Tuesday, November 3, 2009

**Healing WoW Post**

so, i dont normally WoW blog, but there is this "circle of healing bloggers" going around and it looked like fun so i thought i would put in my own 2 cents.
  • What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer? Khaelie, Resto Shaman
  • What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans) She is pretty much just doing raids at this point... occasionally i will do a daily for some extra badges but at this point 5 man healing for her is just too boring (yawning and tabbing out to facebook are not good thinkgs to do when you're supposed to be healing...). She does mostly 25 mans, but ventures into 10 mans as well.
  • What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why? Riptide. it certainly isn't my strongest heal but it splashes and leaves little flowers on the floor.
  • What healing spell do you use least for your class and why? healing wave. even with all the haste i stack the cast time is just too long. the only time i really use it is with an "oh S***!" Natures swiftness.
  • What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why? we have big heals. Chain heal alone often heals the first target for upwards of 10K and then it heals 3 other targets for smaller amounts. that's a pretty big heal!
  • What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why? i think we could benefit with either a stronger HoT or instant. Ours is combined into one heal and everything else has a cast time, and those cast times are not little. I have a LOT of haste and still my LHW is about a second to cast (that is the fastest one).
  • In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you? this really depends on the fight and the other available healers. if the fight is so spread out that chain heal stops after hitting just 1 or 2 people it really isn't worth it and i would be more useful on a tank. if there is a Disc Priest on the tank my big heals don't really help unless the tank is taking boatloads of damage and i would be more useful on the raid. but overall i have become quite comfortable doing whatever i am assigned to.
  • What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why? I really enjoy a nice Druid. Maybe i am just spoiled with the one i usually run with, but we work really well together and even though neither of us is a "tank healer" (a fact i think is outdated) we can usually 2 heal 10 mans without any issues.
  • What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why? Disc Priests. it is a pretty selfish reason, but when we have a disc priest i never get tank duty. :(
  • What is your worst habit as a healer? getting too focused on grid and not seeing what is going on. Deadly boss mods has saved me from fire more than i like to admit.
  • What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing? I think all healers dislike when there are calls for heals in vent. all we do is look at health bars, so if one is lower than it should be i guarantee we know it before you say it!
  • Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing? I think all healing classes have their own special abilities and so in a perfect raid you would have one of each. So balanced, yes, in that you can have a successful raid with any combination of healers.
  • What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer? The fewer deaths the better! I admit i do look at recount, but mostly just to make sure i am pulling my weight in a straight healing encounter.
  • What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class? lol shammys can only raid heal. in the absence of a disc priest of a holy pally, i think we are the next best choice.
  • What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn? i think most think that chain heal spam is the only way to heal with a shaman. i admit i use it a lot, but i also use LHW and Riptide all the time as well, depending on what needs to be healed. i think that most know that they need to keep Earth Shield and water shield up, but many don't keep track of it and it gets lost in the action.
  • 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)? it really depends on the fight being evaluated. if there is a lot of movement in the fight i am likely to be lower in the meters due to heals having long cast times. if there is little to no movement i can easily be in the top 2. i tend to have a lot of overhealing because i am almost always casting something whether it is needed or not, but until i have mana regen issues i am unlikely to change that.
  • Haste or Crit and why? HASTE!!! i am sure i have touched on cast times already, but i like to have enough haste to get LHW to about 1 second with my totem down.
  • What healing class do you feel you understand least? Holy Pallies. they have a beacon and a flash of light and that is quite literally all i really know about them.
  • What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing? I use grid & Clique. the only thing i use clique for is cleanse spirit. all my other spells are keybound. i really haven't even modified grid all that much. seems to work well for me.
  • Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why? for any shaman i would recommend stacking mana regen and intellect until you are comfortable with your mana and then switch to spellpower and haste. currently in 25man raid buffed i have about 3000 sp, 25000 mana and my regen is around 800.
I'm not tagging anyone since this isn't really a WoW blog anyways... i just wanted to share my opinion with anyone who wants to know.

4 comments:

Miss Medicina said...

Thanks for joining in! Resto shammies are sadly unrepresented compared to the other healing classes!

Kimberly @ kimberussell.com said...

I'm tagging myself!!

Resto shammies are my fave to heal with because of all your great totems! If I'm in a 10-person group, I am completely "squee" if the other healer is a shaman.

Jong said...

Yay a wow post.

I've been enjoying reading the surveys. I learend a lot about healing classes without having to go through dry technical articles.

and uh, GO RESTO SHAMANS.

Shamrockgirl said...

Thanks to all of you for reading! Glad to be a part of all the fun.