Category Archives: priest

Raid Rx: Healing the Spine and Madness of Deathwing

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Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poohbah of World of Matticus and a founder of Plus Heal, a discussion community for healers of all experience levels and interests. Catch his weekly podcast on healing, raiding and leading, the Matticast.

This is it. This is the final encounter of the expansion. Everything you've ever worked for and fought through has led to this point. This is the moment you get to help rid the world of Deathwing. First, we need to ground this oversized lizard. Immediately after the conclusion of the gunship (part two), you'll be parachuting onto Deathwing's back. We'll go over the different obstacles and what you and your healers need to do to get over the proverbial raid hump. (To the raiders who do 10-mans, you'll have to adjust the numbers a bit. I'm not as well versed on 10s, so you'll have to bear with me as I draw up assistance for the 25-man version.)

To attack the Spine of Deathwing, we need to peel off those metal plates on Deathwing's back so that we can really weaken him further. Our healing goal here is to ensure that our tanks live. Apparently, Deathwing has all sorts of little defenses that he'll use to try to shake us off; there are several threats on this fight that healers need to be aware of. You're on an extremely narrow field of battle here, so movement's going to be really limited.

What did you expect, though? You're fighting on the back of a former dragon aspect.

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Raid Rx: Healing the Spine and Madness of Deathwing originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 23 Dec 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlizzCon 2011: Screenshots of the new Pandaria talents for all classes

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If you wanted to look at the new talents that will be debuting in Mists of Pandaria, I would hope you followed our liveblog of the talent system overhaul. The short version is you get to pick 1 talent from a pool of 3 talents every 15 levels. By the time you hit the new level cap of 90, you will have 6 talents. Each set of talents does the same thing, more or less, in different ways.

Now, for your perusal, we present a class by class gallery of the new talent system as it stands today. Remember this is subject to change, alot, before Pandaria, launches.
Make no mistake, this is a significant game changer for everyone. This is the dawning of unparalleled flexibility in personal customization choice. Arms warriors with Shockwave, fury warriors with Bladestorm. This is the biggest change to the game since reforging.

There are no tree examples for the upcoming Monk class yet. Galleries of each class's talents after the cut.

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BlizzCon 2011: Screenshots of the new Pandaria talents for all classes originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 19:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlizzCon 2011: Screenshots of the new Pandaria talents for all classes

Posted on by
If you wanted to look at the new talents that will be debuting in Mists of Pandaria, I would hope you followed our liveblog of the talent system overhaul. The short version is you get to pick 1 talent from a pool of 3 talents every 15 levels. By the time you hit the new level cap of 90, you will have 6 talents. Each set of talents does the same thing, more or less, in different ways.

Now, for your perusal, we present a class by class gallery of the new talent system as it stands today. Remember this is subject to change, alot, before Pandaria, launches.
Make no mistake, this is a significant game changer for everyone. This is the dawning of unparalleled flexibility in personal customization choice. Arms warriors with Shockwave, fury warriors with Bladestorm. This is the biggest change to the game since reforging.

There are no tree examples for the upcoming Monk class yet. Galleries of each class's talents after the cut.

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BlizzCon 2011: Screenshots of the new Pandaria talents for all classes originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 19:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Patch 4.3: Official preview of priest tier 13

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The recently datamined priest tier 13 set has now been officially revealed by Blizzard, and it looks gorgeous. The Vestments of Dying Light are designed in a Venetian carnival style with creepy eyes, reminiscent of the mask that Ed Norton wore as the King of Jerusalem in Kingdom of Heaven. It's a very beautiful tier set. Blizzard states that priests are one of the harder classes to design badass armor sets for, but I think with this round, the design team definitely hit the mark.

So far, tier 13 armor design has been less about the instance and the game itself and more about the free-form ideas that the class and armor designers want to play with. Artists are having a good time coming up with all sorts of crazy ideas without having to necessarily be set in any motif. I think it's a great exercise and is providing some of the coolest, potentially most iconic armor sets to date.

Check out images from the priest tier gear retrospective in our gallery.

Gallery: Priest tier 13 and armor retrospective

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Patch 4.3: Official preview of priest tier 13 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Light and How to Swing It: Synergizing with priests

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priest and paladin waving
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Every Sunday, Chase Christian invites you to discuss the finer side of the paladin class: the holy specialization. Feel free to email me with any questions you want answered, like why paladins are so awesome.

Holy paladins can't do it all. While we might be the best-dressed spec in the game, we occasionally need for other healers to give us a hand. The developers have done a great job giving each healer a niche for them to fill. A holy paladin must know the strengths and weaknesses of the other healing classes in order to be able to work alongside them.

While all healers are somewhat normalized by Cataclysm's introduction of the three heal model, it's each class's unique spells that give them flavor. We all start with the same base, and then our signature heals and cooldowns allow us to differentiate ourselves. Holy paladins can adjust their healing style and strategy to complement their partner healers instead of competing with them.

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The Light and How to Swing It: Synergizing with priests originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 11 Sep 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is it time to kill pure DPS?

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Hi guys, you may remember me from last week when I threw a rock into a hornet's nest. I was frankly blown away by the responses, some of which were very well thought-out, that supported, refuted, or elaborated on the issue of tanking and if it is here to stay or on its last legs. Since I find that kind of discussion valuable, I thought, "Well, I can always find another rock, right?" And so here we are.

The DPS classes in World of Warcraft present us with a conundrum. If we consider the holy trinity of tanking, damage dealing and healing to be a pyramid that the game relies on, then the base of the pyramid is most easily envisioned as cornered by the tanking and healing classes and the apex occupied by the DPSers. The issue is, only four classes can hold up the tanking corner, only four can hold up the healing corner (and two of those classes are also in the tanking corner), and absolutely every single class in the game can stand on the top of the pyramid. This results in a pyramid that's metaphorically heavier on top than at the bottom.

Furthermore, of the game's 10 classes, four of them (the rogue, mage, warlock, and hunter) can only stand at the top. Whether or not they want to do something else is immaterial (although one assumes that they do not, elsewise they might have chosen a different class), because they simply cannot do so -- at least if we continue to visualize the game as based around the tanking/damaging/healing triad. So what to do?

Well, we can get rid of DPS classes entirely.

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Is it time to kill pure DPS? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is it time to kill pure DPS?

Posted on by
Hi guys, you may remember me from last week when I threw a rock into a hornet's nest. I was frankly blown away by the responses, some of which were very well thought out, that supported, refuted, or elaborated on the issue of tanking and if it is here to stay or on its last legs. Since I find that kind of discussion valuable I thought "Well, I can always find another rock, right?" and so here we are.

The DPS classes in World of Warcraft present us with a conundrum. If we consider the 'holy trinity' of tanking, damage dealing and healing to be a pyramid that the game relys on, then the base of the pyramid is most easily envisioned as cornered by the tanking and healing classes, and the apex occupied by the DPSers. The issue is, only four classes can hold up the tanking corner, only four can hold up the healing corner (and two of those classes are also in the tanking corner) and absolutely every single class in the game can stand on the top of the pyramid. This results in a pyramid that's metaphorically heavier on top than at the bottom.

Furthermore, of the game's ten classes, four of them (the rogue, mage, warlock and hunter) can only stand at the top. Whether or not they want to do something else is immaterial (although one assumes that they do not, elsewise they might have chosen a different class) because they simply cannot do so, at least if we continue to visualize the game as based around the tanking/damaging/healing triad. So what to do?

Well, we can get rid of DPS classes entirely.

Continue reading Is it time to kill pure DPS?

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Is it time to kill pure DPS? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Official tier 12 armor set preview updated with warrior and druid

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Blizzard has updated the community site tier 12 armor preview with the final 2 armor sets -- warrior and druid. Patch 4.2 is coming soon, as players prepare for the invasion into the Firelands to confront Ragnaros for the (potentially) last time. Each armor set for this raid tier has its looks originating from something in the Firelands, going for the instance motif over the class motif.

Warriors will dress themselves in the Molten Giant Battleplate, made in the image of the new molten giant model. You may remember molten giants and molten destroyers from the Molten Core. They also wander fields of lava in the Firelands, ready to lumber over to unsuspecting players.

Druids will be donning the Obsidian Arborweave sets, based on what appears to be the tree that Malfurion and the Avengers of Hyjal are growing in the Firelands as the foward base against Ragnaros. Maybe, as a restoration druid, you were upset that Tree of Life was not a permanent form anymore. Well, now you get to dress up like a tree. Compromise. Hit the jump for a pic of the druid set.

By the way, Obsidian Arborweave is the most "Blizzard" name for anything I have ever seen. I hope that guy got a raise.

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Official tier 12 armor set preview updated with warrior and druid originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 13 Jun 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Official tier 12 armor set preview updated with warrior and druid

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Blizzard has updated the community site tier 12 armor preview with the final 2 armor sets -- warrior and druid. Patch 4.2 is coming soon, as players prepare for the invasion into the Firelands to confront Ragnaros for the (potentially) last time. Each armor set for this raid tier has its looks originating from something in the Firelands, going for the instance motif over the class motif.

Warriors will dress themselves in the Molten Giant Battleplate, made in the image of the new molten giant model. You may remember molten giants and molten destroyers from the Molten Core. They also wander fields of lava in the Firelands, ready to lumber over to unsuspecting players.

Druids will be donning the Obsidian Arborweave sets, based on what appears to be the tree that Malfurion and the Avengers of Hyjal are growing in the Firelands as the foward base against Ragnaros. Maybe, as a restoration druid, you were upset that Tree of Life was not a permanent form anymore. Well, now you get to dress up like a tree. Compromise. Hit the jump for a pic of the druid set.

By the way, Obsidian Arborweave is the most "Blizzard" name for anything I have ever seen. I hope that guy got a raise.

Continue reading Official tier 12 armor set preview updated with warrior and druid

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Official tier 12 armor set preview updated with warrior and druid originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 13 Jun 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Raid Rx: How to combine Spirit Link Totem and Power Word: Barrier

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Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a WoW blog for all things UI-, macro- and addon-related. Catch his weekly podcast on healing, raiding and leading on the Matticast.

I envy shaman.

A latest look at the front page of World of Logs shows that the new shaman totem of awesomeness (Spirit Link Totem) has a rather intriguing property to it. We've had it for a while now, ever since patch 4.1, and this totem is the new shaman defensive mechanic. Anyone standing within 10 yards of it reduces incoming damage by 10%.

Cool. What else?

Every second, the health of all the players standing within it also gets redistributed. The interesting part is that the health can be increased to count as healing. However, that sword swings both ways. It'll also adjust health downward, which counts as damage.

Even better? This damage can be both resisted and mitigated.

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Raid Rx: How to combine Spirit Link Totem and Power Word: Barrier originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 27 May 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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