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Tuesday, November 17, 2009

ToC Ten: Another Day, Another Raid

I have done ToC 10 what seems like a million times. Since the release of ToC, I have cleared it every Monday night. But last night I decided to join up with some of my friends and fellow bloggers instead of my usual hard core group of acquaintances who just clear it with no problem week after week. I first came in on my mage, which is the toon I usually bring in there. Of course my dps would help since many of the people coming with us had never stepped foot in there. Hey it is more fun to wipe with close friends, than clear with people you like, but is more of a business relationship right?

Well of course my mage was doing the dps I expcected but it seemed as though we had problems healing. So after some discussion and acceptance of losing my dps, and wipes of course, I switched to my shaman to heal. Yay now this place is like a new raid altogether. Luckily for me my druid was saved, so i really got to experience something new. I love learning how to play on my shaman.

I am totally not one of those shamans who is obsessed with chain healing, so I quickly volunteered that I would be perfect for tank healing, especially since the other two healers were a holy priest and resto druid. This group make up seemed to work really well, and I worked really hard to keep an eye on my mana and keep my water shield up, and I did a good job, much better than when I started out healing a few weeks ago. I really like being the tank healer as well, since I am so use to raid healing on my druid. So I learned some things about my class that many raid leaders don't know.

So some perspectives from a noob shaman healer:

  • Shamans are awesome tank healers! 
    • With earth shield I kept the tank buffed with a little heal when he got hit, a great controller of spike damage as far as I could tell.
    • My riptide was a great way to top off the tank or even a raid member, and provide the spell haste I needed to my other heals so that I could keep the tank topped off at all times.
    • Lesser Healing wave made it to where I almost didn't need to cast healing wave, because the tank with my other heals, rarely needed that huge crit
    • But I think healing wave is what really makes shaman a viable tank healer, this spell will heal the tank for probably 1/3 or so of his or her HP.
  • Shamans should not spam chain heal, and is not the only thing they are useful for
    • In most fights last night my chain heal only hit one or two people because people were so spread out. I am so glad I am not a veteran shaman because I don't have to break the habit of spamming chain heal, I just am trying hard to not get myself into that habit.
  • I love Mail!
    • I did notice a difference in my survival rate from my druid in faction champions. I mean maybe I shouldn't have because my druid gets a buff from tree form, but maybe it was the extra HP on mail gear that made me feel a little more safe taking hits.
  • The biggest thing I learned last night, is how important it is for the healing team to be in sync.
    • When you blog, you read a lot of blogs from other healers. It is so helpful to know what other classes' strengths are! This will help you to gauge what you should be focused on during a raid, and how to help your healers. When that druid healer is running from legion flames I am not too worried b/c they can rejuv and swiftmend themselves, which is what I do on my druid. But on my shaman send me heals please, because my riptide doesn't quite cut it. 
    • Knowing the other classes you are healing with is priceless, and makes any healing team stronger.
Maybe this is why after the switch we cleared three bosses, before it was our bed time. Two of us have tried to familiarize ourselves with other healers strengths and weaknesses by reading blogs and studying other classes. I think this made us more in sync and aware, which made us succeed. Next week I am certain we can clear the entire raid, too bad our bed time was at 11 last night. But I am definitely looking forward to next week, and now my friends may trust me to bring my shaman yay!

2 comments:

Miss Medicina said...

Ha! How funny - it was really interesting reading your post, hearing about it from your angle. I thought the same thing when the druid got Legion Flames, as opposed to when you got it. The Druid can instant hot himself, but the shammy really cant! So, maybe I'll throw a shield on the Druid and a little instant burst healing if i can, but otherwise, he can pretty much take care of himself. The Shammy, however, needs to keep running and doesn't have such a repertoire of instant casts, so I needed to throw some stuff out there to help!

When the holy priest gets caught in Legion Flames, it's somewhere in between - I've got a few things I can use to heal myself while running, but a rejuv from a Druid will definitely help - though that should be enough.

It also just goes to show you how much better things work with a diverse healing team. It's funny because we've talked before about how while you *can* have a healing team that consists solely of, say, Holy Priests, it's so much better to have diversity. The thing is, Holy Priests *are* very versatile, but unless you are really knowledgeable about the priest class and know how to take advantage of all your different abilities and talents, then it's just not gonna work.

I really enjoyed having your shammy around for heals! I'm thinking about respeccing to Disc for our Monday night raids, but if you want to continue rocking out on your shammy, I may not. However, I know Evang would really like to do some more healing on his priest. I guess the good thing is, you don't HAVE to heal - you have choices.

LawGirl said...

Yeah, I had tons of fun last night. I am considering bringing my shaman every week. Amazing buffs, heroism, and I actually like healing on my shaman right now a lot.
Especially if Sniffit is going to start bringing his mage. No reason for Kayllnn to come then!
I think it would be kinda cool if I got to be the tank healer each week, it would give me a lot of experience and I like healing with you.