It seems that the RNG gods are displeased with the goats I have been sacrificing to them asking for holy plate, and have, instead, in their infinite wisdom, showered me with DPS and Tanking plate instead. This is wholly depressing since healing is my thing that I do. I heal stuff. I heal stuff when I am ret as well. Although, apparently I also Tank stuff when I am ret too.
This is not all bad. Ret is stupid fun. And when I say stupid I mean it. My screen lights up like a christmas tree whenever I get into the thick of it and I am madly pressing the current glowing button and waiting for my combo points to hit 3 before I do something with them (or sometimes less if my "hit shit harder" timer says that buff is about to run out).
You see, I always loved playing rogues. My first toon was a troll rogue and I played the hell out of that character, until I was convinced to reroll alliance with work mates. So, you can imagine how damn excited I was to find out that my holy rogue is just as much fun to play!
Now, 4.0.6 will be a big change to ret. I am looking forward to the change in mastery. I might actually start stacking that at some point! I am going to have a look this week at numbers and things that I can produce (I have about ilvl 333 average gear, and seem to be able to produce about 8k average DPS on a boss if I dont have to cover tanking or healing), which, for someone excited by the shinies on her screen, are some quite respectable numbers... for ret. Yeah, I put the caveat for ret on there because no matter what I do, I seem to be about 1-2k behind people with similar levels of gear to me. Which is kind of depressing, really.
But my guild are lovely, and they take the broken holy pally along as ret to try to farm for heroic gear anyway. That said, I actually mostly hold my own these days. There really isn't a lot to ret; keep your hitty harder buff up, judge and crusader strike/divine storm when they are off CD, use your holy power when it gets to 3 on either the hitty one or your buff (or use word of glory if things are looking a little dire) and whenever one of your abilities glows, use it! Use all your CDs on bosses. That's the guts of ret. There are some ideas of rotation and start ups, and there is finesse in choosing which proc to use when many proc at once, but really, those are not too important to people who are not at top end raiding just yet. For most of us, venturing into our first raid, or gearing up in heroics, the finer ins and outs of decisions as to which proc to use when is not a life or death situation. Not standing in the poop will yield much greater results. That extra 100DPS just doesn't matter to us at this stage. I am not saying it won't soon, but it doesn't yet.
It's not quite the faceroll it used to be, but it is a lot shinier on the screen!
Showing posts with label 5Man. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 5Man. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Of PUGs, Mages and tangents
This is a bit of a (long) Story Time with Aunty Brang, but I was so excited, I had to share. I won't be offended if you just skim it and click "read" on your RSS feeder, I also wont know but SHHH...
I am generally not a LFD-er. I am not a fan of the people you get in pugs from that tool. Generally people are silent, and when they do talk it is because you screwed up, or they are telling you to wait for mana or demanding a buff of some kind. The anonymity and randomness has made people forget their manners, on the whole. Occasionally, the LFD tool has sparks of awesome. This is the tale of one such awesome point in an otherwise boring time of levelling. There is one moral from this story, one point that I keep trying to make over and over... communication is key. If you communicate, then people are a lot more tolerant of you, as you will see in the following dialog.
I was levelling my little mage, Dhaliri, trying to catch up to some of my friends who had overtaken me so we could go do some instances together. With some trepidation, I hit the LFD key, and start questing. Within minutes I was being ported into Utgarde Keep "I WILL PAINT MAH FACE WITH YOUR BLOOOOD!" (Sure Ingmar, whatever you say).
It didnt take long for me to realise that something good was about to happen:
So with out much further ado, we charge into the instance. The DK Tank is pulling like a champion, taking large groups of mobs (but not too many) and the rest of us are carving up the AoE. We all seem to know what we are doing, waiting for the DnD to go down before we start wailing on everything. Then... this happens...
At this point, I think I had a massive crush on the hunter...
Uh oh! Could we possibly have a cocky, annoying tank?
*blink* SERIOUSLY? This tank was saying that the wipe was partially his fault! I think I have a crush on the tank now too! He even took the priest seriously with the next comment:
Hunter is giggling his head off at all this, and so am I.
Ah Hunter - how I love thee, let me count the ways. And thus we proceeded to completely smash the instance. Then, the Tank DK dropped the bombshell:
We enjoyed that run so much, we decided to go again, but with a new healer. This healer has a rather... LOW mana pool. AAAAAAAAAAaaaand we wipe. Now, read the following interaction:
There was a bit more to the conversation than that, but it is pretty boring to read. The upshot it we identified what went wrong and we corrected it. The only thing the druid had to say was "I died". The rest of us were trying to figure out what happened and how it occurred. I didn't pull aggro again, I watched the DnD and made sure my AoE was in the right places... however, the druid kept dying, generally, it seemed from a lack of mana (as the Tank DK was starting to look after himself), or not realising that DnD wasnt going down sometimes and pulling healer aggro.
And the Druid decides to leave after the first boss. However, while we were waiting for him to run back one time, us Dranei entertained ourselves by telling jokes to the mobs.
Did I mention that this group rocked? Anyway, the new healer rocks up and we see the following exchange:
Yep, that was pretty much one long exchange as we pulled into the next boss. We smashed through the instance and queued up again. This was worth it just for Youngling's random comments while we waited for the next healer to sort out a mod:
Finally, the shammy logs back on... we charge in...
And disaster strikes as the tank comes crashing down...
I pull aggro and decide Ice Block is my friend.
(I would if I HAD invisibility at that level...) I decided that advancing in a negative direction was the best thing for me to do right now... but I didn't count on LFD putting awesome people in my group a third time running.
And Youngling was just as entertaining as previously. Unfortunately, I had to leave after this run... but I couldn't be let go without a passing shot from the crowd...
I am generally not a LFD-er. I am not a fan of the people you get in pugs from that tool. Generally people are silent, and when they do talk it is because you screwed up, or they are telling you to wait for mana or demanding a buff of some kind. The anonymity and randomness has made people forget their manners, on the whole. Occasionally, the LFD tool has sparks of awesome. This is the tale of one such awesome point in an otherwise boring time of levelling. There is one moral from this story, one point that I keep trying to make over and over... communication is key. If you communicate, then people are a lot more tolerant of you, as you will see in the following dialog.
I was levelling my little mage, Dhaliri, trying to catch up to some of my friends who had overtaken me so we could go do some instances together. With some trepidation, I hit the LFD key, and start questing. Within minutes I was being ported into Utgarde Keep "I WILL PAINT MAH FACE WITH YOUR BLOOOOD!" (Sure Ingmar, whatever you say).
It didnt take long for me to realise that something good was about to happen:
14:46 [Tank DK]: Try to keep up
So with out much further ado, we charge into the instance. The DK Tank is pulling like a champion, taking large groups of mobs (but not too many) and the rest of us are carving up the AoE. We all seem to know what we are doing, waiting for the DnD to go down before we start wailing on everything. Then... this happens...
14:53 [Priest Healer]: I don't get the trend for tanks to totally disregard that the healer needs mana...what is that?
14:54 [Tank DK]: I wasn't disregarding, I just wasn't paying attention
14:54 [Hunter]: an s on their chests now??
14:54 [Hunter]: lol
At this point, I think I had a massive crush on the hunter...
14:55 [Tank DK]: The very last time I ran this, I ran it with a druid who said he could faceroll
Uh oh! Could we possibly have a cocky, annoying tank?
14:55 [Tank DK]: I wasn't mitigating properly, usually I can heal myself a bit
*blink* SERIOUSLY? This tank was saying that the wipe was partially his fault! I think I have a crush on the tank now too! He even took the priest seriously with the next comment:
14:55 [Priest Healer]: no idea what that is
14:56 [Tank DK]: It's so easy, he could roll his face over the keyboard and it would workl
14:56 [Hunter]: lol
Hunter is giggling his head off at all this, and so am I.
14:58 [Tank DK]: Mana?
14:58 [Priest Healer]: thanks
14:58 [Hunter]: no ty i am good lol
Ah Hunter - how I love thee, let me count the ways. And thus we proceeded to completely smash the instance. Then, the Tank DK dropped the bombshell:
15:13 [Tank DK]: This is my second character, right next to the 55 warrior I dropped to make this one
15:13 [Tank DK]: I just love tanking
15:13 [Tank DK]: I'm gonna make a druid and a pally too
15:13 [Hunter]: u r good at it
15:14 [Dhaliri]: yeah, you are doing really well at tanking for your second character
15:14 [Tank DK]: =D
15:14 [DPS DK]: ya :D
15:14 [Tank DK]: My buddy has played WoW for about 4 years
15:14 [Dhaliri]: Im watching your threat and its solid
15:14 [Tank DK]: I learn a lot from him
15:14 [Dhaliri]: well, hes a good teacher
15:15 [Hunter]: yes
15:15 [Tank DK]: Thanks =D
We enjoyed that run so much, we decided to go again, but with a new healer. This healer has a rather... LOW mana pool. AAAAAAAAAAaaaand we wipe. Now, read the following interaction:
15:25 [Tank DK]: What happened?
15:26 [Dhaliri]: I pulled aoe
15:26 [Druid Healer]: i died
...
15:27 [Tank DK]: I screwed up the positioning of my DnD
There was a bit more to the conversation than that, but it is pretty boring to read. The upshot it we identified what went wrong and we corrected it. The only thing the druid had to say was "I died". The rest of us were trying to figure out what happened and how it occurred. I didn't pull aggro again, I watched the DnD and made sure my AoE was in the right places... however, the druid kept dying, generally, it seemed from a lack of mana (as the Tank DK was starting to look after himself), or not realising that DnD wasnt going down sometimes and pulling healer aggro.
15:40 [Dhaliri]: healer down
15:40 [Tank DK]: How?
...
15:41 [Tank DK]: I didn't think they'd be a problem, little babies hit a lot when they're many
15:41 [Tank DK]: I just blood boiled and assumed I'd have aggro thil they died
15:42 [Dhaliri]: druids pull healer aggro pretty hard
15:42 [Dhaliri]: something to be wary of on aoe pulls
15:45 [Druid Healer]: sorry guys, sik of running bak
15:45 [Druid Healer]: gl
15:46 [Dhaliri]: mmm so ... odd healer is odd?
15:46 [Hunter]: strange
15:46 [DPS DK]: did he was hurting himself ? xD
And the Druid decides to leave after the first boss. However, while we were waiting for him to run back one time, us Dranei entertained ourselves by telling jokes to the mobs.
15:43 [DPS DK]: ajajajaj draenei talks like russians lolol.. sorry my first ally char
15:44 [Dhaliri]: Kind of
15:44 [Hunter]: was just gonna say that
15:44 [Dhaliri]: Ever heard of Babylon 5?
15:44 [DPS DK]: ya
15:44 [Dhaliri]: The dranaei are based on the boneheads from that show
15:44 [Dhaliri]: their prophet is even named Velen! (in Bab 5 its Valen(
15:45 [DPS DK]: im gonna check them out later :)
Did I mention that this group rocked? Anyway, the new healer rocks up and we see the following exchange:
15:46 [DPS DK]: hi !
15:46 [Dhaliri]: Hi there
15:46 [Hunter]: hi
15:46 [Tank DK]: A DROOD
15:46 [Youngling]: Hello noobs and noobetes
15:47 [Youngling]: :P
15:47 [Youngling]: joks
15:47 [Hunter]: lol
15:47 [Dhaliri]: You are going to fit in JUST FINE
15:47 [Youngling]: lol?
15:47 [Youngling]: im scared now
15:47 [Dhaliri]: I would be
15:47 [Hunter]: for sure
15:47 [Youngling]: Just cause im a druid
15:47 [Youngling]: adn your a mage
15:47 [Dhaliri]: And you like dragons
15:48 [Youngling]: :O
15:48 [Dhaliri]: I SAW THAT MOVIE
15:49 [Youngling]: i made this toon when i was like 10
15:49 [Youngling]: then i got it to liek 15
15:49 [Dhaliri]: (oh man, I feel old right now)
15:49 [Youngling]: and stoped playing it for like 5 years
15:50 [Youngling]: adn now i am 15 and i decided to play it again
15:50 [Youngling]: lol how old are you
15:50 [Youngling]: 40?
15:50 [Dhaliri]: not THAT old
15:50 [Tank DK]: 23!
15:50 [DPS DK]: 26
15:50 [Youngling]: lol
15:50 [Dhaliri]: 32
15:50 [Hunter]: 38 here
15:50 [Youngling]: Lol
15:50 [Dhaliri]: oops 34
15:50 [Youngling]: lol u old people
15:50 [Dhaliri]: getting senile in my old age
15:50 [Youngling]: Lol
15:51 [Hunter]: young wippersnapper
15:51 [Youngling]: and you are a Femlae or a male :P
15:51 [Dhaliri]: One day YOU WILL BE OLD JUST LIKE US MUAHAHAHAAAA
15:51 [Youngling]: lol
15:51 [DPS DK]: same as my char
15:51 [Dhaliri]: ditto
15:52 [Hunter]: same here
15:52 [Youngling]: Finkle bottom saggy tits :P
15:52 [Youngling]: sorry :(
15:52 [Dhaliri]: lol?
15:52 [Youngling]: lol
15:52 [Youngling]: you should be CONFUSED
Yep, that was pretty much one long exchange as we pulled into the next boss. We smashed through the instance and queued up again. This was worth it just for Youngling's random comments while we waited for the next healer to sort out a mod:
15:58 [Youngling]: when i run sideways it looks like i am running foward
16:00 [Dhaliri]: Tree is for Fight
16:01 [Youngling]: yeh
16:01 [Youngling]: GUESS WHAT
16:01 [Dhaliri]: what? (dare I ask?)
16:01 [Youngling]: CHICKENS GO MEOW WHEN PEOPLE ARE NOT LOOKING!
16:01 [Dhaliri]: how do you know?
16:01 [Youngling]: cause i videod it
16:01 [Youngling]: :P
16:01 [Dhaliri]: SS or it didn't happen!
16:03 [Youngling]: Feel my suductive dance
16:03 [Youngling]: :P
16:03 [Dhaliri]: that damn moonkin dance makes me lol
Finally, the shammy logs back on... we charge in...
16:03 [Tank DK]: Here we go16:04 [Tank DK]: Get ready for epic heals
And disaster strikes as the tank comes crashing down...
16:04 [Youngling]: lol16:04 [Tank DK]: WELL I NEVER!16:04 [Youngling]: Moments like this you need a Minti16:04 [Youngling]: lol
I pull aggro and decide Ice Block is my friend.
16:05 [Youngling]: Mage get back16:05 [Youngling]: if worst com e to worst use Invisiblility16:05 [Tank DK]: If worst comes to worst
(I would if I HAD invisibility at that level...) I decided that advancing in a negative direction was the best thing for me to do right now... but I didn't count on LFD putting awesome people in my group a third time running.
This was the very first pull of the instance. How many people would have just quit? But NOT US! We trooped on!16:05 [Shammy Heals]: you know what...that's my bad sry...16:05 [Dhaliri]: I ran16:05 [Dhaliri]: what happened?16:05 [Shammy Heals]: my comp got freeze again16:05 [Youngling]: lol16:05 [Ret Pally]: I tanked16:05 [Youngling]: :P16:05 [Ret Pally]: we won16:05 [Dhaliri]: AH16:05 [Dhaliri]: I saw!16:05 [Tank DK]: It's okay =D16:06 [Dhaliri]: I froze, then ran, then ran back and helped!16:06 [Ret Pally]: lol16:06 [Tank DK]: runn!16:06 [Youngling]: Lol you didnt help shit16:06 [Tank DK]: loool16:06 [Dhaliri]: I DID!16:06 [Youngling]: :P16:07 [Dhaliri]: Im helpy mcHelpPants
16:22 [Dhaliri]: LOL so used to being a tank healer - on the tanks heels all the time16:23 [Youngling]: lol16:23 [Youngling]: what a noob16:23 [Youngling]: :P16:23 [Dhaliri]: You wish you were as noob as me16:23 [Youngling]: fuck yeh16:23 [Dhaliri]: see?
And Youngling was just as entertaining as previously. Unfortunately, I had to leave after this run... but I couldn't be let go without a passing shot from the crowd...
16:29 [Dhaliri]: ok Im off guys - cheers for that16:29 [Dhaliri]: GL with the levelling!16:29 [Youngling]: *cough* noob *cough*16:29 [Youngling]: :P16:29 [Dhaliri]: haha16:29 [Tank DK]: =D
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Volazj's Quick Demise - healer PoV
Somehow, after many, MANY hours of trying, I managed to get this done yesterday. As a paladin healer (specced arena 2s PvP) I found that I was the main reason we were not making this in 2mins.
Reasoning is as follows:
1) You do not "pop out" for assistance of insanity until you have taken down everyone bar one of your shadows is dead by your hand. I noticed this late in the piece.
2) I was taking far too long to kill the tank
3) I was not pumping out enough DPS to break out for assistance and still be able to make the 2 min timer.
What we ended up doing was that I respecced ret and wore most of my healing gear. This did a couple of things. It meant that my shadow did not cast healing spells, making it much faster for everyone else to kill their shadows. I also swapped my weapon/shield to a DPS weapon once inside insanity. I went for the ranged first, which dragged the melee with me and aoe'ed everyone down. I also left the tank for last (to get assistance on that one) - the tank was extra tanky as they were not going to get as many heals as usual. Everyone one who could cast a healing spell helped with healing when we popped out.
This technique got the damn achievement done as SOON as we did this. We had been failing on it for a good couple of hours, trying to figure out what was going wrong. As a holy pally, my shadow was too hard to kill and healed too well. As a holy pally, I didn't do enough DPS to kill my shadows fast enough.
Respeccing ret fixed all of these issues and we did 2 insanities and killed the guy with 10s to spare. I highly recommend any healing class respec to a DPS spec and wear a combo of your healing gear. There isnt a lot of healing required in this fight if you burn through it quickly. The slower you do this fight, the more you need healing. Trust your group to self manage somewhat.
Reasoning is as follows:
1) You do not "pop out" for assistance of insanity until you have taken down everyone bar one of your shadows is dead by your hand. I noticed this late in the piece.
2) I was taking far too long to kill the tank
3) I was not pumping out enough DPS to break out for assistance and still be able to make the 2 min timer.
What we ended up doing was that I respecced ret and wore most of my healing gear. This did a couple of things. It meant that my shadow did not cast healing spells, making it much faster for everyone else to kill their shadows. I also swapped my weapon/shield to a DPS weapon once inside insanity. I went for the ranged first, which dragged the melee with me and aoe'ed everyone down. I also left the tank for last (to get assistance on that one) - the tank was extra tanky as they were not going to get as many heals as usual. Everyone one who could cast a healing spell helped with healing when we popped out.
This technique got the damn achievement done as SOON as we did this. We had been failing on it for a good couple of hours, trying to figure out what was going wrong. As a holy pally, my shadow was too hard to kill and healed too well. As a holy pally, I didn't do enough DPS to kill my shadows fast enough.
Respeccing ret fixed all of these issues and we did 2 insanities and killed the guy with 10s to spare. I highly recommend any healing class respec to a DPS spec and wear a combo of your healing gear. There isnt a lot of healing required in this fight if you burn through it quickly. The slower you do this fight, the more you need healing. Trust your group to self manage somewhat.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
