Recently I've been able to finally heal some heroics on my priest. His average item level is around 338 and is lacking in the mama regen department, but I managed to keep everyone alive pretty well.
Overall, I feel very comfortable with healing as Holy. Compared to my Paladin, I feel like healing on the priest has a slower pace to it. I don't have to constantly cast spells on a normal pool because I can let Renew and Prayer of Mending do most of my work. Staying in Chakra: Serenity makes Heal even better with the improved chance to critical, and having my Heal spells refresh Renew is a great tool for keeping it up on targets without having to spend more mana.
As far as overhealing goes, the main culprits were Renew, Prayer of Mending, and Prayer of Healing. There are times when Renew is ticking before the tank has taken damage, and Prayer of Mending heals for over 10k when the target only took a hit of 7k. But, those heals are always going to contribute to overhealing, my problem is Prayer of Healing. I've found few situations where all five party members require me to use Prayer of Healing (and Circle of Healing for that matter). It's gotten me thinking that if this spell is only going to heal 3/5 group members (at best), then I should just cast a Heal on everyone instead. Obviously time becomes the limiting factor here, but I think that I'm going to start limiting my use of Prayer of Healing so that it's not overhealing so often. Circle of Healing may be in the same boat, but it doesn't heal for as much and it's cheap and instant.
All in all I am really enjoying how healing on my priest feels. I feel comfortable with my mana and my output (providing a fight is not going terrible), and with tools like Lightwell, Leap of Faith, and Body and Soul I really like the utility that I can bring.
I'm going to try to test more on the PTR and post about how Mastery is for Holy Paladins in 4.2, so we'll see how that goes.
Showing posts with label Priest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Priest. Show all posts
Friday, June 3, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
Healing Dunegons as a Holy Priest
Jumping back into talking about some healing. Yesterday I was dpsing with a guildie who is new to healing as holy, and as we went through he reminded me that finding the right balance of spells to use is not easy by any means. This is not meant to limit your spell usage only to those I have mentioned. The key to effective healing is always through trial and error. Learn what your spells do and evaluate how you can best use them. This is meant to be a starting point for anyone unsure about what to do.
Chakra, learn it, live it, love it
So to start off, for most dungeons you'll spend a lot of time in Chakra:Serenity. For the excetion of trash and bosses with heavy groupwide damage, your main healing spell will be Heal, and being in Serenity just makes the most sense.
Lightwell is your Friend
Before I jump into spell usage, I want to add that casting Lightwell before every boss fight is important. Even if no one else uses it, if the only healing doe to you is through the Lightwell, it has saved you from casting heals on yourself, which is totally worth it.
PoM
After a few nights of running dungeons I was able to see just how much of my healing is coming from my spells. The winner by far is Prayer of Mending. I use it every chance I get always on the tank, and it is by far my leader in healing done. Always use Prayer of Mending!
Healing slow with Heal
Next up is Heal. I use this whenever my targets have 50% or more health, and only if they have taken enough damage (normally around 7,000) first. I like to try to keep Renew on the tank as much as I can. This isn't too hard as long as I'm in Serenity as the Heals refresh its durration.
Emergency use only
I only use Flash Heal if someone is in danger of dying, or if I have a Surge of Light pop up. It is an expensive heal, and while it grants Serendipity, it's not really needed outside of emergencies. Typically if someone needs a big heal Greater Heal will have enough time to land, so casting Flash of Light outside of Surge of Light to maintain Serendipity isn't needed.
Group Healing at its Finest
If atleast 4 members of the group have taken significant damage, I use Prayer of Healing and Circle of Healing. If I have to use these spells often, I should be in Chakra: Sanctuary so their potency is buffed. The same goes for Holy Word: Sanctuary, I try to only use this when the group is stacked up so that it is healing to its fullest. These three spells can cause the most overheal, so don't waste them if you don't have to.
Renew and PW:S
There are times when Renew is really awesome and great to spam on the group, but there aren't many of these times. I've found it's most use to come on the tank. The same goes for Power Word: Shield. With its steep mana cost I try to only use it to give someone the Body and Soul speed boost.
Wraping up
In general try to reduce your overhealing as much as you can. Ideally you should be able to stay below 10% overhealing. Remeber Prayer of Mending, and don't forget about your Chakra and the Lightwell.
Chakra, learn it, live it, love it
So to start off, for most dungeons you'll spend a lot of time in Chakra:Serenity. For the excetion of trash and bosses with heavy groupwide damage, your main healing spell will be Heal, and being in Serenity just makes the most sense.
Lightwell is your Friend
Before I jump into spell usage, I want to add that casting Lightwell before every boss fight is important. Even if no one else uses it, if the only healing doe to you is through the Lightwell, it has saved you from casting heals on yourself, which is totally worth it.
PoM
After a few nights of running dungeons I was able to see just how much of my healing is coming from my spells. The winner by far is Prayer of Mending. I use it every chance I get always on the tank, and it is by far my leader in healing done. Always use Prayer of Mending!
Healing slow with Heal
Next up is Heal. I use this whenever my targets have 50% or more health, and only if they have taken enough damage (normally around 7,000) first. I like to try to keep Renew on the tank as much as I can. This isn't too hard as long as I'm in Serenity as the Heals refresh its durration.
Emergency use only
I only use Flash Heal if someone is in danger of dying, or if I have a Surge of Light pop up. It is an expensive heal, and while it grants Serendipity, it's not really needed outside of emergencies. Typically if someone needs a big heal Greater Heal will have enough time to land, so casting Flash of Light outside of Surge of Light to maintain Serendipity isn't needed.
Group Healing at its Finest
If atleast 4 members of the group have taken significant damage, I use Prayer of Healing and Circle of Healing. If I have to use these spells often, I should be in Chakra: Sanctuary so their potency is buffed. The same goes for Holy Word: Sanctuary, I try to only use this when the group is stacked up so that it is healing to its fullest. These three spells can cause the most overheal, so don't waste them if you don't have to.
Renew and PW:S
There are times when Renew is really awesome and great to spam on the group, but there aren't many of these times. I've found it's most use to come on the tank. The same goes for Power Word: Shield. With its steep mana cost I try to only use it to give someone the Body and Soul speed boost.
Wraping up
In general try to reduce your overhealing as much as you can. Ideally you should be able to stay below 10% overhealing. Remeber Prayer of Mending, and don't forget about your Chakra and the Lightwell.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Reforging Mastery or Haste
Now that my priest is level 83, I've started to think about what stats I want to prioritize for him. I know that critical rating is at the bottom, and that I reforge crit whenever it is on an item, but I am not sure about whether I should prioritize haste over mastery or vise versa.
I know that haste is needed and it's great, but I'm starting to think that I should go for mastery almost exclusively. Here's what I figure; I am rarely overhealing with more than 20% of my heals. Mastery is only third in terms of the spells that overheal. This makes me feel that the extra healing added from mastery won't add to the overhealing and will isntead provide a significant percentage of my overall healing.
Right now Echo of Light is only contributing to around 10% of my healing done. Since this is going to be free added healing, boosting it to provide more output should help it to move closer to 20% of my healing. On top of the added boost to output, the extra mastery will allow me to move on to heal another target sooner. I know that my last heal applied a significant heal over time, so I can move on to the next target.
That's how I'm think about things so far. I think that I'm going to gem for a combination of Intellect and Mastery, and I'm going to try to acquire more peices with mastery and reforge for it whenever I can. We'll see how this works out, as I am sure that I will probably revert to choosing haste to be number one after some more healing on my priest.
I know that haste is needed and it's great, but I'm starting to think that I should go for mastery almost exclusively. Here's what I figure; I am rarely overhealing with more than 20% of my heals. Mastery is only third in terms of the spells that overheal. This makes me feel that the extra healing added from mastery won't add to the overhealing and will isntead provide a significant percentage of my overall healing.
Right now Echo of Light is only contributing to around 10% of my healing done. Since this is going to be free added healing, boosting it to provide more output should help it to move closer to 20% of my healing. On top of the added boost to output, the extra mastery will allow me to move on to heal another target sooner. I know that my last heal applied a significant heal over time, so I can move on to the next target.
That's how I'm think about things so far. I think that I'm going to gem for a combination of Intellect and Mastery, and I'm going to try to acquire more peices with mastery and reforge for it whenever I can. We'll see how this works out, as I am sure that I will probably revert to choosing haste to be number one after some more healing on my priest.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Feeling Overpowered
I've finally started leveling my priest and in between questing and leveling his professions I've been able to do runs of Throne of the Tides and Blackrock Caverns. So far, these two dungeons are feeling like warm ups. There really isn't a challenge, and it feels like I have an answer for whatever damage heads my groups way.
I have been trying to stick with Chakra: Serenity for most fights, and I often find myself just standing around waiting to heal. For fights with heavy raid damage I use Chakra: Sanctuary and the same is pretty much true. Lightwell has proven to be very helpful, and I think that people are actually learning how to use it for once.
I am really looking forward to getting into some heroics on this guy because right now healing is not very challenging. Holy priesting is really making me think about which healer I want to play more when I get this guy to 85.
I have been trying to stick with Chakra: Serenity for most fights, and I often find myself just standing around waiting to heal. For fights with heavy raid damage I use Chakra: Sanctuary and the same is pretty much true. Lightwell has proven to be very helpful, and I think that people are actually learning how to use it for once.
I am really looking forward to getting into some heroics on this guy because right now healing is not very challenging. Holy priesting is really making me think about which healer I want to play more when I get this guy to 85.
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 :)
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Chakra feels awkward...
There has been a lot of discussion about Chakra, and not all of it has been positive. I personally thought that it was a cool idea, and I was really looking forward to seeing it be the reason that Holy is fun to play. By my use of past tense you can tell that I am disappointed in the current state of Chakra.
In case you don't know, Chakra is a spell on a one minute cooldown, where after you click it the next heal (and by heal I mean Heal, Prayer of Healing, Renew, and Smite) that you use will put you in a specific Chakra state for 30 seconds. Each Chakra state improves the spell that you used, and (provided that you spent the necessary talent points) casting that spell will extend the time that you are in the Chakra state. Sounds great right?
It's not as great as you might think. First of all it is a lot to keep track of. When I tried to describe it to my girlfriend she threw her hands up and said "that is too complicated." While I don't disagree with her, I think that main problem is that Chakra itself has a cooldown (of one minute), and it has the feeling of locking you in to a certain spell.
This problem of locking you in, can cause a lot of opportunities to make a mistake. If you use Heal, for example, after hitting Chakra, but you are transitioning into a phase of the fight when you need Prayer of Healing or Renew, you can't change Chakra states until that phase is (most likely) over.
On the surface Chakra looks like it adds some nice potency, but in practice it has only added constraints and has mostly been useless. For instance, if I am in Vault of Archavon, and one of the bosses does their AoE, I might go into Chakra State: Prayer of Healing. Allowing me to raid heal effectively and all is well. But, that period of AoE only comes in bursts, I'm not spamming Prayer of Healing and Chakra goes away until I can use it again. It's good for one or two casts (in this case).
I am sure that there are a lot of situations where this spell comes in handy, and instances in Cataclysm might prove to make it's one minute cooldown more understandable. Currently, thought, it lacks fluidity, and there doesn't seem to be a seamless transition between Chakra states. My suggestion would be to make the spell not have a cooldown, or become some sort of passive ability. This definitely could make Holy overpowered, but given the current state of Holy's viability making Chakra more powerful might turn out to balance things out nicely.
In case you don't know, Chakra is a spell on a one minute cooldown, where after you click it the next heal (and by heal I mean Heal, Prayer of Healing, Renew, and Smite) that you use will put you in a specific Chakra state for 30 seconds. Each Chakra state improves the spell that you used, and (provided that you spent the necessary talent points) casting that spell will extend the time that you are in the Chakra state. Sounds great right?
It's not as great as you might think. First of all it is a lot to keep track of. When I tried to describe it to my girlfriend she threw her hands up and said "that is too complicated." While I don't disagree with her, I think that main problem is that Chakra itself has a cooldown (of one minute), and it has the feeling of locking you in to a certain spell.
This problem of locking you in, can cause a lot of opportunities to make a mistake. If you use Heal, for example, after hitting Chakra, but you are transitioning into a phase of the fight when you need Prayer of Healing or Renew, you can't change Chakra states until that phase is (most likely) over.
On the surface Chakra looks like it adds some nice potency, but in practice it has only added constraints and has mostly been useless. For instance, if I am in Vault of Archavon, and one of the bosses does their AoE, I might go into Chakra State: Prayer of Healing. Allowing me to raid heal effectively and all is well. But, that period of AoE only comes in bursts, I'm not spamming Prayer of Healing and Chakra goes away until I can use it again. It's good for one or two casts (in this case).
I am sure that there are a lot of situations where this spell comes in handy, and instances in Cataclysm might prove to make it's one minute cooldown more understandable. Currently, thought, it lacks fluidity, and there doesn't seem to be a seamless transition between Chakra states. My suggestion would be to make the spell not have a cooldown, or become some sort of passive ability. This definitely could make Holy overpowered, but given the current state of Holy's viability making Chakra more powerful might turn out to balance things out nicely.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
About Surge of Light
I have seen some points that have been brought up about Surge of Light. Currently this talent gives you a 6% (if you spend two points in it) for your Smite and Heal casts to allow you to cast Flash Heal instantly, without mana cost, and without a chance to critical.
Before 4.0.1 this talent gave you the ability to instantly cast a mana and crit free Flash Heal 50% of the time after you get a critical with any of your spells. This allowed for instant Flash Heals to proc very often. Which in turn allowed you to obtain 3 stacks of Serendipity very easily, which also made casting a faster Prayer of Healing (or Greater Heal) easier.
Now the proc chance is very low. And by very low I mean that if I were to cast 100 Heals in a row, Surge of Light would only pop up 6 times. In a night of raiding (in WotLK content) spells like Renew, Prayer of Mending, and Circle of Healing are the major spells that are used. So out of the total amount of heals you cast the chance to pop a Surge of Light is even lower. Making a lot of raiding holy priests (a lot better than me) find this talent to be very useless.
I personnaly specced into Surge of Light. I have been running a lot of heroics, since I stopped raiding, which means I have been using Heal more often, so it is more useful to me than the alternative (Tome of Light: reduces the cooldown of Holy Word spells). Having said that, I definitely think that the proc chance is too low. I like having talents that cause spells to pop up, but I like them because those procs actually happen. With Surge of Light, it rarely pops up. If they want to keep it from being OP, I would either let it take the form of the older version with a 25% instead of 50% chance, or allow it proc off of all spell casts at the same 6% as it is now.
Something to make it cool and useful. Right now it feels like one of those old Darkmoon trinkets, or one of those Vanilla legendaries with a cool put rare proc.
Before 4.0.1 this talent gave you the ability to instantly cast a mana and crit free Flash Heal 50% of the time after you get a critical with any of your spells. This allowed for instant Flash Heals to proc very often. Which in turn allowed you to obtain 3 stacks of Serendipity very easily, which also made casting a faster Prayer of Healing (or Greater Heal) easier.
Now the proc chance is very low. And by very low I mean that if I were to cast 100 Heals in a row, Surge of Light would only pop up 6 times. In a night of raiding (in WotLK content) spells like Renew, Prayer of Mending, and Circle of Healing are the major spells that are used. So out of the total amount of heals you cast the chance to pop a Surge of Light is even lower. Making a lot of raiding holy priests (a lot better than me) find this talent to be very useless.
I personnaly specced into Surge of Light. I have been running a lot of heroics, since I stopped raiding, which means I have been using Heal more often, so it is more useful to me than the alternative (Tome of Light: reduces the cooldown of Holy Word spells). Having said that, I definitely think that the proc chance is too low. I like having talents that cause spells to pop up, but I like them because those procs actually happen. With Surge of Light, it rarely pops up. If they want to keep it from being OP, I would either let it take the form of the older version with a 25% instead of 50% chance, or allow it proc off of all spell casts at the same 6% as it is now.
Something to make it cool and useful. Right now it feels like one of those old Darkmoon trinkets, or one of those Vanilla legendaries with a cool put rare proc.
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.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Overhealing, and my Healing Approach
Since I started healing on my paladin through BC heroics, I used the approach of "big hit, use Holy Light, small hit, use Flash of Light." It worked pretty well, and during that time I began to get pretty good at keeping the green bars full.
Then Wrath came, and with it brought the "OMG everyone is taking big hits!" approach. As I began raiding in Naxx, and OS 25 man, it seemed as though everyone in the raid was taking a lot of damage. Combine that with my position as the tank healer, I began using the "use Holy Light" approach. No matter how big or small the hit was this was my heal of choice. This caused a lot of overhealing to be done. But it worked, all the way into ICC.
And then I started playing my priest. As I progressed through ICC 10, I found that about half of the fight were perfect for me. Whether there was constant pulsing AoE, or splash AoE damage, I used Renew, CoH, and PoH accordingly. I noticed though, that I was contributing to a lot of overhealing. Especially once my former guild began to work on the Lich King. So I wanted to start smart healing. Rather than throwing my array of heals at situations blindly, I stopped to think "Do I really need to cast that now, or can it wait?"
This shift in my approach, helped me become very efficient (notably on the Lich King fight itself). I would still use Prayer of Mending on cool down, and keep Renew on the tanks, but I became a little bit more selective on when I would use my other heals. Making sure they would not overheal, so that I would not waste my mana on heals that weren't needed.
Since I stopped raiding, I've kept this approach into my daily random heroics. Trying to fine tune my strategy and seeing a long I can wait to fill the green bars.
Now that I've begun testing my new spells and talents on my paladin and priest, I have tried to keep up with smart healing. And it has been going pretty well. with the change to Heal and Holy Light, I have that cheap small heal for when little damage is going out. I have the fast larger heal for when people get low, and I have the slow big heal for when people need to be brought up.
I have been working on utilizing these three heals when they are needed, while still using the rest of my arsenal when needed. While every fight, and group set up may shift my strategy, I still try to avoid overhealing as much as I can. This mini game that I am playing to keep people alive, while reducing wasted heals is why I like healing so much. The balance between mana efficiency and still preventing deaths is why I am especially looking forward to Cataclysm because overhealing will matter.
Then Wrath came, and with it brought the "OMG everyone is taking big hits!" approach. As I began raiding in Naxx, and OS 25 man, it seemed as though everyone in the raid was taking a lot of damage. Combine that with my position as the tank healer, I began using the "use Holy Light" approach. No matter how big or small the hit was this was my heal of choice. This caused a lot of overhealing to be done. But it worked, all the way into ICC.
And then I started playing my priest. As I progressed through ICC 10, I found that about half of the fight were perfect for me. Whether there was constant pulsing AoE, or splash AoE damage, I used Renew, CoH, and PoH accordingly. I noticed though, that I was contributing to a lot of overhealing. Especially once my former guild began to work on the Lich King. So I wanted to start smart healing. Rather than throwing my array of heals at situations blindly, I stopped to think "Do I really need to cast that now, or can it wait?"
This shift in my approach, helped me become very efficient (notably on the Lich King fight itself). I would still use Prayer of Mending on cool down, and keep Renew on the tanks, but I became a little bit more selective on when I would use my other heals. Making sure they would not overheal, so that I would not waste my mana on heals that weren't needed.
Since I stopped raiding, I've kept this approach into my daily random heroics. Trying to fine tune my strategy and seeing a long I can wait to fill the green bars.
Now that I've begun testing my new spells and talents on my paladin and priest, I have tried to keep up with smart healing. And it has been going pretty well. with the change to Heal and Holy Light, I have that cheap small heal for when little damage is going out. I have the fast larger heal for when people get low, and I have the slow big heal for when people need to be brought up.
I have been working on utilizing these three heals when they are needed, while still using the rest of my arsenal when needed. While every fight, and group set up may shift my strategy, I still try to avoid overhealing as much as I can. This mini game that I am playing to keep people alive, while reducing wasted heals is why I like healing so much. The balance between mana efficiency and still preventing deaths is why I am especially looking forward to Cataclysm because overhealing will matter.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Thoughts on 4.0
After doing some more testing on the PTR I have come to a couple of conclusions regarding the paladin and priest healing changes.
I found the paladin playstyle to be very fun. Holy Shock, Word of Glory, and Holy Light work really well together. The combination of chosing the right heal and managing holy power is much better than throwing the same heal at every situation. I also like how many choices there are for spending talent points once I spend 31 in the holy tree. The ret and prot trees have nice healing options, and there are a ton of nice soloing and utility points left in the holy tree. All of these changes make me very interested in playing my paladin.
As far as my priest goes, I am content with the changes. I haven't been able to get the most out of Chakra, but it is still a nice ability. What I have enjoyed is the desicion process when chosing the right heal. I've managed to figure out that I want to use Heal when the target is above 50% (give or take), and Flash Heal when they get below, and a Serendipitous Greater Heal if they are near death. I really like the dynamic that is going on here. Before Flash Heal was the only filler between Prayer of Mending, or Renews, or a needed Circle of Healing or Prayer of Healing. Now I've got some options. I also like how Surge of Light has found its way back into the spec. The instant free procs from Heal go very nicely with Serendipity. I have realized that Archangel isn't as terrific as I thought for healing as holy, but it is still nice for pvp or soloing, and I am going to want a ton of haste to make Heal as fast as it can be.
All in all, I am excited to heal on my pally again, and I am just as happy to heal on my priest. A win win for sure.
I found the paladin playstyle to be very fun. Holy Shock, Word of Glory, and Holy Light work really well together. The combination of chosing the right heal and managing holy power is much better than throwing the same heal at every situation. I also like how many choices there are for spending talent points once I spend 31 in the holy tree. The ret and prot trees have nice healing options, and there are a ton of nice soloing and utility points left in the holy tree. All of these changes make me very interested in playing my paladin.
As far as my priest goes, I am content with the changes. I haven't been able to get the most out of Chakra, but it is still a nice ability. What I have enjoyed is the desicion process when chosing the right heal. I've managed to figure out that I want to use Heal when the target is above 50% (give or take), and Flash Heal when they get below, and a Serendipitous Greater Heal if they are near death. I really like the dynamic that is going on here. Before Flash Heal was the only filler between Prayer of Mending, or Renews, or a needed Circle of Healing or Prayer of Healing. Now I've got some options. I also like how Surge of Light has found its way back into the spec. The instant free procs from Heal go very nicely with Serendipity. I have realized that Archangel isn't as terrific as I thought for healing as holy, but it is still nice for pvp or soloing, and I am going to want a ton of haste to make Heal as fast as it can be.
All in all, I am excited to heal on my pally again, and I am just as happy to heal on my priest. A win win for sure.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
the PTR is Wonderful!
With all of the class changes coming out with patch 4.0, I decided to test out the new talents before they went live.
I was like a kid in a candy store. So many changes, it is like relearning how to play. I'll start with some of the broad changes, and get to the priest and pally stuff more. The new glyph interface is very nice. I am really looking forward to this change. Being able to get all of the glyphs that I want, and swap them in an out as I please is going to be a lot less of a hassle than the current system. The new Power Auras addition to the interface is very handy. Not only do shiny things appear around my character, but the button that you get to hit lights up too! This is a very nice change from constantly looking to the upper right of my screen for spells that poped up. And lastly, I am looking forward to Reforging. This looks like ti will add some much needed flexibility when prioritizing gear.
Now to the goods. I started first on my priest. I specced holy using this spec (minus Evangelism and Archangel because you're only lvl 80 on the ptr). To start, Chakra is a nice talent, and I love how it can stay up for as long as you want, and provide a nice boos to the heal that you need. Holy Word: Chastise, is pretty cool. I think that the cooldown is a bit long, but I like how it changes depending on the Chakra state I'm in. Also I am glad that Surge of Light is in the tree and easy to get. I get free Flash Heals, which give me Serendipity buffs which makes the use of the big heals much easier. I like how those talents work with eachother.
Also in case you were wondering I did try out discipline, so that I could get Archangel. It looks awesome (gives you wings), and it makes casting smite boost healing. I decided that I won't pick it up (too many better options, but if you want more about it you can see Miss Medicina's post about the numbers behind it's awesomeness here.
Next I went to my Paladin. The spec that I used here is different from the one that I linked in my previous post. I wanted to test out the healing, later on I'll test out the kind of damage I can dish out as holy, but for now I want to get used to healing. So here is the spec. There are some things off the bat that take some getting used to. Holy power is one of those things. In the spec that i linked, you will gain Holy Power by using Holy Shock and by healing the target of Beacon of Light with your casted heals. You can only have 3 charges of Holy Power, and once you have any number of charges you can use Word of Glory. While Word of Glory doesn't heal for much unless you have 3 charges, it is free and instant so you would only be wasting a global cooldown if you use it with less than 3 charges. Another thing that took me sometime to get used to was all of the buffs the pop up. Casting Holy Shock gives you haste when casting, and if you crit it makes Holy Light even faster. At the same time, casting has a chance to allow you to use Holy Shock without it triggering a cooldown (2 in a row). These buffs are really nice, and they make the playstyle a lot more interactive and fun. Managing the buffs to the casted spells, managing the buffs to Holy Shock, and using Holy Power effectively is a lot more dynamic than spamming the most efficient heal all the time.
The last thing I want to say about Holy paladins is Light of Dawn!!!! It looks really amazing.
All in all, holy priests will still be a lot of fun, and holy paladins will have a much more dynamic playstyle. I am looking forward to playing both when 4.0 goes live.
I was like a kid in a candy store. So many changes, it is like relearning how to play. I'll start with some of the broad changes, and get to the priest and pally stuff more. The new glyph interface is very nice. I am really looking forward to this change. Being able to get all of the glyphs that I want, and swap them in an out as I please is going to be a lot less of a hassle than the current system. The new Power Auras addition to the interface is very handy. Not only do shiny things appear around my character, but the button that you get to hit lights up too! This is a very nice change from constantly looking to the upper right of my screen for spells that poped up. And lastly, I am looking forward to Reforging. This looks like ti will add some much needed flexibility when prioritizing gear.
Now to the goods. I started first on my priest. I specced holy using this spec (minus Evangelism and Archangel because you're only lvl 80 on the ptr). To start, Chakra is a nice talent, and I love how it can stay up for as long as you want, and provide a nice boos to the heal that you need. Holy Word: Chastise, is pretty cool. I think that the cooldown is a bit long, but I like how it changes depending on the Chakra state I'm in. Also I am glad that Surge of Light is in the tree and easy to get. I get free Flash Heals, which give me Serendipity buffs which makes the use of the big heals much easier. I like how those talents work with eachother.
Also in case you were wondering I did try out discipline, so that I could get Archangel. It looks awesome (gives you wings), and it makes casting smite boost healing. I decided that I won't pick it up (too many better options, but if you want more about it you can see Miss Medicina's post about the numbers behind it's awesomeness here.
Next I went to my Paladin. The spec that I used here is different from the one that I linked in my previous post. I wanted to test out the healing, later on I'll test out the kind of damage I can dish out as holy, but for now I want to get used to healing. So here is the spec. There are some things off the bat that take some getting used to. Holy power is one of those things. In the spec that i linked, you will gain Holy Power by using Holy Shock and by healing the target of Beacon of Light with your casted heals. You can only have 3 charges of Holy Power, and once you have any number of charges you can use Word of Glory. While Word of Glory doesn't heal for much unless you have 3 charges, it is free and instant so you would only be wasting a global cooldown if you use it with less than 3 charges. Another thing that took me sometime to get used to was all of the buffs the pop up. Casting Holy Shock gives you haste when casting, and if you crit it makes Holy Light even faster. At the same time, casting has a chance to allow you to use Holy Shock without it triggering a cooldown (2 in a row). These buffs are really nice, and they make the playstyle a lot more interactive and fun. Managing the buffs to the casted spells, managing the buffs to Holy Shock, and using Holy Power effectively is a lot more dynamic than spamming the most efficient heal all the time.
The last thing I want to say about Holy paladins is Light of Dawn!!!! It looks really amazing.
All in all, holy priests will still be a lot of fun, and holy paladins will have a much more dynamic playstyle. I am looking forward to playing both when 4.0 goes live.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Results after PVPing as a Holy Priest
Previously I posted about pvping as a holy priest. (you can find it here). It's been a couple of week and numerous battlegrounds later, and I think I've come to a decesion. It's really fun!
I'll start by emphasizing that Discipline is still very good, but all in all I've found few draw backs while doing battlegrounds.
Guardian Spirit is great. Lightwell, has been more useful than I thought. Prayer of Mending is much more powerful, and therefore awesome. Renew is very nice. Blessed Resilience and Blessed recovery are great for staying alive. And Body and Soul is full of win.
The only major draw back that I've noticed is my heals are much slower. With the pvp gear, my haste is cut in half, which makes Borrowed Time an awesome reason to be disc.
But all in all I have had a lot of fun, and I've noticed that I am pretty tough to kill, and can keep people alive pretty well. Holy may not be as good as disc as far as single target healing, but there are a lot of cool talents in the tree that are very fun.
I'll start by emphasizing that Discipline is still very good, but all in all I've found few draw backs while doing battlegrounds.
Guardian Spirit is great. Lightwell, has been more useful than I thought. Prayer of Mending is much more powerful, and therefore awesome. Renew is very nice. Blessed Resilience and Blessed recovery are great for staying alive. And Body and Soul is full of win.
The only major draw back that I've noticed is my heals are much slower. With the pvp gear, my haste is cut in half, which makes Borrowed Time an awesome reason to be disc.
But all in all I have had a lot of fun, and I've noticed that I am pretty tough to kill, and can keep people alive pretty well. Holy may not be as good as disc as far as single target healing, but there are a lot of cool talents in the tree that are very fun.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Why I like bad tanks.
I love it when I see a tank with less than 30k health. I love seeing a tank who is clearly not defense capped. And I love it when that tank is horrible at holding agro. "But CrusaderSev that's crazy, a bad tank couldn't bring any good." Wrong! A bad tank means that I get to heal. And I mean really heal!
My priest is a Kingslayer and has everything from Icecrown (cept a stupid wand). My paladin has his 4 peices of teir 10 (though most everything else is from ToC 10). By no means are my healers in super amazing gear but they vastly out gear the content present in heroics. If I am unlucky enough to get into a group with a tank who is as geared or better than me, then that means a boring run. He takes little damages, the dps take little damage, and I am playing the "you don't need to be topped off" game.
In the past I would resort to wearing level 60 gear sets. Not only did I look awesome (Banana Shoulders FTW!), but my spell power and mana were lowered enough to make me feel like I did when I first started. I had to use my heals more because one was no longer enough. That got to be pretty fun, but I found that most people didn't really like that very much. Because on the off chance that things did go wrong, things got a little bit scary for them. So I have stayed in my normal gear sets hoping for the group that has a poorly geared tank.
I was very disapointed last night. The tank we started with had less than 30k, and couldn't keep agro off my girlfriend's mage, and I was happy. Then my girlfriend and a warlock get one shotted from pulling agro, and our feral druid swaps to bear and tanks the rest. My disapointment arose when said druid had 60k health :(
Now I know that if I want a challenge I can go and play with the LK some more. But I don't really have the time to play with Arthas now that classes have started. So I'm just going to have to wait for that bad tank/group that makes a boring heroic a little less boring. Another reason to look forward to Cataclysm.
My priest is a Kingslayer and has everything from Icecrown (cept a stupid wand). My paladin has his 4 peices of teir 10 (though most everything else is from ToC 10). By no means are my healers in super amazing gear but they vastly out gear the content present in heroics. If I am unlucky enough to get into a group with a tank who is as geared or better than me, then that means a boring run. He takes little damages, the dps take little damage, and I am playing the "you don't need to be topped off" game.
In the past I would resort to wearing level 60 gear sets. Not only did I look awesome (Banana Shoulders FTW!), but my spell power and mana were lowered enough to make me feel like I did when I first started. I had to use my heals more because one was no longer enough. That got to be pretty fun, but I found that most people didn't really like that very much. Because on the off chance that things did go wrong, things got a little bit scary for them. So I have stayed in my normal gear sets hoping for the group that has a poorly geared tank.
I was very disapointed last night. The tank we started with had less than 30k, and couldn't keep agro off my girlfriend's mage, and I was happy. Then my girlfriend and a warlock get one shotted from pulling agro, and our feral druid swaps to bear and tanks the rest. My disapointment arose when said druid had 60k health :(
Now I know that if I want a challenge I can go and play with the LK some more. But I don't really have the time to play with Arthas now that classes have started. So I'm just going to have to wait for that bad tank/group that makes a boring heroic a little less boring. Another reason to look forward to Cataclysm.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Lightwell has some use (at least that I've noticed)
Recently I posted about pvping as a Holy Priest. The spec that I linked includes Lightwell. Why Lightwell you ask? Well I didn't really know at the time, but now that I have done more battlegrounds I have an answer.
When you are stunned, you can still click Lightwell. Meaning, it will heal you when you can't heal yourself. An example I'll site comes from Arathi Basin. Let's say that I am protecting a flag in the Basin. I will put Lightwell near the Flag (i.e. near where I'll be standing). Now some horde players come to attack me and my comrades. I use my spells to keep myself and my group alive, and BAM, I'm stuned. Can't do a thing for a few seconds. Previously I would just sit there (providing that Every Man for Himself was on cooldown), but no more. I can click the Lightwell, and it will give me a nice heal over time (glyphed it heals for about 4k every 2 seconds).
Pretty sweet if you ask me. While someone is just whacking away at me, I can use the Lightwell, and it (combined with my Blessed Recovery and Blessed Resillience talents) can help me stay alive while I'm stunned, spell locked, and feared (I think).
And if that wasn't good enough, here's another tid bit for yah. People will attack your Lightwell. Not that earth shattering? Well think about this, if they are attacking the Lightwell, that means that they aren't attacking you or your friends. Allowing for an added opportunity to turn the tables.
It's funny, the more that I use Lightwell in battlegrounds, the more I am seeing how useful it can be. Hopefully Cataclysm will change it enough to make it more user friendly, and players will accept it like they do their health stones and healing potions.
When you are stunned, you can still click Lightwell. Meaning, it will heal you when you can't heal yourself. An example I'll site comes from Arathi Basin. Let's say that I am protecting a flag in the Basin. I will put Lightwell near the Flag (i.e. near where I'll be standing). Now some horde players come to attack me and my comrades. I use my spells to keep myself and my group alive, and BAM, I'm stuned. Can't do a thing for a few seconds. Previously I would just sit there (providing that Every Man for Himself was on cooldown), but no more. I can click the Lightwell, and it will give me a nice heal over time (glyphed it heals for about 4k every 2 seconds).
Pretty sweet if you ask me. While someone is just whacking away at me, I can use the Lightwell, and it (combined with my Blessed Recovery and Blessed Resillience talents) can help me stay alive while I'm stunned, spell locked, and feared (I think).
And if that wasn't good enough, here's another tid bit for yah. People will attack your Lightwell. Not that earth shattering? Well think about this, if they are attacking the Lightwell, that means that they aren't attacking you or your friends. Allowing for an added opportunity to turn the tables.
It's funny, the more that I use Lightwell in battlegrounds, the more I am seeing how useful it can be. Hopefully Cataclysm will change it enough to make it more user friendly, and players will accept it like they do their health stones and healing potions.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
PVPing as a holy priest
With a lack of desire to do any raiding, heroics, or leveling of toons, I have turned to battlegrounds. I have always enjoyed pvping, both at 80 on my pally and priest and at the lower levels on my rogue, and other pally. It adds a much needed change of pace, and it's always fun to turn the tides of a battle with needed heals and face melting powah.
Most of my pvp has come on my priest lately. As shadow it is a ton of fun being able to go toe to toe with most anyone. As discipline, the single target healing and PW:S is just awesome. Both specs are a ton of fun for pvp. But I was thinking, "I like raiding as holy, why not doing battlegrounds as holy?"
So I did. I picked up Blessed Recovery, Blessed Resilience, Body and Soul, and even Lightwell (still wondering why myself). The spec still allows me to heal in a raid or heroic easily. I made sure to pick up all of those tools without too much trouble. So, I gave it a try last night. and I've got to say that I think I am liking it a little better than disc so far.
Here is a link to the specthat I use.
My Prayer of Mending is stronger, my Power Word: Sheil gives a speed boost, my Renew is more useful, I've got Gaurdian spirit, and with Spirit of Redemption, even if you kill me I can still heal for another 15 sec. While Prayer of Healing and Circle of Healing don't find as much use, those added tools don't really hurt me at all. I am still not sure how wise it was to spec (and glyph) for Lightwell. I guess the reasoning there was to get people used to using it for when it (hopefully) becomes useful in Cata. Plus having an added ability never hurt.
All in all, I am enjoying pvping as holy. While I am sure that Disc is the better healing spec for it, holy is the spec that I like the most, and I am glad that it is proving to be pretty fun.
Most of my pvp has come on my priest lately. As shadow it is a ton of fun being able to go toe to toe with most anyone. As discipline, the single target healing and PW:S is just awesome. Both specs are a ton of fun for pvp. But I was thinking, "I like raiding as holy, why not doing battlegrounds as holy?"
So I did. I picked up Blessed Recovery, Blessed Resilience, Body and Soul, and even Lightwell (still wondering why myself). The spec still allows me to heal in a raid or heroic easily. I made sure to pick up all of those tools without too much trouble. So, I gave it a try last night. and I've got to say that I think I am liking it a little better than disc so far.
Here is a link to the specthat I use.
My Prayer of Mending is stronger, my Power Word: Sheil gives a speed boost, my Renew is more useful, I've got Gaurdian spirit, and with Spirit of Redemption, even if you kill me I can still heal for another 15 sec. While Prayer of Healing and Circle of Healing don't find as much use, those added tools don't really hurt me at all. I am still not sure how wise it was to spec (and glyph) for Lightwell. I guess the reasoning there was to get people used to using it for when it (hopefully) becomes useful in Cata. Plus having an added ability never hurt.
All in all, I am enjoying pvping as holy. While I am sure that Disc is the better healing spec for it, holy is the spec that I like the most, and I am glad that it is proving to be pretty fun.
Friday, August 27, 2010
What annoys you the most?
Running a random on Cell, and there is a DK in frost presence (not tanking). He's hardly pressing any buttons, and just have a good ole time cruising through the instance.
Our tank, who was over geared and pulling with vigor, was loosing his patience with the our DK. Not only because he was in frost presence, but also from the lack of activity and awareness of his class and how to play it. Our tanks comments to the DK gave me the impression that the DKs actions were really getting on his nerves. This made me wonder, what really gets on my nerves? Was our tank justified in being so annoyed?
I can understand being a tank and having someone who is taunting off of you, using righteous fury, frost pressence or defensive stance, and so on.This can get pretty frustrating for some folks. After all it is the tanks role to hold agro on all of the mobs, and when someone uses those abilities they are hindering the tanks ability to fill that role adequately. But this DK was no where near getting threat off of the Tank. Sure it can be annoying that he's in Frost Presence, but is it worth throwing a fit over?
I tend to take the stance that if it's not having an adverse affect on my (or my girlfriend's) gameplay, then what do I care. Sure that person has no idea how to play their class, and sure they have no idea of what they are supposed to do on most fights, if it doesn't hurt me I tend not to let it bother me. I've noticed, though, that this philosophy stops being true when I'm in a raid. For whatever reason (probably the long waits between wipes), I get especially annoyed when people enter a raid instance absolutely clueless. And it's not just that they are clueless, it's that they are clueless and trying to hide it. Time and time again, I'll be in a pug and when the raid leader asks, "has anyone not done this fight before?" noone says a word. The raid fails (miserably) and becomes clear there are many people who havn't done the fight before.
I absolutely hate it when people do this. When someone woul rather fake it and cause 9 or 24 other people to run back from the graveyard, instead of saying "umm yeah, I have no idea what is going on, can someone explain it to me?" that's when I get annoyed. I know that there is a lot of anxiety when you're the only one out of the loop, but think about this. If you're in a pug, chances are good (depending on how it was put together) that you are not the only one who has no idea. I would rather someone tell me they don't have a clue, than pretend they do and fail because by you asking that question the other clueless people don't have to.
This, combined with the fact that it is a pain to get my priest his teir 5 smexy set, is probably my biggest pet peeve. If you have a question, ask someone. If that person is a douche, keep asking until you find someone willing to be nice and patient enough to help you. Also the WoW forums, wowhead, tankspot, and a whole slew of guides are your friends. Learn how to use them, and you will be on your way to improve your gameplay.
Our tank, who was over geared and pulling with vigor, was loosing his patience with the our DK. Not only because he was in frost presence, but also from the lack of activity and awareness of his class and how to play it. Our tanks comments to the DK gave me the impression that the DKs actions were really getting on his nerves. This made me wonder, what really gets on my nerves? Was our tank justified in being so annoyed?
I can understand being a tank and having someone who is taunting off of you, using righteous fury, frost pressence or defensive stance, and so on.This can get pretty frustrating for some folks. After all it is the tanks role to hold agro on all of the mobs, and when someone uses those abilities they are hindering the tanks ability to fill that role adequately. But this DK was no where near getting threat off of the Tank. Sure it can be annoying that he's in Frost Presence, but is it worth throwing a fit over?
I tend to take the stance that if it's not having an adverse affect on my (or my girlfriend's) gameplay, then what do I care. Sure that person has no idea how to play their class, and sure they have no idea of what they are supposed to do on most fights, if it doesn't hurt me I tend not to let it bother me. I've noticed, though, that this philosophy stops being true when I'm in a raid. For whatever reason (probably the long waits between wipes), I get especially annoyed when people enter a raid instance absolutely clueless. And it's not just that they are clueless, it's that they are clueless and trying to hide it. Time and time again, I'll be in a pug and when the raid leader asks, "has anyone not done this fight before?" noone says a word. The raid fails (miserably) and becomes clear there are many people who havn't done the fight before.
I absolutely hate it when people do this. When someone woul rather fake it and cause 9 or 24 other people to run back from the graveyard, instead of saying "umm yeah, I have no idea what is going on, can someone explain it to me?" that's when I get annoyed. I know that there is a lot of anxiety when you're the only one out of the loop, but think about this. If you're in a pug, chances are good (depending on how it was put together) that you are not the only one who has no idea. I would rather someone tell me they don't have a clue, than pretend they do and fail because by you asking that question the other clueless people don't have to.
This, combined with the fact that it is a pain to get my priest his teir 5 smexy set, is probably my biggest pet peeve. If you have a question, ask someone. If that person is a douche, keep asking until you find someone willing to be nice and patient enough to help you. Also the WoW forums, wowhead, tankspot, and a whole slew of guides are your friends. Learn how to use them, and you will be on your way to improve your gameplay.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
It's my first time!
In an effort to catch up on the happenings in the WoW community while being unproductive at my job, I've discovered WoW blogs. Over the last couple of weeks I've been reading some very interesting articles about a variety of topics surrounding the the gaming community.
From Cataclysm news, to raiding blues there is always something new and interesting being brought to the forefront. And so, I've been inspired to join in. I've been playing WoW for almost 4 years now, and I'd like to think that I've learned a little about the game and how to play it.
My main characters are a holy priest and holy paladin. The paladin is the first class I played, and that character was my first 80, and some most of my coolest achivements. The priest is a character that I've had for a long time, but never really played until my guild realized the healing ICC with 3 holy paladins might not be so good. I leveled him and he is my Kingslayer.
Both classes are my favorite, and both are (in my opinion) the coolest when it comes to look and playstyle. Most of what I talk about will be from the perspective of these two characters, Sev (the pally), and Cell (the priest). I have spent time leveling most every class at the low levels, but these two have occupied my point of view the most.
I hope you enjoy reading, as I offer my view on things WoW related.
From Cataclysm news, to raiding blues there is always something new and interesting being brought to the forefront. And so, I've been inspired to join in. I've been playing WoW for almost 4 years now, and I'd like to think that I've learned a little about the game and how to play it.
My main characters are a holy priest and holy paladin. The paladin is the first class I played, and that character was my first 80, and some most of my coolest achivements. The priest is a character that I've had for a long time, but never really played until my guild realized the healing ICC with 3 holy paladins might not be so good. I leveled him and he is my Kingslayer.
Both classes are my favorite, and both are (in my opinion) the coolest when it comes to look and playstyle. Most of what I talk about will be from the perspective of these two characters, Sev (the pally), and Cell (the priest). I have spent time leveling most every class at the low levels, but these two have occupied my point of view the most.
I hope you enjoy reading, as I offer my view on things WoW related.
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