Last night I made my first concerted effort to actually learn a PvP Battleground. I went into AV, for about the 5th time ever, and did my best to teach myself the layout. I think I pretty much get it. I spent some time each game capping GYs and once we had… ummm… Frostwolf? I went and joined the battle proper and healed my heart out.

In the first game I wound up as the #4 healer in the BG and I missed over half of the fighting by capping a tower and a GY.

So, while it was fun, and a win is much more fun than a loss, I did enjoy both. I ask you, faithful reader, is it worth it to do the quests in the BG? At this point, starting out my BG career I am very far behind the curve. I don’t have a single piece of PVP gear, and am honestly unaware of how or where to purchase any. I am sure It’ll be a while before I can afford any, but how does that work? Are there any PVPers who would take this Treebound Cat under their wing and show him the ropes? Does anyone have a rudimentary guide for BGs or any such thing?

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So, since I got my Epix flight form, I’ve been dailying and herbing and selling and I am already well on my way to monetary redemption. It’s amazing how much faster it is with epic flight. I could have taken a loan weeks ago, gotten epic flight and paid back the loan within days.

All htis extra moneys sitting in my bags hasn’t gone unnoticed. Why just last night I did the unthinkable. I went to the AH to buy!!! Now, while saving for my epic I was probably the stingiest guy out there. I still have green gems equipped (reminds me. must buy new gems) I have no enchants on a few pieces of gear.

It’s not that I didn’t think these things could help me, it’s that I couldn’t afford them. Well, now I can afford them. LPS? sure I’ll buy them at your stupidly high prices.

Someone hit honored already… we have so many Voids in the guild bank….

But that’s beyond the point. I am now no longer saving every last penny, so I can now go buy the stuff I have known I needed for so long. Glove enchant? Sure. let’s go buy those mats! who needs to farm for primals? I have moneys.

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I’m not sure how my fellow trees, or healers in general, feel about this, but here’s my opinion on the differences between Raid healing and 5-man healing as a tree…

5-man healing is HARD.

Maybe it’s because I’m so used to raid healing. As a tree I have a very small focus. I heal tanks. That’s all. Give me some raid frames, a lifebloom button and I’m pretty much happier than a pig in shit.

That said, since I’ve had this post sitting here unwritten for 2 weeks, I have had lots of time to think on it. I think I might just be lazy. Raid healing has made me lazy. I get to only care about tanks in a raid. give me 4 tanks on Lurker trash and I’ll jut click, click, click, click… It’s the most tedious boring fun healing out there. Give me a boss fight a NEW boss fight where I don’t have a sound strategy yet and I get pulled out of my funk of laziness.

So, yes Raid healing is all fairly straightforward There’s usually someone else there with a big old “OH SHIT” heal and my lifeblooms can roll on as many tanks as I want. If I have 3 tanks, I float a Rejuv in when I get the chance. If it’s 2, I weave them in on both every chance I get leaving 2 GCD’s open for Swittmend or NS/RG or whatever…

In a 5-man I Rejuv much more often, and usually only LB the DPS if it’s a boss AOE damage that I know won’t stack up or something. I regrowth alot in a 5-man, and that rejuv swiftmend is on a hair trigger. It’s much more hectic and in some respects more fun, but it is definitely HARD…

Though, again it all depends on the instance and the group. I will not do certain heroics with an undergeared group, and by that I mean at least 3 of us have GOT to have Hand Of A’dal on their name, or I’m not going. Most others I’d say at least 3 members should be in at least one piece of T5. I bet if I were a Shaman things would be easier….

Stupid 5-mans.

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So, Tonight we had possibly the worst SSC ever. 6 tries on Hydross for a guild who 2-shot him (her?) on our first night ever. I think it was tank issues, with healers taking aggro from add tanks, DPS destroying themselves by pulling ag. Our lock wiped us twice by pulling aggro while on the wrong side of the line. That was bad. but that’s not the worst of it.

Lurker… We one-shot Lurker. Ok, here’s some back story.

I am a resto druid. I heal in tree of Life Form. This is obvious. Lurker requires the raid to fish to summon him. When trees fish, there is no visible pole. There is no visible fishing line. On one of our first kills, I healed Lurker with my… Fishing Pole equipped. Yes. So after that, What did I do? I set up some keybindings for my Outfitter addon. Al-Q is my main gear. Alt-W is my Feral gear. Alt-E is Nude…  Every time I fish up Lurker I Alt-Q and re-equip my healing weapons. It works great! Well, tonight I hit Alt-E. Why? I have no idea. It just happened. That picture in the upper right… that’s the result. In Tree form, I look EXACTLY the same as when I am in my Epic’d out healing gear with 1913 healing.  And here I was wondering why I ran out of mana so fast. 3890 Mana naked. 8150 in gear. 35 MP5 inside the 5 second Rule while wearing nothing. I’m at over 250 in my gear.

GG Maerdred! way to go! Way to HEAL LURKER NAKED!!!!

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Now, it has been proposed that the Air Speed Velocity of your average European swallow is 24mph. This sounds fast. What I was wondering, Is it “Swift”?  What do we know for a fact?  We know a few things.

Run speed is 100%.

Swift Flight form is 280% Run speed.

We know that the Air Speed Velocity of an unladen European Swallow is ~24mph.

What is run speed? That’s a good question. Relatively there is sure to be a way to find it with math. I’m nowhere near the game, and it’s Tuesday, so  that wouldn’t help me. So let’s take something we can measure. Figure WoW run speed is faster than the average human, so I’ll take the Boston Marathon Record Holder. at just over 2:07 for 26.22 miles, the average running speed is 12.39mph. Let’s round that to 12. So, if we figure that Average Run speed is 12, Swift Flight form would have to be 33.6mph. Thus, the European Swallow is slower than Swift flight form.  And Swift flight form could easily carry a coconut!

All this just to tell people that I finally have my Epic Flight form…

I need a hobby

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What do you pack when going to a raid?

That’s a great topic to bring me back from the dead, is it not? While not all of us do it, some or possibly most of us raid. What is it that a Treebound cat would deem necessary to bring to a raid? That, my friends, all depends on the raid location. Well… not really I keep it all in my bags all the time. Let’s get down to the nitty Gritty, Let’s get this show on the road.

For any raid, I need consumables. That’s just plain fact. I use Elixirs, Food, Reagents, Potions, Oils… So what ones do I use?

Fishsticks: 1 Stack

Sporefish: 1 Stack

Crawfish: 1 Stack

Elixir of Healing Power: 1 Stack

Elixir of Major Mageblod: 1 Stack

Elixir of Draenic Wisdom: 1 Stack

Flintwood Seed: Rebirth: 1 Stack

Quillvine: GotW: 3 Stack

Mad Alchemist Potion: 15-20

Super Mana Potion: 15-20 (Replace with zone Specific potion if I can.)

Flask of Mighty Restoration: 1 Stack (usually use Elixirs instead)

Superior Wizard Oil: 1 (5 charges) Healing.

Superior Mana Oil: 1 (5 charges) Mana Regen

I have separate pieces I mix and match for Spirit, Healing, Mp5, Stamina. This gear takes up 12 slots.

• Trinkets: 5 Bag Slots

Yes, I have 7 Epic Trinkets. Well, I have 9. 2 of which I don’t take with me.

• Weapons: 1 Bag Slot

I carry my Spirit weapon for Innervates.

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Tonight we start Mount Hyjal!

More after Rage! I was busy healing, no screeny.

Rage Down! On to Anetheron? Yes!!!

he’s rather large… dang!

But he’s dead.

So, then we head to Kaz’Rogal annnnnd…

Two-Shot him!

All in all our first night in Mount Hyjal was very very productive. 3 Progression kills in one night…. I can still not believe it.

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Next in my series of 25-man healing guides comes Gruul the Dragonkiller. The real Boss of Gruul’s Lair, and the first Great 25-man experience. You’re going to need every healer you’ve got for this one. If it’s your first time there, expect to have like 8 or 9 healers. Your Main Tank needs dedicated healers to start. Your OT needs dedicated healers to start. the Raid needs healers, but they shouldn’t get toooo much damage.

Granted, the more healers you have, the less DPS you have, and it’ll take longer to kill Gruul, which will cause you to take more damage. Perhaps My initial thought was to pad the healing meter. Many Guilds, as pointed out by SuraBear, do this fight with as few as 5 healers. I only suggest taking more, because that’s how we started learning it, and at this point 6 healers leaves us with at least one healer twiddling his thumbs. More DPS = Shorter kill time = Less Damage to heal.

Main Tanking Gruul should be your best geared tank, obviously. He’s going to take huge hits, spike damage will be massive. To start, 3 or 4 healers on the Main tank, adding more when the Growths stack up. We pull these one at a time from elsewhere.

The Offtank should have 2-3 healers, who focus on the OT, but also will start to help out on the MT as the fight goes on and Growths start stacking up the damage.

The Raid should have 1-3 healers as well. As the Growths stack up, we’ll be pulling healers from this group to help with the Tanks, mainly the MT, who can be one-shot if the Growths stack up too high.

Any Druids should be on Tank duty. Rolling hots on both tanks to help mitigate the spike damage. I’d suggest 2 Druids in the raid for this type of duty. The Hots will help when Gruul silences the raid, which lasts for 4 seconds. Sometimes HoTs are all you have between Tank Life and Death.

Your pallies should stick to the tanks, topping them off as often as possible. You may also have to heal raid members near you who’ve gotten themselves in a cave-in or shatter. So, don’t focus 100% and lose sight of the overall raid.

Priests can be split on Tank healing and Raid healing, The way most guilds set up the raid, you’d have one priest in a group of DPS, all roughly near each-other, so their AOE Group heals work well.

Shamen are great for Melee DPS and Tank healing with their Chain heal, so healing the Raid is a great job for these healers.

As the growths start to stack up, pull a healer from the raid, and add to main tank healing. By the time you’re to 12 growths all healers should be focusing on the tanks, and only throwing heals on the raid if they can be spared. If your raid continues to have issues with cave-ins, make sure your healers are aware of it, and heal accordingly. Shatter damage should be kept to a minimum once your group gets a hang of moving out of their own way, but it will be a large problem while you’re learning.

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