1. #1

    Guidance on Heroic Disc Priest

    I've read various posts and information regarding Disc Priests. I follow EJ religiously and consistently read posts here on MMO as well. I've been playing a disc priest for about 3-4 months in a casual raiding atmosphere. I want to make that adjustment from casual to heroic.

    The problem I'm facing is how do I go about doing this in a constructive manner? I look at my parses and have been looking closer at wasted GCD's. Making sure I don't step on fire, anticipating raid damage and PoHing just mere seconds prior in order to get the best bang for DA and PoH glyph. I've adjusted my UI several times in order to a better "feeling". I believe I've finally found a combination that I believe works with my strengths.

    My problem is I don't see myself as exemplary in order to compete for a disc raid spot. My guild is currently 6/7H 10man. I'm relatively new in the guild working my way through Alt raids in order to prove my overall raiding competency and competitiveness in order to get that "Raider" spot. I want to achieve this before 4.3 comes out as I want to be able to consistently raid and be apart of server firsts.

    At some point all the heroic healers were casual so the question is... How did you make the transition? What actions did you take to push yourself to the limit in order to be the best that you can be during each and every encounter? What tools do you use in order to adjust yourself? What blogs/websites/forums have inspired you or aided you to do better? And finally what makes you who you are so when groups are forming there is no question in anyones mind you're getting an invite?

    I want to thank you all in advance for taking the time to read this post.

  2. #2
    I haven't made the transition to heroics myself as my schedule is too shifty to be in such a guild, but I always like to improve myself. If your computer can handle it, I started frapsing boss fights and uploading WoL reports, and watch the videos and see any mistakes I made or where I could improve in timing/positioning.

  3. #3
    I think frapsing yourself is the quickest/easiest way to find areas you can improve on. You will see mistakes/areas for improvement much more easily than if you try to do it by mining logs. Also, if you're not already, try 2 healing everything.

  4. #4
    Hi =D I'm a 6/7HM (10m) Disc Priest myself, and I've never considered myself an amazing raider, but I'm competent enough. I like to think I'm a good raider for the amount of time I've been playing this game. The GM of the guild I'm in is a friend of mine, who got me started with WoW about a week before Cata came out. After I hit 85 on my priest in January, I started in our guild's alt run as a Shadow Priest (I was MS Shadow at the time). I essentially learned all my basic raiding skills from our guild's main raiders, who ran the alt run. They helped mold me into the raider I am today. I had to heal as Disc a couple times during these T11 normal alt runs, and started to run heroic dungeons as Disc to get a better feel for it, and really did start to enjoy healing. Fast forward to May, our guild is 8/13HM and has been trying to replace a healer for quite a while. That's when they asked me to join them for a week, ideally until they could find a healer. I guess I was decent enough for them to not drop me immediately, and I managed to go from 12/12 to 8/13 in 2 days =P That would be how I started and my transition. Of course, I was very fortunate in my situation since I was invited to join the guild to start with by my friend / the GM, and have maintained and Officer position for a while.

    I always research fights before encountering them (like every raider should do). I try to understand the fight not only from my perspective, but multiple perspectives, and if it's a progression fight, I'll figure out the most ideal spec for that fight. When I found out I was going to raid with my guild's main raid that one week (my first week), I watched every heroic fight video multiple times to make sure I understood everything I needed to do, and to not screw up. I always have two keys things in my mind when I raid: don't die & don't let others die. It's a wonderful mindset really =D I read some Disc Priest guides, including ones on this forum, which reiterated everything I pretty much already knew already. It was just a matter of not hesitating in healing and being confident that I could handle my job.

    "And finally what makes you who you are so when groups are forming there is no question in anyones mind you're getting an invite?"
    I'm not cocky, I'm not elitist, and I'm not perfect. I don't act like any of these in life or in raids, and I own up to any mistakes. If I make a mistake, I'm most certainly hard on myself and learn from my mistakes. A general plus (not necessarily related to this question) is that I'm competent with both Disc and Shadow. In many heroic Firelands fights, 2 healers is ideal, so being good at Shadow is beneficial for my raid group (I DPS on Rhyolith, Baleroc, and Ragnaros).

    Hope that helps you a bit. Sorry if that seems like a bunch of randomness typed out. I'm rather lazy today and didn't think much on structuring this nicely =P

  5. #5
    At the level of 10H raiding, being able to play your class/role well (e.g. pre-casting) and stay out of fire is pretty much the minimum requirement. Additional valuable skills are, in no particular order and non-exhaustively: good communication skills, good reaction time and decision-making, extensive research and/or creative skills to figure out how to adapt to the fight mechanics with your particular group of raiders, knowledge of other classes. Heroic bosses do not simply fall over because 10 people who are excellent at their class form a raid together after all. =)

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