Downside of a Respec
Posted on November 19, 2008 - Filed Under Healing, Paladin, Shaman
So yesterday I let you all meet my new “leveling” hybrid spec. And then last night I healed Utgarde Keep and The Nexus, both with a level 72 tank and mostly level 72 DPS.
The verdict?
Definitely doable, though both Keristrasza and Ingvar were tough, both on my mana and my ability to keep up with group damage.
Without the buffs to Chain Heal and without Riptide (I miss it so…) and Earthshield, I found myself relying a lot more on full force Healing Wave spells, which is to be expected, given that it’s a 5 man and not a 25 man group. I had the most trouble with Keristrasza - but that was more a positioning issue than anything else. (Tail sweep = ow!)
I really think it’ll work out though, especially as I get my legs back under me for 5 man healing - and hopefully I won’t get too terribly frustrated. My current points in healing are not unlike the healing spec I had in Burning Crusade when I was trying to heal 5 mans, and not having the synergy of the bottom of the Resto tree - well, we’ll see how it goes, especially as my levels catch up with my gear.
Having a tier 6 geared protection paladin tank doesn’t hurt anything, but it’s not necessarily the most reliable way to gauge how effective a healing spec is, even if you are doing an appropriately leveled instance.
Oh - and one other, unrelated thing. Aely hit 72 last night - do I want to go straight for Dragonblight, or go do some of the Borean Tundra to get ahead before I move on?
(I know, I know - Wrathgate - but I’m seriously considering waiting on some guildmates to do that particular questline, since the poor girl’s mentally exhausted already from all of the Arthas stuff. I don’t think she realized just how bad it would be in Northrend, and it’s wearing her down)
*WTB working copy of modelviewer PST!
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7 Responses to “Downside of a Respec”
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I so wanted to try out a hybrid build while leveling. But I have up to this point never ever skilled elemental or looked at the talent tree below tier 2, so even thinking about throwing LBs makes me feel like I have to learn riding a bike over again.
That might change when I learn lavaburst and there’s still that little shiny light on the horizon that will make all hybrid classes the rulers of WoW: *dualspeccs*
On the leveling note: i peaked into both starting zones and found both fun to quest.
drugs last blog post..WotLK: First Impressions
@drug: Yeah - I’ve finished both questing zones now, Annorah has done all of Borean Tundra and Aely is two quests from being done with Howling Fjord (3 person quests, wtb help!). I’m thinking I’m going to just go ahead and hit Dragonblight, since after helping a friend last night, I’m 3/4 of the way to 73.
You may not care for, or need, the advice but I found on Keristraza (or however it is spelled) that it really works best for the tank to turn her 90 degrees to either side (assuming the group is all approaching from the same direction). Also, make sure that everyone is moving…a lot. If nothing else, *everyone* should jump every 5 seconds to lose the debuff. It is a simple and easy mechanic, and its the key to the encounter. Although, I’m sure it is relatively difficult for healing classes that rely heavily on spells with casting times, particularly if a tank isn’t quite up to task gearwise.
@Yggdrasil:
Yeah - it’s pretty easy to just cast-hop-cast-hop-cast-hop to remove the debuff, even with 2.5 second heal casts. Unfortunately I kept getting tail-side instead of being to her flanks, as I should’ve been, and so I kept getting tossed around.
That was still the fastest and easiest run of the place I’ve had so far. If you were having a tough time healing it certainly didn’t show in the end result! However, you should probably look before you leap next time.
Healing a ‘meh’ geared tank at Keristrasza as a pala is such a freaking pain…
Especially with all the group damage and the “keep moving part”.
Interesting read. Perhaps you’ll delve further into elemental sometime. So far I’ve found that healing as elemental is not only doable, but great fun. More mana to play around with, though with less powerful heals. Then again, I put 5 points in Unrelenting Storm and use the Glyph of Water Mastery. Complete that with Thunderstorm at every cooldown, I had enough mana. You ought to try that yourself, sometime.
Ayebas last blog post..Quick delivery, elemental buffed.