healing
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Raid Rx: Why healing rotations spell death for your raid
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poohbah of World of Matticus and a founder of Plus Heal, a discussion community for healers of all experience levels and interests. Catch his weekly podcast on healing, raiding and leading, the Matticast. Are you going through your healing rotation properly? No question has raised my wrath more than that. The idea of a healing rotation is my ultimate pet peeve. I once had a ret paladin ask me what my healing rotation was. Not even his bubble could protect him from my stony glare that penetrated his monitor. Healing is all about a priority system. It's about who needs what healing spell when. So as you're progressing through all the normal and heroic modes that Dragon Soul has to offer, learn to cultivate smarter healing habits. Find out what you need to focus on. Figure out what crappy habits you need to break. Coincidentally, Mike Gray wrote about the DPS side of spell priorities just the other day. He goes into great detail about the history of the DPS rotation and what developers were witnessing from the players. With healing, though, no real rotation exists. It's all about priorities. Two types of priorities exist: spell choices and healing targets. For players who are just getting started with healing, let me go into further detail about each type.
Raid Rx: Top healing moments of 2011
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poohbah of World of Matticus and a founder of Plus Heal, a discussion community for healers of all experience levels and interests. Catch his weekly podcast on healing, raiding and leading, the Matticast. This was a fun year for me as a healer. Granted, I had to learn how to heal again, but I do enjoy this expansion's model of healing (although a part of me does miss The Burning Crusade a little when all I had to do was pound Circle of Healing repeatedly). There were many memorable moments that I experienced during raids, and there are others that affected many more of us. Announcing the monk Undoubtedly the best news for healers this year is this. BlizzCon 2011 unveiled a ton of news and announcements. The biggest one for healers was that there would be a new healing class for players. You guessed it, I guessed it, and I'm pretty sure half the world guessed and hoped for a monk class. These leather-wearing bears are set to help heal in the upcoming challenges that Mists of Pandaria will be throwing our way. While we don't have a complete look on the full range of abilities that monks can do, we do know that they rely heavily on mobility to get their spells out.
Raid Rx: Healing the Spine and Madness of Deathwing
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poohbah of World of Matticus and a founder of Plus Heal, a discussion community for healers of all experience levels and interests. Catch his weekly podcast on healing, raiding and leading, the Matticast. This is it. This is the final encounter of the expansion. Everything you've ever worked for and fought through has led to this point. This is the moment you get to help rid the world of Deathwing. First, we need to ground this oversized lizard. Immediately after the conclusion of the gunship (part two), you'll be parachuting onto Deathwing's back. We'll go over the different obstacles and what you and your healers need to do to get over the proverbial raid hump. (To the raiders who do 10-mans, you'll have to adjust the numbers a bit. I'm not as well versed on 10s, so you'll have to bear with me as I draw up assistance for the 25-man version.) To attack the Spine of Deathwing, we need to peel off those metal plates on Deathwing's back so that we can really weaken him further. Our healing goal here is to ensure that our tanks live. Apparently, Deathwing has all sorts of little defenses that he'll use to try to shake us off; there are several threats on this fight that healers need to be aware of. You're on an extremely narrow field of battle here, so movement's going to be really limited. What did you expect, though? You're fighting on the back of a former dragon aspect.
Your first Battlegrounds as a PvP healer
WoW Insider covers the world of player vs. player action in Blood Sport for fans of Battleground, world PvP and Arena play. Steering you to victory is Olivia Grace, who spends most of her time in Azeroth as a restoration shaman turning people into frogs. You've probably heard it approximately a hundred times in Battlegrounds, particularly if you play as either Horde or Alliance. Yep, they both have their moments -- the faction you're not in is no better than the grass is really greener on the other side of the walls of Orgrimmar. But that aside, you've probably heard people bemoaning the lack of PvP healers. "Hey," you think to yourself (like a good, contributing member of the team), "I've got that healer I leveled ... Maybe I should bring that character along to the next Battleground I do!" That would be your first experience of the sheer, unadulterated joy of healing Battlegrounds. You may note a small quantity of sarcasm there; you'll be cursing your kind heart as you're repeatedly ROFLstomped by two DKs. So how do you avoid your repeated untimely demise and start topping the healing chart in your local Battleground? And how do you transfer your skills into the Arena? First and foremost, PvP is not PvE. Well, duh -- revolutionary stuff. But seriously, the skills you learned in PvE won't really apply here. The damage is not predictable. You can't prepare for it. There aren't phases. Standing in the same place in each encounter won't work. You don't have a tank whose job it is to protect you. And in one similarity to PvE, once people figure out you're the reason why they can't kill that warrior, they're going to be after you. Sadly, people can't be taunted, even with yo mama jokes. Also, none of this is true -- but I'll get to that much later.
Raid Rx: Healing Ultraxion and Warmaster Blackhorn
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poohbah of World of Matticus and a founder of Plus Heal, a discussion community for healers of all experience levels and interests. Catch his weekly podcast on healing, raiding and leading, the Matticast. In every expansion, there's always been at least one raid boss that's really defined healers. In this expansion, we had Chimaeron back in Blackwing Descent. We've got another one in Ultraxion over in the new Dragon Soul raid in patch 4.3. This guy is a (literal) beast. After that, we get another crack on the next gunship encounter. Setting up to heal Ultraxion When you're setting up for Ultraxion, there are a few things you need to do. Decide on the number of healers you wish to use. I would highly recommend opening with five healers. The DPS requirements on normal encounter can be a challenge to match. The next step is to figure out your buffs. There are three different healing buffs you can get. On 10-man, you get one type of crystal; on 25-man, you get two sets. Gift of Life This comes from Alexstrasza. It'll be the first set of crystals that spawn. These should be handed out to priests or druids. Essence of Dreams The green buff from Ysera duplicates your direct healing done and distributes it to the rest of the raid. I've found this to be extremely powerful for restoration shaman. Source of Magic The last buff you'll get is my personal favorite. Reducing mana costs by 75% and increasing spell haste by 100% is really juicy especially for priests and paladins.
SWTOR: So you want to play a Bounty Hunter
So you're thinking of being a Star Wars: The Old Republic Bounty Hunter, are you? It's a fine choice of profession. Challenging work, definitely. Requires a lot of travel, a quick draw, and a willingness to take on impossible odds. Some Hunters might see themselves as the avenging hand of the law, some just want to get paid, and some of them genuinely care about the Sith cause. But at the end of the day, every Bounty Hunter lives according to the same code: Find the mark and get paid for the job. Of course, the in-game Bounty Hunter has all the tools needed to make that happen. With a plethora of tricks in his suit of armor, Hunters can do everything -- provide field medical support, keep targets occupied long enough for others to take them down, or even just waste everything with a plethora of missiles. There are a lot of options available to players who go down the route of the Bounty Hunter, and it doesn't hurt that the entire class oozes with style and intrigue from the start.
SWTOR: So you want to play a Trooper
Whether you're attracted to Star Wars: The Old Republic's Trooper class because of the iconic Stormtrooper/Clone Wars trooper look, the ability to dish out massive damage without any pamby-namby "Force" crutches, or the chance to hop on board a sci-fi military saga, you're in for a treat. While it may lack the grace of the Jedi, the sophistication of the Imperial Agent, and the swagger of the Smuggler, the Trooper gets it done with heavy armor, heavy firepower, and heavy quips. The Trooper a strong contender for just about any role in the game except for melee combat (and even there it has a few moves). It can heal, deal ranged damage, and tank alike, so I'm not surprised to hear that there are all-Trooper guilds forming up for the game. If you like having wide-open possibilities for your character's future roles, the Trooper is the way to go. The Trooper begins his journey on the war-torn world of Ord Mantell (alongside the Smugglers), where he's been recently recruited by the elite Havoc squad to tackle the toughest missions out there. You may not feel elite at the beginning, with light armor, an aged blaster rifle, and only a small handful of skills backing you up, but trust me -- by the end of your journey on Ord Mantell, you'll be ready to rock with the big boys.
Raid Rx: How to heal Yor'sahj and Hagara
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poohbah of World of Matticus and a founder of Plus Heal, a discussion community for healers of all experience levels and interests. Catch his weekly podcast on healing, raiding and leading, the Matticast. Ready for a trip back into the Eye of Eternity? Oh, don't worry, you'll get your chance to reminisce. This week, we're going to look at the next two bosses within the Dragon Soul raid instance. Some movement will be required -- hope you have your running shoes equipped. Last thing you want happen is to complain to your raid leader that your feet are in pain. Yor'sahj is one of the bosses that some raid groups may have some difficulty with. I know that green and red slimes up can be the hardest combination to deal with. We'll go over how to handle those. ... Could always ask Greatfather Winter for a hand! I'm sure he'd be happy to help with some brand new raid loot.
Healing Morchok and Warlord Zon'ozz
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poohbah of World of Matticus and a founder of Plus Heal, a discussion community for healers of all experience levels and interests. Catch his weekly podcast on healing, raiding and leading, the Matticast. A new month and a new patch means new raid bosses to learn! It means new mechanics to learn, new players to work with (for some of you) and new challenges. I'm pretty sure that it's safe to say most of us were getting a little ... burned out on Firelands. The opening bosses should present a nice warmup for the rest of the instance. We'll start with quick healing setups for Morchok and Warlord Zon'ozz. The Raid Finder iteration of these bosses shouldn't be a problem for you if you already have a history of raiding. Normal versions might present a bit of a step up.
Raid Rx: Checking out level 90 talents
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poohbah of World of Matticus and a founder of Plus Heal, a discussion community for healers of all experience levels and interests. Catch his weekly podcast on healing, raiding and leading, the Matticast. That new Mists of Pandaria talent calculator is out. Had a chance to look through it? You might've been alarmed at the fact that several key spells appear to be missing from the list of skills and such. Not to worry, though, since Bashiok clarified that it was still under development. Anything missing is (hopefully) unintentional. A few classes are given previews of new skills trainable past level 85. The classes that don't have their stuff created yet are presumably still being worked on.
Raid Rx: A new balance for intellect and spirit in Mists of Pandaria
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poohbah of World of Matticus and a founder of Plus Heal, a discussion community for healers of all experience levels and interests. Catch his weekly podcast on healing, raiding and leading, the Matticast. One of the proposed revamps coming in Mists of Pandaria is the way intellect and spirit interact with each other in regards to healers. For the new healer, understanding the current formula for mana regen can be a little daunting. To make it really easy, let's just say that it plays off both your spirit and your intellect. However, your intellect has a gradually increasing impact on how much mana you gain back in combat situations as your gear improves. It appears that will no longer be the case heading into the next expansion. Ghostcrawler (lead systems designer) helped shed some light on the issue in a blue post earlier in the week. The highlights? Intellect becomes a sheer throughput stat Spirit controls the rate of mana regen Mana pools will remain fixed
Is it time to kill mana?
In your heart, you always knew we were coming here. Mana is one of WoW's biggest sacred cows. Paladins, shaman, druids, mages, warlocks, priests all make use of it, and hunters were once also on the mana teat, as it were. Every healer uses it, and when the monk class is introduced, they'll heal with mana as well. Every ranged caster uses it. It's the resource system the majority of WoW players are most familiar with, a pool that starts at full and empties as you use it. Over the course of its existence, stats like spirit and MP5 have filled it back up during combat, keeping those classes that rely on it supplied. Since it's the lifeblood for all healers, it effectively is the same for all tanks, even though only one tanking class actually tanks with it. Two classes use it to melee DPS, both hybrids, and these two classes effectively ignore the regeneration of the mana pool via talents and class abilities that make mana regeneration a non-issue. Mana is fairly easy to understand. You have it, you use it. There are various systems built in to make regenerating it easier. With the addition of runes and runic power for death knights and holy power for paladins, secondary resource systems (similar to the combo point system of rogues) have also been introduced to the game. Holy p-ower in particular is interesting to this discussion because it is a secondary resource added to a mana class and one that works for healing, tanking and melee DPS. (Everyone has their own opinion of how well it does so.) This leads us to the subject of this post. Do we need mana at all? As my intrepid coworker Michael Gray pointed out to me when discussing this article, mana serves many uses. It's not just that it's a resource for healing and DPSing, but the finite nature of the mana system serves to limit encounters in both PvP and PvE. Doing away with mana could have as many negative effects as positive ones.
Raid Rx: Class balance and design Q&A panel looks at healing
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poohbah of World of Matticus and a founder of Plus Heal, a discussion community for healers of all experience levels and interests. Catch his weekly podcast on healing, raiding and leading, the Matticast. Manage to catch the class Q&A earlier this week? If not, there are some pretty interesting things going on for patch 4.3 and for Mists of Pandaria. You can either go check out the full transcript or read on for only the healing relevant ones. Highlights include: Discipline priests get a new spell. Intellect won't directly increase mana pool size. Restoration Druids get a castable Barkskin.
Raid Rx: How to stop worrying about healing
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poohbah of World of Matticus and a founder of Plus Heal, a discussion community for healers of all experience levels and interests. Catch his weekly podcast on healing, raiding and leading, the Matticast. Annnd the BlizzCon hangover continues. I think we should have two BlizzCons a year. Perhaps one out in the east (or maybe a separate one in Europe)? I think it'd be neat! But alas, I'm digressing. This week in how to maintain your healing sanity, I wanted to discuss a problem that most healers have experienced at some point in their healing careers. Ever go to bed sweating stressing about your healing? Felt particularly bad about your performance because you just kept dropping the ball? Have that sinking feeling in your stomach after a particularly bad night? If this happens to you consistently, then you just might be suffering from worry!
Raid Rx: Thoughts on the next expansion and healers
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poohbah of World of Matticus and a founder of Plus Heal, a discussion community for healers of all experience levels and interests. Catch his weekly podcast on healing, raiding and leading, the Matticast. Wow, what a truly fantastic BlizzCon! Had a blast at the WoW Insider party meeting all of you. I want to take a moment to fire some shout-outs to everyone who approached me just to say hello. It's quite humbling! With the new Mists of Pandaria expansion on the horizon, has anything really changed for healing? We didn't really experience much in terms of a philosophy change. In fact, healing itself was hardly even addressed at all. So what gives? What can we expect for healers going into 5.0? Not much, sadly, but read on anyway.
Behind the Mask: The choice of team support
Last week's Behind the Mask covered Champions Online's super team support solo monster, the Mind, but I thought it would be prudent to cover the other ways a player can support a team. Some of this will tread existing ground, as I've already talked about the Mind and Grimoire archetypes in previous editions, and both have one of the four team support options. I'll be covering the Mind's passive in more detail, taking a brief look again at the Grimoire's passive as well as covering the other two options, Seraphim and Medical Nanites. While we don't have a Celestial archetype just yet, it is only a matter of time before Cryptic adds one, so this will give a bit of a preview for what a Celestial healer plays like.
Raid Rx: Raid healing wish list for BlizzCon
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poohbah of World of Matticus and a founder of Plus Heal, a discussion community for healers of all experience levels and interests. Catch his weekly podcast on healing, raiding and leading, the Matticast. We are one week away from BlizzCon! I cannot wait! While most of the healing changes have already been outlined for 4.3, I'm sure there are a few things that you wish would be different. I have a list compiled myself of things that would be interesting to have or revert back to. However, you and I both know these are things that will never happen. But who cares? It's fun to think about the possibilities, at least. I'm sure there'll be other exciting announcements next week. Maybe we'll see some new healing reveals that Blizzard's planning for the next expansion.
Raid Rx: Preparing for heroic Firelands
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poohbah of World of Matticus and a founder of Plus Heal, a discussion community for healers of all experience levels and interests. Catch his weekly podcast on healing, raiding and leading, the Matticast. After the earlier Firelands nerf, a number of guilds that had been struggling on some of the later bosses (Majordomo Staghelm and Ragnaros, for instance) have either cleared it out or are extremely close to doing so. With tier 13 content (and Deathwing) looming soon, it makes sense for leaders to maximize the equipment for raid groups. Healers are definitely not an exception. As a healer, you'll find that challenges will ... heat up. Anyway, this week you'll find a list of things you should know and keep in mind as you and your raid group start making headway into the next level of Firelands.
Wasteland Diaries: PvE like a boss
Fallen Earth PvE can be anywhere from laughably easy to downright frustrating. I guess that's a good thing since you get a gamut of difficulty levels, but much of the leveling span leans toward the easy end of the scale. I tend to get bored with PvE combat fairly quickly in MMOs (not just Fallen Earth). Other people love to struggle against the environment. Some even refuse to do anything remotely akin to PvP. I'll only throw the term "carebear" at those who think all PvPers are maladjusted psychopaths. I'm not talking about them; I'm talking about regular hardcore PvEers: players who would rather play against the NPCs than against other players. Many of my posts center around PvP. If I didn't PvP (and since I'm not a big roleplayer), I doubt I would still be playing Fallen Earth. That's just what I spend most of my time doing in the wastelands. So I tend to write a lot about it. But all PvPers have to PvE. PvE has its own set of challenges for the player. Granted, these challenges are quite static, and once you find a way to overcome them, you are done. But they are challenges nonetheless, and knowledge is power as much in PvE as it is in PvP. In this post I will give you some tips and tricks that might help you get through that next tough mission. Much of this stuff is common sense, but it may not occur to you until it's too late. So click past the cut and let's get started.
Raid Rx: Firelands nerfs
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poohbah of World of Matticus and a founder of Plus Heal, a discussion community for healers of all experience levels and interests. Catch his weekly podcast on healing, raiding and leading, the Matticast. The great Firelands nerf has arrived! Those of you who have been struggling on progression bosses (normal mode or heroic mode) will no doubt have found that the the barriers have been lowered significantly. Good or bad, that's entirely up to you and your philosophy. On the one hand, content is now much more accessible. On the other hand, there are many of you who wish you had had more time to take down bosses pre-nerf. The overall nerf, though, changes several aspects of healing. I find myself not needing to work as hard. That doesn't necessarily mean not paying attention during a raid. With a lower amount of healing required (due to lower damage on several bosses), it just means fewer spells having to go out. Even though it might feel a little demoralizing to me, it is a little relieving in the sense that content can be seen more easily by players who normally wouldn't have been able to experience it. We'll go over my thoughts on this week, along with some ways to make healing engaging again.
