Definitely Not-A-Healing-Meme!  

I considered titling this post ‘the things no one really cares to know about me’, but I think I’ll save that for an autobiographical post. Hell, maybe I can make it a tag.

Before I began my own blog, I saw a few of the paladins I follow posting answers to Miss Medicina’s Healing Not-A-Meme. I personally think it’s a great idea and would much rather read the consensus of a small community than the hard, cold numbers of a data-mining site. No offense to the awesome data-mining sites out there. You’re just no fun to cuddle.

• What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer? Dristanel, Holy Paladin
• What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans) Mostly raiding. Two nights of 10 man progression and one night of 25.
• What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why? Beacon of Light, for sure. There’s something perversely satisfying about watching two Grid boxes fill up at once, and to know I can keep both tanks alive is something I wouldn’t trade. Mmm. Bacon.
• What healing spell do you use least for your class and why? I’d like to say I use most of my skills. I have a preference for Holy Light, but make ample use of Flash of Light and Holy Shock as well. However since I consider hand spells a part of the paladin arsenal, I’ll say I wish I remembered to use Hand of Sacrifice more. Oh, and Divine Intervention. Using it on cooldown to smite the wicked DPS just isn’t enough.
• What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why? Powerhouse tank-healing. We are never going to be the most versatile healing class, but what we do, we do well and proudly.
• What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why? I know a lot of holy paladins will probably say group/AE healing, but I could do without that. It’s not my job. What I would like is some more variety. Also, I’ve put in a petition to be able to heal people with laser beams.
• In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you? Tank healing. I can certainly Beacon a tank and toss heals on the raid, but I don’t feel like my potential is being maximized. I feel most useful and comfortable healing one tank with a beacon on the other.
• What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why? I generally heal alongside a holy priest or resto druid, both of whom are exceptional healers and definitely compliment a holy paladin. But I am tempted to say holy priest simply because I have a bad habit of overhealing druid HoTs.
• What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why? I have yet to heal alongside a resto shaman, so I can’t comment fully on that. Still, I’d have to say another holy paladin or a discipline priest. More than one holy paladin in a 25 man is perfectly fine. Usually when our… one other holy paladin is there, we compliment each other’s healing styles nicely. But two paladins in a 10 man, in my mind, would be a recipe for disaster. Or hilarity. Or hilarious disaster.
• What is your worst habit as a healer? Overhealing. 75% overhealing on my last 25 man Gunship. Holy paladins are prone to overheal, but there’s really no excuse for numbers like that.
• What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing? I’ll have to second the ‘people who shout out for heals’ response. I know you need heals. Even with my crappy UI, I can see your box on Grid just as clearly as I can see anyone else’s.
• Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing? I do, actually. We best fulfill a niche role, but I’ve seen many a Flash of Light healer keep a raid alive. When I find myself wanting for something after a wipe, it’s almost always related to me the player, not the paladin class.
• What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer? I don’t like seeing anyone die, but so long as my assigned targets didn’t die, I’m doing my job. I do evaluate healing logs after raids, comparing my numbers solely against myself. Our 10 man runs with a holy priest and a resto druid. Our 25, four holy priests (!) and a resto druid. Comparing my numbers against classes designed in a completely different manner does absolutely nothing to help my performance.
• What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class? That holy paladins get by on spamming one heal the entire fight. Generally if I’m spamming one heal, it’s because I’m in ‘oh shit’ mode and the tank is taking consistently high damage. The whole ‘tanks get 2-shotted in Wrath, lulz’ mechanic. Any other time if I’m just using one heal it’s probably because I’m being lazy. Or eating ice cream during ICC trash.
• What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn? Relying on Beacon. If you’ve played any other healing class or, like me, had a holy paladin before Beacon (wut), it’s a difficult adjustment to realize that your beaconed target is directly linked to another target. If you heal the beaconed target directly when someone else is taking damage, you’re probably going to get someone unnecessarily killed. There are exceptions, of course. On Marrowgar 25, I often have to buffer the beaconed tank with Holy Shock and a Flash of Light HoT. But for the most part, I should be healing the off tanks, thus healing the main tank.
• If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer via recount, what sort of patterns would they see (i.e. lots of overhealing, low healing output, etc)? Lately, a ridiculously high HPS to Effective Healing ratio due to Overhealing. But I can top those Overhealing and Dispel meters like nobody’s business! …Excuse me while I go sit in a corner and cry.
• Haste or Crit and why? Haste until soft cap, then crit. Wait… there’s a stat other than INT?
• What healing class do you feel you understand least? Druids. I heal alongside an excellent druid every week, and all I get out of it is: flail flail flail bloom bloom bloom. ‘Rolling foundation HoTs’ might as well be street lingo to me.
• What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing? I use Grid and CLCBT. I love Grid. I wish WoW had a default interface like it. And while I can certainly heal without it, why lose out on all that tasty healer synergy?
• Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why? No, really… there’s a stat other than INT? To be serious, I gem for INT exclusively. I drop those socket bonuses like a bad habit.

And there’s my two cents on the subject! Looking for input from other holy paladins? Check the links!

The Bossy Pally

MoarHPS

HolyPaladin.net

Snottydin

For a more comprehensive list, check out Jessabelle’s Circle of Healers.