I've been looking at Holy specs as my guild is sorely lacking raid healers at the moment. I was holy throughout classic and tbc, and I keep up to date on the Holy spec even though I don't play it, so when a guildie asked about Prayer of Healing, I felt reasonably comfortable with answering. The question was about Prayer of Healing, and whether a certain Holy priest was playing badly by not using it more. So the question was: Isn't PoH one of the main tools in a Holy priest's arsenal?
The thing is, Prayer of Healing is a bit of a tricky subject. It was back in TBC and it still is in WotLK.
The answer is
a) Yes, absolutely, it is a very important tool in a priest's arsenal
and
b) No, you shouldn't use it very often
I'm talking about raids here, not 5-mans.
PoH gets worse as you get more groups. It's also better on 10 man than it is on 25 mans.
Now bear with me:
The reason you shouldn't use it very often (in 25 man raids) is because it has significant drawbacks that make it vastly inferior to Circle of Healing:
1) It is very expensive
2) It is only group-wide, reducing its viability in raids, since your target's group needs to be within distance to receive the heal and nobody outside the group gets healed. Compare this with PoM and CoH which are raid wide, and "smart" - PoM only heals when someone takes damage, and CoH picks the lowest-health targets within its radius regardless of group.
3) It has a long cast time that makes it inferior to druid healing/chain heal/CoH and PoM, and makes it problematic when movement is called for etc
The reason it's still a very good spell is that we also have other tools that enable us to use it anyway.
1) Macro it with Inner Focus and the mana cost is gone AND it has a +25% chance to crit, healing for that much more
2) In raids it is useful on melee groups where the whole group is standing in the same place
3) Serendipity greatly reduces the cast time
So, with a 3-stack of Serendipity, Inner Focus off cooldown and the whole melee group at low health and not getting chainhealed before you finish casting – it is one badass mother of an AoE healing spell.
There are several fights in ICC (particularly in the Plagueworks) where Prayer of Healing can be used to maximum effect. But it is situational and it will, if used often, mostly produce a very big, slow, expensive overheal. Which is bad. It also gets worse with more healers, since I doubt your druids and resto shammies will allow a whole group to get low enough to fully benefit from its heal without topping them up. Again, the smaller the group, the better it is.
Sadly, CoH and PoM spam, as displayed by the Holy priest in question, is the best way to heal 25 mans as holy at the moment (I'm obviously talking about raids here, in 5 mans you have to also tank heal, and you only have one group to worry about so the CoH raid-wide smart heal isn't as overpowered). For pure raid healing you'd skip all the Greater Heal talents and just go for CoH/PoM spam with renew spam in between cooldowns and SoL proc Flash heals where needed.
This unfortunately made my guildie very sad.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
I was reading about employee orientation (I work in marketing, so this kind of stuff is part of my day) and it occurred to me that this would probably be a great way to conduct recruit "orientation" in guilds (because I am a nerd…) so here it is, with adjustments for WoW :D
The 10 Commandments of Onboarding
Rules to live – and work – by for a divine onboarding experience.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy recruit. Few things are more disappointing than the realization that the guild you thought you were joining is sorely different than what you were led to believe. As a recruiter, misrepresenting your guild's progress or the recruit's new role (recruiting a tank and making them raid as DPS etc) destroys trust in you immediately, after which no amount of orientation efforts can undo the initial damage.
Thou shalt have a written plan of recruit objectives and responsibilities. Make sure you direct the new recruit to a place detailing guild rules, raiding times, loot rules and any other objectives. This is usually found on a forum, so ensure the recruit has registered and can access the forum immediately upon joining, and direct them to the information (not just "go to forum plx"). If this information is spread among different forum posts, collect the links in one Recruit SOS post. This helps diminish any confusion for new recruits and instead opens up the floor to discuss concerns or ideas.
Thou shalt give thy recruit thy undivided attention. Letting trial periods drag on, being slow to respond to questions/whispers or not giving clear assignments to new recruits sends the message, "I'm just not that into you" and kills morale. Take time to acknowledge the new recruit (a simple "hello" when they log on is a big step for little effort), prepare a checklist of subjects to review with your new recruit (spec/gem concerns if any, primary raiding role etc) and set aside the appropriate amount of time to do it. This doesn't have to take long, and gives new recruits the message that they are important to the guild.
Thou shalt have relevant paperwork ready. Make sure you give the recruit information about where to get information (see Recruitment SOS post idea above), what communication means your guild uses and how you schedule raids on day one. This way, you don't have to waste time dealing with it later, and your recruit can start getting required add-ons, set up Vent and sign up for raids immediately.
Thou shalt introduce thy recruit to thy guildies. If your guild does not discuss applications publicly, introduce the recruit and their spec/role when they join. Encourage class/role leaders to discuss ways in which their roles interact with that of the new recruit, and how they might expect to work together in the future. (This is also a good time to introduce the recruit to their class leader as an immediate resource for any questions and key information about guild structure and goals.)
Thou shall set up thy recruit's raiding position. The first raid with a new guild is very stressful to a new employee. Before a recruit's first raid, make sure they understand rules about the guild bank, attendance time, class/role specific chat channels and raid ettiquette. Make sure class leaders are informed of the spec of the new recruit so that they can assign them a role that suits them and make sure the recruit knows who to talk to if they have any questions.
Thou shalt schedule one-on-one time to ensure you connect regularly with the new recruit. If you can't do this on a weekly or bi-weekly basis for the first month or so, ensure that someone is checking up on them and how they feel in their new guild.
Thou shalt create a balance. The first raid is always tough. If the recruit is attending an encounter for the first time as well, make sure that they don't get too overwhelmed – try bringing a new recruit to encounters that are safely on farm for their first time, so that they can focus on learning how to work with the team in a relatively safe environment.
Thou shalt clarify the guild culture. Again, to avoid future confusion (or embarrassment), provide the recruit with guild information, policies – including loot rules and late policies – and privileges. A tip about guild chat humor and any unacceptable behavior should be addressed.
Thou shalt think beyond the first few days. After the trial period, request formal feedback on the new recruit's performance from his or her class/role leader, and be sure to solicit feedback from the recruit as well. Take this opportunity to address any issues of concern as well as note any accomplishments so that all parties are confident that the new recruit is poised for success in his or her role.
This may seem like an awful lot of work, but is really as simple as collecting the basic information your guild runs by in one place and making sure that a new recruit can access it, introducing them to their "team-mates" and checking up on them a couple of times. These measures, however, can make a new recruit adjust to and contribute to your guild much faster, and saves officers a lot of time during the raids when questions would arise.
The 10 Commandments of Onboarding
Rules to live – and work – by for a divine onboarding experience.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy recruit. Few things are more disappointing than the realization that the guild you thought you were joining is sorely different than what you were led to believe. As a recruiter, misrepresenting your guild's progress or the recruit's new role (recruiting a tank and making them raid as DPS etc) destroys trust in you immediately, after which no amount of orientation efforts can undo the initial damage.
Thou shalt have a written plan of recruit objectives and responsibilities. Make sure you direct the new recruit to a place detailing guild rules, raiding times, loot rules and any other objectives. This is usually found on a forum, so ensure the recruit has registered and can access the forum immediately upon joining, and direct them to the information (not just "go to forum plx"). If this information is spread among different forum posts, collect the links in one Recruit SOS post. This helps diminish any confusion for new recruits and instead opens up the floor to discuss concerns or ideas.
Thou shalt give thy recruit thy undivided attention. Letting trial periods drag on, being slow to respond to questions/whispers or not giving clear assignments to new recruits sends the message, "I'm just not that into you" and kills morale. Take time to acknowledge the new recruit (a simple "hello" when they log on is a big step for little effort), prepare a checklist of subjects to review with your new recruit (spec/gem concerns if any, primary raiding role etc) and set aside the appropriate amount of time to do it. This doesn't have to take long, and gives new recruits the message that they are important to the guild.
Thou shalt have relevant paperwork ready. Make sure you give the recruit information about where to get information (see Recruitment SOS post idea above), what communication means your guild uses and how you schedule raids on day one. This way, you don't have to waste time dealing with it later, and your recruit can start getting required add-ons, set up Vent and sign up for raids immediately.
Thou shalt introduce thy recruit to thy guildies. If your guild does not discuss applications publicly, introduce the recruit and their spec/role when they join. Encourage class/role leaders to discuss ways in which their roles interact with that of the new recruit, and how they might expect to work together in the future. (This is also a good time to introduce the recruit to their class leader as an immediate resource for any questions and key information about guild structure and goals.)
Thou shall set up thy recruit's raiding position. The first raid with a new guild is very stressful to a new employee. Before a recruit's first raid, make sure they understand rules about the guild bank, attendance time, class/role specific chat channels and raid ettiquette. Make sure class leaders are informed of the spec of the new recruit so that they can assign them a role that suits them and make sure the recruit knows who to talk to if they have any questions.
Thou shalt schedule one-on-one time to ensure you connect regularly with the new recruit. If you can't do this on a weekly or bi-weekly basis for the first month or so, ensure that someone is checking up on them and how they feel in their new guild.
Thou shalt create a balance. The first raid is always tough. If the recruit is attending an encounter for the first time as well, make sure that they don't get too overwhelmed – try bringing a new recruit to encounters that are safely on farm for their first time, so that they can focus on learning how to work with the team in a relatively safe environment.
Thou shalt clarify the guild culture. Again, to avoid future confusion (or embarrassment), provide the recruit with guild information, policies – including loot rules and late policies – and privileges. A tip about guild chat humor and any unacceptable behavior should be addressed.
Thou shalt think beyond the first few days. After the trial period, request formal feedback on the new recruit's performance from his or her class/role leader, and be sure to solicit feedback from the recruit as well. Take this opportunity to address any issues of concern as well as note any accomplishments so that all parties are confident that the new recruit is poised for success in his or her role.
This may seem like an awful lot of work, but is really as simple as collecting the basic information your guild runs by in one place and making sure that a new recruit can access it, introducing them to their "team-mates" and checking up on them a couple of times. These measures, however, can make a new recruit adjust to and contribute to your guild much faster, and saves officers a lot of time during the raids when questions would arise.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
PuG Goodness
As 80 Disc Priest:
After first boss down with only 4 people shown on recount, me, the healer, one of them (SW:P!)
Tank: "Is a DPS AFK?"
Hunter: "Piety?"
Me: "I'm the healer... see the green plus sign on my name? And the heals?"
Tank: "Why do I have Earthshield?"
Shammy says nothing...
Me: "NameOfShammy, if you're a healer, don't sign up as DPS? Or switch specs?"
Shammy: "i italian"
Tank: "Can one of you switch specs?"
And because the shammy shows no inclination to, and though I'm clearly the healer, who signed as a healer, and was assigned as a healer, of course I do. Because I'm not Italian. And therefore not RETARDED.
*
On 63 DK Tank (with 9k HP in Slave Pens)
Half-way through a run that starts every pull with all out AoE nukage, nobody gets aggro, I survive entire pulls without the healer doing anything (he preferred healing me AFTER the mobs were DEAD), suddenly out of the blue the comment:
DK DPS: "lol y u 62 to 64 low hp i c healers wit 7k"
Me: lost for words... partly because his English is mind-boggling enough.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Healing Festergut
I'm a little peeved. After a couple of wipes on Festergut due to DPS dying in initial AoE damage, suggestions came from the raid (from DPS, incidentally) that one of the two healers on tanks switch to raid. Because healing the tanks in the first couple of phases is "easy" and "nearly solo healable". Nearly solo healable ticks me off. It means I have to leave the Holy pally alone on the tank for the most part, meaning that if I get vile sprayed (which I always do, at least 4 times in the fight), there's most likely no buffer ticking on the tank (no Inspiration, no Grace stack for post-vomit Penance and a stronger renew etc).
And consequently, on the try where I gave in and switched from mostly-tank-assist with shield spam on raid to mostly-raid assist with shield on tank, the tank died. The next tank grabbed the boss. He died.
It's not because the pally isn't healing - he's healing his shiny plated hiny off. But the fact that healing on tanks gets progressively harder, doesn't mean it starts off easy. It just means that by the third inocs, at least with our guild's gear level, the tank cannot survive without Pain Suppression, followed by Shield Wall, followed by another cooldown we manage to scrounge up, and ALL the healers are helping to heal the tank. There's a balance to the healing in this fight. That balance means that as the tank needs bigger and bigger heals, the raid takes less and less damage. Don't confuse that with the tank needing very little heals to start. He does. He really does. Two dead tanks are a pretty strong argument. Of course we need the DPS alive, that's why 4 out of 6 healers are healing you, but I sincerely doubt that those that died used their full abilities to save themselves (the complaining DPSers were shammies).
So yeh. I am a peeved priest today, because as much as I hate to see anybody die, I really hate seeing my tanks die. Especially when I know they're going to die unless I'm helping to heal them, yet am unable to do so without failing my new assignment.
And consequently, on the try where I gave in and switched from mostly-tank-assist with shield spam on raid to mostly-raid assist with shield on tank, the tank died. The next tank grabbed the boss. He died.
It's not because the pally isn't healing - he's healing his shiny plated hiny off. But the fact that healing on tanks gets progressively harder, doesn't mean it starts off easy. It just means that by the third inocs, at least with our guild's gear level, the tank cannot survive without Pain Suppression, followed by Shield Wall, followed by another cooldown we manage to scrounge up, and ALL the healers are helping to heal the tank. There's a balance to the healing in this fight. That balance means that as the tank needs bigger and bigger heals, the raid takes less and less damage. Don't confuse that with the tank needing very little heals to start. He does. He really does. Two dead tanks are a pretty strong argument. Of course we need the DPS alive, that's why 4 out of 6 healers are healing you, but I sincerely doubt that those that died used their full abilities to save themselves (the complaining DPSers were shammies).
So yeh. I am a peeved priest today, because as much as I hate to see anybody die, I really hate seeing my tanks die. Especially when I know they're going to die unless I'm helping to heal them, yet am unable to do so without failing my new assignment.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Sanity Saving Macro: How to get /votekicked
To avoid the kind of abuse from yesterday mentioned below, I've made a macro:
"Hi! I’m Candypuff, your tank for this run. I’m new at it but learning. Please have a little patience. Please nuke the skull. If healer has aggro, it’s my fault. Aggro on DPS is their fault. You spank it, you tank it.
Feel free to AoE 3 seconds after DnD appears on the ground. If you can’t wait 3 secs, you may have ADD. Please consult your doctor. I pull when the healer is ready, not when you say GOGOGO. If this is a problem, please /votekick me now and wait for another tank. "
This should let me
a) Avoid groups with the kind of assholes I don't want to group with
b) Get me /votekicked a lot.
I don't really mind questing a bit more, if it makes the whole leveling process more enjoyable.
"Hi! I’m Candypuff, your tank for this run. I’m new at it but learning. Please have a little patience. Please nuke the skull. If healer has aggro, it’s my fault. Aggro on DPS is their fault. You spank it, you tank it.
Feel free to AoE 3 seconds after DnD appears on the ground. If you can’t wait 3 secs, you may have ADD. Please consult your doctor. I pull when the healer is ready, not when you say GOGOGO. If this is a problem, please /votekick me now and wait for another tank. "
This should let me
a) Avoid groups with the kind of assholes I don't want to group with
b) Get me /votekicked a lot.
I don't really mind questing a bit more, if it makes the whole leveling process more enjoyable.
Piety's Rant Box: Lowbie Tanking
We interrupt the Disco guides with the following rant:
I normally play a healer.
I'm a nice healer.
And, my dear tank, I treat you well.
I have excellent gear, I keep up when you pull recklessly, and when your gear is terrible I compensate with shields and heals, casting PoM on you on every cooldown and reserving Pain Suppression only for emergencies to ensure your maximum threat.
I very rarely get recognition for this, and that's ok.
I've also played tank. My former main was a prot pally. I keep an eye on my healer's mana, I don't pull if I see them standing a good distance away, not moving. I give recognition after at least one big pull per instance (complimenting good healing on easy healing pulls is something I don't do, because I want the recognition to mean something).
And so, as I was leveling a baby DK the other day and figured I might as well go into frost and tank some instances in BC along the way. Even before the random daily dungeon system, I leveled largely in instances on the prot pally so I figured it must be even faster now...
My first instance made me want to quit. A shitty attitude healer and his harebrained warlock friend had clearly managed to drive away the previous tank after just 2 trash pulls of Hellfire Ramparts, and I instantly found out why.
We pull the caster dudes with the growy guy in the middle. When I say we, I mean the warlock starts casting and I run in to try and get aggro. On the several caster mobs standing a good distance apart. The warlock then pulls the next group behind as well. Now I have the still-alive growy guy plus beastmaster and friends and several casters nuking the shit out of me. I die, then the group dies.
The healer starts off with "WTF tank y u take so much dmg i heal u like 4 times!!!"
I honestly just stared at the chat screen.
Out of sheer bafflement (particularly at the "healed u 4 times" comment) I pointed out the size of the pull, and suggested people not "help" me pull more adds.
We kill the remaining mobs and one more 4pack of trash. Then the next 4 pack. The warlock somehow again manages to pull the entire rest of the corridor, but not until after I've engaged the other pack and put all my runes on cooldown. He of course maximizes his dps by starting the AoE before they reach my Death and Decay. I deathgrip one to me, throw icy touch on another and start praying for a Blood Rune. The healer's oom by the end of the pull and I managed to keep many, but not all, of the mobs on me. The fact that all of the dps were dpsing different mobs didn't help, but that was partly my fault, as I probably wasted time in panic and I should have started marking skulls.
We all live, and the healer already shouts: "WTF how u not hold aggro ffs!?!?"
I start commenting on the warlock's aoe on mobs that weren't pulled and the healer just rants at me that it doesn't matter, I should be able to hold aggro on everything, in the appropriate lack of spelling. At this point I am fuming, demoralized and just plain flabbergasted at the sheer amount of abuse being piled on me.
Aside from the fact that I'm not overgeared, I'm lvl 60 and a DK. This means that unless I skipped the beginning DK zone, this is going to be one of the first, if not the first, instance I've ever tanked as a DK. The only way I could have experience tanking as a DK is if I leveled another DK as tank on another server already. And then in the middle of the warlock's GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO and his ranting, he suddenly says "afk phone".
Somebody, not me so it must have been one of the non-warlock DPSers, votes to kick him. I instantly agree. So, apparently, does the other DPS. I assume the warlock doesn't as they were friends, and he leaves once the healer's been kicked. Somebody, may have been me, says "thank God for that" in party chat.
We requeue and wait a couple of minutes for a new healer and DPS. A tree drood shows up, and a DPS content with me pulling initial aggro. We clear the whole instance with no deaths, and while I sometimes lose aggro to the hunter or DK on the big AoE pulls, it's nothing the healer can't handle and I am trying my best. Nobody rages, we move swiftly through, we clear the whole place with no deaths despite just AoEing everything.
Now, I freely admit I am not the best DK tank evar. It was my first and only time yet tanking as DK and if it hadn't been for the tree and the patience of the other 3 dps, it would have been my only one. But once I had people with me willing to actually give me a shot, it went smoothly and quite reasonably fast.
And so I have a new rule. It's apt for a DK, we're supposed to be so dark and emo after all. And that is to preserve my enjoyment of tanking with great determination. I may be subscribing to the primadonna attitude people are lamenting all over the web, but if I don't do this, if I don't follow this basic self-respect rule, I will not tank instances. I have the thick skin of any long-time MMO player but I also have a limited tolerance for abuse. I will become too demoralized, too exhausted, by the kind of attitude I encountered, because tanking stresses me out. It's a high-pressure position. I play DPS and healer, those two are also stressful, but there's a whole kind of stress reserved for tanks: the stress of leadership. And to quote a gem of truth from a very experienced tank: leadership is a service role and tanks are the leaders. Once you realise this, you start viewing complaints from your party members as you would complaints from clients or customers, and it means you're failing to do your job, even if you're pressing all your buttons in the right order. You set the pace and make the rules in service to the group. You take up tasks and responsibilities that others can ignore because somebody has to and that inevitably falls more easily to the guy pulling things and getting stomped on.
I still enjoy it, and I'll do it because I know not a lot of people are doing it, and because I am actually good at it, but I won't do it with people who are jerks. If a group member is abusive, I'm going to start aggressively vote-kicking, and barring that I will leave. If that means I'll be spending a lot of time with a random dungeon cooldown, so be it.
(edited to add: posts like these are the motivation to keep going)
I normally play a healer.
I'm a nice healer.
And, my dear tank, I treat you well.
I have excellent gear, I keep up when you pull recklessly, and when your gear is terrible I compensate with shields and heals, casting PoM on you on every cooldown and reserving Pain Suppression only for emergencies to ensure your maximum threat.
I very rarely get recognition for this, and that's ok.
I've also played tank. My former main was a prot pally. I keep an eye on my healer's mana, I don't pull if I see them standing a good distance away, not moving. I give recognition after at least one big pull per instance (complimenting good healing on easy healing pulls is something I don't do, because I want the recognition to mean something).
And so, as I was leveling a baby DK the other day and figured I might as well go into frost and tank some instances in BC along the way. Even before the random daily dungeon system, I leveled largely in instances on the prot pally so I figured it must be even faster now...
My first instance made me want to quit. A shitty attitude healer and his harebrained warlock friend had clearly managed to drive away the previous tank after just 2 trash pulls of Hellfire Ramparts, and I instantly found out why.
We pull the caster dudes with the growy guy in the middle. When I say we, I mean the warlock starts casting and I run in to try and get aggro. On the several caster mobs standing a good distance apart. The warlock then pulls the next group behind as well. Now I have the still-alive growy guy plus beastmaster and friends and several casters nuking the shit out of me. I die, then the group dies.
The healer starts off with "WTF tank y u take so much dmg i heal u like 4 times!!!"
I honestly just stared at the chat screen.
Out of sheer bafflement (particularly at the "healed u 4 times" comment) I pointed out the size of the pull, and suggested people not "help" me pull more adds.
We kill the remaining mobs and one more 4pack of trash. Then the next 4 pack. The warlock somehow again manages to pull the entire rest of the corridor, but not until after I've engaged the other pack and put all my runes on cooldown. He of course maximizes his dps by starting the AoE before they reach my Death and Decay. I deathgrip one to me, throw icy touch on another and start praying for a Blood Rune. The healer's oom by the end of the pull and I managed to keep many, but not all, of the mobs on me. The fact that all of the dps were dpsing different mobs didn't help, but that was partly my fault, as I probably wasted time in panic and I should have started marking skulls.
We all live, and the healer already shouts: "WTF how u not hold aggro ffs!?!?"
I start commenting on the warlock's aoe on mobs that weren't pulled and the healer just rants at me that it doesn't matter, I should be able to hold aggro on everything, in the appropriate lack of spelling. At this point I am fuming, demoralized and just plain flabbergasted at the sheer amount of abuse being piled on me.
Aside from the fact that I'm not overgeared, I'm lvl 60 and a DK. This means that unless I skipped the beginning DK zone, this is going to be one of the first, if not the first, instance I've ever tanked as a DK. The only way I could have experience tanking as a DK is if I leveled another DK as tank on another server already. And then in the middle of the warlock's GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO and his ranting, he suddenly says "afk phone".
Somebody, not me so it must have been one of the non-warlock DPSers, votes to kick him. I instantly agree. So, apparently, does the other DPS. I assume the warlock doesn't as they were friends, and he leaves once the healer's been kicked. Somebody, may have been me, says "thank God for that" in party chat.
We requeue and wait a couple of minutes for a new healer and DPS. A tree drood shows up, and a DPS content with me pulling initial aggro. We clear the whole instance with no deaths, and while I sometimes lose aggro to the hunter or DK on the big AoE pulls, it's nothing the healer can't handle and I am trying my best. Nobody rages, we move swiftly through, we clear the whole place with no deaths despite just AoEing everything.
Now, I freely admit I am not the best DK tank evar. It was my first and only time yet tanking as DK and if it hadn't been for the tree and the patience of the other 3 dps, it would have been my only one. But once I had people with me willing to actually give me a shot, it went smoothly and quite reasonably fast.
And so I have a new rule. It's apt for a DK, we're supposed to be so dark and emo after all. And that is to preserve my enjoyment of tanking with great determination. I may be subscribing to the primadonna attitude people are lamenting all over the web, but if I don't do this, if I don't follow this basic self-respect rule, I will not tank instances. I have the thick skin of any long-time MMO player but I also have a limited tolerance for abuse. I will become too demoralized, too exhausted, by the kind of attitude I encountered, because tanking stresses me out. It's a high-pressure position. I play DPS and healer, those two are also stressful, but there's a whole kind of stress reserved for tanks: the stress of leadership. And to quote a gem of truth from a very experienced tank: leadership is a service role and tanks are the leaders. Once you realise this, you start viewing complaints from your party members as you would complaints from clients or customers, and it means you're failing to do your job, even if you're pressing all your buttons in the right order. You set the pace and make the rules in service to the group. You take up tasks and responsibilities that others can ignore because somebody has to and that inevitably falls more easily to the guy pulling things and getting stomped on.
I still enjoy it, and I'll do it because I know not a lot of people are doing it, and because I am actually good at it, but I won't do it with people who are jerks. If a group member is abusive, I'm going to start aggressively vote-kicking, and barring that I will leave. If that means I'll be spending a lot of time with a random dungeon cooldown, so be it.
(edited to add: posts like these are the motivation to keep going)
Friday, January 15, 2010
Learning to Disco Part 2: Mana Regen
So. To Continue:
It's time to address Discipline Priest mana regen.
Mana regen comes from 3 stats for a Disco:
Intellect
MP5
Spirit
I'll take them in reverse order of awesomeness:
Spirit: Meditation allows 30% of mana regen while in combat. Even with Inner Focus, you're rarely going to be exiting combat as Disc. You're a spammy class, and you don't have fancy tricks nor the HPS output of Holy to compensate for exiting the 5-second rule. You will, of course, but it's not something you rely on. Meditation just makes spirit not useless. So Spirit – avoid it, you'll get plenty regardless.
MP5: Does what it says on the box. It doesn't scale, it doesn't boost anything or have any other benefits. More mp5 just means that much more mp5. Nothing more, nothing less. Better than spirit.
Intellect: There's your baby. Intellect scales with Mental Strength and Kings, adds a little (very little) crit, and most importantly increases the size of your maximum mana pool. This is so important not just because more mana = more heals, but in your case, your key mana regen abilities are a percentage of your maximum mana pool. So the more mana you have, the more mana regen you get.
Those abilities are:
Rapture – nerfed because it was frankly ridiculously OP and now provides a 2.5% of your maximum mana whenever your shield is fully absorbed. It has a 12 second ICD, however, and a constant shield on a tank will guarantee you almost full "uptime" on this. Example: I have 32k mana fully raid buffed. 2.5% of 32k is 800 mana. My cost of Power Word: Shield is 666 mana, leaving me with 134 mana gained every 15 seconds, minimum. More likely on intense fights is the full 12 second uptime, so at maximum, Rapture is giving me approximately 56mp5.
Shadowfiend – You can use Shadowfiend more than once per raid boss fight, so make sure you send it out early once you've healed a little through the initial burst (shielding up potential high-damage targets and yourself, renews and PoMs etc). It gives you 5% of your maximum mana every time it hits. The shadowfiend lasts for 15 seconds and has a 1.5 second attack speed = 10 hits x 5% of your max mana. That's right, if you're lucky and get the full benefit of your shadowfiend, it will regen 50% of your maximum mana. But that's not all… if you combine it with:
Hymn of Hope – Learn to love it. Pop a shield for Borrowed Time and cast a hasted Hymn. Restores 3% mana to 3 nearby low mana friendly party or raid targets every 2 sec for 8 sec, and increases their total maximum mana by 20% for 8 sec. That's another 20% to your maximum mana! This will benefit your Shadowfiend as well when it's up, and give you extra boost Replenishment while it lasts (16 seconds total, as the 8sec buff is refreshed on each tick of the channel). 3% x 4 ticks = 12% which again is boosted by the 20% additional maximum mana. So for the above example of 32k, that's boosted to 38.4k mana, giving 4600 mana back, plus the fact that my shadowfiend is hitting for a 20% higher mana pool. Using Hymn and Shadowfiend together will basically fill your mana bar, so it's something I've learned to use the second time Shadowfiend is popped in a fight, when it's nearing the end and things are going nuts. If you don't need that much mana, remember to use the abilities separately.
Obviously, Replenishment also gives you maximum mana pool returns, and so benefits from the larger mana pool as well.
So, Intellect as much as you need for a comfortable level of mana, then spell power all the way?Talents and Stats up next.
It's time to address Discipline Priest mana regen.
Mana regen comes from 3 stats for a Disco:
Intellect
MP5
Spirit
I'll take them in reverse order of awesomeness:
Spirit: Meditation allows 30% of mana regen while in combat. Even with Inner Focus, you're rarely going to be exiting combat as Disc. You're a spammy class, and you don't have fancy tricks nor the HPS output of Holy to compensate for exiting the 5-second rule. You will, of course, but it's not something you rely on. Meditation just makes spirit not useless. So Spirit – avoid it, you'll get plenty regardless.
MP5: Does what it says on the box. It doesn't scale, it doesn't boost anything or have any other benefits. More mp5 just means that much more mp5. Nothing more, nothing less. Better than spirit.
Intellect: There's your baby. Intellect scales with Mental Strength and Kings, adds a little (very little) crit, and most importantly increases the size of your maximum mana pool. This is so important not just because more mana = more heals, but in your case, your key mana regen abilities are a percentage of your maximum mana pool. So the more mana you have, the more mana regen you get.
Those abilities are:
Rapture – nerfed because it was frankly ridiculously OP and now provides a 2.5% of your maximum mana whenever your shield is fully absorbed. It has a 12 second ICD, however, and a constant shield on a tank will guarantee you almost full "uptime" on this. Example: I have 32k mana fully raid buffed. 2.5% of 32k is 800 mana. My cost of Power Word: Shield is 666 mana, leaving me with 134 mana gained every 15 seconds, minimum. More likely on intense fights is the full 12 second uptime, so at maximum, Rapture is giving me approximately 56mp5.
Shadowfiend – You can use Shadowfiend more than once per raid boss fight, so make sure you send it out early once you've healed a little through the initial burst (shielding up potential high-damage targets and yourself, renews and PoMs etc). It gives you 5% of your maximum mana every time it hits. The shadowfiend lasts for 15 seconds and has a 1.5 second attack speed = 10 hits x 5% of your max mana. That's right, if you're lucky and get the full benefit of your shadowfiend, it will regen 50% of your maximum mana. But that's not all… if you combine it with:
Hymn of Hope – Learn to love it. Pop a shield for Borrowed Time and cast a hasted Hymn. Restores 3% mana to 3 nearby low mana friendly party or raid targets every 2 sec for 8 sec, and increases their total maximum mana by 20% for 8 sec. That's another 20% to your maximum mana! This will benefit your Shadowfiend as well when it's up, and give you extra boost Replenishment while it lasts (16 seconds total, as the 8sec buff is refreshed on each tick of the channel). 3% x 4 ticks = 12% which again is boosted by the 20% additional maximum mana. So for the above example of 32k, that's boosted to 38.4k mana, giving 4600 mana back, plus the fact that my shadowfiend is hitting for a 20% higher mana pool. Using Hymn and Shadowfiend together will basically fill your mana bar, so it's something I've learned to use the second time Shadowfiend is popped in a fight, when it's nearing the end and things are going nuts. If you don't need that much mana, remember to use the abilities separately.
Obviously, Replenishment also gives you maximum mana pool returns, and so benefits from the larger mana pool as well.
So, Intellect as much as you need for a comfortable level of mana, then spell power all the way?Talents and Stats up next.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Learning to Disco Part 1: Healing Style
A wise man once said: Disco is life itself!
This is a truth a select few priests have realized. Disco is life. But disco is also very different from the other two specs, and its mechanics are somewhat unique, so I thought I'd write up a guide for those that are thinking of joining the ways of the disco.
I shall cover three main aspects of the Disco:
Healing Style
Mana Regen
Talents and Stats
Beginning with this post, covering healing style.
Forget everything you learned as a Holy Priest. Disco is unique. There's a reason meters such as Recount show us in a bad light: The whole healing game was built on rules the disco just won't follow. Disco takes a whole new approach to healing that is premeditated and proactive: We know the damage is coming, we're going to blunt most (if not all) of it before it even hits you. ICC25 loves us with raid wide damage in every boss fight and multiple tanks, whether you've got a tank to look after or you're raid healing.
Which brings us to healing roles and style: We're fairly versatile. We can tank heal or raid heal, but where we shine is… neither! Pallies are better tank healers. Druids are better raid healers. But we are the best filler healer. That sounds kind of underwhelming, but it really isn't. We are the buffer that makes the difference. We are the soft pillow cushioning each blow, preventing many of the lower-health-pool classes from going squish. The shield that keeps that DPS hanging alive at 80 hp until the other healers top him up.
Never underestimate the power of your Shield. It's your first response button. It prevents more damage than a flash heal heals. It's worth two Flash of Lights (if one crits). The more spell power you have, the bigger your shield, and it's instant, and it *prevents* any incoming damage for those precious seconds it takes for a heal to land. That's the main thing you have to start thinking about. It's Better Than Healing.
With adequate haste rating, throwing out a PoM and shielding a 5 man group will net you more "healing" than a Prayer of Healing. Need a big heal? Shield + Penance + Flash Heal. Always in that order – shield is better than healing, remember? And it makes both the subsequent heals 25% faster due to Borrowed Time, which is not consumed by Penance. Substitute Greater Heal if the situation calls for it in between Penance cooldowns, but it's really only worth it if you specced into Divine Fury. That said, a Greater Heal crit Divine Aegis can be something gorgeous. Just remember to keep using it with that Inner Focus for maximum return. (You use Inner Focus at least 2-3 times per boss fight, right?)
OK, so why don't you just stand there and shield everyone the whole time?
Because you'll go oom.
A shield that isn't hit is the same as an overheal. It gains you no Rapture mana returns and it absorbs no damage. A good Disco knows who is likely to take damage and keeps shields up on those targets for maximum healing+Rapture efficiency. Tanks should always have Weakened Soul. Not only does it buffer incoming damage, but you can be certain your bubble is consumed. Even if nobody else takes damage, the tank should give you Rapture mana returns every 15 seconds. Shielding the tank consistently gives you mana. When you're not shielding active tanks, you're actually losing mana regen. How cool is that?
Disco priests need to know tactics, so that they know what to expect. We are all about pre-emptive mitigation, and in order to pre-empt, we need to know what's coming.
Example: On fights like Saurfang, you know that your ranged are going to handle adds, and you generally have a good idea when adds are about to hit. This is very helpful information because your mages and other key add controllers should always be shielded when adds are coming (look for an active Shield though, not the Weakened Soul, as their shields will hopefully last the full 30 seconds with minimal hits from mobs). Another thing to note is that a marked person without Weakened Soul is a sign of lost opportunity.
A good way to keep track of all this, is to configure your grid to indicate clearly both who has the Weakened Soul debuff and who has an active shield. Set it to two different indicators and make them show all shields, not just your own. For example, I've set WS on my center icon with a lower priority than PoM (which also has a lower priority than diseases and magic debuffs), and Shield in the top right corner in a bright yellow colour. One glance at grid shows me who's shielded, who's not, and who can be re-shielded when their current one runs out. Duration on Weakened Soul can also be set if you have it as the center icon, giving you a clear indicator on whether or not you can re-shield soon, without switching to that target.
Of course there are many playstyles available within Discipline, and you should work on finding your own. You may favour different priorities than I do. But try to keep in mind the strengths of Discipline are different from other forms of healing. And I think that's just awesome.
Next up: Mana Regen
Friday, January 8, 2010
Fail DPS rant
How is it possible for a Death Knight to do 930 dps on a boss in heroic?
And a warlock to do 836 dps?
And why must they be in the SAME RUN?
When the healer did 1.3k and 900 respectively?
WHILE HEALING.
I don't care if you're newly dinged.
That is just downright incompetent.
Even my lvl 71 rogue does 1400 dps. I used to do over 800 dps at lvl 70 pre-WotLK. On my priest. AS HOLY SPEC. SERIOUSLY!
At least PRETEND you're trying.
The Importance of Fun
I've been reading a lot about the reactions to the new LFG system. Most seem to feel it is a definite improvement but that it also makes pugs less civilized. I remember my partner's first reaction was "Awesome! But damn , ninja-ing is going to become a plague." The reasoning there being that because you didn't have realm-related consequences to being a Bad (social consequences), or because people were only civilized due to it being time-consuming to replace players (time-related consequences), bad attitudes would be fostered with the new system.
I don't agree. I think the new LFG system makes WoW more fun, not less, and that there are just as many reasons for being civilized. In my experience, people are generally nicer. And my common sense theory is that the elements that made bad behavior "unprofitable" in the past are still at work, albeit in a different manner. The ease with which a player can be replaced is matched with the ease of finding a new group. This means that being an ass may not cost you a lot of time in finding a replacement for someone you upset, but it also means that if someone's upset, they can easily leave and find a group with more amiable players. And because time-to-emblem ratios have become so low, replacing people is almost always a loss (time-related consequences).
The social consequences may not seem as obvious, and I'm sure they vary between battlegroups. I happen to be on a very competitive one (Cyclone EU) and I suspect that is a big influence. No longer are you merely representing yourself and your guild, but your realm as well, and you've got the chance to show off to players from other realms. With server transfers being such a simple transactions these days, we're becoming more aware of other realms and the top guilds around us, and realms are no longer the isolated worlds they once were. While individually the chances of grouping with a certain person again are very slight, there is still reason to maintain a good reputation, both for the chance of possibly furthering your personal reputation for some good ol' epeen pride, and to enhance the reputation of your guild/realm. Performing well and treating a group with a little civility also increases the chances they'll be happy to re-queue for another instance, saving wait time and uncertainty for further runs.
The basic principle behind it all, in my opinion, is that WoW is a game, and we play because we want to have fun. Bads are not fun at all. You may be running a heroic for frost emblems as a "necessary evil" for something more fun, but the underlying presumption remains that you are trying to achieve something you think is fun, and there's only a certain limit of not-fun anyone is willing to put up with. If your tongue-lashing makes the atmosphere more not-fun than someone's mistake or poor gear, you might not find yourself a part of the group for very long. If your behavior/playing makes the experience not-fun for the others, you'll find yourself teleported home. Some people's tolerance is higher (or their motivation is greater), others' is lower, but ultimately, if the people you play with are not having fun, they'll leave and then you can't have fun either. Very basic playground rules, but ultimately that's what we play by.
So be nice. Because it's fun!
I don't agree. I think the new LFG system makes WoW more fun, not less, and that there are just as many reasons for being civilized. In my experience, people are generally nicer. And my common sense theory is that the elements that made bad behavior "unprofitable" in the past are still at work, albeit in a different manner. The ease with which a player can be replaced is matched with the ease of finding a new group. This means that being an ass may not cost you a lot of time in finding a replacement for someone you upset, but it also means that if someone's upset, they can easily leave and find a group with more amiable players. And because time-to-emblem ratios have become so low, replacing people is almost always a loss (time-related consequences).
The social consequences may not seem as obvious, and I'm sure they vary between battlegroups. I happen to be on a very competitive one (Cyclone EU) and I suspect that is a big influence. No longer are you merely representing yourself and your guild, but your realm as well, and you've got the chance to show off to players from other realms. With server transfers being such a simple transactions these days, we're becoming more aware of other realms and the top guilds around us, and realms are no longer the isolated worlds they once were. While individually the chances of grouping with a certain person again are very slight, there is still reason to maintain a good reputation, both for the chance of possibly furthering your personal reputation for some good ol' epeen pride, and to enhance the reputation of your guild/realm. Performing well and treating a group with a little civility also increases the chances they'll be happy to re-queue for another instance, saving wait time and uncertainty for further runs.
The basic principle behind it all, in my opinion, is that WoW is a game, and we play because we want to have fun. Bads are not fun at all. You may be running a heroic for frost emblems as a "necessary evil" for something more fun, but the underlying presumption remains that you are trying to achieve something you think is fun, and there's only a certain limit of not-fun anyone is willing to put up with. If your tongue-lashing makes the atmosphere more not-fun than someone's mistake or poor gear, you might not find yourself a part of the group for very long. If your behavior/playing makes the experience not-fun for the others, you'll find yourself teleported home. Some people's tolerance is higher (or their motivation is greater), others' is lower, but ultimately, if the people you play with are not having fun, they'll leave and then you can't have fun either. Very basic playground rules, but ultimately that's what we play by.
So be nice. Because it's fun!
Thursday, January 7, 2010
ICC thoughts
My guild runs late night raids, and so we sometimes lack people. That was the case last night, resulting in double ICC10 runs instead of a 25man. As one group was a healer short, I was healing with a Holy Paladin. A Disc priest and Holy pally might seem like an unfortunate combination, because, well... it is. I can raid heal when occasion demands, but others are better at it. However, we one-shotted everything in the first wing, and the pally and I found a comfortable rhythm somehow where we ended up doing minimal cross healing, maximizing our overall usefulness. It was good, it felt pro.
Enter the new wing. We accidentally decided to pull all of the trash in one go. With a total of 3 people left standing at the end of the pull, it was at least a very quick way to clear trash! Many shouts of "I just died to.... something" and general confusion as to what mobs were doing what abilities with what results since we basically had all of them on top of us. Maybe next week I'll be able to give tips other than Heal your ass off. Oh wait! Dispel the stupid bubble crap immediately. Both healers got it at one time and it took a while for the tank (only other person who could cleanse magic) to catch on. Fair enough, he was busy tanking the gazillion mobs.
Then we get to the doggy stage.
If you don't know it, there are two bosses trash mobs called Precious and Stinky before the boss. Make sure your tanks pull the mad scientists and vengeful geisty dudes before them if possible, or be very careful pulling the dogs all the way down the stairs.
The dogs are, basically, Gluth from Naxx. Precious is the full zombie-fledged version, while Stinky doesn't do zombies but has a pulsating AoE aura of stink (with apparently unlimited odorous range). They both do a stacking debuff on the tank that reduces healing received by 10% (goes all the way to 100 if they don't switch, just like Gluth) so tanks need to switch and let the debuff run out. The dogs then do Decimate, which reduces the raid to 10% health. Nothing new here, with the exception of the nasty AoE after Decimate bringing a kind of Loatheb panicked aoe healing to the Stinky fight. With a holy pally and disc priest healing this was hard. One of our kitties switched to tree form and it all went smoothly again.
Then comes the boss. The tactics are widely available so no need to repeat them. Key points I found as Disc spothealing (assisting on both tank and raid) was: Tanks were taking major spikes, so anything to help mitigate that is welcome. Shield+PoH is rarely overhealing at the start of the fight, even when you chain cast it. At 2&3 inocs, healing becomes far easier on raid, but the tanks are taking big spikes that require your attention. Pain Suppression should be close at hand for those dipping tank health bars, and if you can, use your PI on your highest dps caster to help burn him down quickly. Since you can safely shield spam the raid for haste buffs, the faster take-down time should be worth it. This might not be the case if you're tank healing, as boy do they take some nasty spikes. Prayer of Mending should, of course, be jumping around constantly.
With our gear level: 2xinoculations is NOT ENOUGH. Most people were one-shotted if they didn't have 3xinocs, with the exception of the high-stamina classes. With 3x inocs the damage was just over 10k, with 2xinocs it was closer to 25k.
It's a dps race with frantic healing thrown in, but as soon as people master the inoculations, for disc healers it's just a case of bursty healing and careful timing.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Pounding Through the Heroics
I am a lucky healer.
I play with an excellent tank and dps (one is druid the other paladin, they switch roles from time to time) and my strengths and weaknesses as a Discipline Priest are well known to them both. And because we all like to challenge ourselves, even as we run UK for the umpteenth time, we've gotten in the habit of "power-pulling".
The tank never stops. I never drink. Pain Suppression, Shield and Aegis and the awesome power of Penance keeps us ploughing through no matter how many adds we seem to pull. The druid innervates me if I'm down to half mana; Shadowfiend and a Borrowed Time Hymn of Hope keep me going if for some odd reason I'm running low. We just keep going and going and going, pulling 2-3 packs at a time and AoEing everything down. We've done AN in 7 minutes. We did a PuG UK in 9:48 the other day. Most everything except the ICC heroics is cleared in 15 or less, regardless of the DPS that joins us. 2k DPS means we'll only have 5 minutes left on the CoS timer instead of 10.
But I wonder how it must appear to all those joining our group. Because the complaints I hear all over the place are about the demand for speed, and all we ever hear is the unfortunate mage shouting, "I need mana!" Well sit down and drink then. You'll catch up. Two DPS can handle a heroic trash pull, and the only person who needs to have mana for every single pull is me, and I'm just fine...
I want the tank to pull fast. I want to run after him with arms flailing as I try to keep him alive through the initial onslaught. I want the dps to go nuts and pound out everything they can. The tank gets bored if the DPS don't give him something to fight for. I get bored if the tank isn't taking damage. Who wants to play a boring game?
If you want to take it slow, to experience the content, to do achievements, to marvel at the wonderful lore and environment Blizzard have created, I encourage you to do so. Just not in my group. There is absolutely nothing wrong with taking it slow and learning the ropes with other people who also want to do it. You don't want to group with them because you might end up wiping quite a bit as you learn? You should relish the fact that they also have no clue what they're doing. And if you don't, if you prefer the players who want to go fast to go slowly, just so that you have an easier time going slowly, aren't you really just hoping to leach off other people?
I use Gear Score and check my DPSers. Low Gear Score isn't the end of the world -I've seen some mighty impressive dps (comparatively, of course) coming from skilled players who just dinged. But it's also a useful tool. It tells me who is likely to take aggro. They have a shield before the mob even targets them. It tells me who won't survive until a flash heal lands. It also tells me that the 5.4k GS hunter who's just barely pulling 3k dps is definitely going to pull the trash pack we skipped, because he's asleep on the job. Little pieces of information can tell you a lot in a short amount of time, and knowledge is power when you're supposed to look after everybody.
Sometimes my tank pulls before I'm ready and dies. Sometimes I get distracted by shiny things and don't notice him running (in cat form, sprinting ahead) into massive groups of mobs. Sometimes I'm just not able to keep up with the splurge of damage. But without those pulls, I'd grow lazy and stale, and I wouldn't know truly where my limits are. Those frantic, fast-paced, stressful heroics are where you learn to reflexively use every spell in your arsenal to keep from wiping, and that may not be what you're after every single time, but doing it consistently will make you a better healer, guaranteed.
I play with an excellent tank and dps (one is druid the other paladin, they switch roles from time to time) and my strengths and weaknesses as a Discipline Priest are well known to them both. And because we all like to challenge ourselves, even as we run UK for the umpteenth time, we've gotten in the habit of "power-pulling".
The tank never stops. I never drink. Pain Suppression, Shield and Aegis and the awesome power of Penance keeps us ploughing through no matter how many adds we seem to pull. The druid innervates me if I'm down to half mana; Shadowfiend and a Borrowed Time Hymn of Hope keep me going if for some odd reason I'm running low. We just keep going and going and going, pulling 2-3 packs at a time and AoEing everything down. We've done AN in 7 minutes. We did a PuG UK in 9:48 the other day. Most everything except the ICC heroics is cleared in 15 or less, regardless of the DPS that joins us. 2k DPS means we'll only have 5 minutes left on the CoS timer instead of 10.
But I wonder how it must appear to all those joining our group. Because the complaints I hear all over the place are about the demand for speed, and all we ever hear is the unfortunate mage shouting, "I need mana!" Well sit down and drink then. You'll catch up. Two DPS can handle a heroic trash pull, and the only person who needs to have mana for every single pull is me, and I'm just fine...
I want the tank to pull fast. I want to run after him with arms flailing as I try to keep him alive through the initial onslaught. I want the dps to go nuts and pound out everything they can. The tank gets bored if the DPS don't give him something to fight for. I get bored if the tank isn't taking damage. Who wants to play a boring game?
If you want to take it slow, to experience the content, to do achievements, to marvel at the wonderful lore and environment Blizzard have created, I encourage you to do so. Just not in my group. There is absolutely nothing wrong with taking it slow and learning the ropes with other people who also want to do it. You don't want to group with them because you might end up wiping quite a bit as you learn? You should relish the fact that they also have no clue what they're doing. And if you don't, if you prefer the players who want to go fast to go slowly, just so that you have an easier time going slowly, aren't you really just hoping to leach off other people?
I use Gear Score and check my DPSers. Low Gear Score isn't the end of the world -I've seen some mighty impressive dps (comparatively, of course) coming from skilled players who just dinged. But it's also a useful tool. It tells me who is likely to take aggro. They have a shield before the mob even targets them. It tells me who won't survive until a flash heal lands. It also tells me that the 5.4k GS hunter who's just barely pulling 3k dps is definitely going to pull the trash pack we skipped, because he's asleep on the job. Little pieces of information can tell you a lot in a short amount of time, and knowledge is power when you're supposed to look after everybody.
Sometimes my tank pulls before I'm ready and dies. Sometimes I get distracted by shiny things and don't notice him running (in cat form, sprinting ahead) into massive groups of mobs. Sometimes I'm just not able to keep up with the splurge of damage. But without those pulls, I'd grow lazy and stale, and I wouldn't know truly where my limits are. Those frantic, fast-paced, stressful heroics are where you learn to reflexively use every spell in your arsenal to keep from wiping, and that may not be what you're after every single time, but doing it consistently will make you a better healer, guaranteed.
Jerking the PuG
As a healer recently returned to the game almost solely due to the awesomeness of the new LFG tool - I freely admit that since I play with my partner and our mutual friend, who are the Amazing Tank and PewPew Deeps, our groups are devoid of the main pitfalls of most PuGs.
However, there are a few worthy mentions.
For instance, a group we joined after first boss of AN was dead. Two DPS remained, so the tank and healer (and one dps) had obviously given up. We quickly saw why, as the two dps left, a dk and mage, did well under 2k dps, the arcane mage as low as 1.2k... I was pulling that on my mage at lvl 70! My overgeared self, friend (tank) and partner (dps) decided we might as well carry them. We've got one solid dpser, I can heal most anything and the tank is awesome, so why not? They might actually use some of the gear.
We start the encounter for the second boss, and since the dps is low the boss comes running up. Now the Death Knight decides that running right into him (and a swarm of mini mobs) is not only a good idea, but AoE'ing him and continuing this constantly despite various yells to stop is even better. With his self heals and the sadly uncontrollable jump of PoM, and feral druid crit heals, he stayed up as long as the tank did until we all died. We release, run in, vote to kick the DK, and proceed to try again. Except the mage is still lying there dead.
"Rez" comes the demand. My eyebrows rise... being newly dinged and not knowing how to play your class very well in heroics is one thing. Running in after a wipe is just plain common courtesy and *not related to Gear Score at all*.
I reply "Everyone else ran in, just release and run."
"I had to let dogs out" comes the excuse.
We still haven't replaced the DK and are waiting around. It's AN, it takes 30 seconds to run back in.
"There's plenty of time, just release and run."
And this is where he really starts complaining. Apparently we aren't even half decent people, not handing him a res. My wonderful tanky friend, the paladin, replies that we are evil people and we're not resing him because we'd rather just kill the boss than annoy it for 30 minutes. The mage's contribution is minimal which was his idea of an easy ride but also means he's totally superfluous to our efforts. He still lies there, bitching at us in /p as we get in a new DK, one that isn't an idiot, who runs in to us, we buff and just start the encounter.
When it's clear that we really are going to let him lie there, and have engaged the boss himself, he releases and runs in, jumping down just in time for the last half of the fight.
Now, a lot of people would just whine at me for being stubborn about the rez. And if he'd been either a decent player or just a decent person, I'd have ressed him without any fuss. But a bad attitude from a bad player in bad gear makes me a prickly healer, and that's not elitism, it's just what you get for being lazy and rude.
However, there are a few worthy mentions.
For instance, a group we joined after first boss of AN was dead. Two DPS remained, so the tank and healer (and one dps) had obviously given up. We quickly saw why, as the two dps left, a dk and mage, did well under 2k dps, the arcane mage as low as 1.2k... I was pulling that on my mage at lvl 70! My overgeared self, friend (tank) and partner (dps) decided we might as well carry them. We've got one solid dpser, I can heal most anything and the tank is awesome, so why not? They might actually use some of the gear.
We start the encounter for the second boss, and since the dps is low the boss comes running up. Now the Death Knight decides that running right into him (and a swarm of mini mobs) is not only a good idea, but AoE'ing him and continuing this constantly despite various yells to stop is even better. With his self heals and the sadly uncontrollable jump of PoM, and feral druid crit heals, he stayed up as long as the tank did until we all died. We release, run in, vote to kick the DK, and proceed to try again. Except the mage is still lying there dead.
"Rez" comes the demand. My eyebrows rise... being newly dinged and not knowing how to play your class very well in heroics is one thing. Running in after a wipe is just plain common courtesy and *not related to Gear Score at all*.
I reply "Everyone else ran in, just release and run."
"I had to let dogs out" comes the excuse.
We still haven't replaced the DK and are waiting around. It's AN, it takes 30 seconds to run back in.
"There's plenty of time, just release and run."
And this is where he really starts complaining. Apparently we aren't even half decent people, not handing him a res. My wonderful tanky friend, the paladin, replies that we are evil people and we're not resing him because we'd rather just kill the boss than annoy it for 30 minutes. The mage's contribution is minimal which was his idea of an easy ride but also means he's totally superfluous to our efforts. He still lies there, bitching at us in /p as we get in a new DK, one that isn't an idiot, who runs in to us, we buff and just start the encounter.
When it's clear that we really are going to let him lie there, and have engaged the boss himself, he releases and runs in, jumping down just in time for the last half of the fight.
Now, a lot of people would just whine at me for being stubborn about the rez. And if he'd been either a decent player or just a decent person, I'd have ressed him without any fuss. But a bad attitude from a bad player in bad gear makes me a prickly healer, and that's not elitism, it's just what you get for being lazy and rude.
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