Holy Moly

The latest round of awesome!

2010-11-06T14:47:00.000-07:00

I decided to do a round of random heroics in Beta yesterday with an 85 premade paladin in full raid gear. I have to say, we were still not able to just steam through them, but they're a lot easier. We were able to forgo some of the mechanics that would otherwise be deadly in pre-raid gear, such as Rom'ogg Bonecrusher's "The Skullcracker." I have a feeling that by the time we get to Tier 12, it will be LK steamroll all over again. I think that this is fine, though, as the point of heroics was to provide a "bridge" between tiers. It's kind of like Trial of the Crusader being a bridge between Ulduar and Icecrown. Hopefully, Blizzard will implement a system of only giving the highest level tier points through raids, so that we don't have to suffer through farming daily heroics on sleep mode again.

The sky is falling!...NOT!

2010-10-14T22:22:00.000-07:00

Over the past few days, I've been looking at forums and posts like this one. To be honest, it is tiring to see all the whining in the paladin community about our current situation. I have a news flash: The patch has only been out for three days! CALM DOWN! People are saying that they feel useless because the damage meters show them bringing up the rear... Seriously? Yes, it is true we are less than spectacular when it comes to meter padding, but I believe it is for two reasons:
1) None of the meters are measuring our absorbs yet (not even World of Logs).
2) We're no longer overhealing as much as we used to because we can't spam one fast heal 'till kingdom come.
If you read further in the post, we keep hearing from the "seasoned paladins who have done ICC hardmodes" that we are wiping because of bad paladin healing. Riiiight... It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that we are running without functioning addons and with connection/server issues, or the fact that most people are still learning their classes. No, no... it's the fact that paladins aren't keeping people alive. Let me be the first to, and excuse my language, call bullshit on this. We managed to clear the whole ICC this week with some heroics without any hitch. We decided not to do many hardmodes because we were trying to get to LK fast so that we could work on Neck Deep in Vile. While it was a little disappointing to find myself at the bottom of heals, our healing team is cohesive, and our healing lead actually knows what he's doing. So we managed to get around the beacon nerf by actually having more than one healer heal the tanks. Surprised? Yeah, God forbid we had to have a shaman or a priest heal the tanks, why that would be the end of the world. Wanna know something else? On Heroic BQ, I actually managed to come in third on healing, as well as on Sindragosa. But why should any of this matter? ICECROWN IS DONE AND OVER WITH. Any achievements gotten now are actually comparable to TBC post 3.0. Yeah, you could do Sunwell, but who cares. No offense, but that's like a normal person winning the special olympics. I am only raiding at this point to learn how to use my new abilities. I no longer care for getting Light of Dawn (the title) or the 25 man Drake (though I probably will because my guildmates still want them). So please... be patient until Cataclysm, and have some faith in Blizzard. Like I said on the forums, when top world guilds start benching holy paladins, then we need to start worrying.

A Moment of Silence

2010-10-04T09:08:00.001-07:00

So, I got up at the crack of afternoon on Sunday to find that my dear iMac had bitten the dust. Apparently, my hardrive is dead (according to the answers returned by Googling: "freeze at startup" and "omfg, I need WoW"). Luckily, I had an *older* PC that I wasn't using, so I spent about 10 hours re-installing, re-patching, and pulling my hair out from frustration. Now, this isn't an article about how PCs compare to Macs, or even just a filler due to me scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas. No, no, this article is about a lesson I learned by running a Heroic random right after I finished patching. Now, I'm sure we've all been in instances with those people who have a high gearscore, but just blatantly turn out to suck. I know I always think to myself "Who carried you/How much did you pay for that toon?" They would sometimes say, "Sorry guys, my comp/internet is bad atm.", and I would think "Lies!" Now, my 5.7k dps spec is nothing spectacular. However, under normal circumstances, I am quite certain that I would have been able to pull more than 2k dps in Pit of Saron. When I saw recount, I knew there had to be someone thinking "What's with this moron?" It certainly knocked me down a peg or two. So, I've made a new resolution: From now on I will give people the benefit of a doubt. Don't get me wrong though, that doesn't mean that I will carry them even if they have a bad connection/computer. My group would have been fully justified to boot me had the dps not been sufficient. However, I will not automatically assume they are a bad player, or as Gevlon would say, an "M&S". I guess what I'm saying is that people should get a second chance to prove themselves, particularily when it comes to players from the same server. I know I have been quick to /ignore or kick players in raids that were not performing, and not send them invites next week. This experience, however, has humbled me. So let us say a quiet prayer for my faithful old Mac, and try to think twice the next time we judge that lovable retribution paladin still hitting Divine Storm long after the mobs are dead.

Beta Heroics

2010-09-25T13:30:00.000-07:00

You may have heard it on the grapevine that Beta heroics were pretty hard. Let me confirm this: Yes, oh God, yes they are. However, they aren't impossible. It's actually fun to have to be on my toes for once. Shadowfang Keep was a wipefest, until we figured out what to CC. I even made a premade paladin, because my leveling gear just wasn't cutting it. I think I still need to run a few more Normal instances to gear up Quell. I have to admit, though, that all of this is a bit worry-some. The heroics that I have been running were all with guildies, and we had vent. Which brings up the question: If they are this hard with a premade group, what kind of hell are they going to be with a random queue group? I almost don't want to think about it. It reminds me a whole lot of TBC, when a lot of pug groups fell apart after the first few pulls in some of the more difficult heroics (Magister's Terrace, anyone?). Combine that with the fact that we now have a random dungeon CD if our group does fall apart, and we're back to taking an hour+ to finish an instance. Not a very hopeful prospect. Let's hope for some kind of change to either the queue system or the instances themselves, because our more "casual" gamers are going to have a very hard time come Cataclysm.

Beta: Leveling as Holy

2010-09-03T22:18:00.000-07:00

So, given the fact that addons are not allowed in Beta yet, and I'm really hesitant to start healing instances using mouseover macros (although I will, soon, and that's a promise), I have decided to give everyone a quick update on how leveling is going as holy. When I first logged in, and got my fill of flying around in Ironforge, I headed out to Stormwind. There I picked up a quest to head out on a mercenary ship to Vashj'ir. The quest itself is a really cool one, and you get to see some cool "machinima". Let's just say that if you're a fan of Pirates of the Caribbean, you'll like this:

Not Pictured: Capt. Jack Sparrow

At any rate, once you've finally settled down from the mind blowing awesomeness of the above scene, as well as the one after it, you finally get to start grinding your way to 85. The very first mobs you encounter have 30k+ health. No, that isn't a typo... That's almost three times the health of the average Icecrown mob. However, there is good news. Retribution aura, as well as Holy Shock and our Judgements have been scaled up to account for the health increase. In fact, one hit of Ret aura does 500+ dmg on the mobs, and that adds up to a lot. Now, it is still slower than leveling as DPS. However, at least we're not at a huge disadvantage. If you're like me, and you have Protection as an offspec, we'll be more than able to offset the slower grinding with shorter instance queues, and combine the two to level to 85.

Holy Paladin Beta Spells

2010-08-28T10:59:00.000-07:00

Like I mentioned earlier, I was lucky enough to get into Cataclysm Beta recently, and boy did they make some changes to Holy. I want to go over a few spells in our healing repertoire, and my first impressions of them. I won't be covering Holy Radiance in this post, as I am not lvl 83 yet. I have also not playtested any of these in an instance yet, but I will post an update as soon as I do. For now just sate your eyes on the tooltips.

1.) Flash of Light

See that mana cost? They aren't kidding when they say it's expensive, and that's at lvl 80. It is still fast and instant when you crit with Holy Shock. However, at this point it's pretty much a guarantee that we won't be spamming this endlessly anymore. So what's our low cost heal now? Well..

2.) Holy Light

Our new "go to" heal. It's cheap and gets 30% haste off every Holy Shock, in addition to our normal spell haste, so it isn't all bad news. With Judgements of the Pure, it is about 1.88 sec cast, and with Holy Shock it is 1.45 sec. While this may be concerning, and would certainly cause deaths in current raiding situation, we were told tanks won't be going down as fast as they are now. In terms of throughput, it heals for about the same as FoL does now.

3.) Divine Light

The new Holy Light... Expensive and heals for a lot. Has the same exact cast time as Holy Light, just more bang.

4.) Word of Glory

The "Oh shit!" heal. You can have up to 3 stack of Holy Power, so that's a total of of 3x 2150 instant cast. Of course, that doesn't count in your spellpower, crit, or heal modifiers. I like that we have another instant heal, as I have a feeling we'll be doing a lot more moving around due to Holy Radiance ( again, more on that later).

5.) Light of Dawn

This is a very cool heal in my opinion. Think healing Cone of Cold. I'm not sure how I feel about it being our 31 pt talent, though. While it may do well for healing the melee who are standing in one spot, it may be hard to get enough ranged in it's path. If you're wondering what it looks like, though, you won't be disappointed:

Told ya!

6.) Holy Shock

Our new bread and butter. Awesome mana cost, and heals for a very decent amount. Oh, and it grants Holy Power, which is used for a lot of our above heals, AND it lowers the casting time of Holy Light and Divine Light by 30%, AND still makes FoL instant on crits. It seems that the Glyphing for this will be worth it now that it does so much for us.

7.) Beacon of Light

Ah, the good old Bacon... It only transfers 50% of healing to it's target, but is no longer limited to just FoL and HL as it was in the early beta. I'm hoping that they will have a glyph for it that will allow it to transfer more, but that remains to be seen. Incidentally, it's the other way we can gather Holy Power, as healing the Beacon target directly causes us to generate it (when talented of course).

Well, those are all the heals I'll cover for now. I left out our mastery absorb effect and Lay on Hands on purpose, as I don't have any mastery increasing gear yet, and LoH is largely unchanged. Time to bubble-hearth for now, until next time :)

Rezzing....

2010-08-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back! Or at least I'll try to be. Much has happened over the last year or so since I've blogged last. Here is a quick rundown:

* I've leveled 6 toons to 80, a feat that I'll likely repeat in Cataclysm.

* I've switched mains 3 times: To my shaman, my mage, and back to my paladin. To be honest, the other two didn't really do it for me...

* I tried to stop progression raiding - to go casual, in other words - and it didn't turn out that well (but more on this later).

* I managed to see all of the bosses in the expansion on one toon or another, something that I wish I'd done in BC (I pretty much skipped all of T5).

* I finally got into the Cata beta, which is really why I'm redoing the blog. My first post (after this one) will be on my first impressions of Beta (and trust me, it is really cool).

Here's to hoping that I can reacquire the readership that the blog had at it's prime. So spread the word!

Yeah, it's been a while!

2009-10-08T09:53:00.000-07:00

I haven't written a post in a long time now. Why? It's because I've been healing on my shaman, and I could not in good conscience keep writing paladin specific articles. What prompted the change? I was bored, I guess. To be fair, though, the paladin class has changed a lot since I wrote last, and for the better, too! I have started raiding on my pally again, so maybe I will start writing as well. I just have to scout the competition a bit first, as I'm sure the 1 million paladin blogs have covered just about everything there is to know. After all, being repetitive is bad because it's repetitive.

The Not So Useless Little Spell, After All!

2009-04-17T18:57:00.000-07:00

In the past couple of months, I was re-acquainted with a spell that has been forgotten by most of the healing paladin community. This didn't happen as a result of a long, hard, and creative thinking process about ways I could improve my performance in raids. No... It happened during a fourth wipe on Maexxna, and we were wiping due to the lack of damage reduction on the tank during the enrage/web spray stage. I figured that, before I left the pug, I would give it one more shot, repair bills be damned. I had, by chance, opened my spellbook and was browsing through the protection spells, looking for Hand of Protection, as I didn't have it on my hotbar for some reason. As I was scrolling through, my eyes fell on Hand of Sacrifice, a spell I had not used since I stopped raiding Karazhan.

Now, normally, Hand of Sacrifice would be used by protection specced paladins as a means of saving a group member from death in case of an aggro pull. It is, however, and excellent spell that will save a tank from dying in many situations. It has perfect synergy with Divine Shield. So how would you use it? I do it in situations where the tank will take an enormous amount of damage that the raid may not be able to heal through. You simply cast Divine Shield and then Hand of Sacrifice on your tank. The result is that 30% of the damage will go to you, and you will be protected by the bubble, so you won't be in any danger.Examples of some situations where you would use it:

Maexxna - the enrage happens at 30%, and there is a good chance that you will get web sprayed at least once. Usually the tank can use a damage reduction ability and survive. If you get sprayed twice during the enrage, however, the tank will probably die. The answer? DS and HoS.

Patchwerk: At 10% he increases damage done, meaning that hateful strikes do way more damage (as if they didn't do enough).

It is also incredibly useful if another healer bites the dust, or you just pull too many mobs (heroics for example).

The best way I have found is to use a castsequence macro, like this (/castsequence Divine Shield, Hand of Sacrifice). Of course, this is a very simple one, as I'm sure things like mousover target and such can be added. I'm sure that I have only touched the tip of the iceberg here, so feel free to add more uses in the comments section.

Edit: As Rohan mentioned in the comments section, the spell in Protection tree, Divine Sacrifice, is also usable as a way to mitigate raid damage, and can be put in a castsequence macro as well. While I think that it's a great way to mitigate dmg in 5 and 10 mans, it diminishes in a 25 man aoe raid situation due to the number of players taking damage. It does, however, beat Hand of Sacrifice if the tank is the only one taking damage at the time.

Standing at the Crossroads...

2009-04-13T21:21:00.000-07:00

By now it is no secret that the latest trend in WoW blogging is not to blog at all. With Phae on maternity leave and many others on hiatus, I must admit that I have come to a point where I don't know what to do with the blog. When I first started out, I thought that I wanted to specialize in things like healing and gear guides. I did not realize, though, that even writing out a simple Heroic guide is so much work. While by now I can probably write out a step by step approach to every heroic dungeon boss encounter, I feel that it's an overwhelming amount of work for something most people will have already figured out. I suppose that I could try theorycrafting, but that's even more work, and what's worse, it means that I would have to do math... /blegh

Right now I have a half finished Heroic HoL guide that I started on, oh, about two months ago! I have a ton of ideas in my head, but every night I sit down at the computer, I find that it isn't enough to even write a single cohesive post. What's worse, it seems like there is a new holy paladin blog popping up almost daily. I'll have to find something that will make this blog stand out among the others, but I still have no clue about what that might be. I guess I'll have to do some soul searching, but until then, you're more than welcome to help yourself to my ramblings!

PS: By the way, that is the Turning Tide I'm wielding in the picture :P

A Modest Proposal

2009-04-08T20:20:00.000-07:00

Miss Elf had an interesting post a while back called If I Were A New Player, I Wouldn't Be A Player At All. I didn't really pay much attention to how hostile the game is to new players until Northrend was down on Scarlet Crusade a few weeks ago, and I had rolled a lock on a new server for fun. I made it to level 15 before I finally gave up. It is hard enough to grind 80 levels on a server where you have the support of your mains, but I think that if I had to do it all over again from scratch, I wouldn't even bother giving it a try. After giving this some serious thought, I had suddenly remembered what EQ had started doing after they saw their new player base decrease: Monster Missions. These were instanced runs where you got to play as, basically, an NPC. Think Caverns of Time, except that you had a completely different set of abilities from your own. What was really fun about monster missions was that a level 75 and a level 10 could group together, as the levels would be adjusted for the instance. Now, this probably would have to be adjusted in case of WoW, as just gaining experience from the missions means nothing to an 80. This is where another feature from EQ could come in handy: Evolving Items. They would be rare pieces of gear in which you would invest experience from the missions to gain better stats. At full evolution, they would have the same stats as a, let's say, lv213 epic, maybe even better. Don't like this idea? Fine then, I have one more proposition.

It is no secret that low level instances have now become obsolete. In fact, they are pretty much only useful to twinks and new players. This is where I would recommend what I like to call "Rent a group". Similar to what EQ implemented, once a day you would be able to go into an instance by yourself with enough NPCs to fill in for the rest of the group that you could not pug in lfg. They would move through the instance at a set pace, and you could mix and match the composition of the group, so that you could also perform your role as dps/healer/tank. That's pretty much all I got... Thanks for reading!

Aegis Hestia Wants YOU!

2009-03-19T21:15:00.000-07:00

I don't usually do things like this, but it seems that a lot of players in WoW are in a burnout stage. Bored with Naxx, I guess... Therefore, at the moment, Aegis Hestia is recruiting a few able bodied DPS and a couple of healers to fill our raid spots. We raid Tue, Thur, and Sat from 8-11 CST. We are housed on the Scarlet Crusade (US) server, and if you would like more info on how to join, please go to AegisHestia.com. We actively clear Naxx in two days (or less) and have cleared Sartharion with a drake up and Malygos. If you've been wanting to transfer servers, now is the perfect time to do it, and we would love to have ya! :P

I Heart Greater Faydark!

2009-03-16T21:10:00.000-07:00

As many of you have probably read on one blog or another, it is Everquest's 10th anniversary today, although I doubt that most of the WoW population will understand the massive (no pun intended) impact that the game had on the world of MMOs. You see, Everquest set the precedent for what WoW would become today. It did not do this, however, by succeeding in catering to the player base the way WoW does. Instead, WoW learned from the mistakes of EQ, which is why it has been able to retain and grow it's customer base to the enormous online community we have today. I know many of you are probably shocked that I say that WoW listens to it's players, but believe me, WoW is Mother Goose in comparison to EQ. In fact, if I had to say that any other MMO killed EQ, I would probably have to proposition that it was WoW in the Library with a candle stick.

I'll start off by saying that I was once an EQ player, and a hardcore one at that. I know you can't tell that by the VERY subtle tributes I give it by naming all my characters after EQ deities (Quellious, Cazicthule, and so on...). I started playing EQ when I found out about it from a friend, right after the expansion Ruins of Kunark came out. I decided to give it a try, so I rolled a druid on the Quellious server named Astrael ( No, I did not name it Quellious, that would have been tacky :P). When I started playing the game, I wasn't terribly impressed with the graphics. In fact, they were outdated even by standards in those days. However, after I had played the game for about an hour, it drew me in more and more. My druid grew and grew, and eventually he was level capped, which in Everquest takes about 4 to 5 times longer than in WoW. I soloed most of the content up to level 55, and had no trouble finding raids to heal or dps ( you could do both at the same time), and eventually I got my Epic 1.0. A little later on, Planes of Power came about, and we conquered them without much trouble too. However, after the first 3 or 4 expansions, the game became very hostile towards even the solo classes. The normal mobs were becoming stronger (they quadded for about 500 per hit, which comes to about 2k health per second out of an 8k health pool). Things got so ridiculous at the time Dragons of Norrath came out that I, like many players, altogether quit. We complain about welfare epics today, but we disregard that EQ required you to do an 8 hour raid per night to clear a dungeon (which was not instanced by the way), and the chances that you'd get the nice gear from the three bosses there were about 1/52, as that's how many players were in the raid. Of course, not all raids were this long (OK, maybe just Vex'Thal), but all of them had about 50 players, so gearing was definitely an issue. I won't even go into the corpse runs, the exp loss on death and the fact that there was only one acceptable raid healer, the cleric. But in spite of all my beef with EQ, I want to wish it a Happy Birthday, and I hope that they will come out with EQ III that will blow away all other MMOs :P

The Hybrid Theory

2009-03-15T20:42:00.000-07:00

Rohan, of Blessing of Kings, had an interesting article in response to the news that Spiritual Attunement, a base paladin ability that grants mana when healed, is going to be made into a talent deep in the protection tree. You can read it here: Will The Last Hybrid Paladin Please Turn Off The Lights?.

While I agree that this change will be just another nail in the coffin when it comes to performing non-spec duties in a main spec, I am inclined to welcome this as a positive one. You see, I have never played a paladin pre-TBC. I don't know about the good old days when a holy paladin could tank and dps well enough in a pinch. Therefore, it never made much sense to me to tank as holy, or dps as protection, or any other combination you may think of. I do think that this change, however, will not make much difference anymore due to the coming of the dual specs. Personally, I would rather have changes that increase my ability in my talented role, than to be able to do multiple things at once. After all the leveling and gearing is done, when a tank dies in Naxx or a Heroic, it's almost always a wipe, and it makes no difference whether I have tanking abilities as holy, Patchwerk will still slice through me like a hot knife through butter. If too many dps die on Thaddius, it won't make a difference that I can pop a 2h and put out about 500 more dps than a druid or shaman, because we still won't kill him before he enrages. I say, take Spiritual Attunement, and give me the aoe heal that everyone else has :P

Slow and steady lost the race... sort of :P

2009-03-10T22:34:00.001-07:00

Just as I was about halfway through writing an article about this subject, I checked Siha's site and noticed that she had written about the exact same thing! Therefore, I will simply tell you to go here: Banana Shoulders Judgements Topic. It is extremely informative, and saves me from having to post all the math to prove it XD

I also want to let everyone know that I have finished my experiment on mana regen in entry level blues and epics for 10-man Naxx. I honestly have to say that there was not much issue with using Divine Plea whenever I was short on mana, but there were some close calls with Patchwerk and Grand Widow Faerlina's enrage. I would say if you're using Divine Plea on bosses, try to time it's activation with Avenging Wrath. It seems that mp5 is still largely obsolete, so feel free to stack crit/int/spellpower. I never did make it past Sapphiron, so I don't know how this will affect Kel'thuzad healing, but I don't think it will make much difference (I had to pug almost all 10-man Naxx, since my guild rarely runs them).

In other news, I did notice that the Ulduar plate disclosed on MMO-Champion is suspiciously stacked with mp5, and methinks that we may see another change to Divine Plea soon. I'm thinking somewhere along the lines of Divine Plea increasing mana regeneration itself, instead of regenerating the mana based on intellect. Let us just hope for the best. Until next time... Cheers!

A Fond Farewell...

2009-02-24T17:13:00.000-08:00

I'm sure that by now most of us who read the various WoW blogs know that Phaelia of Resto4Life has announced that she will stop blogging effective March. I can honestly say the blog community will lose a great writer and one of the biggest "WoW Celebrities" out there (and I' m not just saying this because she is a fellow LSU Tiger). I remember the first time I had stumbled upon Resto4Life while trying to level my druid, and the wealth and quality of information I had discovered amazed me. I knew immediately that this was a gem of a website, and I soon found myself visiting it on a daily basis. At this point, I have to admit that a large part of my decision to move to the Scarlet Crusade server and join Aegis Hestia was affected by Phaelia's blogging. So with that, I truly wish Phae the best of luck in her future endeavors, and I hope that we will one day get to see a resurrection of the blog in some shape or form. Geaux, Phae!!!

My (Un)Funny Valentine....

2009-02-16T22:07:00.000-08:00

Well, the Love is in the Air event ended at 6 A.M. server time this morning. How close was I to getting the Love Fool achievment? One piece of candy... That was all that stood between me and having to wait another year for my Purple Proto Drake. Alas, it was not to be. I almost feel dirty now, what with throwing on my red dress, practically bathing in perfume, and putting on a drag show for all the Ironforge and Stormwind guards every hour for a lousy Gift of Adoration. Well, I did say almost :P So, I will wipe the mascara off my pudgy dwarf face and stash the high heels into the bank, and bide my time patiently until next February.

In other news...

Blizzard has announced that we will officially get dual specs in 3.1. You may find the details of the blue posts on mmo-champion.com. I, personally, have decided that my offspec will be Retribution, as I have not PvPed in quite a while. I am now running 10-mans exclusively for ret gear for dungeons, and am saving my emblems for the PvP gear. To all you horde locks out there, I have one thing to say: Get ready to feel pain!!!

Nerf on the count of five! (That's three my lord).

2009-02-15T21:43:00.000-08:00

So, by now we have all seen that the nerf to Divine Plea came in sooner than patch 3.1, when mana regeneration for healers was to be cut across the board. That's right, we've been sucker punched! Or have we...

I ran Naxx 25 this past week, and can tell you that I did not really see a problem with mana regeneration. As I suspected, the change has little effect in 25 mans, as I was still using Divine Plea fairly often, and still managed to cling to the high end of the healing meters. When I used Divine Plea on Patchwerk while healing the OT, I made sure that I also popped Avenging Wrath. Now, two questions remain: How does this affect the 10-man Naxx and entry level healers, too? Experiment time! I will, over the next couple of weeks, gather (again >.<) the blue gear from my gear guide, and will run a couple of 10-mans. I will then report on the results, and see if we need to look over how we should rank our starting gear. Expect to see a post on it soon.

Close, but no cigar!

2009-02-08T21:02:00.000-08:00

So... we downed Kel'thuzad last night, but he dropped absolutely nothing for me. Zero, zip, nada. On the bright side, at least now we all know the fight and are planning on taking him down weekly.

Now to the important stuff...

Blizzard has announced that in patch 3.1.0, they will nerf mana regen across the board. For paladins, they will change the healing penalty on Divine Plea up to 50%. For the most part, I'm not really that concerned by this, mostly because it will not affect 25 man raids too much if there is only one paladin. We may start to see things going back to TBC days when we really watched the overheals caused by Holy Light. In 10 man raids, though, this might become an issue, especially on longer boss fights, like Gothik or the Four Horsemen. I'm not sure how this will affect the value of mp5 on our gear, but I've started collecting some pieces already. This is, of course, going to affect our haste rating, as it is in direct competition with mp5 on most of our gear. There is a silver lining to this cloud, however, because Blizz is giving more classes the replenishment buff, so we no longer have to think about bringing along just a shadow priest or ret paladin.

/aim gun at Kel'thuzad

2009-01-29T23:02:00.000-08:00

It looks like my guild will finally be taking down Kel'thuzad this weekend. I have been saving dkp for the past two weeks so that I can get either the shield, the T7 Helm or the sexy caster sword he drops. I'm bound to get at least one, or so I hope. Also, while googling random holy paladin terms today at work, I came across this gem: Loot Rank. If you put in your class and assign point values (which you can find on Elitist Jerks) to stats relevant to your spec, you can compare the raid gear to help you progress. What are you waiting for? TRY IT NAO!

The To(ret) Syndrome

2009-01-27T15:04:00.000-08:00

Sorry, I couldn't resist! :P

For a couple of weeks now I have been thinking of going to the dark side and trying retribution for a few days, mainly for PvP. I'm afraid, though, that I will like it and will want to stay. Let's just say that I cannot wait for the dual specs to come out (if they ever do). I do have some very decent prot gear stored in my bank that I suppose I could use for a ret spec due to all the strength, but finding PvP gear for ret is not hard, given that you can craft most of it. All in all, I will try to resist the temptation to switch for now.

In other news, I have rolled a Blood Elf Warlock, just to get a sense of what it is like to play the horde for a while. I know I have probably broken some sacrosanct law somewhere by doing this, but it will be interesting to see just what it is that makes the horde players win so many BGs and if it is really true that they are a more mature crowd. It will be strange, however, to not be able use my /say "Turn the udder cheek!" macro after slapping around a Tauren in WSG. Ah well, "C'est la vie"

A New Home!

2009-01-18T13:08:00.001-08:00

So, after much contemplation, I have decided to switch servers. My new home is now the Scarlet Crusade server. While I will miss my friends and guildies from Cenarius, there are a few things I won't miss, such as waiting in an 1100 person queue to log in. Meanwhile, I have found a guild that I like very much and I am beginning to establish myself again among the healer community.

In other news, I have participated in downing the Four Horsemen on 25 man Naxx last night, which is a first for me (not that I haven't wiped on it about a thousand times). It was a very exciting experience for me, and hopefully there will be many more.

Till next time, thanks for reading!

Domo Arigato Mr. Healbotto

2009-01-12T22:21:00.000-08:00

Quellious: Hey, I noticed your response time was a little off tonight. Are you lagging terribly?

"Nameless" Healadin: Not really, I was healing my group

fine, wasn't I?

Quellious: Yes.... But in a 10 man we have two groups, and you were kind of on raid heals...

"Nameless" Healadin: You mean on Anub'Rekhan

? I had a bit of trouble targeting.

Quellious: Targeting? What kind of healing mod are you using?

"Nameless" Healadin: I prefer to heal the old fashioned style. You know, F keys and hotbar buttons.

Quellious: Heh.... Yeah... What?

Quellious: Please get Healbot right away >.<

This was an actual conversation with a fellow paladin raiding Naxx-10. I never actually thought I would have to write a post about this, but it makes me a sad panda to think that there are people still healing the "old fashioned way." You know, the way they did it Pre-TBC. My friends, I would therefore like to introduce you to a wonderful little tool called Healbot. I don't care what kind of a healer you are, this little addon will be a lifesaver in any raid or dungeon instance. Why? It allows you to heal with a mouse click. Namely, Healbot allows you to see everyone's health bars (along with any dispellable debuffs on them if you chose), and allows you to bind your healing spells to your mouse buttons. You can also use the modifiers (such as Ctrl+click, Shift+click, etc.) to cast things like dispels, Lay on Hands, Beacon of Light, and so on. Here is what it looks like in it's simplest form (i.e. when there is only you in the group):

Of course, if you are in a group, it would show the rest of your groupmates as well as their pets. The newer versions of Healbot will also tell you the spec of the person you are scrolling over (in the form of xx/xx/xx). You can also set Healbot up to where it will show either numerical HP of your group or % wise. There are, of course, alternatives to healbot, such as Grid + Clique, but why use two addons when you can do the same with just one. So please, if you are a healer of any kind, make your life easier and get it today. You can find it at Curse gaming's WoW addons. Otherwise, you'll have incurred the wrath of a very frustrated blogger :P

Edit: By the way, I just wanted to point out that healbot is not only for healers. Mages and Druids can use it to set up de-cursing, paladins can use it to cast things like Divine Intervention, hunters can use it to MD, etc. The possibilities are endless, especially because you can use the decursive hotbutton (D is the default I believe) in conjunction, and you can even track the debuffs using Healbot's UI.

More to come in this new year!

2009-01-08T20:05:00.000-08:00

First of all, let me wish everyone reading this a belated New Year! I've been extremely busy catching up with work for last year, that I didn't have time to post new articles. I have, however, made a resolution to post here at least three times a week, and make at least one useful guide a week. Therefore, you can expect to see new stuff coming up next week, and make sure you spread the word around! :P

Healing Heroics: Violet Hold

2008-12-30T21:20:00.000-08:00

O.K., so it has been a while since my last post. Sorry about that, what with holidays and all. Anyway, let's get to the point:

I've decided to do some heroic healing guides for us pallies out there, because I'm seeing a lot of us are having trouble healing certain heroics, but I think this is more due to the strategy and group gear than the actual difficulty. Granted, some places (Azjol-Nerub) are a royal pain to heal, due to the fact that we have to both cleanse and heal at the same time. I will, however, try to find the easiest way to get through these obstacles, and hopefully we'll be rewarded with that nice loot we've had our eyes on. By the way, I would recommend that you check out my heroic gear guide to see if you have any easy upgrades to your gear. Some of these instances will require more spellpower than others. You may also want to follow this rule of thumb: IF YOU HAVE MORE THAN ONE GREEN ITEM EQUIPPED, DO NOT RUN HEROICS - unless your tank and dps are uber geared.

The instance I chose to write about first is The Violet Hold. This is a very simple instance, but it does require concentration. Why? Because if you wipe, you have to start ALL OVER AGAIN. And no, the bosses won't drop the loot twice (although you will still get rep for them if you Champion).

Location: Right smack dab in the middle of Dalaran.

Spellpower: I would recommend at least 1400+

Bosses: 3 (two are random and Cyanigosa)

Strategy: Violet Hold consists of 18 waves of mobs that will spawn from various portals. You are to kill these mobs as they spawn, and prevent them from breaking the door to Dalaran (Very similar to CoT: Opening of the Dark Portal). The six waves between each boss will come one after another, giving you little to no time to drink. You will get a break after each boss, so make the most out of it. The first two bosses are on the 6th and 12th wave, and they are random out of 6 possible bosses. The last boss is always Cyanigosa. First I will talk about each type of mob that will come out of each portal:

1.) Portal Guardian

This is the easiest mob that will spawn from a portal. He hits a little harder than average on the tank, but easily healable. You will not need to use Beacon of Light on this fight.

2.) Portal Keeper

This one is a bit tougher, because he casts aoe frostbolt volley. I would recommend using Beacon of Light on this mob, if mana allows.

3.) An Elite Blue Dragonsquad consisting of Azure Captain, Azure Raider, Azure Sorceror, and Azure Stalker, randomly chosen in combinations of 3 (4 after the second boss).

You definitely want to use beacon of light on this fight, because the casters in this group will randomly target party members with Mind Flay type dot spells, and some of them cast an Arcane Explosion type spell. Remember, always beacon the tank because he will be taking the most damage

Now for the bosses, and each strategy accordingly:

I. Moragg

Probably the easiest boss in this instance. Keep beacon of light on the tank as he will randomly target party members with a flay-dot that does more damage the longer it is active. The tank will also take increasingly more damage from his melee attacks due to a debuff the boss applies, but a half decent dps group can take him down before this becomes a problem.

II. Lavanthor

This guy is a bit tougher than the Moragg, simply because he does a little more aoe damage. First, have the tank turn him away from the group, as he does Flame Breath, which does fire damage to everyone in front of him. He also casts Cauterizing Flames, which makes everyone take 35% more fire damage per application. His other two spells are both direct damage fire attacks, and if you're using healbot (like you're supposed to) you will be able to predict who will get hit with the attack before it lands, giving you ample time to react. Remember, have your dps wail at him once tank gains sufficient aggro, as if the debuff stacks too high, you won't be able to keep the group alive for long.

III. Erekem

This amazingly simple boss is what gets groups killed all the time. You see, he comes with two adds, and the natural reaction of most people is to kill them first. WRONG! If you kill his adds first, he will open a delightful can of whoop ass on your tank in the form of Windfury and Stormstrike. Just have the tank pick all three up and stick with them, as Erekem will break most crowd control spells on the adds. You will need to keep beacon on the tank, as Erekem will cast lightning bolts on random party members. He will also attempt to heal himself every once in a while. It is a good idea to interrupt his heals. If you have a mage/shaman/priest in your group, you may want to spellsteal/purge/dispell his Bloodlust and Earth Shield. Other than that, piece of cake!

IV. Ichoron

O.K. This is where the simple bosses end. Ichoron is the easiest of the three "harder" bosses, but he can be managed if your group is prepared. First, he will come out of the little water pool on the northeast side of the dungeon. When he becomes attackable, he will be shielded with a buff that reduces his damage by 99% and that bubble has 35 charges. When all of the charges are spent, he bursts into a bunch of water elementals. They are elite, but only have about 4k health. After you kill a few, Ichoron will reform, and the elementals will run toward him. Try to make sure your dps kills them before they reach the boss or he will restore health for every one. A good strategy is to keep him tanked with the tank's back facing the wall right next to the puddle Ichoron came out of, and just keep killing the elementals before they reach him. You will need to use beacon of light on this fight, because Ichoron also casts an aoe frostbolt volley. When the boss reaches 25%, he will go into a frenzy, increasing his damage by a lot. Make sure you keep the tank topped off, because if he dies, it will almost certainly result in a wipe.

IV. Xevozz

This boss is not very difficult as long as you know how to move him around. He will come out of the prison on the ground floor on the northwest side of the room. As soon as he becomes attackable, have the tank pick him up and start tanking him at the bottom of the stairs on the west side. Xevozz will then summon two orbs in the middle of the room. When this happens have the tank immediately move him to the top of the stairs and start slowly tanking him clockwise on the platform, as long as the orbs are alive. You and dps should be ahead of the tank, moving clockwise as well. Why? If Xevozz comes in contact with ANY of the orbs, he will gain a 120% damage buff, which is enough to kill the tank in one shot. By the time the orbs de-spawn, you should be at the top of the North stairwell. Wait here for him to spawn the orbs again, and you may kite him clockwise or counterclockwise again. He will also do aoe arcane damage to the whole group periodically, so make sure that you have beacon of light on the tank. I am not sure of this, but I think that if he gets out of line of sight of his orbs, he will teleport the entire group to them with him, which is very bad. That is why he has to be kited slowly, but not slow enough for the orbs to actually touch him.

V. Zuramat the Obliterator

Ah, yes, the hardest boss in the instance. Not because he does a lot of damage, but because just one dps can cause the entire group to wipe if they are not careful. This boss has three abilities that will make your life as a pally miserable. The first is called Shroud of Darkness. When he casts this, any attacks that land on him will reduce the attacker's healing received by 20%. So if some unwise dps hits him 5 times in a row after he has cast it, you can pretty much count them as dead due to the next ability. You can dispell the de-buff, but as the fight progresses, this will become increasingly difficult. Shroud of Darkness has a two second cast time, so there is no reason for dps not to notice it. Next, the boss summons adds that shoot shadow bolts at party members. The kicker? They cannot be targeted unless you have been affected by the next ability. It is imperative that dps kill these as soon as possible if they can target them. Another strategy is to have a warrior tank who can use spell reflect. Even though the adds may be un-targetable to the warrior, spell reflect will work and kill the adds instantly. The final ability of this boss is called Void Shift, and it is a dot that will shift the player into the void after it has completed the duration. The players affected by the dot will be able to target the adds and therefore kill them. Make sure this is happening, or it will be a wipe :( Oh, and by the way, do I need to mention that you need Beacon of Light on this fight?

VI. Cyanigosa

After all those nightmarish bosses, its time for a break. Cyanigosa is always the last boss in the Violet Hold, and she is pretty simple to deal with. After she gives her entry speech, she will land in the middle of the room, and that is where the tank should pick her up. You should be standing on the side of her, as she does a Tail Swipe, like most dragons. Like her consort, Malygos, she has a frontal cone aoe attack that does damage to everyone in front of her, so don't stand there either. Cyanigosa will cast a blizzard somewhere in the room, and you should move out of it as soon as possible, because it does damage and it slows you. Every once in a while, she will pull everyone to her, so make sure you get out once she does it. Finally, she does a mana burn debuff on a random party member, so be sure to dispell it. Make sure you have beacon of light on the tank, because there is splash aoe damage due to blizzard and mana burn, but all in all, not a hard fight. Grats! You just finished Violet Hold. Go ahead, tap yourself on the back, you deserve it :P

This has also been pointed out to me by Vine from plusheal.com forums, but you may want to use the following auras when fighting these bosses:

Trash: Shadow or Frost

Moragg: Shadow

Lavanthor: Fire

Ichoron: Frost

Zuramat: Shadow

Cyanigosa: Frost

Loot of interest to a pally:

Moragg's Chestguard

Spaulders of the Violet Hold

Sabatons of Erekem

Globule Signet

Solitaire of Reflecting Beams

How To: Gear Your Pally for Naxxramas and Heroics

2008-12-17T21:28:00.000-08:00

So, you've hit lvl 80 and want to get some phat lewtz from Heroics. What's that you say? You only have 900 spellpower? Well, you've come to the right place! Now, the list below does not include anything from Heroic dungeons, badge gear or Naxx. I am assuming you have leveled as Retribution, and are now in Northrend healing greens. You should be able to obtain all of the gear below without setting foot into a Heroic, and once you have that gear, your road to endgame will begin!

I have included in the list below mail items that I think are better/easier to obtain than plate. Please make sure you are not rolling for these items against an elemental shaman who needs them. :( I have also included the affordable enchants for each slot, as this gear will be replaced fairly soon once you start raiding. Here we go:

Head:

1.) Battle Mender's Helm

Yes, it's mail. But it is AWESOME and easy to obtain. You can reach revered with Argent Crusade by simply completing all their quests in Northrend and doing a couple of the dailies. Your direct upgrade for this would be Helm of Purified Thoughts, although you will probably have to Champion in heroics to obtain it.

2.) Crown of Forgotten Kings

Not a bad head by any means. Drops from the last boss of Utgarde Pinnacle. There is a helm here obtained through a quest at the start of the zone that is similar, but it has haste instead. Either one is fine, but spell crit is the stat to go for imho.

3.)Brilliant Titansteel Helm

Ouch! The lack of stats on this one hurts. Still, it's crafted and easily obtainable if you have the cash.

Enchants: Two of these require Revered rep, and one is from pvp.

Arcanum of Dominance

Arcanum of Blissful Mending

Try to get this one first, as the Wyrmrest dailies will get you to revered more quickly.

Arcanum of Burning Mysteries

This one is the best for the slot, imho, but will be the most difficult to obtain. You will probably have to wait until heroics.

Shoulders:

1.) Discarded Silver Hand Spaulders

A very solid choice when it comes to shoulders, mostly because it is very hard

to find good ones pre-heroic.

2.) Pauldrons of Morbidus

The alternative if you prefer spell crit over mp5.

3.) Brilliant Saronite Pauldrons

Only get these if you REALLY cannot get either of the above two.

Enchants:

Lesser Inscription of the Storm

Probably the one to go with until you hit exalted with Sons of Hodir.

Lesser Inscription of the Crag

If you prefer mp5.

Inscription of Dominance

PvP ftl. :P

Neck

1.) Chain of Fiery Orbs

Not a bad neck by far, and maiden is not a very difficult boss on normal.

2.) Blood Sun Necklace

I actually like this one, even though it has no intellect (boo!). Can be gemmed for some nice spellpower.

3.) Titanium Spellshock Necklac e

The best one out there pre-25 man, but expect to pay an upwards of 2k for it if you're not a Jewelcrafter.

Back:

1.) Deathchill Cloak

My personal favorite, even though the next one is probably just as good. Mats are easy to farm, the only trouble is finding a tailor with the achievement and recipe.

2.) Wispcloak

A very good one even though it has no crit. I believe you also have to find a tailor with the

achievement, and the mats are a little harder to farm.

3.) Shroud of Dedicated Research

Solid choice, but the rep requirement may be tough to fulfill.

Enchants:

Enchant Cloak - Greater Speed

Hey, haste is always a decent option.

Chest:

1.)Revenant's Breastplate

You most likely won't be replacing this until your T7 piece. Extremely easy to get and farming the mats is a breeze.

2.) Eregos' Ornamented Chestguard

This one has great potential, but the drop is all up to a chance. If you get the Revenant's Breastplate or the mail equivalent that drops earlier in the instance first, don't bother with trying to farm this.

3.) Brilliant Saronite Breastplate

Great starter, but the lack of intellect makes me a sad panda.

Enchants:

Enchant Chest - Greater Mana Restoration

Easy to find, but the mats might cost a bit.

Wrists:

1.) Bracers of Accorded Courtesy

You will have probably reached Revered with Wyrmrest by just completing all the Dragonblight quests and doing the dailies. Very good choice, and a socket to boot.

2.) Dragonflayer Seer's Bindings

If you would prefer crit over the haste from above, go with these, but you lose a gem/

3.) Brilliant Saronite Bracers

Good starter, but no stats... Move on!

Enchants:

Enchant Bracers - Greater Spellpower

or, depending on your cash flow

Enchant Bracers - Superior Spellpower

Hands

1.) Web Winder Gloves

Farm the Auction House for these, they're cheap and pretty decent.

2.) Sparkly Shiny Gloves

You did pick the Frenzyheart faction, right? Easy to farm to revered and not a bad item at all.

3.) Grips of Fierce Pronouncements

You'll probably have better from heroics by the time you reach Exalted from Wyrmrest, but just in case you don't, these are nice.

4.) Righteous Gauntlets

No base stats, blah blah blah.

Enchants:

Enchant Gloves - Exceptional Spellpower

Waist

1.) Ionar's Girdle

Very nice waist, probably best pre-heroic.

2.) Nightshock Girdle

Good if you can't get the HoL one to drop.

3.) Girdle of the Warrior Magi

Might be tougher to get because of Revered requirement with Kirin Tor.

4.)Brilliant Saronite Belt

Legs

1.)Standard Issue Legguards OR Discarded Titanium Legplates

All depends on which stat you prefer, crit or haste, and which faction you picked.

2.) Kilt of Dark Mercy

This one is made of awesome, but it may take a while to get the Ebon Blade rep, and you will probably have better from heroics / Naxx by that time/

3.)Kilt of Molten Golems

Pretty nice drop from second boss in Halls of Lightning.

4.) Brilliant Saronite Legplates

Only use these when you cannot get any of the above.

Enchant:

Azure Spellthread

Sapphire Spellthread

Feet

1.) Revenant's Treads

Excellent item and easy to obtain from the local Leatherworker.

2.) Harpooner's Striders

O.K., but there is no guarantee they will drop.

3.) Brilliant Titansteel Treads

These are decent as well, but like all crafted holy plate, they have no int, which hurts a lot. Still, if you'd rather wear these than the number 1 above, you can.

Enchants:

Enchant Boots - Icewalker

Enchant Boots - Greater Vitality

Rings

1.) Ring of Temerity

Very good ring and easy to get from a quest you can complete in the Oculus.

2.) Kurzel's Angst orAmberglow Signet

Both are decent, depending on what you prefer.

3.) Titanium Spellshock Ring

Best in slot before 25 mans, but you might have a problem with how much the mats will cost.

4.) Signet of Hopeful Light

Another nice ring, but requires Exalted with Argent Crusade.

5.) Signet of the Kirin Tor

Extremely nice, but it will cost you anywhere from 6800 to 8000 gold. Good Luck!

Enchants:

Enchant Ring - Greater Spellpower

Only if you are an enchanter, I'm afraid.

Trinkets... Pretty trinkets! :P

1.) Soul Preserver

This one is nice, but I'm not sure what the proc rate is.

2.) Tome of Arcane Phenomena

3.) Je'Tze's Bell

This treasure is rumored to be Bind on Equip with the next patch, but you will probably pay an arm and a leg for it.

4.) Darkmoon Card: Illusion

I believe this is redeemed at the Darkmoon Faire by turning in the Prisms Deck, which is created from 8 cards crafted by Inscriptionists (Scribes mebbe?). Again, good but highly costly.

Main Hand

1.) Titansteel Guardian

Despite not having intellect, this is the best pre-raid option for now. It will, unfortunately, be nerfed in the next patch to reflect actual item level. For now though, if you can farm the mats, it is well worth it.

2.) Gavel of the Brewing Storm

Another nice Wyrmrest item, only requires revered, too.

3.) Beguiling Scepter

Pretty good for a dungeon drop, last boss in Caverns of Time

4.) Cudgel of Saronite Justice

Good enough to get you by until you get one of the above.

Enchants:

Enchant Weapon - Exceptional Spellpower

Enchant Weapon - Mighty Spellpower

Shield

1.) Zom's Crackling Bulwark

Nice if you can find it on the Auction House.

2.) Tor's Crest

The next best thing and probably easier to get.

3.) Saronite Protector

Not bad, and probably the easiest to obtain.

Enchants:

Enchant Shield - Greater Intellect

Libram

Very tough to find anything worthwhile before raiding. If you still have your TBC librams, they may be better than some of the ones below.

1.) Venture Co. Libram of Mostly Holy Deeds

Meh...

2.) Libram of Furious Blows

Better than nothing, I suppose.

There ya go! Happy Raiding!

Welcome!

2008-12-16T21:04:00.000-08:00

So, out of the trillion or so healadin sites, you somehow wound up on this page. How did you get here? Did your mouse button slip while you were trying to view those adult sites? Naughty, naughty!

Well, while you are here, let me wish you a warm welcome!

"What is this site all about?" you may ask yourself. Pop a Ritalin and try to sit still while I explain.

This site will be dedicated, first and foremost, to the World of Warcraft class, the Paladin. More specifically, to the Holy Paladin. I should warn you at this point, I am most likely promising far more than I can deliver. I will try to delve into every aspect of the spec and class, everything from talents and gear, to strategies for healing and playing in general (There may even be comics). Hopefully, the blog will take off, and I will rise to fame the likes which has not been seen in centuries! People will hear my name and weep like children! The world itself will be my plaything!!! .... But I digress... Baby steps, ya know!

You may be asking yourself at this point"Who is this weird, yet remarkably intriguing fellow?"

Is that Ritalin kicking in yet? Good. Well, I, like so many of you, decided to pick the paladin as my main class when I first started playing WoW (sometimes two years ago). I had heard that it was a wonderful class: easy to level, possessed much survivability, and was extremely versatile. You see, I had just finished playing EverQuest, as my long time guild there broke up, and I wanted a change. I even named my cute little pally dwarf Quellious, as a tribute. So I diligently leveled Quellious, hoping to one day raid the endgame as the awesome Protadin. This was right at the beginning of Burning Crusade. I had leveled as protection to 70, when I found out that I would forever be inferior to Warriors. Heartbroken, I decided try out Retribution. Let me just say, I quickly found out why I always saw "lolret" in battlegrounds. Then, one day, as I was busy being a cheap amusement for a horde lock in AV, a fellow healadin ran up to me and started doing his thing. Instantly I was amazed at his ability to keep three opponents beating on him mercilessly, and still he survived. From that day forward, I re-specced and never looked back.

Fast forward to today. WotLK is out, and I'm level 80, and still loving holy. So sit tight and grab a Coke ( or Pepsi, I don't judge), and let's get started!

P.S.: If you skipped the whole article and are just reading this sentence, go back an read!

I just told you how to make 1000g in 2 minutes! :P