Leza’s Dream

The Dawnchaser tribe are close cousins (on a tribal scale) to the Dawnstrider tribe, so Kamalia and her siblings spent their childhood and adolescence mingling as much with the Dawnchasers as with the Dawnstriders. Like young Dezco, heir to the Dawnchaser chieftainship, Kamalia’s youngest siblings, the twins Kaohana and Karaelia, were drawn to the philosophies of Tahu Sagewind and Aponi Brightmane. In those early days, as the fledgling Seers and Sunwalkers studied ways to effectively draw upon the Light of An’She, they were few enough in number that they all knew one another by name. Although increasing numbers of Shu’halo chose to follow the paths of An’she as the Cataclysm raged, Kaohana and Karaelia remained close to their Dawnchaser friends.

Around the time that the elite warriors of Azeroth were battling the Old Gods at Wymrest Temple, preparing to take on Deathwing himself, Dezco’s wife, Leza, began to have the same strange dream over and over. She described a beautiful valley, rich and fertile, watered with streams that glowed softly golden, giving the grass and trees shades of gold and crimson. When Karaelia and Kaohana told Kamalia about their friend’s dreams, Kamalia asked if perhaps Leza might be thinking of the enchanted lands of the Sin’dorei, where it always seemed to be simultaneously spring and autumn. The girls brought this suggestion to Leza, and she emphatically responded that she had been to the Eversong Woods, and this place in her dream was certainly not the same. Although no-one knew of anywhere on Azeroth like it, the more often Leza had what she began to call “The Golden Dream”, the more strongly she felt that this place did exist on Azeroth, somewhere in the uncharted southern seas.

That winter, Chief Dawnchaser passed into the arms of the Earthmother, and Dezco became Chieftain of his tribe. When, following the final Madness and defeat of Deathwing and the exhaustion of the Dragon Aspects, High Chieftain Baine Bloodhoof began to have strange dreams, he remembered hearing old Chief Dawnchaser tell of his daughter-in-law’s visions, and he requested Sunwalker Dezco and Seer Leza’s counsel. Upon discovering that his dreams were the same as Leza’s persistent visions, the High Chieftain decided that this place of golden peace must be found. He commissioned four ships to carry Sunwalker Dezco, Seer Leza, and any who wished to accompany them on their search. With their Chieftain, Dezco, in charge of the expedition, many of the Dawnchasers chose to brave the unknown seas. A few Seers and Sunwalkers from other tribes, including Kaohana and Karaelia, also joined the pilgrims. The ships departed from Ratchet barely a week before Warchief Hellscream began gathering his forces for the assault on Northwatch Hold that ultimately led to the destruction of Theramore…

Like Akabeko’s Weipon, the actual leveling of my Tauren Priest and Paladin lags severely behind their RP stories. For Kaohana and Karaelia, questing through the Jade Forest and most of the Valley of the Four Winds will be purely ‘out-of-character’ game mechanics. Their ‘in-character’ experience of Pandaria will begin at Thunder Cleft in Krasarang Wilds, because RP-story-wise, they came to Pandaria with the Dawnchaser expedition. Karaelia is among Sunwalker Dezco’s honor guard of Dawnchaser Braves at the Shrine of Two Moons, and Kaohana has stayed at Stoneplow with the greater body of the Dawnchaser settlers.

In the artwork, Karaelia is wearing her Grunt’s/Outrunner’s “Sunwalker Initiate” set, but I didn’t get the other clothes quite right. Leza is wearing Flirtation Robes when she should be wearing Magus Tirth’s Robe, and Dezco is wearing the BC recolor of the Battlegear of Might when he should be wearing the Vengeful Gladiator’s set.

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Things my Priests Wear

A collection of Transmogrification Template Kits actually worn in-game by my Tauren Discipline/Holy Priest and my Blood Elf Shadow Priest. I will update it whenever I change my in-game TTK. Items that are no longer obtainable are marked with an asterisk (*).

Barbaric Beauty

Buoyant Shoulderpads, Barbaric Cloth Robe, Wizard’s Belt, Sage’s Gloves + Courier’s Wraps, Long Silken Cloak, Squire’s Shirt
This robe, with its pretty combination of lilac and blue and pink, has long been one of my favorites for Noblegarden. The triangular patterns are reminiscent of the decorations on a brightly colored egg, too!

Adorable Aborigine

Lunar Mantle, Aboriginal Robe, Wise Man’s Belt, Heavy Linen Gloves + Seer’s Cuffs, Cerulean Filigreed Shirt
I originally wanted to use the Feline Mantle for this set. Sadly, it didn’t drop when Kaohana went to SFK to get her level 20 class quest weapon, and she is currently too high level to queue for SFK and too low level to solo it.

Plains-Striding Mystic

Stonecloth Epaulets, Mystic’s Robe, Willow Belt, Seer’s Cuffs + Heavy Linen Gloves, Lushwater Cloak, Squire’s Shirt
On the one hand, the furry look of the Stonecloth Epaulets is great fun, because most other items with that appearance are leather. On the other hand, their white color makes finding equally low-level robes that look good with them somewhat difficult. The brown “fur” Outlander’s Pauldrons are much easier to work with, but require level 57 to wear.

Angel of the Earthmother

Gossamer Headpiece, Slime-Encrusted Pads, Robes of the Bloody Field, Apothecary’s Waistband (red)/Willow Belt (brown), Rotting Handwraps (red)/Gossamer Gloves (brown), Wand of Arcane Potency, Regal Star
Two simple changes toggle this outfit between Winter Veil festivity and year-round utility. I think I like these shoulders with this robe even better than the ones that are part of the designed set!

Goddess of Insight

Gossamer Headpiece shoulders & gloves, Robes of Insight, Sutarn’s Ring, Thornweaver Leggings, Dryad’s Wrist Bindings, Formal White Shirt
In a curious paradox of personal aesthetics, I simultaneously think that this robe is gorgeous and that it shows way too much skin for my taste. The white provides a nice modest, but still divine-looking, backdrop for the colour and filigree of the robe. This set would also work beautifully with any of the other colours of this robe.
Use the Shimmering/Ivycloth or Sage’s Boots if your character wears shoes.

Magician’s Power

Gossamer Headpiece, Magician’s Mantle, Robe of Power, Sutarn’s Ring, Black Mageweave Gloves, Staff of the Earthmother
Kaohana never actually wore this set with the hat; by the time she could wear the hat, she could also wear the Robes of Insight.

Tol Barad Administrator

Lord Walden’s Top Hat (not Transmogrification-friendly), Mantle of Haunting, Black Velvet Robes, Belt of the Hero, Skitterweb Glovelettes, Watched Watcher’s Slippers, Staff of Earned Tranquility
Given the involvement of Dalaran and its mages with the high-security prison on Tol Barad, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that some of the staff might have been high elves.

Equestrienne

Lord Walden’s Top Hat, Mantle of Haunting, Cat Lover’s Vest, Laborer’s Belt, Rygna-Silk Leggings, Skitterweb Glovelettes, Watched Watcher’s Slippers, Staff of Earned Tranquility
Kandrista began her existence as a Worgen just for this hat and staff. Although the Top Hat is not Transmogrification-friendly, I intend to have her wear it throughout her leveling journey.

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warlock fashion disasters

In honor of her second blogiversary, Saga is conducting a search for the Worst Warlock Outfit EVAR:

Warlocks are evil creatures who dabble with the fel magics that most other people stay away from. Obviously this means we have a certain… image to uphold. It’s why our tier sets have huge spikes and skulls, and other awesome looking things. A Warlock should look good.

So let’s turn it around. Let’s find the worst possible Warlock outfit available in the game. Something that would make other Warlocks shun you and not let you near them. Something that would make your demon take one look at you and return back to the Twisting Nether laughing all the way.

Now, I really don’t think there’s anything I could do that could top the Gardening Soccer Mom look that Tome of the Ancient coaxed Ironsally into, or the “Hug a Tree of Life today” wannabe-Druid outfit concocted by Erinys. But I couldn’t resist the challenge of at least trying to come up with something suitable. Or rather, unsuitable.

I took a look in Kalaneia‘s bank to see what sort of horrid combination I could make using the things she’s collected while leveling. It wasn’t too hard to find some colors that clashed in a quite eye-bleeding way. Poor ‘Neia! When I put her in that garb, the trainers in the Sanctum would let her Imp, Pagnar, in, but not her!

Azure Silk Hood, Talbar Mantle (no longer obtainable), Embersilk Robe, Joanna’s Sash, Phoenix Pants, Phoenix Gloves, Walking Boots, Captain’s Cloak, Medicine Staff
The only things I bought new for this outfit were the mud-colored cloak and the staff.

Then I wanted to see what sort of un-Warlock-like Transmogrification Template Kit I could conjure up using MogIt. Taking a similar approach to Navimie, I decided to go for a pseudo-Healy-Priest look. I started with Kamaei’s Cerulean Skirt, a gorgeous recolor of the Devout Priest’s kilt. There is only one similarly recolored piece of the Devout set, the Lightning Infused Mantle, most often seen nowadays as a favorite complement to the Robes of the Exalted and Robes of the Guardian Saint. Unless I’m working with only the limited gear available in a single toon’s inventory, I seem to be incapable of creating a true “clown suit” anymore, and I ended up with an outfit that was well-coordinated, but still much too atrocious to actually wear.

I presented it to a panel of representative Warlocks, and was met with reactions ranging from dumbfounded to weeping to vigorous rejection/denial.

Watcher’s Cowl, Lightning Infused Mantle, Arachnidian Armor, Arachnidian Girdle, Kamaei’s Cerulean Skirt, Arachnidian Gloves (or the orange with aqua trim Serpent Gloves), Extravagant Boots of Malice, Orange Mageweave Shirt, Hibernal Cloak (optional), Plasma Foil, Dreamseeker Dandelion

And as long as I was working with Kamaei’s Cerulean Skirt and the Lightning Infused Mantle anyway, I figured I might as well put together a more, er, respectable Transmogrification Template Kit intended for actual Healy-type Priests.

Cowl of Benevolence, Lightning Infused Mantle, Aurora Armor or Buccaneer’s Vest or Stonecloth Vest, Bridenbrad’s Sash or Sutarn’s Ring or Tentacular Belt, Kamaei’s Cerulean Skirt, Arachnidian Bracers, Replica Virtuous Gloves, Ringo’s Blizzard Boots, Cloak of Whispering Shells, Staff of Divine Infusion or Razorwind Staff or Staff of Athen’a

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S.A.F.E. in New Tinkertown

I hadn’t seen Broglie Togglesprocket since the day before the Disaster. We’d met in the cafeteria as usual and chatted about our work and the Trogg problem over breakfast, then gone off to our individual assignments. Later that shift, High Tinker Mekkatorque had announced Mekgineer Thermaplugg’s plan to get rid of the Troggs by irradiating The City. The Seniors of my family had immediately rounded up all the Juniors, pulling us out of classes and away from tinkering, resisting our vigorous protests and questioning, and sent us back out to Gearloom Village on the surface.

“We don’t trust this plan,” my great-grandmother said, “and if anything goes wrong, we need you sproglings to carry on our work.”

They had been right, of course. For months, I looked for Broglie in each wave of ill, tormented survivors that came into the village needing shelter and comfort, but he was not among them. As we began to rebuild our shattered lives, I searched for him among all the other Gnomes who chose to accept the Dwarves’ hospitality. I watched for his face among the Leper Gnomes as I took my turn in the salvage missions around the main surface entrance to The City. Although I saw many other lads and lasses I had known, both among the survivors who made their way to Tinkertown and among the Leper Gnomes I had to fight, I sought in vain for Broglie.

Eventually, I convinced myself that Broglie had probably been one of the 80% of all Gnomes who had perished immediately in the Disaster. Despite what my great-grandmother had said, I had no heart for attempting to rebuild my family’s usual business. I had always had a litle magical skill and a lot of magical interest, so I now began to train seriously as a Mage. I soon set out adventuring, both to polish my skills and to earn a little money. I traveled throughout Dun Morogh and then Loch Modan, and I had made it all the way to Menethil Harbor in the Wetlands when the High Tinker began recruiting for a war to reclaim The City.

After participating in Operation: Gnomeregan, I found myself disinclined to return to adventuring. I stayed in my rooms in Ironforge and idled away my time in studying magic and making desultory progress at improving my sewing — that was not an area of the family business with which I had been conversant! A fortnight or so later, I decided to visit the New Tinkertown I was starting to hear so much about. I was so encouraged by what I saw there that I offered to stay and help. Knowing my family background in the textiles industry, the High Tinker assigned me to the group responsible for restoring the furnishings of the existing buildings and preparing furnishings for the new buildings. I spent a few happy months helping to design and manufacture carpets, curtains, and materials for various types of upholstery.

Although I had not seen it myself on my one excursion back into The City after the Disaster, I had heard many rumors of a group of Gnomes who had survived the irradiation with their health and sanity intact and were holding out in a hidden area called “the Clean Zone”. It bothered me somewhat that we hadn’t ever sent anyone into The City to rescue them, but when I suggested it, everyone else always said to me, “If the Clean Zone really exists, and if the holdouts there wanted to be rescued, wouldn’t they have come out with one or more of the many parties of adventurers who have gone into The City during the past several years?” So when the High Tinker announced the organization of a Survivor Assistance Facilitation Expedition (S.A.F.E.) to find and recover any Gnomes who may have survived both irradiation events, I signed up to be a part of it immediately.

Perhaps I also signed up because the announcement of S.A.F.E. had reawakened inside of me the most slender filament of hope that Broglie might have survived, after all — and if he had, I wanted to be the one to rescue him.

(AN: This story has gotten quite long. Follow the cut to

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A Rainbow of Classy Clothes

In which I have an irresistably silly idea to compile a Transmogrification-friendly outfit for each Class using that Class’s color.

Death Knight Maroon: Tyrant’s Epaulets, Breastplate of the Warbringer, Legguards of the Shattered Hand, Thorium Belt, Bloodforged boots & gloves, Sawbones Shirt

Druid Orange: Warchief Kilt, Scorpashi shoulders, Dokebi tunic belt boots & gloves, Orange Mageweave Shirt

Rogue Yellow: Robust set with Headhunter’s Girdle and Bright Yellow Shirt

Hunter Green: Bog Epaulets, Turtle Scale chest & pants, Der’izu belt boots & gloves, Green Linen Shirt

Mage Cerulean: Lunar Mantle, Robes of the Exalted, Belt of Arcane Storms, Runed Spell-Cuffs, Royal gloves & boots, Cerulean Filigreed Doublet
I tried to stick to items that could be obtained solo, but it was very, very difficult to find a belt that layered well with this robe. The golden Sutarn’s Ring also looks reasonably good.

Shaman Blue: Elements set (soon to be available again as “replica”-quality items from the renovated Darkmoon Faire) with Blue Linen Shirt
Okay, I cheated with this one because Shaman have a wonderful class set that is already in their class color — and, as far as the datamining at WoWhead can tell, the replica items will NOT be class-exclusive!

Warlock Purple: Twilight Cultist Shoulders, Death-Speaker’s Tunic, Darkweave Breeches, High Councillor’s belt, Gloves of the Deadwatcher, Kayser’s Boots of Precision, Rich Purple Silk Shirt

Paladin Pink: Bloodscale set with Commander’s Pauldrons & Pink Mageweave Shirt

Warrior Brown: Brutish set with Rustic Workman’s Shirt

Priest White: Gossamer robe and shoulders, Aurora belt, Sage’s boots, Gandling’s Gloves, Formal White Shirt

~*~*~

And here they are again, arranged by armor type:

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Tier 13 and Tier retrospectives: Kamalia’s personal favorites

I wanted to see all of the Tier 13 previews before I shared my opinions on it.

The Shaman T13 looks pretty cool, but not so awesome that I can’t wait to begin replacing my T12. I definitely won’t be showing that hat — I’ll probably transmogrify it to something still wolfish, but a little more classy, such as the Headdress of the First Shaman. The wolf-skull shoulders look awesome on the Orc model, but I’m not sure if I’ll like them on Kamalia. I think it might be fun to play a little Transmogrification mix-and-match between the items of T13 and the items of the black Earthfury (T1) recolor from Outland.

Kerisa’s still in T11, and she’d be perfectly happy to skip right over T12 in favor of T13. Again, I’ll be either not showing the hat or transmogrifying it into something more attractive — most likely the Cenarion (T1) antlers because I haven’t got the Malorne (T4) antlers or the Nordrassil (T5) or Nightsong (T8) crowns. The glowing mushrooms on the shoulders are a neat iteration on previous woodsy shoulder designs, and I hope they provide Akabeko’s leatherworkers with a bit of a respite from the trials they’ve had to endure while crafting other recent Druid tier sets.

Of the other T13 sets, the ones that make me wish I had a raiding character of that class are (from least to most desired) the Vestments of Dying Light (Priest), Timelord Regalia (Mage), and Battleplate of Radiant Glory (Paladin). The Vestments of Dying Light are pretty cool in a spooky sort of way. I love the design of the robe, but I think that helm will look bizarre on a long-faced character such as a Tauren or a Worgen. The steampunk stylings of the Timelord Regalia are a refreshing and fun change from the more usual wizardly look of a Mage. I like the quilted detailing on the upper part of the robe and the way the buckled straps at the bottom hint that the kilt could be refashioned into trousers at a moment’s notice for greater mobility. The gold-trimmed silver of the Battleplate of Radiant Glory is the most classically “Paladin”-like look (to my sense of aesthetics) of Cataclysm so far. To me, the feathery details suggest an avenging, defending, mighty seraphim.

For a brief review of my favorite Tier looks for every class, follow the cut:

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Circle of Healers, round two

Like Jasyla, one of the reasons that I started my blog was to participate in Miss Medicina’s Circle of Healers survey. In the past year and a half, the game has changed quite a bit, and so has the blogging community, so Saunder has started it up again.

Lodur tagged the whole Resto Shaman community in his answers. Fannon beat me to tagging Glorwynn, who was at the top of my list if people whose responses to this survey I wanted to see, and she tagged me instead.

So here’s how it works.

Post this questionnaire, with your answers, on your blog. Pick the healing class you know most about (or is the focus of your blog) for the questionnaire, and then send it over to another healing blogger you know and love who heals with a DIFFERENT class. Include a link to the blogger who sent you the questionnaire, as well as a link to the blogger to whom you are sending it.

1. What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer?
My main is my Tauren Resto Shaman, Kamalia.
During the past month, I’ve also spent a lot of time leveling a Blood Elf Holy Paladin, Kiraleia, through LFD.

2. What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
Kamalia does most of her healing in 25 man raids. Since Patch 4.2 dropped, she’s been doing Heroics again, but I’m not especially diligent about doing them every day, and I’ll probably stop doing them once we get three or so Firelands bosses on farm.
Kiraleia, who is still leveling, does all her healing in 5 mans.

3. What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why?
I was pretty excited about Healing Rain when it was first introduced in the Cataclysm previews, and it has lived up to my anticipation. It may not be as pretty as Efflorescence or Sanctuary, but Shaman already have Chain Heal to be flashy with. I love the way you can actually see raindrops falling if you’re zoomed in close enough or otherwise have a good angle on the spell effect. I love the way a well-placed Healing Rain will top off the people who haven’t lost much health while simultaenously providing a buffer for the people who are really hurting until I or another healer can get off a big, slow heal. Once I’ve learned the mechanics of a fight well enough to not feel completely like a headless chicken, I enjoy the challenge of figuring out better ways to place my Healing Rain circles.
With Kiraleia, I really enjoy the Holy Shock + Word of Glory combination. It feels exciting and dynamic to play to me, in a similar way to juggling DPS buff stacking and procs, and it’s been a good match for most of the tank health and damage pattern combinations I’ve encountered in low level dungeons.

4. What healing spell do you use least for your class and why?
With Kamalia, probably Healing Surge, with Greater Healing Wave not far behind. I treat Healing Surge as a panic button, but I should use Greater Healing Wave more often than I do.
Kiraleia still has a pretty limited toolbox, and I don’t think there’s any particular spell I really neglect. I use Holy Light and Flash of Light both pretty regularly when people are taking damage and Holy Shock is on cooldown.

5. What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why?
Despite the loss of some of our niftiest totems, Shaman are still one of the most versatile healing classes, able to quickly shift the buffs we offer or the roles we fill to adapt to a changing situation. I also really enjoy the active mana regen mechanic of Telluric Currents. Although the damage my lightning bolts do is pretty pitiful, by pure DPS standards, it makes me feel like I can still contribute to the success of the group even when I’m temporarily too dry on mana to heal effectively.
I feel like I can go a lot farther on low mana (40% or less) with Kiraleia than I can with Kamalia because of the effectiveness of Holy Shock + Word of Glory, the talent that allows a free Holy Shock to proc, the talent that allows Word of Glory to sometimes not use up Holy Power, and glyphed Beacon of Light.

6. What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why?
The current mana management mechanics of the Shaman and Paladin classes are simultaneously a great strength and a great weakness, precisely because they require the active monitoring of the player. The Paladin healing spells are probably powerful enough to make up for the quantity of GCDs that the player has to spend on maintenance rather than active healing. The Shaman healing spells may or may not be. I’m not sure that I, personally am attentive enough for these mechanics to always be a strength, instead of mostly being a weakness.
Before Patch 4.2, I could keep greater than 80% uptime on Water Shield just by having made an indicator on Grid to tell me if I had it up or not. With Water Shield falling off so much more often since the patch, I’ve had to make a Power Aura to make it much more obvious that I need to refresh it, and it’s annoying how many GCDs I have to spend on doing so.
Shaman also have to remember to spend GCDs on refreshing our standard totems after using our Big Damn Cooldown Totems. Sometimes the lag between the end of MTT and when I either remember to or have a GCD free to re-drop HST can get quite long, and that’s a lot of healing lost and extra damage taken from the missing resistances.
Paladins can regenerate mana in a steady stream by Judging on cooldown, but they have to be in range of a mob to do it, and they have to remember to do it. I haven’t quite made a Power Aura for the cooldown of Judgement yet, but I probably will soon. And, of course, they have to spend all those GCDs on it.
I’d like Blizz to do something about the charges of Water Shield to bring it more in line with a DPS Shaman’s Lightning Shield or even just the 10 charges of Earth Shield. I don’t necessarily think the Judgement mechanic needs to be tinkered with, however, because it’s kind of nifty and certainly gives the Paladin class a different and distinctive flavor among the healers.

7. In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you?
I try to keep whichever tank I’m Earth Shielding either targeted or focused, and I have the talents and glyphs that buff heals to the person with my Earth Shield. Because of this, I tend to do a lot of tank & melee healing and am less effective at healing the ranged DPS. I am comfortable, however, with being given either type of assignment.
My Paladin is still low enough level that her abilities are primarily focused on tank healing. Having done raid healing with the range and clustering limitations of a Shaman’s Chain Heal and Healing Rain, I think I’d be fine with a raid healing assignment as a Paladin once I had enough practice with the AOE healing tools that a Paladin doesn’t get until fairly high level.

8. What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why?
9. What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why?
This depends on group size, really.
In a 10 man, I think it’s better to have all the healers of different classes than to have two healers the same because of how well the classes synergize with and complement each other. In a 10 man, bringing two Shamans won’t make up for the things a Shaman can’t do quite as well as some of the other healing classes. In 10 man, the personality of my fellow healer(s) makes a bigger difference to me than what class they play. Druid, Paladin, Priest — they’re all good, but I’d prefer a Holy Priest to a Disc Priest (although that may be an outdated preference based on not understanding very well how Priests work).
In a 25 man, however, it’s fabulous to have doubles of any healing class, or even of more than one healing class. In a 25 man, it’s great to have two Shamans, because then we can have a Healing Rain for both the melee and the ranged and double the MTT and SLT goodness. In a 25 man, I like to see representatives of every healing spec on the team.

10. What is your worst habit as a healer?
I’m terrible at using my cooldowns, such as they are. When I’m in a 25 man with another Shaman, the other Shaman will inevitably beat me to recognizing an appropriate moment to use SLT. I still fumble with my Paladin’s Lay on Hands cliquebind and too often don’t get it out in time to make the save.
If I work at it, I can train myself to (usually) remember to use a spell CD, but I totally fail at remembering to use trinket CDs. I almost never remember to use my Tyrande’s Favorite Doll mana return in between triggering it as part of my MTT macro.
I’m also bad about spamming my efficient heals, such as Healing Wave and Holy Light, when I should be reaching for my more powerful heals, such as Healing Surge or Greater Healing Wave and Flash of Light.

11. What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing?
In a Heroic, that one ranged DPS who won’t change position to stand in the Healing Rain that I’ve managed to place just right to catch everyone else.
Leveling tanks who pull more damage than my Paladin can keep up with, then blame her for the wipe.

12. Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing?
Indeed I do. As I wrote above, I think that a more diverse healing team is stronger than one with too many multiples of the same spec.

13. What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer?
If I’m running out of mana excessively fast, I’m probably doing something wrong. Either I’m not paying close enough attention to where I’m standing relative to the rest of the raid, particularly the ranged DPS, and am wasting my Chain Heals and Healing Rains on poor targeting/placement, or I’m spending too much mana healing myself from what should have been avoidable damage.
I used to monitor my spell distribution in real time on Recount. Ever since Patch 4.1, however, I’ve been experiencing severe frame rate freezing whenever I target a boss or add for hostile actions such as lightning bolting or judging. I have therefore been keeping Recount disabled on Kamalia and Kiraleia.
I do usually go look at the WoL parses for my guild’s raid nights, but I don’t generally do it right away. I look at my spell distribution and the uptime of my shield spells. If my guild’s other Resto Shaman was in the raid, I compare what I was doing to what he was doing.
But really, as long as my numbers are in the ballpark with the rest of the healers, and I’m not dying to stupid stuff, and I’m not letting my healing assignments die unneccessarily, and I’m pacing my mana usage appropriately for the fight, I figure I’m doing well enough.

14. What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class?
That Shamans are still all about the Chain Heal LOL, I guess. And I’ve heard that at low levels there are folks who think that all Shamans only want Agility, when in fact it’s only the Enhancement Shamans who want Agility and the Elemental and Resto Shamans want Intellect.
As for Paladins, it’s probably the one that I haven’t yet realized that I have myself about how the class works.

15. What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn?
Remembering to keep up Earth Shield and Water Shield, and getting to have an instinctive feel for the range of a Chain Heal jump and the size of the Healing Rain circle.
As a leveling Paladin, I’ve been struggling with trying to figure out whom to Beacon in any given 5 man group.

16. If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer via Recount or World of Logs, what sort of patterns would they see (i.e. lots of overhealing, low healing output, etc)?
I use Riptide and Unleash Elements more or less on cooldown (I have Power Auras for that). I don’t use Greater Healing Wave and Healing Surge as often as I should. Earth Shield or Riptide is often my third greatest percentage heal, after Chain Heal and Healing Rain, again meaning that I should probably be doing more active healing with spells like Greater Healing Wave. I use MTT fairly regularly, and I use TC lightning bolt regen at some point in most fights, but I forget to use mana/concentration potions and my healthstone. I’m slow on the draw with SLT. Because I food and flask buff for Spirit, not Int, I am usually not in the top three of a 25 man healing team, but I am not so far behind that I could be accused of not pulling my weight.
My Paladin’s meters would see her using Holy Shock on cooldown with Holy Light as the usual filler, interspersed with Judgement at least every minute and occasional panicked Flash of Light spamming. I use Word of Glory frequently, but not immediately upon getting to 3 charges of Holy Power. I will throw Holy Shock on random targets in between pulls just to keep 3 charges of Holy Power up, so that I can unload a fully charged Word of Glory as soon as the tank aggros the next pull. Word of Glory most often goes to the tank, but sometimes I use it on a DPS who is taking an unusual amount of damage. I bounce Beacon around to whichever DPS seems to be the squishiest — or the greatest aggro magnet — in the moment, but don’t often put it on myself because I already have a talent that heals me whenever I heal someone else. Perhaps my greatest misconception about Paladins is that, in a 5 man, I shouldn’t just Beacon the tank?

17. Haste or Crit or Mastery and why?
I’ve been running a Haste/Mastery build. The Resto Shaman Mastery is made for difficult content where health levels are often very low. Haste is always yummy for swifter cast times and more ticks. Crit was nice, but not worth favoring over Haste or Mastery because my proc-on-Crit effects were not a great percentage of my overall healing. With Crit having become more important in Patch 4.2, I need to see if I can reach the 2005 Haste threshold, and if I can’t, I suppose I should prune my Haste back to the 916 threshold in favor of picking up more Crit.

18. What healing class do you feel you understand least?
I read enough Druid blogs that I feel like I sort of understand how they work, but I don’t have a lot of hands-on experience with Druid healing. Although Kerisa has a tree spec and glyphs drawn from my blog studies, I was too intimitated by all the LFD horror stories to queue her up as a healer for very many dungeons in Wrath. I would like to try Druid healing with her again sometime, but first I’d have to get together a tree gearset….
I don’t understand Priest healing very much at all. I don’t read very many Priest blogs — but the ones I do read, Disciplinary Action and Murloc Parliament, have gotten me interested in trying it. I have a level 20-something Priest who is currently rocking a solo questing focused +Smite Disc spec, and I intend to pick up a Holy second spec when she hits level 30, but it’ll probably be quite awhile before I get around to doing any serious healing with her.

19. What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing?
I use Grid+Clique for raid frames & spell targeting and Power Auras to track my various buffs and cooldowns. I have Mana Tide Totem macroed to Tyrande’s Favorite Doll and a /say announcement that I’ve dropped it. I use macros for Word of Glory and Wild Growth in Clique. My Paladin uses Fannon’s focus-the-tank Judgement macro.

20. Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why?
By the end of T11, I was trying to keep Haste and Mastery mostly balanced and reforging out of Crit. My guild was doing a mixture of normal modes, for which Haste was favored, and hard modes, for which Mastery was favored, so I wasn’t comfortable with stacking either stat at the expense of the other. I’m not quite sure yet what I’ll be doing in T12, but I’m leaning toward trying to balance Crit and Mastery after having gotten Haste to a threshold value.

I’d like to tag…
Rades of Orcish Army Knife because I know he’s got some healers hiding in his string of alts,
Akabeko of red cow rise because she wasn’t blogging yet the first time around and I’d love to see what she has to say,
Apple of Azeroth Apple because if I’m remembering correctly, her Lisan is the Holy variety of Paladin, rather than the Prot or Ret variety,
and Zelmaru of Murloc Parliament because I could have sworn that she did the Circle of Healers v1.0 as a Druid back in the day (but I can’t find it on Miss M’s list) and she’s now healing as a Priest instead of a Druid.

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gratuitous art post: When you were a child…

one of these days I’ll manage to draw Night Elf ears of the appropriate length and curvature… most of the time, as in this case, they end up more like Troll ears

Tam wrote, some time ago, about how the Night Elf version of the DK quest “A Special Surprise” is a sucker punch to the gut compared to the other races. Which it is — but to me, the most intriguing part is the idea of a Night Elf as a child. And not just any child, but a small child. How long has it been since infants and children were a numerous and common sight amongst the Kaldorei? Most Night Elves currently living are probably thousands of years old. Even the “young ones” are likely to be in their hundreds. I imagine that a Night Elf child would be a rare and precious treasure.

Ever since Tam wrote that post, I’ve been tempted to roll a Night Elf DK for myself. That, and I’ve also always rather liked that gray-green is one of the NE DK haircolors — a dulled version of the bright green of living Night Elves, how appropriate! So when Alas began talking up the Eff the Ineffable Fishing Extravaganza, I hopped on over to Azuremyst and created Katelaira (a name recycled from my former Blood Elf DK).

Like her predecessor Kaumalea, rolled on Kael’thas to participate in BBB’s Raid for the Heart, she probably won’t outlive the event for which she was created very long.

I drew the picture without using references, so the adult doesn’t look like Yazmina Oakenshield, the DK quest NPC — perhaps she is indeed the child’s actual mother, a Priestess of the Moon.

The funny thing about me going to Alas’s shindig is I only contributed several hundred fish or so — maybe a thousand — to my former guild’s “That’s a Lot of Bait” achievement. Being a mana-hungry healer, I spend most of my fishing time out on open water trying to catch Deepsea Sagefish, and when I’ve caught my weekly supply of those, I’m usually tired enough of fishing to not want to spend more time fishing pools.

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alas for Alas

I took four years of Spanish in high school, then AP’d out of having to take a language in college (though I did take Latin in my final semester as a fun class). Given that this spring will mark the tenth anniversary of my graduation from university, that was a long, long time ago. Nevertheless, the first time I visited Kiss My Alas, I wondered why she wanted us to kiss her wings.

Alas for Alas, she has no alas. A Mage’s Slow Fall is a very useful and entertaining spell, but it’s not exactly wings.

So here are some alas for Alas. I hope she does not think them too terribly impertinent.

Priest “Merciless Gladiator’s Mooncloth” set

Priest T3 Vestments of Faith set + Archangel

Paladin T2 Judgement set + Avenging Wrath
I don’t think of this one so much as Alas herself but rather as Elizabeth, telling first Mr. Collins and then Mr. Darcy, very firmly, NO.

Silvermoon Robes & Scorching Sash + Blastenheimer 5000 Parachute
These wings might be a little ticklish to kiss, but I think it would still be more pleasant than the alternative

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the First Tauren Paladin (and Priest)

When Tahu Sagewind and Aponi Brightmane first showed up in Patch 3.2.0 on August 4, Tahu was wearing the approx level 60 Eternal Sarong and a unique chestpiece. Aponi’s gear was harder to see because she was seated.

Tahu and Aponi as they first appeared

When Patch 4.0.1 dropped on October 12, Tahu and Aponi got a makeover. Tahu’s gear changed to T9 Priest Zabra’s Regalia. Aponi’s gear didn’t seem to change, but now that she was standing up, it could be seen more clearly. She appears to be wearing something very similar to Cairne’s elite Honor Guards. Her coloration and her hairstyle, however, did change. Was she pale from being ill in her earlier appearance, or something?

Tahu and Aponi as they appeared shortly before the Shattering

Then this afternoon while I was defending Thunder Bluff from the elemental invasion, someone mentioned that Aponi was there. You Guys. Tauren Paladins are going to be SO. AWESOME!

Aponi Brightmane during the Elemental Invasion of Thunder Bluff

Invasion!Aponi is wearing the T9 Paladin Liadrin’s Plate set — speaking of which, it is incredibly awesome that the First Paladins of both Horde races — Lady Liadrin for the Blood Elves and Aponi Brightmane for the Tauren — are women.

I saw Rexxar in Orgrimmar and Baine Bloodhoof in Thunder Bluff leading the fight against the elementals, and I saw on The Arcanery that Jaina shows up to help in Stormwind. I wonder which loretastically awesome Dwarf leader shows up in Ironforge?

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