Confessions of a Raid Healer

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Image courtesy of bluegum.

Most bloggers and writers, when they have their ideas, write their posts first before adding a title. I’m a wee bit different. I come up with the title first before the post. My reasoning has always been that it’s the post title that draws initial interest to the post. This one happened to occur to me while I was listening to one of Madonna’s CDs.

Consider this post an archive of all the mistakes I’ve ever committed in WoW and the regrets I’ve had from Hakkar to Illidan.

  • The Raptor boss: Moving and doing things when he gazed at me. I found out quickly that this was not the smartest thing to do. Any actions you make causes him to rip you to shreds. And yes, I moved while the ZG Raptor boss gazed at me.
  • Panther’s staff drop: Before I became the raid item optimist that I am today, I was a selfish Dwarf. I wanted every possible upgrade I could get. By being the best Priest I could be, I felt that I could contribute that much more to my raid and my Guild. I had farmed extensively for an Eye of Shadow and I was on the brink of getting Benediction. Yet I rolled on the staff even though are Resto Druid would have benefited more. I did not get Benediction until 5 weeks later.The penance for my greediness, I suppose.
  • Baron Geddon: He’s the inspiration behind Solarian. I can’t remember the details, but I was really bitter that day for some reason. What’s a Priest to do when they’re in the mood to kill and just get out of MC? I purposely did not move when I got the bomb buff. Anyway, right when I was hit with the bomb debuff, I feigned a disconnect (closed vent, stopped casting and stood there). The resulting explosion was spectacular!
  • Observing a ninja: Our Guild at the time had to merge with another Guild so that both could survive. We were working our way through Blackwing Lair. Razergore was the first boss. When we killed him, the loot was set to free for all. At the time, there was a bug where master looting didn’t properly work. You guessed it. One of the Paladins quickly looted all the items, left the raid, and bubble hearthed. I could not help but laugh out loud. Remember that I had just joined with several others. I never would have gotten loot that day regardless. But at least we killed Vael after.
  • Dotting CC: I like to contribute as much as I can to a raid whether through healing or through my limited arsenal of offensive spells. I Shadow Word: Pained a sheep too many times (because I made the unfortunate mistake of assisting a mage). Heck, I even dotted my own shackle more than once. I’m too eager to help and I end up damaging the wrong one. Oops! Sometimes I do it when there’s multiple Priests in the raid. This was before Big Brother was around so the real culprit was hard to find (and I’d pin it on the other guys as a joke).
  • Letting my tanks down: It still happens to this day. I end up misjudging the time or I’m too slow or something. I made a wrong decision and the tank died leading to a prompt wipe. I could have prevented it if I had focused more. Sometimes, I wonder if we might be further on progression if I haven’t screwed up so often.
  • Blew a Flame Wreath: My streak of not triggering a flame wrath halted a month or so ago. I was playing on my Paladin but I was only partially paying attention. The other half of my brain was focused on the Detroit/Pittsburgh playoff game. I thought I had time to move but I didn’t. I wanted to cancel a heal to get a different player instead. At the time, I didn’t use stopcasting macros and relied on movement to cancel my spell casts. Sure enough, I moved too late and triggered the detonation and went flying after nuking the entire raid. Not all was lost. I did wind up going to Wyn promptly thereafter and made her help me out with stop casting macros (while gritting my teeth, I might add. You should see what else she’s talked me into doing).
  • Missing my Lurker jumps: It took me a disappointing amount of time to master the transition from water to platform and back again. I was positioned on the exact opposite side from the main tank to maximize the amount of time I had to get in. Even after that, I’d still get spouted by Lurker even though I had so much advance warning. The problem was fixed when I bought a new computer. I haven’t missed a jump since.
  • Cratering: Today another streak was broken. I belonged in the ever elusive Archimonde no crater free fall club. Today I was expelled from the fraternity. I am ashamed to say that I cratered after completely mistiming my Tears.

Everyone screws up. I’m only human. A good healer makes minimal mistakes but a great healer learns from the ones that they do make so they don’t make them again. Usually, most of my first mistakes end up being my last. There’s a lot of things I’ve done in the past as a gamer that I’m not proud of (but I’ve never cheated). Looking back now, I get a good laugh out of reminiscing.

Your turn

What’s the most colossal mistake you’ve ever made that you’re willing to admit to?

WoW Insider Post Up and WTB Resto Druid

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Finished my WI piece for the week! I have this unfortunate habit of writing late. I take a lot more care and time writing for WoW Insider then I do for my own blog! It takes me around 6 hours to pump out one of these posts. I wonder if my other WI colleagues have the same issue. Or maybe I’m just too much of a perfectionist. Anyways, go check it out! It’s about how to measure a Priest (hint: you can’t).

By the way, feel free to ignore the following images:

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*cough*

Need a Resto Druid

I might’ve mentioned earlier that we’ve lost our resident Resto Druid for a few months. I’m looking for one to help us out on our raids. We’re mostly concentrating on Black Temple at this point and gradually rotating Hyjal out of our raiding schedule. Our hours are extremely PST and EST friendly so you’re welcome to ask for more details (contact me or leave a comment).

Assigning Healing Strategy – Part 1: Recognizing Class Strengths

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Image courtesy of woodsy.

Welcome to the first in a 5 part series here on World of Matticus. For the next several weeks, I’ll be covering the rare topic of assigning raid heals. No one really wants to do it but it’s the most important job in the raid and I’ll provide a basic overview of the process and some advanced tips!

Introduction

Congratulations! Due to your success as a healer, you’ve been promoted to the healing coordinator of your raid!

You poor guy. What are you going to do? It’s like you’ve been asked to build some Legos and you’re given a whole mess of pieces without the instructions! But don’t worry, I’m here to help!

I’m not going to go too much in detail about the different classes. In fact, I’m going to make a few generalizations about the 4 healing classes so that you have a basic framework in mind for maintaining your raid group. Raid bosses are like math equations and if you have the right variables you’ll get the right answer.

Sweeping generalizations

I’m going to break this part down by each healer class and their strengths into certain categories that are important to consider on boss fights and trash. Remember that we’re only looking at the big picture (or macro) setting for all 4 classes.

Mitigation: How strong this class is at cushioning incoming damage.
Single target effectiveness: All classes have spells capable of keeping a person alive. But are they the best and most efficient at it?
Multi target effectiveness: How strong they are at keeping multiple players alive within certain areas. Lots of encounters involve groups of players standing together.
Endurance: How long can they last doing what they’re needed to do?

Priest

Mitigation: Fair – Power Word: Shield, Renew and Prayer of Mending are the first line of defense for Priests. They’re adept at counteracting incoming damage.
Single target: Good – In addition to the spells above, Flash and Greater heal provide a sizeable punch to top off targets.
Multi target effectiveness: Good – Prayer of Healing is like casting 5 Flash Heals at the same time to everyone in your group. Circle of Healing is sick.
Prayer of Healing: Fair – This depends largely on the role they need to fill. But with the right trinkets and with constant chain pots, they can fill in for a main tank healer or an AoE group healer.
Endurance: Fair – Mileage may very. I’m at the point now where I’ve never needed an Innervate. It’s going to largely depend on gems, enchants, spec, and what they’ve had that morning for breakfast. Seriously.

Druid

Mitigation: Good – Lifebloom and other HoT spells keep their targets up for prolonged periods of time. Damage sustained by the target gets healed quickly even if it’s just a Resto Druid.
Single target: Good – Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure they can keep most players up individually. I’ve never noticed them to be outstanding single target healers since they’re busy maintaining their LB stacks. Healing Touch seems to take forever. Glad they’re receiving an improved direct heal in Wrath.
Multi target effectiveness: Fair – Can’t compete against Chain Heal or Circle of Healing. However, excels when asked to stabilize a certain number of players (like 2 main tanks for instance).
Endurance: Fair – I’ve seen Innervates and chain pots last a long way but I’ve also seen Druids teeter on the edge of being manaless.

Paladin

Mitigation: Poor – No real HoTs, no way to prevent damage. What they have to do is to make sure their heals can fix the damage dealt after it’s already been done.
Single target: Excellent – Cheap heals! Spam heaven! Reliable for counteracting spike damage.
Multi target effectiveness: Poor – Very difficult to keep a group alive. May not be able to catch enough players due to the length of the total spell casts.
Endurance: Excellent – Between crit spells and potions, Paladins should be able to take a lickin’ (in their mana pool) and keep on tickin’. Mana should not be a problem here for them.

Shaman

Mitigation: Fair – Earth Shield’s usually enough to help maintain health stability of tanks.
Single target: Poor – Get any of the other 3 classes to do it if possible. The Healing Waves are well and good, but I don’t expect them to last very long compared to the other options here.
Multi target effectiveness: Insanely good – Armed with smart heals, Resto Shamans are able to identify potential targets while clocking in the least amount of work. I’m so jealous. But in all due seriousness, there’s a reason why raids stack Resto Shamans.
Endurance: Fair – Chain Heal’s the most efficient spell in the game and for what they need to do, they’ll need it. Potting, Mana Spring totem and Water Shield solves any mana disputes.

Guidelines to follow

Now that we’ve recognized their strengths, let’s go over some points.

Here’s a few guidelines that I use when I’m handling healer assignments. I’ve developed a pattern that I’ve followed unless exceptional circumstances dictated otherwise (like missing a certain class).

  • Assign tank healers first: They take precedence over anyone else. A typical formula I use that has worked on many boss encounters is to assign 2 Paladins and either a Druid or a Priest.
  • Group healers: A lot of end game fights involve raid placement and specialized group configurations. We can’t get away with healers just raid healing at will. The scope needs to be narrowed down so that AoE healers can maximize as much as possible. CoH Priests and Shamans will shine here.
  • Melee healers: I’m usually stuck with a few Shamans. I like to task 1 with the exclusive job of healing melee DPS. Since Chain Heal is on auto pilot, there are two chances for Chain Heal to jump to the main tank if it’s needed. If a Shaman is missing, I have no problem tasking a Priest to this.
  • Insurance for the healer group: The lone IDS (Improved Divine Spirit) Priest in our raid is placed in a group with 4 other healers (like 2 Paladins and 2 Priests, or something). Since that Priest isn’t capable of AoE healing other groups, they’re tasked with Prayer of Healing the healing group. This frees up the other 4 healers to worry about their other jobs instead of having to focus on their own health.

Next week, I’m going to go further in depth and try to explain the increasingly diverse roles and jobs that healers will have to step up to the plate for. Check back next Saturday when I cover double shifting and pivot healers.

If You Missed Last Weeks Round Table Discussion

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It’s here in all of its glory! It’s been up on the Twisted Nether blog for a while, but alas, I’ve been rather slow on the uptake.

Participants copied straight from the original post:

Check back in a few hours for a heavy duty blog post.