World Of Warcraft Discussion

[Mulk]

well, you give up a majority of your agility to put on the caster gear. *shrug* So you'd have more mana but less punch. I'm somewhere over 4k agility in my best kitty gear atm, but I lose a fair chunk of that without that gear on.

 

For me it's moot since I don't carry the talents anyway, so I'd suck either way. I pop instant HTs on myself if I'm in need, or tranquility if the group is having a rough time, otherwise I kill stuff. I HEAL WITH MY DPS SIR. :D I've actually taken to soloing in bear gear and spec. It takes a bit longer to kill stuff, but on the other hand I laugh off all the instant respawns or random Problim encounters.

 

Got the "It's over nine thousand" achieve/feat of strength last night. FINALLY. That took forever to get to.

 

Given how much I complained about PuGS lately, I thought it meet to mention the PuG healer I got for the group I took into Heroic Throne of Tides. He was patient with us (I'd done Throne once, on Day 1 of Cata, and only one other person in the group I'd gathered had any familiarity with it at all), didn't complain on the one wipe we took, and generally was pleasant, cheerful, and a whale of a healer. I'm not quite sure how I lived on a couple of those things. And he stayed to the end, instead of taking off after the squid, whom we didn't kill last. Cheers, Mr. Pally PuG sir!

[Emperor]

Ok funny enough I was in another pug today with a shammy that kicked my ass. I think this was the melee version. His GS was 8700 so he was not rocking the best stuff. He was doing between 10 and 13K dps.

[Verbal32]

Heh - I've decided that I'm saving up gear to go Enh (melee version). Gonna have to learn melee - never really did it. But I'm committed this time....Resto won't be fixed until the next major content patch when we get our CD.

[SinisterDeath]

well, you give up a majority of your agility to put on the caster gear. *shrug* So you'd have more mana but less punch. I'm somewhere over 4k agility in my best kitty gear atm, but I lose a fair chunk of that without that gear on.

 

Really don't know what I was thinking when I mentioned caster gear, and feral healing. dur caster gear no agility, durrr. :P

 

Course, If you were to manage to find "of the eagle" blue gear, which is Int+Agi then you'd be freakin set. :P

Course you'd have no stam! lol

[desertlynx]

Hey everyone, been a long time WoW player, quit after Burning Crusade and looking to get back into the game again. I have a few questions hoping you all can answer or at least help me out with a little bit. I play a healer-type and looking at PLD currently and was wondering what all has changed and what is to be expected when i re-roll where ever. I am currently on Steamwheedle Cartel RP server so yah let me know!

 

May consider a worgen druid :D

[Mulk]

Desert, EVERYTHING changed. If that seems broad, it is. There is a new class (DK's, introduced in Wrath), new races (goblin and worgen, which you are aware of), the entirety of old Azeroth got a major facelift, all the quests have been redone, the talent trees got a total overhaul... Mana is a real jerk now, because for most of wrath you couldn't run a caster out of mana so they nerfed regen heavily. Health pools are so freaking ridiculous that there are no full or half, or even quarter bar spells anymore unless your biggest spell crits and you can't cast that for very long.

 

I'm enjoying it right now. The last major break I took was just after ZA came out in BC, though, so I've been at it a while.

[desertlynx]

Is it even worth going back to? Or should I look else were for my MMO fun? Sounds like it is nothing like the game that I played years ago.

[SinisterDeath]

Depends, if you like realy high numbers to make you feel warm and fuzzy inside. :P

[desertlynx]

HP/MP totals are just insane or what? Hell if this is the case I may go back to Final Fantasy XI lol ....

[SinisterDeath]

100k, easy, 10k dps...

[fantasyfan93]

I play WoW, and Lynx, I say you should go back. I find myself loving the new WoW. But, if you are skeptical, maybe you can try out the 10 day trial and then reactivate your account if you like what you see.

[desertlynx]

hmmmm, well that is a great idea....so anyone play on Steamwheedle Cartel or willing to help with some bags maybe on your all main server if it is not pvp (hate getting ganked). :D

[desertlynx]

so i am leaning to PLD how well do they do as healing in 5-10 mans and all that.

[Justen Diablos]

Paladin's would probably be the best healing class overall in my opinion. Druids are underperforming atm and raidwise as Verbal mentioned they currently lack a Cooldown which can be necessary on a lot of the raid bosses because of mechanics that could otherwise one shot a well geared tank, Also HoT's are annoying. Shaman just received quite a large buff to overall healing, but if you have a shaman go Enhance and enjoy one of the most entertaining specs in the game. Also shaman lack a real saver cooldown as well, even if the buff did make them competitive. Disc priests were good before the mana cost increase of Bubble (though bubble spam is boring in raids. Necessary at times, but boring) but I'd say now they're a little flat. Leaving Holy priests as really the only competition at the top to Holy Paladins. Holy Priest healing is a great time, they're aoe healing is flat unmatchable, and they do have some tank saving cooldowns in the toolbox as well. Paladin healing is probably a bit more straightforward (read simple) and are still more of a tank heal than anything else (Pally's aoe's keep getting buffed and then nurfed on a daily basis so that can be iffy) but there's enough there to stay interesting. Strictly speaking about 5 man's though, it really doesn't matter if you know your class. I'd say Pally's and Priests are easier, but it's really a matter of taste if you don't plan on pushing content.

 

JD,

Yeah... That JD.

[Emperor]

Finally... I got my first piece of Valor gear. I have been saving for my chest piece for some time (2200 valor). Now that this is accomplished I have decided to finish leveling my pally. I have still not run an instance in cata with him yet as I am tank and heals. Heals I have never done with a pally before so learning in an instance is scary. I also need a little more gear before I go that route. I have run enough cata instances to tank them but right now most of my gear (from quests) isn't all tanking.

 

So I feel really good about my priest raid healing. I outhealed Karm (overall, not HPS) many times in our 25 man Magmaw attempt. Karm was putting out a ridiculous 11K hps. Freak. Really our problem with 25 man raids in this guild is our dps. I saw a few people doing like 5-6k. If you can not take down the lava worms quickly you take more damage, healers have to work harder and you die. Frustrating to watch from a healing standpoint.

[Mulk]

if the people in question are appropriately raid geared, there's not really an excuse for performing that poorly. Anyone in mostly heroic blues ought to be able to manage 8k or so, and probably more since you get a damage boost when you lasso Magmaw properly.

 

Lynx, paladins have a leg up in the regen department assuming they have a free gcd to use on judging the target. That provides a small mana boost every time you do it. There is also a talent that causes your Word of Glory to not consume holy power when you cast it on occasion, so you get double Word of Glory at times for free which is good.

 

Where paladins are weak is whenever more than two people are taking damage at a time. Your group heals are both heavily dependent on people being positioned correctly and close by, something that is hard to guarantee. In fights where you get spread out by movement, your group heals are crap. If you're grouped up, they are pretty darned good. One requires holy power and goes in a cone in front of you, more effective the closer people are. The other costs a lot of mana and heals up to 5 people for an amount PLUS anyone close to them, but it on a 30 second or so cooldown.

 

I'm currently a holy pally in addition to being a feral druid. I've been playing them since they were 5 minute buff and cleanse bots. I like them more now than I have any time in the past. :)

[Verbal32]

Finally... I got my first piece of Valor gear. I have been saving for my chest piece for some time (2200 valor). Now that this is accomplished I have decided to finish leveling my pally. I have still not run an instance in cata with him yet as I am tank and heals. Heals I have never done with a pally before so learning in an instance is scary. I also need a little more gear before I go that route. I have run enough cata instances to tank them but right now most of my gear (from quests) isn't all tanking.

 

So I feel really good about my priest raid healing. I outhealed Karm (overall, not HPS) many times in our 25 man Magmaw attempt. Karm was putting out a ridiculous 11K hps. Freak. Really our problem with 25 man raids in this guild is our dps. I saw a few people doing like 5-6k. If you can not take down the lava worms quickly you take more damage, healers have to work harder and you die. Frustrating to watch from a healing standpoint.

 

Awesome, Emp. Grats on beating Karm on overall heals. JD is right about Shaman getting a buff to output. I migh try healing instances again with him.....let me know when your Pally is ready and we can tackle some normals. I'd be happy to heal you - I need to learn the instances a little better myself (still haven't run them all).

 

Been waffling on the topic of going Enhancement or just leveling a DPS alt. I can't seem to make up my mind, hehe.

[Emperor]

I got to 85 on my pally. Right now he is specced Prot/Holy. I tanked a few normals with only a few issues. For some reason my computer was laggy all weekend so I had trouble grabbing adds as quickly as I like. But overall not to shabby. I believe I am on the edge of being able to tank a heroric. So I decided to que as dps in prot. As soon as the instance started (Tides) I explained I was dpsing in prot to get gear (as I don't have Ret). Mind you... my dps was sucky. I was kicked after the first pull. I understand why they did it... just wish people could have been nicer and let me roll. I currently have an ilevel of 333 and my health is about 137K unbuffed. I am also a much better healer than tank. I really need to learn how to pally heal.... I hear it is easy.

[Mulk]

You can tank a heroic. It just could be a bit rough if your healer is also a newly leveled heroic healer. Some of that stuff hits pretty hard after all.

 

Pally healing is not terribly complex. The main trick is using the right heal so you aren't wasting mana. Basically you keep beacon of light up on the tank, so no matter who gets healed, the tank is still getting healed. Holy Shock pretty much as often as you can use it - it gives you a tick on the holy power bar and occasionally a cast time reduction on holy light/divine light. Judge as often as you can spare the cooldown - it is a small mana return, a tiny bit of damage and if you are talented that way, an attack speed reduction on the target. Holy Light for slow efficient heals, Flash of Light for fast, inefficient heals, Divine Light for OMG he's taking a ton of damage. You can't chain cast FoL or DL for any length of time without severe consequences with respect to your mana bar. I usually fire off Divine Illumination for a predictable high spike in damage (say an enrage or something), or reactively if I'm trying to recover from people standing in the poop on the ground. I usually use Divine Plea (mana recovery) as soon as I'm down enough in mana that it's not wasted; that usually helps me avoid popping it right when the tank needs heavy healing, since it nerfs your healing output. Word of Glory I use as often as I have a full holy power bar.

 

Your two group heals are both positionally limited, so be sure if you want to use either that you are in the right place. One is powered by your holy power bar, and the other chews up a significant chunk of mana. I remind every group I'm in prior to fighting a boss with aoe damage spikes (say, Rajh in Halls) that if they want the benefit of my group heals they need to be close to me when the AoE's go off.

 

Lay on Hands is a special case, if the tank is getting low and I'm either running out of mana, have too many other fires to put out, or he's just tanking so much damage that I can't catch up (usually happens on trash pulls gone bad, oddly enough) I'll use this - instant full health bar. If I'm struggling with mana (say it's one of the last two bosses in Lost City), I'll wait on the tank to bottom out a bit and then fire it off while meleeing some for mana. It's not a lot of mana, but every little bit helps.

 

You can, as a paladin, be put into situations where you are forced to sacrifice someone. Your group heals are on a cooldown and one requires holy power, and your otherwise in a position where you can only heal two people at once, so if multiple people are taking damage, particularly if they get spread out so your group heals aren't effective, you'll have to let someone die. It sucks, but that has always been a part of the paladin healer's life.

[Verbal32]

Been leveling my priest recently. Hit level 30 last night and grabbed dual spec. Right now I'm trying the Atonement spec as Discipline. Planning on doing the hybrid heal/dps thing in instances for a bit and see how that goes. Ran a random last night and was 2nd in damage and also not far behind the healer in healing as well. Not too shabby.

 

It still feels, I don't know, off. I like it, but it doesn't seem to fit as well as Shammy healing does for me. I'll stick with it for a bit and see if it grows on me. Now that I have Shadowform for my new Shadow spec, I might just queue as dps in instances now....dunno.

 

Either way, this priest was my first ever wow character in vanilla, so I feel like I should get him to the level cap at some point, lol.

[Emperor]

I tried healing as a pally in a normal instance the other day and the tank cried about it the whole time. Of course he died and blamed me in GB when I was picked up on the mace. I wasn't doing too badly I thought. I took over tanking the instance after he left and had no trouble. I actually have no trouble in normals at all tanking. I should really move up to herorics but just worried I will suck. Again I would rather get some heroric tanking gear just to make it a bit easier. I guess I will focus on getting my rep up with factions.

[Verbal32]

I tried healing as a pally in a normal instance the other day and the tank cried about it the whole time. Of course he died and blamed me in GB when I was picked up on the mace. I wasn't doing too badly I thought. I took over tanking the instance after he left and had no trouble. I actually have no trouble in normals at all tanking. I should really move up to herorics but just worried I will suck. Again I would rather get some heroric tanking gear just to make it a bit easier. I guess I will focus on getting my rep up with factions.

 

Sounds like my problem with the Shaman. I can heal a normal no problem, but I don't quite have the gear to heal a heroic unless the tank is geared well. You get rep with Barbie, and I'll collect heroic healing gear, and then I'll heal your tank through heroics!

[Mulk]

out of curiosity, are the tanks you're running with attempting to just tank it all? Or is there CC involved? It's a struggle as a newly geared 85 to heal a heroic, but it can be done... IF you have a competent group. Almost every dps class has usable CC now, and a lot of classes have oh crap buttons to save themselves if they're in deep. Part of the reason heroics are so brutal on new 85s is the devs are trying to teach people to use all of their buttons again instead of just rolling it all up and aoeing it down.

 

That's a long way of saying I think you both can hack it. It'll take practice and some wipes, and is best done with a group of friends. But you'll learn a lot more that way.

 

Break the heroic ice with friends. Seriously. Unless you're pugging one dps to fill out the group, PuGs just aren't worth the trouble, not until you're comfortable with the heroic level anyway.

[Verbal32]

CC is used, but some dps just don't remember those CDs for high damage moments. For example, the Karsh Steelbender fight where the AoE fire comes out based on stacks - I noticed 1 dps (actually, I think it was Barbie, lol) using cooldowns, and the others did nothing and I couldn't heal everybody up in time.

 

I think if I had a few more heroic pieces, and also grabbed my epic boots, I could heal heroics without a problem. I'd say 2-3 more pieces and a trink and I'm in business.

[Mulk]

Steelbender is a rough fight, no matter how you cut it. That fight, more than any other, is dependent on the tank to be spot on, the dps to be high and focused, and either to never let the stacks fall (which is hard to do in new heroic gear), or let the stacks fall off, kill the fire guys and recover before you start killing him again. I really do think that at 329 gear, you can in fact do it. You may wipe a few times figuring it out, though, which is why I recommend going with friends - so you can make mistakes and not be dropped from the group for not being all-knowing.

 

Of course, your dps really need to wise up and help you out. :)