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.