Posts Tagged 'Healing'

Why don’t you walk away

Published July 18, 2012 World Of Warcraft 4 Comments
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We are all very good at tunneling.  In BG’s epic battles can be waged around control over an uncapped node involving half the players from both sides.

When you take a breath, and look up at the scoreboard,  the other team has managed to cap 3 nodes, and you only have stables.  The fight over this one uncapped node has distracted your team that much that enough time has passed for the other side to get a decent lead.

The healers could be merrily healing away – you get into this zone watching green health bars,  throw a fear out in your hit capped healing set so all your fears don’t fail.  La la laaaa la di dah,    Bubble, flash, renew,  Penance on a bad one,  heal them up,  more bubbles, oh look barriers up,  fear, holy nova to stop that sneaky rogue cap. La di dahhhh

Then you realize its been going on too long and the dps your healing aren’t targeting their healers

[Battleground] [ Z] Kill the healers!

[Battleground] [Z] Target their healers!

La di dah…

So at this point,  you’re getting ok Hk’s and your healing is looking awesome on the meters ( because the other team is not targeting you  either.)  Technically you are doing your job. You’re healing.  No one is complaining about your healing, people are staying alive.  What else are you supposed to do?

Walk away?

/scoff

But if you walk away they will all die,  and so will you most likely once that me hunter you prey instinct kicks in and the enemy team go ” look squishy trying to run away kill kill kill !”

Z dies

But so do the rest of the people you’re healing at an unsuccessful node cap and by that point your team now has to come back from a 3 -4 node cap.

People who fight on the roads,   will stay on that road if there is a healer enabling them to fight. It’s a hard thing to do, to ride past that person with half a health bar.

So yes,  walking away could be the best thing you do, to enable your  team to refocus because as long as they are staying alive,  they will just keep tunneling

I am a sad Chess piece

Published December 13, 2011 raid , World Of Warcraft 4 Comments
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I’ve been pretty lucky with the Raid Finder.  2 Pieces of Raid Finder Tier  – and luckily the most important two,  the helm, and Mantle.  ( the looks,  gotta have the looks)   I mogged a robe to try to match the colour schemes of the neck piece and I came pretty close using the Spirit Mend Robe.

Tonight, just after reset I scored the Raid Finder Seal of the Seven Signs +406 intell and 2573 Haste proc – which isn’t a bad for new loot.

I went on public record ( on Facebook to my friends) to say that I didn’t like the new Tier when it was first announced. I can’t deny it looks pretty cool  with it’s  harlequin eyes. However I cannot get away from thinking I look like a chess piece.  I could be a Bishop or the Queen, ( there is spikey crown) and I don’t look very happy, and nor do I feel very wow priest like. But it’s certainly very different and well designed.

I’ve been running LFR  ( and doing pretty well ) and all the new twilight dungeons as a healer.  I was disc  and then I went holy, as our Arena’s 3’s team has been split over realms and we haven’t quite decided who is changing to what toon where,  I haven’t needed my Disc Spec and have found holy healing in Raids much easier.  I can only liken it to the difference in shooting a gun on my hunter and shooting a bow.  The bow is smoother,  it flows,  it has a soft twang,  the Gun is very violent and forceful,  I find holy healing like shooting the bow,  it flows better I fill up your health bar,  instead of slapping a bandage over the wound to prevent extra damage while other people fill the health bar up.

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In other news.  I now have 2 85 hunters.  My Dwarf I’ve had for a little while,  but with the 4.3 changes,  funnily enough my newest 85 ( my BE Hunter Desdemonia) is now my 2nd best geared 85. She had a bit of unexpected funding help from a reader a little while back ( thanks Glenn if your still reading)  which came in handy with the chanting and gemming of the new gear.

I had been avoiding raiding and even doing instances before 4.3 on my hunter(s).  So I had a little tweaking to do. ( like remember to remove cower, and to not use Kill command ) Because I had some other hunters in raid to compare to – look at what they were doing I made some changes and am pretty happy with my dps in LFR now 🙂

I had a warrior ask me for my tier token when the helm dropped.  I stuck around for the next boss,  unlike some people who win a tier token and leave group, and when he asked ” Did I mind if he grabbed that helm”  I said “Yes”  it was going to be my two set and that was pretty much the conversation.  I think he was the tank,  but he couldn’t even use the excuse that I was scrub and didn’t deserve it because I was doing good dps,  as in  – in the main pack,  pretty high on the list. (  though there does seem to be a bias between those who perform badly in LFR and lady luck -or it can seem that way sometimes)

It was ballsy of him to ask,  but I was going to take lady lucks boon, and run it ( or run away with it)

Yes LFR is charity, but I have experience,  I have loot,  I see bad’s and afker’s getting kicked, so the self-regulation seems to be working ok, and I have not seen one person unfairly booted. ( so far)

*slaps the bandaid in your face

Published August 23, 2011 World Of Warcraft 2 Comments
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One of the things I liked about the Shadow priest, and stuck with the class through the days of dismal dps, was I liked being utility, the self-sufficiency, replenishment, party healing,   If I ever cared about being caster top dps I would have rolled a Mage or Warlock years ago.

14 min queues for DPS for the Cata heroic aren’t too bad,  so I queued and got Grim Batol.  I was just settling into Boss DPS mode on the first boss, after killing the first malignant trogg, (because no one else even tried)  I glance up at the parties health bars, mindful of any Blitz warnings flashing on screen, and the healer’s life bar disappears, and then a split second later tank is at 10% health and is also RIP.  Hunter dps gets smashed by the boss, and me and the DK manage to kite him around a little bit but still only get him to about 50%.

Then I get told as we are running back.

“Priest – you should have off healed”

Not ” Bad healer for standing in crap”  Or “bad tank for tanking him where you did” ( I think on top of the healer – all their damage taken was ground siege)

It was “Priest – you should have off healed”

I had to defend myself. ” You were at 10%  health and standing in ground siege”  and “You shouldn’t need a offhealer if the Healer doesn’t get one shot”

If he had, had more than 10% health I would have given it a shot, but healer down, Tank so low with a health bar that got sucked into oblivion before even me, a trigger happy –  leave shadow form priest can react.  I resent being told I should have off-healed.

I like being useful, filling gaps.   I will drop Shadow form and heal in Pve and Pvp. I try to be helpful. If I don’t think the healer is keeping my tank up in a dungeon well enough I will throw shields up on them, and yes my dps suffers, but it doesn’t matter because I’d rather not wipe.   I watch the health bar of the tank, and the healer.  I notice when a dps is down, when someone doesn’t get rezed ec.  I hymn when someone kills both hatchers and the healer worries about the extra damage.  I mass dispel on the Bear boss so the healer doesnt have to single target dispel 5 people.

I try and help damn it , often at a loss of dps to me,  sure it might be one global cool down here and there,  but I have known Dps and Tanks that don’t run with raid frames  because they don’t need to know what everyone’s health and life status is. It’s not their job.

I didn’t complain at the healer failure. I was running back with everyone else, willing to give this bad start of a pug another chance. But I’m supposed to put band aids on their failures as well and I’m the baddie.

But there also lies this apathy problem I have developed.  We killed the 1st boss the 2nd time.  Healer only got hit with Blitz once, and I killed two Malignant troggs,  it was all good,  and as we are making our way to the next boss  I had several seconds to think about this whole benefit of being an adult and making my own choices.   If I was at a party I didn’t want to be at,  I can leave, and so yeah,  they showed me how the rest of the run was likely to be like,  and I really didn’t want that kind of annoyance, so I left.

Is that giving up to easily. Maybe,  but I keep forgetting that this game is supposed to be fun.  I shouldn’t have to endure bull crap, and there is different types of crap.  I was more ok with the healer failing ( learning.  as I would like to positively spin it) then I was about this strange attitude that I was somehow required to band aid the problem.

Have plate – will play meat shield.

Published August 19, 2011 World Of Warcraft 2 Comments
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My next project is the resto shammy I started a little while ago,  and after a ‘amg what do these buttons do again’ * pushes random binds to see what happens, and then some tweaks to my healing mod.   I am now settling comfortably back into healing dungeons on her.  She is decked out in all the heirlooms and is not shy in critiquing tanks who have made no effort to gear as she runs Utguard keep for the 20th time.

One piece of parry/dodge gear seems to be the average DK tank around the 70’s.  They think because they are in plate it automatically makes them a tank.
Last night I was told by the tank, after I asked him where his tanking gear was,  that he was doing ok because he hadn’t Died yet, and  I told him he hadn’t died yet because I was healing him more then ok and that  he was not in enough tanking gear to take the damage he was taking, I kept him up; we finished the instance with no wipes.  I may not have forced him to go read EJ,  or pick up something with dodge and parry,  but I gave him legitimate feedback. He was not wearing the right gear. I hope it was enough for him to go.. Mmmm  can I do this better?
I get that you may not be capped,  I get that you are leveling, and that you may not have all the right gear, or be gemmed or chanted,  or have an uber toon that can afford all the best heirlooms, and that you may be filling in gaps of gear with Pvp gear.  I do it too.  A little respect to the position though is required no matter your role and to get to your 70’s and think you’re a tank with no tanking gear, what the heck have you been doing with the quest rewards/other dungeons you have been running.
Maybe I approached things differently.   The times I have gone back to healing for what ever reason  I have always made sure that my gear choices/gems/chants were at least sensible.  When I started tanking I geared for tanking. Maybe I am being overly cautious, At level 2o it’s all lets take turns at playing tank, but once you start heading towards your 70’s a little bit of learning is required,   because these people are going to be hitting 85 soon enough and they will have the same attitude tanking Cata dungeons.
Where do pugs go wrong ?  The faceroll through what I consider to be your training in lower levels.  Zoom or ding your way through the content and abilities with the leveling bonuses  and suddenly your 85
I remember the days when healing power was different to spell power. ( I do not miss those days) but you would have not have declared yourself a healer unless you were wearing healing gear. There is a reason ( as I have found out on my warrior dpsing)  for expertise.  There is a reason for spirit on a healer.  There is a reason for dodge and parry.  If you don’t have a basic understanding of the importance of each stat for the class or role you are playing then why are you playing.
As children we learn the right and wrong way to do thing because we are taught by family/society.  When we stop teaching each other,we stop learning and caring, and there seems to be a lot of apathy towards a lot of things.  I have also been affected, and for it to matter to me,  I need it to matter to other people.
Edit Soon after:  I should share my theory on what will happen when the new Tank changes happen with these people with no gear.    If you have a mob of 6 a tank might get say 4 of the 6 hitting him.  The Mage has been blasting on mob 5 who is now running towards them,   ( mage iceblocks – mob runs back – but at this time mob 5 is not hitting tank)  At the same time, the warrior dps/rogue/kitty is single tanking one mob 6 because they can.  The other dps/tank/Aoe has killed 1-4 and 5 and 6 are halfway there,  but the load was a little less because there wasn’t enough agro to catch all of them.  Well..   with the new changes.  6 mobs hitting on a tank with no parry and dodge.  TANK IS GOING DOWN..   wmahahaha

Still here..

Published August 6, 2011 World Of Warcraft 6 Comments
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We now we overgear the Normal Cata Heroics and I have been able to earn through questing, rep, and badges with the conversions enough gear to be at the point where I feel like I can heal most sorts of bad.

Tanks now have 140-200 k health instead of the 100k most seem to be sitting around when it first started.  My spirits a lot better, and I don’t need to make sure I have a flask and food to make it through a trash pack without drinking.

I’m at that good healing place,  and while I got there,  so did the tanks and dps.   They usually know the fights better,  better gear,  better class knowledge. It’s almost like the warm safe comfy blanket that Wrath healing got to.

Sure,  don’t jump on that stomp,  I can heal you up. Or don’t try to avoid static cling,  I can dispel you.  Fire only burns a little bit,  be brave,  pull an extra pack or two.  Most of us will survive.  We knew we would get to this point, as we overgeared the content.

But then it’s not as challenging or interesting when it’s easy.  I’ve been scrounging for things to do and so I threw myself  back into healing again.  First the normal dungeons,  then the heroics with friends tanking,  then heroics with strangers.  Not tried a ZA/ZG yet,  I will soon though.

The easier it is,  the more unforgiving you be of the people who don’t find it easy.  The rogue in one heroic that I had to constantly yank out of bad stuff.  Don’t stand there,  don’t do this  ect. Each fight  he did something so bad,  I worked out it meant he had never seen it before.  I wished he had told us that,  I would have been nicer sooner.  Instead of telling him Don’t do..    I was adding in explanations why not to do that.

I am quite – been a little distracted, a little bit bored.  Fireland dailys were a brief respite untill I repeated them enough   and I finally got my mount.

 

I don’t want to.

Published March 26, 2011 World Of Warcraft 22 Comments
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The truth is my Pve confidence is shot.

If people I respected could dick me around for 3 weeks  then even lie about their reasons  for it on guild forums,  well why bother caring.

So when in a 10 man and with not so geared tanks they decide that a 3rd healer is required. I have no choice.

Nor the following week when someone gets saved and so a scrub mage that is pugged gets the dps spot I wanted because they need a healer.

So thus becomes this fear,  and is a fear I am going to get stuck as heals,  and it doesnt matter whose butt I kick in BH  or how much I spent on a Darkmoon card ,  or try and have pride that my dps set is gemmed and enchanted to perfection,  because when I am healing against my will all I can think about is how much I am hating it.

And it’s not the healing I hate, I like pvp healing  I like healing on my druid. I had a 2nd priest in wrath that didnt have a dps set because all she did was heal.

When I am on my main,  the one I put the most effort/love/care into.  I want to dps.

But someone will always need a healer.

The fear that I will be put on the spot and asked/expected/have to heal becomes so great that you don’t want to play in case you get asked, and its always a reasonable request.  It’s not even their fault.  When you look at the resources available – and you have a shadow priest with a spec and gear  it’s not unreasonable to ask.  Except,  its every time.

And the truth was that everyone would rather a healer then a dps, and I have been led to believe it was the only reason why I got the raiding position I did so many weeks ago,  that even though they  lied and did need dps – they were desperate for heals,  and was the only reason why I got taken.

Yes I stuffed it up.   I’ll blame the bad lag to some degree,  my isp has it on public record – but as the time passed and I realised it didn’t matter how many hoops I jumped through it was never going to matter I had already lost heart,  and I am having difficulty finding it again, because even if I did get to dps now I am convinced that I would frack up again,  because every time I have raided so far in Cata,  it’s been with  ” I do not want to heal” going through my head.

So this is a bit of a QQ, but maybe its been part of the motivational block I have had for playing  because I haven’t been able to say what I wanted to say.

/goes off to hide on a baby shammy alt.

I can’t heal that sh*t

Published January 6, 2011 World Of Warcraft 10 Comments
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3 groups in 1 hour.  I  know it was an hour because I paid gold for  a spirit flask.

It seems if you die often enough when you leave group you do not get the deserter debuff.  I tortured myself and kept requeing.

Fooded, flasked, gemmed, chanted  as much to perfection and pride as possible.

It was all my fault.

Do you know how much of a blow to the self esteem it is to fail.  Anyone that cares about doing well no matter what it is  knows the cuts  to the ego the feeling of failing something your trying your damndest to do well at.

It was not only my bones littering several instance floors, but pieces f my pride.

I’m linking recount metres  to a friend,  damage taken,  what damage was taken – thinking I can’t heal that sh*t

I forgot damage done.  3 dps pulling 3k dps on Helix Gearbreaker in Deadmines.  We armoried one  – Pvp gear equipped

Oh.. maybe that one wasn’t my fault.

Nor was the 7 min Baron Asbury attempt in Heroic deadmines

and so on…

One group wanted me to MC and heal at the same time.  ( it is possible in Vortex Pinnacle on the  Temple Adepts,   but not in Halls on the first pull) I was the “BADDIE HEALER HAHAHAHAH” I should have told them to  go jump,  3 of them left anyway after the wipe.   It was just me  the healer, and a dps left, and I left, and took the debuff.

I got kicked from a group  in Grim Batol because I couldn’t heal their failures, even after I predicted that they would fail and prehealed, shielded and levitated them after they were thrown in the air.  ( should have life gripped)

I worked out the difference between the pug groups that fail, and the ones I run with friends, or even a deadmines tonight with guild ( post nerf)

It’s dps.

I can heal your mistakes,  as long as you don’t get too much time to stand in rockfalls, or green puddles.

If you’re pulling 3k dps   its going to take longer to kill things, more damage taken, harder to heal  – and the people I run with don’t do 3k dps

I did a Deadmines post nerf healing as disc tonight, and 3 guildy dps. The first wipe was in the nightmare because no one listened to me about jumping over the side straight away, and they were either too slow, or landed in the fire. While I was full health agroing the boss..  “HELLO… can I get a tank over here please?”  Our pug tank was good.  It helped alot,  but yeah we had a few more singular deaths in various places eg ” stop eating the bad food…” Or me on vent was ”  Blah..  your standing in bad shit..  move.. ”   but overall I felt rather confident.  Because it was nerfed they didn’t use CC. We had a hunter, mage, and Shadow priest as dps.   We had options. They cut out enough of the bad stuff and the trash packs so it was quicker and easier, I didn’t really need CC to help  my healing load.    Just  more a few more pauses to regain mana  for the times I had to ” Flash Flash Flash”

As much as I believe that Heroics are really  a slap in the face for the dps that don’t want to be team players,  don’t have a clue, I think they overnerfed it, Make things hit for less, rather than take them out,  it looks like they just removed the mobs that caused the most deaths.

This mob was responsible for *blah* deaths.

Sentence: Banished from deadmines for overzealous killing of players


Leap of Faith can be used for evil too

Published January 4, 2011 World Of Warcraft 18 Comments
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I went disc healing spec for heroics ( more on that another time) and so I went to the BG’s to practice my new  spells and binds.

Faced with my growing disillusionment of the quality of azerothian pugging  kind, and an increasing itch to raid – I have have naught but Pvp to turn to. So I have been Disc healing BG’s and feeling better about priest survivability.  As holy in BG’s you do more healing when your dead, and as a squishy shadow priest I would often be lost in the deluge of CC.

So I get to live longer,  help others live longer, and practice my Disc priesting.

I’ve found the most use for Leap of Faith, aka” Life Grip” the Priest equivalent to the death-knights Death grip to be  in PVP.

It has been great for flag carriers.  I can either ride a head of them, and pull them closer in my tender embrace, or pull them out  the pile of Horde they ran into thinking they were tanking critters and not carrying precious cargo on their backs.

It is fun to yank someone away from an enemy target – and you can imagine them thinking ” where did they go…?”

I can also life grip flag carriers in Eots WHEN THEY RUN THE WRONG WAY.

It took several comments by people in the BG eg ” Are you blind”: WTF are you doing” in a Eots to work out what two people were doing.  Grabbing the flag, and running towards Horde controlled bases only to get smashed down by the Horde defense, and Horde cap it. So I started lifegripping them back.

They did this a few times much to our frustrations.

By this time we were 2 bases to 2 bases and close to 100o points a side and relying on that flag cap to get ahead, and they were losing the flag,  and potentially sabotaging our win.

They finally said ” Oh we are doing an achievement”

“letting horde cap our flag and us lose is your achievement?” I asked

They were doing storm trooper.

Eventually they got their achieve .  and yes we won the BG because when they got their achievement ” Now we can win”  says one of the achievement hunters

I’ve made it clear before that I am not really an achievement hunter and I am biased against single agendas ruining a game.  What erks me  though is that they didn’t tell anyone.  If they had of we could have helped.  Would we have helped? weeellllll People are fickle.  I am sure if we were winning comfortably, and one or two people said “sure”  we would have helped / been more accommodating,  rather then  getting upset at the lack of consideration to 13 other peoples game, especially when their actions were bringing us closer to losing.

Yes I lifegripped them back the right direction at the flag spawn area after I found out about the achievement attempt, but only once! So I am only a little evil, and yes that was me being spiteful, and its a 1.5 min cool down so I couldn’t do much harm.

I’d like to think that most of the time when I lifegrip someone that I am making the right decision.  Taking them from harms way,   helping a flag go a little bit closer. I don’t ask them” would you like a lifegrip?   I was lifegripped once and a whisper along the lines of ” lifegripping you to me” let me know what suddenly I was feeling strangely disorientated. I imagine the real life equivalent would feel much like some random in a Hawaiian shirt grabbing you on the dance floor and twirling you around.

I hesitate life gripping melee because I think, especially in a pvp situation that they just want to go all Starbuck on them and “fight them till they can’t.” Me removing them from a glorious death may upset them.

Another time I was running behind the flag carrier in WSG, and he was getting into some trouble in a pack of horde. I had a  nano second to consider that it was probably bad to go backwards,  but he was gonna die if he stayed there.  So I yanked him to me,  he still died.  Then I did.

So I hold to that when I do use it,  I  feel I am using it for the benefit of your safety,  even our AWOL flag carriers in Eots.  At the time I thought they were confused, and just going the wrong direction, so the life grips were more a “hey..  this way mate”  but has anyone felt that they have been ‘inappropriately  life gripped  ( beyond in jest with friends)

I’ll also link this comic  from Shannagins from Deviantart on lifegrip  because I think we should all consider the gravity of our boon. A comic panel says….

” Man, that’s going to be the most abused spell ever made”

”  I know, right? That’s why they’re giving it to us holy priests. You Know, for safe keeping

It was given to Priests for safe keeping.  Besides a Pally’s Divine intervention and 10 min cooldown, for which the Paladin must save on repair bills sacrifice his life to use. We have been granted an ability that interferes with friendly targets, and we should,  my fellow priests. Use it wisely.

Healing is not fun.

Published December 28, 2010 Gaming , Shadow Priests , World Of Warcraft 22 Comments
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Merry Christmas!

Hope Santa was good to you.   My mother told me long ago that Santa only comes to people who believe in him,  so since I believe in any man that delivers…

 

Yes I have been quite on the blog front, but I’m not down and out.  Just needed to find the meaning of fun again, which is kind of funny considering Wow is  a game.

I was trying to pin point the reason for my malady, and I have come to the conclusion that I am having healing issues.  I do not like healing holy at the moment.

Dislike. Detest. Hate. Abhor.

It’s been ok when I know the tank, but pug tanks, pug dps – its a pain.    Some we will be fine on  and we will even complete the dungeon,  others multi wipes on the 1st boss.

It is against the core of a healers mindset to let people stay at half health. Must fill up health bar!

It has been a great source of frustration for me, and I can never tell when its my fault,  or someone elses.

Eg if the tank dies in Grim Batol because the dps didn’t kill / cc  the Malignant trog then its my fault for not healing the tank through the damage, because otherwise the rest of the party would need to know the consequences of that trogg causing a  damage taken increase to the tank.  A tank just sees his health going down. The Dps just sees the tank dieing and them getting agro. It’s quite easily the healers fault.

“I hope your better than the last priest” says one group.

” the two druid healers before you sucked”  said another

I got into a cat fight with a dps when I suggested that ” Maybe the party was taking too much damage for the healers to heal”  the freshly dinged and cheating to 329 ilevel dps told me to ” get out of his instance” for suggesting he was bad.  it got a little heated and ” I told him to die in a fire..  oh wait  he already was.. ”  my fault for baiting, but I felt obliged to defend the healers that had come before me and suffered.  It was funny cause that dps then made an alt on my server  – to wait….  apologize – other people I know get people making alts on their servers to troll them or say nasty things. I get an apology.

I can’t see how a healer in this expansion could be lazy.  Sure we make mistakes, or bad choices.  I shouldnt have tried to cast a 2.7 sec heal when I have a  1.3 flash but panic healing is gonna run me oom.

The majority of my successes have been with friends – where I get to dps 🙂  I’m finally in better gear – with much lesser mana issues , and just really need the rep pieces now.  I’m not touching the crafted pieces because  I don’t believe that they are a significant upgrade, and in some cases of lesser stats then other pieces available, and wtf is with the +10 mastery stat gem socket bonus on the crafted dps belt, and where are the healing crafted legs. Not on the vendor.

I had planned on healing more in Cata – but I think my offspec  shall be Shadow Pvp untill I overgear the mana issues for the heroic content.

I get the choosing the right spell  for the damage being taken.  I get choosing to prioritize  targets  I get the need to balance cool downs like Chakras and serendipity,  – and balancing using mana pots and whatnot  but this mana business.  Why make the healers job even more stressful

Cata was supposed to wake dps up a little,  that you can’t just faceroll the content and frack up because the healer or tank will save you,  it hasn’t woken them up,  it’s just shifted the blame entirely on the healer.  We can’t output enough heals to cover up bad.

Of course it’s different with people you know.   The people I run with have a no pug policy – they get people they know – heroics are done with everyone on vent.

Why do I still pug? – I want the freedom to run stuff when I want to.  I like pugs, you learn new strats,  get lessons in patience, and understanding, get challenged in different ways, but it’s getting bad trying to run  them.  I don’t have the heart anymore.

 

 

Value adding as a Lobie Druid healer

Published November 5, 2010 World Of Warcraft 6 Comments
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I wrote  a while a go  that your healers should be dpsing too and I would rather a bored healer dps then do stuff like pull for the tank, or *get distracted and not be quick enough to heal when the tank actually needs it.

* raises hand – Guilty your honor  I was in cat form when the tank died.

I regularly try to slot some Dps in on my two priests when I am healing,  but I’ve not gotten to try the smite dps/healing style of a disc priest in a 25 raid. I went Disc this week  on my 2nd priest for our  LK 10 kill and achievement , and the earlier weeks H LK attempt, and was too busy bubbling and penancing to have time to Smite to build up my stacks to get my pretty wings.  (bad enough I forget I have barrier and Power Infusion)  

So as for Dpsing as a  Resto druid, I have been leveling mostly through dungeons, holiday quests, cloth hand ins, and the rare bg ( 30-40 bracket getting one shot by rogues. NOT FUN)  and she has a few things she can do to help an encounter along damage wise,  she will moonfire every now and then, cast inspect swarm but considering I am getting tanks screaming ” BIG PULL LOL”  and running off in the distance. I don’t always have mana to spare. 

There are two non healing spells I am trying to use as often as possible though.

Faerie fire

“Decreases the armor of the target by 4% for 5 min. While affected, the target cannot stealth or turn invisible. Stacks up to 3 times”

Thorns

thorns sprout from the friendly target causing * nature damage over 20 seconds. 

I try to get the three stacks of Faerie fire up on the Boss Target because it all helps right?  a 12% armour reduction is nothing to sneeze at especially if there are no Rogues or Warriors – or they aren’t putting up their own armor reductions – though things die so fast I don’t really need it.

The biggest offensive ability I am using  – for which I do not get credit for which I think sucks, is Thorns.     I am using Thorns on the tank when there is a need for Aoe.  This has been awesome in keeping threat off me, and thorns does well for damage done when fighting groups of mobs. Things die quicker, I don’t get hit as often,  I help the tank do better dps,  I posted a recount for damage by ability of the tank in a Sunken Temple run, and thorns was # 2.  I like not getting hit by dragons,  and those trash packs can be interesting.

With content as is now – pre cata – there certainly is opportunity for more healers to throw out some damage as well, but like overzealous, mob pulling dps – it could teach us some bad habits.  You heal because you heal.  That’s your job,  your main focus needs to be on that role or the reason why roles exists fail. The party fails.

I got too cocky, and was in cat form skull bashing, and shredding mobs in Mara. I got silenced and couldn’t heal the tank. My pre hots had worn off,  he died because I was reaching outside the bounds of my role. It was all good though.  One Battle rez later, and an apology, and I never did it again that instance.

I like feeling more useful than just as a health bar toper upperer  ( the Faerie fire in a 25 man should not even be required with the other classes in the raid doing their thing)  and I can certainly see the benefit of casting thorns on the tank. It’s only one more GCD, I have a power Aura set up for it so I know its ready to be cast.  It does more damage. Better agro, and I probably don’t have to cast it at all. No one will notice.   Parties only realise that I am being a little more useful than a healing machine when I point out ” wow look how much damage my thorns are helping you do”

It’s a tool that I think that even though I am healing and have to remember to keep using it  – it makes sence to make use of something that is so beneficial for the good of the party.

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