/shameface
The boys in my guild have reached a new low.
Apparently, they're too lazy to actually type out all four letters of the infamous "F"-word. Instead, they'll simply spam guild chat with F's.
Moar are Steen are in the Dalaran Arena? Expect to see
ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff
appear in /g, sooner or later.
Whisper Elam a question about shaman theorycrafting, count to 20, and then log onto an alt?
More of the same.
So guess what I heard myself saying — saying, not typing! — when one of my customers e-mailed me this afternoon about a $0.70 overcharge on her October invoice.
(Seventy cents? Really? A multi-billion dollar company — not mine; my customer's — is counting pocket change? Come on! This is the equivalent of one and two-fifths of a can of Diet Coke!)
Still. I am /so/ ashamed.
25 divided by 10.
Surreality is a 25-man raiding guild. Period. Dot.
... and yet there is a relatively small group of us who have been running 10-man content on offnights since the era of Zul'Aman bear runs. Several of us have changed mains since then, and a few have dropped out and been replaced, but the heart of the group remains the same: Keaton (druid), Coffer (warrior) and Ouchilicious (DK) trade tanking duties, while Korev (paladin), Annah (priest) and I heal. Our DPS typically consists of Ignus (rogue), Neville (mage), the Superforsaken Azargoth (warlock) and Moar (lolret), with one wildcard spot open for the best available DPS from /guild. Sometimes it's Elam; more often, we give the nod to group composition and choose someone who buffs our casters — a critchicken or elemental shaman — or a hunter, which was the case last night.
The five or six of us who were in the team's first incarnation spent two full months racing the timers in Zul'Aman before we saw our first Amani War Bear. Our first few attempts were awful. We'd full-cleared ZA in the past, of course, and considered Zuljin more or less on "farm" — but when it came to the timed events, we despaired of ever rescuing that third prisoner, let alone the fourth. Still, we kept at it, and eventually learned to play to our strengths: running three tanks instead of the usual two, which effectively eliminated downtime by allowing us to chain pull the entire instance. Five months and thousands of gold in repairs later, all ten members of our team had bear mounts and we were able to start farming them for other members of our guild.
We retired ZA the week 3.0 came out and remained on hiatus through the first few months of Wrath, since some of us were faster to 80 than others. Those who made it level cap first started a new 10-man team, and those who took a little longer formed a second. Eventually, the guild's interest in Naxx10 waned, and our original group reformed with an eye towards clearing some the early endgame's de facto hard modes. We struggled with The Undying, and came within a few harrowing percent of the achievement on two separate occasions before finally managing a flawless clear. Obsidian Sanctum was an even bigger challenge for us, but after a solid month of attempts, we eventually defeated Sartharion with all three Twilight Drakes active. Glory of the Raider was ours!
With 3.1 came a new challenge. We hit Ulduar hard and fast: for a while, we were ranked Horde-side third in terms of 10-man progression. Eventually, the pressure of running concurrent 10 and 25 man raids took its toll, and we stopped attempting 10-man hard modes consistently. It wasn't until two weeks ago that we went back to Ulduar to finish Glory of the Raider, v2.0, and two nights ago that I finally bullied the guys into a second go-round with Algalon. (He trounced us — which means they're determined to see him down now, whereas before they simply didn't care. Needless to say, this was my plan all along!)
We have also been working dilligently on Trial of the Grand Crusader. Last night, we defeated Anub'arak with 49 attempts remaining. If it hadn't been for an unfortunate lag spike, which caused four of our raiders — including our off-tank — to freeze in place for about 10 seconds at the beginning of Phase 3, we would have achieved Tribute to Insanity.
All in all, we've been very successful. We have also become close — rather like a family, insofar that we laugh and joke and occasionally fight amongst ourselves, but always work through the issues and emerge stronger as a result.
I'm marrying one member of my 10-man team, and at least four of the others are planning to be there. It's an awesome group, in game and out, and I feel privileged to be a part of it.
The catch (there's always a catch!) is that only 10 players at a time can be part of it — a fact that doesn't always sit well with my 25-man raiding guild. My 10-man team has been a source of intermittent tension since late TBC. To those who are in it, it represents an opportunity to play with friends outside of the more regimented 25-man raid environment. To those who aren't, it feels exclusive and cliquish.
I can see both sides.
On one side, you have nine people who have been playing together for over a year and have bonds that transcend the game, including two pairs of real life friends and one real life couple. We are committed to each other and invested in the group as a whole. We have spent countless hours /played wiping on new content — collaborating on, strategizing about and eventually overcoming shared challenges. Most of us are guild officers; all of us are active in leading 25-man raids. We put in a ton of time, effort and real money supporting the guild as a whole ... so why shouldn't we be able to raid together on offnights? Why should we feel guilty for refusing to split up to relearn content we've come close to mastering on our own for the benefit of others (many of whom weren't interested in hard modes until we started spamming /guild chat with achievements)?
If we chose to spend offnights doing things in real life, no one would begrudge us the time away from the guild. But because we spend our free time together online, our members feel entitled to participate and are often resentful when we aren't willing or able to accommodate them.
On the other side, we are all members of the same guild, working towards the same overarching goal: 25-man progression. Our team monopolizes the guild's three main-spec tanks as well as its best off-spec tank , which forces others to enlist alts or PuG in order to fill a 10-man group. If we were willing to split up, or — even better! — take an active role in organizing multiple ToGC teams, then more of our members who have the opportunity to gear up and practice hardmodes outside of a less forgiving 25-man raid environment.
The issue is further complicated for me, personally, because I have good friends who are in the guild but not in my 10-man team. As committed as I am to our little group of nine-plus-one, I am also deeply invested in the guild as a whole. Surreality is my creation and I feel responsible for everyone who clicks "Accept" to my /ginvite — from the Friends & Family who will in all likelihood never raid, to the casual Members who fly in circles around Icecrown hoping for an opportunity to sub in, to the Raiders I count among our core.
So, yes, I can see both sides. It's reconciling them that has always been the challenge.
Not it!
As far as I know, I wasn't tagged for Miss Medicina's now infamous not-meme (maybe if I spent less time angsting about my guild and more time writing useful things, people would remember that I'm a main-spec healer? >.>), but I decided to do it anyway. If nothing else, Bell's tag was open-ended enough for me to feel entitled to an opinion. 
* What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer?
My raiding main is Liluye, a Tauren restoration shaman.
* What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
I heal 10 and 25-man raids (currently, Ulduar 10 hardmodes and ToGC 10 and 25), and the very occasional 5-man.
* What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why?
Riptide! I love having an instant cast HoT that not only buffs my primary raid heal (Chain Heal), but also increases the crit chance on my main spot heal (Lesser Healing Wave). I'm not going to lie: most of it is aesthetics — that waterfall animation is awesome!
* What healing spell do you use least for your class and why?
Healing Wave. Since I run with one or two holy paladins and a discipline priest, it's very seldom that I'm assigned to main tank heals. I will still cancel-cast Healing Waves on General Vezax (our bear tank can take some pretty nasty spike damage1) — but outside of a Nature's Swiftness/Healing Wave combination, that's it.
* What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why?
Our mana regen is second-to-none. I healed a ToC 25 PuG this weekend (I sat out the guild raid to let some lesser-geared members in), and died relatively early into the Lord Jaraxxus encounter. I ankh'd back in, popped a mana potion and then dropped Mana Tide. Even though I was running on fumes for most of the fight, I never quite managed to bottom out. Everytime I thought I was OOM, I'd proc Water Shield on that last desperate heal.
When I was playing a warlock last year in 2v2 arena, I hated coming up against a resto shaman. "They aren't OOM until they're dead," I lamented on more than one occasion. Turns out, it's true!
* What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why?
A lack of defensive cooldowns, a la Divine Guardian or Pain Suppression. My one OSHIT! button is a macro that casts Nature's Swiftness in conjunction with either Healing Wave (alt) or Chain Heal (ctrl). It can be useful, but it's reactive rather than proactive and I have lost people in the time it takes for me to react or the server to recognize the command (and since I have auto-self cast turned on, it hits me instead of the corpse that I failed to heal — wasting the two minute cooldown).
* In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you?
Raid healing. While shamans are certainly capable of tank healing, paladins and discipline priests are superior single-target healers. Meanwhile, Chain Heal remains a very powerful tool, especially if we're free to concentrate on the melee. (Hint: This means /not/ being assigned to spot heal ranged soakers on the heroic Twins!)
* What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why?
The short answer: Annah.
The long answer: I don't have a strong preference. All other things being equal, I'd choose a holy paladin or discipline priest in a 10-man raid environment, since their strong single target heals complement my strong AoE heals (and they have defensive cooldowns that shamans and druids lack). In a 25-man, obviously, I strive for a more balanced mix.
* What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why?
Another resto shaman — and not (just) because they steal my loot! All four classes have different strengths and weaknesses, so doubling up one class effectively halves the number of tools in our shared arsenal.
* What is your worst habit as a healer?
Tunnel vision. Big time. I'm so focused on Grid that I often miss environmental effects, especially when learning a new fight for the first time. I've come to rely on our raid leader and various assists calling out DBM warnings on Vent.
* What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing?
Ironically, given my answer to the last question: players who call for heals, or raid leaders who make snarky comments like "Might want to heal X!" in the middle of a boss fight. I spend the entire raid staring at Grid, which is strategically placed above my minimap. If a player needs heals, then I /will/ see it — possibly before he does. If the mage is out of range (perhaps because he was shadowcrashed halfway to Grizzly Hills?), then I will locate him on my map and make a split-second decision: run towards him, if I can do so without letting another (more important) assignment die; call on Vent for him to run to me; or simply trust another healer who is closer or faster to heal him instead.
I'm used to PuGs being rude about this (that's what GridStatusIgnore is for!). But in a guild run of Uld 10, when I have the fucking Champion of Ulduar title displayed? Trust me to do my job or kick me from the goddamn raid. Seriously.
* Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing?
Shamans are in a fantastic place right now. We are exceptional raid healers and (properly glyphed and itemized) can be strong main tank healers as well. We buff the raid via totems, which can be tailored to suit not only to the group make-up but also the nature of the encounter. We have defensive and offensive dispels, a ranged interrupt that is off the global cooldown, limited but still situtationally viable CC, self-resurrection and — of course — Bloodlust. If anything, shamans are overpowered at the moment compared to other healing classes.
* What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer?
As far as actual tools go, Recount and World of Logs — when I remember to record the combat log, that is. >.> As a healer, evaluating my performance tends to be more open-ended. Did my assignment live? If so, did others have to cover for me, or was I largely self-sufficient? Did I communicate effectively with the other healers over the course of the fight, announcing things like interrupts and spell locks? My place on the healing meter is entirely dependent upon my assignment (let me Chain Heal the melee and I may top it, but ask me to top off the ranged DPS during a movement intense fight and I'm barely a blip!), so I don't put much stock in it, in general.
* What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class?
That all there is to healing as a shaman is facerolling Chain Heal. Although there's no denying that Chain Heal is a very powerful tool, it is stronger in some situations and weaker (even very nearly useless) in others, and is /always/ best used in conjunction with our other abilities.
* What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn?
There is a rhythm (for lack of a better word) to shaman healing that it simply takes time to learn. I think this is true of all healers, though. You can memorize tooltips and research the best "rotations" on Elitist Jerks or PlusHeal, but it takes experience and a fair amount of trial and error to become comfortable enough with your abilities to use them quickly and intuitively — both of which are absolutely essential for healing in a progression raid environment.
* If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer via recount, what sort of patterns would they see (i.e. lots of overhealing, low healing output, etc)?
This varies wildly from fight to fight. Surreality is currently working on the heroic Twin Valkyrs, and even though I'm officially assigned to the melee, I end up doing a lot of spot healing on the ranged soakers. My output is relatively low as a result of the unusually high percentage of Lesser Healing Waves I'm casting relative to Chain Heal — especially now that we're simply healing through Touch of Light and Touch of Darkness. On a fight like XT Deconstructor or the Beasts of Northrend, where the entire raid is taking periodic damage and I'm able to concentrate on the tanks and melee, my output will be much higher, my overhealing will be lower, and Chain Heal will make up the vast majority of my healing.
* Haste or Crit and why?
Haste. While I would never say no to crit — it procs Water Shield and Ancestral Awakening — I am currently gemming for straight haste. More haste means faster Chain Heals, which jump up to four times and (thanks to recent buffs!) lose less healing per jump than ever before. Meanwhile, more crit results in more overhealing and faster mana regen, neither of which I particularly need at this point in the game.
* What healing class do you feel you understand least?
Discipline priests — for all that my favorite healer in all of Azeroth is one. (Fortunately, no one else seems to understand them either!)
* What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing?
I'm an add-on whore. I currently use Grid, Clique, HoTcandy and TotemTimers. I also have macros to combine Nature's Swiftness with Tidal Waves and either Healing Wave or Chain Heal.
* Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why?
I'm currently stacking haste. Intellect was king two tiers ago, but my regen is so strong now that I'm determined to stack haste for faster Chain Heals until I start running into mana problems. I don't see that happening in this expansion, though.
* * *
Just for fun, I tag my guild's resident trees: Forreststump and — if he isn't too busy with exams and that NaNoWriMo thing I keep reading about — Naithin. Miss Medicina has a list on her site of everyone who has responded so far, if you're curious!
Also, someone should totally start the tank version of this so I can do that one, too. <hint hint>
- l2block, kkthx ↩
Alts! I haz them.
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Surreality Blogs!
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