Plex - Level 30

Level 20-30 seem to have just flown by. Probably because I've been having a complete blast doing the quests in Hillsbrad and as you know, time flies when you have fun. My most prominent memory is how much I got my ass kicked by the various elites that reside in the area. How is that fun, you might ask? Well it wasn't actually, after my fifth or so death I was pretty fuming angry - but everything else was fun! Even when outleveling them I really have to bust my ass off to make it, and I have as I am writing this still not been able to kill Yetimus. I've been damn close but that thing he does where he throws you half across the screen just kills me. Literally. I don't mind it, actually I kind of enjoy that the difficult world elites are back. But then I look at Loves fresh warlock, fully decked out in BoA gear of course and how he just steamrolls stuff that totally would've killed me. Ah well. And then I see him getting his ass kicked by Yetimus too and then I think maybe I wasn't that bad - maybe Yetimus is simply the incarnation of evil. It wasn't exactly made easier by the fact that I couldn't find anyone to help over the course of asking for several days (!). I had to buckle up and level to 31 before I could get this big boy down, and even then it wasn't cake walk.

But I finally got the bastard!

My healing hasn't changed much, mainly due to the fact that I'm running around with basically the same healing tools since I dinged level 10. It means a whole lot of renewing, and not so much else. Healing isn't as easy as it was the first couple of dungeons though, but that is something I mentioned already in my last post. A boss can actually oom me and have me healing on fumes. I like it, it adds some challenge to the fights and I don't think my failures are due to bad tools but due to tough encounters (made tougher by new players who don't always know how to do things). It actually means I have to be active and care, not like before where the healer pretty much could be afk the entire instance. On Zinn I've bound the Shield to unmodified RMB and renew to alt+RMB, since I use the shield a lot and renew not so much when disc. On these levels however, the shield is still more of an "Oh shit" button rather than a regular heal, and I use it very scarcely (especially since I don't even have Rapture yet). It eventually made me switch my bindings between Renew and Shield on Plex, and it'll be interesting to see when I feel the need to switch back. Here are two examples of my healing done from Gnomeregan and SM GY.

Doing lowbie dungeons has also made me dig out my old "HEALER HAS AGGRO" macro. I don't think I've had to use that since... well since Cata and probably even well before that, but lowbie tanks do need some help with their attention. Nothing wrong with that, as long as it helps them keep the mobs off me. I'm also using Fade quite frequently.

I've also remembered that one of the biggest benefits of being a healer, as compared to a dps and especially tank, is that you can join even very high leveled instances without it being much of a problem. Just make sure to keep out of range from the mobs, since you'll probably pull easily, and there's no problem. Being underleleved as a dps or tank is a big problem however since you probably miss everything you do. That is what is so lovely about healing, that other players are your main targets and you mainly have to adapt to that.

My guild that showed such promise has since pretty much died. Since my last post no one has been online for two weeks, except for someone being online briefly yesterday to write in the GMOTD that he won't be online much (yeah thanks, I noticed). I'm not sure why I stick around in it, since it's only level 1 too. I just really have trouble with leaving guilds (separation anxiety?), I don't just join them for nothing and it takes quites a lot to have me leave them too. But a guild with no one else in it and no perks... yeah that's pretty much useless.

I got to buy my first set of glyphs at level 25, and yet again I marvel at the prices. On my main I just shrug at them, because I know it's an investment. I only have to pay for them once. But 200g for a glyph just really stings when you're level 25. That's more than most epics cost at that level. I could probably get 5 really good blue items for those money. Those prices always mean I have to go pretty much glyphless on my first chars on new servers, fortunately I have a warrior with some 900g on the same server this time around. Acquiring money isn't difficult at all, but having the hundreds of g often needed to get at least two good glyphs at level 25 still isn't done over night. I chose Renew as my first prime glyph, since that is the heal I use the most currently, by far. For major I got Divine Accuracy obviously, since it will help me out with both my questing and later on Atonement healing.

Speaking of Atonement healing, at level 30 is the first time you actually get it, if you put a point in it that is. Tier 3 in the discipline tree is overall the "tough choice" tier. I get to choose between Atonement, Power Infusion and Inner Focus (and Borrowed Time, but that is less awesome). Those are all really good talents, but in the end I decided to get Power Infusion first. This was because I was struggling against the elites in Hillsbrad and I had this idea of being able to burn them down before I oomed. In hindsight I'd probably have more use of one point into Atonement though. Fortunately I don't have to wait long before I get it.

In a way I think it's good that you don't get Atonement healing until level 30. I think that is just enough time for a new player to get acquainted with the regular way of healing, before introducing what actually is a very unique and completely different way of healing. One of the biggest issues I see with lowbie disc priests using Atonement healing is that they forget that they're actually there to heal. Either they tunnel in on Smite spamming and forget to heal whoever isn't affected by Atonement, or they just spam it even when no one needs heals and oom too fast, meaning they have no mana when people actually need heals. The key to using Atonement succesfully is to know exactly when to use it, just as with any other heal really. I am really looking forward to see how it will work out.