The Priest

Figured, recently had a lot ranting posts and that has just got to change. Aye, it is a personal blog but in the end I write for two reason, the pleasure of writing and the pleasure of reading. For me, a writing only becomes meaningful when someone picks it up and reads it. So, to not utterly neglect my readers I am gonna jump into one of my recent passions; playing a priest.

Specifically, I enjoy my role as a healer and in a reasonably short time I have managed to raise my priest's level a notch of 13 levels. It is a complete role reversal for me, since I am, until now, mostly used to tanking on my death knight. This gives my priest a unique perspective because many do not get to look at it from both directions. Tanks have ideas about healers, and healers have plenty of ideas about tanks, at least as far as what they would hope for them to be.

It is a fascinating interaction between the two as they communicate, though the relationship is not always layered with roses. Tanks can often be fairly arrogant in terms of how they expect the group's healer to perform, while neglecting all the small things that they themselves could do to make the healer's job easier; like staying in range, do not break LOS, be reasonable in your pulls, use cooldowns to mitigate damage input, etc. I recently healed through Maraudon and a persisting annoyance was the tank, first pulling a bunch of flouric creatures and then turning a corner.

He did not do this out of spite of course, but simply did not understand the job of a healer, and I know personally I have been guilty of many such prejudices. The key is to make sure you both communicate properly and educate each other to learn how to play better. A good such example, for me, was in Halls of Lightning. We wiped once on General Bjarngrim while going for the achiement, Lightning Struck.

The simple reason was, with so much incoming damage, once I had to kite him during a whirlwind, I passed beyond our healer's range and it was all it took. He advanced and tried to save the moment, but though valiant, I died. Afterwards while buffing up at the entryway, we examined what went wrong and agreed that he would have to position himself closer, since I could not avoid running around the small space I have to kite the crazy goliath.

I believe this is one of the bigger lessons of the game, to learn how to communicate because the simple fact is, no matter how awesome you are, maybe above all of your peers in finesse and skill, truth remains that no man is an island and to succeed in World of Warcraft, you need team work - and never forget, you always need the team more than it needs you.

Addon: Ackis Recipe List

Although I appreciate them enormously, I rarily raise addons on pedestals. The reason is that most are subject to personal opinion, without a right or wrong choice but in this case, I decided that was appropriate. I don't know if there are addons that compare to this addons, but it is the of its kind that I have come across; Ackis Recipe List (Download).

Most players who spend a lot of time raising their professions, whether it is for interests in making gold, crafting themselves some neat gear pieces, or just for the fun of doing so, do it with a passion. If you can recognize yourself from that description, I suggest you have this addon ago.

The addon provides a nice way to help you list recipes and designs that you yet do not possess, making them easier to acquire and thus widen your field of expertise. The way it works is you open your profession window and simply hit a button. The addon then scans your recipes and provides a window of its own, listing the ones you do not yet possess. Further more, it also lets you know where to get the particular recipe, from vendors to world drops, showing in both name and map coordinates.

I used to do this by reading thottbot and wowwiki, going through long lists or recipes, locating vendors, etc. but this has been my salvation. It's quick, easy and I can actually concentrate on getting the recipes rather than locating where and if something exists.

A Day as a DPS

How many out there started playing as a DPS at the start of their gaming career in the World of Warcraft? Not all, but I am willing to wager quite a few. The reason is that the best advice most people give (me included) to new players is to start with a good DPS class, like a hunter. It is not a complicated class, easy to master, and a joy to level with so little downtime.

However, personally, I would like to abolish the standing notion, which has thus followed, that playing a DPS is by no means simple when it comes to being part of an effectively dungeon group. This is less of an issue on low levels, which is why most people do not notice it at first, but becomes more prevalent beyond level 60, and even more so at max level.

I can already hear some people bewildering, what's so hard about DPS'ing; Just shoot, hack, and loot. This could not possibly be further from the truth. Lets talk about the raid scene, so everyone understands, and when I say "raid scene" it is a misnomer because the first problem a DPS player runs into is simply trying to be worthy of joining the raid scene. As you hit level 80, most will not be able to exceed 900 or 1k as a dps in your atypical hc run and this places them in a horrible dilemma.

The gear you need either drops directly from heroic dungeons or you need to do heroic dungeons to earn the emblems that you can buy the gear with. But with an output 1k most group leaders will laugh you right out of the clubhouse and that is hardly very encouraging. This comes directly from a lot of dps players I talk with, whom all can identifying being in that position once upon a time; unappreciated and unable to join groups to gear up, thus to advance in their game.

It is also important to remember that gear and spec are only part of the solution. Once in a dungeon group you are constantly dodging AOE damage, patrolling mobs, remember your cooldowns, and also try exercise an exact rotation. If, for whatever reason, you are unable to hit your peak you can bet your bet your frostbolt there is at least one yoyo in the group who knows just how to remind you about it.

For me, good DPS is just as important as tanking and healing for the success of a group. I have learned to appreciate the pleasure of having good natured and effective hunters and mages in your group, making short work of the enemy as I hold their aggro. Most people seem to forget, especially tanks, that without them, you would be clearing trash until 4th of july before ever even catching a glimpse of a boss.