Bear Tank Smash!

I know, silly, random, but I just felt like squeeing:

Thursday night Sashara got to tank UnderBog.

Very successfully I might add.

No one died until the very very end, at all three Druids and the Shammy died after boss death. Shammy self rez, life is good. XD

It was cool, fun, and nice to be in charge for once ^.^

And I even held aggro against Fiordhraoi. ZOMG. The DCoE brought her Shammy to heal, and then there was two other guildies who were Sasha's level. It rocked.

I don't know if it's a rare thing, but after being run through so many instances repeatedly with Cay, I'm thinking making the transition from healing to tanking isn't going to be as hard as others make it out to be.

For example:

A couple of months ago we had a good prot warrior tank burn out for a bit in guild. He went off to another server to play with some IRL friends, and he leveled a pally there. He became healbot in later levels, and actually enjoyed it. Which was cool, I heart my little healing butt as well. When he decided to come back to AC and play his warrior again... he lost his touch. He was so used to being in the back, waiting for things to happen instead of making them happen.
Another tank of ours mentioned to me, this is why most tanks have DPS alts, so that they don't lose that edge. But I don't know. I don't think being a healer makes you reactive by nature.
There is some forethought and planning you do as a healer, and while some of the stuff you do is "OH SH!T SPIKE DMG!" healing, most of it is preventative of major mana spending in the future.

Plus, I think having healed has helped me in my tanking strategies. Knowing where I'm going to get more/less damage from mobs is a bonus. Though I have to get used to not just staring at my threat meter. Freaking Boomkin...

And here ends today's random brain diarrhea.

Addons

I think I'm going to do as Ego and make a certain day(s) blogging days. Before was just general spew that came to my mind, now I'm looking towards planning out my posts.

So I'll make it a point to update at least every Wednesday, with a quip on Fridays/Saturdays if work allows.

I've had lots of work lately + parents = blog in the dust. Not a good thing. I like this blog. /pat


So what I'm going to talk about today is simple. The Blizzard UI for WoW is great, but I like having just a bit more versatility and customization with a game I spend butt tons of time on. Initially I was a CosmosUI type gal, but I was getting bored with the general look. I wanted something with a bit more shiny to it. Plus, since I was starting to heal, the basic crap I was supposed to have (What's DeCursive?) was hard to find updated for BC.

Ow.... sunburn. I haz one.

Anywho! A few experiments later, and we have this as my current healing set up. If you want some more action shots, then look no further than here and here.

But let me break them down for you.

Bartender3
This addon lets me put my actions bars where ever I want. This was cool because I was feeling all caged in with Blizz's default layout. It also gives me the chance to hide bars I don't feel the need to see, or make bars only visible on mouse over, etc. It's pretty nifty. It's what lets me have all my buttons in the middle.
I know, not really all that conducive to healing, but I like not having to click on my heals. My mouse is already clicking on my target, that's a precious second or two for a heal if I'm clicking all over the place.

FluidFrames
This is the addon I currently use to move things like my toon's picture/info around as well as other frames in the game. It's a bit buggy, so if you've got something better, then have at it.

SmartBuff/SmartDebuff

Welcome to the meat and potatoes of my healing!
I love this addon.
The little frame you see there is what I use to heal. It shows me who I need to heal when and it even clues me in to how much mana the mana users are down.
I don't need to click on anyone's toon, click once to target someone or just right click on someone's box and it casts Renew (if you're a druid, it's Rejuv). It Right Click casts whatever HoT your toon is capable of. Which is pretty sweet. If I don't want to stop targeting the tank, but the rogue/druid/whoever needs a quick HoT, right click and forget.
It's awesome.

The picture above is the SmartDebuff frame. When something Debuff's someone in the raid and it's either a Magic or a Disease, then SD lights up the persons box with either a red R (for Alt+Rightclick to Dispel) or a blue L(for Alt+Leftclick to Abolish Disease). Again, I don't need to stop targeting the tank to dispel another party member, which makes this very sweet. And you can also turn on/off the class colors. I think I took these pics at two different times Oo.

Smart Buff is kinda fun too. I like it because it gives me a sound and visual reminder that my Fort or DS or Inner Fire is almost up, time to rebuff. And it'll use my middle mouse button wheel to cast the buffs, on me and depending on the setting, anyone in my party too. So yea, pretty useful.

The only draw back I have with SB/SD is this: I don't know what the debuff is or how many different debuffs are on a target. So if your Lock friend Casts Unstable Affliction on the mob, who then reflects it back at them, they better HOLLAR! Because I'll dispel it right quick, and now they're silenced for however long it lasts. -.-

Yea, it's not game breaking, but it is annoying.

Also, keep in mind the examples I put up are custom to me. You can customize it for your own game play. Don't like clicking on someone's box to target them? Then you can turn it off. But that means a Left Click on a box is now your HoT.

Natur EnemyCastBar

Also a very useful addon. This lets me know exactly when I need to reapply my HoTs (and gives the added bonus of letting me know when Inspiration goes away ^.^). Not only does it show your spells, but also anyone near by. Yes, I said nearby. Sometimes, it can be annoying, but generally it isn't. (Middle of Shat and I see the creation bar for 50 million bandages... time to fly!)

In Kara, it's really nice to know when the trash mobs are going to respawn on your heads, so I'd say this is practically a must have. ^.^

MendWatch

This one is new and ZOMG I hearts! Finally something that lets me know where the Frisbee is! It's awesome. You must have as a lvl 70 priest.
No.
Don't argue.
:P
Get it. Seriously though, while I love the sound and the fact that it's visibly bouncing back and forth between people, sometimes you lose track of it, don't know if it's expired in the heat of battle. And it def helps in keeping you mana efficient! Why recast PoM on your tank if they just got it back?

Why haven't you DL'd it yet?!

KLH ThreatMeter

Kitty's Wowinsider article mentions why KLH is great for hunters. Here's why you should have it:
If you see red anywhere near the top of that list, please remember, FADE IS YOUR FRIEND! ^.^ Hell, Fade should be knockin' boots with your fingers every 30 seconds in a massive fight.
But it's always good to know where you are in threat and also it gives you an idea of who might need the next major heal if someone is shooting beyond the tanks.


So, that's what I use.

Sorry if this isn't way indepth, but I figured if you wanted that, you can read the Curse gaming schpeel. ^.^

Toodles for now!

OT: Bear Gram

So yes, I have a 3 day hiatus and I come back... to ask advice about my bear!

Well, more specifically, my druid.

I have the insanity of many alts. I have one of each class. Most are in the teens to 30 something, but the three highest are:

Giddg Puts the Pointy Ends into the Squishie's so that they bleed
Cayleigh the Love Priest
and

Sashara, a very confused Druid.


I started her out feral, then switched to Boomkin, and recently respec'd her back to feral.

Why?

I have my healz, I have my DPS, now, I have the potential for a tank.

Sasha is 64, so she's only 6 levels away from 70-dom. By having a 70 of each type, I'm looking forward to being able to help anyone in the guild in case they need anything. (And yes, I realize that by playing a druid, I could be all three anyway, but SHHHHH! The monkeys don't need to know.)



Here's my problem. I can DPS like a mofo in kitty. It's fun, it's an awesome way to level, this feral spec.

But I've never tanked. Ever.
And this is what she's supposed to be.

So what do I do? I know, I should go out and peruse some of the blogs out there (BRK's got a friend with a druid blog, I know it!) and read up?

Ever get retardedly nervous about trying something new?

I don't want my first tank adventure to be with anyone but guildies. I tried, way back at lvl 61, to tank Ramparts with a PuG... but some bug in the mapping wouldn't let me click target, and was screwing up my gaming, and I just sucked it. Hard.

Not fun. I felt like the ultimate tool. Since then, I just haven't had the time to go back to her. But I want to try and tank.

I don't have the "Sit back and let things happen" mentality that is prevalent in many, many healers. Giddg got me over that. But there's been a lot of times in instances where I knew more than the tank about the place, and I was marking... and what not. So, yea... I want to try it.

Nyar, now I need a time machine to make me more time for my tank!

____

Ok, that was sufficiently Off Topic (hence OT). Stay tuned for more blathering tomorrow on how to heal your Tank's left testicle back on after Epoch Hunter ate it.

~<3 Cay

ZOMG where have I been?!

Parents are visiting, I'll be updating again once they go.


Squee! Parents!

Armory Musings - You Rock!

It burps a bit, but looks really cool! Thanks Armory Musings!


It's nifty:

Primal Mooncloth Set -

[Primal Mooncloth Belt]

[Primal Mooncloth Shoulders]

[Primal Mooncloth Robe]


Whitemend Set -

[Whitemend Hood]

[Whitemend Pants]


Woot! Hover!

W00+! 70! ... now what?

mars506 said...

Hi there. I just reached 70 recently on my priest, and was wondering what I should do next?

I'm completely in a daze as to which instances I should run to get rep for heroic keys, or even which keys I should be getting for which instances and which heroic instances drop good gear.

All help would be greatly appreciated. :)

Woot! 70! The new level of endgame! If you're thinking like Mars506 and not sure what to do next, you should ask yourself one simple question:

To melt face or not to melt face?

If you always planned on being a healer for endgame, this won't be that hard of a decision for you. But if you're liking the DPS that comes with being Shadow Spec, that is also a viable raid spec to stay at.

However, this is a blog about being a healer, so I'll just go with you having decided to make some love, not some pain. For how to specialize in the pain, I direct you to the DCoE's lovely blog of Shadow Priesty-ness.

On to the love!

For a good idea on where you should get good endgame healer gear Pre-Karazhan, I recommend WoW Loot. I've used this site to map out my gear needs since before I hit 70. They give a good run down on other priestly spec's as well, and have links to where you can get all the gear they show.

From experience, you should definitely run as much as you can to get your heroic keys, since there is a sweet healing off hand you can purchase with Heroic badges. But here are some highlights:

- Get Honor Hold/Thrallmar, Cenarion Expedition, Lower City, Sha'tar, and Keepers of Time rep to Revered for your keys. At Revered, you will get access to a nice healing helm, the [Watcher's Cowl], from CE. Though while it's good stat wise... it's uglier than sin and doesn't match anything you would be wearing at the time. :P At Honor Hold, you can get a nice ring, [Ring of Convalescence], a very good healing ring. Then there's the [Lower City Prayerbook], a nice trinket from Lower City that you can get two of in case your dungeon runs aren't being kind. The Sha'tar and KoT don't really have anything at Revered other than keys, however, you are definitely going to want to get at least the Sha'tar to Exalted, for the [Gavel of Pure Light], and if you can get KoT to Exalted, the [Bindings of the Timewalker] are pretty sweet for bracers.

To get all this rep, you're going to need to run Shattered Halls (Honor Hold/Thrallmar), SteamVaults (CE), Shadow Labyrinth (LC), Black Morass/Old Hillsbrad (KoT) and Mechanar/Arcatraz/Botanica (Sha'tar). Botanica nets you the most out of rep for the Sha'tar, but also takes longer (about 1.5 hours to 2 hours). All of these are great dungeons to run in, because they have pretty good drops. Check WoW Loot for the best ones.

Now, something else to consider. If you're a tailor, and going healer, I strongly (read: gun to your head) suggest you go Primal Mooncloth. Not only can you make nifty 20 slot bags, but you get 2 Primal Mooncloths for the price of one, and the Primal Mooncloth set is a MUST HAVE as your core healing set. I will still be using this set well into Karazhan. That's how core they are.

Also, if you go Primal Mooncloth, when you get Warp Splinter in Botanica and Delilah the Doomsayer in Arcatraz to drop the Whitemend patterns, you'll crow with joy. The Whitemend set compliments the Primal Mooncloth set quite nicely. PMC takes up a chest/shoulder/belt slot, while the Whitemend is helm/pants. Very good combo. In fact, it is the combo of LOVE AND PEACE!

The only catch to the Whitemend patterns, you need a primal nether to craft them (as well as 5 primal mights and 10 Primal Mooncloth), so you'll need to get lucky with one of the last bosses in the lvl 70 instances. I've seen Murmur, the Mechanar guy and Warp Splinter in Bot all drop nethers in normal, so it is possible. But realize, if you get the Whitemend patterns... don't tell me. I will kneecap you. :P

So, I hope this answers your questions Mars506 ^.^

Time for me to go to work. XD

~Cay

More Video's with a Heroic Side Note

Got a new video up. AC downing Curator

This I uploaded to my website instead of Youtube, but it'll get there eventually. It's nice that we got him on our second try (wewt!)

So now AC can get up to Curator. Time to kick back for 3 weeks and get people some gear. I'm looking forward to it.

So far, I've done a few Heroics. Trust me when I say, they are tough. I was starting to get bored in the level 70 instances. Things weren't super easy, but healing for them wasn't the ZOMG PANIC attack they used to be when CC failed/bad pull/noobness happened.

But in heroics, this changes. Things hit harder. Things that were annoying in normal are deadly again. My first heroic was Mechanar. Forget killing the second boss. She's impossible. Those two fire elementals is now three, they move faster, and hit a lot harder. We killed the third boss with little to no problems. We called the instance after 6 tries on her.

But getting to what I wanted to say, last night we did a Heroic Setheck Halls run. It was actually not that bad. We had a warrior tank, warrior DPS, magey, Fio's Boomkin and myself. The Shackle and Sheep for CC were necessary, as well as Fio's Hibernate later on. Fear ward = big bonus for those damn prophets. Oh and the Ravenguards after the first boss.... OVER HEAL. Fio was off healing, and even with my spiffy new Whitemend set, overheal. They hit hard, they hit fast. And make sure you time your Fade's right or else you're goo on their swords. I died the first time. I pulled aggro during a resisted taunt.... ow. Ow ow.

The first boss in this dungeon is pretty much the same as in normal mode, but his elemental buddies hit harder and so does he. But he's doable.

The last boss, Ikiss... OMG. Forget mana efficiency. Your DPS has to burn him down ASAP. At 75%, 50% and 25% he does the annoying teleport, 5second cast and instant BOOM death AOE unless you're behind a pillar in the room. Well, he also does the arcane volley. Instant cast. Pretty much, through out that fight, I was PoM the tank, then Prayer of Healing. Repeatedly. We wiped three times before my rhythm of PoM, PoH, PoH, PoM, etc got down. He still randomly sheeps people, and it can be a benefit because it heals whoever it sheeps (as long as it's not the tank. If it is, dispel ASAP). Fio's Innervate and my Shadow Fiend, plus 1 mana pot later and.... hunter wrsits drop *head desk*.

Ah well, can't win them all ^.^

However! I will say this... the Anzu fight is GORGEOUS. I want to go back, and kick his butt again. Because it was so pretty. It was! I want the Anzu mount so... freakin' ... bad. UG! Cay's goals is to get either Midnight or Anzu. On of the two...

Pretty fight. If you want a detailed description of how to take him down, Fio has it on his blog

Check it out ^.^

Oh, and because I felt like squeeing...


Healing at 1768, with MotW, Spirit buff, Arcane Brilliance, Draeneic Wisdom and Healing power pots.

This is Cay raid buffed.

Squee!

Healing Maiden: Cake Walk

Sorry for the delay, now to the post!



Maiden of Virtue, the 1st optional boss in Karazhan. Being the priestly type you are, if you have a pally or another priest in this fight, then things will be A OK.

Also, you probably won't have to, but begging/coercing/blackmailing your Raid Leader into downing this boss = a must. She drops Shard of the Virtuous which, combined with Moroes's Signet of Unshakable Faith = healing weapon combo of JUSTICE! ^.^

Having two people able to cleanse is good. Maiden does a Holy Fire that ticks for massive amounts of hurt. But Priests/Pallys can cleanse this (not sure about Shammies) so having at least two to get this debuff off your raid is awesome. As always, WoWWiki has a good run down of the fight, but here's the low down on healing Maiden of Virtue.

The Strat:
Ok, you saw the video I posted earlier, so here's a run down of it.

Why are we trying to position ourselves between pillars, you wonder? Well, Maiden does a Holy Wrath (think Holy Chain Lightning) on ranged raiders. What sucks is that it does more damage the more it "jumps". So spread out. Less hassle.

Make sure when you're between pillars, you get as close to the inner circle as possible without hitting her Consecrated area (or Holy Ground, but lets face it, it's a Consecrate XD). Only one tank to concentrate on, but any melee in there is going to need a renew once in a while. That Holy Ground hits for about 200 to 300 a tick.

Every 45 secs or so, Maiden spices things up by casting Repentance. This basically stuns everyone not in the Holy Ground (yes, that means you) for 12 secs as she beats on the tank. 12 seconds of no healing the tank, so be sure to top of the tank constantly. PoM, Renew always, but if you're not cleansing a Holy Fire, make sure you time your GHeals are a little heavy handed. Also, because you might need to, I usually come out of the stun either starting a GHeal if the tank isn't that bad off, or with a PoM/Shield if I need a second to FHeal, GHeal. Also don't go too crazy, your other healer is probably in the same OH SHIT! mode.

Otherwise... Maiden really is easy. Pat yourself on the back with a job well done and pray for that Shard of Yum yumness.


___

Sorry about the delay in today's post. I started it this morning, had to go to work, then work was really busy! So I'm finishing up here at home. XD

Mew.

Crossing the Lines

What's with the animosity of gamer's of one type of game towards gamers of another?

I went to a party on Saturday, to see some super keen fireworks. That Saturday is also the Vampire LARP day, and was being held at the house where the game usually is.

Well, there wasn't going to be much LARPing going on, but people brought their Magic the Gathering cards and many games ensued.

Fio and I enjoy a game of MtG every once in a while. Fio has the decks I won't play against, and I have my pretty merfolk deck in purple foil card holders. But anywho, during one of the games, some one over hears my convo with Fio about raid on Sunday, and another person at the table smiles and says something about Molten Core. Ahh, another WoW person. But before I can get a few questions/jabs/air out of my mouth, another person at the table says something towards the line of, "Ug, let's just keep this WoW Free, ok?"

The look of disgust on his face is plain as day.

This isn't just gamers vs WoW though. I know many table top players who have similar feelings vs LARPers too. So... what gives?

I don't understand it. But Fio and I are pretty well rounded in our geekiness.

Any thoughts?


PS: I tried posting this yesterday, but didn't finish before passing out. And my pc restarted... so no saved draft T.T

Healing Moroes: Kara's Raid Check

It took AC three weeks of banging our heads against this guy. On our third week, we got him to cough up the purple.

Moroes is tough. For someone who is used to just sitting back and healing, he's more so.

Moroes isn't alone in the fight. He has four undead friends who share his space, chitchat with, and make our lives living hell. He has a total of six friends, but they rotate each week. Those four adds and Moroes's annoying Garrote make this a CC Fight of Doom.

Again, WoW Wiki gives an awesome strat to deal with him and his four adds of the week. Here's what it's like being a squishi healy type in the fight.

The Strat:
Ok, this fight is all about your raids methods of CCing the four adds before taking on Moroes. Out of the 5 times I've done this, the best combo to date is 2 Shackles/1 Trap. Yup, that's right. You aren't sitting back and just making sure the tank doesn't die this time. You're shackling, preferably every 15 - 20 seconds, one of the 4 adds. In fact, during this fight, I usually assign the other healer to deal with the MT and OT while I've worked on keeping the rest of the raid up.

Both the MT and OT are on Moroes and both are fighting for Aggro too. They need to. Moroes has a nasty habit of Gouging one tank and then Blinding the other, and then he prances his psychotic way over to the DPS/Squishi/Non-Plate wearers and merrily one shots them into Oblivion. Druids can cure Poison on the Blind, so that's not a total loss. But it's nerve wracking. Also, Moroes will periodically Vanish during the fight, then SURPRIZ BUTTSECKS some on with a Garrote which does 1000 HP every 3 seconds for 5 mins. It can be gotten rid of three ways: Pally Bubble, Dwarf Stoneskin, and Mage Iceblock. That's it.

So, we've established that you have your shackle, that gets one add out of the fight. What about the other three? Well, if you have a Shadow Priest of Awesome with you, Great! Another shackle, and one that lasts longer than yours. (Ok, maybe there is no math to back that up, but I find every SP I come across, their shackles always outlast mine. Rarg.)

Two adds taken care of, what about the other two? Well, try to have a BRK (aka Hunter of PewPew!) who can chain trap with you. Big bonus. Huge bonus. Mega bonus to keeping that 3rd add out of the fight.
Down to one add left to smush. This is usually the one that needs to die first. Lady Catriona Von'Indi - Holy Priest, or Baroness Dorothea Millstipe - Shadow Priest are the usual contenders for this prestigious rank of "MUST DIE NOW." They're squishi, have low HPs, and have the top most annoying abilities (Holy heals - duh, SP has the Mana Burn of "For the Love of God and all that is Holy, MY ANUS is BLEEDING!".)

In our last run, we didn't have a tank to spare for the two adds who needed to die (which is the squishi first, following by the trapped one) before all DPS was one Moroes. But we were able to get by with the Rogue Stunlocking the priest (we had Holy). This means all my attention was on that rogue. Let me tell you. Healing a rogue tank is a serious rush. They don't take a steady stream of damage like tanks usually do. For Luc, our rogue, I opened with my Prayer of Mending before the fight, shackled MY add as soon as MT pulled the posse, threw a quick renew on MT, then started a GHeal for Luc. Yes, he had opened with a Cheap Shot, which means he had 4 secs to start pwning Holy Add, but he started that when I was Casting my 3 sec shackle and 1.5 Global cool down Renew on MT. In the case of a rogue tank, Over healing a mite = A OK in my book.
After that first GHeal, it's PoM again. In order to gauge when you should start that next heal, I recommend having something like Natur EnemyCastBar. It gives you a timer on all cooldowns on abilities from allies as well as enemies. I have a 70 rogue, so I know how a stun lock works, and from that I can pretty much guess when Luc is going to need me to heal him most, if he's stuck in between cool downs.

If you have ADD, this fight is for you. While Luc's back may have felt a little sunburn as my focus was extreme on him, you still need to keep an eye out for the rest of the raid, MT and OT especially. Depending on your DPS output, the 1st add should go down, no problem.

If you do have a feral who can go tank for this fight, bonus. Our first time taking Moroes down, it was the Feral/MT on Moroes, and out OT on the adds. With this combo, I was OT healer but with liberal crossover in case MT/Feral needed it.

Ok, first add, out of the way, now its on to Trapped add. In our Rogue Tank situation, well, there was no way Luc would survive the trapped guy, so BRK sent in Hobbes in all his kitty fury to tank. Hunter pets can vary in the healing feel, but as long as you think of them as a slightly undergeared tank, then your set. PoM, Renew, GHeals, all are good. 2nd add should go down reasonably quick. If you have the OT on the add, then it's business as usual.
And remember, your MT loves you still. Keep an eye on his/her health!

By now, you're probably wondering "What the Hell! No time for rapage of the five sec rule! T.T" But this isn't true. With pet tank/OT, you'll get a few breaks as your Renews/PoM give you a bit of a buffer to get some 5sr luvins. Pacing yourself in this fight is a good thing.

2nd Add down, doggy pile on Moroes! (You did remember to shackle that Focus target of yours, yes?) and here's where the fun begins. By now, at least one or two people will have Garrote on them, and are slowly bleeding their lives away.

All that's going through this Squeaker's mind (and on Vent) is this: ZOMG WHY ISN'T HE GARROTING ME! T.T

It's random, but if you're a dwarf healer (pally or priest) , getting the Garrote means one less person you need to keep an eye on. Stoneskin has a 3 min cooldown, but I have been able to use SS twice in a fight.

As soon as Moroes is everyone's target, whip out the Shadow Fiend, PoM the MT, and take a break! If you have the Bangle of Endless Blessing up, use it now. It's the best tricket for ShadowFiend mana lurvins. This also gives your other healer a bit of a break as well since both are now concentrated on the MT/OT (MT/Feral) combo.

Now, it's a DPS race. Your raid has to DPS him down quickly, before those who have Garrote sap all the healers mana. Ideally, you want the tank and OT to have the Garrote, because your healing them anyway. Keep your renew up at all times, as this will mitigate the Garrote if your tank has it. If you need to pot, do it at 50-60% of your mana as opposed to later. You never, ever want to shout OOM unless Moroes is down to 1% and you can help wand him to death (that is, if you can before your shackle breaks and then your add comes to eat your face.)

Is he dead yet? Good! Now RUN! If this is your cherry breaking day on a Moroes death, you're going to be pooped, OOM, and generally bleeding to death. Run out of the room and your shackle will disappear. Hooray! Time for purples! For the holy priest in my, only one thing on Moroes drops that is nifty keen: Signet of Unshakable Faith.

It hasn't dropped yet, but it's ok. I'm patient.

Double Woot! Fio joins the Bloggin'

Say hello to Balance of Power, my husband's awesome blog!

I am excited. He has lots to say about WoW Math, Boomkins, and other geeky things that I know people are looking to smursh about.

Yay!

Woot! OT

What makes me a happy panda?













I have made it to the Cool Blogs!

/cheer

Healing Attumen : Kara's First Hook

So, AC just started raiding Karazhan in the beginning of June. I'm main healer being the only raiding Holy Priest in the guild, and my back up healer is Hathorn, an awesome guy who respec'd from Boomkin to Resto to help me out in the healz dept. I heart teh Hathorn ^.^

Anywho, this is about healing. Right! Well, Attumen, believe it or not, wasn't as hard as we thought. He was actually quite spankable. WoW Wiki gives an awesome guide to most of the bosses, but here's the skinny on what it's like to heal during Attumen. (Oh, and our MT has a raiding hunter on another server, so he knows all about Kara. Bonus!)

The Strat: Midnight is sitting all by her lonesome in her stall. The OT ruins her exciting day by thwacking her. Fun! Before the OT gets that battle gleam in his/her eye, Prayer of Mending is on their ass.
Once they engage, I give them a few seconds, then Renew. At this point, your MT and other healer are waiting until Midnight is down to 95%. Then she lets out her whinny of "ASSHAT SAVE ME!" and Attumen comes to the show. MT picks him up right quick and other healers job is to watch him.
All DPS is focused on Midnight for this. All my attention is on the OT. I am keeping a constant Renew up(15 secs, so that's 2 opportunities for mana/5 to kick in), tossing a Prayer of Mending when I need a second to get my GHeal off, but unlike some healers out there, I don't down rank my healz. I only have so much button space, and so far, I haven't gone Out Of Mana. GHeal gives you an excellent chunk of healage, (with +1670 healing raid buffed, mine hits for about 4500/7200 crit) so abuse that 5 sec rule like a 20 cent hookah.
If the OT is doing his job right (and you've faded a few times after that bitchin' GHeal, right? *glare*) no aggro for you, and you should call out the Shadow Fiend before Midnight hits the 55% health mark. Don't worry, you won't need to watch for that: the RL, OT, DPS will let everyone know.
At 25%, Attumen mounts Midnight (*refrains from dirty .... nm*) and, this is important: AGGRO IS WIPED.

Don't breathe.

I mean it.

Now the real fun begins. I switch to healing MT now, since OT has done his/her job (Well done!) and Attumen really starts dishing some pain. Also, he'll randomly charge the squishies now, so it's like Russian Roulette on who gets hit next. We try keeping the highest armored range in front (BRK got it in the teeth last time XD) but I still toss up a Shield on myself... just to be safe.
Both healers are concentrating on MT now, so barring mana probs (molest 5 sec rule! I command it!) the rest of the fight is a non issue. Celebrate! If you're a squishi like me, you'll be looking for the Phat lootz of Gloves of Saintly Blessing. Our first time on Attumen, those dropped. I was both pleased and frustrated. I had just enchanted my Hallowed Handwraps with the healing enchant -.- *grumble* Wasted mats *grumble* But in the end not wasted. ^.^

Next post, Moroes! The Steward Who Throws a Bitchin' Party!

Edit: Fio pointed out an error. It wasn't 55% of Midnight's health that Moroes... umm Midnight... the two become one? *snerk* Ok, 12 yr old mode off. They become one mob at 25%. Corrected!

AC downs Maiden

Aetherial Circle Downs Maiden

It's my second video. Be kind!

Blackheart the Inciter: I hate you.

So I was pondering what to put in here next, and due to the Shadow Labs run last night, I figured I'd throw up my .02 on this big buttheaded brute (not the words I initially used to describe him... they were a bit more... colorful o.O)

When I first encountered Blackbutt, it was when Fio and I were baby 70s. No Primal Mooncloth set yet, so my +healing/ mana/5 was a bit lacking. But I was excited to get my first Karazhan key frag and excitement (and caffeine) can do wonders ^.^

The first few pulls and first boss in Shadow Labrynth, very easy, IMO. Being a Fear Ward priest, the big Doomwarden's were not as hard as they are when you don't have Fear ward. Ambassador Hellmaw is also much easier with a Fear Ward on the tank, but not impossible.

So Hellmaw is a broken piece of demon goo on the ground, now its time for the next room. "This place sucks. I hate this next part." This from my Fio. He had been in SL before me, had made it to the last boss, Murmur, before the healing in his party really messed things up. (It was a shadow priest who decided to DPS instead... which got the tank killed. Messy, messy messy.)

This room, had 4 and 5 pulls. Oh my. Our group consisted of 1 CC. Sheep. That was it. After a few laughable tries at the pulls with just the sap, we decided a different tactic. This is where the NEKKID PRIEST was born. We discovered that if I stripped down to my skivves, got away from the party and Mind Controlled a mob, let them kill it, then they all come angrily at me and smush me, we could mill the insanity pulls down to threes. (DISCLAIMER: I don't recommend the above tactic unless you're 1) bored, 2) desperate like we were 3) or have about an hour or two to waste on top of the time the instance takes). The good news is I have perfected the death run back into SL.... -.-

So, an hour or so later... we're clear for Buttface. If you're not familiar with what he does, it's a few things: He does an AoE knockback that hits for about 1.5K on a clothie, and hits hard. The other retardedly annoying thing he does is Incite Chaos. This is a 12 second Mind Control where everyone in the party takes the lessons they learned in the Murkblood School of Fighting and starts beating on each other. Blackhead just sits there and laughs, not attacking, so that's a bonus... sort of. Suffice to say, we wiped three times on him, and only achieved victory via pure luck. During our attempts, Ventrillo was not a safe place to be. My father was in the Navy. I know how sailor's cuss.

That was the first time I encountered AssHat the Retard. I still don't like the fight, but I have some tips that will hopefully conserve some mana for you. Running out of mana was my biggest issue there, especially during the MC, but there is some mitigation.

First, realize that they've nerfed most of the ways to stay out of the fight. If you have a hunter in your party, don't depend on their frost trap to keep you out of the fight. There's either a bug or something equally annoying that makes the hunter or his pet just start attacking you.

Also, trying to spam a dreamless sleep pot the millisecond before the MC goes off is pretty much luck, and you'll more than likely be knocked out of it immediately ( I think the feral druids are bugged, I kept getting hit by ours from across the room.)

What you must do is make sure you're far enough away from the tank to not get hit by the knockback. After each MC, DON'T HEAL ANYONE.

Let me repeat: DO NOT HEAL ANYONE.

The MC is an aggro wipe. Make sure everyone knows to not even bandage unless they are the tank. Any healing done and you're Buttface's first target. He likes to blow all the cooldowns in the MC, so your fade is going to be at 20 seconds or so, and then you're smushed, have 15 seconds of free heals, and then you're on the floor conversing with the dust bunnies.

Once the tank has aggro back, give him a little bit more time. Blackhead doesn't hit tanks that hard, and at this point, you'll probably be scrambling to keep everyone else up.

Also, if you haven't already, get rid of Holy Nova. Its a mana sink in MC fights. It really is. I just recently respec'd to get rid of Light Well and Holy Nova, and while it was annoying that I was MC'd into casting Mass Dispel instead, it's not instant cast, so there's a chance someone in your party will interrupt you.

Other than that, just pray he doesn't kill someone. Also, as a last bit of advice: yes, sometimes some one can run back in time to help with the fight if it's still going on, but I don't recommend it. We did that once, and Blackbutt aggro'd on the person who walked back into the instance after his MC... and he reset. We still killed him, but we had to do it twice practically.

So, that is the grr-ness of Blackbutt the Bitchwalla.

Why do I love to heal? Oh let me count the ways...

I didn't start out a healer you know. Last year, a friend of mine was trying to convince the husband to play WoW. Jas was a bit skeptical, he'd had some bad problems with MMO's in the past, and wasn't eager to try his hand at it again. But our friend bought him a copy and just said "Try it."

So he did. Our friend had many alliance toons, so he made a NE druid, named him Fiordhraoi (Gaelic translation = "Crotchy weirdo druid"), and well, he liked it. I have a habit of watching him play tons of video games (and play a few myself) because at the time, his PC was shinier than mine. And I liked it too. I wanted to play.

So out we go to EBgames (our home away from home), nab me a copy, get home, install, and I'm there at the races screen. What did I choose to play? My first MMO (Guild Wars didn't count since I only played it for like ... 1 week) ever.... Well, I don't want to play something smchexy, everyone plays something schmexy. So NE's and Humans are out. Dwarves.... not terribly inspiring.... OMG gnomes are so CUTE! OMG Pigtails of DOOM!

And Giddg was born. My gnome rogue. Because rogues are easy to level, and again, I was just starting out.

Fast forward a couple of months, and after some guild drama (we had joined Hyppie's guild, but we left because of some mental retardation coming from the officers) Fio, Hyppie and I, along with some friends created Aetherial Circle. The 18+ guaranteed that we wouldn't have to deal with most of the grief we had gotten from the last guild. Around this time, I had an alt (my first!) Phelyx. She was a mage I made to play with Fio's mage, Miloc. But even though I leveled her to 20 something... I just couldn't get a good vibe going. Being squishier then my rogue yet dealing damage seemed to be a lose/lose situation.

Then, as some of the people in the guild started hitting 60(yay Fio hit 60!)they were starting to get a bit bummed. Fio was an awesome balance boomkin of doom, and he can heal quite well too. But the instances were getting tougher even for him. So I figured, well, why not? Hyppie explained to me that healers were always a sought after commodity on pretty much any server, and if I made a dwarf priest, I could have my pick of anything. "Fear Ward."

So, back to the character creation screen I go, this time to whip me up some Dwarven Priest. After toying with the generator for 15 mins or so, I got the look I wanted. They spoke with a Scottish brough, so I wanted something appropriate to name her. Rhiannon. That's what I'll name her.

THAT NAME IS NOT AVAILABLE.

Damn. Ok, what about Rhia? NO. Shannon? Nice Try.

Ug. Ok, I need a new inspiration for a name. Hrm.... or do I want to watch Firefly again. WAIT! I put a little Irish spin on it and whoop! Cayleigh. Sweet.

Next advice I get, "As soon as you hit level ten, start putting points into your Shadow Tree. You want to do as much damage as you can." Ok, shadow tree.... well, yea, that's a lot of damaging type things. Can't I level holy?

*crickets**Sound of a thump, followed by cats making noise and laughter*

Ummm, guess not. Apparently, if I tried going for healing right away, it would take me forever to level. So ok, I guess I'll conform. Just this once. Besides, Fio could heal all the lowbie instances I'd need to go through anyway.

So, months later, about 4 weeks from BC release, and whoop! Cayleigh is 60! I had been good, leveling her mostly shadow (and actually enjoying it for a while) but at level 57, I decided it was time to go holy and start healing.

Holy shit, what a rush!!! I was healing BRD (keep in mind, I was still a nooblet at this game, even though Cay was my second 60, this was my first time actually balls-to-the-wall healing) and went OOM but we killed the boss and only the squishi died!
From the squishi - "Steph, don't DPS the boss. Just sit back and heal. We'll cover the rest."

Sorry -.-

And after many adventures of learning that Fade is my friend, amongst other things, we come to the Cayleigh of today.

Few things I've learned and (love) about being a healer:

1) Everyone wants to group with you. I mean everyone. This can be a good thing (Oh, I need 4 more badges for my Tears of HEaven offhand, who's up for some heroic Mech?) to a bad thing: (*while in the middle of some other dungeon run five tells of* - "do u want 2 run X plz!?!one!"). So you'll never really have to worry about not being able to do any instance (unless all the tanks are afk/not on T.T).

2) As a healer, you have one of the three most important jobs in the game, so it makes things much, much more interactive then just smushing buttons and getting big numbers that gain you aggro (with mobs and other players).

3) Guaranteed loot in most cases. Hunters/Shamans, Feral Druids/Rogues/Warriors can all quibble over who should get what (because it does happen in PuGs... a lot... unfortunately) but as the healer, if it has +healing, or in a priest's case, spirit, intel, mana/5, you won't have any one else to compete with.

4) How do I describe the feeling of awesome success? I don't know. But it's a fuzzy feeling, and I'm prone to them. I guess I'll have to get into this step more later on. But suffice to say, I felt retardedly awesome during that Black Morass run BRK went with us on.

So those are my reasons for playing my priest. It's not a great list, but more things will come in time. Yes, I will say one thing: it does kinda suck that you can't solo any more, but a solid DPS set will see you through those tough times.

And for now, musings off. Gotta close up the library. And like, do work. oO

Toodles for now!

Introductions must be made

Well, I blame BRK for putting this in my head, but what the hell: his enthusiasm to show how much hunters pwn has inspired me.

My name's Stephi, and I play a Dwarf Priest on World of Warcraft's Drenden server. It's a PvE server where I spend most of my fun time playing with my guild, Aetherial Circle. My husband, Jason, aka Fiordhraoi (story on the name later) is the GM, and we have a merry time playing this game as well as other types: RPGs, Larp, video games, etc.

We're huge geeks. Huge. We met at a LARP, he proposed to me at the same game 3 years later.... HUGE. FREAKIN'. GEEKS. Our minions will be as well.

Anywho, as for this blog, I wanted some place to put my thoughts about being a healer. There's plenty of rebels out there who enjoy in the new DPS face of priesthood, and while I don't judge them harshly, I make love, not pain. It's the kind of priest I am. I'd rather heal your face back on than melt it off. ^.^

There's more I would like to say about this whole hubbawho, but I just realized... it's 2 am... I should probably get some sleep.

Bah, sleep. To a WoW'r? Doesn't exist!

Oh yes, it does. Gotta pay the bills somehow. ;)