What took the loot boxes so long?
1 day ago
I've had a couple of emails, and some very pointy pokes from my friends so here's the skinny:
No! I'm not done blogging!
Hiatus? Yes.
I am currently working for the US Census Bureau knocking on people's doors, invading their privacy, asking them annoying questions, and overall just trying to avoid getting shot. I work at random hours based on when people will be home. And I am le tired.
Unlike working in an office, I'm not actually in front of a computer most of the time. I am only playing WoW somewhere between 2-4 hours a week, and it takes a lot of kicking and screaming to get me to do even that! I am woefully behind in my blog reading (see below).
Even before the Census job began, I was suffering badly from WoW Burnout. I don't know if it's the pre-xpack doldrums, or just the raider burnout I was/am feeling, but I go through this on a fairly regular basis. This is just the first time I've had such a long burnout duration while being a blogger... so I suppose it's more obvious!
WoW is still a big part of my life (is that really sad? I don't know), and much like my relationships with anything and everything, it ebbs and flows depending on where my head is that week.
I've been quiet because I don't like making excuse posts. I don't like reading posts that promise someone will be back in a few days, or apologizing for being absent. I'll write when I feel like writing, and I'm not gonna write filler crap in the meantime! If I post something, it's because I feel like it's worth other people reading. Otherwise, you'd read something like "Home ownership is stupid. It's like raiding. Because in raiding, there's always someone stupid who is dying in a fire. Wallpaper should die in a fire. Yeah." etc. (For the record, wallpaper really should diaf, good God!)
So, in conclusion, YES I will be back, NO I have not quit. Oh also, no, sadly I'm not knocked up like any feisty blood elf warlocks you may know (you crazy kids)! I am currently keeping myself frazzled by the following:
For shits and giggles, here's some random stuff for your viewing and linking pleasure.
No! I'm not done blogging!
Hiatus? Yes.
I am currently working for the US Census Bureau knocking on people's doors, invading their privacy, asking them annoying questions, and overall just trying to avoid getting shot. I work at random hours based on when people will be home. And I am le tired.
Unlike working in an office, I'm not actually in front of a computer most of the time. I am only playing WoW somewhere between 2-4 hours a week, and it takes a lot of kicking and screaming to get me to do even that! I am woefully behind in my blog reading (see below).
Even before the Census job began, I was suffering badly from WoW Burnout. I don't know if it's the pre-xpack doldrums, or just the raider burnout I was/am feeling, but I go through this on a fairly regular basis. This is just the first time I've had such a long burnout duration while being a blogger... so I suppose it's more obvious!
WoW is still a big part of my life (is that really sad? I don't know), and much like my relationships with anything and everything, it ebbs and flows depending on where my head is that week.
I've been quiet because I don't like making excuse posts. I don't like reading posts that promise someone will be back in a few days, or apologizing for being absent. I'll write when I feel like writing, and I'm not gonna write filler crap in the meantime! If I post something, it's because I feel like it's worth other people reading. Otherwise, you'd read something like "Home ownership is stupid. It's like raiding. Because in raiding, there's always someone stupid who is dying in a fire. Wallpaper should die in a fire. Yeah." etc. (For the record, wallpaper really should diaf, good God!)
So, in conclusion, YES I will be back, NO I have not quit. Oh also, no, sadly I'm not knocked up like any feisty blood elf warlocks you may know (you crazy kids)! I am currently keeping myself frazzled by the following:
- Knocking on strangers' doors, asking how many people live there, hoping they don't hate me
- Making a huge mess by attempting to paint bedrooms so we can sell this Godforsaken house
- Preparing to move about 50 miles south
- Working out a way to go back to uni to finish up my graduate degree and/or get a Real Job TM
- Trying to transform a Bachelor Pad House into something someone with any sense might actually consider buying (Sorry honey, but the storm trooper helmets and the alien heads will soon be in storage)
- Documenting all the house stuff "properly", because writing about remodeling a home is way more fun than actually doing the remodeling of a home.
- Avoiding my google reader like the plague, because it's really scary...
For shits and giggles, here's some random stuff for your viewing and linking pleasure.
- My guild is named the Lothar Swingers Club (and we've recently added a few to our roster, so we now actually have ten people!). I'm considering purchasing this residence for our clubhouse. Totally a Swinger's house, amirite?
- Druids don't approve of low cholesterol diets. Proof.
- Quit taking smoke breaks during the raid! Start Vaming!
- WoW situations that make map-lovers sad.
Alright, time for the big reveal.
Your responses, while hilarious, were nowhere near the truth - with the exception of commenter Tannim Murphy. There's a very simple way to make the rainbow circles make sense. Here's the key.
If you noticed, the circles are drawn on a grid. Were you to count the number of squares that measure the diameter of each rainbow circle, you'd find the range of each AoE healing spell (I assumed maximum glyphs and talents).
The original intention was to measure the surface area of each heal. Unfortunately, the dynamics and characteristics that make each heal different and unique make it really hard to compare them to one another fairly, let alone measure surface area.
Chain Heal, for instance. Chain heal doesn't look anything at all like a rainbow circle. It looks, ironically enough, like a CHAIN. Imagine that.
Methodologically speaking, you can't directly compare Chain Heal to the other AoE healing spells, because it doesn't function the same way. It's linear instead of radial.
Divine Hymn is channeled. It works on ticks, and therefore it's unlike many of the other spells - You don't have spellcast -> spell effect.
In order to really compare all these spells, you'd also need to think about the differences in cooldowns, mana cost, and the amount of time it takes to cast each spell. The spells are also different in that some affect only one's party instead of the whole raid. Some are smart heals. Some, I have no idea how the UI decides who gets the heal (i.e. Holy Light glyph splash).
And thus, I gave up on the rainbow circle AoE heals post, because after spending hours creating my rainbow circles graph (not to mention days spent searching to find the perfect software program with which to create it), I went and confuzzled myself with all the ways that my methodology would not function properly. And then I abandoned it.
Your responses, while hilarious, were nowhere near the truth - with the exception of commenter Tannim Murphy. There's a very simple way to make the rainbow circles make sense. Here's the key.
If you noticed, the circles are drawn on a grid. Were you to count the number of squares that measure the diameter of each rainbow circle, you'd find the range of each AoE healing spell (I assumed maximum glyphs and talents).The original intention was to measure the surface area of each heal. Unfortunately, the dynamics and characteristics that make each heal different and unique make it really hard to compare them to one another fairly, let alone measure surface area.
Chain Heal, for instance. Chain heal doesn't look anything at all like a rainbow circle. It looks, ironically enough, like a CHAIN. Imagine that.
Methodologically speaking, you can't directly compare Chain Heal to the other AoE healing spells, because it doesn't function the same way. It's linear instead of radial.
Divine Hymn is channeled. It works on ticks, and therefore it's unlike many of the other spells - You don't have spellcast -> spell effect.In order to really compare all these spells, you'd also need to think about the differences in cooldowns, mana cost, and the amount of time it takes to cast each spell. The spells are also different in that some affect only one's party instead of the whole raid. Some are smart heals. Some, I have no idea how the UI decides who gets the heal (i.e. Holy Light glyph splash).
And thus, I gave up on the rainbow circle AoE heals post, because after spending hours creating my rainbow circles graph (not to mention days spent searching to find the perfect software program with which to create it), I went and confuzzled myself with all the ways that my methodology would not function properly. And then I abandoned it.
Instead of actually finishing up the bajillion half written posts I have that I lost interest in, I thought it would be fun if I just presented small portions of them to you, and have you tell me in the comments wtf you think the point of it was supposed to be.
Case in point. Observer the rainbow bubbles below, and you tell me, dear readers, what post you think I was writing to go with this fabulous diagram I spent hours upon hours getting drawn properly.
Case in point. Observer the rainbow bubbles below, and you tell me, dear readers, what post you think I was writing to go with this fabulous diagram I spent hours upon hours getting drawn properly.
First off, a couple of things.
Next week my mother is coming to stay with me for a few days, and I also start my new job (yeah, I know I said that last week... I have a bad habit of going into a new job a week early on accident >.<) so next week will likely be light on posts unless I get some substantial time over the weekend to schedule the 20 different drafts I have half-written.
Also, uhm, has anyone else noticed that my blog is now titled "Full Healing Blogroll" on google reader? I'm sorta weirded out by this, and have no idea how to change it. I'm assuming it started about the time I made my full healing blogroll post - any thoughts on how to fix it so that it shows Miss Medicina again?
As if you didn't know... more cataclysm class preview changes this week! Therefore, Druids and Pallies get the most attention for this week, just as Priests and Shammies got more last week.
Druid
Priest
Paladin
Shaman
Crossovers - I'm a big proponent of the idea of perspective. A good healer in a raid has a basic understanding of their entire healing team, and the synergy between themselves and the other healing classes. That was the entire purpose of the healing questionnaire, and it's also the reason I make these Friday healing world posts. So, I especially enjoy posts where folks who play one healing class predominantly try out another class. They sure are a fun read!
This post took me 4 hours to write, in one sitting. ahmahgah
Next week my mother is coming to stay with me for a few days, and I also start my new job (yeah, I know I said that last week... I have a bad habit of going into a new job a week early on accident >.<) so next week will likely be light on posts unless I get some substantial time over the weekend to schedule the 20 different drafts I have half-written.
Also, uhm, has anyone else noticed that my blog is now titled "Full Healing Blogroll" on google reader? I'm sorta weirded out by this, and have no idea how to change it. I'm assuming it started about the time I made my full healing blogroll post - any thoughts on how to fix it so that it shows Miss Medicina again?
As if you didn't know... more cataclysm class preview changes this week! Therefore, Druids and Pallies get the most attention for this week, just as Priests and Shammies got more last week.
Druid
- Bell offers more thoughts on regemming for that elusive Haste cap - should you?
- Keeva's protest image is making the rounds! (Image above)
- Bell at 4 Haelz
- Lathere at HoTs & DoTs
- Lissanna at Restokin
- Kae at Dreambound
- Fealen at Cow and Bones
- Averna at Nerf this Druid
- Angelya at Revive & Rejuvenate: Part 1 and Part 2
- Jaslya at Cannot be Tamed
- Restoration Druid
Priest
- Wik at Holyform wants us priests to just take a breather, and stop hatin' on Leap of Faith - and I agree with him. I don't think I really made it very clear in my post where I discussed LoF, but I'm actually pretty excited about the spell. If anyone tries to say something like "omg healer! why didnt you yank me out of the fire?!!?!" I probably won't notice, because I won't be paying attention to dumb. I'm excited to see all the different cool ways LoF can be used!
Paladin
- Great stat tips from Zabery for healing Valithria Dreamwalker. I especially Zabery's list of other classes that have abilities that can help you do your job even better.
- Tarinae at A Healadin's Tear: Part 1 and Part 2
- Coriel at Blessing of Kings
- Khraden at Illumination: Part 1 and Part 2
- Kurn at Kurn's Corner
- Codi at MoarHPS
- Rudy at The Holy Light
Shaman
- Apparently, Mages will be getting their own version of Bloodlust/Heroism, and so there are quite a few shammies who are not particularly pleased about this.
Crossovers - I'm a big proponent of the idea of perspective. A good healer in a raid has a basic understanding of their entire healing team, and the synergy between themselves and the other healing classes. That was the entire purpose of the healing questionnaire, and it's also the reason I make these Friday healing world posts. So, I especially enjoy posts where folks who play one healing class predominantly try out another class. They sure are a fun read!
- Healing as a Pally, from the perspective of a druid. Very different healing styles, but Bell is here to help you out.
- Healing as a Disc Priest, from the perspective of a shaman. And hey, I'm trying to level a shaman, so I especially loved this post!
This post took me 4 hours to write, in one sitting. ahmahgah
Aaaaand.... the talented stuff.
Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses
Most of this is actually old news, since Blizz used Priests as an example earlier when trying to explain how mastery would work.
For Discipline:
For Holy:
Blizz is really pushing the HoT mechanic for Holy Priests. I've noticed this more and more throughout Wrath. Druids are no longer the sole provider for good strong HoTs, but they are still the best. To be honest, as someone who enjoys running around with lots of Druids, I'm not very keen on it. There's such a thing as too many HoTs, as far as I'm concerned.
For Shadow:
- We want to improve Discipline's single-target healing capacity. One key is to make sure shielding isn't always a more attractive option than healing.
- We want to improve Holy for PvP healing. One way to do this is to make sure that Heal's throughput is similar between both specs.
- We want to improve Shadow for short fights and reduce its susceptibility to school lockouts.
- Discipline will finally be getting Power Word: Barrier as a talented ability. Think of it like a group Power Word: Shield.
- We want to make Holy a little bit more interesting to play. One new talent will push the Holy priest into an improved healing state when he or she casts Prayer of Healing, Heal, or Renew three times in a row. The empowered state varies depending on the heals cast.
- Since the Shadow tree has a lot of passive damage-boosting abilities -- something we're trying to avoid in Cataclysm -- we will need to replace several of the tree's talents. One idea is to play off of the new Shadow Orbs mechanic (see Mastery section below), possibly allowing you to consume an orb to increase damage from Mind Blast or reduce Mind Spike's cast time.
- Misery will no longer affect spell Hit chance. We want players to be able to gear themselves around a Hit cap that isn't variable depending on group composition.
Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses
Most of this is actually old news, since Blizz used Priests as an example earlier when trying to explain how mastery would work.
For Discipline:
- Healing (this will increase your healing power)
- Meditation (this will increase your mana regen)
- Absorption: Improves the strength of shields such as Power Word: Shield, Divine Aegis, and Power Word: Barrier.
For Holy:
- Healing (this will increase your healing power)
- Meditation (this will increase your mana regen)
- Radiance: Your direct heals add a small heal-over-time component to the target.
Blizz is really pushing the HoT mechanic for Holy Priests. I've noticed this more and more throughout Wrath. Druids are no longer the sole provider for good strong HoTs, but they are still the best. To be honest, as someone who enjoys running around with lots of Druids, I'm not very keen on it. There's such a thing as too many HoTs, as far as I'm concerned.
For Shadow:
- Spell Damage (This will increase your spell damage... duh)
- Spell Crit (This will increase your spell crit... duh - but... why crit instead of haste? hmm)
- Shadow Orbs: Casting spells grants a chance for Shadow Orbs to be created that fly around you and increase your shadow damage. This will help lower-level characters feel more like "Shadow priests" before they obtain Shadowform.
Yeah, I still hate the ICC buff. Sorry. That's not ever going to change. In practice, it's become something of a joke amongst my raiding group, how stubborn I am about it.
DPS1: "Man, if only there were a way to drastically increase my dps in one night."
DPS2: "Yeah, woudn't that be awesome?"
Me: "There is. It's called fail less."
I stubbornly held on to my principles. Much of my guild remembers me leveling through BC and Wrath, and they know how I am. No, I don't want you to run me through that dungeon since you are five levels higher than me. Get away from me, you're tainting my sacred leveling path of teh solo. No I don't want you to run me through anything. No, I don't want you to partner up with me to make this quicker and easier. Yes I know that you're all sitting at level caps, waiting impatiently for me to get there so you have a healer, but DON'T RUSH ME.
However, I am one person amongst a group of ten, though Raid Leader I may be. I do try to take everyone's concerns under consideration, and mold things accordingly. The one thing I wouldn't budge on was the damn buff, but it was definitely starting to be a problem. I could tell people were getting frustrated with me and my stubborness, and the way I'd run straight into ICC and tell King Wrynn to piss off, because his presence annoys me.
I mean seriously, Wrynn's presence is supposed to make me 10% stronger? Is that like, aura of annoyance? Does it make me 10% more powerful because I just want him to GTFO and hurry up and finish this crap because I don't want to be around him anymore? I could kinda see that.
What about "Gordin's Presence"? Gordin is our warrior off-tank, who brings a huge air of serendipity to our raids. If it weren't for Gordin, we would probably be yelling at one another, glaring at bosses, completely tunnel visioned, and forget that we're there for fun. Someone sets themselves to follow Gordin when we are running back from a wipe, and he jumps off a cliff just to make them follow him to their deaths. Gordin yells "GERONIMOOOOO" while running into the second room of the pre-Marrowgar trash to trigger the traps so we can get our skellies dead. Gordin inserts "that's what she said" comments in raid warnings.
If there were an Aura of Gordin, bunnies would randomly spawn and start humping. At specific intervals, giant Smurfs would appear and pwn the healers. Occasionally you'd hear the Lich King in the background making knock-knock jokes. You know that glitch that everyone gets on occasion? The one where it appears that everyone is naked? Well, Gordin is the reason that glitch exists. One day he called up Eyonix on the phoney-mcphone, and he was all like "Yo, Whelpling. If you don't add some random pg-13 nudity into this game, I'm going to drive my bus over to your house... and you know that won't end well."
And thus, on occasion, you get to see some nice Male Dwarf boxer-briefs. Because Gordin wouldn't have it any other way.
Sadly, there is no Aura of Gordin. Instead, we get shafted with Strength of Wrynn. I'd feel more inspired by Thrall, though I'm pretty sure our hunter MuffinCups would be fairly distracted by flirtation.
My fiance and co-raid leader had been bugging me about the buff for a few weeks. "How about we just use the buff for the first wing? We have it on farm, so it's not like we need it, but it would make it faster so that we could spend more time on the progression bosses. We'd turn it off right after we cleared the first wing." "NO."
"NO."
"NO."
"NO."
But after a tearful conversation with a few of the DPS who really wanted to utilize the buff in order to see more content, I finally got off my stubborn stool and compromised. When you're only raiding 2 hours a week, it's true that time is of the essence. So, as of our Monday night run, we will be keeping Wrynn around for the first wing, and then telling him to GTFO as soon as we finish off Saurfang. Seems that it works. We're so eager to get rid of King Douchebag that we do power through the first wing much faster, and preserve our standards for the bosses we aren't quite farming yet. As far as I'm concerned, as of last night, the numbers on the first wing mean nothing. I don't care what the HPS or DPS is, because without the proper genuine context, it's useless.
Still no Aura of Gordin though. I'm submitting a ticket.
DPS1: "Man, if only there were a way to drastically increase my dps in one night."
DPS2: "Yeah, woudn't that be awesome?"
Me: "There is. It's called fail less."
I stubbornly held on to my principles. Much of my guild remembers me leveling through BC and Wrath, and they know how I am. No, I don't want you to run me through that dungeon since you are five levels higher than me. Get away from me, you're tainting my sacred leveling path of teh solo. No I don't want you to run me through anything. No, I don't want you to partner up with me to make this quicker and easier. Yes I know that you're all sitting at level caps, waiting impatiently for me to get there so you have a healer, but DON'T RUSH ME.
However, I am one person amongst a group of ten, though Raid Leader I may be. I do try to take everyone's concerns under consideration, and mold things accordingly. The one thing I wouldn't budge on was the damn buff, but it was definitely starting to be a problem. I could tell people were getting frustrated with me and my stubborness, and the way I'd run straight into ICC and tell King Wrynn to piss off, because his presence annoys me.
I mean seriously, Wrynn's presence is supposed to make me 10% stronger? Is that like, aura of annoyance? Does it make me 10% more powerful because I just want him to GTFO and hurry up and finish this crap because I don't want to be around him anymore? I could kinda see that.
What about "Gordin's Presence"? Gordin is our warrior off-tank, who brings a huge air of serendipity to our raids. If it weren't for Gordin, we would probably be yelling at one another, glaring at bosses, completely tunnel visioned, and forget that we're there for fun. Someone sets themselves to follow Gordin when we are running back from a wipe, and he jumps off a cliff just to make them follow him to their deaths. Gordin yells "GERONIMOOOOO" while running into the second room of the pre-Marrowgar trash to trigger the traps so we can get our skellies dead. Gordin inserts "that's what she said" comments in raid warnings.
If there were an Aura of Gordin, bunnies would randomly spawn and start humping. At specific intervals, giant Smurfs would appear and pwn the healers. Occasionally you'd hear the Lich King in the background making knock-knock jokes. You know that glitch that everyone gets on occasion? The one where it appears that everyone is naked? Well, Gordin is the reason that glitch exists. One day he called up Eyonix on the phoney-mcphone, and he was all like "Yo, Whelpling. If you don't add some random pg-13 nudity into this game, I'm going to drive my bus over to your house... and you know that won't end well."
And thus, on occasion, you get to see some nice Male Dwarf boxer-briefs. Because Gordin wouldn't have it any other way.
Sadly, there is no Aura of Gordin. Instead, we get shafted with Strength of Wrynn. I'd feel more inspired by Thrall, though I'm pretty sure our hunter MuffinCups would be fairly distracted by flirtation.
My fiance and co-raid leader had been bugging me about the buff for a few weeks. "How about we just use the buff for the first wing? We have it on farm, so it's not like we need it, but it would make it faster so that we could spend more time on the progression bosses. We'd turn it off right after we cleared the first wing." "NO."
"NO."
"NO."
"NO."
But after a tearful conversation with a few of the DPS who really wanted to utilize the buff in order to see more content, I finally got off my stubborn stool and compromised. When you're only raiding 2 hours a week, it's true that time is of the essence. So, as of our Monday night run, we will be keeping Wrynn around for the first wing, and then telling him to GTFO as soon as we finish off Saurfang. Seems that it works. We're so eager to get rid of King Douchebag that we do power through the first wing much faster, and preserve our standards for the bosses we aren't quite farming yet. As far as I'm concerned, as of last night, the numbers on the first wing mean nothing. I don't care what the HPS or DPS is, because without the proper genuine context, it's useless.
Still no Aura of Gordin though. I'm submitting a ticket.
Powered by ScribeFire.
Now let's talk about those changed mechanics...
"All HoTs and DoTs will benefit from Haste and Crit innately." This has been a long time coming, and Blizz has done a LOT of testing to see how they can make this work in a balanced way. I can understand why; giving over time abilities the benefits from haste and crit is a huge change, and it's a dynamic one. One of the big changes with this change is this portion: they "will not have a shorter duration, just a shorter period in between ticks". It's better to have this be something that is implemented with brand new content than try to add it in a patch with current gear levels, because it completely changes the value of haste and crit for those that use over-time components. If the duration of the effect is shortened by haste, it can drastically change rotations based on gear levels.
Oh man. The theorycrafters are going to have a FIELD DAY with this change. How much haste will i need for each individual extra tick of heal or damage? GO.
"We want to bring back Shadow Word: Death as an "execute" -- something you do when the target is at 25% health. " Okay. Uhm, thanks for the info? That was... helpful.
Making Priests viable tank healers. Well, I would argue, quite stubbornly mind you, that Discipline priests are perfectly viable tank healers, thankyouverymuch. Having said that, I know what they mean. I put a bubble on the tank, and it's gone in one hit, and I can't put another shield on them for 15 seconds or so. Most of my mitigation actually comes from Divine Aegis. I would love a more expensive, bigger shield for tank healing. Greater Heal *should* be the tank healing weapon of choice. That's how I've tried to treat it - much to my own detriment. Just because something *should* work a certain way, doesn't mean that it does. Thing is, all I really need is a big shield on the tank that could reduce incoming damage while I'm casting my big heal.
No More Divine Spirit. This makes me sad, but with the changes coming to how spirit works, it was inevitable. One of the things I really liked about this spell is that it added an extra component to the beautiful synergy between priests and druids. Now I weep. Druids won't want me around anymore. YOU ONLY LIKED ME FOR MY SPIRIT.
No more five second rule. As far as I'm concerned, 5sr has been essentially obsolete at end game since patch 3.1. This isn't really news either. I never really liked the 5sr so I'm not mourning the death of it. It was kinda cool back when Holy Concentration gave you free procs, and you could dance around a bit with Inner Focus in and out of the 5sr.
So... what about Spirit Tap? I'm anxious to see how this will change (if at all). I know that end-game healing priests don't use this amazing talent, but it's integral for leveling.
"All HoTs and DoTs will benefit from Haste and Crit innately." This has been a long time coming, and Blizz has done a LOT of testing to see how they can make this work in a balanced way. I can understand why; giving over time abilities the benefits from haste and crit is a huge change, and it's a dynamic one. One of the big changes with this change is this portion: they "will not have a shorter duration, just a shorter period in between ticks". It's better to have this be something that is implemented with brand new content than try to add it in a patch with current gear levels, because it completely changes the value of haste and crit for those that use over-time components. If the duration of the effect is shortened by haste, it can drastically change rotations based on gear levels.
Oh man. The theorycrafters are going to have a FIELD DAY with this change. How much haste will i need for each individual extra tick of heal or damage? GO.
"We want to bring back Shadow Word: Death as an "execute" -- something you do when the target is at 25% health. " Okay. Uhm, thanks for the info? That was... helpful.
Making Priests viable tank healers. Well, I would argue, quite stubbornly mind you, that Discipline priests are perfectly viable tank healers, thankyouverymuch. Having said that, I know what they mean. I put a bubble on the tank, and it's gone in one hit, and I can't put another shield on them for 15 seconds or so. Most of my mitigation actually comes from Divine Aegis. I would love a more expensive, bigger shield for tank healing. Greater Heal *should* be the tank healing weapon of choice. That's how I've tried to treat it - much to my own detriment. Just because something *should* work a certain way, doesn't mean that it does. Thing is, all I really need is a big shield on the tank that could reduce incoming damage while I'm casting my big heal.
No More Divine Spirit. This makes me sad, but with the changes coming to how spirit works, it was inevitable. One of the things I really liked about this spell is that it added an extra component to the beautiful synergy between priests and druids. Now I weep. Druids won't want me around anymore. YOU ONLY LIKED ME FOR MY SPIRIT.
No more five second rule. As far as I'm concerned, 5sr has been essentially obsolete at end game since patch 3.1. This isn't really news either. I never really liked the 5sr so I'm not mourning the death of it. It was kinda cool back when Holy Concentration gave you free procs, and you could dance around a bit with Inner Focus in and out of the 5sr.
So... what about Spirit Tap? I'm anxious to see how this will change (if at all). I know that end-game healing priests don't use this amazing talent, but it's integral for leveling.
Oh yeah. I'm weighing in on the Cataclysm Class Preview Changes as well. Because I have to, duh!
If you are what I would call a "purist", and do not want to be spoiled by any upcoming changes, look no further! I respect your choice, but I'm not always good at giving warnings, so don't hold it against me >.<
There's a lot of information coming, and so I'm going to split this up into multiple posts. I mean, let's face it - news is dry right now. We have to stretch out everything we can!
Heal. (The simplest, most basic name for the most basic and fundamental spell that any healer can have. Look at that, a spell named for exactly what it does. Can you imagine if you had two spells: Heal and Hurt? Anyway.)
You know what annoys me beyond all rational explanation? Waste. Wasted spells. Spells you learn at low levels that are replaced but never removed. Lesser Heal anyone? Heal? Especially when you have talents that affect those spells. I mean, why not just call them "Flash Heal" and "Greater Heal" at lower levels? The mechanics are the same.
So why do these two spells exist right now anyway? Pre-wrath, lots of healers used downranked spells to give their heals significant granularity. This was essentially removed from the game when Blizz increased the mana cost of lower ranked spells. Lesser Heal and Heal were occasionally used for added granularity back in the day - but since the mana cost changes, they were especially useless. Since mana is effectively a non-issue at high gear levels, and since we have significant gear inflation and saturation, most people just spam their quickest, most powerful spells, with little regard for mana cost.
The idea is to bring back that granularity to healing. Priests are arguably the most granular healers as it stands - we have a massive arsenal of healing spells. That's what makes playing a priest especially fun and interesting for me. Lots of decision making when it comes to spells. So, I'm very excited about having that extra level of granularity that was taken away from us with the changes to mana costs for downranked spells. I started raiding right before that change, for the record - I never used downranked spells. I hated it, and managed to heal well without using downranked spells, but I was also not participating in any real progression raiding.
If Blizz can pull this off effectively and bring back the granularity and decision making that has gone out the window in recent patches (and as a fangirl, I have faith that they can), then I think they are heading in the right direction.
Mind Spike. (im in ur hed hertin ur neuronz! STABSTABPOKE)
I actually have a hard time judging this spell without understanding exactly what the debuff it causes does. First and foremost though, "spell school lockout" has been a significant problem for shadow priests. I haven't forgotten you viscious Brittle Revenants - back when you guys were actually cool, dammit. Reducing the mana cost of Shadowform is great and all but... yeah. A frost spell is a great idea.
Now, back to that debuff. I think that in order for this to work effectively (meaning that this is a spammable spell used in situations where time needed for the buildup for your regular rotation is not available), that debuff needs to be short. Short enough that in order to get any real use out of it, you really will have to spam Mind Spike. And in that case, that's not really that fun anyway, is it?
But then again, in a battleground the other day I was confused about how I got even 1 killing blow... apparently I mistargeted and accidentally Penanced someone to death. As you can see, damage is not really my forte...
Inner Will (vs. Inner Fire)
This has been a long time coming. There won't be charges on the new version of Inner Fire. Why did we have a spell that was an armor boost with charges anyway? Because if it didn't have charges, it would require no decision making whatsoever. It would have just been a flat spellpower/armor boost (also, keep in mind that the spellpower buff was a Wrath addition, and Inner Fire doesn't give spellpower until your level 70s). Taking those charges out and implementing an alternative turns it into a self buff with a decision tagged on to it - much like Mages and Warlocks already have.
I love this idea. Need more throughput? Inner Fire. Need more mana? Inner Will. Lots of adds with physical damage? Inner Fire. Lots of movement? Inner Will. Making the gear switch between a damage spec and a healing spec? Use your buff to help you make the transition (for instance, my damage set may have more spellpower than mana regen - I would turn on my Inner Will to help fill the mana regen gaps until I pick up a few new pieces).
Leap of Faith. (HEROES! TO ME! /Jaina)
The description of this includes the following: "Intended to give priests a tool to help rescue fellow players who have pulled aggro, are being focused on in PvP, or just can't seem to get out of the fire in time."
Now wait just one second... Players already have this amazing ability to get out of spot focused damage. It's called legs.
Yanking someone closer to you because they have aggro? Not a great idea. In most cases this will not make them lose aggro - it will just bring the mob closer to you, potentially pulling aggro on to yourself.
Yeah, I can see the PvP argument.
But I find this spell fascinating. So now I'm just randomly brainstorming on non-PvP specific uses for it.
A 30 yard range isn't enough to justify pulling the target in to put them in healing range, since 30 yard is generally within healing range. I can also see this as another indirect form of crowd control. Send one of the melee over to a spellcasting add, have them get aggro, and then yank that member over to you and the group. Seems kinda like a weird way to handle it though, especially if you could just silence the mob or something.
Maybe it's intended to just be situationally useful. Assuming you can use this on people who are rooted in some form, then yes, I likes it a lot. I'm thinking of our recent ventures on Putricide, with people getting rooted in slime puddles. They can't move out of the crap on the ground - for once people have an excuse! Instead of spam healing them, I can pull them to me. Now I'm going to start looking for scenarios in which I can use this spell!
If you are what I would call a "purist", and do not want to be spoiled by any upcoming changes, look no further! I respect your choice, but I'm not always good at giving warnings, so don't hold it against me >.<
There's a lot of information coming, and so I'm going to split this up into multiple posts. I mean, let's face it - news is dry right now. We have to stretch out everything we can!
Heal. (The simplest, most basic name for the most basic and fundamental spell that any healer can have. Look at that, a spell named for exactly what it does. Can you imagine if you had two spells: Heal and Hurt? Anyway.)
You know what annoys me beyond all rational explanation? Waste. Wasted spells. Spells you learn at low levels that are replaced but never removed. Lesser Heal anyone? Heal? Especially when you have talents that affect those spells. I mean, why not just call them "Flash Heal" and "Greater Heal" at lower levels? The mechanics are the same.
So why do these two spells exist right now anyway? Pre-wrath, lots of healers used downranked spells to give their heals significant granularity. This was essentially removed from the game when Blizz increased the mana cost of lower ranked spells. Lesser Heal and Heal were occasionally used for added granularity back in the day - but since the mana cost changes, they were especially useless. Since mana is effectively a non-issue at high gear levels, and since we have significant gear inflation and saturation, most people just spam their quickest, most powerful spells, with little regard for mana cost.
The idea is to bring back that granularity to healing. Priests are arguably the most granular healers as it stands - we have a massive arsenal of healing spells. That's what makes playing a priest especially fun and interesting for me. Lots of decision making when it comes to spells. So, I'm very excited about having that extra level of granularity that was taken away from us with the changes to mana costs for downranked spells. I started raiding right before that change, for the record - I never used downranked spells. I hated it, and managed to heal well without using downranked spells, but I was also not participating in any real progression raiding.
If Blizz can pull this off effectively and bring back the granularity and decision making that has gone out the window in recent patches (and as a fangirl, I have faith that they can), then I think they are heading in the right direction.
Mind Spike. (im in ur hed hertin ur neuronz! STABSTABPOKE)
I actually have a hard time judging this spell without understanding exactly what the debuff it causes does. First and foremost though, "spell school lockout" has been a significant problem for shadow priests. I haven't forgotten you viscious Brittle Revenants - back when you guys were actually cool, dammit. Reducing the mana cost of Shadowform is great and all but... yeah. A frost spell is a great idea.
Now, back to that debuff. I think that in order for this to work effectively (meaning that this is a spammable spell used in situations where time needed for the buildup for your regular rotation is not available), that debuff needs to be short. Short enough that in order to get any real use out of it, you really will have to spam Mind Spike. And in that case, that's not really that fun anyway, is it?
But then again, in a battleground the other day I was confused about how I got even 1 killing blow... apparently I mistargeted and accidentally Penanced someone to death. As you can see, damage is not really my forte...
Inner Will (vs. Inner Fire)
This has been a long time coming. There won't be charges on the new version of Inner Fire. Why did we have a spell that was an armor boost with charges anyway? Because if it didn't have charges, it would require no decision making whatsoever. It would have just been a flat spellpower/armor boost (also, keep in mind that the spellpower buff was a Wrath addition, and Inner Fire doesn't give spellpower until your level 70s). Taking those charges out and implementing an alternative turns it into a self buff with a decision tagged on to it - much like Mages and Warlocks already have.
I love this idea. Need more throughput? Inner Fire. Need more mana? Inner Will. Lots of adds with physical damage? Inner Fire. Lots of movement? Inner Will. Making the gear switch between a damage spec and a healing spec? Use your buff to help you make the transition (for instance, my damage set may have more spellpower than mana regen - I would turn on my Inner Will to help fill the mana regen gaps until I pick up a few new pieces).
Leap of Faith. (HEROES! TO ME! /Jaina)
The description of this includes the following: "Intended to give priests a tool to help rescue fellow players who have pulled aggro, are being focused on in PvP, or just can't seem to get out of the fire in time."
Now wait just one second... Players already have this amazing ability to get out of spot focused damage. It's called legs.
Yanking someone closer to you because they have aggro? Not a great idea. In most cases this will not make them lose aggro - it will just bring the mob closer to you, potentially pulling aggro on to yourself.
Yeah, I can see the PvP argument.
But I find this spell fascinating. So now I'm just randomly brainstorming on non-PvP specific uses for it.
A 30 yard range isn't enough to justify pulling the target in to put them in healing range, since 30 yard is generally within healing range. I can also see this as another indirect form of crowd control. Send one of the melee over to a spellcasting add, have them get aggro, and then yank that member over to you and the group. Seems kinda like a weird way to handle it though, especially if you could just silence the mob or something.
Maybe it's intended to just be situationally useful. Assuming you can use this on people who are rooted in some form, then yes, I likes it a lot. I'm thinking of our recent ventures on Putricide, with people getting rooted in slime puddles. They can't move out of the crap on the ground - for once people have an excuse! Instead of spam healing them, I can pull them to me. Now I'm going to start looking for scenarios in which I can use this spell!
Druids
Paladins
Shammies
All
POSTED BEFORE FIVE PM SO IT TOTALLY COUNTS AS A FRIDAY POST (to be fair, I was waiting as long as possible because I had hoped the Druid class preview changes would be out before 5 today - LAWL wtf was i thinking anyway? I'm sure next week we will be overloaded with waving branches)
- Jasyla talks about Barkskin and its underappreciated value, providing specific examples from ICC of where it can be used well.
- Ohhh, I love this post by Bell. Are resto druids bad at tank healing? I've said it before, and I'll say it a million times more - every healing class has the ability to tank heal, so that they can effectively heal 5 mans. Some classes perform better at raid tank healing. Bell talks about this specifically for druids, and how you can be a better tank healer.
- And on the same topic, Beru chimes in with even more explanation about why "sucking at tank healing" is not the same thing as "not the optimal choice for tank healing".
- HEY GUYS. HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT CATACLYSM CLASS PREVIEW FOR PRIESTS? NO? ->
- Healer Trek
- Priest With a Cause
- PW: Bubble
- Shy at WoW
- Avalonna at Tales from a Priest
- The Mediocre Priest
- Amber's Very Thoughtful And Helpful Commentary
- Light and Leafy
Paladins
- Do you dual spec holy/prot? Illumination has some tips for you on creating a UI that will do the trick for both.
- There was a lot of sad faces about the fact that Paladin class changes are coming out so very late. Poor pallies...
Shammies
- Cataclysm Class Preview: Shaman. Because I'm sure you hadn't heard yet. Oh and Nethaera posted this one, so it must be the best.
All
- Druid Main starts this post by talking about how dispel mechanics will work in Cataclysm (according to the current information, obviously). All healers will be affected.
- Actually, there were a lot of people who chimed in about those dispel mechanics, particularly the shammies. Check out Borsked and Blueberry Totem.
POSTED BEFORE FIVE PM SO IT TOTALLY COUNTS AS A FRIDAY POST (to be fair, I was waiting as long as possible because I had hoped the Druid class preview changes would be out before 5 today - LAWL wtf was i thinking anyway? I'm sure next week we will be overloaded with waving branches)
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You know what's more fun than breaking my wimpy back painting over white walls with... a slightly different shade of white (yay home improvement!)?
Wiping on Putricide for 2 hours straight!
What a fight. I've heard the nightmare stories, and I've dreaded it for weeks and weeks. But if you look beyond the repair bills, and the stress, and the arguments about positioning and who should stand or run where and yada yada yada... every wipe is followed by a slightly better attempt. It's not a one-shot. It's not a tank n' spank. It's not an ez-mode.
It's progression. Bloody, frustrating, messy... but I'm there, with 9 of my friends who may hate me for two hours (and several days afterward for that matter), banging my head against a boss fight. And each bang leaves a slightly deeper dent. And it's hard. But I know that when Putricide finally falls to the ground, mutilated and defeated, it will be one of my proudest in-game moments.
If it were easy, I wouldn't be proud about it. I don't mind struggling through the tough times, the rough nights, because I know that once I conquer it, I will be proud for persevering through all of it. I don't really care about the gear - it's the feeling of hard-won victory.
That's the attitude you need to have when you raid. You need to be able to see the big picture, and then step in and objectively identify the details that present problems.
Now, I'm going to take that positive raider attitude and try to apply it to my REAL life. Back to the paint can with me, folks. I start my new job next week, and I'm going to try and be more productive this week before I start, so bear with me as my posts may be light as I endure this phase change!
Here's a question for you guys: How do *you* define "progression"?
Wiping on Putricide for 2 hours straight!
What a fight. I've heard the nightmare stories, and I've dreaded it for weeks and weeks. But if you look beyond the repair bills, and the stress, and the arguments about positioning and who should stand or run where and yada yada yada... every wipe is followed by a slightly better attempt. It's not a one-shot. It's not a tank n' spank. It's not an ez-mode.
It's progression. Bloody, frustrating, messy... but I'm there, with 9 of my friends who may hate me for two hours (and several days afterward for that matter), banging my head against a boss fight. And each bang leaves a slightly deeper dent. And it's hard. But I know that when Putricide finally falls to the ground, mutilated and defeated, it will be one of my proudest in-game moments.
If it were easy, I wouldn't be proud about it. I don't mind struggling through the tough times, the rough nights, because I know that once I conquer it, I will be proud for persevering through all of it. I don't really care about the gear - it's the feeling of hard-won victory.
That's the attitude you need to have when you raid. You need to be able to see the big picture, and then step in and objectively identify the details that present problems.
Now, I'm going to take that positive raider attitude and try to apply it to my REAL life. Back to the paint can with me, folks. I start my new job next week, and I'm going to try and be more productive this week before I start, so bear with me as my posts may be light as I endure this phase change!
Here's a question for you guys: How do *you* define "progression"?
You know what's tricky? Spending hours trying to discern "real" thursday posts from "APRIL FOOLS" thursday posts. Yes, I know that I am just as guilty. Shove it.
Lots of heroic mode impressions and Lich King kills this week folks. A hearty congratulations to all of you! Maybe my babyicc10 group will see a Putricide kill before Cataclysm!
One last side note, or rather, plea: If you or someone you know sets the feed settings for your blog so that people can only read a brief description of the post or the first few lines via feedreader... I'm begging you to change it. Please. I know you put the effort into your sites, and I know you want to see people actually visit your site as opposed to reading it through a feedreader, and I understand that... but for those of us who read a bajillion blogs, or for those of us who try to feed our blog addiction from work in a filtered environment, it just means we can't/don't read your posts. I always *intend* to go back to those posts and click through and read them, but I forget as I'm going through the other material that is more readily available to me.
<3 MM
Druids:
Paladins:
Priests:
This Special Section is Reserved For Codi's Genius
BEST APRIL FOOL'S DAY POST
Lots of heroic mode impressions and Lich King kills this week folks. A hearty congratulations to all of you! Maybe my babyicc10 group will see a Putricide kill before Cataclysm!
One last side note, or rather, plea: If you or someone you know sets the feed settings for your blog so that people can only read a brief description of the post or the first few lines via feedreader... I'm begging you to change it. Please. I know you put the effort into your sites, and I know you want to see people actually visit your site as opposed to reading it through a feedreader, and I understand that... but for those of us who read a bajillion blogs, or for those of us who try to feed our blog addiction from work in a filtered environment, it just means we can't/don't read your posts. I always *intend* to go back to those posts and click through and read them, but I forget as I'm going through the other material that is more readily available to me.
<3 MM
Druids:
- Tree Bark Jacket provides a PSA regarding the 4pct10 bonus amongst several resto druids in a raid.
- Speaking of t10 and set bonuses... Jasyla examines the functionality and benefit of that 4pc set bonus... WITH MATHS.
- Angela at Restoration Druid has some nice videos of the heroic versions of Gunship10 and Rotface25 from her perspective.
Paladins:
- Kurn's Holy How-to #4! Gems, Libram, glyphs, and more.
- Zabery explores the use of Shield of Righteousness to get a bit more mana back. As a pally-noob, I spent an hour trying to understand this, and even tried testing it, and was still completely lost, but I thought it was a pretty interesting argument regardless!
- Oooooo I *love* Pally-as-a-raid-healer? posts and Illumination has a great one this week! (Unless of course it's an April Fool's Joke... look, no one really believed that I would ever pull a Paolo... did they? Now I'm wondering if Pallies as raid healers is more or less believable than that...)
Priests:
- Okay, this isn't about a specific post, but the writer of this blog left a comment for me on my blogroll post this week linking me to his blog - and I thought it was such a great concept, that I wanted to tell y'all about Priest and Pilot. Tim writes about all the exciting adventures he has... trying to play WoW with the internet service he has available to him in Iraq - things such as switching from Holy to Disc in order to deal with the high amount of lag (which I thought was a pretty good tip). Also, I really do hope that I can send a bit of traffic his way to wish him well and send him support. <3
- Leafie offers some tips for lower level Disc Priests healing Maraudon.
- I don't know wtf Ava is talking about; Her lolpaintdiagrams are vastly superior to my own. Anyway, it's the moment you've all been waiting for: How to Disco with the Lich King... AVA STYLE
- Zorash at Healing Council gives some tips on how to anticipate damage. I'm listing this under Shaman, but it's actually good info for ALL healers, especially <begin bias> my fellow Disc Priests <end bias>!
- Borsk gives some impressions of a few 10 man heroic ICC encounters - but the best tale of all was about solo-healing heroic Putricide from 81% health to dead. What an awesome feeling it is to pull something like that off - nice one B!
This Special Section is Reserved For Codi's Genius
- Codi provides some great tips for healers who are having mana struggles. I know that at top gear levels most folks don't run into mana issues, but particularly for those gearing up, mana may be more of a problem. Codi has advice for each individual healing class, in addition to a list of great items to help you out.
BEST APRIL FOOL'S DAY POST
- Sometimes I let monkeys write my posts too, V.
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So, the real reason I posted my blogroll of healy blogs yesterday?
I'm done with this healing thing.
Between life-tapping warlocks, tanks forgetting their pants, aggro hungry mages, and other disc priests bubbling my target, I just can't handle it anymore!
The sickest thing about being a healer? When everyone is doing their job properly, YOUR job is mind-numbingly dull. When everyone is screwing up? You're pissed off because they keep screwing up.
I'm sick of wiping up after your messes, non-healers! It's a thankless job. It's a stupid job. Seriously, healers are completely pointless. Basically, your health is your green bar plus a multiplier of my blue bar. Do you ever think about how ridiculous that really is? I mean, couldn't you just, like, not take damage? This is sort of like throwing money at a problem. I'm throwing my mana at the problem - YOU!
SO NO MORE
Shadow I become.
For the record, this is known as "Pulling a Paolo".
I'm done with this healing thing.
Between life-tapping warlocks, tanks forgetting their pants, aggro hungry mages, and other disc priests bubbling my target, I just can't handle it anymore!
The sickest thing about being a healer? When everyone is doing their job properly, YOUR job is mind-numbingly dull. When everyone is screwing up? You're pissed off because they keep screwing up.
I'm sick of wiping up after your messes, non-healers! It's a thankless job. It's a stupid job. Seriously, healers are completely pointless. Basically, your health is your green bar plus a multiplier of my blue bar. Do you ever think about how ridiculous that really is? I mean, couldn't you just, like, not take damage? This is sort of like throwing money at a problem. I'm throwing my mana at the problem - YOU!
SO NO MORE
Shadow I become.
For the record, this is known as "Pulling a Paolo".
I follow a lot of healing blogs. I mean, a lot. Big or small, I’ll add most any healing blog to my feeder to at least give it a shot. If you’re wondering what my resources are for pointing out goings-on in the healer blogosphere (especially if you’re wondering if I’ve missed something), here is my full healer specific blogroll.
I don’t limit my list of resources due to popularity, size of readership, or any politics. I don’t care if the writer bashed me in a post that one time, or if they are smelly and a big jerky mcjerkface. If people post something I don’t like, or I’m not interested in… well then. I just don’t read that post.
The purpose of this list is to keep me up to date with what healers are saying in the blogosphere – from the small bloggers to the big ones. I don’t care if you only have 2 subscribers, and I’m one of them. If you post something that is good, I want to know.
This is a direct list from my feed-reader. If you know of a healy blog that is not on this list, please let me know so I can add them to my personal feed-reader. (comment or email: missmedicina at gmail dot com)
If you go through these links, you may find there are bloggers who have stated they are closing up shop. If the blog is still open, I am going to keep it on this list until after Cataclysm's release, because until the massive overhauls to our world and our classes, there may still be lots of relevant information on their blogs. Also, a lot of bloggers and players choose to find other things to do during the pre-expansion doldrums, so some may come back to the blogosphere.
If, however, you click on a link and it is broken, please let me know.
Druids
Multiple Class Healing Coverage
ETA: Last updated September 1st, 2010.
I will continue to keep this list updated (though I'm slow), so feel free to leave comments with suggestions :)
I don’t limit my list of resources due to popularity, size of readership, or any politics. I don’t care if the writer bashed me in a post that one time, or if they are smelly and a big jerky mcjerkface. If people post something I don’t like, or I’m not interested in… well then. I just don’t read that post.
The purpose of this list is to keep me up to date with what healers are saying in the blogosphere – from the small bloggers to the big ones. I don’t care if you only have 2 subscribers, and I’m one of them. If you post something that is good, I want to know.
This is a direct list from my feed-reader. If you know of a healy blog that is not on this list, please let me know so I can add them to my personal feed-reader. (comment or email: missmedicina at gmail dot com)
If you go through these links, you may find there are bloggers who have stated they are closing up shop. If the blog is still open, I am going to keep it on this list until after Cataclysm's release, because until the massive overhauls to our world and our classes, there may still be lots of relevant information on their blogs. Also, a lot of bloggers and players choose to find other things to do during the pre-expansion doldrums, so some may come back to the blogosphere.
If, however, you click on a link and it is broken, please let me know.
Druids
- 4 Haelz (closing)
- A Bear in the Trees
- Cannot be Tamed
- Cow and Bones
- Dreambound
- Druid Main
- Falling Leaves and Wings
- Gray Matter
- HoTs & DoTs
- Leaf-head
- Leafshine: Lust for Flower
- Light & Leafy (6 months+ no post)
- Nerf this Druid
- Orcish Army Knife
- Rejuvo (6 months+ no post)
- Restokin
- Restoration Druid
- Revive and Rejuvenate
- Rolling HoTs (3 months+ no post)
- Swiftmend
- The Stories of O
- The View Through the Branches
- Through the Eyes of a Tree
- Tree Bark Jacket
- Tree Burglar (6 months+ no post)
- Tree Haelz
- Tree of Life
- A Healadin's Tear
- A Touch of Arcane
- Blessing of Kings
- bubblespec
- DI the Tank (3+ months no post)
- Divine Plea
- Flash of Sadysm
- Holy Powah (also about priests)
- Holy Shock
- Holypaladin.net (6+ months no post)
- I am a Paladin
- Illumination
- IndecentHealer (6+ months no post)
- Kurn's Corner
- Moar HPS!
- Non-Squishy Heals
- Parsley's Blog
- She's a Healadin (3+ months no post)
- The Bossy Pally and the Giant Spoon
- The Holy Light
- The Holy Paladin
- The Physician's Log (6+ months no post) (sad face)
- The V-Team (3+ months no post)
- (Un)holy Randomness
- Zabery
- An Absolutely Ordinary Priest
- BobTurkey's WoW Blog
- Desperate Prayer (6+ months no post)
- DiscoPriest (3+ months no post)
- Divine Aegis
- Ecclesiastical Discipline
- Flash Heal
- Guild Mum
- Healer Trek
- Holy Fire Spec
- Holy Nova
- Holyform (3+ months no post)
- I Like Bubbles
- "Priest" board on PlusHeal
- Miss Medicina (she's pretty annoying though)
- Pain Suppression (3+ months no post)
- Penance Priest
- Priest and Pilot (3+ months no post)
- Priest Punditry
- Priest with a Cause
- PW: Bubble
- Raging Monkeys
- Righteous Orbs
- Runcible Trout (6+ months no post)
- Save the Lightwell
- Shy at WoW
- Soul Warding
- Tales of a Priest
- The Angry Healers!
- The Impenitent Priest
- The Mediocre Priest
- The Munch Land (6+ months no post)
- The Wanted Priest
- Thoughts of a Discipline Priestess
- Type "H" for Heals
- Ancestral Knowledge (6+ months no post)
- Ankh = Life
- Blueberry Totem
- Borsked
- Flow
- Kattastrophes Happen
- Life in Group 5
- ShamWoW
- Tank 2 Heals
- The Buy More
- Totem Forest
- twenty-five boxes
Multiple Class Healing Coverage
ETA: Last updated September 1st, 2010.
I will continue to keep this list updated (though I'm slow), so feel free to leave comments with suggestions :)
I don't often post screenshots, but I was going through some of mine last night looking for killshots, and figured I would share some of my more... entertaining experiences!
Fuu and I helped my aunt do her Pally mount quest old school style. As the only holy resident without a super fancy fairydust pony, I felt very left out.
But... I got over it pretty quickly. Pansies.
This is why Zodrick is not getting an invite to the next raid.
Chillaxin.
Small Dwarf, big throne.
Sky-swimming.
Violet Hold Gone Wild
Don't you dare close your eyes!
This is what happens when only one server is up.
I'm actually not sure if I find this frightening... or vulgarly offensive. Something about C'thun's eye just make me feel like I'm sitting in a Georgia O'Keefe painting.
You know, some people just can't sit politely on their insect mounts for a nice killshot.
I've got wings. And a pail. AND I WALK ON WATER. I am the priest your priest could spell like.
Fuu and I helped my aunt do her Pally mount quest old school style. As the only holy resident without a super fancy fairydust pony, I felt very left out.
But... I got over it pretty quickly. Pansies.
This is why Zodrick is not getting an invite to the next raid.
Chillaxin.
Small Dwarf, big throne.
Sky-swimming.
Violet Hold Gone Wild
Don't you dare close your eyes!
This is what happens when only one server is up.
I'm actually not sure if I find this frightening... or vulgarly offensive. Something about C'thun's eye just make me feel like I'm sitting in a Georgia O'Keefe painting.
You know, some people just can't sit politely on their insect mounts for a nice killshot.
I've got wings. And a pail. AND I WALK ON WATER. I am the priest your priest could spell like.
ETA: Added a good priesty link!
This week is incredibly skimpy on healing class-specific posts. Fuubaar keeps sending me frowny faces over gchat, wondering why I'm not posting as much, even daring to ask me if I was done with the blog. WHAT?! Hell naw.
The general answer across the blogosphere is that times are tough, folks. We're in the late-patch lull that even patch 3.3.3 can't really fix. There weren't that many changes for healers. We'd already talked about the changes to t10 for priests ad nauseam. People are bored.
That's not my issue. Mine is more of a personal thing. I have 7 posts half written, bookmarks out the wazoo providing content for relevant posts. I cannot bring myself to post a piece that is not fully researched and completed. I'm having more of an issue where my brain is asleep. I cannot seem to maintain focus or interest in anything, and all I want to do is sleep and/or watch Law & Order. I went to the doctor today, and I have been on my SAN character trying to level, but nothing that feels particularly exciting.
No, I am not abandoning this blog. If I only make 2 or 3 posts in a week, that is never meant to suggest I'm leaving the blogosphere. It usually just means I'm very tired, and having my own personal version of a relapse.
So to the meat - there's only a couple of things that stood out this week as particularly helpful to specific healing classes, but they are good reads anyway.
Druids
Paladins
Shaman
This week is incredibly skimpy on healing class-specific posts. Fuubaar keeps sending me frowny faces over gchat, wondering why I'm not posting as much, even daring to ask me if I was done with the blog. WHAT?! Hell naw.
The general answer across the blogosphere is that times are tough, folks. We're in the late-patch lull that even patch 3.3.3 can't really fix. There weren't that many changes for healers. We'd already talked about the changes to t10 for priests ad nauseam. People are bored.
That's not my issue. Mine is more of a personal thing. I have 7 posts half written, bookmarks out the wazoo providing content for relevant posts. I cannot bring myself to post a piece that is not fully researched and completed. I'm having more of an issue where my brain is asleep. I cannot seem to maintain focus or interest in anything, and all I want to do is sleep and/or watch Law & Order. I went to the doctor today, and I have been on my SAN character trying to level, but nothing that feels particularly exciting.
No, I am not abandoning this blog. If I only make 2 or 3 posts in a week, that is never meant to suggest I'm leaving the blogosphere. It usually just means I'm very tired, and having my own personal version of a relapse.
So to the meat - there's only a couple of things that stood out this week as particularly helpful to specific healing classes, but they are good reads anyway.
Druids
- Got a fresh 80 druid? Lathere has a great guide for gearing up your fresh sapling - with badge amounts and maths!
Paladins
- Ever wondered how Aura Mastery worked? Ophelie did a little exploration herself.
- Wheee! Shield calculator from Paolo - very handy for Disc priests who want an idea of how powerful their shield is.
Shaman
- Vixsin debates the value of Tidal Force - is it really worth it? WITH MATHS!
There's nothing relating to my priesty audience in the patch notes that I haven't already covered.
And so I direct you to Amber's in-depth and totally analytical and relevant explanation of the patch notes. That is all.
ETA: Here's a linky to the real patch notes, posted by Zarhym. They are too long for me to C&P here for now.
And so I direct you to Amber's in-depth and totally analytical and relevant explanation of the patch notes. That is all.
ETA: Here's a linky to the real patch notes, posted by Zarhym. They are too long for me to C&P here for now.
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Dear Greater Heal,
I've long been a staunch defender of you, heal-bomb.
I have held on to you and your friend, my dear sweet Divine Fury... from the 80 levels spent Holy as I quested and killed mobs, all the way to 10 man ICC. All the way through to Festergut...
Where my love for you wiped our group.
We have a very strict 11pm cut off time. We were stretching it for a couple of minutes to try and do a quickie Festergut to close out the night. Final inhale, and my eyes are squinted, my shoulders tense, as I weave my way through a very strict tank healing rotation. Tank is at full health, so I decide that at my next Borrowed Time buff, I'm going to squeeze you, Greater Heal, into my rotation. Raid buffed, even without Borrowed Time, I've got 35% haste. The cast time on you with Borrowed Time is approximately 1.6 seconds.
And you just weren't fast enough.
I don't know how much mitigation value was on the tank at the time. Pain Suppression had probably worn off, and during your precious 1.6 second cast, I'm sure any bubble (Power Word: Shield or Divine Aegis) he'd had was gone. But nothing makes me angrier than having my heal land a microsecond after the tank dies.
I'm livid. And I may be abandoning you from here on out, Greater Heal.
Granted, that was definitely not the best situation in which to use you, and I fully recognize that. But when my eyes are squinted and my shoulders hunched, sometimes my snap decisions aren't the best. It's the analysis I do afterwards that makes me a better healer.
Here's the thing. You're very powerful, Greater Heal, and I certainly can't deny that. You heal for somewhere between 11k and 17k, depending on whether or not you crit, stacks of Grace, etc. You're great for filling up the tank when he or she takes a big hit. So in general, to be effective, I prefer to use you when the tank is low on health (or when I expect him to be low on health by the time the heal hits). That generally means they are going to be below 50% health... which is where your arch enemy, Improved Flash Heal, kicks in. That extra bonus to crit means I have a 10% higher chance to proc that yummy Divine Aegis on the tank.
I was already planning on dumping you, Greater Heal, once I picked up the two piece t10 bonus but it looks like I may have to abandon you sooner. You may be more mana efficient... but I just can't rely on you. You just aren't dependable. You weren't there when I needed you, GHeal. How much crit have I sacrificed in your name? Five talents points that could make me a stronger, more independent Dwarf... and I have given them to help you be a Better Heal.
BUT NO MORE. We're done.
No love,
Jessabelle
I've long been a staunch defender of you, heal-bomb.
I have held on to you and your friend, my dear sweet Divine Fury... from the 80 levels spent Holy as I quested and killed mobs, all the way to 10 man ICC. All the way through to Festergut...
Where my love for you wiped our group.
We have a very strict 11pm cut off time. We were stretching it for a couple of minutes to try and do a quickie Festergut to close out the night. Final inhale, and my eyes are squinted, my shoulders tense, as I weave my way through a very strict tank healing rotation. Tank is at full health, so I decide that at my next Borrowed Time buff, I'm going to squeeze you, Greater Heal, into my rotation. Raid buffed, even without Borrowed Time, I've got 35% haste. The cast time on you with Borrowed Time is approximately 1.6 seconds.
And you just weren't fast enough.
I don't know how much mitigation value was on the tank at the time. Pain Suppression had probably worn off, and during your precious 1.6 second cast, I'm sure any bubble (Power Word: Shield or Divine Aegis) he'd had was gone. But nothing makes me angrier than having my heal land a microsecond after the tank dies.
I'm livid. And I may be abandoning you from here on out, Greater Heal.
Granted, that was definitely not the best situation in which to use you, and I fully recognize that. But when my eyes are squinted and my shoulders hunched, sometimes my snap decisions aren't the best. It's the analysis I do afterwards that makes me a better healer.
Here's the thing. You're very powerful, Greater Heal, and I certainly can't deny that. You heal for somewhere between 11k and 17k, depending on whether or not you crit, stacks of Grace, etc. You're great for filling up the tank when he or she takes a big hit. So in general, to be effective, I prefer to use you when the tank is low on health (or when I expect him to be low on health by the time the heal hits). That generally means they are going to be below 50% health... which is where your arch enemy, Improved Flash Heal, kicks in. That extra bonus to crit means I have a 10% higher chance to proc that yummy Divine Aegis on the tank.
I was already planning on dumping you, Greater Heal, once I picked up the two piece t10 bonus but it looks like I may have to abandon you sooner. You may be more mana efficient... but I just can't rely on you. You just aren't dependable. You weren't there when I needed you, GHeal. How much crit have I sacrificed in your name? Five talents points that could make me a stronger, more independent Dwarf... and I have given them to help you be a Better Heal.
BUT NO MORE. We're done.
No love,
Jessabelle
ETA: Don't worry. It's not real.
When SAN first started, there were a lot of people who were excited about the prospect of a drama-free social space. I believe at some point Gevlon even commented that it would be a boring guild, because there would be no drama.
There is absolutely no way that a guild with over 400 human beings in it can completely avoid drama.
There is absolutely no way that a guild full of bloggers whose hobby is based on their ability and desire to express strong opinions clearly would ever avoid drama.
A completely drama free guild WOULD be boring, but there's no need to worry about that - we have no such lofty goals as far as I can tell.
So. We might as well have a sense of humor about it ;)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Today I was shocked - SHOCKED I tell you - to find that I am the target of some truly cruel and unfair words by some weird dude with a fascist name like Klepsawhatit or something.
I don't have to stand for this. Here is proof of his vicious attacks against me last night in SAN chat.
You're right, jerky mcjerkface. I don't have to put up with this... this.. HARASSMENT.
If you support me..... Tweet it! #TEAMME
STOP THE TROLLING EPIDEMIC
When SAN first started, there were a lot of people who were excited about the prospect of a drama-free social space. I believe at some point Gevlon even commented that it would be a boring guild, because there would be no drama.
There is absolutely no way that a guild with over 400 human beings in it can completely avoid drama.
There is absolutely no way that a guild full of bloggers whose hobby is based on their ability and desire to express strong opinions clearly would ever avoid drama.
A completely drama free guild WOULD be boring, but there's no need to worry about that - we have no such lofty goals as far as I can tell.
So. We might as well have a sense of humor about it ;)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Today I was shocked - SHOCKED I tell you - to find that I am the target of some truly cruel and unfair words by some weird dude with a fascist name like Klepsawhatit or something.
I don't have to stand for this. Here is proof of his vicious attacks against me last night in SAN chat.
You're right, jerky mcjerkface. I don't have to put up with this... this.. HARASSMENT.
If you support me..... Tweet it! #TEAMME
STOP THE TROLLING EPIDEMIC
This edition of "Best of the Healing World" is dedicated to my friend Crankyhealer - in my mind, you will always be part of the community that I value.
Druid
Paladin
Priest
Shaman
Druid
- Another great guest post from Beru on Rejuvo, where Beru gives her thoughts on the differences between 10 man healing and 25 man healing. My experience between the two are somewhat different than Beru's, but I found it really interesting to read it from the perspective of a Druid as opposed to a Priest.
Paladin
- Leveling a Holy Paladin - Healadin's Tear (with details on heirlooms, what gear to snatch from the AH, and the Dungeon Finder tool)
- Tips for holy pallies healing the boss. Which, normally, would not actually be a good tip in and of itself. But, you know, Valithria and all that... seriously though, Valithria is your chance to shine, Pallies. Enlynn tells you how to do it right.
- Pallies have a number of super special add-ons just for them. You can find a solid guide to CLCBPT, arguably the worst named addon ever, at The Physician's Log.
Priest
- Domni provides some very good survivability tips for Priests - remember, we're squishy!
- THE MOST IMPORTANT NEWS OF THE WEEK. Our dear Tamarind (the writer) has made some switcharoos and produced... CALIDORE THE DWARF PRIEST. Tamarind has switched to being a Pally, and did I mention dwarves rule? Also, Milton sucks, just sayin'.
Shaman
- Ever wondered when was the best time to pop your heroism/bloodlust? Borsked provides a list of best timing for bloodlust/heroism use for ICC and ToGC fights.
- Rahana finished up her series on shammy healing in the ICC 5 mans with lots of great advice for Halls of Reflection.
- This isn't really healing specific, but I got a kick out of reading about Phix's funny moments when adjusting to the switch from a draenei shammy to an orc one! Things to consider if you ever want a faction change...
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