Weekend (1 Apr) - Let's Hunt Some Alliance

Weekend (1 Apr) - Let's Hunt Some Alliance

Philly went all in this weekend to see if her heart was really into this pvp thing. Very late on Friday night she got into three battlegrounds: Alterac Valley (AV), Eye of the Storm (EoS), and Sands of Time (Sands). AV was the only one where Philly sort of remembered where to go and what to do, but Philly wasn't too worried about that. Mostly, Philly needed practice. Practice remembering what her spells did; practice remembering what buttons cast what spells; and practice casting those spells in something more organized than random pounding on the keyboard.

It was frustrating to have to virtually start over learning how to play a priest again. At least she had time to play around with things. In AV the Alliance were in complete disarray, and even with Philly standing around trying to remember what button to push while battle surged all around her, she only died once and finished a respectable fifth in total healing.

The EoS match was utter chaos as neither side seemed to have a clue. Philly knew enough to try to capture/protect our bases, but nearly all of the battles took place on open roads. Neither side ever captured more than two bases at any given time, so the battle proceeded at a glacial pace. Among the healers were two really good ones, followed by Philly a distant third, and then some not-so-good after Philly. Forced to mix it up on the open roads, and later going one on one with random alliance attacking Philly's solo held base, she died 11 times. The Horde still won, as we sucked just a little less bad than they did.

Philly didn't know what she was doing in Sands, but her healing kept improving and she finished second, dying just twice. We lost, though.

Philly took a break to assess how she was doing and tinker a little with her UI. Then called it a night.

Saturday Morning - Philly did another AV and a Strand in the morning. Horde won the AV with Philly finishing third in healing. Alliance attention to Philly became a real pain, though. Philly started hammering back at the alliance that focused on her. Philly's mana can't support offense and defense both. She died six times.

Philly still needs to integrate all the other spells in her arsenal. I feel like I'm fighting handicapped. In the Strand battle, we were badly out performed and much of the fight that Philly saw was right around our graveyard. Philly died eight times to zealous alliance who delighted in hunting down the priest. Philly paid a few of them back, getting 10 HKs and even one KB. Philly led all healers by a wide margin, but that was because our group was under constant and merciless attack.

Reading back over this, it would seem that Philly has made dramatic jumps in her healing over a short period. I think it's just luck. I don't feel at all comfortable out there, and Philly is particularly defenseless in direct encounters.

Right now Philly feels more inclined to kill things than heal them, and is going to switch to shadow spec for the next round of BGs to see how that feels.

Philly started her BG run at 48% of the way to level 83 and with 511 honor points. She is now at 77% and 1208 HPs.

Saturday Evening - Philly flipped her spec and went shadow for the next six  BGs. Philly had a blast whaling away at the Alliance from the Strand to Warsong Gulch and finally to a last Alterac Valley. Unfortunately, Philly's DPS was quite forgettable and the Horde lost four of those games. As much as Philly liked DPSing with her priest, it was pretty clear that, at least at this stage of experience, level and gear, Philly really sucked at DPS.

Philly decided to go one more round against the Alliance, and flipped back to healing. Philly got her first Arathi Basin of the evening. We crushed them, at one point winning four bases to their one. Philly was second overall in healing, and felt a little bit better with her spell casting.

Philly now has 1681 HPs, three times what she started with. Oh, and she DINGED! to level 83.  :-)