Save a Clothie Today! Use Hand of Protection.

It feels weird writing about current stuff while everyone is so gung-ho about Cataclysm. Me, I don’t really care about Cataclysm. I would if I were in the beta, but I’m not. Nor do I care enough to try to get a beta key. (I am on the PTR but it’s ugly and funny looking and scary and overwhelming)

Besides, after discussing it with a few people, I came to the following conclusions:

- With the game being in a lull, a lot of people are playing alts.
- Just because Cataclysm is coming out in about a month in a half is no excuse to be playing badly now.

So today’s topic: Hand of Protection (HoP, or BoP after it’s former name, Blessing of Protection).

And according to MMO-Champion, this is a spell we’ll keep in Cataclysm so no writing off this post as ancient history museum content!

The Scenario

During ICC trash a few nights ago, we had a couple of mobs come up on us from behind and started chomping on a healing priest and a warlock. I slapped the priest with my Hand of Protection and the warlock died.

The question: We had 3 other paladins in the raid, one of which was a fellow holy paladin. Why didn’t anyone HoP the warlock?

Hypothesis 1: Maybe they don’t understand how Hand of Protection works

Hand of Protection protects the target from all physical damage for 10 seconds. It’ll also drop aggro from the target since the mob thinks to itself: “Oh, I can’t eat this guy (or girl – mobs are very politically correct), I guess I’ll go eat this other guy (or girl).”

Another thing to note is that someone under the influence of HoP can’t do any physical damage either. So unless you absolutely must save a melee dps or a hunter (or you just want to be annoying), save your HoP for casters. Note that in dire circumstances (for example, you have a massive crush on the ret pally and want to impress them with your life saving skills) an aggro breaking HoP can be quickly followed by a Hand of Freedom, allowing the melee player to resume dps as soon as the mobs get off their face. (Thank you Mally and Daniel.)

The aggro dropping and no doing physical damage things are the reason you shouldn’t ever HoP someone who’s currently tanking (with a few exceptions that I’ll get into later).

Note that HoP is useless against magic damage, so it won’t help a target being roasted by a caster.

Hypothesis 2: They don’t know when to use Hand of Protection

To make an informed decision concerning your Hand of Protection usage, you will need the following:

- Knowledge of the physical damageness mobs you’re facing (you can tell which are physical damage mobs by the way they eat the faces of their victims as opposed to melting said faces)
- Raid frames with aggro warnings turned on.

ICC has very few boss fights that involve physical damage adds. With the exception of Lady Deathwhisper and Gunship (and Dreamwalker for non portal paladins), you’ll mostly be using HoP during trash. I usually use mine during the trash before Marrowgar and for the Valks after Saurfang.

On 25 man Lady Deathwhisper, you’ll want to use your HoP as soon as possible and keep it on cooldown since there is that chance of being mind controlled and HoPing the boss… (Thank you Daniel- funny story, the day after you left your comment, the other holy pally in my raid got MCed and HoPed the boss.)

You know to use HoP when a purple (warlock), white (priest) or light blue (mage) square on your frames lights up with an aggro warning. In some cases, a dark blue (shaman) or orange (druid) squares are also suitable targets. Just make sure it’s a caster type of druid or shaman.

When a target lights up with an aggro warning, keep your eye on it. As soon as they start taking damage, BAM! Hand of Protection.

Hypothesis 3 : They’re afraid of “wasting” their Hand of Protection

This could be true in certain instances.

In ICC, though, the places where you could use HoP are rather far apart. Depending on the casting paladin’s spec, the cooldown on HoP is 3 to 5 minutes, nothing to worry about. I prefer to use HoP as soon as I need it. I won’t know whether I’ll need it again and I’d rather save someone now than let someone die now out of concern that someone might die later.

If a caster gets eaten while my HoP is on cooldown, well, tough for them.

Hypothesis 4: They might have HoPed the same target.

Ha! Wrong! This is the funky thing about HoP: it causes forbearance (not to be confused with Jong’s Forbearance).

Causing forbearance means your target can’t be smacked by a Hand of Protection again for the next two minutes. So if someone beats you to a target, you won’t be wasting your cooldown. If you get an error message trying to HoP the priest, get that HoP on the warlock.

Hypothesis 5: They don’t have an appropriate UI

(Thank you Enlynn!)

As healer, you should have your UI set up in a way that you can access your spells very quickly. Unless you have jedi reflexes (and it does happen, I’ve seen some), this means either mouse-over macros or use of a Clique-like system.

HoP is part of your tools and should be just as accessible as Flash of Light or Holy Light. See Fictional Question #3 for some tips on choosing a proper key binding for your HoP.

Your fictional question: Are there other uses for Hand of Protections?

Glad you asked!

While most of the time, I use my Hand of Protection for loose trash mobs or boss adds, it can also remove a bleed effect. The fight that comes to mind is Saurfang, where HoP removes the Boiling Blood debuff. On heroic, when all the paladins in the raid use their HoP on a caster or healer with Boiling Blood, it can make a pretty big difference in the fight outcome.

Your fictional question 2: I’m not a healing paladin, can I still use HoP?

It’s a trainable ability, so yep.

In a raid setting, it’s easiest for a holy paladin to use, but any paladin who wants to rescue a clothie in distress is free use their Hand if they can spare the global cooldown.

In 5 mans, I love, and I mean LOVE getting my HoP out as a tank. I know the trend is to let those who pull before you die, but I frequently use it to get mobs off hormonal casters. I also use it to teach impatient melee players a lesson, but, um, please don’t tell anyone.

Your fictional question 3: What’s this about exceptions to never using Hand of Protection on a tank?

General rule is, using Hand of Protection on a tank, even by accident is a bad, bad thing. My guildies still constantly remind me of a certain keybind mishap involving a tank and a few undesired HoPs… To prevent these embarrassing moments, make sure your HoP isn’t bound to anything that would include your press-to-talk button or any buttons bound to spells frequently used on tanks.

There may be times, however, when you’ll be asked to use your Hand of P on a tank. To assist in certain tank switches, for example, or to remove a bleed effect (Gormok the Impaler in ToC comes to mind). During the trash before Blood Council, a quick HoP immediately canceled by a Hand of Freedom can erase that annoying Bloodboil debuff. (Thanks Daniel!)

Different raid teams have different strategies, though, so even if you think it’s a good idea to help out by HoPing a tank, I caution you to wait until you’re asked. This isn’t the place to take initiatives. An unsuspecting HoPed tank might not immediately realize what happened, which could throw off their next move. The tank might also have used one of their own cooldowns and your Hand will be wasted.

Your Fictional Question 4: Is Hand of Protection useful in PvP?

I confess I’m not experienced enough in PvP to give a really good answer here.

In Battlegrounds, I love it. It’s great for protecting your caster buddy from annoying meleers buzzing around them. I believe, however, that it can be spellstolen by mages, dispelled by priests and purged by shaman.

In all logic, it would be useful in arena as well. All the arena junkie holy paladins I’ve raided with, however, never use their HoP. So I dunno.

Your Fictional Conclusion: Wow! What a fascinating spell! I promise to use Hand of Protection at all the right times! Thank you!

No, thank you.

Speaking of thanks, lets go back to the original scenario. When I used HoP on our priest that night, she thanked me. Which was very polite of her, but it sort of made me sad as well.

As a holy paladin, pulling our utility spells out of our toolbox is our job just as much as keeping Beacon up and casting Holy Light is our job. She shouldn’t feel the need to thank me for a HoP anymore than thank me for casting my regular, direct heals.

But so many holy paladins don’t go beyond their easiest task, then have the nerve to complain that paladin healing is boring. Of course it’s boring when you’re not using most of your spells!

A few weeks ago, we had a trial holy paladin bragging on our vent about how he only healed with one button. I wonder how if he knew how close to his head the Giant Spoon came…

But in conclusion, remember that, with Hand of Protection, YOU CAN save a squishy clothie TODAY! What are you waiting for?

World of Logs and Evaluating a Paladin Healer: Some Basics

This post will be long, very long, but shorter than it should be. I could do a whole series on using WoL to evaluate a holy pally, but I won’t. See, I’d do one good post and neglect the rest. So I’m going to talk a bit about the first thing I check when we get a new holy pally running with us: buffs cast.

I’m keeping the images small to keep them from stretching my page too much, but feel free to click on them to see them better.

Finding Buffs Cast

To reach the Buffs Cast screen, select a player from the menu on the top screen: Player -> Paladin -> Playername

Then you’ll want to choose a particular fight to audit. Here we’ll pick the longest Sindragosa attempt.

Once you’re in a players’ screen and have chosen a fight, click on the Buffs Cast tab.

It’s as simple as that!

What to look for

In the Buffs Cast menu, the first column on the left lists the buffs cast by the player during the fight. All of them are of some sort of interest, but we’re going to focus on three for now:

Beacon of Light
Sacred Shield
Judgements of the Pure

These are the three basic “buffs” that any pally should have up nearly 100% of a fight, if not the whole fight. To look at them graphically, hit the pound (#) sign next to the buff name. You’ll notice Sacred Shield (SS) is mentionned twice. It’s because the proc that happens when SS is up is also called Sacred Shield. Pick the one with the highest uptime and least amount of applications.

Once you do that, you should see a graph with green bands under it. The graph represents the entire time of the fight and each band represents the uptime of an individual spell.

What to Make of It

Let’s have a look at this paladins buff uptime.

Judgements of the Pure was up for nearly the whole fight, which is good. In healing intensive or in cast restrictive fights, the buff from Judgements of the Pure might fall off. It’s nothing to stress about if it’s quickly reapplied, such as in this case. If, however, a paladin goes for big chucks of the fight without Judgements of the Pure, ask some questions.

Next, let’s look at Sacred Shield. You can see it was up three times, with large chunks of fight in between. This isn’t good. If there are several holy paladins in the fight, this could mean a lack of communication causing the paladins to overwrite each other’s Sacred Shield. To know who was targeted by a buff, mouse over the corresponding green band. You can check on all the holy paladins in the raid to see they’re shielding the same target. You can also check if your paladins are selecting reasonable recipients. The main tank is typically the first choice for an SS, but anyone taking periodic damage can benefit from the spell.

A paladin’s usage of SS will say a lot about their playstyle. After reading a lot of logs, you’ll quickly notice that neglecting the buff is a pretty common fault. A paladin that keeps a Shield up along with their healing is often a sign of someone who goes the extra mile and makes sure they’re wringing every bit of healing out of their character.

Finally, Beacon of Light. I picked this particular log because I know this player struggles with Beacon of Light usage. This Sindragosa attempt is no different. Beacon of Light was used twice and kept up for less than half of the fight. This isn’t acceptable. If there’s a spell that should be up at all times, no exceptions, it’s Beacon of Light. Most of the time, it’ll be on a tank (again, to check who’s being Beaconned, mouse over the corresponding green band). In some healing intensive fights, the paladin will need to direct heal a single tank, but Beacon should still be used.

But This is Heroic Sindypoos!

I’ve yet to try Heroic Sindragosa because I can’t raid these days, but from reading parses from successful guilds, I’ve noticed that it’s not polite to rack of stacks of Instability. One could play devil’s advocate and suggest that maybe this paladin was crippled with Unchained Magic throughout the attempt.

Lets take a look at that. Select the “Buffs Gained” tab. Under the middle column (debuffs), hit the pound sign next to “Unchained Magic”.

The buffs you’ve already selected will stay on the graph, and you’ll add Unchained Magic uptime.

We can see this paladin had Unchained Magic up three times. We can forgive not refreshing JotP/SS/BoL anytime the debuff is up, but any other downtime is fair game for questioning.

Observing debuffs uptimes can come in handy for other fights too. The post-getting-smashed-by-malleable goo debuff on Putricide comes to mind. You can sometimes use this trick to spy on Dreamwalker stacks as well. I’ve frequently caught my guildies lying after the fight… They don’t know that I know. (It’s not always listed as a debuff though. No idea why sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t.)

Other Points of Interest

Using the buff list, you can also see whether the paladin was using an appropriate aura (on this parse, notice that Concentration Aura was used, typically you’ll want an aura that fits bests with Aura Mastery, so on Sindragosa, Frost Resistance Aura would be preferable), whether and when they used any cooldowns (check especially for Aura Mastery and Divine Sacrifice, neither were used here) and, in the case of a holy light paladin, how often Light’s Grace was active.

You can also monitor Divine Plea usage. (For you non paladins, Divine Plea regens mana at the cost of a 50% healing reduction.) When was Divine Plea used? Was it offset by another spell? Compare the timing of Divine Plea with healing bonus or mana cost reduction cooldowns such as Divine Illumination, Hospitality and Avenging Wrath.

Remember That Parses Only Tell Part of the Story

I’ll admit I’m guilty of completely ripping players apart by their logs. Then I proceed to get ripped apart for my logs. The thing is, always question before blaming. There’s more going on to a fight than what you can read on paper (or on computer screen). From logs, you can find pointers, repeated mistakes and so on. But they’ll only tell you so much.

I also need to add the disclaimer that this post only goes over a tiny part of what you can get out of World of Logs. For evaluating a paladin, though, I seem to run to the buff pages before I view the heal meters, the damage taken meters and the brute, untouched combat log. I guess one could say the buff page serves as a starting point, as the “once upon a time” part of the story.

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.

2 Paladins, 1 Raid : Healing with Another Holy Paladin

Team Pally! I’ve always loved the sound of that. The whole “I’m part of something grand and wondrous and amazing”…ok maybe it’s not quite that exciting. But still, the coordination of blessings and judgments between all the paladins in the raid and paying attention to beacons and shields between holy paladins are aspects of the class that I especially enjoy.

That and how it gives me an excuse to chase people around to talk about pally stuff: “YOUR BEEAAAAAACON I KNOW YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT YOUR BEEEEAAAAACON!!!!! HEEEEYYY!! WHY ARE YOU SWITCHING VENT CHANNELS WHILE I’M TRYING TO TALK ABOUT BEEEAAACONS??”

Having two holy paladins in a 10 man team can be a royal pain, unless you outgear the content. Last time I tried (tried 2 paladins in a 10 man, not tried to out gear content), it was a Sindragosa fight and it wasn’t pretty. So I’m not going to get all creative with how to play 10 mans with double paladin healers. I’ll leave that challenge to others. (Aren’t I nice?)

25 man, though, that’s a different story. Two holy paladins? Yes please! 3 is doable as well, depending on what the rest of your healing team looks like. (If they’re ugly, you might need a third paladin to up the hotness factor.) So let’s talk about that today. Having 2 paladins in a 25 man and making the most of it.

Getting to Know Each Other

Getting to know each other as healers, of course. I like knowing all about my teammates because I’m nosey, but just knowing about how they heal does a lot to make the job easier. If you know that Jack ALWAYS lags out between seconds 15 and 28 of a fight, you know to when to cover for him. If you know that Linda has jedi reflexes, you know she’s got you covered if you happen to get a hand spasm. (Hey it happens, ok)

These are pretty extreme scenarios, but figuring out your partner’s strengths and weaknesses goes a long way in adjusting your own playstyle. It would be lovely if we all healed exactly the way EJ tells us to, but the majority of us don’t play like machines, so getting to know to your partner and adapting to each other gives that extra ooomph to your performance.

Some might enjoy some friendly competition with their fellow paladin. It’s certainly an option. Me, though, I’d rather gang on up the squishies. Team pally vs team who dies all the time. Oh yes.

Things About Your Partner You Should Spy On

Stalking them on Facebook = Creepy.
Tracking their Beacon of Light and Sacred Shield = Perfectly Acceptable.

I always know which paladins don’t track others’ Sacred Shields (SS). It’s easy to tell because they overwrite mine. Well, on some occasions, we do it to each other to be pests but, most of the time, having your SS overwritten means your partner isn’t watching. So let them SS first and pick another target. If they forget to refresh it, you’re free to steal their target if you want.

I can’t tell you how to track other people’s buffs with Healbot or Vudho (I’m a fail blogger, I know, sorry!), but if you want a walkthrough of how to do it on Grid, read this guide from Dristanel.

Using Beacons Together

If you’re tracking your partner’s Beacon, you don’t even have to ask them who they’re Beaconing, you can just look at your frames. If they’re waiting for you to make the first move, do it. You can move your Beacon as the fight goes on if you have to.

Two paladins can Beacon the same target. It won’t overwrite.

Whether or not you want to Beacon the same target is up to you. Some fights work better that way, some fights work better when you cross Beacon (such as, one person Beacons Tank A and heals Tank B, the other Beacons Tank B and heals Tank A). And in some fights are completely unconventional (Beaconning Mark targets during Saurfang, for example). Keep in mind that a Beaconned target receives a constant stream of healing while directly healing a target has the advantage of allowing you some extra control.

Sacred Shields do Overwrite

You can’t SS the same target.

Look to see where your partner is putting theirs and put yours somewhere else. There are lots of ways to use SS (I actually started a post on that way back, but never finished it…so I have nothing to link to here) and you don’t necessarily have to SS a tank. Anyone taking a steady stream of damage makes a good target. SS is one of those tools that are kinda subtle, but since they’re there, you might as well wring out as much use as you can from them.

Talents and Judgments and Blessings and Technicalities

It’s nice to coordinate talents so one paladin has Improved Concentration Aura and the other has Improved Wisdom.

For judgments, if there’s no other paladins, one of you judges Light and the other judges Wisdom to keep the hunters happy. Most likely, both of you will want to judge Light (damn you meter padders!) so if you can’t agree, take turns, draw straws, flip a coin, whatever. I avoid this problem by having a prot and a ret paladin in the raid. (Extended Team Pally FTW)

Blessings are managed with Pally Power. If you’re unlucky and don’t have any other paladins, one of you will be blessing Kings, the other Wisdom/Might to taste.

The Glorious Holy Light/Flash of Light duo

If you read about holy paladins, you’ll be smacked in the face with the words “Holy Light build” and “Flash of Light build”. The short of it is Holy Light paladins stack intellect and use Holy Light as their base spell, Flash of Light paladins are mysterious and stack spell power and rely on Flash of Light. If this surprises you, you can find out more here.

Does a Holy Light paladin play well with a Flash of Light paladin?

In my experience, yes, but it’s dependent on the players. A Flash of Light build is lacking in versatility, requires gear that’s top notch for the content you’re running as well as pretty good reflexes. Two Holy Light paladins can still be a kickass team, but if one of you is dying to try a Flash of Light build and has the right gear, then be all means, go for it. I really enjoyed being a Holy Light paladin with a Flash of Light partner.

And Now Try to Get Along

I’m a big mush, so I get really attached to my partners. I still ask about the first fellow holy paladin I raided with a few years ago. She’s long since left WoW and I miss her. When my last partner decided to quit raiding, I spent the next few raids whining about how I couldn’t play without him. (I think I’m a large part of the reason why my guild keeps claiming that paladins are emo. Damn my emoness.) I got a new partner shortly before I left for vacation, so I’m just starting to creep get to know him. We seem to have similar temperaments, which means we’ll either be the most awesome kickass crazy team pally EVAIR or we’ll rip each other’s heads off and leave a bloody mess that will need to be cleaned up.

Working closely with another paladin adds so much to the game, especially if, like me, you’re the type who really likes to harass talk paladin with other paladins. You’ve got this teammate who (hopefully) can carry on a conversation about your class and who (hopefully) is as passionate about it as you are. Worst case scenario, you’ve got a partner you can watch closely, learn from and become a better healer by synching your playstyle with theirs. Doesn’t sound too bad, no?

Valithria Dreamwalker: Who to Beacon?

EDIT: Made some clarifications for non-holy paladins who might be reading this. I have this bad habit of assuming our lingo makes sense to everyone. I’ll dig up the focus macro when I get home tonight, for those who might want it.

When my guild first came upon our friend Valithria, I got into an argument with a few people. I wanted to place my Beacon of Light on Valithria and spam heal whoever happened to be in range.

(My reasoning for that, though, was mistaken: it seemed like my heals wouldn’t transfer to a beaconed raid member, but would transfer from a raid member to a beaconed Valithria. Either my sense of observation failed me or this was a bug that was hotfixed, because my heals now transfer, regardless of who is beaconed.)

I can’t remember exactly why they didn’t want us pallies beaconing the boss. The only argument I accepted was that I wasn’t sure if the heals transferred from Beacon would be affected by Guardian Spirit. (I still need to test that.) Still, is a buff that up for 10 seconds every minute worth worrying about? After all, I could just switch to the boss during those 10 seconds.

After the raid, we looked up the stats of guilds who had successfully killed Valithria. This was right when the fight first opened, before the duration of Emerald Vigor (you know, THE buff, the orb buff) and of the Twisted Nightmare had been increased and certainly before the 5% buff had been put in. So there weren’t many guilds who’d won the fight yet.

At that time, all the paladins who had successfully completed the fight had been direct healing the boss.

From then on, I’ve been Beaconing a tank and direct healing the boss. I’m sure the outside healer appreciated the gesture. (As a side note, I also don’t shy away from spending a global cooldown on a well-placed Hand of Protection.)

However, after reading more and more about the fight, I’m now noticing that the trend is actually to Beacon Valithria. Beacon Valithria and heal a target within 8 yards of her (most likely yourslef) to take advantage of the juicy Glyph of Holy Light procs that would splash extra heals onto her. Since I’m always hot on the latest trends, I pulled up the Holy Paladin rankings on WoL for Normal modes 10 man and 25 man.

As you can see for yourself, it’s unanimous, Beaconing Valithria is the way to go.

While I was at it, I looked up the heroic rankings on the fight and, again, all the holy paladins are using Beacon on Valithria.

Of course, “just because everyone is doing it” doesn’t mean that it’s the only or the best way, but the Glyph of Seal of the Light splash is worthwhile – 10% of a 20k to 60k heal is SEXY. The constant extra heals from the Glyph on the boss can make a pretty big difference, according to some of the stats I pulled up, it can account for up to 40% a paladin’s effective heals. It’s not as helpful to the raid healers as beaconning a tank, but this is really a question of communicating with them and seeing if they need the help.

Other tidbits about the fight

In case anyone reading this is interested, here’s some other tips and tidbits about the fight.

- On 25 man, we run with 7 healers, 3 enter the Dream (two pallys and a druid), 4 heal outside. The guilds ranked on WoL use 5 or 6 healers, total.

- On 10 man, we run with 3 healers, 2 enter the Dream (we’ve done it twice, first time it was pally and shaman, second time it was pally and holy,I think, priest). It seems like the fight can easily be done with 2 healers, a pally entering the Dream and the other healer staying outside.

- As a paladin, use your spell power trickets, your Libram of Veracity, Glyph of Seal of Light (and unlike me, don’t forget to switch your seal to Seal of Light).

- Pop your cooldowns! First at the beginning of the fight, then right after the Dream, if they’re available.

- Pick a portal as soon as they spawn and stand near it.

- Putting an icon over the healers taking portals helps avoid “portal stealing”.

- Flying around the Dream world in a tight group and having everyone gather the buff from the popped orbs is ideal, but doesn’t work well for my guild. If you’re like us, assign each healer a region to avoid “orb stealing”. (Example: I take the left side, our druid takes the back and our pally takes the right.)

- Wait until the end of your last Dream phase (ie. the moment where you have the most stacks) and hit Lay on Hands. Squeal with glee. (The squealing part is very important.)

- I’ve read on Plus Heal that Crusader Aura helps you move faster in the Dream. I have yet to try it, but it seems interesting.

Conclusion

The standard, cookie-cutter approach to this fight is to Beacon Valithria and spam heal yourself or someone near Valithria to really milk your Glyph of Holy Light.

That said, I had been cluelessly Beaconning a tank and spamming Valithria the whole time and, from a healing perspective, since the buff and hotfixes, it’s still loldragonhealing.

Still, from now on, I’ll be putting my Beacon on Valithria.

EDIT: For those who like macros, this is a focus/cast Beacon one from the Plus Heal paladin forum:
/tar Valithria
/focus
/cast [target=focus] Beacon of Light

Why do I Need Battle Text? Let Me Tell You!

So last night, I was super ready to raid : flasks, Symbols of Kings, repairs. An exciting new raid week was in store for me and I couldn’t wait!

Then, right from the first pull, something was…off. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it yet, but I was definitely being rubbed the wrong way. A feeling of frustration was growing under my skin. Being the introspective sort, I began to analyze my feelings.

Was it the lag?

No, not lag. While my teammates were complaining about lag, I wasn’t particularly affected.

Was it the rogues talking shop on vent again?

No, they were putting me to sleep earlier with their chatter, but now they were focused on the raid. (You’d think rogues would be the stealthy quiet type, but nooooo, not in my guild!)

Dammit, what’s bothering me?

Hmmm…. Wait- I know! My scrolling battle text isn’t working!

Oh.

Em.

Eff.

Gee.

I had to resist the overwhelming urge to tear all my hair out, right then and there, using both hands. Then I fought off the need to break down and sob.

Did you know some paladins can heal without scrolling battle text? Seriously! How is that even possible? Oh, I can go without healing addons if I have to. I can pass on shmexy titan panel that shows me my gold and durability and provides cool icons that help me access the configuration pages of my other addons. I can even play reasonably well without DBM. (Actually, DBM was broken too and it wasn’t bothering me too much.) But scrolling battle text? I NEED NEED NEED it.

Pretty, pretty battle text!

(Putting in a cut here…I hate cuts, but for some reason, whenever I use bullets, WordPress screws up my page layout if I don’t cover them up with a cut)

Lets help this Holy Pally not suck at Putricide

Healing meters have to be taken with a grain a salt. Or rather with a whole block of salt, iceberg style. What do I mean? Well, the overall effective healing done page on WoW stat tools like World of Logs does give us some useful information, but the bulk of the usefulness is hidden below the surface.

In other words, I was a bit concerned by the meters in our Putricide attempts last Monday. I started tearing them apart, trying to figure out the problem(s). As I was having the time of my life (I love, love, love stats!), it dawned on me that I should share how I go about exploring poor performance.

Overall healing done for Putricide attempts