Posted by iTZKooPA on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 - 10 Comments
Tags: growing pains, hating the hate, healing issues, learning the ropes, monday morning quarterback, monday quarterback, priest healing, responsibility, taking the blame, you got football in my warcraft
He's Had As Many Two Minute Comebacks As I've Had NFL Starts
The idea of a Monday Morning Quarterback is some who criticizes their team’s quarterback from hindsight, often from the comfort of their local watercooler. The issue so many people have with the act is that making a snap decision while under pressure (literally “under pressure” in football context) isn’t the same as when someone is calm and collected. You’re stressed, distracted and under the gun. A quarterback that can play under these adverse conditions is going places, he’s going to win games, big games. A healer with cat like reflexes under intense situations will go places as well, raids.
I’m not there yet.
People still die under my guard in close situations, and at least some of the blame is squarely on my play. Not my gear, not the group and not the tank, but me. Every time someone’s player frame reads “Dead” I begin to wonder what I should have done to keep them alive. Where in my rotation did I go wrong, and what can I do to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Should I have shielded and then healed, moved from the poison causing an interrupt, let x die to keep y alive, done an AoE heal before the targeted one? Those are all questions I have asked myself. If I can’t figure out how I screwed up, then I am man enough to ask for help. I don’t mind that I’m inviting someone else to do some armchair quarterbacking, so long as they are helpful. Unlike the real world version, many of the people are actually qualified (yay alts)!
This is the Internet though, and that bit of perceived anonymity enables the same crazy comments that you can find at your water cooler right now to enter the digital realm. With so much responsibility placed on my shoulders, I’ve found it somewhat difficulty to filter out the junk, while remaining open to the useful tips. Just like yesterday’s unlucky QBs, the hate pointed in my direction isn’t needed. It doesn’t make you avoid the repair bill, it doesn’t make me any better, and it doesn’t make us any less wiped. The only thing it will do is move you to my shitlist, guaranteeing that I’ll heal you only when everyone else is topped off.
Long time readers probably know that my priest isn’t totally new, she hit level 70 during the end of The Burning Crusade, but I never had time to learn the healing ropes then (leveling instances with geared level 70s doesn’t help you acquire skill). Now it is different. I’m playing her frequently and enjoying the new ball game. Soon I’ll be the Brett Favre of healing, but right now I feel more like Donovan McNabb.
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By Mortallis on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 5:39 pm
First?
By Brewtiful on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 7:03 pm
I understand your thinking, when see someone die in a raid it makes me think, did I mess up my rotation? was I focus healing? And on the Monday healer thing, I alwas have a blacklist running on the raid for: insulters, downers, and eliest.
Because I can,
Brewtiful
By antonio on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Well boss . Share when you figure it out. I’m just starting out on my preistess and want to dedicate some time to her when I’m done with my Hunter/Warrior/Pally/Druid/Rogue/Shaman/Mage phase. Good luck in the mean while.
By ubasrawr on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 4:31 am
are you a priest as a healer class?
cause i can only relate to you as a priest healer.
as far as i am concerned i’ve played both holy and disc healers.
–5-man dungeons–
-disc healing-
what i usually do is use flash heal for the tank and keep him maxed
i use penance if someone else is in dire situations, since i usually just let them get low on health or just bubble them all up, yes the entire party, since you can do that as a disc priest
and if while i am penancing the tank takes a good chunk, i pop a flash heal followed by a party heal just to make sure that the entire party is healed back up
prayer of mending always goes to the tank first
—-
as far as holy goes, i do just about the same, except since i don’t have penance i pop a circle of healing on the dps or myself if i am half way down and then focus back on the tank
—
raid strategy
i usually just spam flash heal, regen, prayer of mending
only if the raids are taking a lot of damage do i pop the group heals
i bubble myself mostly and the tank for the debuff of weaken soul which aids in healing
and thats usually how it works
By Rok on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 5:18 am
First off, GO EAGLES!
Second, yeah, sometimes healing is rough, even on us shams. We dont exactly get the fastest big heal, or any absorbtion shield like yall do. Earth shield is good, but its usually only for tanks and really only reduces 30%, but its fine cause we just spam Chain Heal
By jimbob on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 8:25 am
Stick with it mate, i’ve been healing on my holy priest for quite a while and even now have doubts about my own abilities to keep people alive in a tight spot, despite my guild all saying my healing is good.
Self-doubt (and a sprinkling of advice from REALLY good healers) will make you a better healer in the long-term.
Good luck
By Talcoya on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 10:47 am
eagles suck, go cowboys!
By 4Khazmodan on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
@ Rok
AMEN!!!
@Talcoya
COWBOYS SUCK!!
By Rally on Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 at 6:03 am
Well…maybe something to keep in mind is that as healers, we don’t really have a “rotation”, per-se. I’ve been healing since launch on my holy priest, and I truly believe that a great healer is marked by their ability to weigh all of the options during the heat of battle and make snap decisions that will ultimately allow your group (or raid) to clear the current content.
In raids during trash it usually is a good idea to spam AOE heals pretty much the whole time. Drink up in between pulls.
For bosses or any other special circumstance, if you know somebody’s going to take a ton of damage anytime soon, shield/pre-hot them just to get a “buffer” up that will ease your burden in the coming seconds. Anything to make your job just a tad easier and keep your nerves from crashing.
By Celeria on Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
As a paladin healer I usually leave the raid healing to the other healer/s and just focus on keeping tanks alive, but when I do have to raid heal theres 3 things I focus on. 1-are they retards, I dont heal someone standing in fire or poison. 2-Are they annoying, if were in vent, or chat, and ur bugging the shit out of me, expect me to let u die. 3-hows ur dps, if ur dps isnt worth shit, im gonna heal the top deeps before I heal u. 3 common sense ways to heal, hope it helps ^_^