Your Healers Know

They make decisions constantly on who lives and who dies. This is their role in a raid. And when tanks go down or when key utility players need to stay up, you maybe on your own.

• Can you use your Healthstone when needed?
• Can you reduce your overall damage intake?
• Can you avoid unnecessary damage?
• Can you pot if you need to?
• Can you be self sufficient until the raid healers get stabilized?

As DPS you will quickly learn where you are on that list.

We all have bad nights. I am prone to bad moments. I die. But before I ever blame a healer I evaluate the last moments before my death.

• Was a tank dead?
• Was my designated raid healer dead?
• Was the capability of that raid healer high enough to keep me up when the raid goes wrong?
• Was I standing where I was not too?
• Was I having a brain fart?

After EVERY death I recommend reading your combat log. And if necessary get an addon that records for you the last few actions before your death. (I have not used an addon in a while so I don’t have one to recommend.)

If you are a caster and see you got cleaved for 76K… yea… no healer could prevent that. It was a completely a YOU problem. What? Oh? You say the tank died? Was your Shatter on cooldown? I recommend sending it back to the Rogue who might be able to Evasion tank for 15 seconds. A quick moving Druid might Rebirth a tank in that time. Just because it didn’t work eight times you tried Shattering it doesn’t mean that ninth time it will. But how do you know until you try?

The encounter AOE killed you with a 9K tick and 2K overkill? Was your Healthstone used? Did you use a Health Pot? Did your designated raid healer die? Was your raid healer helping a priority target because their healer went down, like a tank healer? Were you out of range of your designated healer?

etc….

There are a lot of questions after each death. “I didn’t get a heal.” is not a reason to die if there were options and you didn’t use them.

“Can I survive.” is the ultimate game.

For me, this is my game. If we down a new boss and I am not alive at the end it is extremely bitter sweet for me. To take the bitterness out, I make sure I used all my resources so at least I tried to stay alive as long as possible. If that didn’t occur, I research the ability used to kill me. Making sure the likelihood of that same mistake is lowered.

Your healers KNOW if you are prone to death. When things are going wrong they also KNOW if they “waste” a heal on DPS they quickly mentally prioritize to those who will use the time to extra advantage.

Matticus had a post documenting the mentality of a healer when things start going wrong. There are a lot of things you can do to help your healers. Knowing this is what is going on in your healer's head, I ask how can I help.

I am not one of the last DPS standing because I am known for standing in fire, get hit by goo, am out of range, or DPSing random targets.

I KNOW my healers heal me. I also KNOW that if I am having a horrible night, dieing every fight, I get healer whispers “Is everything all right?” That is not normal for me and they are reevaluating my heal priority. They KNOW. They Know. They know.

I’m Female Hear HydRAWR

I was listening to Kat and Esh’s interview on Episode 97 of Twisted Nether Blogcast. (Yea you can hear Hydra crash and burn on Episode 98. I am told it will get better. Im a warlock I can take the pain.) The two of them noted that they were going to have an episode on their podcast Gaming Worlds Collide about gender issues in gaming.

While trying to catch up with my current blogroll I noticed Larisa of The Pink Pigtail Inn wrote about this topic. She links to some other blogger and their view.

Some of the posts I see on this topic get all deep and “I can change the world” preachy. I couldn’t link you examples because those would be posts I would pass up.

I confess…

I, Hydra, use being female in Warcraft.

Shocking I know. But I see it this way, only the person themselves can effect how they feel. If a male player has an emotional response to something I say… that is their problem, not mine. I do make a point to tell the truth.

Some examples that I have used in raid…

“I am a girl and I can keep my skirts out of the goo, why are you face planted into it?”

“I am 8 months pregnant and I can dance the beams, why are the warriors eating dirt?”

“I am a pregnant female and I can move for Necrotic Plague, why are you sniffing ghoul feet?”

… I think you get the point.

I don’t think I am a better player then anyone because I am female. I do on occasion believe I am a better player then some because I have the results to show for the work. Nothing pisses me off more then dieing from something I could have prevented.

Hey! Maybe I work smarter and not harder because I am female. *grin*

Realm 24 hour Maintenance

All realms have maintenance today. But a select special slice of them are down for 24 hours or more.

Since our raid team runs 11 PM to 2 AM central time. Our Ruby Sanctum 25 man run was on the server shut down timer. We were doing our second pull at 15 minutes to realm shut down. It was quite fun to see who could perform under pressure and those who… well took it in the face with a beam.

If you do not have anything to fill your WoW time tonight check out Twisted Nether Blogcast. Fimlys, Nibbles, and I will have an announcement.

Here are the realms listed by Blizzard for 24 hour down time.

Antonidas
Anub'arak
Blackwater Raiders
Bladefist
Borean Tundra
Cairne
Cenarion Circle
Cenarius
Darrowmere
Drak'Tharon
Drenden
Echo Isles
Farstriders
Fenris
Garrosh
Hydraxis
Hyjal
Korialstrasz
Lightbringer
Maiev
Misha
Mok'Nathal
Moon Guard
Nazgrel
Nordrassil
Quel'dorei
Ravenholdt
Rivendare
Shandris
Shu'halo
Sisters of Elune
The Forgotten Coast
Tortheldrin
Uther
Vashj
Winterhoof
Wyrmrest Accord

Bronze Door Bell

This is another San Diego Comic Con post. I will get to WoW as soon as I can think of something funny or productive to tell you.

This year I sent Husband back to the convention without me. My sisters fiancée/boyfriend/significant other (he told her to go pick a ring and she has yet to do it *eyeroll*) went with him. Long time readers would know him and his brothers as NPCs in Valiance Keep. (You maybe curious to know that most of the brothers play Horde and have killed themselves in game.)

Being the wonderful husband that he is, Husband asked if I wanted anything. Well… to go!... but less that I wanted a …

Bronze door bell.

For over a decade I have been staring at the bronze door bells at Honeck Sculpture. They are handcrafted by an artisan. I have hovered over his stand for hours looking at everything. I highly recommend you check out his wears on his online site.

I have this idea in my head that I want gargoyles to protect my house. I grew up with Chinese guardian dogs. My strange fantasy and science fiction mind translated that tradition to gargoyles!

But being that I live in a typical suburban area and in a condo at that… I don’t foresee actually gargoyles happening anytime soon. Thou I am still holding out to making a pair of gargoyles to spray water out at trick-or-treaters for Halloween.

I figured that I could get away with a door bell plate.

Here is a picture of a few. Husband sent me the picture to make sure he was getting the correct one.

The cats have green yellow glass eyes. From the bottom to the top of the wings is almost 5 inches. They are not small by any means. They replace any standard door bell plate.

I had Husband buy the center one, the bat winged cat. I figured it was a good balance of everything that I enjoy without scaring my mother and small children on a daily basis.

I would also recommend his cloak clasps. They have real weight to them. If I was not using my cloak to hide in the shadows to jump out and scare children on Halloween I would spend the money on one. Someday I might, or make a different cloak to use one.

In this age of the internet there are so many great artisans out there to find. Find them and use them for great gifts. If you know any I should check out let me know, don’t be all greedy and keep them to yourself.

San Diego Guild Meet Up

Before Preview Night for the Comic Con, Husband and I met up with a pair of raiders that live in the San Diego area. It is still EXTREMELY odd to meet people you have raided with for two to three years in person.

We first had to get over calling each other by our online names. You hear the voice and it is automatic. I AM HYDRA. Even in real life I don’t seem to have a problem answering to it.

We ate at Phil’s BBQ. Husband and I were watching Man vs. Food when it was spotlighted. We are always on the look out for excellent BBQ. Plus the prices looked reasonable. Which is always a big plus.

Shammie said they have the coldest beer in town. The three guys split a pitcher. … sadly I couldn’t partake.

We talked about guild personalities. How things were going for them in-game. Game mechanics. Helpful addons. Even how thing were going for them in RL. *gasp*

Husband and the Shammie (who should be a rogue) talked about rogue like stuffs. Shammie is only not a rogue because when he applied to the guild was when we had a party full of them in our 25. Mage and I basically tuned them out and when we couldn’t made fun of melee.

I would post a picture. But then that would mean I would have had to remember a camera AND remember to take a picture… neither happened.

Funny story about raiding with these guys…

Since April of this year we have been having a string of earthquakes throughout Mexico and Southern California. This is normal. Only the current string of events has actually been felt further away and consistently.

A few weeks later Husband’s raid team was running ICC.

While running through Plague Wing suddenly the two guys in San Diego announce in vent “Hold up there is an Earthquake.” (incase it got bigger.)

A few moments pass, Husband in Orange County feels the same shaking going on “Yep, I am feeling it now.”

A little more time goes by and the boomkin and bear in the LA area both let vent know “Ground is shaking.’

It was a very odd thing to have a natural pre-Cataclysmic earthquake be felt in real life. I wonder if Blizzard planned it that way. *grin*