tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31237851710856742372024-03-05T17:04:34.081-06:00bubblespecAdventures in Healing.enlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.comBlogger143125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3123785171085674237.post-71173451138331153502012-01-14T23:01:00.003-06:002012-01-14T23:31:38.741-06:00a fond goodbyeI suppose if I said that I didn't like goodbyes, that'd be... well, absurd. I mean, who actually <span style="font-style: italic;">likes</span> to say goodbye?<br /><br />My time in Four Lights is over. We weren't able to put together a full 25-man raid in almost a month (though to be fair, 2 weeks of that were Christmas). While some were awfully quick to cry "<a href="http://pealsheals.wordpress.com/">Star Wars!</a>" as the reason, to be honest, most of the converts were playing both. We showed up to raid.<br /><br />Applications dried up months ago. Why join a 25-man guild that raids 3 nights a week when you can join a 10-man guild that raids less and has more bosses down? Why do 25s when a 10-man group can do faster pulls, better wipe recovery, and the same rewards?<br /><br />As of last week, Four Lights is officially going to a 10-man team. That was my cue to step out. I've never enjoyed 10-mans on my paladin, for one, and I knew my quitting WoW was on the horizon. <a href="http://bubblespec.blogspot.com/2011/09/crab-stole-my-kill.html">It happened back in September</a>. This was not a quickly made decision. And it was definitely not easy.<br /><br />This is my last bubblespec post, the last time I get to call myself Enlynn. I canceled my World of Warcraft account. They asked for my reasons; I told them the game had changed too much. That wasn't near enough information to really tell them how I felt and why I knew it was time for me to move on, but you've been a part of my WoW life long enough to have a good idea why.<br /><br />So let me say thanks.<br /><br />Thank you, guildies: Four Lights was a blast. I was a guild officer for a year, pretty much for Cataclysm. I loved the leadership. The members made FL a fun guild to raid with.<br /><br />Thank you, World of Warcraft: WoW gave me a lot of good times. And while the developers are taking the game in a direction that I don't wish to go, I have to applaud them for taking risks and being willing to reinvent the way we play over and over. The perception of MMOs outside the community is changing for the better, thanks to the massive popularity and accessibility of WoW. Many of the successes in WoW paved the way for future MMOs. This is a good thing, even if it's no longer my thing.<br /><br />Most importantly... Thank you, readers: Sharing my WoW journey has rewarded me in ways I couldn't have imagined when I started out this humble little blog back in 2009. Your comments inspired me to keep going, encouraged me, gave me advice, and made me laugh. You connected me to a fantastic community. I'm honored to have been a part of it. I'll miss you.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Y04sOMhcAc9QFQFewVaEchuCFHwj5B2cHrusiGpevvzboWvYPLnZmNHXNCMJ37z7knwpN-Jax8nISclkg3COY68HAvcCs9Ck2cWJtItUIVFoPxWbKi8eeOGtKdUls96bRc5QoiR6vLty/s1600/enlynn.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 220px; height: 181px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Y04sOMhcAc9QFQFewVaEchuCFHwj5B2cHrusiGpevvzboWvYPLnZmNHXNCMJ37z7knwpN-Jax8nISclkg3COY68HAvcCs9Ck2cWJtItUIVFoPxWbKi8eeOGtKdUls96bRc5QoiR6vLty/s400/enlynn.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5697725624225783762" border="0" /></a><br />See you around,<br /><a href="http://barbrude.wordpress.com/">Barb</a>enlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3123785171085674237.post-87828420969269509152012-01-04T16:43:00.003-06:002012-01-04T16:58:29.795-06:00on being terribleYesterday was my first night playing WoW and my first night raiding in more than two weeks. Can I say painful? Too much Star Wars, perhaps, but at the same time not-raiding makes me rusty.<br /><br />1. I took off my weapon and shield to take pictures of my latest transmog (two posts down). Well, I kinda forgot to put them back on before the raid. After the first couple of bosses, one of my healers whispered me and asked if that was a glitch or if I really didn't have a weapon and shield?<br /><br />2. I searched through my inventory and put on the gear that looked right. Except, I put on the gear-to-transmog instead of the transmogged gear. Two fights later, said healer whispers me, are you sure you're wearing the right gear yet?<br /><br />No, I'm not sure of anything!<br /><br />3. The Sorcerer speed boost in SW beats the pants off of the paladin speed boost. I kept popping Divine Protection and was disappointed at how far I didn't go.<br /><br />4. With my shiny new graphics card, WoW looks much better and my FPS is even higher. Perhaps SW will get that sorted out, but right now, WoW wins in the performance-on-average-computers contest. Hands down.<br /><br />5. I keep telling myself I'm going to stop talking about SW on my WoW blog but the amount of Star Wars chatter in mumble is kinda scary. On one hand, it's fun because I know what's up. On the other, we've never derailed mumble like that for any other game. Again, I don't think this is here nor there for the future of WoW. But I do think this is a bad sign for bigger guilds. And it can't be good for those who don't care about Star Wars, to hear nearly half the guild making jokes that exclude them.<br /><br />6. I was pretty bad overall. It's like I forgot how to heal. I let judgments fall off and I don't think I hit a special cooldown all night long. Wait. I did use Divine Plea because I was so bad at managing my mana that I was going OOM when I really shouldn't.<br /><br />7. Ultraxion continues to be the bane of my guild. Even with going to 5 healers we didn't have the DPS last night to down him. It makes me want to rage.<br /><br />8. Saddith for President.enlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3123785171085674237.post-1567802427887256492011-12-30T09:31:00.003-06:002011-12-30T10:02:24.108-06:00bloggy stuff for not-raiding timesOur WoW raiding break extends till next week. And good thing, too, because I broke my gaming computer trying to upgrade!<br /><br />Ahem. Don't let Enlynn near the hardware. I'm hoping that my wonderful guildies can help me troubleshoot.<br /><br />In case you haven't noticed my lack of enthusiasm for raiding, my lack of posting, my... er. Lack in general. I'm not quitting WoW. I would like to see Deathwing die and we've got a couple more fights to learn yet. I will see my guild through to that as long as we can make it happen.<br /><br />But I have to be honest with you. I don't know what things look like for me past that. And I don't want to go quietly and just let this blog fall to dust. I love this community. It's hard to even think about saying goodbye. I remember some of the wonderful WoW bloggers who have already closed their doors. I almost cried when Larisa shut down PPI. My blogroll and RSS feed are full of WoW bloggers who haven't updated since February or March.<br /><br />I've gotten so many readers who leave awesome comments. Judging by my stats, I've had quite a few lurkers who've never said a word (please don't think I'm asking you to de-lurk. I feel guilty when bloggers ask for it, fiddle around with a comment before I delete it and don't de-lurk. So you're in good company). I have enjoyed this blog. It taught me a lot about myself, about gaming community, about the game. I hope you found it useful. I hope you found it funny once in a while.<br /><br />And if for some reason you can't get enough of me (and you are interested in a Star Wars blog), you can find me writing at <a href="http://pealsheals.wordpress.com/">pealsheals.wordpress.com</a>. Still talking about healing. :)<br /><br />In the meantime, I'm not disappearing just yet. Here's hoping for some good raiding in the new year!enlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3123785171085674237.post-71079143388761837792011-12-27T13:59:00.004-06:002011-12-27T14:20:49.886-06:00a holiday lullI have been avoiding this post for a while now.<br /><br />For one, it's been a quiet December. With the release of the DW tier, I was at first disappointed with how "easy" the first few bosses were but after considering <a href="http://blessingofkings.blogspot.com/2011/12/dragon-soul-25-normal-is-correctly.html">Blessing of King's take on normal tuning, I dare say Rohan is right</a>. We've gotten to 5 bosses down (6 on 10). It was really nice not to be stuck on the first boss for weeks. Having only one fight to work on isn't enough to sustain us and it just plain sucks.<br /><br />But the last couple of weeks, we've had trouble filling raids. Last week was expected, with holiday parties and obligations. My planned "10 batches of cookies in 30 hours" took more like 80, so our calling the raids was a relief. I ran right back to the kitchen and haven't played much at all.<br /><br />I think the question in a lot of people's minds is "Will Star Wars kill WoW?" and on one hand, WoW is not dying. I don't think it is, I don't think WoW is going away.<br /><br />On the other... I do think SWTOR will kill some guilds. 25s have been in a precarious position all year. You know it's bad when the premiere hardmode guilds on your server are recruiting in trade and cancelling raids. Seems to me like 10-mans are the way to go, and in MoP 25s will finally die the big death. Players who prefer the larger format will have to choose to stay or try a new game. Like Star Wars.<br /><br />But... Not because SWTOR is super-great or shiny or everything that WoW isn't. None of that. Remember when I qq'd that <a href="http://bubblespec.blogspot.com/2011/09/crab-stole-my-kill.html">a Crab Stole My Kill</a>? I haven't gotten my joy back in playing WoW since then. I've still raided, but something is missing. I wonder how many others like me are feeling the same way.<br /><br />The only thing I've gotten excited about is transmog. For some reason I love collecting late Classic and BC green-quality plate. Can I just say one thing? I make plate look <span style="font-style: italic;">good</span>.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrGpvNv9CeW9AHks96oBEx46Pw_x0wIVmy4-Cy5pb1b2N_O_DbgGvWDEBoDzQRNfb9bBrWw-Irexx2NmBfcsnj5FngrLxm1V82n8Wy6KrgnB6iA4exChIMxmm4x5CJRk3B5AvddP9e-_VM/s1600/overlord+plate.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 331px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrGpvNv9CeW9AHks96oBEx46Pw_x0wIVmy4-Cy5pb1b2N_O_DbgGvWDEBoDzQRNfb9bBrWw-Irexx2NmBfcsnj5FngrLxm1V82n8Wy6KrgnB6iA4exChIMxmm4x5CJRk3B5AvddP9e-_VM/s400/overlord+plate.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5690904670887749330" border="0" /></a>enlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3123785171085674237.post-52622993208169134502011-11-10T23:05:00.004-06:002011-11-10T23:09:37.350-06:00good things in threes<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9IXk4FjYzS7umCCMs37jYI6TRPiR_iBiih_qaAHHrMQm4JuJCNv5z961AREFjSnzHlTjiNRmnmnnfayf-9UJi5Di2SBOEWKzyR75V2N8au4IWMyztZmhWJkD84kA7ADqzlGfMjfTgkcx4/s1600/legendary.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 399px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9IXk4FjYzS7umCCMs37jYI6TRPiR_iBiih_qaAHHrMQm4JuJCNv5z961AREFjSnzHlTjiNRmnmnnfayf-9UJi5Di2SBOEWKzyR75V2N8au4IWMyztZmhWJkD84kA7ADqzlGfMjfTgkcx4/s400/legendary.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5673600166271933522" border="0" /></a><br />1. HM Lord Rhyolith is DEAD. DEAD!<br /><br />2. I got Exalted with our Rhyo kill.<br /><br />3. A guildie got his legendary tonight.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">(I got my helm the other night so I actually look like I'm raiding in Firelands now.)</span><br /><br />Safe to say that's a pretty great night in raiding.enlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3123785171085674237.post-39895512256451316152011-10-28T21:35:00.006-05:002011-10-28T21:55:48.907-05:00that time of the year/expac/tier again...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKSccaePYO3cDJ5uPd_wqt7nG_I6OO5BOzKl8LD_fjYf8whSbDk4iCK4YJ9FG0HRDgcB1OoiJIuIeZ9REuFWewZOyCVy2RraqvOn5oEJXis0dOv5-gaKrtbjtPCuDn1qW4HgP_j2QQhWEs/s1600/enlynn+mog.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 243px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKSccaePYO3cDJ5uPd_wqt7nG_I6OO5BOzKl8LD_fjYf8whSbDk4iCK4YJ9FG0HRDgcB1OoiJIuIeZ9REuFWewZOyCVy2RraqvOn5oEJXis0dOv5-gaKrtbjtPCuDn1qW4HgP_j2QQhWEs/s400/enlynn+mog.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5668737407939175938" border="0" /></a>It took several weeks of AH-camping... my mog set is mostly complete.<br /><br />I need a better weapon, but otherwise I'm pretty happy.<br /><br />In other news... Meh. <a href="http://needmorerage.blogspot.com/2011/10/is-where-there-is-some-good-news.html">I'm glad we got an apology</a> but cynical-enlynn thinks it sounds forced.<br /><br />My guild is stuck on Rhyolith 25H. A bad kind of stuck, in which I feel like we have hit a wall and haven't figured out how to knock it down. Well, I have a few ideas of who to knock down but that isn't very nice of me. :)<br /><br />In some ways I wish 4.3 would hurry itself up. And yet I don't want it to because I am really not ready to "rush" through that tier of content just to have 5.0 thrust on us before we're ready.<br /><br />(I may or may not be a little bitter about the mid-tier nerfs for Firelands).<br /><br />But there are <span style="font-style: italic;">good things</span>. For instance, our healing team.<br /><br />They aren't good. They're great. We're doing lean, mean teams for farm content. 4-healing Baleroc is fun as all-get out (we have 3 shadow priests, too, which is pretty neat) and our team is flexible enough to make that happen. I love that. We've gotten into a solid enough groove in the tier that we don't talk too much about who's going to do what, we just do it.<br /><br />We've been recruiting healers for a while. The last two or three apps have been paladins who can only heal. I hate to be a paladin-snob (okay, okay, I love being a paladin-snob but I realize how much of a pain it is for all you non-paladins), but to be gentle, it's hard to impress me. And we have enough healer-only healers that any newcomers to the group have got to have a DPS set.<br /><br />I just find it kinda funny. This time last year we couldn't find a second paladin healer to save our lives. Now we have two regular ones plus they make up the majority of the applications? I can't win.<br /><br />It is that time of the tier, again.<br /><br />It is that <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>time of the year, again, too. NaNoWriMo. My master plan to get Luxinterior to do some guest posts may or may not get you some humor during the month of November. Just don't life grip him, it never ends well.enlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3123785171085674237.post-91388158206290223412011-10-09T10:59:00.003-05:002011-10-09T11:13:00.904-05:00reluctant transmogSo... Blizzard has this brilliant, brilliant strategy. Since they know they aren't offering us enough new content this expansion, they tried to offer us a huge time-sink comparable to raiding that would set both raiders and non-raiders a-tizzy with excitement.<br /><br />This time-sink recycles old content and encourages nostalgia runs.<br />It potentially demands re-running ad nauseum old content and nostalgia runs.<br />It puts enough restrictions that players will have to spend more time deciding what they want, then more time going and getting what they decided on.<br /><br />Oh, transmog, you genius you.<br /><br />I wasn't going to participate. How dare I accept transmog instead of a whole tier of raiding? How dare Blizzard think they can promise me more bosses for Cataclysm and only deliver us 7 for T12, then nerf the hell out of that and put this new shiny not-raiding thing before me? Huh? Huh!<br /><br />And yet... I've been looking around for stuff I might like to be for my transmog set. Pally tier gear doesn't do it for me (though if I could replicate my ICC set I would, but I wore cloth and mail then). So I've been shopping on the Auction House. I found a set of greens from BC I think I really like. No pictures yet, I need a belt.<br /><br />It all started when we were doing Ulduar (because we only had 22 people show up for a raid, and we had to do <span style="font-style: italic;">something</span>). Lots of purple drops. <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/item/45463">This mace</a> dropped off of somebody. I thought, hey, that's kinda neat. The loot officer said, take it, what else are we gonna do with it.<br /><br />Granted, I love having my spellpower axe, but I'm also aware that next tier I'll probably be stuck with a mace. Again.<br /><br />Since then I've been camping the AH looking for neat gear. And we're not able to use this feature yet! How ridiculous is this?enlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3123785171085674237.post-23434864274053190412011-10-01T12:00:00.004-05:002011-10-01T12:08:03.663-05:00Team HealSo... apparently I was linked from joystiq last week which made for a whole lot of comments (which I appreciate! Very good conversations there) and almost 800 pageviews (which is by far a new record for my humble little blog). It did, however, paralyze me with the "what to post next" fear.<br /><br />I love my healing team. And since I hadn't praised them lately I wrote up a quick "I don't deserve you but thanks for kicking ass anyways" post.<br /><br />The occassion? Ragnaros. Though Laghelm was a letdown, Ragnaros is still pretty crazy even in his nerfed shame. We spent several nights on him, got him down yesterday. We're 7/7 and looking towards hardmodes!<br /><br />There! Are! Four! Lights!<br /><br />One of our tanks made this banner for me and our co-GM.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUgsaiSTYC5VQmzHfTNsk59FjC5uYe6EyAD5dl4umHK6-0OdXvgT05QQZ2YJSjVpygjYPzzywCCqi7i9XhfniDRVacpfGkFP7m2a1k4-_Acj1MDpCT8-ymQXMxX-dXVcOGXUm25BlZWQmV/s1600/file.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUgsaiSTYC5VQmzHfTNsk59FjC5uYe6EyAD5dl4umHK6-0OdXvgT05QQZ2YJSjVpygjYPzzywCCqi7i9XhfniDRVacpfGkFP7m2a1k4-_Acj1MDpCT8-ymQXMxX-dXVcOGXUm25BlZWQmV/s400/file.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5658571145547799890" border="0" /></a><br />Saddith for President!enlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3123785171085674237.post-27520515520373345002011-09-21T16:31:00.004-05:002011-09-21T16:55:26.337-05:00a crab stole my killMonday Night is progression night. Actually, so is Thursday. But this is a story about Monday night progression, two nights ago specifically, in which a 25 guild has put in many, many attempts on Majordomo Staghelm.<br /><br />Or, as Lux affectionately named him, Majordomo Laghelm.<br /><br />Now, Laghelm gave us fits. I'll admit, I was a part of the problem as I tried and failed getting healer cooldowns in some sort of order. I'm not as good at calling out things in voice chat as I'd like to think I am. I wavered between too many too early and trying to save too many too long. I was inconsistent and jumbled up timing. But anyways. We finally got the hang of it last week.<br /><br />Our best attempt on Monday night was 140k, less than 1%. It was so to-the-wire that someone missed their seed and it was over just like that. A shaman even popped in the vain hopes that dots would kill the boss in the 1-1/2 seconds he borrowed to extended the encounter. But no, it was not to be, and that was our last attempt for the night.<br /><br />So... well, likely you see where this is going. Enter some nerfs. We kill the first four bosses with absolutely no problems. Alysrazor is so much of a joke now that during the second tornado phase I <span style="font-style: italic;">tried</span> to run into a tornado and I still didn't take any damage.<br /><br />We one-shot Majordomo. And I couldn't even bring myself to congratulate the healers on a job well-done. Normally I bug the RL to give us EP for good first or early kills but I could only joke about it.<br /><br />I didn't roll on the healing trinket, either. I wasn't sure that I wanted it (the mana regen ones win out in theory-crafting though I feel so far removed from that this tier I don't know), and on top of that, I couldn't bring myself to be excited about loot. Why bother? We totally didn't earn that.<br /><br />I've been deflated.<br /><br />And the worst part is, we'll be going after Ragnaros tonight but I can't get excited. At all. Because if it's anything like the nerfed Domo and Alys, then I'll never even know how that fight is <span style="font-style: italic;">supposed</span> to feel.<br /><br />So yeah. We'll be onto heroic modes soon enough, which is nice because that's what we were before Cataclysm came and made 25s hard to fill. But then, HMs are getting nerfed too. I can't say I'll feel like I've earned anything from here on out.<br /><br />I wonder about the future of raiding. I understand that this mid-tier nerfing is likely a test run of Looking For Raid, but if we can look forward to more mid-tier nerfs, then there's a lot less motivation. If you can't stay cutting edge, there's no sense in trying in the beginning. Why just make some half-assed attempts in the first few months, waiting out until you can get your loot on a platter? How am I going to analyze our new healers if there's no trying fights, and does it really matter since we can probably 4-heal anything now?<br /><br />Oh, cynical Enlynn is cynical. Pardon me. I assure you, the angst in the first half of the post was earned. This isn't the end of me raiding or playing WoW...<br /><br />But for the first time ever, I just don't care. That, I think, is a very bad sign. I was disappointed by Cata only being three tiers and this tier only having 7 bosses. I'm not ready for Deathwing to be in the next patch. I'm not ready to think about leveling up and learning yet another paradigm.<br /><br />And I'm certainly not ready for loot on a platter when our progression was actually going just fine, thank you very much.enlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3123785171085674237.post-14848267301654080782011-09-01T14:46:00.004-05:002011-09-01T15:03:25.971-05:00nerfed content is nerfedI'm glad I at least got the first three bosses down before they nerfed them so I could learn them and all. But it was pretty noticeable, having said bosses on wary-farm (in theory we can one-shot, but will we have 25 tonight without calling in someone's brother or aunt?) to suddenly they feel so easy, I have to remind myself they weren't like this a few weeks ago.
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<br />Also, less time on stuff we've done is more time on stuff we haven't. Last night was allll progression and it feels pretty good to be doing a bit better each fight.
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<br />I am trying something different this week, too. Before I've relied on Holy Light spam because I had lost so much spirit to go full-on mastery. But after a few upgrades my spirit is back to where it was so I have really pushed the "how much mana can I make this fight" game to spam more Divine Light. And holy cow, bigger bubbles, especially since said upgrades bring me to a 27% bubble. I've been bugging the other healadin in my raid to see her stats and it turns out for direct heal casts, we're not that far apart for cast time, though her crit is considerably higher.
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<br />But with mastery smoothing out spikey tank damage, I appreciate a crit but I find I don't wish for them as much (unlike before where the tank's health dropped and I prayed for a crit so he wouldn't die). So I have sacrificed some stats, but seriously... <a href="http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-0aby5d9astcyhq53/details/12/?enc=bosses&boss=52530">Bubbles were 24% of my healing</a>. And my overheal is less than when I started fiddling with this spec (though to be fair, I've stacked the deck in my favor since I do the healing assignments. I put two and three healers on one tank and solo-heal the other for Alys).
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<br />Dangit, this was not supposted to be a mastery post! Nerfed content is nerfed. We have apps. We have recruits. We're still recruiting (shamans, that means you!) We're raiding. Life is good.
<br />enlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3123785171085674237.post-1360936786545767882011-08-24T13:47:00.005-05:002011-08-24T14:29:20.337-05:00my beef with infusionMmmm infused beef. Delicious, eh?<script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.wowhead.com/widgets/power.js"></script>
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<br />I'm going to rant about <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=53576">Infusion of Light</a>, but first I'm going to ramble about <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=63733">Serendipity</a>.
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<br />Different talents are different. Different trees are different. Different classes are different. But... I didn't realize how much I disliked IoL until I played my priest enough to fall in love with Serendipity.
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What I love about Serendipity</span>
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<br />Procs by casting Binding Heal or Flash Heal. Combined with <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=88690">Surge of Light</a> (great talent synergy!), I generally find opportunity to use Serendipity procs at least a few times a fight. And I have choices: I can either use it on a <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=2060">Greater Heal</a> or a <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=596">Prayer of Healing</a>. And if that wasn't choice enough, I can either spend 1 stack or wait and cast at 2 stacks!
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<br />But it gets better. Priest healing spells are so diverse that I can hold my Serendipity charges, casting a ton of other heals: Prayer of Mending, Circle of Healing, Renew, Heal, Sanctuary, PW: Shield, etc. I can save my Serendipity stacks if I know a big thing is coming up: a pulse AoE where I'll need to heal the raid, or a big tank heal for a tank swap or timed ability.
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why Infusion Sucks, In Comparison</span>
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<br />Infusion procs by <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=20473">Holy Shock</a> crit so it's a chance instead of a guaranteed proc. I'm cool with that. An Infusion procced with a non crit, every 6 seconds would be ridiculously overpowered. So how it procs isn't a problem IMHO.
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<br />The problem is how we spend it. See that list of stuff up there, stuff I can do as a priest while saving my Serendipity stack for something I know is coming up? Here's the list for what paladins can do that heals that won't eat my IoL buff: Holy Radiance. Oh, I <span style="font-style: italic;">might</span> be able to spend Holy Power, <span style="font-style: italic;">if</span> I have three stacks.
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<br />So, we have one--maybe two--spell choice(s) we may or may not even want to use before our IoL proc gets eaten up by our next cast. There's no choice here. I cast Holy Shock (and half the time I'm already casting my next heal before my UI even registers I've gotten IoL), my next heal is short. Whether or not I need it that fast. Whether or not I want to use it right away, it gets spent. The only way I can save it is to stop casting, which I think we can all agree is a terrible idea.
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<br />Did I mention that a holy priest, after choosing to hold her Serendipity proc a few seconds, can also choose to use it on either a group heal or a single-target heal? Paladins get... a single target heal.
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<br />I don't think I have the answers. I'm not suggesting that IoL should be more limited in how we can spend the proc because that would just make the spell clunky. And Serendipity is arguably a minor part of priest healing, while Infusion of Light is a major component of paladin healing (though I could argue that it's only major because paladin spells are so limited).
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<br />Managing daybreak procs and Infusion is also a bit clunky. Using <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=88821">Daybreak</a> to Holy Shock back-to-back can waste an Infusion proc if you double-crit. But critting Shock > hasted Divine Heal (.7-.8 seconds at our gear level) > Holy Shock is awkward to time. I can't chain cast it near as fast as I should. It breaks my casting rhythm (though I realize how personal and small of a complaint this is. My big beef is the no-choice-to-spend-or-hold argument above).
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<br />But that's why I don't like Infusion of Light. There's no choice in using it. It happens, then it gets spent almost immediately. It's a passive RNG-based HPS boost. I can't hold it to save a tank, I can't rely on it to proc when I really really want it to. And even if it does proc at a good time there was no Enlynn-saving-the-tank. It was a lucky proc, is all. Unlike Serendipity where a well-placed hasted GH could actually be smart play.
<br />enlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3123785171085674237.post-17845568235553991352011-08-12T11:03:00.000-05:002011-08-12T11:03:00.983-05:00this digital ageOne of my guild masters is vehemently against e-readers.
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<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjagfE5bjPieVBc7DNgKFGZ8zLq2tnJ2tp-xy0aipwm44BDYLrQaDuiTaO02htqKCjxK2oRo0wJvQNUK6AdnlS2ZmfNFcQtdHX5ycp-_Zf0h4qYbxCIB0LmWvgHU-3Reh4LH8g9duXBz0_K/s1600/die+kindleworm+die.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 358px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjagfE5bjPieVBc7DNgKFGZ8zLq2tnJ2tp-xy0aipwm44BDYLrQaDuiTaO02htqKCjxK2oRo0wJvQNUK6AdnlS2ZmfNFcQtdHX5ycp-_Zf0h4qYbxCIB0LmWvgHU-3Reh4LH8g9duXBz0_K/s400/die+kindleworm+die.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5639258969231048498" border="0" /></a>Die, Kindleworm, Die!
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<br />I know the issue of e-readers has polarized both reading and publishing communities, but what did this poor little creature ever do to you?
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Happy Friday!</span>
<br />enlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3123785171085674237.post-31912331254107493952011-08-09T10:41:00.003-05:002011-08-09T11:06:05.493-05:00I wish I were something elseClass envy happens quite a bit.
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<br />I'm actually quite happy to be a paladin right now. And yes, I am sober. Though I do wish we had a couple more AoE healing options (or rather, that Holy Radiance was a choice instead of a fire-and-forget, perhaps?), we're in a good place. I still miss having a raid-wide bubble (Divine Guardian), and I sure as hell miss Divine Intervention.
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<br />It makes me wonder, though, if I had less experience on my other characters if I would feel the same way.
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<br />Because I feel like I field a whole lot of "I'm not this" complaints lately. A druid vows that he's rolling a paladin because he's tired of tank healing with hots (tank-healing assignments are by player, not by class, my usual tank healers are AFK to RL lately). A shaman complains that he doesn't have group heals if people aren't stacked up (hello, ALL healing classes suffer from this). If only I had this spell. If only this spell did this effect instead of this. If only my iconic signature healing spell was actually as good as everyone says it is.
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<br />I know the truth: it's all close enough. <a href="http://lifeingroup5.com/?p=2445">Vixsin has a great write-up for the bench and the top 1% guilds and class balance therein</a>, but I think it's safe to say that for the rest of the world, class balance is "close enough."
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<br />When I hear class complaints (from regular mode players), I always get the sense that it's the grass being greener on the other side than any real technical problems. And I'm biased, I know, having experience with all four healers makes me feel pretty confident I could be an asset to my raid no matter which I brought. (Isn't Enlynn so arrogant?!)
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<br />I think it's that time of the expansion, though. We hit brick walls on bosses, a key player we got used to having steps out for real-life issues and the void hurts. But instead of saying we miss the person, we say we miss his class mechanics. Sorry, I'm not buying. We miss the player who know to pop a cooldown at the right time. Him being a paladin, a shaman, a priest, not so much the issue. (Though the one night we raided with no priests was a bit weird. Fast forward two weeks and we have 6. Huh?)
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<br />And in retrospect, we made it through the summer only having to cancel a couple of raids. I think a few months ago the tones of a lot of my posts were on the verge of grim. We didn't know if we were filling the next raid, but somehow we pulled through. We've even had a waitlist for the past couple of weeks, and been able to let some players take the night off because they needed it without it being too painful for us. So things are looking up, even though we're still stuck on Beth. We got so close.
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<br />I hate fights like Beth'tilac not because of Phase 2 (which I'm doing better on, admittedly) because for Phase 1 I am stuck up on top so I have no sense for what the ground phase looks like. We had some (I hate to place blame here, but I saw some healers pull miracles out of their asses so...) DPS who would rather make excuses for why the adds don't go down than to just make the adds go down. But anyways. We're almost there.
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<br />Though, if you aren't paying attention to who has died and who has casted Brez, and you have no idea when the phase change is coming, you perhaps are not the best candidate to demand who brezes who. Just sayin'. Let someone who's actually using raid frames and situational awareness take care of that, hmm? Or maybe a RAID LEADER?
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<br />Oh, and our ranks are strictly attendance based, so when you take a demotion it is absolutely, positively, 100% NOT PERSONAL. Making it personal and threatening to quit gets you nowhere.
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<br />/rant off
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<br />We could still stand to recruit a few more people, but I think that's standard fare in a 25-raid, there's always a bit more room. We're raiding this week, and that's great. And if the worst problems I have to deal with this week are "I wish my class had this", then that's not a bad place to be at all. :)
<br />enlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3123785171085674237.post-23581994008580763052011-08-02T12:12:00.002-05:002011-08-02T12:25:22.906-05:00Tower of RadianceI'm running two specs now, a <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/tool/talent-calculator#bc00%21bPgZhWQQSZ%21j%21Ygb%21TSiRjQkKq">Tower of Radiance spec</a> and an <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/tool/talent-calculator#bc00%21YPgZhWQQgT%21jg%21Yg%21gTSRjQkPK">Eternal Glory spec</a>. The difference between them is fairly minor. My "main spec" for OMFG-TANK-DAMAGE fights has <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=87164">Eternal Glory</a>. I spec out of <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=85512">Tower of Radiance</a> because I put <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=53563">Beacon of Light</a> on the off-tank and spam Holy Light on the main tank like it's 1999.<br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.wowhead.com/widgets/power.js"></script><br />For fights like Beth'tilac, I wanted ToR because BoL doesn't transfer between levels. I figure if I have to Bacon the tank I'm healing anyways, may as well generate some extra holy power? And I wanted to have <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=26023">Pursuit of Justice</a>, because, well, I like being fast. Perhaps it's not entirely optimal, but for the fights where I'm using BoL for Holy Power, I figure I may as well not bother with Eternal Glory. In theory, I'll be using Light of Dawn a whole lot. (My glyphs reflect these choices, too, one for each spec).<br /><br />I don't know what I would do, if I only had one spec to choose to be a healadin. I feel tugged in two directions, with mastery demanding one play style and haste another. Each has it's own build and strengths and weaknesses, and every encounter seems to demand something different.<br /><br />We got Beth to 1% last night but ran out of time to go in for that one last attempt. I feel pretty darn useless in Phase 2, but I think that has more to do with my being a paladin than being a mastery-stacking paladin. Hit Holy Radiance on cooldown, spam the raid. Those bubbles get absorbed, at least, but without haste my direct heals are painfully slow.<br /><br />I guess, even with haste, my direct heals are still painfully slow. =P<br /><br />TL;DR: Paladins need a third spec so healadins can have 2 healing specs AND an offspec. Because not everyone is crazy enough to do holy/holy like me.enlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3123785171085674237.post-65376429814618602862011-07-25T10:18:00.001-05:002011-07-25T10:18:00.424-05:00I looked at Magmaw funnyA foray into 10 HM...<br /><br />Now that we're doing t12, my guild put together a 10-raid for HM Blackwing Descent. Perhaps regular modes have been nerfed all to hell (and they have, they have) but HMs are still--wait for it--hard.<br /><br />The group was really cobbled together with the folks who happened to be on on Saturday. So it was my absolute favorite healing composition (two holy paladins + anything else) (sarcasm alert!), but we made it work. Only kinda, though, since we didn't get any bosses down. But I had expected as much, since we hadn't touched a single Hardmode yet this expansion and none of us had really researched the fights yet.<br /><br />But even so, it gave me a chance to see my mastery gear working in a 10-group. At first, I went in my hybrid gear (17% mastery, 1000+ haste, more crit) and used my Tower of Radiance spec, but after a couple of wipes I switched to my "main" set and to my non-ToR spec.<br /><br />A couple of reasons why: In a raid with the haste buff, the difference between 970 haste and 1200 or so haste is... not noticeable. Perhaps you get an extra Holy Radiance tick (a handy chart would be neat, but I digress), but the cast time on direct heals is the same either way. And in 10-raids, Holy Radiance isn't quite the I-Win button it is in 25's.<br /><br />My "off spec" gear is lower i-level. I ran into this problem before, in Icecrown Citadel, trying to keep up a FoL set (haste to soft cap, stack spellpower) with random pieces of gear. Except, I never had a full offset so some of my pieces were still gemmed for intellect. So it wasn't a true specialist set, it was entirely cobbled together, and the real kicker: lower average i-level. I lost so much to put that gear on. I ended up using it Saurfang while we were progressing and that's about it. Once it felt on farm, I didn't bother.<br /><br />I feel much the same way with my "haste and spirit" set now. I lose 4-pc t11 bonus, several thousand intellect, and 7% bubblage for... a couple hundred haste, an extra % or so crit, and... wait for it... all those i-level drops actually give me less spirit. Because this all off-set gear, old gear, lower i-level. All my new stuff is part of my mastery set.<br /><br />A part of this is that it isn't a true offset. I still have too many pieces that are reforged for mastery, so instead of being a second specialist set, it still favors mastery while not favoring it enough.<br /><br />And I do believe that I would be saying the opposite, if I had cobbled together a mastery offset, if I had half-assed it and coming up with 15% bubblage instead of 24%, I would not be the mastery cheerleader that I am right now.<br /><br />A part of me dies every time I cheerlead for mastery. But the point is: your best gear will probably give you the best results. And why this is news for me, well, I haven't had my coffee yet.<br /><br />Is there a point to all this? I really thought I had one but now that I'm here, I don't. I was able to "compete" with the other healers in my mastery gear, though we had to do healing assignments to work around me and I do not like being in that position. We had the other healadin beacon the tank, focus the raid, while I beaconed the adds tank and focused on the main tank. Sometimes I was a bit overwhelmed by the damage, but for the most part I wasn't. I never thought "whew, glad I got all this mastery" or anything.<br /><br />I'm going to have to do some research for next weekend. I'm really not motivated to reforge my gear for one run on the weekend just to switch it back for the week, but we'll see what happens.enlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3123785171085674237.post-61918057705104595092011-07-23T10:04:00.000-05:002011-07-23T10:04:00.862-05:00still upset about crusader aura, take twoI don't often miss game mechanics, at least not on a regular basis. Sure, sometimes I whine about not having Divine Intervention anymore, but honestly it's an artifact of paladin past and I've accepted that.<br /><br />But I just can't get over not having Aura Mastery work with Crusader Aura anymore. I miss it every time I log in.<br /><br />A lot of times, I use it just to hear the sound it makes, but I get sad, too, because Aura Mastery has two sound components: the shing of AM and the rahw of Crusader Aura. It only makes the shing now.<br /><br />QQenlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3123785171085674237.post-60009241303154234812011-07-19T09:00:00.000-05:002011-07-19T09:00:07.837-05:00bacon flavored playstyle<a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=53563">Bacon, how do I love thee?</a> Let me count the ways.<script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.wowhead.com/widgets/power.js"></script><br /><br />There's a few approaches you can use to using Beacon of Light in PVE encounters, and your favored approach will likely affect your gut instinct for stat priorities. (This is a mastery post, believe it or not).<br /><br />The method I've used for most of T11 is to assign myself a tank (ah, the joys of being heal lead, I'm known for giving myself the heaviest tank-healing duty), and Beacon my assignment.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Beaconing Your Tank</span><br /><br />For fights like Magmaw, Atramedes, the second half of Halfus, Double Dragons, and Chogall, you've probably already done this. With Beacon on your main assignment, you're free to spam the raid with heals. In 4.2, we can use Holy Light as often as it can cover tank damage (which on one-tank fights can happen, if you've got other paladins using their Beacon the same way and full-rolling hots and shields from other healers).<br /><br />I like giving my tank my Bacon. It ensures my tank will always be getting a heal (not just the 1/2 direct heal, but tiny heals from PotI and JotP as long as I'm staying active, but on the occassion I do need to land a big heal on the tank, I get Holy Power, which allows me to do even more raid healing with LoD, which transfers a good-sized heal to my tank. More raid healing and solid tank healing. It's win.<br /><br />This setup favors haste>spirit/crit and employs all spells, potentially favoring Divine Light and Light of Dawn. A paladin has less reason to use Word of Glory unless she's really trying to be mana efficient (crossing her fingers for a HP refund with each WoG use). Casting Divine Light on your tank procs more HP and allows you to spray lots and lots of LoD over the raid, to the point of planning out holy power for big attacks and timers, and regenerating it quickly by spamming the tank with Infusion procs.<br /><br />This setup makes mastery look like a chump stat. With the changes in 4.2, mastery is better (our bubbles are a little more likely to last long enough over the raid to be absorbed), however, the scatter shot raid-healing approach means a lot of those bubbles can get wasted (phase changes or timed AoE pulses longer than 15 seconds). This approach means we're healing reactively, while mastery really shines with proactive healing.<br /><br />That's a drawback if you're trying to avoid mastery. We "pay" for it in terms of class balance so for fights we're not able to utilize our bubbles, we're running without one of the tools in our already limited toolkit.<br /><br />This strategy is solid for fights with moderate tank damage and moderate raid damage, and allows you to switch between direct heal-bombing your tank and raid healing on the fly.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Beaconing Someone Else's Tank</span><br /><br />I think a lot of paladins still use this approach (the other two healadins do this unless we agree otherwise). For fights that feature two tanks and limited raid damage, this is a solid way to keep up two targets.<br /><br />The drawback is, you put your tank in danger when you help heal the raid, because while you aren't healing them, they aren't getting any of your heals. With this setup, WoG shines a teensy bit more than LoD, if a healadin wants to keep constant heals on her tank. (And fights that encourage this type of Bacon may not have raid damage to heal).<br /><br />Mastery is an amazing stat for this playstyle. I am not yet comfortable with the stat weights for this setup but I have heard other paladins gear for a 1.9 second HL/DL (mine is 2.0 with 790 haste) and enough critical strike rating to keep up solid uptime on Conviction (at 15% crit I kept up 97%). What a healadin gives up in raid-healing flexibility she becomes a beast tank-healer. Constant bubbles on cheap heals. It's ridiculous.<br /><br />Holy Light takes precedence over Divine Light, since this style is proactive healing, building up bubbles whether the tank needs a heal or not. That means you can get away with less spirit. That means--you guessed it--room for more mastery. Truly a specialist build.<br /><br />This strategy is awesome for fights with insane tank damage. Your healing team will love you for your mastery and your ability to keep a constant stream of heals and bubbles on the main tank. However, you may feel like the last kid chosen to play at recess for AoE damage fights. For progression-minded raiding groups (and aggressive raid healers who don't care), that may not be a drawback.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Talent Builds</span><br /><br />I've had two holy specs for a while now. My off-spec was last tuned for Alakir (Pursuit of Justice, go go!) but I've been contemplating redoing that build to fully utilize a mastery playstyle. I think Tower of Radiance is wasted on a full-on mastery build. That's not to say I would scoff at a paladin who had it, but for players like me who prefer to keep two variants of their main spec instead of a true offspec, I think there's room to play around.<br /><br />I'm writing this post a bit ahead of its post date so I'm going to go with <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/talent#scIbzrduubkhbZcb">this build here (31/5/5)</a>, and hopefully I'll let you know how I feel about it. I'm not really happy about 1/2 Blessed Life but it was the best I could do without taking the DPS talents in the Holy tree.<br /><br />I'm further thinking that if I'm going this route of having one specialized tank-healing build and a raid-healing build, I could take out Eternal Glory in my raid-healing build and try Pursuit of Justice instead. In theory, I'd be casting far more LoDs than WoGs, and the extra movement to help position myself for Holy Radiance would be helpful. But I'll keep you posted. I haven't decided yet. :)enlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3123785171085674237.post-19890888090299810582011-07-14T09:11:00.007-05:002011-07-14T10:45:25.236-05:00et tu, enlynn?: mastery buildI imagine you've already seen some hullabulloo about the changes in 4.2 to mastery. Buffs, yes. Changes, yes. But enough changes to warrant a dramatic playstyle and gearing change for Firelands?<br /><br />Maybe.<script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.wowhead.com/widgets/power.js"></script><br /><br />I read the <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2743690008">Holy Paladin: Mastery</a> thread over on the Blizzard forums and thought to myself that going <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/senjin/Zaroua/advanced">Zaroua's route</a> was probably a great idea for 25 HM raiders. But, I'm not a HM raider, not yet. We're shooting to get normal modes down for Firelands but it didn't happen in T11 and quite frankly we had enough on our metaphorical guild plate without them. So I did think, when I read through this, that it didn't apply to me.<br /><br />Then I saw that <a href="http://blessingofkings.blogspot.com/2011/07/masterycrit-build-in-practice.html">Rohan</a> had joined the Mastery Club. Again, HM raider.<br /><br />And then <a href="http://paladindivineplea.blogspot.com/2011/07/i-love-being-right.html">Adgamorix</a> threw in his vote and I realized something: tank deaths on Shannox were wiping us. Back-to-back Arcing Slashes and melee attacks in .12 seconds were dealing 120k and 95k damage faster than my UI could display it. And if this build is supposedly very good for crazy ass spikey tank damage like this, then why wasn't I at least willing to give it a try?<br /><br />I spent some justice points and got 4 pc set bonus (not so much for the bonus, but the two pieces with mastery were the best deal for the JP I had). I reforged and regemmed (all my Reckless became Artful), and picked up the pieces of gear with Mastery from the Firelands Rep Guys (vote: pathetic or not pathetic that I don't even know the faction I'm grinding for right now?).<br /><br />I cobbled together a 23% bubble with hardly any effort. Previously, I had 77 mastery (so basically a 12% bubble).<br /><br />And so after almost 50 attempts at Shannox over the last few weeks, we went in last night and killed him the second time. Our RL takes full credit for the first wipe, but the second pull was beautiful, pitch-perfect, and the loot flowed.<br /><br />My meters were borked. According to Skada, my bubbles were... 44k. Which is actually the bubble I had on the MT when we pulled (which is crazy). I was disheartened, but I had several healers whisper me saying they felt the difference, that whatever I had done was a good thing.<br /><br />Fortunately, WoL has the story. But I'm going to drag this out and first talk about my healing before, since I think that's important. Here's a picture of last night, a very-close Shannox attempt. My assignment is the same for both: Luxinterior, Shannox tank. He, I believe, made some minor to his gear over the weekend but I'm fairly certain the only change between last night and tonight was me.<br /><a href="http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/qv0cnhk2pp68cses/details/10/?s=8659&e=9211"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Before, my haste-stacking paladin self:</span></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheX7lgobra5gYJt-0QEsbTpcdIClgtlgW51nJ50yuIX_fvbCf8Ll_XQA_nf0WYbDJOrrnC9xdtKgRW3H8Zga-aGdJCcaJYlX4WWeQD0I4k6z9irTA4wCgzakKskSsvoDThqkzxr-8ElepP/s1600/enlynn+before+mastery.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 209px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheX7lgobra5gYJt-0QEsbTpcdIClgtlgW51nJ50yuIX_fvbCf8Ll_XQA_nf0WYbDJOrrnC9xdtKgRW3H8Zga-aGdJCcaJYlX4WWeQD0I4k6z9irTA4wCgzakKskSsvoDThqkzxr-8ElepP/s400/enlynn+before+mastery.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5629214670469618082" border="0" /></a><br />Lots of Word of Glory, and lots of Divine Light spammed on my Beacon target (Lux) to generate Holy Power. Holy Radiance popped just about every Magma Burst, and I made a point to be inside the raid when it happened to maximize my AoE healing.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-662fl4rlovutymss/details/14/?s=2190&e=2713"><span style="font-weight: bold;">And now, with Mastery:</span></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmdkfPvWoI-HScYT8vhU64PNlxeeLloB6hUUVO8xuKXYM9tMiUT7l-JppU_xuj4WVuiql3vQ7j3-Br40136-x3-5VPCLvjgHFlhLCTCW5lG1KgLL-_TJS61uDhKmHQffdFlSoptLE_ADKr/s1600/new+mastery.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 201px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmdkfPvWoI-HScYT8vhU64PNlxeeLloB6hUUVO8xuKXYM9tMiUT7l-JppU_xuj4WVuiql3vQ7j3-Br40136-x3-5VPCLvjgHFlhLCTCW5lG1KgLL-_TJS61uDhKmHQffdFlSoptLE_ADKr/s400/new+mastery.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5629215766321747682" border="0" /></a><br />I made radical changes to my healing style. Beacon of Light jumped to my highest healing done because I set it on the other tank and basically forgot it for the fight. But check out <span style="font-style: italic;">my bubbling- a solid fifth of my healing done</span>.<br /><br />But did you catch the overheal on my direct heals? Oi.<br /><br />A thought on <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=82327">Holy Radiance</a>: Because my goal for this fight was to spam Holy Light on the tank the entire fight whether or not he needed it, I spent less time positioning myself to help with AoE. The numbers here are deceiving, because not only did I get less in-range ticks with this change and those ticks healed for less, but I was off by myself or sometimes just in the melee. I used Holy Radiance 10 times for both samples, but the data can't be compared because I behaved differently.<br /><br />I might have lost a tick with the haste I lost, but I didn't lose any intellect so in theory each tick would have healed the same if I had played the same.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What didn't change</span><br /><br />Judging on cooldown, plea and trinkets early and often, hitting AoE heal button every XX seconds in response to AoE pulses. Tank healing like it's going out of style.<br /><br />I healed for a bit less overall with a mastery build, however, my ranking within my raid didn't change. The healing done page looked fairly similar for both in terms of what other healers were doing.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What did change</span><br /><br />Everything else! Who I healed and what spells I used. I went from favoring <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=82326">Divine Light</a> to being afraid of it. I lost several hundred spirit to make this change, pigeon-holing me into favoring <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=635">Holy Light</a> and using DL and <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=19750">Flash of Light</a> for oh-shit moments (even that oh-shit moment that I used an instant-cast FoL while running ended up being 100% overheal because others beat me to it). <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=53563">Beacon</a> became a fire-and-forget buff on the other side of the raid</span> instead of an active tool to help me raid heal and generate Holy Power while keeping my assignment up.<br /><br />(BTW, raise your hand if you forgot<a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=53576"> Infusion procs insta-cast FoLs again</a>! Cause I sure did till last night).<br /><br />Beacon probably deserves its own post since I find I'm using mine differently than other paladins in the raid. But before I derail entirely, I had to mention the Beacon change because it did change how I healed the tank. When Beacon isn't on my assignment, I am restricted. With a mastery build, I am further restricted to healing my target. Raid healing with this setup doesn't heal my target, and those raid bubbles aren't likely to get absorbed in a fight like Shannox. Also, time spent not healing the tank is time not spent building up bubbles. So this build really, really pigeon-holes a paladin into one thing and one thing only: spamming Holy Light on the tank whether or not he needs it.<br /><br />Pardon me. I could have sworn I just heard a skeleton screaming "Bone Storm!" from across a chamber of ice.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">TLDR:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">This build is effective for crazy tank damage fights.</span> I can not deny it. For 25 raiders and both 10 and 25 HM raiders, I can see why stacking mastery would be a benefit to the raid for specific fights.<br /><br />However, (and of course there's a however), a paladin really ought to take a long look at her playing habits and raiding roster. There are a lot of situations where a mastery build would be a great idea, but I also believe there will be a lot of situations where a haste-spirit build would be stronger.<br /><br />After Shannox, we went and did a few attempts on our next boss target, Lord Ryolith, and holy cow had we not gotten Shannox down I would have felt useless for Ryolith. Heavy raid damage fights are not not friendly to the mastery build. (However, after comparing myself to the other holy paladin in my raid, I could have tried a lot harder so the verdict is most certainly not out yet for how best a mastery build paladin can use her abilities in this kind of fight. I'll post more once I figure it out.)<br /><br />Should you go mastery? If and only if you play with a regular group of folks so you can be a designated main tank healer and work with the rest of your raid to help you get the most effectiveness out of this playstyle. I'm not so sure that 10 regular modes require a stacking setup, either, my experiences with 10s isn't near as great as 25s, but I just don't see the tank damage as crazy enough to warrant it. 10's, to me, seem to encourage staying general (ie, flexible) instead of going specialized, and with 10 mans that loss of spirit to focus on mastery is going to hurt.<br /><br />But in 25s (even regular), volunteering to be that paladin might not be such a bad idea, especially if your group is solid enough that it's just assumed you're going to be one of the main tank healers. Does your 25-raid need 2? I have no idea. I'm not going to recommend that the other healadins in my raid make the switch.<br /><br />Why?<br /><br />If my snark earlier was not obvious enough, <span style="font-weight: bold;">spamming a heal on a person whether they need it or not... is not FUN</span>. I have squirmy feelings about casting with no regards to overheal. I half-wonder if we're going to see nerfs since <span style="font-style: italic;">the mastery build encourages spam-casting that goes against design intent.</span><br /><br />Did I mention it's not fun? Sure, it felt real good to get the boss down but being a Holy-Light-Metronome (too bad paladins can't be Gnomes, har har!) will get real old, real fast. I mean, I'll do it, I like getting bosses down just like any other gal, but I lost a lot of flexibility to gain tank healing stability. Especially since I got feedback from the other healers saying it made their jobs less stressful. For me, sticking with a mastery build will be taking one for the team.<br /><br />And a HM raider will have different experiences, since they will have a lot less overheal.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">TLDR, for real this time</span><br /><br />If you're struggling with keeping up tank damage that, by the logs, looks impossible to heal, going with a mastery build might be the ticket to downing those bosses.<br /><br />But I would say, if you don't heal with a steady raid group, if your raid roster is constantly changing and your focus within the raid is different every night, then a more balanced approach might be better. And if you value your flexibility within your raid group, then you probably will not enjoy this specialist build.enlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3123785171085674237.post-51814156502125641522011-06-15T15:59:00.003-05:002011-06-15T16:26:48.096-05:0023-manning progressionWe're working on Alakir.<br /><br />A part of me wants to be embarrassed that we haven't completed on 25, what many, many guilds on our server have completed on 10.<br /><br />However, we've called a whole bunch of raids due to attendance. And I don't say that QQ-like because it's just a fact. Sure, we've done alternate things like Ulduar runs and nostalgia achievement runs to keep ourselves busy, and we've done BoT and BWD with like 22 and 23 people.<br /><br />Instead of calling it this week, we've gone and tried Alakir with 23. In some ways, it's great that we can do that. It seems pretty unlikely that a 10-man guild could 9-man a progression fight. But with enough heavy hitter DPS in a 25, it's kind of possible.<br /><br />I say kind of because we haven't gotten it yet. Though, we are getting closer. It's certainly not going to take us as long to get Alakir as it took to get down Nef. With 4.2 on the way, it's pressure. We really want to have the tier completed before it's time for the next one.<br /><br />It's a hard spot to be in, knowing we were 9/12 25 HM in Icecrown... and we haven't touched a heroic mode yet this tier. Maybe Firelands will be better for us. It will be, if we can actually get into the content every night we're scheduled to.<br /><br />It's unfortunate because I do love 25-man raiding. There is, I believe, only two guilds that use the larger format on our server (regularly). It's hard to be #2. Why join a 25-man guild that may or may not do a full clear this week when you can join a 10 that can? I mean, we have great personality! But in terms of time invested versus rewards, I feel like the players of WoW have spoken and 10-mans are the future, with a handful of elite 25s, maybe 1 or 2 on the larger servers.<br /><br />Oh, and I should weigh in a totally-opiniony opinion that has absolutely no basis in math or fact on our new 4.2 mastery. Still not a stat I want. But hey. The nerfs we take in mana cost will make up for it, right?<br /><br />Snark aside, it's not a bad time to be a paladin. Tank healing is sweet now that I've found a groove. With more crit than I had a few months ago, it's gotten crazy with IoL procs. And more crit for holy shock in the next patch? Yes, please!<br /><br />I'm pretty excited about Holy Light doing full transfer, as well. I had resorted into a bad habit of using Divine Light more than was probably necessary to make sure that my Beacon target was getting enough of a heal. Though, on some fights I'm getting a ton of use on Tower of Radiance. Big heal on tank + 1 holy power? I'm okay with that, especially to build up holy power for the next boss ability.<br /><br />With the cooldown reduction on Holy Radiance in 4.2, I'll be a bit more free to use it more often. One of my biggest complaints with that spell was how much it was just a one-answer button to specific abilities. I'm not sure that using it more will be the answer, but having the option to is a start.<br /><br />Because I think that's the root of all holy paladin QQ everywhere. No options = no fun.<br /><br />And, um, Speed of Light gives a run speed bonus to Divine Protection? Oh, oh, yes! That'll be fun. I love Body and Soul for for the run speed on my priest, and always feel like my boost is wasted on my paladin. After all, if I want to heal the most, I'll already be parked for maximum efficiency. So that's really nice, because it feels like a terrible and bad thing to use Holy Radiance for the speed boost alone (at least in combat!)enlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3123785171085674237.post-25049027116324390622011-06-08T12:01:00.003-05:002011-06-08T12:29:17.526-05:00from silence, an updateHappy Hump Day Everyone!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bloggy Stuff</span><br /><br />No news is good news, right? Okay, that's a terrible excuse for disappearing off the planet for a few weeks. My blog nagged at me, whispered to me to come back, but then I told myself I didn't have anything to write about, and with all the social media stuff I've been reading I felt like I didn't have anything to offer the community and Oh-dear-god I just talk about myself and how I'm frustrated with holy paladins alllll the time. (I'm not. It just sounds like it).<br /><br />I have a knack for making things harder than they are.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Raiding Stuff</span><br /><br />In recent news, we got Nef on 25 down last week. That was a really hard one for the guild. We've had some attendance problems of late--hasn't everyone?--but things are okay for now. We lost two of our tanks while learning Nef. Not from Nef, of course. Just while. So we had quite a few re-learning nights.<br /><br />Can I say right now that I love tanks who love mitigation?<br /><br />No, really. It's absolutely amazing the difference between correct gemming and reforging and not-so-correct. And worse, why it does it reflect on the healer when I can't keep up a tank who is still living like it's Icecrown?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Guild Stuff</span><br /><br />A funny story, back from an old guild.<br /><br />Several times while I was the healing officer of another guild, the GM called together a meeting of officers and asked if we thought we had room for another officer. All three times, I shot it down. We had enough, in my overly humble opinion, and I also had a few people whispering me telling me that they wanted the position. So when the GM asked, I thought I knew who he had in mind.<br /><br />And quite frankly, if you take 40 minute AFKs to change desks because you raid at work, at least once a week, you should not be vying for a raid leadership position. Hell, you shouldn't even be upset when we bench you.<br /><br />Also, if you've spent the last two days bitching about two-thirds of the guild and how you wish they weren't in the guild and you'd love to kick them. You're not getting my vote either.<br /><br />So, a week or so after we left that guild, the GM decides to whisper me and tell me that all those times he was trying to get another officer into leadership, he was trying to get Luxinterior. But each time the officers shot him down so hard he never got a chance to name the name.<br /><br />Fortunately, my boyfriend wasn't upset that I voted against him three separate times.<br /><br />Fast forward. Our tanking officer in my current guild takes off for some real life stuff, and we go back and forth on whether we even need a tanking officer (the tanks we had at the time were real low-maintenance). So then, I voted, no, no tanking officer.<br /><br />Then we lost our other low-maintenance tank, leaving only Lux, a guy who quit the game for four months and suddenly showed up wanting to tank, and a new guy who had only done 10s.<br /><br />I felt a bit awkward changing my opinion, and even more awkward voting for my boyfriend, but everyone laughed about it because he was the natural choice. I was all "Well, he's doing the work so he's got the burden of leadership without the benefits..." and the GM was all "Geez, Enlynn, it took you long enough".<br /><br />So, make that four times I voted no. But the fifth stuck, and Four Lights now has the Lux-and-Enlynn tanking/healing leadership team!<br /><br />It's handy in a lot of ways. We talk about things before we put 'em in vent and raid chat, and I feel less like an idiot when I have to ask the same question for the third time in one night. Lux already knows I'm a little dense sometimes. :)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Writing Stuff</span><br /><br />I'm well on my way to meeting my goal for writing this year, having completed my second book a few days ago. I'm floored about Camp Nanowrimo starting this July. I had an idea I was saving for November NaNo, but I also wanted to write it in the summer to fully appreciate the oppressive dog days of August in the midwest for the story. So that'll be neat.<br /><br />The other project, that actually has something to do with WoW, is a story about a gamer girl and her raiding guild. I've had this idea rolling around in my head for a year, and I was afraid until now but it's time to stop being afraid and RAR! Gonna do it.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Reading Stuff</span><br /><br />Like books about druids? I meant to plug <a href="http://www.kevinhearne.com/">Hounded by Kevin Hearne</a> a few weeks ago when I read it AND FELL IN LOVE. An Iron Age druid living in modern day Arizona? Oh, yes! I heartily recommend this book.enlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3123785171085674237.post-89369542344619618272011-05-05T11:22:00.003-05:002011-05-05T11:28:12.044-05:00furry friendsAn unexpected change happened to the game with 4.1. I don't even remember reading about it, but pets no longer disappear when we log out or die.<br /><br />Er, they do sometimes, but for the most part companion pets persist.<br /><br />Which means, naturally, that we see a lot more pets in the raid. I'm changing my pets around, deciding which one I feel like for the night, or even for the fight (I like summoning my macaw when we get to the ship in Deadmines).<br /><br />I've noticed that a lot of other people are doing the same. It's added a new flavor to the game, since pets are fun and seeing what other pets people have and choose is interesting. I /dance with a moonkin hatchling, cheer when someone's XT stomps a train, and click on the Wolpertinger until it makes the cooing noises.<br /><br />I like it! Have your remembered to love your furry friends lately?enlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3123785171085674237.post-18167347179152297972011-04-29T09:02:00.005-05:002011-04-29T09:56:30.392-05:00still in the dark: mastery buffs not enoughI promised myself I'm not going to let this go too long, so not much theorycrafting. Also, there may be QQ ahead.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/5mtkd97r0om9fnu2/details/23/?s=9770&e=10186">Magmaw WoL</a> for 4-27. <a href="http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/l62sjf4bpiji0kth/spell/86273/?s=7994&e=8412">Magmaw WoL</a> for 4-19.<br /><br />I went from 36% "overheal" on mastery to 38. Old mastery was 3-4% of my healing, now it's 6%.<br /><br />I mean, it's a buff so I shouldn't complain. But here's what I think happened:<br /><br />Tank healing for paladins hasn't changed. Most of our shields get overwritten before the absorb can happen. My tank absorbs for 4-19 and 4-27 are a bit different from playstyle change (more raw heals done spamming the tank on 4-27 because our other tank healer fell into the lava).<br /><br />However, the mastery buffs did affect LoD absorbs. My absorbs on the raid on 4-19 were all overheal in the 50-75% range. Those numbers last night went down, or rather, the amount absorbed went up (overheal in the 30-70% range, with more bubbles being entirely absorbed).<br /><br />So we're a little bit better at raid healing. A little. I don't know about you, but my raid assignments are still like they were in Wrath: pallies on tanks, the rest on raids. Sure, I pop Holy Radiance (which doesn't proc mastery) every minute when the boss does his raidwide-pulse-damage like a good healadin, but let's be honest here:<br /><br />Why in the hell would I assign myself to the raid when we have shamans, druids, and priests? So I can use half-powered Light of Dawns once every 14 seconds?<br /><br />QQ. I know my raw healing is often comparable to what other healers do, but I still think healadins are broken.<br /><br />One spell on a 40 second cooldown does not fix "it".<br /><br />The way the encounters are designed, we're tank healers who pop a raid-cooldown, then continue spamming tanks. There's really no spell selection, and if we're not clumped up...<br /><br />And with the damage model in Cataclysm, we can't even tank heal by ourselves. I mean, I know that no 1 healer can, but still. I can, in theory, stop raid healing, and the raid healers would just have less overheal.<br /><br />I main-changed in the second tier of Wrath, and later called it a mistake because of all the time it wastes. Switching to priest isn't an option (though a girl can dream) because we have so many priests in our raid. Right now, we could use a shaman, but our alt run already has so many shamans that gearing her up would be difficult. Oh, yeah, and she's 72. So when I talk about thinking about not being a paladin anymore, I do mean to say I've been giving this a lot of thought over a long time. <a href="http://muradinmusings.blogspot.com/2010/10/40-healing-is-joke-and-holy-paladins.html">Can you believe that 4.0 was six months ago? Holy paladins are still the punchline.</a><br /><br />We already have one holy paladin in the raid. I feel at this point having 1 less paladin and 1 more anything would be better than having 2 healadins. Especially since our shaman hangs around the 50% attendance mark.<br /><br />How is 4.1 treating you? How do you feel about your healadin and her contributions to the raid?enlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3123785171085674237.post-60806153318795740722011-04-23T22:39:00.004-05:002011-04-23T22:42:21.724-05:00noblegarden egg hunt!<a href="http://kamaliaetalia.wordpress.com/2011/04/15/the-great-blog-noblegarden-egg-hunt-round-ii/">I'm so excited for the blog egg hunt tomorrow!</a><br /><br />I've hidden an egg around bubblespec, somewhere. Good luck, and I'll see you over at Kamalia et Alia's blog!enlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3123785171085674237.post-28475325785066578142011-04-21T23:19:00.004-05:002011-04-23T22:29:01.019-05:00proto drake goodness<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img18.imageshack.us/i/wowscrnshot042111231734.jpg/"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwN-irFldPEvd1N3NM8whUB5vKNniVGiNBZpCpu-pTJvblXNg5fogmH0qh9iKZuLHzxPq5htZRItN8JBXT8YQtVhl81cIqgURiE_BZUC-00kjKvgKv3-EcdfIK_U6AFU2iACFoihkKIt6-/s400/WoWScrnShot_042111_231734a%25282%2529.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5598986853268271506" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwaD2zFJOKEHO68BRl5MCVAQxPYwW9d82bt3teWdugAfmFGSzgnMg3vPRkqHPir1Ijz5QHbeeyFjPW-boxoqMfMPxUU_GBhpZU2LKSZvW4Z3jC1aYNmtRtgYR2X6LDzzH1CtRk43jkmp8S/s1600/WoWScrnShot_042111_231734.jpg"><br /></a><br />Proto-drakes are my favorite mount. And I have to say, the Ironbound is elegant.enlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3123785171085674237.post-29654105491675124722011-04-15T15:07:00.000-05:002011-04-15T15:07:00.992-05:00binge drinker<a href="http://www.blogazeroth.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=2804">Blog Azeroth Shared Title: Weird Gaming Habits</a><br /><br />I have a confession. I'm a binge drinker.<br /><br />Okay, IRL I can't hold liquor to save my life, but in WoW, it's different.<br /><br />I like carrying several kinds of alcohol in Enlynn's bags. Sometimes I go quite a while without drinking them (the good thing about booze, it doesn't really expire), but then I'll go through a stack in one night, starting every pull that night with the screen fuzzy.<br /><br />Hmm.... That makes Enlynn a binge drinker.<br /><br />Weird. I'm to finish off that stack of Rhapsody Malt I just happened to have in my bags, to celebrate.enlynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113088007518211865noreply@blogger.com4