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Daetur’s pretentious how-to-better-yourself after learning to play in Wrath post, incoming! Dare ye read it and take its words to heart? Or dare ye troll instead? One will fill me with warm joy and hope for the future, and the other will simply amuse me, so let’s get crackin’!

This is my own comprehensive take on tips and tricks you should get used to before Cataclysm hits, for tanks, dps, and healers. Some of you may very well know these things, even if you have only played during Wrath. However, some of you may have never needed to use or think about them. Everyone has the potential to improve. I have things I need to improve on too, some of which are things I discuss here! I don’t think you suck personally, but I do think that we’ve ALL gotten complacent and rusty with Wrath of the Lich King. Players who started playing in Wrath never got the experience of Classic and BC where we once had to learn many of the lessons that will be invaluable come December 7th. It’s not their fault, but it needs to be addressed.

Daetur’s credentials: Regular WoW player and raider since Classic; Has tanked, healed, melee and ranged dpsed all current content. 11/12 Hardmode experience. Cataclysm Beta tester.

I play a hunter, a death knight dps, a druid tank/dps, a paladin healer/dps, and a shaman healer/dps.

This 'guide' appears in its entirety on the General forums. This is a shorter version containing the General and healer-centric content.

EVERYONE:
1.) Be mindful of your positioning. Do these mobs have a knockback? Will you get thrown into other mobs? Is the tank facing the mob away from the group in case it has a conal or cleave? When trying to dodge that fire on the ground, are you running towards another group of mobs? These are things that you will need to be more mindful of in Cata. Extra pulls can and likely will mean wipes, and any damage that can be avoided will make your healer’s life that much easier, and make their mana last that much longer.

------> 1.a) If you do get aggro, run the offending mob TO your tank, not AWAY from him. Root or snare the mob that is aggroed on to you, and then move TO your tank so that the mob will run closer to them as well. This makes it much easier for your tank to peel the mob off of you, and will get you back into safety quicker.

2.) Communicate with your group. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never seen these people before in your life. Ask who you should CC. Ask the tank to pop his CDs because you know you have trouble healing this pull. Ask if you have questions about an encounter (please, for god’s sake). Ask for a mana break. Don’t sit there like a deaf mute along for the ride and pray everyone else knows what they’re doing. Much of the Cataclysm content WILL take some organization.

------>2.a.) Take and give constructive criticism. If you wipe, try to figure out what went wrong and fix it without liberal use of “suck,” “noob,” “fail,” “ragequit,” etc. That will not get you any closer to downing the boss or the trash. It will only destroy any cohesion your group had, and angry players tend to perform worse than calm or happy players. Also, if someone else offers you criticism, don’t take it too personally. “Hey, hunter, can you step up the dps?,” is NOT a personal attack. Take responsibility for your actions! I’ve raided ICC hardmodes and played since Classic, and I still screw up. But, I have the balls to say “Sorry guys, bad tab target, completely my fault. I’ll be more careful,” or “Oh man, I just wasn’t paying attention, my bad. I know what the (fire)(acid)(defile) looks like now, I’ll watch more carefully next time.” And you should too! It keeps groups more cohesive, and makes errors clearer to everyone in the party so that no one has to play the blame game.

3.) Keep your group’s best interests in mind. Pay attention to what is happening to your group members. Is a mob running for your healer or clothies? Root it, slow it, or stun it. Did you get an extra add? Try to help control them- slow, CC, etc.

4.) Be patient! This is all new content, and your group is in leveling gear, not top-tier epics. These fights are not generally easy, and have some new mechanics to learn. If someone in the group needs to have the fight explained to them, don’t complain. If your groups wipes, run back in and try again. I’m sure you had to learn the fight at some point too. If the healer needs to stop for a mana break, don’t keep pulling or get impatient. Trust me, they are working hard to keep your group alive. DON’T expect 15-20 minute runs!

5.) Be observant. Check out new buffs, debuffs, and spell effects. The more you know about what is around you and what mobs can do, the more effective you can be.

6.) Consumables!! Yes, that’s right! Health potions, mana potions, potions of speed! Well, mostly health and mana. Have them! Use them liberally if you have access to them! Mana potions in particular can give healers the extra mileage they need on a tough fight.

HEALERS:

1.) Cleanse! Many healers in WotLK are more used to healing through debuffs instead of removing them. With mana being more of an issue in Cata, it will often be more efficient to remove damaging or heal-reducing debuffs as soon as possible, rather than try to heal through all the damage. Which debuffs are more expensive to heal through than cleanse will be something you have to learn on your own, but it will be important to keep cleansing in mind in Cataclysm content!

2.) Conserve your mana! Mana is not going to last you anywhere near as long in Cata as it does now. Learn which heals are the most efficient, and get a feel for how much each one heals for. Knowing which heal to use when will be essential. AoE heal spam will not cut it anymore.

------>2.a.) Part of mana conservation is triage. Triage is deciding the priority of you ‘patients.’ As a general rule, if SOMEONE has to die, it should be the dps first, the tank second, and the healer last. This means, if you have to choose between saving a dps and yourself, save yourself. Between the tank and the healer does get more fuzzy, but remember that it’s possible for dps to burn something down with heals backing them up if the tank does die.

3.) Predict incoming damage. Watch who the mob(s) is(are) targeting. Having an addon that shows who has threat is quite handy here, or just activate this feature in the standard WoW raid/arty interface. If you see an add turn to a dps, you know that that’s the one that will need heals. You shouldn’t be mindlessly spamming everyone in CASE they take damage anymore. You know the tank will be taking damage. But the key to be a great, efficient healer, is to be able to anticipate who ELSE in your group is going to get hurt.

4.) Be ready for anything. Assume the worst. If you are about to start a pull that you have never healed before, it is safer to assume high spike damage than wait and see. Many healers get a nasty surprise when a new type of trash mobs hits like a freight train and they just weren’t ready for that kind of damage.

==========================================

Wow, are you guys still here, or did you just skip to the end?
If, as I suspect, this was WAY too long and you didn’t care, here’s a brief summary.
Be patient. Be observant. Communicate with your group. Own up to your mistakes. Learn as much about your class as you possibly can, and use all of your tricks. Learn to kite and Crowd Control. Learn to mitigate as much incoming damage as possible, even as a dps. Manage your mana. Think on your toes!

So the revamping of dispells in cataclysm was not to make them less powerful but more? Man blizzard sure got me on that one.

So the revamping of dispells in cataclysm was not to make them less powerful but more? Man blizzard sure got me on that one.

Funny that that's what you picked out.

While Cleansing and Dispelling was made 'less' powerful in Cataclysm, that does not mean there there will never be situations where it is more mana and time efficient to remove a buff or debuff, rather than heal through its effects.

If anything, the changes to dispells mean that it will take MORE skill to understand which ones are necessary to remove, and which ones are not dangerous enough to be worth it.

So, I stand by what I said in regards to Cleansing. Thank you for your reply!

So the revamping of dispells in cataclysm was not to make them less powerful but more? Man blizzard sure got me on that one.

Actually, yes. By giving every healer the ability to dispel magic, they can make nastier magic-based debuffs as they can make the assumption that every group has the ability to remove it. Before, making any debuff too nasty meant you were punishing group compositions that lacked the ability to remove the debuff.

So the revamping of dispells in cataclysm was not to make them less powerful but more? Man blizzard sure got me on that one.

I believe the idea was to make them more important in PvE, and less powerful in PvP. This guide seems to focus on PvE.

So the revamping of dispells in cataclysm was not to make them less powerful but more? Man blizzard sure got me on that one.

I believe the idea was to make them more important in PvE, and less powerful in PvP. This guide seems to focus on PvE.

I'm not sure I see how they will be able to accomplish this.

But I can see the point of view that with every class being able to dispell magic some pretty nasty debuffs can be implemented but under the assumption that they will be removed, whats the point honestly? Thank god I'm not a game designer I guess.

@Kittysox

That's basically like asking, "Well all groups have healers that just heal incoming damage- so why bother even having mobs deal damage in the first place? It's all just going to get healed back up!"

It adds variety to encounters/fights, and makes some people (me) all warm and fuzzy inside. I don't just spam heal, I actively judge if something is worth dispelling or ignoring, if something needs to get cleared immediately or if it's more efficient to just heal through it. It's all about putting the thinking back in healing instead of it being the "spam fest" that so many people describe WotLK raiding as.

Just my 2cp anyways.

Reported for sticky.

Also DO not under any circumstances go into a dungeon close to level.

if you do, you will find yourself dramatically cut in power upon leveling.

Nice post. /liked

<3 the OP's post

Isn't all of this just common sense? Since it isn't class specific help. This is just a list of what an actual player does.

Not impressed.


Also, TL;DR--skimmed.

Also DO not under any circumstances go into a dungeon close to level.

if you do, you will find yourself dramatically cut in power upon leveling.

W. T. F. ???????????????

I think he means don't enter a level on the cusp of 80-81, just like 70-71 and 60-61, your haste, crit, and regen are transitioned to the new expansion's ratings, which are usually a little lower.

Just not a DRASTIC drop, but noticable.

Isn't all of this just common sense? Since it isn't class specific help. This is just a list of what an actual player does.

Not impressed.


Also, TL;DR--skimmed.

This.

Maybe you should change it to "What Herp-Derp Healers Need to Know."

Also DO not under any circumstances go into a dungeon close to level.

if you do, you will find yourself dramatically cut in power upon leveling.

W. T. F. ???????????????

I think he means don't enter a level on the cusp of 80-81, just like 70-71 and 60-61, your haste, crit, and regen are transitioned to the new expansion's ratings, which are usually a little lower.

Just not a DRASTIC drop, but noticeable.

Actually its a little more severe than that because of the spell scaling mana costs go up by about 3x the effectiveness of the spell, which means your total healing possible drops by a significant amount at each level.

Also your throughput gets effectively cut.

So you wind up loosing a lot of effectiveness each level.

Which leads to the utterly ridiculous situation of leveling in a dungeon then not be able to heal the dungeon you could just a few minutes before and my sig.

Ding! Grats! Kick!

Isn't all of this just common sense? Since it isn't class specific help. This is just a list of what an actual player does.

Not impressed.


Also, TL;DR--skimmed.

QFT. TL;DR ... just read the first bold word on each category and went along my merry way.

All helpful information.....

However, and not to attack you personally or ruin your thread/intentions, most players that need to know this information are never going to heed it. I've seen quite a few players that simply lack awareness to play this game well. No matter how hard you try to help them or point out that they have room for improvement it rarely seems to happen. I expect quite a few people that have been raiding content in Wrath to never make it out of heroics in Cataclysm. Honestly, I welcome it with open arms too :).