An “In-Practice” Take at the Holy Paladin Nerfs

By now, pretty much every holy paladin blogger has posted their thoughts, comments, disdain and disgust about Tuesday’s holy paladin changes. In case you’ve been missing out, here’s what happened:

- Holy Light doesn’t pump up your holy power bar anymore when you cast it on your beaconned target.
- Light of Dawn, an already weak spell with the exception of how it transferred nicely through beacon, had it’s healing reduced by 40% so the beacon transfers don’t give healing envy to Word of Glory.

The rationale is that paladins have too much mana and are relying too much on the “pump up Holy Power via Holy Light and use Light of Dawn transfers to bomb the tank” strategy.

On the mana part, if you’re rubbing your eyes, I don’t blame you. When I started running heroics a few days ago, the idea of “too much mana” would be have had me laughing until my sides hurt. But, now that I’m decked in heroics gear and running with other heroically geared players, I kind of have to agree. Holy Light, with it’s low mana cost and long cast, becomes basically free with enough passive mana regen.

As for the “Light of Dawn abuse“, well, it was nice while it lasted. According to Tuesday’s raid logs, with a mix of 333-349 ilvl gear and 25 man raid buffs, my Light of Dawn was hitting individual targets for ~ 8k, occasionally critting for ~ 15k. Which looks great, but considering that everyone had over 100k hp and were taking insane damage left and right, LoD was actually crap for raid healing. Where it shone was through beacon. Say my LoD hit 5 targets for 8k for a total of 40k. Half of that (so 20k) was transferred to the tank, which is more than my ~15k World of Glory could heal them for.

How the changes affected my heroics healing

In all honesty, they didn’t. I kept the same “Holy Shock on cooldown, then Holy Light unless massive damage” strategy I used before. I couldn’t use Word of Glory as often, but, meh, other than making me crave haste (the instant cast component of WoG is nice), it didn’t matter. With heroics gear, Holy Light is basically free and Word of Glory is a weak spell. When my group didn’t screw up, I still ended fights at nearly full mana. I even started using Holy Radiance on cooldown.

How the changes might affect 25 man raiding

I raided Sunday and Monday, but I won’t get to test the changes until Thursday night. It’s difficult for me to predict how it’ll affect raiding. At our last attempts, our offtanks were too undergeared and our raid team too undisciplined (we have a lot of new guildies who are on their first raids with us and aren’t used to our ways) for me to get a clear idea of Cataclysm 25 man raid healing. Our attempts on Halfus Wyrmbreaker were under 2 minutes long and my tank was getting smacked with 40k-60k hits every 2 seconds.

To (attempt to) keep up with that kind of damage, I was using Holy Shock on cooldown and otherwise spamming Divine Light. Light of Dawn was a good option when I had at least 4 people in front of me (which didn’t happen often) so I might notice a loss there. Holy Light wasn’t in the equation at all when it came to healing in raids.

A Return to Wrath Healing?

We have too much mana… To which Blizzard responded by attacking the very mechanics they wanted our class to use. With our glorious passive mana regen untouched and with Word of Glory and Light of Dawn being so weak, I can see us going back to single or double spell spamming pretty quickly.

Aunna at Bandage Spec made some excellent suggestions that could solve our problem of being overpowered without ruining our new and improved playstyle. I have some suggestions of my own:

1- Nerf our specialization – 50% of mana regen from spirit is too much? Bring it down to 40%, or 35%.
2- Raise the mana cost and effectiveness of Holy Shock – Right now Holy Shock doesn’t do much beside give us holy power. It helps a little bit with raid healing, but that’s about it. Make it more expensive and more useful and it’ll put a dent in our mana bar.
3- Reduce the mana back from judging Seal of Insight or increase the cooldown on Judgement – Seriously, 3500 mana every time I use an 8 second cooldown spell? For real? No wonder my mana bar is full!
4- Increase the mana cost of Holy Light – It’s too cheap? Make it less cheap.
5- Buff Light of Dawn, but don’t let it transfer through beacon - Light of Dawn is a really week spell without the beacon component. With the amount of health people have, you couldn’t even notice the 8k heal. (Fannon as well as a few others have mentioned this too)
6- Make it harder to stack holy power, but buff Word of Glory – I don’t care how free and instant Word of Glory is, it’s not powerful enough to be worth working for. If it healed, for like, say 30k, I might be tempted to put some effort into getting 3 stacks of holy power.

So final words, if you’ve been worrying about the nerfs, you can relax. They haven’t affected us a whole lot. But! I can see the nerf bat heading our way again shortly, so gear up and farm heroics while we still have it sort of easy.

Shared Topic: Fringe Benefits of Bringing Classes to Raid

Or, in the perspective I’m going to take, how to make them want you (and your paladin) badly.

Here’s a Shared Topic that’s pretty timely for our class. It was suggested by death knight veteran Shop of Runeforge Gossip and you can see what bloggers from other classes had to say by checking out the grand collection of links thread at Blog Azeroth. Since this post isn’t being written at the last minute (yay!) you can even write about it yourself and post a link to it in that thread.

And while you’re in the Shared Topics forums, please do me a favor and suggest a Topic. PLEEEEEASE!

Right, so I still don’t have a computer. Which means no WoW for screenshots or facts checking. Also means no photo editing, so you’ll be stuck with recycled pictures. I’m sorry. I’ll try to compensate with more dirty jokes.

Meters are Backstabbing Jerks

The day after 4.0.1 dropped, a pally friend whispered me: “We’re still bad at raid healing, and now we’re bad at tank healing too. Anything we can do, every other class can do better. There’s just no point in bringing us to raids anymore.“

Even after the hotfix, it’s no secret paladins are looking terrible on the meters. This may or may not have improved since my forced vacation from WoW. In a guild with a strong, knowledgeable healing team this doesn’t matter (I’ve yet to receive a single negative comment from my guildies) but out in wild wild PuGs with under geared tanks and incompetent co-healers, our weaker output on paper (or is it on screen?) makes us the innocent target of much abuse.

Death to the Mediocre Paladin

It used to sadden me (ok, that’s an understatement, it sent me into a blind rage) when people would complain about paladin healing being too easy before 4.0.1.

What is more accurate is that pre-4.0.1, paladin healing was easy to be mediocre at. Any moron could spam holy light and keep a tank up while looking great on the meters. The good holy paladin, however, saved many teammates with the clever use of their Hands and Holy Shock. Prevented wipes with their cooldowns. Could compensate for dead or incapacitated co-healers by creatively adjusting Beacon and Sacred Shield targets. Being good, now, that took perfect reflexes, excellent judgment and a deep understanding of fight mechanics.

I’ve raided with many, many holy paladins in my time. I can count the good ones on the fingers of a single hand.

Ok, so enough about the past, you say. What about now? How do I make them love me now? And, well, more or less the same as before. Except now mediocrity isn’t enough.

How to Really Shine as a Healadin in 4.0.1

1) Expect the worst. Remember that girl at Blizzcon who said dps shouldn’t be taking damage? She wasn’t a healer. Unless you’re raiding with Ensidia or some other high end guild (and you’re probably not if you’re reading this blog), people are going to be stupid and terribad in every possible way. And you’re going to shut up and appreciate the challenge. After sweating buckets healing a tank standing in the fire (or healing a 5 man tanked by a mage), you’re going turn around and say “thank you, may I have another“. Always come prepared for the worst case scenario. It’s the rationale behind stacking mana you won’t use up, behind keeping a cooldown handy, behind watching everyone’s health bar, not only your assignments’. Your job comes first, but preventing a wipe is a close second and is everyone’s responsibility.

2) Gauge each player. The tank in blues will risk being two shotted and will struggle with aggro. The overgeared hunter will pull aggro all over the place. The priest with ungemmed gear will be dead weight. When you regularly run with the same group, notice patterns in their behaviour. The DK tank who often runs out of line of sight. The bear who forgets to use his cooldowns. The priest who gets tunnel vision. The rogue that always runs to the wrong side. Knowing each player’s individual flaws lets you act preemptively, whether it be positioning yourself strategically, hovering your finger over a cooldown at the right moment or being ready to yell “PERSON A! OTHER SIDE!”

3) Use Your Hands You’ve got four of them! Hand of Protection (which you can read about in depth if you click the link) will keep those clothies up all night. Or at least during trash and adds heavy fights. Hand of Salvation, or should I say Handjob of Salv, will earn you the undying love of at least one dps. (I’ve always wanted a macro that whispers my HoSalv target with “Handjob of Salv on you…enjoy the afterglow!“) Hand of Freedom will shut up many whiny tanks who complain they can’t move. Hand of Sacrifice, though inconveniently needing to be paired with Divine Protection or Divine Shield (depending on circumstances), is still a powerful single target damage reduction tool. You won’t use it often, but when everyone else’s cooldowns are used up and all hope is lost, you’ll learn to love it.

4) Use the right Aura. A common oversight that needed to be mentioned. Your raid will remind you if you forget to remove Crusader Aura, but no one will tell you if you leave Retribution Aura up. Resistance Aura for magic damage fights (you can use it for pretty much all of ICC) and Devotion Aura for physical damage fights. Since you’re now the only person with Aura Mastery, you’ll want to keep up the Aura most useful to the current fight.

5) Blizzard gave you cooldowns for a reason. I love cooldowns. I love cooldowns a lot. I keep pictures of cooldowns in my locker. I cried when they took Divine Sacrifice from me. It leaves us with Aura Mastery as our only real mass raid mitigation ability. If you’re expecting a period of major damage (or of mass stupidity), save it. Otherwise give everyone a break and use it on cooldown. Single target-wise, you’ve got your Hands and also your Lay on Hands. With the new short cooldown, you can use it about once a fight now. It’s perfect for those EEKINEEDASPELLBUTNOTIME moments. Save a tank, lay your hands on them.

6) Bubble for the cure Simultaneous need to move and cast Divine Light? Bubble, cast, move. Don’t abuse Divine Shield, but in a pinch, you’ve got an extra 8 seconds of reaction time.

7) Dispell, dispell, dispell What more do I have to say? If you can dispell it, do so. Unless it’s the abom on Putricide. Don’t dispell that unless a wipe is called.

8.) Remember it’s a healing TEAM. If you know you won’t be able to keep the tank up, get a druid to spare some HoTs. If another healer falters, spare an instant cast on their target while they recover. Notice damage patterns. Share your observations. In a PuG, your efforts won’t always be welcome, but more often than not, they will be.

Finally, remember that timing is everything. What holy paladins are currently missing in mitigation and raw output, we make up for in precision. With short but powerful abilities like Hand of Protection or Divine Shield, with several instant spells that can prevent a two-shot and with a mastery that allows a small buffer to cover casting periods, your timing can make or break your gameplay and be the difference between a kill and a run back.

Get the right spells out and the right times, and you’re a machine. You can’t fix meter-obsessed idiots, but you can prevent a wipe.

A Theorycrafting Stumble

EDIT: And the mystery is solved! Huge thanks to Suicidal Zebra for pointing out where I went wrong and how to fix it. I’m going to leave this post here though, as it’s a good lesson for other number newbies like me who’re trying to figure how this mathematical magic happens.

You number people will love this one.

I promised I’d do some research to find the new spell coefficients for holy paladins. Since the tooltips weren’t updated with the paladin hotfix, I was left with the immense pleasure of doing it all by hand. So that’s what I did. I stood in Darnassus, hit a dummy to stay in combat and recorded my overheal as I showered myself with heals.

I tested all of our spells, approximately 50 hits per spell and was feeling rather smug about myself. Then I got the idea to retest the spells with a different spell power.

Surprise, surprise, they didn’t match up.

The equation: Heal output = Base heal + SP*Coefficient

I used the base values from Wowhead, which, for Holy Light are 2871 to 3197, averaging at 3034.

I made a special blank talent tree to avoid the annoying Conviction talent. I left my retribution glyphs in, but I checked several times to make sure none of them affected healing. Finally, I removed my Ashen Band of Endless Wisdom to avoid the spell power proc. None of the rest of my gear had any procs that affected spell power or healing.

My results with 3427 spell power were the following:

I used the crits as a second sample to compare values. Dividing the crit values by 1.5 produces 6014-6343-6742.

Both samples produced the same coefficients: 0.92 for the minimum value, 0.97 for the average value and 1.0 for the maximum value. While the coefficients don’t exactly line up, I took into consideration that the max and min values are extremes and concluded that 0.97 was my Holy Light coefficient.

Just to be safe, though, I retested it a few days later after removing some clothes. At 1968 spell power, I received the following values:

Dividing the crit by 1.5 produced 5533-5797-6040.

I plugged in my coefficient equation and obtained: 1.35 as minimum, 1.4 as the average and 1.44 as the maximum.

Again the crits and hits produced identical coefficients.

Which leaves me with the following theories:

1) I screwed up somewhere (that’s where you guys come in handy!)

2) There’s diminishing returns to our spell power, at least for Holy Light.

3) The spell power coefficient is now exponential.

4) We received a hotfix between my high spell power and low spell power testing.

I checked #4 by testing Holy Light at full spell power again, this time on the same day as my low spell power test. At 3622 spell power, I received the following:

The crit values, divided by 1.5 are 6111-6358-6579.

The coefficients for this sample are: 0.89 minimum, 0.91 average and 0.93 maximum.

Again, the coefficients for the crits and the hits are almost identical.

These results seem to suggest diminishing returns with spell power, at least for Holy Light: the more spell power we stack, the lower the coefficient.

Thoughts?

Numbers for 4.0.1

EDIT: As of Oct 19, there were changes made to our spells so the coefficient values might not be correct anymore. The tooltips are no longer accurate, so it’s back to the old fashion method. I’m leaving for Blizzcon Wednesday night, so I don’t know when I’ll be able to update this. I’ll try for tomorrow, but chances are it’ll be next week.

I jotted down my numbers for 4.0.1 and thought that others might want them as a reference. Feel free to double check my math.

Stat Conversions
46 mastery rating = 1 point of mastery
1 int = 0.0075% Crit, 1 SP

Spell Coefficients
WoW automatically calculates the range of each spell and displays it in the tooltips now (screenshots after the cut), so I calculated the coefficients by comparing the in-game numbers to the values on Wowhead.
Coefficients work like this: Base heal value + (Spell power*coefficient) = Heal output

Holy Light = 0.33
Divine Light = 1.04
Flash of Light = 0.77
Holy Shock = 0.69
Word of Glory = 0.22 (calculated for 1 point of holy power, assuming coefficient is independent of holy power points)

Keeping Your Head Above Water in 4.0.1

Update Oct 19, 2010 – Looks like Blizzard gave in to our begging and gave us a boost. Pretty much everything here still holds true, although the “our output suuuuucks” jokes loose somewhat of their meaning. Because we’re still very much single target healers and mastery still isn’t recorded (I know a few people have found a trick to make Recount show mastery, but I tried it and all it did was crash Recount), we’re still low on the meters, but at least now our spells are smacking for amounts that seem reasonable.

Healing meters in 4.0.1:

Don’t be shocked. It sucks, but that’s the way it is. Keep in mind that the absorbs done by our Mastery, Illuminated Healing aren’t recorded by either Recount or World of Logs, so we aren’t doing quite as badly as we think.

After fooling around in-game, talking to other paladins (<3 Kurn, Anolaana and the paladin formally known as the hunter Grindin) and reading Elitist Jerks, blogs, Plus Heal and even the official forums (most of it is QQ, but there are a few early guides posted), I’ve compiled my notes for Holy, version 4.0.1.

At this point, there is very little agreed upon and most of the Big Thinkers are keeping their eyes on Cataclysm, so any arguing, criticizing, complaining and commiserating is totally welcome.

Spec and Seal

More challenging but probably more efficient: 31/2/3
If you don’t want to give up your old healing style: 31/3/2

For the last two minor glyphs, take your pick. With the exception of Lay on Hands, our minor glyphs are really stupid.

Seal of Insight is the seal you’ll keep up.

Gemming and Stats

Keep your Brilliant Cardinal Rubies for now (+20 Intellect). Can’t go wrong with the more mana, spell power and crit they provide.

Meta gem-wise, I’m having trouble giving up my Insightful Earthsiege Diamond, but Revitalizing Skyflare Diamond is good too.

Enchants are:
Head – Arcanum of Blissful Mending or Arcanum of Burning Mysteries
Shoulders - Greater Inscription of the Crag or Greater Inscription of the Pinnacle
Back – Greater Speed or Wisdom
Chest – Powerful Stats or Greater Mana Restoration (now gives 20 spirit)
Legs – Brilliant Spellthread
Wrists -Superior Spellpower or Exceptional Intellect or Major Spirit
Hands – Exceptional Spellpower
Feet – Tuskarr’s Vitality or Greater Spirit or Icewalker
Rings – Greater Spellpower
Weapon – Mighty Spellpower or Exceptional Spirit or Major Intellect

*Be sure to wear all plate gear (no more of that stinky mail) now, as Plate Specialization now gives us a 5% Intellect boost.

As for other stats beyond Intellect:

Spirit: Often listed as 2nd important stat after Int. Depends on your gear and playstyle. Reports vary from “my mana bar is stuck at 100%” to “I was OOM a few seconds into the first pull”. Personally, I go through my whole mana bar during an ICC 25 HM fight, but I’m not struggling, even after reforging my spirit to mastery. Adjust your spirit according to your mileage. Err on the side of caution: as long there is mana, there can be life.

Haste: Unknown. Soft cap (global cooldown reduced to 1 second) is reported to be 1019 (thanks Auracen) when raid buffed and Judgments of the Pure is up. Opinions vary on whether to bother reaching the soft cap, staying at the soft cap or going beyond. If you’re keeping an old fashion playstyle (big heal spamming) pump up the haste. Otherwise, you’ll be using a lot of instants with a few long casts (Holy Light and Divine Light) thrown in, so my recommendation is keep your haste, but don’t gem or reforge to it either.

Crit:Yes. With the exception of Divine Light (which is expensive and slow), all our heals are pathetic. Crit amplifies healing, triggers Conviction and makes for more Mastery absorbs. A Holy Shock crit triggers Infusion of Light. Embrace crit.

Mastery: Probably good. To my knowledge, the absorbs from Illuminated Healing (IH) aren’t tracked anywhere so I don’t know how it looks in practice. However, IH does trigger after every heal (except Protector of the Innocent, thanks Jeffo), which is good. The duration is too short to be used for raid healing, but on a tank or in PvP, it offers a free mini-heal in the form of an absorb between heals.

Buff, Proc and Cooldown Tracking

Buffs: Set your raid frames to track Beacon of Light and Illuminated Healing.

Procs: Have a notification for Infusion of Light. If you don’t like the default Holy Power tracker, consider finding an addon to notify you when you reach 3 stracks. Some paladins are also tracking Speed of Light, but since it procs every time you use Holy Shock, it seems a bit silly.

Cooldowns: Holy Shock. Keep an eye on Avenging Wrath, Divine Favor, Aura Mastery and Divine Plea as well.

Addons

Holy Trinity: Tracks cooldowns and Holy Power. Not the overly useful for holy pallies, but awesome if you’re polyspectual.

Ristretto Power: Tracks Holy Power stacks.

clcInfo:Seems to keep track of anything you want. Not usable straight out of the box, unfortunately.

Pally Power: Not as essential as it was… Good if you like the buff timer and Righteous Fury reminder.

Playstyle

See Dreaming’s blog, A Touch of Arcane, for a quick explanation of the Tower of Radiance build.

The idea of a rotation as a paladin healer disturbs me, but the way to wring the most out of our miserable state is this:

1- Any time you have 3 stacks of Holy Power, use Word of Glory.
2- Any time you do not have 3 stacks of Holy Power and Holy Shock is available, Holy Shock.
3- After every Holy Shock, can Divine Light, unless you’re in situation #1 or #2.
4- If Infusion of Light procs, cast Divine Light followed by Holy Light, unless you’re in situation #1 or #2.
5- When waiting for Holy Shock cooldowns and building Holy Power stacks, cast Divine Light.
6- If mana is an issue, swap Divine Light for Holy Light.
7- If time is of the essence, swap Divine Light for Flash of Light. (This shouldn’t happen often.)
8- Avenging Wrath can be used every time it comes off cooldown.

Basically, your rotation looks like HS->HS (if Daybreak prevented the CD)-> DL->HL/DL (depending on mana or Infusion of Light proc)->DL->HS->WoG->WoG (if you’re specced into Eternal Glory and it procs).

Alternatively, you can spam Divine Light/Holy Shock/Word of Glory on your assignment until you run out of mana. You’ll be far from your best, but it is possible to keep the tank up while fumbling with your spells.

Light of Dawn: If there’s a lot of AoE damage and people are closish together, have fun with it. (Also use when feeling the urge to admire new glowy sparkly spell effects -courtesy of @Alice_desu)

Beacon of Light: Keep on your assignment in most situations. To maximize the Holy Power you get, cast Divine Light and Holy Light on your beacon target. Depending on the fight, you may cast Holy Shock and Word of Glory on other targets, but remember that beacon has been seriously nerfed and under most circumstance, it’s not enough to keep a tank up.

Divine Favor: Haste and crit boosting cooldown, use on cooldown or during periods of heavy damage.

Divine Plea: Has been nerfed into the ground, sadly. Like before the patch, if you use it mid-combat try to pop a healing output boosting cooldown to take an edge off the 50% healing penalty.

Conclusion:

Now, if you do everything perfectly and don’t waste a single global cooldown, you should be able to beat the shadow priest on the healing meters. Most of the time ;D.

Don’t get me wrong, healing as a paladin in 4.0.1 is really fun. It’s fast paced, it’s interactive, it keeps you on your toes. Unfortunately, as things are now, our healing style isn’t compatible with healing meters, which is discouraging. Despite what some believe, we are still very capable of keeping a tank up. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Shut off Recount (enjoy the lag reduction from that), take the “Healing Done” page on World of Logs with a grain of salt and just focus on having a good time. From what I’m told, in a couple of weeks we’ll get some better changes when a certain Cataclysm becomes available at a gaming store near you.

The Night of 4.0.1 and Some Initial Thoughts

The servers came up about an hour before our raid time. I quickly hopped on my Auction House character and posted the glyphs I made the night before. Auctioneer was broken… I panicked for a second as I tried to put up glyphs one at a time. Then I figured I’d give Auctionator a try. I have to say, I really like it. For my AH style, it’s actually faster at posting than Auctioneer was.

Once that was out of the way, I quickly copied the spec Kurn suggested, equipped the glyphs I had laid out the night before and stuck the gem I was saving into my libram. I talked to my trainer a bit and flipped through my spellbook. I redid my keybinds, screamed at my not-working Grid, got the default raid frames into something that didn’t look like boxes were vomitted all over my screen and took a deep breath. I would have taken a screenshot, but I’ll spare you that kind of trauma.

The Joys of Raiding after a Patch

We were only slightly late at getting the raid started, pulling barely an hour after the servers came up. We were 20 manning it, addons were bugged all over the place, bringing everyone’s FPS into the negatives, disconnects were going off right and left, and most of us had no idea what we were doing. I was also struggling with 4000-7000 latency. And latency is probably my #1 in-game anger trigger- delays in casting times send me into a blind rage every.single.time.

Probably my biggest flaw as a healer, and one of my biggest flaws as a person, is that I get very stressed when I’m learning something. With me, learning is always an intense process. And here I was with a character I felt I’d never played before and disgusting raid frames I had to shield my eyes from, trying to figure out which of my spells did what.

We then proceeded to spend two hours wiping on Heroic Marrowgar 25. I was a sobbing, hyperventilating mess. Between my lag and frustration at not knowing how to play my character, I was utterly furious. But as I was typing an “ok, I can’t do this, I’m off to bed” message, it suddenly dawned on me that I was the only one bothered. Everyone else was laughing and joking around as we wiped, waited for all the disconnected people to come back online, tried to figure out which addon was causing which problem. I forced myself to calm down a little.

That’s when we killed the boss.

We took a couple of shots at heroic Deathwhisper, then called it.

Paladin Impressions

It’s hard for me to give a good impression because I was lagging so badly. I didn’t run out of mana! Probably because I couldn’t cast anything…

But from I was able to tell from less laggy moments and from spamming myself in Ironforge, I don’t think mana will be the problem it was predicted to be. I still had well over 40k mana and could spam quite a bit of the new big heal (Divine Heal? I’m terrible with names) without making so much of a dent. So while spirit is a useful stat now, I don’t think it’ll be at the forefront of stat stacking.

I’m currently gemmed all intellect, and it seems like a good choice for now. With the conversion of int into both spell power and mana, it’s a pretty sweet stat. I do feel like I need more haste, but whether that was due to the lag or a change in mechanics, I’m not sure. It just seemed that my global cooldown last years, while pre-patch, I didn’t even notice the global cooldown.

I’ll give it another go tonight by running some heroics, but I think I might I might do some reforging to up my haste. I believe I’m at around 1100 haste right now and it just doesn’t feel like enough.

About crit, I didn’t get the chance to look into it much. Everything seems to increase crit, but I haven’t figured out what happens when you crit, other than you get some unreliable overheal. I’m sure crit triggers something, but I’m in a crappy timezone, so I had to go to bed right after the raid.

Spell wise, the new little spell, Holy Light, seems to hit for a lot less than the old Flash of Light. At 4000 spell power, I felt like it wasn’t doing much. The new big heal, however, is comparable to the old Holy Light, so I was mostly casting that last night. The new Flash of Light, the “fast, hard hitting spell”, was a piece of crap, in my opinion. It took about the same casting time as new Holy Light, and barely healed for more. Might as well just use Holy Shock.

Holy Shock is fun, seems to be comparable in strength to what it was before. I kept forgetting about Holy Power and using, um, Word of Glory?. Word of Glory seems nice, doesn’t hit for very much (wtb more possible stacks of Holy Power), but it’s instant and it’s mana free, so no right to complain. Light of Dawn looks very cool. Very disco lighty. I didn’t get much chance to use it since we were spread out all over the place during Marrowgar’s AoE damage, but I can think of a few uses for it. Not our top spell, but, you know, situational.

With the nerf to Beacon of Light, I felt very cheated. One of our weaknesses in the past was that we were stuck with single target healing. At least then we could do double target healing. Last night, I had BoL on the tank that seemed to be taking the biggest beating, and was spam healing my tank. That’s it, just spam healing my tank. Very sad. Since my newly found global cooldown couldn’t really be spared to pitch in anywhere else, I feel like I’m even more restricted than I was before.

Last Word on Tank Healing

I didn’t check last night’s logs. Too discouraged. However, my tank was always the last one to die. Now whether this is because we’re still kickass tank healers or because the other tank healers had to stop healing their targets to heal mine, I don’t know.

Oh, and when I checked my AH character after the raid, I had 2000 gold waiting in my mailbox. Not bad for barely 15 minutes of work!

How was everyone else’ patch night?

ps. Apologies for the hastily written, unresearched post. Only had a few minutes between classes and I wanted to write a bit.

Easy to Acquire Haste Gear

I was working on a post about haste and why we like it/love it/want more of it. Then I got the stupid idea to make a list of easily acquired gear with haste, to refer complaints about not being able to find haste gear to. To prove that those complaints are unfounded, the list became quite long and ended up better serving as a stand alone post.

So here is a list of regular ICC, Ruby Sanctum and ToC 25 gear that has haste on it. And if you’re all good, maybe you’ll eventually get a post about the goodness of haste itself.

Note that this isn’t a best in slot list in any shape or form. It’s just a reference for those who don’t have access to heroic level gear and who suffer from the whims of pugs, RNG and limited playtime.

Weapons
Lockjaw ~ Rotface 10 ~ 52 Haste ~ Probably your best bet on regular modes.
Quel’Delar, Lens of the Mind ~ Quel’Delar questline ~ 49 Haste ~ Perfect for puggers or those with a lot of money.
Misery’s End ~ Anub-arak 25 ~ 58 Haste ~ Pretty good for ToC gear, if you’re lucky enough to find a ToC 25 pug.
Frost Needle ~ Marrowgar, 10 ~ 54 Haste ~ Is a dps caster weapon, but if you’re desperate…

Shields
Bulwark of Smouldering Steel ~ Marrowgar 25 ~ 60 Haste ~ Yes please.
Lost Pavise of the Blue Flight ~ Sindragosa 10 ~ 53 Haste ~ If you’re not into 25 mans, this is your best bet.
Bastion of Purity ~ Faction Champions 25 ~ 50 Haste ~ If you want to do ToC 25.

Helms
Lightsworn Headpiece ~ Tier 10, badges ~ 80 Haste ~ Upgrade it if you can. If you’re badge deprived, the tier 9 helm is also hastiful.
Judgement Crown ~ Onyxia 25 ~ 87 Haste ~ Not a bad piece.
Ice-Reinforced Vrykul Helm ~ Gunship 10 ~ 88 Haste ~ It’s mail, but well itemized.
Helm/Headguard of Inner Warmth ~ 75 Emblems of Triumph ~ 66 Haste ~ Mail. If you have no other choice.

Neck
Blood Queen’s Crimson Choker ~ Random drop, Blood Wing 25 ~ 53 Haste ~ Best you’re going to get on normal mode.
Bone Sentinel’s Amulet ~ Marrowgar 25 ~ 52 Haste ~ Decent, but good luck convincing the priests and the druids.
Choker of Filthy Diamonds ~ Rotface 10 ~ 53 Haste ~ Good deal.
Soulcleave Pendant ~ Saurfang 10 ~ 43 Haste ~ Also a good deal.
Relentless Gladiator’s Pendant of Subjugation ~ PvP ~ 50 Haste ~ Decent Haste. Lacking on the other stats.
Wail of the Val’kyr ~ Val’kyr Twins 25 ~ 38 Haste ~ If you have no other choice.

Shoulders
Lightsworn Spaulders ~ Tier 10, badges ~ 63 Haste ~ Get them, upgrade if you can. Tier 9 also has haste if needed.
Pauldrons of the Cavalier ~ 45 Triumph badges ~ 67 Haste ~ Decent, but not as good at tier.
Horrific Flesh Epaulets ~ Festergut 25 ~ 64 Haste ~ Mail, but decent.
Shoulderguards of Crystalline Bone ~ Sindragosa 10 ~ 55 Haste ~ Mail, but ok.

Cloak
Cloak of Burning Dusk ~ Halion 25 ~ 64 Haste ~ Awesome cloak, but good luck getting your paws on it!
Frostbinder’s Shredded Cape ~ Dreamwalker 25 ~ 52 Haste ~ Another great cloak that everyone will fight you for.
Wrathful Gladiator’s Cloak of Subjugation ~ PvP ~ 60 Haste ~ It’s pvp, but if you’re desperate…
Abduction’s Cover ~ Halion 10 ~ 57 Haste ~ Good bet if you have access to 10 man Halion gear.
Heartsick Mender’s Cape ~ Blood Princes 10 ~ 45 Haste ~ Decent.
Flowing Sapphiron Drape ~ Onyxia 25 ~ 35 Haste ~ If you’re desperate… but you’re better off going with the hasteless badge cloak.

Chest
Rot-Resistant Breastplate ~ Rotface 25 ~100 Haste ~ Best you can get on normal.
Lightsworn Tunic ~ Tier 10, badges ~ 80 Haste ~ If you’re buying.
Breast/Chestplate of the Frozen Lake ~ Val’Kyr Twin 25 ~ 90 Haste ~ ToC 25 gear, but pretty good.
Mail of Crimson Coins ~ Blood Princes 25 ~ 84 Haste ~ Mail, but decent.
Chestguard of Siphoned Elements ~ Blood Queen 10 ~ 96 Haste ~ Mail, but 10 man accessible.

Bracers
Crypt Keeper’s Bracers ~ Blood Princes 25 ~ 50 Haste ~ Your best bet.
Bracers of Pale Illumination ~ Gunship 10 ~ 45 Haste ~ 10 man gear.
Sunforged Bracers ~ Crafted ~ 50 Haste ~ If you’re desperate
Bloodsunder’s Bracers ~ Rotface 25 ~ 60 Haste ~ Mail
Coldwraith Bracers ~ Marrowgar 10 ~ 49 Haste ~ Mail, 10 man

Hands
Fallen Lord’s Handguards ~ Deathwhisper 25 ~ 64 Haste ~ Your best bet.
Gauntlets of Overexposure ~ 60 Frost Emblem ~ 64 Haste ~ Same as above, only purchasable.
Turalyon’s/Liadrin’s Gloves of Triumph ~ Tier 9 ~ 67 Haste (25 man version) ~ If you’re desperate
Unclean Surgical Gloves ~ Festergut 25 ~ 80 Haste ~ Mail.
Stormbringer Gloves ~ Dreamwalker 10 ~ 74 Haste ~ Mail, 10 man-friendly.

Waist
Belt of the Lonely Noble/Lich Killer’s Lanyard ~ ICC 25 drop/60 Frost badges ~ 64 Haste ~ I’m only linking to one, but they’re identical and easy to get.
Surrogate Belt ~ Halion 10 ~ 60 Haste ~ Not as accessible, but good for 10 man, if you can kill Halion.
Tightening Waistband ~ Blood Queen 10 ~ 71 Haste ~ 10-man-friendly
Split Shape Belt ~ Halion 25 ~ 86 Haste ~ Mail, if you can down Halion 25
Belt of the Blood Nova ~ ICC Random Drop ~ 72 Haste ~ Mail, BoE.
Deathspeaker Disciple’s Belt ~ Deathwhisper 10 ~ 74 Haste ~ Mail, 10 man-friendly

Legs
Lightning-Infused Leggings ~ Crafted LW ~ 100 Haste ~ Mail, but actually better than the plate crafted ones.
Puresteel Legplates ~ Crafted ~ 92 Haste ~ Plate, but not as nice as the mail legs.
Corrupted Silverplate Leggings ~ Marrowgar 25 ~ 87 Haste ~ Decent.
Leggings of Failing Light ~ Jaraxxus 25 ~ 84 Haste ~ If you’re in a ToC 25 pug
Rippling Flesh Kilt ~ Putricide 10 ~ 84 Haste ~ Mail, 10 man friendly
Leggings/Leggards of Concealed Hatred ~ Faction Champions 25 ~ 74 Haste ~ Mail, ToC

Feet
Foreshadow Steps ~ Halion 25 ~86 Haste ~ Awesome, if you have access to Halion 25 loot.
Protectors of Life ~ Crafted ~ 64 Haste ~ Not as exciting as the mail crafted boots.
Boots/Sabatons of the Courageous ~ Northrend Beasts 25 ~ 67 Haste ~ Yeah, there’s not much in terms of plate boots in ICC.
Earthsoul Boots ~ Crafted ~ 80 Haste ~ Mail, but better than the plate crafted boots.
Shuffling Shoes ~ Rotface 10 ~ 60 Haste ~ Mail, 10 man friendly.
Boots of Divided Being ~ Halion 10 ~ 55 Haste ~ Mail.
Boots/Sabatons of Tremoring Earth ~ Faction Champions 25 ~ 67 Haste ~ Mail, ToC gear.

Rings
Ashen Band of Endless Wisdom ~ ICC Reputation Award, Exalted ~
59 Haste ~ No Brainer! If you’re not exalted yet, get the lower ones and upgrade.
Ring of Phased Regeneration ~ Halion 25 ~ 56 Haste ~ If you have access to Halion 25…
Marrowgar’s Frigid Eye ~ Random Drop ICC 25 ~ 60 Haste ~ Quite good. Also BoE if you want to buy it.
Ring of Rapid Ascent ~ Gunship 25 ~ 52 Haste ~ Another good bet.
Cerise Coiled Ring ~ Blood Princes 10 ~ 35 Haste ~ 10 man friendly
Runed Signet of the Kirin Tor ~ Dalaran Vendor ~ 54 Haste ~ If you have a lot of gold.
Signet of Putrefaction ~ Festergut 10 ~ 45 Haste ~ 10 man friendly
Circle of the Darkmender ~ Jaraxxus 25 ~ 50 Haste ~ 25 man ToC

Trinkets and Librams :There aren’t any trinkets or librams that I’d recommend for haste. Stick with a trusty intellect trinket or Solace, keep your Renewal libram if you’re a holy light paladin or your pvp libram if you’re a Flash of Light paladin.

And now I never want to see Wowhead for the rest of my life.

Shared Topic: When should a healer let someone die?

I’m cheating a little bit with this Shared Topic, it was actually last week’s Shared, but it’s such a perfect Bossy Pally topic that I’m stretching the week a little bit so I can participate… To my greatest joy, Ecclesiasticaldisc from Ecclesiastical Discipline brought up the Ultimate healer question for our Shared Topic: When should a healer let someone die?

It’s a great topic and a lot of people joined in, so click on the links to the other posts in the thread at Blog Azeroth (I will get around to doing the Twisted Nether writeup after this) to check out what others have to say.

What I’m Supposed to Answer is This:

It’s never appropriate to let someone die if it can be avoided. Of course, prioritizing what’s best for the group (such as keeping the tank alive!) sometimes results in a few casulties, but a healer should always do their best to keep everyone alive. The healer version to one of the Great Tanking Rules ™ is this : If someone dies and your cooldowns are still up and you weren’t saving them (your cooldowns, not the dead player) for later on in the fight, then that death was your fault.

What is Closer to the Truth:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

A Nicer way of Putting it:

Ok, I don’t see it as letting people die. I see it as…um…readjusting my priorities. Yes, that’s it. Readjusting my priorities.

As Ecclesiasticaldisc seemed to nervously touch on in her post on the topic, in a 5 man, healers are the backbone of the group. Very few tanks can carry a bad group without a good healer. A good healer, however, can carry 4 blundering idiots through just about anything.

I don’t let stupid people die. I don’t understand when healers say: “I let this idiot die because he was dumb!” I never let a dumb player die. They take care of that all by themselves. Hey, if I was busy healing the tank (either the apparent tank or the actual tank – the two are not necessarily the same person) and someone who’s not the actual tank just happens to jump off a cliff/run into the next pack of mobs/whatever else they might do to die despite my cooldowns, well, I didn’t let them die. Sorry.

If someone’s annoying me (which is rare, I have amazing obliviousness skills), then maybe they’ll drop down the priority list. Maybe, oooooh, maybe I’ll suddenly be preoccupied with redoing buffs until the foul mouth pally tank’s Ardent Defender procs. Maybe I’ll have a need to focus on the tank while the jackass of shadow priest stands in crap. Or maybe Hand of Protection will be on cooldown when the whiney mage pulls aggro. Maybe. ‘Cos, you know, it can happen.

Is it right?

Nope.

Do I care?

This is me caring: -_-

Raids are a different story

In a 5-man, my goal is to get my badges using the least effort possible. Which means no wiping and no major dps losses. That leaves a lot of room to my whims.

On a raid boss, we need everyone. The fights are longer and even a foul mouthed underperforming dps can shave decent seconds off a boss kill. Also, I typically run raids with my guild. On an average day, there’s no one pissing me off to where I can’t find it in me to heal them. There’s been the odd occasion, on a below-average day, where I’ve showered certain non-tanks with less heals, but according to the Strict Healing Assignment Rule ™ (HAHAHAHA!) I’m not supposed to stray from my assignment (typically the tanks) anyway….

So, When Should a Healer Let Someone die?

What you should do, is you should never let someone die if you can avoid it. That’s what you should do.

The Secret to Healing Sindragosa as a Paladin

I wasn’t going to write this post. When I got back from vacation and thought about post writing and stuff, I told myself, naaaah, no one wants to read about Sindragosa anymore. At least not normal mode Sindragosa, not with all those shiny hard mode guides everwhere. But after talking with other paladins, I discovered that some are still deprived from the Secret. The Secret to healing Sindragosa as a paladin.

Ok, so you know phase 3? The one where the tanks play hot potato with the boss? And you’re TRYING to keep your beacon on the right tank while not dying and not getting too many stacks of everything? Yeah, that phase.

The closest thing I had to a Sindragosa screenshot

Oh, but before I reveal the Secret, here are some other tricks to healing Sindragosa:

1- If you have trouble running from Blistering Cold, you might be standing too far away. You don’t want to be in melee range (you’ll get mana back as you melee but you’ll also take Chilled to the Bone damage), yet you don’t want to be at max range either. The further you are, the more time you waste getting pulled in.

2- When I’m affected by Unchained Magic, I rack up 5 stacks of Instability by casting Holy Light, then count down from 5 before starting over. Everyone has their own strategy, but that’s the one that works for me. 5 stacks means I get decent healing out before having to pause, but there’s still some leeway in case I need to make an emergency cast.

3- On the last phase, when she’s throwing Frost Beacons around and getting poor, good-willing, innocent holy paladins caught in misplaced Frost Tombs, you can get out of the way by getting slightly closer to her. Don’t melee her (you don’t want to be Chilled to the Bone), but snuggling up will keep you out of the path of wayward Frost Beacons who can’t run fast enough dropping their tombs on your face.

As for the Secret…

On the last phase, as the tanks take turns holding Sindy’s interest, as everyone is out of line of sight all the time and as you take tons, oh tons of damage…beacon yourself. Just beacon yourself. Direct heal whichever tank is currently hanging on to the boss and bask in the redirected heals.

(Edit: Only do this on the last phase, when the constant switching of beacon targets becomes a waste of GCDs and mana. For the rest of the fight, just beacon whoever is tanking the boss.)

Suddenly your life becomes so much easier. The constant influx of heals on yourself means you don’t have to drop your stacks as often, you don’t have to blame the raid healers for not healing you, you can just focus on what you do best: delivering ginormous, blissful, toe-curling tank heals.

And, that, friends, is the secret to getting those scary, epic Sindragosa kills that end with only you and the tanks alive, and the rest of the raid groveling in admiration at your feet.

Things About Healing the Lich King fight as a Paladin that the Lich King Doesn’t Want You to Know

I got a request to write about healing the Lich King fight (as opposed to healing the Lich King- that doesn’t happen, you don’t get to heal the Lich King). I’m a bit of at a loss for words. I don’t have an epic story to tell, my tears of frustration are too fresh to have gained that (melo)dramatic tint of QQ. I don’t have a specific mechanic in mind to focus on. Heck, while I’ve seen the first two phases way more often that I care to admit, phase 3 is a bit of a blurr in my mind. Once you get there, Arthas gets really squishy, really fast, so my memories of that phase are mainly fumbling around for my boss fight notes while pretending to know what I’m doing.

So I reach out to my final (and usually also first) resort: cheap pop psychology/health with a “they’re against us” feel. Things about healing the Lich King fight that the Lich King doesn’t want you to know.

1- You’ll have your hands full with the tanks

I hate infests, I really do. Not because they chew up your team if your discipline priests and raid healers are otherwise occupied with whatever else they may be doing, but because there’s all that deep, glorious damage going on and there’s nothing I can do about it. If I take my attention away from the tanks, the tanks go splat. Chances are you’ll face the same. Despite what Arthas wants you to do, you have to trust your raid healers and keep your attention on the tanks.

2- You can dispel diseases in Phase 1

It’s tough, but you can do it. On both 10 and 25 man, we typically have a disc priest cover dispels, but I’ve done it on occasion. Make sure you have Necrotic Plague showing on your raid frames. Call out whoever gets the Plague so they can move towards the Shambling Horrors pronto. (Assuming here you have all the range stacked together on Phase 1.) Dispel sooner than later. A death due to Plague will likely be a wipe, an extra jump of the Plague is salvageable.

3- During the parts with two tanks, direct heal the Lich King tank, beacon the other tank

More often than not, you’ll have more people hanging around the Lich King, cheerfully in range of your Glyph of Holy Light splash. This is especially true of phase 1. After that, it’s just more convenient and I’m all about convenience. On 25 man, during the single tank parts, I’ll move beacon to myself since constantly swapping beacon around is hassle on top of being a waste of mana and global cooldowns. On 10 man, we don’t tank swap so I keep Arthas’ tank beaconed.

4- Following Arthas’ cooldown timers helps you move to the right spot, at the right time

Your boss fight addon of choice keeps track of Val’kyrs, Defiles and Soul Reaper. I’ve had guildies complain that their timers are off, but I haven’t had any problems. I use Deadly Boss Mods. Have a Holy Light timed to hit right after a Soul Reaper. Right after a Defile, move back to your Val’Kyr position. Right after the Val’Kyr(s) chooses its/their target, position yourself in a way to move fast if you get targeted for Defile, but within Hammer of Justice path of the Val’Kyr(s).

You’ve probably discovered by now that moving too much isn’t very compatible with tank healing, especially on this fight, so you’ll want to limit movement as much as possible by anticipating the upcoming optimal location and timing your moving with Soul Reaper.

5- Raging Spirits don’t have to eat your face

If a Raging Spirit (during the transition phases) spawns near you, you can, you know, move. It can take the tanks a second or two to pick up the Spirits and it takes far less than a second for the Spirits to turn you into pulp. The solution is to be far enough from a newly born Raging Spirit to be able to kite it if you happen to grab healing aggro.

Also, I probably shouldn’t have to say this, but please, oh, please don’t stand in front of Raging Spirits. Also make the sure the tanks aren’t silenced by Soul Shriek. Soul Shriek is a magic debuff and should be showing up on your frames. If doesn’t, then fix your frames. Dispelling Soul Shriek is a priority. You can split dispel jobs between other healers by each claiming a tank, but still, make sure neither tank is ever silenced.

6- Aura Mastery, Hand of Sacrifice, Divine Sacrifice: You have them, you can use them.

Aura Mastery + Devotion Aura can be helpful for phase 1, especially if the Shambling Horrors are getting pissy and the tranquility shot is slow on coming. (Lots of physical damage.)
Aura Mastery + Shadow Resistance can be helpful for Infests and Soul Reaper.
Aura Mastery + Frost Resistance can save slackers making their way to the edge too slowly during transition phases.

Hand of Sacrifice is a saver during Soul Reaper or if you have to run at an unfortunate time (say you’ve got defile and all the other healers are getting carried away by Valks…)
Divine Sacrifice really shines at the beginning of the second transition phase, when you’ll undoubtly have some slackers and space cadets making their way to the edge of the platform waay too late.

7- If you make it to the end of the second transition phase, rejoice.

Or not. I have no tricks for phase 3. My memory’s hazy but I know I really like ending up inside Frostmourne. Makes me feel like a real paladin. Use healing boost cooldowns to up healing without wasting as much mana. On the outside, my guild tanks Arthas along the edge of the ring and we drop our Defiles in the middle. Anticipating the next optimal position works even better in phase 3. Um, and run from Vile Spirits if they chase you. Spirits exploding on your face is unpleasant. Someone once told me that bubbling and running through the Vile Spirits kills them but I’ve never gotten it to work. Most of the time, I’ve already used my bubble as an emergency resort by phase 3 anyway.

AND THERE YOU HAVE IT. All the things about healing the Lich King fight (and not the Lich King) that Arthas didn’t want you to know.

Now go forth and complain about others standing in defiles.

Next best thing to a real defile screenshot

ps. Huge thanks to Hempia for the first screenshot.