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.

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!

Northrend on the Horizon

My paladin alt is on the verge of entering that frozen land in the great north of Azeroth. I finally gathered up the gold to get dual spec, and have to actually consider my talents for holy, as well as reconsider my erstwhile levelling prot-ish sort-of talents. My group mates trust me to hold aggro but I'm not a very professional paladin tank, that's for sure! I had to beat my mage buddy into playing as frost for most of our leveling time because it certainly made my job a tiny bit easier, along with he stayed alive longer to actually kill the massive amounts of crap we were pulling..

So I've gotten the Dual Spec and now I'm staring at the Holy tree in bafflement. Did I mention I haven't hit a healing spell more than ten times during leveling? Lifeblood doesn't count.. neither does Lay on Hands. (Sadly I have hit that one quite a few!)

So, with experienced healer eyes but brand new paladin eyes, this is sort of what went through my mind choosing talents:

Spiritual Focus vs. Seals of the Pure : Though I hate pushback talents on all my healers, given the nature of pally "stand there and heal it!" healing, and the alternative with seals that seem to have nothing to do with healing, Spiritual Focus was an easy choice to go deeper into the tree.


With my shaman and priest experience under my belt, Divine Intellect and then Illumination were easy choices to move on down the tree.

In level 4, I need something to connect to Divine Favor from Illumination. Improved Blessing of Wisdom is only 2 talents, so to find where to put 3, I had to jump back up the tree. No offense, but my pally isn't raiding yet, and I have no troubles healing instances I know she's geared/level appropriate for, so that improved Concentration Aura talent seems silly while I'm trying to learn my holy pally business. My eyes glazed over at the hands talent choice in that level too. Who knows I'm probably just one of those bad pallys.

So I found those other 3 talent points fit nicely in Healing Light, level 2 of the tree.

Moving on down, we grab Divine Favor and then Sanctified Light. I don't know much, but I know pallys like crit! Last point I dumped into Improved Lay on Hands in level three. The text of Pure of Heart really interested me, but didn't seem immediately apparent in usefulness. As I do some healing and deal with all the northrend debuffs, we'll see if I revisit that choice.

Filling up Holy Power seemed like a no brainer, and then we have our point in Holy Shock, leaving 4 points to play with. I liked the Light's Grace and have high hopes for it! One point left, back to Improved Lay on Hands I go.

Now we're at level 8. This whole level looks good. My first choice is just to move down the tree, so 5 into Holy Guidance we go. I'll reconsider Sacred Cleansing later, maybe.

Level 9 is another level full of goodies. I really wanted Divine Illumination, mainly from all the OOM hell of prot tanking lately. My blue bar has been pissing me off a lot. So, grabbed Divine illumination and put the other 4 points into Judgement of the Pure. This was a tough choice as there seemed to be an interesting mix of "wait I have to do what to the bad guys?" and "mmmmm yummy haste". But with nothing else obvious in the tree jumping at me, I'll stick with Judgement of the Pure. I really do need to become a better pally.



Infusion of Light is sexy and an easy choice as I was so damned determined to move on down the tree! Even I know that holy pallys do cast judgement on bosses and mobs, so the Enlightened Judgements seemed like one of those talents I should have, even if I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to be using it yet. The last point to get to the final level I put into filling up Judgements of the Pure on level 9.

FINALLY the bottom of the tree. I know I've got it good, having never pally healed before Beacon. Trust me I know. That doesn't stop the excitement at finally having it.

So there was my stroll through my chosen holy talents. 51/0/0 The rest is just icing on the cake, right? On one hand I want to get to Conviction in the ret tree, but I know that bubble is somewhere in the prot tree. I guess I get to do some experimenting, if I really do get to play holy some as I move towards 80. At level 68 my pally had 5 in Divinity in the Protection tree, and 3 in Benediction in the ret tree, though I'm considering putting those back in holy's Sacred Cleansing talent.



Fun times ahead!

Dreams and memories

A hesitant hand carefully holding a fragile ink tipped metal nub slowly crossed a blank page...

I remember nothing of the darkness. Nothing. I was called Sefalira and I danced, and sang, and drank. Everything was dust, and nothing mattered. I was empty and hollow and it's a miracle I didn't die. I'm not sure how I did not, other than the rest of those struggling to survive wouldn't dare to let one more elf perish to the evil that had all but destroyed them. It had destroyed me.

But eventually, the emptiness became less painful. One dawn I blinked my eyes open and realised I could see the clouds above me. The carpet of green beneath me, where I must have fallen the evening before, was better kept than my own appearance. And suddenly I cared.

But I was still lost. Merely going through the motions of cleaning myself, walking through the remains of the city and staring determinedly past the ghosts of family and friends that haunted me. My self exile within a lack of memory was gone, but I couldn't allow the fear to return.

The small leather bound journal closed, while green eyes closed and a dark head of chin-length hair bowed for a moment. Her shoulders moved with a deep breath. Opening the tome once more, graceful yet callused fingers continued...

Where faith dwells, hope is never lost, young blood elf. Gaze now, mortals - upon the HEART OF M'URU! Unblemished. Bathed by the light of Creation - just as it was at the Dawn. In time, the light and hope held within - will rebirth more than this mere fount of power... Mayhap, they will rebirth the soul of a nation.

Blessed ancestors! I feel it... so much love... so much grace... there are... no words... impossible to describe...

Salvation, young one. It waits for us all.

It was the rebirth of the Sunwell, and that magical voice speaking in my mind with an essence of Light so pure and true that cleared what remained of the numbness. I was still young for an elf, but time had indeed passed. Only hazy memories remained of the dark places where my brothers and sisters had born me to, providing safety and security and ensuring I did not grieve to death. So there in the grass and the sunlight of a new day, finally, I awoke. And the dream of nothing was gone.

The Light restored me as if I had never lost the glow of the Sunwell, the love of family and friends, the care and protection of kin.

Again she closed the book, carefully wrapping it in a waxy leaf covering and binding it with oiled string. Tucking it into a traveling pack with the meanest collection of survival and utility gear, she stood quickly, resettling her sword. Lifting two fingers to her lips, a piercing whistle was answered by a shrill bird sound followed by a heavily pounding pair of feet. An immense bird with a saddle paused at her side, its head twisting and turning as it peered around the edge of the forest where her rider had paused for a short break.

"Sefalir" her soft voice spoke quietly, and while the bird crooned in response, the Blood Elf tossed her head back and laughed shortly. "Let's go meet those at Tarren Mill waiting for us, ladybird. Time that more were introduced to Zalam-njordil." A small crooken smile graced her mouth when she dropped into a curtsy made strange in her costume. Blue-scaled armor rested on her thighs and shoulders, while heavier green armor made of turtle shells rested on her forearms and boots. It was such a mundane appearance, except from the glitter of her green glowing eyes, the sheen of infused Light upon her blade and the shield now tucked at her back.

Healing Assignment Redux

The question I pose is this: Any help on what to do with 2 pally healers and 3 tanks? And, should multiple holy pallys use the same judgement? We had 3 holy pallys, zero ret and prots. For the full story, read on.

Last night was a nasty night of wiping on Ignis. It's not a hard fight, it's just very chaotic with a LOT of things going on, and very healing intensive because of the constant raid wide damage.

Our main tank or an off tank was almost always the first to die. This is a great clue that healing assignments just weren't effective. So I've been struggling to come up with something better, but I have a massive problem. I don't understand paladin healers. I'm currently leveling a paladin but she's in her 20s and is more prot than ret at the moment. So I really have very little clue how raid healing works.

We started with 3 tanks, 7 healers. 2 bear off tanks and a DK main tank. 3 paladin healers, 2 shaman healers, 2 druid healers.

After the fifth wipe, I traded my bear out for my priest (we really had no priest buffs before then, too, no shadows) because I seriously failed grabbing those adds. 2fps is not helpful there. So one of the paladins went prot. That leaves us with a Prot paladin and a bear on the adds, and a DK main tank. 2 paladin healers, 2 shamans, 2 druids and a discipline priest.

So, the healing numbers of the paladins were really unimpressive. I am not healing lead in that guild, but often I step in and make solid recommendations (especially when healing assignments are bass ackwards). I know priest, shaman and druid healing even if I'm not a number whore about it. I try to use both class strengths and healer-player strengths to their fullest.

Any help on what to do with 2 pally healers and 3 tanks? I don't solidly understand pally skills. For some reason the RL who is a paladin healer had 2 pallys on the same assignment and then wondered why one of them had low healing numbers... *sigh* My other big issue is there is so little communication among healers. My other guild actually has a GUILDhealers channel for healer discussion. So I don't know that the pallys communicated beacon targets, that they worked together at all. Just, ugh.

And I really hate to make suggestions regarding pallys because I don't understand the spells well enough.