Lizzia, of Authorized to Ramble, a healer within my guild, and a good friend, tagged me to take this questionnaire/survey.
To detail the approximate amount of raid healing experience I have at level 85, I healed my first raid (Baradin Hold) in the tail end of June. Then my second raid was Blackwing Descent. Then my third was Firelands. All in about two weeks. I've been level 85 on my priest since May 13th, of 2011, and after a little bit of "play here, play there" we were sort of ambushed with news the week before the Firelands patch that we were going to be losing one of our healers because of waning interest in raiding.
We were having roster questions and weren't sure how to manage raid slot rotations, but the way we went with is I just moved to join the ranks of Waypoint Healers, including the aforementioned Liz, and Rezznul, who occasionally posts at Red Noob Diaries.
Yes. Taking up a wholly unfamiliar role days before a major content patch and expecting to be competent at it is much less terrifying to me than recruiting new players.
- What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer?
The only max level healer I have, and will be answering the questions here on, is the Discipline Priest healer, Karanina; of Medivh-US's Waypoint guild.
- What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
A majority of my dungeoneeristing lately is in 10 player raids, five player dungeons, and the occasional bout of PVP tomfoolery.
- What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why?
Inner Focus; now that healing is supposed to be much more akin to a game of darts, the idea of a well timed heal saving the day is fantastic - and when I didn't have enough mana to maintain throughput, I learned to love Inner Focus very quickly.
- What healing spell do you use least for your class and why?
Divine Hymn! A channeled smart heal sounds really exciting, but, it just feels... very underwhelming.
- What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why?
I feel like the best thing I bring to the table as a Disc Priest - and why you ought consider one in your raid team - is the strong tank healing they bring. Through management of cooldowns (Pain Suppression, Power Word: Barrier, PW: Shield being the big ones, with Prayer of Mending and Penance being consistent casts) we can do a lot to help mitigate a tank's damage received.
- What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why?
Mana Efficiency! Doubly so for my spec, because it does feel like Discipline requires way more gear to be good - but, on the opposite side of that coin, it does feel like when you get that gear level, you are pretty incredible at what you do.
- In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you?
Don't raid 25s; instead let me answer this for 10s.
The strength of Disc Priest healing is tank heals - ideally I'm focused on one tank, though, I'm finding with my gear level, and sharpening reaction time, I could probably be good at keeping both tanks bubbled, if not healed up. I don't know if this is actually feasible, but it's definitely something I am learning and working to see if it is a thing.
- What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why?
So far I've only levelled a Priest healer; so, there's that. I think I would like the feel of resto shamananananing, though.
- What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why?
I tried Paladin healing, but didn't like it - though, only having a cursory idea of what I'm trying to do is always going to be very frustrating to me.
- What is your worst habit as a healer?
I don't trust the tools enough. Prayer of Mending is better than I think, as is Renew.
- What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing?
"What's a CC? C'mon, Bear Run. Why'd we die? What do you mean you need mana?"
- Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing?
Maybe?
- What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer?
"Is everybody I am supposed to heal still alive, Y/N?"
- What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class?
I don't know enough to know what to say here! That it's bad? I'm enjoying Disc healing very muchly, and I like to think I'm doing pretty okay at it, but... see above question for the depth and breadth of my visual knowledge.
- What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn?
Well, I'm having difficulty learning not to tunnel vision, so I imagine most new healers probably have this problem?
- 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)?
Lot of overhealing - I do try and leverage Greater Heal when needed to get sizable Divine Aegis shield procs from critical healan.
- Haste or Crit and why?
Balance, tending towards Crit. I can time heals, I cannot force a crit.
- What healing class do you feel you understand least?
Priest =B
- What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing?
Add-ons, I just use Quartz. I can glance and see buffs on target and manage expectations of healing accordingly.
As far as macros, I do have shift modifiers for Renew/PW: Shield and Dispel/Mass Dispel - generally filling up my extra buttons on my mouse with utility/constant use spells.
- Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why?
I try to balance things out, at least, right now. Emphasis is definitely on crit, but I do feel like I've been lagging behind the other STORNG HEALARS of Waypoint; something, up until just yesterday I was very concerned and worried (worrycerned) about.
Now, I suppose I need to tag someone for this, and I SHALL! I HAVE! I MUST. Liala, of Disciplinary Action, was the biggest influence in sticking Disc as a priest, and I would like to see what she has to say on the matter. So. Uh. Tag, yer it.
