World of Matticus

You are a Horde Warlock being beaten upon by three Alliance players. Out of the corner of your eye, you notice Howl of Terror is now available for use. Your eyes narrow and you slowly grin. You activate it and watch your attackers flee befor- Oh wait, that Rogue is unaffected. You die and curse the Alliance a thousand times over.

Fear Ward.

The spell itself is an annoyance to Horde. It is the ability to 100% resist the next Fear effect from affecting a player. The Psychic Scream of Priests are one of the most powerful spells in their arsenal. Used properly, it can provide you with precious seconds to heal you and your allies. Improperly, and it will wipe the most battle hardened players.

Tremor Totem was the Horde response to Fear Ward. I suppose it did it’s job, but not as efficiently as Dwarves (and now Dranei). That particular totem wipes off fear every couple of seconds. Unlike a Priest’s Fear Ward which automatically mitigates and prevents the fear effect from taking place, the Tremor Totem continually pulses and removes the fear effect if you have it on you. Believe me, I’ve dropped my totems within 30 yards of tanks on Nightbane. I would gladly take Fear Ward over Tremor Totem in a heart beat. The damn totem only has 30 yards, but most players get feared out of range before the effect is removed! But bear in mind, I’m speaking strictly in the PvE sense. In addition to fear removals, it also removes sleep effects, Mind Control and the Seductions of a Succubus (As stated by WoWWiki). It’s best to drop the totem immediately when your mates are hit with fear and you still retain control of your character.

But fear not Hordelings, it’s been confirmed by the blue that Fear Ward will be given to all Priests. Of course, I can’t read French to confirm that, but the folks over at MMO-Champion have been able to translate it (Scroll down a post). It may not have as much of an impact on the PvE side of things because I’m positive that Horde players have been able to adapt to the absence of Fear Ward. I can only imagine what kind of an effect this will have in competitive play. All I can think of now is Alliance are screwed. There’s too much possible theorycrafting that it’s impossible to map it all. I predict more Horde teams will be dominating in the upper echelons of Arena play. If you think I’m wrong (I know there’s someone), please do tell me. I’ve played Alliance my entire WoW career and I know next to nothing about what the Horde can do (Besides what’s been done to me of course).

On another side note, here is the worldofmatticus.com misplay of the week.

There’s this Warrior on my server who decided to start some trouble in trade chat. He began swearing a couple of times and I guess some players made good on their threats to screenshot his in game chat and report it to the Blizzard GM’s. Several hours later, his Guild is busy in SSC tackling Leotheras. He’s one of their primary tanks. I’m sure by now you know where this is going. Leotheras is dropped down to 1%, and that Warrior all of a sudden stops moving and appears to be disconnected. The raid wipes without the tank maintaining control.

He got suspended.

So, if you ever get the urge to start swearing or cussing out other players on trade chat, bite the urge and leave town or move on. It’s not worth it at all.

EDIT 23:39: Anonymous comments enabled. Discuss, praise, and flame away. Too much of the latter and consider that removed. With great power comes great responsibility after all.

Last night in Magtheridon’s Lair, the [item]Crystalheart Pulse-Staff[/item] dropped. During the bidding phase, it was put up for a minimum of 30 Dragon Kill Points. I placed a 30 bid. After the first round, the highest bid was 30 which I assumed was mine. But just to be on the safe side, my second round bid was 37. At the end, I got the staff with 30 DKP (my original).

I just had this feeling that no one wanted it. Either that or they were busy saving up their DKP for something else. I was frightened that a weapon like this would get wasted and today I wanted to write about the importance of not allowing loot to rot.

Don’t ever be afraid to roll need on an item or bid DKP on an item. If it’s better then what you have, then whisper it to an officer so they can take it into account. There is no sense in replacing someone’s purple items with more purple items when there are other players wearing blues that would benefit more from it. It defies logic and common sense. Every piece of gear no matter how minor or insignificant an upgrade is still an upgrade. That extra 17 spell damage could go a long way in a 30 minute fight.

What is the premise behind World of Warcraft? Once you get to 70, you get the best loot possible, to go into a dungeon to get even better gear to go into the next level dungeon to get even BETTER gear to get into the next highest dungeon. That’s the game in a nutshell.

Skill can only get you so far. Everyone needs better gear. No guild is going to progress if loot continually gets disenchanted. Yet a lot of people pass and hoard DKP for that one weapon or chest piece that will drop off this boss later on in the instance. Guess what? If Vashj drops your chest piece, and you’re still on Fathom-Lord with gear that you can use getting sharded because you’re too greedy, you’re not getting that chest piece anyway.

Anyways, let’s get back to my new staff. A lot of priests prefer a mace/off hand combination because it allows for flexibility (And [item]Light’s Justice[/item] + [item]Aran’s Soothing Sapphire[/item] is just a freakin’ awesome combination). I originally had the [item]Gavel of Pure Light[/item] & [item]Signet of Unshakable Faith[/item]. Let’s compare the stats shall we?

With the Light’s Justice and Sapphire combination, I get:

514 healing (assuming +81 Healing)
43 Intellect
16 Stamina
20 Spirit
8 MP5

The Staff gives me:

463 healing (assuming +81 healing)
50 Intellect
51 Stamina
16 MP5

I lose 51 healing and 20 spirit, but gain 7 int, 35 stamina, and 8 MP5. There’s a lot of discussions out there between the advantages of Spirit and MP5, but I’ve always leaned towards MP5. I don’t know why, maybe it’s because I used that gun so much in counter-strike. But that stamina is such an increase that cannot afford to be wasted especially in end game instances. Instead of being 3 shot, now I have a chance of being 4 shot. That one extra shot could mean the difference between a kill or a wipe.

Furthermore, with the acquisition of the staff, I no longer need to compete against another healer for Light’s Justice. In this manner, our healers can proceed to get geared up much quicker. There’s less Kara runs that need to be done. The Guild progresses at a quicker rate. That’s what we all want. My goal is to see Carnage in the Sunwell before Wrath of the Lich King is released. Chances of that happening? Eh, I’d rather see the Spice Girls make a come back. Oh, wait a minute…

I wanted to respond to Ego’s Post (and try out this spiffy trackback function). She asked for player’s definitions of a good priest. Amazingly, gear was not on the list of responses that he had received (although I would argue that it is still somewhat important).

This is what he’s got:

“Timing, attentiveness, and care”

“fast reactions, the ability to prioritize between healing dps and keeping the MT up. Ability to remember encounters and boss events that can kill a tank in a few seconds.”

I daresay that sums it up fairly well. But I wanted to add more to this discussion. Healing a party is one thing, healing a 25 man raid with spells flying off, ceilings caving in, and murlocs running rampant throughout the area is another (Tidewalker sucks). I consider myself the Roberto Luongo of the raid . Just like Robbie Lou, I need to hit that save when your raid needs it the most. A timed Power Word: Shield, Prayer of Mending, Renew and max rank flash heal spams will almost always do the trick.

But here are some other things that I feel good priests bring to the table:

Awareness: Did you ever wonder how Gretzky scored his goals and set up the most beautiful plays? It’s the simple fact that he was aware of where his teammates were, where the opposing team was, and who had possession of the puck. How does this apply to WoW? Be aware of where you are, what’s going on, and where your raidmates are. If the boss fears, apply fear ward. If everyone in your party is taking hit from an AoE, start casting prayer of healing. If you’re taking on Nightbane and the ground’s on fire, move! I can’t count the amount of times that I’ve had to yell at a fellow priest because his eyes were too busy glued onto the side of his monitor at his raid frames and wasn’t noticing that his feet was on fire. These kinds of things kill you.

Perseverance: Never give up. No matter what circumstances, keep trying until you get the encounter down. Nothing beats the feeling of getting that raid boss down for the first time and knowing you played a key role in solving the encounter. Good priests are prepared to die to preserve the health of their tanks. In raids, there are typically seven to nine healers. But there is only one main tank. Even if you’re taking a beating, keep him up as best as possible. Once the tank is down, it’s game over.

Precognition: A little psychic ability never hurt anyone. Time your heals so that they land just after the next attack hits. Try to predict what will happen next so you can get ready for it. Actually, this would apply to any player. Especially in PvP environments like arenas, knowing what move the opposing player will do is beneficial. Knowing that mage’s next frostbolt is about to hit you can be mitigated with a shield on yourself, or a fear next to him. Knowing who your Paladin is healing next can save you precious mana against a raid boss. If your assist window shows three of your healers on the maintank who is at 60% and you were about to heal him too, then you will end up overhealing when you finish casting. Better to move onto the next target and make your heals count. Of course, there is someone who is going to say “but what if those three players weren’t enough?”. To them, I say know your healers and know what they’re capable of. Being aware of how skilled and geared you are relative to other players is a boon.

Preparation: I bring 20 super mana potions, 10 TK potions, and 10 SSC potions. I keep two stacks of Brilliant Mana Oils on me at all times. The Guild Bank supplies me with Marks from SSC and TK so I can turn them in for flasks. I ensure I have a steady supply of Blackened Sporefish within my inventory. Don’t ever be afraid to use consumables.

I could sum up this entire post by simply saying only good priests aren’t careless or lazy. But if I did, I would be careless and lazy.