If you don’t already know, I play a Priest. Shadow Priest to be exact. Of course when raiding, Holy is more valuable. I’ve made no secrets with my guild that when I finally catch up and hit 80 I’ll be the Holy Priest of the guild. Being poor I didn’t have dual-spec. Keyword being didn’t. Last night a guildie gave me alone, almost against my will. As much as I hate being in debt, I hate having offer to heal a 5-man after offer whispered to me only to say no. Can I heal in shadow? Sure I can, but not as well as if I were holy…
So I spent the first part of the night setting up my bars and trying to get used to holy. I’ve played two priests to at least 70 and raided with my Undead Priest. I had never touched the holy tree though. Sites like Raider101.com and TalentChic.com got me started and pointed me in the right direction. I grabbed Healbot, a mod I had never had use for. All in all I felt like I was taking a pre-made and trying to figure it out. As long as I’ve played a Priest, the holy tree might have well been written in French.
After setting all of my bars and mods up, I immediately got a whisper from a guildie looking for a Nexus run. This was his first real tanking experience and my first healing experience. Wow, did it ever show! He would pull too much or I’d lose line of sight or he’d tank in a bad spot and I wouldn’t pay attention and then I’d stand in a bad spot. It was a very valuable play session and I can honestly say it breathed new light into an old MMO. Back when I was tasked to heal in the Horde days, I would always target heal. It just wasn’t that hard in my opinion… Getting used to Healbot almost feels more chaotic because I’m pressing mouse buttons and holding keys and do not have everything memorized. I might as well close my eyes and throw a dart. Whatever it hits is getting cast.
By the end of the run we started to work better. It was apparent that all of my +Crit was holding me back because I was running out of mana fast. Now a real problem though. When to switch up gear. I’m still leveling as Shadow. I guess I’ll start to switch gear from +hit and crit to mana regen starting around 76 or 77… Any ideas?
I did want to throw a shout out to Blizzard though. As negative as I am in regards to them, the equipment manager and dual-spec were great additions to the game. I am not shy with the fact that I try to use as few mods as possible. Whatever Blizzard builds into the UI I know I will never have to update or live without when the mod developer decides to move on. There are still mods I can’t live with out, but the more Blizzard incorporates, the happier I am.
