Trying to fathom why a lot of clerics aren't using this. Quite often on guest raids there will be as many as 8 clerics, and when I check casting parses after a horrible and senseless wipe, I'll see 12 wards were cast, and I cast 11 of them. Given the fact it a near insta-cast, and fits nicely at the head of a multibind, I fail to see the logic of not using it........ Please enlighten me..........seriously, because I can't wrap my head around it.
Only thing I can think of is the 180 second recast time for a spell that roughly cuts 1/2 to 1/3 of a hit up to 8 hits depending on the tank can be hard to stretch for some. It is great if used with your AA to make up the difference in the small time that a heal doesn't go off cause of the global cool down. The other side is the coordination if everyone uses it every switch then its kinda wasted, so if one cleric that is really on the ball and a backup maybe that is in good communications with the other cleric then its good, otherwise it can be a lot of waste for a very valuable spell slot on raids. No good reasons not to use it, but just some of the things I can come up with.
For me I can say it's rarely something I keep up for two of Sojero's reasons. Here's my list, right or wrong. Most of my guild clerics rarely use any of our activated AA's must less other situational spells (like splash, issuance, anticipated interposition, shining and even DI mid fight). So my spell bar tends to have to include now the spells out of these that I think will give the most bang for the buck. I actually have to drop a heal in order to mem these, which I'm always reluctant to do because I prefer variety of heal options based on the need. The recast timer on this does get to me. Couple with the fact that it typically drops/gets used up in a single round anyway. Since it's short duration on the tank (doesn't stay on until used), it's hard to know when it's safe to cast it (specifically I just mean you wouldn't want to do it at the very start when the tank is already under discs). All the events we do typically the tanks swap once discs are down. Have to remember we've not won any TDS raids yet. I'm sure there's at least one more reason but those are the ones I can think off off the top of my head.
We use it a lot, and has been part of our SOP for a while since it's introduction. For kiters it's great pre-pull in case they get a hit or two or eight getting setup. For ramp tanks and main tanks it's also great on pre-event start. That extra bit of mitigation can give you a not insignificant amount extra time. People get stuck in geometry pulling the mob, they may be oor, they may get hit in the back, they may forget to use a disc, all healers may not have been ready, the mob isn't slowed or debuffed yet, etc, and that extra mitigation and heal helps. Yes, it doesn't last long, but it is still a large amount dmg your target doesn't have to take in the first place and is going to do more good than heals. Preventing dmg is far more useful than healing it after the fact (also why cures are so important). The ward drops fast enough via mob action that you're not going to see a lot of overwrites via buffing considering the recast time (and if you do, by definition the target didn't need a heal anyways, by virtue of the ward still being there. You still refresh the counters.). You can look through the logs and see when each spell was cast by each person and there is always going to be some staggering of spells even if the individuals are straight casting. We just don't see a lot of overlap waste. I can see the recast being an issue for some, but we never seem to have any issues with it and still keep up the other abilities we need, plus the full heal weave. Some of it may be, as alluded to by Crystillia, what abilities the other members of the heal team are using or not using. If you're forced to keep a lot of utility on deck cause no one else is, then yes, ward would be the first spell to drop from the spell bar. It's also great coverage when DI is down, and if your team has the coordination / communication to have one clr cast the (relatively) slower DI and another person to cast the (relatively) faster ward to giver the tank extra protection till DI is safely back on board. And if there is a problem with overlap or overwrite at event start, that's not a problem with the spell. It's a problem with communication.
I keep it at the top of my multibind, so it's cast the moment it's up on whatever I'm targeting (yea, sometimes I've used it on a bard), but I'm thinking 8 clerics doing that would extremely useful scattered around on various tanks. I have extra spell slots since I dropped AI, and I don't keep DI up anymore (it keeps getting overwritten by 2-3 other clerics every time I cast it, that's a waste). Tanks are getting creamed in TDS without clerics using every trick they have. I think it's time to have a chat with the RL, which is going to make me the bad guy again, but when 8 clerics can't keep 2 Tanks up, with Enchanters using their glyphs, there's a problem.
One thing I don't understand is why you have it on your multibind. You are wasting the real *potential* of the spell as tour pointed out the times when it is great, just to make sure you are using it. Therefore if it is never going on during the critical times that the spell was used for is it not just as bad as not casting it? As for the other clerics, I know of a couple great clerics on The Rathe-Prexus, and I know a ton that just it there mindlessly casting whatever they feel they want to at the time and don't coordinate at all. We seem to have such a shortage of clerics that the ones left know they are not going to get talked to because there is no one to replace them, this has led to some bad things. Another issue is the lack of communication, many don't want to talk, lead the class, and/or get into a voice communication and converse with the fellow healers, so it is wild west healing style. I know I have personally run off clerics as a raid leader because I talked to them about what they are casting, or not casting mostly, and have had to stop because they will just go to one of the other raid forces where they wont get talked to about it. This is why I keep guesting at other raids and only seeing 2-4 clerics when 6-8 seem to be needed. Same is being seen of druids and shammies though as well, healers on our server seem to be lacking in quantity.
I use it in my multi too actually. It's great mitigation for the MT when you have a lot of healers using it in staggered rotation (not intentionally planned out, but occurring organically). But depends on when in the event you are. If I don't need it for some other better purpose, then on the MT rotation it goes. I know some keep it in reserve for when DI is down, as I mentioned previously (I know who will be using ward then, and I know I got the DI). If I know the named, or add pick up is going to happen and I want to make sure I have a ward then, I simply make sure I don't use it. It use my alternative mutli. Or I use forceful rejuvenation.
And I understand the frustrations of that wild west style of healing, lack of communication, lack of coordination, everyone doing whatever they want without a single thought on what their teammates were doing, or even simply not using any of their abilities, or wasting them, and just a general overall not caring at all about performance. We changed that, along with lots of other guild-wide accountability and performance expectation changes. We lost some healers in the process. No one misses them.
I wish we could do that sometimes, but then I remember our guild is founded on the family first, raid second. This also means we are not in Arx, and I only get to go there while guesting with some of the other guilds. We also allow guests and have some great guests that allow us to do cotf t1 and part of cotf t2. Thus we dont exclude any guild members unless they are an actual detriment to the raid.
Interesting, do you keep it at the top of end of your multibind? I could see 3 minutes in everyone would be at different parts, and if used strategically at first then have one cleric use it more strategically after, that would be good.
I multibind it simply to make sure it's used, as I was finding that when I saved it, it wasn't getting cast at all. I definitely Agee about the communication issue, that's been a problem since I started guesting, I often try to open a line of communication, but find that the whole being an outsider thing makes people kind of pretend I didn't even type anything in the heal channel.
Oh, and Soj, none of this is directed at SA/Cal, I had nothing but good times there, and still am (except for maybe a wayward cleric who seemed to develop a dislike for me from the start, but that seems to be a recurring theme) we kicked DH 1's a s s Saturday.
It is at the top of mine, and with a fair degree of certainty, the top of everyone else's. Because there is natural staggering (spell orders may be very slightly different, or you stop multi to group heal, hot, self buff, rez, DI, heal someone other than the MT, cure, epic / arb, run / change position that takes longer than the 1.5s cool down, buff, drink coffee, etc etc) we're all going to be at different points in the spell weave. Not to mention obviously that we will not all be on the same target. All this plus the fact that the ward will remain active for such a small fraction of the total time it takes for it to refresh that it makes it hard to overlap them. The obvious exception being if all healers start healing the MT at once at the start. Then some will get wasted on that first cycle. Yes. But the natural staggering mentioned will fix that next time ward is back up. Though if your healers are doing nothing but just mindlessly healing the same target, and doing nothing else, then you'd get maybe more overlap. But then you'd also have far bigger problems with your healing team that you should worry about.
interesting way to thing about it, I will suggest that to the clerics I regularly talk to and see if we can get something like that going. Thanks, I was for some reason stuck in my head that they would all get it off at the same time wasting it. Edit to add, Roxx not sure if you stuck around for DH2, think you had to leave. I had to log onto my cleric, which is because you left I think, and I topped the healing parse. My cleric is now silver......
