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.