Confessions of a Raid Healer

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Most bloggers and writers, when they have their ideas, write their posts first before adding a title. I’m a wee bit different. I come up with the title first before the post. My reasoning has always been that it’s the post title that draws initial interest to the post. This one happened to occur to me while I was listening to one of Madonna’s CDs.

Consider this post an archive of all the mistakes I’ve ever committed in WoW and the regrets I’ve had from Hakkar to Illidan.

  • The Raptor boss: Moving and doing things when he gazed at me. I found out quickly that this was not the smartest thing to do. Any actions you make causes him to rip you to shreds. And yes, I moved while the ZG Raptor boss gazed at me.
  • Panther’s staff drop: Before I became the raid item optimist that I am today, I was a selfish Dwarf. I wanted every possible upgrade I could get. By being the best Priest I could be, I felt that I could contribute that much more to my raid and my Guild. I had farmed extensively for an Eye of Shadow and I was on the brink of getting Benediction. Yet I rolled on the staff even though are Resto Druid would have benefited more. I did not get Benediction until 5 weeks later.The penance for my greediness, I suppose.
  • Baron Geddon: He’s the inspiration behind Solarian. I can’t remember the details, but I was really bitter that day for some reason. What’s a Priest to do when they’re in the mood to kill and just get out of MC? I purposely did not move when I got the bomb buff. Anyway, right when I was hit with the bomb debuff, I feigned a disconnect (closed vent, stopped casting and stood there). The resulting explosion was spectacular!
  • Observing a ninja: Our Guild at the time had to merge with another Guild so that both could survive. We were working our way through Blackwing Lair. Razergore was the first boss. When we killed him, the loot was set to free for all. At the time, there was a bug where master looting didn’t properly work. You guessed it. One of the Paladins quickly looted all the items, left the raid, and bubble hearthed. I could not help but laugh out loud. Remember that I had just joined with several others. I never would have gotten loot that day regardless. But at least we killed Vael after.
  • Dotting CC: I like to contribute as much as I can to a raid whether through healing or through my limited arsenal of offensive spells. I Shadow Word: Pained a sheep too many times (because I made the unfortunate mistake of assisting a mage). Heck, I even dotted my own shackle more than once. I’m too eager to help and I end up damaging the wrong one. Oops! Sometimes I do it when there’s multiple Priests in the raid. This was before Big Brother was around so the real culprit was hard to find (and I’d pin it on the other guys as a joke).
  • Letting my tanks down: It still happens to this day. I end up misjudging the time or I’m too slow or something. I made a wrong decision and the tank died leading to a prompt wipe. I could have prevented it if I had focused more. Sometimes, I wonder if we might be further on progression if I haven’t screwed up so often.
  • Blew a Flame Wreath: My streak of not triggering a flame wrath halted a month or so ago. I was playing on my Paladin but I was only partially paying attention. The other half of my brain was focused on the Detroit/Pittsburgh playoff game. I thought I had time to move but I didn’t. I wanted to cancel a heal to get a different player instead. At the time, I didn’t use stopcasting macros and relied on movement to cancel my spell casts. Sure enough, I moved too late and triggered the detonation and went flying after nuking the entire raid. Not all was lost. I did wind up going to Wyn promptly thereafter and made her help me out with stop casting macros (while gritting my teeth, I might add. You should see what else she’s talked me into doing).
  • Missing my Lurker jumps: It took me a disappointing amount of time to master the transition from water to platform and back again. I was positioned on the exact opposite side from the main tank to maximize the amount of time I had to get in. Even after that, I’d still get spouted by Lurker even though I had so much advance warning. The problem was fixed when I bought a new computer. I haven’t missed a jump since.
  • Cratering: Today another streak was broken. I belonged in the ever elusive Archimonde no crater free fall club. Today I was expelled from the fraternity. I am ashamed to say that I cratered after completely mistiming my Tears.

Everyone screws up. I’m only human. A good healer makes minimal mistakes but a great healer learns from the ones that they do make so they don’t make them again. Usually, most of my first mistakes end up being my last. There’s a lot of things I’ve done in the past as a gamer that I’m not proud of (but I’ve never cheated). Looking back now, I get a good laugh out of reminiscing.

Your turn

What’s the most colossal mistake you’ve ever made that you’re willing to admit to?

18 thoughts on “Confessions of a Raid Healer”

  1. I had been doing some PVP and my pet was for some reason I currently can’t fathom on agressive.

    The raid lead needed a hunter to fill in a replacement spot in a BWL raid and I got the call. Since we were running with pets put away on the Vael encounter(something to do with a bug but I can’t remember what) I simply put my boar away without changing anything and took the summons.

    A bit later after a wipe or two on Vael the RL decided to use pets for the extra dps regardless of the bug.

    Pulled out my boar and watched him charge Vael…. during a bathroom/rez/rebuff break, wiping the raid.

    Never again has my pet been on agressive.

    Dechions last blog post..Drupadi needs a new pair of shoes

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  2. Zul’Aman. Forming up in front of Zul’jin. Your’s truly is the main tank, a paladin tank. I bless everyone up, check that all the blessings are done, check that I’ve got the right aura up, check my consumables, drink up, get a food buff, the whole nine yards. I send out a ready check for the raid – everyone confirms, we’re good to go.

    I charge in, lay down a consecration, judge Zul’jin, and start tankity tanking. About 30 seconds in, I lose aggro to a resto shaman. Whaaaaaaaa?

    I’m manic. I pop my Avenging Wrath, throw my shield at him, judge him, and do everything I can to get him back. I’m not used to losing aggro – when I’m specced prot, I’m an aggro-magnet. Plus, we’re talking ’bout healing threat here, he didn’t have salvation but DAMN, what the hell was he doing?

    Nothing I do gets Zul’jin to look at me for very long. I get him back, but the DPS are having to hold back, and then a whirlwind clips a few people. We end up wiping.

    Then it dawns on me what I did.

    I forgot to buff myself with Righteous Fury for the threat boost/damage reduction.

    /target self
    /bonk

    Joshs last blog post..Arena Woes

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  3. I didn’t realize MOTW could pull aggro…!! I was munching away trying to get a food buff while the rest of the group buffed up, so I didn’t get GOTW up in time before the tank decided to pull. Fight a mob without GOTW? Unthinkable! So I threw it up as the mob charged over… and pulled them all on me. Who knew? D: Tank took it pretty well, just commenting how it was the first time he’d lost aggro to a healer before they even threw a heal. 😛

    druidchicks last blog post..That’s Obscene!

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  4. I don’t know that I’d qualify this as colossal necessarily, and it was on my rogue, not my priest, but this is the first one that came to mind.

    Sneaking around the outside of the circle to get in position for Maiden.

    /tiptoe sneak sneak

    “Wait. Is she looking at me? Um. Is she running towards me?”

    /dead

    Guess I wasn’t quite as far to the outside as I thought I was. My guild still gives me crap about it. Just about every time we get to Maiden, someone will ask if I want to tank it.

    ~J

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  5. Happened yesterday actually:

    We were doing Illidan, where in p4 I heal the lock tank. Said lock tank got a shadow demon, and me? Well, I like to help out just like you do.

    So I run forward, SW:D and start charging up a smite. Unfortunately, my range is short though, and to get the demon in range I had misjudged and run forward too far. Bam! Hit by the Shadow Blast.

    There was no way to even PRETEND I didn’t screw up.

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  6. In Karazhan on Maiden we had just got done buffing the group and i’m literally hoping around making sure people get in the right spots. Suddenly I realize I’m hoping a little close…I stop…big to become thinking I may of just dodged one…then the entering combat flashes across the screen, and I went oh crap. She obliterated me and the rest of the raid.

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  7. Full T6 Geared Kara Badge run.

    Huntsman down, Moroes down, Maiden Down…

    Break time… Enter Jepordy music… Waiting in front of Ushers…

    Ready check… everyone ready… Lift gun and fire…

    Hmm… What is that noise off to the left…

    WTF!?! Voodoo Gnomes!!! ahh fuck

    Did you know voodoo gnomes might well pull prince from the main door of Kara? They have a huge range…

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  8. My guild was learning Mag and it was the last try of the night. A lot of people were getting frustrated with each other from all the wipes. So I decided to try to lighten the mood by scaring everybody with a snowball to one of the channelers. After I thought about it for a second I realized that snowballs interact with the character model so I grabbed my Festival Firecracker targeted the ground under the mob and sent it flying. Turns out firecrackers count as a hostile action. The encounter started and everybody died. best part is after a hunter stayed in the raid with me after to test the snowballs and they don’t agro!

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  9. My worst two were Lurker and Void Reaver, both when I tried to get away with playing on really terrible hotel internet connections. On Lurker, I could get in the water, but I couldn’t get back out, at least not in tree form. People were laughing at the tree that was stuck in the pool! And on Void Reaver, man I really wanted those T5 shoulders, but even out of tree form, there was just no avoiding those orbs that night (and this was back when VR was easy).

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  10. Void Reaver. I had just spec’d CoH so was opposite the tank with the rogues instead of where I would normally be. Raid Leader called the pull and I tried to frisbee MT… out of range… inch forward, inch forward, inch forward… body pull VR.

    At least the wipe was quick!

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  11. “Baron Geddon: … I purposely did not move when I got the bomb buff.”

    Are you saying that the decision/behavior was the mistake? That’s really great, most people don’t make those kind of corrections, and fewer still own up to them.

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  12. This was in the past week or so…and isn’t it always more fun to wipe a 25-man raid single-handedly than a 10 manner?

    Was trying to inch forward to rez someone from the first wipe on High King Maulgar (we were having one heck of a bad night and the hunter we brought to the raid had never actually raided before and apparently did not know how to misdirect)…well, you guessed it, I got too close and body pulled High King Maulgar, wiping the whole raid. BAD PRIEST!

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  13. This is all back from pre-BC days, as I stopped rading after BC came out…

    We were attempting Huhuran in TAQ. A non-MT healer job is pretty easy before 30%. So I get all relaxed, heal up my group and throw a heal at MT occasionally, when suddenly a rogue in my group gets aggro without me realizing. First hit he got I thought was just damage he received from poison, so I throw a renew on him. A couple of seconds later he’s dead! Had I paid more attention, I could’ve given him just enough time to vanish. After that we proceded on killing her for our first time. I recorded it on video, but was too embarassed to share with the guild =)

    Those who’ve been to BWL know how Vael isn’t hostile before you make an attempt. In this encounter we would usually split on two sides of the room. Well we do our first attempt and wipe. We get back, buff up and I happily run on my assigned side. Through him. Wiping out the raid.
    Although there was also the time I was the last man standing with my SW:Pain killing Vael. So I like to think I made up for my mistake.

    Oh and throwing a few flash heals on someone during priest call just as Nefarian is about to die is just classic 😀

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  14. Also I just remembered. It’s not a colossal mistake by any means, but I feel really bad for my friend warrior for all his deaths while I was perfecting my timing with max rank Greater Heal without overhealing. This was back in the day when GH was 4sec cast =)

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  15. Pingback: Confession of a Main Tank » Omen of Clarity
  16. Once I ruined a ZA teams 3-timed attempt by failing at the shortcut where you jump through the hut windows to avoid a pack of mobs.

    I jumped through the first window after whoever I was following… and walked straight out the door, pulled a pack, caused a wipe, and wasted heaps of time.

    thankfully the server crashed shortly after and there wouldn’t have been any 3 timed loot anyways!

    zupas last blog post..The Arena Build

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