AT World of Warcraft Thread (Cataclysm, Where do you play, General BS and all that)

[Anubis]

druids were OP for most if not all of uld HMs as well, pretty sure we didn't even use paly or shaman healers in Uld it was 3 druids and 3 priests

 

[Malladine]

druids were OP for most if not all of uld HMs as well, pretty sure we didn't even use paly or shaman healers in Uld it was 3 druids and 3 priests

Can someone give me a summary of the practical differences between the four healing classes? Why a group would want a shaman healer vs a priest healer or a paladin instead of a druid, etc etc.

it must just be the utility each class offers aside from the heals - shaman +armor, priest absorbs??

 

[Moonzi]

I only did the ten man Uld hard modes with the said holy/disc priest, so I have no idea how other classes panned out, limited knowledge for me there!

 

[RatboyX]

everyone loves to dps b/c of big numbers. it's fun and no one can deny that. but being a great healer or tank is MUCH more satisfying than any form of dps. some people don't like the responsibility that comes with playing a tank or healing role. healers get blamed for tons of things where dps were to blame. it has always happened this way.

there is nothing more satisfying knowing that i can solo heal blood queen on heroic, or that i single handedly made defeating nefarian possible in vanilla, etc, etc. these are just simple examples. i am not one to boast, but i am an excellent healer. i make mistakes...everyone does...but i have made killing attempts possible on many many many MANY occasions that would have otherwise been failures. that in itself is what entices me to play a healer. tanking is also as satisfying as healing for many of the same reasons. being a paladin tank during this expansion was so very easy, lol. it's not anymore difficult now with the recent changes; it is simply different.

i am willing to bet that most people that do not heal or refuse to add helaing to their available specs do so not b/c they aren't enticed by the "fun-factor" it but b/c they simply don't like feeling responsible for making mistakes. dps get ridiculed for doing dumb things but tanks and healers get sat or removed from raid groups or roles much sooner if they do not perform well enough to succeed.

I agree with you on how satisfying Tanking can be as I initially started out in my group as a Warrior tank. As for how satisfying it is to play a healer I will take your word on that because healing makes me a SAD panda. It’s not that I doubt you at all it’s just I find I’m not good at it. It’s just not fun for me to play a healer so I don’t.

Healers in my group are never singled out as the cause of wipes or failures. We are unusual in that we all know each other in real life so we don’t run into the problems that internet anonymity can cause in guilds. In simple terms, if I act like a jerk in guild runs they all know where I live.

Now I can’t tell you why MOST people don’t play healers only why I don’t so your speculation is as good as any I guess. I would say though that it’s fairly obvious that there is a shortage of good healers in game. Obviously raiding groups manage to find people willing to heal and I don’t really see that changing. I mean there are masochists all over the place right?

I know the game needs balance and challenge. You can’t simply make the healers your “I Win” button otherwise the challenge for the entire game is gone, I would just like to see Blizzard toss the healers a bone now and then to help entice more people to try it. I’m not sure what might entice more people to play healers but I also don’t like hearing that healing is going to be harder. I don’t want to loose the good healers we already have.

 

[Lightflash]

I know the game needs balance and challenge. You can’t simply make the healers your “I Win” button otherwise the challenge for the entire game is gone, I would just like to see Blizzard toss the healers a bone now and then to help entice more people to try it. I’m not sure what might entice more people to play healers but I also don’t like hearing that healing is going to be harder. I don’t want to loose the good healers we already have.

Healing does not seem to be much harder as far as normal mode raiding for Cata. I have not seen the heroic mode raiding, but it seems as though the healing is too predictable. Healing in Wrath was more of the same, just we have about a third or sometimes even less HP than what we will have come Cata.

 

[Pantlegz]

Can someone give me a summary of the practical differences between the four healing classes? Why a group would want a shaman healer vs a priest healer or a paladin instead of a druid, etc etc.

it must just be the utility each class offers aside from the heals - shaman +armor, priest absorbs??

Not really, they all have different heal styles. holy priest are have better aoe heals, Disc with their shields are nice at times. druids have quicker smaller healer/hots. pallys are better single target healers. I'm not too sure about shaman, I think they're better aoe healers with chain heal but I'm not too sure.

 

[Aikouka]

Can someone give me a summary of the practical differences between the four healing classes? Why a group would want a shaman healer vs a priest healer or a paladin instead of a druid, etc etc.

it must just be the utility each class offers aside from the heals - shaman +armor, priest absorbs??

Druids offer good healing over time which essentially works as a set-it-and-forget-it style if healing. So during a lot of AoE damage, you can simply HoT up a lot of people and let the periodic healing counteract the periodic damage.

Paladins currently offer very strong direct healing and using beacon, they can project that strong healing onto two targets at once. So Paladins tend to excel when damage is consistent and somewhat heavy on expected targets. An example of this is the mark on Saurfang.

Shamans are kind of like weaker Paladins in that they have good direct heals, but not as potent as a Paladin, but they do have considerably better multi-target healing. Given their multi-target heal has an 11 yard range, the more clumped up the raid is, the better. This usually makes them good at healing melee. Chain Heal is also a smart heal, which helps. Earth Shield is also very strong given that it reacts on damage taken. As long as the damage is substantial, it's quite powerful!

Holy Priests are similar to Shamans in a lot of ways, although their more powerful group heal is well... literally a group heal and is truly efficient with 3 stacks of Serendipity, which requires three Flash Heals to stack it. It isn't terrible without this, but it makes it much faster! They do have Circle of Healing, which is like a direct heal version of the Druid's Wild Growth.

Discipline Priests mostly work through absorption effects whether directly applied ( Power Word: Shield ) or through effects ( Divine Aegis ). Disc can work well if there is expected AoE damage as they can shield many people, but you're limited to the power of their shield.

EDIT:

Note that most of what I said above applies to WotLK as a few things have changed in Cataclysm. For example, Paladins are actually competent AoE healers.

 

[rh71]

Question - shaman healer for pvp... do i do ringmail set with spirit or mail set with crit? I'd like *some* flexibility to go elemental to level with this pvp set in cata also. I'm thinking crit.

Separate question... what's stronger - do I go enhance or elemental for pvp if not a healer?

 

[kehlsi]

yeah i do agree that healing is not for everyone but let be make it more clear as i think i did not make it completely clear in my last post. i do not feel my take on people refusing to heal is speculation. i am quite confident in the reason the majority of people choose not to heal. i will say that there are players that simply do not like healing but would be great at it if they did choose to heal. i am not suggesting that healing is difficult though. healing is rather simple, actually. i understand that in a group of friends (especially mature non teenage players) that blaming healers for wipes is not common but it does happen a ton.

i don't stand for it. i have been a raid/guild leader for almost the entireity of wow's existence and i have always played a healing role. i blame others when it is due and i accept responsibility when i make mistakes. healing has been the issue many times in the past 6.5 years but for the most part healing has not been to blame for most wipes in my guild(s) over those many years. bad healers do tend to stick out quite easily.

i will give my opinion here though. i feel that everyone should play a healer in endgame or at least in 5 mans. it give you an entirely different perspective and IMO makes you play smarter in other roles. you learn to not take damage when you shouldn't. try it sometime!

 

[Anubis]

i don't heal or tank because i find it boring as hell, its not because i'm afraid of fucking up. ive filled in as a tank or healer on my own or other peoples chars to kill bosses when people cant/don't show up and can do both competently on almost any class, i just don't because as i said i find it boring as hell

 

[Moonzi]

I can honestly say I've never played a DPS, it's always been tank or heals. I leveled in Wrath as a healer as well (and someone else leveled my paladin.)

 

[RatboyX]

I definitely get the impression that the differences between the healing classes is being narrowed.

 

[rh71]

i feel that everyone should play a healer in endgame or at least in 5 mans. it give you an entirely different perspective and IMO makes you play smarter in other roles. you learn to not take damage when you shouldn't. try it sometime!

Started my shaman to try out healing and i've done every heroic with it so far including many successes in halls of reflection (I'm still a noob in general but shammy healing is easy). I've always been DPS and have also DK tanked ICC10 a bit. Tanking is much more boring than healing imo. I find healing pretty fun overall and the most challenging of the 3 roles. Still, it's not that difficult with healbot or grid, etc. As for perspective, I'm not sure it really improves my mindset switching back to dps - all we really gotta do is stay off aggro. With that said, it's fun watching dps numbers too.

I'm extremely torn whether I want to keep my rogue main or go shammy with its versatility. WTB tri-speccing.

 

[invidia]

I've played all three roles since vanilla. I've healed in 40 mans and 25 mans. I've only tanked as far as 10 mans with a pally and warrior. I've dps with every class except a DK. From 25m to 5m dungeons. I've also pvp'd from all three perspectives.

I think I am the few the actually experienced "all" of WoW in terms of gameplay. Although, I haven't done any hardcore raiding since Ulduar, it's the different aspects and views of classes that kept me playing.

 

[Malladine]

Thanks for the comparisons

I'm healing currently as a Paladin - kinda fun actually, especially PvP heals . I admit that dungeon healing can be really dull if there's an 80 there for some reason...(the Paladin is 74 right now)

Most of my dungeons have been run as either a Prot or Fury Warrior, or to a much lesser extent Ret Paladin.

Going to get a ranged going in Cataclysm - furthest I've leveled one is a 46 warlock if you don't count the 70 alliance priest sitting on a pve server I haven't touched in years.

 

[kehlsi]

I definitely get the impression that the differences between the healing classes is being narrowed.

they most definitely are.

 

[Cookie]

I can honestly say I've never played a DPS, it's always been tank or heals. I leveled in Wrath as a healer as well (and someone else leveled my paladin.)

Me too mostly. Dps bores me to tears. I do have a dps spec on my tank and I even have gear for it that no one else wanted. I did try it a couple times, but I much prefer tanking. Same thing with my shaman. I have the spec and the gear. I think I actually dps'd once in a 5 man. I did level a lock to 80, but she's been a fresh 80 sitting in Org transmuting gems and making flasks since then.

 

[Josh123]

I've done all three and I enjoy them all. Eventually one spec will get old so it's nice to be able to switch. Each spec has different responsibilities and I always try to excel in them all. A lot of people say DPSing is boring but I enjoy the competition between my fellow DPSers. Healing and Tanking are fun because if you don't do your job then people die and there is potential for wiping so you have to be on your toes.

 

[RatboyX]

yeah i do agree that healing is not for everyone but let be make it more clear as i think i did not make it completely clear in my last post. i do not feel my take on people refusing to heal is speculation. i am quite confident in the reason the majority of people choose not to heal. i will say that there are players that simply do not like healing but would be great at it if they did choose to heal. i am not suggesting that healing is difficult though. healing is rather simple, actually. i understand that in a group of friends (especially mature non teenage players) that blaming healers for wipes is not common but it does happen a ton.

i don't stand for it. i have been a raid/guild leader for almost the entireity of wow's existence and i have always played a healing role. i blame others when it is due and i accept responsibility when i make mistakes. healing has been the issue many times in the past 6.5 years but for the most part healing has not been to blame for most wipes in my guild(s) over those many years. bad healers do tend to stick out quite easily.

i will give my opinion here though. i feel that everyone should play a healer in endgame or at least in 5 mans. it give you an entirely different perspective and IMO makes you play smarter in other roles. you learn to not take damage when you shouldn't. try it sometime!

I’ve done healing in five man content with a Paladin healer. Maybe I just didn’t give it enough of a chance but I’m not good at it. I was able to heal through the first four 5 man heroics in Northrend so I do have some feel for the job and some basis for saying I don’t like to do it.

It’s not the mechanics and it’s not the other people blaming me for things, I’m just too hard on myself. All the regular healers in my guild tell me.. “You know some times people in a raid mess up and die and there is nothing the healer can do about it, sometimes it’s just bad luck or bad timing.” I just take it too personally.

But you are indeed correct I think trying healing and tanking as well as DPS gives a person a better perspective on how to play, and makes them a better team player.

Having played a tank I’m much better about helping our guilds tanks with agro control. If my misdirect isn’t on cool down then I’m not doing my entire job as a hunter.

My experience healing in five man content is also extremely helpful in how I work with healers in a raid. As a Drani and an alchemist / herbalist I have two additional self heals I use regularly. When I check the combat logs I don’t only look at how I ranked in DPS I also look at how much damage I took.

Bottom line here is I don’t think we are in any disagreement, and I never questioned your premise as to why the majority of people don’t play healers; I simply can’t say that was my personal experience. I still wouldn’t mind if Blizzard would make healing somehow more attractive to a larger base of people. How they would do that I have no clear idea.

 

[RatboyX]

Me too mostly. Dps bores me to tears. I do have a dps spec on my tank and I even have gear for it that no one else wanted. I did try it a couple times, but I much prefer tanking. Same thing with my shaman. I have the spec and the gear. I think I actually dps'd once in a 5 man. I did level a lock to 80, but she's been a fresh 80 sitting in Org transmuting gems and making flasks since then.

DPS can be boring but a lot of that is who you run with and how much your raid leader uses your talents OTHER than DPS.

Saurfang fight has been especially fun for me with how our raid leader has us run it.

As the hunter in the group I basically run the back end and coordinate the Blood Beast kills.

It goes something like this

All DPS on Saurfang

Saurfang spawns the two blood beasts

I agro one Blood beast with distracting shot

Druid roots second blood beast

Mage slows first blood beast and all ranged DPS focus on this blood beast killing it as it comes towards me.

I break roots on second blood beast and agro it with distracting shot.

Mage slows Second blood beast and all ranged DPS focus on this blood beast killing it as it comes towards me.

All DPS back on Saurfang.

It’s an intricate dance with everyone doing their part and it can be very fun.

Back when we were running Naxx and fighting XT, I was tasked with the bomb adds on one side the mage on the other. That was another fun fight.

There are a lot of fun things you can do as DPS that break up the button mashing. As Bram might say “The Answers are out there”

And maybe that’s it people will gravitate to what they enjoy regardless of how difficult it might get. If you like it go with it I guess.

 

[Dominato3r]

Yes!!! The forum bans have been lifted!!!!
:awe:

 

[Anubis]

Yes!!! The forum bans have been lifted!!!!
:awe:

huh?

 

[Dominato3r]

huh?

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/

If you were banned on the old forums that ban does not carry over.

 

[Anubis]

humm yea it might not carry over but they will most likely be promptly banned again

 

[Pantlegz]

i don't heal or tank because i find it boring as hell, its not because i'm afraid of fucking up. ive filled in as a tank or healer on my own or other peoples chars to kill bosses when people cant/don't show up and can do both competently on almost any class, i just don't because as i said i find it boring as hell

Boring, really? I love healing, been healing since BC. I tanked, end game raids, in vanilla wow and getting a DK leveled to tank in cata. I like to dps but I don't think it's more exciting than healing or tanking. most dps you set a rotation or priority system and it's the same as tanking. Which is why I may like healing more because it's never the same, there is no rotation really. Just make sure people don't die and you don't run out of mana before the boss dies.