5.2 Discipline Guide – Thunderstruck!

Now yes, we know 5.2 is just riddled with tons and tons of AC/DC references all over the internet… so why not one more? Sorry! I have updated my 5.2 guide which can be found in full as well as discussion over at HowToPriest.com here. The Holy Guide will be updated in the next 24-48 hours, although it has minimal changes from 5.1! (Grrrr….that irritates me on a number of levels. Holy’s shortcomings being overlooked). Hope everyone is enjoying the Throne of Thunder, stay tuned for the Holy update, as well as a State of the Union 5.2 in the next week. Keep calm, and keep healing.

Holy and Disc Best Practices

Inspired by a post by my good friend Vixsin, I’ve decided to do a quick “Best Practices” post. In the interest of full-disclosure, she did toss me an email while I was at a work conference asking for a “best practices” quick hit-list… and I promised her I would do it…. several times. But, I simply let work get ahead of me and forgot to email her back… so, my dear Vix, I apologize! Hopefully this helps somewhat! But before I dive into the meat and potatoes of the post, I will provide a brief update on myself: it has been a chaotic January for me. Work has been quite busy with a lot of travel, my SO and I are on the property hunt here in Boston (Rant: SO …

Keep Calm and Keep Healing

Despite having a crazy busy month both in game and out, I’ve spent some time reading at the official forums, the HowToPriest.com forums, Twitter, and a number of emails I have received… and there is a very large negative cloud over the healing priest community right now. These negative statements seem to mostly revolve around our output (both as Holy and Disc) as well as our mana regeneration. First let me just say… In all seriousness, people need to KEEP CALM. The state of the priest is not as dire as some of the forum posts I have seen might suggest. Perhaps the biggest question I am seeing all over forums (official forums, H2P, and otherwise): Why are priests so under-powered and horrible right now? This. Is. A. Fallacy. I am sick of …

Mana Regen vs Throughput

Mana management is a huge part of our game now in Mists of Pandaria. Gearing, gemming, enchanting, and spec choices will be pivotal in how your longevity impacts these first few raids— particularly since so many of these fights are much longer than we have typically seeing in Cata and even WotLK. Endurance will be just as important as our raw output– or will it? To find out that answer you should be asking yourself these questions: 1. Am I spec’d into the most appropriate regen model for this fight? Are you struggling to find gaps to fit your PW: Solace in? Are you getting fewer than (in aggregate) 8 Solaces per minute? Would Mindbender work better for you? What about FDCL? 2. Are you using your potions at an opportune time? …

Mists of Pandaria: Initial Impressions

First I am excited to say that my Goal of Hitting Realm First! Priest was completed! That was only one-upped by the fact that I also shared Realm First! 90 as well. My friend, guildmate and hunter, Esoth, was Realm First! 90, but delayed his final quest turn-in nearly 40 minutes while my 5 man team struggled with some of the final gather X# of items quests and were getting screwed with the RNG drops.— and we all dinged 90 and shared the Feat of Strength within 30 seconds of each other. Overall the grind to 90 was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the excitement in guild chat, mumble, and my 5 man team. We were done in 13-14 hours if I recall– not too bad. (I didn’t look at the time …

Stay Healthy During Mists of Pandaria

Yes… I am planning on staying up until I hit 90. I am going for Realm First! Priest with a few of my other guildies going for their realm first classes as well. Being a Bostonian, this means Mists launches at 3:00 am local time for me– certainly a daunting task. I will, however, be sleeping a full 7 hours before launch, so I should be IRL “Well Rested”. How much XP will we need to burn through? As of a few days ago, the total XP you needed to go from 85 – 90 is: 97,500,000. (source)… yikes! What is most important if you are staying up late (or as the case may be: early) to grind to 90 is to take care of yourself! Expansion launches are often a time …

Holy Word: Sanctuary – Scaling in Mists...

Holy Word: Sanctuary has been a spell that has been in flux since its introduction at the start of Cataclysm… and that continues to happen even on the Beta– HW: Sanc has undergone a few changes in preparation for Mists of Pandaria, one of which Ghostcrawler commented on from a question I posted in the Beta Class Feedback Forum. ”Sanctuary should scale with haste like Efflorescence. It just adds more ticks.” Well, I must say I was pretty darn excited! It didn’t make sense that it didn’t scale from haste previously. I quickly logged into the beta to test out the breakpoints I had previously calculated and to see these additional ticks at work… But wait… they added Haste scaling, but took away mastery’s scaling from HW: Sanctuary. Noooooo! I …

Chakra and Why You Should Be Concerned

I don’t like writing posts like this – and by that I mean posts where I completely disagree with the direction the development team is going with the priest class. That said, I do believe and trust that Blizzard can develop and balance their game correctly. The development team for Mists of Pandaira has been really good at communicating this beta, and the number of blue comments on the beta forums seems much greater than before. (GC has been great at engaging us.. as well as the CM team on Twitter as well. I have to tip my hat to them there). However, it doesn’t mean I love every change that they make… and sometimes, its important for us to point out changes that could be missed… and I do …

Heads Up: We’re Rawrcastin’

Batten down the hatches, pour yourself a beer, and be ready for a rather interesting exchange between Ava, Derevka, Sompalina and Hafrot… we’re doing their Priest Rountable! Even though Stomp can’t pronounce my name to save her life… LOL For those of you who have heard Ava and I Podcast together in the past, or have read our exchanges on Twitter… this should prove entertaining!

When: LIVE Friday June 4, 2010 7PM CST
Where: Rawrcast

Remember to email any questions about Priestin’ in ICC, WOW, and Cata to hugesack@rawrcast.com and join us in the LIVE Chat Room.

Will May 31, 2010 11:52 pm

I look forward to listening to it, even if it’s a download.

I stumbled upon Ava on Twitter not long ago, and I’ve been a pain in her neck since. Through her, I’ve found this blog, and even though I don’t play a Priest, I’m enjoying it.

I’ve heard her on one podcast so far, and it’ll be nice to not only put a voice to Derevka, but to hear the play between you and Ava.

So I believe it’ll prove interesting to me, too.

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Derevka June 1, 2010 12:00 am

@Will we’ve been on a few different podcasts together in the past. Check out the Podcast Category on the blog for a link to many of them, but we’ve been on RaidWarning (www.raidwarning.com) Slash2 (slash2.ascensiongc.com) together… and we’ve both done some other podcasts solo w/o the other.

You’ll enjoy this one coming up and likely enjoy the other ones that we’ve already recorded.

Besides… Ava and I hate eachother… we’ll just yell and bitch at eachother the whole night. I don’t think Stomp and Haf have any idea what they’ve signed on for! MWHAHAHA!!

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1. Will June 1, 2010 12:14 am
  
  Thank you kindly, sir. I will most certainly check those out.
  
  A quirk of mine is that I always like to be able to put faces and voices to the bloggers that I read, so the opportunity to do so is always welcome.
  
  And if you’re going to fight with each other, I demand video!
  
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Daggerd June 2, 2010 11:37 pm

You aren’t joking about stompalina not being able to pronounce your name right. You’d think she’d be able to since they are hosting you on their show…

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Entrop June 4, 2010 8:25 pm

The only one down side to this round table and please don’t take any offense to this is that none of the priest on this round table have killed LK25 HM. While wiping on this fight gives you qualifications to speak on the subject i think these types of pod casts lose a little something by not having someone on who has completed the encounter.

It was kind of what i was thinking when i listened to the other pod casts and to hear some of the disc priest misconceptions is what has made me slightly more active on these blogs, forums and other such outlets.

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1. Avalonna June 4, 2010 11:33 pm
  
  Perhaps if the podcast was 100% about HLK, I would agree with you. But seeing as that fight was probably less than 1% of the discussion, I’m not really seeing the issue – on this or any other podcast with other players.
  
  Lacking Heroic LK25 doesn’t necessarily give anyone any less insight on how to play the class. From our perspective, we’ve killed hLK10, and gotten to 30% in 25 – I’m not sure how much farther the killing blow will take it. And quite honestly, had we not had to take a ‘break’ for the last month due to numerous personal issues, he would have been dead. Blame it on our “casual progression attitude”, I guess. But again – I’m not sure where “priest round table” = “H LK discussion”. Honestly, players who HAVE killed HLk really won’t get much out of round table podcasts, except have a little fun and a few laughs.
  
  Is there alot of misinformation out there? Yup. Are there alot of opinions out there? Yup. Are we always 100% right? Nope. Are you? Nope. Are smart players only in ICC, or killing Hlk? Nope. Keep an open mind – especially before you doubt the merit of podcasts, based on a sole fight, that wasn’t a focal point of the podcast discussion- there’s a lot of smart players out there that can’t solo H LK. It was a great show – we had a lot of fun, touched on alot of topics, and from what I could see, the people listening had fun too.
  
  We would more than welcome a guest post if you feel you would like to correct issues and discuss things. I know nothing is more irritating than seeing someone try to take an authoritative role on something they don’t understand. I like to think we do, but we always welcome differing opinions and input. I’m not being snarky either – I think it would be really cool to get a view from the ‘Cream of the progression” crop.
  
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Derevka June 4, 2010 8:32 pm

I shall practice my curtsy then.

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Derevka June 4, 2010 8:34 pm

Irritation aside; the purpose of these podcasts isnt to espouse on the hardest encounter int he game atm, since the priests who are going up against HLK25 at the moment aren’t listening to podcasts to learn that. The point of these podcasts is to 1) have fun with the class

and

2) perhaps give some insight to what we, as active members of the community, might have to say about the class.

Take it or leave it; our qualifications are what they are… or arent.

*shrug*

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Entrop June 5, 2010 5:39 am

I did not mean to offend you at all, and i apologize if I did. I am not trying to disrespect you or anyone who does these pod casts, and yes I do listen to most of them and I do read some of the more popular blogs and forums. I mainly just try and give a slightly different perspective on things. I have posted here before too merely so some different aspect of the game and class.

With that said, I do enjoy hearing you guys talk about the priest class, which is why I (at least try to) be active in posting and getting some of my ideas and knowledge out there.

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1. Avalonna June 5, 2010 6:27 am
  
  No offense was taken! <3 We enjoy your insight – the offer for a guest post still stands!
  
  Reply
  1. Entrop June 6, 2010 3:15 am
    
    maybe after the next content patch is released ill write up a post for it. I have also been recently asked if I would contribute to a new website that is being developed that will revolve around various games with WoW being one of the focuses.
    
    Reply
Pinnick June 6, 2010 4:11 pm

Heard the show… was awesome. Ava…. I think I may love you.

Srsly though, your insights not just about priesting but about raiding in general were so awesome.

Thanks for being outspoken and bringing things back into perspective.

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Bati June 7, 2010 12:39 pm

“Is all about looking cool!” – I agree here. I geared Bati and took the belt from Festergut only bc it fits with 277 tier!

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Heads Up: We’re Rawrcastin’

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