tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8185015035088335611.post1757031197987847704..comments2011-05-02T07:52:10.594-05:00Comments on Rants of a Priest: Fun with AltsMoriturihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06550908721518669525noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8185015035088335611.post-27536344093522905942011-04-05T10:51:57.459-05:002011-04-05T10:51:57.459-05:00Wow, Mori, your blog comments section actually doe...Wow, Mori, your blog comments section actually does have a character limit! ;)Rillfanenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8185015035088335611.post-44533453272198311012011-04-05T10:50:53.870-05:002011-04-05T10:50:53.870-05:00I wonder how many of your hits were from me trying...I wonder how many of your hits were from me trying to decide what to write in response to the Homogenization post and eventually deciding that I didn't really have time to write up my thoughts in a fashion both reasonably timely and reasonably coherent? ;) In any case, I think I generally agree with you that it was best for the game although as a resto druid there are certain things about being pounded into Blizzard's new square hole paradigm that still rankle. But that would be not the subject of this blog post.<br /><br />I have quite a few toons, although only three are 85 at the moment - my main druid, Rillfane, my resto shaman Cilyana and my holy priest Beltryd. I would find it really hard to play WoW as much as I do without alts, because you just hit a point where there's not much in the way of meaningful advancement you can do on a single toon, particularly since I don't really have any interest in PVP. At the moment I am spending more time on Rill than I usually do, trying to get the archaeology trinket in hopes that it might help a little on Nefarian. I'm beginning to seriously doubt I'll ever see it, though. <br /><br />I really love healing on my shaman, although I do think in a raid setting they may still be slightly underpowered, particularly in 10 man settings. They've been creeping up a bit on stateofdps.com, and while they still haven't managed to move out of the bottom spot, at least they're at 86% of the top class and not 80%, like they used to be. 4.1 should hopefully bring them even closer, and they do seem to be somewhat more competitive in 25 man versions.<br /><br />Regardless of their relative power, though, I really enjoy the shaman healing style, enough that I now have three resto shaman toons at varying levels. They're a bit dull to heal on until you get most of the tools (early shaman healing is pretty much a two-button affair), but that's kinda true of a lot of the healing classes. But once you get Riptide things start to get more interesting, and Healing Rain is just an awesome spell. I thought I'd dislike the fiddliness of having to place the circle versus just Swiftmending a target to proc Efflo, but really, it works out nicely most of the time. And with Tidal Waves up most of the time, my direct heals feel like they have about the right cast time, not super-sluggish like throwing direct heals on my druid usually feel.<br /><br />I also love having an interrupt to prevent some damage rather than just have to heal through it, and that will be even better come 4.1 when Wind Shear will always hit. I'm sure they won't, but if they'd expand that to include CCs I'd be even happier, as it does kind of suck to be called upon to Hex stuff and have it miss. Still, it does seem like shamans add a nice amount of group utility and there have been times when if not for the amount of mounts, titles and achievements I've accumulated on my druid, I might have thought about changing mains. <br /><br />My holy priestess and I don't really seem to get along as well. I don't really feel as comfortable healing on her and I don't think it's just that she's about 10 iLvl less geared than my shaman. I like Prayer of Mending as you mentioned in your last post, but in 5-mans it always seems to bounce from the tank to the hunter's pet where it's never heard from again. And the priest healing circle, unlike the shaman one, doesn't really seem to do enough healing to be worth the extra fiddliness. I guess it's getting a buff in 4.1 too, so maybe it'll be worth it then. I leveled her as disc, so I might go back to that at some point, it felt more comfortable to me; I'm just not sure how it would do in raids. Of course, given that we only have the one alt run, I'm kind of unlikely to really raid on anyone beyond Rill and Cil anytime soon.Rillfanenoreply@blogger.com