Allanna, I have a question....why don't you have Supplication of the Fallen? Doesn't that rez the raid with no rez sickness?
I redid my AAs a bit yesterday and put points in Spirit Aegis so now I have 2 end line abilities in Heroics. Since I NOW have 350 AA points, it DOES show correctly in game. I don't have any unassigned points.
I still have a lot of questions and I appreciate all the help I am getting from my fellow defilers. Certain wards have an extremely long recast time (i.e. Eidolic Ward, Purulence and Ancestral Avenger). So it seems cast and forget them for a while until they come up again. I have put them on my spell monitor in darqu but only have room for 9 total spells to watch. Also last night I was in raid with my defiler. I was not in the MT group but he sent me a tell letting me know not to ward him at all during a pull. He is a SK. He was just giving me some advice. I see a lot of you cast either tank ward and/or group wards before pulls. It seems that it could screw things up if you are in a MT group. So I am confused as to when to fire off wards if I am in a MT group. After the pull and the mob is set so that aggro doesn't come to me? I know these seem like really dumb questions but I want to make sure I understand.
Long recast wards are not intended to be cast every cooldown; they're your oh crap buttons when things hit the fan.
supplication still has sickness... I leave the rezzing to the templar's and other healers that have it.. I think you will learn when to ward on pulls... I never had a problem with pre warding, but maybe the SK does.. IDK..
Presumably he didn't want the single target stuff because it would overwrite his defiler's wards. Your group stuff is OK--it will protect your group and won't touch the SK. It would be different if you were the MT defiler--then you'd be using everything. As you can probably see upthread there is some variance in how/whether to pre-ward. I still lean towards the group ward myself for aggro reasons, but I'm trying to compare other methods to see if my observation holds true currently.
I'm a little confused by how you worded this - the MT was an SK, you weren't in the MT group and the MT (SK) sent you a tell asking you not to ward him at all on the pull? If you are not in the MT group as a shaman, you shouldn't ward the MT at all..ever... unless the MT Defiler is dead. (if that's what you meant). If he was just trying to help you, that was nice of him. As we said before, you can make the MT Defiler cry tears IRL if their single target ward is overwritten. When the MT pulls a raid mob, he has to position it so that the rest of the raid isn't getting hit or hammered directly by it. Generally, this means they have to turn it away from you - but not always. And the pixels of some mobs just don't want to 'go' sometimes. The pull can be a dicey time - the MT healers need to be able to see where their heals are going in the first two minutes of the fight, so they can take quick action if the raid mob is slamming the tank on the pull. If you are the OT Defiler and you think you'll 'help' by throwing a ward on the MT...you've just made the MT Defiler's single target ward disappear from any tracking they have. Changing the subject just a little: Let's say you are healing the MT in a group with a Templar. You've cast single target ward/group ward - Templar has single target reactive/group reactive (plus all your other stuff you are going to do.., but that's for illustrative purposes). Let's further say the tank body pulls the raid mob. He runs up, gets hit, your single target ward fires off is read first, your group ward is second and the mob will immediately turn to you. You die. The Templar is now the target because the tank hasn't done anything to put himself higher on the hate list than you currently are. So a Raid Tank will run up, taunt the mob, turn it away from the main raid..make sure it's 'on him', ie, hitting him and he has the mob's full focus..then the raid leader will call in the DPS. USUALLY, your wards are under the radar - the tank has enough hate generation that you will not have a problem. (BTW "he" is generic, not sexist) SKs build hate a little more slowly, and your particular tank may have felt confident that he'd be able to withstand those few seconds with only his personal ward till he'd grabbed it. If they were telling a MT Defiler not to pre-ward the MT, that's weird. I'd argue if I was that Defiler. If they were saying as the OT defiler, don't ward the MT on the pull..yeah..don't. When you are in the MT group: Group ward on group, Single target ward on the OT before the pull (at minimum). If you are in the Off-Tank group: Group ward on the group, single target ward on the OFF TANK..rinse/repeat. Remember, the OT group is (among other things) in reserve in case the MT goes down. If the OT has to pick the mob up, you have your ward/stack rotation going, and s/he should be able to just slide into it, while the MT group is getting the MT back on their feet. A good OT is constantly staying ready with a snap (an ability to pick up the mob really fast) in case this happens, and if you are the OT Defiler, you are warding him in case this happens...even if he's not using all your wards right then. Don't be caught off-guard. Hope this helps a little.
Leave the rezzing to the Dirge(s). They've got an ability that takes rezz sickness away, and if high DPS or especially tanks have died, you don't want rezz sick if you don't have to have it. Ask the raid leader (at some point ..maybe in private) if that's the expectation...but it has been for years now. I will only rezz if the player has been laying there for longer than I know an even half -decent Dirge will take to rezz them - and if no healer or Paladin has.
Yes he was only trying to help me. I was not part of his group. He knows that I am completely new to healing in our raids and was only being supportive. We did the Maldura raid last night and I was part of the OT group for the first 2 bosses....the hammer and the axe. The OT is a guardian. I did not pre-ward him before he snapped the axe off of the MT. I was able to keep him alive for the most part. I had a channeler in my group helping me with healing the rest of the group. I was nervous but did ok. Interesting fact is that our guardian tank has a defiler as his main alt. He picked some different things that I did in the AA trees but has been able to give me some advice. I think the main thing I need to work on is knowing when to fire off wards, heals, cures, etc without panicking as the fight progresses. Get a rotation going and stick with it. Playing a ranger as my main is so much simpler.....stand back and fire those arrows!
Our raid and guild leader plays an Inquisitor as her main. I know when I play my ranger she has rezzed me countless times. We don't always have a dirge with us.
What I like to do (and some others may be different) is just make sure wards are always up. Refresh them just before they are about to run down (if no damage) and put them right back on just as soon as they are available to cast again. If you solo'd at all as a Defiler, you probably learned that your direct heals weren't very strong, so your stock in trade is preventing damage before it happens. You have to think ahead, and that's easier once you learn the fights a little better. If your ward is used up, it prevented that much damage. If it falls off and you don't recast it, your heal target is now open to damage and will have to be healed back up again. Clerics, Druids and Channellers are strong healers, each in their own way - and can put out a ton of healing. From the standpoint of having played all of them, if your Shaman is asleep and you are trying to make up for them, your heal life just got a whole lot harder. It's better if you work together. If the other healer in your group is the same person usually, it helps to just discuss who is going to do what (cure first..etc). After awhile, you'll just know because you are used to working together. You'll know when to cure and you'll have discussed death save rotation and all that. As a Defiler, your direct heals are fillers if your wards are not available. Also, remember that you are not the only healer in the raid. You are providing an important damage-stop, but you have a LOT of help. No need to panic. It's a little complicated, only because you kind of sprung up fully grown - you are having to learn all your abilities instead of having added to them over the years.
Arielle, it will take time for me to get comfortable with this toon. Yeah powerleveling didn't help but I didn't think I would play her as her actual class. I will get it. I will take your advice and talk with the other healers in Thursday night's raid so that I know what my job will be. We don't always have everyone one so usually running with around 16 to 18 peeps in raid. In Maldura raid, if peeps have a dirge they play, they are asked to switch for the bard fight. Then they go back to their mains.
Bottom Line: Wards, Cure, Heals, Deathsave, Rezz (if needed). That's bare bones healing. After that you are being fancy
Well I hope to be fancy some day. That way I can do the DPS that my ranger does WHILE keeping everyone safe and healthy!
I don't want to disappoint you, but as a Defiler, you will most likely never do the DPS your Ranger does. But that's ok because your Ranger will never heal like your Defiler can.
LOL, I am just going off of what a defiler told me about his ability to do 150M DPS! I have a feeling I will never achieve that but I can always dream!
