Long time, no haiku

Time is the enemy of all bloggers. Time's demands have kept me from this blog for too long. Unfortunately time has kept me away from Cataclysm as well. I have been playing some Starcraft though, and I'd like to get back into blogging.

Therefore, I've started a new blog where I can post brief bits on Starcraft and Warcraft. It's Rhymecraft, at rhymecraft.blogspot.com. There I will post about the 'crafts in haiku, limerick, and who knows what else. Hey, it's a weird idea, but we play the hands we're dealt!

To celebrate, here are two pieces of poetry:

In Cata our talents have doubled
And we got our big Barrier bubble
And we got Leap of Faith
So when danger is grave
We can yank our raidmates out of trouble!

I was so excited to see Power Word: Barrier added to the game. And I wasn't expecting Leap of Faith, but it was a really clever idea and I think a potent tool.

Chakra healing state:
Better healing on command?
Holyform at last!

Oh Blizzard, you finally added Holyform. You shouldn't have! It only took 6 years! Oh well, we can forgive you, we are priests after all. Now, let's talk about Discform...

Leap of Faith, aka Life Grip, aka Liquid Awesome

Okay, we need to talk about Leap of Faith. Seriously. From the Cataclysm Priest preview:

Leap of Faith (level 85): Pull a party or raid member to your location. Leap of Faith (or "Life Grip") is intended to give priests a tool to help rescue fellow players who have pulled aggro, are being focused on in PvP, or just can't seem to get out of the fire in time. Instant. 30-yard range. 45-second cooldown.

Now, we don't need to talk about the spell itself. It's clearly a clever little cantrip, a creative and useful addition to our arsenal. It even has a hilarious nickname.

What we need to talk about is peoples' reactions to this spell. I know reactions will always be across the board for any new spell announced. I know Blizzard could announce a new spell called Holyform that increased healing by 25%, and someone would complain that they can't cast SW:Pain while healing.

But I am just shocked reading opinions on the Priest Preview when it comes to Leap of Faith. Most of peoples' opinions seem logical: Heal? Yay for more healing granularity. Inner Will? Yay for choice of armor spell, and for a movement buff. Mind Spike? Yay for ummm... damage? I guess? But then people single out Leap of Faith and say things like:

• DPS should not be pulling agro and if they do, it's their own darn problem
• If they DO pull agro, why do I want them (and the Big Bad Mob) closer to me?
• DPS should get out of the fire themselves, by engaging their brains and then their legs
• Why pull someone to me when I can just heal them at 30 yards?
• Great, now when someone dies I'm going to be blamed for not Lifegripping them!

Now, I can see the train of thought here (i.e., some DPS are drooling facerollers and I don't want them anywhere near me, after all, stupid might be contagious), and I don't really disagree with it. But that's besides the point! We're not getting this spell for their benefit, we're getting it for OUR benefit! (And I guess for the benefit of the competent tanks and raid leaders we like)

Leap of Faith is an absolutely unique spell. With it, we'll be able to do things no one else can. And with style! Sure we'll be able to yank DPS into out of the fire and towards away from rampaging mobs, but we'll also be able to help reposition tanks! Pull people onto platforms if they mis-time a jump! Help people with Frogger! Help tanks who are kiting fast mobs! Save people being focused in PvP or arena-style fights! Help people with poor connections to avoid explosions! Make sure we're always covered when a fight requires people to group up! Pull DPS who pull agro TO the tank so the tank can pick up the mob! Help the poor clueless hunter who was supposed to carry debuff X to location Z! The list goes on and on.

I mean, seriously, this is one of the coolest spells we could have: we will now be literally able to move people around on our screen, like we are playing Tetris with their tiny pixelated backsides! How many times have each of us wanted to yoink that idiot warlock out of a void zone, or a firewall, or a meteor impact, or grab the over-eager fury warrior away from the Demon Of Doom? Or, alternately, reach through your monitor, wrap your hands around that rogue's neck, and squeeze? NOW WE CAN!!

And all this is just based on the mechanics of the spell. There will also be the aesthetic side: think of the graphics and sounds they could associate with Leap of Faith! Personally I'm hoping a magical shepherd's crook will appear, snake around the target, and give them a big yank. I suppose a *HURCKK** sound effect would be a bit much but you never know. And just think of the macros you can write to whisper someone when you Lifegrip them!

In all seriousness, Leap of Faith will be an awesome addition for Priests. We priests have some of the most unique heals in the game, from a shield that absorbs more damage than many heals can restore, to an autonomous healing prayer, to a hymn that can keep a whole raid up, to the ability to heal after death. Now in Cataclysm, we'll be adding in an armor spell that offers us greater mobility, a smaller heal for greater finesse, and Leap of Faith, the new ultimate micromanaging spell. Made of liquid awesome.

Disc tips: Festergut

Time for more tips! We are skipping right to the Plagueworks for today's tips, because I haven't been rotated in to see Deathbringer Saurfang since his buff-and-nerf cycle, so I can't comment on the recent changes and how they affect us Disc priests. Besides, what is a lone orc against the might of the Alliance?! Amiright?

Sooo... Festergut!

THE TIPS

The first tip is on how to tell Festergut apart from Rotface. They use the same (hideous) model and their rooms are the same, and both of them cast spells like Gaseous Pungent Stinky Gastric Blight Bloat, so it can be hard to distinguish them! What I did is realize the Plagueworks bosses are in alphabetical order from left to right: Festergut, Putricide, Rotface. And in my opinion it's best to start with #1 alphabetically, since although Festergut has steep requirements for DPS and survivability, it's technically the easiest fight by far.

So Festergut is a cyclical fight. It wobbles between one extreme, Raid Damage to Make a Tree Druid Flail for Joy, and the other extreme, Tank-Crushing Damage to Make a Paladin Cry. When there is a lot of orange blight on the ground, there is raid damage going around, and everyone needs heals. Shamans and Trees will be going nuts here, but you can help out with shields, PoM's, maybe a Divine Hymn if it gets ugly.

Periodically Festergut inhales some blight, which reduces the raid damage, but supersizes the damage he (it?) does to the main tank. When Festergut inhales three times (you can tell because the floor will be blue again instead of orange (also your main tank may start whimpering)), the damage is particularly insane. At this juncture, you should be in full-tank-spam-heal mode. Shield-Penance-Gheal cycles are recommended. Even if you are assigned as a raid healer, there is no raid damage during this time, so you should help on the tank. Divine Aegis and Inspiration insurance for the win!

The other main mechanic is the gas spores. Ranged players need to spread out overall, to avoid Vile Gas. But when Festergut launches gas spores, they need to collapse to share the debuff. Luckily for me, our guild has all the healers stack on the MT so we can heal uninterrupted, but your guild may have you at range, moving around to coordinate the debuff. Follow their lead; trust me that this is one strain of cooties that you DO want. Unless you enjoy eating the AOE he does after inhaling three times!

The fight repeats from there, with Festergut starting his inhale-cycle over each time. It's not a hard fight to heal, it just has sort of a "minutes of boredom followed by seconds of sheer terror" vibe. The only other mechanic is a tank swap (ICC is basically the Land of Required Tank Swap Mechanics. Blizzard could save developer time by just calling all these spells Yes You Need To Swap Tanks Again). But because of the nature of this one, offtank agro may be high, so you may want to be careful with Pain Suppression.

POWER INFUSION TIME

Festergut has a very short enrage timer, necessitating strong DPS as well as strong tank survivability. It's sort of Patchwerk meets the Hokey Pokey for DPS players. All this means for us is, PI early and often, except for when Heroism is up.

BONUS STRATEGY HAIKU

Festergut's strong, sure,
but what role can this guy play
in the Lich King's plan?

I mean seriously, is this pile of flesh and rejected abomination brains really part of the master "Take Over Azeroth" plan? Or is it just Putricide's side project/spare parts repository? And if so, why are we bothering to dispatch it?? Oh, right, the epixxx. Silly me!

Disc tips: Gunship Battle

Time for a third installment of Disc Tips for Icecrown Citadel, this time for the exciting Gunship Battle!

THE TIPS

Step 1: Insert players

Step 2: Receive loot

Disc tips: Lady Deathwhisper

With Marrowgar down, next up on any raider's dance card is the somewhat chatty boss, Lady Deathwhisper! So here is #2 in what I hope to make a series on ICC bosses, featuring tips for Disc priests.

THE TIPS

Deathwhisper is a two-phase boss, of the front-loaded variety (This means phase 2 is easy, so that it may still be completed if your DPS die to completely avoidable damage, and/or your healers have a coronary trying to heal DPS who are dying to completely avoidable damage).

Getting past phase 1 relies upon the tanks being able to pick up the adds, while the DPS burn down adds in the right order. Unfortunately you can't help with that, but you can make sure your assigned tank(s) stay vertical. I recommend keeping your tank in sight: make sure you stay in range and in LoS (note the stairs in the room). If your guild brings all the adds together by the boss, this is easier, but there are still steps and pillars to watch out for.

Also try to be aware if a Deformed Fanatic is activated. If one is, it may be worth it to use Pain Suppression, or at least a Shield-Penance-GHeal cycle or two. Deformed Fanatics are usually kited but if they get too close, your shields could save the day.

As for the DPS, you can help them too. Configure your UI to display people standing in the Death and Decay, and those who have agro. Shielding both can add a nice safety margin to DPS who are already watching add spawns. You can further help by dropping a few DoTs on Deathwhisper in between trash waves if you like.

Finally, watch out for mind controlled players, as they may get healer agro. If targetted, use Fade instead of Psychic Scream: the radius on the fear may also send adds fleeing, and this tends to make tanks cranky. Alternatively you can DPS down the mind controlled players; this tends to result in hilarity, but not generally success.

Once phase 2 hits, it's more of the same: heal tanks, don't stand in the fire. However, be sure to watch where you're standing. Vengeful Spirits will spawn from the dead adds, and if they reach you they can hit for 20k!

POWER INFUSION TIME

The time to cast PI is early and often. Cast it on the players assigned to burn down the boss's shield: since they won't switch targets, they'll get the most use out of it. If your guild burns Heroism early, cast it right after, otherwise cast it on the top boss-killer DPS on cooldown.

BONUS STRATEGY HAIKU

Heal tanks, shield raiders
And if you get mind controlled
Try to kill a mage

Deathwhisper is not a hard fight to heal... most of the learning curve is dealing with the adds. But some good ol' Disc-elbow-grease can make it easier on everyone to handle!

Disc tips: Lord Marrowgar

I thought I'd start posting tips for Disc priests in Icecrown Citadel. Let's start with Lord Bonesaw Marrowgar himself! Marrowgar is a basic fight, and the healing requirements are pretty bare-bones (pun intended). But for each of his abilities there's something you can do to maximize your survival.

THE TIPS

His Saber Lash is the first thing to deal with. Normally there will be healers on each tank. You can help them all by shielding each tank as often as you can - the shields will definitely get consumed. If there is another Disc priest in the raid, tell him that you have no idea how those Weakened Souls got there, maybe his spellbook is leaking? Another, less obvious trick is to use Prayer of Mending on cooldown here. With the splashed damage, it will be a big part of your tank healing.

The Bone Spike Graveyard is the other major spike damage (pun intended). I strongly recommend configuring your UI or AddOns so that you can clearly see the debuff this puts on targets, so you can immediately shield them, even if you're on tank duty. This will give other healers time to acquire those who need healing. You can also toss a Penance or Renew their way as needed.

There are also Lightning Tendrils to deal with. I can't wait to see these one-shot people in heroic mode, but for now they're not too bad. A Chain Heal or PoM splash will usually help people survive them. If you try to heal all the people standing in the fire, your mana pool will go bone-dry. (pun intended) (ok I'll stop)

Finally, everyone's favorite whirlwind, BONESTORM!!! What I like to do here is a little tactic called "Shield Spam Panic." I'll let you deduce the subtleties of it but just try to toss out shields (and PoM again) as needed. Although if people spread out to too wide a radius to heal, it won't be very humerus. (who was I kidding)

POWER INFUSION TIME

The best time to cast PI is right after a Bone Spike Graveyard ends. If you do it during or before a graveyard, it may be wasted if the DPS is re-acquiring targets. If you do it right after a BONESTORM!!! (threat wipe), the DPS may get drunk with power and pull agro. This may cause hilarity but not generally success.

BONUS STRATEGY HAIKU

Saber Lash hurts bad
So don't help "tank" Marrowgar
And you won't get boned

So there's Marrowgar. The "tricks" I've posted here are not exactly rocket surgery, but hey he's the first boss. I hope to post more on the following bosses. Till then!

Power Infusion is Better than Heroism

Although I've been reviewing talents, I hadn't intended to review Power Infusion. It seems like a straightforward spell, a good buy for one point, and I've never seen a Disc priest without it. But lately I've seen some discussion on it, specifically whether it was worth casting on yourself or a DPS. Someone even said it was nothing to write home about! Because of this, I wanted to share some thoughts.

Before I justify the claim that PI is better than Heroism, here's the obligatory basics. Power Infusion speeds up casting and decreases the cost of spells. It provides a noticeable 20% increase in casting speed for 15 seconds, and saves some mana too. It is similar to Heroism/Bloodlust (with which its speed does not stack). It also doesn't stack with Arcane Power for mages.

Give it Away, or Keep it?

So PI gives haste and saves mana. No caster can argue with that. But how best to use it, casting it on a DPS, or saving it for oneself?

First, let's look at ourselves. When it comes to spell haste, Disc priests are often swimming in it. We'll often have Borrowed Time active for half of our spellcasts or more. And when it comes to mana, Rapture is usually ticking regularly. Now there are certainly times when predictable burst healing is needed, and casting PI on oneself can help. It is also very nice for General Vezax, for example. But more often than not, it can be superfluous on a Disc priest.

So, let's look at dropping it on a DPS. They'd probably enjoy some haste, they love Heroism after all! Comparing the two, we see that PI gives only 2/3 of the casting speed bonus, and for 15 seconds instead of 40. So one cast of PI on a DPS is about (2/3)*(15/40) as good as Heroism, that is, 25% as good (not counting the mana savings, since DPS rarely go OOM in an ideal world).

However, PI has a nice short cooldown. In fact, with Aspiration, it's just 96 seconds. This means you can easily cast PI on a given DPS four or five times during your average fight. If we add that up, now we're talking 100-125% of the bonus of a Heroism. That's right, for one lucky DPS, Power Infusion is better than Heroism. Or put another way, your DPS of choice gets two Heroisms per boss. Hax!

The Fine Print

Now, although PI can help a given DPS's performance more than Heroism, there are some limitations. Heroism is easy for DPS to make use of, since it's often called for by a raid leader at a set time, during a solid burn phase. It also comes with graphical and sound cues and lasts 40 seconds, so it's easy for DPS to stack other trinkets and procs with it.

Power Infusion, on the other hand, will be up for four or five separate 15-second periods, and the timing is controlled by a priest who may be frantically healing. So here's some ideas to help people make the most of PI:

• Pick a class that can benefit from the haste, like a mage or warlock.
• Pick a player that can handle stacking cooldowns and procs for max damage.
• Ideally, pick a player who knows in advance that your PI is coming.
• Use PI during burst damage phases, or at least times when your DPS player can focus on casting.
• But also use PI early and often, to get the most out of it.
• Don't use it during phases when Heroism is usually called for. Try to stagger it with Heroism.
• Use a macro to tell someone that you PI'd them. My macro is below.

Power Infusion Macro

Here is what I use to buff people, and tell them I did so. It casts PI (if in range and available) and whispers the target. It is 255 characters; I lengthened it because when it just said "You have [Power Infusion]," occasionally I would get a reply like "No, I didn't spec for it." Now my macro is a little more descriptive. (I would attach a "DPS for Dummies" book if I could!)

#show Power Infusion
/script local u,p="target","Power Infusion";if IsSpellInRange(p,u)==1 and GetSpellCooldown(p)==0 then SendChatMessage("You have "..GetSpellLink(p).." for 20 secs! Enjoy the haste!","WHISPER",nil,UnitName(u)) end
/cast Power Infusion

Something to Write Home About

So, overall, I am a big fan of PI. Back when it was the top-tier Disc talent I developed a "meh" feeling about it, since there's not much synergy with Disc (or with healing in general), but since then I have come to see its power. Blizzard keeps saying they won't give Heroism to another class, but really they've already given us a single-person version. Just find a smart DPS player to routinely PI, and pretty soon you will be receiving pleading tells to stay Disc instead of swapping to Holy or Shadow for any fights!

Talent Review: Body and Soul

Here's another quickie talent review: Body and Soul

I suspect a lot of people, like me, looked at this talent, said "That's cute," and moved on. It's not exactly a reason to spec into Holy, and when you hold it up against the nice passives deep in holy that can improve all healing by 1 or 2 percent, it's easy to think of it as a gimmicky talent.

And it is gimmicky. But it is also made of pure fun and win.

Body and Soul is basically an on-demand Sprint. With Blink's cooldown. Castable on anyone. This gives a lot of mobility whenever you or a party member needs it.

At first when I saw Body and Soul, I thought it would be pretty fun for flag running in BG's, maybe in raids for catching up with a stray tank or fleeing DPSer. But it turns out there are TONS of uses for this baby:

• Helping tanks get to mobs (from Violet Hold to Yogg's guardians)
• Helping tanks kite (Gluth's zombies or even Vezax)
• Helping people get out of AOE
• Fleeing Kologarn's eye beams
• Avoiding Mimiron's Laser Barrage
• Dancing for Heigan

The list goes on: basically anytime anyone needs to be somewhere else NOW, this talent can be a big help. And since most of those times involve avoiding damage, having the movement be attached to a PW:Shield is great!

And the cool thing is, people notice this buff. Hit someone with Power Infusion and they might not even notice it. Hit them with Pain Suppression and they might ask what the shiny bubble is. But hit them with this, and they will immediately notice it, and often (literally) leap for joy. I first used Body and Soul in a heroic and within minutes, I had a tank asking for it on every pull (and to get to the bank faster in Dalaran, but that's another story). With good communication, this could help a tank position mobs faster than ever before.

Now, that said, raiders have gotten by at 100% speed (or slightly more with boot-enchants of the running fast) for years now, so Body and Soul is clearly not essential. Could you get more throughput out of investing talent points elsewhere in Holy? Probably. But you will not have nearly as much fun as with spammable shield-sprint. And sometimes having the right person in the right place can save a raid as surely as any heal can.

A word of warning, though. If you spec into Body and Soul long enough for your tanks or raidmates to become accustomed to it, be prepared to hear about it if you ever respec. You may prefer Disc healing or whatever, but your friends will value their ability to run around like maniacs at 160% speed. =)

Talent Review: Improved Flash Heal

I'm trying to get back into posting, so here's another installment of my talent reviews. This time a Disc talent: Improved Flash Heal.

Originally I thought Improved Flash Heal was almost mandatory. Back in the day Flash Heal was our workhorse, and so doing anything to improve it was a given.

Later on, after thinking about it and reading a post about the talent, I decided it wasn't so hot. Mana comes a lot easier nowadays, and 10% crit on a spell we don't use as much as we used to isn't that exciting.

But now, I think I have a more balanced view. There are pros and cons to this talent.

Pros:

• Cheaper Flash Heal. Who doesn't like Flash Heal?
  
• More crit, when you need it most (low health target).
  
• More crit also equals more Divine Aegises. Aegisi? Aegooses?

Cons:

• Only affects Flash Heal. Who casts Flash Heal?
  
• Mana conservation not that big a deal for Disc priests.
  
• Crit effect only applies to low health targets.
  
• Unlike Test of Faith;s steady healing boost, this crit plays a RNG game with a low health target.

The pros may all seem to be heavily qualified by the cons, but let's look at an example situation where this talent shines: General Vezax. For Vezax, you need to conserve every last scrap of mana. And you need to focus on healing a single target, which means you're pretty much just casting shield, penance, and flash (in that priority order). With 3.2's longer Penance cooldown, you'll be casting flashes now and again, so you may as well get them cheaper. And you sure want to keep Inspiration up on the tank, so the extra crit doesn't hurt when it comes into play.

And the real test of any talent is, what else could you be getting with your talent points. In this tier of the Disc tree, you're basically comparing it to Focused Will. This used to be a PvP talent, but it now also increases your crit. Overall, I'd probably recommend going for Focused Will first (I am a crit fiend), but there are enough points to invest in both. At the very least, you can drop one point in Improved Flash Heal: the first point gives slightly more crit than the following points.

An interesting talent choice overall. Not the best talent for Disc priests (though I'm sure Holy would kill for it), but not bad either. And for times when mana may be tight, and single-target healing crucial, it's a solid choice.

The Return of Onyxia

I don't usually post about WoW news, since so many other blogs and sites do a great job of it. But I had to post about Onyxia's announced return.

This is awesome news. I've been raiding on my priest since 15-man Stratholme was "progression content," and there has never been another fight like Onyxia's Lair. I'm sure nostalgia is part of it, but I think anyone who raided Onyxia in her native environment would agree that there's something special about her.

Everything about Onyxia's Lair was special. Preparing to raid there was a month-long guild field trip. Everyone needed to complete a long wide-ranging quest chain. You needed to travel far and wide (Winterspring anyone?). You needed to head into Blackrock Depths* multiple times. You needed to talk to the world's diplomats. You needed to confront a dragon in Stormwind, in the presence of great heroes, in one of the best scripted events in the game. And then, each week you and your guildies could all hop on a ship and sail off to Theramore, and then swim to the broodmother's lair.**

Once you got there, you got to see an awesome encounter. After getting past the warders, of course... I remember wiping to those guys more than once.

Phase 1 was straightforward. One brave soul tanks Onyxia. With their back to the wall, since she would bat them away like a cat swipes at a ball of yarn. Everyone else starts attacking her, and healing up any damage. Sounds like a tank and spank, but this was before threat meters, before stats like spell power, and before half the classes were half as viable as they are now. This was where we learned now-basic lessons like "Standing in front of a dragon is bad" and "Standing behind a dragon is bad" and of course "Pulling threat causes Onyxia's fire breath hit quite a few more people than it strictly needs to."

And for healers, all we had back then was Flash Heal (a mana hog), Greater Heal (with a frightening 3.5 second cast time), Renew (only one allowed on each player by the way), and Shield. Our top tier talents to help save the tank's life from this fire-breathing monster? Divine Spirit (single target buff), and Holy Nova (with 30 second cooldown). The strategy of the day was to spend all one's mana on Flash and Greater, then stand idle to regain mana while someone else stepped in.

But phase 1 was still pretty easy. Remember, there were 40 of us. But then she decides to take off (sometimes after eating an offtank or rogue). Then, phase 2: always an adventure. How long would she stay up there? Would she fly around a lot, or stay still and pelt us with fireballs? How many times would the hunters not look where they were going and get too close to the dragon whelps, who would proceed to eat us? And let us never forget the dreaded Deep Breath. Also known as, "Your raid is not a winner. Your consolation prize is a fiery death. Thanks for playing, come back next time."

Eventually Onyxia would tire of raining destruction on us from above. She would land, and be walked back to the tanking spot (sometimes after eating an offtank or rogue). Phase 3 was like phase 1, but with the added bonus of burning streams of lava all over, and a periodic raid-wide fear. Hmm... fear, plus nearby caves full of whelplings... it's almost like she planned it this way. Luckily, we overpowered Dwarves were there to save the day with Fear Ward (then a 10-minute buff, 30-second cooldown, only known to Dwarves).

And finally, if the stars aligned, and damage and healing were good, and the raid could avoid eating tail swipes and pulling the whelps, the broodmother Onyxia could be slain. An incredible accomplishment the first time for a guild, given all the prep time, and equally as satisfying each additional time. At least unless you found out she didn't have your tier 2 hat again.

I just can't write about Onyxia without waxing eloquent. It always struck me as a cool encounter, dripping with lore, strategy, fantasy, danger, and rich rewards. It's why we went there every week. It's why we ran Jailbreak 20 more times to attune initiates and alts so we could keep going there.

Just something about going into a cave shaped like the maw of a giant dragon, to confront a leader of the black dragonflight. Being tasked by the Alliance's finest to slay the dragon. Charging recklessly into her lair, where she lay waiting. Standing next to her, seeing her maul the tank repeatedly, hoping she wouldn't notice your side of the cave. Watching her take off and soar above us. Watching everyone launch their spells and arrows at her in the air. You don't get more Warcrafty than that, nor more high-fantasy.

Onyxia's lair has always been my favorite raid encounter. If Blizzard treats the old girl right for the upcoming anniversary, we're all in for a treat. And in the meantime, I'd encourage everyone to stop by the broodmother's lair. It's a very fun fight, even 3-manning it now at 80. You don't need a minipet and a mount and a new hat to enjoy this classic raid encounter.

Long live the queen!


*For newer players, to get a picture of BRD, start with Old Kingdom. Multiply it by ten. Ten times the twisty turns, ten times the little sub-zones with unique mobs, ten times the obscure quests, ten times the bosses. Make all of these sub-areas connect over and under and through each other, yet make it so you need to go through half the instance to get to any one thing you need. Then make every major quest chain in the game run through it at some point. Yeah, we spent a lot of time in BRD.

**After you did the quest chain and BRD runs 40 more times, for everyone else in the guild.

Tournament Limmerick

I can't just post a haiku about anything, I have to come up with limmericks too. I think it might be a genetic condition.

A Blood Elf champ I had to surmount
But her lance-work I couldn't discount
So I winked at my steed
(a loaned Elekk, pay heed)
And it sat on her chickenhawk mount

Patch 3.2 haiku

Trial of the Champ trash
Wall of Text crits you to death
Wake me when it's done

Champion's Trial runs:
Easier to heal when you
Unequip your lance

Penance cooldown nerf:
"That spell is not yet ready"
Want my two secs back

Complete Idiot's Guide to Discipline Priest Spells

I thought I would put together a basic guide on, "How to cast spells as a Disc priest." It can be counter-intuitive at first, having all these cooldowns on healing spells. So here's the basics:

1: Cast Power Word: Shield on the Tank

This may be obvious, as Disc talents practically beg you to shield people, but I have seen lots of Disc Priests who seem hesitant to shield the tank. I feel this is like a Fire mage not casting fire spells.

Let's be clear: Power Word: Shield is your first, last, best line of defense. You spent 11 talent points and a glyph on it (at least I hope you did), so use it! When you shield a tank, in addition to the 5-7k of absorption it adds, and the topoff heal from the glyph, you also give the raid a damage reduction buff and mega-haste your next heal. You want to shield the tank every time you get. You want their soul to be weakened permanently. These are Good Things (TM).

Some people might save shields for emergencies. This is silly: with Disc's talents you are far better reaping the great benefits from shields, and using Penance for emergencies. More on that later.

2: Cast Power Word: Shield on Everyone Else

So you're shielding the tank every 15.00001 seconds, what else? Well, you took Soul Warding to remove shield's cooldown, right? (Please say yes!) So cast shield on everything that moves! As Disc you can toss out a shield once a second, and with Ulduar's raid damage, this is very useful mitigation.

Check some wow meter parses if you like, but believe me, nearly all shields will get used. And with good situational awareness, you can shield those who pull aggro or eat random damage, saving them when no other healer can. And regardless, Rapture and Borrowed Time mean it's almost never a bad time to cast a shield. Throw at least one out in between shielding your tank, it will only help.

3: Cast Penance on Cooldown

Honestly, you could spend all your time shielding, and do pretty well, but you have other juicy talents to exploit make use of! Penance is an insanely efficient heal, and it heals a lot right away, so it's great to use on your tank.

In some cases it can be good to save Penance for damage spikes, but I recommend casting it on cooldown. With its short cooldown (You have reduced the cooldown, haven't you?), you can cast it often to keep them nice and full on health, and every time it crits it will add up nice Divine Aegis bubbles which will further smooth out damage.

It's nice to rotate spells so that after a shield, you cast Penance and then Flash or Greater. Penance benefits from Borrowed Time but doesn't consume it, so this way you get two lightning-fast heals.

4: Cast Prayer of Mending on Cooldown

So shield, Penance, what else... PoM! Disc doesn't have many talents to boost Prayer of Mending, but due to Ulduar's raid damage, in most fights PoM will be extremely useful regardless. So after a shield/Penance/heal cycle, toss PoM on a tank if it's available. It will always heal the tank, and bounce wherever it's needed. Many times it will bounce several times, which is free healing, and of course each bounce can crit and leave another small Divine Aegis bubble! We like bubbles!

Think of it this way: You shield a tank, Penance them to full and probably leave an aegis on them, then give them a PoM buffer. By the time a boss eats through all that mitigation and healing, your cooldowns will be up again and you'll be ready to do it again! And if the PoM goes on its merry way healing melee and other tanks, we're sure not complaining.

Conclusion

It can take time to get used to the Disc play style. Having all your major heals on cooldowns, and having one of them be channeled, is a new experience for a healer. But I feel the above guidelines are a good way to get your feet wet, to learn to use and love Disc's spells. If you need a concluding blurb to summarize all the above, it's this: The Disc tree makes Power Word: Shield and Penance into ridiculously powerful and efficient spells. The proper play style boils down to abusing using these spells for all they're worth!

Now go try it out, and don't rest until everyone in your raid is encased in a shiny golden bubble of safety.

Healing with Grace

I know I have been reviewing Holy Talents, but I wanted to insert a post on the Disc talent Grace. This talent is designed to increase our single-target healing capability, without giving us all the permanent +healing modifiers that Holy has.

The way it works is a little clumsy, and Blizzard has admitted they feel it's an awkward mechanic. But it does serve to increase our tank healing by 9% for just two talent points. (Or one point, if you don't mind the stack dropping occasionally due to the RNG). This is a big boost... of course with the caveat that if you heal anyone else, you'll lose the bonus until you cast a few more heals.

Or will you? The Grace stack is only refreshed (and moved to a new target if applicable) on casting a direct heal. That is, Flash, Greater, or Penance. It's not refreshed by shields, HoTs, or group heals. This means we are free to cast PW:Shield, Renew, Prayer of Healing, Prayer of Mending, and even Binding Heal on anyone we like without losing our Grace stack. This is a surprising amount of versatility given the initial impression of the talent's limitations.

Penance and Shield are a disc priest's meat and potatoes. Given that Grace works the way it does, Penance can be cast on a tank on cooldown, and Shield can be used on the tank every 15 seconds and on anyone else whenever else you like, while still maximizing Grace usage. Furthermore, a Prayer of Mending can be launched off every 10 seconds or so, bouncing across the raid (and creating little Divine Aegis shields too) without affecting the Grace stack, yet still benefiting from it when it bounces back to the tank.

Using this technique, you can heal multiple people while still getting full use out of Grace on your main ward. You can reserve Penance (and Flash in some cases) for the MT, but also help out an OT by keeping them shielded (with Glyph!) and Renew'd. If the OT needs a direct heal, you can even cast Binding Heal (which is as powerful and fast as Flash) without losing Grace on the MT.

Now, all of this advice is only relevant for some fights. In any easy fight, you probably won't need Grace, so you can Penance anyone who's low. And certainly in a hard fight, keeping your tank up takes priority to throwing out heals (especially expensive ones like Binding) to others. But I feel it's good to know how to finesse Grace, to keep up its bonus, while still healing someone who needs it in an emergency. A 9% bonus on one person may seem like a drop in the bucket, but we've all had times where a tank had 500 health for a few perilous seconds, and next time it might just be the bonus from Grace that gave him or her those 500 hit points to begin with.

Talent Review: Serendipity

A lot of people were excited to see Serendipity when it was first unveiled. It seemed to be Blizzard's answer to mixing up healer rotations, to let healers do things besides spamming one heal. But does it accomplish its purpose?

Serendipity builds up a stacking haste buff when you cast Flash and Binding Heals, that will speed up your next Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing up to 36%. That's a lot of haste; it basically will speed up the GHeal or PoH up to Flash Heal speed. Naturally, this will only be useful if you'll have reason to cast Flash Heals as well as use a big heal nuke from time to time. It's not like the old Improved Holy Concentration which let you simply spam GH and end up hasting a bunch of them.

So where is Serendipity powerful? For tank healing, it does not seem especially useful. One could throw in Flashes when a tank is mostly topped off, to provide a periodic haste buff to GH, which of course is never a bad thing. But where this talent really shines is in conjunction with PoH and Ulduar's raid damage. Prayer of Healing is very powerful targeted group heal. With even 1 or 2 points in Serendipity, a priest can "charge up" their PoH in advance, in preparation of an upcoming Tympanic Tantrum or other burst of AOE. This allows the PoH to land much sooner after damage hits, which also gives all healers more breathing room to top the raid up afterwards.

Serendipity has great synergy with Surge of Light. When assigned to raid healing, there is not always occasion to cast Flash Heals, especially when movement is necessary. But with SoL (proccing off CoH and PoM), there is almost always an opportunity to cast an instant Flash and refresh the Serendipity stack before it expires.

I feel that Serendipity is a useful talent in any environment with raid-wide AOE. It provides a good insurance policy, so that with a little planning, a large heal can be at one's fingertips at a moment's notice. In this way it can serve a role like Borrowed Time does for Disc priests.

The only thing I feel is missing is a good AddOn to track Serendipity's status, since you may wish to see the umber of stacks (to estimate PoH's current cast time), as well as the remaining buff duration (to know when to refresh it, if it will be needed soon).

Talent Review: Test of Faith

I thought I might do some quick posts reviewing Holy talent choices. As I said in my post on 3.1's viable talent specs, I feel the Disc tree really offers a best path, but the Holy tree offers a number of different options for talenting.

Test of Faith

This interesting talent increases your healing by 4/8/12% on targets below 50% health. 12% is a large bonus for 3 points, but is the 50% health requirement a good thing or a bad thing?

I think there's two ways to look at this talent. One the one hand, you could say Test of Faith is a bad talent if people are doing what they're supposed to, because if they don't stand in the fire or botch their abilities, they will rarely be below half health. On the other hand, you might say Test of Faith kicks in when you need it most, when people are in dire need of healing. And should you really pick your talents to help when everything is going fine, or to help you most when the raid needs all the healing it can get?

I think that both arguments are valid, but that there are two extenuating factors. First is that many of us are learning new bosses and new hard modes in Ulduar. This means that everyone is still learning where to stand, what to click, and how to avoid damage. People will be taking more damage as guilds learn encounters, so Test of Faith can be a good safety net. Also, there is a lot of raid damage in Ulduar, much of it nontrivial. Ignis's Flame Jets and Kologarn's Shockwave are two examples of raid-wide abilities that will bring many people below 50% health. Test of Faith can add a lot of oomph to the CoH's, PoH's, and PoM's that will be flying around.

Of course, the decision to invest in any talent comes down to what else the points could be spent on. This may be a number of other Holy talents but for me, I was comparing it to Blessed Resilience, which gives a flat 1% boost to all healing per point. Test of Faith gives 4 times the bonus per point, so you could look at total throughput and ask if Test of Faith will proc on your heals at least 25% of the time. If so, then it will affect your bottom line more than Blessed Resilience. Of course, the times Test of Faith procs are times when people need healing most, and when heals are least likely to overheal. So even if it only procs on 15-20% of your heals, perhaps it is still better overall.

Although I was skeptical of this talent early on, I have decided to use it. The +12% healing is a strong bonus, and given all the damage flying around in Ulduar, and the fact that our smart heals (CoH, PoM, DH) seek out injured players, it seems a good investment to me.

Razorscale: graceful swan or lame duck?

Razorscale, skybound
Now she descends gracefully
To melt our faces

Dark Rune adds pop up
Like gophers on a golf course
Let's play Whack-A-Mole!

An ode to Ignis the Furnace Master

Ignis is a mean Furnace Master
And you must be aware, as a caster
Casting through Flame Jet
Could cause you regret
Resulting in fiery disaster!

The off-tanks get all of the fun
As they pick up their adds on the run
If it's one of their lot
To ride the Slag Pot
The raid'll be roasted, well-done!

PW:Shield in the news

A few weeks ago I wondered if Power Word: Shield was overpowered, what with all the stacking bonuses it gets in the Disc tree. My reason for saying it might be "too good" was really just wondering if it made sense to base so much of Disc's benefits on one situational spell. It'd be like if 20 talent points in Holy affected Renew.

This week, others are noticing and pointing out how good PW:Shield is. Matt Low (of World of Matticus) posted on WoWInsider about how Disc can use preemptive shields as AOE mitigation. Disc has come a long way if what was once a panic button spell can now be used to pre-shield whole chunks of the raid against upcoming damage. Matt makes a good point that, thanks to Soul Warding making PW:Shield cheap and quickly recastable, this is a very viable strategy. I honestly think that in some encounters, you could do more "effective healing" this way than through Penance and Flash Heal.

There was also a post this week on the WoW forums, by a paladin who was comparing Disc's shielding to pally offerings. Most of the replies were critical of the analysis, but I think the paladin had some good points. Fully talented PW:Shield is a big instant-cast low-cost "heal" that also comes with an energize effect and a haste buff. Plus, frequent pre-shielding (as the WoWInsider post discussed) is clearly helpful in many places in Ulduar. I think Disc as a spec, and Shield as a spell, are very unique and powerful.

The Blizzard reply began, "Power Word: Shield is a really useful tool for Disc priests in particular. We want them using it." It's fortunate that Ghostcrawler said this, instead of, say, "We think Shield is a little too good and we're looking at scaling it back!" I do still wonder if Disc has a little too much invested in one spell, but on the balancing side, Weakened Soul keeps it from monopolizing our repertoire. And I do have to say, now that I've tried it, that the Glyph of Penance does give us a very attractive alternative spell to cast every six seconds!

Flame Leviathan: a bird's eye view

The catapult my friend commandeered;
He said "I need one volunteer!"
I said "I'll ride with you,
But what's this button do?
And why's my seat say "Ammunition goes here?'"

I've decided to write some poetry about each encounter in Ulduar as I come to them. So far it's been going well; you could say we've been flying through the instance! Whatever happened to "Nobody tosses a dwarf?!"