Setting the Scene

Vonya’s still not quite level 74.

When she entered Northrend, she was wearing mainly badge gear, with a smattering of Zul’Aman and Kara pieces, augmented with a few five-man bits and the shoulders from Gruul.

She was well geared, but certainly not geared out of BC content.

Upgrades vs Sidegrades

As we quest and instance in Northrend, I am still not seeing what I would traditionally term “upgrades”. 

I AM seeing quite a few things that I might call “sidegrades”. Gear that is similar to what I’m currently wearing, with boosts to some stat or another but with some drops in a few other stats.

I’ve been hemming and hawing, dancing from hoof to hoof, trying to decide whether to take the sidegrades. It’s an especially disconcerting decision because in almost every case, I’m looking at significant stam and int boosts with a drop in spellpower and some drop in mana regen.

Ten spellpower here, eight spellpower there, another fifteen spellpower there…it all adds up, and the numbers I’m seeing would make BC-Vonya cringe.

Northrend

But that was BC-Vonya. Northrend is a brand new game. Stats are weighted differently, talent changes mean that traditional strategies are, in some cases (such as downranking) completely thrown out the window.

It’s new. Fresh.

I know that if I just hold off, I’ll start seeing geniuine upgrades and not just sidegrades. The difference will be clear instead of muddy - the benefit obvious without a whole lot of face-squnching and hurried mental math to try and weigh the benefits against the losses.

But I have made a decision, and I thought I’d share it with you.

The Decision

I’m taking the sidegrades.

I’m not taking anything that’s obviously a downgrade, but I’m taking a lot of very shady, iffy sidegrades. From now on, if I spend more than a minute trying to decide whether the Northrend gear is better for me than my Outland gear, I’m going to take the new gear.

Why?

New Game

Partially because of what I said earlier - it’s a new game. The weights are different, the talent changes still have my head spinning, and this gear was developed specifically for Northrend content.

My old gear was developed for Burning Crusade content.

Does that mean the new gear is intrinsically better? No, not necessarily. But if Blizz is throwing items with 20+ more stam on them, and 8 less spellpower, maybe they’re trying to tell me to expect a lot of AOE damage. Maybe they’re telling me that I’ll need my mana pool boosted, with that 15+ int upgrade, even though I lose the MP5 I had on the previous gear.

Blizz would probably be the first to tell you that they aren’t perfect, they don’t know it all.

But they’re practically shouting this to me, and I am going to listen. I will trade, cringing and unhappy, my Outland gear for the new Northrend stuff, and put my character in Blizzard’s hands. 

I’m hoping they don’t drop me.

Elitist

The other reason is a bit more…egotistical of me.

Maybe this gear really is a downgrade. Maybe my old, awesome, shiny, fabulous, glittering gear is better than this stuff.

…what are other priests out there using, kleenex? Hell no! They’re using THIS gear! This gear, that I’m so torn about turning to, they’re gobbling up like the true upgrades they really are.

And then they’re turning around and healing the pants off these instances I’m running.

So what, I’m too good for the gear that other priests are using? Just because I managed to hit more end-game content than they did in BC? 

Why should any of you listen to me prattle on about how to heal in Northrend if I’m not even wearing Northrend gear?!

That’s like a wealthy housewife telling you to save money by firing one of your extra gardeners. Gee, thanks, that’s helpful. Now how about some advice from someone who actually knows what it’s like to pinch some pennies?

How about some advice from a priest who’s doing the same desperate dancing with the Five Second Rule that you are?

Summary

I’m taking the side grades. And I’m going to heal those instances, heal those raids, learn the new rules of this class, and I am going to ROCK at it.

Why? Because priests are the best healing class in this game.

That’s a pretty opinionated statement, but I’m a pretty opinionated person, and when I say it, it’s absolutely true. There might be one or two other healing blogs out there that would disagree, but if Phaelia from Resto4Lifewere to say that druids were the best healing class in the game, I’d nod and raise my glass, one healer to another.

Is my decision the right one? Who knows? It’s the right one for me, I know that. Whether or not it’s the right one for you is your call.

So what about you guys? How are you approaching the gear in Northrend?

I have been busy, my lovelies, but not so busy that I’ve forgotten about your desperate need to be educated and enlightened by the fruits of my hand.  This week has been enlightening for me, as well, as some things have been made clear to me that they aren’t exactly sharing in Silvermoon.  So much for that ‘promised land’ thing they’ve been spouting.  Prince whatshisname apparently messed up somewhere along the lines and isn’t quite the hero we’ve been led to believe.

Oh well, I’ll spare you my shattered rosey glasses view on Outland.  Instead, lets discuss our new friends, recently turned traitor again.  See, they turned traitor by joining the Scourge and getting all these nifty powers.  Then they turned traitor again by giving the Scourge the finger and coming back to us.  I’m sure they will be very trustworthy from here on…

Anyway.

I have a hypothesis.(That means “i c wut u did thar”)

I believe every rouge, loladin, fury warrior, and those enhancement shamans and mages that were always ticked off whenever a warlock beat them on the meters, all got together and rolled death knights.

In the spirit of continuing to differentiate between those people and the ones that have evolved beyond slime mold into a player that learns about the class and is willing to work in a group situation, we shall now be calling them DoucheKnights.

DoucheKnights can tank, no matter what tree the majority of their talent points are invested in. From experience, I can tell you that it doesn’t matter if the points are mostly in ice, blood, or undead - they can tank. Just as the druids’ feral tree is not ‘just’ cat, or ‘just’ bear, it depends on where the points are placed within that tree; so too are the trees of the new hero class.

The problem is how LONG they can tank.

DK’s are inherently squishier than warriors or bears or paladins. In their defense, they have a lot of abilities that heal themselves through damage. In a regular, non-spike fight, a DK could get by with no external healing. It is possible, as was called out many times in general chat across Hellfire Peninsula, that a group of 5 DKs could do fine through an instance. No healer needed, no healer wanted. Who wants someone in your party that can’t take hits when everyone else is focused on one target? Who wants to wait for mana after that last battle knocked everyone down to about 20% health? And no one wants to hear some blood elf priestess in the back going “Will you f-ers decide which one of you is going to f-ing tank?!”

“lawl were all tanks”

I don’t know much about the names of DK titles. Most of the DKs I worked with were not the communicating type. There was a lot of whining about needing a better weapon, but otherwise the conversations revolved around arguments about which tree was ‘good for tanking’ (see above). Otherwise, they were telling me not to worry about it when I told them to wait for mana. I imagine this allegory to my situation.

“Excuse me, sir, but your horse just stepped on my head.”
“Oh don’t worry about it, he is fine!”

Whatever the names of the spells, I could easily tell which groups held one or more DoucheKnights. They were the ones making liberal use of what I came to call “Yank and Spank”. This is some bizarre purple beam which shoots out, grabs the monster by the face, and yanks them through the air towards the knight for spankies. This is a wonderful spell to force a caster into melee range. This is a terrible spell when used by the knight who just woke up from a coma, standing beside me, and yanks a monster away from the group being beaten by the tank far ahead of us. Suddenly I have two tanks. Now another one does the same trick, and I have three tanks.

There are now three knights, spread out from each other, fighting one or two monsters. When called on it?

“I was helping CC that mob. I saw DK#1 taking damage. Geeze, it’s fine.”

Fine indeed. Rofl, good sir, rofl.

Another fine ability is the “I’m bored, lets make some friends” ability. It comes in the shape of a gargoyle. Every time this ability is used, some friendly gargoyle comes out of nowhere and proceeds to hover above us and shoot things. It is fairly epic, and I’m sure it is very fun for the knight who wields such power. Inevitably, however, things die. The gargoyle, lonely and looking for something else to play with, lazily wafts away on the breeze.

I have watched this thing go through walls, ceilings, and all-girl school dorms overseen by massive women with more testosterone than Grom Hellscream. These are things that would be impenetrable by mere mortals. Not only do these gargoyles easily slip through these barriers, but they find friends, then tell them where to find me and my party.

And then there is death. Always, death. In the form of nearly every monster in the dungeon, piled up on top of each other, and charging around the corner as though Jaina Proudmoore had just announced her debut strip tease right behind us. It is an ugly sight. I have seen it in my sleep…

Anyway.

DoucheKnights - all the people that cried when they weren’t top of the damage meter, and were tired of having to constantly wait for a tank, and were irritated by a pushy healer, now have all the tools available that allow them to completely ignore any of the things previously holding them back. If the tank is taking too long, bam, now DoucheKnight gets to tank! Healer is up to 30% mana, that should be enough, BAM, DoucheKnight is tanking. Oh no, you’re number 2 in the dps meter! BAM, bring in more mobs so your AOE racks up the points!

And then when BAM everyone is dead, all four DoucheKnights have to go do something else while the priestess runs her ghostly tush off to get back to the dungeon.

“rez plz”

/stab

Yes, well. At any rate. DeathKnights! Woo. At least some of you backstabbing, weak hearted, scourge-loving miscreants are useful for something. I’ve reached level 66 in the past week by being the one NON scourge-lover in the party. Questing is useless, because nothing out there survives long enough for me to get credit for the kill, because eight doucheknights just jumped on it. So all the dungeons got to see my pretty face, twisted in rage and impotent hate at the back of my party members. At least the guards in Orgrimmar have apples to throw. I should have joined the beer of the month club, just so I’d have a bottle every once in a while…

Alright alright, not all DeathKnights are DoucheKnights. Some made healing a joy, and it was a cinch even through places I’d never visited before. I’d get agro, and before I had a chance to fade, the thing would get yank-an-spanked. I still had to fade a lot, simply because of the nature of how squishy they are, and the amount of big heals I kept having to throw. Prayer of Healing always gets a workout when everyone else is a DK.

So. Quick recap.

Things I learned this week:

There are way too many doucheknights.
Healing in dungeons is fun again.
All three DK trees can be used for tanking.
DKs are squishy tanks.
I hate proximity bombs and the people that run over them after a fight.
Leveling up tailoring really really sucks when you’re starting from scratch.
Leveling up herbalism is very relaxing, which is a nice counter.
There are way too many doucheknights.

Your Questions!

Khol asks: I bring you an offering of burnt grain!
– I accept.

Weta wonders: Why do people still want 20 slot bags?
– Because they, and the larger ones, are still blasted expensive, and will be for months.  Big bags hold MORE STUFF and MORE STUFF is always better than less.

Tomo ponders the worth of the discipline tree.
– I have the stamina and mana to survive in a pug, even when things are nuts.  My favorite part is the completely worthless spell at the very end.  Didn’t a spell by this name use to do something useful?  Like stun or interrupt a target?  What the crap is this weak channeled orc poo spell doing in my discipline tree?

Axethrower is still curious about BRD.
– About 3 hours.  It’s a hellacious dungeon that, according to legend, was once going to have wings like the Monastery.  Then the dwarves got lazy and it’s one big, long, slogfest of dwarf killing.  Don’t wipe.

Phaedor asks: Why are some people so poor?
– Some people are poor and fat, and walking is good for them.  The rest of us require speed to go with our svelte appearance, and hot girls on fast rides are better than scrubs walking from The Great Lift to Gadgetzan.  If you feel bad, start a fund for ugly girls who walk too much.  Or something.  Sheesh, what kinds of questions were these?!

How does it go?

*Bweeeem* *Fwooosh*
Achievement Accomplished!

You have reached level 60!
Fast and Furious! (Epic mount)
Stalkers from the Blog!

I was accosted, this weekend. Not once, but TWICE, by people that recognized me from my writings. Adrexis, Nasmin, you crazy people. And no, if anyone else decides to harass me, you will not get a callout. These two just surprised me so much they have to get recognition for making me basically spaz out. It’s rare to throw me off my game that much, but this has never happened before, so I had no idea how to respond to the whispers.

Adrexis caught me in Undercity, trying to figure out what I was going to do with a bunch of quest items from - oh, about the time I started writing here. It’s pretty bad when you upgrade your gear and go “Oh, hi, I’m replacing this belt from Maraudon.” Palmface. So, yes, I was flustered. And then, out in Brill, Nasmin is poking at the mailbox when I run by, half asleep and being poked with people asking me to come heal for them in SM or something. I wasn’t even looking for a group! I was just checking the prices of the dead horses, and then it was crash - into the inn for sleeptimes. Nasmin was very polite, though, even if she DID think I was Vonya in disguise.

Hrmph. I would like to point out that there is no WAY that space goat could fit in these pants. …they look like they were sprayed on, anyway.

MOVING ON.

I did get the Big Girl Pony, finally. Purple Warhorse is MINE! I’m so happy. It’s … purple. And - yeah, I suppose describing it any further just lends itself to way too many innuendos. We’ll stick with ‘Epic Dead Horse’, then. Glee!! Put a serious dent in the guild coffer, though. I may have to do something about that, now that I’m actually in Outlands.

I was doing some quests for the orcs out there, who had me go and kill a bunch of orcs (confused much?), and I was very excited to see the upgrades for my pants and robe. I got the pants upgrade first, so I didn’t really see what they looked like. Doesn’t matter! I have a ROBE! And then I get a very nice, very svelte vest to wear. And then I realize what I was wearing under my robe will be quite visible to all the world.

I had heard legends of this effect, but I thought it was just alliance mages, or troll trollops that had this issue. No. One of the first pants upgrades you get, once you’re through the Dark Portal and are battling for your survival against the Burning Legion and the terrors they’ve created in Helfire Penninsula, are whore pants. Panties and thigh-high stockings.
REALLY!?

All I need is a blasted bikini and I could look like a paladin. I switched from shadow to deep discipline and I wear THIS!?

Unacceptable!

I did a quick check, found a decent upgrade could be found right next door in that castle with all the other nice orcs in it. I finally gathered up four compatriots from the lowest dregs, and off we went. Let’s just say that the shaman spent more time telling everyone else what to do than he did putting down totems. Since he was very adamant that the prot paladin was the tank, and the prot warrior should be helping him, and that the hunter should dps, and I needed to heal - I made sure that the two protection fellows got priority on heals. If he decided to pull agro most of the time, and then happened to die, well at least it wasn’t a wipe, because our tanks lived. Oddly, he kept popping back up after dying, so I can only assume he did that self-resurrection thing that shamans do right in the middle of a fight. Very odd tactics for someone who was meleeing. Without totems. Shamans are the ones that put down totems, right? It’s been a while since I’ve seen them used properly.

As it was, I got my pants, killed the Ramparts bosses and got another achievement (you can get those things from sneezing, apparently), and now have to keep an eye out for gems to make my pants super special.

In other news, I’m sure you’re all very excited to know that I’ve hired a troll rogue to do my dirty work back on Azeroth. He is an engineer, and has grand plans to someday build a motorcycle. I also use him to keep tabs on how the pugging situation is while I’m off on another planet. From what he says about his forays into Razorfen Krawl and Razorfen Downs, and even the SM Library, it’s not much different from a rogue perspective. Being able to hide while the rest of the group implodes, though, seems to have its perks. He giggles a lot when relating the stories to me. Maybe I’ll share some of his adventures, sometime. No, I have no idea what his real name is. He’s a rogue, they tend to not be very outgoing with stuff like that. But he goes by Thomas.

Yeah. Thomas the Troll.

I laughed, he didn’t. So I don’t know.

Yay dead horsey!

*cough* Sorry.

So you had questions. I guess I can answer a couple.  There weren’t any GREAT ones, but these will suffice.  It’s my first time requiring anything of you, so I suppose some hesitation should be expected.  The free ride is over, though.  I expect higher quality from people who have been absorbing my goodness for this long.

Weta asks: I need help killing a dwarf who is so inept that he wound up accidentally summoning an Elemental Lord that blew the snot out of his kingdom and has now enslaved his people.
–Rather than simply say something cynical like “Wait for him to try another brilliant plan, he’ll take himself out for you”, I suppose I could point you in some direction.  Wowwiki, really, may be your best bet.  It has all the details on what gear you can steal from the old munchkin’s battered body, and gives a few suggestions for tactics on how to get to him and how to make sure his body is sufficiently battered.  Wowhead and thottbot are there, too, but they’re more focused on making sure the old man is naked of all his loot, rather than how to get him to hold still long enough.  Weirdos.

Vendric wants to know: How come life is unfair and the fights are so easy/hard in the battlegrounds?
–Life is tough, you silly boomkin.  For one thing, you are a Prime Target.  Imagine being the guy out there that can transform into an Ogre.  YOU WILL BE SHOT AT.  I imagine if you remain ‘just another tauren’ (or something), then you can launch a few more volleys before anyone figures you out.  Starfire and Moonfire are good, too, because they don’t see where the pain’s coming from.  As for what’s being done to equalize the battlegroups?  Are you serious?  My people joined the Horde mostly because we were both desperate.  We allied with DEAD PEOPLE because we are so bad off.  There is no equalisation, we are Horde, we must overrun them with sheer numbers and stubborness and the elitist belief that only kids play Alliance.  Glory to the Sin’dorei!  …I may have lost track.  What was the question?

Weta says: Nevermind, I killed him without your help, now I want to know why I should be friendly with my own faction!
–Bah! *fistshake*

Axethrower asks: Hanners where aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrre yoooooooou?
–Uh, I think we’re done here.  BETTER QUESTIONS THIS TIME.  *hides from stalkers*

So this week was weird.Not zombie weird, or paladins nerfed to the ground weird, or even horseman disappearing RIGHT at 4am weird.

I mean weird as in, no one had a clue what to do kind of weird.

I was settling all comfortably into my role as emissary of doom from the cult of the shadow, pewpewing and face-melting as necessary in my attempt to maybe reach outlands properly. Then I thought, hey, it’d be kind of neat to go with a group into one of them thar dungeons again. I bet I’d be fine in BRD.

So I went to my trainer in Thunderbluff. Don’t ask me why I was in Thunderbluff. I think I slurred or something when talking to the flight master. It was a long, meandering flight, and I spent most of the time wondering why the stupid scorpio-cat-bat-thing was as drunk as someone with a year’s subscription to beer-in-your-mail. Which is not me.

Anyway, poof, there went all my spells, and I tapped into that magic looking-for-meatshields thing while I poked around at new healery type spells.

And I kept poking around, and kept watching people looking for tanks for this or that. All for places in outland. Or Wailing Caverns. Why those two extremes all the time? But only for tanks. One person was looking for heals, but he was also looking for tanks and three “good dps” for Kara. These days, I don’t even know what counts for good dps. Not dying? Dying in a spectacular manner? Finally I got tired of half-heartedly poking at my healing spells and started just picking talents willy nilly. I don’t think I know what half of these things do anymore, but anything that looked to increase my super-awesome priest healing abilities would be great.

And then the world ended.

When I logged back in, all that random point-clicking had come undone. Maybe I didn’t click hard enough? Anyway, I joined back up in the looking-for-meatshields and started scowling at my trainer again. Before clicking anything, I took a closer look at who was available to be my personal meatshield. I wasn’t picky about what dungeon we molested, so that made it both easy and difficult to find people.

“Healer looking for whatever” doesn’t encourage people to join your illustrious cause, it seems. Besides, I wasn’t technically a healer at the moment. I wasn’t technically anything, and my trainer was looking impatient. As impatient as someone can look when they have leather straps bolted in an X across their face. It can be done, trust me.

So, yeah. There was no one. I don’t mean there wasn’t anyone looking for a dungeon that I wanted to visit - like I said, I wasn’t picky. I mean, there wasn’t anyone. NO ONE. I did a quick scan using powerful magics of /who 54-58.

It was me and some druid in Tanaris.  And he logged off as I watched.

Picking out all those healing abilities seemed kind of silly at that point, but with all the changes that have come down the line, recently, I wasn’t really sure where to put my pewpew-facemelting points.

Maybe I’ll just wait for Northrend and something will happen to make people pop up around looking for healinators again. Yes, I’m still nervous about running around out there by myself after the whole zombie thing. I still can’t talk to the bankers in Undercity like I used to…

/shiver

ps: ASK ME KWESTCHUNS.  Maybe I will use your innane quandries to fuel my spite-filled anecdotes another time, while I wait for some meatshields to get big enough to be deserving of my leet heals.  Or … have me along for face melting.  I have no idea.

Aha!

At least part of the supremely easy ZA run is explained.

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/2/11296560052-bug–tree-of-life–300-extra-healing.html

Turns out the Tree of Life buff was actually giving 300% healing bonus. Teensy eensy weensy whups.

It’s been hotfixed now. I expect that ZA will still be easy, mind you. But maybe I’ll get to help out with the healing. I was WONDERING why the shaman chain heal was able to heal the tanks that well.

Patchmaker, patchmaker, make me a patch!
So…this isn’t the post I’d planned for today. Maybe you’ll get that one on Tuesday.

Yesterday was the first usable day after the big patch. Patch day was filled with bizarre server inconsistencies and giddily playing with new talents and pets. I spent Tuesday on my hunter, getting exotic pets in between sporadic server crashes. It was time well spent, as I’m sure Un’Goro and the Draenei furbolg den are swarming with eager hunters now.

The Day After Patch Day
Yesterday all of my required addons became available, and most of the guild happened to be online at the same time, exclaiming with shock and awe over their new capabilities. So, since we were all online anyway, we decided to hightail it to an impromptu Zul’Aman run, sparking last night’s quickie post.

After ZA, we did a few heroics so that I could get a handle on healing (the shaman’s chain heal basically solo-healed ZA) and the changes that were made.

Spec-ulation
My new level 70 spec is similar to my old spec, though I didn’t go down far enough into discipline to grab Divine Spirit. I’m one of the very few priests I know that actually prefers the DS spec, but in this case, there were too many incredible holy talents that I’d lose if I tried to go that deep in Discipline. I really think Blizz needs to rethink their positioning on that talent. The Discipline tree is where you GET the talent, but it’s the HOLY tree that actually benefits the most from it.

Very poor planning, in my opinion.

Lessons
The heroics were a great idea, since I actually had to heal something. DPSers can practice on the shiny new target dummies to perfect their rotation and damage abilities. Healers have to tweak their skills under fire. As far as I know, we have no other options to force us to learn to heal multiple people with spike damage and inconsistent aggro.

Heroic MrT was only marginally useful - the instance is almost a joke with the new DPS we’re cranking out. I did manage to get in a few more UI tweaks though, so not a total loss.

Heroic Sethekk Halls was much more of a testing ground for me (I still need a raven mount!). Sure, it was done much faster than our previous runs, but with all the fears, mobs with secondary target abilities and those that actually punish people for pulling aggro, I got to stretch out my healing muscles a little more.

The Problem
I’ve got a big problem though. Previously, Frisbee (Prayer of Mending) gave aggro to the person being healed. NOW it gives aggro to ME. Plus, I didn’t spec into Silent Resolve because tank aggro has gone way, way up, and my theoretical 80 build will make better use of improved Inner Fire (after the level 71 version of the spell, which will also up our spellpower).

I wanted to see whether the talent was needed or not.

In truth, it’s not. A pre-emptive frisbee front-loads me with one to two k healing threat before the tank really has a chance to gather aggro. Once he’s got it, it’d take an epic-geared Retadin to take it from him.

However, my “autopilot” healing involves throwing around a LOT of frisbees. In particular, I frisbee the tank before a fight, to give him a little extra threat pad and some extra time before I need to toss heals that actually generate threat for me.

That no longer works. I know this. Intellectually, I know that the threat from Frisbee goes to me now, so I need to hang back, let the tank take a bit of damage, toss a gentle HoT on him to slowly build up my aggro and give him some cushion for when I need to throw a greater heal down.

My fingers, however, have been taught over the last year to throw a frisbee. Fight starting? Toss a frisbee.

I need to rig up a temporary situation where I shock myself if I throw a frisbee out of combat or something. Granted, one run isn’t really long enough to undo a habit that I’ve ingrained for over a year now, but I caused a few heart attacks with my flippant frisbee flinging.

The Solution
Practice. I just need to practice. I’m going to tell my tank to yelp at me whenever I do it (trust me, he notices), and my husband’s been helping by reminding me as well.  I feel like a smoker. Sometimes I have a cigarette lit and between my lips and I’m already halfway through the first drag before I even realize I wanted one.

Not a good habit, not a good habit at all.

Other Notes
Other than that, I’ve also noticed that my heals are currently a lot less effective than they used to be. I still get the job done just fine, but my greater heal hits for a smaller percentage of the tank’s healthbar than it did two days ago, and that’s a fact. I don’t believe the lack of Imp Divine Spirit is the cause, so I’ll bet some of my gear got “normalized” in terms of spellpower.

And sadly, I wasn’t smart enough to take screenshots of what it USED to be and compare it to what it is now. Dwelling on the past isn’t going to fix this anyway. I just need to keep an eye out for possible gear that is now an upgrade and used to be DPS gear (and dps casters, you do the same for gear that you used to think of as healer gear).

The “other stats” on the gear will help determine whether it’s for a healer or a dpser. Healers still don’t need spell hit, for example.

But crits just got a new level of importance for priests, and I had a lot more “Hmm, where should I put THIS talent point” moments when I was creating my spec than I expected.

Summary
Priest healing may not have as many shiny changes as…oh…say…hunters or ret paladins, but there ARE changes, and it’s a good idea to grab your favorite group and go a-heroicing. Chances are, they want to try out their new stuff, too.

I hate warlocks.

No really. Maybe I’m racist, or classist, or something. I just hate them.

Inevitably they’re stuffy and irritable, cranky and all around moody. They don’t have anything to offer a group except killing things faster, and even their pets are just kind of in the way. At least a rogue has practical abilities, and a hunter can do… stuff. I guess.

At least most hunters aren’t blatantly suicidal.

Alright alright, the caveat. Not ALL warlocks are useless suicidal emokids. The mistress of my own house is quite regal and intelligent and quite able to handle herself. But she’s moody too, so I guess there’s that.

But most of them are just terribad. We’re out there fighting fighting fighting, the rogue, mage, and warlock are arguing over the dps meter, and everything’s dead. Well before I sit down to drink, I’d like to pick up the stuff off the corpses. Y’know, it’s mine, I might as well. Then I sit down to drink, and the guy in a dress suddenly starts farting this green cloud that gets sucked back into him as mana. And his health is going down.

“heal plx”

I mean, seriously? You just did that to yourself! Bandage, you skuzzy booger. Make that half-dressed hoofed harlot heal you, she’s obviously bored enough to give herself spankies. I’d say you’re not giving her enough attention as it is. I don’t go and throw a bunch of heavy heals at the tank while he’s at full health, then turn to the mage and demand some water. She’s got other things to deal with. You! You should be using that rock candy stuff you make out of the souls of pigs and dwarves and things.

There! Problem solved. Lifetap, then healthstone! That way I can focus on keeping the rest of the group alive. The ones that are not over there crying about how no one understands their pain and slashing their wrists with ceremonial daggers or whatever.

“Nothing’s alright, nothing is fine!”

What? Look, if it’s that bad, I’m a priest. I know people that can y’know, fix you. You can be un-evilled! Enough with the sadface, and then crying when I don’t heal you through your own psychotic hellfire. Stealing agro from the tank AND incinerating your own flesh? You deserve to be cinders!

I wish my hair could be a warlock. Then it’d cut itself.

I guess I should ask you what class you specifically hate. And why. Or something. But I’m so depressed right now I can’t be bothered. /emosigh

By now, I’m sure most of you have at least had the opportunity to visit the Brewfest boss, Corin Direbrew.

Having healed him (and yes, died to him, even though I’m overgeared) there are a few little tips and tricks I can recommend.

• Don’t HoT. Leave your Heal over Time spells at home. It pains me to say it, but with the regular entrance of new adds, if you’ve got a HoT ticking on ANYONE, you’ll be grabbing aggro before your tank even realizes that you’ve got a mob on you.
• Drink the beer. That’s not really a healer-specific tip, but it’s important nonetheless. Keep your inventory open and drink the beer when it’s thrown to you.
• Frisbee like MAD. Without a HoT, Prayer of Mending is going to be your most useful “little heal”. With all those adds and the whirlwindy effect from the boss, it can save your groupmates.
• Binding Heal. Don’t forget this little gem. If you need a heal, it’s much lower aggro than your other possible heals to use IT instead of two flash heals.
• Patience. The aggro table of the dwarves that join the fight via the Mole Machines (or Mechanical Grabloids, if you prefer) starts AFTER the machine appears. Feel free to finish a heal when you see one appear, but don’t start a new one until the dwarf add makes it to the tank. (Unless your tank is dying, of course. This assumes you CAN wait.) Be patient, and let your tank get aggro before you start dropping massive heals and stealing adds from him.
• Bubble and Fade. If the tank gets a barrel on his head, you’re probably going to find yourself uncomfortably popular. Don’t forget to fade if you get an add, and bubble if fade’s on cooldown. Frisbees are also good in this situation.

Also, Blizz? If you nerfed the drop rate on the Brewfest mounts, you should realize by now that you’ve dropped it too far. We’ve run this thing more than thirty times in the last three days, and NOT ONE MOUNT HAS DROPPED.

Neither has the remote, for that matter.

Inconceivable!

As most of you probably know by now, Priest Racials are being dramatically changed. Some appear to be disappearing (this has not been confirmed, but they are rather pointedly not mentioned in any of the announcements I’ve seen) and others are being given to ALL priests.

Over at World of Matticus, they’ve had three different posts on the subject, ranging from the original announcement, the Twitterati reaction (if that word isn’t in full use by the end of the year, it’ll be a crying shame), and Wyn’s personal thoughts on the matter.

To many people, this is a Big Deal.

My opinion? Summed up in a single word, all I can say is “Overdue”.

Do you remember the outcry when Draenei priests were given Fear Ward? Some of you do, I’m sure. How many dwarf priests cried foul, exclaimed bitterly that they had rolled a race they hated just so they could be the “best” priest?

How many blog posts have there been about the priest racials, weighing them and grading them, telling you that if you picked Night Elf, you were crippling yourself? Grace of Elune? Increasing dodge and agility? Are you SERIOUS? A tank would sell his second-favorite grandmother for that ability, but a priest?

The truth of the matter was that the priest racials were unbalanced, and ridiculously so. I think that they were intended to be neat little spells that would give someone a little extra something for choosing a particular race, and what they ended up doing is penalizing some and forcing others into decisions they might regret later.

Personally? I loved my dwarf priest, with her propeller braids. HOWEVER, I do think that dwarf women don’t look as nice in robes as many of the other classes, and yes, that mattered to me. I absolutely fell in love with the drae from the very first screenshots released of them. I knew I was rerolling months before Burning Crusade came out, regardless of the priest racials they were given, and even if it meant I wouldn’t have Fear Ward anymore.

In the end, Drae priests pulled the long straw when it came to racials. Fear Ward AND Symbol of Hope? If all the things that were ever priest racials were put into a pot and every priest could only pick two, I guarantee those two would be the MOST selected abilities.

And then Fear Ward got nerfed and given to everyone, but THAT’s a totally different story.

I suppose the point of all my rambling is that nobody should have been penalized for the race they chose, and that is what was happening with priest racials. No raid leader should ever have to look at two bright priest faces and choose one over the other because a racial might make a difference in a battle. Oh, you rolled a troll? Too bad, looks like you don’t get to raid this week.

It’s an issue of balance.

Some of the racials that are disappearing are going to cause a lot of hubbub in the PvP community, and I know that I cannot comment on that perspective at all, so I’m not even going to try. I have never used Chastise, but that doesn’t make it worthless to the gaming community as a whole.

Does this decision homogenize the priest community?

Yes and no. It levels the playing field a little, and makes some very nice spells and abilities available to ALL priests.

It’s how you USE what you’ve been given that sets you apart from the priests around you. A bad priest without Symbol of Hope is not suddenly going to become a great priest just because of that spell, but their group is still going to benefit from them using it.

This, of course, raises the question of whether or not non-priest racials are coming under scrutiny as well. And before you start your outcry of denial on THAT front, ask yourself whether human rogues and orc hunters really and truly make sense to be better at what they do than the other races? Some of the regular racials aren’t just an extra boost to Jewelcrafting, you know.

I have a few rules when I join up with a pug.  Sometimes I announce these rules at the outset, just to let them know what to expect from me.  After the third member confesses that they are just learning how to do what it is they do, for whatever reason, I make it known that after dying three times, I will evacuate.

 

Some may find that too harsh.  Others may wonder why I would let the pain last that long.

 

Either way, it’s good to have rules.  It helps you get over a rocky start that may otherwise have you fleeing at the first “lol”, and it keeps you from swearing off ever healing a shaman ever again due to that four hour Maraudon run (Landslide can go throw himself off a cliff next time, plx.)

 

I decided to see if anyone else had this mindset, going into a pug, so I asked around a bit.  I found a bear in Nighthaven, that druid hotspot of dreary purple and green, while I was escaping the terrors of the Timbermaw.  They never did forgive me for my first attempt to get through that tunnel of theirs.  (I have to be friendly with you to get through your tunnel?  You attacked me first, you thong-wearing savages!  Bear whale-tail earns you all the face-melting in the world.)

 

This bear-druid was apparently locked in some sort of Emerald Ennui, so I chose him as a prime target for the interview.  After all, I can spot pug-distress from a mile away. 

 

Hanners: So, tell me about your experience with pick up groups.

 

Bear: I haven’t done a lot.  Always wanted to tank, though, so I’ve done a couple leading people through dungeons on my way up.

 

Hanners: You would not consider yourself a serial pugger?

 

Bear: Um, no.  Haven’t had time to do dungeons, really.  I’ve been leveling up as fast as I can.  I hope to grow up to be a tree.

 

Hanners: Admirable (stupid druids). 

 

Bear: What?

 

Hanners: Nothing.  What have you learned from your limited experiences?

 

Bear: Tanking is fun!  I set the pace, I protect the healer, and if I’m doing my stuff right, then the dps can be as retarded as they want and can’t screw it up.

 

Hanners: I want your children.

 

Bear: Wait, what?

 

Hanners: Nothing, that’s very commendable.  Where did you learn about being a good tank?

 

Bear:  Reading websites, mostly.  This is my first time trying it, myself, but I’ve watched a lot of other people do it.  Some do it right, and I want to be like that, and some do it wrong, and it makes me cry.

 

Hanners: I’m writing an article about rules people have for their pug.  Do you have any rules?

 

Bear: Well I try to avoid stupid people…

 

Hanners: And how is that working for you?

 

Bear: I…don’t do a lot of pugs.

 

Hanners: Touché.  Any other stipulations you may place on a group?

 

Bear: I don’t like hoppy-rogues.

 

Hanners: Rouges.

 

Bear: What?

 

Hanners: Nothing.  No hopping, check.  What about your healers?

 

Bear: Oh, I hate grouping with healers that are ‘just learning’.  It almost always means that they get lazy when the first part of the dungeon is easy, so they’ll start throwing in a wand attack, or a dot or two, and then by the middle of the thing, they are barely using heal spells at all.

 

Hanners: I can imagine how it winds up at the end…

 

Bear: Yeah.  They start wondering why things are suddenly harder, how the rogue kept dying, and why I’m going a lot slower and healing myself between pulls.  Or they get agro and get upset about the dirtnap.

 

Hanners: We do tend to get cranky about those.

 

Bear: Well yeah, anybody does, but c’mon.  Two big heals right after you’ve mind-blasted a monster I’m not hitting?  Totally deserved it.

 

Hanners: Totally.  So tell me about a recent experience.  You look a bit upset.

 

Bear: I don’t know…

 

Hanners: You can tell us.

 

Bear: Wait, what?

 

Hanners: Me, you can tell me.  Was it pretty bad?

 

Bear: Well yeah.  We never even made it to the dungeon.  See, I was looking to get into an instance I hadn’t tried before.  So I was offering to tank, or damage, or heal – basically whatever any group needed.  It took a lot longer than I expected to find anyone, so I started asking locally.  When someone suddenly invited me to join them, I was obviously excited about it.  But then I look at my teammates, and they’re both flagged for pvp.

 

Hanners: Well, a lot of places have pvp objectives for the zone, these days.  Were they in a battleground?

 

Bear: No no, you’re right.  It just struck me as a bad sign.  And the leader of the group was a hunter.

 

Hanners: Eww…

 

Bear: And she wasn’t just flagged, but she had res sickness.

 

Hanners: Eww!

 

Bear: And she asked me what my spec was.

 

Hanners: Wait, weren’t you –

 

Bear: Yeah, I was offering to tank.  I don’t know of any tree-tanks, but maybe she thought I was going to boomkin it.  Anyway, I told her I was feral, and reminded her I could tank.  The shaman in the group said he was melee, but could off-heal.  The hunter laughed out loud and said she would be damage.

 

Hanners: As opposed to…?

 

Bear: No no, I asked that same thing.  She laughed again.

 

Hanners: Wait wait, did it sound like “HARR HARR.”

 

Bear: What?

 

Hanners: Nothing.  Carry on.

 

Bear: So that was a little scary, but I had quests to do, so I just kept plugging along.  Then I noticed we weren’t looking for a group, so I asked a few questions.  Are we still looking for more?  Are we going to the right dungeon?  Why aren’t we looking for a group?  Turns out, the hunter had never looked for a group before, and thought she was doing it right.  Laughed at me a few more times and joked on me for not noticing that she was doing it.  The shaman took leadership for a second, slipped us into the right channel, and handed leadership back to her.  She laughed again.

 

Hanners: I shall call her Giggles.

 

Bear: Wait, what?

 

Hanners: Nothing.  You say you never made it to the dungeon.  Why not?

 

Bear: Well, the next thing I hear, is that she can’t get into the dungeon because the door is locked.

 

Hanners: Where were you trying to go?

 

Bear: Hellfire Citadel Ramparts.

 

Hanners: Wait – there’s no door there, is there?

 

Bear: No.  She was trying to get into the Shattered Halls part.

 

Hanners: Without a full group?

 

Bear: Yeah.  I was in the marsh, and the shaman was in Honor Hold.

 

Hanners: Why was she –

 

Bear: *makes the ursine equivalent of a shrug*

 

Hanners: So that’s when you left?

 

Bear: Well, actually, I kinda was a smartass about it.  I wished them both well, and suggested they ask other people if they had any questions or confusions and wanted to learn how to play.

 

Hanners: Uh oh.

 

Bear: The hunter sent me a note asking what that was all about, but I didn’t have the heart to break it down for her.  I mean, I know how hunters are.  You don’t have to deal with other people your whole life – just you and nature and some freakish animal following you around.  Then, suddenly, you want to make friends and you have no idea what to do.  That’s fine, us druids can totally sympathize.  But then the shaman sent a note and I felt I owed an explanation.  Told him that I could get gear and experience faster off on my own doing quests, instead of doing the ghost-run of shame with someone who wasn’t used to other people being involved.

 

Hanners: Did he turn into Mr Champion?

 

Bear: Oh you bet he did.  Started telling me about how it’d be easy to show her how to teach her real quick, and that I shouldn’t think I was so better than other people.  I tried to explain, but he was already fired up.  Tried telling me to go back where I came from, and that she may have to learn some technicalities, but I had to learn ‘people skills’.  At that point, I remembered my guild tag and felt guilty for stirring up this guy’s ant pile, so I just told him the conversation was over.  He agreed…

 

Hanners: There’s more to it than that, isn’t there?

 

Bear: But he started in on me again a minute later, telling me that he’d passed on my comments to her, and that they both agreed I should just stay in my tree and try my hand at something other than adventuring.  Words like “elitist retard” were thrown at me, and that’s when my feelings were hurt and I told him he was being insulting.  I …I admit, I ignored him after that.

 

Hanners: I see that really bothered you.  I sense you felt you did the right thing, though?

 

Bear: Yeah.  I mean, can you imagine me leading some bouncy night elf hunter like that through Ramparts?

 

Hanners: Wait, what?

 

Bear: Oh well.  Thanks for talking to me about this.  You’re real nice for a blood elf.  Normally I’d shred you guys on sight, but I’ll think twice about it after this.

 

Hanners: …what?