So, the healing survey is still growing. In case you thought I just posted the questions, and let people go to town on their own blogs, I thought I would make a little post to let you know what I'm doing with mah baby.

Though I stated repeatedly that I would only include people on the list if they left me a comment... well, I'm a little too OCD to actually follow through on that. While it definitely HELPS if people leave a comment, I have been expending a lot of effort in tracking down any responses I can find to it, and linking to them. Obviously, if the responses are on a guild forum, this isn't something I can easily do - especially since about 2/3 of the guild forums that link to Circle of Healers are in a foreign language (why doesn't anyone post in Latin? Oh that's right, because I wasted 7 years of my life learning it!).

Llyra over at Healing Way finally posted her own response to the questions, and noted at the end of the survey that she suspected there were lots of foreign translations as well. This is absolutely true. I have linked to two foreign translations on the list (Finnish and French), but if there are other translations, I am still in the process of tracking them down. (I also just noticed that the French Proprieter over at wowfrostmage has linked to several French responses for me... merci beaucoup! ::did i spell that right?::)

There is also an interesting little IP that has been going through all the responses from a nice little place in California called Irvine. Read into that what you will.

So what do I intend to DO with all these responses? After all, didn't I promise to "analyze teh dataz"?

This has proven to be a lot more difficult and tedious than I originally hoped (also, when I posted it, I had no idea it would get to be so big), but rest assured, I AM trying to assemble all the information. In a spreadsheet. Nomnomnom <3 spreadsheets. Sans the foreign language versions, sadly. :(

After Bobturkey returned from vacation and made his response (which I had been gleefully waiting for, since I knew his responses would be very interesting), I finally began assembling the answers. I have not even finished with Holy Priests yet, it is just that time consuming. Lest you think that everyone and their great grandchildren has completed the survey by now, I still have a handful of people respond every day - and it's gone outside of the WoW blogging sphere, and into Livejournal, and even a blogger from a newspaper - which confused me a bit, but I'm just gonna go with it.

How have I been tracking responses?

• Through comments directly left on my blog.
• Through direct emails (to those of you who have emailed me, I did not respond via email, but I am including them)
• Through traffic coming from the blogs who posted the responses and linked back to my page
• When someone is tagged, I've been monitoring their blog to see if and when they respond.
• Through comments left on other people's responses on their own blogs

And so on and so forth. As you can see, I've been keeping myself pretty busy trying to keep track of all the responses! Only about half of the survey responses are directly linked on my Circle of Healers page, because a lot of the responses had no way I could link to them. In addition, there were likely quite a few responses made from people in the days immediately following the WoW Insider link that did not leave comments for me - Sadly, I'm afraid I may not be able to find those responses unless those folks generate traffic back to my site, because the WoW.com traffic flooded my logs!

In essence, I have no idea when I will be able to post the results. I will continue working on it, and posting about any significant progress, but it may be awhile. Truth be told, however, diffusing all the survey responses down to something that can be mathematically analyzed will strip a lot of the awesomeness from the responses. For instance, here are some gems from Tamarind at Righteous Orbs's responses that wouldn't show up in the charts and graphs that will result from the survey, and definitely deserve notice:

"It’s the good kind of pressure, like a slightly over-weight cat purring on your chest."
regarding Divine Hymn:
"Also it’s just got a rubbish name. This is a fucking battle, no time for singing!"
regarding MT healing:
"It’s not even proper whack-a-mole, it’s simply a direct transfer of the contents of your blue bar into their diminishing green bar, like you’re some kind of perpetual human health funnel. "

I mean, c'mon. Beat that. THIS IS NO TIME FOR BLOODY SINGING

A big thanks to everyone who responded to the no-seriously-this-is-not-a-meme healing survey! I hope that those of you who are linked on the page will benefit from the extra traffic, and be encouraged to post more useful information! It probably goes without saying, but the survey became vastly larger than I expected, and despite my best efforts, I just can't keep up with finding everyone who has responded and linked to the post, unless you left a comment for me - too many WoW.com hits have flooded by statcounter log. Not that I'm complaining... it was like having a big weekend party at my house. I will try to continue posting links to blogs that responded as long as you leave a comment, however.

I'm still trying to work my way through all the responses... I've been trying to copy and paste them all into a word document, but after crashing word a few times, I gave up for awhile. I do fully intend to finish reading through them though, and I am pleased that all the new material will hopefully help everyone who reads them become a better healer.

So far, one of the best things I've seen to come out of it is a post over at MoarHPS. Noting how few people really understood how the stats that come from meters work, Moar posted a really informative guide explaining how all those measurements work, and what they are good for. I think the point is that while meters are not the end-all, be-all for healers, they can definitely be used to help you figure out where your strengths are, and where you need to tweak - as long as you understand what they mean. I'm exceedingly grateful to Moar for the post, because I wasn't willing to admit how poor my understanding of those stats was >.>

On a slightly less happy note, there was a pretty nasty comment over at WoW.com referring to my own answers to the survey that I wanted to respond to here. Had I known the survey would become so big, and so many people would be looking at my own answers with such a critical eye, I might have explained my answers better. So, from the perspective of this holy priest, I'm going to respond to the criticisms leveled at my answers - because it's my site and I'll do what I want to, even though I know that some people just want to rip others apart, even though they may have no better answers themselves. So there. Suck it.

Lack of Burst Healing for Holy Priests

One of the questions on the survey I wrote was "what is the biggest weakness of your class?" Some of you might have found this very difficult to answer! I know that I did, because the thing about Holy Priests is that we can do a little bit of everything, and quite well. We can fit into any healing role. But, as with every jack of all trades, there are none for which we are truly the master. One thing that I have desperately craved since the days of Kel'Thuzad is a solid single target instant burst heal. The critic in question insisted we have plenty of burst heal options, and for each spell they mentioned as an example, I will respond accordingly:

• Power Word: Shield - This is NOT instant burst heal, and to say that it is is so ridiculously silly that it barely warrants response. This will reduce the next incoming damage of course, but I'm talking about green-bar-go-up type mechanics when I say burst healing. Is it something that can be used in an emergency scenario to keep the target from dying from the NEXT hit? Of course it is - but that was not what i was talking about.
• Prayer of Mending - First of all, as Matticus discussed in a post that all Disc Priests should definitely read, Prayer of Mending doesn't go off if the damage is absorbed from a shield instead. Prayer of Mending needs to be cast BEFORE the damage hits in order to heal. The target CAN die from the damage before benefitting from the PoM heal, if I understand the mechanics of this spell correctly (if this is not the case, please correct me). Therefore, this is NOT instant burst healing that makes the green bar go up immediately - it is a response to the next bout of damage. I am talking about the desire for something to respond to a massive damage input that has already happened.
• Surge of Light - Sorry, I don't always have a surge of light proc sitting in my pocket. It's great when it procs, but because it is a proc, and because it is based on crit, which in and of itself is based on chance, you cannot rely on a surge of light to be there when you need it.
• Circle of Healing - This is a viable answer - and this, in addition to Empowered Renew, is what I currently use when an individual needs an immediate burst of healing. With any luck, I can CoH, Renew, and have a SoL proc - but all of those are subject to global cooldown, and do NOT aggregate into a single target instant burst heal. And yes, this works quite well, but I suppose it really grates on me to use an AoE spell to respond to single target damage.

That was the biggest criticism the commenter made that I felt warranted a response, but in answer to the other comments he/she made, yes, I realize Divine Hymn is a very powerful spell, and that I should use it more. Obviously, that's why I listed not using it as my worst healing habit (eyeroll). I love having druids and their innervates and b-rezes and HoTs around not because I expect a druid to give me an innervate or B-rez - but because when it is needed by someone in the party, I appreciate knowing that those options are there, since aside from Hymn of Hope, I don't have a way to return mana to my fellow raiders - and IMO, Hymn of Hope is somewhat weak unless coordinated very well with others. The final criticism was in regards to my insistence that Holy Priests CAN do main tank healing, despite it not being optimal. I've already discussed that topic ad nauseam, however, so I feel no need to delve further into the topic.

I will be the first to admit that I am far too sensitive to criticism, but despite that, this comment reminded me of the same thing that always annoys me about so many players - that the vast amount of wow players are not in the upper echelon of raiding. Why do I rarely use Divine Hymn? Because I'm serious when I say that I'm rarely in a situation in which that powerful of a healing spell is needed - usually a CoH or a Serendipity-hasted Prayer of Healing will more than suffice. Were I currently working on TotGC 25 man hard mode, I'm sure my answer would be different. But I'm not. I am probably one of those average WoW players, really. I do 10 man raids regularly, I do 25 mans on occasion, and I do a lot of 5 mans. I like to think that were I interested in participating in hard core raids that I would perform fairly well, but the truth is, I just don't want to make the commitment that requires.

There are a lot of new subscribers to my blog, so it probably bears repeating here that while my focus is on Holy Priests, and to a lesser extent Disc Priests, I do discuss a lot of the issues relevant to assembling a strong healing team for raiding, as well as some officeering topics. However, I am not solely interested in raiding - if you prefer 5 man content, I always try to consider that aspect as well when discussing Priest mechanics. I see too many people give advice to priests that completely ignores the differences between a 5 man scenario, and a 10 man or 25 man scenario. Healing a 5 man all by yourself is actually quite different than healing in a raid. I do try to always keep that in mind when I dish out Medicinal Wisdom :)

NB: For those of you wondering, part of the reason why I'm not using pictures so much in my posts these days is due to the covert way in which I am forced to blog at my current job. Pictures of WoW related things seem to be a bit of a red flag on google reader when my boss walks by. I would apologize for the walls of text, but I feel apologies should carry an intention of stopping the crime with them, and since I have no intention of stopping... well, you see the dilemma.

Firstly, the boys over at the Save or Die Radio podcast have asked me to start writing a blog for them about what it's like being a total and complete n00b at table top gaming. I only just recently started spending one night a week RPing with them, and so far the comedy of errors (what, me? make errors? psh) has led to lots of great material. Check them out, and I promise you won't be disappointed! (I totally didn't ask permission before using this image either, I like to live on the edge.)

Blizzcon is over, thank God. For ease of review over Blizzcon panels, I have provided a list of the panels and events, along with links to the websites I used to get my information about them. All the websites are so disorganized, and it grates on my type Aness.

Friday:

• Opening Ceremony: WoW Insider
  
• World of Warcraft Preview Panel: WoW Insider, MMO-Champion, Cataclysm
  
• World of Warcraft Art: WoW Insider, MMO-Champion
  
• World of Warcraft Classes Items and Professions I: WoW Insider, MMO-Champion, WoW Forum
  
• Costume, Song, and Dance Contests: WoW Insider
  

Saturday:

• WoW Open Q&A: MMO-Champion, WoW Insider
  
• WoW Game Systems: WoW Insider, MMO-Champion
  
• WoW Dungeons & Raids: WoW Insider, MMO-Champion
  
• World of Warcraft Classes Items and Professions II: WoW Insider (MMOChamp and Forums combined both sessions, see previous links)
  
• WoW Live Raid: In which Hogger pwns Premonition
  
• Closing Ceremony

I'm still trying to sythesize a lot of the information coming out of Blizzcon this weekend, because some of it is pretty confusing and unclear. But don't worry, I'm going to clear up what's in store for us healers in Cataclysm - Matticus made a nice start for us over at WoW Insider, and you can read my post about stat streamlining from Saturday if you are desperate for info!

Okay so in case you don't feel like searching through WoW.com front page (slacker) here is a copy and paste about what is known so far regarding the incoming stat changes for the new expansion Cataclysm.

• Attack Power on gear is gone. Instead, some classes will get 2 AP from each point of Agi (Rogues, Hunters, Shamans, Druids), and other classes (presumably Warriors, Paladins, and Death Knights) will get 2 AP per point of Strength. Side effect: no more plate wearers stealing your gear
• Spell Power is gone. It comes from Int now.
• MP5 is gone. Spirit is the mana regen stat, and all classes that need it will get some form of Meditation. (Hunters, never fear - you don't use mana any more. More on this in a separate post.)
• Armor Penetration is gone. That one was just confusing.
• Defense is gone. Tanks are now defense-capped from talents, like Druid tanks.
• Haste now increases your rate of resource regeneration (mana, energy, rage, runes, focus).
• Block Value is gone, but blocks now mitigate a percentage of damage.
• Stamina is going to be more equal across different armor types - no more "plate HP envy."

(Source - http://www.wow.com/2009/08/21/blizzcon-2009-stats-vastly-simplified/)

This is one of those changes about which I'm totally on the fence. On the one hand, it makes a lot of sense. We have these basic stats, and really, everything else should be derived from the stats. Wow is based on D&D, and that's essentially how D&D works. Attack Power has always been based on Agility or Strength depending on class anyway, so there was really no need for excess AP stats. I never understood Armor Penetration (in my defense, I'm more the caster type dammit, don't call me a noob!). The Block Value eradication, and change of Block makes more sense to me too. I am cheering about Spirit becoming the main point of mana regen again (although a little irritated that they just nerfed spirit by buffing mp5, when they are making such a change in the expansion... but then again, let's all remember that despite all the excitement, Cataclysm is still a long way off). The fact that Hunters needed mana was stupid, I really like the idea of it going to focus, theres more similarity with their pets. I think it's pretty clever how haste is changing - I always thought it should be that way instead. Intellect should be the basis for more caster abilities, such as spellpower.

Now, another incoming addition for Professions is the ability to "Reforge", which will be specificly based on your profession. I.e., Tailors can reforge cloth items, Blacksmiths plate, etc. Reforging is the ability to readjust some of the stats on an item. For instance, if a cloth piece drops with 50 Spirit and 40 Stamina, I can reforge it to make it have 10 Intellect, 40 Spirit, and 40 Stamina. No word yet on the limitations regarding amount, however, you will not be able to add to a stat that is already on the item (So while I can add 10 Intellect, I cannot take 10 points from stamina to make 60 Spirit.)

Okay, now that i've covered those basics, here are the problems I foresee. In TBC, there was so much variety and specific stats on items, that it was not uncommon for an item to drop that was no good for anyone. Then they combined melee and spell haste into simply haste, and same for crit and +healing/+damage into spellpower. This simplification really changed the way gear dropped in raids - there was a lot more competition for each item. I don't think that's a bad thing... it's painful to disenchant some really nice items.

But now it's going even further. Without knowing what limitations they are going to put on reforging, I could pick up any cloth item (after all, armor class is still important) and remove stats on it to add stats that are important to me. So, in the extreme, all that really seems to matter is what armor class it is, and what slot? This is frighteningly generic to me. There have already been a lot of complaints in Wrath about how generic items seem to be (at least the artwork... how many different versions/colors of that damn Moonshroud Robe has my priest worn anyway?) It's too soon to tell for sure, or to get too worked up over it though. I'm working off of a very small amount of details at this point, but so far I am a little concerned.

All this information is derived from the first "Class, Items, and Professions" panel yesterday. There is a second one at 2:30 PST today, and I am waiting with baited breath for that one. I have a lot of ranting I want to do about Path of the Titans as well, but I'm hoping there will be more clarification at tonight's panel, so I'll hold off on my comments for that. The classes discussed yesterday were Hunter, Priest, Shaman, and Warrior. There weren't a whole lot of details, and it was pretty disappointing. I think the most exciting news so far class-wise was for hunters.

Ugh, not feeling super great today. I think all the pinching and prodding of my body yesterday rearranged some organs. But fear not, I took down the Bitch Sales Lady boss and won two emblems. Why no I will not try on that ridiculously overpriced dress with the impractical long train for a third time, and I am DONE prancing about like a show pony. OH SNAP

Anyway. I don't normally post on weekends, but this weekend is special. If you haven't been paying attention (LAWL), the best sites, IMO to check out are wow.com and, of course, the official Cataclysm website.

I am not going to relist all the new crap covered, since it's pointless and you can just go to the website. But I AM wondering if there are a lot of people eating crow over the details about Cataclysm. There was a lot of rage and talk about irresponsible journalism with MMO-Champion and WoW Insider leaked the news about Cataclysm, and a lot of people saying that the news was untrustworthy because of that.

I was skeptical about a lot of the information, but I think it was more because I didn't *want* it to be true. The perfectionist inside me is weeping about night elf mages. Also, I'm skeptical about most things, but I will say that I personally have a LOT of confidence in Wow Insider. That's where I go to get my news, and they never disappoint. There is a reason why I rely on them for incoming patch info. They always source things pretty well.

A week and a half ago Matticus made a post about responsible journalism, and I think that post really helped convince me that Wow Insider wasn't doing anything particularly wrong. I was still skeptical, but soothed quite a bit. Now, I don't know much about MMO Champion, I don't like their interface, so I don't read them, heh. And then, a few days ago, Dueg pointed out something that for some reason I hadn't even considered - it was quite possible that Blizzard purposely leaked the information, to get people hyped about Blizzcon (even moreso at least). And I truly believe that's exactly what happened.

Although I guess it's pretty safe for me to weigh in after the whole controversy is resolved, eh?

I wonder if the next time Blizz decides to leak things, they will do it in a different way... because at this point, I'm convinced that is exactly what they did. I feel bad that Wow Insider bore quite a bit of criticism over the whole ordeal, but I suppose that is the nature of the beast. I hope that regardless of that fact, it generated a lot of hits on their website and made them some money. This is American, money fixes, like, everything. Just ask Ross Perot yo.

Now that I've covered that, I'm going to set out by explaining some of my thoughts on the announcements made at Blizzcon so far. There are definitely a lot of really cool changes incoming. Overall though, I'm more than a little concerned. People, enjoy the way Azeroth looks now, because it is confirmed that when the expansion comes out, you will never see it look that way again. Cataclysm is a perfect name.

I have a very conservative personality. I'm not talking about politics, though this aspect of my personality is reflected in many of my political beliefs. It's not that I don't like change... it's just that I get really nervous about sudden, drastic (you may say CATACLYSMIC) change. So even though I know the expansion is still quite a ways off (even though I'm sure there will be kids in trade chat insisting it will land within 6 months), I'm still trying to prepare myself for what I know will be a difficult transition for me. I mean seriously, I still clutch to the days of waiting until level 40 for a mount.

So yes. I'm already feeling nostalgic for "Old Azeroth". But I also recognize that people have been begging Blizz for the ability to fly around the old world ever since TBC came out. The response has always been that they want to focus their development efforts on moving forward, not going backward. It seems, however, that they did listen to us. I mean let's face it, so much time and effort was put into the old world, it's ridiculous how little time we spend there after level 60. So as much as I'm sad about leaving Old Azeroth in the dust, I am happy that they finally have decided to turn their attention back to the Old World. I am really interested to see just how much phasing will take place, and how it will be administered. I'm also glad they will be improving the UI so that you can tell when someone is in another phase.

Also, Worgen look way cooler than any wedding dresses I tried on yesterday FYI. I can't wait to see what the females will look like!

Expect lots of long posts from me coming in as I weigh in on Blizzcon announcements. I still have a LOT left to say (is anyone surprised?).