Resto Nation

Having just recently gotten back into blogging I have not as of yet been tagged for this meme. I’ll go ahead and do it anyway!

1Q: What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer?
1A: Koramoor, Paladin, PVE Holy 51/5/15 and PVP Holy 51/20/0

2Q: What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
2A: Raids 10 Hard and 25 Normal, I also PVP heal BGs and 5v5

3Q: What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why?
3A: Beacon Of Light. With patch 3.2 is in insanely powerful.

4Q: What healing spell do you use least for your class and why?
4A: Holy Shock. I love it, I glyph it, I should use it more. I seem to always catch it on cool down.

5Q: What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why?
5A: Tank Heals. With the buff to Beacon a good Paladin can heal 2 tanks at the same time in normal mode encounters. Plus our raw thoughput is huge.

6Q: What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why?
6A: Group heals. We have none. Period. Beacon and Divine Sacrifice don’t count.

7Q: In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you?
7A: In most fights it is Main Tank heals with OT or “Special” assist (ie Ignis Pouch, Lord J’s Incerenate Flesh, etc.)

8Q: What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why?
8A: My Discipline Priest. She is the most fun to play and love the mechanics. If I wasn’t so attached to Koramoor, Koramaar would be my main.

9Q: What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why?
9A: Shaman. I love the idea of it, but I hate the totem mechanic.

10Q: What is your worst habit as a healer?
10A: Not trusting my fellow healers.

11Q: What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing?
11A: With other healers it is not taking care of their assignment. With DPS it is standing in fire and running out of range. With tanks it is chain pulling.

12Q: Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing?
12A: Yes, I think healer balance is pretty good right now.

13Q: What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer?
13A: Recount and World of Logs.

14Q: What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class?
14A: That we are two button healers. I use 18.

15Q: What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn?
15A: The value of Sacred Shield. Refresh it every 30/60 seconds. Really do it.

16Q: 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)?
17A: Top of the Healing Done and Overhealing Charts.

18Q: Haste or Crit and why?
18A: Haste. Speed is life. Holy Light takes forever to cast.

19Q: What healing class do you feel you understand least?
19A: Shamans, I just don’t play mine as much as I should.

20Q: What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing?
20A: I use Grid and Clique. I also have 15 mouse-over macros bound to my Logitech G-13.

21Q: Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why?
21A: Right now I stack INT because it is just still too good. I’ll keep stackin until Blizz gives me a reason not to.

Since he has not posted it yet, I’ll go ahead and tag Hikari from Lowered Expectations… even though he is a belf…

After a month of work, part three of my plan is complete. Yesterday my soon-to-be-Resto Orc Shaman dinged 80! I am now on step closer to completing my own personal nation of restoration. All that is left is to grind out my level 60 Forsaken Priest. However, it may be a little while before I begin that process because of the Patch 3.2 Mount Changes.

Now that Stone is 80 I need to get him so decent Resto gear, since I leveled him Enhancement. If I’m lucky I can make the guilds Naxx 25 farm run tonight and pick up some pieces there. Other than that it is time to run a bunch of Heroics. I also need to level his Leatherworking now.

Playing a Shaman has been as fun as I had hoped and I am looking for to healing with him. It has also been interesting to compare the contrasts of my Paladin versus a Shaman. It is very much a mirror image.

When I started my L2Heal project I thought the end would be a long way off. It has been a long journey but now it seems more doable than ever. With 3 of the 4 Healing Classes at level 80 I understand more about the mechanics of the role than ever. It has helped me be a better healer and a much better raid healing lead.

Ghostcrawler recently said that basically “Bring The Player Not The Class” applies to everyone but healers. In my effort to be flexible and useful to the raid (as well as learn a lot) I decided to level, gear, and raid the other 3 healing classes besides my Holy Paladin. Kora will always be my first love, however I am very in-like with playing my Tree and Shammy.

I am very excited to Raid with my priest as well although the prospect of leveling a clothie is always a daunting one for me. When played well Priests really are the ultimate healing class and a playing Discipline at the highest levels is an art-form.

Players have their own preferences (usually their Main), but all the classes are good in their own right. I have learned much with this endeavour and will continue to do so. I hope I can take the knowledge I have gained and give it back to my guild and the community at large. That really is my favorite part of this game…

I was doing some post-mortem analysis on last nights raids with another NO DRAMA officer this afternoon and the topic of10-man healing came up. As I was answering some of his questions I got to thinking about Raid Healing, DPSers,  and Recount.

A healers use of Recount tells a lot about them, their motivations, and often what they are doing wrong. Healers (and raid healing in general) are also misunderstood by many DPSers. Recount does not help this.

I’d like to take this oppertunity to shed a little light on raid healing in 10-man progression in general and the use of Recount. I hope his helps.

The first thing that it is important to understand is…

LearnToPray’s Golden Rule of Raid Healing :

1. If the Tank dies it is the Healer’s fault.

2. If the Healer dies it is the Tank’s fault.

3. If the DPS dies it is the DPS’s fault.

This rules applies pretty much only to threat but it is true 9 times out of 10. The main exception being infinite range raid damage phases like XT-002 Deconstructor’s Tantrum and KT’s Ice Block.

The next thing to understand is heal priority. This is the De Facto 10-man priority:

Special Assignment (ie Slag Pot or Kologarn’s Grip) > Self > Tanks > Other Healers > DPS

So barring extra mechanics the highest priority DPS starts at #6. They do not like this. However it is the right call.

With 5 DPS who gets the first heal? This is where decisions about life and death are made. A good healing team will know each other and have a good idea of who is going to heal whom. However, if one of the healers in unavailable or a number of other factors occur a healer must decide on the spot.

This is what separates good healers from bad healers and makes great healers irreplaceable. Healers should ALWAYS have Recount running. Recount should ALWAYS be on Damage Done for the current fight. This shows you the top toons’ total damage on the boss as well as their DPS.

Your choice is now made for you. If DPS A has 3K DPS and DPS B has 1.5K DPS and both are at 15% health, DPS A gets the heal while DPS 2 eats the floor. This also gives DPSers a reason other than e-peen to top the charts.

As a healer you should be a inherently selfless team player. This is not always true. Healers who try and “top the charts” through Effective Heals or Lowest Overheals are not playing correctly and will hurt the raid by trying to be “better”.

As long as you don’t run out of mana, over healing is never a problem. Waiting to heal and under-healing to is a problem.

Assignment sniping, stepping on HoTs, and going OoM from spamming group heals all increase your Effective Heals at the expense of better play.

Healers with huge e-peens also tend to cause drama and get their feelings hurt. In rare cases healers will let other players die out of spite on a progression run. If I ever hear of this or know it is happening, that player is dead to me. They will be immediately gkicked, ignored, and banned for life. I have zero tolerance with that.

Another reason to not measure healers by only Recount numbers is beacause it is the same as DPS. Healers do two things: Heal (add numbers back to HP), and Mitigate (prevent numbers from being subtracted from HP). Recount only tracks Heals not Mitigation, which is actually better. This kills the overall numbers of Discipline specced Priests and 52 / 17 / 2 specced Holy Paladins.

Due to Beacon of Light and Glyph of Holy Light Holy Paladins also run an average of 50-60 % overheal. Resto Shamans also have large overheal with Chain Heal being the 3 or 4 closest toons. Druids do as well as their HoTs are commonly sniped and Living Seed is almost always and overheal.

I hope this post makes healers not already in the know better and the rest of the raid more understanding and knowledgeable.

Oh, and one last thing: Yes, every time you ask, we already know you need heals…

Monday night saw the continuation of the Heroic Naxxramas for the NO DRAMA 25-man team. The focus this time was the Construct Quarter. After Sunday’s fail on Patchwerk it was time to give it another go.

It turns out, thanks to Frostmare’s research and forum post, that our initial strat was wrong. This is the strat we employed in last night one-shot attempt:

• 1. Patchwerk melee’s the MT and Hateful Strikes the two OTs. The OTs must be second and third on the threat list after the MT.
• 2. Melee DPS does not take a dip in the slime.
• 3. Assigned healers heal assigned tanks.
• 4. Shaman uses Bloodlust at 1.3M health remaining.

With this strat the big man went down with no issue.

Grobbulus went down soon after in a nice clean fight. Gluth was a little messy, but one-shot as well.

Thaddius proved more challenging. After a couple of avoidable wipes a few players had to leave the raid because of the time. We decided to move on and kill Noth in the Plague Quarter for the easy loots since we needed a full 25 to DPS Thaddius.

The Thaddius debacle did lead to the quote of the night by Commander Rastlan: “Positive’s on the Left, right?” Wipe.

It was a pretty good run, but as an officer and Raid Healing Lead it is up to me to see how we can be better.

One thing that bothered me all night was that I was coming up 4^th or 5^th on Effective Heals on Recount. I am always in the top two. After looking at the WWS report (linked below) I figured it out. I was on MT heals. Aside from our other two usual healers, everyone else was too.

So it turns out that it was a failure on my part, just not the way I thought. I need to do a better job on leading the healers. I am going to spend most of today working out the specifics but here is part of my rough plan:

• 1. Holy Paladin (Kora): MT Heals, Cleanse, Group One backup, Beacon on OT.
• 2. Holy Paladin 2: OT 1 Heals, Cleanse, Group Two Backup Heals, Beacon MT.
• 3. Discipline Priest: OT 2 Heals, Raid Heals.
• 4. Holy Priest: Raid Heals
• 5. Tree Druid: Raid Heals, Tank HoTs, De-curse
• 6. Resto Shaman/ Tree Druid 2: Real Heals, De-curse

I also plan on setting up a healer channel in chat. I think with better coordination we can make these runs butter smooth.

Loots and Numbers:

The aforementioned WWS report is here.

Patchwerk: Waistgaurd of Divine Grace, Seized Beauty, Sash of Solitude, Split Greathammer

Grobbulus: Cowl of Vanity, Fallout Impervious Tunic, Cloak of Averted Crisis, Twilight Mist

Gluth: Leagplates of the Lost Vanquisher, Breastplate of the Lost Vanquisher, Inexorable Sabatons

Noth: Sand-Worn Band, Gauntlets of the Disobedient, Accursed Spine, Belt of Potent Chanting

Recently I have discovered that mouse-over macros work with Healbot. They also work with pretty much every other Unit Frame addon, as well as the default and directly on you target or “V” bar.

I have used the default key bindings on my laptop for so long, that I did not want to change things. This meant I was limited in custom binding options. I had tried USB game pads like the Wolf King Warrior and the Saitek Pro Gamer Command Pad and they did not work for me.

The Warrior is just a copy of the left half of a standard keyboard in an ergonomic shape. The means that the “W” key on the Warrior is not mapped to the “W” key, it is the “W” key. While this helps with comfort and reach, the Key binding issue is not solved.

The Pro Gamer Command Pad had a similar issue with slightly more functionality. The keys we labeled as standard keys, but they were mapped. So, in theory one could change them. You can download the mapping software from their website and map the keys yourself. There is a three way switch allowing for three sets of mappings at once. This is very close to what I wanted, however there were three problems: The pad was not comfortable, the keys were pre-labeled, and the mapping software is awful.

This left me with two options: Phaelia’s much loved Belkin N52TE or BRK’s Logitech G13.

I chose the G13 for its design, ease of setup, and LCD screen which displays WoW Character Data, incoming whispers, and Ventrillo info, like who is on and who is talking. The Vent integration is what finally sold me.

As promised, here is the description if my new Holy Paladin Raiding setup.

Healbot Configuration:

Click: Flash of Light; Shift + Click: Beacon of Light; Ctrl + Click: Sacred Shield;

Right Click: Holy Light; Shift + Right Click: Lay on Hands; Ctrl + Right Click: Hand of Salvation

Scroll Wheel Click: Holy Shock; Shift + SW Click: Hand of Protection; Ctrl + SW Click: Hand of Freedom

This allows me almost complete control of healing with one or two hands. However the “click + modifier” setup is not ideal for fast fights that require movement.

The Mouse: Razer Lachesis 9 Button

1.       Button One: Click

2.       Button Two: Menu (aka “Right Click”)

3.       Scroll Wheel

4.       Left Shift

5.       Left Control

6.       Scroll Lock (Ventrillo Push-to-Talk)

7.       Pause (KeyClone Bypass)

8.       Space Bar (Jump)

9.       Windows Button “Forward” (Auto-Run)

The G13 has 3 sets of mappings, M1, M2, and M3. I have my Raid Healing Keys mapped to M1. On the UI I have the buttons mapped and arranged in the shape of G13 using Bartender4.

The Gamepad: Logitech G13 25 Button

 

v  Row 1

Ø  G1: Shift + 1: Shield of Righteousness

Ø  G2: Shift + 2: Judgment of Wisdom

Ø  G3: Shift + 3: Divine Favor

Ø  G4: Shift + 4: Judgment of Light

Ø  G5: Shift + 5: Avenging Wrath

Ø  G6: Shift + 6: Figurine: Sapphire Owl

Ø  G7: Shift + 7: Seal of Wisdom

v  Row 2

Ø  G8: Shift + 8: Divine Plea

Ø  G9: Shift + 9: /cast [target=mouseover,exists,nodead] Lay On Hands

Ø  G10: Shift + 0: /cast [target=mouseover,exists,nodead] Cleanse

Ø  G11: Shift + -:  Divine Illumination

Ø  G12: Shift + =:  /cast [target=mouseover,exists,nodead] Sacred Shield

Ø  G13:  Ctrl + 1: /cast [target=mouseover,exists,nodead] Hand of Protection

Ø  G14: Ctrl + 2: Holy Wrath

v  Row 3

Ø  G15: Ctrl + 3: Judgments of Justice

Ø  G16: Ctrl +4: Holy Shock

Ø  G17: Crtl + 5: Arcane Torrent

Ø  G18: Ctrl + 6: /cast [target=mouseover,exists,nodead] Hand of Freedom

Ø  G19: Ctrl + 7: /cast [target=mouseover,exists,nodead] Hand of Salvation

v  Row 4

Ø  G20: Ctrl + 8: Hammer of Justice

Ø  G21: Ctrl + 9: Divine Shield

Ø  G22: Ctrl + 0: Redemption

v  Thumbstick: Forward, Strafe Left, Strafe Right, Backward

v  G:23: Alt

v  G:24: Alt + J: OPie Paladin Auras

I hope this provides some insight into gaming hardware, add-ons, macros, and Paladin healing. If you see a way to improve it or have questions please leave a comment.

Also be sure to check the following recent posts on other blogs:

Kadomi talks about her G13 at Tank Like a Girl

Sydera’s Guide to Mouse-over Macros at World of Matticus

BRK talks about his new Logitch at Big Red Kitty

 

Last night NO DRAMA went back to Naxxramas with the intent of clearing everything for the second time. We came very close, but time was against us. It was also my first real raiding with my new UI and the G-13.

I logged on early and helped our new (formerly Alliance) guildie make his way through normal Gundrak. This gave me an opportunity to experiment with key-bindings and my new favorite thing, mouse-over macros.

I consider the following my worst play style habits:

1.       I am a keyboard turner.

2.       I don’t strafe.

3.       I almost never use any of my Hand spells.

4.       I don’t use Lay on Hands nearly enough.

The G-13 and mouse-over macros have fixed all of these things. The thumbstick makes me strafe and turn with my mouse. I am now much faster and react better. LoH is now out of the way but easy to reach, and all of my Hand spells are now bound to easy to reach keys with mouse-over macros.

I am now a much better player, and especially, healer. Although our aggro-happy Retadin does not like me flinging my new found Hand of Protection on him. He’s probably right, I should try using Hand of Salvation instead.

I will post my G-13 mappings for Kora later today. For now, here is the Raid Report.

We downed Four Horsemen in the Military Wing, Grobbulus, Gluth, and Thaddius in the Construct Wing, Heigen and Loetheb in the Plague Quarter, and Sapphrion. We made two runs at Kel Thuzad, but it was very late and the Raid Leader decided to call it for the night.

We had a couple of new guilides on the run, one was a Lock who got his first Emblem of Heroism the day before on Patchwork. The runs were smooth, although Sapphirion took a couple tries to get down again. Kel was going well and looked very doable, but we ran out of time. Next week Naxx should be officially on farm status.

Here were the drops:

1.       Four Horsemen: Claymore of Ancient Power and Chestguard of the Lost Protector

2.       Grobbulus: Sealing Ring of Grobbulus and Putrescent Bands

3.       Gluth: Boots of Persistence and Spaulders of the Lost Protector

4.       Thaddius: Repelling Charge and Leggings of the Lost Vanquisher

5.       Heigen: Necrogenic Belt and Amulet of Autopsy

6.       Loetheb: Fungi-Stained Coverings and Spaulders of the Lost Protector

7.       Sapphirion: Massive Skeletal Ribcage, Cowl of Winged Fear, and Key to the Focusing Iris

Unfortunately my logging was not working last night so there will be no WWS report today.

Check back later for my G-13 post and tomorrow for our next attempt against The Big Bad Blue…

Until then remember that NO DRAMA is good drama!