Sweet Spot

So, I think I am getting to the point where I am understanding more about my Holy spec, executing things the way they should be, and enjoying the role in general.  I still haven't gotten up the guts to go into Baradin Hold as a healer, but I will.  Soon.  Ish.  >.>

Healbot has proven to be quite the change from Grid.  For me, it is easier to use, and for people who aren't keen on writing their own mouse over macros for every skill they may need, it definitely is easier to use.  I have only had a couple of hiccups with it, one being a bizarre freakout in Stonecore in which it was showing a hunter that joined in the middle of a boss fight as switching back and forth between having almost no HP and full HP for about 5 seconds before he actually died.  That was not appreciated, Healbot!  Other than that, it's fairly easy to learn to use, and pretty customizable as well.  Can't say that it's really better or worse than Grid, just packaged differently, really.

I must find time to actually tweak a few little things in my UI again.  I want to finally make use of the things I can do with /focus, as well as make a macro for my Judgements to hit whatever my tank is attacking.  I also need to clean up a few overlapping bits here and there and tidy up the center of my screen.

But now... I need sleep.  I shall update more later on as things become more interesting.  ^.^

In the meantime, enjoy this pic of Nefarian's head after a quick 3-man run of Blackwing Lair.  Soon I shall have your head again, Nefarian...  And you will give me your epic gears.  :D

"Know your role."

That's what my GM told me today.  I can't accurately describe how red-hot my face is right now.

My Issues:
- I'm not mana conscious.
- I need to not cause dissension among the raid/group.
- I need to be quiet and listen to what my tank is saying and follow every order he gives.
- I need to focus on my own priorities, not others'.
- I need to go heal all of the heroics and Baradin Hold before being considered for a healing slot in our guild.  Otherwise, I need to take my sorry ass elsewhere.

Here are my combat logs from today.  I'm disappointed in myself.  I'm not anywhere near where I should be, and the logs speak to that.  My behavior in vent is atrocious as well, and I need to not be such a cocky bitch.

Tight-Knit Group. ^.^

Finally, some uplifting post material!  The last time Fallenjack and Omnitek and I ran dungeons together, I was feeling a bit daunted, and by the time Monday rolled around, I had not had time to look through the boss fights for healing-specific tactics, but I figured, "meh, how bad could it be," and off we went to knock out the weekly guild achievements.

Blackrock Caverns:  This one, having done it before as a healer a couple times now, was fine.  However, one of the first things we did when we got in was to pull too many groups around Rom'ogg Bonecrusher, and then he walked into our little skirmish.  Despite our GM's order of "run out of the instance, NOW," neither Omni or I made any definite movement to follow such an order.  Amidst white-knuckled heals, I told him, "hell no, I want to see if we can get through this."  It was a testament to our growing dynamic as a group, and sure enough, things were taken care of.  If I remember correctly, I did lose a DK on that fight, but that was because he didn't DPS the chains.  Can't save people from themselves

Vortex Pinnacle:  As a Retribution Paladin, VP is one of those instances that I could waltz through and feel okay about it.  Of course, when you aren't in decent gear and playing a different spec, it's a completely different situation.  This one went all right, though I did lose a couple people due to massive spike damage.  Gotta get quicker on the cool-down reaction time.

Stonecore:  This one was pretty smooth, except for one little teensy-weensy-little-GINORMOUS mess toward the middle.  o.o  I know how tough this dungeon was when it first came out, and even now, if you don't watch yourself, it can go to hell in a hand basket quite quickly.  So what happens?  In the corridor before Ozruk, we started to pull one group at a time, eliminating the mobs that would be major problems first, etc...  I swear that one of the PUGs we had was just in a hurry.  Before I knew it, another group was pulled.  And ANOTHER.  And what seemed like ANOTHER...  Well, running out certainly wasn't an option here, and staying true to my ballsy stance earlier, I tried to quickly organize things in my head: keep the tank up, keep the higher DPS up, stay out of the fire.  What seemed like forever passed as I clicked furiously.  My brilliant Warlock was spot on with banishing where he could and DPSing like a demon, and my tank was great, especially with pulling the casters off me...  Then, oh NO...  For once, I was truly OOM (out of mana), and this after blowing any cool-down that would regenerate mana...  I even busted out band-aids for the last few moments of the fight (betcha don't think First Aid is a useless skill now, huh?).  O.o'  All of us were amazed that we all managed to live through that seemingly catastrophic chain of events, and to quote the Shaman we had in group, "well, that certainly woke me up."

As for other more exciting stuffs, Patch 4.2: Firelands hit today!  I must say that I needed a tissue or three while doing the first line of quests with Thrall & Aggra.  I won't ruin it for anyone who hasn't gotten to do it yet, I just will say that it was very touching (and frightening!) to see different sides of the Warchief (...fuck Garrosh; what, yeah I said it).  I enjoyed doing the dailies and am looking forward to getting my greedy little crafter hands on the new blacksmithing and engineering patterns. 

Moment of Durr:  So, I'm running around with a guildie, getting into the Firelands quests and whatnot... and all he wants to do is go to Firelands.  So me being the dork that I am, I thought that you had to zone into it, like do the quests and then it would open up to you.  Even my GM wasn't overly sure about it, as I'm sure he was waist-deep in patch notes and fixing his tanking UI (and if he's reading this, I'm also sure he will ascertain that he knew otherwise later).  So, we did the quests as far as we can before he called it a night, and after he goes to bed, I'm trying to figure it out.  I googled "how do you get to Firelands" and this popped up.  Well, golly gee, you just WALK IN THE FRONT DOOR.  /facepalm  Brilliant.  At least I wasn't the only one with this issue!