The wife (she hates it when I call her that apparently), in all of her Glitz-ness, was telling me about her gaming experiences the other day. She said that she was feeling frustrated and annoyed at the fact that she wasn't making decisions fast enough. For example, she was having trouble deciding when to drop out of Shadowform to heal, vs. pushing heals via Vampiric Embrace, who to heal and in what order when multiple people are taking damage, how to manage aggro, and other issues that I was really excited to hear her talking about. I told her that all of those questions would be answered for her with time and experience, but being the type that requires instant-gratification, she wanted more. Here are a few of the basics I told her:
1) Visit the Priest forums and read a lot. The class forums are a decent source of valuable information, although it's definitely in a good amount of rough.
2) Talk to other Priests regularly. While you may not always get good info, gaining a knowledge of all perspectives gives you a better sense of things you should and shouldn't be doing, and why.
3) Slow down your DPS spell-casting. Wait a few seconds between Mind Flays, Mind Blasts, etc, to build a little less hate.
4) Don't use Mind Blast whenever the cooldown is up. Use Mind Flay mostly, and Mind Blast sparingly.
5) Don't throw small heals just to keep health bars at full. Instead, use bigger, mana efficient heals while paying attention to the amount your heals land for and how much health the player needs.
6) Carry lots of pots and bandages. Bandage instead of healing VIPs when you can.
7) Use your pots early, so your cooldown timer is up sooner rather than later.
8) If Hunters aren't CC'ing, ask them to put a trap in-front of you.
9) Always be aware of Undead and be ready to Shackle those running free and damaging healers or other VIPs at any time.
10) Use Psychic Scream only as a last resort.
11) Wand, wand, wand when out of mana.
12) Don't forget to buff and be buffed. If there are Mages, Paladins, and Druids in the group, don't hesitate to ask for AI, Wisdom, and MotW.
Nothing complicated right? I mean, I'm not a Priest, so I can't really get into the in-depth Priestly ways, but I think I covered a few key items. What do you guys (especially you Priests) think? Anything you can add to the list?
6 comments:
You can bubble while in shadowform, so never hesitate to bubble yourself or others if it seems necessary or even just a possibility of being needed. :)
I don't think you brought up Fade. Use it. It drops the aggro for a while, but it's not a complete aggro wipe, so as soon as you cast something you're back where you were. However, fading is life saving, so I think it should be used liberally, at least until your wife gets the hang of managing aggro.
Yeah, she does both of those like a good little girl. So proud. =)
What about the more complicated stuff? Cheese, did I miss anything only a Priest-playing wedge would know?
#show Consume Magic
/castsequence Inner Fire(Rank 1), Consume Magic
I've got some more thoughts, I'll probably turn it into a blog entry quite soon :)
Nice. Thanks Cheese.
Thank you for that macro, whoever you are. :) Seems pretty useful if Inner Fire isn't regularly used, but I believe I've told her to always have it buffed just in-case she pulls aggro and takes a few hits before she can cast Fade.
I'll tell her to put IF Rank 1 somewhere on her Action Bar though, for when she needs a quick CM and no other buffs are up. Nice idea.
Post a Comment