/cue ephiphany music

Go read this.

It is an eloquent post detailing a healer plight-and it also explains why I've been going nuts.

It would help, I think, if there weren't those couple of fights still in Naxx 10 where we "need" 3 healers. Then we could just bring two, and not be bored, and get cranky when other healers step on our toes because they, too, are bored.

I will try to do a post of my own later, but I had to share that with you.

Leveling Healy vs Respeccing

I leveled both of my healers as a healing spec. That said, if you choose to be sane and go the other route (level as DPS, respec heals), I don't blame you (though disc is seriously underrated as far as leveling ease goes).

But which is "better"? *drum roll* It depends!

Benefits of Leveling as a Healer:
-You have an easier time getting groups
-You have the time to become familiar with your healing tools in bits and peices, rather than having them thrown at you all at once at a higher level
-Getting healing gear is easier (presumably, as the healer in the group, you have little/no competition when it drops)
-Practice makes perfect

I will sadly never be able to recreate the healing experience I had with Ambrosine. She healed 5 man and 20/40 man raids at 60. She healed leveling to 70 and did some more 10 and 25 man healing there. Then she healed her way to 80 and thrashed and flailed her way through 5 mans to 10 and 25 man content. I have healed a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot on that toon, in all sorts of circumstances. I had greater finesse with her at 80 than I will on my priest for a long time.

Cons of Leveling Healing:
-Soloing can suck (unless you're a disc priest. Weee holy fire!)
-If you're on a PvP server, I have one word for you: bait. Lyr can defend herself to a point, but Ambrosyne is well nigh helpless. C'mere and let me holy shock you to death!....once every six seconds!
-Soloing can suck A LOT

Pros of Leveling DPS:
-You kill things/level faster
-You can defend yourself in PvP
-Big numbers are fun!

Cons of Leveling DPS:
-It can be harder to find groups
-You get less time to hone your skills
-It can be harder to get gear for later healing (less so if you run with other kinds of healers, but you still might fight over rings and cloaks)
-You might get more irritated with trying to do things as healy specced later (dailies as heals = D: )

Yes, the list of 'cons' I have is longer, but the whole 'killing things faster' is pretty heavily weighted by most people.

If you chose to level as DPS and respec heals, there's a couple of ways to handle it:

-Respec before hitting max level. DPS to 70 and then switch and heal your way through Northrend
-Respec at 80, but throw yourself at a lot of normal instances until you get the hang of things. Reading strats just isn't the same. Progress to heroics later, when you're certain you have the gear for them. Being undergeared in heroics just makes for frustration. Even if you happen to have the gear for heroics right off the bat, they're not the place to start learning!

Lyr learned in the Nexus that if your level 72 Death Knight tank in blues and greens makes pulls as if he were on his 80 warrior in blues and epics, you die!

Spirit Vs Mp5

So I read this totally awesome thread on the PlusHeal forums about Spirit vs Mp5 for disc priests.

Shame I didn't understand most of it. Threads like that or why I have this blog-I can't be the only one who reads that stuff and gets a glazed over expression. Just tell me what to prioritize, people!

I managed to glean this:
It depends on how much time you actually spend spamming. If you tend to spam, as disc priests are wont to do, mp5 is better. If you do find yourself getting acquainted with the 5sr, then you get more benefit from spirit and might want to weight spirit a little more heavily.
And as I said here, after 1k int, int/spirit gems are more beneficial than int/mp5.

Here is a neat calculator if you want to play with math.

The same thread devolves into a Flash vs Greater Heal discussion, but after a certain amount of numbers my brain melted. I'll touch that topic later. Maybe. If I recover.

Frustrated Paladin Preaches Appreciation

Today's blog fodder: A WoW Insider post about priest roles.

Dear QQing Priests,

Shut the hell up.
No, really. Quit your bitchin'.
O noes, they're nerfing CoH! O noes, we don't have clear and defined roles! We are made of suck and fail!

You want a clearly defined role? Take a paladin! There's your clearly definined role. I heal one thing really damn well. That's GREAT in raids, and I'm not even being sarcastic!

...unless most of your healers are paladins, a la last night's OS (2 pallys and one bad resto shaman who might as well have not even been there).
...unless you're healing a 5 man with aoe damage.
...unless that's all you can do.

Priests, when you look at their spells as a whole product and don't get hung up
on any one ability in particular, work great. ... Holy Priests are great
healers, and there's really no situation where they're completely
helpless. ... The fact that Holy Priests are so well-rounded means that in
situations where only one Healer is needed (such as 5-man groups), Priests are
fantastic. They have all of the tools required to excel in that format. There's
not really a single boss that can give them a lot of trouble. All of the Healing
classes have the tools required to get them through 5-man dungeons and Heroics,
but Paladins, Shaman, and Druids all have encounters that really trip them
up. Priests rarely have this problem. 5-mans are kind of their playground. They
utterly dominate.

And that, ladies and gentleman, is why I rolled a priest. Even a disc priest has the tools nessecary to cope with the varied situations that a 5 man will throw at them. My question is: how does this change in raids?

I don't think it does. In a raid, you can still AoE heal. You can still toss HoTs. You can still heal a single target pretty well. Why does this make you weak in a raid? If you have two holy paladins healing a raid, they're probably going to struggle more than if you had two priests. Now Macharious and I did great, but Mach and I are awesome, even if he is a cranky temporarily converted healadin. I imagine that some of the other healing classes are similarly limited. We can do it, but it's more difficult.

Priests bring versatility to the table. If you don't value that in a raid, you're a fool. What if your holy paladin healing the tank dies? Boom, priest can step in. What if a Shade pounces on you unawares in the middle of explaining a boss fight and half the group all is /afk? The priest is ready, despite being the only healer present and not staring at 4chan on a second monitor. What if you log on to raid and your holy paladin/reso shaman/tree isn't there? The priests can do it!

Problems start coming up when you increase the number of characters in play. Things start shifting from who has the most tools to "Who will heal the tank?" and "Who will heal the DPS?" In bigger raids. You stop looking for versatility and start looking for who's the best at what job. ... The issue is that you fill your niche roles first, and plug in the Priest(s) second.

Versitility should be valued even in a 25 man. I'd be unhappy if I didn't have a priest or two in my 25 man raids. I'd grab one just as quickly as I'd grab anything else. I don't think the problem, then, is not with the priest or with how they work. It's with how some people form raids.

I'd be okay with, as the Insider says later, giving the priests more of a niche...but please, for the love of all that is holy, don't take away their Jack of all Trade skills. Expand on the Hymns or spells like Power Infusion if you want. Those could all lead to fun, useful directions.

But I don't want a repeat of Ambrosyne's leveling process with Lyrandre, where there remain certain instances I just won't do without a lot of inner sobbing. I want to be able to walk through any instance portal and know that I gave the tools at hand to do my job-keep people alive.

Priests have a niche. I just don't think that they-or raid leaders-appreciate it enough.

Guest blog.

I have a guest blog over at World of Matticus! I am pleased and terrified all at once.

Excuse me while I go and quiver in a corner.

/fade

So You Rolled A Priest...

So you rolled a priest. Maybe, like me, you just wanted to try something else. Maybe your raid needs a healer. Maybe this is your first character! Now you're level ten and staring at your talent trees.

This is intended as a leveling guide, not an end-game guide. Spell rotations and specs will reflect that.

Priest Specs-The Basics
Ask yourself several questions.
-What do I want to do with this character?
-Do I mostly want to heal? Do I mostly want to DPS?
-Do I want to PvP, or focus on PvE?
-Am I going to be soloing, duoing, or instancing my way to 80?
-How crazy am I?

Shadow
Shadow is considered by many to be the 'default' leveling spec and is arguably the fastest. If you plan on mostly DPSing and/or mostly soloing, this is likely the route you'll take. You will likely get asked to heal as shadow, because people are silly like that. If you don't mind, it's entirely possible to heal as shadow until fairly close to end game.

Holy
Holy is a healing spec. If you plan on soloing/questing, this is...probably not the way to go. If you want to level primarily through instance groups or with a friend, holy is fine. Learning as you go is a great way to get a handle on healing and you probably won't lack for groups!

Disc
Disc is another healing spec, and my personal favorite (warning: bias ahead!). It's good for healing in PvE, with some different talents it's also great for healing in PvP. I leveled as disc on a PvP server and not only was I durable, I was dangerous! If you want to heal instances but know you'll be doing a lot of questing on your own, disc might be for you. And you get to heal with pew pew lazers later on. :D

Regardless of your spec, you're likely going to want to take points in Spirit Tap in the Shadow tree. I didn't, but I'm nuts. I'll post leveling specs when I can get home and can actually look at the talent calculator. :o For now I'll throw up what I've got.

Disc Specs: Here is one leveling path... I put all my points into disc to start and only went into holy later.
Holy Spec: How about this one? I don't know, the mere idea of a holy leveling spec kind of broke my mind.
Shadow Spec: coming!

Spell Rotations
As Disc, my DPS rotation while questing was as follows:
Shield > Holy Fire > Shadow Word:Pain > Devouring Plague > Mind Blast
If mob was at less than 50% health, then I'd wand them to death for mana conservation. If it was not, then I'd bust out the smite until it was. At higher levels, PW: Death is great to finish things off as long as you're careful. It might seem a little slower to wand things to death, but you save time drinking, so it evens out.
While duoing, I holy smite everything I can just because it's funny. My tank is less amused, but tossing dots up on whatever he's aoe tanking does help things go faster.
Can you lolsmite DPS in groups? Yes. Are you going to do awesome DPS? No. Does it matter in Maraudon? Not really.

Holy would switch up the disc rotation a bit. Or more than a bit, I suppose. Er. Here!:
Holy Fire > Smite > PW:S > Smite > Smite
Toss SW:P and Devouring Plague up for tougher mobs that will live long enough for the DoTs to be worth it.

I picked the brain of a shadow priest or two or four, and came out with the following rotation:
Vampiric Embrace > SW:P > Vampiric Touch > Mind Blast > Mind Flay
Use SW:Death judiciously, as always, and use MB in between MFs when it's off cooldown. Rotations are a bit different for max DPS in groups, and you'll want to keep your DoTs refreshed, but that's getting into stuff a little too complicated for this disc priest and her healing-focused blog.

Don't forget to keep Inner Fire up!

Gear
Leveling gear is generally whatever the hell you can grab. With today's quicker leveling until 70, the gear you get before hand isn't terribly important. You're usually looking for stamina, intellect, spirit, and spellpower on your lower level greens. Later on you might pick up some peices with mp5 and crit.

What you want to focus on depends on your build. A holy priest is more focused on spirit/mp5 than a disc priest, who is likely going to lean more towards int/crit. A player on a pvp server might want a bit more stm.

For shadow, you'll want to pick up some hit gear where you can. Spellpower, crit, and haste are what you're after next, in that order. For all specs I'd consider haste the least of your concerns until nearer end-game, however.

If you get a peice with gem sockets, look at what gear you have now. What are you missing? If you have a lot of mp5 peices, consider crit gems. Int gems are always good. Spirit for holy, etc. Don't spend too much money on gems sub 70, because you're likely to replace the gear soon. On your way to 80 the gear replacement slows down...a little. That said, Lyr's had three different weapons in 2 levels.

Sources: the many fine players of the wow_ladies community! <3

Tanks and Bubbles

It's about time that I Like Bubbles actually spent some more time on bubbles.

Once upon a time, tanks fussed about bubbles. Wrath has changed much, however, leaving a few of us in confusion. When is it okay to bubble the tank?

Paladins have a couple of bubbles. The only one we're really going to worry about here, though, is Sacred Shield.
You don't want to BoP...er...HoP?...the tank. In fact, you might want to move that button somewhere out of the way. What, me speaking from experience? Nooooooo.... *shifty eyes*

For disc priests, you have PW:S and your divine aegis proc. You can't control the latter, however, so never mind that.

When you bubble is pretty depending on what you're bubbling, so let's go down the list of tanking classes.

Warrior: Warriors are going to be your problem children. Don't bubble them before a pull. Don't bubble them if they're over geared for the instance and thus ending up rage starved. Otherwise, once in a fight I wait until I see they've got about half a rage bar before tossing one up. In a raid, keeping one up as much as possible on a boss is a good idea. This applies to both SS and PW:S.

Druids: Druids generate rage very differently than warriors. You can be a bit more liberal with the bubbles here, though I still wouldn't use one pre-pull. They generate rage from crits, and even in an instance they vastly out level (the 80 bear I had taking us through Slave Pens, for example), they don't seem to have issues with rage generation.

Death Knights: For the love of all that is holy, bubble them as much as possible. Runic power is generated solely by their attacks and they are currently plagued with some mitigation problems, so go wild. This is the one class where I bubble pre-pull every chance I get.

Paladins: Mana starvation in a tankadin seems to have gone the way of the OP warlock. With the way Sanctuary works now, bubbling seems to have a negligible effect. They start with the blue rage bar at full, so to speak, so you can get away with pre-bubbling.


Don't forget the elusive disc priest tank. They seem to appear along side unhappy frost DKs, usually after giggling and casting holy fire on an add...

On Gearing the Newly 80 Priest, And Random Stuff

Penance Priest says it so much better than I can. Go see! He talks about 'phases' of gear and everything.

...now to get my 66 priest to 80. Want moar healz! I know I seem strange for leveling a single target healer when my frustration with my paladin was that she was a...single target healer. But a holy paladin is just screwed in aoe situations, whereas at least a disc priest has a shit ton more options for coping. Mmm, buttons.

Speaking of said baby priesty, I apparently love taking pictures of her sitting or floating and looking adorable.

Tonight we're finally moving Lyrandre and her pet frost DK into Nagrand. At 66. Holy sped up leveling, Batman! Oddly enough, my enjoyment of said sped up process is dampened by the fact that we're going to hit 70 and then craaaawl to 80. Getting out of Outlands gear will be worth it, though, even if Lyr's gotten damned lucky so far. Then again, you can't see her pants. I'm sure you know which pants they are, too, seeing as how they're rather infamous in their ugly. Mmm, lime green and purple...snake?....things? I'm also dead set on scoring her a Talbuk mount before we leave. I love those things. My hunter has a blue one. I want a black one for her but there's no way in hell it's happening, so silver it is!

No Sapph healing experiments yet. Myself, Macharious, and Skyrender-two of our MTs-instead helped a buddy guild that had been beating itself against a wall. This week, however...! I'll be sure to let you know how it goes. You know, all...none of you...that reads this. :D

I am edumacated.

This post over on DiscPriest.com is one I found really helpful, even as a babypriest. Disc priest gearing seems very similar to holy paladin gearing, which is good because it won't break my brain.

I love it when they lay out stuff simply, like this stat priority list pulled from that thread:
Int
Spellpower
Crit
Mp5
Haste
Spirit
Stam

Caveat: after 1000-1250 int, swapping to the int/spirit gem Seer's Forest Emeralds is more beneficial than the int/mp5 gem.

Some other helpful Disc Priest posts are here and here, on PlusHeal.com's forums.
ETA: Go check out this blog post as well.

I can has buttons?

Yay! Lyr dinged 64 and now has binding heal.

WEE MORE HEALS TO PLAY WITH.

...now where the hell do I put it?

Priest Shinys and Enchants

My baby bubblepriest dinged 63 last night. I'm still enjoying her immensely, although I have to say if I do nothing but heal my pet DK tank I'm bored as hell. I mean I don't even heal most of the time, I just...bubble. That's alright, Lyr can also pewpew far better than poor Ambro. Let me tell you, if I'd leveled a priest first I don't think I ever would have managed to level my paladin holy. Then again if I'd played just about anything first that may have been the case. Except rogue. I totally fail at rogue.

Have I mentioned that if I don't /dnd while in Outlands, I get whispered to hell and back? Most of the time I'm the only healer in the entire damned zone. Helloooooo, DKs...

Anyway, gear and enchant research is not my strong point (read: I'm lazy), so I shall just point you at some lovely posts from Soap Bubble and World of Snarkcraft.

For useful food and pots: Clicky.
For priest gems: Clicky.
For disc priest enchants: Clicky.
For disc priest gear: Clicky.