Guess what?! Angry Healers is moving to its own domain!
The move will be happening sometime in the next 24 hours, so please, everyone update your links tomorrow! All posts will be moved over to the new site!
Stay angry, healers!
~Pyo
Down Once More
Posted in Healing with tags post series, strats, toc on November 20, 2009 by PyoskaI just realized this morning that I have one boss yet to cover in the Trial of the Crusader raid- Anub’Arak. This is partly because he refuses to drop the mace I want, and mostly because a community I frequent on LiveJournal- WoWLadies. Someone posted this morning that they were having issues with Anub and, realizing that I had finally killed him, I could post about it and be somewhat useful again. So here it is.
Anub’Arak
Anub'Arak (no, I have nothing witty this morning, kthx.)
Anub’ Arak is, first and foremost, a DPS fight, and that is made pretty clear the first time you fight him. Anub has 3 phases:
Phase 1: Anub is surfaced, and 4 Crypt Stalker adds (2 on 10 man) will spawn.
Phase 2: Anub will burrow underground and chase people around landshark style with his spikes sticking up out of the ground and little scarabs with chase your raid members around.
Phase 3: No more adds will spawn, but he will put the Leeching Swarm debuff on the raid, which will damage them but heal him.
It is important to know that Anub will alternate between phases 1 and 2 until you get him to 30% health, when he will switch to phase 3.
The Encounter:
Now, you start this fight by Tirin Fordring telling you that you are prepared to enter Icecrown Citadel. However, Arthas disagrees- and he has no problem mocking you as he enters the Coliseum and tells you how foolish you were to build your structures over the underground tunnel kingdom of the Nerubian Empire. To prove his point, he thrusts Forstmourne into the floor and shatters it, sending you and your raid plummeting to the large underground lake below and telling Tirion that ‘the souls of your fallen champions shall be mine.’
Well, we can’t have that, now can we?
As you emerge from the lake, you’ll see a large, cavernous room- where Anub’Arak will climb out of the ground and sit, waiting patiently for your attack. Around his room are floating blue orbs and little scarabs that just meander about. That is, until you attack, of course. This starts the enrage timer (10 minutes.) This is a 2- 3 tank fight, depending on what works for you. My guild uses 3. You’ll need a tank for Anub and 2 add tanks. A few seconds after you engage Anub, the first set of Crypt Stalker adds will emerge. These need to be tanked on patches of ice, which are placed when a ranged DPS shoots down the floating blue orbs (designate 1 or 2 people to do this and only this). The ice patches will prevent any adds from burrowing when Anub goes into phase 2. A total of 4 adds will spawn, and they will spawn in pairs. All DPS (or at least all of your ranged types) needs to be on the adds as they spawn- one of them needs to die before Anub burrows, preferably the first 2. The adds also have a stacking damage buff if they are tanked too close together, so they will need to be moved apart. A few moments after the first pair spawn, the second pair will join them. They need to be picked up quickly, as they will try to nom on healer faces almost immediatly. This set will NOT be down before Anub burrows. Remember that they need to be tanked on ice patches to prevent them from diving underground with the boss. Kill as many of them as you can before Anub burrows.
During phase 2, Anub will disappear and a host of scarabs will appear. They don’t do much melee damage- but they don’t have to. They have a stacking poison debuff called Acid Drenched Mandibles that deals 1600 Nature damage every 3 seconds, lasts for one minute, and stacks everytime they hit you. I have seen up to 85 stacks- Thats 136000 Nature damage every 3 seconds! The only way to deal with this is to run if you see one aggroed on you until the Crypt Stalker adds are dead, then herd them into a central area and AoE them down. Also, if they run across Anub’s path, they will become enraged (this can be dispelled by a hunter’s Tranq Shot or a Rogue’s poison on a Fan of Knives). Meanwhile, Anub is having fun chasing random raid members around the room. He will target a player and spikes will pop out of the ground. They will move slowly towards the player, getting consistently faster, until they catch the player- and kill him- or until the player runs across a patch of ice and Anub is stopped in his tracks. This whole phase is about killing the adds before Anub climbs back out of the ground. Then its back to phase 1.
In order to beat Anub’s 10 minute enrage timer, you need to get him to 30% life, and phase 3, before he burrows a third time. During phase 3, Anub puts out a raid wide debuff called Leeching Swarm, which hurts the raid and heals him- the more life you have, the more he gets healed. This is where you come in healers- the only person who needs to be at full health are any tanks currently tanking- that includes tanks on adds (this is the only time the tanks should avoid tanking on ice patches- you want the adds to burrow, so you don’t have to deal with them.) Everyone else should be at or below 30% health MAX (some guides say 50%, but we do 30%.) What does this mean to you? Well, druids, a well placed Rejuv should be enough- if a couple of people go above 30%, you should still be fine, as long as your DPS can handle it. But no more than 2 or 3 people at the absolute max.
DPS Anub down, collect loot, profit! Now all you have to do is sit back and wait for Icecrown! (If you’re not doing the psychotic hardmodes, anyways….)
Now, go forth and raid! Get lewtz! And stay angry, healers!
~Pyo
Have a Random Update
Posted in Healing with tags random post is random on November 18, 2009 by PyoskaIt has been very quiet on the WoW front recently. I shall update you anyways.
Things with the new guild (and the faction change in general) have worked out for the best- Aanthe is in 4 piece Tier 9 (Emblem only gear for now- I’ll start collecting Trophies, soon, I hope.) Haven’t really gotten a chance to battle test the set bonus yet, though a Night Elf Death Knight approved greatly of Aanthe’s look- the corseted robe (-squee!- Corsets!) and the Tier 8.5 Sailor Moonglade helmet apparently make for very fine attire (an opinion that I agree with.) She got the shiny belt off of ToC25 Twins last night, as well- now I just need a decent MH weapon to drop- I’m a MH/OH kinda girl, especially since Aanthe has the Chalice of Searing Light) and a cloak (even though she’s ROCKING the Shawl of the Old Maid from Naxx25. Yeah. Screw you, Ulduar, and your ‘one trash drop on 10 man’ healing cloak.)
Raids are fun again. This, above all other things, makes me very happy. Gear is all well and good, but downing bosses with people who don’t habitually screw up, yell in Vent, and act like total jerkoffs is nice. Relaxing. CASUAL. -gasp- I SAID IT. Though we have an overabundance of tree!druids. -shrug- At least 2 normal trees have decently geared offspecs. I think I’m the third of the wellgeared trees, and both of my offsets (Panzerkin and Kitty) are starting to fill out nicely. Though if they prefer anyone to switch to DPS, I’ll tell them I’ll mainswitch to my Death Knight, who’s currently in Valgarde sucking up rested experience time. Or level a resto!shammie, as we currently have none that raid with us.
And people are finally starting to pronounce ‘Aanthe’ right.
Say it with me now.
‘On-thah’
Not ‘Anne-thee.’ Not ‘An-an-thee.’ And no, not ‘Ann.’
Pryderi, if you can see this, I will continue to give you shit about it. Until I am less shy in Vent, at any rate.
~Pyo
Dear Blizzard
Posted in Healing with tags random shit, rant on November 6, 2009 by AmbrosineI…am a priest.
I…am not a warlock.
So why, pray tell, do I…look like a warlock in t10?
Hmmmmmm?
WTB wings + halo, PST.
No love,
-Faux-Angel Lyrandre
P.S.,
We both know that shadow form doesn’t count.
Druids: Patch 3.3 and You
Posted in Healing, angry healers, druid with tags druid, Healing, trees! on November 4, 2009 by PyoskaHey, look! A post that isn’t a non-meme and me being stunned repeatedly by the Sunreavers!
Hey, shut up, I finally started getting it right! -grumble-
Anyways, yesterday was raid night. As we were preparing to roflstomp our way through normal ToC25, I see this blaze across our healer channel.
So, did you see that Haste will affect Rejuv ticks in 3.3?
I can’t say for certain what happened next- I think I fainted from healer happy. As soon as I shook off the shock, I started drilling my informant for questions- how will haste affect it? What about the ‘bug fix’ (let’s not beat around the bush here, Blizzard, you’re not fooling anyone by calling it a ‘bug fix’- its a nerf, OWN UP TO IT!) Blizz is planning on implementing on Rejuv? What about the Gift of the Earthmother nerf?
The only answer I got for certain is that haste will only affect Rejuv with a glyph. Of course, no one could tell me what the glyph was (though ‘Glyph of Super Fast Rejuv’ made me chuckle.) Its ok, dear other trees in The Grim Covenant- thats why I’m here!
So, we raided- got some loot, got some Emblems (and 3 upgrades, woot!), got the shiny Heirloom 2H Axe for my Warrior/Paladin/Death Knight to share, and promptly went to do some research.
Rejuvination: deals 1352 health over 12 seconds (down from 1690 over 15 seconds)- ok. OK. So, yeah, its a nerf. They’re removing one tick and dropping the amount healed by 338. Way to mess with my raid healing Rejuv spam tactic. Once again, this is a ‘bug fix’ that Blizzard isn’t even sure if they’re going to implement (or keep, if they do.) However, lets go out on a limb here and say not only do they implement it, they keep it. Time to find another heal spell? EDIT: Blue post verified! They are NOT nerfing Rejuv! -does a happy dance-
Glyph of Rapid Rejuvination: causes haste to affect the time between ticks of Rejuvination- Haste. Affects. Rejuv ticks. -waits for the chorus of happy!druid squees- YES! Ladies and Gentlemen of the Restoration Druid Persuasion, OUR PRAYERS HAVE FINALLY BEEN ANSWERED! A glyph that increases the speed of the ticks of Rejuv based on haste rating? The thought makes me shiver- can you imagine the amount of healing we’ll be doing then? More healing faster, which will mean an increased in reapplication, but more damage being healed faster. Which means more health recovery, which means less chance of people dying, which means success! If you weren’t stacking haste for the elusive 1 second GCD/ 1 second Nourish cast, now you have a reason! -happy tree dance-
Gift of the Earthmother: Increases haste rating by 10% and decreases the GCD of Rejuv/ Wild Growth/ Nourish by 10% (5/5)- ok, admittedly… GotEM was broken. It was pretty much stomping haste into the ground for those three spells (I think I got them right- damn work for blocking WoW sites). But, I can’t help thinking that maybe this is taking it a little too far. Only time will tell, I suppose.
Rebirth: cooldown reduced to 10 minutes- 10 minute battlerez? I can live with that.
And, last but not least… images of Druid Tier 10 Armor!
What the shit is up with that helmet?!
I haven’t seen anything on released stats for it yet, so I’m waiting on that to determine just how much I’ll despise that helmet (which is soooo getting hidden). I kinda like my corseted Tier 9… and really? That belt is AWFUL. WTB my waistline back, PST. And while I’m not too hot on the T9 shoulders, at least they don’t look like they’ll eat the next person I walk past- though that will likely grow on me. -has a flashback of the Little Shop of Horrors-
Anyways, I’ve bothered you enough for one day. There will be more as I catch updated info on patch 3.3, so stay tuned and stay angry, healers!
~Pyo
Healer meme
Posted in Healing on November 2, 2009 by Kivuli*points at Pyo, who points at Bubbles, who points at…etc*
- What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer?
Kivuli, Troll Priest, Disc/Holy
- What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
10 man raids, though most of my experience is in 25s.
- What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why?
Hmmm. My opinion of other spells has increased lately, but no matter what Penance still wins. There’s just no end to how satisfying an instant channeled uber-heal is.
- What healing spell do you use least for your class and why?
Binding Heal. I know some people love it, but it always feels like my brain has to make an extra step to see “Person X needs healing, I need healing too, I will hit this different keybinding.”
- What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why?
Padding, mostly via absorbs. The time has passed where a disc priest could casually raid heal (PoH nerf, penance nerf) and tank healing has become a bit tougher too. We don’t have the catch up ability or heal bombs (even a penance, if it doesn’t crit, is tiny and weak) to stand around and play Holy Pally, and we don’t have the tools or mana efficiency to keep a raid topped off (which is almost a joke to say considering how mana efficient we are in the right circumstances). What we CAN do very well, though, is keep dire situations from occuring. One of my favorite things to do is, when I know my mana is okay, spam PoH on the raid. My crit is high enough that I’ll get a lot of bubbles out. Spam PW:S on top of that, and the raid is very well protected. I get nervous whenever I’m Holy because I see tanks take bigger hits than I’m used to, I see raid members fall below 50% constantly, etc. Disc priests are a great insurance policy.
- What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why?
Because of this in-between kind of support function described above, disc priests often just don’t have the HPS to get through heavy fights. We also have very poor talents for boosting our raw healing, which makes scaling very…interesting.
- In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you?
Tank healing.
- What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why?
For 10s, like my current situation, definitely Resto shamans. Love the totems, love their punchy heals. They are easy to supplement with shields and extra PoH, and ES adds to my preventative tank-healing style.
- What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why?
Other disc priests. I don’t even want to go into it.
- What is your worst habit as a healer?
Seeing that the tank is okay and spending too much time putting shields on the raid, only to have to freak out and spam the tank.
- What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing?
Seeing myself pass other healers on the meters, or (often related) having to raid heal while tank healing because someone’s too slow.
- Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing?
I think we’re a little underpowered, but our niche right now is like, the ultimate support healer.
- What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer?
Back when I did 25s I would scour World of Logs for various uptimes (DA, Renewed Hope, etc), compare my tank’s damage taken to a tank I wasn’t on, compare what did the most healing on various fights. Nowadays, recount usually tells me that PoM is my top heal, which I always think is funny.
- What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class?
People STILL don’t understand that A. disc priests will not look good on meters, and B. disc priests don’t stack.
- What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn?
Overheal. Prepare. Cast PoM constantly. Penance is our only real reactive heal, I even treat Flash Heal as a spammy “top off and then stack DA” heal.
- If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer via recount, what sort of patterns would they see (i.e. lots of overhealing, low healing output, etc)?
Low healing (usually), low overheals, PoM, Penance and Glyph of PW:S as my usual top heals, a surprisingly large percentage of my heals being on the raid because of PoM bouncing.
- Haste or Crit and why?
Both. I need crit, but I have enough to be hitting DR like whoa, so I’m staring haste down in the face now. It’s tough, I can never get enough. I got down to 1.2 sec flash heals though…
- What healing class do you feel you understand least?
Pallies and Druids. I just don’t know enough about how they do it.
- What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing?
Just Power Auras.
- Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why?
I admit I am an Int whore through and through. Int and Spellpower, though like I mentioned above I’m trying to focus on haste now too.
And now for something completely different – Valithria Dreamwalker
Posted in Healing, priest with tags icecrown on November 1, 2009 by KivuliWarning: Icecrown spoilers!
As soon as I saw information on this fight, I got really excited: a fight where healers get to pose as DPS? So cool! New and exciting! Eeee!
Closer examination, however, leaves me a little disappointed. It’s no secret that the developers believe (rightly, in my opinion) that healing specs can be more different and niched because there are fewer of them, and healing as a reactive art means it isn’t subject to the strict rotation/maximized output of DPS classes at all times. This fight kind of turns that on its head, and suddenly it’s becoming very obvious that some healers are going to outperform others in the HPS race, as it were.
As a disc priest, I immediately voiced concern for this and basically have met the following response: “Oh, well someone has to take care of the real people! You’ll bubble-spam the raid.”
Sure, sure. That sounds good and all when you’re not super excited for this new mechanic, I guess? But this put me back in a dps mentality. Think of it this way: I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that a dps would get annoyed if on every fight they showed low on the meters for whatever hidden reason, then got a totally different fight that catered to high dps, and got stuck on adds for every single attempt because they knew their dps wasn’t high enough to help. They get sat out for not being able to pump out the numbers the guild needs. Eh? I don’t know. I’m a bit twitchy over it, and considering I’m in a 10 man guild I’ll probably have to go holy for this fight or something.
Ew. 
Perhaps I’m overreacting, but there are complaints from lots of people over the large theoretical discrepancy between healers, and the fight seems rather exploitable (one of the more interesting, and I hope prohibited, ideas is having pallies chain LoH).
What would’ve been really neat is if you were actively healing against adds beating on her (someone correct me if you DO, but from what I’ve seen it doesn’t look that way) because then my bubbles would definitely count for a lot, since the healers wouldn’t have to make up for as much HP lost during the fight.
Thoughts?
Oh look, a Healer Meme
Posted in Healing on October 29, 2009 by PyoskaOk, so I totally stole this from I Like Bubbles, who stole this from Miss Medicina… but whatever.
Post this questionnaire, with your answers, on your blog. Pick the healing class you know most about (or is the focus of your blog) for the questionnaire, and then send it over to another healing blogger you know and love who heals with a DIFFERENT class. Include a link to the blogger who sent you the questionnaire, as well as a link to the blogger to whom you are sending it.
- What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer?
Aanthe, Resto Druid
- What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
25 man raids, occasionaly 10 man raids.
- What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why?
Swiftmend- because who doesn’t like seeing instant 10k heals on a target?
- What healing spell do you use least for your class and why?
Healing Touch. It takes too long to cast, and if I wanted Flash Heal, I’d play a paladin.
- What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why?
HoTs! Because, really, that’s all we’re good for.
- What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why?
Very limited amounts of direct heals- frankly, HoTs just do not make for great tank healing, I don’t care what anybody says.
- In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you?
Raid healing- with instant cast HoTs and Wild Growth, plus the occasional Nourish and Swiftmend, I’ve got no problem healing up mass damage.
- What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why?
Discipline Priests. Their damage mitigation makes me happy, and Penance is shiny!
- What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why?
Paladins, only because I know quite a few who want to raid heal (Beacon of Light is OP, imo) even though they know they are the best MT/OT healers atm.
- What is your worst habit as a healer?
Healing someone who had just taken damage and now is suddenly back to full health- need to whack- a- mole Grid faster.
- What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing?
I KNOW YOU NEED HEALS, SHUT UP.
- Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing?
We’re OP… HoT mechanics will place the HoT tick above other heals, so we always seem to be healing our tree!butts off, even if we’re just standing there dancing.
- What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer?
I check meters as a comparison tool (to other druids) and, well, is the raid alive? If so, then I must be doing something right.
- What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class?
There really aren’t any, we are OP as hell. The complaints are pretty much on the money!
- What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn?
WE ARE NOT PRIESTS OR PALADINS. We can’t heal like they do, so we can’t think like they do. Stop being reactive!
- If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer via recount, what sort of patterns would they see (i.e. lots of overhealing, low healing output, etc)?
Me at or near the top going, ‘Whoa…’
- Haste or Crit and why?
Haste! WTB 1 second GCD and 1 second Nourish cast time pl0x.
- What healing class do you feel you understand least?
Holy priests. 5SR? What? You don’t just stack spellpower like me and go crazy? Most of my friends play disc. priests!
- What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing?
Grid and Clique! Plus a variety of other purely convenience mods.
- Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why?
I stack spellpower and haste primarily, though I will get some crit in there once I’ve hit the hastecap and get 4pc T9.
There. I hope that’s somewhat informative, or at least entertaining.
Don’t Hate on the Gamer Girls
Posted in Healing on October 28, 2009 by PyoskaWell, I hardly think this is fair. And it was written by a girl?! Preposterous!
I accept your challenge, ma’am! This is for you proud girl gamers out there- of all kinds! Cheers!
10 Reasons Why You Should Date A Gamer Girl
1. Because she won’t kill you if you tell her you’re going to be late because you actually got a good PuG for instances.
2. Two words: WoW Head. See also: reasons to enjoy long flight paths
3. Who better to go to that midnight release of Cataclysm with you?
4. Gamer girls find in- game gifts perfectly acceptable gifts for holidays.
5. You’ll never have to play the ePeen game.
6. Deciding on dinner, weekend plans, relationship issues, who’s going to answer the phone, and which tank can’t hold aggro – all can be discussed via PST which means never having to leave the computer to be a grownup!
7. If you are lucky, you get the female night elf dance on special occasions- nakedness and mailboxes not always included. If you are really lucky, she might cosplay as something sexy and you get to help her out of her costume at the end of the day.
8. You know you’ll always have someone at your back with an SMG, ready to kill that spawnpoint camping asshole.
9. She will never ever tell you that you should stop wasting your money on video games and that you don’t need that brand new console.
10. She might kick your ass in video games- but she’s kicking your friends’ asses, too, and nothing’s better than ragging on your best buds by telling them your girlfriend pwned them.
Well, have you?
(Props to my folks over at WoW Ladies for the list!)
If you haven’t, you should- and be thankful! After all, it takes a special kind of girl to be a gamer, and a special kind of guy to deal with her.
Cheers!
~Pyo
Why don’t the Sunreavers like me anymore?
Posted in Healing with tags random shit on October 27, 2009 by PyoskaAnswer: because you’re a Night Elf now, stupid. Stop running into Sunreaver territory- I know its habitual. Get over it!
-clears throat-
So, I finally did it. I faction transferred my beloved Onakoko to the Alliance, gave her a facelift- and apparently a lot of liposuction to get rid of the sexy cowlady hips- and a new name. She’s now known as Aanthe.
And I think I like it here.
As soon as I transferred over and logged on, I had an invite to The Grim Covenant waiting for me. Almost immediatly, the healing lead- a restokin- started picking my brain. She said she wanted to get me into raids ASAP to see how I do- part of me is like ‘OMG I’m gonna screw up.’ The other part of me is like, ‘OMG I’m gonna screw up.’ Ok, yeah, I know I’ll do fine, shut up. I just want to show the new guild that I am actually a half-way decent tree.
And I am rambling on like this is my personal journal. BLAH.
Random post is random. I’ll be back later with a post of some worth.
