The Treasure Of The Midnight Isles
6 days ago
Showing posts with label project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label project. Show all posts
Well, for those of you who are linked via Circle of Healers, you may have noticed an increase in your traffic this weekend, due to WoW.com's post about the DPS survey version that I am pretending doesn't exist, and absolutely refuse to link to.
DONT CLICK ME OR YOU SUPPORT MAGES
Pssst Hinen, how are you liking trying to keep up with all the responses?
Mike Schramm, who wrote the article, also noted: "it'd be good to see this put into a spreadsheet or graph, and maybe give us a more quantified look at what people think of their class."
That actually made me feel really bad, though I know that was not the intention. The schoolgirl side of me kicked in, and I've been spending most of the weekend assembling the data, which is a lot more involved than you might suspect.
I will no longer be adding responses to the list, though if you do respond, feel free to continue adding a comment with a link to your response! At some point I have to demarcate an end to the responses so that I can try to put everything together. I currently have over 100 survey responses I am translating from text (copied and pasted from websites, emails, and comments) into a spreadsheet format - and that does not necessarily include the people who made responses for several different healers in one survey, as that will require a bit more effort. I even tried to include people who had provided their survey responses in comments on OTHER people's posts.
19 Holy Priests.
18 Disc Priests.
19 Resto Shammies.
30 Resto Druids.
20 Holy Pallies.
That's a rough estimate of the number of responses for each class. I COULD be working on my thesis, eh? Yet, here I am, trying to figure out ways to convert anecdotal and multi-faceted answers into something that can be quantified. As much as part of me feels guilty for procrastinating assembling all this information, there is another part of me that is glad I didn't put it together earlier. As a person who deals with this kind of data quite a bit in real life, it is very easy for people to look at the graphs and charts put together at the end, and completely disregard the surveys themselves, which provide a LOT more information than the combined results ever will. The assembled final data will not be able to capture the myriad of different anecdotes given by players regarding the different things they love about their class, their habits, the things they hate, etc. I basically have to attempt to water everything down into the most easily quantifiable answers, which means I may misrepresent some people's intentions - especially since there were two questions on my survey that were poorly written, and I am still trying to figure out how to translate the answers to those questions.
Despite the fact that one person did offer to help me (thank you Saunder!), I have decided to put it all together myself in an effort to keep the methogology clean and consistent through all the questions and answers. There are approximately 300 pages spread through 6 different word documents full of responses. I have my work cut out for me!
DONT CLICK ME OR YOU SUPPORT MAGES
Pssst Hinen, how are you liking trying to keep up with all the responses?
Mike Schramm, who wrote the article, also noted: "it'd be good to see this put into a spreadsheet or graph, and maybe give us a more quantified look at what people think of their class."
That actually made me feel really bad, though I know that was not the intention. The schoolgirl side of me kicked in, and I've been spending most of the weekend assembling the data, which is a lot more involved than you might suspect.
I will no longer be adding responses to the list, though if you do respond, feel free to continue adding a comment with a link to your response! At some point I have to demarcate an end to the responses so that I can try to put everything together. I currently have over 100 survey responses I am translating from text (copied and pasted from websites, emails, and comments) into a spreadsheet format - and that does not necessarily include the people who made responses for several different healers in one survey, as that will require a bit more effort. I even tried to include people who had provided their survey responses in comments on OTHER people's posts.
19 Holy Priests.
18 Disc Priests.
19 Resto Shammies.
30 Resto Druids.
20 Holy Pallies.
That's a rough estimate of the number of responses for each class. I COULD be working on my thesis, eh? Yet, here I am, trying to figure out ways to convert anecdotal and multi-faceted answers into something that can be quantified. As much as part of me feels guilty for procrastinating assembling all this information, there is another part of me that is glad I didn't put it together earlier. As a person who deals with this kind of data quite a bit in real life, it is very easy for people to look at the graphs and charts put together at the end, and completely disregard the surveys themselves, which provide a LOT more information than the combined results ever will. The assembled final data will not be able to capture the myriad of different anecdotes given by players regarding the different things they love about their class, their habits, the things they hate, etc. I basically have to attempt to water everything down into the most easily quantifiable answers, which means I may misrepresent some people's intentions - especially since there were two questions on my survey that were poorly written, and I am still trying to figure out how to translate the answers to those questions.
Despite the fact that one person did offer to help me (thank you Saunder!), I have decided to put it all together myself in an effort to keep the methogology clean and consistent through all the questions and answers. There are approximately 300 pages spread through 6 different word documents full of responses. I have my work cut out for me!
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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?
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:
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
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."I mean, c'mon. Beat that. THIS IS NO TIME FOR BLOODY SINGING
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. "
Looking for a list linking everyone who has participated in the Questionnaire? Miss Medicina at your service!
Ever since my introductory post over at Blog Azeroth, I’ve been meeting quite a few new bloggers who are just loads of fun. Being the type that always likes to foster a sense of community, I thought it would be helpful and beneficial to start a little healing questionnaire going around the interwebs. I refuse to call it a meme.
There are plenty of larger websites where you can find all the healing info you might want in one place (a la plusheal.com), but I’m enjoying following a lot of smaller bloggers as they express their thoughts on healing in this game. In an effort to get a little cross-promotion going amongst some of us smaller heal bloggers, and since I’d really like for all of us to become better connected, I thought this might be a good way to start that. It benefits every healer to understand the other healing classes better, and I think that by connecting us all together, we can accomplish that as well.
I mentioned this idea for a “circle of healing bloggers” to my fiancé, who responded “Oh. Like a webring?” No. Not at all like a we… okay exactly like a webring. Shut your face.
So here’s how it works.
Post this questionnaire, with your answers, on your blog. Pick the healing class you know most about (or is the focus of your blog) for the questionnaire, and then send it over to another healing blogger you know and love who heals with a DIFFERENT class. Include a link to the blogger who sent you the questionnaire, as well as a link to the blogger to whom you are sending it.
So, to start out this meme-that-I-refuse-to-call-a-meme, I'm going to tag multiple people!
Ever since my introductory post over at Blog Azeroth, I’ve been meeting quite a few new bloggers who are just loads of fun. Being the type that always likes to foster a sense of community, I thought it would be helpful and beneficial to start a little healing questionnaire going around the interwebs. I refuse to call it a meme.
There are plenty of larger websites where you can find all the healing info you might want in one place (a la plusheal.com), but I’m enjoying following a lot of smaller bloggers as they express their thoughts on healing in this game. In an effort to get a little cross-promotion going amongst some of us smaller heal bloggers, and since I’d really like for all of us to become better connected, I thought this might be a good way to start that. It benefits every healer to understand the other healing classes better, and I think that by connecting us all together, we can accomplish that as well.
I mentioned this idea for a “circle of healing bloggers” to my fiancé, who responded “Oh. Like a webring?” No. Not at all like a we… okay exactly like a webring. Shut your face.
So here’s how it works.
Post this questionnaire, with your answers, on your blog. Pick the healing class you know most about (or is the focus of your blog) for the questionnaire, and then send it over to another healing blogger you know and love who heals with a DIFFERENT class. Include a link to the blogger who sent you the questionnaire, as well as a link to the blogger to whom you are sending it.
- What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer? Jessabelle, Holy Priest (and occasional Disc!)
- What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans) Almost always raiding, fairly evenly split between 10 mans and 25 mans.
- What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why? Circle of Healing, because it's instant, it's AoE, and it's smart! nomnomnom
- What healing spell do you use least for your class and why? Divine Hymn - I just can't seem to get myself to use it, or find a situation in which it would be useful!
- What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why? Flexibility and versatility. I can handle any healing task needed in a raid, and I can bounce back and forth between multiple healing assignments without a problem.
- What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why? Lack of instant burst healing... I'm thinking Penance or even Holy Shock. I wish we had a single target instant burst heal, even if it were on a long cooldown. Something like desperate prayer, but for someone other than ourselves.
- In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you? Raid healing is best for me - and with that comes the assumption that I will lend a healing hand to any task that needs it, whether it be those stuck in pits or fires or even just some back up on the main tank. It gives me a lot of flexibility.
- What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why? Probably Disc priests - when they are around, I never feel that I need to bother with bubbling. Also, what healer *doesn't* appreciate 3% reduced damage? I mean, aside from a really bored one, of course. Plus, Penance is really fun to watch.
- What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why? Druids. Don't get me wrong, I think Druids and Priests play quite well together - we have Divine Spirit, which I'm sure they like, and they have Innervate which makes me drool with love, not to mention combat rezzing. It's just that it can be tricky to heal well with druid priests, because it is difficult to resist healing over their HoTs. I try not to do it whenever possible, because I don't want to waste their mana, but Circle of Healing does not take HoTs into account, and just heals whoever is at the lowest health within range anyway.
- What is your worst habit as a healer? Using my AoE heals when there are only one or two people who need heals! I'm especially bad about this with Circle of Healing.
- What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing? I really hate when people say "so and so needs heals!" over vent, unless it is a fight mechanic, or due to some error that person will need more healing than normal. Otherwise, I assure you, I am watching people's health bars more closely than anyone else who is not a healer - I don't need you to tell me who to heal, and if I did, well, then I think we have much bigger problems at hand, haven't we?
- Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing? Absolutely. I personally don't there are any other healing classes as well balanced as priests. Others may have more pure healing output, but when it comes to overall balance and viability, Holy Priests have it made, IMO.
- What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer? First thing's first, I check to make sure no one is dead. That's the best indicator of healer skill! Secondly, I check my healing output against my overheal amount, and compare it to the other healers in my group. I have a basic idea of where I should fall on the healing meters, and if I'm far above or far below, that gives me an idea of how the healer balance is working out.
- What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class? People make the assumption that Holy Priests are only really good at AoE heals, or raid healing. Holy Priests are fantastic at raid healing, but it's not just because they have good AoE heals - it's also because they can react well to changing fight dynamics, and MT heal if needed. I cringe whenever I hear someone say "holy priests can't MT heal!". Of course we can - it's a waste of our abilities to put us primarily on MT if there is a disc priest or holy pally around, but we can still do a good job.
- What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn? First off, newer priests seem to have a hard time remembering to use Binding Heal, and it is really a great spell. I see a lot of new priests merely cast Flash Heal on themselves when they take damage, instead of Binding Heal to someone else who has also taken damage. Lack of use of Binding Heal is probably the biggest indicator of a fresh healing priest, but the biggest difficulty I think newer Holy Priests have is trying to figure out how to boost their mana regen. I see too many focus on Mp5, when Spirit or Intellect would actually benefit them more.
- If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer via recount, what sort of patterns would they see (i.e. lots of overhealing, low healing output, etc)? Holy Priests tend to be somewhere in the middle on recount, though this can vary a lot depending on what happens during the raid, as they often switch assignments and duties effortlessly when needed. I am likely to fall below Holy Pallies and Druids in total amount healed, but above Resto Shammies and Disc Priests, and my Overhealing is somewhere in middle as well.
- Haste or Crit and why? I prefer balance overall. That having been said, I started by stacking enough crit to nearly ensure me that I will always get a Surge of Light from Prayer of Healing or Circle of Healing (You can never give yourself a 100% chance, but 20-25 is pretty good), after which I began to stack haste indefinitely.
- What healing class do you feel you understand least? Definitely Resto Shammies, and I am working very hard to amend that.
- What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing? I use XPerl for unit frames, and Clique for healing. I also use Decursive as a separate mechanic for dispells and abolish disease. IRFAIL at macros.
- Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why? My main goal, at this point, is balance. As i start to turn my focus more towards ten man raiding instead of 25 man raiding, I intend to begin stacking a bit more mana regen.
So, to start out this meme-that-I-refuse-to-call-a-meme, I'm going to tag multiple people!
- Fuubaar over at Killing 'em Slowly who recently has begun raiding with a Disc priest, the loveable, Holy Novaing Abigora.
- Tamarind over at Righteous Orbs - yes, yes, he is also a Holy Priest, and I just broke my own rule, but it's my party and I'll do what I want to. Plus, he's a Belf in sissyrobes and I'm alliance, so it doesn't count. Shh.
- Zigi at Twenty-Five Boxes, who writes a fairly new (and so far, one of my favorites!) blog which includes info on Resto Shammies.
- Ophelie at The Bossy Pally and the Giant Spoon is a pretty amazing tank/healing pally blogger, and now that she's no longer in charge of policing PallyPower, maybe she'll have time to fill out the questionnaire-that-is-not-a-meme!
- Though I do read several Druid blogs, none of their writers have recently been communicating with me, nor do I know for sure whether any Druid healers even read my blog - with the exception of my friend Kelly who recently started writing over at Sheep It. She has multiple toons with whom she raids, and she has posted a bit about druids as well, since she used to heal a lot for us on her druid. So Kelly, feel like making a post about druid healing?
So if you look over to the left on my blog, you'll note that I have four characters listed. I actually have way more toons, as I have a history of being a little alt addicted. The four characters listed to the left, however, are part of my personal project to have a healer of every class.
This idea was prompted by the fact that during our alliance raids, I usually assign heals (when it's needed - many of our healers don't really need assignments). As I started looking details up about different healing spells used by different classes, it occurred to me that I take the responsibility of assigning heals very seriously. Also, I don't really assign heals as much as organize them. But in order to do even that task well, you really do need to have a basic fundamental understanding of each healing class. Even just knowing the basics (AoE - holy priest, shammy, druid, Single target - Pally, disc priest) helps, but I really want to master the art of healing in WoW. I want to be able to give advice to another healer about which abilities to use when. It's not some egotistical thing where I want to have the ultimate power.
I enjoy playing a healing priest so much, why wouldn't I enjoy trying out the other healing classes? It seems as good a reason as any to pick one class over another for an alt. I already had a fairly high level pally, Elimeny (my original main). And now that Jessabelle was 80, exalted with all the main factions, maxed out professions, progressing steadily through raids, and with plenty of gold to line her pockets, it seemed like as good a time as any to start leveling some healing alts.
So I started by using some of my extra Emblems of Heroism to pick up the Heirloom plate shoulders that give a 10% bonus to xp while leveling for my pally. Once I had a few more extra emblems, I bought the nice heirloom healing mace. I started by maxing out my Pally - before WotLK came out, she was already level 69, so I set her to work running a few instances to pop up a couple of levels. After level 75, however, she leveled almost purely through dailies. By the time she hit 80, she had a pretty decent reputation start with several factions, which allowed her to pick up a couple of nice items.
Unfortunately, those heirloom plate shoulders won't do much good for a druid or shammy, so in the meantime, I'm saving up my emblems of heroism to buy some new heirloom XP shoulders for my two low level healer alts. I have a nice healing mace that I can swap between both of them when needed, but for the most part, I'm speccing them for leveling efficiency. Once I get them to higher levels, I'll worry about speccing them more specifically for healing.
Lessons learned so far? The biggest one that I've had to overcome with having just two high level healers: Retraining muscle memory. I use healbot while raiding, and I don't even have to think anymore about what mouse/key combination to hit for each spell on my priest. Keep in mind, also, Priests have quite a few different healing spells. I have roughly ten different combinations that my fingers needed to memorize on healbot. Therefore, using the same combinations for different spells for my Pally took a lot of retraining. I had to carefully choose my key combinations, so that Divine Sacrifice was not tied to the same combination used for Flash Heal on my priest!
After much tweaking, I assigned similar spells to each combination. Thus, flash heal = flash of light, Holy Light = Greater Healing, Holy Shock = Renew, Divine Shield = Sacred Shield, and Lay on Hands = Guardian Spirit, among others. This has helped tremendously, and as I (very slowly) level my other healing alts, and add more healing spells to their repertoire, I'm trying to use a similar philosophy.
The best part about having alts that are healers is that I can bring my alts to a raid with no real complaint. While Jessabelle is undoubtedly the best geared, if we are doing an easier raid, there is rarely any issue with me bringing Elimeny instead. Replacing a healer with another healer is usually not a problem. In our alliance we seem to have quite a few Pally healers, whereas Jessabelle is one of the few priest healers, however, so usually I'm bringing her anyway. But, whereas before I really was not interested in doing 10 man Naxx or any heroics, despite how much my guild or alliance mates begged me, now I have new momentum - a new character to gear and learn that still fills the same role everyone expects from me.
I am really looking forward to the day when our alliance can have a choice of healer classes, and not just be desperate for any type of healer. If I have an assortment of four different types of healers, then we have at least one healer who can switch off and fulfill any particular healing role. While some people who do not really understand the strengths and weaknesses of different healers may think it is a moot point, as we progress in our raids, it becomes even more important to have a few choices of healing classes.
This idea was prompted by the fact that during our alliance raids, I usually assign heals (when it's needed - many of our healers don't really need assignments). As I started looking details up about different healing spells used by different classes, it occurred to me that I take the responsibility of assigning heals very seriously. Also, I don't really assign heals as much as organize them. But in order to do even that task well, you really do need to have a basic fundamental understanding of each healing class. Even just knowing the basics (AoE - holy priest, shammy, druid, Single target - Pally, disc priest) helps, but I really want to master the art of healing in WoW. I want to be able to give advice to another healer about which abilities to use when. It's not some egotistical thing where I want to have the ultimate power.
I enjoy playing a healing priest so much, why wouldn't I enjoy trying out the other healing classes? It seems as good a reason as any to pick one class over another for an alt. I already had a fairly high level pally, Elimeny (my original main). And now that Jessabelle was 80, exalted with all the main factions, maxed out professions, progressing steadily through raids, and with plenty of gold to line her pockets, it seemed like as good a time as any to start leveling some healing alts.
So I started by using some of my extra Emblems of Heroism to pick up the Heirloom plate shoulders that give a 10% bonus to xp while leveling for my pally. Once I had a few more extra emblems, I bought the nice heirloom healing mace. I started by maxing out my Pally - before WotLK came out, she was already level 69, so I set her to work running a few instances to pop up a couple of levels. After level 75, however, she leveled almost purely through dailies. By the time she hit 80, she had a pretty decent reputation start with several factions, which allowed her to pick up a couple of nice items.
Unfortunately, those heirloom plate shoulders won't do much good for a druid or shammy, so in the meantime, I'm saving up my emblems of heroism to buy some new heirloom XP shoulders for my two low level healer alts. I have a nice healing mace that I can swap between both of them when needed, but for the most part, I'm speccing them for leveling efficiency. Once I get them to higher levels, I'll worry about speccing them more specifically for healing.
Lessons learned so far? The biggest one that I've had to overcome with having just two high level healers: Retraining muscle memory. I use healbot while raiding, and I don't even have to think anymore about what mouse/key combination to hit for each spell on my priest. Keep in mind, also, Priests have quite a few different healing spells. I have roughly ten different combinations that my fingers needed to memorize on healbot. Therefore, using the same combinations for different spells for my Pally took a lot of retraining. I had to carefully choose my key combinations, so that Divine Sacrifice was not tied to the same combination used for Flash Heal on my priest!
After much tweaking, I assigned similar spells to each combination. Thus, flash heal = flash of light, Holy Light = Greater Healing, Holy Shock = Renew, Divine Shield = Sacred Shield, and Lay on Hands = Guardian Spirit, among others. This has helped tremendously, and as I (very slowly) level my other healing alts, and add more healing spells to their repertoire, I'm trying to use a similar philosophy.
The best part about having alts that are healers is that I can bring my alts to a raid with no real complaint. While Jessabelle is undoubtedly the best geared, if we are doing an easier raid, there is rarely any issue with me bringing Elimeny instead. Replacing a healer with another healer is usually not a problem. In our alliance we seem to have quite a few Pally healers, whereas Jessabelle is one of the few priest healers, however, so usually I'm bringing her anyway. But, whereas before I really was not interested in doing 10 man Naxx or any heroics, despite how much my guild or alliance mates begged me, now I have new momentum - a new character to gear and learn that still fills the same role everyone expects from me.
I am really looking forward to the day when our alliance can have a choice of healer classes, and not just be desperate for any type of healer. If I have an assortment of four different types of healers, then we have at least one healer who can switch off and fulfill any particular healing role. While some people who do not really understand the strengths and weaknesses of different healers may think it is a moot point, as we progress in our raids, it becomes even more important to have a few choices of healing classes.
