3.2 Shaman Changes

I have to say, looking at the proposed shaman changes for 3.2, I'm very happy to be playing a shaman. Shaman is my favorite class, resto being the preferred spec.

At first glance the Tidal Waves change looks good. At a second glance, still looks good. Even in my crit set of gear, my LHW (lesser healing wave) is around 1.1 second cast when fully buffed on a raid. That's almost at the GCD (global cooldown) already. Currently when Tidal Waves proc's, LHW cast time goes under the GCD so it's just wasted haste anyway. With the proposed change, instead of making that 1.1 second cast faster, it's going to add more crit, yes CRIT to LHW. I think I hit roughly 38% crit on raids. Add another 25% and we're looking at 63% crit. That's not shabby. (HW will still gain haste from Tidal Waves).

Then when that LHW crits, it triggers Ancestral Healing, which is also looking at a proposed makeover. The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 3/7/10% instead of increasing the target's armor. Plus the LHW crit has a 60% chance to proc a water orb from Water Shield. That's pretty good. Tidal Waves procs more crit, crit the LHW, proc a 10% damage reduction on the tank or whoever you're healing, AND usually proc more mana back. That's pretty sweet imo.

Speaking of Water Shield: with IWS, Chain Heal is going to proc orbs but not consume them, if the change stays in through PTR and to Live. No more having to constantly refresh the shield every few seconds when AE damage or tons of crits strip those pretty blue globes from around you. (unsure if the not consuming orbs counts only for CH or for all heals that trigger IWS).

Totem Bar: Wow, finally, a way to drop multiple totems at once! I'm going to love this ability. There have been many times we're a minute or so into a boss fight before I have all 3 or 4 my totems down because of one thing or another such as having to wait for tank to run in and run in after so cant pre-place totems, or being a tank healer and well...heals on the tank come before dropping a totem. Totems wont do much when we're all dead because I missed a heal on my tank. Being able to save 3 sets of totems will be awesome as well. Have a 'normal raid assignment' set, a 'we have no elemental shaman today' set, and a 'im out questing and killing' set. :)

There are more changes, but these are the ones that caught my attention the most. I'm happy with my shaman, I love playing her, and I see these changes just making it even more enjoyable.

Keeping the healing rolling,
Kammi

Hello Everyone!

So as for my first blog post, I guess I will just tell a little about myself. My RL name is Dayna, I am 27 years old and a mother of 2 boys, ages 3 and 4. I enjoy spending time with my family, talking to my friends, playing World of Warcraft, playing guitar, listening to music and getting out. I am easy-going, usually get along with anyone and everyone. I love music and movies. I love doing anything outside, such as camping, fishing, four-wheeler riding, walking. I am a stay at home mom and own a small home business where I preserve memories for people. I transfer videos to DVD, create photo montages, memorial videos, and old film & slides to DVD. It began Jan 1, 2005 in memory of my mother who passed away on Dec 29th 2004. I love the band Evanescence. The music has a lot of inspiration on my life. I listen to different kinds of music, but that band is my favorite and I listen to them everyday. WoW is one of my favorite things to do everyday. I love my friends on the game and love the guild I am in. My best friend is Unslains =) I couldnt ask for a better friend. So you all can thank him that I came to the horde side and can thank me that he actually speaks in vent now, LOL. I enjoy my hunter and yea last night I was a loot whore which was really needed for her. I had 2 T7.5 pieces from pug raids before i joined the guild, so after last night i now have 4 pc set bonus after winning 2 more tier pieces. I was not expecting at all to win all that i did last night. The gun is awesome and so is the staff. Everyone was so awesome too, i had gems cut and given to me, the scope made, and the belt buckle made. I am very proud to be a part of the guild here.

This is me


and these are my 2 little ones, Anthony (oldest) and Ethan.

Lost

God. Ever notice how if you are gone for a few days you have to work overtime to catch up? I've been off for a couple months now- I don't even know how to get my UI to work right! I guess it is a good thing that I remember the term! I have been so busy working, working overtime to bring in some extra money, dealing with sick babies (this includes the husband), and being sick myself I don't even have time to read right now. I miss playing, but I also miss sleeping. Mostly I miss the people- I think that is a difference between boy gamers and girl gamers. As a rule, the boys play even when they don't know anyone. The girls play more if they have people they can play with.
OK, enough rambling and whining! I hope everyone is having fun, and I hope to get back to keys soon!

Glyphs

Well it's been a month and no one else has posted anything yet. So... this blog may or may not continue. I don't want to monopolize the whole thing (that's what i have my personal blog for =P).

Today I decided to check the AH (auction house) yet again for a couple of the new glyphs. I'm debating picking up the Glyph of Holy Shock for the Pally. Cutting an extra second off an instant cast heal would be nice. I don't play her very much now though (we actually got a real holy paladin main in guild now!) so I don't think I want to invest the money on that glyph yet. Once it comes down in price I may pick it up.

I did pick up Glyph of Earth Shield though for Kammi. I looked at the glyphs I had and looked at the benefit on the ES glyph. Glyph of Lesser Healing Wave does 20% more if your target is affected by Earth Shield. That's great... if I'm tank healing since it's the tank I put ES on. So that glyph has been not all that useful for me since I'm usually raid healing. So I'm hoping that the Glyph of Earth Shield, which does 20% more healing, will be more of a benefit overall on my healing. I'll let you know how it goes.

I'm also using a new addon called ShieldsUp! which has increased my shield uptime greatly (has sound warnings when shields wear off. A church bell means earth shield wore off, a gong means that water shield has worn off).

Kammi

Oops, I Did it Again!

There are certain sayings that, whether you're in a group or a raid, you cringe a little when you hear it. Sometimes you hear a cha-ching sound in your head as you imagine the repair cost that's incoming. It could be a simple mistake that the group/raid recovers from then laughs about. Or it could be a mistake that wipes out the group/raid within seconds, that sometimes you can laugh about afterwards.

These are sayings that you never want to hear your tank(s) or your healer(s) say:
1. Oops
2. Uh oh
3. Oh shit
4. Um...crap
5. That was the wrong button
6. Fu**... I bubbled the tank
7. What's that do?
8. Should I have that spell?
9. I didn't mean to pull all that
10. RUN!


The hard part after hearing one of the above comments, is making the split second decision of what you are going to do. Should you stay and heal/dps/tank? Should you run for the exit? Should you just stand there and die and get it over with quick? You only have a second, or less, to make your decision.

Or,
Are you the one that uttered the comment? If you uttered one of the first 9 comments, you need to decide whether or not to yell out the 10th comment to your group/raid. Should you tell them to RUN, or should you have faith in your group/raid and see if you can recover from whatever the mistake happened to be? Was it a simple 'oops', or was it an 'oh shit' type moment?

A solid group or raid that has good synergy and works well together, can recover from almost any oops, uh oh, oh shit, or um...crap moment. But if your tank(s) or healer(s) tell you to RUN? I don't think you need to sit there and decide what to do. Start running and pray you're not at the back of the pack within easy reach of the big nasty monsters.


Keeping distance between herself and mobs,
Kammi

Healing: Boring...or Challenging?

"All healers do is just stand back, hit one button and heal, that's boring."

That is a sentiment shared by some people who have tried playing healers. They stood back, and just healed. That's it. They didn't do anything else but heal. They ignored all the other spells given to them while leveling up and the special spells given to them through their specialization in a talent tree. They Just Healed.

Well yeah, if that's all you're doing, I can see where it could be boring. But honestly, IMO, if that's all you're doing, you're not a good healer and you should go roll a class where you can face-roll on your keyboard and not harm the raid.

Now, I've only seriously healed from a shaman and a paladin perspective, but I do have a druid and a priest that I'm leveling up to heal with as well, so that I'll have better knowledge of all the healing classes. But I do know each one of these four healing classes has more abilities available to them than 'just healing'. They have cures for disease, magic, curses, poison (usually each class can cure between 2-3 of the 4). They have shields that heal when damage is taken, shields that absorb incoming damage. They have heals that are dependent on other heals (I think it's rolling lifeblooms and swiftmend? Correct me if i'm wrong on that Ceri).

Shamans have totems to drop, and it's not always the same ones each time. Some of them are encounter-specific, so a good shaman will know when to use what totem. Some healers have spells that help boost a raid's overall dps/dmg. Bloodlust comes to mind (it's available to any spec shaman, but if all you have is resto spec, they still need to know where/when to use it). Shamans need to know when it's best to spam chain heals off the tank or casters, and when it's better to just toss out a riptide, lesser healing wave or healing wave.

Paladins have their Hand spells and Judgments. They can 'Hand of Salv' a dps who is climbing up the threat meter. They can 'Hand of Sacrifice' on the tank then bubble themselves to absorb 30% of the incoming damage the tank would have taken. They can drop Judgments on the mob to help return mana to raid members or health. Paladin healing has changed since BC. Now Holy Shock is more useful as a heal, and it can trigger an instant Flash of Light or a fast Holy Light. Holy Light is considered more useful than it was in BC when we spammed FoL on tanks.

There is more to being a healer than just standing in the back playing 'whack-a-mole' with Grid (an addon) and pushing one button. Knowing what heal to use in what situation, knowing what needs cured NOW and what can wait a second before a cure, knowing what spell(s) to drop on a boss to help out, knowing when to move...yes MOVE, all these things are important as a healer.

You don't do the raid any good when you stand in the back just spamming that one heal button while raid members are dying to a disease or a curse... or you're dead because you didnt move out of a void portal.

Healing, just healing, can be boring. But remember, you're not 'just' a healer. You have many many spells available to you to help the raid. Use them.


Kammi

Who Are We?

We are the women from Evolutions Path, a horde guild on the Zangarmarsh server in an online game called World of Warcraft. We play female characters in game, and we are real women outside of game.

There are more women who play online games than people may realize. We are wives, sisters, cousins, friends, daughters of other gamers. Or some of us are the only gamer in our families.

Who am I? Well in game, I am Kammi, a level 80 resto shaman. I am married to Vitiate, a level 80 Death Knight who is also our guild leader. I started my journey in World of Warcraft as a rogue. Then we started raiding as a guild in Karazhan and we realized we really needed another healer. So I took the plunge and made a holy paladin. Leveled her up to 70, in holy spec. It's not a very fast way to level, but boy was she hard to kill. Eventually in my journey, I decided to try out a shaman, and I fell in love with the class. I love healing as a resto shaman.

Actually, I just love healing in WoW. I now have a level 80 resto shaman, a level 80 holy paladin, a level 61 druid that will be resto when she hits 80, and have recently started a priest who will be holy as well. We did the refer-a-friend deal and the priest is taking advantage of the triple experience up to level 60.

Outside of game, I am a writer and a housewife. I am currently editing a novel that I finished in February of this year and I have another novel that I am working on. As a recent college graduate, the current economy is rather painful when it comes to trying to find a job. So my husband encouraged me to work on writing a novel since he knows how much I love writing. I think the best job I could find would be to work at a bookstore and continue writing my novels and be able to someday see them on the shelves at the bookstore.

Welcome to Girls Gone Gaming.

Kammi