Matticus

Matticus is the founder of World of Matticus, a World of Warcraft blog.

Breaking Down a Paladin’s Efficient Heals

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pally-equation

This is a guest post by Hitty the Pally. Be prepared for heavy math towards the end of the post (well, at least, it was for me :D).

I recently went back to becoming a full time Holy Paladin for 3.1.0 for many reasons including having some of our healing raiders leaving the guild.  Just to give you a quick history lesson on Hitty the pally, I started as holy hybrid in 1.0 dispelling my way through MC and switched to protection spec in 2.0 to fill a large gap left by our MT taking some time off.  Eventually he came back and ended up being a ret paladin in the late stages of TBC and stuck with it for 3.0.  I’ve always enjoyed being a dependable raider filling in all three roles when needed.

So here I am, most of my core training was from healing lava packs in Molten Core and boy was I in for a holy shock.  There are so many new toys to play with outside of the simplistic trio of Holy Light, Flash of Light and Cleanse.  So here I am getting the crash course on healing by a fellow holy paladin teammate with all these fancy terms like Bacon, Sacred Shield and JotP.  My pally friend has this enact ability to top healing charts with his eyes closed.  Now I know and understand thoroughly that being a healer you are part of a team.  Everyone on this team plays a role in which if everyone succeeds the raid will have a good chance of winning (its NHL playoffs isn’t it Matticus?). 

Editor’s note: Playoffs ended when the Canucks were eliminated.

Not to take anything away from my counterpart.  He is just that good and dependable (except with buffing… I can win there!).  The common joke in our guild is he has a big red button that he presses when he wants to top the healing charts.  Anyways he plays a major part in our guilds progression and we love him for it. But there’s a dps fire inside of me   I want to become number 1!   Talk about ego and insecurity problems /sigh.

The goal is to beat my friend and wins the heal meters among pallys!  So with every raid night the past 3 weeks, I start by pumping myself up to prepare for the challenge.  I put on some classic energy songs before raids such as Welcome to the Jungle by Guns n Roses to “Remember the Name by Fort Minor to Crowd Chantby Joe Satriani.  Hungry like a dps machine to test myself against my competition I wait for the perfect opportunity.  The chance arrived in my lap, there was no danger to the raid and I went for it. FAIL.  Next boss to try again, FAIL.

It seems that I have a gear issue in that my mana isn’t as infinite as my counterpart.  This was to be expected as my gear is inferior to my opponent but there was a few interesting findings in Recount and WWS logs.  I was able to keep up my effective healing on three conditions.  1, the fight must be short as I am chaining holy lights till I’m oom or 2, there are enough ppl who required healing or 3, stand in the fire and selfishly heal myself.  The short story is I need to boast my mana regen capability which means I need more Cowbe- err Crits!!!

Mana regeneration for Paladins have always been interesting compared to the other healers.  The bread and butter of our mana regen are through Divine Plea and critical proc heals with the Illumination talent.  Generally speaking we are never out of the 5 second casting regen not to mention Spirit doesn’t do pally’s any good.  In combat mp5 regen isn’t much better as it is very hard stat to stack as most cases the preference would be to increase Int for divine plea, +spell, and +crit.  Illumination is a talent that has a 100% proc rate to gain 60% of the base cost of FoL, HL or HS.  Looking specifically at spell crit, I have a lot of work to do.  Generally speaking, my sworn enemy will have more crits than normal spell casts in every category with a crit rate of BLAH.  My numbers really show as I would be opposite with more normal spells than crits.  Alright!  Time for science.  Divine Favour allows me to crit one of my spells every 2 minutes, which spell would be optimal to use in conjunction with Divine Favour to return the most mana. 

Please keep in mind that all these numbers and calculations are very simple math equations without factoring many different buffs, procs, talents and environments. 

Illumination Rank 5

After getting a critical effect from your Flash of Light, Holy Light, or Holy Shock heal spell you have a 100% chance to gain mana equal to 60% of the base cost of the spell.

Divine Favour

3% of base mana

Instant cast                                         2 min cooldown

When activated, gives your next Flash of Light, Holy Light, or Holy Shock spell a 100% critical effect chance.

Holy Light Rank 13

29% of base mana

2.5 sec cast                                         40 yd range

Heals a friendly target for 4888 to 5444.

Flash of Light Rank 9

7% of base mana

1.5 sec cast                                         40 yd range

Heals a friendly target for 785 to 879.

Holy Shock Rank 7

18% of base mana

Instant cast 6 sec cooldown         20 – 40 yd range

Blasts the target with Holy energy, causing 1296 to 1402 Holy damage to an enemy, or 2401 to 2599 healing to an ally.

Okay, starting in 2.4 there were certain spells that required a percentage of the base mana.  With 3.0, it’s pretty much the norm.  Now this basically means the amount of mana a certain class has before any modifiers such as int, racial or buffs.  So I got nekked for the purpose of science and found that for a Paladin, your base mana will always be 4394 at level 80.  I tried to ask a blood elf to help me confirm my findings but all I got was a slap.

Divine Favour = 4394*3% = 132 mana to cast.

Holy Light = 4394*29% = 1275 mana to cast.

Flash of Light = 4394*7% = 308 mana to cast. 

Holy Shock = 791 mana to cast. 

With these values now, we can find out how much mana it cost to cast both spells plus how much mana is returned.

DF/HL 132+1275 = 1407 mana cost.  1275*60% = 765 mana return for 2.5 second cast. 

The net cost to cast a HL would be 1407-765 = 642. 

DF/FoL 132+308 = 440 mana cost. 308*60% = 185mana return for 1.5 second cast.

The net cost to cast a FoL would be 440-185 = 255.

DF/HS 132+791 = 923 mana cost. 923*60% = 475 mana return for 1.5 second cast. T

The net cost to cast a HS would be 923-554 = 448.

Woot! Let’s break this down to mana regen per second. 

HL would be 642/2.5 = 257/1,

FoL would be 255/1.5 = 170/1 and

HS would be 475/1.5 = 316/1. 

The winner is… Holy Shock! 

So here we go, I found a new trick to add to my trade and hope it’ll help me inch closer and closer to my formidable opponent.  Here’s a new trick for an old dog.  If anyone has any other tricks to share, please do!!  I can’t wait till the next opportunity I get.  Nothing’s wrong with a little competition, ya?

Post edited with updated values May 27, 09

Patch 3.2: Crusader’s Coliseum Reactions

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In case you haven’t heard, some details of Patch 3.2 have been released. The biggest change that appeals to me is the Crusader’s Coliseum. We’re not even done Ulduar yet and already there’s another instance being released.

What is it?

It looks to be the new instance hub that 3.2 will offer.

Let’s stop for a second. Lots of reactions on Twitter have been knee-jerk negative reactions.

“I don’t want to 25 man joust!”
“What? A PvP instance?”

Take a step back and start analyzing. We don’t know anything about this instance yet. All we know is that:

  • There is an instance
  • It will come in 5-player, 10-player, and 25-player varieties

I want to stress that we do not know what type instance it’s going to be inside.

Speculations

I love raiding. I love looking at the lore behind it and the mechanics, the environment and so forth.

I don’t think the Coliseum is any sort of PvP type instance.

What I think will happen is that a raid group is going to march in there and engage in gladiatorial combat against raid bosses. Think of an instanced version of the Ring of Blood quests that we first saw in Nagrand and then in Zul’Drak.

Are we going to see mounted combat? It’s a possibility. Maybe half the raid is on horseback and the other half is on their feet. I honestly have no idea.

New Battleground: Isle of Conquest

A new large-scale siege Battleground where Horde and Alliance have to battle head-to-head for control of strategic resources to lay siege to the keeps of their opponents.

Not quite death match. Sounds to me like it’s another control-the-point battleground with vehicles (large-scale and siege). Now I wonder if it means large-scale as in 15 player or large-scale as in 40 player.

Yeah. Alterac Valley in siege tanks.

Also, note that it’s called Isle of Conquest. (The island part, not the Conquest part, although it’ll be corny to jump in there and go “GET OFF MY ISLAND!”, because you know my guild’s name is Conquest, hah.). This leads me to wonder if we’ll get access to naval units. Maybe drivable ships or something to attack from the water in addition to laying siege on land.

Final Notes

Don’t perceive that this is what’s actually going to happen. Take a step back. We’re only seeing pieces of the puzzle here. There could be more stuff coming out. Actually, there will be more stuff coming out.

What do you guys think? How’s my reasoning? Sound? Terrible? Are you looking forward to any of these? (Bloggers can link and trackback here too!)

Healing Ulduar: Kologarn

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kologarn

For other bosses in Ulduar, check the Ulduar Healing Strategy Page.

Kologarn is the sentinel that stands in the way between your raid group and the rest of Ulduear. He is a challenging boss for guilds that are new to raiding. Like Deconstructor, victory lies in the ultimate ability of individual players.

Abilities

Eyebeams: Two ways to handle this. Run out the door or run circles on the right side of the platform. More on this later.

Stone grip: He’s going to pluck three players into the palm of his hand and attempt to squeeze them to death until they get broken out. The only way to break players out is by DPSing the arm. Once it takes 380000 damage, the players are released.

Execution

DPS priority is going to approach the boss in this order: Right arm, Elementals, torso. When any arm is destroyed, the torso loses the same amount of health.

It’s best to call out right arm health at 5% intervals starting from 20 so your tanks know when to switch. After the right arm falls, elementals will spawn.

Two tanks are needed to hold Kologarn’s attention. He’s got a Gluth-like debuff that requires two tanks to taunt off each other. Otherwise, the debuff becomes flat-out unbearable.

kolo-beams

Dodging eye beams

When you get focused by twin green beams, you have around 2 seconds to start hustling before you get rocked. There are two ways to handle avoiding them:

Out the door

Make a beeline for the door and down the stairs. The upside is that it presents minimal risk to the players in your raid group. The down side is if the player is too slow, they might die due to line of sight issues. As healers, we don’t have to worry about this.

Laps on the right side

Have beam-focused players run circles along the right side of the room. The pros and cons are the exact inverse of the bailing-out-the-door method. Focused players are well within the range of healers. But poor kiting can lead to multiple casualties.

Whatever solution you choose, drill it in the heads of the rest of the raid to immediately get out of the green. The beams are extremely hard to miss. Keep your head up.

The Elemental Tank

It’s happened before. I’ve seen the off tank gain aggro of all ads and get focused by beams at the exact same time. As a tank, he’ll live for a few extra seconds but not anymore after that. Use whatever saves you can on him to help lessen the blow. Pain Suppression, Guardian Spirit and Blessing of Sacrifice work admirably.

Healing strategy

Around 6-7, healers is a good number to start with. This can drop with more gear and experience. Expect an enormous amount of raid damage being doled out. His left arm sweeps the entire raid for around 15000+. Pick two of your strongest tank healers and assign them to the main tank (this will vary as they’re taunting off each other). Be sure to have Kologarn’s target up so you can see which tank he’s presently on.

If you have access to two Resto Shamans, they can anchor the Stone Grips quite easily.

Healer items

Ironmender OH (Priests, Druids)

Gloves of the Pythonic Guardian Gloves (Paladin)

Robes of the Umbral Brute Chest (Priests)

Unfaltering Armguards Wrists (Paladin)

Which Came First? The Aegis or the Shield?

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pws-vs-da

On my daily patrol through the Plus Heal forums, I came across this thread with one very important question by Sundotz.

If I proc Divine Aegis ( for 12 sec) and then apply PW: S (15 sec after absorbed), which shield is absorbing damage first?

I could have commissioned a study on this with the assistance of guildies. But I decided to take matters in my own hands and test it out only in such a way that true Dwarves would do it.

I’d tackle the Molten Colossus of Ulduar after activating both shields in an attempt to see which happened first. Here’s 5 combat logs with different cast sequences. Log’s been trimmed somewhat.

Test 1:

Mallet casts Power Word: Shield at Mallet.
Mallet is afflicted by Mallet’s Weakened Soul.
Mallet gains Mallet’s Borrowed Time.
Mallet gains Mallet’s Renewed Hope.
Mallet’s Flash Heal heals Mallet for 1977.(4306 Overhealed) (Critical)
Mallet’s Borrowed Time fades from Mallet.
Mallet gains Mallet’s Inspiration.
Mallet gains Mallet’s Divine Aegis.
Mallet gains 300 Mana from Mallet’s Darkglow.
Mallet’s Flash Heal heals Mallet for 0.(4185 Overhealed)
Molten Colossus’s melee swing hits Mallet for 18720 Physical.(8103 Absorbed) (3247 Overkill)
Mallet’s Power Word: Shield fades from Mallet.
Mallet’s Divine Aegis fades from Mallet.
Mallet’s Power Word: Fortitude fades from Mallet.
Mallet’s Inner Fire fades from Mallet.
Mallet’s Weakened Soul dissipates from Mallet.
Mallet’s Inspiration fades from Mallet.
Mallet’s Renewed Hope fades from Mallet.
Your equipped items suffer a 10% durability loss.
Mallet died.

Test 2:

Mallet gains Mallet’s Divine Aegis.
Mallet’s Flash Heal heals Mallet for 0.(5915 Overhealed) (Critical)
Mallet casts Power Word: Shield at Mallet.
Mallet is afflicted by Mallet’s Weakened Soul.
Mallet gains Mallet’s Borrowed Time.
Mallet gains Mallet’s Renewed Hope.
Molten Colossus’s melee swing hits Mallet for 16490 Physical.(9530 Absorbed) (12804 Overkill)
Mallet’s Divine Aegis fades from Mallet.
Mallet’s Power Word: Shield fades from Mallet.
Mallet’s Inspiration fades from Mallet.
Mallet’s Weakened Soul dissipates from Mallet.
Mallet’s Borrowed Time fades from Mallet.
Mallet’s Renewed Hope fades from Mallet.
Your equipped items suffer a 10% durability loss.
Mallet died.

Test 3:

Mallet casts Power Word: Shield at Mallet.
Mallet is afflicted by Mallet’s Weakened Soul.
Mallet gains Mallet’s Borrowed Time.
Mallet gains Mallet’s Renewed Hope.
Mallet gains 300 Mana from Mallet’s Darkglow.
Mallet’s Flash Heal heals Mallet for 2330.(1824 Overhealed)
Mallet’s Borrowed Time fades from Mallet.
Mallet gains Mallet’s Forethought Talisman.
Mallet’s Flash Heal heals Mallet for 0.(6049 Overhealed) (Critical)
Mallet gains Mallet’s Inspiration.
Mallet gains Mallet’s Divine Aegis.
Mallet gains Mallet’s Effervescence.
Molten Colossus’s melee swing hits Mallet for 16490 Physical.(9895 Absorbed) (6884 Overkill)
Mallet’s Power Word: Shield fades from Mallet.
Mallet’s Divine Aegis fades from Mallet.
Mallet’s Inner Fire fades from Mallet.
Mallet’s Weakened Soul dissipates from Mallet.
Mallet’s Forethought Talisman fades from Mallet.
Mallet’s Renewed Hope fades from Mallet.
Mallet’s Inspiration fades from Mallet.
Mallet’s Effervescence fades from Mallet.
Your equipped items suffer a 10% durability loss.
Mallet died.

Test 4

Mallet gains Mallet’s Divine Aegis.
Mallet casts Power Word: Shield at Mallet.
Mallet is afflicted by Mallet’s Weakened Soul.
Mallet gains Mallet’s Borrowed Time.
Mallet gains Mallet’s Renewed Hope.
Molten Colossus’s attack misses Mallet. (My agility and dodge is strong)
Molten Colossus’s melee swing hits Mallet for 16490 Physical.(7968 Absorbed) (13299 Overkill)
Mallet’s Divine Aegis fades from Mallet.
Mallet’s Power Word: Shield fades from Mallet.
Ragadast’s Leader of the Pack fades from Mallet.
Mallet’s Inner Fire fades from Mallet.
Mallet’s Inspiration fades from Mallet.
Mallet’s Weakened Soul dissipates from Mallet.
Mallet’s Borrowed Time fades from Mallet.
Mallet’s Renewed Hope fades from Mallet.
Your equipped items suffer a 10% durability loss.
Mallet died.

Test 5

Mallet casts Power Word: Shield at Mallet.
Mallet is afflicted by Mallet’s Weakened Soul.
Mallet gains Mallet’s Borrowed Time.
Mallet gains Mallet’s Renewed Hope.
Mallet’s Flash Heal heals Mallet for 5654.(Critical)
Mallet gains Mallet’s Effervescence.
Mallet’s Borrowed Time fades from Mallet.
Mallet gains Mallet’s Inspiration.
Mallet gains Mallet’s Divine Aegis.
Molten Colossus’s melee swing hits Mallet for 15100 Physical.(7651 Absorbed) (21476 Overkill)
Mallet gains 300 Mana from Mallet’s Darkglow.
Mallet’s Power Word: Shield fades from Mallet.
Mallet’s Divine Aegis fades from Mallet.
Mallet’s Weakened Soul dissipates from Mallet.
Ragadast’s Leader of the Pack fades from Mallet.
Mallet’s Inspiration fades from Mallet.
Mallet’s Effervescence fades from Mallet.
Your equipped items suffer a 10% durability loss.
Mallet died.

So in conclusion, while not technically a scientifically valid test, I’ve conceded that the order in which the different absorb effects are used are based on which one happens to land first. If a DA activates before a PW:S, then the DA gets consumed. If a PW:S lands first followed by a DA, the PW:S gets chomped alive before the DA.

A simple, easy, and cheap test. 5 minutes. 45 gold.

Done.

But also incorrect. So take this entire post with a grain of salt.

Hello to wow.com!

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I am no longer a contributing editor to WoW Insider. We’ve changed to WoW dot com! You can now find us over at wow.com (which is 7 characters shorter to type, I might add). I’ll still be anchoring Spiritual Guidance and Raid Rx (when the ideas come).

I received a lot of private questions about this and I wanted to get a post out about it quickly to help alleviate the strain of my inbox and Twitter DMs.

What exactly is wow.com?

It’s your same news and opinion blog coupled with some extra features. One of the biggest things is that it comes with souped up user accounts. Think of it as WoW Insider meets social networking. You can attach characters to your accounts. You can have your own wow.com blogs. There’s also an addon that you can download which tracks your activities in game so that you can share with everyone else who might be curious. There’s a nifty feature where screenshots you take in game can be uploaded for display on to wow.com as well.

Remember, it’s still in beta. There’s still more features coming.

Why can’t the Europeans get in on this? Do you hate us?

No. It was stated earlier in the introduction post and later on again that European support is on the way. Put it this way. Let the US server guys bust their ass and break things so that you get a better experience when it’s ready.

How did you guys get wow.com? Isn’t it Blizzards?

From what I understand of the story, the address wow.com was purchased by AOL many millennial ago during the War of the Ancients well before the events of World of Warcraft. They’ve had it for a long time even before World of Warcraft even came out. It wasn’t until recently that it was decided what it should be used for.

Why do I have to use an AOL login? I don’t want to

WoW Insider is owned by AOL Inc. It made sense to utilize AOL accounts. Facebook support is also there. Are there intentions to branch out and expand with other login types like Open ID? I have no idea. If you’re vehemently opposed to AOL or AIM or Facebook and don’t want to use it for whatever reason, you don’t have to. You can still access the news and posts that you would normally get but will not be able to set up profiles and such.

If you’ve noticed, the real estate of the posts themselves have actually increased widthwise. I find that much more easier reading.

What’s your WoW Profile?

I reserved the user name of matticus. You can also find Lodur there as well.