So, tell me about your mother....

Edit - I wrote this some time ago, but only just found it, unpublished, in my edit list.  So, it seems fully formed as a post, why not post it! you can tell because I talk about pulling aggro in Ulduar, so this might be... a year old? I will edit the bits that need editing to make it relevant to now.

I was cruising the blogosphere and found that people have a bunch of questions about their primary tank/healer/dps toon.  So, I figured why not do mine?  I have not actually spoken to much about me and my history. It might pay to let you folks out there know a bit about me.


What is the name, class, and spec of your primary Healer?
If you are clever you can work out my name (there is enough info out there about me for the Watsons out there to figure it out).  I play a holy paladin.  I play on an oceanic realm, being from the antipodes.  I run a guild.  I am also quite insane.


I run this spec as holy.  I gear specifically to run it.  Which means I gem and enchant for int, and I preference haste/MP5 on gear and stats over crit.  That said, I have nearly 1000 haste now yowser.  I use the ilvl 200 libram and flasks of mojo.  Yes, that libram is still the best damn holy pally libram in the game.


What is your usual healing environment?
25s baby!  Preferably heroic and as fast as I can do it.  I also really enjoy the 10man setting and I run in a 10man group on weekends.  In short, I love team sports and I love overcoming challenges together in a group. [Edit - wow how time flies!  Now I am running primarily 10s in a 10man guild]


What is your favorite encounter to heal, and why?
That's a very good question.  I enjoy encounters where the heal stress is not high, and there are game mechanics involved that you need to complete to win.  I think my fave WotLK encounters are Sarth25 3D, and yoggy.  Yogg is just a beautifully balanced encounter, I feel.  Sarth 3D has good raid awareness, stuff you have to do "other" than healing (ie using abilities, moving around, in and out of portals etc). [Edit - And guess what, this remains unchanged!]


What is your least favorite encounter to heal, and why?
Anything in TotGC.  It is poorly designed, especially for healers.  The tank spike damage is beyond ridiculous (for example RNG can kill a tank on Northrend beasts no matter how good you are in current gear if the planets align). Basically, I get into position, plant my feet and chain heal.  BORING!  Oh yeah, if I HAVE to move, there is a good change the tank will die or get gaspingly close to dead.  And if I get killed? WOW. WIPE!  I hate that pressure. [Edit - again, unhanged, ICC was a middling/average instance to me]


What do you think is the biggest strength of your class, and why?
Raw output.  I love the changes to beacon of light, it has actually improved my game play enjoyment immensely.  It also suits my preferred style of healing (which is emergency heals on DPS who stand in fires).  With a mana pool that no longer fits in my pants and crit out the wazoo I rarely go oom and can pump out the numbers with the high haste rating I have somehow wrangled.  I am not by any means well geared (I think I am 20th on my server atm... down from my usual position of the top 5) because, I dont need it.  I simply dont need the gear to do the work I need to do.  Which I think is a very good sign for things to come.  Paladins are in a really good place right now, I feel.  I hope blizz don't much it up.


and weakness?
I have one casting tree.  Lock it, and I'm screwed.  Also, I am very immobile as a healer.  I plant my feet and I heal stuff.  
Fire?  WHAT FIRE?  oh, hang on, that fire was a wipe mechanic *splat*  
A whirlwinding mob? BAH! Oh that was HEROIC faction champions *splat*


What is your favorite thing about the class you chose for your primary Healer and why?
PLATE ARMOUR!!! Oh yeah.  Loves me some plate!  I also love the idea of paladins... combat casters.  I always played my Holy pally as melee, and never understood why everyone else stood back and bitched about mana issues.  Get in there and hit shit people!  You are a Paladin of the Light!!  Seal and Judge Wisdom kGO!


In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel is the best healing assignment for you?
Me heal tank.
Ugg.


What is your worst habit as a healer?
HAHAHAAAAA  Hairy would say "pulling aggro on Steelbreaker wed night and getting one shot!", but I think my absolute worst habit is trying to do all the jobs at once.  I simply try to do too much sometimes because I get bored.  And sometimes tanks die. *whistles innocently*


What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing?
Players who are not raid aware.  Players who cannot understand mechanics.  Players who argue stupid shit.  Players who don't shut up and do what they are told - right or wrong - when told to do so by the RL. DPS who stand in fires.


I could go on....  Hang on, it asked for one pet peeve.  People who stand in fires, that's my biggest pet peeve.


Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other tanks for PvE healing?
Yes.  I really do.  I love paladin healing, and it is really well placed at the moment in relation to other healing classes.  I could say that of paladins in general at the moment.  I think they are in a really great place, and I'm loving playing my paladin.   Which is good, because I have lost time to play on my alts recently *pats unloved alts*  I promise to play you soon guys!!


What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer?
Are the tanks dead yes/no?
Is the boss dead yes/no?
If yes to both I did well.  If no to either, meh - middling to good.  If no to both I did badly.


I use livelogging into worldoflogs for analysis on the fly, and recount for a ballpark idea of how things are going.  If anyone is doing too much healing on the tanks, then I am doing something wrong.


What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class?
That we can do anything except buff, stand still and heal.  Seriously, we don't do ANYTHING else so stop trying to make us, ok?


What do you think is the toughest thing for new players of your class to learn about healing?
Algebra.  No really!
Pally healing is about predicting the rate of change of damage over time, and casting into the future to mitigate that.  It is about learning the boss damage out put SO WELL that you can "feel" when things are going well, and going badly.  You can "feel" when to cast a big heal, or when you can get away with flashing your tank *whee!*  It is about algebra.


If someone were to evaluate your healing ability via tools like fraps, recount, and World of Logs, what tendencies would they notice?
I keyboard turn, except when I know I can't and I plan ahead to mouse turn.



Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why?
I addressed this earlier on.  I stack int and haste/MP5.  I spec for it, I gear for it, I LOVE IT!  I have found that the Haste style of healing suits me, and I empirically find that I get better mana return and bang for my buck doing this.  Your mileage may vary.

What healing class do you feel you understand least?
Druids.  Hots do my head in.

Addons for healing?
Pally power
clique+raid frames (I use a combination of xperl and pitbull and vuhdu)
dominos (bar mod)
quartz (casting bar mod)
Pally bar mod thingy (it keeps track of your bubbles, judgements, bacon and hots and also other peoples bubbles)