Right before 3.3 hit, I knew it was going to be an exciting patch. There was a whole new raid instance! And new recipes, a new legendary, new crafting orbs, three new heroics, and a new faction. Oh, and some change to the Looking For Group interface, but whatever, pug runs are stupid.

So here we are, a week after launch, and I have to admit that my 3.3 fangirling was right on the mark. Everything is fun and exciting! What I didn’t expect was becoming such a Looking For Dungeon addict.

I cannot say enough about this new system on a few different levels. As a guild leader, I love seeing lots of people on being active, and now in between raids you can look at the guild list and see people running everything, all over the place. Two or three guildies wanna group up? No problem. There’s no more “Oh, sorry, I ran that already,” and alts are suddenly really popular. I’ve even had a few people return to playing simply because they love being able to run a heroic any time their heart desires.

On a personal, player level, I have really enjoyed all my groups. Some of them were with excellent players, like the time I cleared Halls of Lightning in a fraction of the usual time (props to you mad chainpulling tanks!). Some of them were with barely adequate players. One of them was a heroic Nexus where I was not only the healer but also second highest DPS, and it was a BLAST. Granted, it was with a really good pug tank who didn’t need much looking after, but being a battle priest was probably the most fun I’ve ever had in Nexus, if not in recent heroic memory.

I even had the stereotypical dumb DK in one group, who announced halfway through that he was leveling his unarmed skill. I replied that I was going to start leveling my “unhealed” skill. The rest of the group chuckled.

Each LFG heroic is an adventure. Where are we going? What kind of tank will I have? Will the DPS be any good? Will people talk or be silent? Will they have silly names that I can ask about? (Favorite so far: a DK named Schmarthas.)

Before 3.3 my resistance to pugs was pretty well known by the guild. And I was happy that way! But suddenly I have become a Liore of the People, with badges and gold and titles and adorable puppies and alt gear and good stories.

So bravo, Blizz. I would never have asked for this feature, but now that it’s here I cannot get enough of it.

Save and Share:

Technical Issues, WotLK LFG, patch

So 3.2 is here, probably a little earlier than we anticipated, and it is still making me cranky. (Cranky enough to not blog, but not cranky enough to stop playing!) Allow me to summarize:

GOOD

• Oracle pet!
• Adorable raptor pets with giant heads!
• New dailies!
• Raid timer extensions!

BAD

• Too many raid settings. Four different versions of Wyrms is not actually four different bosses.
• Three different types of T9. Some need badges. Some need general tokens. Some need class specific tokens. Some need tokens AND badges. I need a flowchart.
• The armor is still ugly. If you’re going to make all clothies wear the same style of gear, at least give us a rad menacing warlock design!

I kind of know what Blizz was doing, at least in part, and I appreciate that new recruits will be able to gear up faster now on their own and get to T8/T9 readiness without us having to run them through Naxx. Still, as one of my guildies said on patch day, the fact that you get three Conquest tokens from three bosses in the new 5-man really devalues the badges we’ve gotten so far in 25-man Ulduar (25 man regular, not 25 man Heroic hahahahahah oh man where am I).

Oh, and the bugs have been outstanding, although that’s to be expected with a patch and doesn’t really bother me. Our server was dead for most of patch day, and last night in Ulduar we had the awesome quintuple bots bug on XT. I’m not sure if everyone found them so amusing, but the sight of an ocean of bots swarming towards us — and the associated cries of panic on Vent — kept me giggling for the next hour. Never have I wished so badly to be DPS and on Mind Sear duty.

Anyway, on the guild front we have been toying with P3 of Yogg, and with the raid timer extension I feel pretty confident that we’ll get him down by next weekend. Then I think we’ll focus on hardmodes and dabble a bit in the new Colosseum. I admit my 21 shards and I selfishly hope the guild spirit is still up to learning Three Lights in the Darkness.

I suppose I can’t really complain too much. Summer doldrums are over, there’s some new content to be had, and I have bets with friends over which one of us will be asked to leave Blizzcon first. And, hey, at least T9 won’t make me look like a paladin.

Save and Share:

Raiding Ruminations, Technical Issues, WotLK Colosseum, gear, patch, raiding, Ulduar

Look, I try to be nice and not complain about stuff too much, particularly stuff on the PTR. But the Tier 9 graphics.. in all sincerity, this pushes me to flip out in despair more than anything else I’ve ever seen. All armor classes look alike.

I am going to look just like a mage and a warlock. In our raid of nine different classes, there will be 4 different armor designs. Is this supposed to make us excited? I remember getting my Prophecy Robes in MC and feeling like a “real priest”. Even before the arrival of TBC I yearned for the T5 wings, and I admit my eyes watered a bit when I finally got them. T6 had the hood and shoulders of justice, and currently Liore is strutting around in a T8 ninja mask, which is entirely pleasing.

Call me vain, call me shallow, but I like Liore to look good. And this.. this is not good.

And don’t give me that lame RP excuse nonsense that, “we’re in an army now, we have uniforms”. First, nice decision to suddenly plead realism as we JOUST our way to Arthas. Secondly, I have to spend enough time looking like everyone else in real life as part of the office worker army, thanks. I really don’t care to do that in a game. And finally.. Liore the elf character is an anti-authoritarian fabulously sassy priest, and she doesn’t wanna wear a uniform. Yeah, take that RP excuse.

You know what? I’m feeling stubborn and reactionary this morning, but I’m not doing it. I’m not going to take any T9, if I even go to the Colosseum at all. Hopefully there will be offset gear, and if there’s not then I’ll just heal the whole damn thing in my Ulduar gear, and I’ll still rock. I. Am not. A mage. I’m not even a caster! And I won’t even get started on how my DK friend feels about looking like a PALADIN. It’s not pretty.

3.2 in general is just making me nuts, although I’m trying to not think about it too much while everything is still in flux on the PTR. Why are they bringing out another raid instance so soon? It feels cheap and rushed, with us locked in a big empty room with a big empty monster, wearing identical clothes. (And yes, I know the spoiler for the end of the instance, but still.) Oh, and more priest nerfs. And multiple overcomplications of the raid lockout system.

Really, really not impressed.

/rant

Save and Share:

Raiding Ruminations, Random, WotLK gear, patch, priest, rants

In the week since 3.1 was released I’ve been focused on getting the guild pumped up, leading raids, learning new bosses, figuring out dual specs, and recruiting, not to mention the new fishing daily and Argent Tournament quests. In fact, it was only today that I sat down with the Armory, Elitist Jerks, and a pen and decided that it was time to work out exactly what happened to holy priests with this patch and what I was going to do about it.

A couple of months ago I wrote about how my mana regen in mostly Naxx-25 gear was kind of silly. And it was! There was little consideration for regen mechanics, and mana pots were some archaic concept that we joked about in the healer channel. Fortunately — and unfortunately — Blizz was paying attention to that, and nerfed the 5 second rule into oblivion. My o5sr regen was decreased by 40%, and, oh man, do I feel every single percent. Ideally this will get better with Ulduar gear, but for now it’s back to mana pots, mana flasks, and any other tricks. Another interesting effect of the change is that I feel quite lost without a source of replenishment. Whether it’s heroics or just farming old instances for mounts, all this Int isn’t doing me a whole ton of good without a shadow priest or ret pally or someone similar around.

Along with the changes to mana regen came changes to our spells and talents. I’ve said before that one of the great joys of playing a holy priest is all the options we have in our toolkit, and I’m exceedingly pleased to see that pattern continue in 3.1. Prayer of Healing is targetable, Renew is vastly improved, and wonders of wonders, I actually have Divine Hymn on my hotbar. There are a few different play styles available to holy priests now, and the talents to suit it.

I was always an unrepentant Renew spammer in Vanilla and TBC raids, and I missed that in WotLK. (Renew was grossly inefficient and just not quick enough to be worth it after 3.0.) I quite happily sunk six points now into Renew and Empowered Renew, and use it much as I suspect a Discipline priest would use shields — bored? throw some Renews around! Prayer of Healing has become pretty outstanding, although I admit I’m still training my brain and my fingers to use it as often and as correctly as I should. And I was never one to fuss too much with the o5sr tricks (Clearcast! Inner Focus! Trinkets! Surge of Light!), but I am entirely diggin’ the new Serendipity. Weaving Flash Heals and Prayer of Healing has already proven to be very nice, and will only get better the more I get used to it.

So what of Greater Heal, our eternal staple of heals? If your healing style includes GHeals, then it’s supported by both the old and new talents. If it doesn’t, though.. now, since 3.1, you can free yourself from all your old talent point ways! Let go of Divine Fury, or say goodbye to Improved Healing. The new math even shows that Empowered Healing is not as essential as it once was, depending on what spells you usually use. (Remember, if you want to tank heal, you should probably go Disc and do it right. Holy priests are for raid healing now.)

Tonight I’m going to respec to something like this, if not exactly that. I’ve given up Inner Focus, Improved Healing and Empowered Healing in favor of Healing Focus, Body and Soul, Test of Faith, and most of Blessed Resilience (for the healing bonus, not the damage reduction, natch). It’s a very, very, very “raid healing”-oriented spec, with bonuses for Renew, PoH, CoH, and PoM, and reductions to GHeal and Flash Heal. I’m a little concerned about giving up Inner Focus and not 100% convinced about the usefulness of Body and Soul, although the brainiacs over at EJ say it’s a good choice.

We’ll have to see how it plays in Ulduar, but I’m initially pretty intrigued. Ghostcrawler promised a long time ago that healing Priests would be made more interesting to play in 3.1, and by golly he may just have been right.

Save and Share:

Healing, WotLK patch, priest

It’s here! It’s here! It’s finally here! I can’t believe they surprised almost everyone, but it’s finally time for Patch 3.1. I’m freaking out. I actually had a hard time sleeping last night (neeeeeerd!). I feel like I should be stocking up on canned goods. THE PATCH IS NIGH!

I would love to post something useful here about new priest specs or Ulduar or crafting changes or, you know, anything tangible and helpful. Instead I am mentally running around like a chicken with no head trying to get myself and the guild ready to rock.

Ahhhhh, what is my new spec? Did we mention the later raid time tonight? Will the servers be up? What are people doing for dual spec? What’s that — who’s getting the legendary mace? Umm.. I.. um.. Which boss is fourth in Ulduar? Will Grid be broken? How many healers do we need on the raid? Did I remember to buy Shadow glyphs before the prices go up?

Man I love big patch days. Seriously. It doesn’t get more exciting. Good luck out there, WoWnauts!

Patchy Links!

• Holy2Shadow dishes on  The Flame Leviathan
• No Stock UI points out 3.1-Ready Mods
• Dueg agonizes over dual specs for healy priests
• Highmesa ponders which  Argent Tournament NPC pets will be the most popular

Save and Share:

Technical Issues, WotLK patch