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.
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