Too Many Annas

Downside of a Respec

8 Written by Anna on November 19, 2008 – 11:31 am

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!

Bucking for a Lightning Bolt

5 Written by Anna on November 18, 2008 – 11:18 am

Ok – so this is a healery type blog right?  I do all the healing dances (well, not Druids – yet!), and you guys have come to expect lots of tasty healery goodness when you come here.

*

But… I have a confession to make.  I’ve not healed anything in Lich King.  Sure – I’ve done Utgarde Keep and The Nexus, Azjol-Nerub and Ahn-Kehat… but I have lots of healer friends.  Lots of them.  Part of being on a 25 man healing team means that proportionally you have 1 tank, 2 healers, and 3 DPS for every 5 people.

Soooo that leaves those of us that play healers with a decision to make.  PUG – or DPS.  I’ve chosen the second option.  Now, for Aelflaed that’s not been so big a deal – a full respec to Ret has been fun, and an enjoyable way to solo.  And Annalira’s Disc spec is perfectly viable for smite-spam (though I’ve hardly played her at all).  But Annorah?  Well… I’m loath to make her into a full on elemental shaman.  I like me some riptide.

So Annorah got a bit of a respec – not a huge one, but one that’s helped significantly with the “soloing” I’ve done with my husband’s paladin, and lets me not feel like a gimp when I’m having to DPS while one of the holy priests gets to heal.

This is what I eventually settled on: 25/0/37 (at level 71) and 30/0/40 (at level 79)

Are they the best builds EVAR?  No way.  Would I recommend them for raiding?  Hell no.  But for leveling, they’ve provided me with enough damage to be useful without gimping my healing so much as to be useless.

Elemental Combat:

1. Convection and Concussion – more damage for less mana, a no brainer
2. Elemental Fury – bigger crits = better
3. Elemental Focus – because not only does this increase my mana management, but the 40% mana reduction applies to healing spells as well
4. 4 points in Reverberation, because they’ve gotta go somewhere!
5. Call of Thunder – similar to Elemental Fury – the crits, they are tasty!
6. Elemental Reach – standard range increasing talent
7. 2 points in Unrelenting Storm – again for the mana regen goodness
8. And eventually, 5 points in Lightning Mastery, which reduces the cast time of offensive lightning spells.

Restoration:

1. Improved Healing Wave and Tidal Focus – casting time and mana efficiency, standard spells
2. Tidal Force – to force crits when things go downhill
3. Healing Focus – a purely soloing talent, this one won’t be in my healing build at 80, but it’s useful when you’re running around killing Mammoths (or whatever)
4. Improved Water Shield – tasty manas are tasty
5. Restorative Totems and Tidal Mastery – since mana regen and extra crit benefits both healing and damage dealing
6. Nature’s Swiftness – 3 minute instant-spell, great for casting a fast healing wave if the tank gets blasted… even if you’re DPSing!
7. 5 points in Purification – better healing, and prerequisite for Cleanse Spirit, which rawks.
8. Mana Tide Totem (again with the synergy)
9. Blessing of the Eternals – more crit and a buff to Earthliving Weapon, which I’ll be relying on if I have to heal.
10. And eventually 3 points in Nature’s Blessing – which only buffs Healing spells.

So that leaves me at level 79, with one last point to put either in Elemental Mastery (forced, mana-free, critical on any damage spell) or Earth Shield (rocks rock!).  Whether I pick one of the two, or respec  back to my intended healing spec at 80 will depend on how much instancing I’m doing, how likely I am to be in a 10 man, and whether I feel like it or not.

What have I learned from all this?  Well, among other things… I like healing.  A lot.  I like healing MUCH better than I like DPS.  I miss it, and being in an instance when I’m not healing feels supremely weird (at least on the “healing” characters – Angoleth doesn’t mind).  So you’ll not likely find much here on DPS, at least not once I get to 80.  For now though, this seems to be the easiest way to get through.

*Image Credit – CraigPJ

Monday Miscellany – Leveling? What’s that?

6 Written by Anna on November 17, 2008 – 9:22 am

1. Annorah is 71 (and about half).
2. Aelflaed is 71 (and about 1/4).
3. Rirri is 58 and building up a full stack of rested XP.  Annalira is my little disenchant bot.
4. Juggling two characters is a little odd – even though I have a very easy system for choosing.  Annorah is leveling with my husband’s pally, so if he’s online and wants to level, that’s where I go!  Otherwise, Aely gets to go run around the Fjords.
5. I’ve respecced Annorah slightly, since one of the fun things about being in a group that you raid with is that there are 7 full time healers (at least!) trying to level.  So I’ve dumped about 25 points into Elemental, for some extra damage, and now I can run as DPS or healing – both with relative success, thanks mostly to my gear.
6. Of the instances I’ve done so far, Ahn-kehat is by far my favorite.  Also seriously creepy.  The Nexus is cool, and Azjol-Nerub is appropriately spooky (Annorah does NOT like spidergunk on her hooves!).  Utgarde was almost disappointing, but I think I was expecting more Vrykul-awesome and less Undead-blargle.
7. Having an accent for RP is a lot of fun… but can be a little weird if you have other characters without one.  Annorah very nearly slipped into a full Northron Apostrophe-killing Accent in Ahn-kehat the other day.
8. The Deathknight quest in the Borean Tundra is really cool.
9. I’m trying hard to remain spoiler-free for a lot of the upper level content.  Also trying hard to be supportive of all the friends I have that are trying to power through and be 80 by yesterday.  I suspect this will get more difficult when they start wanting to go places I’m too low level for.
10. Speaking of accents, I need to work on Aely’s some – mostly to get to a consistent pattern for her speech. Hanging around with the other Northron folks in the Riders makes me want to do better!
11. I am completely “arse over teakettle” (as Aely would put it) for the music in Northrend.  The use of folk instruments (or what sounds like folk instruments) and melodies is completely awesome.  I’m sad that some of it isn’t on the soundtrack.

Sunday Screenshot: Utgarde

2 Written by Anna on November 16, 2008 – 9:51 am

Listen!
We have heard of the glory in bygone days
of the folk-kings of the spear-Danes,
how those noble lords did lofty deeds…*

*the opening lines of Beowulf (trans. R. M. Liuzza).  Since arriving in Valgarde, I’ve had Beowulf on the brain, as it were. If you’re ever interested in hearing how this epic Anglo-Saxon saga sounded when it was truly told as an epic (or at least, as close as we can get), look up Benjamin Bagby, who performs it in the original language.