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Happy Raiding!

Exxy

Heroic Northrend Beasts DOWN!

I had lots of lag tonight.. but I am happy I was here for the guild's FIRST kill in Trial of the Grand Crusader 25! Way to go, WKN! The entire fight was quite nerve wracking. Between being snobolled, dodging worms, and healing up the raid after the very epic Icehowl Massive Crash- we got the job done.

Levitate is your friend!
We usually start the fight with the priests levitating all the ranged toons. Levitate completely mitigates the fire bomb buff from Gormak. If fire bomb does hit someone, it has a nasty tick that will kill you quickly. I try to keep an eye on when levitate wears off of the raid members- so I can re-levitate them. As long as nobody dies while I am re-levitating, I think we may be okay! We have excellent raid healers!

Divine Hymn Macro
We ran with two priests tonight: 1 holy (me) and 1 disc. We took turns "singing" our Divine Hymn after the Massive Crashes to heal up the raid.. I took the first one. He took the second. I made a simple macro that casts Inner Focus, then uses my Talisman of Resurgence BEFORE casting the Divine Hymn. Seems like a lot of time to do it, but the macro makes it easy. One touch, and it's all done. I choose to use Inner Focus because DH takes 63% of your base mana. It costs me a nice chunk at 2068 mana. Here is the macro:

/cast Inner Focus
/use Talisman of Resurgence
/cast Divine Hymn

By the end of this fight, my hands were shaking! No holy priest drops, but the kill is enough tonight! We worked a long time getting these guys down! And I think the practice we got in ToGC 10 really helped out! I am very proud of the guildies.

Make Haste!

I was just over at PlusHeal.com responding to a post, and decided.. why not put my response here? The question posed was, "Does Haste Make a Difference?"

I decided to take part in the discussion as I now love haste. The cast times are quite remarkable if you ask me. Wonder what it would be like to have 1 flash heal per second? Anyhoo.. here is my response:

"I love haste and have found it does make quite the difference; however, you have to watch your mana if you are an avid overhealer! I use my shadowfiend at about 40-50% just be on the safe side in the Coliseum raids.

I've been taking note of my cast times, too.

With my "haste" outfit on and without any consumable or raid buffs, I hit 554 haste (16.9%) and a 24.4% holy crit.

My cast times go to:
Flash Heal 1.283s

Greater Heal (Serendipity x 3) 1.625s
Greater Heal (Serendipity x 2) 1.796s
Greater Heal (Serendipity x 1) 1.968s
Greater Heal 2.139s

Prayer of Healing (Serendipity x 3) 1.950s
Prayer of Healing (Serendipity x 2) 2.156s
Prayer of Healing (Serendipity x 1) 2.361s
Prayer of Healing 2.566s

If I rock my Triumph "Four-Set" outfit, I get 488 (17.47%) haste. 24.95% Holy Crit.

My cast times go to:
Flash Heal 1.306s

Greater Heal (Serendipity x 3) 1.654s
Greater Heal (Serendipity x 2) 1.828s
Greater Heal (Serendipity x 1) 2.002s
Greater Heal 2.176s

Prayer of Healing (Serendipity x 3) 1.985s
Prayer of Healing (Serendipity x 2) 2.194s
Prayer of Healing (Serendipity x 1) 2.361s
Prayer of Healing 2.402s

Lastly, a "Crit" outfit with only 430 (15.71%) haste and 26.82% Holy Crit.

My cast times go to:
Flash Heal 1.326s

Greater Heal (Serendipity x 3) 1.680s
Greater Heal (Serendipity x 2) 1.857s
Greater Heal (Serendipity x 1) 2.033s
Greater Heal 2.176s

Prayer of Healing (Serendipity x 3) 2.016s
Prayer of Healing (Serendipity x 2) 2.228s
Prayer of Healing (Serendipity x 1) 2.440s
Prayer of Healing 2.402s

If I eat the +40 haste Imperial Manta Steak, take the +45 haste Elixir of Lightning Speed along with +45 intellect Elixir of Might Thoughts.. WITH my "haste" outfit, this is what I get: 639 haste (19.49%), 24.67% Holy Crit.

My cast times go to:
Flash Heal 1.255s

Greater Heal (Serendipity x 3) 1.590s
Greater Heal (Serendipity x 2) 1.758s
Greater Heal (Serendipity x 1) 1.925s
Greater Heal 2.092s

Prayer of Healing (Serendipity x 3) 1.908s
Prayer of Healing (Serendipity x 2) 2.109s
Prayer of Healing (Serendipity x 1) 2.310s
Prayer of Healing 2.511s

May not seem like a lot in "time," but I did notice a huge difference for me in the Coliseum raids."

Happy Raiding!

Exxy

Getting Ready for Icecrown!

"Why does everyone automatically assume I know tailoring and cooking?"

I am that priest. In addition to tailoring and cooking, I also know fishing and enchanting. (I can also whip up a very strong Heavy Frostweave Bandage.) My DK alt, DanityKane, has taken up herbing and alchemy. She's an elixir master.

I usually become fixated on two things right before a new patch drops:

• Make as much cloth as possible



• Make as much gold as possible

The reason for gold is obvious. Auction House prices are jacked up right after the patch. Also, new content means new wipefests. So we must be prepared for that. You also want a shot at any new BOE items that may show up.

The reason for my cloth fetish? New patterns of course in Patch 3.3! Check these out....
Sandals of Consecration
Lightweave Leggings
Deathfrost Boots
Leggings of Woven Death

These items take so much cloth! My goal is to make the Sandals of Consecration and Lightweave Leggings; however, I am not a "haste fiend." So the Leggings of Woven Death look pretty sweet- even without the Spirit. I really need to research what Blizz is doing with Spirit in the upcoming patch. Anyone out there know?

Back to this post though... Every three days, I make moonshroud (x2), ebonweave and spellweave, hoping to get it all done before the patch. The good news this patch is that the patterns aren't random drops. One must build up rep with the Ashen Verdict to even purchase the patterns. So on day one- rumored to be December 8, 2009- I will begin killing stuff in Icecrown and doing whatever Shadowmourne quests I can find. Speaking of which... that weapon is going to be hard to get.. 25 Primordial Saronite!?!

Primordial Saronite is the new Crusader Orb. It's used in the patterns and in the questline for the legendary weapons. Oh, and did I mention, they are the currency by which you purchase the patterns? Way to go Blizz! THAT's where the gold comes in! I fully expect those to cost at least 2000g each when they come out. I am guessing they are a drop or something? I don't know.. but I am going to be prepared! I suggest you be prepared as well.

Happy Raiding!

Exxy

My Healing Style

As stated earlier, the Triumph four-set has forced me to use Renew that much more.

Since I am a holy priest, my strong point is raid heals; however, I am able to tank heal. My current off-spec is discipline; however, my experiment with that is better left for a future post.

I usually start of with a Prayer of Mending up on a tank. Of course, everything you do depends on who is taking damage, anticipating that damage and deciding what you will do about it.

After the first hit on the tank, of course, that PoM will bounce off to someone else. I then hit the tank with a Renew. What follows next is very basic priest healing. I don't call it a rotation, but I guess that's what it is.

Flash Heal>Flash Heal>Flash Heal>Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing

That's three Flash Heals first. You can also cast Binding Heal here if you are taking damage as well.

Those three heals in any combination will trigger Serendipity which as you can see lowers the cast time of your next Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing by 12%. This is huge because they heal for more in less time, and if you are a meter maid, it equals more heals per second. My goal is to keep people alive.. not top the meters; however, it is nice when I do.

I use Circle of Healing- preferably every six seconds in tandem with a PoM on a tank, when I see three or more people take damage. The six second cooldown forces you to use it sparingly as I used to spam the crap out of it before Blizzard nerfed it in 2008.

I have tied CoH by "auto trinket" on Healbot to trigger my Talisman of Resurgence. This is a sweet trinket that you can buy with 50 Emblems of Triumph. If that trinket's CD is up and the entire raid takes damage like after an Icehowl Massive Crash, I love to pop it and cast Divine Hymn. Talk about sweet heals! Just sit back and watch the health totals go up. It procs the Hospitality buff which lasts for 20 seconds. Take this time to heal of up the raid groups with PoH.

My "oh crap" button belongs to the Guardian Spirit spell. This button is reserved for the tanks when they take massive hits. It has saved many lives. The glyph for GS is nice as it cuts the CD from three minutes to just one!

Another thing to remember is your Power Word: Shield. Combined with a Renew and the PWS Glyph, you can heal several people at once.

Speaking of Glyphs...
Here are mine for now:
MAJOR: Glyph of Power Word Shield, Glyph of Guardian Spirit, Glyph of Circle Of Healing (Thinking of using Glyph of Renew to go with 4-set.. but what to replace?)

MINOR: Glyph of Shadowfiend (more mana), Glyph of Shackle Undead (idk), Glyph of Levitate (no more feathers!)

Consumables
I keep an arsenal of consumables at my disposal:
Flask of Frost Wyrm
Flask of Pure Mojo
Flask of Distilled Wisdom
Elixir of Lightning Speed
Elixir of Mighty Thoughts
Guru's Elixir

Fish Feasts
Imperial Manta Steak
Cuttlesteak

I also keep basic mana and health foods in case a mage just can't be found.

As I am lacking sufficient haste right now, my favorite raid meal consists pf a nice Imperial Manta Steak followed by Elixirs of Mighty Thoughts and Lightning Speed. If you have armoried me, you won't see my four-set or my "haste" set, but depending on the fight, I like to put different pieces on at this point.

My Mods
Healbot:
I absolutely love Healbot. I may walk you through my setup in the future. But I have every priest spell known to man programmed. I can also dispel and remove disease using the very simple interface.
Power Auras:
I have programmed it to let me know visually when Serendipity procs as well as for my PoM ad CoH cooldowns. It also displays how long I am in my Hospitality phase.
Others include Deadly Boss Mods, Omen, and Bartender so I can situate my UI as I see fit.


The words you see right above healbot is Mik's Scrolling Battle Text, which I used previous to Power Auras. Both work well.

Five Healing ToGC and Priestly 4-sets

So, last night we were stuck on Northrend Beasts... again! But we almost killed Icehowl with just five healers... FIVE HEALERS! Some of the officers didn't think it would be possible to five heal it, but I suggested we get another dps since one of our heals couldn't stay connected. I told them, "We may surprise you.. then again we may not." The least we could do was try. And try we did with one holy priest (me), one discipline priest, one shammie, two holy pallies.

The pallies and disc. priest were each assigned a tank. The shammie and I rocked the raid with chain heals and prayers of healing. I think we could have downed Icehowl- had someone not been hit by the charge. That cost us a lot of uninteruppted DPS.

Anywho, our healers are some of the best you will find, and the guild has done a good job of gearing us up.

Holy Priest Four-Set
Last night was also the first time I raided in the Triumph four-set. The sets read out like this:
(2) Set: Increases the healing done by your Prayer of Mending spell by 20%.
(4) Set: Increases the shield from your Divine Aegis and the instant healing from your Empowered Renew by 10%.

I must admit was skeptical before- as were many priests, but that instant healing from renew immediately became one of my top three spells on Recount. It is a nice filler spell to use on tanks or any raid member taking damage when your attention must be directed in other areas.

I guess I will post more on my healing style a bit later. I am still working on it, as the four-set bonus has forced me to make use of renew that much more.

Until then.. Happy Raiding!

Exxy!

Greetings!

This blog is intended to be a record of my adventures- and misadventures- in The World of Warcraft.

I am a level 80 Holy Priest, residing on the Antonidas server. My guild is one of the top tanked on the server. West Koasta Nostra is not casual.. not hardcore.. what are we? Well, we like to say we simply get things done in a timely manner. Although, it usually takes us a little longer than others, but at least we get to see things other toons don't. That's a plus!

We are currently plugging away in Trial of the Grand Crusader 10 and 25. We got Anub'arak down to 28% last week in 10's but are finding it hard to get past Northrend Beasts in 25. Trial of the Crusader 10 and 25, however, are complete!

I am not a theorycrafter. I can pretty much tell you what I am supposed to be doing with each pull, and I am pretty confident I can explain the fights. However, my dilemma comes with trying to make things simple.

After leveling this toon from 1 to 80, I am still learning how she works. Maybe I will share some of that here, and you can help me out, too!

We are of peace. Always!

Exxy