It has been two weeks since I gave up my tanking spec. Maybe I should put up a counter: 16 days since Saif tanked a dungeon!
Trying to build up both my Retribution and Holy set is a bit frustrating, but I'm enjoying having stuff to do again rather than just log in to raid and then putz about getting silly achievements and titles done because, why the hell not.
Retribution
The spec is fun - there's a rhythm to the very predictable Crusader Strike timing, there are procs to react to from Divine Purpose and Art of War, there is a short-term buff to keep track of in Inquisition and three separate cool-downs to create some bursty awesomeness. And if you're a fan of seal-swapping, AoE can put you on the top of meters along with a few Divine Storms and Holy Wraths, though we do sorely miss a closer for our AoE. Best to sit on one target and Templar's Verdict your heart away in such situations.
I'm closing in on the coveted 40k mark on Heroic Ultraxion which is my personal goal of pushing numbers that don't embarrass me, and that fight is magnificent for melee - if only Gurthalak functioned reliably on that fight, I think I would be there already. I hit 39k+ last time, and hopefully this will be the magical week.
Holy
The healing thing has a far more complicated learning curve and I'm still working on it. I think I'm going to have to start PvPing as Holy to build the kind of instincts I will need in Heroic raiding, but the heroic PvE raiding environment is also great for training - the do or die mechanics are stressful enough to train execution and Heroic Hagara is giving me fits with the amount of healing on the run you have to do. But I think I'll get there as being the bottom healer is aggravating.
People tell me to run dungeons but honestly, I'd rather heal Heroic Hagara and Hagara Zon'ozz and wipe all night long than do a million dungeons or LFRs where there is really nothing to learn except that I can heal the entire thing with two or three buttons. Having enough Haste for a 2-second Divine Light along with Holy Shock and Word of Glory means I never run out of mana and I never loose anyone to any mechanics. I don't think I've had to hit a single cool-down in a dungeon to save anyone. There is really no good training environment for healing except maybe PvP.
I've been grinding out some Holy gear, but it's some distance away. Maybe in another week or two I'll be able to start PvPing as Holy but for now, I'm just grinding a lot of BGs for achievements and it has been sort of fun to PuG it solo. My Ret PvP gear is about as good as it'll get without me hitting 2200 for the weapons, and I doubt that's going to happen anytime soon.
It's really the dog days lately. And if you've been counting, it's the six-month mark since we had Dragon Soul. We *should* be getting a new raid-tier right about now. On the up-side, with Beta progressing so well, I doubt we have very much longer to wait before Patch 5.0 hits servers. Maybe as early as next month?
A man is hopeful!
You're forgetting about Diablo 3! Which will be out in a week!
ReplyDeleteI don't think Patch 5.0 will be out until all the shiny has worn off of Diablo 3. There are far too many people, like myself, who signed up for the year-of-WoW and got free Diablo 3. I'm more of the opinion that Patch 5.0 will be out in August or Sept, when people are done with Diablo and done with the summer.
And don't forget that there will be a PvP expansion to Diablo3 as well. That will likely interleave with the first raid patch of Mists.
You are completely right! I forgot about D3! Hurray!
ReplyDeleteHowever, I don't know that 5.0 will be delayed by that much - even though they had 1 million year-long subs, that's still 9 million players who might or might not play Diablo. I think we'll still see a release by August.