Thoughts On Healing and Healing Meters

It's not the size that matters!

Anyone who reads my blog ought to know by now that I play - and raid with -  all flavours of healers. I thought I’d follow up my last entry with some thoughts on healing. And more specifically on healing meters

It’s not the size that matters – it’s how you use it. (That’s right I went there and it felt good.) I like to brag about my good throughput as much as the next healer. Being on top of the meters is a nice feeling, however if that’s what concerns you the most you ought to roll a DPS-character instead.

I recently had a holy paladin link the effective healing I was doing with my totems and in rather rude tones proclaim that totems were overpowered. I answered him that as a paladin he ought to know when to keep quiet. That’s not my point though, the point is that you can spend ages debating if something is overpowered or not but maybe, just maybe, the reason I was doing so much healing with my totems what that I knew how, and more specifically, when to use them?

There is also a big difference between healing in LFR and a normal raid team. Where an ordinary team will work together towards a common goal, LFR-groups tend to work against each other, either on purpose or quite unknowingly.

There are many reasons for this, first and foremost it’s because LFR will put you in a group indiscriminately on what other healing classes there are in the queue. You might get lucky and complement each other well or you spend the entire raid fighting against other player’s Weakened Soul debuffs, Healing Stream Totems, Riptides, Forbearance et cetera, et cetera. Certain healing mechanics just don’t go together.

In other cases you’ll meet the throughput fanatic who’ll do his or her best to end up on top of the meter; with no regard for incoming heals they’ll snipe heal their way through the raid and there really isn’t much you can do to affect the result.

There are many reasons as to why your performance can differ a lot on the same encounter. Either you are working with above mentioned throughput fanatic(s) or you might have six healers that are equally skilled/geared which means that you might be last on the meter but only by a very small margin from the top healer. You can also be in the situation when you have to pick up the slack from healers that are either undergeared or not performing as well as they should.

Lastly, since LFR-groups are pugs there’s no voice chat communication, and very rarely will anyone decide on healing strategies in the raid chat. You will pop cooldowns at the same time as other healers, when it’s not necessary, and accidentally waste good abilities. That is just the way of the pug.

There are good things about examining healing meters however. Overhealing, buff uptime, active time, mana regeneration and dispels are just some of the useful data you can keep track of. The most useful thing is that you can keep track of what spells you and the other healers are using. If you are at similar gear levels but one of you are performing much better it’s easy to analyse where the difference lies. 

For example, I was healing with another discipline priest prior to patch 5.2 and my throughput was much higher than hers even though we were similarly geared. She was puzzled by this and asked me about it. What was the problem? Was I putting Weakened Soul debuffs on her target, snipe healing to my heart’s content or doing something that she wasn’t? A quick examination of the healing meter revealed that she wasn’t using Spirit Shell; she thought it too mana consuming for regular usage. However, anyone who plays a discipline priest knows that Spirit Shell was far overpowered at this time and well worth using, which I also pointed out to her. It was a very simple problem (and solution) to be sure but still a good example of how the healing meter can be used for good rather than evil.

In conclusion I’d like to say that keeping track of your own, and others, healing is essential for every healer, however you need to use the healing meter intelligently and take into consideration the context in which you are healing.

Advice for Trolls and Other Races

My best trolling advice, mon, Wait, that didn't come out right.

Ever since I started this blog I’ve had requests for writing up guides of different kinds (incredibly enough!). However, there are so many good resources out there that at the moment I find I don’t have much to contribute. (This doesn’t mean I won’t take a stab at it sooner or later, if nothing else in order to provide my perspective on certain things.) But I thought I’d share my best general advice. For most people this is not news and very simple advice indeed, but for me when I just started out playing WoW and being not only an inexperienced WoW-player but completely new to the world of gaming I could’ve used a post like this. So without further ado:

My best basic advice!

I'm a lazy bum; one of those people who will throw out the assembly manual for their newly purchased Ikea piece of furniture and just put it together to the best of their ability. Luckily my technical skills are decent enough for this sort of behaviour, however your WoW—character can't be assembled in such a fashion. Basically, what I'm saying is: don't be that lazy bum who just expects things to work without reading the manual first.

Nowadays I consider myself a pretty decent WoW—player. Not because I'm a mastermind theorycrafter or mathematician, but simply because I'm good at research, finding resources and taking advice. (And not afraid to ask questions that might be considered silly.) I don't personally need to understand the intricacies of how my spells work mathematically, I just need someone who does understand it to say ”This is what you should do because of this and this...”

1) Read about your talents in the spellbook. Don't just skim through them but try to understand the cause and effect of them. This is especially important when it comes to the passive abilities. They don't make shiny bolts of blue and silver fly from your hands and are thus less exciting to explore, but they are the ones that make your class what it is. They explain the mechanics that you base your gameplay on.

2) When you've done this, you are ready for a guide. Start with the easy ones like Icy Veins and move on to forums like Elitist Jerks and Arena Junkies when you're ready to delve deeper.

3) Practice. Target dummies aren't just there so you can measure DPS. You can test all sorts of things, from macros and rotations to strafing and jump shots. The latter I spent a lot of time in the secluded target dummy area of Silvermoon doing when I was practicing for arena matches.

4) When it comes to gear, gems, stats etc. I'd say try Mr Robot (or a similar service) for some sound advice. You don't have to follow them, if you feel you know your class well enough to make those decisions yourself then by all means do so. But it can never hurt start with a piece of advice, even if you end up disagreeing with it.

If You Could Design A Warcraft Capital, What Would It Look Like?

A girl can dream, right?

If you could design a capital of choice in World of Warcraft, what would it look like? This is something I’ve been thinking about for years. If I had to choose one of the existing cities as my favourite I would go with Ironforge. However, most of the other ones have elements to them that I quite like and if I was allowed to build my own warcraft city I would incorporate many of these features.

So what would my town look like? I’d start with Stormwind as a base. I like the paved streets, the canals and the harbour. A lot of water is a must. I would add the library and museum from the Hall of Explorers in Ironforge and probably also the Forlorn Cavern and Tinker Town.

Stormwind as it is in its current state is far too clean and shiny. There needs to be some dirt and character. This is why the Forlorn Cavern would be the start of the Lower City (which I’ve nicked from Shattrath). Here you find the misfits, the poor, and the downright shady people. Some parts have the look of more upscale crime such as Silvermoon’s Murder Row which finds its place here. Naturally, Undercity’s sewers and Dalaran’s Underbelly would be combined into one underground maze with many dark corners, perfect for the fly-by-night crowd. Also incorporated in these quarters: Ogrimmar’s Goblin Slums.

Stormwind’s Park is still a gaping chasm of fire and destruction. Darnassus- and Thunder Bluff’s tree houses and suspension bridges would certainly make the area look better, along with trees and gardens. Here you would also find the inn from the Exodar with its comfortable lounge chairs and filled-to-the-brim bookcases.

As a finishing touch I would use architecture from both Gilneas City and the two pandaren shrines in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms to switch up the look of the ordinary houses.

One big cluster of colours, shapes and different styles or the best warcraft capital ever? You tell me. Also, what would your warcraft capital look like? I’ve only used features that already exist in the game but if you could add anything you like, what would it be?

Insomnia Warcraft Pictures

The Shaman in her natural habitat.

Anyone who's following me on Instagram might have seen pictures like this one before. It's something I do when I can't sleep. I use the Mobile Armory App to take screenshots on the characters in my guild and then I apply photo filters on them using another app until I fall asleep.

I quite like the retro look and these pictures make excellent backgrounds for my phone!

Traditional dance performed by a Draenei Monk in Shattrath.

Skitterer Xi'a's Horrible Fate

Little does Skitterer Xi'a know what horrible fate awaits him.

With a fever and a sore throat making its way to my body just in time for the Easter holidays I've been forced to skip the family dinner tonight. (In hindsight I probably shouldn't have stayed up until 3 am after the raid to QQ about scenarios with @oliviadgrace.)

Instead I'm doing pet battles.

Since I'm not in any rush, I'm trying out new and odd combinations (like the one seen above for example). I find that it's very easy to get stuck with a team that works on most things and then not try anything else. It's very efficient - but boring. I don't mind wiping a little bit just to have to work a little bit harder or contemplate different strategies again. That's part of the fun.

When I'm done with the pet battle dailies I think I might level my corehounds. I have a soft spot for the two-headed puppies. Life can't be easy when you have two mouths but only one backside. They definitely need some love.

Happy Easter everyone!

Random Midnight Ramblings

Enjoying the moonlight in Dun Morogh.

With this expansion being unquestionably alt-unfriendly I've decided to put my focus on just two characters: the priest and the shaman. They are my favourites after all. I'm not sure I'll be able to keep away from my other alts (I'm almost certain that I won't!) but I'll try to prioritize better.

So happy I changed my shaman into a dwarf, I love draeneis but I've always thought dwarves made such awesome shamans. Now they only need to add some more customization with the new character models (did I hear anyone say Wildhammar tattoos?).

My priest will always be a human - I think! She is the first character I ever made (the shaman being the second) and we've stuck together for many years.

I'll leave you now with a picture of my restoration shaman in all her 5-set glory! Sweet dreams internet.

Vlog: First Impressions: HearthStone!