As a healing lead, it’s my job to keep my healers informed and assigned to positions where they will have maximum effect. I organize, strategize and when necessary discipline the healers. Sounds like all work and no play right? Well the truth of the matter is these people are some of the best friends that I’ve ever made in and out of the game. It’s virtually impossible to spend as much time together as we do weekly and not talk about things other than the game. We laugh and joke together, talk about real life frustrations and triumphs and when meeting up at places like Blizzcon we raise a toast and throw back some shots in the name of camaraderie.
Another truth is that I wouldn’t be where I am now if it wasn’t for these folks. When I started as Healing Lead, and then moved into Raid Officer it was these folks who helped make the transition easier on me. They are my think tank, my support group and they were the ones that let me know I was doing a good job and helped me find my feet . They were my first inspiration to start blogging and lead to me writing here, as well as being a co-host of my very own podcast and if all goes well, much much more.
I can’t sing the praises of my healing team nearly enough, and as we know healers don’t often get a thank you. Today I’d like to take a moment and introduce you to the healing team of <Unpossible> as well as give them all a great big thank you for all the hard work they put in!
This terror on a motorbike is Wistoovern. A Discipline Priest. Strong of heart and stubborn of mind he has been a stalwart companion of mine both in and out of game for several years. We might not always see eye to eye (he’s almost a foot and a half taller than I am) but when asked to do something he dives right in.
Some interesting facts about Wist here
- He’s hugged Felicia Day (saw it with my own eyes)
- He’s “Raid Buffed” his car (if you got the raid buff bumper sticker at Blizzcon you can thank this man, he made them)
- He innovated the “lowbie chaff” decoy maneuver (where one brings a lowbie to a city raid and then ejects them from the passenger seat while running in for boss kills)
- He’s a twitch healing shield monkey
This is Shammyx the second Restoration Shaman for unpossible. Shammyx was the literal inspiration behind my first blog Way of The Totem. I needed a good place to consolidate Shaman specific raid information without cluttering the guild forums with it, and thus that blog was born. Shammy is a quiet guy with a good sense of humor. A fantastic healer with a large array of alts ranging from Mages, and Hunters up through a DK and Pally. His healing output is always fantastic and he is just awesome to have in any run we do. I can’t see going into battle without his Chain Heal chiming a chorus to my own.
This tantalizing trio of trees is my forest of win! My three ladies Dianarah, Shenweh and Bellabeast. Collectively they are my healing rock. I know I can count on them in a pinch to do everything and anything they can to keep the raid alive. Our guild leader I think said it best:
Let me introduce you to each
Dianarah is my right-hand tree. She is my second in command, my number one well.. you get the picture. Anything I miss, she catches. I know she’s got my back and isn’t afraid to call me out on anything that might be just a little too wacky. In times of need she also carries a Crit Chicken spec to help increase DPS in the raid. You can see her in Boomkin form in the article image at the top here. She is also one of our membership officers and helps make sure our guild is full of amazing people to play with. She also has great taste in tequila!
Shenweh is my left-hand tree. Modest almost to a fault, Shen is the one that will often times play down the praise she receives. She has proven herself time and time again to be just amazing both in heals and personality. She is also the Morale Officer for our guild, and her husband is the Rogue Class leader. She makes sure that our guildies are all having a good time. Thanks to her we now have the tradition of every new boss kill we kick Zabos from the guild. (If you’re on Zul’jin you know who Zabos is then you’ll understand. If you aren’t and don’t know who he is, you’re better off 😉 )
Bellabeast is a recent addition to our guild. Her and her husband (Prot Pally raider) joined our ranks not too long ago but have already become members of our family. Bella is also one of those quiet types not saying much in the raid, but goes about her job with focus and determination. She rounds our the trio of Arboreal Awesomeness
Next up is Kaylestera our resident Holy Priest. Kay and I actually met through Twitter of all places. I had made a call out looking for new recruits during our summer raider lull. Kay responded asking some very very good questions. Eventually our conversation bled over to Google talk. Kay originally was from the Firetree server. After talking for a few weeks she took a leap of faith and transferred over to Zul’jin. She brought with her a multitude of people and the ranks of Unpossible swelled. Since then she has solidified herself as one our our key healers in the group. She brings with her Raid Leading experience, her wonderful personality and a great sense of humor. I know during our raids and in between I can count on her to offer information and solutions to encounters and problems that the guild faces.
This fellow you might have seen around once or twice, Thespius here is the guilds second Discipline Priest. Again another person introduced to me through that wonderful social media tool Twitter. I was looking for another healer to round out my team and a mutual acquaintance of ours suggested we talk to one another. We hit it off right away and it seemed that Unpossible was just what Thes was looking for. A fun family type atmosphere where we still progress in content but have fun doing it. He transferred servers and was welcomed into the guild very quickly. In game I know I can count on Thes to do everything and anything he can to help the raid succeed, whether it’s going along with a wacky raid strategy or switching specs so we don’t have Shield collision on certain fights. Out of game Thes has also become a fantastic addition to Team Matticus here, as well as appearing as a co-host on the podcast Raid Warning. His personality meshes perfectly with that of the guild and he’s quickly been assimilated as one of us. He wears his <Unpossible> tag proudly.
Last but not least we have an honorary member of the Unpossible Healing team. Archaan is the Priest Class lead and ranks among my oldest friends in the guild. He used to be our resident Holy Priest and eventually moved to shadow for a change of pace and to help out guild needs. Archaan will always be a member of the Unpossible Heal team in whatever form he decided to take. He pitches in and heals when we need him to, he organizes our Priest’s Divine Hymn Rotations and he is a card carrying member of the Dwarven Mafia Mechano Biker gang. Archaan is one of those people I know beyond a shadow of a doubt I can turn to both in game and out of game for advice and conversation. Oh, and he’s actually taller IRL than Wist. Which is a site to see when him and I are walking around Blizzcon. He also has amazing taste in beer!
There they are folks, the healing pulse of <Unpossible>, and a group of friends that anyone would be proud to have. I want to once again thank every single one of them for their contributions to the guild, as well as my own personal sanity. You guys are the best group of healbots this Shaman could ever ask for. You rock so hard!!!
With that I declare today Thank Your Healers Day!! You know who they are, show them a little love, it does go a long way. From this Shaman blogger I’d also like to issue a thanks to the healing community out there. Between here, Plusheal and the various other blogs and sites the passion for the job is obvious. Thank you our readers because the truth of it is, if there wasn’t such a strong healing community we wouldn’t be here!
(Don’t worry Tanks and DPS You’ll each have a day soon too!)
Have anyone you want to say thanks to? Want to give props to the pugger who pulled off some amazing heals? Lets hear it!
Until next time, Happy Healing!
3 priests, 2 shaman, 3 trees… where’s the paladin love?
.-= Josh´s last blog ..Ret FAQ for 3.3 =-.
@josh if I could find a holy paladin trust me, there would be on in the entourage but they are like unicorns, Everyone swears they saw one, but there’s never any proof! at least on my server =(
Frankly, holy pallies are overrated in their guild. lol
I am sure 2 disc priest can do the job just fine on the tanks.
I miss the days I used to be loved by all raiding guilds I would join, damn casual life, I wish I could be paid to play x)
Yay for healers!
My thanks go out to:
Sankareth: For keeping me on my toes, being supportive of my cranky tank ways (and cranky healer ways when we switch roles, which is often) and a great friend to boot. /salute … I’m glad to know that healing me is boring and you need to make it more interesting. 😉
Jeria: For being awesome, not panicking over healing my undergeared arse and frequently providing a needed shoulder and being a great RP partner as well. ilu bb.
… And anybody that has healed Matojo, Nyarah or Delplas of Thorium Brotherhood-US and lived to tell the tale. You are awesome, and the compliments are what keep me going – especially those of you with the endless mana pools. I love yoooou. ;_;
I’d also like to thank Jov, Lodur and Seri – reading about your experiences as healers has helped me become better at my chosen classes. I salute you.
TL;DR I LOVE EVERYBODY TODAY.
Hey! Those are my healers too!
Seriously though, you guys do the impossible by keeping me alive through fights… cause I explode when things look at me cross-eyed! I love you guys!
<3 Thanks for the nice post Lodur. I don't think you could have given a better description of the team. The only thing you failed to do was have your team describe YOU. So, here's my 2 copper.
Lodur rox my sox. As a fairly competitive player, I always try to be the first one to top of the tank, rez the dead, drop a feast, you get the picture. Since becoming a part of Lodur's healing team, I have to admit defeat.
There is a reason he's the head honcho when it comes to healing in our guild and he proves himself week after week. Not only does he consistently raise the bar the rest of us have to avoid tripping over, he's also open-minded to trying new strategies. He doesn't pigeonhole anyone into one specific role, no matter their spec, and that has helped all of us to become better healers. (Not to mention bitterly defending us when fingers get pointed for wipes) He's strict when we need to buckle down and pay attention, and jokes around whenever possible to keep the mood light. How many healing leads do you know who offer gold to NOT heal someone?
All-in-all, we couldn't ask for a better guy to show us the way.
@Josh You think the lack of holy paladins is scary, you should see my guild’s healer setup right now:
1 [Off-Spec] Discipline Priest
1 Holy Paladin (who is out indefinitely)
3 Shamans (1 off-spec)
5 Druids (2 off-spec)
So, basically, we are running with Shamans and Druids healing right now, which surprises me on how successful we have actually been in ICC (then again, we do swap out our off-spec healers if needed on certain fights, for example our priest goes heals on Saurfang).
.-= Spazmoosifer´s last blog ..Don’t be too Hastey =-.
I love it! My heals team is chock full of holy paladins (3 including myself as team lead) and priests (2-3) and we just now this last week FINALLY managed to land ourselves a tree! And quite literally up to that point I described trees as “unicorns with leaves”. We also FINALLY managed to find a resto-shammy who wasn’t emo (we actually had to force one of our dps to switch). And here you are rocking two shamans and three trees, I find it really interesting how different heal teams can be while still rocking.
Healing Team Unpossible, By and Far one of the best around. I cant say enough good things about them all especially when learning new Content and new Bosses i know my Plated arse is in good hands with them.
Joe you are an amazing Healer/Lead/Friend and someone im looking forward to next blizzcon to go out and try some new Beers. Dia/Shen/Bella You girls know who my Divine love is for first and foremost =D shammy you have been a friend of mine for quite a long time and are an amazing guy no matter what class you play. Wist and Thesp the shield monkeys ive grown to know and enjoy being cooped up in a bubble that isnt my own.
Thank you all for doing such a great job and here is to many years as a Team together.
I’m jealous of anyone that’s hugged Felicia Day! I love The Guild 🙂
.-= We Fly Spitfires´s last blog ..WoW Arena Season 8: Fashion Victim =-.
I would love to see a post where you talk about how you manage 2 discipline priests in the raid. Our second discipline priest just reappeared after being eaten by real life part of the way into Ulduar. I had very much gotten used to all of the raid frames being mine for shielding, and having someone else applying weakened soul where I think a shield needs to go is annoying – what other healers can be locked out of their best “heal”.
I assign healing but haven’t been able to say “these are mine and these are yours”. This is especially difficult if we have two holy pallies show up. I talked to the raid lead and suggested that one of us go holy, and he doesn’t like it at all – “one discipline priest can’t shield the entire raid in a 25”. Yes, but I have heals missing.
Any good suggestions?
@Nzete I’ll have something up about it this coming week.
I am a healer and I want to say thanks to my guild on Whisperwind. Forsaken Legion – they took me in as a new 80 holy priest and ran me till I got gear. My Guild master (one of the best and newly married!!!) Valendria took me under his wing and took me from dungeon to dungeon and gave me tips and taught me how to heal and all the neat little tips you dont know without experience! The lead healer, another awesome person whom I miss dearly, Haidahl taught me about all the healer addons that I needed to speed up my heals and make it more fun and less stressfull! The rest of the guild accepted me and my son as one of the family and they help in any way they can! If you ever run across anyone from the Forsaken Legion in the randoms then you have a good party member!!!
Thank you to Forsaken Legion for all you have done for me and my son!
Happy Healing everyone and happy playing!
Camarella
Lodur,
You know where you can find a holy pally 😛
BUH!!!!!
How can you forget all those instant flash heals I threw out while jamming my mace on kneecaps, and my sweet sweet JoL.
hehehe
What’s your preference in healers for 25 man content? I mean if you could make a perfect family of healers without hurting anyone’s feelings.
I’m the healing officer in my guild and this is what I use:
-Resto Shaman (me)
-Resto Druid
-Resto Druid
-Holy Pally
-Disc Priest
-Holy Priest (when 6 are needed)
I’ve had to bench 4 healers in the past two weeks (this was why i was recently promoted within my guild – to rid our raids of “baddies”), and just wanted some added input as to what you and others think is the best core of healers.
Please refrain from giving an answer to the likes of, “I think that skill matters the most,” No durr, but, in a perfect world, what do you think the most competent set up is for 25 man regular?
God Love and Game On
By far my favorite set up I’ve ran 5 healing ICC is one of each healer.
We have an amazing holy pally I have a hard time keeping up with, even raid shielding, a fab holy priest, a good resto shammy, and a lovely tree – Oh! I’m disc… We often have to have healers sit out, and if it came to choosing, I have my favorites, and I wish these 5 could consistently get together as it’s amazing to have a bit of what each can offer.