About a month or so ago I pulled out my level 25 Shaman. I was getting a bit tired of running around in Northrend with my DPS spec'd Death Knight, doing random dungeons (or pugs) almost every day, hacking and slashing my way through enemies with my enormous axe.
I pulled out my Shaman to try this 'healing' thing out. I was lead to believe it was the job with the most responsibility, so I didn't take it. Almost every class I've ever played has been spec'd to DPS, and I rarely play any class that can do otherwise. I've never played a priest, and my druid is resting happily on level 25, waiting for me to start caring about my Alliance characters again.
So, I wheeled out my Shaman, respec'd in Restoration, and clicked the 'Join random dungeon' button.
Not one second - not one second - passed before I saw the familiar "Enter dungeon" button in front of me.
I was starting to like my Shaman, who I made god knows how long ago and abandoned in favour of a different class.
Thrust into my first dungeon as a healer, I did rather well. The party didn't wipe, and the tank stayed above 50 health almost through the entire dungeon.
I did bare in mind that this was a reasonably low level dungeon, and the dangers posed there aren't nearly as deadly as some of the later dungeons I would face. And I did use Healing Wave every time the tank took damage, even if it was nothing more than a simple scratch.
My Shaman's now 42, and I've learnt a lot about the art of healing, and I respect healers a hell of a lot more than I did when I played my Death Knight.
I suppose it is true that healers have the most responsibility on the party. Coming in close second is the tank, and they share about an equal amount of stress - the tank is supposed to keep all the enemies attacking him, and the healer is supposed to keep that tank alive (and make sure the rest of the party stays alive too).
My time as a healer has changed me somewhat. My aim is to no longer cause damage - it is to heal it. It was a massive shift from how I used to play. Playing used to be rather simple - keep hitting the guy until he falls down. Now, I have to make sure certain people don't fall down.
As a healer, you learn to manage your mana. If you don't, you'll be either running out of mana in the middle of a fight [very, very bad] or you'll be stopping after every fight to drink you mana back up [makes the dungeon take twice as long]. For example, only healing the tank when he or she actually needs it (as opposed to healing them whenever they took even the most pathetic amount of damage), and using Chain Heal when most of the party needs only a little healing to keep them going.
I've also learnt that most people don't play healers for a reason. Healers have a huge amount of pressure to make sure the tank stays alive, and ever since I started dungeoneering (going into random after random) I've found the tank does as little as possible to help you.
Out of every ten dungeons I go into, only two tanks ever bother to watch the party's health and mana, and at least another two are complete dickheads - charging off into the distance and expecting everybody to follow him, and when everybody inevitably doesn't (this type doesn't tell everyone he's making a massive pull) he leaves because it's everybody else's fault. And then other people start leaving because it takes ages to find another tank.
The other six don't really care either way. They'll probably stop if you say "I'm out of mana", but they expect you to take care of the party as a whole.
Another thing that I've learnt is some people can't handle wiping. It's an enormous deal for them, like it's the end of the goddamn world (the actual end of the goddamn world is coming later on this year, hopefully).
They don't realize I'm a Shaman with the maxed out Improved Reincarnation talent and Glyph of Renewed Life. By the time I'm ready to reincarnate, the drama queens have already left, and there's a high likelihood that one of those drama queens will be the tank.
Healing is still something I'm having fun with, though. It's a lot more different than playing a DPS class, and I'm enjoying playing my Shaman if only for the reason that it's a different experience.
Plus, you get into random dungeons a lot quicker. And at level 80, once you start doing raids, everyone is looking for a healer.
Don't be afraid to play a healer - once you've got the basics down, it's a lot simpler than you think.
Showing posts with label WOW. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WOW. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Core Hound Pups
So, I'm as my banker character on Aman'Thul, and I see this other character with a vanity pet called a 'Core Hound Pup'.
First thing that crossed my mind was "I didn't know Core Hounds had puppies".
But then I watched it for a minute. One of it's idle animations was digging into the ground, picking up a bone, fighting it's other head for it (did I mention it has two heads?) then throwing it up into the air, catching it by the tail, and scoffing it down.
After watching it for a bit more, I thought "this is... so cute! I must have one!"
Turns out you gotta have a Blizzard Authenticator to get one. In case you didn't know what it was, It provides your account with a totally random (although I suspect pseudo-random) 6 digit number in addition to your regular password. Click the button, get your generated key, enter that and your password into your login screen, and you get to enjoy increased security.
Plus an adorable Core Hound Pup, if for no other reason. Bonus is that the pet is account bound, so you can send it to all your characters, just like Mr. Chilly and the Onyxian Whelpling (two recent vanity pets mailed to players).
For New Zealand buyers, it's $6.50. American or our currency, I don't know. But I keep thinking that's a small price to pay for this awesome pet.
First thing that crossed my mind was "I didn't know Core Hounds had puppies".
But then I watched it for a minute. One of it's idle animations was digging into the ground, picking up a bone, fighting it's other head for it (did I mention it has two heads?) then throwing it up into the air, catching it by the tail, and scoffing it down.
After watching it for a bit more, I thought "this is... so cute! I must have one!"
Turns out you gotta have a Blizzard Authenticator to get one. In case you didn't know what it was, It provides your account with a totally random (although I suspect pseudo-random) 6 digit number in addition to your regular password. Click the button, get your generated key, enter that and your password into your login screen, and you get to enjoy increased security.
Plus an adorable Core Hound Pup, if for no other reason. Bonus is that the pet is account bound, so you can send it to all your characters, just like Mr. Chilly and the Onyxian Whelpling (two recent vanity pets mailed to players).
For New Zealand buyers, it's $6.50. American or our currency, I don't know. But I keep thinking that's a small price to pay for this awesome pet.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
WoW Gas Mask
Anybody who's been around the Howling Fjord as a Horde character would have probably noticed all these Forsaken running around wearing gas masks.
Gas. Masks.
With fricken' spikes on the filters, and translucent green bulbous eye pieces.
And I know what went through your mind when you saw those gas masks:
'I needs to get me one of them'.
Problem is, you can't buy it. It's not even a drop, as far as I can tell. And if it is, it's probably so low [00000000000.01% drop rate] that nobody's ever found it.
No problem, you say to yourself. I'll just look it up on the WMV.
but it isn't there.
You try everything - Gas, Mask, Forsaken, Plague... nothing yields any desired results.
Even worse, you can actually find it inside WMV [Item > Objectcomponents > head > helm_mask_plague_???, last three is race and gender], but you can't equip it to a character!
It's tragic - I know somehow the guys at WoW did it, so wouldn't it make sense that WMV can do it? I thought so, but apparently not!
Gas. Masks.
With fricken' spikes on the filters, and translucent green bulbous eye pieces.
And I know what went through your mind when you saw those gas masks:
'I needs to get me one of them'.
Problem is, you can't buy it. It's not even a drop, as far as I can tell. And if it is, it's probably so low [00000000000.01% drop rate] that nobody's ever found it.
No problem, you say to yourself. I'll just look it up on the WMV.
but it isn't there.
You try everything - Gas, Mask, Forsaken, Plague... nothing yields any desired results.
Even worse, you can actually find it inside WMV [Item > Objectcomponents > head > helm_mask_plague_???, last three is race and gender], but you can't equip it to a character!
It's tragic - I know somehow the guys at WoW did it, so wouldn't it make sense that WMV can do it? I thought so, but apparently not!
Friday, October 9, 2009
Slaughter!
Just got my @$% handed to me on a saronite platter when this ragtag party and I ventured into the Nexus. Of course, I signed up because I WANTSTED MY TUNDRA PAULDRONS.
But it was not to be. We kept getting wiped at the first boss (some Blood Elf mage thing) and our leader eventually disbanded the party.
Naturally, they blamed it on me, which was a bi unfair. If we had had a competent healer, nay, a healer AT ALL it would have been fine but NOOOOOO.
But it was not to be. We kept getting wiped at the first boss (some Blood Elf mage thing) and our leader eventually disbanded the party.
Naturally, they blamed it on me, which was a bi unfair. If we had had a competent healer, nay, a healer AT ALL it would have been fine but NOOOOOO.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Death Knights and Music-sountracks
First things first, the frickin' Horse quest for the Death Knights.
Today just wasn't my day, I guess. I kept getting 'roped' by the stable keeper and forced off my horse and melee'd by him, and of course he had to be elite. Of course, you can't do it unless you've been spotted, so you have to do it juuuust in range and then sprint out and hope to god there are no Scarlet Infantry or Captians ready to give you a nice helping of Dazed (50% movement reduction).
I can't help thinking that Blizzard just made it unnecessarily difficult, unless I'm wrong and you can, in fact, evade that elite horse riding bastard.
And while I'm on the subject, what the hell is up with the outrageously high prices of the epic riding training? I understand that it was priced when Burning Crusade came out, and it was a pretty good guess that all those level 70's were brimming with gold, it those days are now over. I imagine most players will never see themselves riding their epic flying mounts, 'specially not in Northrend. Let's look at how much it costs, counting honoured reputation, to get the whole flying mount package.
assuming you have both previous levels of riding;
Expert: lvl 60, 225 gold. (remember, with honoured rep)
Artisan (epic): lvl 70, 4500 gold.
Cold Weather Flying (flying in Northrend): 1000 gold (cannot be reduced by rep prices).
The epic mount itself: 95 gold.
Total: 5820 gold.
That is a lot of gold, even for someone who works the auction house (not counting those people who are so good it at that they make thousands every day). The worst part is that Blizzard recently reduced the level requirement and price for ground mounts, but seemed to ignore the expert and artisan levels. Just seems like a bit much.
On a lighter note, I've been thoroughly enjoying the World of Goo Soundtrack, availible for download here. Well, not there exactly, obviously.
There are various flavours that accompany the WOG Soundtrack. Sometimes it's cheery upbeat music like 'Brave Adventurers' or 'Tumbler', sometimes it has a far darker, even sinister, feel to it like 'Screamer' or 'Cog on the Machine', the latter reminding me a lot of Pink Floyd. Sometimes it's slow, like 'Are you coming home, love MOM' or 'Threadcutter', and sometimes it's fast and extremely annoying, such as 'My Vurtual World of Goo Corperation'.
You also have tracks like 'Best of Times', which slowly morphs from slow song into the kind of music you hear at the end of a fantasy action movie, when the bad guy gets killed at the last minute by the broken and battered protaganist.
Today just wasn't my day, I guess. I kept getting 'roped' by the stable keeper and forced off my horse and melee'd by him, and of course he had to be elite. Of course, you can't do it unless you've been spotted, so you have to do it juuuust in range and then sprint out and hope to god there are no Scarlet Infantry or Captians ready to give you a nice helping of Dazed (50% movement reduction).
I can't help thinking that Blizzard just made it unnecessarily difficult, unless I'm wrong and you can, in fact, evade that elite horse riding bastard.
And while I'm on the subject, what the hell is up with the outrageously high prices of the epic riding training? I understand that it was priced when Burning Crusade came out, and it was a pretty good guess that all those level 70's were brimming with gold, it those days are now over. I imagine most players will never see themselves riding their epic flying mounts, 'specially not in Northrend. Let's look at how much it costs, counting honoured reputation, to get the whole flying mount package.
assuming you have both previous levels of riding;
Expert: lvl 60, 225 gold. (remember, with honoured rep)
Artisan (epic): lvl 70, 4500 gold.
Cold Weather Flying (flying in Northrend): 1000 gold (cannot be reduced by rep prices).
The epic mount itself: 95 gold.
Total: 5820 gold.
That is a lot of gold, even for someone who works the auction house (not counting those people who are so good it at that they make thousands every day). The worst part is that Blizzard recently reduced the level requirement and price for ground mounts, but seemed to ignore the expert and artisan levels. Just seems like a bit much.
On a lighter note, I've been thoroughly enjoying the World of Goo Soundtrack, availible for download here. Well, not there exactly, obviously.
There are various flavours that accompany the WOG Soundtrack. Sometimes it's cheery upbeat music like 'Brave Adventurers' or 'Tumbler', sometimes it has a far darker, even sinister, feel to it like 'Screamer' or 'Cog on the Machine', the latter reminding me a lot of Pink Floyd. Sometimes it's slow, like 'Are you coming home, love MOM' or 'Threadcutter', and sometimes it's fast and extremely annoying, such as 'My Vurtual World of Goo Corperation'.
You also have tracks like 'Best of Times', which slowly morphs from slow song into the kind of music you hear at the end of a fantasy action movie, when the bad guy gets killed at the last minute by the broken and battered protaganist.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Death Knights
So, I've been playing my brand new Death Knight, and before sending him to Outland I'm taking him up to sixty in Silithus.
So, level 58 with 5008 health, and it feels as though the Stonelasher Scorpids are lightly armoured civilian cars and I'm a fucking Mammoth Tank from C&C. I mean, I'm steamrolling my way through the various flavoures of insect (not counting the Silithid themselves) and racking up plenty of XP for half the work. Not to say that's a bad thing, being a absolute brute would definitly come in handy in Outland.
What i love about the Death Knight so far, apart from his massive damage output and invulnerability versus the denizens of Silithus is his Death Grip ability. I ran him through Arathi Basin just to test him out PVP wise. Death Grip is the ability that lets Death Knights, for no cost, pull a unit/character into melee range.
Now, I can't imagine anything more annoying than being the designated healer for the group and being constantly drawn away and killed by the big armoured tank with the wacking great sword. Feel free to use that tactic.
Another thing I'm impressed by in the Blood talent tree. It seems that whenever I slay an innocent... well, anything, I get 300 health back. Plus, health regeneration is boosted (or at least it is with Blood Presence). I keep seeing all these Death Knights with the Unholy talent tree maxed out. Sure, the zombie following you around is kind of cool, but now I go 'Dude! You're missing out on being vurtually unstopable here!'
So, level 58 with 5008 health, and it feels as though the Stonelasher Scorpids are lightly armoured civilian cars and I'm a fucking Mammoth Tank from C&C. I mean, I'm steamrolling my way through the various flavoures of insect (not counting the Silithid themselves) and racking up plenty of XP for half the work. Not to say that's a bad thing, being a absolute brute would definitly come in handy in Outland.
What i love about the Death Knight so far, apart from his massive damage output and invulnerability versus the denizens of Silithus is his Death Grip ability. I ran him through Arathi Basin just to test him out PVP wise. Death Grip is the ability that lets Death Knights, for no cost, pull a unit/character into melee range.
Now, I can't imagine anything more annoying than being the designated healer for the group and being constantly drawn away and killed by the big armoured tank with the wacking great sword. Feel free to use that tactic.
Another thing I'm impressed by in the Blood talent tree. It seems that whenever I slay an innocent... well, anything, I get 300 health back. Plus, health regeneration is boosted (or at least it is with Blood Presence). I keep seeing all these Death Knights with the Unholy talent tree maxed out. Sure, the zombie following you around is kind of cool, but now I go 'Dude! You're missing out on being vurtually unstopable here!'
Saturday, August 22, 2009
CATACLYSM! HOORAY!
Just in case you where living under a rock, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is happening. I got the news late, so I can hardly say you heard it first from me. For those who don't know, Cataclysm is hurling the world of Azeroth down a flight of stairs. The entire planet will undergo a massive change, and it's going to be fucking awesome. Reserve your names for Worgen characters NOW, or they will go. I have, and I already have a Tauren Pally name. Also wouldn't be a bad idea to secure a Goblin name, too.
I have nothing to put here at the moment, so I'm going to list my favourite Webcomics.
1. Qyestionable Content - Slice of Life. Well drawn and usually funny or witty. Good read.
2. LFG Comic - Some may mistake the comic to be set in WoW, but I can't say that it is. It's set in it's own universe, with similarities to WoW, but after reading it it's clearly not WoW.
3. XKCD - I can't really describe it. It's just awesome.
4. Penny Arcade - Always fun to read, especially if your into a gamer.
5. Cyanide and Happyness - Great fun. Always a joy to read just to see what boundry they'll cross next.
6. Concerned - A comic made with Garry's Mod. Quite funny, if you know how the Half Life 2 story goes. Otherwise non fans will find it hard to understand.
7. Ctrl Alt Del - This use to be higher, but it, in my mind, degenerated into a shameful Slice of Life comic.
8. 6X9 College - This used to be quite a bit higher, but then their archive screwed itself over and they lost it all. It's (probably) dead, but still a good read and surprisingly high quality art.
Aaaaand thats it. I'm sure there's another one there, but i can't for the life of me remember what it's called.
I have nothing to put here at the moment, so I'm going to list my favourite Webcomics.
1. Qyestionable Content - Slice of Life. Well drawn and usually funny or witty. Good read.
2. LFG Comic - Some may mistake the comic to be set in WoW, but I can't say that it is. It's set in it's own universe, with similarities to WoW, but after reading it it's clearly not WoW.
3. XKCD - I can't really describe it. It's just awesome.
4. Penny Arcade - Always fun to read, especially if your into a gamer.
5. Cyanide and Happyness - Great fun. Always a joy to read just to see what boundry they'll cross next.
6. Concerned - A comic made with Garry's Mod. Quite funny, if you know how the Half Life 2 story goes. Otherwise non fans will find it hard to understand.
7. Ctrl Alt Del - This use to be higher, but it, in my mind, degenerated into a shameful Slice of Life comic.
8. 6X9 College - This used to be quite a bit higher, but then their archive screwed itself over and they lost it all. It's (probably) dead, but still a good read and surprisingly high quality art.
Aaaaand thats it. I'm sure there's another one there, but i can't for the life of me remember what it's called.
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