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Random Pally Ponderings

Today I'm going to be looking at some random factoids and things to keep in mind for all you Paladin raiders out there, and those of you thinking of taking up the mantle. I'll tell you this right now: Its a difficult job. Most people, as I've said, don't understand Paladin Healers for the simple reason that we don't really exist. Grim Legion as only been getting them since I started, and at first, I'll admit, I felt threatened.

Play Styles:

But I've gotten to know these guys a bit more now. I don't really know Ravindar very much, as he's not raiding yet (and you don't put two healers in the same group) , but Xores and I get along great. At first we didn't really talk, and we weren't sure about the other person. Some people in the guild took this to be a type of hosility. Maybe it was. But we had it out one night, and I apologized to him if I'd ever been a prick (which I can be, no doubt) and he apologized for coming across the wrong way.

It was a misunderstanding, and now you'd think we'd been best friends for 30 years. We constantly banter, talk and come up with new Healadin stratagems during raids (alot of which end up here), and I'm really REALLY excited to add Ravindar to this think tank. He's got a lot of Kara experiance, but nothing past that. So I'm looking forward to showing him the riads, showing him how I do things, and how Xores does things and then going "Now find your way."

For example, I rely on my holy critical almost exclusively. Xores is a happy medium between crit and +healing and Rav is +healing all the way. He has almost 2000 plus healing which is INSANE for a Pally healer. Absolutely CRAZY! Especially for his lack of raids. That said, he's using some badge gear, and it's hisGavel of Naaru Blessings (Arguably the best healing mace in the game) that makes the difference. God knows I could use one. Well, once my hours change, and I can raid Kara again, I suppose.

Now the thing to realize here is that Xores' crits and heal levels are going to be on a steady stream and at a happy medium for the ammount. My crits are huge. (I've, more than once, hit a big enough crit that tanks can go from 1/4 health to full) and Rav's basic healing is going to be higher. And, when he does crit, he will crit for an insane ammount. All of you Pally's know he can do this 100% of the time every two minutes. The thing of that is, he has to be careful about when he activates it.

Too soon and he wastes the crit. Too late, and the tank dies. I've killed a tank before with that small second between blowing the cool-down and finishing the cast. Now, as Skindancer has said, Lights Guidance can directly lower the time it takes to cast Holy Light by 0.5 seconds. And, he's right. It makes our large heal the fastest in the game. But, please remember that the 0.5 seconds still leaves you with a 2 second cast. Be prepared.

Proactive Healing:

What I mean here is use something called "proactive healing". You can interrupt your casts. So, start healing, and watch your Grid/Healbot. If you see it's going to be an over heal, don't waste the mana. Hit spacebar and jump. This interrupts your casting, and you save mana, and don't over heal. Yes yes, I'm sure you want to prove your point by being on the top of the healing list in Recount, but, bear in mind, that most raid leaders are going to be running a program called ORA2. Well, any raid leader with sense is going to be running this.

And, lo and behold, the raid leader (or healing leader in our case /love Sistajuju) is going to "Gee, you were over healing. Don't do that. Number 1, you're the most mana efficient class. Number 2, you're wasting mana and heals. Number 3: Yes, you're the lowest threat generating healer, but you'll pull threat healing like that."

Boss Battles:

That said, overhealing is going to happen, but try to keep it to a minimum. Especially on long fights. Exaples of fights where I would advise being careful: Karathresh, Morogrim Tidewalker, Vashj, Prince. These are just a few of the examples of fights I would call "Longer".

Karathress especially because of how mobile it is and the shaman add he has. Pally healers need to be aware of this guy. There will be a tank whos sole job is to tank this guy till DPS is ready to kill him and transfer his powers to Karathresh. N.B.: He still posseses the shaman Windfury bug.

Now, for those of you who don't know, Windfury is a shaman talent, and the one most of them use because of how often it procs and the damage it does. Back in the day, this talent, if you were lucky, could one shot who you were fighting because Windfury could proc off of Windfury. This was changed, much to the chagrin of Enchancement Shaman everwhere. Much to the adulation of the rest of us.

However, this Shaman in the Karathresh fight still has that bug. I've seen him one shot my tank. His Windfury will proc off his Windfury will Proc off his Windfury. Even uncrushable, your tank can take, on a bad day, upwards of 12-15 thousand damage. So, unless he's supremely geared, or he's a druid. He's toast.

There are several ways around this, however. Especially for you as a pally healer. And these are the ones I can think of.

Number One:

Over Heal. Yes, I know I just said to avoid it, but, dammit, You're a Paladin, you have a deep mana pool and if you don't have Potions anyways, you shoudldn't be raiding. ALSO, you have Devine Illumination. USE IT.

Number 2: Seal of Light.

Seal of Light Example:
Skindancer and I had an interesting conversation last night. He put forward that I have the lowest threat. And I said something to the affect of "Yes, that's true. I can pretty well stand next to the boss and not pull threat." And it's true. During Morogrim Tidewalker. I'm generally on MT healing. Especially with Socrates. (I love Socrates. He has boundless good humor and positive outlook on life. And he's just fun.) And, in order to keep him alive, due to where Morogrim is tanked), I have to, essentially stand right next to the Giant's ass. Not a pleasent place, I assure you.

Also, I have to heal through the Murlocs that he summons. You see, Holy Light generates more threat, which is how our Pally tank grab the Murlocs. We have a sacraficial lamb, (a warlock because of Life Tap) and our tank heals her. This is generally Sinnful. Another Canadian like myself who is fun to run with. Now, because of his Rightoeous Fury and the heals, he pulls threat more than me with my low-threat flash of light and the Earthstorm Diamond I use that has -2% threat.

So, due to this fight (I'm assuming I'm following Skin's thought pattern correctly) he came up with this idea: Seal of Light. You see, I can stand next to the boss, and activate Seal of Light, then judge the target. All I need to do then is refreash the seal by hitting the boss before it dies. Easy to do, given the weapon I'm using. It's slow, but it does little damage due to the stats of it. See here: Kiru's Presage

So I think we're going to test this on Saturday evening, when we head into Tempest Keep. We'll see how it works. God willing, Seal of Light is affected by my +healing. Though I highly doubt it.

Anyways, happy healing.