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Speak da' Truth

*The title for this post was inspired by the troll-lovers in my RP horde guild. An entire afternoon spent reading troll-flavored common has rotted my brain.

**The renaming of this blog was approved by Bossy Pally herself.

***I think I've worked the kinks out of the feed above with loot/achievement junk. LOOK FACEROLLER YESSSSSSS (I will never have that on my druid it seems).

If I were to pick words out of the ether to describe myself, I often use words that communicate a flash point. I am like an unstable mixture waiting for one movement, one change in temperature, one change in light to burst into reaction. It's very strange, really. Mostly I try to be a calm and rational being, and most people consider me to be dull and or boring in the real world. But oh do I react to things, even when I hide those reactions. (I feel sorry for my vent companions in heroics, especially lately. I'm a ranting monster about people pulling off my tanks, healers healing too early, etc.)

I agonized the first time I broke my long-term guild contract in warcraft. It's where I learned what DPS was, and became aware of this wider facet of the game than the single player aspect. Sure I chatted and socialized, but some over-reaching goals became clearer to me. I developed a sense of community, and really grew attached to people in the game.

Eventually I landed into a more relaxed atmosphere with really great players on the same server and even though only one of my toons was there, I made sure they knew if they ever needed me or any of on my toons, if I could I would be there. It's worked out well for me and for them I think. We killed Putricide finally. We can 2 heal the entire first wing of ICC10. We have a blast.

But recently as my old home really broke up some have found their way into this haven of mine. Sure I still have my alt-bank guild. Sure I still pug raids with my other 80s and each of them seems to be gaining a solid rep. But I had grown to like the atmosphere of my new home. (Bank guilds are a tad boring!). However, many of the people I really cherished as people, but hated to raid with, have found their way in. I'm glad they're having fun, I'm glad the guild is growing, I'm glad the leaders have bigger goals in mind and are moving in the right direction for them. But...

The push for progression two weeks ago led to a mini-spaz session of mine. And I had to reclaim my inner-understanding that I am not tied to a raid for any reason. It's fun, and I like the people, or it's not (and in that case why am I there?). The RL pushed hard, really really hard, on a progression kill, to the point where people that at the start of the raid had been promised 6 emblems had only gotten 5, the free emblem was still available, but raiders had to start leaving. And the RL wanted to pug new fillers in, which unfortunately would only have resulted in locking them to an unproductive raid, and given them no loot, not even one emblem, to show for it.

I objected. Pretty loudly (using the above language too). And after the fifth wipe, and the third replacement when it became obvious more people had to leave, I finally left myself. I let the raid leader know I didn't want to be part of a raid locking people to the ID that didn't get jack done.

I got over it pretty quick, though I'm pretty sure the raid leader has me on his unhappy list. I do like everyone in the guild, and while I may object to some things, I like to think my solid support outweighs it all. But I'm getting the feeling that my quiet support is taken for granted or just plain unappreciated. And after ditching a guild VOA raid full of whiny bad attitudes trying to get gear for alts (and being pissed if any other guildy dared suggest bringing the same class alt as competition for gear), I got a stern talking to. It ended when I pointed out "look, I'm not being difficult. I'm not being demanding. This is just me. I'm vocal and when I don't like something I say it. I am not trying to instigate drama." and I couldn't resist adding "ask the ex-guildies that just joined us" and before I could continue he said yeah he had been hearing about it.

So now I want to rant and cry like a spoiled child. I was here first and yet ex-now-new-guildies are talking bad about me and my "attitude".

There's this aura hanging over me, and it finally led to a required renaming of the blog. I was inspired by Bossy Pally herself. I also spent freaking 45min searching every blog post I had read in the past month about paladins to share a specific link with a friend. Determination and stubbornness, I sometimes have it.

A lot left to learn

Last night I was asked to come fill in as a third healer in a ten man ICC. I realised I really need to heal more. I know the barest basics but have no concept of mana management (wtf I thought paladins didn't need to do that), working with other healers (this will be solved by, gasp, raiding with my paladin's new guild more) and just a better flow/understanding of my skills, and where I should have the buttons.

The trouble is that I'm terrified of healing pugs, spoiled as I am by multiple pocket tanks on my alliance healers. And, there is a queue time for healers on my battlegroup. So, I grind emblems as a tank, meaning I get less chance to do actual healing and learn about it.

This is a bit frustrating.

Things I noticed last night and definitely need to work on:

Mana. Divine Plea's healing reduction freaked me the hell out on Saurfang. There was no good time to pop it, ever. Any tips?

On Saurfang, I *wanted* to juggle my beacon/shield targets between the two taunting tanks. The one doing the tanking would have the shield, the one with the debuff would have beacon. Seemed like a plan. Maybe that's what cost me so much damn mana though. (Beacon went to the first Mark once it popped up).

I would have loved to heal with a discipline priest last night, but I didn't have one. Started with a resto druid, then had a holy priest.

So, yeah, I just have no clue what I was doing. I was hammering beasts and Judging Wisdom, with my beacon of light up (for improved healing) every chance too, but... Ugh what a horrible way to "learn" better healing skills.

Spirits save me..

Wynsmea paused at the edge of the rough camp beside the ancient elven road. This part of Kalimdor was different from some of the other places she'd been. It felt open like the Barrens, but the mountains and the trees spoke of Time, ancient Time, and still seemed to reverberate with a heavy and thick magic.

"What could this empty and ancient place hold to fascinate a mage like him?" she murmured to herself.

With a shake of her head to pull her thoughts away from speculation, Wynsmea took a deep breath and shifted her belt with it's pouches to rest more comfortably upon her hips. A rough nudge nearly knocked her off feet while I stamp of hooves signaled general impatience to run from the palomino at her shoulder. Gently she lifted her hand to caress the nose of her horse. It's armor was sparkling thanks to the stable-boy in Stormwind. "Alright already, Mister Impatient." With a grumble and stiff movements, she mounted and settled her cloak about her to ward off the cold. With a press of her knees and a shift of reins, they turned to follow the road east, into the breeze with a hint of salt.

..Yesterday..

Wynsmea blinked her eyes slowly, trying to stay awake, opening them again through sheer force of will. The melodic voice of Jennea Cannon droned on in the background, fading in and out of recognizable speech.

"...Azhara, has been asking..."

Exhaustion pulled at every muscle in her body. The pulse of magic she could normally feel vibrating around her in the bricks and mortars of the Mage Quarter in Stormwind City was nothing but a dull drone, oddly adding to the nonsense she was attempting to listen to.

"His tower..." the voice flowed on, Mage Trainer Cannon apparantly oblivious to Wyn's struggle. Endurance was a necessary part of the magecraft, and the ability to focus, to continue on in other ways while magic restored itself within and without. It wouldn't do to be seen as weak, not now, not when the needs of the Kingdom seemed to be growing with the dangers risked and evils prevented.

Another shake of her head, this time slower despite the vigorous attempt to rally muscles and stay awake.

"Mage? Mage Wynsmea?" She couldn't even straighten her shoulders, her robe, her belt. The table had at some point become where her hand was braced, but she could feel her elbow sagging, tendons and muscles trembling.

"For the love of.. Master Dumas! Sir?!" Suddenly Wyn's eyes were really not open anymore, but she was sure she hadn't fallen yet. Mage Cannon's voice rose, answered by a deeper male voice, but it took all of Wyn's concentration to keep her feet beneath her and not collapse upon the table and whatever magical device Jennea had been crafting and using.

Firm hands gripped her shoulders, an authoritative voice snapped out, answered by both gruff and soothing tones, before softness pressed against her body.

Then darkness took hold.

..hours later..

Wynsmea Falcoren's eyes blinked suddenly and she sat up slowly, groaning at stiff muscles. The smell of a thick stew and fresh bread filled the room, which, as she looked around, seemed to belong to an Inn. She could hear quiet voices from what she assumed was the common area, but the building was sound and she couldn't make out the language. Try as she might, she couldn't remember where she was.

"Did I make it to Stormwind?" She shifted slowly so her legs hung down the side of the bed while she stretched her arms, and rotated neck and shoulder muscles.

The door thrust itself open, and Wyn was still too befuddled from sleep to react. Mage Trainer Cannon stopped moving and stopped talking to whoever was in the hallway at sight of Wyn sitting up, folded her arms, an stared sternly at her.

Wynsmea hadn't felt like a child for years, but she felt her back stiffen and her head dropped guiltily at that look automatically.

"Yes you ARE in Stormwind, mage. And if it were up to me you'd stay here a week resting, recuperating, and serving in the library stacks as punishment for letting yourself get to such a state that you collapsed in the Tower!" The clear and musical voice was still clear, still musical, but quite strident. Her body didn't relax. But Jennea took a deep breath and stepped aside so an aging female face could peek in, before nodding and shuffling off. Jennea responded merely with an arch of her brow, then closed the door, pulled the chair out from the table where the food sat, and pointedly stared at Wyn.

With a swallow and a glance between Mage Cannon and the food, she stood slowly and shuffled to the chair, collapsing into it before reaching for the silverware.

"But your next missions are not up to me, you've been deemed fit enough, and you DO have things to do." With a sigh, Mage Cannon began straightening the linen on the bed while Wyn watched from the corner of her eye, swallowing stew and bread by big mouthfuls.

"Master Dumas was not pleased to interrupt his work to bring you to the Blue Feather, girl, so I hope you think up a suitable apology and repayment of his time and energy. I can only imagine it is because you are a mage and not another warrior traveling via the portals we keep in the tower that he did so at all. Otherwise the medics in the Chapel would have been sent for instead!"

Wyn's brain was starting to work a bit better as the food energized her more. Mage Cannon's scandalized tone was curious, and she set aside the puzzle to figure out which goaded her more, the need for a medic for a mage, or Master Dumas interrupting his work. Struggling to hide her grin, Wyn busily finished her food while listening.

"Your next assignment is that you return to investigate the plaguelands and contact the Mage assigned to man Light's Hope Chapel, but undoubtedly you remember me telling you of Archmage Xylem's request. Before you passed out you seemed interested enough, and I'm not sure when you'll have another chance to see..." Jennea seemed to reconsider her words and cleared her throat behind her hand, before smiling stiffly and setting down a pile of gear onto the cleared table.

Wyn blinked and wondered how she had removed the dishes so quickly and summoned familiar looking gear without her noticing.

"Archmage Xylem?" Wyn rubbed her temple and jogged her memory. The tricks her uncle had taught her for memorization kicked in and she replayed the last conversation she had had with Mage Trainer Cannon. "Yes. I did want to see what the Archmage needed done." Currying favor with an Archmage is a sound plan.. "But traveling through the Night Elf lands..." grim dread seemed to echo in Wyn's voice.

"The elves are our allies! They won't begrudge you. And there is so much to do in the Plaguelands, think of this trip as your recovery time from foolishly taxing your energies to such dangerous levels, Mage Falconar." Jennea's voice had become strict again, and Wyn was glad she had no intention of arguing. "Your things are here, the passage for you has been tallied in our books and paid for at the docks already. Simply show them your Stormwind City Mage marker." With a last glance around, Mage Trainer Jennea Cannon strode to the door and pulled it open, then glanced over her shoulder back at Wynsmea.

Wynsmea popped to her feet, pushed the chair in and bowed formally. "Thank you, Mage Cannon, for your assistance." Without a response, the mage turned and left the room, leaving the door ajar, signaling obviously that Wyn was to leave as well.

A glance around and subtle hints of a personality imbuing the room made Wyn feel suddenly invasive, as if she were trespassing. Quickly, she checked her gear and counted her stores, then grunted and heaved the whole into her arms. Carefully she wove her way through the hallway of the House, whispering a command that closed the door silently behind her. No one in the common room glanced at another mage, and Wyn was too focused to get outside to feel the attention of those studiously not watching her.

At an empty outdoor table, she set her stuff down and waited. A few coppers and a whispered command, and a young stable boy ran off. Leaning back, she tilted her head to stare up at the heights of the Mage Tower across the City, and considered what lay before her.

Rock beats healer

This weekend I relaxed and didn't run myself ragged through raids. This led to discovering that, lo and behold, Maraudon can indeed be fun!

Sunday I logged onto warcraft (having partied plenty on Saturday in honor of Green Beer everywhere) and tossed a coin to see if I did my first random as a lowbie 50 mage or chained through my heroic random grind. Me and my level buddy's 50 warrior decided it would be lowbies. And little did I know, Greg had been preparing himself to tank. (He finally managed to find a decent shield).

The 30minute wait I expected became insta-group. At 9am server that's pretty awesome.

The first run was painful. I barely remember BlackRock Depths. Greg, the tank, didn't know squat about it. All he knew was the first molten fire boss might drop some loot suitable for him. Well, we wiped a bunch getting there, but the trash also dropped a world drop boe epic shield for him. I squealed on vent.

After that disaster of a run (which wasn't too bad, but was a bit painful at the beginning) the disc priest, my mage and Greg's tank tried again. We landed with an awesome shaman and paladin. And the fun never ended. We hit Maraudon-Fall of Princess, of all places, twice, and found ourselves back in Sunken Temple three times. The 2nd time through Maraudon, I took them all on a tour up to kill Celebros and the Demon boss, along with a few rares (did I mention my first Nightelf levelled completely in Kalimdor? I cleared Desolace of quests twice) .

All of us were pretty impressed with ourselves. It seemed nothing could kill us. Enhancement shaman, Ret pally, Warrior tank and Disc priest really don't scream "aoe things to death". Me? Oh, I just blizzard a lot... Until the priest decided 2 giant behemoths on the way to the Princess weren't enough, and demanded we pull all of them.

Druids have wings!

WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING MOUNTS!

A month or so ago I finally got my druid a flying mount. No one else in a heroic Culling of Stratholme run needed the drake, so SNAG it was mine. Cool. Never really intend to use it, but whatever.

So, not surprising that the pretty mount rewards have meant jack to me, eh? However, every stinking time I get Arthas-be-damned heroic Oculus when I'm doing my daily random chain across 4 80s, I kind of beg in my head for the darn mount to be in my extra special bag of goodies at the end.

Ask and you shall receive!

Oh, lookee!

Blogs you should check out this week: Blessing of Kings covers a Paladin tanking spec, and I give it my approval. I still prefer Divinity in my prot tree, and see Pursuit of Justice as laughingly silly, so never get it. But that's just me. Seal of Command is GOOD. I loves it. Especially on big pulls. :) UK, UP, CoS. Yum.

Falling Leaves and Wings covers Quartz Procs, a module for my favorite addon (after grid). Delicious!

Bossypally covered low level ret tanking, too! YAY!

There's a ton more. But this blog is full of links so you can easily find the great ones. Or follow me on google reader to see what I thought should be shared with the world.

Amazingly, this week's weekly raid assignment was in the Halls of Ulduar instead of Jaraxxus for the billionth time. Oh the fun I've had so far, slogging through Loot Reaver (or whatever his name is in this expansion). The fun began on my holy paladin. There are 2 ways to start Flame Leviathan, kids, and one is the fast easy way and one is the NOT FAST OR EASY way. It became painfully obvious when the big mechano-thing busted through his doors to kick us out of the Halls of Ulduar that someone had spoken to the Lore Keeper of Norgannon, because pillars of light, adds of flowers, fire and brimstone started spawning, and we all died. Enter the facepalm!

So, we then had to go back and kill all the other junk that normally we could have skipped if our raid members had simply spoken to Brann Bronzebeard instead.

Lesson: NEVER SPEAK TO LOREKEEPER unless told to do so.

If you are raiding ICC10, your gear should make achievements in Ulduar silly easy. Especially the Flame Leviathan ones. (Or I could just think nothing compares to the complexity of dancing around Rotface or trying to kill Putricide, but that shows what I'm focused on right now.)



This is an easy achievement. Motorcycles get the oil down in front of him. This means have a basic idea of where people are going to kite (we used to try to kite diagonally across the room). And, this means you do NOT throw people on top of him to kill his towers, instead the people in the mid-sized vehicles throw pyrite on him and never stop, refilling as well. Super duper easy.

Moving on, I also realized that since all I pretty much do on the paladin is tank heroics on a daily basis for her frosts, she is now my source for primordial saronite. My tailoring priest is positively drooling at getting her hands on them.

This week my priest's 10man raiding guild Annihilation finally killed Rotface. We three healed it with a disc&holy priest combo, and a holy paly. (Does that count as 4 healers, with that awesome beacon spell? I think it does.) Now we start working on Putricide and hope we can get Rotface dead again next week. We had 4 hunters in the raid and one ret paladin. So... yeah. But it worked!

Biography of a Paladin

Zalam Njord'il is a blood elf paladin, specializing in holy healing but more than capable of donning tough armor and tanking one or several enemies on the battlefield. Her endurance and analytical skill suit both roles admirably.

Sefalir's story begins as merely a blood elf civilian living her life in Silvermoon City, daughter to an apothecary and mage, minor members of a noble family that served on the Silver Circle. I view her as a socialite more than anything else at this time. She was educated, but not driven to seek knowledge. The hints of a calling to the Light were suppressed by the needs of family, the bonds of blood and society and culture.

Her family was destroyed during the Third War, when Prince Arthas led his army of the Scourge against the High Elves, ravaging Quel'Thalas and corrupting the Sunwell. The utter collapse of society, after the initial struggles to survive using what she had picked up of herbalism from her mother, drove her to a madness that would have destroyed her had she not been functional enough to serve some purpose. Following the elves' trek to Outland, she found places at inns and taverns, exchanging food and a bed for barmaid duties. She spent most of the intervening years serving food, alcohol and perhaps more to the warriors following Prince Kael'thas. Self medicating through the arcane energy withdrawals and grief of losing her kin, she only returned to Silvermoon City in Grand Master Rommath's retinue of servants.

Living in Silvermoon City during the combat against Kil'jaeden in the Sunwell Plateau, she and the other blood elves of Silvermoon had varying degrees of reaction to the Sunwell's reignition from M'uru's crystal heart. It's rebirth struck her especially hard, and she blinked her eyes open to find a city guard and a fellow barmaid hovering over her prone body on the ground. Prophet Velen's words still echoed in her mind somehow, and it is from that point that she began to clean herself up and seek sobriety. Grief was still present but she found herself capable of functioning without alcohol, and soon found herself studying more and more at the City's libraries, and enrolled in the Paladin training regimen.

Sefalir took the name Zalam Njordil to honor her new path as a Paladin of the Light with which Prophet Velen and M'uru had spoken to her heart, and her family bloodline. Njordu was a family pet name for her father's branch of the bloodline represented on the Silver Circle.

Once Zalam did enough training in her martial and healing skills where only practice and further dedicated study would benefit her, she left Silvermoon City and began her own research as she travelled across the Eastern Kingdoms, flew across parts of Kalimdor, and travelled through parts of Outland. She never found much favor with the Blood Knights, and she didn't seek to gain it, disapproving of their history.

Nowadays, she abstains from alcohol, drugs and hedonism, focusing instead upon study of the history of her people, and exploring the lands of the world seeking more of the magic Light she first tasted in a dream of M'uru. Her companion is an arcane mage, a troll she rescued in the Hillsbrad Foothills. The pair explored all of Northrend together, and currently wage battle in Icecrown, tracking movements of the undead armies and assisting other explorers and warriors doing the same. They report to no command.

Healing style

Over time I believe I've mentioned that I'm not a very reactive healer, not really, anyways. I love to pug, and I love to heal on each of my healers, but my skill at healing is highly based on my raid leading and tanking experience. I heal based on my judgement of the incoming damage. But that judgement is based on my knowledge of the tank. Not really his class, though that comes into it probably. I develop expectations of incoming damage based on tanks and their gear. And I don't even gear check and I uninstall-ed GearScore last month! But given content and where most tanks are, I know my skill set and the damage the bosses deal out enough to keep healing pretty steady, I'd say.

I read all these great blogs about healers that are situationally aware and watching the boss's abilities so they can react to them. It just suddenly struck me that, well maybe I do that, without even realising it. I know the fights. I know what's coming, usually. But not move by move on the boss's part. I'm staring at green bars and watching how they move, and watching the debuffs flying around. (Oh how I love you GridRaidDebuff) It's the damage that's coming that tells me what I need to know. That might make me a subpar healer (though I rarely feel that way) but it does mean I need to have a good relationship with the tank. Could be a pug respectful one, but the more I trust the tank, the more they trust me, and the more confident I'm feeling about the fight in general, the better I heal.

Less than perfect, but that's just my style.

Side note: LOOK UP THERE! At the top. See? I won Abra's Cadaver. The mage Abramelin was kind enough to pass the staff so, since I was DPSing last night in ICC, I won it. /happy. I was amused by the name. Yay for silly humor.

Stacking the Deck

What do you do to stack your group/raid's deck? I guess this could mean classes, but really I'm wondering what you do when you put the groups together.

Me, I don't start invites until I have the tanks and heals covered, minimum. There's no point in getting people's hopes up without those key roles, and the impatience factor can seriously hurt anything happening without them!

For tens, I keep tanks and heals in the same group if there is a healing priest present. If there's no priest, but there is a healing shaman, and I build the tank/shaman group around those that will be in range of the totem. Onyxia this is pretty classic. Tanks, melee and shaman is told to always be in range of that tank with their totems.

On to the dps. DPS is so hit dependent, I build my groups around Heroic Presence. It is so good to be playing in the Alliance faction with that handy little feature! After duking it out with a past raid-leading-team that tried to put my draenai healer into a group that made little sense with her totem applications, whenever possible I put melee draenai with melee dps, and ranged draenai with ranged dps. This is because totems and heroic presence are range dependent. Sticking like ranged toons together, based on the necessities of the fight, is the optimal way to group them up.

I've been lucky that in my 25man raiding career we usually had a plethora of shamans. 2 enhancement and 2 resto, most nights. This means we had 2 resto split between the healer group and caster group (yay mana tide totem usage, not to mention the other buffs being shared) and the enhancements were put into the tank group1 and a melee group. This left a tad bit of quibble room on the last group, but the benefits for the rest with added healing, hit coverage, fear protection, extra dps, all seemed worth it.

It doesn't always work out that way tho. Sometimes groups have to be built on their assignments. Onyxia is another great example because half the raid at least is focusing on running about and killing the big dragon, while others are killing adds. Grouping those teams together where possible makes good usage, too! Let's face it, it's not on every fight that we can all be grouped up together and hope everyone gets coverage with everything. Group-limited effects really spoil that, too.

What I've never really wrapped my mind around before is raids that have both sanctuary and kings up... /boggle

What do you do to build groups/raids? What did I forget?

Healing with new toons

Yesterday after running my daily random heroic on my horde paladin, I was killing time doing stuff and saw a group desperate for one more healer for ICC10. It sort of killed me. When does healing experience and raiding experience makes up for a lack of actual hands-on-practice? I'm sure this is a quandary many altitis sufferers deal with.

She'd have been third healer, but a tank healer. She's undergeared and still has blue boots. (Guess I have to get the ulduar pattern crafted). She only had 2200 bonus healing and 31% crit (totally unbuffed). I felt weak, basically, and weak + unsure at my healing skills = not a good place to be healing for a pug you'd like to make a good impression with. Since she's my only horde 80 I don't want to ruin my server reputation should anyone figure out who my Alliance mains are.

My goal is to heal on this paladin. That was why I made her, to flesh out with the 4th healing class my stable of healers, and learn the mechanics well enough that I felt confident giving directions to other holy paladins. I have 99% confidence in my ability to lead priests (even holy, which I have never played), druids, and shamans. But near to zero with paladins.

Sadly, since hitting 80 and the mad rush to gear up and get my rep and my emblems, I've tanked 99% of all things. Healing only happens when a guild tank offers or is seeking a guild heroic binge. That's it. I've healed exactly one daily random, and every single day I queue up as tank/heals. Sadness. So really I have no clue what I could do given an unknown tank factor, let alone unknown co-heals factors.

This lack irritates me, but given real life situation, my wow time may be put on hiatus depending on how strong the internet wireless junk is at my new place. So I guess we'll see what happens this coming week and weekend!

Goals: Rep grind!

Reputation is a joke on my alts, but on my oldest toon, my main, my lovely druid, I really want to get her rep up. I freaking crave the Guardian of Cenarius title. But.... sadly I'm lazy. Too lazy with too many 80s to do randoms on to sit and grind annoying rep.

So what are my rep goals with her?

Argent Dawn to exalted. No I will not get the other Argent rep. I've done like 3 dailies at the Tournament. Seriously.

Sporeggar to exalted. I'm almost there and getting sanguine hibiscus should be simple with my tank spec.

Scale of the Sands? She's revered now, but in the bottom half, so... Not sure how possible this will be.

The Kalu'ak to exalted. Silly and easy dailies. I really just wish Dalaran didn't lag me out so badly.

The Ashen Verdict, Silver Covenant, Explorer's League and Frostborn will come naturally it seems just from heroics with no tabard on. I dig it.

If I count right I'm at 23 exalted reps right now. 4 more with these goals, and 4 more to come just from my daily activities. 30 exalted reps will be sweet as hell! Maybe I could even do the Netherwing stuff!

Healing ICC thoughts

I've managed to heal through ten man ICC up through Saurfang on my discipline priest, my resto druid and my resto shaman. I also heal 25 man ICC on the druid. It's been... interesting. And a school of hard knocks. Here's what has been going through my mind when facing this huge payload of damage I have to help heal.

My main is the druid, and I've done far more 25s with her than 10s, I've also simply been in there more with her. I have affiliations with other guilds on the server and have pugged the priest and shaman into their tens when they were short healers or doing alt runs. But the most pain has been felt on my druid.

Why?

Because with a good raid, the trash is EASY sauce heal-wise. At least with my co-healers. Most nights we run 2 holy palys, 1 disc priest, 1 or 2 resto shamans, and me. Yeah that's a lot of friggin heals. And they're all awesome at their job. So me and my measly little hots are brushed aside pretty easily. And, I try to hurricane or Faerie Fire or roots but with heavy melee and aoe damage, basically I stand there and look pretty. (Good thing my druid is damn fine!)

Last night I was talking in our guild healing chat channel. And I said "honestly, at this point, I pretty much view my job as putting up healing buffers to keep people alive until the palys or the shamans or even the priest let loose a heal bomb. I know the heal bombs are there and I know it's going to come. I just gotta keep people alive til then." A very forgettable job. :( My heal numbers look like crap. My overheal is insane. The numbers don't bother me since I know and accept my role. But I know my RaidLeaders don't really get it. How'd I go from uber heals in TOC to nada in ICC? Well we went from 5 to 7 healers. And 1 shaman to 2 most nights. My hots are overwritten so fast, it's only on fights that are freaking crazy to heal (Marrowgar and Deathwhisper) that I might actually put up a good show numbers wise. I mean, I'm still doing my job. I'm healing to my best. But it's hard to show that until everyone in the raid is nearly dead and my hots helped keep them alive. Luckily, one of the uber paladins that heals our raids saw my chatting and loosely agreed with me, then later on in our 2healed 10 man he complimented me because we healed that to death and rocked it. The best compliment is when he says "I like not having to stress about the healing situation." Yay?!

In TOC I loved my crit, even at a lowly 22%. I didn't even have the (4) T9 that let Rejuv crit, but in TOC it was WG that went a little crazy. My healing strategy was Rejuv and Nourish heavy with WG every time it was on cooldown. But now that I'm in ICC with more healers that heal like mack trucks, I've switched to Rejuv and Regrowth, and pulled Swiftmend out of the cobwebs. I mean, it was on my bar, but I barely had to use it. In ICC despite the Chill of the Throne damage is intense and fast heals are king, I think. Well fast heals and bubbles! And my heals... are not fast, unless I nourish spam, which makes me just another healer like the rest in my healing crew. I want to heal my best, but I want to really bring something useful to the raid, and I think my methodology now is good, given the other awesome healers I raid with.

Marrowgar and Deathwhisper are where I really love my glyph of Rejuvenation. Whatever it's proper name, it boosts heals when targets are below 50%. That thing has saved lives on Marrowgar, I know it. GCD annoys the piss out of me in ICC. Did I mention I'm not haste capped yet? Not by a long shot. And the one upgrade I've gotten to drop in ICC10 (last night) has crit on it. #%!@! I actually traded out equal ilevel bracers from TOC and lost 2 sockets just for some haste. This is making me sad. But I refuse to gem purely for haste and I love my socket bonuses. So I'm up a creek without a paddle, basically, until I can get more upgrades.

I learned on Deathwhisper that I simply HAD to change my hot keys for ICC. Which is tough as I try to make my cleanses across all my toons on the same hotkey. My aoe heals on the same hotkey. My bigger heals on the same hotkey. Because of this hot mentality I'm focusing on with the druid, I really had to shift away from that. And I have to bring in my decurse for this Witch. It's aggravating and pushing me to set up clique and get it working. And it was Marrowgar that made me reconfig my Disc Priest's buttons.

On my druid, this is where I'm at with my hot buttons.

I really feel I should probably switch Nourish and Swiftmend, but then I use Swiftmend when I intended to nourish and I get confused, mostly because of my keybind setup across all 4 of my healers. I may have to macro Swiftmend to my Rejuv or Regrowth buttons with a modifier. I don't use many macros at all so this is a big undertaking for me. But like I said, ICC is pushing me to become a better healer. Clique may be needed to transform my cleansing life on all my toons.

As for my Discipline Priest had her share of keybind shakeups to get through ICC. I've only been in ten man a few times with her, but the first was extremely rough for a number of reasons and really bushed me to get the most out of my healing there. I learned from that escapade and next time in made some changes.



After the experience in ICC, and leading to a successful 2 heal 10man clear through Saurfang with my resto tree buddy (@xparanormalityx) I used this setup instead.



I have to say, healing ICC with the priest was HELLA FUN. On my druid I feel weak and too slow, and shaman is.. awesome in an epeen sorta way. But I felt my most versatile and best on the priest. Even as a tank healer, two healing it with my druid buddy made me intensely happy to heal again. Maybe it was just that that ten man had a certain ambiance that made everything fun and good. Not sure, but it was great.

The shaman? She's OP. Walked into a 25man ICC pug and chain heal stomped holy priests that overgeared her, though I was fighting with a druid for pure numbers. The drops that druid got made me cry inside for my main, but the shaman got a suuuuuper shield so I was happy. She's not the first to get tier 10, as the druid got her gloves for some sexy haste, but she's undoubtedly the sexiest of my toons, even if the most underplayed. Life in my bank guild is quiet.

Oculus can fuck off

The rantings of the pro/anti Oculus arguments are getting on my nerves. In a big way. I'm stubborn enough that the more crap they try to drop in my lap, and the more furious some people get that I don't like the instance and I won't run it if it pops in random LFG (so sorry but those other 4 aren't paying my monthly subscription) the more irate I get and closer to telling people to jump off a cliff. I have done Oculus. I cleared it with guild, I wiped in it with guild, I've cleared and wiped with pugs. It's not fun for me. I will force myself to do it sometimes. Other times 15minutes debuff won't bother me. I have 3 other 80s and more alts, and an hour debuff won't bother me either. So, seriously, carrot, stick, whatever, for some of us nothing is going to sweeten this deal or force us to do that instance.