You're on notice, Arthas!

Server: Khadgar (US) - PVE
Character: Keleili (80 human priest)
Friends: Katria, Bigswede, Deathsarbs, Olorin (guildies)

Last night, I collected 4 other of my most able-bodied companions...

• Katria, warrior tank
• Bigswede, arcane mage
• Deathsarbs, death knight of blood
• Olórin, retribution paladin (and off-healer)

And with them I, Keleili, discipline priest healer, set my sights on Ice Crown Citadel. This is our story.

Our first challenge met us before we even entered the citadel - finding it. Olorin was familiar with the layout of the icy fortress, but even so, it took a very chaotic 10 minutes for us all to find our way in. This was complicated by a strange realization that Olorin was invisible to the rest of us while right outside the citadel. This is a concept known as phasing, but no one was quite sure what Olo might have done to cause it, since we had all completed all of the missions in the Ice Crown area. We are heroes, after all. Or, as Jaina says, champions. *stands a little straighter*

Once we reached the Frozen Halls, we met up with Jaina in the Forge of Souls. She gave her speech, blah blah blah, then we turned to stare at the pair of 9 foot tall skeleton guards standing a few feet away.

Katria: "Are you guys sure we want to do this on heroic?"
Olorin: "Please, can we change it?"
Me: "I don't mind changing it, but Gimini did it on heroic the first time - I saw her ding the achievements in guild chat last night. And if she can do it, as awesome as she is, I think we can do it, too."
Bigs: "We can do this, guys."
Deathsarbs: "Let's just try it on heroic and if it doesn't work, we can change it to normal."
Katria: "Oooookay.... Olo, you know the fights, right?"
Olorin: "Sort of..."
Katria: "Alright... here goes..."

Katria pulled the skeletons and we burned them down. Afterwards, we stared at the corpses.

Katria: "That was too easy."
Bigswede: "They are just trash."
Katria: "But they are guarding the freaking door. When guards go down that quickly, you begin to suspect a trap."

Not to be dissuaded, we headed into the forge. We found the second pull to be slightly more challenging.

Me: "Wow... I can't remember the last time I actually burned half my mana bar in one pull! This is awesome!"
Bigswede: "I know what you mean, Kel. I haven't used that much mana since I began heroics!"
Me: "Heeheehee - fun!"
Katria: "..."

We pushed on, wiping up glowing skull grenades and taking out two more skeletal guards until we came to a group of 4 necromatic-looking casters and a shade. We paused to let Kat mark.

Bigswede: "I can sheep one."
Me: "I can shackle the shade."
Olorin: "I can cast repentance on one."
Katria: "I really don't like using CC, because then I break it and with my thunderclap, and it's just not pretty. It rarely works.
Me: "It's okay. We can take these guys."
Katria: "Hmm..."
...
Katria: "Who pulled!!"
Deathsarbs: *points at Bigs*
Bigswede: "Wha-at?!"

It was messy, but it worked and no one died. We moved on and shortly after found ourselves facing the first boss. Olo explained the mechanics. Unfortunately, most of our detailed questions were met with, "I'm not sure - I was too busy healing. And it was on normal." Ooooookay, let's just give it a shot.

We did give it a shot. The first time Bronjahm used his Corrupt Souls ability, we were unable to burn down Deathsarbs' "Soul" before it reached Bronjahm.

Katria: "Holy, crap, it healed him back to full!"
Me: "Well, shit."

The second time, Katria was able to kite Bronjahm around in a circle away from the soul and Deathsarbs found that he could ice chain it to the ground. After that, Bronjahm didn't stand a chance.

Me (Yelling): "SOULBOUND ROCKS!"

We continued on to the second boss of the Forge of Souls - the Devourer of Souls. And as we stood there, eyeing the massive floating stone head, I had a vision. In the vison, I was in a different world. I think this world might have been called Final Fantasy II. I was in an underground land of monsters, meeting with the queen of monsters - which of course included a fight to the death. This queen had 3 faces and each time she turned to a new face, she had a different ability. One face could heal, the others could deal damage. Strange...

And why I had that vision as I was staring at a floating head, I don't know. It turns out that my vision was more of a foresight than I realized...

As I came to, I realized that Olorin was talking.

Olorin: "There are two things that you need to know about this guy. First - he's an ugly bastard. And second - he has a retarded voice. You'll understand when you hear it."
Me: "What does he do?"
Olorin: "Oh, right."

Olo explained the fight and we charged in. From the beginning, as the healer, it was not pretty. We had an army of specters coming at us and then people just started taking damage and I couldn't keep up. Afterwards, Katria checked the auto-log of the fight.

Katria: "Well of souls? That's what killed me. It must have been that purple thing on the ground."
Me: "The adds were a pain in the ass, too."
Bigswede: "They weren't adds; they were bombs or something - we couldn't target them."
Me: "Bombs? Hmm... AOE bombs?"
Bigswede: "Dunno..."
Me: "Okay, your healer votes that we spread out, in the case that they are AOEs."
Katria: "Sounds good. And stay out of the purple circles on the ground."

The second time, we wiped the ground with the Devourer's faces - all three of them.

As the Devourer of Souls crashed to the ground, Jaina came running in with reinforcements. She opened a portal and we hopped through, finding ourselves in the Pit of Saron. Ahead of us, there was a massive frostwyrm and some other mobs. And no Jaina.

Bigswede: "She's supposed to be right here."
Me: "Is it having trouble loading? Olo? Where is Jaina supposed to be?"
Olorin: "I... don’t know. I haven't done this wing."

Finally, Katria (I think) discovered that we have to move forward to get Jaina and her reinforcements to come through the portal. When she did, she sent her regiment charging at the dragon, which one-shotted them all. Then it raised them as skeletons and sent them back to us to say hi.

Me: "Oh, shit."
...
Me: "Wow, Jaina might actually do more dps than you, Bigs."

And with that intro, we headed down into the Pit of Saron, knowing that this time we'd have even less guidance since Olorin was as new to the dungeon as the rest of us. There were some sticky but funny moments, and shortly after we started, Deathsarbs had a vision not unlike the one I had before the Devourer of Souls. I heard him say, "Skeletor" and had to laugh.

Me: "What is this, He-man meets Warcraft?"
Someone else: "By the power of Grey-scourge!"

This conversation spiraled down into a discussion another old vision, "Master of the Universe" (classic live-action He-man movie) and then to Beastmaster and finally to why my D&D druid characters always have ferret pets.

Katria: "I love you, Kel."
Me: *blush*

Eventually, we managed to make it to the first boss, Forgemaster Garfrost. Olorin cheated by snagging a short description of the fight from some mysterious source, and so we didn't go in completely blind. Even so, it was a sticky fight. And when we finally downed Garfrost, I had only one observation.

Me: "This line of sight shit SUCKS."

We moved on, rescuing more prisoners.

Deathsarbs: "Eww, the dwarf I just rescued offered to kiss me."
System emote: (Some random prisoner) needs a big man-hug. (If anyone has this actual e-mail, can you pass it to me? It was priceless, but I didn't write it down)
Me: "There totally needs to be an emote for giving "big man-hugs".
Katria: "YES!"
Bigswede: "Hey, guys, we have a friend."

Sure enough, there was a chick running around with us - a female human mage. She was helping us burn down the trash mobs.

Me: "Where the hell'd she come from?"
Katria: "I think she's one of the people we rescued."
Me: "She's wielding an ice pick and shooting magic missiles. Awesome!!!"

Moving on, we found a large flesh golems... 5 or 6 of them in fact. Behind them was Krick and Ick, bosses. Olo began researching them while Kat pulled the trash and we dpsed them down. Deathsarbs took offense to the flesh golems.

Deathsarbs: "He's dragging around a... giant... foot."
Golem: *throws down green nasty stuff*
Deathsarbs: "Ugh, I'm getting nightmare flashbacks of ToC."
Me: "I've never seen one of these guys dragging around a massive foot in ToC."
Deathsarbs: "No, the green stuff!"
Katria: "ToC has poison. This isn't poison. It's bubbling. It's, like, acid."
Deathsarbs: "It hurts!"
Olorin: "Then don't stand in it."
Deathsarbs: "..."
Me: "There's a quote somewhere about how human beings are remarkably creative in coming up with different ways to destroy one another. I think this qualifies."

A little bit later, after we took down Ick, I wiped Deathsarbs' corpse off the floor with a rez.

Deathsarbs: "...creative ways to destroy one another. Right."

As we moved up towards a spiraling pathway that would lead to what Olo warned us was a gauntlet, we realized that one of our long-lost guildies was back on-line.

Deathsarbs: "Yeah, Elzy got the bouquet of white roses that I sent her."
...
Me: "Wait. STOP. DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200."
Deathsarbs: "..."
Me: "You gave Elzy a bouquet of white roses, but you only gave ME a single red one?! YOU ARE SO FIRED!!!"
Katria: *ROFL* "Busted!!!"
Deathsarbs: "...I need to learn to keep my mouth shut..."
Olorin: "Can I take his place?"
Deathsarbs: "No!"
Katria: "The gauntlet has been dropped."
Deathsarbs: "grr... that's it, Olo, after this pull, we are unequiping our weapons and having a smack-down, 1-on-1."

Isn't it fun when the boys start fighting over you?

Anyway, were was I? Oh, right, the gauntlet.

Right before the gauntlet, we got to a pull of 4 melee skeletons and 2 casters. They were all undead, so sheeping (or turtleing, as Bigs corrected us), was out, but Olo and I both offered to repentance and shackle the casters. This allowed Kat to pick up the melee mobs while casters stayed in place and let us CC them. It went... BEAUTIFULLY. I didn't realize how much I had missed using my shackle undead ability. <3!>

My personal opinion was that the gaunt was fun. Not too hard, but challenging enough to keep you on your toes. I enjoyed it. And when we got through the tunnel, we found...

Scourgelord Tyrannus.

Behind us, Martin Victus led the rest of the prisoners that we had rescued into the area.

Deathsarbs: "Reinforcements!"
Me: "Do you remember what happened the last time 25 alliance reinforcements charged Scourgelord Tyrannus? He one-shotted them, then sent them back to us as scourge."

Lucky for us, we got to take on Tyrannus without the help of our friends. The first time was a very quick failure. As we headed back for a second try, Olo explained a new tactic that he had just picked up through his cheating. As we rebuffed...

Deathsarbs: "I want Martin's shield."
Katria: "Holy crap, that is one bad ass shield."
Me: "I don't get it. This is the guy who was leading the prisoners and met up with us still wearing his rags at Gorefrost's forge. How did he get a bad-ass shield like that between then and now?"
Katria: "He's obviously a bad-ass blacksmith."
Me: "...you're right! When he gave us that quest, all the other prisoners were running in to work at the forges. They must have been making all their new gear, including his shield." *pause* "That's some seriously quick work."
Katria: "Remember - this is Warcraft. It only takes like 5 seconds to make a piece of armor."
Me: "Oh. Right."

On the second attempt, using Olo's strategy, we were able to deftly smash the scourgelord's face in. Triumphantly, we headed to the next dungeon...

Only to find ourselves sucked back into the tunnel and dazed while everyone else exploded.

Katria: "What the hell? Why am I stunned?"
*mass of confused muttering and freaking out*
Jaina: "blah, blah, the ice queen is gone, blah blah..."

We realized then that the ice queen was Sindragosa - the Lich King's personal frostwyrm mount. And she had basically done a fly-by ice storm that one shot everyone who wasn't safely inside the tunnel. While Jaina mourned the death of Martin Victus and the rest of the rescued prisoners, we charged on into the Halls of Reflection.

Upon arriving in the Halls of Reflect, Katria verbalized everyone's reaction perfect, and this is a reaction that I think everyone will have upon first stepping into the hall:

Katria: "Ooooooohh..... SHINY!"
Deathsarbs followed up with an equally profound statement: "Holy shit, it's Frostmourne!"

There was a lot of "blah blah blah" between Jaina and Uther - AND I WANT TO KNOW HOW UTHER'S SOUL WAS CAPTURED BY FROSTMOURNE!!!!!!!!

No, actually, it was an awesome scene, and we were all talking excitedly as we listened and read. I won't ruin every one's experience with my own group's suspicions. Eventually:

Me: "Olo? Olo, are you listening? Am I right about that? Are you being quiet because you already know?"
Olo: "Huh? Sorry, you guys were ruining my lore moment, so I put you all on mute."
Me: "..."
Deathsarbs: "Hey, look guys, boss 1 and boss 2."
Katria: "And... trash incoming!"

Moments later, we were all dead. When Olo explained that this fight was supposed to be waves of mobs, according to his cheat-sources, we stepped back in and prepared to give it another shot.

Katria: "Everyone stay back down this hall. I'll pull them back to you."

We did as we were told and when Kat pulled, we backed up further. I was just close enough to see the door slam shut in my face when the event began...

With Kat and Olo on the inside, and Sarbs, Bigs and I locked on the outside.

...oops.

Needless to say, that is one of the funniest wipes I've ever experienced. We laughed so hard we were crying. Hysterically.

The next attempt led us to face the only weakness of the warrior tank. Kat was having trouble picking up agro of the random waves. Kat was getting frustrated, and I don't blame her.

Katria: "Seriously, guys. Do not attack until I get agro. I'm serious."
Deathsarbs: "That was two seriouslies."
Me: "Seriously, don't mess with Kat's seriousness, it's seriously important that you seriously not pick up the adds until she seriously has serious agro. Seriously.
Katria: "Seriously."

In the end, we decided to drop the instance back to normal mode and head in again to get an idea for the fights. We managed to get through the waves and both bosses, then facerolled the third boss before reaching the Lich King. Jaina had a sliver of her life left, trying to beat the Lich King with a stick.

Me: "What... do we do?"
Jaina: *ice blocks the lich king and takes off out the side door."
Deathsarbs: "Run?"
Bigswede: "RUN!"

We ran. Unfortunately some of us (*glare at Sarbs and Olo*) ran too fast, and ended up on the wrong side of the ice wall. Kat, Bigs and I took down the adds while the Lich King approached. At each following wall, he got closer. On the third (fourth?) wall, we died.

Ow.

At that point, it was very late in the night, so we called it. But, all in all, I consider last night a very successful experience for all of us. Even if I didn't get any loot. :)

A new look, a new you (er... me)!

Server: Khadgar (US) - PVE
Character: Keleili (80 human priest)
Achievements:

• I am a pilgrim!
• I have completed 500 daily quests and earned 500 dungeon/raid emblems
• Salt and Pepper (10-man)
• Explored Darkshore
• Timear Foresees (All the normal daily dungeon quests)
• I Cleared the Antichamber and Siege area of Ulduar and have earned assorted achievements there-of (10-man Ulduar)
• Fishing Grandmaster (and Skills to Pay the Bills)

That's, of course, the short list. I know I have been slacking on the updates. So, let's see... where to start?

I've continued to raid as much as possible. This week, I was able to down Onyxia in both 10-man and 25-man style. I didn't get any loot, but that's okay - I did get emblems which I am saving for my T9.5 piece.

I also got into an Ulduar 10-man group which went really well! We made it all the way to Freya in one night. That's right, we downed 7 bosses: Flame Leviathan, Razorscale, Ignis, Crybaby (XT-002), Kologarn, Assembly of Iron, and Aurelia. We wiped a couple times on Freya before calling it a night. Pretty perfect, right? Well... almost...

I got the feeling that the other healer (a druid, who happened to be the raid leader's wife) didn't think much of my healing. I don't know why, I just... I don't know. She was nice, but... eh. Anyway, afterward, the raid leader said that he would send out calendar invites for another attempt to finish up Ulduar later that weekend. And, just as I suspected, I never got an invite. That's kind of a bummer, but oh, well. I believe that I did well, so I'm happy.

I also got into a 10-man ToC, and this one ran smoothly and quickly. Yay! I did not, however, find a 25-man ToC group this week. Oh, well.

This week was also filled with Pilgrim's Bounty activities. I got my title and my turkey (guess which one I'm more excited about), and ate lots and lots of food. Two of my guildies helped me clear Oculus up through the constructs, which let me finally finish the last of my Timear daily quests. Then I looked at my achievements and... I realized that I don't have the Proof of Demise achievement - I thought I did! :( I'm missing the Gundrak one, but I didn't realize I needed it, or I would have saved it. Ugh. So, now I'm crossing my fingers and praying that Gundrak is a heroic daily sometime before Icecrown Citadel opens - because when it opens, that achievement will be forever out of my grasp. *crosses fingers*

Make New Friends but Keep the Old

A message from the Queen of Kelis!

We'll return you shortly to your scheduled broadcast, but first...

I've noticed lately that a lot of the really nice websites that I grew up with have become... not as familiar to WoW players today. Hmm... this is partly a curiousity, since they are still awesome websites, but partly sad in my mind, as... well, they are still awesome websites. Hmm... Maybe I should start a website about all of the cool websites out there. How redundant would that be?

In the meantime, here are two of my favorites:

The Crafter's Tome

The Crafter's Tome is a great little website that lists all of the recipes available for all of the professions, as well as where to get them, the reagents, and the stats of the resulting product. It is also filterable so you can search for items that fit a certain item slot, for example. Check it out - it's a good reference website!

Wow-Pro

The link I've included goes to Wow-Pro's class guides which, I believe, is the best part of this website. True, wow-pro is the home of Tourguide, which is one of my favorite addons, but if you have the addon, you don't really need the leveling guides that came before (which, I admit, are just as awesome). However, the class guides are phenomenal. Whenever I hear someone asking for help with a new class, I direct them to these guides. They aren't perfect, and they aren't for raiding (at least I don't use them for that), but the leveling guides are made in an easy to read and easier to follow format that allows anyone to get their feet wet playing a brand new class. They are, I think, the perfect starting point.


Those are two of my favorite websites that most people don't know about. What are some of yours?

Becoming a raid pug healer!

Server: Khadgar (US) - PVE
Character: Keleili (80 human priest)
Achievements:

• I cleared ToC10 (healing)!
• I almost cleared ToC25 (healing)!
• I am having fun!!

I haven't updated recently... I guess I should do that, huh?

So, last week, I was able to make another go at ToC.

Wednesday - I got into a great ToC10 group. The leader was amazing and we managed to clear the entire raid without a single wipe. In fact, we only had a couple of deaths. Considering we were 2-healing it, I'd say I was a good healer! And I had a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to joining another group tonight.

Thursday - I actually got into a ToC25 man group on Thursday. We did well, but we didn't have the dps to take Anub down. Oh, well, it was good experience and I got a trophy! Now I have to save up 75 emblems of triumph to get a tier 9.5 piece.

I also got into an Ulduar group, but we didn't get it cleared. Still, I got more experience, so it went well. I'll keep doing it until I get it cleared, just to say that I have cleared it.

...and that's pretty much it. Pilgrim's Bounty began on Sunday. I have finished most of it, but I still need to peg a troll rogue with my turkey shooter, sit down at 2 horde tables, and kill Talon King Ikiss. Then I'll get my turkey! Whoot!

All in all... I'm doing well. I really feel like I've found my sweet spot. ToC10 was... amazing. I was pushed to the challenging edge of my abilities, but I pulled through. Last night, I spoke with a friend on another world, Vanata, and she told me how she got into a ToC10 group for the first time as well. She is a druid healer, and she said that as much as she dislikes raids, she had fun being a highly geared healer and being pushed to the edge of what she can do. That's pretty much it exactly. That's exactly how I feel. So, yeah, I can't wait to get into ToC10 again.

Getting my feet wet

Server: Khadgar (US) - PVE
Character - Keleili

The Plaguechill guild got a server-first on Khadgar this weekend. But since I'm not in Plaguechill, this post is about my personal Kel-firsts that happened. ;)

I decided late last week that I wanted to raid, so I started joining pugs with a vengeance this weekend.

Thursday - I healed 10-man Onyxia. I'd done this raid before, but I did get a nice caster cloak. :)

Friday - In the afternoon, I researched 10-man ToC, and you girls even helped me understand a few confusing fights. But when I got home, I found myself constrained by the curse of "link achievement, or no invite!" *sigh* So, I was invited into a 10-man Ulduar raid instead. Which is fine, except... I stepped into Ulduar and realized that I hadn't bothered to research THOSE fights... I had no idea WTH I was doing! I tried to tell them that I hadn't done this raid before, but then they were getting in vehicles and driving off and leaving me behind and I had to just leap in a vehicle and follow behind and hope that I figured it out as I went. O.O In the end, it was a sort of rough raid, but we managed to take down Flame Leviathan (Shutout) and Razorscale (whom we 1-shotted) before the raid fell apart. Still, I had fun, and I can't wait to go back.

After Ulduar, one of the same raiders invited me to join them for 25-man Naxx, and since I had nothing better to do, I decided to go along. It was... interesting. But mostly because I think most of the raiders were rather drunk (it was late on a Friday night). I did get the achievement for clearing the arachnid quarter (The Arachnid Quarter) and another one because we weren't really strategizing (Momma Said to Knock You Out). After that, it was late and I had to bow out of the raid.

Sunday - In the afternoon, I logged on to immediately hear someone asking for a disc priest for 10-man ToC. Excited, I offered to join and was invited. I flew to the tournament and then realized... that this wasn't ToC. This was ToGC. *Cue me silently FREAKING OUT*. They had already gotten up to the champions the day before, so we started there. I should have backed out of the raid, but I was honestly too busy freaking out to do so. So, we made it through the champions and then the twins. At Anub, they decided to 2-heal it, so they asked me to go shadow. I warned them that I didn't have a gear set for shadow and so I wasn't hit-capped, but they wanted me to dps anyway. So... I tried. Honestly, I tried. In the end, they had to replace me because I was most definitely the weakest link. I bowed out gracefully, but it was still kind of depressing.

After that, I tried to cheer myself up by doing something easier. I joined a 25-man VoA pug, which went okay (Heroic: Koralon the Flame Watcher), then I grouped up with some guildies to 5-man the heroic daily. And in that I learned a valuable lesson. I learned that one of the most important roles of guildies is that when you are feeling down about your abilities in a pugged ToGC raid, they can cheer you up and make you feel like you are a worthwhile healer once more. Seriously - I LOVE MY GUILD.

However, there is one very cool thing about ToGC. When the twins fell, they dropped Enlightenment. And I won it. I, honestly, feel guilty about winning it, especially when some people offered to buy it off me, but... good or bad, I kept it.

TL;DR - I healed a lot of failed pug raids this weekend, including a 10-ToC, which turned out to be ToGC, and they asked me to dps, but I didn't have the gear, so I failed, and they replaced me, which was depressing. Then some guildies ran HHoS with me and made me feel good about my healing abilities again. I <3 my guild.

Circle of Healers (or I can't believe I'm doing this...)

Okay, I give in. I can only hold out for so long.

What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer? Keleili, 80 Human Priest, Disc-specced (on Khadgar!)

What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans) Primarily 5-man heroics, with an occassional 10-man PUG or 25-man Kittenraid.

What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why? Penance. It has no casting time, so in a pinch, I can start healing people immediately. And the 'shwoop' sound is awesome!

What healing spell do you use least for your class and why? Heal and Lesser Heal. Greater Heal & Renew only get used out of combat, when I'm topping people off or healing up the party after a wipe. Flash heal and Penance get used in combat.

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why? What Lilitharien said - damage mitigation (in fact, I'm going to agree with her on most of these questions, I'm sure). I much prefer stopping damage before it starts because it makes my life less stressful - I can keep shields up most of the time and not have to feel my blood pressure spike when the damage spikes. Also, PWS is awesome for catching a dpser who takes a little bit of agro/AOE damage. It is instant cast, so I can immediately get back to healing the tank, and I trust it more than a renew in the case that the dps takes a bit more damage (I have no idea if he/she will take more damage than the renew will heal). Throwing a renew on top is just the icing on the cake, but isn't usually necesary if the dps is decently geared/played.

What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why? Healing the raid. Not just raids, either. Put me in a 5-man for heroic ToC that is made up entirely of melee dps, and I will cry tears of blood.

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you? Tanks, definitely, but I would even say that I prefer MTs over OTs. I have a habit of shielding anyone who is taking damage, and if I see the MT taking damage when he/she doesn't have the weakened soul debuff, it drives me crazy. That's damage that could have been prevented from ever happening, guys! (To explain, I HATE it when someone else shields my target - it takes away my bonus healing - so I try not to shield a tank unless I know there aren't any disc priests healing them).

What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why? Priest. I've done a little healing on my lvl 70 shammy, and even less healing on my lvl 62 druid, though, so I don't really have enough experience to compare them.

What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why? I tried healing on my shammy during BC, and just couldn't get into it, but that might change later if I gave her another shot. I'm working on getting my druid up to 80 and then will probably go resto with her. But I have no desire to try a holy pally.

What is your worst habit as a healer? Probably that I can zone out if things get boring. If I'm running with a good group and a well-geared tank, I can get bored enough that I zone out and then come back to, "Oh, crap!" To this day, I have never let anyone die, but... *shrugs*

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing? Most of my experience is with 5-mans, but I would have to say that my biggest issue is... the whiner. I can't think of a better name for them. And it's not any one thing that they do that makes me angry, but rather running with them exhausts me and puts me in a bad mood. Let me see if I can come up with some points of distinction for them:

• They usually are not well geared for the instance being run
• They are impatient
• When they type, it's never in complete sentences
• When they type, they rarely say anything that benefits the group/run
• If things don't go the way they want (such as you decide to bow out due to wipes), they beg

I can't describe it better than that right now, but I have come across this type of person so many times and I have seen how they will suck the energy right out of me, and leave me feeling like a raging zombie. In short, not fun.

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing? Yes, and no. In 5-man, I think the class is very well balanced. With the exception of HToC, I have never had trouble healing AOE damage in heroics. In 10- and 25-man raids, the tank & raid healer distinction comes into play. Most raid leaders seem to understand these distinctions, but I've run into problems several times where I am competing with other disc priests for raid spots in PUGs. Disc healing appears (at least on my server) to be more popular than Holy healing, and that is making it difficult. So, it's not exactly a balance issue, but a popularity issue.

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer? Honestly, I don't have any. I just heal... and if my target(s) don't die, I have succeeded as a healer.

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class? Hmm... I don't know... in the world of 5-man heroics, I haven't come up against many true misconceptions. I guess sometimes I have to explain to tanks in heroics that I heal partly through mitigation, and that I'd rather shield them before they pull than heal them after.

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn? For me, when I hit 80, the challenge was grasping what gear I needed and what stats I wanted. Disc priests are unique enough that what is right for just about every other healer might not be right for disc priests (gear-wise).

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 healing output, most likely, because I don't think recount has figured out how to measure damage absorbed by PWS as healing - has it?

Haste or Crit and why? Crit crit crit crit. I've actually just started adding some haste to my gear, but I prefer crit over haste when I'm given the choice. Why? Of my three most commonly used spells (penance, flash heal, PWS), only 1 has a casting time. But all three have added benefits when they crit.

What healing class do you feel you understand least? Hmm... druid, I think. Despite the fact that I have a druid and have no wish to play a pally, druids are almost as different from priests as you can get, and I haven't actually started healing on my druid.

What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing? VuhDo is <3!!!>

Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why? I'm at a point where I can finally start tweaking my gear based on what I need. I can't remember the last time I went OOM, so I've started to sacrifice MP5 for spellpower/crit. I'm also starting to add haste to my gear, though it's a slow process because I'm not willing to sacrifice much crit (or any SP) for the added haste.

PUGs and Laziness

Server: Khadgar (US) - PVE
Character: Keleili (80 Draenai Priest)
Others: Keliki (60 Nightelf Druid)
Achievements:

• The Hallowed title
• Chasing Marcia Achievement
• Keliki hit 60!
• Keliki learned her flight form!

On Sunday, I hooked up with a PUG for Heroic Trial of the Champions. It was myself (priest), hunter, pally (tank), mage, and balance druid. Hmm, I thought. Mostly ranged. This should be EZ-mode.

Well, we made it through without any wipes. No wipes, but there were plenty of deaths. The catch is that everyone in the group was VERY well geared. So, what went wrong?

1. No one bothered to mark the champions during the joust. We were all picking on different champions, which allowed the different champions to pick us off one by one. Luckily for us, it's a short flight from the graveyard back into the instance. I was one of the unfortunate many, and I admit it was kind of hysterical to watch me get dismounted by one champion, then immediately trampled by another before I could hit the ground. So, I died and hurried back in, grabbed another mount and made sure to stand on the tauren champion so that he couldn't remount. Even then, with 2 champions left, it took us several minutes to finish them off, leaving me to wonder why. What took us so long?

Then the champion fights began. We were lucky enough to get the troll AND the orc. Joy. However, I took comfort in the fact that we had twice as much ranged as melee. This should be totally easy. Besides, at least we marked them?

2. Then the pally decided not to move the champions out of the poison. *sigh* I healed him through it, but it was close, and the hunter's pet died. Then the mage started taking damage. WTF? looked up from my health bars and realized... the mage was standing in poison. Just... standing there... casting. Not bothering to move. Hellooooooooo?! I almost let her die - because my priority is keeping the tank up. But she survived. (Darn.) Then the hunter started taking damage. When I realized that HE was standing in the poison - not bothering to get out of it - I actually had to do a double take and make sure this was the hunter and not the mage. Surely I wouldn't have 2 stupid people in one PUG? I know, I know, that's a silly thing to ask, but if you are geared enough to kick butt in H ToC, then one would assume that you know how to handle the fights? Again, I almost let him die, healing the pally first (because, of course, the pally is still standing in the poison), but the hunter lived, as well.

So, while we finished the champions without anyone except the hunter's pet dying, I was left exhausted and... baffled. Did I have party members who were being totally lazy or did they seriously not know how to handle the fights? The problem is that I can't imagine how they could not know. I mean for one thing, if you have DBM, it screams at you - "POISON! MOVE YOUR ASS NOW!" How can you miss that? And for another thing, if you are watching your screen at all, you should notice that there is a BIG GREEN BLOB at your feet. In what universe does BIG GREEN BLOB = HAPPY BUNNY LAND?

So, why, you ask, does it matter whether my party members were stupid or lazy? Because, I have to admit, that it actually makes me angrier to think that they must have been lazy. Being lazy means intentionally making me work harder. Yes, I am well geared. Yes, I *can* heal you through it. But comparing the effort it takes me to heal you through it vs. the effort it takes you to MOVE... let's re-evaluate this, shall we? >.<

I'm not spitting mad or anything, but I admit to being slightly annoyed. Rude people tend to annoy me, and the way I see it, the only explanation can be that my party was being lazy and inconsiderate and rude. Of course, it didn't end there.

3) Luckily for us, we got Eadric. EZ-mode, right? So, why, pray-tell, were my party members getting stunned by Eadric's flash of light? How hard is it to turn around during that attack? Honestly? Every single flash caught at least 2 people stunned. Honestly? *facepalm*

4) Do you think the Black Knight would have gone any better? Hah, you'd be wrong. Phase 2 was a nightmare. I don't think there was any AOE, which is strange considering we had a hunter, a mage, a balance druid and a pally. O.o I spent the entire time getting ganked by ghouls with my fade on cooldown (because I was using it every chance I had), and the rest of the party was equally fighting off ghouls one by one. ONE BY ONE. It was so bad, that there were so many ghouls left that the BK couldn't explode them all, leaving one to continue to beat on ME (ME! THE HEALER!) during Phase 3. Did anyone bother to take it off me? No. When the BK went down (miraculously, with only 1 death), I was still getting beat on by that ghoul while the party looted the BK. *facepalm*

I left the group feeling stressed, exhausted and... baffled. What was up with those people? Did they think it was funny? Were they so confident in their leet abilities that they could be lazy and let the healer take all the stress? The thing is, the people were nice. But the way they played their classes and the way they handled the fights... I was not impressed.

The lesson to take away is this - please. On behalf of all of the healers out there. DON'T BE LAZY! Unless you know the healer and have made arrangements with him/her ahead of time, don't assume that leet gear overrides proper playing tactics!!