Amateur Smash!…Self

This is me, in my own head.

For the first time in an incredibly long time today I did something I honestly didn’t even know was still in me.  I rage-quit WoW.  I was in the middle of an instance, and I literally shut the program down out of sheer frustration.  To make matters worse, it wasn’t anyone else.  It was me.   Folks tried to be reassuring, and I appreciate it.  But I’m just struggling with (what I consider the basics of) healing as a Paladin.

On one hand, I can’t keep up with the tank’s health dropping.  If I pull that off successfully, I’m running out of mana.  In the past, with both my Shaman and Priest, I’ve figured out the problem either on my own or through research.  With the Paladin class, that just doesn’t seem to be happening.  I’m doing most of the things I’ve been told (a few have come up since my moment of rage), but I still struggle.  Thanks to Myth, I’ve got some solid enough gear that it shouldn’t be as much of an issue (minus of course my inability to land a second healing trinket).  But I’m struggling on trash. 

I need to thank both Matty and Repgrind for their patience and advice this afternoon as they became who I reached out to in order to try and figure it out, once the frustration settled a little.  It’s not that I want it to be easy, I just like to be able to correct myself.  With every other class (save maybe Rogue), I can usually get it right.  Heck, even tanking as a Paladin I grasped without much trouble (more than any other tanking class, honestly).  And I like healing.  I really do.  I wasn’t bothered when I was asked about being a Holy Paladin to raid.  I just didn’t think I’d ever be as frustrated with myself as I am.

I think part of the issue is flipping the switch at 85.  If I rolled a new Paladin and from level 10 on was Holy, I would probably learn the class and role much better and more easily.  I’d learn the spells as I get them and become accustomed to when and how to use them.  Going Holy at 85 and trying to tackle it all is tough for how my brain is wired.

Then there’s the matter of how long I’d be raid healing anyway.  For starters, my schedule to raid now isn’t all that great (much as I would like to with Myth).   Come Mists, I’ll be of no use for progression because I’m not buying the expansion.  So they’ll get to 90 and start out and it won’t be me healing them.  Frankly, this hasn’t factored into how I have approached the task at hand but it makes me wonder if maybe it should.  If I had the time, perhaps I’d roll another Paladin as Holy just to learn it as I go.  But the truth is, by the time I do that, half the guild will probably be 87 or 88.  I’d learn just in time for it to be of zero use.

So, instead, I keep hopping on Saintvache and going Holy and think I’m getting it.  Then invariably it’s clear that I’m not.  If I could find the solution, I know it wouldn’t bother me nearly as much.  Then again, perhaps things just went wrong on a day where I’m tired.  Who can say for sure?

I Never Punched Him

While relaxing this afternoon, I got a little bit ambitious.  Truth be told, I’ve only gone into the Raid Finder once and that was with my friend Valanyr (and it was at his behest, too).  So, I’d done the Siege of Wyrmrest Temple, and even a boss with Saintvache.  But that’s literally it, and so I thought why not give the Siege a try again.  I’d heard and read horror stories about the Raid Finder but was in the mood where if it didn’t work out then “oh well.”

The first moment I knew something wasn’t right was standing on Wyrmrest Temple.  I thought, hrm…I must’ve joined one in progress.  Wasn’t that big of a deal, as I said a moment ago I was just in the mood to be there regardless.  Turns out I was wrong about the whole situation and it stemmed from what I must’ve clicked on.  You see, a rather ominous presence appeared on my screen and I realized I wasn’t saving the Temple…

Property of Furious-Gaming.com

So, indeed, when I realized I was fighting Ultraxion I reconsidered things just a bit.  I hadn’t even read the fights for the Fall of Deathwing because I hadn’t planned on being there any time soon.  But, in this case I was there, so I figured I may as well make the most of it.  If I failed, I’d learn from it.  Ultraxion went smoothly, as did the ship.  Then came the Spine and I just shuddered because of the various horror stories I had heard.  We cut it a bit close, but still succeeded.  Then came the final fight and when everyone was a platform over, I had no idea how they got there as Mrs. Amateur came in to inform me the boy was sick.  So worrying about him and trying to figure out how they got there, I was pretty well useless.

So I did a bit of dps on anything I was in range of, and otherwise just kept myself alive.  I kinda figured the raid might come back to me and I should be ready if that was the case (and for those who haven’t been there, it was).  After that it was a piece of cake!

I have to say given the stories I’ve heard, and even the random dungeons I’ve had, I never expected a run this smooth.  Sure, a few people died and we had to battle rez a tank twice, but otherwise everyone just showed up and did their job and those who did any chatting were friendly and helpful.  I couldn’t have asked for a better run.  I rolled on a pair of casting gloves and won them but ended up giving them to the Mage who they were more suited for (no Spirit), and I think that brought the luck to my side as I won Maw of the Dragonlord.

The one thing I did learn, is that with my computer running Ubuntu and my Emulator (Wine) not able to access all my hardware, I had some serious lag.  Heck, I would hazard there’s a cinematic between each fight but I couldn’t even play them.  The screen was just black so I was smart enough to hit escape.  But, it was a tonne of fun…speaking of which, tonight’s Laid Back Raid in Blackwing Lair should bring some fun of its own as well!  Rest assured I’ll share the story as always.

Dance, Tauren, Dance

Indeed, Saintvache hit 85 this afternoon.  Gotta love an old-fashioned exploration ding!  Much like Kamalia last month, I now have more end level characters than I did when I came into the expansion.  Granted, three isn’t all that many.  But when you’re a proverbial Octopus reaching into various cookie jars, it’s still something.  More importantly, it’s my first level capped Horde.  Heck, it’s the first non-Death Knight-Horde I got past level 40 (yes, that will change).

Once I started getting down to the final four bars, it was exciting.  After doing some of the red dragonflight cut scene quests in Twilight Highlands/Grim Batol, I noticed I needed about three thousand experience, so I took to the sky and a short time later…

Booyah!

With limited time before I had to carry on with the rest of my day, I made my way to the Justice Points Vendor and immediately bought my first epic.  I figure trinkets might be hard to come by via drop, so I bought the Singed Plume of Aviana.  The reason being, I’ll be healing far more than tanking when I run things (finally) with Myth, so I figured it was a good step in the right direction.  I then equipped the healing set I had built thus far…

…and quickly realized how Illidan-awful his outfit is.  Next step: design a transmog set.  You know, had I been thinking this through, I would have had Rhianous do that instead of Elcombe.  Oh well, hindsight is 20/20.  I’m looking forward to doing the Thrall chain now, as well as Molten Front.  Yes…I realize how sick that sounds, but I actually like the Front.  Regardless, I’m going to enjoy my freshly minted 85.

Tomorrow.

NBI Week Four: Learning Is Fun

I haven’t said or done too much in regards to the New Blog Initiative, despite my thoughts that it was a great idea.  However, I did decide to take part in Battlechicken‘s challenge for this week, which is all about research and discovering something new.  Coincidentally, I’d recently spoken to my guild leader Yuush about focusing more on being a Holy Paladin rather than a Prot Pally at 85. As this is my first Paladin to get past level 16, I’ve learned that I love tanking with Saintvache.  I always had a Holy OS, but that doesn’t mean I’ve ever used it.  I have healers if I want to heal.  Saintvache just rounds everything up and watches it fall.  But that doesn’t mean I’m against the notion.  Quite the contrary.

I’m more than happy to take on the role of a Holy Paladin, save for one minor detail.  That would be not having the foggiest clue about healing as a Paladin.  Not stats, not spells, not glyphs…sweet fuggle.  My first thought in reading some of the spells I’ve got (aside from those that I had nearby for saving my tank butt because of unpredictable pugging), there’s some similarities to other healing.  I also know Spirit, Int, Haste will matter to some degree.  Looking at MMO Melting Pot I learn I’m not far off:

1. Intellect
2. Haste
3. Crit
4. Mastery

Spirit isn’t on the list because it’s priority fluctuates based on your mana and mana management.  Again, with a couple of other healers (though only one at 85), this doesn’t surprise me too terribly.  It’s pretty much the healing foundation.

So now what?  Sweet, there’s a link to Kurn’s guide aka Holy-How-To.  First thing Kurn looks at is talents.  Let me just say in terms of explaining a talent tree, this is about as good as it gets in my opinion.  Basically presented like a stop light, right?  Green is go, red is stop/avoid, and yellow is proceed with caution.  In game terms it comes down to options that vary depending on your build.  There’s also an awesome explanation of the talents and why you do or don’t want them.

So, let’s take a look at Saintvache’s tree and how I made out on my own.  Well, from the gate I’ve gone with 32 points and Kurn only mentions 31.  Without any research I also seemed to recognize the talents that were useless and still hit the major ones.  Go me!  I didn’t take Crusade in the Retribution tree due to not reading it close enough and thus not understanding it’s usefulness.  I’ll be respec’ing to tighten up my ability, at which point I’ll correct this oversight.

Of course, I’m nowhere near geared or glyphed for Healing though.  Heck, I don’t even think I’ve got Saintvache all his tanking glyphs (quick Armory check and sure enough, missing a Prime and all minor).  I have managed to put together some gear that would do for now, but come 85 I’ll obviously need to get better.

Looking at spells that Paladins use, I’m optimistic they’ll have a few less than a Priest.  I find as a Priest I have a tonne of spells.  It’s not as bad as it sounds, as I have my core ones and then a plethora of situational ones (Fear Ward, Shackle Undead, Flash Heal).  Still, a less cluttered UI would be nice.  Oh, what’s that?  Kurn tells me Paladins have 25 abilities.  Excuse me while I cry in the corner…wait!  Look at this!  A complete run down of all those abilities and when to use them, including specific bosses.  Well that’s explanatory.  Let me just say the first time I heal with Myth, if it goes even close to well, I think they need to send flowers to Kurn as a thank you.

It seems as though the one thing I’ll have to get used to as a Paladin healer over the other classes, is Holy Power.  I’ve come to understand it pretty good while tanking, so it won’t be too much of an adjustment.  That will come more in when to use it (and with which of the two healing spells) as well as how best to generate it while healing.

However, I’m not about to take for granted it’s as simple as that, and I certainly recognize more opinions are better than just one.  I would’ve hit Paladin Schmaladin for some help, but unfortunately it’s days are long gone.  Fortunately, a writer who joined the site late in its existence is my son’s godfather, so he’ll certainly be able to help me out.  I also have my good friend Magik, who has a Prot/Holy Paladin in Claws of Nature.  He’s pretty good at both roles, so having both him and the godfather to talk things through verbally will help.  Then, much like back in the days of learning how best to Priest heal, it will come down to trial and error, and familiarity.

With any luck, I’ll get the hang of it just as I have with my Shaman thus far.  It’s just the matter of testing my theory and abilities once I fix things talent/glyph/action bar wise.  Hopefully there won’t be more than one or two wipes in the process!

Can we heal it? YES WE CAN….I think.

Annoyances

See that?  It clearly shows you why Transmogrification is needed in the game.  My poor Saintvache looks like he hit the dumpster behind the local theatre.  The frustrating part is that I either can’t build an outfit for his level or I can’t find the parts for what I want.  This is actually a glaring occurrence for many of my toons (all but half a dozen or so) and it seems my efforts to fix it always come up just shy.

In other news, a friend convinced me to take Tumunzahar and LFR for the first time today.  We bought a couple of PvP cloth items off the auction house and then I used my justice points for a ring upgrade and I was good to go.  Not surprisingly, I was the lowest geared healer there, but I wasn’t the worst (wewt).  I wasn’t at the top either, but I didn’t expect to be.  As Grumpy Elf suggested, the lower the gear the more likely your odds to get upgrades.  I won Robes of Glowing Stone and Seal of the Seven Signs.  Those boost me to a natural 371 ilevel and (I’m almost ashamed to say) this.

All in all, I enjoyed the first part of Dragon Soul and the group was relatively decent.  People surprised me with instant cries of “KICK THEM” as soon as someone DC’d…yet it took us a whole boss fight to notice someone was in the Trade District during the entire encounter.  Prior to the last fight, I get a whisper from my friend asking if I’m the noob using Leap of Faith on people.  Honestly, unless it’s that one in a million situation where I might need to, LoF has no place for me in a raid.  I don’t even think of using it in 25 man.  Turns out, someone was using it alright.

I found out first hand during the final boss when the ice walls were popping up.  Someone Leap of Faithed me into the wall.  I died.  Admittedly, I also swore.  This person then whispered I was a moron and logged.  So, in pure immature vindictive fashion I went to said server and degenerated into swearing at him again.  He came back to my server and thanked me for the screenshot then left again before I could reply.  So far, I handled this situation poorly.  So, I went back to the other server and tried to find out what the problem was.  He admitted to LoF’ing me into the ice.  But then said I did it to him first.  And then put me on ignore.

Again, I didn’t use Leap of Faith once during the entire raid, so I don’t know if he confused me with someone else (perhaps he wasn’t the Priest doing it to people and it was the other one…whom he thought was me?).  There were three Priests in the raid, so anything is possible.  Still, it irked me that it happened, that I handled it incredibly poorly, and that I couldn’t actually discuss it in a civil manner.  Oh, and in case you’re wondering what realm this person was from…Khaz’Modan.

**edit**

In an effort to get this up in a timely manner I forgot something, and that’s the fact that for whatever reason some of the non-Wordpress blogs aren’t letting me post.  Doesn’t matter if I try anonymous or with Open ID, it just will not process.  Sometimes, like moments ago on ALT:ernative, I can get it to work so long as I have MY blog open.  I can’t even begin to understand how that works, but just know that it isn’t just me so if you’re comments section isn’t as boisterous as usual, that’s probably why.

Bye Bye January

The first month of the year is gone in a few short hours (or possibly it’s already gone in your part of the world) and if there’s one way to summarize it, that would be WHERE DID MY IMMUNE SYSTEM GO?!?!  Seriously, I was sick every day this month.  Some were better than others (the strep throat phase suckethed horribly), but on the whole I’ve had some variation of a viral infection or flu since New Year’s Day.  Ugh.

That out of the way, I present a random post of random thoughts as it relates to our wonderful World (of Warcraft).  For starters, I hate the idea of Hoarders, but this Machinima always cracks me up.  It’s definitely the Troll.  Plus, if you know any players like this I can guarantee you Void Storage has done nothing to help this situation.

• I finally landed Horrux’s pants on the Auction House last night. I’ve needed Brutish Legguards for over a month.  I decided to check the Undermine Journal before I went to bed and then logged on like a madman.  This would be the fifth time I’ve seen them only to login and they’re gone.  Alas, I still need the gloves, but now that it’s the only piece of gear I’m missing for his outfit, I may look for other options.
• Mount Hyjal is absurdly slow without a flying mount.  That’s right, Liouxpold still doesn’t have one.  I haven’t bothered visiting the Cenarion Expedition in quite some time.  Part of me thinks this weekend might be a great opportunity to go farm crazy.  No, I won’t just buy him a bird.
• Still debating whether or not I want the Elder title for Tumunzahar.  I got it on Siori when it was introduced, mainly because I had this notion as guild leader she needed it first (and I succeeded in that area).  I like Starcaller on Tum but if Blizzard allows for mixed titles in the future, Elder Starcaller actually has a ring to it.
• Leveling with guild perks and even ONE BoA is ridiculously faster than doing it vanilla style.  That’s a no-brainer, but The 2012 is teaching me that rather quickly. 
• Love Warrior tanking and Druid tanking, and quickly coming around to Paladin tanking.  Yet, I look at both my Blood Death Knights and just cringe at the idea.
• On the flip side, I love Priest healing, find Shaman healing easy, and am just now starting to level a Resto Druid…Holy Paladin will probably come later.
• No, I don’t dual-spec much.  By much, I mean one toon has it. 
• I used to hate Cooking.  Now, the daily grants an absurd amount of xp that you’d be a fool not to learn it.
• Visiting the replica vendors in Netherstorm was a bad idea.  Some of the items for sale out there are amazing.  At the same time, I’m not sure how the level 60 gear works.  I’m guessing you have to get it with honor first, and that allows you to buy the replica version for ‘Mogging. 
• Yes, Blizzard, that’s still incredibly fail to do to the player base.
• I finally got Formula: Enchant Chest – Greater Stats, though it was off my Auction House and for a mint.  Yet, I still haven’t decided whether to learn it or try and sell it.  Hard to say if I’d get my money back or more, though it’s the only time I’ve ever seen the formula in four years.
• Speaking of Formulas, I keep meaning to check whether Crusader drops anymore or not.  I have one in my bank, so it’s worth looking into.
• I really need to take Tumunzahar in to kill visit Malygos, as it’s the only Wrath raid (pre-Icecrown) he never did. 
• I also need to get rolling on getting Siori the legendary daggers.  I think I need to sweet talk a couple people about getting in on a raid for the sap fight.  
• I should finish up some of the other posts that are sitting in the pipeline.  So many ideas, so little time.  
• I hope that when I get home, patching WoW on a Linux system is easy.
   

How I Role (Healing)

I was surprised this morning when there was no maintenance.  It goes to show you just one thing -I’m up way too early.  Sure enough, we get our regularly scheduled downtime today, and only a week after a major patch that is to be expected.  As you can see, I treated Tumunzahar to “Uber Flight” first.  I also healed Grim Batol for the first time.

No one died, and I got compliments on my abilities as a healer.  While healing is easily my favourite role in the game, I’m not a hardcore player (or even a consistent dungeon runner these days) so I have nothing to measure against.  I’ve never looked up the ideal Holy Priest spec, and the first time I did any research was early in Cataclysm because I was using up way too much mana.  That’s when I learned Flash Heal isn’t so hot any more.  Otherwise everything I do is based on my own thoughts and instincts.  Plus, there’s one other little detail to how I heal.

Pay The Trainer No Attention

Unfortunately, that’s the only UI screenshot I have because my hard drive died on Friday.  I’m on a backup laptop, that until now I forgot tends to lag.  But, that’s not the other detail of healing I was talking about.  If you look closely at that picture, that’s exactly what I use for dungeons/raids.  The vanilla UI.  No macros, no custom UI, and I have never used a healing addon.  The spells you don’t see are still in my action bars, I just do a quick Shift + up or down to quickly access them. 

Honestly, this isn’t a trumpeting of ego or anything like that.   This is simply how I heal, and you could argue I’m not reaching full potential doing it this way.  I did use a custom UI for a while and I do prefer it.  However, when we knew patch 4.3 was coming I decided not to install anything since I’d have to replace it when the patch dropped.  Then I just got used to it as is.  As for addons, I’m honestly amazed at how many people are surprised that I don’t use any.  Well, gameplay ones.  I still have things like Ackis, MogIt, and Auctionator but those certainly aren’t going to improve my healing any.  My wife uses Healbot on her Druid and she likes it.  Nearly everyone I know uses DBM.  I don’t look down on anyone who uses addons of any kind.  However, the launch of Cataclysm showed me how many people rely on them.  That’s where I shake my head.

I understand how fights are easier to deal with when you have the addons for reminders or alerts on certain fights.  I also know everyone has a different connection and there’s issues there.   So having an extra second or two can make a world of difference.  Just like if I didn’t play on a wireless connection my reaction time would probably be even better (didn’t mention that either, did I?).  But if you can’t run a dungeon because your gameplay addon of choice doesn’t work, then it means the addon is doing the work and you’re coasting.  Notice what I’m saying before you jump down my throat.  There’s a difference between “not wanting to” and “can’t.”  If you choose not to heal because you’re out of practice doing it “old school” or you just aren’t confident then I understand.  But people who raid who tell me they can’t do it because their addons aren’t updated make me roll my eyes.  In fairness, it’s because these are usually the same people complaining the game has gotten too easy.