I know I’m a little late on this post; many guilds have gotten the first four bosses of ICC down several times now! My guild isn’t one of those though (that first boss and his [insert several curses here] Bladestorm is the only one Momentum-conquered), so I’ve gotten so ninja-focused in the conundrum of it [and finals--my last college semester!] that I’ve neglected the smite priest blogging world. This entry is a documentary of my insanity more than theorycraft; stay tuned for some substantial ICC content next week!

I’ve Converted to Shadow Pew and Discipline Healing!

Hold on a sec. I realize I have guides for the total opposite experiences hovering in that menu above: my Lvl 80 Smite Priest Raiding Guide and my Lvl 80 Holy Priest Raiding Guide. I pew and heal quite the contrary to what ICC has done to me. There’s an explanation!

With the new changes to Shadowform, I decided to try out Shadow spec to familiarize myself with how Haste + Shadow Word: Pain feels. This is an important experience that all of us Smite priests should endure, in the most painful and un-liberating way. The reasoning? If you don’t know how to talk Shadow to people, you can’t really hold a candle when you’re trying to defend your “inferior” spec. Trust me! Shadow has undergone some drastic changes and so it warrants all priests get some hands-on experience so they don’t sound like numskulls when XYZ asks, “How’s that new patch treatin’ ya?”

But the real WTF ICC’s patch did to me is this horrible conversion from Holy healer to Discipline healer, complete with that nose-wrinkling spell called Penance. It reminds me of the time that one of my distant relatives brought me into [keeping religious location anonymous to avoid insulting said religious members] to part take in [unfamiliar religious practices that naturally make me claw for a different kind of salvation than what the location attempted to give me.] But Discipline didn’t undergo such drastic changes to demand a hand-wetting experience like Shadow did, so… “WTF?”

The answer is mana. I stacked my spirit high, I really did. I even invested in a Darkmoon Card: Greatness recently to further help my spirit out. When Marrowgar makes me OOM though, complete with blown potion and no fiend, and he’s still at well over 70% health–there be a problem! I blame this on three exterior facts that many of you might be experiencing:

1. A raid leader that thinks 2 healers is peachy. (Mind you, we’re not ToGC-25 geared. Try like some ToC-10 and ToC-25 items mishmashed together.)
2. DPS that think it’s okay to stick their finger up their nose for 1~5 extra seconds before removing a victim off a spike.
3. I switched from Healbot to Grid recently and it’s like switching from diet soda to regular; SUGAR RUSH!

Okay, maybe most people aren’t dumb enough to switch from Healbot to Grid healing on the crest of a new raid. That would be my bad. I heal a hell of a lot faster and, well, that means I drain mana faster.

Discipline priests, so the rumor says, don’t OOM as fast as Holy priests. Johannah the Smite Priest is here to tell you the myth is true. For as long as it takes for me to stop peeing through mana like a drunken psychotic, I’ll be healing ICC Discipline in the safety net of mana-forever-land. This will likely last a couple weeks, so expect me to provide at least one “This is how I heal Disc” post in the near future along with my Shadow experiences.

Then we’ll dissolve back to normal and I’ll write a Holy and Smite perspective on ICC.

…also, if you’re a Holy priest frantically switching to Discipline, make sure to buy the Penance ranks. Trying to heal ICC with a rank 2 of anything is pretty much fail. True story.