Posts Tagged ‘Healing

04
Dec
10

A Look at Mastery: Symbiosis Broken Down

By Pyo Leave a Comment
Categories: angry healers, druid and Healing
Tags: , ,

OMG AN ACTUAL INFORMATIVE POAST!

What am I thinking?  I should just stick to snark.

I am.

LOLcat asks me this.

Ok, now as I’ve said before, I’m not a number- cruncher, theorycrafter, or mathhammerer.  NOT.  Right, so what’s my business trying to discuss this newest of new shiny things in the Resto!Druid arsenal?

Because I can.  Because I can take all of the technical talk and put it into a language casual people- like me- can actually understand.  You know, make the information usable for the masses.  And because, ultimately, while the post will be informative, I will snark something.  And who doesn’t love that?

Ready to go?  I sure am.

A Look at Mastery: Symbiosis Broken Down

Let us take a look at Symbiosis, shall we?

DISCLAIMER:  Nothing I’m going to say here is LAW.  This is my personal opinion about how Symbiosis works and what I believe its supposed to be used for.  Do not take my words as the end all, be all of Druid opinion of Symbiosis.

Symbiosis:  Increases the potency of your healing spells by 10% on targets already affected by one of your heal over time spells.  Each point of Mastery increases heal potency by an additional 1.25%.

Now, I’ve heard and seen the arguments.  But lets break it down a bit.  This is basically saying, ‘if you cast a Direct Heal (or a DH effect) on a target, make sure they’ve got a HoT on them first.’  A lot of people seem to think that this is going to push us Trees more towards the ‘tank healing’ side of the healing universe and away from the ‘raid healing’ niche we’re so fond of.  Eh.  I can’t really say I disagree, but I don’t think that the reason Blizzard gave us this Mastery is to make us tank heal.  I think they did it to make us a little more flexible.  I remember my time as healing lead, and I ALWAYS put the Holydins on the tank.  ALWAYS.  You can probably still ask them, and they’ll tell you that- no matter how much they begged me to raid heal.  Now, us Trees are freakin’ amazing raid healers… but we were always a little weaker on the tank healing side since Blizz nerfed Lifebloom into the toilet.

Yeah... what happened to my Lifebloom?

Here’s why I think they did it- to balance druid HoTs and Direct Heals.  Remember, now each of our heals is supposed to have a niche (even if Healing Touch and Nourish have a RIDONKULOUSLY long cast time, even reduced with Haste.)  Let’s say you’re healing someone and you tossed a stack of Lifebloom’s on the target.  If you cast a Nourish on that same target, you’re going to get the additional healing- plus a refresh on the Lifebloom, according to Nourish’s new mechanic.  If you’ve got 8 points of Mastery (which is low, but you can reforge your gear to get at least that much now), that’s an additional 22% healing done by that Nourish- not to mention all the EXTRA healing the refresh of Lifebloom is going to give that person.  Its important to note that this will only work if you cast a DH effect over a HoT of some kind- this includes Swiftmend.  This is, in fact, giving us a reason to use those DH’s, because there is the potential for TONS of bonus healing.  Sure, you’re not going to want to use DH’s for everything, but that’s not what Symbiosis is there for.  Its there for you to be used during tougher fights to help you manage your healing and your mana more effectively- which we will have to do now that our damn near infinite mana pools are a thing of the past.  22% bonus healing for the same mana cost as a HoT and a DH?  I fail to see where there is an issue with this, especially since there will be MORE bonus healing with more Mastery points.  I’ll be in the throngs of druids who will be stacking Mastery at every given opportunity. Is Symbiosis the greatest Mastery talent?  Certainly not.  But its ours, and we have to learn to play with the cards Blizzard has dealt us.

Druids, we have always been great healers.  But, I forsee that these changes in our chosen healing class are going to separate the good Trees from the one’s who were just spamming Wild Growth and Rejuv on the raid and not caring about anything else but topping healing meters.  Times, they are a’changin’, and we are changing with them. The bottom line is that its time to separate the Pro!Trees from the Nub!Branches.

Tree!Druids UNITE!

Now, let’s show Blizzard we can handle anything they throw at us!

And now, for a new addition to the blog:  around the Blogosphere!  Let’s see what others have blogged about recently!

Blogosphere

That’s it for now!  Be cool, and stay angry, healers!

~Pyo

25
Jan
10

Top Mistakes Healers Make

By Pyo 7 Comments
Categories: angry healers, druid and Healing
Tags: , , , ,

It’s Monday! 

O_o

Yeah, I know.  But this Monday is special- this is the Monday I put my ‘Pyo Starts Posting Twice A Week’ plan in effect!  (I have been working on this for a while.)  Because I believe in quality posting- and posting only one day a week bores me.  I bore easily.  So, I will be posting Mondays and Thursdays.  YaY for us!

But I digress.  Let us have a post!  Today, I have chosen- from My List of Topics- to discuss-

*cues dramatic music*

Top Mistakes Healers Make.

Say it ain't so!

That’s right, Angry Healers, I said it- this post is about the mistakes WE make!  Well, not all of us, I suppose.  But I’ll be covering the mistakes we make when we get better- and know it.  Not the beginner mistakes.  Let’s begin, shall we?

Top Mistakes Healers Make

1.  Just because you are the healer, doesn’t mean that they won’t drop you from the group.  This is, quite possibly, this biggest problem I have seen with level 80 healers while I play on my Shadow Priest of Doom- especially all of you rolling in full epics.  Just because you’re fully epicced out in your shiny ICC/ ToC gear, doesn’t mean your place in a party is guranteed.  Yes, that means that if you’re acting like a total asshat, you can expect to be rapidly replaced, because nobody likes dealing with the ‘leetsauce’ attitude.  If you colossally fuck up, prepare to be kicked.  If you have no clue what you’re doing, prepare to be bounced.  This leads me into my next points:

2.  If you sign up as a Healer for instances, be specced properly for it.  This mainly applies to Heroics and higher level instances.  No, Mr. Enhancement Shaman trying to heal Heroic Halls of Lightning, you are NOT A HEALER.  Be prepared to be bitched at and/ or Voted to Kicked.  I, seriously, don’t know why you bothered- yeah, Healers tend to queue up quickly- but we sign up for the job we are specced and geared for.  We can do it- you can’t.  Congratulations- you just made yourself look like an ass.

3.  Know how your class heals.  By the time you hit Heroics, you should have half a clue how to heal with your chosen class- I’m not saying be a pro!healer.  I’m saying have some damn sense.  Know what spells do what, which spells can proc special abilities, understand which spells are better than others.  I habitually smack Druids that use Healing Touch- unless they combine it with Nature’s Swiftness- because we have SO MANY OTHER MORE USEFUL SPELLS.  You want a direct heal?  Use Nourish!  I cringe everytime I see a tree Tank healing with Healing Touch.  Yes, Heroics are not SRS BZNS, but that’s no excuse for not understanding the basics of your class.

4.  Don’t try healing in gear for another spec.  This is slightly (only very slightly) forgivable, especially if you’re trying to gear up for Healing, and your gear could remotely be used for healing (i.e. some Boomkin leather is ok for Treeing it up, as well.)  However, if your previous spec has absolutely no stats in common with your Healing spec, DON’T HEAL.  That means No, Feral Druid, you CAN’T heal Heroic Halls of Reflection in your Feral leathers.  You WILL fail and piss off your party, who are trusting you to not only know what you’re doing by this point in time, but to do it well. 

5.  Don’t refuse to heal a certain class because you don’t like them.  OMG.  I don’t care if you don’t like Rogues, if that Rogue is doing their job and not pulling threat, HEAL HIM/ HER.  Not healing a person of a certain class persuasion just because you don’t like their class is fucking stupid, and it makes you look like a total jackhole.  That being said,  if said Rogue keeps pulling threat and pulling mobs, you have my permission to let them die, watch them QQ about not getting heals, then bitch at them for pulling threat.

6.  Don’t rez the lazy fuckers who are just chilling out after a wipe.  If it’s a wipe, everyone runs back.  Not ‘everyone- but- the- lazy- party- member- runs- back- waits- for- the- healer- to- mana- up- then- expects- a rez.’  Let that fucker sit there until he hauls his ass back.  On the contrary, if only one or two people die on a pull, REZ THEM.  Don’t be a jerk.

7.  Don’t constantly post healing  meters after every fight.  This applies primarily to raids.  Yes, Tree!Druid, we know your heals are awesome.  That does not mean you need to post the healing meter in the healers channel (or in /say… that’s just tacky.)  Incidentally, any and all DPS who might be reading this, its the same for you- we don’t care how leet your DPS is, posting the meters repeatedly to show how badass you are is stupid.

See, I like to think I hate all stupid people equally- just because you’re a healer, doesn’t mean your immune to being bashed.  Bad healers are just as bad as bad tanks and bad DPS.  Don’t be bad!

Thats it for now, lovelies!  Have a decent Monday (Monday is an awful way to spend 1/7th of your life), and stay angry, healers!

~Pyo

20
Jan
10

Top Misconceptions About Healers

By Pyo 7 Comments
Categories: Healing
Tags: , ,

Happy Wednesday, Angry Healers!

First, I hope you enjoy the new layout and header!  I know everyone liked the buck- toothed Draenei one that was up here before, but as I’m taking more ownership of this blog, I decided to replace it with one of my own devising (not that I don’t appreciate your work, Ambrosine… but you’ve already got a cool header on your blog.  Time for some tree love on mine!)

Anyways.  Post.  Let’s discuss.  This post is for you, you ‘taking- boss- hits- in- the- face’ tanks and ‘pewpewLAZORZ’ DPS. 

Top Misconceptions About Healers

We know what you guys are thinking- no, really!  We do!  Chances are, everyone you know that is currently running in your parties/ raids as a healer started off in their WoW life as DPS.  Maybe a tank.  But usually DPS.  And we thought the exact same thing back then that you do right now.  I am here to set you guys straight, and clear up some of those common misconceptions about healers.

1. Not all healers are female.  Not all people subscribe to this incorrect chain of thought- but enough do to make it annoying.  This is along the same lines of ‘not all female toons are played by girls.’  Next time you’re around Dalaran, ask that hot female Blood of Night Elf who’s really sitting behind that toon.  Or go watch Gamer- and think of that perverted fat guy in the wheelchair the next time you want to hit on a female toon.  Some of the best healers I’ve had the privelage of healing with have been guys- in my old Horde guild, there was this female Blood Elf Priest (of the Holy persuasion) named Iridice who just rocked the healing game like no other- and is a guy, one of the best guys I have ever met.  He is the best damn Holy Priest I have ever encountered (props and <3 to you, Iri!  I still luv ya!)

2. Not all healers are good.  Once again, not an idea all people subscribe to, but enough that it makes it annoying.  Its not a matter of class, or spec, or race.  Its a matter of knowing enough about your chosen healing class to know what you can and cannot do, not to mention should and should not do.  Sure, I, as a tree!druid, can heal a tank with little to no problem- a healthy helping of HoTs and a quick Nourish and Swiftmend finger is plenty.  But am I using Healing Touch?  HELL NO.  Why?  It takes too damn long to cast- so long, in fact, that a well geared Tank could DIE before it pops.  Not all tree!druids know this- or they think ‘its still a good spell, why shouldn’t I use it?’  There are some trees I’ve encountered out there who- I hope you’re sitting down for this- DON’T USE HOTS.  If you think I’m joking, you are wrong.  I have been stuck in PuGs with trees who thought it was perfectly acceptable to use HT and Nourish only.  As I’ve stated before, the reason I don’t PuG instances all that often is because, frankly, I’m afraid of the bad healers I might end up with.  I pride myself on being considered a good healer, despite the occasional oddities in my gear.  Now, keep in mind- some of these guys aren’t very good because they’re just now levelling a healer TO heal, and need gear.  Cut these guys some slack, and give them the benefit of the doubt- help them out as much as you can.  Teaching them to be good healers now will save a lot of people a lot of heartache in the future.

3.  Not all healers want to be healers.  Seriously.  A lot do- take me, for example.  I only have an offspec so I can do dailies.  But some are healers for several reasons- its the only way they get to raid (since healers seem to be a vast minority) seems to be the answer I get most frequently.  I can’t count how many times I’ve seen ‘I didn’t even want to be a healer’ in party chat.  Occasionally, I’ll see ‘I heal in Arenas’ or ‘I did it to queue faster for LFG.’  But seriously… if you don’t want to heal, then don’t heal.  I find the best healers are the ones who want to heal, not the ones that are forced to.

4.  Not all healers care about you.  This is especially true in 5- man instances.  Remeber the old saying, ‘If the Tank dies, its the Healers fault. If the Healer dies, its the Tank’s fault.  If the DPS dies, its their own damn fault’?  More people believe this than anything else, and this simply isn’t true in a lot of cases.  Sure, I raided in the old ZG 40 man raid days where, if you were in the all- DPS group, you didn’t get heals.  You were expected to watch where you were standing, move where you needed to be, and bandage your ass if you took damage, because the healers were too busy keeping the tanks alive.  But that’s really not the case anymore- ok, there are instances where it’s still true (if you see Rotface getting ready to Slime Spray, run behind him, pl0x, melee?), but for the most part, keeping the raid or party alive is just as important as keeping the tank alive.  And some healers just don’t get that- they keep telling themselves that the DPS doesn’t need to live, as long as they keep the tank alive, they’ll be fine.  News flash, kids: you won’t.  That’s why Blizzard gave everyone AoE heals.  Use them.

5.  Not all healers use healing mods.  Though, seriously?  I can’t say why.  I can’t live without Grid and Clique- playing healer whack- a- mole is great.  Healbot is good, too, but my first love will always bee Grid + Clique.

And finally, and quite possibly the most important misconception and the whole purpose of this blog…

6.  Not all healers are nice.  We’re not.  We may be all smiles and happiness when things are going right, but when the shit hits the fan, and the ‘blame the healer’ game starts getting played- we get ANGRY.  I mean rage-tastically ANGRY.  If you’re in a raiding guild, check to see if you’re healers have their own channel.  Chances are, they do, and when you wipe and you’re blaming them, they are blaming you right back, and coming up with the facts to prove it- screenshots and cutpastes from the Combat Log, etc.  We are yelling at you through our computers when you take avoidable damage, we are cursing at the screen when Stinky Decimates and then immediatly puts out a stinky cloud that kills 4 or 5 people, we are verbally abusing Blizzard and their 6 second Wild Growth/ Circle of Healing cooldowns when the Twin Val’kyr’s damage starts stacking too high.  We are NOT VERY NICE AT ALL.  The header pretty much says it all- our rage is blue, and we start the fight PISSED.  There really is no rage like Healer Rage.

I give up!

Its' all your fault, Tree!

Oh, and the thing that annoys us (maybe this is just me, but maybe not) the most is saying ‘I NEED HEALS’ in every available channel you have, including Vent.   For the love of all that’s holy, WE FUCKING KNOW YOU NEED HEALS.  We spend the entire encounter watching your little health bar for any sudden drops that indicate you have taken some form of damage and have a heal ready for you.  STOP TELLING US.  Those of us who pride ourselves on our healing are good boys and girls who do their research, check gearscores, BiS items, spec and glyph changes, research bossfights, etc.  We know what we’re doing.  We don’t tell you ‘DPS Harder’ (Ok, maybe we do, but we’re usually not serious about it.)  So don’t tell us that you need heals.  We’ll get to you.  Unless you’re taking avoidable damage- then you’ll just have to wait until we heal up the people who took the unavoidable punch- to- the- face.

That’s it for now, folks!  I hope you enjoyed the post!  Stay safe, and stay angry, healers!

~Pyo

13
Jan
10

Healer Vs. PuG: A Survival Guide

By Pyo 3 Comments
Categories: angry healers, Healing and World of Warcraft
Tags: , ,

Catchy title, eh? 

I thought this would be a good topic to cover, now that everyone is happily (or maybe, not so happily) fiddling around in the new, shiny, cross- realm LookingForGroup System.  I was gonna do some ICC25 bosses and strats, but frankly… it can wait.  (Go to Tankspot.com- they have the best strat vids, anyways.)

PuGs.  PuG, in case you didn’t know, stands for ‘Pick Up Group,’ which means that you are grouping with people you’ve never seen or heard of before with the intention of killing bosses in instances or, less often, raids.  Now, PuGs have a sinister, underlying negative tone to them- and with good reason.  How many times have you joined a PuG where The Tank couldn’t hold threat, resulting in your poor, squishie healer butt being pwned thoroughly by a group of mobs?  How about Those Huntards who don’t turn their pet’s Growl off, then bitch at you because ‘my pet died?’  Or the Mage Noobs that don’t check their DPS, pull threat from a decent tank, take a couple of whacks, then Ice Block to drop the aggro- which YOU, the squishy healer, promptly pick up?  Let’s not forget that hyperactive Warrior- Who- Is- Not- A- Tank that insists on pulling the mobs before the rest of the group is ready, or that Shadow Priest with the happy Psychic Scream finger.  And, of course- the shortening- flavored icing on this cake of fail- the ‘leetspeakin’ 12 year olds who are happily LOLing and calling you a  noob in /party, when they’re meleeing instead of spellcasting.

If your chat looks like this, you should probably run.

Gee, I haven’t seen all of these things, have I?  But there is hope!  You can survive a bad PuG!  All it takes is a little time and a lot of patience.

Pyoska’s Guide To Surviving PuGs as a Healer

The first thing you need to remember is this- it will, eventually be over, and all you have to do is what you do best.  This applies to you at every level, from lowbie instances to Heroic raids.

Things you should do to ensure you survive a PuG with most of your hair still on your head:

1.  Bring your ownrefreshments.  Seriously.  Go and spend the silver on a couple of stacks of level- appropriate water and food and put it somewhere on your action bars, for easy access.  If there is a mage in your party, and he/ she is willing to make you some food and water, then take the conjured stuff and use it first- save the stuff you spent your hard earned money on for later.  NEVER expect or demand that the mage make you refreshments- they will do it if they want to, and it will save you an argument.

2. Make sure your bags are empty.  It sucks having to destroy free money (grey loot items) because you ran out of room.   I don’t care if they’re crap- if its an item that can be sold, PICK IT UP.  You’ll thank me later.  And, while we’re on the subject of bags…

3.  Keep your bags organized.  Grey items always seem to clog up those random bag slots in an attempt to camoflage that shiny new piece of gear you just picked up, regardless of color, and you always lose that quest item or potion in the mounds of stuff you’ve gathered/ ferretted away in your travels.  Don’t be afraid to toss all of that Silk Cloth in your bank to use later for mass bandage crafting.  Toss that quest item in there, as well- its just eating up space that could be used for sellables.  And don’t let the big, bad price of extra bank slots scare you.  They are worth it!

4.  Make sure you have (if you want them) all quests available for the instance you are about to run.  And don’t be aftraid to share.  Everyone wants more experience, and sometimes, a clearly definable goal is the best way to get a PuG moving in the right direction.

5.  Make sure your gear is completely repaired.  Nothing is worse than having someone die and watching them go, ‘Oh, shit, my gear’s red, I need to repair lol can you guys summon me back?’  Don’t be that person.  Most people in PuGs HATE that person (but not as much as we hate the Huntard Who Forgot To Bring Enough Ammunition.  We REALLY HATE that guy.)

6.  Make sure your bars and hotkeys are set up for HEALING, not DPS.  This is especially true in those lower level instances, when you probably aren’t Resto or Holy- unless you’re into self- inflicted torture.  In which case, rock on.  Either way, when you are healing, your primary hotkeys (the ones your fingers hover over for mashing purposes) should be replaced with whatever heals you posses.  Better yet?  Get an addon to help- like Grid and Clique or Healbot- and only have it up if you are healing.

7. Expect a certain amount of stupidity from a PuG.  After all, we do need to consider Wizard’s First Rule when it comes to dealing with others, no matter what the situation.  Expect the worst, and you will be pleasently surprised if you get into a good group with good people, instead of disappointed with being stuck with the dredges of WoW society.

8. Do Your Job.  Yep.  That means heal to the best of your ability, doing whatever it takes to ensure it can’t be blamed on you.  I know, I know, that does mean you have to heal that moronic DPSer who just pulled threat.  I’m not saying keep him alive- but you should at least try.  The first time, anyways.  What kind of Angry Healer would I be if I told you to try more than once.  Clearly, if it happens more than once, its him, not you.  You can probably deal without his DPS, anyways. 

9.  Be Patient with the Newbs.  I said ‘newbs,’ not ‘noobs.’  There will be people in your PuGs who haven’t played WoW until very recently.  We will call them ‘newbs’, short for ‘new player who needs help learning how to be a good player’, NOT ‘noobs’, which is short for ‘fucking idiot who can’t play.’  Give the Newbs your assistance, especially if you’ve played their class at their level- trust me, your help now will mold them into better players you’ll actually want to play with later.  And who doesn’t want that?

10. Try to keep an open mind.  You’ll be dealing with lots of people from lots of places (even other countries!)  Those people have different ways of thinking and communicating that you might not be used to.  So if someone says something you find a little off, don’t go flying off the handle and TYPING IN CAPSLOCK to show how mad you are.  That doesn’t help anyone- capslock is NOT cruise control for cool.  Instead, calmly adress the person and ask them what they meant.  If they reply in kind, then its all good.  If they answer with, ‘LOL UR STUPID’, slap their ass on /ignore and continue on.  If they say something that’s obviously offensive, tell them to knock it off and don’t hesitate to report them.  After all, if they’re doing it in your PuG, they’re doing it in Trade, and General, and LookingForGroup, making asses of themselves and, undoubtedly, pissing all sorts of people off.  And while a 72 hour ban is unlikely to change their attitude, at least no one will have to deal with them during that time.

All this aside, know when you’ve had enough and don’t be afraid to tell a group of morons that they can jog on.  Have fun- isn’t that what playing a game is all about!

Well, thats it from me for now.  I hope this helps someone out.  Cheers, and stay angry, healers!

Obligatory Tree!Druid Shot.

~Pyo

04
Nov
09

Druids: Patch 3.3 and You

By Pyo 3 Comments
Categories: angry healers, druid and Healing
Tags: , ,

Hey, 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!

Can I have a 'Hide Belt' option?

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

23
Sep
09

Onyxia Returns!

By Pyo Leave a Comment
Categories: druid and Healing
Tags: , , ,

With no lore- based plotline to explain her sudden return, nor bad ass ‘stick her head on a pole, that’ll teach the enemies of the Horde’ bonus.  /sadpanda  Regardless, one of my favorite old world bosses revamped and ready to take down your raid once again.  After all, she usually has to leave her lair to feed.

ONOEZ DEEP BREATH

ONOEZ DEEP BREATH

Anyways, Ony has the same abilities and stat as her previous incarnation, but, in case you old timer’s have forgotten (or you’re new to raiding and have never seen her fight), we’ll discuss her tactics:

Onyxia has 3 effective phases:  Phase 1 is a ground phase, phase 2 is her Air and ‘OMG Deep Breath’ phase, and phase 3 is her ground ‘I’m gonna fear your raid’ phase, all of which are health based- 60 and 30% respectively.  In phase 1, you’ll have one tank to worry about healing, plus the raid.  She is a dragon, so she does have a frontal Cleave and a rear Tail Swipe, so avoid those areas.  She also summons Onyxian Whelps (MANY WHELPS LEFT SIDE- yes, I did have to do that) that will attack your raid.  Your raid should split up on either side of her and dps- AoE the Whelps when they spawn, but other than that, its pretty much a tank ‘n spank.

In phase 2, Ony will run towards the entrance of her room and take off into the air.  From the two whelp pits, dozens of Onyxian Whelps will spawn, as well as 1 Onyxian Warden each (for a total of two.)  Everyone jump to the middle of the room.  The Wardens need to be tanked and burned, and the whelps need to be AoE’d.  It is VERY important that everyone in the raid pays attention to where Ony is located in the air- when she Deep Breathes, everyone needs to split off and go to the wall- the attack will fill up about 1/3rd of the middle of the room.  Deep Breath = instagib, incidentally, so if someone gets caught in it, they will not survive.  Ranged will need to then promptly target Ony and start attacking to get her to phase 3.

In phase 3, she’s back on the ground.  This time, she causes lava to burst up out of the floor (Heigan TOTALLY stole this move from her) and fears your raid.  At this point in time, it becomes a healer battle- keep the tank up and hope the DPS doesn’t get caught in the lava, and Ony is as good as dead.

Ony drops some decent loot and 3 Emblems of Triumph, plus a sack of gems, a 22 slot bag, and her head (which has a quest associated with it).  I won’t ruin the surprise for you- but I will say that the quest ending is anti-climactic and disappointing.  But I got a nice ring, so hey, bonus, I suppose.

Anywho, that’s it for now.  Happy hunting!

FOR THE HORDE!

~Pyo

01
Sep
09

When It’s Not The Healer’s Fault

By ILikeBubbles 4 Comments
Categories: Healing
Tags: , ,

This post brought to you by: ToC

-When the tank stands in the green puddles because they’d never had the rogue before
-When the tank tanks the two non-caster mobs away from the caster, and eventually loses caster aggro to the healer (repeatedly taunting =/= holding aggro)
-When the mage backs into the second group of adds
-…and the third group of adds
-…and pulls aggro on the ghouls

…and this wasn’t even a pug!  Alts are dangerous, man.  The mage was a main, though, so don’t ask me.  Just…don’t.  I may or may not have let him die.  >.>

25
Jun
09

Post Series: Add Ons- A Healer’s Best Friend

By Pyo 4 Comments
Categories: Healing
Tags: , , ,

A post series in which Pyo reveals that she really is a noobhealer because she uses mods to heal (its trufax, yo.  Just ask all those pro healers- mods are for losers.)

My response to that?

To all the people who think healing with mods = terribad healer.

Image compliments of a cracked out magenoob named Vargos. (You still owe me a bike, bitch.)

Anyways… moving along, folks, nothing to see here…

Mods!  Add Ons!  Whatever you like to call ‘em, there are a few that, as a healer, you should have (or should at least consider investing in.)  Pyo’s Top Add-On Picks for Healing are Grid + Clique.

grid

Grid is your friend.

This is Grid.  See how pretty Grid is?   The beauty of Grid is that you can show anything and everything you need to see right there in that frame by utilizing a series of corner ‘lights’, central icons, and overall shading.  This mod can be used by itself as a point- and- click style mod, or it can be used in conjunction with Clique.  Customization options include assigning corner ‘lights’ to specific heals (both yours and the heals of others), HoT timers, incoming heal alerts, and aggro/ tank targets;  designating the central area of the block to show curse/ poison/ disease/ magic statuses; and showing class colors and player names/ health deficits numerically as well as visually.  I know several non- healers who use Grid for other reasons- mages/ boomkin use it for decursing.  Pallies use it to Cleanse.  Non- resto shaman use it to dispel magic.  Some have it up just to maintain an eye on raid status.  You can prioritize your heals- if you see a heal incoming on a player, you can skip over to the next guys.  You can set it up so that the borders around each individual block light up different colors for different effects!  Its an all around useful tool, but especially good for healers- cuz whack- a- mole is fun.

HoT Timers = YUM

HoT Timers = YUM

Grid also comes with tons of modules- GridStatusDruidHots is almost a must for the Trees in your raid, due to its sheer usefulness.  You can set it up to track your HoT timers, Lifebloom stacks, and various HoTs.  You can track the other guy’s HoT timers and Lifebloom stacks.  Its helpful in deciding which target to bounce Wild Growth off of (in case it isn’t you.)  If I see the other Tree in my raid throw down a Wild Growth the same time I do and hit 6 different targets, I’ll roll Rejuvs on the guys who didn’t get hit.

I don’t just use this to help me heal- it also helps me manage my mana and the mana of my other healers.   It saves lives and mana.  Win- win, IMO.

Next up is Clique, the mod I use in conjuntion with Grid.  Cue the pic…

Yes, even hunters use Clique.

Yes, even hunters use Clique.

Clique is super fast to set up and super easy to learn.  It attaches its mod button to your Spellbook tab, below all your other tabs.  Click, and the configuration window opens.  To set up, just mouse ofer the spell you want out of your Spellbook, and hit the button you want to assign to that button.  Simple!  Just remember which buttons you asssign to which heal… you don’t want to accidentally blow your 20 minute CD Battle Rez on someone.

Yes, I really did that.

Go ahead and laugh, its ok.

That’s it for today.  Stay tuned, folks, more Angry Healers coming your way soon!

(Gogo cheeseball closers!)

FOR THE HORDE!

~Pyo

17
Jun
09

Fostering Healthy Tank/Healer Relationships

By Kivuli Leave a Comment
Categories: Healing
Tags: , ,

My guild runs with, in my opinion, a nice set of tanks. I can’t think of any times recently where we’ve wiped on a boss because of tank*fail, and I never sit there and want to cuss my tanks out for sucking. That said, they have shown me, through good example and maybe otherwise, that there are small things that healers and tanks can do for each other that can make raiding a lot smoother, practically speaking and socially.  LET ME SHARE THIS WISDOM.

I won’t address the more obvious, terrible things in this post because as I said, I raid with competent tanks. If you’re pugging, or have crappy tanks, you might be struggling with bigger issues, but these are the small things — the smile points, if you will.

Mana: No healer loves a tank that pulls trash when they’re oom, and no tank likes waiting for a healer to sit there and get their mana to 100%. The compromise? Healers, don’t FREAK OUT when your tank chain pulls trash and you’re at 60%. Sit down to drink the instant you’re out of combat, pop a mana pot if you’re really chainpulling hard, blow your mana cooldowns if you’re far enough from a boss pull, or just plain deal with not being topped off all the time. You heal through bosses that are much more intensive and longer than any trash, deal! Tanks, don’t pull another pack if your healers are obviously dealing with a lot. Don’t run ahead and get angry when your healers are sitting back a few seconds to drink (though the flexible healer will run up with you unless they’re really low). Give your healers time to rez the morons who stood in Hurricane ;)

Pulling: I can only speak about this from a disc priest perspective in particular, but I’m sure other healers have their own spells or buffs or whatever they can substitute. One of the nicest things a tank can do for me is ask for a shield before they pull. Like it’s part of their ready check — “Can I get a shout and a shield…pulling!” I think recognizing who’s healing you and what they’re doing is a really good way to make a healer feel important and let them know the tank knows a little bit about their healer’s job. It’s not necessarily an ego boosting thing, but it’s just nice. Healers can help foster this by being consistent, attentive to when the tank is ready, and being communicative about cooldowns, buffs, etc. It can be very frustrating to have a tank who aggros just before I can get a shield and PoM off, and I get nasty trash aggro >.<

Messing up:  During the few years I’ve been playing, I’ve seen a lot of blame get thrown around during wipes.  My current guild doesn’t usually get nasty, but everyone runs into finger-pointing sometimes, even if it’s through more private channels.  A dangerous trap to fall into is *the healers are always the reason we die*.  Of course, this is true sometimes, and bad healers on some fights can mean death more quickly or assuredly than bad dps (Mimiron, XT, sometimes Hodir).  But there is nothing more gratifying than someone stepping up and actually taking some of the heat, especially to help out the healers, and especially if it’s a tank.  “That was totally my bad, I was tanking him way out of range,” “I didn’t move out of that void zone,” “I blew my cooldown too early,” etc, are amazing words to hear from tanks, instead of “Uhh I guess I didn’t get any heals,” or “You need to keep me up better than that.”  Healers, same goes for us.  You fucked up?  You don’t think you can handle a certain assignment?  Say something.  Did the tank obviously fuck up?  You don’t need to point it out, but done tactfully, defending your own and others’ healing can at the very least help tanks from getting huge epeens or martyr complexes!

((Also: the less you bring up your bad lag or framerate, the less annoying you’ll be, even if it’s your legitimate excuse.  I have a terrible computer, but only rarely do I say, “hey guys, I don’t know if I can handle the timing for this, I don’t really trust my computer,” and I almost NEVER blame my mistakes on lag retroactively.  “My fault, sorry” is usually enough, unless probed.  Don’t make them doubt your consistency by bringing up your system problems.))

Being super serious: It seems like, in general, tanks and healers have to be more serious than dps.  I don’t quite know why, but in a lot of the guilds I’ve been in, the dps seem to be at more leisure to joke around and relax than many of the tanks and healers.  Some unspoken rule of importance of role or something, I suppose.  My suggestion?  We can all lighten up some, without becoming baddies.  Maybe just a /highfive to your awesome tank when you solo heal him during IC, a random joke demonstrating comaraderie when your pet healer runs behind you to pull the next pack.  My guild is great about this — silly stuff that doesn’t affect your game by distracting you, but helps strengthen what is really the most important set of in-combat relationships in the game.  Don’t you want a healer to LIKE healing a tank? ;)

I need a witty picture of me and a tank, don't I

\jj/

-Kivuli

Stalk Me!

Stalk the Angry Healers!

Ellspeth, the Angry Tree

The Angry Healers is a World of Warcraft blog dedicated to the underappreciated and often overlooked role of The Healer (c) from the perspective of a (mostly) angry Tree!Druid. Here will be discussed talents, gear, spells, specs, and other healing related topics, as well as snarks, rants and general grumpiness about my chosen role in WoWlife, and patchnotes, changes, nerfs/ buffs, and expansion myths and legends (and maybe even facts!)

Header art by Triggerman @ dA.

Like Me on Facebook!

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.