Ding, 79 – and no, I don’t heal stupid

The Lich King is a scary sounding guy. I love every quest that brings him out to talk to his failed minions – it’s pretty exciting. Almost as exciting as me finally reaching level 79 on my priest, and 50% through. That’s right, I have less then one level to go before I will have my first ever max level world of warcraft character. This may not seem like that big of a deal, but to me it is. I’ve played since release, and never come close to the cap. Of course I’ve also never stuck with the game for more then a month or two at a time before growing bored, so that has certainly played into things as I just started my 3rd consecutive month of playing yesterday.

Now. I did two new (to me) dungeons using the LFD tool last night. One was The Oculus, and the other was Halls of Lightning (not to be confused with the easier Halls of Stone). You will hear this a lot from WoW healers – we don’t heal stupid. That means, if you’re in the Oculus and you stand IN the lightning, expect to die. I’ve noticed that for the majority of named fights there will be some AoE that goes off that you’ll want to avoid – as long as you’re looking at your screen you’ll see it coming so it’s just a matter of moving out of the way. For example in the Oculus (lightning mentioned above) the warlock lived. The paladin and druid died. The warlock being a cloth class already had points against him – but he was smart enough to move OUT of the lightning. Just take a few steps OVER THERE.

One thing I’ve had to come to grips with is that I can’t save everyone. My job is to keep the tank alive first – and everyone else alive second because without a tank we’re going to die anyhow. If people are being smart and managing their aggro (hey, we have threat meters for a reason) and watching where they’re standing, it makes my job a billion times easier.

Halls of Lightning is not an especially hard zone – but fill that group with a bunch of *ahem* people not paying attention to what they’re doing, and suddenly there are deaths all around. The tank never dropped, and neither did I or the mage in group – but the DPS spec’d druid who kept meleeing the dwarves as they whirlwind sure did. So did the DK who pulled before the warrior tank was prepared. Or the druid (again) who walked right up to the named while he was stealthed, not realizing that the named could see him. It’s really easy guys. Just pay attention. Let your tank do their job, and you do yours which is to assist (did you know the F key is the assist button by default?) and dps the mobs and be a little responsible for yourself.

As a healer in a dungeon I come well prepared. I always put out a fish feast for players before we start, I group buff, I use an int scroll if there are no mages around, and I use a guardian and battle elixir to up my spirit and spell power. I come well supplied with mana potions, and I really try to bring my “A” game. When people die I typically blame myself for not being able to save them in time (just a knee jerk reaction) but the more I do instances the more I realize that 90% of the time someone dies it’s because they’re doing something they shouldn’t be. As long as everyone is paying attention and doing their job, I rarely have a death in group.

Now, lets see what 80 brings. I’m very nervous to hit this level, as I’m certainly not geared for it (my GS is 3,000 or so) and I don’t have the faintest idea about anything ‘end game’ – but I do pride myself on being a quick learner, and I expect I can pick it up before too long.

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself.