Perspective-Wow style
Posted 07-07-2008 at 07:28 AM by Horacio
I pugged ZA last night and had a great time. Picked up some badges and cleared through Hex-lord. I mostly OT'd and stood aside for one of the group's regular tanks but did take on the Eagle boss after he gave us some initial difficulty.
The previous week, I pugged into the same group on my druid and though a little rusty, I led the healing meter until the last fight and ended up neck and neck with the priest/RL.
Granted, healing meters are clumsy and not the best way to gauge performance but you can tell alot from looking deeper into a mod like Recount.
Last night, the druid I filled in for the week before was back and the same bosses were killed. The meter looked very different and the druid tracked me down after the raid to pick my brain.
The main question was, how could in equal gear, I be so much higher under the same conditions? I made some specific suggestions on spell choices as the druid I talked to was living almost exclusively off of Lifebloom and didn't cast Regrowth at all. Well, Lifebloom is bread and butter, the #1 spell that should make up the bulk of a tree's output but the other spells have thier place.
But this blog isn't about technical healing for druid mechanics. Its about perspective and being on this side of things is a little tough. In the guild the druid is in, there is a priest and another resto druid that are absolute pro healers. Freaks of nature and to be honest, she aspires to match them. Hell, I don't think >I< could match them, they are that good.
But that happens and especially with healing....There can only be one best in any subset or group. Sometimes the players are evenly matched and compete head to head. Sometimes one is a clear leader. There are things that go into playing each class that are somewhat impossible to explain and with healing, its even more so because there is so much more you have to do and many more decisions you have to make.
The point is, do your best but if you do not equal the elite player you know or hear of, don't get down on yourself. The only meter that really counts is the "Boss Dead" meter. It takes time to hone your game and even then, some people just 'get it' on a deeper, more fundamental level than others. It takes a whole raid contributing to make it work. Find your place, bust your ass and always try to improve.
The previous week, I pugged into the same group on my druid and though a little rusty, I led the healing meter until the last fight and ended up neck and neck with the priest/RL.
Granted, healing meters are clumsy and not the best way to gauge performance but you can tell alot from looking deeper into a mod like Recount.
Last night, the druid I filled in for the week before was back and the same bosses were killed. The meter looked very different and the druid tracked me down after the raid to pick my brain.
The main question was, how could in equal gear, I be so much higher under the same conditions? I made some specific suggestions on spell choices as the druid I talked to was living almost exclusively off of Lifebloom and didn't cast Regrowth at all. Well, Lifebloom is bread and butter, the #1 spell that should make up the bulk of a tree's output but the other spells have thier place.
But this blog isn't about technical healing for druid mechanics. Its about perspective and being on this side of things is a little tough. In the guild the druid is in, there is a priest and another resto druid that are absolute pro healers. Freaks of nature and to be honest, she aspires to match them. Hell, I don't think >I< could match them, they are that good.
But that happens and especially with healing....There can only be one best in any subset or group. Sometimes the players are evenly matched and compete head to head. Sometimes one is a clear leader. There are things that go into playing each class that are somewhat impossible to explain and with healing, its even more so because there is so much more you have to do and many more decisions you have to make.
The point is, do your best but if you do not equal the elite player you know or hear of, don't get down on yourself. The only meter that really counts is the "Boss Dead" meter. It takes time to hone your game and even then, some people just 'get it' on a deeper, more fundamental level than others. It takes a whole raid contributing to make it work. Find your place, bust your ass and always try to improve.
Total Comments 6
Comments
 |  The most important thing while healing ... ... get a decent UI. No, I am not kidding. Information is paramount -- and you need to be able to react quickly. The default UI does not provide this. |
Posted 07-07-2008 at 11:50 AM by Norrath  |
| |  Yes. The UI has to conform to your play style and give you the ability to do what you want. And that is a major key right there, translating your observation into action. Myself, I have never used to any great extent Clique, Grid, Healbot, etc. I use Pitbull and Bartender and...well, that's it. And I seem to do okay. I make it work because I can click all my bars quickly and I have the right spells bound to the right keys. So, yes, some people can utlize powerful UI mods to custom fit thier UI. I have my layout tweaked to give me the look I want but aside from that, I just make sure I do what I want to do when I want to do it. /shrug |
| Posted 07-07-2008 at 12:28 PM by Horacio |
| | 
I wish I could convince 24 other people of that. A group of 25 people who actually believed that would be able to clear any instance in the game. | |
| Posted 07-07-2008 at 01:13 PM by Smaken Updated 07-07-2008 at 01:50 PM by Smaken (Numerical error correction) |
| | Yeah, that's another thing -- each UI will most likely be unique; different healers prioritize different things. But the key point -- great phrasing there, by the way, couldn't have said it better myself -- remains. An amazing healer post on the Lurker Lounge forums (for priests, but many things apply to all healers): http://www.lurkerlounge.com/forums/i...dpost&p=145272 |
| Posted 07-07-2008 at 01:17 PM by Norrath |
| | Individual performance issues have a tendency to overpower and crowd out group performance issues far too often. It leaves you scratching your head and ass trying to figure out why you have X number of DPSers putting out Y DPS....healers keeping the tanks up and healing reasonable damage on the raid and unable to close the deal. Group performance should always supercede individual performance and assesments of individual performance should always be rooted in "how can I help the group". Raids are not coordinated freelance operations, they are cooperative efforts. Like many, I have a love/hate relationship with performance metrics like meters. They are a great tool when used correctly but they are awful distractions when they have too much influence over people's actions. EDIT: Here's a screenie of my healing UI from fairly recently. I feel like I tweak it some every week but the basic layout is the same. http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v4...608_214612.jpg |
| Posted 07-07-2008 at 01:43 PM by Horacio |
| | Slightly off topic, Lifebloom is made of pure unadulterated win. |
| Posted 07-07-2008 at 06:06 PM by Finelle |
Recent Blog Entries by Horacio
- Who Are These People and Where is My Raid? (07-02-2009)
- DW Frost DK (06-29-2009)
- Turning the Corner (06-29-2009)
- OT: Celebrity Deathwatch (06-26-2009)
- Status Quo (06-24-2009)
