
Holy Light is your least expensive heal, and it will be your most used spell after every run. If my target is above 40% health, I'm going to use Holy Light (unless I can use Holy Shock of course). I also won't heal my target unless they've lost 10 thousand health. Even though Holy Light is cheap, I still want to reduce my overhealing whenever I can.
Divine Light
Divine Light is our biggest heal. I use this whenever the tank is getting below 50% health, and whenever Holy Light won't be enough for one of the dps. Be careful not to rely on its potency unless you need to, it is very easy to spam in a pinch, but if you're not careful you will run out of mana before you know it.
An added bonus to Divine Light is its ability to grant a charge of Holy Power when you heal a target who has Beacon of Light. This is very helpful for charging up your Holy Power, and really helps you pile on the Word of Glory.
Flash of Light
Flash of Light is our fastest heal, and should only be used when you target is going to die. When Holy Light and Divine Light aren't fast enough, Flash of Light is a must. Like Divine Light, you will need to limit your use of this spell. It is very expensive, and will run your mana into the ground if you're not careful.
When you need to bring someone back from the brink of death Flash of Light is great. Don't forget about Holy Shock and Word of Glory, though. Holy Shock may not do much healing, but Word of Glory is and they are both really cheap and instant. Sometime 1.5 seconds still isn't fast enough, and if you can send a Word of Glory instead it could mean the difference between life and death.
We can raid heal now right?
With the addition of Light of Dawn and Holy Radiance combined with Beacon of Light, our ability to heal multiple targets has tripled in strength. Holy Radiance is a must have for certain fights, and while it won't do all of your healing it will serve as a much needed health buffer while you're casting your heals. I like to use this with my cooldowns whenever possible. Making the healing from this spell more powerful really helps when the boss is dealing massive damage to your whole group. Don't be afraid to use it on trash, and combine it with Light of Dawn whenever you can. Don't use it on cooldown though, it has a hefty mana cost and a 30 second cooldown. If you use it at a time when you don't really need it, you're going to miss it when people start dying.
Using Cooldowns
I try to save all of our cooldowns for boss fights. We have so many to choose from that it is always best to have a lot of options when we need to keep people alive. Whether you're increasing your haste and crit, increasing your healing done, or summoning a shiny winged guy with a sword to help you heal we have three tools to help us heal more. On top of that we can reduce the damage that we take, reduce the amount of damage someone else takes, protect someone from physical damage, and protect ourselves from all damage . And if you choose to you can increase the power of your auras. So many ways to save people on top of our healing spells. Do not use them lightly, but don't be afraid to save a life when you can. Too often I forget to use a lot of these, and at the end of a fight I think about how much easier it could have been if I could have remember to press the button.
I think that about covers everything that I wanted to mention, and I hope it is helpful. The best way to heal, is always the way that you find to be most useful, and never forget it.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Itching for some PVP
I know that I said last time, that I would be posting when I had the hammer. Well I have all of the materials for it, but I didn't have anyone online to make the Sulfuron Hammer for me. So I'll have to wait another day or two, but the important thing is that I have all of the mats I need.
So onto the topic. Lately I have been very interested in PVPing. On a hunter, a rogue, a warrior, or on my shiny pally I have really enjoyed running battlegrounds. The problem is, that most of the characters that I have been pvping on are on different realms from my main realm. This means no heirlooms, no guild perks, and no gold. So I'm pretty much stuck with the gear that I have, and whatever upgrades I can get through Dungeons and honor. I don't really mind working to get better gear as I level, but I just want to pvp, I don't want to deal with the time it takes to get the gear on a character that isn't even on my main realm.
So, I'm going to have to just bite the bullet, and suck it up. I might server swap the shiny pally, but my other toons can stay put. I'll just have to find a way to pvp on my main realm. Until then I shall continue to get my fix.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Gearing my Holy Paladin
Until my guild starts raiding, I've been running every heroic under the sun. I've been pretty successful so far, and a lot of that success has to do with my gear. Obviously I'm going for plate gear with intellect on it, but what do I look for once I've found the intelligent plate?
What to go for.
First of all I want gear that has spirit on it. If I have a peice that doesn't have any spirit I want to reforge either Crit or Mastery for spirit. Second, I want gear that has haste on it. Haste makes the global cooldown and my cast times slower, and with enough of it I get an extra tick from Holy Radiance. I try to reforge crit or mastery to haste. Crit is preferred over mastery, but I'm not going to reforge for it anytime soon.
What to gem for.
I like to match sockets, so for red gems I go with +40 int gems, yellow sockets get +20int +20 haste, and blue gems get +20int +20 spirit. This way I'm getting my main stat, intellect, and the spirit and hast I need as well.
What to enchant for.
I go for intellect enchants, spirit enchants, and haste enchants for my gear. Same reasoning as before, when enough haste I can increase my output, and with enough spirit I won't run out of mana.
So far that has been working pretty well for me. I haven't had any mana problems, and there are very few times where someone dies as a result of my healing. They might die because they stood in the fire for too long, but rarely is it because of my inability to save them.
I hope this helps you with your gearing choices. It has defintiely helped me.
What to go for.
First of all I want gear that has spirit on it. If I have a peice that doesn't have any spirit I want to reforge either Crit or Mastery for spirit. Second, I want gear that has haste on it. Haste makes the global cooldown and my cast times slower, and with enough of it I get an extra tick from Holy Radiance. I try to reforge crit or mastery to haste. Crit is preferred over mastery, but I'm not going to reforge for it anytime soon.
What to gem for.
I like to match sockets, so for red gems I go with +40 int gems, yellow sockets get +20int +20 haste, and blue gems get +20int +20 spirit. This way I'm getting my main stat, intellect, and the spirit and hast I need as well.
What to enchant for.
I go for intellect enchants, spirit enchants, and haste enchants for my gear. Same reasoning as before, when enough haste I can increase my output, and with enough spirit I won't run out of mana.
So far that has been working pretty well for me. I haven't had any mana problems, and there are very few times where someone dies as a result of my healing. They might die because they stood in the fire for too long, but rarely is it because of my inability to save them.
I hope this helps you with your gearing choices. It has defintiely helped me.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Healing Heroics: Not that scary anymore.
Recently I've been healing more and more of the heroics that Cataclysm has to offer, and my experience in them is getting less painful each time. From my first heroic in Deadmines, to my most recent in Shadowfang Keep, and everything in between I haven't felt the same stress when healing heroics now. What is accounting for these pleasant heroic runs?
Granted I have better gear now, the groups I've gotten have been pretty good, I've been able to learn fights with guildies, and healing as a paladin has been really fun. Why does healing as a paladin feel so awesome?
Being able to heal through AoE raid damage is why. Holy Radiance and Light of Dawn are really fun to use. Beacon of Light is stong, don't get me wrong, but HR and LoD are the game changers. Holy Radiance, while at a hefty mana cost, shines when everyone is taking huge chunks of damage at the same time. While it won't heal everyone to full, it while help keep people from dying while you finish them off. This makes AoE heavy fights much more manageable. Popping this at the right time (and not being afraid to use it) can make healing easy and I dare say overpowered.
Light of Dawn plays a similar role in making the healing game easier. It has been nerfed, and it doesn't seem to be powerful numbers wise, but it is in a sneaky way. You can essentially shoot 5 Holy Shocks at your group at the same time with not mana cost to you. So that's nice. On top of that the health buffer, if you're able to hit everyone in the group with LoD you'll be able to transfer a significant amount of healing toward you tank at no cost.
Both spells are situational, and require some thoughtful positioning, but when the stars align the green bars shine (see what I did there). If you're a paladin, and struggling with keeping everyone alive start incorporating this into your arsenal. You'll be delighted at how much smoother keeping people alive becomes.
Granted I have better gear now, the groups I've gotten have been pretty good, I've been able to learn fights with guildies, and healing as a paladin has been really fun. Why does healing as a paladin feel so awesome?
Being able to heal through AoE raid damage is why. Holy Radiance and Light of Dawn are really fun to use. Beacon of Light is stong, don't get me wrong, but HR and LoD are the game changers. Holy Radiance, while at a hefty mana cost, shines when everyone is taking huge chunks of damage at the same time. While it won't heal everyone to full, it while help keep people from dying while you finish them off. This makes AoE heavy fights much more manageable. Popping this at the right time (and not being afraid to use it) can make healing easy and I dare say overpowered.
Light of Dawn plays a similar role in making the healing game easier. It has been nerfed, and it doesn't seem to be powerful numbers wise, but it is in a sneaky way. You can essentially shoot 5 Holy Shocks at your group at the same time with not mana cost to you. So that's nice. On top of that the health buffer, if you're able to hit everyone in the group with LoD you'll be able to transfer a significant amount of healing toward you tank at no cost.
Both spells are situational, and require some thoughtful positioning, but when the stars align the green bars shine (see what I did there). If you're a paladin, and struggling with keeping everyone alive start incorporating this into your arsenal. You'll be delighted at how much smoother keeping people alive becomes.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Healing in Cataclysm, first impressions
After leveling my paladin to level 82 with my girlfriend's mage, we decided to queue for some random dungeons. We managed to get Vortex Pinnacle four times, in a row, but it definitely gave me an idea of what to expect for healing in cataclysm in this expansion.
First off, just about every tank had 80 thousand health points or more, and everyone else has about 45k health points. So right away the health pools are much larger. With those larger health pools comes larger amounts of damage to be dealt. I was constantly casting something, and often times I was choosing between the cheap heal and the big heal. If someone was below half I would cast the big heal, and if not I went with the cheap heal.
Overall my overhealing was almost non existent, and I did find running out of mana an issue at all. I am looking forward to trying out more of the dungeons, and eventually the 85 dungeons and heroics. It seems like healing in this expansion will be more about making the right decisions, where WotLK was more about having one choice and casting it as fast as possible.
First off, just about every tank had 80 thousand health points or more, and everyone else has about 45k health points. So right away the health pools are much larger. With those larger health pools comes larger amounts of damage to be dealt. I was constantly casting something, and often times I was choosing between the cheap heal and the big heal. If someone was below half I would cast the big heal, and if not I went with the cheap heal.
Overall my overhealing was almost non existent, and I did find running out of mana an issue at all. I am looking forward to trying out more of the dungeons, and eventually the 85 dungeons and heroics. It seems like healing in this expansion will be more about making the right decisions, where WotLK was more about having one choice and casting it as fast as possible.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
How I use the Healing Meter
For a while now I have been using Recount as my damage/healing meter addon thingy. When I used to raid, I would use the healing meter to tell me how much healing I did and compared that to the other healers in our raid. When we began working on and finally killing the Lich King, I used it to also see how much overhealing I was doing compared to the other healers. And since then I have stuck with Recount to show my how much overhealing I do in the heroic 5 mans that I run.
Now you might ask why would I care about overhealing, those heroics are easy. You're right, they are very easy, and that is exactly why I am looking at what percentage of my spells are overhealing. I know that the amount of overhealing I do does't really matter because the instances are easy and I am no where near running out of mana. But the reason that I am doing this is to try to hone my skills. I need something to keep the trivial instances from feeling trivial.
Now how do I do this? Well, I start by just healing. I don't avoid overheals, and I won't not heal someone just because I think it will overheal. I try to make good decisions when choosing my heals. At the end of an instance if I made good enough decisions throughout then my overhealing should be relatively low. For me I measure relatively low as being around 20 and 30% overheal.
With that said, there is a big difference between my priest having 30% overheal and my paladin having 30% overheal, and to tell what the difference is Recount comes in handy. On my paladin, for example, I have three main heals that are going to overheal almost all the time. Protector of the Innocent, Beacon of Light, and Enlightened Judgment. All of these are mana free heals (I have the glyph of Beacon of Light so it is free), and Enlightened Judgments is actually giving me mana because I Judge with Seal of Insight and gain about 400 net mana. Knowing that these three abilities account for more than 60% of my total overhealing lets me know that when the meter says that I did 50% overhealing, I actually only had about 20% overhealing (just throwing numbers out there). Which tells me that I made good decisions the majority of the time.
As far as my priest is concerned, he does not have as many free heals that are going to overheal. My mastery often overheals, and my Althor's Abacus are really the only two sources of free and often overhealing spells. so when the meter says that I did 50% overhealing, I know that I was not making good decisions picking spells.
Now I know that in a five man I do not have to worry about other healers. Making decisions is very easy because I do not have to account for incoming heals, but I figure that if I am able to get more used to making good decisions when choosing the right heal in a five man once I am able to factor in other healers I'll be in pretty good shape.
I have essentially gone from never worrying about overhealing, to using it as a gauge of my awesomeness :)
Now you might ask why would I care about overhealing, those heroics are easy. You're right, they are very easy, and that is exactly why I am looking at what percentage of my spells are overhealing. I know that the amount of overhealing I do does't really matter because the instances are easy and I am no where near running out of mana. But the reason that I am doing this is to try to hone my skills. I need something to keep the trivial instances from feeling trivial.
Now how do I do this? Well, I start by just healing. I don't avoid overheals, and I won't not heal someone just because I think it will overheal. I try to make good decisions when choosing my heals. At the end of an instance if I made good enough decisions throughout then my overhealing should be relatively low. For me I measure relatively low as being around 20 and 30% overheal.
With that said, there is a big difference between my priest having 30% overheal and my paladin having 30% overheal, and to tell what the difference is Recount comes in handy. On my paladin, for example, I have three main heals that are going to overheal almost all the time. Protector of the Innocent, Beacon of Light, and Enlightened Judgment. All of these are mana free heals (I have the glyph of Beacon of Light so it is free), and Enlightened Judgments is actually giving me mana because I Judge with Seal of Insight and gain about 400 net mana. Knowing that these three abilities account for more than 60% of my total overhealing lets me know that when the meter says that I did 50% overhealing, I actually only had about 20% overhealing (just throwing numbers out there). Which tells me that I made good decisions the majority of the time.
As far as my priest is concerned, he does not have as many free heals that are going to overheal. My mastery often overheals, and my Althor's Abacus are really the only two sources of free and often overhealing spells. so when the meter says that I did 50% overhealing, I know that I was not making good decisions picking spells.
Now I know that in a five man I do not have to worry about other healers. Making decisions is very easy because I do not have to account for incoming heals, but I figure that if I am able to get more used to making good decisions when choosing the right heal in a five man once I am able to factor in other healers I'll be in pretty good shape.
I have essentially gone from never worrying about overhealing, to using it as a gauge of my awesomeness :)
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
The new healing model
I will start by saying that I have really enjoyed healing on my priest and paladin. Now here is why.
The introduction of Heal and Holy Light as the medium efficient heal. This change has really changed how I have appraoched healing. I have a choice to make. If a tank is near half health do I use Heal because it's cheap, or do I use Greater Heal because they might die if I don't top them off soon enough? If a dps just took a huge chunk of damage do I use Greater Heal to get them to full health, or do I use Flash Heal because the sufficient heal won't get there in time?These options are a welcome change from the previous model of healing. (these apply to paladin just insert Holy Light, Flash of Light, and Divine Light respectively)
The new mechanics for priests and palains. For my paladin I really like how Holy Shock is the go to spell because it will buff the other heals. With the four peice set bonus on my teir 10 a Holy Shock critical makes Holy Light cast ridiculously fast, which is very cool. And I really like the options I have once I get 3 charges of Holy Power. Do I use Word of Glory now, or save that instant for when I won't have time to cast something?
For my priest I have enjoyed how Chakra has been working. Certain cases are better for corresponding Chakra states, and there is a decision to be made there as well. Surge of Light procs are a nice way to save some mana (I just wish it had a higher chance to proc), and like my paladin I really like the healing mastery bonus.
Mastery has turned out to be a very nice change. For my paladin I add some extra mitigation (which explains why Sacred Sheild went away), and for my priest the added heal over time helps me heal someone and not have to use a wastful heal to "top" someone off. Balancing how much mastery I go with, and making sure I still have enough Haste, Spell Power, Mana, Spirit, and Crit is a nice added bit of depth to stat choices.
So all in all I am very pleased with all of these changes. I know that a lot of people are not very pleased with these changes. To those people I say "QQ Moar!" The game is changing, and healing is changing with it. Hop on and enjoy the ride, or role a dps.
The introduction of Heal and Holy Light as the medium efficient heal. This change has really changed how I have appraoched healing. I have a choice to make. If a tank is near half health do I use Heal because it's cheap, or do I use Greater Heal because they might die if I don't top them off soon enough? If a dps just took a huge chunk of damage do I use Greater Heal to get them to full health, or do I use Flash Heal because the sufficient heal won't get there in time?These options are a welcome change from the previous model of healing. (these apply to paladin just insert Holy Light, Flash of Light, and Divine Light respectively)
The new mechanics for priests and palains. For my paladin I really like how Holy Shock is the go to spell because it will buff the other heals. With the four peice set bonus on my teir 10 a Holy Shock critical makes Holy Light cast ridiculously fast, which is very cool. And I really like the options I have once I get 3 charges of Holy Power. Do I use Word of Glory now, or save that instant for when I won't have time to cast something?
For my priest I have enjoyed how Chakra has been working. Certain cases are better for corresponding Chakra states, and there is a decision to be made there as well. Surge of Light procs are a nice way to save some mana (I just wish it had a higher chance to proc), and like my paladin I really like the healing mastery bonus.
Mastery has turned out to be a very nice change. For my paladin I add some extra mitigation (which explains why Sacred Sheild went away), and for my priest the added heal over time helps me heal someone and not have to use a wastful heal to "top" someone off. Balancing how much mastery I go with, and making sure I still have enough Haste, Spell Power, Mana, Spirit, and Crit is a nice added bit of depth to stat choices.
So all in all I am very pleased with all of these changes. I know that a lot of people are not very pleased with these changes. To those people I say "QQ Moar!" The game is changing, and healing is changing with it. Hop on and enjoy the ride, or role a dps.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Reforging...
With the new patch hitting the servers today a new way to customize gear comes with it. Reforging, is a new tool that will let players pick a stat (ie. haste, crit, etc) on their gear and turn 40% of that stat into a more preferred stat. On both of my healers, this looks very appealing.
For my paladin I can turn some extra spirit into haste or crit, or I can make some of that extra crit into mastery or haste. I am not entirely sure how I am going to tackle this for my paladin, but I am thinking that crit is going to be more attractive for me.
For my priest, I've decided that haste is going to be very attractive. Not only will it help spells like Renew, and my mastery heal over time, it will help make the (very) slow Heal a little less slow. More Heals, will increase my chance for Surge of Light procs, and of course a smaller global cooldown. So haste is looking like a good first choice. So what I've decided with regards to Reforging I am planning on taking items that have crit and adding haste to those.
For my second choice, I am really liking mastery over crit right now. Crit is always unreliable, and only provides more overhealing. I won't need to rely on it for procs (like I did before 4.0), like I will be on my paladin (Holy Shock procs are nice). Which makes me think that mastery is going to be a nice stat to go with.
The Holy mastery will allow my direct healing spells to add a heal over time onto the target. You might not think that this is that great, but this is what I am thinking. Say I heal someone who just took a 6.5k hit. I heal for 6k, and apply the heal over time on top of that. This way the HoT will heal the remaining health preventing me from feeling a need to cast another heal that would then overheal. So if I can make this heal over time stronger, I'll be able to add a nice health cushion to targets, which I think will help out a lot.
So with regards to Reforging, I'm going to take items with Haste, and turn the Spirit on them into Mastery. I will warn you, though, Reforging can be very expensive if you decide to reforge all of you items at once.
For my paladin I can turn some extra spirit into haste or crit, or I can make some of that extra crit into mastery or haste. I am not entirely sure how I am going to tackle this for my paladin, but I am thinking that crit is going to be more attractive for me.
For my priest, I've decided that haste is going to be very attractive. Not only will it help spells like Renew, and my mastery heal over time, it will help make the (very) slow Heal a little less slow. More Heals, will increase my chance for Surge of Light procs, and of course a smaller global cooldown. So haste is looking like a good first choice. So what I've decided with regards to Reforging I am planning on taking items that have crit and adding haste to those.
For my second choice, I am really liking mastery over crit right now. Crit is always unreliable, and only provides more overhealing. I won't need to rely on it for procs (like I did before 4.0), like I will be on my paladin (Holy Shock procs are nice). Which makes me think that mastery is going to be a nice stat to go with.
The Holy mastery will allow my direct healing spells to add a heal over time onto the target. You might not think that this is that great, but this is what I am thinking. Say I heal someone who just took a 6.5k hit. I heal for 6k, and apply the heal over time on top of that. This way the HoT will heal the remaining health preventing me from feeling a need to cast another heal that would then overheal. So if I can make this heal over time stronger, I'll be able to add a nice health cushion to targets, which I think will help out a lot.
So with regards to Reforging, I'm going to take items with Haste, and turn the Spirit on them into Mastery. I will warn you, though, Reforging can be very expensive if you decide to reforge all of you items at once.
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