Joe Perez
Articles by Joe Perez
Totem Talk: Restoration shaman tips on healing Lord Rhyolith and Beth'tilac
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and co-host of the Raid Warning podcast), shows you how. Last week, we had a lovely little chat about tracking your cooldowns and how they have become much more important than in the previous tiers of content. Some great addon suggestions were made in the comments, and as a result, I'm even giving TellMeWhen a try this week in raiding. This week, I thought we would talk about something involving a considerable amount of fire. If you're a raiding restoration shaman, chances are good that this past week you got to set foot in the land of fire and giants that are set on fire. I'm talking, of course, about the Firelands raid. Healing in the new instance has been both fun and hectic all at the same time, and I've personally been having quite a bit of fun learning the encounters. Besides, what better way to fight fire than with the element of water! This week's image is supplied by the wonderful MagicalMelonBall, inspired by my love of Indiana Jones and hatred of spiders.
Totem Talk: Watching restoration's cooldowns in 4.2
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and co-host of the Raid Warning podcast), shows you how. Last week, we talked about some of the gear options for your restoration set you can obtain without ever having to progress deep in a raid group. This included new reputation gear, new crafted gear, and new gear that is purchasable with valor points that you can easily obtain through use of the Dungeon Finder tool. What's really cool about this gear is that many of the pieces can be updated to heroic gear levels! This week, though, with patch 4.2 imminent, I thought we could talk a little bit about preparing for a possible shift in how you do things. A few changes as well as a new set bonus are emphasizing tracking of your abilities and cooldowns just a little bit more. Oh, and this week's image is a sketch by yours truly about how I want to fight Ragnaros, dressed as a hammer brother from Super Mario!
Totem Talk: Restoration's new patch 4.2 pre-raid gear
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and co-host of the Raid Warning podcast), shows you how. Over the last few weeks we have covered raiding in the tier 11 normal modes. It spanned not one, not two, nor three or four weeks, but a whopping five! This was delayed mostly due to all the various changes and questions we had over the course of the last patch. This week I thought we would get a bit of a head start and start talking about patch 4.2 and the Firelands. More specifically, I thought we could start talking about the gear and items we can expect to see with the new content.
Totem Talk: Cataclysm raiding as a restoration shaman, part 5
Special thanks to @gotowell for this weeks lovely shaman image! Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and co-host of the Raid Warning podcast), shows you how. Over the last few weeks we've been going over the various tier 11 bosses and how to combat them with our various tools. In week one we covered the entry level bosses to get your feet wet into raiding and in week two we kicked it up a notched and played with some dragons. Week three found us flying on gusts of wind and dealing with very disappointing minions. Last week we dealt with blind dragons, combining elementals and a really angry multi-headed abomination. This week we take on the final three bosses of the tier. The big nasties that are waiting for us at the end of the Throne of the Four Winds, The Bastion of Twilight and Blackwing Descent. Elementals lords, two headed ogres and undead dragons await!
Totem Talk: Cataclysm raiding as a restoration shaman, part 4
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and co-host of the Raid Warning podcast), shows you how. We took a brief break from boss battles last week to answer some reader questions, but this week, we're right back into the thick of things. Part 1 covered the easy bosses, part 2 let us play with fire and golems, and part 3 was full of hot air and maniac dragon things. This week, we'll dive into the last pieces of Blackwing Descent and The Bastion of Twilight to finish up some loose ends before we take on the final bosses of the tier. So -- a blind dragon, a two-headed hydra thing, and their four friends walk into a mountain ...
Totem Talk: Ask a restoration shaman
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and co-host of the Raid Warning podcast), shows you how. For the last few weeks, we've been covering some of the basics for normal raid healing. Part 1, part 2 and part 3 are already up and running, so feel free to check them out. Next week, we'll start back in with part 4 with some harder and slightly more fun bosses. This week, though, I thought I would take the opportunity to answer some reader emails and questions from Twitter. Not too long ago, we answered some questions about the state of shaman post-patch 4.1, but still more changes are waiting for us in patch 4.2. Whenever there are changes and nerfs looming, there are always questions to be answered!
Totem Talk: Cataclysm raiding as a restoration shaman, part 3
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and co-host of the Raid Warning podcast), shows you how. Last week, we covered a bit of the upcoming changes for restoration in Patch 4.2. There are quite a few changes being brought with the Firelands, some good, some bad, but all of them are working toward giving us a balanced place in the world of Azeroth. But now we are back, and it's time to talk more about raiding! So, with part 1 of Cataclysm raiding, we covered the entry level raiding bosses including Argaloth, to Magmaw and the lost temple reject. In part 2 of cataclysm raiding we covered Halfus Wyrmbreaker and the ambiguously "dragonic" duo. Today, we're going to to turn our sight to the skies -- way, way up to another plane of existence altogether. Our journey will begin with a stop in Skywall.
Totem Talk: Restoration PTR patch 4.2 changes
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and co-host of the Raid Warning podcast), shows you how. Last week, we talked more about raiding as a restoration shaman through the next set of bosses, and this week, we had been planning to continue the series by talking about some bosses that are full of hot wind. However, recent changes on the latest PTR build are worthy of some review and analysis. Today, we're going to talk about some changes to shaman healers in the upcoming patch (or at least where they stand right now). We're also going to discuss a little bit about the recently posted tier 12 set bonuses for restoration, as they too have changed a bit. Since this is still on the PTR, we have to operate with the understanding that this could change at any given moment as things are balanced out. Lets take a look!
Totem Talk: Cataclysm raiding as a restoration shaman, part 2
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and co-host of the Raid Warning podcast), shows you how. I know that right now the hot topic is patch 4.2, the upcoming Firelands raid and the datamined tier 12 set bonuses, but I won't be talking about the shaman set bonuses. Matt Low has already covered all the healer-centric set bonuses, and like him, I feel that the shaman bonuses are either placeholders or still in their infancy and will likely change well before release. This week, we are going to continue talking about raiding as a restoration shaman in Cataclysm. Just as in part 1 of our series, we will be following what is considered the order of easiest to hardest bosses. There will be emphasis on what you need to know as a raiding restoration shaman for these fights.
Totem Talk: Post-patch 4.1 restoration question
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and co-host of the Raid Warning podcast), shows you how. We talked a lot about Patch 4.1 while it was being put through its paces on the PTR and well before it ever reached live servers. Last week on Tuesday, the patch went live, and it brought with it many changes designed to further balance healing throughput, as well as give some more options to some healing classes. This week was going to be part 2 of our Cataclysm raiding series, which we started last week with part 1. While I'm eager to lay out the rest of the tier 11 raid content, this past week does bear some reviewing before we dive back into those boss battles. The changes have generated quite a few questions, and I thought it would be a good time to answer them.
Ghostcrawler talks about Patch 4.2
With patch 4.1 having freshly made it to live servers, discussion has already started about the next content patch. The fun thing here, though, is that the discussion seems to be really led by the developers at Blizzard themselves. We first heard about the Firelands raid at BlizzCon 2010, and we were promised more backstory on Ragnaros and the ability to set foot inside of Sulfuron Keep. It seems as if that that time is now rapidly approaching. While the story is moving forward with patch 4.1, none other than Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street (lead systems designer) talks about some of the upcoming epic content that will be present in patch 4.2 in an interview with games.on.net. Be warned that this post will contain lots of spoilers, so if you don't want anything ruined, don't read any further. If you want to know what juicy tidbits are waiting for us in the next major content patch, join us after the break.
Totem Talk: Cataclysm raiding as a restoration shaman, part 1
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and co-host of the Raid Warning podcast), shows you how. You've done all your prep work, and the time has come to step into a raid. You've got your gear shined up and ready to go. You've got your gems and enchants in place, and you have chosen your raiding spec and glyphs. You're here to chew bubblegum and down raid bosses ... and you're all out of bubblegum. Now, while you may be prepared to step into the ring and take on Ivan Drago, preparing yourself with some boss knowledge is always good. We're going to start by taking a look at all the bosses in this tier's raiding content in order of what is largely considered to be the standard progression path. I'll talk about them them roughly in order of easiest to hardest difficulty, with emphasis on what you should know as a raiding restoration shaman for these fights.
Totem Talk: Restoration raiding glyphs and patch 4.1 changes
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and co-host of the Raid Warning podcast), shows you how. Last week, we talked a little bit about picking a raiding spec for entry-level raiding as a restoration shaman. There was some great comments and some great emails, which I am still going through and replying to. As always, if you haven't gotten a reply quite yet, don't worry -- it's on its way. We have already covered some pre-raid gear choices, as well as gems and enchants with a little discussion on stats and stat pirority. This week, I figured we would round out or pre-raid preparations with a quick list of raiding glyphs as well as taking the opportunity to talk about some upcoming changes in the forthcoming patch 4.1 that will have a potential impact on our raid healing.
Totem Talk: Restoration's raiding talent specs
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and co-host of the Raid Warning podcast), shows you how. Last week, we talked about our choices for restoration shaman in terms of pre-raid gems and enchants and a little bit more about stats. Making sure you know what options you have for your sockets and what enchantments to put on your gear is just as important as gathering the gear itself. This week, we're going to be talking about choosing a starting a raiding talent spec. Your talent choices not only define what type of role your character will play, but they give you a set of bonuses to make you better at your chosen job. Picking that talent spec when you are first getting set to raid can be a bit tricky, but that is exactly what we are going to focus on today.
Totem Talk: Restoration shaman pre-raid gems, enchants and stats
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and co-host of the Raid Warning podcast), shows you how. So last week, we discussed some of the gearing options available for restoration shaman as you are getting raid-ready. With the exceptions of a few pieces of gear -- bracers, for example -- there are a lot of choices to help get you ready for your first raid nights. Last week we also talked about your first few goals for stats, namely spirit and haste, as well as your stat priority. Today we're going to talk a little bit more in depth about stats as well as enchanting and gemming your gear.
Totem Talk: Restoration shaman pre-raid gear options and stats
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and co-host of the Raid Warning podcast), shows you how. Last week we covered many different questions in our semi-regular restoration Q&A. For those of you who emailed me, I will be responding soon, have no fear; my dwarf-like stature means I tend to get buried under the mail and have to dig my way out! That's only mostly a joke -- you can ask Matthew McCurley and Fox Van Allen about it. This week, I thought we could talk about getting ready for raids: gearing up, getting your stats set, and preparing to enter into the endgame. With the recent buffs, incoming abilities and further tweaks in patch 4.1, heroics are becoming less of a concern for the amazing healing corps that are restoration shaman. Those people just starting heroics, though, don't despair -- if you have any questions about any of the encounters, email me and we'll make sure that you are taken care of.
Totem Talk: Shaman healing Q&A
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and co-host of the Raid Warning podcast), shows you how. Last week, we talked a little bit about our incoming cooldown, Spirit Link Totem. The spell has been something we have been looking for since the days of early Wrath of the Lich King. The new cooldown offers us some very nice flexibility and a new ability to deal with certain mechanics we either couldn't deal with or had a rather difficult time dealing with before. In the last couple of weeks, I've received quite a few questions regarding shaman healing in heroics, PvP, and even overall class design. I thought today I would take a few moments and answer some reader email before the big patch, 4.1, is released and reaches live servers.
Totem Talk: Restoration shaman, say hello to Spirit Link Totem
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and co-host of the Raid Warning podcast), shows you how. Last week, we talked about the upcoming changes for restoration shaman in patch 4.1. The update contains a couple of significant things for restoration shaman. First was the change that mastery will now have an impact on all of our healing spells. While last week I said that mastery did not affect Healing Rain, I'd like to thank everyone who commented and lended a hand. On live, mastery does affect Healing Rain, but my math was just off. On my first pass, it appeared as if the bonus to HR was due to crit, not mastery, and I am happily corrected there. The second change and the one I'm most excited about is the re-introduction of the much sought-after Spirit Link. This mythical restoration shaman cooldown has been talked about for the better part of three years now; it has been promised to us many times over, only to be taken away. It has recently been added to the latest build of the PTR, and I'd like to talk a little bit about my experiences with it so far with the new Spirit Link Totem.
Totem Talk: Restoration mastery and cooldowns in patch 4.1
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and co-host of the Raid Warning podcast), shows you how. Last week, we talked about two seemingly misfit restoration shaman talents, Telluric Currents and Focused Insight. It was great to hear your opinions on these two tallents and to see how you've been using them since they were given to us. Some have been using both for a maximum healing buff or to keep the mana flowing, while others have either avoided or pushed aside these talents. This week, we got a bit of quite exciting news. With patch 4.1 around the corner and being tested on the PTR, we are starting to get a glimpse of what the developers at Blizzard have in mind for further restoration shaman tweaks. Namely, we got an update of the patch notes that contain not only a healing buff for restoration shaman, but also the very first look at our brand spanking new restoration cooldown.
Totem Talk: Restoration, Telluric Currents and Focused Insight
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and co-host of the Raid Warning podcast), shows you how. So last week, we talked about restoration getting buffed by a significant amount. There has been a lot of excitement about it, and it has even been referred to as the light at the end of the tunnel for healing shaman. As the result of a hotfix, restoration shaman have been making a steady climb back up the ladder of healing hierarchy. This week, though, I thought we could take a look at two talents I've been getting a lot of questions and emails about lately, Telluric Currents and Focused Insight. They've been sitting on the back burner for most folks, and their viability in dungeons, raids and PvP has been debated and analyzed. While patch 4.1 on the PTR is the hot topic for most folks right now, we haven't really had any earth-shattering changes posted yet, and there has been no mention of a new cooldown, either. Let's explore these two talents today while we eagerly await any new changes.