The Healbot

[Bolty]

The ultimate healing class in World of Warcraft is the Priest. This is not really disputable; the Priest's combination of huge heals, flash heals, group heals, heals over time, and the much-loved Shield make them a class well-suited to being a protector of a party (much less themselves). In solo play, this ability to heal makes a Priest incredibly hard to kill in a one-on-one fight with an NPC. In group play, it draws the appreciation of one's teammates for keeping them alive in a heated battle.

There are two main philosophies with Priest-class players. Either you play the class as a more balanced offensive and healing class by liberally applying Shadow tree talents (better for PvP and solo play) or you play the class as what is derogatorily referred to as a "healbot," by concentrating talent points in the Holy tree (better for group PvE play). Note that both philosophies will use Discipline talents to some degree, for there are some juicy talents in there that neither style can ignore. What's great is that you can switch philosophies at any time simply by respeccing your talents - you're never pigeonholed into one style by early talent distribution decisions.

With my personality, I knew that I wanted to play a Priest for one reason - to be the ultimate healer. When I want to nuke, I play one of my Mages. And since it's not true at all that "Holy Priests can't solo", it's not a hard decision for me to go with the "healbot" setup on my Priest. I kick butt solo and have little downtime, to boot.

If you find yourself thinking that you might reply to a comment that "you're just a healbot" with the line, "darn straight," then I hope you'll read on for my opinions on what makes a sweet healbot talent build.



Focus of a Healbot

Mana efficiency, mana efficiency, mana efficiency. Ok, and aggro management, but the primary focus of any healbot is mana efficiency. You're obsessed with it. You like to crunch math numbers and figure out that Renew (the heal-over-time) is the most efficient spell. You see how many Flash Heals you can get off with full mana before you run out - and how many seconds go by before you can cast another. Why all the fuss? When you run out of mana, people die. This is Bad.™ Since your entire purpose in the game is to prevent that from happening, it is your job to figure out the best way to maximize your ability to heal before running out of mana. The time between having a full mana tank to running out can be considered the TTL (time to live) of your party. Mana potions notwithstanding, once you run out of mana, the Bleep hath Hitteth the Fan. More than anything, you want to get the most healing per mana point possible, which is accomplished via two means: getting the talents/equipment to increase your mana/mana regeneration, and strategical usage of all possible healing spells.

Obsession over mana efficiency is what separates Priests from the Mages and Warlocks in World of Warcraft. Mages care simply about killing their target as quickly as possible - they don't need to save mana for healing, because they can't! Reduction of downtime is somewhat of a concern, but dying is worse, so it's blast blast blast and drink when it's over. Warlocks can pull from their vast hit point reserves to build back their mana if they're in a bind. But when in combat, healbot Priests rely on their mana regeneration and spellcasting efficiency to keep them in action. The lives of their teammates and themselves depend on it.



TACTICS

Sometimes it's easier to get one's point across by detailing what NOT to do first, and filling in the blanks later. I'll go over some of the common mistakes healers make in group fights that seem innocent at first but can result in wipes later on.

1) If a party member doesn't NEED a heal right away, hold off. I'll explain: as an example, let's say a Rogue in your party started off a fight by sapping a mob, but was seen right afterwards by the group. As the Rogue retreats to the tank so aggro can be pulled off, the Rogue takes some hits and gets down to around 60% health. Being a good Priest, you know that healing him at this moment would be a mistake - you'd get aggro of the whole group and strike fear in the heart of your tank as they are forced to scramble to protect you. However, you also note that the tank has made its move and has obtained the aggro of the enemy group now. The Rogue is no longer being attacked and remains at 60% health.

It's awfully tempting to throw a Flash Heal over to the Rogue - the standard heal choice for use on non-tanks - to top its health off. The tank's got the aggro held and the battle's starting to flow properly. Why not get the Rogue back at 100% now before you have to start casting other heals on the tank? Well, the reason is because it's not very efficient to do so. Under easy fighting conditions when the group isn't threatened by anything it's engaging, you can go ahead and top off that Rogue. But under heavy battle conditions found in raids, boss fights, and instances where you're grappling with tough foes, you need every ounce of mana you can get. At best, cast a Renew - the Priest's most mana-efficient spell - on the Rogue, and get your attention back to something else.

2) Hold off on heals for as long as you feel you safely can at the start of each pull. Healing draws the aggro of every enemy once the target you are healing has engaged in combat. You need to give time for your party members to build up aggro on the targets. This isn't so that you can only think of yourself and not get hit - it's so that you don't become a liability in battle. Just as a Mage who can't learn to wait before nuking becomes a liability to the whole party as they struggle to keep the caster alive, you don't want your party to have to worry about you by your heal spam. Just as they should trust you to do your job keeping them alive, you should trust that they will do their best to draw the attention of *all* enemies you are facing, so that once the inevitable healing begins, you won't get pounded flat.

Once you've reached the point where you feel it's time to start healing, go for it with gusto, using the most efficient healing methods possible. Under ideal conditions, you should not get aggro very often. Of course, ideal conditions have a way of not happening.

I was running the Baron side of Stratholme this week and in my group was the prototypical Mage Without a Clue™, the type that just doesn't understand the concept of aggro management at all. At the outset of fights, he'd begin nuking with gusto and rely on his Ice shields to keep him alive. He'd even go and pull large groups himself instead of waiting for proper pullers to do so. Well, when you pull a group of 4 casters as a Mage, what happens to you? You get creamed. So mere seconds into the fight, I'd be forced to heal this Mage. Instant aggro. After 2 occasions of laying on the floor dead after all the mobs decided to beat on me for healing the Mage (even after I informed him twice to stop being so aggressive), I decided not to be the whipping boy any more and let him bite it a few times, which he was quite happy to oblige me with on the next few fights. The tank in my group just laughed at the guy - he could see as well that the Mage was deserving the deaths. This is an example of how party members with no concept of aggro management spell doom for a healer. You want to avoid these kinds of players.

How long can you go before you need to start healing? This is pretty subjective, of course, depending greatly on the party makeup, what you're fighting, how quickly others get aggro, and your skill level. You'll get a very good feel for it with experience. This isn't to say that you'll watch the health bars and try to time it so the first heal comes just as a character is at 1% health - that's stupid - just that it's a mistake to start flinging heals when your tank still has 80% of its health left and it's still early in the fight.

3) Know when it's time to cut and run. As a Priest, you have the ability to recover your party from a wipe. If you witness a horrific pull that is clear will result in the wipe of your party and you have not yet entered combat, your instincts will be to help your teammates and start healing. In some circumstances, though, this is a mistake. Back off from the fray and be there to recover your party from the wipe. Note that unless you save this tactic only for the case when it's completely clear that a wipe is coming, your teammates are going to get pretty annoyed at you. :) If you have a soulstone on you such that you can recover from a total party wipe, then enter the fray with gusto anyway and help try to kill as many of the baddies as you can before you go down.

4) Avoid overkill. When I was a newbie Priest player back in beta, I was a frequent abuser of this tactical error. I'd heal too much. Someone got hit a little? Boom, heal. Lots of Shields everywhere; keep everyone safe and protected. I see newbie Priests do this all the time still, so I understand. Power Word: Shield is a heck of a spell, making someone basically invulnerable for 30 seconds or until the shield absorbs enough damage. Problem is, it's a Priest's least mana-efficient spell. Admittedly it's been nerfed about 10 times during beta, but I hardly ever use Shield anymore. It costs too much mana for too little effect, and it's far more mana-conservative to use Renews or heals.

There are three situations when you want to cast Shield on a party member (or yourself):
a) You are pre-buffing the tank before a particularly brutal fight, knowing that by the time you have to cast again you'll have regained that mana back anyway. This also applies to pre-buffing AoE casters because you know they'll get beat on soon by a lot of enemies at once.
B) A caster on your party is getting hit by a foe, and the Shield is a fantastic dual-purpose spell that provides defense (keeps the caster safe) along with offense (allows the caster to cast uninterrupted).
c) A party member is about to die, and you won't be able to get off a flash heal until it's too late.

Likewise, it's not good to cast flash heal on someone when they've taken 10% damage. Sure, you might be in a group where that doesn't matter much, but the idea is to start acquiring good habits when you're young so that you play better when you get older. It's easier to ignore mana-conservation tactics when you're younger because the ratio of your mana regeneration to your total mana pool is greater. Renew is your most mana-efficient spell, at at its highest level with talents will regen more than 1,000 health over time. That's plenty for a top-off of just about any teammate, and it costs peanuts mana-wise.

5) It's an easy fight! Nuke away! No. The most offense you should provide is a casting of Shadow Word: Pain, and that's about it. Cast with your wand or beat on foes with your staff/mace as something to do between heals. Why is this? After all, if you're just fighting one or two mobs and you can help kill something faster, why not do it?

Aggro issues aside, the problem with this is overall efficiency and speed. When clearing instances, the group can only move as fast as its healer's mana pool. I can't stress this enough. By spamming offensive spells, you may be killing something a little (emphasis on little) faster, but the cost is the downtime involved for moving to the next fight.

Elite groups, well-oiled machines that clear instances quickly and expertly, know this innately. The tank controls the flow of battle, picks the fights, and keeps the group *constantly* moving. Guess what the tank's watching as they move from fight to fight? YOUR mana. Not the Mage's mana, or the Warlock's mana (except for cases where AoE is needed), but yours. Since a Mage shouldn't be blasting away until the tank's got plenty of aggro anyway, they can drink during the start of a standard fight. But everything has to come to a screeching halt if the Priest is low on mana.

This is why I love Spirit so much and scoff at those who diss it. With a good regen rate, the standard clearing of high-end instances can go much faster. From group to group to group, go go go. While a high-spirit build isn't the best for PvP, it rocks in PvE instances. It's a subtle thing that's hard to quantify, but with efficient spell casting and strong spirit regeneration, expert groups can simply go from fight to fight to fight with *zero* downtime. At all. The only pauses involved are boss fights or particularly tricky pulls.

6) When push comes to shove, heal the right person. The most important members of any party are the primary tank and primary healer. When the feces impact the rotating blades, the other members of your party may have to take one for the team. If keeping a mage or rogue alive will mean losing 50% of your mana at the outset of a critical boss fight, you may be forced to make the tough decision of letting that player die so that the group can live. This is part of the pressure and stress of playing a healer. The primary tank and primary healer have the most stressful, pivotal roles in any party - if you want to play more relaxed, then don't pick such classes. :) The easy thing to do would be to heal away on the player and feel that you "did all you could" when the party wipes due to your exhausted mana supply, when in fact you could have saved the day simply by letting them die. Not pretty. But it's fact.



TACTICS SUMMARY
Use the best, most efficient healing spell for each situation. Renews are for almost constant use on tanks and to top off non-tanks who are not being immediately threatened. Flash Heals are for spamming on tanks when things are getting really dicey and the tanks' hit points are going down in huge chunks, along with situational heals on non-tanks when they're taking damage. Greater Heals are for tanks when they are taking damage at a comfortable rate, allowing for the huge time to cast. Shields are for pre-buffs, protecting casters, and saving someone who is dying faster than a Flash Heal could cast.

Always be thinking of mana efficiency - protect your valuable mana pool. If you think of your mana pool as the hit points of the party, it might help. Just as you don't want your hit points to reach zero, neither do you want your mana pool to reach zero, and you need to take every precaution to prevent that in each and every fight.



TALENTS

I could give a talent spec here, and say point-by-point what you should be allocating your talents into. But if you've been reading, you'll be able to tell what I'm going to recommend anyway.

Because of certain glaring, shall we say, silly design decisions in the Holy tree, you don't need to worry about dumping a whole lot of points into it. There are key spells you want, but once you have those, it's up to you how to proceed.

I'm keeping this vague for a reason because you need to make up your own mind on this. You want to go for talents that improve your mana efficiency and healing abilities, not your damage. Thus, the offensive spells in the Holy tree will be completely ignored (they tend to stink anyhow - if you want offense, isn't that what the Shadow tree is for?). In the Holy tree, Improved Renew is a must, as is the 10% increase in healing power and Subtlety to ensure that you get aggro a heck of a lot less often. Those three talents are the keys for the tree, and you can go on to spend points as you please to increase your efficiency as you like. Improving your Heal and Prayer of Healing mana cost are options, and getting Spirit of Redemption can be useful since it's just a one-pointer. I have not found that reducing the casting speed of Greater Heal by .5 seconds is worth the 5 talent points required to get it, but do try it out for yourself.

In the Discipline tree, mana efficiency is greatly improved by the three talents that reduce the cost of instant-cast spells by 10%, increase your total mana by 10%, and allow you to regenerate some mana while casting. First off, reducing the mana cost of instant-cast spells by 10% affects Shield, Renew, Shadow Word:Pain, the Fortitude buff, and some other utility spells like Psychic Scream. You are essentially adding to your mana pool, because you WILL be casting these spells fairly often in party play and quite a lot in solo play. That last talent, Meditation, is often ignored by Priest players, especially those in the "spirit is totally useless" crowd. Just like spirit has a subtle but noticeable effect over long periods of time, so does Meditation. The regeneration of mana while casting at 15% of the normal rate does not get you a lot of extra mana per 5-second-rule wait. However, string that along the course of time and it gets rather significant in that it reduces downtime and keeps you in fights longer. If you're a dedicated healbot, you want this talent. In PvP, it's not so hot, but healbots aren't built for PvP.

Divine Spirit is nice for the extra spirit points, but the problem is that it requires 30 talent points in the Discipline tree. As a healbot, there's not enough in the Discipline tree to get me to 30 talent points without having to dump points into "junk" talents. I consider it not worth it now, especially since the casting of the buff itself every 30 minutes costs a lot of mana and adds to downtime. I save those talent points for the Holy tree, but I encourage you to try things out yourself.

Inner Focus is a great "oh, crap" spell that can let you get off an expensive healing spell when you're out of mana, or even early in a fight when you want to cast a huge heal and know you'll need that mana later. With the 5 minute cooldown, you can only use it once per fight at best.

The general rule of thumb when picking talents from these trees is, "which choice will make me the more effective and efficient healer?" Then go with it.

For more info on general Priest spells and the mana efficiency of the various heals, I highly recommend reading Mongo's sticky thread about Priest group play that's posted up there on the forum at http://www.lurkerlounge.com/forums/index...topic=4801.

Now go take care of your party, healbots. :) Comments welcome, including the "this is stupid, my build is better" variety!

-Bolty

[savaughn]

Now go take care of your party, healbots.  :)  Comments welcome, including the "this is stupid, my build is better" variety!
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I'm personally in the "if I didn't want to heal, I wouldn't have picked a priest" camp, so I definitely agree. That said, I'm coming to feel like there's a lifecycle for a priest. Call me crazy, but I've ended up playing mine this way and I don't think I'm alone:

Early levels (up to low 40's): Shadow heavy. Play often dominated by soloing. Best talent assortment: get Mind Flay and Imp. PW:S, the rest is your call.

Mid levels: Mixed play. Players are now spending substantial portions of their time doing instances instead of following solo quests. Some players will hit this as soon as they get to their early 20's and spend almost all of their 30's doing instances. Once you get to your 40's though, the need for a priest in instances increases. It's a snap to zerg Deadmines, Stockades, BFD, etc. As players turn towards SM, though, having a healer is no longer negotiable. Everyone starts wanting you to come join their parties. A mixed build is great through this. Keep Mind Flay, and IPW:S, pick up Subtlety.

Top levels: Almost pure instance. At this point, the only reason you're not in an instance is because you don't feel like it. Everyone wants you, everyone needs you. Instance runs start getting scheduled around priest availability. Be a healbot, be proud of it, and keep your people alive. Feel free to respec and drop Mind Flay, if there's something out there you can't live without.

[Concillian]

I would like to add to this great writeup some information on SOLO-ing with a build like this, with the caveat that I've only played up to 32 so far.

I've found that as holy spec I can deal with tough situations solo BETTER than an equivalent level shadow priest. In learning these solo tactics, I also do a much better job in instances now that I'm well practiced in them. Rather than getting flustered and panicing, I will adopt my soloing tactics when I pull aggro.

Many of the tactics are similar to those Bolty described, mana efficiency and spirit are important (when solo PvE). Your overall stamina isn't too critical, as most of your health comes from your mana pool.

Staves are great for instances, but they are too slow for this method of soloing. I generally use a dagger if I can get one of appropriate level for a reasonable price, a fast mace (<2.0 speed) otherwise. A good wand is VERY important here. The rest is INT/SPI with some STAM to give a decent size HP pool (usually around 1/2 mana pool or so with PW:F up)

Renew + melee is the basic tactic here. Renew will heal you faster than mobs will damage you if you have the talent points spent in Imp. Renew and Spi. Healing. I've played holy priests through the early levels both ways (putting points in Disc first and putting points in holy first), and I've found going holy first to be a LOT more helpful solo.

Melee tactic: attack with your dagger and anticipate the attack, when the attack animation just barely starts, hit your wand key (I remapped it to 'z', since there is little need for drawing/sheathing weapons that I've found). The wand animation will override the melee animation but you will do melee damage and wand damage both. This adds damage during the wand cooldown time.

Using this tactic you can end a fight with normal mobs with 100% health and >90% mana. I am generally not concerned with runners, as I can easily take another mob right away... it saves me having to run off and aggro another, he does it for me while I am regenerating my last few percent of mana.

I've had shadow preists say that PW:S is the only thing that makes soloing possible, but in reality I almost never cast PW:S when solo. If you take Holy Talents down to Improved Flash heal, you can get heals off VERY reliably even when being attacked by 3 enemies, and I've taken on groups of 4-5 greens without using Psychic Scream just by having such an insane pool of mana (and therefore health.)

Battles take time, but that works to your advanatage with spirit. And the downtime you have is virtually none. Don't let anyone tell you a holy priest can't solo well, it can solo incredibly well. A shadow priest didn't believe I could solo an equal level elite without using fear, and demanded to be shown. I swear if I could see his expression through the monitor his mouth would have been wide open.

About the only offensive spell I cast is SW:P. Remember what Bolty said about mana efficiency? Well 3 health per mana will generally enable more damage than 1.x damage per mana. Especially when you can use the time you would be casting damage spells to regen even more mana, which makes heal mana that much more effective.

Again the keys are:
good 1H weapon
good wand
INT/SPI with some STA
Burst casting so your SPI can work
slow and steady

I really didn't expect this from a holy/disc priest, but there are times when I'm playing my warlock or rogue and get into soloing situations that get me thinking "man this would be easier with my priest"

[Darian]

I was running the Baron side of Stratholme this week and in my group was the prototypical Mage Without a Clue™, the type that just doesn't understand the concept of aggro management at all.&nbsp; At the outset of fights, he'd begin nuking with gusto and rely on his Ice shields to keep him alive.
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And there's one (or more) of these (or their hunter brethren) in every pick-up raid. It's like a plague, and I think it comes from the whole zerg mentality. It's starting to affect me as a tank, too; I used to keep the corner of my eye on everyone's hit points so I could see if anyone was getting beaten on, but now... I find myself really only paying attention to the priest.

Of course, the priest I've gone from 8-60 with (and with whom I'm running a pair of mage alts on the side, so I've got a decent idea what's stupid and what's not from that side of the fence) appreciates this deeply. ;)

(Aside: lest anyone think I'm slagging mages or hunters as a whole, rest easy. I know quite a few of them who know what to do and what not to do. But man, the ones who don't are just scary.)

The primary tank and primary healer have the most stressful, pivotal roles in any party - if you want to play more relaxed, then don't pick such classes.&nbsp; :)

Which is why I'm also getting to the point where I don't want to raid anything unless I'm with people I know to be competent (either from direct personal experience or by well-documented reputation). If I hear one more player of any class start grumbling that I wasn't holding aggro on the 6 mobs that he started AoEing before I even managed to get my second ability of the fight off, or even the ONE mod that he dropped his most devestating attack on before I even got my FIRST ability off... well, I'm afraid I'm very likely to go postal. I have enough stress just being the meat shield. "The most important part of a tank's ability to hold aggro is the party he's with" is becoming my mantra.

[Bolty]

Which is why I'm also getting to the point where I don't want to raid anything unless I'm with people I know to be competent (either from direct personal experience or by well-documented reputation).[right][snapback]71408[/snapback][/right]

I, sadly, find myself getting near this state as well. Unlike Diablo 2, when partying was more of a "let's kill this stuff together instead of separately, like we both could," partying in WoW is an absolutely necessity. Also, you are absolutely dependent on your teammates as well. As you noted, part of being an effective tank is playing with others who understand how to let you build up some aggro, just as you learn how to lead the party and control the flow of battle. But one poor player can make an entire instance run an exercise in frustration for everyone.

This is an additional turnoff for casual players - they may find themselves unable to get into good groups as time progresses, because it's too frustrating for the hardcore players to have someone who doesn't know what they're doing along. Whether it be the tank, healer, DPS, or support class - not understanding your role will annoy the heck out of the other party members. In a sense, it makes the game ANTI-social instead of the opposite.

-Bolty

[Thawwing Light]

I, sadly, find myself getting near this state as well.&nbsp; Unlike Diablo 2, when partying was more of a "let's kill this stuff together instead of separately, like we both could," partying in WoW is an absolutely necessity.&nbsp; Also, you are absolutely dependent on your teammates as well.&nbsp; As you noted, part of being an effective tank is playing with others who understand how to let you build up some aggro, just as you learn how to lead the party and control the flow of battle.&nbsp; But one poor player can make an entire instance run an exercise in frustration for everyone.

This is an additional turnoff for casual players - they may find themselves unable to get into good groups as time progresses, because it's too frustrating for the hardcore players to have someone who doesn't know what they're doing along.&nbsp; Whether it be the tank, healer, DPS, or support class - not understanding your role will annoy the heck out of the other party members.&nbsp; In a sense, it makes the game ANTI-social instead of the opposite.

-Bolty
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This is quite amusing. D2's 'partying' was, as you state it, usually a bunch of people soloing together. Also, when people party outside of instances, this method usually works well enough there as well.

It breaks down when people are forced to play as a member of a fighting team, and not as a solo island. It's a completely different playstyle, and it also relies on everyone in the party being skilled. Some find it frustrating, as it's difficult to find a fully functional group, where everyone has a basic idea of how to play their class in a group, let alone is good at it. This might turn many off to places where it's required to group, such as instances...

Not myself, however. You see, I played Final Fantasy 11. If the forced grouping sections of World of Warcraft are a bit frustrating, imagine an entire game where a party was a necessity to gain any experience, and good experience could only be acchieved in a string of difficult fights with a good party. For this, a competant tank, healer, support, agro manager, offtank, and dedicated damage class were required. Only the first two, really, are needed, but the last 4 were the composition of choice in the ideal party, which was more of a sought after
commodity in that environment.

***enter full on soapbox

I played a healbot, or White Mage. Indeed, pacing is regulated by the MP of the healer, a dedicated puller is a must, and any damage class (or for that matter, tank, healer, or hybrid) that doesn't know what an agro is should be educated once, and if they don't become at least harmless, they ought to be booted, sadly. There, death hurt, losing you 1/10 of a level, and you could level down if your crew didn't know what they were doing. What's more, it was also good practice to blacklist someone if they left your party within about half an hour or so of joining it, as it was bad taste to leave a party without an essential role. Between that necessity and looking for groups for hours on end, it's a wonder enough people got to the endgame, where only the dedicated, the competant, and the Ebayers reached.

***leaving soapbox.

The point of that rant is, WoW's parties are like those of any other MMO in instances. A competant group where everyone functions as part of a team is needed, especially the tank and the healer. WoW's party required sections are a step up for the casual gamer, who has only ever experienced D2 or other limited methods of Co-Op, but they're akin to the normal group experience of other MMOs.

Not that it doesn't hold up. I really enjoyed my good parties in FFXI, and this discussion of resting when mana when possible to conserve for the next pull and only Renewing the offtank reminds me of good times, but really, a good instance here is like a good party there, only with more variety of monsters and less of a loss if we wipe.

[ima_nerd]

And there's one (or more) of these (or their hunter brethren) in every pick-up raid. It's like a plague, and I think it comes from the whole zerg mentality.

Agreed. And unfortunatley, it starts early. My current dream is very basic. I dream right now of a good VC run with competent people. I have yet to have a good instance run at all so VC seems like a good place to start. Every run I was able to join (I'm a Rogue so pick-up groups are few and far between) always had someones level 102^13 friend helping. A frusterating and boring as it was, I had no choice with all my friends either being higher level or unavailable. I think some people see WoW as an extension of D2 almost. The number of higher levels I see trying to power level (or rush) lower levels is mind-boggling. I guess they will eventually realize it's not effective.

I've started a Defensive specced Warrior with the dream of running instances with my friends. I'm practically drooling on myself in anticipation for this weekend for when my friend who recently started a priest catches up to me and we can do VC.

As to the Hunter/Mage remark, I'd have to say the worst are Rogues. I'm not trying to *brag* ;) but we as a group are the most cocky, arrogant players I've seen in general. I know every class has them but there's just something about being able to stealth that infects the brain with a false sense of security... :)

Excellent post by the way, Bolty. I'll be sure to show it to my priest friend. I'm sure he'll enjoy it even more than I did.

[Skandranon]

(Aside: lest anyone think I'm slagging mages or hunters as a whole, rest easy.&nbsp; I know quite a few of them who know what to do and what not to do.&nbsp; But man, the ones who don't are just scary.)
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I play a 60 mage, and I didn't take it that way at all. I completely agree with you; if I'd torn out just one hair for each mage that I'd partied with who couldn't grasp the solo/group play distinction, I'd be bald. The worst part is how they won't take advice to improve their play style, even when it's from someone clearly more experienced and skilled than they are. I can try friendly advice, asking nicely, moving on to stronger suggestions, and they just Won't Take The Hint. Order them what to do and it gets all dramatic and stuff. Sigh.

[Alrin]

I play a 60 mage, and I didn't take it that way at all.&nbsp; I completely agree with you; if I'd torn out just one hair for each mage that I'd partied with who couldn't grasp the solo/group play distinction, I'd be bald.&nbsp; The worst part is how they won't take advice to improve their play style, even when it's from someone clearly more experienced and skilled than they are.&nbsp; I can try friendly advice, asking nicely, moving on to stronger suggestions, and they just Won't Take The Hint.&nbsp; Order them what to do and it gets all dramatic and stuff.&nbsp; Sigh.
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I agree wholeheartedly. Problem seems to be that many players are unable to shift from their solo-playing style to group tactics style. Take my style of playing for example. I have (while learning to play my mage) understood that perhaps sometimes -even when in face of 90% likelyhood of defeat- I stay and duke it out with the foe(s).
I will only 'disengage' and run if I know I am too far up the creek and there is simply no way to overpower the enemy, even with all the class/talent tricks I have.
My mage is not unfamiliar with even whipping out a sword and meleeing down the last couple hps off an enemy instead of blowing off a 200mana spell. I have a clear understanding on how much hp/mp I loose in the various battles. Flawless = Lots of cc procs and stuns. Normal = Regular casting, rare ccs and no stuns. BAD = Resists and spell interrupts. You get a sense of how much your toon can handle before they start to buckle. While this is very good to know it is imperative to avoid playing on the limit when you group. A redundant point to make yes, but I see this everyday whenever I try to get pickup groups because there simply isn't anyone online and/or I play unguilded alts.

I enjoy playing my warrior on the edge when soloing, often constantly moving and doing pulls/charges when at ~50% hp and still coming out on top and in fairly good condition. This however doesn't mean that when I do instance runs with other people or just plain partying that I show such disrespect to the healer(s) that I go off and 'solo' and force the party to scurry after me in disarray.

"Healbots" are highly respected by me. They are (for the most part) very good at what they do and have a clear understanding of what needs to be done. For that I admire you all. I have found that when playing with Lurkers/Basiners and there was a priest present I could relax more and just focus on the monsters. I get that tunnel effect. Nothing exists except Monster. Healer. Aggro. That's it. Keep healer alive. Keep monsters on me. TRUST. I trust the healer completely that I don't even fret when my health drops down to low levels because I -know- that there is a heal waiting etc. Go gadget-heal go!

/bow

[mjdoom]

I have found that when playing with Lurkers/Basiners and there was a priest present I could relax more and just focus on the monsters. I get that tunnel effect. Nothing exists except Monster. Healer. Aggro. That's it. Keep healer alive. Keep monsters on me. TRUST. I trust the healer completely that I don't even fret when my health drops down to low levels because I -know- that there is a heal waiting etc. Go gadget-heal go!

[right][snapback]71453[/snapback][/right]

I kind of find this quote amusing to me. My two main characters that I play are a priest that is essentially a healbot and a warrior. The differences in my attention there are like night and day.

When I play my priest most of my concentration is on the tank's healthbar. I only pay attention to other healthbars as time allows (except in the case of AOEing mages) and hope that I rarely have to look at my own healthbar. For a majority of any fight my eyes are glued to my party display in the corner of the screen and I only scan for mobs in between heals.

As a warrior (and tank) the last thing I look at is my own health. I assume that the priest has me covered so the only health bar I ever really pay attention to is the priest's. For a majority of the fight I am scanning for mobs and using my various taunts and skills to keep those mobs' attention on me.

I think that this relationship is a key to instance running in general (and even moreso in higher level instances). The close relationship between the tank and healer is what keeps a party alive. If one or the other goes down then the other will soon follow and a wipe is on its way quite often. There has to be a level of trust between the two that the other will do their job. This allows each PC to focus solely on their particular task and increases effectiveness and efficiency.

In a simplistic view the task of all of the other classes is to learn how to use /assist and mind aggro. If they do those things they have a larger margin for error and don't have to worry much about any other party members. Sure, there can be situations where a mage or rogue might go all out to save the priest (potentially at their expense) but this is usually only the case if things have already broken down. That relationship between the tank and the healer is usually the key.

- mjdoom

[Darian]

As a warrior (and tank) the last thing I look at is my own health.&nbsp; I assume that the priest has me covered so the only health bar I ever really pay attention to is the priest's.&nbsp; For a majority of the fight I am scanning for mobs and using my various taunts and skills to keep those mobs' attention on me.
[right][snapback]71473[/snapback][/right]

Absolutely. The only time I ever even look at my own health in a party is when I know I'm screwed (read: priest has managed to die, priest has just run out of mana, Something Happened and we've got 23 mobs... you know, the usual disaster), and that's just so I can watch in amusement as the little green bar zips down to nothing (usually cackling madly on voice chat about how I'm getting pwned).

This is why I love having someone who's effectively "my own personal priest/healbot." (Yes, Vilatra has a "life" outside of keeping my sorry butt alive, but I almost never go anywhere without Vilatra.) I can count on one hand the number of times the party has survived an encounter in which I was allowed to die, and every single one of those instances was a case where I bought the party time to avoid the wipe. I just don't have to worry about my hit points. Just keep pounding and taunting. My back is covered. It's great.

[Treesh]

There has to be a level of trust between the two that the other will do their job.&nbsp; This allows each PC to focus solely on their particular task and increases effectiveness and efficiency.
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This is why Gnolack and Aleri are good to have in groups - we're both in the same room, both decent players, and both trust each other to do our job. It's especially handy if Gnolack needs some extra scouting around a corner - I mind vision a mob and GG looks over onto my screen to see exactly what I see.

General comment about Bolty's post - glad to see what I learned early on in my career as a heal bot will still keep working at the higher levels. I love my renew and that's what I normally use. In really tough fights I may end up flash healing GG and in super fights the greater heal comes out once or twice. Renew (when you've got it fully specced) is just fantastic. I also usually don't use shield except for spellcasters because I want them to be able to continue to cast their spells until the mob is pulled away from them. On very rare occasions will the tank get shielded.

By the way, desperate prayer is one of the best racial skills out there. It's wonderful knowing you have that safety net when things go wrong.

[savaughn]

My current dream is very basic. I dream right now of a good VC run with competent people. I have yet to have a good instance run at all so VC seems like a good place to start.
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Hmm. I would disagree. If you are playing on the alliance side, VC is the first instance. This is the first time you're going to see well tied mobs and instance scenarios. For the Alliance, VC is where you learn to be a party member.

I rarely expect a VC instance to go well. I expect one or two characters to try and play solo - because they just don't know. I ran my lvl 20 warrior through VC last night. We didn't finish. The other players didn't know their party roles very well. But I'm glad I did it because they other folks got the opportunity to LEARN.

You don't know what Ninja Looting is if no one has ever explained it to you. You don't know low levels have larger aggro radii than higher levels unless you've seen it. You don't know when to throw that heal or when to AoE or which mobs to concentrate on until you've lived it and learned it the hard way. If you've hit the level cap and you go back and play an alt you'll be playing with folks who haven't learned how to survive the level 55 dungeons. Sure, some of them won't listen. Doesn't mean it isn't an opportunity to role model what it takes to get through an instance.

If you want a good instance run don't look at VC. Look at Scarlet Monastery or Uldaman. But the only way those are going to be good is if you use your VC, BFD, Gnomeregan, Stockades, etc. runs to build a list of people who are starting to "get it". Then pull from there and your guild and you'll have a beautiful time. Did a Stockades run a week ago with my mage and aside from the Warrior rushing it was a lovely time.

[Icebird]

I'd agreed with Savaughn - you can often learn more in instance runs with people you don't know, and where things don't go to plan.

The last few instance runs I've been on have with guild members, usually with a couple of members significantly higher than the instance. As a result they've been easier than they normally would be. Then on Sunday night a friend from my guild and I grouped with 3 other level approrpriate pick-ups to tackle Uldaman. We wiped several times (damn troggs), but kept coming back to move forward a bit more (we were stopped before we got to the last boss however).

We found the mage and priest were drawing too much aggro, there wasn't enough communication on crowd control (people kept hitting the sheep and so) and there was a careless pull or two. But we refined our tactics as went along and kept remembering skills that we might not use in everyday questing (Mind control! Seduction!). Even though we failed it was the most intense instance run I've been on in a while.

I have a level 18 priest at the moment. I'm going Shadow-spec early for solo play versatility, but I know she's going to be playing completely differently in groups. In instance runs I'm happy to be a healbot. People expect to be a healbot, and if I go through an entire run without casting one offensive spell, so be it. My plan is to do multiple instance runs with random pick-up groups once I hit 20, to learn about aggro managment, mana conservation, and how to deal with party members who react in unpredictable ways.

I think there's also a flip side to priest play - namely, how to play *with* a priest. My main character is a warlock, and my first goal is to avoid aggro so I don't get hit. The priest shouldn't have to worry about keeping me alive. The one exception is channeling Hellfire - its our most effective AOE spell, but we will take a beating casting it.

If you're getting hurt, you have several healing options apart from the priest: potions, bandages and warlock healthstones, which are all different timers (plus eating and drinking outside of battle). As long as I have the soul shards I will happily give a healthstone to anyone who needs one. In the aforementioned Uldaman group, the mage was the only person who regularly asked for them, despite repeated offers on my part to the rest of the group.

Chris

[Drasca]

Grr. Post lost due to blue screen of death. I'll just leave you with this...

If you have a soulstone on you such that you can recover from a total party wipe, then enter the fray with gusto anyway and help try to kill as many of the baddies as you can before you go down.[right][snapback]71391[/snapback][/right]

Don't do that. Kamikaze priest just pisses the warlock off. Run far far away, completely clear from mob aggros and patrols. Don't be a gimped gung hoe shovel. Be Lazarus, rise from the dead and raise your army of dragon's teeth.

[mjdoom]

Grr. Post lost due to blue screen of death. I'll just leave you with this...
Don't do that. Kamikaze priest just pisses the warlock off. Run far far away, completely clear from mob aggros and patrols. Don't be a gimped gung hoe shovel. Be Lazarus, rise from the dead and raise your army of dragon's teeth.
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This reminds me of the time we (thankfully) found out that Eranikus is on a leash. I was the priest with a soulstone on but when I went down I was too close to Eranikus' resting spot. When I rezzed from the stone after the party had wiped Eranikus aggroed on me. I pulled out all the stops when running away and managed to survive to rez the party afterward, but this is not where you ever want to be. If you are the priest you had better be a decent distance from any monster spawn/resting points when you die or else that soulstone can easily be wasted and the whole group will be doing a corpse run anyway :(

- mjdoom

[Drasca]

I think there's also a flip side to priest play - namely, how to play *with* a priest. My main character is a warlock, and my first goal is to avoid aggro so I don't get hit.&nbsp; The priest shouldn't have to worry about keeping me alive. The one exception is channeling Hellfire - its our most effective AOE spell, but we will take a beating casting it.
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Notes on playing warlock /w priest, as this is an extremely effective combination (as is WL + Mage ftw).

If you're being mobbed by non-elites, cast weakness on all of them you can.

High number of mobs = voidwalker time. Direct him to defense and pulling any enemies you can.

Let your tanks take grab as much aggro as they can first. Then cast Rain of fire, this pulls a lot less aggro.

Hellfire is a finisher. If you have enough AoE to blow away everything, its still a finisher.

Rain of fire, and sacrifice your voidwalker mid channel if you're drawing aggro. Same with Hellfire.

Notify your priest of PW: Shield before AoE. Announce AoE before using with a macro.


WL Priest combination have many synergies. We both have crowd control abilities, frequently use shadow damage, and self-heal abilities. Between the two, several normal enemies of like level may be engaged and successfully skirmished with appropriate use of fear, pet control, and running battles (kiting). Mind flay is invaluable in this WL's opinion. MC too. A priest and warlock can completely dominate every humanoid around, and control the battle to their pace--even when adds come.

[mjdoom]

(as is WL + Mage ftw).
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I must say, one of the most amusing things I've ever seen in WoW involved a run we once did in Sunken Temple with a hunter, a priest, 2 mages, and a warlock. No tank, no problem. Watching entire packs of elite dragonkin die in about 20 seconds was the most amusing (amazing?) thing I have ever seen.

- mjdoom

[Icebird]

Ironically, the Void Walker was the only pet I didn't try at some point during the instance. I've heard second-hand that his ability to hold aggro drops off after 40, but I haven't tested it personally. Recently I've been using the Felhunter and Imp msot of the time. The Felhunter's Tainted Blood debuff is pretty significant (can stack up to an Attack Power reduction of 115 on mine), but it can't hold aggro worth a damn which lessens the effectiveness of the skill (the only thing stopping it from being my favourite pet).

I rarely use Rain of Fire unless I know the monsters have a lot of aggro on another target that wont break. The damage is low, and I figure it will just make the monsters mad at me.

Hellfire is a favourite spell of mine, but it has to be used *very* selectively (usually just for non-elite swarms like the scorpions in Uldaman). Against elites, it simply isn't worth it most of the time.

Back to the priests...

In the case of a wipe, Priests shouldn't be in hurry to use the soul stone if everyone else is dead. Wait to check if the coast is clear, and any monsters that were aggroed have lost interest. The priest in Uldaman soul rezzed several times only to get killed again, forcing a corpse run. We were lucky to have two warlocks in the party, because our priest was dying faster than the 30 minute cool down on our soul stones.

Chris

[Drasca]

No tank, no problem.&nbsp; Watching entire packs of elite dragonkin die in about 20 seconds was the most amusing (amazing?) thing I have ever seen.
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Muahahahaha I own elite dragonkin. Have been doing so since level 38 in Dustwallow Marsh outside in the Den of Flame. Beware the fearlock!!!

Ok, 6-12 on one, I don't do so well--but who can honestly say they can engage that many at a time with any varying levels of success?

I can honestly say though, I've handled add after add in chain outside of den of flame, solo-clearing it 2/3 the way to Overlord Mok's lost chest. That chicken! I think he has a lowered resistence to fear too. It was funny to watch his fat ass tremble across the Swamp village. . . then run far far away at 1/3 health. Hahahahhaa.