Friday (21 Mar) - Under Pressure

Friday (21 Mar) - Under Pressure

Level 77 Philly had completed her dailies on Friday, putting her 47% of the way to level 78. It had been a slow week for her and the rest of the Wild family, and everyone was looking forward for some evening pvp action.

Philly was still in game when DER joined her a little before 10pm. We talked about what pvp bracket to start out in, and DER also asked if Philly wanted to do some random dungeon runs with DER to help her level. Despite all of the improvements Philly had made to her gear (to improve her mana regen) and user interface (to organize all the new spells that she had to know when and how to use), she was still pretty nervous about making that final leap into a real 5 man dungeon with four others, and being responsible for keeping everyone alive. So Philly thought she was being clever when she countered that she really needed to get a run in Violet Hold with DER and Sis to really tell how much of an improvement the changes would make. The three of them had done VH before, but it had been a tough evening for Philly, and that would be her point of comparison. "Sis is going to be here tonight, right?" Philly asked.

"Nope," DER said, "she's out of town. But we can two man it to get you some practice." Philly couldn't think of any reason to say no to that, but she did drag her feet a bit more before agreeing. Philly puttered about a bit, but soon joined DER in VH. VH is rated for level 75-77, so DER at level 80 was over qualified, but then there were only two of us, instead of five. We did not plow through the whole dungeon, but Philly did enough to prove to herself that she could indeed maintain Shields full time on the tank (DER) and herself without fear of going out of mana. Although there was little need for heavy healing, Philly still cast a lot of heals, pretending heavy damage was being done, and still she managed fine with her mana.

Critiquing herself aftward, Philly felt that she was still pretty awkward at casting spells, had trouble finding lesser used spells (and remembering to use them), and that the "feeling" was not yet natural and automatic.

"Ready for a random dungeon?" DER asked.

"Uh, just a sec, need to make some adjustments." Philly stared at the collection of bars and buttons on her screen. Her head hurt. With a hand over the number pad, she ticked off each spell under her fingers. The pattern roughly resembled the number pad arrangement that Wild has, with similar spells in the same locations. She tweaked a couple of things that had not worked well.

"Ready now?" DER persisted.

"Gotta repair." Philly got her repairs done. She studied her spell sets again, brow furrowed in concentration.

"Ok, I'm putting us in the queue," DER said, not waiting for Philly to come up with another excuse.

The Dungeon Finder (DF) screen popped up. Healer or DPS? it asked. Philly took a deep breath, selected healer, and pressed ok.

INSTANTLY the DF came right back to tell Philly and DER that a group had been found and to please click to enter the dungeon. I mean, it was immediate. Can't back out now.

The dungeon selected was Gundrak. Philly prayed that Wild's memory of the dungeon would fill her mind as we started off. This is a place of ice trolls and mammoths, among other denizens. There are four bosses, but Philly would be hard pressed to point them out as the group of mostly high level 70s (plus DER's 80) worked through the level 76-78 dungeon in normal mode.

Philly broke her healing down to the basics - keep a Shield up on the tank. POM him before a boss fight. Hit the tank with Penance if he takes more than modest damage. Flash heal anyone needing some healing. Shield anyone having trouble. Don't forget to check Philly's own health. And after all that try to use your other spells, too.

Random dungeon runs usually move fast, and this group was no exception. Twice Philly called for a mana break so she could drink to restore a mana bar down under 30%. She didn't get one either time, as the tank kept moving forward, but they managed without her until I could get back into action. I could have avoided even those two delays had Philly remembered that she has mana regen Use trinkets that she could have popped.

Another hard habit to break was immediately tossing a heal at the first sign someone was taking damage. That is so automatic to Wild that brain and muscle memory respond without thinking about it. But disc healers have that big shield, and Philly has to learn to use it correctly. Don't bother with the little stuff, if the damage grows to the size of a flash heal, then hit the player with a flash heal, but not before. If the damage spikes or rises fast, Shield FIRST, not after a heal. For too long it's been "I see damage" so HEAL IT! Disc priests STOP the damage with Shield, then heal the damage already done, not the other way around. And most importantly, that rule applies to Philly herself! When taking incoming damage, Shield first. To add one more thing to this, with Shield Glyphed (and Philly has the glyph) Shield also pops a heal when cast, so it's sort of like an instant heal anyway. At least that's how Philly views it.

Philly also needs to figure out how to get a better view of a specific debuff called Weakened Soul. It's very important to know when it's active and when it's not, and while it's timer is displayed, it's buried in a bunch of other information on the screen.

Oh, and one last thing. If Philly does happen to draw aggro, as did happen sometimes, try not to forget the spell Fade, which makes the nasty thing in your face forget who you are and it goes off to find someone else to torment. Philly has never cast that spell in a live situation with a mob beating on me. Bad priest, bad.

We did beat the dungeon Gundrak. Nobody died, to Philly's surprise and relief. I don't think anyone could tell it was Philly's very first time healing a dungeon, other than DER, of course. Philly got two triumph emblems, the first of many more to come, hopefully. The victory also brought a tear to Wild's eye. It was Philly's first high level dungeon victory, and the only family member following Wild's footsteps as a healer. Wild has high hopes for this young lady.

"How'd it feel?" DER asked.

"Awesome and terrifying at the same time," was her honest reply.

"Again?" DER asked Philly and rest of the group of players that had just finished Gundrak. We all said yes, and Philly, still dazed by Gundrak, was dropped into another dungeon. She caught a break, though. The dungeon was Violet Hold. If there is any dungeon in WoW that Philly felt confident in, it was VH. We got what might be the worst mix of bosses (two of five possibles are randomly picked, with the dragon Cyanigosa always the third and final boss). It didn't matter. We pounded through it quickly, and Philly actually relaxed a bit and played around with her spells. And again nobody died. Maybe Philly really will make it as a healer. Philly didn't do it alone, though. DER most definitely helped, dealing #1 DPS that none of the other players could match and rarely needing any healing help, which shortened fights and allowed Philly to focus on the rest of the group.

When it was all tallied up, Philly was 78% of the way to level 78. She won two items she'll put to use and completed a quest that got her a third useful piece. She averaged 910 hps in Gundrak, where the healing requirements were much higher than in VH. So that set the bar for her to work upward from. DER offered another dungeon run to get her closer to level 78, but Philly wanted time to bask in her current success. Level 78 will come in time. Enjoying her first two dungeon successes should be savored right away.

Neither were ready to call it an evening, though. It was time to hit the battlegrounds, and maybe grab a Wintergrasp match. Stay tuned.