WoWGrrl's World

I haven't written for a while, I apologize! The Muse went on vacation and instead the Work-a-holic moved in for a while and I've been cranking out behind-the-scenes work.

I'm always on Twitter, tho, so if you want to follow my adventures there or send me a message, that's the best place :)

Now, on to the show!

I was inspired by Divine Aegis, who in turn was inspired by World of Matticus and Miss Medicina.

Flaming Toilet Seat heads towards Priest

What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
25 player PvE raid healing.

What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why?
Power Word: Shield! It's part of the concept of why I originally switched to Discipline after having leveled from 28-80 as Holy - the shield is a fun and challenging defensive maneuver to put into place strategically to stop damage from happening in the first place (and as Disc it's a better shield).

What healing spell do you use least for your class and why?
Holy Nova. I probably could have made some good use of it during leveling up but I just never thought about it, and it's never become part of any of my rotations anywhere, ever.

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why?
We can be any race we want to be! Seriously... Shaman, Druid and Paladin are all otherwise restricted, at least until the xPac changes come into play.

What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why?
Raid healing. I agree with Divine Aegis that we're horrible for the whack-a-mole game and our Prayer of Healing is completely slow and dumb compared to Circle of Healing.

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you?
Healing the tank who is taking the most damage, whether that be the MT or the OT in this case. Alternatively, I'm an excellent Dispeller on all of my toons that can do so, and I love the challenge of being a fast dispeller under pressure.

What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why?
Difficult to say because I've had limited healing experience on everything else but Priest. But truthfully, I enjoy healing on my Shaman as well and would probably like healing on my Paladin too - I like discovering and exploring contrasts in life, so the contrasts between the different "types" of healing would rank right up there.

What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why?
Druid, because I'm forced to be a big fat Tauren that takes up way too much screen space. WTB Goblin Druid!

What is your worst habit as a healer?
Again, I'll go with Divine Aegis and agree that Tunnel Vision is sometimes a problem with all I have going on in my Interface. WTB a bigger monitor?

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing?
Floor priority.

In fights where being spread out is of utmost importance yet the raid needs to still be fluid and move around from the things we're spread out FOR: DPS who won't stop DPSing for a second to re-locate themselves after they've piled on top of a healer, or Healers who won't stop healing for a second to re-locate after piling onto a DPS.

Which peeves me the most at the time depends on whether we're battling against keeping the tanks up (a la Heroic Northrend Beasts and Thorim when we were first taking him down) or whether healing is more slack and it's a DPS race.

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing?
Disc is an odd beast. I don't think you'd really want to carry 2+ of them in your 25 player raid - at least I've generally only seen one Disc Priest per raid, whereas bringing multiple Holy Priests/Paladin or Resto Druids/Shaman seems to work out fine. I guess the raid only really needs one damage mitigator.

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer?
Recount, Wow Meter Online uploads and World of Log uploads, and just by running PUGs on a semi-regular basis, to get a feel of how I stack against the general population and not just within our tiny little raid group.

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class?
That just because we suck on the meters, we suck period. But hey, their loss.

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn?
As for all healers: When to get into the battle yourself. When is "too soon" to start healing, especially when a pull is a little bit chaotic or a DPS pulls aggro early in the fight. Many healer deaths result from "too soon healing aggro".

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)?
Low overhealing, as I've always used recount to evaluate my performance there, even when I was holy healing in BC. Lots of dispelling. Most of my healing on one or two targets, and a very very slim percentage on the rest of the group. Low number of deaths in comparison to my peer group.

Haste or Crit and why?
Haste to 10% and Crit to the roof. Crit is where all of our great stuff lies in Discipline, but a bit of haste is required so the casts aren't all uber-slow.

What healing class do you feel you understand least?
Druid, because our raid is notoriously short on Tree Druids.

What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing?
Healbot is my primary healing addon, and I run it on DPS toons as well, to keep a quick eye on raid status. Obituary is an addon I use to report death blows to me so I know "what killed X". Trinket and Power Infusion macro that boosts a nearby caster guildmate and then activates my trinks for more throughput.

Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why?
Keeping haste at around 10%, the rest of everything goes to Intellect which translates into a bigger mana pool, plus increased mana regeneration rate and Critical strike.

Tag, you’re it!

Related posts:

1. It's Fun Being Top Healer
2. Sharing Healing Responsibilities in Karazhan and beyond