Sang Grail

Miss Medicina’s Circle of Healing started many months ago, but I thought I’d join in the fun and fill out the questionnaire. Sang Grail members, if you would like to answer the same questions, just let me know and I’ll post the template on the forums for you to fill out and I’ll add it to this site.

What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer?

Daffnae - Holy Priest

What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)

10 and 25 man raids

What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why?

Divine Hymn - When things start to go bad it so refreshing to sit back for six seconds, hit one key and watch the health bars fill up again. I combine this with Inner Focus to be able to enjoy this “mana free”.

What healing spell do you use least for your class and why?

Holy Nova is the obvious answer. Second is probably Binding Heal, which is my acknowledged weakness. I, too often, forget I have this wonderful spell that would solve a lot of my problems when I’m taking damage at the same time as my target.

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why?

I think our biggest strength is our wide variety of spell choices, especially our options for healing on the move.

What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why?

Single-target, quick heals. I get really jealous of Penance when I need to heal someone quickly, especially if it’s some kind of raid buff that will bring someone down fast if not attended to immediately. This keeps me from maintaining my “Shadow Daff” offspec for very long. I eventually end up switching my offspec back to Discipline to be able to help in those situations.

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you?

Raid healing or “Clean-up Duty” to fill in wherever healing is needed. Back in the Kara days (granted those were 10 man raids) we never assigned healing. We simply healed everyone and anyone who needed heals. I suppose this is really raid healing, but depending on the strength of the other healers, I may end up focusing on tanks or possibly the raid. It really just depends on the group and the fight.

What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why?

Druids - they fascinate me. I don’t understand their healing, but they seem to walk into the group and top the healing charts.

What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why?

Druids - for the same reason I like healing with them. They fascinate me and I don’t understand them.

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing?

When a loose mob goes to a hunter (that I am capable of keeping alive) and then they feign death only to have the mob kill me.

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing?

For the content that I am involved with, I have no problem keeping up. In some cases, I think a Discipline priest comes in handy, so I switch, but only because we run with 3 holy priests.

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer?

World of Logs - I love this tool! I’m a math person at heart, so I think I spend more time in the logs after the fights than I do in the actual raids. I am always trying to learn more about my class and figure out how to be more effective as a healer. I like to review my information and the other healers as well. It’s great when running with other priests that I respect. I love to see which spells they favor and in which situations. I also love the Deaths overview. I always want to know if there was more I could have done to save someone.

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class?

I think people sometimes think priest healing (or healing in general) is simple … “why didn’t you heal me?”. We have lots of spells to choose from and we are generally dealing with lots of things at once. If we could, we would keep everyone alive, but sometimes we make choices (and I admit they aren’t always the right choices) and someone dies.

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn?

Which spell to cast and when. It’s not a simple rotation. I think it starts to become instinct (ok, I think that contradicts the meaning of instinct). To be an effective healer, it has to involve more than Greater Heal / Flash Heal.

If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer via recount, what sort of patterns would they see (i.e. lots of overhealing, low healing output, etc)?

I’m usually in the top 3 healers in recount, and we are usually pretty even. There is definitely a lot of over-healing, especially on easy fights. I tend to get bored and heal even when I don’t need to. (Luckily it doesn’t register the heals I try to do even once I’m dead…it’s just so hard to stop trying to save people)

Haste or Crit and why?

Both. I love to over-think everything, but I’ve chosen to to not bother with this. Mostly because I’m in need of gear in general (we aren’t good enough to be picky about our gear yet) and it seems to serve me well to keep them balanced. I do get curious if I’d see a huge jump in my healing if I stacked haste instead, but I’m scared that I’d just run out of mana faster.

What healing class do you feel you understand least?

Druids

What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing?

I am addicted to Clique and Grid. I especially like GridStatusRaidDebuff that allows me to easily see who needs special healing in raids.

Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why?

Mostly balanced. I used to use my Dragon’s Eye gems for spellpower to stack that a little, but I’m starting to make that more balanced as well. As I watch my mana pool grow, I’m starting to enjoy that more than seeing high bonus healing.