Ana tagged me for the healer survey thingiemadealie. I had another post for today, mostly telling the Druids of the Talon to DIAF. Hopefully this will be a little more interesting than me ranting about how many times I died doing their dailies for the first time. I probably shouldn’t have done them after midnight and half asleep.
What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer?
Kerick (human) and Vanicus (belf), both paladins, both … crap. You made me do this on Tuesday morning. I bet the Armory is down. Maybe I can remember their spec off the top of my head. They are identical. I *think* it is .. oh good, the Armory is up. 32/5/4. (Note to self: your ret specs don’t match! Research them and fix it)
What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
I raid 10 mans four nights a week, two on each toon. Van also does a metric crapton of heroics during the week because … well, we just love to run dungeons in SR. Kerick doesn’t do as many, partly because his friends also like to heal and make him DPS.
What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why?
I was going to say Lay on Hands because I love being able to insta-save someone once every 7 minutes … *especially* when the next thing I hear in vent is ‘ok who blew Lay on Hands on the frost DK?’ Buuuuuut …. since 4.2 hit …. well let’s just say I am crossing my fingers and praying that they don’t reverse the buff to Word of Glory. A 42k crit heal (with 3 holy power) that costs no mana? NO MANA?? And then Eternal Glory procs and I can have two of them back to back? Yes plz!
What healing spell do you use least for your class and why?
Light of Dawn. Mainly because … well, an AoE cone heal is slightly less than useful in a 10 man environment. Once in awhile we’re stacked enough to use it, but … meh. It’s sometimes ok for transferring through beacon, but with the buff to WoG now I’m better off using that unless I’m in one of our infamous 4 DK Grim Batol runs …. then I break out LoD like it’s going out of style.
What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why?
All yur spell plate belong to us!
We’re pretty? (shut it, Sorak, Kerick is NOT fat)
Ok fine. Serious answer then. Cooldowns. We have such a diverse and plentiful toolbox, and it’s not limited to healing spells. I mean, I knew about BoP (or Hand of Protection these days but … who doesn’t still call it BoP?) from my days as a raiding mage, when my best buddy Hartbane (who I still miss a ton) had his trusty BoP Karius macro handy at all times. But there’s also Hand of Sacrifice (handy for those times when the tank has already used his CDs) and Hand of Salvation (which Fayle taught me to use to save his HB-spamming butt). And Blessing of Freedom, I suppose, but I’m really bad at using that on anyone other than myself. And Aura Mastery. And the healy type cooldowns like Divine Favor, Avenging Wrath, and Guardian of Ancient Kings. (For a good time, get everyone stacked up, then hit Divine Favor + Guardian of Ancient Kings + Holy Radiance … and then pray that your video card can handle a solid wall of green numbers.)
What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why?
Despite the fact that we actually HAVE AoE healing now, it is still our weakest area. We can spot raid heal now when necessary, but it’s definitely not our strong suit. We need people stacked up for Holy Radiance. The changes in 4.2 help, we can cast it more often and we can toss holy light around with the reassurance that every one of them is transferred 100% through beacon, but … we’re really best off mostly watching tanks. Fortunately, both of my raid groups have healers who communicate well with each other and cover each other’s rears when needed.
In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you?
25? What is that I don’t even …how about this. I’ll cover the pets. I just … don’t … do … 25 mans. That, to me, is probably the best thing to come out of Cata. Not having to run 25 mans to get my gear. Ok, maybe the second best thing. Not needing Pally Power still wins hands down.
What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why?
Slice, don’t hate me. You know I dig the bubbles. But I’m gonna have to agree with Ana and say that druid and paladin just complement each other so well. I bring the direct healing, she brings the HoTs and the sexy glyphed treant and yes, the Tranquility.
What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why?
Is it fair to say, another paladin? Each of the healing classes brings different things to the table. We’re just missing out on so much if we double up. Honestly, that goes for tanking and dps as well, when you’re talking 10 mans. I know they’ve spouted BTPNTC so much, and to some extent that is true. But if you can bring that good player and talk them into playing a class that brings something you don’t already have, you’re much better off.
If I had to pick a different class than my own for the answer … I dunno. Earlier in T11 I would have been inclined to say shaman because they were pretty weaksauce. All of them, not just Sorak. (lol) But they seem to have gotten better with some of the tweaks.
What is your worst habit as a healer?
I think sometimes I lean too heavily on Holy Light and get myself into some tight spots by not using the bigger, more expensive heals. They made the changes to paladin mana costs to counteract people using Divine Light almost exclusively. That honestly boggled my mind a little bit, because it is so … not me. You guys wonder why I never run out of mana? Now you know. I have totally championed mana-efficient heals for my entire Cata career. I also don’t have the obsession that most healers have with needing to have *every* *single* *bar* filled all the way up with green. I’m perfectly fine with you dps types sitting at 70% health, as long as the tanks are full … unless you’re Log. Or Cayle.
What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing?
Don’t make me chase you. It’s one thing if you’re the tank … in that case it’s your job to round up the mobs, and mine to keep you alive while you’re doing that. So I have an equal responsibility to stay in range of you (within reason, don’t think that I will save you if you do something stupid). But if you’re dps, stay close and follow the tank. And if you pull something … well, I might just let you die, like the DK the other night who pulled a group and Arv and I just stood back and watched him bite the dust. It was kinda epic.
Ok that was mostly applying to 5 mans. In raids? Actually, this can apply to 5 mans too, but especially in raids … use your dang interrupts. Yes, I can interrupt and heal at the same time because I’m just that good, but I shouldn’t *have* to. Oh, and other healers that don’t dispel. YOU HAVE A DISPEL ABILITY, USE IT KKTHXBAI.
I could probably go on … ranting is teh fun!
Do you feel that your class/spec is well-balanced with other healers for PvE healing?
It’s … a lot closer than it used to be. I’m not all that happy with nerfing our tank healing in order to give us some AoE healing … but the WoG buff has kinda fixed that somewhat. Our AoE healing is not *quite* enough to make us viable raid healers, at least not solo. I think there are things they could do to make it better … but then we would be OP in PvP and they would nerf it right back, so meh. Stupid PvP.
What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer?
Recount during raids, mostly just to see what killed people… and brag about how many interrupts I have, or to show off leading the dispel meter. I had Obituary but it was broken in 4.2. I should probably check and see if it’s fixed yet. I browse the parses on World of Logs, although I’m still learning some of the things it can tell me. And then there are the more subjective things … is the boss dead? Am I dead? Is Log/Cayle dead? Did I do everything that I could to get the result I desired? (not necessarily preventing deaths in that case hehe)
What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class?
Probably that healing on a paladin is spamming one button. I’m not saying it’s hard, but there’s a lot more to think about now than just chain casting one big heal like in ICC. Oh sure, you can do that if you want to … but you won’t be an effective healer and you’ll be OOM faster than Cayle can tank the floor. On a side note, having so many more things to use is a lot more FUN. If it wasn’t fun, I sure as hell wouldn’t be raiding on TWO of them, ya know?
What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn?
Holy Power is probably confusing and clunky. When the changes first went into effect, I actually shelved my paladin. It’s a strange concept at first, especially if you’ve never played a combo point class. It’s second nature to me now, and it’s less confusing when you level with it, but getting it at 80 and having to basically learn a whole new class? Yeah that was a trip. But if you’re gonna play one now, learn to love holy power. Use Holy Shock damn near every time it is off cooldown. Don’t hang onto your holy power stacks forever and a day waiting for a perfect time, either. Use them! It’s a free freaking heal!! The sooner you spend it, the sooner you’re back at 3 stacks.
If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer via recount, what sort of patterns would they see (i.e. lots of overhealing, low healing output, etc)?
I … don’t really know. Maybe someone else should do that and tell me. My overhealing isn’t terrible … and the huge majority of it is from the self-healing of Protector of the Innocent. My numbers … I don’t really go by HPS so I have no clue if they’re good or not. But they are on par with everyone that I heal with other than the druids. Could I pump them up to druid levels? Ha. Yeah sure, I probably could if I tried … but inflated numbers do not equal effective and efficient healing. If I wanted to top meters, I’d level my huntard.
Haste or Crit and why?
Haste up to a certain threshold gives one more tick to my Holy Radiance. Not to mention all the other good things it does like make my spells cast faster and reduce the global cooldown. Crit is fine up to a point, but I don’t need that much to keep Conviction up. The crit that comes on my gear and is left over after reforging to spirit or haste is more than enough. I do love the tasty 200% crit heals now though.
What healing class do you feel you understand least?
Hrm. Probably shaman. I’ve leveled a priest and am working on another one, so I pretty much get those. I’ve hung with Ana enough and read her excellent posts on druid healing that I at least understand what they do and how they do it. I also have little to no desire to learn how to manage HoTs. But I haven’t spent much time around shaman, outside of raid time.
What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing?
Healbot is the main thing, or at least, the healer specific thing. I also have a thing called Holy Power Notifier (I think) that puts a power aura-like graphic over my head when I have 3 stacks of Holy Power. Much easier to see than the small little stars on my healbot frame or the triangles under my xPerl portrait. I do have Decursive installed, but I honestly couldn’t tell you why I leave it active on the paladin. Maybe I’ll turn it off. I haven’t taken the plunge to full-on power auras yet. Maybe I never will. I can see all my cooldowns right on my bars thanks to OmniCC.
Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why?
Spirit > Haste > Crit > Mastery. I try not to get pieces that don’t have spirit. I pride myself on being an efficient healer, but when the shit hits the fan or you’re learning new fights and people are taking unnecessary damage because theyr’e learning .. you can never have enough regen. Same goes for haste, and of course the two go hand in hand since the more heals you cast, the more mana you burn. But getting a heal off fast enough is super important … especially if your raid doesn’t have a spell haste buff. Crit we’ve touched on, it’s not bad, there’s just no real good reason to stack it over haste. Mastery … blech. It sounds cool, but it just … doesn’t work well enough.
You’re it
Slice … no slacking, dawg. Get on it!
Crap, lunch time. No time to proofread! If you find mistakes … blame Sorak.
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