Trump destroys board games
13 hours ago
I generally detest blogging about… well, blogging. It’s like making drama about drama. A topic, squared, does not necessarily increase the amount of interest on that topic. Meta-blogging is really not my thing.
Be that as it may, I am currently having a previously only internal debate regarding the direction of this site. No, I’m not going to stop writing it anytime soon. I have 12 drafts in my blogger queue, 7 drafts sitting on ScribeFire, and 18 emails I have sent to myself with other column topics I’m working on. And let’s not forget the giant Healer Survey data analysis that glares at me angrily every time I sit down to my macbook with the intention of running dailies. This brain, it’s like a fountain I tell you. A FOUNTAIN OF SPLENDOR. There’s no risk of drying up anytime soon.
But… what is the purpose of Miss Medicina? If I had a mission statement, what exactly would it say?
When I originally began to write this (with lots of encouragement from Fulguralis and Fuubaar), my premise was simple - a blog about healing philosophy. Not traditional theorycrafting, because math is like, hard, but a different kind of theorycrafting that comes from finding overarching general patterns amongst how healers heal, how they play, and the nuances of healing style. I planned to start with healing as a Priest, expand into Holy Healing (by progressing into Holy Paladin information), and then slowly begin integrating Nature Healing with Druids and Shammies. First and foremost, I wanted to write a blog that would be a resource for new healers. I wanted to help them cover the gap between “l2play n00b” and an Ensidia application.
The progression never happened. It’s not because I don’t love resto shammies (why does Word keep trying to change this to shimmies?) and druids, but more because I struggled with my Paladin, and then kept going back to my lovable, huggable, femdwarf priest. There are plenty of people who are altoholics, who simply love playing lots of different classes. I, however, judge everything against my Priest. I love everything about the Priest class. I love my class so much that when I play OTHER games I always pick the priestliest character class I can find (such as my 4e cleric). When I try to level a new alt, I never get past the early teens… unless it’s another priest. Yes, that’s right. Arguably the most detested class to level, and it’s the only class I’m interested in leveling. That having been said, I certainly enjoy reading about other healing classes.
So therefore, as it happens, I have posted a lot more information specific to Priests – yet even here I’ve made a distinction. I’ve completely ignored that shadowy spec, because I wanted to restrict my focus to healing (hello… Medicina?). So now I’m in something of a conundrum that really grates on my type A – I-like-things-in-neat-little-categories brain. If I’m going to focus on priests, shouldn’t I include more shadow priest discussion? If I’m going to focus on healers, shouldn’t I expand to more than just Priests?
This is one of those things that makes Priests a somewhat tricky class about whom to write. Of the four healing classes, you have two full blown hybrids that can cover every role (Druids and Paladins), one class that has 2 DPS trees and 1 healing tree (Shaman) and then you’ve got Priests, with 2 Healing specs, and 1 dps spec. I don’t read a large number of Shaman blogs, but of the ones I have seen, there seems to be some struggle with this as well. For priests, most of the time you find people either writing solely about the Healing Priest (Holy & Disc), or the Damage Priest (Shadow), and ne’er the twain shall meet.
Before dual spec, it seemed that we Priests had something of a standoff. Many who were healers were adamantly opposed to Shadow, and many more Shadow Priests were sick of being asked to heal. The lines have blurred a bit with the release of Dual Speccing. Many of us who were once solely healers picked up a Shadow spec for the purposes of grinding dailies, or other every day tasks.
Dual Spec has allowed me to play around with shadow in ways I never had before. I have a lot of questions, and a lot of topics I could write about shadow priesting, especially as I have recently begun raiding as shadow (the irony is that these are alt runs – everyone else brings an alt, and here I am, just running a different spec on the same toon). But is this really the place for it? Can Miss Medicina bear the weight of so little focus?
Ideally what I would prefer is a place to regularly write about Priests specifically (all different manifestations), and another place for Healing Philosophy in general. Until such an opportunity presents itself and is settled, however, Miss Medicina remains as it has been – a healer’s blog, with a special interest in Priests of the non-shadow variety. If, however, I were to have a weekly post specific to Shadow Priests, would it merely annoy my readership?
What a heavy Friday topic. I am having an identity crisis, it appears. Which role am I first? The Healer or the Priest?
Be that as it may, I am currently having a previously only internal debate regarding the direction of this site. No, I’m not going to stop writing it anytime soon. I have 12 drafts in my blogger queue, 7 drafts sitting on ScribeFire, and 18 emails I have sent to myself with other column topics I’m working on. And let’s not forget the giant Healer Survey data analysis that glares at me angrily every time I sit down to my macbook with the intention of running dailies. This brain, it’s like a fountain I tell you. A FOUNTAIN OF SPLENDOR. There’s no risk of drying up anytime soon.
But… what is the purpose of Miss Medicina? If I had a mission statement, what exactly would it say?
When I originally began to write this (with lots of encouragement from Fulguralis and Fuubaar), my premise was simple - a blog about healing philosophy. Not traditional theorycrafting, because math is like, hard, but a different kind of theorycrafting that comes from finding overarching general patterns amongst how healers heal, how they play, and the nuances of healing style. I planned to start with healing as a Priest, expand into Holy Healing (by progressing into Holy Paladin information), and then slowly begin integrating Nature Healing with Druids and Shammies. First and foremost, I wanted to write a blog that would be a resource for new healers. I wanted to help them cover the gap between “l2play n00b” and an Ensidia application.
The progression never happened. It’s not because I don’t love resto shammies (why does Word keep trying to change this to shimmies?) and druids, but more because I struggled with my Paladin, and then kept going back to my lovable, huggable, femdwarf priest. There are plenty of people who are altoholics, who simply love playing lots of different classes. I, however, judge everything against my Priest. I love everything about the Priest class. I love my class so much that when I play OTHER games I always pick the priestliest character class I can find (such as my 4e cleric). When I try to level a new alt, I never get past the early teens… unless it’s another priest. Yes, that’s right. Arguably the most detested class to level, and it’s the only class I’m interested in leveling. That having been said, I certainly enjoy reading about other healing classes.
So therefore, as it happens, I have posted a lot more information specific to Priests – yet even here I’ve made a distinction. I’ve completely ignored that shadowy spec, because I wanted to restrict my focus to healing (hello… Medicina?). So now I’m in something of a conundrum that really grates on my type A – I-like-things-in-neat-little-categories brain. If I’m going to focus on priests, shouldn’t I include more shadow priest discussion? If I’m going to focus on healers, shouldn’t I expand to more than just Priests?
This is one of those things that makes Priests a somewhat tricky class about whom to write. Of the four healing classes, you have two full blown hybrids that can cover every role (Druids and Paladins), one class that has 2 DPS trees and 1 healing tree (Shaman) and then you’ve got Priests, with 2 Healing specs, and 1 dps spec. I don’t read a large number of Shaman blogs, but of the ones I have seen, there seems to be some struggle with this as well. For priests, most of the time you find people either writing solely about the Healing Priest (Holy & Disc), or the Damage Priest (Shadow), and ne’er the twain shall meet.
Before dual spec, it seemed that we Priests had something of a standoff. Many who were healers were adamantly opposed to Shadow, and many more Shadow Priests were sick of being asked to heal. The lines have blurred a bit with the release of Dual Speccing. Many of us who were once solely healers picked up a Shadow spec for the purposes of grinding dailies, or other every day tasks.
Dual Spec has allowed me to play around with shadow in ways I never had before. I have a lot of questions, and a lot of topics I could write about shadow priesting, especially as I have recently begun raiding as shadow (the irony is that these are alt runs – everyone else brings an alt, and here I am, just running a different spec on the same toon). But is this really the place for it? Can Miss Medicina bear the weight of so little focus?
Ideally what I would prefer is a place to regularly write about Priests specifically (all different manifestations), and another place for Healing Philosophy in general. Until such an opportunity presents itself and is settled, however, Miss Medicina remains as it has been – a healer’s blog, with a special interest in Priests of the non-shadow variety. If, however, I were to have a weekly post specific to Shadow Priests, would it merely annoy my readership?
What a heavy Friday topic. I am having an identity crisis, it appears. Which role am I first? The Healer or the Priest?
Labels:
blog,
healing,
healing theory,
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HOLY SMITE TO THE FACE WANKER,
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Hi,
I've only been reading your blog for a couple a weeks now, but I love the fact you are dedicated to priest healing...I leveled my priest as Holy and have dual-spec'ed to holy and disc...love it...i can effectively raid heal and tank heal...what other class can do that?
Zydrin - Terokkar
My main and first love was a rogue, but I leveled a priest after encountering a lack of decent healers in pugs. Fast forward a couple of months, one of our guild healers quits and my holy priest is now my main raiding toon. I initially started reading your and other priest blogs to learn more about the class and help smooth the transition from melee bringer of doom to holy healer of…doom? I love reading about your experiences with the class, and you’ve helped me to become a better priest.
I don’t know if I fit the profile of your typical reader, but I for one would love to hear about your shadow priesting adventures. I, too, picked up shadow as an off-spec to help with dailies and I occasionally dps in raids, so it would definitely be helpful to me to hear your thoughts on switching. As far as a categorical crisis, I guess I would say, keep doing what you’re already doing: writing about what interests you most and let the categories fall where they may.
I'd love to hear an occasional shadow post. While I'm working on my priest to be a healer, occasionally going shadow will definitely be a big part.
I found your blog (I forget how) and immediately was interested in your insights on priests vs. pallies. I've played a holy pally for 2 years and want to try something different.
Keep it up! You don't have to stick with your original mission statement. Branch out if that feels right.
I've only been reading your blog for a few weeks as well, but I'm finding it very helpful. There's always EJ and the like for doing it by the numbers, but your site has seemed both knowledgeable and enjoyable :) So I would say keep doing what you're doing as well! My off spec is disc, but I'm betting a lot of priests out there have shadow as their off. So shadow posts would probably help a ton for all those who swing both ways, as it were :)
One thing I might suggest (and I don't know if you've done this) is that you could write about how priests work with other healing classes. Even if you haven't played them, I know I could always benefit from more insight on strategies with other healers. And in that way you could follow your goal of covering all healing - just from a priestly perspective :)
@Benjamin
Yay more priest love!!! <3
@Posthumous
These are very good suggestions. I'm thinking I might start making a weekly post about going from a healing priest to the Shadow side for various reasons... good idea!
@ithilyn
Wow, I'm glad you found my priest vs pally posts helpful. They usually end up more as a description of my mind being blown as I try to figure out this pally stuff! hah
@Cecily
That's sort of how I thought about it... I would never be more helpful than EJ at theorycrafting, and I would most likely just be regurgitating their info anyway.
Regarding your Priest+Other Healers idea, this is a superb suggestion! I've thought about doing it in the past, and just never got around to it. Knowing that it's something someone has specifically requested to hear about though has really lit a fire under me, so I'm putting together a bunch of stuff now. Thanks!!
I stumbled across your blog when I decided to start a priest alt and level as either Disc or Holy. Loved the lolsmite spec and am currently lvl 54, still loving it.
What I love about your blog is your attitude to enjoying your priest and getting the most out of the class. EJ is there for the theory-crafters, but I think everyone should get more out of their class than just min/max, rotation and number-crunching. Almost everything you read is about lvl 80s with uber gear, so it's still nice to find out how to get there (the journey vs. the destination, right?).
Personally I wouldn't have a problem if you focussed on Healy Priests. Shadow is the dark side, *shivers*.
Oh, and I like maps.
This sounds familiar.
Personally i've found it important to have a 'mission statement' even if its just in your head. You need to figure out why you are writing because at some stage you run out of ideas about what to write and you need to have have something to fall back on.
It might be that you're ok with not posting for some time, or you mission statement might help drive your ideas out when the creativity well gets a bit dry.
I'd like to hear about shadow priesting also. I think i'll be posting a little on it post 3.3.
Gobble gobble.