Spam Healing Vs. Triage

Boosh.

 Pardon the unstructure of this (Yes, I just made up a word), I've been busy these last few weeks and decided to finish up this post sitting in my drafts on my blackberry while I had some downtime away from home. This isn't up to my usual quality standards, but it's been on my mind and I've been ridiculously busy with a heavy class load and work. I'll try to polish it up a bit later if I get some time.

Now that Cata has been out for awhile, and we've gotten to play around with the new healing system, we can finally make some decisions about whether or not we actually like it. Was spam healing superior, or do we like that we've gone back to the triage days of old? Is triage "too hard" for people to grasp? Are we even truly on a triage system?

On Haste, Crit, And Other Secondary Stats

Ah, the haste-crit conundrum. I'm not going to say I was completely avoiding talking about this, but I was completely avoiding talking about this. However, it comes up a lot and so I want to share my thoughts on the situation thusfar and attempt to give folks some sort of basic idea. Now, I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm not really a big math person. I'll let the folks over at Elitist Jerks handle the math, and I'm going to focus more on what their numbers mean, and the practicality of them. We will go over numbers, but I see no need to reinforce the math they've already done, so any rating conversions are pulled from there.

My goal here is to just give you at least an idea of where to begin when looking at gear, particularly for reforging purposes. So to achieve that goal, we are going to take a look at haste, crit, mastery, and spirit. Let's look at what they do, how they interact, and what gives you more bang for your buck.

Regarding Blessed Life in PvE

Rank 2 is just a 100% chance.

Not often I delve into more theorycrafty posts. Theorycrafting in general is difficult to understand for a large amount of players and that's not really the reader base I'm going for. I like simple information that is easy to understand and put into practice. A lot of times things are explained in a complicated manner and not given the proper context, which leads people to misuse the information. And frankly, I prefer to leave the numbers to those better suited to it. I do occasionally do my own calculations, but I'm a psychology student. Statistical analysis is about as mathematical as I get. However, combing World of Logs is something anyone can do so I wanted to just show some of my results here and throw in my two cents about this often debated talent.

How to Make Sense of World of Logs

Ah, finally. Technical difficulties aside, my guide to using World of Logs is finally finished, in some sense. As usual, I'm rather long winded so the videos are not short, but they encompass a good chunk of the site's basic features and should leave you comfortable enough to browse log reports on your own. Also, I'm absolutely horrible with video stuff, so don't expect anything fantastic. These are more about the information than the terrible editing job, so please forgive me there.



Next 2 vids are after the break.

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.