Awakening my priest
I realized today why it’s been hard to write of my priest. Quite simply, I’ve not been playing her. And that’s because, well…
I’ve not had the time I feel is necessary to devote for raiding, so I’ve been hesitant to join a guild. At the same time, Zingiber’s been built and geared for raid healing, so without assistance she’s not exactly a great world killer.
/target player. /slap
I respeced Zingiber pretty close to 30 times on the way up trying this and that. I can SURELY afford to do it again so as to have fun. And besides, there’s an area in which I’ve not done so well and so left unexplored.
I’m going to play BGs with Zingiber. For quite some time this means death, death, death… Hopefully I’ll learn a thing or two along the way, however.
Right now it’s a puzzle for how I want to play. Shadow is OH so fun and easy. But… I’ve always been told, and taken it somewhat on faith, that Disc is the PVP Healspec. Since part of the fun is the new, I’ll probably go thataway.
Don’t be surprised to see some posts on “oh, crap, died again, but learned another thing NOT TO DO.”
Next Zingiber post will probably, however, be my starting spec – just so you can kibitz. After all, lessons can be learned from other people’s experience too, right?
Go have fun.
Priestly Endeavors - a gaming blog 
Pain Suppression and Force of Will are so amazing it hurts. Discp is definitely fun if you want to PvP heal.
[…] I’m noticing an interesting trend in our WoW blogging community, that where a lot of the raiders are starting to try our their hand at PvP to fill in the gaps or because of a […]
Raiders getting caught PvPing « Faithful Affliction said this on February 8, 2008 at 5:56 pm |
Arguably you need different specs for different BGs: Disc/survival for the close-in chaos of WSG, with the emphasis shifting to more healz for AV with eots & AB in the middle.
Dunno how much BG you’ve done with Zingiber, but if it’s ‘none/little’ a few general (pug) tips – I’m something of a casual, but I did have 5k kills before I hit 70.
1) Embrace death.
You’re a target. If you get caught on your own, you’re probably going to die. If a rogue catches you on your own, it’s pretty much definite. However, with even moderate gear and spec, you can tie people up for ages -healtank CC. I’ve helped win WSG because people tried to take me out instead of the FC.
2) If you blow your entire mana pool before you die, you win.
Following from this Stamina, then int on gear. It’s nice to have mana regen, but the episodic nature of a lot of BG fights means you often have time to drink between bouts. Nelf stealth is good for this. Dunno if you’ve got much PvP gear lying around but resocketing everything with stamina gems/sta +x gems does a lot to help even if they are just cheapy greens.
3) Triage
We’ve got no serious instant heals. We can’t save people who are being focus fired. If someone loses half their health in the time it takes to tab through them, slap pom and try to find someone you can save. I love dropping 6k gheal crits as much as the next priest, but it’s usually only possible in smaller fights (and on def at the AV alliance chokepoint just before stormhearth gy, but that’s pretty situational).
4) forget def
One of the biggest problems I find with pugs is people not going on def, or not trying to recap lost flags/towers etc. Sadly, you can’t do it solo; priest damage spells are just too unwieldy for 1 on 1 (2secs for a smite? forget it). Find people and stick with them.
5) Scream is an offensive tool
As a defensive tool it has its uses, but 1 on 1 people will be expecting it and ready to trinket. What they are not expecting, IME, is a priest charging into the scrum and popping fear. At the very least you’ll guarantee yourself a nice spot for improved death; at its best you can break defensive lines or offensive rushes. Incidentally, if you get lucky with the burst, you can cap an AV GY flag in the space of one fear.
Anyway; strictly stone in the hope of jade. PvP BG healing is my favourite aspect of the game for all its frustrations, and I hope that you’ll find time to bring some of the same quality of analysis you bring to PvE healing. Have fun.
(no, I have no idea why I didn’t realise there’s 2 weeks of Bg comments already on the blog before Iposted, either. /blush)