I played as a mage for years. DPS is easy...well comparatively anyhow. You have a simple job; maximize uptime of rotation in order to deal out the most damage possible. You don't pull....oh god do you not pull. You aren't responsible for anyone's life...arguably your own but that's just pickin at straws. It's an easy life to learn the ebb and flow of raiding. As you get a handle on the basics it is comparatively easy to add in more complex maneuvers like silencing, dispelling, and the like.
And then one day Blizzard's ever evolving machine deals your class a blow that drains the joy out of it. I want to be clear that this isn't a question of whether the decision was a good one or a bad one it was simply one that you personally did not enjoy.
Desubb? Sure but........
Real Life often interrupts my train of thought, mainly because I write at work. My job by nature allows sporadic and unreliable downtime mixed with massive uptime so often get into the writing zone only to be ripped away and my direction changed. This is one of those times......
The transition from DPS to healer through Disc is both a good way to go and at current a dangerous way to go. As a disc priest I find it difficult to criticize our current level of OPness but it really is a class that has amazing conceptualization and too strong a reach. Disc is an amazing spec but honestly it should be further down the heal chain, at least with the current DPS output. Disc should be the poster child for give and take; more heals? less deeps! more deeps? less heals! and all of it falling behind the pure healers.
At the end of the day we live in the world Blizzard constructs for us, if disc be strong then I be disc. Problem is this does me a disc-service =D
I want to learn the deeper art of healer and the healer art of deeping.
My constant guide and inspiration for this is Hamlet, his musings on healing both theory and practice are a fine start. I wish I still had some of the old wizened priests I used to know to draw upon for knowledge but those days are past and now a small flock of my own are turning to me for knowledge.
So its time to dissect healing in a truer form and really learn it inside and out.
Boxes. Filling those boxes is unlike the destruction game Deeps play for there is not one simple and true way but rather an art to learn. Honestly I can already see what is meant by the spiky nature of MoP and a lack of healing with purpose and thought. Proving grounds and perhaps challenge modes seem to allow us to step back into a time when healing was more thought based and required skillful touches. WoD also promises to be set up in a similar fashion.
I believe the place I need to begin my journey is trip deep down the mana hole. Disc, LMG, and the cloaks and trinkets, the end of X-pac gear with buckets of spirit. I began my stint as a healer in the flush phat times and have run the risk and fallen to it if I'm honest, of taking my mana for granted and not fully appreciating what it means to the little boxes.
At first I was annoyed that PG was setup without context to the type of healer or to the realities of healing in SoO but after a brief read through Hamlet's beautiful works and a journey into PG I am starting to see the beauty of what they offer the novice healer. A control group. The party is robotic and the adversaries rhythmic. With the combination of scaled down gear and the removal of the legendary training wheels I have gotten a real taste of just what it means to be reckless with my mana. I spend too much time OOM with no chance to stop and "drink".
Still, like the wealthy survivalist who do it because they can, I plan to venture deep into this rabbit and hole with the expectation that on the other side, so long as I put forth the effort, I shall emerge more than simply a Deep who heals. With practice and patients and an open mind perhaps I can be a Proven Healer.
The first plan is to become much more intimately attuned to my relationship with mana and what it means for the heals I choose to slap out.
No comments:
Post a Comment