Holy Paladining in Cata - A Beginner's Guide

A new expansion is here, and it's time to re-learn our class. Things are a little different than at 80, but overall, we're in a solid place right now. This guide will follow the same format as my previous guides, covering spec, gems, glyphs, and playstyle.

Last updated: Jan 27th, 2011

10 More Tips For Cata Healing

I rather like this picture. Thanks Google!

I wanted to have my "How to Paladin" guide updated by today, but alas, work has gotten the better of me, and between that and gearing up, I just haven't had time to properly finish it. Expect it early next week. Anyways, thanks to some links, and a big thanks to the people who linked to me, I've been receiving a ton of e-mail in response to my Cata healing tips for Paladins. People have still been expressing some concern to me though, and I've been asked several times for more, so I wrote up a few more general tips to survive through these beginning gear levels on my Blackberry at work today. Hurray smartphones! Anyways, here's a few more tips that will hopefully help somebody out.

Did We Really Not See This Coming?

MS Paint: Because Photoshop wouldn't open and I was short on time.

Let's be honest. As much as I hate to admit it, as someone who plays more than one healing class....Paladins were OP. You're lying to yourself if you say otherwise, or at the very least you haven't done a raid and seen how we utterly destroy other healers in mana efficiency and output yet. That was remedied with the hotfixes last night. Folks, Tower of Radiance has been nerfed. Light of Dawn also got hit in the swinging of the bat. (I mean seriously, look at that guy's arms!)

Initially I was, like many of you probably are, pissed. But, after I thought about it a little, we had this coming. I'm not saying it brings us inline though, we still have some kinks to work out, let's take a look.

10 Tips for Cata Healing on a Pally

Don't freak out! We're still OP!

Now that I've gotten a decent amount of heroics under my belt, I can honestly say I have never had more fun healing. Every one of my spells has a purpose, and managing mana isn't as bad as I thought it would be. However, I've been sad to hear that a few of my friends who are healers are throwing in the towel because they feel it's too difficult. Don't give up yet! Here's some notes that should help you out a bit when it comes to adjusting to this new system.

Organizing A 10 Man Team

 Slightly related: Are you a healer in search of a 10 man, hard mode progression raid for Cataclysm? My 10 is seeking a healer; Preferably a druid, but anything other than pally (I know, most of my readers) would work. We'll be raiding 7-11pm PST on Wednesdays and Thursdays. If this sounds like something that might interest you, contact me and we can talk about it further. I promise I won't bite.

As I was perusing  Blog Azeroth the other day, this weeks shared topic, suggested by Shop of Runeforge Gossip, caught my eye. Catch his post here. Anyways, he proposed the topic of 10 man raids, and what goes into forming them. To quote him:

"...this has gotten me thinking about how we think of classes. We tend to see them mostly as what buffs they bring and their DPS. But often other things are important too, and even more so given that Blizzard wants us to pay more attention to things like CC, mana management, that sort of thing (no more simple stand and DPS fights)"

I've been thinking about 10 mans a lot lately. I want to look at his proposed topic, as well as other things that you need to think about when dealing with a 10 man.

Is A Main More Than Just A Class?

My name is Aunna, and I'm an altoholic. My healers are my favorites, but recently I've been playing my hunter more than usual, and I've made a little warrior tank. (Gnome tanks are adorable!) I was having a discussion with a friend, and we began talking about the class changes, and he mentioned how he doesn't like the changes to his main class, but is very fond of an alt now, so he was considering switching mains. I've swapped mains in the past, but I've never had as many things on my main as I do now. I can't imagine not furthering the work on just her, and leaving alts as alts. When has there been too much work into a toon to swap anymore?

I like all my characters. If you asked me which one I liked the most, I would say my Paladin. However, if you rephrase the question a bit, my answer would be different. For example, if I lost my account and had to start from scratch again, what would I make first? My answer would not be the same. I'm not sure what it would be, but it wouldn't be a Paladin.

I love the mechanics of my main, but I love the same things about my alts too. What keeps me there isn't the class. It's the amount of work put into her. The titles, the achievements, the mounts. Things that just aren't viable on alts. Even beyond that, it's the reputation I have. The fact that people know my main. Her name is familiar on my server, and I often name drop her to get into groups on my alts. There are a ton of things that I just can't re-create on another toon, and that's what keeps me from swapping.

For the foreseeable future, my Paladin will remain my main. I will keep putting work into her, and making her as amazing as possible. I will also continue raiding on my alts, but they will never get the same amount of care that she does.

I'm really curious to hear from someone who does swap mains a lot, especially if you are a hardcore raider or have something otherwise unattainable on a former main. How can you handle letting go?

/bubblehearth

Holy Paladining in 4.03 - A beginner's guide

Mmmm, shiny new stats page.

Now that 4.01 is out, and we have some class changes upon us, I wanted to re-write my Holy Pally guide to give folks that are a little stuck an idea of what's going on. This will just cover basics, and it's worth noting that things will be quite a bit different at 85.

A Look At Cata Healing, Part 2: Class Design

So I'm posting this a little later than originally anticipated, but mostly because of a bug with druids on the beta that I've been waiting for them to fix to get a more accurate scope of the class. They still haven't, but I suppose it's not a huge deal. Anyways, after many, many Cata heroics, I must say, I'm having a blast with the new healing system. I told myself I wouldn't spend so much time on beta and I'd enjoy the last bit of the expansion, but wow. They done good.

A Look At Cata Healing, Part 1: General Design

I couldn't think of an appropriate image, so here's an adorable kitty.

 So I've finally had time to actually play with (almost) all my healing characters now fairly extensively in an instance setting on beta, and I must say, It's quite different. Not that I've had the chance to play with it, it's time for me to pontificate about the new system's ups and downs. This will be split into two parts, this first part dealing with general design of the healing system, and a second part dealing with individual classes and my thoughts on the changes to them. The second part will be posted in a few days.

Why The Paladin?

I have a ton of healers. An unhealthy amount even. So one question I get a lot is "Why do you play your Paladin? What makes you like it more than your other healers?" It's kind of a hard question to answer, but there's a few things about the Paladin that just have me hooked.

My UI

Not my normal ui, but I do have a better version of it saved in my Reflux that I use for PvP. Super adorable, right? Click past the break for my actual raid ui and a breakdown of my mods.

 I've gotten requests for this a few times since posting my Vuhdo Guide, so I just want to quickly run over the mods I use so I can point people here when they ask. I use the same basic ui on all 4 of my healers, and I use it on my hunter as well, just replacing Vuhdo with Shadowed Unit Frame's raid frames instead. This will be explained in two screenshots, one out of combat explaining the basic things, and one in combat. I change my ui a ton, but I've been really happy with this one and it's what I've used almost exclusively for PvE since ICC came out.

Healing Peripherals

While this works all well and good, I highly suggest upgrading.

Good peripherals can really aid in the job of keeping people alive. Personally, I just don't like the feel of a standard 3 button mouse and a basic keyboard. I have small hands, so it's just not realistic for me to be able to reach my "9" and "0" keys while still being able to use "WASD" to move. Plus, as a healer you are most likely using either mouseovers, or click bindings. Both of these methods of healing can be greatly enhanced by getting some better peripherals. Depending on how much you want to spend, there's several options available.

In Defense of Lightwell

While browsing the cata beta forums, I noticed quite a few threads about Lightwell. The general consensus is that it sucks, and there's nothing to be done to fix it, so get rid of it. But, there's a few folks who rather like this interesting little spell, myself included. Before you get out the torches and pitchforks, hear me out. This spell has some use.

Adjusting To A New Guild

The Old Guild

Recently my guild decided to call it quits until the expansion. Not everyone was ready to put more time into hardmode Lich King, and that's fine. However, a handful of us also weren't ready to give up quite yet, so many of us have server transferred to find a new guild, myself included. The last week has been my first with a new raid group in about a year, and it's been quite an experience so far.

PvP Healing For The PvE Healer

My heart goes out to combat medics.

 The end of the expansion is the best time to capitalize on aspects of the game you don't play often. It could be leveling alts, working on achievements, farming gold, etc. What I want to focus on right now though is PvP. And this isn't going to be a "this is how you do it" article. I just want to point you in the right direction to have a little fun healing in a PvP environment.

Teamwork and Healing

B.A.  is totally the Shaman, screw the Night Elf Mohawk crap.

Teamwork is a big deal when healing, I think all healers understand that to a degree. But, do we really understand just how much teamwork matters? With the changes in Cataclysm's healing model, teamwork is looking to be a bigger deal in the coming expansion than it has been before, and were all going to need to adjust our skillset. I want to discuss how teamwork is currently factoring in, where it's headed, as well as some general tips on working with your fellow healers.

BA Shared Topic - Group Relations, Assisting Your Healers

So I really liked the idea for the shared topic this week over at Blog Azeroth. This week it's group relations; how you can go above and beyond standard play to assist and protect members of your group. I want to focus particularly on what a dps can do to help me out as a healer. Little things that aren't required, but would definitely impress me, and maybe get you into my good graces so I'll heal you on trash. I'm looking at you, fury warriors!

More H Pally Beta Info - Build 12759

New beta build, new stuff to talk about! Sorry for the sloppy/ugly format, just trying to get this posted for my own use more than anything else. I do have some screenies of the new holy power ui element though.

Game Sound And Healing

The argument of whether or not game sound is helpful crops up from time to time in raids, and so I wanted to take some time to point out why you, as a healer, are gimping yourself without it. However, I enjoy listening to music while I raid as much as the next guy, so I want to share some tips about how to make game sound, vent, and your music all live together in harmony. It seems like something small, but by not using game sound, you're taking out an entire sense. That can seriously gimp you, even if you don't think it is.

Even the default sound options are fairly flexible

Holy Paladin - A Beginner's Guide

So I know there's a large amount of holy paladin guides out there, but someone asked me a question in trade today that got me wanting to write this. How do you play a Holy Paladin? I couldn't really give a quick and simple answer, so i wanted to make a post to cover the basics, so when I get asked this, I have a reference to link to. It's the end of an expansion, and I know a large amount of this information is changing soon, but it's also the ideal time to begin playing with your alts and offsets, so here goes.

Spirit to Hit Conversion: Best Thing Ever? Quite Possibly.

When I say I love all things healing, I am conveniently forgetting to mention something: I hate leveling. Leveling healers is pretty much the worst thing ever. Sure, you can sit there for an hour while ten mobs beat on you, but that's about how long it takes to kill them. Yea, you can group up and instance easier, but isn't that what dual specs are for? I'm sure plenty of people level as a healing spec just fine, but I'm not one of them. It's pretty much the only time I DO bust out a dps spec, as most of my toons are usually dual specced healing, whether that be for pve and pvp, or simply utility for different fights. So, how does this change affect the hardcore health bar junkie? Do we need to start building up an offset just to level without missing every other shot? Short answer: Nope.

Mana Management - Tips to Avoid Going OOM

While mana management becomes fairly obsolete at high gear levels, it's something that lesser geared players and newer raiders do need to concern themselves with. Having an endless mana pool is something that many geared players, myself included, can easily take for granted, and that can come back to bite you. For example, as a Holy Paladin on hard mode LK, if I stop casting at the wrong time, my tank will die. Because of this, I need to be aware of my mana pool and my surroundings, and know how to manage my resources so that I don't run out in this long fight. With Blizzard wanting to make mana management part of a healer's routine again, I want to take a look at some strategies healers can use to maximize cooldowns and intelligently manage their resources.

How to set up Vuhdo

 DISCLAIMER: This, being my most visited page by far, is something I care about keeping current. If you have a question that is not addressed by my guide, ask me! I'll get back to you quickly. A comment on youtube, an e-mail, or a comment here are simple ways. Also, things in Vuhdo change often. If you notice something in my videos has changed to the point where it's completely irrelevant, let me know and I'll update this.

When it comes to healing addons and raid frame packages, Vuhdo takes the cake for the best available. While some people would argue that Grid is better, it just doesn't have the same amount of sheer customization that Vuhdo offers. Vuhdo also offers built in click bindings, like those that you would find in healbot. This eliminates the need for a companion mod such as clique, but if you want to use it anyways, Vuhdo still offers support for that as well. This kind of flexibility and the fact that you only need Vuhdo itself and not any extra little plug ins are why it has been at the forefront of my interface since shortly after it's release. However, it can be kind of complex to set up, and I often get asked question from other healers about it's configuration, so I wanted to make this post, and the following videos, to help alleviate some of the stress of dealing with a new addon.

My Vuhdo set up, one of many options

New Launcher Live in Beta

So today I wanted to do a post on the default UI in the beta, and how it affects healing, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. I wanted to get a better feel for it first, and when I logged in to do so today, i was greeted by a message telling me the new launcher that was recently announced is now available, and I'd have to reinstall WoW. I thought I'd use the opportunity to take a look at this new launcher and how it affects game play if you fire it up before it's completely done patching.

Getting By With The Stock UI

I love addons. I absolutely love them. UI customization is one of the biggest factors in keeping me stuck to WoW over all the other shiny MMOs that pop up. Something about being able to change anything that ever slightly annoys me is just satisfying. Don't like where the map is? No problem. Unhappy with how buffs are displayed? It can be fixed. Bejeweled addict? There's an add-on for that too.

I've been spending much of my time lately in beta, and in order to test things, addons are disabled. How can a healer survive in a world with naught but the stock ui? I know, I'm being over dramatic. There's a handful of individuals that prefer the stock ui, but for the majority of us, it simply isn't an option. But, when left with no other choice, there are a few things we can do to get by.

Paladin Spell Values in the Beta

I really couldn't think of a better title. Forgive me, I'm tired.


Anyways, what this is is just a comprehensive list of all the spells in beta right now, and how they compare to spells currently in live. My goal with this is to give an idea of how the playstyle is changing, strictly by the numbers. Click past the jump for the break down of the Paladin class in a live vs beta comparison.

The Stonecore - My First Experience In Cataclysm Healing

The Stonecore

Last night I logged into the beta server and realized that much of the information I had gathered thus far was really not much without application of it. Data alone is useless. So, I donned my healing gear and opened up my queue page. Not knowing much about any of the instances, I decided to just hit the "random Cataclysm dungeon" and see what happened. After about 15 minutes of waiting, I was on my way to The Stonecore.

I never thought I'd start a blog.

If you would have approached me a few years ago and asked me my interests, writing would not have been on that list. However, the more I think about it, I really do spend a large amount of time writing. Whether it be discussing new strategy in game, or posting thoughts on forums, I was already doing much of what I expect to accomplish by publishing my thoughts here. Now, it's just centralized.

In a game as expansive as WoW, player interactions quite frequently stem beyond the world of Azeroth. Most players I talk to check one or more fan sites at least semi regularly. Whether it be wow.com, mmo-champion, elitist jerks, plus heal, or any number of other websites, most players don't stop with just what's presented in game.

Now, as the places to find information vary, so do the reasons people visit them. Some are simply looking for news, others a place to chat with like minded people about their hobby, or maybe they're trying to better their abilities and are looking for tips.

I fall into all these categories and more. I strive to be the best I can, I love hearing about what's planned for the game, and I really enjoy discussing things with other fans. I spend a large amount of my leisure time outside the game researching changes and discussing them. I started this blog as a place to centralize my ideas, and perhaps help another player or two find the information they were looking for. When people ask me questions about my class, rather than link them to ten different theory crafting sites that I've commented on, I wanted to be able to say "Hey, I wrote a post about that on my blog a week back. It's pretty easy to understand, why don't you check it out and then we can talk if you have more questions?"

So I never thought I'd start a blog. I didn't think I'd enjoy it, and I didn't think anyone else would get any use out of it. But, even if it's only me reading this, It's somewhere I can collaborate and reflect upon my thoughts as this ever changing game grows. And if it helps someone else, I'm a healer, it's what I do.

/bubblehearth