I’ve been mulling over this post for quite a while. It’s been in the back of my head nagging at me ever since I got home from Blizzcon. It probably would have been a better idea to talk to a few people about how I was feeling while I was at the Con and I did confide into one or two people, but it didn’t really help much. I just don’t do well with confrontation. Continue reading
I’m gonna just jump right into the meat of this post. Blizzard has recently announced the new “Guardian Cub” pet that will be available at the pet store. You can read about it here. It will also be the first in-game “trade-able” pet, meaning you can purchase it and trade it in-game with anyone. You can even sell it on the AH.
As I was reading the blue post it seemed kind of like a nice idea until I came to this question:
Q: Could I put the Guardian Cub up on the auction house to try to make some gold if I wanted to?
While our goal is to offer players alternative ways to add a Pet Store pet to their collection, we’re ok with it if some players choose to use the Guardian Cub as a safe and secure way to try to acquire a little extra in-game gold without turning to third-party gold-selling services. However, please keep in mind that there’s never any guarantee that someone will purchase what you put up for sale in the auction house, or how much they’ll pay for it. Also, it’s important to note that we take a firm stance against buying gold from outside sources because in most cases, the gold these companies offer has been stolen from compromised accounts. (You can read more about our stance here.) While some players might be able to acquire some extra gold by putting the Guardian Cub in the auction house, that’s preferable to players contributing to the gold-selling “black market” and account theft.
I’m shocked. I’m flabbergasted. The ability to “trade” this pet for in-game gold is no different from what 3rd party gold spammers do. It’s INDIRECTLY selling gold. Blizzard might not be handing you gold directly for money, but they are providing ways to make gold with real-life cash which is something that has ALWAYS been frowned upon. Blizzard is no longer any different than the gold spammers who troll in Trade Chat.
I’m starting a boycott with this pet. I’m not gonna buy it. I’m not gonna feed the machine. If Blizzard makes a good buck off this pet, what’s next? Mounts? Tokens? Boss Kills? We need to stop this train before it turns into a wreck.
I’ll say it right away: I hate Spirit-to-Hit talents. I despise them, even when I play as a Shadow Priest or Balance Druid. It feels wrong. I feel dirty when I have to adjust my healing gear to get as close to that 1748 Spirit rating as possible. It’s just not natural.
Being a healer at heart, Spirit for me has always been a regen talent. You need more mana? Stack more Spirit. This has always the philosophy for most healers. It’s a healing stat. It always has been.
But with Cataclysm, Blizzard brought in the idea of Spirit converting to Hit rating for our DPS Druids, Priests, and Shaman. While the main idea was to make gearing more flexible and less tedious for these classes, I think it also might have made it OVERLY flexible.
Hybrid DPS have more gear options
These hybrid DPS specs have more gear options than pure DPS classes and healers. They have the ability to roll on gear that has Hit rating, Spirit rating, or neither. That’s 3 options. In fact, they are only limited by armor-type and trinkets. Rings and necklaces? They can roll on ANY of them as long as they provide Intellect.
Mages and Warlocks have 2 choices for gear that prioritize Intellect: Gear with Hit rating and gear without Hit rating. They are also limited by Cloth. In comparison, Shadow Priests can also role on the same gear, but they also can roll on healing gear as well.
Healers also have 2 choices for gear: Gear with Spirit and gear without Spirit. Hit rating is out of the question, but we still compete with our DPS counterparts for gear since they can roll on Spirit gear.
Reforging eliminates the need for Spirit-to-Hit talents
With reforging, there is no need for these talents anymore. Hybrid DPS classes can easily reforge gear that lacks Hit rating. We’ve seen quite a bit of gear that lacks Spirit or Hit rating in Firelands and it keeps it quite neutral for both healers and DPS.
Convenience
I know many raiders will read this and think “WTF are you high?” The current Spirit-to-Hit talents are very CONVENIENT for raids. It allows healers to switch to DPS roles and vice-versa seamlessly depending on raid needs and doesn’t require fiddling with gear as much.
But while it’s convenient, it’s also imbalanced for gearing. Hybrid DPS have greater opportunity for gear and that is an issue that I believe Blizzard should address.
The topic has been hot for the past week, especially among the Twitter community. There are quite a few opinions and a lot of good ideas that have been thrown around. I just want to briefly touch base on why the Druid community is concerned with these changes and what my opinion is on the matter. Continue reading
My guild killed Ragnaros 10-man on Sunday on the second pull. We have been working on him for about 2 weeks prior to the recent 4.3 nerfs. We weren’t that far off, but we had only seen phase 3 once prior to our kill.
It was bitter-sweet. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy we downed him, but it just didn’t seem as great as the time we downed Nefarian. We had only seen P3 once prior to our kill and believe me our P3 was extremely sloppy. 2 people died from lava waves. I died from a meteor. Another DpS died from a meteor. Then a tank died.
Over half the raid was dead and we still killed him. We all just kinda sat there until someone said “so that’s it huh?” over Vent. No one was as nearly excited as the time we downed Nefarian pre-nerf. There were no “FUCK YEAH!’s” in guild chat. The feeling of accomplishment just wasn’t there.
Overall, I’m happy that Ragnaros is dead (hopefully permanently this time), but I’m unhappy that Blizz had to hold my hand to do it.
I don’t believe WTS Heals has been around long enough to participate in the last round of Circle of Healers, courtesy of Miss Medicina. Saunder over at Non-Squishy Heals has decided to resurrect this questionnaire and I have been tagged by the talented Jasyla whom I can always turn to for my Restoration Druid questions. Circle of Healers is a fun questionnaire for healing bloggers to answer. Continue reading
The title says it all. Last night was the first night raiding with my new home on Elune. We ran a 10-man team to do some farm content so our 25-man can tackle the progression content the next day. This was my moment to make a good first impression. This was also the first time I have raided as Discipline in Cataclysm. I’ve been mainly Holy through all of Cataclysm and haven’t played Discipline since ICC, and Discipline has a different play-style than what Holy offers.
So here’s the math:
New Guild + New Spec + First Impression= One Freaked-Out Priest
It basically felt like a PuG run to me. I had no idea how durable the tanks were. I had no clue how reactive my fellow healers were to incoming damage. I had no clue how raid aware anyone was. I felt completely blind-folded. I felt like a virgin getting ready for his first one-night stand.
And it was completely exhilarating.
All these things take time to get a feel for. Over time, I’ll feel more comfortable and more confident with my raid team. I’ll learn to trust my tanks and other healers to get us through the encounter. I’ll trust my dps to manage adds and be aware of their surroundings.
Overall, I think the night went really well. I even experienced a boss I had never done before, Chimeron, and we 2-shotted it. I have to say that Chimeron is the absolute worst fight I’ve ever encountered as a healer. Seeing raider healthbars at 10% and trying NOT to heal them is a nightmare. It goes against the Healing Code of Conduct.
Tonight we will be doing our 25-man and I’m assuming we will start on Atramedes and work our way to Nefarian. I’ll have to brush up on my Nefarian fight because I’ve never attempted it before. I’ll also have to talk to the raid leader on the “Crackle” cooldown rotation that they use.
Keep those health bars high!
-Lunarsoul
>T12 set bonuses were revealed yesterday and I have to say the priest bonuses are currently underwhelming.
First of all:
2-piece Bonus- Your Flash Heal, Heal, and Greater Heal spells cause you to regenerate 2% of your base mana every 5 sec for 15 sec.
Anything that increases our mana regeneration is a worthwhile bonus. According to Kurn, this ends up being a gain of 412 Mp5 or 1236 every 15 seconds. Sounds great right? For tank healing, yes it’s fantastic. For raid healing, it’s a letdown.
Priests who tank heal as Holy or Discipline won’t see an issue with this bonus. The raid healing Holy Priest will find the bonus underwhelming, mainly because they rarely cast single target heals. Holy Priests who raid heal mainly utilize Prayer of Healing/Circle of Healing and usually spot-heal with Renew. I can see this being less of a problem in 10-mans where Holy Priests will help out the tanks when needed, but in 25’s where their AoE healing specialty is cherished, we don’t use single target heals with cast times very much. Even just casting a “Heal” every 15 seconds would be a waste because the “Heal” spell costs more mana then what you regen back.
Fix: Have the bonus proc off of Penance and Circle of Healing instead. Good Discipline and Holy Priests will always have Penance and Circle of Healing on cooldown and it makes the bonus more attractive to raid healing Priests.
4-piece Bonus- You have a chance when you cast a helpful spell to summon a Cauterizing Flame. Friendly raid and party members can use the Cauterizing Flame to be instantly healed for 4625 to 5375. Lasts for 45 sec sec or 10 charges. After using the Cauterizing Flame, players cannot benefit from it again for 10 sec.
Anything that requires raid members to “click” something to be healed isn’t a good bonus. It’s essentially a second Lightwell or Healthstone. While I like Lightwell and value its addition to raids, it’s hard enough to get raid members to click the Lightwell as it is and the mechanic is unreliable depending on how aware your raid is about their own health bars and even what they are carrying in their bags. They don’t need to be looking for ANOTHER type of “Healthstone” to be looking for while they are moving out of the fire. On top of all this, the healing component is pretty low.
Fix: I’d rather have the bonus proc automatically, like Althor’s Abacus or something similar. Have it heal 5 party/raid members and make it benefit from our Mastery (similar to a second, weaker Circle of Healing).
As it stands, if the 4-piece is not changed I won’t be taking it. It’s too unreliable. On top of this, the Shadow 2-piece set is looking like a tasty option for healing priests. With the 75 second cooldown reduction on Shadowfiend and with 2 points in the Shadowfiend cooldown reduction talent, we will see a Shadowfiend cooldown of 2 minutes and 45 seconds. This is a more valuable option over a mediocre “Healthstone” bonus.
WTS Heals 