So while the title isn’t exactly what I was thinking, it’s close enough.

I’m going to talk about priesting for a moment here.

Ok, you can get back up from the floor.  I know, shocker.  ;P

I’m being serious here!

Anywho, I’ve noticed that more and more lately… I can priest and heal like a mofo and tweak this and that when I need to (yay challenging raids!) to get the people a live and the bosses dead… but, for the life of me, I don’t know how I’m doing it.

I read a lot of priest blogs, Ego, Matt, Kestrel, to name some, but while some people can use numbers or logic to figure out where they need help, or where they can rock and get more out of what they’re doing… I can’t.

It’s just there.  In the brain pan.  And I wonder if this is a good thing or a bad thing.  I mean, is just going with your gut a bad way to play?

Lemme give you a tad of insight to where I’m coming from.

Enter Arrows of the Queen, a really kick ass series for a fantasy horse loving pre teen, such as myself.  The main character, Talia, has the gift of empathy, and can maniplutate the moods of those around her.  She’s a shy, timid, slightly rigid young girl, but eventually turns into the heroin a B type person like me knows and loves.  In the second book, Arrow’s Flight, steamy romance aside, she’s out on her internship, and her gift starts breaking down, because she’s lost her instinctual grasp of it.  Her intiution behind the gift gets underminded by some nasty rumors, etc, plot ensues, she eventually gets control back by basically “logic”-ing her gift, and viola ends up a stronger person for it.

Ok, so not a lot of parrallels I can draw from that… but I got the impression from the book, intuition isn’t enough.  Sometimes, maybe, but if you watch NCIS, that’s totally not that case.  (<3 Abby!)  Gibbs is like the intuition GOD.  And he kicks ass, saves people, shoots the bad guys, gets the red head, etc.

In my very twisted and confused and bored out of my skull way, I’m trying to justify being surrounded by a bunch of theorycrafters by winging it, and trusting what my gut tells me.

Is that wrong?

Behind every good warrior, there’s a priest goofing off.

So, Sunday, my goal was made.  It took me exactly one month to level a human priest from 1 to 70.  I would have probably made it to 70 much, MUCh earlier, but because this new main of mine (say Hai to Bansidhe! Make her feel loved, k?) didn’t have a lot of the bling bling the dwarf does have, I took time out to go and do some old world dungeons, and get her exalted with all of the alliance.  She’s an Ambassador, and has most of the old world dungeon achievements under her belt.  Huzzah!  Plus, I’m working on her tailoring (361 atm) and Jewel Crafting (340 atm, it’s so hard to get those last 10 pts to blue gems!) cooking and fishing… don’t ask what her fishing is… >.>

Anywho, so, since doing all those late night dungeon runs with Shumei got her to 62, when the patch hit (and I could login XD) I went to Outland and started her leveling like a fiend.  The goal last Wed was to be 70 by Sunday.  Very doable.  The XP nerf for the 60 to 70 grind helped out a ton, and so has her new spec.

I can’t really call myself a priest expert.  I had no idea what the hell was in that tree of Discipline.  Maybe because I’m not all that disciplined myself, so I kinda just said, meh, hell with it, if I heal, I’m holy, if I Deeps, I’m shadow, end of story.

Let me introduce you to a new Stephi.

HOLY ARCANE MISSILES PEWPEW!

Penance is possibly the coolest looking spell ever.   No, I mean, seriously.  It’s like the Photon Torpedo of WoW.  Arcane Mages get the Quantum Torpedo in Arcane Barrage, we get whoomph whoomph WHOOMP!  I’m having a ton of fun leveling in this spec.  Maybe that whole spell power thing is also controbuting to being to DPS, but honestly, when I was testing Cay on the Beta, her DPS in Northrend was kinda crap.  Her mana regen was fine, but that’s because of her gear.  With this Disc spec I’m sporting… which I was just about to link to you guys via WoW Armory, but apparently, they haven’t caught up with me yet. : /  Suffice to say, it’s a tad scattered, but it’s 55/3/3 (those three Holy are in Imp Renew and the 3 in Shadow are Spirit Tap! Essential for all your grinding needs ^.^)

Starting at 62 with this spec, was odd, because I really didn’t know what to expect.  I really hadn’t gone any further in Disc than Imp Divine Spirit.  Anything further was … well, I never had enough points, since I was entrenched the Holy tree (which I still love btw.)  So trying to figure out a spell rotation was fun!  Then I pug’d Hellfire Ramparts and Bloodfurnace, changed three buttons and was able to engage into full healbot mode.

Some impressions:

Disc is AMAZING at single target healing.  Just, awesome.  Penance is an awesome spell for instant OH CRAP on the tank.  While the spell haste from full Enlightenment is also full of WIN for GHeal, I can still feel that extra .3 seconds in it.  Holy cuts it down to 2.5 instead of just 2.86, and Cay’s had some spell haste for some time, so I’ve gotten used to a 2.3 Gheal cast.  Still makes me nervous, but when the Gheal lands, it still heals a pretty penny.  Mostly don’t see myself using it though, I find myself using Flash Heal more and more.

But OMG I miss LoLCircle.  No, I mean it, when the group is taking a butt ton of damage, Prayer of Healing takes to long T.T  Haven’t come across too many instances yet where I’m in desperate need of that AoE healin’, but when I do need it, I’m missing my circle.

___

So, what do I find myself doing in the future?  I’m probably going to stick to the Penance for the grind.  But come raid time, Holy Holy Holy.  There’s some new pretty in that Holy tree that I just love to look at, play with and just all in all rock out with my heal out.

PS:  Don’t ask me about Shadow yet… I’m still not sure WTF they did to Rakzha.  : /

So, installment number two of my 25 man healing guide ^.^ (If you missed it, I did do a review of Gruul’s not to long ago ^.^)

There’s tons of guides out there for this fight. To name a few:

Bosskillers

WoWwiki

MMO Champion

You get the idea. Many people out there who can give you a general feel for the fight.

Here’s what it’s like to heal it as a lil’ ol’ priesty.

Bear with the diagrams… they’re the best I can manage without my tablet (the mouse is busted T.T)

So! … I just hit save, and it like, looked like this thing was published… ok, it’s a bad idea to write my post at 3am… but ITS IN MY HEAD NOW!

Anyway. Keep in mind, others may do this differently, but here’s what we’ve done in AC for sometime and it seems to work ^.^

This is the staging area for Hydross. The general composition for such a fight is going usually as follows:

Frost Phase Tank, Nature Phase Tank, 1(Pally) and 2 other Add tanks, 5 to 8 healers, DPS (AoE’rs like Locks, Mages, 1 minute Boomkin)

Healing wise, you have two groups: Phase tanks, and Add tanks. The Phase tanks will take more damage the longer they’re tanking Hydross on one side of the Magic Line (more on the in a sec.) The Add tanks won’t need healing until the first Transition. Usually, I have a Pally, a Tree and a Priest on the phase tanks, and whoever is left gets Add duty. Also, keep a Renew handy for the people who get caught in Water Tombs (more on that in a sec.)

The Frost Resist tank is the first up to bat, and usually the start of a pull will look like so:

The little push over adds that spawn from the side are pretty much a rage cookie for your Frost tank. Let him/her get the rage they need, while the melee take care of whatever keeps getting spit out. Once your Frost tank is good to go, he/she will go on in and engage Hydross.

So, the whole raid is now kicking Hydross butt. Everyone is on the side of the line Hydross is on. (I know, Nature tank “isn’t” but pretend s/he is there for now.) If Hydross happens to cross that Magic line before the raid is ready, her adds spawn and there is a strong possibility of imminent wipeage, since the first reaction of someone who pulls aggro is OH SH!T, and then using their aggro wiping ability, which makes Hydross RECROSS the Magic line, thus spawning even MORE adds.

So yea. It’s bad.

During each phase, Hydross will do a raid wide “Mark”. This increases the Frost/Nature damage the raid receives by a certain percentage (25/50/100/200 respectively). This is why the Phase tank will start taking more damage. The Marks are timed, and usually, 5 seconds before the 3rd Mark, we call for a STOP to DoTs (and usually HoTs, so no Renews) and for the Nature phase tank to get ready to tank. This is when it’s OK to cross the line… but do so with caution. In Frost Phase, Hyrdross does a Water Tomb attack that will encase you and anyone within 5 feet of you in a globe of water that stuns you and does frost damage over time to you. It’s never good to have a clump of people (especially if it’s your Nature/Add tanks) stuck in a Tomb when the Frost tank is bringing Hydross over the line. So make sure you watch out. The stun also only lasts for about 3 to 5 seconds too.

At the 4th Mark, the Frost tank starts bringing Hydross across the line and POOF! We have adds!

Hydross is not happy. You’ve taken her out of her nice clean sanctuary and now she’s got to like, I dunno, breathe Naga farts. So she’s poisoned and now inflicting Nature Marks to the raid. Oh and she brought some friends, so you have 4 aspected Adds looking to fight. Nature phase’s “Water Tomb” is a small DoT that lowers effective healing. Honestly, I really have never noticed the reduction in healing in this phase. It’s the lesser of the two evils when it comes to the random attack Hydross does. Renew and forget (which you will, because there’s no visual to this attack like there is with Water Tomb.)

Now, as for the Adds. The way we do it, pally tank drops his consecrate as soon as they spawn, Hydross is Misdirected onto the Nature Tank so that that little UMPH of threat gives him/her a chance, and then any stray adds are picked up by the two half and half resist tanks to bring back to the pally. Once the Add tanks have their mobs, AoE commences. (Some guilds do a single target DPS to kill them and it works, but we AoE with seeds and arcane explosions.)
Watch the locks health, and bubble those mages. Pallys are AMAZING AoE tanks, but squishys are squishys, and they might need a bubble or heal to keep them alive. The Add tanks might also take some initial spike damage from a Hydross hit too, since they’re trying to establish aggro so quick, so if you’re an Add tank healer, be ready for it.

By the second Mark, the adds should be down, and it’s back to killing Hydross. When the 3rd Mark comes, the Frost Phase tank and the Add tanks should be ready on the other side of the line for the Transition.

This time, there’s Frost Adds instead of Nature Adds, but the strategy is the same. I usually find it easiest to heal AT the line, spread out so that not all the healers get nailed if we get Tombed. That way, you have the least amount of distance to run in case of emergency.

Some things to note: Circle of Healing (LoLCircle) works very well for everyone here. There is very little room to maneuver, and while there are spots you can stay and not be doomed to get chain Tombed, everyone is still within spitting distance of each other and a LoLcircle on a ranged for an AoE heal won’t necessarily be wasted. Fribee (Prayer of Mending) for your tanks is a god send because, (and I think I forgot to mention this earlier) each transition phase is an aggro wipe. This is why you want to try and refrain from HoTs around Marks 3 and 4. Though, if you DO happen to pull aggro, Shield and run to the center! Make a Bee line for your Add tanks, and they should be more than happy to peal the angry mob off you.

So, what do you have to look forward too once you’ve downed Hydross? The healing priest has the Wraps of Purifcation. They are pretty fun, at least till you can get the ones off of Rage Winterchill. ^.^

Next time, at SSC camp, we’ll talk about my Favorite Fight: the Lurker Below!

Something I’ve noticed: I did my Karazhan healing posts as a fresh blogger and with a thought that, “Hey, this is new to me, it’ll be new to someone else, lemme give that poor priesty a heads up…” and in general I’ve gotten some awesome feedback over them. Lots of people enjoyed them and I thank you all for you’re good critique and advice/feedback.

I’ve been finding myself stuck at trying to give the now battle hardened Kara priesty their first look into the much anticipated 25 mans, like Gruul’s Lair, Magtheridon’s, Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep: The Eye. Why? Because the groove is very, very different from Karazhan.

For one thing, it’s no longer you and another healer taking care of 8 other people (or 7 other if you happen to roll Kara with 3 healers instead of 2.) It’s all about your healing team and the fights, whether they be trash or bosses, to come. And yes, you heard right: Healing Team. As a casual raider, we’ve had to get used to different healing make ups and depending on the fights, an off balanced or greenie team can make or break things at time.

So, a few things to keep you sane: know your limits. As a priest we’re really versatile healers. We have a Heal over Time (HoT) in Renew, the Frisbee, an AoE heal (Prayer of Healing), and AoE Instant cast (LoLcircle) and one mother of a heal (Greater Heal.) Learn to use these to your advantage. Even if you’re not running the Healing Team, at least know what your other fellows will be doing: Paladins excel at single target healing and usually get MT/OT heals, Druids are also awesome tank healers, helping to keep the spikes down because their HoT’s are always ticking and they can maintain HoTs on multiple targets and not break a sweat. Shamans have slower heals, but they will keep a group of people alive forever with that Chain Heal of theirs.

So, that all being said, here’s at least a few tips from a healing priest’s perspective on some of those 25 mans in your future, starting with Gruul’s Lair.

There are a total of 7 trash pulls in the entirety of Gruul’s Lair (2 before Maulgar and 5 before Gruul) and in each one, it’s the only time I find myself using my GHeal sparingly: Otherwise it’s Frisbee and Renew, since there’s one to two tanks, and as long as everyone groups up on the Lair Brutes, no one else should be taking damage.

During HKM, priests can pretty much heal any tank in there easily, though there’s a strat for everyone that can fit everyone. There’s five tanks (sometimes six) that AC has healed in the HKM fight. The MT tanks Maulgar, we have a druid tanking Kiggler, a mage tanking Krosh, a rogue/furry warrior/spare tank tanking Blind Eye and one to two tanks for Olm. We usually have about 6 to 7 healers for this dungeon, though I’ve done it successfully with five before, since we had two pally tanks that weren’t tanking on Gruul, they tossed on healing gear, but that’s besides the point.

Usually, a pally healer gets assigned the Mage tank, for those fast heals. I’ve tried healing the mage tank before, and it’s very hard. When they take damage, that Frisbee is a good buffer and the Renew helps, but most of the time, my tank would get two shot because my GHeal just wasn’t fast enough. So, pally for the mage. Kiggler has this nasty tendency to polymorph anyone near him, so if you have a resto druid, kiss their leaves and send them over with the druid tank to Kiggler. Their HoTs will be more than enough to keep them up, and this way you don’t need to bring a PvP trinket to pop out of sheep.

Olm is just a gigantic PITFA. One tank can try to tank him, but make sure they’re prepared to run around a lot. He Skillcoils a lot. If he gets away from the tank, he usually will Skillcoil healers (usually ones on the other tanks) and then things can get bad. We used to have just one “tank” on him, but since then have adopted a two tank strat. The healer on these tanks can be any type really. Olm hurts, but he’s not the ZOMG SPIKE type. He’s just annoying.

Maulgar’s tank, usually your best geared one, needs two healers on him. Two priests, a pally/priest is our usual assignment for the Maulgar tank, because the High King has two whammy attacks. Your MT can easily be two shotted if you don’t heal through the Arcing Strikes Maulgar inflicts.

Oh, you thought I forgot Blindeye? Please. He’s a push over. The rogue/furry warrior/whoever who’s tanking him is going to feel like they’re bathing in Blind eye’s massaging “wrath”. Blindeye dies first because he’s the priest (/sniffle) of the gang, and he’s got so many people interupting his spells, he hardly gets a chance to do anything before he dies. If you’re just starting in Gruuls, you can put a healer on the Blindeye tank, but as soon as Blindeye kisses dirt, move them to one of the other tanks. It will be needed.

Now that that’s done, you have five more trash pulls before Gruul. Ah, Gruul. Once you can get a rhythm going for this place, Gruul’s is easily done in about 35 to 45 mins. The Gruul fight is a gear check for most guilds starting their 25 man raiding days. His “soft” enrage timer is that every 45 seconds or so, he grows bigger, which causes him to hit harder. There’s only three tanks needed, and make sure melee knows those three tanks need to stay at the top of the aggro list, or else you’re gonna start having dead melee. See, Gruul’s normal hits aren’t so bad, but every once in a while he does a Hurtful Strike to the second person on his aggro list. This strike HURTS. Tanks can take it, rogues usually get one shotted by it.

If you thought melee was the only ones who had it hard, guess again. Ranged has to watch out for Cave Ins, which also hurt more the bigger Gruul gets. They’re annoying but livable through, since you’ll see the CAVE IN happen and have about two seconds to just RUN out of the area it’s affecting (which is small).

He also has an AoE silence, which stinks when it hits at the wrong time, so make sure you have a Tree keeping HoTs up on those three tanks. It may save your raid in case of a unlucky silence. Then there’s the fun part: Grasp of the Gronn Lord and Shatter!

Basically every 45 seconds or so, Gruul pounds the ground (Ground Slam) and everyone in the raid goes FLYING (no joke, watch the vid.) You and your raid buddies have about 5 seconds to get the F away from each other or else when you freeze and Gruul Shatter’s you, you’re going to kill anyone who’s either on top of you or the five buddies who happen to be within 15(?) yards of you. Deadly Boss Mods has a nice little screen that tells me who’s close to me so that I can try and minimize this damage, and a Power Word Shield and a Frisbee on yourself also can help in case you’re a tad to close to someone.

Now, as for who’s healing who… depends on your healing make up. The pallies and the druids can usually take good care of the tanks, though I know I toss my Frisbee to help the melee out in case they get caught in a Cave In. Three to four healers on the tanks is good, any one left over, just have them heal the raid. Keeping the tanks up is important, but keeping DPS alive is VERY important. Dead DPS means your tank gets one shotted because Gruul’s reached Growth 13. Since 2.3, I’ve been LoLSmiting on Gruul in the first few mins because well, healing the raid doesn’t get really intense until later. The longer the fight though, the more likely people will die too fast for you to save. Cave ins will tick for too hard or you’ll run out of tanks.

Wow, ok, so that was a bit long winded, but it’s been stewing for a while. Like I said earlier though, once you make the move from Karazhan to 25 mans, healing changes. You’re not one of two anymore, you’re 1 of a team, and honestly, don’t worry about cross healing on tanks. Unless you’re seeing major mana regen issues (which since 2.4, my mana regen has been GODLY) overhealed tanks are much preferable to the alternative.

(Dead tanks, in case yer wondering Dead tank = dead priest. Baaaaaaaaaad.)

EDIT: I messed up Kiggler (Shaman) and Olm(Warlock) in my description. Thank you hunny! FIXT!