Monday Recap

As always, I spent a lot of my weekend playing WoW, so Monday tends to be lawl, recap day.  This Saturday was actually mostly spent on belated birthday celebrations, in which I was dragged to Medieval Times and spent hours going “OH MY GOD STEAL ME THAT PONEH.”  Because nothing will turn me into a puddle of happy faster than cheesy acting, food eaten with fingers, and Delicious Andalusians to stare at. Seriously people: Best.  Horses.  EVAR.   There was this one black one that was…my dream horse.  Right there.  RIGHT THERE.  OH MY GOD.  /dies

…wait, this is a WoW blog, innit?  Fuck.  Okay. 

PONEH PONEH PON-

…ahem.

I had scheduled a 10 man Naxxon Sunday “for the lulz” as the calender says.  What this basically meant was that loot rules were suspended, ’cause no one is gonna bring their alt if it can’t get gear.  Ironically we ended up with only one alt, and then several mains who were after a few items still.  And me.  The loothoover.  Omnomnomnomloot.

Of course I mostly ended up hoovering offset gear, ’cause the loot gods were being silly like that.  I can now be hitcapped in shadow spec.  Woo?  Yeah, I’ll have to lrn2shadowpriest at some point.  I haven’t had a caster DPS class since my mage, who has been level 55 for a couple of years now.  I did get a spiffy offhand and hat, though, for disc pew pew lazer fun. 

I found, however, that I kept running…OOM.  Whaaaat?  Either my stats are offbalance (possible),  or the complete and utter lack of a replenishment class really sucked that much (also entirely possible).  Oh, and of course, Sapph battles that last for THIRTEEN FUCKING MINUTES also probably play a part.  When he finally went down I was all, LAWL, OLD SKOOL RAIDINS.  Because seriously, do you remember those 15 minute boss fights?  I remember those fifteen minute boss fights.  The paladins would flail at the guild leader if he said “Alright, buff up,” and then proceeded to explain further details of the fight, ’cause 15 minute fights + 15 minute buffs = shut the fuck up and PULL.  We did that many a time in Nef’s room, let me tell you.   Yell at the GL, that is. 

“Didn’t you say you had only one alt?  Why the low DPS?”

Well, see, some of the DPS likes to DIE. 

…what!  Don’t look at me!  We had 3 healers.  If the DPS died they were like, trying, or something.  You know how rogues are.  And DPS warriors.  And mages.  Always eating floor!  At least we one shot him…it just took…a really long time.  I used my shadow fiend 3 times and even got innervated.  WTF!  Pallys don’t get in-

Oh, right.

KT was a similarly epic battle, in which we lost Zuki to the Lag Let The Red Zone Eat Me Even Though I Was Totally Far Enough Away demon.  And the tank went down and was b-rezzed.   Oops.  The DPS warrior died to the I Didn’t See It demon (nasty mob, that-it ate Kyr on 4H, too).   It’s kind of like a Grue, you know, the I Didn’t See It demon…

Anyway.

We had never cleared Naxx in one day before.  Granted it was one very long, holy shit we’ve been in here a couple of hours now clear, but we were all like WOO! and it was good. 

I definitely like disc priesting-except for the part where they told me to MC a mob in Naxx25 on Wednesday and I wanted to DIE, let me tell you-but it’s been strange, floundering along in my first few raids sans my more seasoned ally, The Amazing Ron.  He’s supposed to be here helping me!  D:  Kyr managed to get me through the MCing, at least.  <3 Kyr!

My favorite part so far was on the Maexxna fight.  “He won’t survive,” Josh said, referring to our tank.  Indeed, his health was dipping rather low whilst we were all held captive in the webs.  “Ha!” I replied, as I sat there spamming Penance until we were free so it would cast OMG RIGHT AWAY and save the tank!  And it did!  Woo! 

PEW PEW LAZERZ!

And that is why disc priests are totally fucking awesome, yo.

Brief Thought on Mana Regen, +2h Naxx Adventures

So I was doing my morning perusing of blogs when in what I can SEE of WoW Insider I catch this quote from Matt:  “We know Resto Shaman mana regeneration is the new standard that all healing classes are going to reach.”

Now, I’ll admit that holy pally and disc priest regen is, right now, insane.  Hell, I had to drink well before Ron did last night in Naxx.  But for years now the pally schtick has been our never ending mana bar.  Holy paladins, while a very CAPABLE healing class, still have a rattlingly empty tool box compared to the others.  Our ability to cast what spells we DID have into infinity was one of our more cherished tools.  I’d be a little upset if they knocked us down to the same level as everyone else for mana regen.  If I have to cast 6 spells to heal a raid up where someone else can cast one or two, then I’d better have the damn mana for it. 

But I’m an exceptionally cranky, bitter paladin.  So let’s move on!

Last night was our first attempt at two healing Naxx.  Yes, our first, because for some reason everyone was terrified of the idea.  Let me tell you, it was great to not be BORED!  And I smacked Ron back to the bottom of the healing meters.  Because, you know, top/bottom of the healing matters totally matters with two of us, amirite??!?!

I have to say that it went very well, despite the beginning we had.  We were down two good DPS-my favorite DPS DK EVAR had a work thing (hai Rivyn) and the rogue had a last minute job interview.  Our hunter went /afk and never came back, and he’s our top DPS.  Oh, and we were short a DPS to begin with.  We ended up snagging the pug rogue we took last week (good guy!  Stealing process begins: now!), an adorable yet completely noobish critchicken from in guild, and an undergeared hunter alt of a guildie because we were apparently that desperate. 

And by “completely noobish” critchicken I mean she didn’t know where to look to see her debuffs for the Four Horsemen.  But she’s adorable and sweet and she gave us the crit buff so we luffed her and handed her purples.  She only blew herself up on Thadd, bless her feathery heart.   She did make the jump, which is something some of our normal raiders can’t do.  I don’t know what RON’S excuse for blowing up on Thad was though.  Zomg, epic fail preest!

Anyway.  So despite a pug and some scrub DPS, it was a good run.  We’ll see how Sapph and KT go on Monday, and how Maly goes tonight.

Yes, there will be a holy pally and a disc priest two healing Maly.   Let us test your “bring the player not the class” bit, Blizzard!  LET US TEST IT.

…but yes, we do have a third healer on standby.

Healing Meters Are Funny

Here’s the healing for Naxx 1, Day 1 on Wednesday.  This chart makes me giggle.  Y’know why?

The priest on top is Disc and the priest on the bottom is Holy.   I’m not really sure why that’s so-I haven’t sat down and picked away the WWS yet-but I think the main problem is that Ron and I are too strong a pair to fit in a third healer.  Carry a weak third healer for gear?  Sure.  Keep 3 geared healers occupied?  No.  I will say that our saving of the chained FB folks on night two was GREAT though.  We lost the tank at one point, but that was the melee’s mistake in being too close.  We saved all three from FB, but Atropus bit it after another hit from the boss.

Thankfully for the sanity of the healing team (though not the DPS), we’re going to be two healing it starting next week.   Ron’s mentioned rotating people out-which is great, in theory.  Naxx 1 still progresses further than Naxx 2.   There’s other healers who can use KT/Sapph drops.  It’s just a matter of juggling who signs up when, and making sure that we keep everyones strengths and weakness in mind.  Oh, and of course I prefer to raid with Zoja and Kilya prefers to raid with Manoishi, effectively tying two of our healers to a tank and a DPS that are a smidge harder to move around. 

See: previous entries touching upon my “mental inventory”!

And maybe I don’t WANT to surrender my disc priest! 

Naxx25 should be…interesting.  I think I’ll take nominal healing lead for that, since with 6 healers we’ll need actual coordination.

On Failing Less While Healing KT

Or, Amber States the Obvious
As usual, this will be mostly holy-pally flavored, with some disc priest ponderings mixed in.  But the UI tips work for anyone!

The key to being a success healing the Kel’Thuzad fight is a simple one:

Use Holy Shock.  And more than that: use it at the right time.

If HS is something you use a lot of, learn to hold off, and watch for the FB cast.  I’m normally assigned to the tank/off tank, but one eye is always on my chat log.  As soon as I see the alert, off goes HS.  I leave the topping off heals to other healers, but that instant heal is priceless. 

I was lucky enough to be healing our first couple of KT deaths with a disc priest and a resto druid.  While a Flash (of Light OR Heal, for my priesty friends) is quick enough to save FB’d folks, the instant nature of HS and Penance are too good to ignore.  Use ’em and abuse ’em, and it should help reduce deaths from lag and other unfortunate mishaps.   Squishies, don’t forget your bubbles.

Another important key is: know who the fuck to heal, ASAP!

In 10 mans it’s a sight easier-after all, it’s a much smaller group to look through.  But most UIs will let you do custom highlighting, and this is really what you need to suceed.  For more on this, check out Penance Priest.  I use X-perl, which does allow you to use custom highlighting…but uh, I can’t get it to work.  I’ll play with it some more, but in the meantime, DBM throws marks up on the affected members and I can see those on my raid frames just fine.  Looking for the skull is easier than looking for, say, Sidearm the Nubcake Critchicken.

D:

Whyfor the hate, Ron? :(

DO NOT WANT ASPLODY HUGS.

Seriously, priests, why do you like to kill me?!  Tkon killed me week before last on KT with a ‘splody hug, and worse yet, that wasn’t the first time he’d done me in.

Late Night Update:

-Brotherhood of Oblivion has now cleared Naxx10.
-I now have a shaman alt named Icestone.  I have no idea what I’ll do with this alt, other than plink around on her with my sister, but I am endlessly amused by her none the less.
-Seriously-Icestone?  No one beat me to that name?!

Sapph Healing, and Other Things

I’ve got a couple of useful posts in the works, mostly waiting on feedback from those more experienced than I-I need ret and prot pally info from Mach for my “So you rolled a paladin…” post, and some druid and shaman love for a “Know Your Fellow Healers” post.  So those will come, sooner or later.  When I get un-lazy.

In other news we got some more stabs at Sapph in last night, and he’s as much of a cockblock as ever.  The Beacon/SSing self and eating Blizzard trick works, definitely, when you can’t just move out of it…but that’s a lot of cool down watching.  I ate some Blizzards and ran away from some, depending.  They suck when they chase one of your priests around.  At least with all the cooldown watching I can’t complain about being bored and pressing only two buttons.  I use at LEAST four!

I couldn’t seem to get heals off while behind the ice block.  What the hell was with that?  Do they block LoS so thoroughly I can’t always get the people behind the other ice block?  I’m going to have to pay more attention.   Becuase I need one more thing to pay attention to in that fight, right?

There’s a bit of RNG Fail possibility in this fight, as we found out when he iceblocked…healers.  2/3 healers out of comission, GG.

In other words, I can’t say anything conclusive about Sapph yet, because we didn’t get in nearly enough tries.  Either Grobb is now really fixed, or we just had better DPS this time around, but we one shot that bastard.  Thaddius was a pill until we swapped stats, and he’s now a joke.  Why the hell didn’t we do that earlier?!  Positive right, negative left.  Run through upon switching to the opposite side of his hitbox.  Cake! 

Silly Amber Fact: I drew the – and + signs on my desk to help me.  I have a crappy desk I plan on replacing eventually, and it was quicker than trying to find where I might possibly have post it notes.

Ambrosyne’s Adventures With the Horsemen

You know what I learned during my adventures in the back half of the Four Horsemen?

…I suck!

And you know what else? The moment I get thrust into an unfamiliar role in a raid and am already flailing about in uncertaintly, every single recruit we have will whisper me.

I’m not kidding.  First, a resto druid pokes me.  Great! She says, “I see that you’re busy, so I’ll wait.”  Not a problem.  She’s in Naxx too, anyway.

I fail and talk with her a bit while we’re getting our act back together.

Second pull. I holy shock Mr. Fallen Paladin, cast a heal on myself because I’m already low (wtf?) and then…

…the other resto druid recruit pokes me. I look at his whisper real quick. This means that I’m not staring at my feet. And even though I’m not on the boss that summons void zones, I get one anyway because their range is stupid, right under my feet.

When I’m not looking.

And I die 45 seconds into the fight.

/facepalm

At some point after this the disc priest whispers me (…) for a /ginvite. Sweet!

But OMG guys, all at once? During THAT fight? Srsly?

/flail

We downed them…after we threw my nub ass back up front where it belonged.

Also: if there’s a healer shortage, why are most of my apps healers? Holy shit! I mean it’s fanatastic, it’s great, we need them! But…! OMG!

We definitely need people not priest flavored though. I mean priests are great! But we now have…four? Compared to one resto shaman, two holy pallys, and one resto druid.

But you know what that is? That’s a 25 man healing team baby! ….assuming we can make it all on the same night, which I don’t know if we can. But! We’re close!

“Amber, aren’t you going to phase out your paladin for your priest?”

Ssssh! And, not for awhile. Teh boy is feeling a bit of WoW burnout, and he’s Lyr’s pet tank. So expect me to stop my bitching about my paladin…

…several months from now. But if we need the buffbitch she’ll be on duty, no worries. I’m not going to shoehorn a billionth priest into the raid if we need my paladin, especially not if our spanking new disc priest is along. YAY LASER PEW PEW HEALS.

Ahem.

We also tried two things last night: healing assignments (sort of), and my being a “more aggressive” healer. Now I’d half gotten used to That Priest putting a decent amount of healing on the MT, so during one fight I took my heals off Macharious for a second…and he died.

/facepalm

After going “SEE that is why I heal the tank and only the tank omg!” I simply noted Anub as A Fight To Not Do That On. On trash pulls and the less hard hitting bosses, I FoL’d every damn bar that wasn’t full.

And ended up on the top of the healing meters.

Wut?

Now healing meters don’t really mean a damned thing, but it was interesting to observe a change. I still spun in circles boredly on Gothik, though.

“Are you going to have actual content today, Amber?”

Yes. Later. I RESERVE THE RIGHT TO DOUBLE POST IF I WANT TO!

Murphy’s Law

The quickest way to turn a guild Naxx run into the biggest pit of suck and fail you’ve ever seen is to bring a recruit.

I was a wreck all night.

“Oh god guys, shut up, shut up! Quit being stupid! Play nice! THERE’S A RECRUIT IN THE RAID OMG OMG.” And then we wiped, and wiped some more, on bosses we’ve killed without even half the difficulty. A rogue who did 2k DPS last time was under the tank. I still want to strangle the priest. I tried to shine with my usual quirky humor in the hopes of not scaring the hunter away.

Ah, well. He’ll talk to me again or he won’t.

“So Amber, what’s with the paladin guide?”

Coming. For srs. But tonight is a fun BC raid night, and I want to take Lyrandre for shits and giggles. Hell, at 72 she might even be able to still use some of the loot, who knows? I never did see all of SSC/TK…

I’ve got other topics in the meantime, worry not!

I’m also trying to recreat the screenie I used for my banner, only in Icecrown or something. Yes, including the Judgement. It’s surprising hard to recapture that pose, though. D: Ideally, I’d get a good one of my priest, too. They should both be up there, especially if I want to shuffle the paladin into semi-retirement.

Hmmm…

GTFO Mah Tank!

The Comcast backbone we’re connected to spazzed mid raid last night, halting it entirely because you can’t go very far when you’re missing a healer, both tanks, and a rogue. It took forever to come back up. You’re costing me Sapph practice time, Comcast! Rawr. But that’s not what I’m here to bitch about.

Now, I like the synergy between the our three normal healers in the 10 man runs. It’s me, a holy priest, and a resto shammy. I sometimes quibble with the holy priest, though, for one simple reason:

He tries to take my damned job.

After Anub, I whisper the GM about how I hate all my heals on the MT being overheals while the OT is threatening to splat (I beacon’d him but he was often out of range). It was as much a random whine to a friend as a legitimate complaint, though it’s not the first time I’ve had the Priest say he’s healing the tank and made the O.o face. Then we came to the Widow, and the Priest pipes up with healing asignments over vent.

“Okay, I’ll take Mach, OtherPriest take Zoja, Amber you get the raid.”

“Wait wait wait wait wait,” I spluttered over vent. The holy priests get the tanks and I get the raid? Seriously?

Macharious cut me off. Wisely? Perhaps. “Amber gets Zoja, OtherPriest gets raid.”

Now, Priest isn’t a bad guy. He’s actually a great, generous guildie. He’s certainly not a bad healer. He just has NO CLUE about the other healers he’s running with. I used to do healing assignments in ZA, and to start I flat out asked the shammys what they were best at because I had no clue. Raid heals? Kay. Raid heals it was. While I know that a holy priest can keep up a tank just fine, it’s pretty silly to put the aoe healer on the tank and the single target healer on the raid.

While this situation makes me grouse, it also makes me want to go read up on resto druids and shamans, so that I better understand them. All I know is tree = HoTs (and aggro magnet, it seems like), and shaman = chainhealsomg! I had a very polite tree once ask me to not top off the DPS he’s HoTed if they weren’t in danger, as that wastes his mana. Oops! I try reeeeally hard not to do that anymore and have turned my UI’s HoTs display on. I miss that tree. :(

This should probably be the goal of every raid healer. Learning about your other healers can help you work together better. Working well together = less death! Less death = yaaaaay!

Well. I had meant to write something useful today, but I actually had to work at work. Strange!

I promise less Amber QQ in the next post. Maybe I’ll even be funny! I’ve heard rumors that I do that on occassion.