From Leaves to Light

A long-time reader/commenter/friend Kayeri recently had a dilemma; her guild asked her to do something she'd never done before. Normally a Tree, they requested that she switch her main to her Holy Paladin (as they seem to be becoming some sort of endangered species). She agreed to give it a shot, and then came to me to talk about it.

I wrote a while ago about some differences I noticed immediately when starting a Paladin after only healing with a Druid. Cast times, mobility loss, no HoTs, AoE issues...it all hit rather hard, to the point where I was stressed whenever I tried to heal on Bellbell. It was so different, and at the time, it felt weaker.

This, unfortunately, was due to me not playing to, nor understanding, its strengths.

Druids are HoT healers. Anyone spamming Nourish is almost certainly doing it wrong. We blanket raids, we roll stacks of various HoTs, we run around and hop side to side. We shift out of snares, dispells curses and poisons, and we Cyclone, on the rare occasion it is necessary. But what makes a Paladin?

Paladins are direct damage healers. Except for their HoT on targets effected by Sacred Shield, they do not have any skills that continue healing after the initial burst has landed. With a Paladin, what you get hit with is what you get. This takes a lot of habit breaking from playing a Druid. You can't just pop a heal on someone and leave them alone if they're low; their health won't continue to rise on its own.

A Paladin's strengths are in big (costly) heals and cooldowns. This class has cooldowns for everything. Increase healing. Regen Mana (at the cost of healing). Reduce Mana cost. Take damage for another. Take damage for the raid. Make another player immune to physical damage. Make yourself immune to all damage. Drop someone's threat. Remove and prevent snares. Heal to full in an instant. A sudden boost to any aura you're wearing to weather practically any elemental storm or, since it's usable while mounted, burst your entire raid from teleport pad to Gunship in six seconds.

It is very easy for people to say "All Paladins do is Holy/Flash of Light." That is the really boring, really narrow, mediocre, annotated, TL;DR, lazy version of Paladin healing. And it may seem like, wow, next to a Druid, there seem to be so few spells...

Well, that's because most of the spells aren't about directly healing, even if the ones you use for the majority of the time are.

Druids are about rolling HoTs, right? Well, then you should already be familiar with the concepts needed to maintain, and transfer, Sacred Shield and Beacon of Light to appropriate targets. They are, in application, like extended HoTs in that you do not want them to fall off. If they fall off, your tank starts taking more damage or your heals around the raid are not going to your Beacon target. I'm not sure about you, but if my HoTs ticked on the tank every time they ticked on someone else, I'd make sure that Beacon never disappeared. The same holds true for the Haste buff that comes from Judging on an enemy target. Without it, your heals are slower and less effective.

Oh yeah, and Holy Shock is like Swiftmend without the need to heal them with something else first. Very pro.

Holy Paladins are highly mana-dependent, especially when going into a Holy Light spec (this is the Holy spec that delves into the Devo tree for improved shields and the ability to absorb damage on the raid). There are very good reasons why Paladins gem as much Intellect as possible; Holy Light is expensive to "spam," and Divine Plea will restore a quarter of your mana (usually used in conjunction with Avenging Wrath to buffer the loss in healing output). Think of it like an Innervate with some penalties, and that needs to be managed well. You can also use it along with Divine Illumination, and with 2-piece T10, Divine Illumination buffers your healing as well, making it a good candidate to use in combination with Divine Plea, allowing you to stagger the cooldowns and have more options to gain mana.

Paladins should have sharp raid awareness. You should be ready to switch auras for situational damage just like you would be ready to shift forms out of a snare. People will call for a lot of things you never had to worry about before as a Tree. Freedom through ooze, Salvation for a tank on Festergut or an over-eager DPS on any fight, a Hand of Protection for a Warlock about to pull every Vengeful Fleshreaper on his face on the way through Plague Wing trash, an iceblock breaking too early on Sindragosa and needing to Aura Mastery + Ice Resist Aura through a Frost Bomb...you get the idea.

But really, until you've lived it, you don't. Druids aren't cooldown based classes at the moment, because we don't mesh well with them. Paladins do. They open their magic toolbox and throw their toys around and they have a magic toy for almost any situation. If all you are doing is spamming Holy Light, then you are doing as poorly as a Restoration Druid who only hits Rejuv or Nourish.

Remember how Resto Druids have a sort of "bastard cousin," the Dreamstate Druid? How, at one point, Dreamstate was where the hip kids were at, and then it changed?

All right, now I'm sure you've heard about Flash of Light and Holy Light Paladins. There is a difference. Astounding, I know! Flash of Light is less bastard, however, and is more the spec that is just not bad but not as good when it comes to a raiding situation. Flash of Light goes into the Ret tree instead of the Devo, upping personal crit instead of gaining a raid cooldown. They are about quick, high-hitting Flashes of Light on as many people as possible. They go for Crit gear and Spellpower gems, when a Holy Light Paladin would prefer Haste and Intellect gems.

Do you guys know that belt off of Gunship 25 man? That belt every Paladin seems reluctant to take?

It's because it sucks. You're better off with a mail belt than that thing. The Mp5 is okay (did you know Crit was devalued and Mp5 revalued for mana regen?) but the crit just destroys the belt. Most Paladins get their crit from combined haste and crit pieces; solely crit pieces are a bit of a sacrifice.

So if you've ever wondered why that belt goes for so low in your GDKP run, to an offspec Paladin at min price, it's because it's just not something that great to wear. Sure if it's a huge upgrade, you'd put it on, but it's about as great as an Intellect Trinkett with a Spellpower cooldown would be for a Druid, and looks just as pro to any Paladin who knows what they're doing.

Oh yeah, and, 2 piece T10 is awesome! 4 piece isn't worth your time; find better off pieces for the other slots.

This has been my extremely nutshell'd version of Paladin healing, with some Druid analogies and comparisons thrown in to help ease the way. I hope this helps a bit with the drastic class shock of switching between the two types of healers, for Kayeri and anyone else attempting the switch. I'm happy to answer any questions in the comments, and if I don't know the answer I'll probably just go whine to Sharlet (my mentor in the ways of Paladin'ing) until I get it.

Buffing For Paladins 101

...should seriously be a class all Paladins are forced to take. It would entail mandatory downloading of Pally Power and a passing A grade to be allowed to raid as any kind of Paladin, as well as credits in Advanced Buffing, Buffing Theory, and Advanced Buffing Theory. Why? Because, honestly, a lot of Paladins don't get it right. (HEY GUYS THIS IS A RANT JUST IN CASE YOU DIDN'T KNOW)

Take last Tuesday night. I set up Pally Power for an Ony 10 man...and then the Ret Paladin goes in and changes it as soon as I buff. He puts me on giving out Kings, him on Might and the Prot on Sanc. Okay, I say, who is spotting me Wisdom? Because you don't have free assignment checked, and you're not doing it.

Do it yourself, you should have the 30 minute Wisdom glyph, he responds.

Then I won't have Kings, I point out. So then we do this convoluted thing where I buff everyone with Kings and then buff myself with Wisdom and then the tank buffs me with Kings and the Ret does nothing. I could have Sanc, Wisdom and Kings if he would have spotted me the Kings, but apparently I really need his improved Might buff.

Pally Power was set up perfectly until the Ret screwed with it. And, if he'd had Free Assignment checked, I could have organized it so that he got his improved Might and I got my Improved Wisdom and everyone got Kings and Sanc. But no, he went through and started putting it so that the Hunters got Sanc instead of Wisdom and I was giving out Kings instead of improved Wisdom and AUGH.

Wisdom is a bigger DPS increase than Sanc for Hunters, by the way, since the Hunter should not be getting hit! He doesn't need the damage taken percent decrease, he needs mana so that he doesn't have to spend as much time, if any, in Viper. The Prot Paladin is doing Kings, you're giving him Might, and I'll give him Wisdom. Stop changing it so the Prot Paladin is doing Sanc! Sanc is the last buff anyone should get (of the buffs beneficial to them) unless they are a tank.

Stop touching Pally Power if you don't know how to use it. And if you have mastered the rudimentary controls of Pally Power, make sure that you don't assign the Holy Paladin to have to give themself their two most important buffs. Because Paladins can't buff themselves with more than one blessing.

I know it can get annoying for Paladins to listen to the raid repeating ad nauseam "I need this buff." "Why don't I have this buff?" But I can say that I play a Paladin, and so long as you have Pally Power and understand the concepts behind your buffs, its really not that hard to make sure you never hear it. Set up any scenario and I will tell you how to buff with (a) Paladin(s) to maximize DPS, health or healing. You don't even really need Pally Power, it's just easier. So, come on, guys. Get on the ball here.

Locked into Healing

I've come across this dilemma with Bellbell time and time again. I levelled her to be Ret. But she is, most definitely, Holy.

The problem started as soon as I got to 80. It was just easier to get groups as a Holy Paladin, so that's what I did. It was easier to get raids started if I chose to heal, it was easier to be involved in anything. So, in order to get things done, I continually switched to her Holy spec.

Well, common loot rules being what they are, your main spec is what you're raiding as, and those upgrades for the DPS set take a while to accumulate. It eventually came to pass that while her Holy set was nearly all ToC 10 and 25 gear, she was still wearing a blue hit trinket and Ebon Blade reputation boots, and a tournament badge sword.

I finally bought her two pieces of badge-only T9 ret gear...and she's never had an occasion to use it. In fact, it's almost like clockwork; as soon as I equip her Ret gear and switch to her Ret spec, a friend needs a healer. It's come to the point where I only play her to help other people (thus the lack of Bellbell-flavored posts).

Now, another Paladin in my guild has the exact opposite problem. He's been running only as Ret because that's the only gear set he has (he apparently didn't do what I did and save up every random piece of offset gear while levelling), but all he wants to do is tank or heal. So while he's sitting with the sword off of Onyxia bemoaning his lack of a healing trinket, I'm silently sending envy waves at him.

It seems like dual spec didn't really change anything for me, besides not having to pay for Bellwether's respecs to PvP. It made Bellbell's situation worse, because eventually to do the content I wanted to do, I had to play her "secondary" spec. I don't have the time to continually farm for her to keep her DPS spec up to snuff, and the fact that healers are always in demand and plate DPS is everywhere, there's just nowhere for her to fit in.

For example, the ToC 25 I ran on Saturday? Along the lines of three or four ret paladins, two warriors, and three or four DKs. Completely detrimental to the group for me to say "Screw healing, I'm going to overload our melee even more."

Well, who cares? Tell one of the other Paladins to switch and get your Ret on.

For one, I'm not a jerk. I'm not going to say "one of you respec just for me so I can bring in my eclectically geared ret paladin." The other paladins have tank offspecs, and we have plenty of (sometimes too many) tanks for my alt ToC 25 run.

For another, it gets groups together, and faster. I don't know how many times groups have fallen apart because we couldn't find a healer. Eventually, even if I'm in a PUG, I'll have to admit that I can switch to healing after we sit in LFG for half an hour with no bites. I don't have time to sit around in a LFG channel; with all the other things going on in my life, if I'm going to run something I need it to start quickly.

There's also healer guilt. "We wouldn't be sitting in LFG if I just switched to healing." "Time is wasting because I want to DPS." "They just need a healer...I suppose I can do it." "If I switch to my healer then maybe the tanks won't die."

It's not that I don't like healing. If I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn't have kept the spec. It's that it's not what my character was supposed to do. It was just for me to experiment with other types of healing. But I made a mistake at level 80, and even with the gear I have for Ret, if Bellbell ever sees Arthas, it will be wearing the wrong kind of dress.

Glowwy Finger Wiggling is Hard

'Sup, guys, Bellbell here. I know a lot of the time I rag on healing because, well, I signed up to be a face-wrecker. I have this wonderful new polearm that's put my Crit through the roof, but I never get to use it because everyone is always "OMG WHERE ARE TEH HAELZ" followed by one rogue-ish fellow asking me why there were two healers in Bellwether's crew. Frustrating, no?

Still, if I'm going to do it, I might as well do it well, right? So, knowing Bellwether's beau is a rather pro Holy Paladin (and Paladin in general), I went to him with a question: How do you know when to use Divine Favor?

The following was the conversation:

Poise: It's an instinct for me, all I could categorize it as.
Poise: Just kind-of triggers every so often and I pull out a huge crit that heals for full without overheal.
Poise: Always the DF+HS+FL combo
Poise: Double instant cast, and if you're paying attention to SS, you can roll off the FoL as a 50%(+your holy crit) chance to crit.
Poise: Trigger on SS is static to an internal cooldown and swing timers of the units attacking the target so it's relatively easy to time.

My response to this?

/boggle

I have a long way to go before I can pull this combo out without thinking, that's for sure...though I'd still love to see the day when my healing gear isn't outstripping my DPS gear by a mile.

New Class, Same Job

I wrote only a little while ago about how different I found healing on my Paladin to be as compared to my Druid. I've done a lot more healing since then, and I've found it to slowly start losing its stress as I became more competent. I'm still shaky and not completely confident about my skill as a Paladin healer, and Retribution is still my first love on Bellbell, but I've figured out some tips for those who have new alts who do the same job as their main.

It's important to remember, first of all, that even if the goal of your job hasn't changed, a lot about how you go about achieving the goal has. You are not playing your main, so using the same style will not work. The sooner you can break out of the mindset of your main, the sooner you can begin shaping a new one for your alt. For example, when playing my Restoration Druid, I know that when I have HoTs on a character, they will continue to heal, whether I take some time to focus on another character or if I use more healing moves on them. However, with a Holy Paladin, what I heal is what they get. When a Flash of Light lands, the amount that is healed is the amount that is healed, and there is no continuation of healing, no ticks. When the group/raid is taking damage, I cannot just hit Wild Growth and spot some here and there. I have to immediately begin throwing out concentrated, focused heals.

It's also good to remember that you are not going to be the best immediately (barring some exceptions). You've spent years perfecting your Rogue's rotation, adapting to subtle changes, optimizing main hand and off hand, tweaking your talent tree and switching poisons. Moving over to a Fury Warrior, you may not have the rotation down. Your gear will probably be weaker. Be prepared to be slower at adapting to changes, of learning new ways to use moves or different ways to spec talents. Take it slow, take it easy, and let yourself make mistakes.

Don't jump right into the harder instances. You'll be kicking yourself and hating the alt if you go right to heroics when you should be doing 80 normal instances. Your main may have been able to do those instances in worse gear, but, remember, you've known that character for a long time. You've possibly been through several expansions with it. This alt has either been a long time in levelling, or is brand new. Or, perhaps, it's a dual spec you've never given a shot. Don't jump in head-first; use some water wings first.

And, goodness, if it's stressing you out, take a break. Have fun with it.

Druid vs. Paladin Healing, A Noob's View

This post will include talk about Bellbell, but will not be in her voice. Sorry, fans!

So, this weekend, I tried healing on my Paladin for the first time. Her gear, though not the best, has been sufficient for normal 80 instances (all that she has been healing since she dinged; did I mention she's 80 now?). Obviously, I have two more years of experience on healing with a Druid than I do with a Paladin, as before this level, Bellbell only threw out emergency heals until her tiny mana pool ran out. So needless to say, this has been an entirely new experience.

The first thing I noticed was that I could no longer jump around while healing. I was intensely stationary. Any loss of mobility has never been a problem for a druid (barring Judgement of Justice), and to suddenly be glued to the ground caused me some irritation. Yet, it was not an overwhelming problem; I still had Holy Shock should I need a quick, small heal while I was in transit, or Lay on Hands in an emergency. Sacred Shield, though not really a heal, is also instant cast and can ease the burden of mobility issues.

The next difference was the cast timer. Rather than the bulk of my heals being instant, I had to deal with cast times. This, I will not lie, stressed me out. It didn't matter how short the cast was, I was completely tense while I waited for the cast to come off. Why? Well, with a Druid, while your cast-time spells are going off, generally there are HoTs ticking on your target. You're still healing while you're casting. On a Paladin, no such luck. And though I am attempting to pre-cast my heals, the lack of practice makes me only correct about a fourth of the time.

Finally...no AoE. This has been a major adjustment. Though Beacon of Light takes some of the pressure off of tank healing during those times when everyone is taking damage, the lack of an instant (or even cast-time) AoE heal just plain hurts. Due to my current gear situation, it obviously hurts a little more than others with better stats, but, still. Ouch.

Paladin healing is by no means bad, nor do I dislike it. It has simply been a major adjustment, especially as I raised Bellbell since level 10 to be Retribution (I was Ret before Ret was cool). She is slowly gaining gear, and being able to try out a different perspective in healing has been very informative. It may just be the two years of experience talking, but, I still love Druid healing most of all.

Explanations, Ponies and Blasphemy

All right, I’m going!

Sheesh, she’s been so pushy lately. I mean, what’s a paladin got to do to get a break around here?

Oh, and now I’m apparently talking too loud. She’s got a hangover from Brewfest, that lush. And no Kodo, either. Though, I suppose she could maybe deserve the break. Bellwether apparently just got a new job and she has intensive Uni courses, and her computer decided to be a royal bitch and refuse to run WoW without regularly freezing and killing itself (and subsequently me and her). She said something about it being outdated before it was even off the shelves, but she's probably getting a new one. Or something.

But, anyway, I doubt you care about why she’s been gone. You’re probably all like Button, who is sitting there going “I don’t care that you’re tired! You have to post! I don’t care about that stats test or Japanese blog or thesis paper, write about dr00ds or something!” I’d forgive him, as he’s just sore about the royal ass-kicking Sharlet handed him, except Bellwether’s making me write something for you all, and she demands I don’t get blood on the paper.

Such a perfectionist, really.

Anyway, you guys haven’t really heard from me since I was chewing out that hunter who’s doing naughty things with pets on the beta. Since then I’ve gained a ton of levels, replaced Princess Sparklebutt with the as of yet unnamed but shinier Charger, and gotten perhaps the sexiest weapon on the planet (if it was alive I would marry it and we would have dangerous little spiky paladin babies).

Anyway. I suppose you’re wondering how I did it. After all, Bellwether is a failure at leveling alts! It’s true, just ask her.

Well, it’s because I didn’t have to do anything. No, really. I just hit auto-follow and Sharlet has decimated Razor Fen Downs(1), Zul’Farrak(2), Mara(1), Sunken Temple(1), Scholomance(3-4), Dire Maul(1), Stratholme(2), Ramparts(2) and Blood Furnace(1). Those numbers are how many times he took me through. He let me attack Horde with little interference other than cleansing fears off me, and decimated any ganker who thought I might be easy prey. When your bodyguard is a titled and T6+Brutal Paladin, you're almost guaranteed an easy experience in PvP zones.

Okay, so that’s not entirely true about the auto-follow; I’ve done some leveling on my own. I’ve done almost every quest in Hellfire Peninsula, even ones Bellwether never did! She was astounded when I told her about bombing runs and burning blade throwers.

Of course, she was a pansy little healer trying to solo everything, so I guess it’s to be expected she’d miss out on a lot. Those ravagers she had to sneak around to get eggs, I just cut them down.

DPS is delicious.

Bellwether’s been pushing me lately. She wants me to play in Kara before the expansion, as it’s apparently an undeath-fest and I’ll get to Exorcise with impunity. Perhaps even Turn some Evil!

It might be blasphemous, but by the Light, I love undead. They’re so delightfully fragile.

So, that’s it. While Bellwether gets drunk at Brewfest and does school work (in, perhaps, that order), I’m ripping Outlands apart in the hopes I can slash Arthas in two. I may be an embarrassment to the Light, but I sure as hell am not some emo boohoo why does no one love me no one understands my pain I’m so mistreated Death Knight.

Bellbell: A (Re)Introduction

Most of you don't know me, and even more of you didn't even know I existed until just now. My name is Bellbell, and I'm the highest level member of Bellwether's crew under Bellworker herself. 'M not as into the whole pirating thing as the Pirate Queen, who seems to be enjoying picking fights with goblins these days, but I wouldn't say no to taking down a ship or two. Though that's kind of going off on a tangent and it seems necessary that perhaps I be a bit more professional here. *snerk*

Like I was saying. I'm Bellbell, and I'm a Retribution Paladin. I once had a little space to myself where I said I was going to be a Shockadin, but I didn't take care of it so Bellwhiner took it away. Said it was obviously too much work for me and that, if I had something to say, I could just say it here.

I don't know what she's thinking. I'm not the best at healing (though, unlike some Paladins, I haven't forgotten that I can), and I'm certainly not some pine-scented woodland frolicker. I'm also pretty lazy. I leave all the technique stuff up to other people unless I get in some sort of responsible mood. Ha.

Last time I talked about myself, I was massacring the denizens of Scarlet Monastary with some help from friends, piecing together a pretty red set and content to just chill out at 39 and smack some Horde in the face in a Warsong or Arathi every once in a while. Bellwether was busy pretending she'd ever see past Karazhan. I guess it worked because she got there, but this isn't about her. For once.

Anyway, things happened, comrades retired, and I'm left sitting in an empty guild with an obsolete guild tag. I drop that like a bad habit and I'm a free agent, and I'm thinking I may stay this way. Guildies chattering away in your ear doesn't let you savor the death throes of your enemy, you know? Life was pretty easy.

But one day Bellwhatever charges into my room in the Ironforge inn (I'm sure it has a name, just as I'm sure I don't care enough to learn it) and sort of dumps me on my butt. She can get scary, even if she is some sort of healer. Then she goes on about how she's tired of doing all the work for the crew and we have to start pulling our own weight or no more cherry-flavored health potions and lazy days of Horde killing.

Now I pointed out she was taking away my lazy days anyway by making me go out and do something, but you know how it goes. I lost the argument, grumbled, picked up my axe, and went back to Dustwallow.

For the record, I hate swamps. Grime and muck and moss and mold squooshing between the cleft in my hoof ain't exactly comfortable. And I had gotten soft and lazy, but I eventually picked myself back up and could cut through things again. Solid things that go SCHLUCK when you pull your axe out of them.

Mmm.

I gained my pony, Princess Sparklebutt, and some Paladin Bellwhimsy has been making eyes at ripped apart that place with the pigmen (I'd been there before with a Rogue, but I had somehow found even more quests for that stank hole), and then he pushed me over to Desolace to get quests for some horribly convoluted place called Maraudon.

I need to rename my pony, as I can never think about the name "Princess" in the same light again. Gag-me-with-a-spoon-and-stab-me-with-a-fork, but that...elemental, I guess...was just deformed. The fact that she actually procreated makes my libido want to kill itself.

Anyway.

I was originally doing Jewelcrafting, which seemed like a good idea at the time. But I kept wrecking gems with bad cuts, and going to the Exodar everytime I needed a skill was just plain hassle. I had to take boats and gryphons and hippogryphs just to get there. And then I'd get there and the guards would be all "oh no, she's back again" with the faces and the looks.

I flunked Paladin school, did you know?

Something about Justice and Right and Protect the Weak and blah, blah, blah. I have an axe, I introduce it to Horde face. It seems to work well enough so far. Everything else is pretty much complication.

That orc guy Ratshag has been wandering around in some buff Draenei suit as of late, but I'm sure he's having some sort of identity crisis by this point. Don't even know if he's really Horde anymore, to be honest.

To continue, I hated Jewelcrafting, but I didn't know what else to pick up. Professions are kind of a pain in my opinion, but Bellwarning says it's obvious no one will ever want me, so I have to learn to fend for myself. She was kidding, I think, but just to be safe...I picked up Engineering.

Which of course, for a lazy gal like me, was probably the worst choice ever. I had to make four trips around Elwynn to mine copper. Everything takes copper. I do like the bombs. Quite handy if I want something to come to me.

Don't know what the point of telling you all this was, though. Bellwriter thought you might be interested to know about me; I think she's off her rocker. Expect to see me around a bit more in either case, whether I want to be here or not. Gotta do what the boss-lady says, amirite?