Wait, how did Thursday get here already? Egads!

Short post today (ha! We’ll see how long THAT prediction lasts, shall we?) but it’s something I’ve actually been curious about.

What are your lucky charms?

What things do you do when you’re hoping for a drop?

Let’s face it, we’re humans, we’re superstitious creatures. There’s a reason that so many sports stars have lucky socks, or shorts, or whatever. The reason isn’t necessarily because they actually ARE lucky, but rather because the player thinks they are.

So what are your lucky charms?

For the Ego crew, it’s kind of silly. The person who really wants a drop has to /yell “Zar Kieldaz!” sometime during the bossfight.

Alternately, /yelling “I don’t need your steenkin loot!” has been known to work.

The second really doesn’t need much explanation. The bosses are perversely more likely to drop the loot you’ve been waiting for if they believe you no longer need it. You have to really be convincing when you do the yell, or else it won’t work.

The first probably needs a bit of explanation.

Any of you ever seen the movie “Better Off Dead” ?

It’s a classic. And I mean that in the way that means it’s a good movie and also in the way that means it’s old and kinda funky when compared to the stuff that comes out today.

Anyway, in this movie, the main character has a lot of subplots that weave their way around the central plot. One of those plots is this newspaper boy on a bicycle. Apparently our hero owes two dollars for the newspaper stuff, but for various reasons, he keeps putting the kid off, again and again.

As the movie progresses, the kid keeps showing up on his bike, asking for his “two dollars, mister”.

Again, and again, and again he gets put off. It starts to get creepy, and by the end of the movie the main character finally yelps and pays the kid, who smiles and bikes off.

Well, how often do you feel like that kid, asking for your “two dollars” from the bosses?

Right, well, the OLD good luck charm used to be /yelling “Two Dollars!”.

As an aside, I have a pair of socks that say “Two dollars, Mister” and have a little kid on a bike woven into the design. No, they aren’t lucky socks, but they’re funny as hell.

Anyway, one of us who needed the loot was afflicted by Curse of Tongues, which some of you may remember, turns all of your speech into Demonic for the duration.

When he yelled out for his loot, instead of the familiar “Two Dollars!”, we heard “Zar Kieldaz!”

So there you have it. The Ego lucky charm is shouting “Zar Kieldaz!” at the bosses, channeling the dogged determination of that newspaperboy with all our might. We’re not giving up till you hand over the loot, so you might as well hand it over. We WILL be back.

ZAR KIELDAZ!

Possibly you were expecting exciting news, along the lines. But I don’t know what you find exciting!

My Paladin has dinged 68 after a very slow week, but it should be picking up over the next couple days and I can see level 70 in my sights!

I am very excited, as I still have yet to stop enjoy tanking other then when I suck it up and not know where certain mobs spawn and they get on the healer and I’m out of mana. That’s not very fun, and I may or may not get poked at for it. But it only takes one time to fix my mistakes normally, which I am pretty happy about. So far it’s been pretty awesome and I’m enjoying my ride to 70 even if it has been far slower then normal.

I still have over half of Zangarmarsh, all of Terrokar, all of Nagrand (save the Ring of Blood because someone needed to tank it) and everything past that. So if I ever get a set of Ret gear around I may go questing at 70 for some gold.

That is definitely my only complaint so far, the pure suck of questing. I simply kill too slow to be efficient at it. Maybe I haven’t learned how to actually do it yet. But unless its melee mobs that I figure out will be awesome for grinding, it pretty much sucks to solo.  I’m lucky enough not to have to do so most of the time.

I’ve been able to keep my goal of no Blessing of Salvation, for the most part. Some bosses I just can’t get my threat up there. Also of course sometimes an Elemental Shaman and a Fury Warrior just can’t help all the threat they produce in certain encounters.

Like Epoch Hunter in Old Hillsbrad? Very hard to not use Blessing of Salvation, even if its most likely going to get dispelled in 5 seconds. It still lets me build a slight threat lead over my DPS for when my Righteous Fury gets dispelled. Which is very frustrating currently, because I lack the training how to keep track of my buffs, position the boss and make sure I’m hitting the right buttons to make sure I keep threat on the boss. I know it will come with time, but until then people will have to put up till I notice it, and then able to correct it without skipping a beat.

Its such a different game from a tank’s perspective, I help control the tempo, I “lead” even if I don’t know where I’m going or where I should go. Not going to lie, it’s pretty easy as a Rogue just to skate past everything.

Of course, ask me about Mana Tombs I can tell you almost anything about that place from stealth farming it so much. Even if that place sucks on Normal because there aren’t many good drops and the trash is really annoying. Especially when you are 4 manning or running it before you’re “technically” not supposed to be there yet. Regardless, it’s fun and far more exciting then doing a quest.

I’m most looking forward to Shattered Halls, and anything Heroic. Mostly because I want to see how I manage the transition from easy mode to mode where screw ups are not allowed. And for Shattered Halls because I hear it’s the Prot Paladin’s wet dream, since they are very few casters. And while I put up with casters, I do not like them unless theres a spot where I can line of sight them. That and I have no reflective threat and what fun is that?

Eh that’s enough rambling for now, I should be 70 the next time I write something here and hopefully it’ll be on my gear list for getting ready for Heroics, and possibly getting a set up to be uncrushable if somehow I end up “raid” tanking.

Till next week!
~ The Bloodthirsty Paladin in Training.

…That’s “sports bars”, not “sports bras”.

No, I don’t want to hear about how it’s all about the support. *glares at Aensu pointedly before continuing*

Right, so it occurred to me the other day that healing classes are a lot like sports bars in different cities.

See, all the healing classes play the same game, and they’re constantly pitted against each other in order to determine who is the “best.”

The answer fluctuates year to year, as Blizz makes tweaks and implements changes to better balance the teams (trading players and drafting new ones).

But every year, all the sports fans (healers) gather and play, cheering and rooting for their favorite team (class).

We like to hang out at the same sports bars, so we can talk about how great or crappy our team is this year. Woe unto anyone who isn’t a fan of our team who starts talking about its flaws and downfalls, though - that’s liable to earn you a broken nose, a black eye, and a hasty exit through the door, regardless of whether said door happens to be open at the time.

The rivalries run deep, and for some it’s more than just lighthearted fun - they can become rabid evangelists for their team of choice, to the point of alienating even the fans for the same team.

And most of the time a dangerous silence fills the room when a fan of another team walks through the door and orders a drink, proudly sporting their team’s colors and jersey, like waving a flag in front of an angry bull.

Most of the time it’s all in good fun though. We’re fans. We enjoy following our favorite team through the ups and downs, to watch and discuss in minute detail every aspect of every change that happens through the year. Or maybe just to sit back and enjoy a few cold ones while we listen to the sportscasters (bloggers) go on about the teams.

At the end of the day, though, we’re all still fans of the same game. We all deal with the same problems and approach them with different strengths and weaknesses. We share common ground in our hatred of bad calls by the ref (changes to Lifebloom for Druids ring any bells?), in situations where the odds are stacked against us (I don’t know any healers that are fond of Mortal Strike, Silences, Kicks, Counterspells…) and in how much we enjoy the game and art of healing.

So this is me, sitting on my comfy barstool at the local priest watering hole, the Tipsy Frisbee, tipping my hat and raising my tankard for the other healing teams out there. This game wouldn’t be half as much fun without you guys in it.

Who are you? You have most likely been here before. Read an article or two. More likely than not came here for insight on the priest class or perhaps it was mere chance, a mis-click from another blog you read.

I, unlike Ego, tend to be a lurker. I hide and read, rarely posting anything anyway (as my dearth of posts here likely shows) but tend to read just about anything I can get my hands on when the topic interests me.

Is that you? Let us know! Take this as an invitation to, maybe just this once or maybe again after many times, sign in, leave a comment, say hello or tell us a story.

We are glad we have your eyes and ears. Glad you stop and visit and very glad those visits are enjoyable to you!

~EgoCorp

Helighast the murloc stood at her post, though she would have been severely reprimanded for slacking in her duties had she been seen by Ranglash the Spotted.

It wasn’t her stance that gave away her inner turmoil – she stood up straight and held her polearm at the ready. The long, colorful spines that lined her back lifted at the proper angle to show her current status as an outer guard for the colony. Nor was it her expression that would have gotten her in trouble, for it was was suitably solemn and businesslike.

No, it was her skin that gave her away, the bright patterns that lined her froglike back shifting from green to blue to purple and back again, her vivid excitement spilling in uncontrolled pigment across her back for anyone to see.

Luckily, she was alone and had no superiors nearby to accuse her of inattention, no fellow guards to try and pry her secret from her.

(more…)

So yesterday was my Birthday. Which was pretty awesome. And it may or may not be why there’s no real post from me. I’ll let you guys decide. I shall return next week, without fail.

Untill then, I shall not not be sleeping more.

/Vanish

Today I tackle a rather controversial issue – Downranking.

What is downranking? Downranking is intentionally using any rank of spell that is not your max rank.

Common wisdom says that downranking is good. All healing classes are encouraged to engage in it, and often people will follow this advice blindly, without doing more than cursory research to find out why.

Why downrank?
Why downrank a spell? The answer is simple – ‘mana efficiency’.

The more healing you output per point of mana spent, the more efficient your heal was. You spent less and got more. Entire corporations revolve around this simple tenant.

It’s true. You will be more mana efficient if you downrank a spell. It costs more mana to do the same amount of healing when using a larger rank of a healing spell.

Although lower ranks of spells are given a penalty – less and less of your +Healing gear will be used by lower ranks of healing spells – it is still mathematically true that it’s “cheaper” to cast lower ranks of spells.

(more…)

This isn’t a post. Seriously. Not a post. It’s an illuuuuuusion.

Besides, it’s about something silly, so it wouldn’t count for a post on a normal week, even.

My healy shaman is a male draenei (what can I say? I love me some space goat). During the course of leveling him, I discovered two very important facts about male draenei.

Fact 1) Male Drae keep their mounts inside enchanted peanut butter jars.

Seriously. Watch a male draenei mount. The first thing he does is whip out an invisible peanut butter jar and start unscrewing the lid. Once he’s got it open, he dramatically tosses the lid into the air, and his mount appears in a cloud of smoke.

It’s like watching an episode of Dragon Half.

Fact 2) Male drae are down to earth, good-time healers.

How do I know this? Ever watch a female drae cast a spell? It’s very flowy, very magical, very…very mystical. Well, granted, there’s that whole chest-thrusting thing that makes you think maybe she did some time giving lap dances to pay her way through priest school, but still.

What about the female nelves? Very mystical, with the graceful hand movements and that finishing stance.

Male drae? You won’t catch THEM being all graceful and flowy. Oh no. That wouldn’t be manly. Male drae like to drink beer and watch football and secretly listen to disco music while they’re traveling.  The number of songs that the male drae run fits PERFECTLY his hilarious. Including the Wolves of the Sea (techno pirate) song from Eurovision this year.

Where was I? Oh, right. Beer and football.

But the male Drae realizes that he needs to heal. He performs a valuable function. That heal’s got to get to you somehow, he just doesn’t want to use girly dance movements to do it.

So he came up with the perfect solution. He can heal you and work on his weekend game at the same time.

He bowls the heal to you.

Seriously. Watch it sometime. He starts out channeling the holy (or nature) energies in his hand, then he goes into the perfect bowler’s stance and spins that ball of healing energy your way.

When I get a critical on my heals, I am often surprised not to hear the crash of bowling pins in a perfect strike.

No Vonya entries this week - your Ego entertainment from Monday to Friday is at the mercy of the rest of the Ego team. My best friend is getting married and I’ll be taking the week off from blogging so that I can fly down to Texas and giggle and cry and celebrate with her.

Until next week!

/salute

Today, my gentle snowflakes, we’re going to discuss the shaman healing ability “Chain Heal.”

No, I don’t have a cute and catchy nickname for this one (I’ve got a GREAT one for Earth Shield though, which should more than make up for the lack here) - I think Blizz did a really good job naming it, and I can’t think of anything shorter that’s as apt.

Let’s take a look at the tooltip:
Heals the friendly target for X to Y, then jumps to heal additional nearby targets. Each jump reduces the effectiveness of the heal by 50%. Heals 3 total targets.

It’s got a 2.5 second cast time and only the normal global cooldown. 40 yard range.

(more…)