Well there’s nothing like leading a 25-man guild through a new expansion to suck up all of your free time, and nothing like writing up a thesis to suppress your love of writing as a hobby!

Anyway, what pearls of wisdom can I share?

Levelling

I’ve got my Priest and Paladin to 85 so far, and my Shaman is close behind at 83. I levelled Malevica as Discipline and had a blast. It wasn’t as quick as it could have been as Shadow, but I usually find that the time I spend reorganising all my bars and learning how to Shadow just isn’t recouped in time savings while levelling; that’s not to say that’s universal though.

On the other hand, I really regret trying to level my Paladin as Holy. Levels 80-83 were OK, but Uldum and Twilight Highlands were just pretty awful. And the problem was easy to fix: Exorcism just costs too much damn mana. I could keep Inquisition up fine but my main nuke is Exorcism. Exorcism does plenty of damage but just can’t be cast for long enough to kill more than one mob before needing to drink again. Give me a glyph, or even a talent, to reduce its mana cost by half and the problem is solved. It has no impact at end-game because DPS specs shouldn’t be mana-starved now.
But, I hear you cry, you’re doing it wrong! Why not just go Ret like everyone else? Well, I chose to go Holy because I was instancing a fair bit and trying to maintain two completely separate gear sets on an alt felt like just too much work. Plus, don’t forget, I’d just finished levelling a Priest as a healing spec with no problems.

And don’t even get me started on quest mobs with 150,000 HP for no very good reason. If a mob is in no danger of killing me (and in Cataclysm there’s no single quest mob which poses any risk to the player unless you’re AFK) then all you achieve by giving it twice the HP of a typical mob is making me press Nuke No.1 twice as many times. Which is boring, especially when I’m already killing mobs slowly.
Let me be clear, I’m in favour of big scary mobs at the end of quest chains, but what makes them big and scary should be more complicated mechanics to deal with and a real sense that they come close to killing me, not just more hit points.

On the subject of linear questing, I love the story-telling and how the heavy use of phasing keeps the zones feeling less crowded, and since my focus is getting to 85 so I can run heroics or raids the ease of finding quest hubs is a bonus. But I will admit that levelling my third character is feeling a bit less exciting when I know I’ve done every quest before.

Heroics

At the start of the expansion, Blizzard seemed to have achieved their goal of making heroics hard, even taking into account the huge numbers of people carrying around PvP gear or Shadow Priests with plate gear just to game the itemlevel restriction.

What they did well from my perspective is make the encounters problematic if your group tries to nuke ignore the mechanics, while making them fairly manageable if your group avoids the bad, interrupts the Spell-of-Death and kills the adds.

Which leads me to the biggest realisation I had while adjusting to the new expansion, and the best piece of advice I’d give to any new healer:

If the thought going through your mind constantly is “I can’t heal through this!!!”, there’s a very good chance your group is doing it wrong.

Of course, maybe you are just undergeared or not adapting to the new expansion at all, but bear in mind that it’s probably not your fault.
Case in point, my first (guild) run in Lost City was a nightmare. Especially High Prophet Barim (didn’t he use to sell reagents?) and Siamat. Why? We weren’t killing the Soul Fragments in time on the former and we were killing the adds too near to the group on the latter. And no one had the gear to compensate for it.

In WoW, people like to talk about Skill > Gear. Really it’s more like Potential ~ Gear x Skill. If you need a certain level of performance to defeat a boss, you can make it possible by raising your gear or your skill/execution/tactics, or both. Right now, as February dawns, the general levels of gear in the playing community are rising which makes heroics a bit more manageable for the average pickup group, yet they’re still defeating groups regularly if they ignore mechanics, which I count as a success.

Raiding

My guild is committed to 25-man raiding, and we’re 9/12 at the moment (Cho’gall is so dead this week!), making us the 3rd Horde guild for 25-man raiding (the other two are 10/12, curse them!)

I’ve loved the pace of the raids so far. We’ve generally spent at least a couple of hours on each boss before downing them, so there’s not been a Naxx moment where an entire wing drops in a night. Trash is well-designed, often demonstrating the principles of the fights (Ascendant Council is a great example) and making you think, while not taking hours to plough through.

My favourite encounters are probably Chimaeron, for daring healers not to heal and then challenging them to switch gears in a second, and the Conclave of Wind for the incredible scenery as well as the coordination needed of the whole raid.

25-man raids do seem to be in dire straits at the moment though. On my server a lot of the big Horde 25-man guilds either broke up into 10-man guilds around the expansion or have subsequently dropped to 10s. We have no plans to change the format of our guild, but if I were looking to set up a new guild I certainly wouldn’t be trying to start a 25-man guild.
I’m not predicting the death of 25-man raiding though, just a consolidation into a smaller number of guilds dedicated to the format.

Shameless plug

Mental is currently looking for a few more good applicants to top up our roster, particularly a couple of reliable healers. If you’re an EU player looking for 3 nights a week 25-man raiding, you could do a lot worse than Mental!

The Blog

I’m still here and I do intend to post more, especially as the guild/raid leadership demands begin to lower a bit, but I also have a lot going on and honestly TH4H is dropping quite a way down the list.

I will be updating the raid strategies by the weekend though, I know some of them are way out of date. I’ve got up-to-date versions on my guild’s forums that just need converting.

Possibly Related Posts:

• The First Cataclysm Raid
• Cataclys-meme
• Venturing Forth into the Cataclysm

It’s about this time in the WoW expansion cycle that my mind inevitably turns to alts. Why? I’m not sure. I think it’s the sense of progression I get from levelling up and acquiring gear, spells and power, as well as the lack of pressure and time limits: no one’s forcing me to conform to a timetable or level at a certain rate, and it’s quite liberating.

But which class?

I already have a Shaman, Druid, Paladin, 2 Priests and a Warlock (every family has a black sheep, after all).

The trouble is, I’m not a fan of pure DPS classes. I find the kill-it-quick-before-it-can-kill-you playstyle a bit of a challenge, even though I know that, objectively, DPS classes have an easier time levelling.

I’ve also never quite got the hang of melee DPS either. I find it hard to feel immersed in the action unless I have the camera zoomed in fairly close, and then I feel blinkered because I can’t see behind me.

Long story short: I decided to roll yet another Priest. And because that’s the sort of person I am, I’m levelling Holy (again).

Don’t you get bored?

The short answer is no! Each time I’ve picked a different race, across both factions, and have been effectively playing a different game each time.

When I was levelling Malevica, way back in mid-2007, the Burning Crusade had only been out about 8 months, and the Black Temple was new content. Levelling back then was a very different proposition from my second Priest, who was a child of Wrath, but who didn’t have any of those fancy heirlooms to help her level.

And this time around I’m not only in a full set of heirlooms, but I’m also able to take advantage of the changes to the “introductory experience” and the quest objectives tracker that came with Patch 3.3.0 in December 2009.
From the patch notes:

A number of changes have been made to World of Warcraft’s introductory experience, including updated character and class information at the character-selection screen, more robust tooltips with images, improved health and mana regeneration at lower levels, and adjustments to various classes designed to make it easier for players to get started. In addition, all-new quest-tracking features have been added to assist players in finding objectives, including new interface functionality in the quest log, the map (“M” key), and the Objectives pane.

So how are those changes working out?

Well, the updated character and class information is a small but useful improvement. It now puts class and race characteristics at the top of their respective boxes rather than below so you can glance across easily, and the class description lists primary stats (“Spell Power, Intellect and Spirit if healing”), which is helpful for a new player to know. Unfortunately for our Druidic and Shamanistic brethren and sistren (is that a word?) “their primary stats depend on their role”, which doesn’t help a new player much.

One little thing I do miss, and I have no idea when it disappeared, is the little button to generate a random name. I know, I know, I should spend hours coming up with a name that fits my character, but it’s much easier to pick a suitable-sounding name from a list than try and make something up.
Given the names I’m coming across in Elwynn Forest though, I suspect I’m largely alone in this.

Another big change is that all the mobs in the starting zones are now yellow, so they won’t attack you unless attacked and they won’t link. I don’t recall dying much in the starter zones before, but I suppose if you’re really new to this sort of thing, getting a bit more time to get to grips with the interface is of benefit.

The final change I want to talk about is the change to mana and health regeneration. Both of these have been massively boosted (outside combat) for the very low levels. From the PTR patch notes at the time:

Health and Mana Regeneration: These regeneration rates have been increased by up to 200% for low level characters. As a player’s level increases, the regeneration rates gradually reduce, returning to normal rates at level 15.

Great, so you don’t need to worry about eating and drinking along with all the other things that you need to get to grips with at low levels. But wow, did I ever get myself in trouble around level 12 when that gradual reduction started to bite. From regenning all my mana between mobs, I very quickly found myself with almost no mana regen at all, and it caught me out on more than one occasion, pulling with only a couple of Smites in the tank and then whacking things with my staff until they died.

I like the feature, but please, please signpost this better! If I spend 10 levels getting used to something, it’s rough to take it away without warning. And the slope could benefit from some flattening too, the transition from infinite mana to permanently running on fumes felt like only a level or two.

Talent choices

By level 15 I’ve amassed an almighty 6 talent points to spend. Looking at the talent trees, frankly I’m underwhelmed with Holy and Discipline. I know I’ll need to spend some points there sooner or later, because the higher talents are so delicious, but for now I want to boost my power.

The best place for the first 3 points is probably Spirit Tap . The first half of the tooltip is what we’re interested in with Spirit Tap. Doubling your spirit gives a big boost to your mana regeneration, helping you to recover for the next mob. The second part helps if you’re pulling multiple mobs, or pulling mobs in quick succession.
Improved Spirit Tap is quite a lot weaker, because it doesn’t boost your spirit much, mobs won’t live long enough to make a short period of increased regeneration worth it, and it relies on spell critical strikes. Your crit rating is likely to be pretty low, so you’ll not see much benefit from this one.

Other than that, your choice of points is pretty much free. I’d recommend sticking with the Holy tree for a while, until you can get to Divine Fury, but your choice from Tier 1 depends strongly on whether you’re going solo PvE/questing or going to be instancing your way to 80. For solo play, Holy Specialisation is probably the better choice, while a dungeoneer might prefer to boost their healing output with Improved Renew and Healing Focus.

Glyphs

At level 15 the first two of your glyph slots opens up: one major and one minor.

Major Glyphs at level 15:

Minor Glyphs at level 15:

For Minor glyphs there’s not much to be excited about. You’re probably more likely to case PW:F, so I’d recommend that one.

For Major glyphs you have a choice depending on your playstyle and where you think you’re weak. I’d recommend the Glyph of Smite for soloing, because although Holy Fire is a level 20 spell, your next Major glyph slot doesn’t open up until level 30. You can always use another glyph in the meantime.
If you prefer instancing, consider either the Glyph of Renew if you’re needing a boost on tanks or Glyph of Power Word: Shield if you’re finding yourself healing the non-tanks more often.

How’s that toolbox looking?

These first few levels actually give Priests quite a versatile toolkit already. We have a HoT, a direct heal, a shield, a DoT, two direct damage spells, a resurrection, two buffs (albeit one self-only), a dispel, a panic button (Psychic Scream) and the slightly out-of-place Fade.

Low levels are characterised by Smite spam, primarily, with Mind Blast thrown in if you can spare the mana. Shadow Word: Pain is probably too expensive to be worth using at very low levels, since it costs one and a half times as much as a Smite for about the same damage, and you probably won’t use the full duration anyway.
Once you get Power Word: Shield, this becomes the opener before every pull. It’s not cheap, but no pushback on spells means fights go so much more smoothly. Plus, often I found that a PW:S absorbed all the damage a mob could do to me before it died, especially once I got Inner Fire (armour affects the size of the hit before absorbs are taken into account, so you absorb more, smaller hits with IF up).

Fade is an anomaly here, slightly at odds with the simplification of the game at low levels. You get given it at level 8, but since it has zero effect in solo play, and you can’t enter dungeons until the early teens, and no one really manages aggro in Ragefire Chasm anyway, I’m puzzled that it’s not given to us a bit later, nearer level 20 or so when dungeons become a bigger part of the experience.

Anyway, let’s check up on our Priestly toolkit so far. New spells are in green so we can track the evolution of the Priest.

Any other tips?

Here goes:

• Don’t worry too much about Shadow Word: Pain. It’s just not worth the mana at low levels.
• When you get to around level 10, go buy yourself some Ice Cold Milk from an Innkeeper or drink vendor. You’ll be needing it soon.
• If you can afford it, pick up a wand when you pass through a city. Enchanters make loads of Lesser Magic Wands and Greater Magic Wands as they skill up, so supply tends to be high. Wanding for the last few seconds of a fight saves you mana from casting a big spell on something almost dead, and gets you into the not-casting, higher regeneration period earlier, so you’ll have more mana for the next fight.
• When you get to level 11 or 12 and you’re done with your faction’s area, consider skipping Westfall/Barrens/Silverpine/etc and instead heading off to either the Blood Elf or Draenei intermediate zone instead. Because they were introduced in The Burning Crusade, they benefited from much neater quest locations and flow, and tend to give more appropriate and useful rewards.
• If you’re thinking of taking up a gathering profession, go to your Capital and pick the profession up early. Once you get to the level 12-20 zones you’ll find the starter nodes are more sparse and the next rank of nodes require skills of 50+

 

Next time

Level 15 opens up the random dungeon finder, so stay tuned for the fun and shenanigans!

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