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.