To Fistweave or Mistweave?

I was asked the other day which character I consider my main, and I was stumped. That used to be a clear-cut, easy answer- my druid. She was my first max-level character, and the only one I did anything besides professions and leveling with. Then I leveled the monk. I took her into LFR, and had a blast. LFR, as a healer, can sometimes have a lot of downtime, if the other healers are decent. But with the monk, I could hit things between heals! I had no downtime, it was more engaging and fun! My druid was still my best-geared, and my raid toon.

Then we hit Gara'jal, and wiped. Many times. At 7%, once with about 220k health left on him. That was annoying. So I brought the monk the next week, for just a tad more DPS to push us over. And she stuck. I'll admit, on the monk, I am kinda half a healer. But I feel that 2.5 healers is about where we're good at for most of those fights. Because of that, I was hesitant to heal Elegon. I preferred to DPS on my monk there, but I was pulled to healing, and did fine. But if I am going to really heal, be a main healer, part of a 2-man healing team, I'd rather be on my druid. Our other regular healer, however, is a druid. I'm already competing for the same gear, I should at least bring different skills to the table. (Like the monk 3-min healing cooldown- it's great!) Plus, then I would be the 4th druid in the raid. And we've run with a full spectrum of druids before, that was no planned. So the monk has become the toon I spend the most time on.

And I love her, I do. She kills things so quickly, there is just enough to keep track of with DPS, not too much. I can heal and dps at the same time, and now she is the best geared toon- in both her specs- that I have. But I don't think of her as my main. I don't think of the druid as my main either. I'm mainless, aimless maybe. I feel disloyal to my druid to call anyone else my main.

But the title of this post was to fistweave or mistweave. so, to get back to that. Looking at the meters, my HPS and DPS appear to be awful- both about 20k. I'm doing both at the same time, so I feel it is ok. But with monks as a new class, I can find so few resources to really help me. I fistweave because I enjoy it, and because our raid is at the point where we can maybe run with 2 healers, and maybe not. So I feel two-and-a-half works great for us. I should ask our other healers, though, see how they feel. If they feel differently, I might switch back to my druid, or gear up my priest and try that for a while. 

I feel a tad uncomfortable mistweaving, because I am not familiar with mana management. I can so easily run out without paying attention. I can do it, I did just fine with Elegon. But if I am going to be doing that all the time, I would rather be on my druid. Maybe I'll fall in love with priest heals, but from running dungeons while leveling, I think it'll take a while to get used too.

So, to conclude: my monk is a fistweaver. She does light healing while doing a bit of DPS, and mixes in big heals when the raid needs em. She is not a mistweaver, to focus solely on healing and little else. She supports healers, and can step in to be a main healer, but she prefers to be the supporting role.

My druid is a healer. She heals, and that is her job. She enjoys it, believes healy druids should be trees, and really that seeing your armor as a druid in a raid is wrong. (Probably why I am so slow to transmog- why bother when you never see it?) She will be a lead healer, and do a great job at it, as that is all she knows to do.

My priest is an enchanter. He will do LFR for loot to disenchant. Maybe, if I start to fit into the priest groove, he might join a raid, depending on the composition of raid healers.

I do love the monk. I believe playing a fistweaver has made me a better player. I had to become much more situationally aware. I had thought I was before I began fistweaving, then I realized how much I really only paid attention to the health bars and what I was standing in. Now I focus on the whole encounter in a much more comprehensive manner. I would be sad to stop playing my monk in raids. But I don't want to hold the team back, and I don't want to stop fistweaving. If they need me to be a full time healer, like when we move on to the next raid, I will probably switch to my druid. I'll give the monk a try, and talk to the other healers, get their opinion. We'll work it out.

I feel like I have heard that conversation before, about fistweaving and healing. In another raid. And I think I just hit on what bothers me about my raid group right now. My guild is a casual guild. The raid team takes raiding seriously, but not that seriously. Oh, they come prepared, and gemmed and enchanted and reforged, having watched video and seen the fights in LFR. I love them all to death. But I feel like they should be further than we are. I suppose we're doing well for a group that started late on the raiding game, and only raids 2 nights a week.

So what I am saying is I need to chill out. And relax. And not take things so personally. This is all just the aftermath of a bad raid night. I will sleep, and be happy not to have a Classy priest hanging over my shoulder, and- have some fun! What to do for fun?

Bad Raid Night

What makes a night bad? Not getting bosses down is an obvious answer, lack of progress, but I don't care too much about a few nights of wiping to learn the fight and improve. Admittedly, weeks of wiping to 1 boss frustrates me, but even then I usually come away with hope we'll get it next time.

Tonight left a bad taste in my mouth. Really, this whole raid week. We only had 1 hour of actual raiding Wednesday, between waiting for a tank and discussing strategy. Originally, I had plans for tonight that did not include raiding, but  Fish Friday fell through, so I showed up to raid instead. I had expected that our raid leader would have found a healer to replace me, since I confirmed with her Wednesday I was going to be out. But there was still room- and we had 1 spot open. So we grabbed a DPS, and our boomkin popped into her off-spec to heal. She was doing ok, but I get the feeling it is completely an off spec to her, something she may have known well from Cata, but hadn't done any research on for subtler MoP changes- like how Nourish is no longer the bread and butter for healing. But whatever, she  did a great job. Our tank was being squishy tonight, and died a few times. So he whispered me about doing less fistweaving, more mistweaving.

That kinda upset me, because a few minutes before our raid leader had made a comment about "healers trying to DPS" to the detriment of their healing. I felt like it was directed at me, even though no names were mentioned.  Anyway, those comments rubbed me the wrong way. I probably didn't start out in the best mindset. I was hopeful, and having fun, but I had woken up from a nap about 20 minutes before raid time.   I said to myself- ok, I will see if I can pay more attention, see if I can improve my healing, and to make them happy, quit chasing down the adds and hanging around the boss so much. But it's Will of the Emperor, if people are doing their jobs right (and mostly they were) there was very little damage going around, and with 2 druids rolling Lifebloom on each tank, they weren't having a lot of health deviations that I had to stop and really heal, throwing out renewing mists and chi wave was keeping everyone up. So I was DPSing lightly to spend chi for mana tea. And, since I am a melee healer, I figured staying around the boss, so I will keep the tank in range and not spend a lot of wasted time running around was a good idea. I have gotten much better at avoiding devastating strike since I've had a chance to practice. I only miss if I stop to heal, and I get out of the way if  am going to be doing that.

I realize that is a block of whining essentially that someone told me I was doing a bad job. I just needed to vent a bit, that raid left a bad feeling behind. We didn't down the boss, our best attempt was 5%. I was kinda hoping for the feat of strength. If I feel like I have a better mindset tomorrow, I'll see if I can find a group for it.

As a side note, I am once again in charge of next Tuesday's raid- this time, I will make sure to contact people before hand to let them know that yes, I am running it, it will be happening. I hope our normal raid leader comes back. Don't get me wrong, I think our GM has been doing a great job, but I feel like she's been very frustrated lately. Plus, he's got a healer he usually brings, so... But really, if he comes back, we'll have a pally, me, and it looks like the druid that filled in a few times is now a permanent fixture (which is good) so I can bring my priest in once I get him geared, or my monk. Or the shaman if I ever manage to level her. I really miss the healer who started with us. He's been out for school, and not on much. He was fun.

Maybe I should have taken the night off. The grind to level my priest for the contest kinda wore me down. I dreaded logging in for a few days, because I felt any time not on my priest was a waste, and I didn't want to quest. But we reached 90, so yay! A chance to sleep, and not worry about anything WoW related might have been good. Tomorrow, it's back to the valor grind on my monk- almost done! Next week I won't even have to cap valor to finish Wrathion's quest. Then I get to run LFR with the druid, and rogue, and try to get those last 2 points I need to take the priest in. And start the GL, so I can get the rep for the enchants. I feel like my to-do list for WoW is hours long, and my "fun stuff" to do list is never going to see the light of day.

Is it raid burn-out, or group? Do I just need to get away from WoW for a few days and come back fresh? Or do I need to just practice and become a mistweaving monk rather than a fistweaving monk?

I feel like it isn't raid burn-out. I am looking forward to finding a PUG, something low-stress this weekend to do. I might need a break, but I probably won't take one this weekend.

And the monk. That might be another post.

Almost Done!

So, it's been a weird week. Only one test, on Monday. After that this week has felt off. Nothing is pushing me for class, no assignments that take more than 10 minutes a piece. I've been really tired, pushing my bedtime back to try to get my priest to 90 by the end of the day. I am halfway through 88, so we'll hope my free afternoon (minus an hour and a half anatomy review) will be enough to get me there. Coincidentally, I am at the same place as the person working on the panda monk, so the plan is to team up with her and level the rest of the way.

In other news, out raid got off to a very late start last night. Over an hour late, waiting on our tank, and the fill-in DPS we found was poorly geared. It went better when she switched to tank, but she had some trouble avoiding the strikes. Our guild leader, who was running the raid, seemed to be in an off mood too. Then, once the tank made it, we had a 15 min boss rap/tactics discussion, leaving us an hour to pull and work this out. And we failed. On a side note, I managed to avoid all the strikes when I was meleeing the boss for chi. Yay! Shiny button to press! That was fun. I was sad we didn't get him down, I will be missing Friday's raid to go to Gouyav'e Fish Friday, and I was kinda hoping to get the feat of strength for getting him down before the nerf. Oh well, maybe I will try to PUG it this weekend.

I was supposed to lead the Tuesday night raid group in the guild master's absence, but apparently half the people didn't read the note in the calendar invite that I was taking over. We had all three healers available (yay for the healers) 1 tank who could come, but hadn't realized the raid was happening, and 1 DPS. I was not looking for another tank and 4 DPS to fill in, since no one else who was online in our guild was able to come for one reason or another. Plus the tank would rather have been working on her Stay Classy Panda. So no raid. Wish I'd known that before I used up a ton of Golden Lotus crafting flasks to have on hand... Oh well, I will use them all eventually. Or my boyfriend can. 

Our guild usually provides flasks or potions to raiders at the start of raid if you need them. I am a big believer in coming prepared, so I usually always bring my own, unless I am running late or not expecting to DPS and left the agility flasks elsewhere. That always be prepared thing is also the reason I have as many professions maxed out as I can. Priest just got to max enchanting, which makes this the first time I have had a max level enchanter, which is really exciting for me. I have been collecting greens to DE with all of my characters as I leveled, and my boyfriend has sent anything he gets my way too, so I am more than set on mats for awhile. 

I am really looking forward to hitting 90 on the priest, and then going to bed! I am so tired, my attention span has been really short. Makes classes a tad bit more difficult than they would otherwise be. Plus, then I can get to capping valor on my monk and maybe druid, trying to capture all the pets before the patch drops and I am penalized for forfeiting while I go rare hunting, and doing what I can to save up for the expedition yak. Mounts is my next collecting quest, and I would love to be able to reforge at a moment's notice without heading to a capital city. I've never tried to save up gold for anything before, when i had 15k gold I was amazed. Then I bought some pets, and darkmoon cards, and maxed out the riding skills for several alts. On a side note, I am looking forward to flying in Pandaria. I really miss that.

Ok, this has rambled on for long enough. Back to the grind.

PS: How cool was that 5.2 teaser video? Awesome!

I'm shocked

We finally killed Elegon. I didn't believe he was down at first. I was out of mana, out of cooldowns, 4 people were dead, and I was preparing for a wipe. But yay! On our last attempt of the evening, we got it! A great end to a lackluster raid week. We wiped a few times on Garajal and the Spirit Kings. We only had 3 pulls of Elegon, and the first 2 he was around 40% when we wiped. I'll admit a bit of that was my fault. I was unaware of one of the people on my half of the room, and they weren't getting healed. So, yeah... Once I knew she was there, I kept her alive.

In other news, aced my physiology test. Got a tad confused on here wording for a question, and talked myself out of the right answer. Next, anatomy. I need to learn all of the nerves and vessels in equine fore and hindlimb, as well as innervations of muscles. We skipped over most innervations last term, Dr. P wasn't that big on them, but this term these guys are. So time to buckle down and learn em.

Got my priest to 84, we'll hit 85 tomorrow. I had hoped to be there last weekend, but oh well. I'll push hard for 88 by Sunday, but we'll see how much time there is to level around my boyfriend's work schedule and my studying. Once this is over, I should not feel so pressured with my WoW time. Only a few more weeks to grind out the Valor for the Black Prince on my main, I'm only half-heartedly working on it with my second healer.

And next Friday, March 1st, I have plans to go to Fish Friday in Gouyave! Hopefully it'll be fun. I love seafood, but I can't cook fish. I bought a whole fish here once. The 5 bites I got out of cutting it myself were delicious, but I had no clue what I was doing. For an island, very little fresh seafood in the grocery store. None, in fact. All frozen or salted.

And to jump to WoW once more, I am sad they "fixed" Ruthers so you can't to Yak Attacks any more. At least I have many screenshots already.

So, just going to wait for Sha to respawn, do the holiday boss with everyone eligible, and go to bed. Good night all!

Relaxing

Still no Elegon kill. That's been at the top of my mind when we raid- what can I do to get us closer?
The obvious answer is stay alive. Admittedly most of my deaths are poor planning. I don't fall through the floor, but I prioritize tank health above mine, and that delay has cost me a few times.
I healed this last attempt. I am usually not in the top of the healing numbers with my monk, because I fistweave. Our other healers have been awesome, so I don't do a lot of targeted healing. I have been DPSing Elegon, since out of our original group of healers, I had the best DPS spec and gear. Our current priest has expressed doubts. I think he does a great job, but he sat out on Friday and we had a real DPS come in. Still didn't get it. Oh well, next week, right? Gotta stay optimistic. Or, as our tank pointed out, we can go wipe in HoF for a while and then come back to Elegon. Let attenuation kill us for a while.

I have taken over the Tuesday night raid group next week. Not tonight, I went out for my birthday this week. Tried a new restaurant, off the bus route. That was an adventure, driving in Grenada in the dark. There are no street signs. We had to ask for directions 3 times. I am glad I was not driving. We did find the place, and it was great, best service we have had in Grenada by far. Good pizza (and a buy one get one free night too) and drinks were pretty good. I'm looking forward to a return trip, providing our driver feels up to it again.

But raid leading. I know, only one week, on a group that has only killed the first boss one time. They only run once a week, and have only gone in 3 times. Unfortunately, I have found I tend to leave things out of my fight tactics if I think they are obvious. Good thing this group knows the fight, and if we somehow get past the first boss, I should be able to hash out the second one just fine. I'm more worried about filling spots if people don't sign up. Thank goodness we have 2 awesome tanks who can and want to be there, I can heal and I can wing filling in the rest (I hope). Now it's just the preparation. Our guild leader usually provides feasts and flask for the group. I have a ton of feasts left over from leveling cooking, and my alchemist is up to the task for flask making. Just gotta get my herbalist in gear for the gathering for potions.

It won't take that long, but it comes out to a lot of time with everything I am doing. Get my priest to 90 by the end of the month for the competition, cap valor on my main for the Black Prince, and try on my second healer if at all possible, and study for tests. Luckily, I have Physio on Friday, Anatomy on Monday, and a lab practical next Friday. Should be doable, since after that we have no tests until midterms the Friday after the lab test. I rocked the immuno test. It has all made sense, which is great. Now the nerves, vessels, and muscles of the equine hindlimb just need to come together, preferably in the corect manner that will match the drawings on out test. I bought Pasquini's Equine Atlas over break, since I was told the lab manual for this term is awful. It is, and I cracked Pasquini's book today. Very helpful, I will try to do some coloring before next lab to make it stand out and learn a bit more. There can be a lot of coloring in vet school. And drawing.

So, now I just have to learn some neurophysiology and remember how to localize the lesion, which I do find fun. Well, these examples. If I really had a daschund with a ruptured disc, I would probably not think it fun. Hypothetical localize the lesions are fun.

Oh, and the title. I read an article about aesthetics, and the color green being stress relieving and motivating, but now I forget where I was going with that. So here are some yak attack pictures. Note: bosses can be pulled with yak attack. Don't let your mage for get it.

Refocusing

Well, tonights raid went great. 1-shotted the first 4 bosses, and then got Elegon to 5%. Pretty good, since my death was the reason for at least one of our wipes. I usually heal, but I switch to DPS on that fight. I occasionally get stuck in a healer mindset, and forget to do things like use my stacks of brew when they are up. I am looking forward to having them stack to 20 instead of 10, so I won't waste as much.

It's been a tough week for me. I've been very scattered and a little depressed. I did not do near as well as I would have liked on Anatomy and Bacteriology. Ever miss questions when you know the right answer, were thinking correctly, and just looked at the picture wrong? That was my issue in anatomy. Then I just studied the wrong stuff for bacteriology. My focus was off, and that test really threw me. I was worried I had failed right up until the grades were posted. It just left me feeling awful for a few days. And this term, we have at least 1 test every week, and this week, last week, and next week it's two tests. I usually take at least 1 day to recover from a test, clear my head and refocus. It can be difficult when they come so fast, and I've been so distracted by WoW I've forgotten what's important.

I am going to be a vet. I have wanted that as long as I can remember. What I learn now, I will use on a daily basis the rest of my career. This isn't just foundation stuff and we'll get to the "real" stuff later. It's been hard for me to remember and recognize the significance of that. So much of college was requirements that I am never going to use. I tended to cram, ace the test, and forget it. I cannot do that anymore, and changing my study habits has been difficult. But, here's to the beginning of better study habits.

So, in other news, our raid leader is out for a while, and has been the last week. Our lovely guild leader has stepped in and done well at organizing our two raid groups. I joined the second group, only been together about three weeks now, to fill in for a missing healer. The day after the test, and then that night of wiping on the stone dogs was not pleasant. So I am glad we had success tonight.

And Navimie wrote me a lovely little poem:

Your med school days remind me of
Fun I had long ago.
And peppered amongst science tests
Your thoughts on Warcraft flow.
I thank you for the note you left
When to my blog you came.
And hope in life you'll brighten lives
Much like you do in game. 



I got that while I was still feeling out of sorts, and it really cheered me up. Thank you!

Now onto bed, where I can hopefully have more dreams that involve chocolate cake, since I'm too cheap to buy sweets down here in real life. Night!

A Good Week

Not bad so far. We take another crack at Elegon tonight. We were stuck on Garajal on Wednesday, DPS just couldn't quite get there. We were running with some new people, regulars couldn't make it this week, but we'll get him tonight.

Leveling the little pandas for our guild challenge hasn't been going too well. My boyfriends been sick, and I've ben feeling under the weather myself. Hopefully we'll get back on track this weekend, and I can get studying done for Physiology.

I have 2 tests next week- physiology and anatomy. I need to catch up with pharmacology- the day I skipped class, he went way further than I expected.

I haven't really been in the writing mood lately, but hopefully since I'm feeling better I can post a bit more often.