Post Patch Positives

And perhaps the odd negative.

First up, I’m “Fabulous”. Who knew I was hoarding that many items of clothing. With the exception of my Shaman, everyone else is hiding shoulders and is likely to be doing so for the foreseeable future. I’ve also found so many things I didn’t know I had like the scythe off Ahune and the Blessed Leggings of Undead Slaying.

The changes to the Toybox have given me lots more bag spaces as well as the Robo-Gnomebulator.

Gnome Hunters…every baby Gnome I encountered at the start zone had a mechanical Bunny in tow.

Snow has decided to go back to her roots. The achievement for Benediction has made her very happy, even to the point that she let Sprout transmogrify Anathema.

Playing a Holy Priest today though felt a lot less fun than yesterday. Now part of that is definitely the content I’ve been doing, we did heroic UBRS as a Protection Warrior/Holy Priest duo and then did a couple of the Pandaria raids with the same combination. Mana really wasn’t really an issue even when someone pulled all the first packs of UBRS at once (glares in Warrior’s direction) so I had the talent which lets your single target heals refresh renew. That meant for virtually all of it, I had to cast renew once per fight, then flash heals interlaced with smite spam, holy fire off cooldown and loot.

No inept Shadowfiend, no mind sear, no shadow word pain, no power word shield, no fear and no mind vision. I didn’t think I’d miss them but I do. Obviously raid/pvp healing will need more than those 3 spells to sustain a fight but I liked having a tool box bursting at the seams with spells.

The removal of Basil the inept Shadowfiend probably hurts the most. Not because he was needed for damage or mana but because I have fond memories of his ineptness during raids. In an ideal world, we’d get a cosmetic glyph which lets Holy Priests summon an “inept shadowfiend” which would bounce around being useless for 10 seconds on a minute cooldown.

On the plus side, getting Mind Control back gave me a big smile. I never felt I could justify the talent point on something so specific but it’s fun for duoing five mans at the appropriate level and it’s a great source of amusement in PvP.

Finally no more gold missions at the Garrison makes me very happy, okay it essentially paid for my mobile Transmogrification Yak but feeling I’ve escaped them even if it’s temporarily is a wonderful feeling.

First Thoughts on 6.0.2

Patch days always fill me with foreboding, especially those which herald the end of an expansion. We know that as the sun goes down on the current incarnation of the game, that in a sense we have to learn anew and regardless of how positive those changes are, that always floods me with nervousness.

The addition of new faces for old and familiar characters was a huge issue for me but somehow it’s worked out okay. My Gnomes have attitude by the bucket load of malfunctioning engineering gizmos and my Nightelf Priest, well she looks distinctly holier than thou now. A few hairstyles will need changing and I think my Monk and I will need a while to get reacquainted but nothing I can’t deal with. The Toybox and the reagent bank have proved invaluable. I actually have bag space.. something almost unheard of for me and across all my characters I seem to have wracked up 68 toys so now everyone can wreck trains and plant sinister blue dolls places.

No, the thing which has bothered me most about everything I’ve experienced today has to be Nethergarde Keep, that almost forgotten outpost lurking in the Blasted Lands.

I know war is meant to be bloody and horrible, but this just seemed a step too far. For the first time since Theramore I’m angry, angry that another town was lost and I could nothing to save it. Angry that NPCs who have been apart of our journey through WoW since the very beginning are once again broken and bloodied amidst burning buildings and battered brick. Sure I now have another title and a new pet but that’s not enough. Poisoning Ogres helped but they aren’t the real enemy. In a way that the Lords of War clips couldn’t, this brief little quest chain has left me wishing to rain destruction down on the Iron Hordes.

Filling the Toybox – Part 1

One of my favourite new additions to Warcraft is the Toy Box. I find myself almost wishing that I didn’t have to wait another few days for the next patch before this feature is released into my hot little hands. It’s first of all a list plus it’s going to free up beautiful and desperately needed bag space across so many of my characters so what’s not to love.

I’ve tried to be a bit systematic here, things I’m currently attempting to farm are green, items which aren’t yet available in game are red and items which come from Trading Cards are purple. Anything which is purchasable for any sort of currency whether gold, Timeless Coins or some sort of token is orange.

• Ai-Li Skymirror – Not yet owned. Drops from the mob of the same name in the Dread Wastes.
• Alliance Flag of Victory – not obtainable until the expansion
• Ancient Amber – Acquired by Fossil Archaeology.
• Ancient’s Bloom – not obtainable until the expansion
• Angry Beehive –  not obtainable until the expansion
• Arena Master’s War Horn – not obtainable until the expansion
• Argent Crusader’s Banner – Not yet owned. Sold by Dame Evniki Kapsalis at the Argent Tournament for 15 Champion’s Seals.
• Arrival of the Naaru – Not yet owned. Draenei Archaeology.
• Ash-Covered Horn –  Not yet owned. Drops from the High Priest of Ordos on the Timeless Isle.
• Autographed Hearthstone Card – not obtainable until the expansion
• Aviana’s Feather – not obtainable until the expansion
• B.F.F Necklace – Drops from Huggalon the Heart Watcher, a level 92 Elite who resides in a cave in Townlong Steppes.
• Battle Horn – Drops from Blackhoof, a rare spawn in the Valley of the Four Winds.
• Black Whirlwind – not obtainable until the expansion
• Blackflame Daggers – Drops from Champions of the Black Flame on the Timeless Isle.
• Blazing Diamond Pendant – not obtainable until the expansion
• Blazing Wings – potentially available at November’s Darkmoon Faire from completing the achievement Brood of Alysrazor which requires you to fly through 50 hoops. My only experience doing this comes from the beta a few builds back but it was fairly easy then as long you mapped out your route as you went.
• Blessing of the Old God – Not yet owned. This is a rare Nerubian archaeology solve.

 

So to sum up page 1, that’s currently 8 items definitely not obtainable until the expansion starts in earnest with a further one item as a maybe. Then we have three things from varying branches of Archaeology, 5 drops from various mobs currently in-game and one item purchasable for Champion’s Seals. As things stand out of these 18, I possess a whopping four items, although I do have enough seals to purchase the Argent Crusader’s Banner so I suppose my current score for page 1 is 5/18.

• Bloodmane Charm – not obtainable until the expansion
• Blue Crashin’ Thrashin’ Racer Controller – Can be bought from Jepetto Joybuzz and his clockwork assistant in Dalaran or Craggle Wobbletop and Blax Bottlerocket in Stormwind and Orgrimmar respectively.
• Bones of Transformation – A rare item from Night Elf Archaelogy. Not yet owned.
• Botani Camouflage – not obtainable until the expansion
• Brazier of Dancing Flames –  purchasable during the Midsummer Fire Festival for 350 Burning Blossom.
• Brewfest Banner – not obtainable until Brewfest 2015
• Brewfast Keg Pony – purchasable from the Brewfest vendors for 200 Brewfest Prize tokens
• Brewfest Pony Keg – purchaseable from the Brewfest vendors for 100 Brewfest Prize tokens
• Bubble Wand – not obtainable until the expansion
• Burning Defender’s Medallion – not obtainable until the expansion. Will require Midsummer Fire Festival 2015.
• Burning Legion Missive – not obtainable until the expansion
• Celestial Defender’s Medallion – Requires revered with Emperor Shaohao. Not yet owned.
• Censer of Eternal Agony – Purchasable from Speaker Gulan on the Timeless Isle for 1,000 Timeless Coins
• Chalice of Secrets – Drops from Urgolax, a rare spawn in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms.
• Chalice of the Mountain Kings – A rare item from Dwarven Archaeology.
• Cloud Ring – Requires Order of the Cloud Serpent – Revered. Costs 1000 gold.
• Cozy Bonfire – not obtainable until the expansion. Will require Midsummer Fire Festival 2015.
• Crashin’ Thrashin’ Flying Controller – Gift from Winter’s Veil 2013.

 

 

• Crashin’ Thrashin’ Racer Controller – 2008 Winter Veil Gift
• Crash’in Thrashin’ Robot – made by engineering, the schematic is a world drop from various TBC mobs.
• Crash’in Thrashin’ Shredder Controller – Not yet available, requires Winter Veil 2014.
• Cremating Torch – Reward from the quest Choking the Skies in Townlong Steppes.
• D.I.S.C.O – Trading Card item from the “Hunt for Illidan” expansion.
• Darkmoon Whistle – sold by Gelvas Grimegate at the Darkmoon Faire for 90 Darkmoon Faire tickets.
• Darnassus Banner – Sold by Rook Hawkfist, Darnassus Quartermaster at the Argent Tournament for 15 Champion’s Seals.
• Decahedral Dwarven Dice – requires Pickpocking. The best place to try seems to be New Hearthglen.
• Deceptia’s Smouldering Boots – not obtainable until the expansion
• Demon Hunter’s Aspect – Trading Card item from the “War of the Ancients” expansion.
• Druid and Priest Statue Set – Night Elf Archaelogy
• Elune’s Lantern – Reward from defeating Omen at the Lunar Festival.
• Essence of the Breeze – Drop from Ai-Ran the Shifting Cloud, a rare mob in the Vale of the Eternal Blossoms.
• Eternal Kiln –  Drops from the Eternal Kilnmasters on the Timeless Isle.
• Everlasting Alliance Firework – This was a reward from completing the Theramore Scenario prior to MoP being released.
• Everlasting Horde Firework – This was a reward from completing the Theramore Scenario prior to MoP being released.
• Exodar Banner – Sold by Irisee the Exodar Quartermaster at the Argent Tournament for 15 Champion’s seals.
• Faded Wizard Hat – Reward from  quest in Aszhara. Horde only.

 

• Farwater Conch – Dropped by Zai the Outcast in Kun-Lai Summit.
• Firefury Totem – Not yet obtainable.
• Fishing Chair – Trading Card Item.
• Flimsy Yellow Balloon – Currently purchasable from Carl Goodup at the Darkmoon Faire for 10 silver. However will require November’s Darkmoon Faire as it currently disappears after the Faire leaves town.
• Flippable Table – Sold by Nam Ironpaw for 40 Ironpaw tokens at the Half Hill Market.
• Foam Sword Rack – Trading card item.
• Fool’s Gold – Trading Card item.
• Foot Ball – Can be bought from Jepetto Joybuzz and his clockwork assistant in Dalaran or Craggle Wobbletop and Blax Bottlerocket in Stormwind and Orgrimmar respectively.
• Foot Ball
• Foxicopter Controller – Purchasable from Sally Fizzlefury at Nesingwary’s camp in the Valley of the Four Winds for 1000 gold.
• Frenzyheart Brew – Requires revered with the Frenzyheart faction in Sholazar and then it’s a chance to get from a ripe disgusting jar.
• Fruit Basket – not obtainable until the expansion
• Fuzzy Green Lounge Cushion – not obtainable until the expansion (Winter Veil 2014 gift)
• Gamon’s Braid – not obtainable until the expansion
• Gastropod Shell – drops from Gastropod in the Throne of Thunder
• Giant Deathweb Egg – not obtainable until the expansion
• Gin-ji Knife Set  – requires exalted with the Tillers faction
• Glorious Standard of the Kirin Tor Offensive – reward from completing the quest Securing a Future in the Throne of Thunder.

Well based on the first four pages, it’s going to be while before I get my hands on the achievement and reward for 150 toys. So far I have twenty two of these out of a possible 74 with a further 22 unavailable until Draenor aligns itself once again with Azeroth.

And the Wheel keeps turning: PvP and Chakras

Nothing seems to divide Holy Priests like Chakras. I know people who have quit their Priests all together over them, Priests who have gone Disc or Shadow because of them as well as plenty of Priests who have stuck with Holy but tend to pick their Chakra and stick with it regardless of their circumstances. My focus today is PvP but a lot of what applies here can also be used whilst dungeoning and raiding.

First of all, know your “enemy”!

and

Now I deliberately didn’t include the third Chakra and the reason for that is simple. Chastise is our default ability if we aren’t in a Chakra at all. So lets say I’m in Serenity and I have been for a while, all I need to do to throw a disorient on that pesky Holy Paladin over there is leave Chakra state, cast Chastise and then re-enter Serenity immediately incurring no real penalty (ok Chastise hits for less but…..).

/cancelaura Chakra: Serenity
/cancelaura Chakra: Sanctuary
/cast [target=mouseover, harm, nodead] Holy Word: Chastise; Holy Word: Chastise

You do need to hit the macro twice to get the disorient but it leaves whichever of the two Chakra states you’re in and then will stun either your mouse over target if you have one or your actual target if you don’t. I’d definitely recommend using a macro because in hectic pvp combat the last thing you want to be doing is trying to right click off the right buff whilst the person you want to disorient is trying to smash your face in with an axe.

So with the basics covered, what I do use and why? Well my general rule of thumb sees Serenity as my go to Chakra for most things pvp related. I’m a great fan of casting on the move (you can tell I was a Resto Druid in a former life can’t you) and given that in most pvp, standing still just makes you an easier target, you can’t beat instant cast abilities. Being able to dance through and behind your enemies throwing out heals can make a huge difference on your time to live and that of your team-mates.

Also if you’re left alone, Serenity is definitely where it’s at. That instant heal can and will save your life over and over again.

However, especially in the two 40 mans, Sanctuary has it’s place:

Isle of Conquest

• On entering the boss room to take down the opposing boss I switch because with his leap, every little bit of aoe healing counts. 
• If we’re winning by attrition and camping the graveyard, i.e. everyone is grouped up in one place with lots of people taking damage, I switch.

Alterac Valley

• End bosses are an obvious choice for Sanctuary, especially if you’re forced into pulling with towers up.
• Any huge face offs on the road, i.e. by Iceblood graveyard or between Stonehearth and Stormpike, using Sanctuary is a potential option. It depends whether you’re just championing one person, i.e. a warrior/deathknight or trying to keep the masses alive.

As for Arenas, given that I only ever play 2 v 2, I tend to switch between Serenity, no Chakra at all for the disorient and then using Chakra: Chastise if I need to nuke.

Basically before you make a decision on which Chakra to use, consider the following:

1. Are you sticking with the vast majority of the team or are you off either solo or with a handful of others. Then consider Sanctuary for the former and Serenity for the latter.
2. How many opponents are there? Lets say for example that you and a rogue are attacking the Farm in Arathi Basin. There is just one defender but you know that this team have been fairly good at communicating thus far. Do you stick in your healing Chakra or do you switch to Chastise for the extra bit of oomph? After all, the faster they die, the quicker you can tag.
3. Is anyone focusing you? Serenity all the way then.

TL,DR

• Macro cancelling Chakra and disorient early and often. The more CC you can provide, the less healing you need to do. Consider things like Chastise – > Mindcontrol for defending the Lumber Mill in Arathi Basin or in 2 v 2s. Not only is it annoying, it’s also effective, especially if you follow it up by parking the person next to you and then fearing them. 
• Serenity normally beats Sanctuary unless the opposing team is kindly focusing on aoeing down your team at roughly the same rate, you aren’t taking huge amounts of damage yourself and you don’t like anyone else in the team enough to focus them with lots of single target heals.
• Chakra: Chastise has it’s place. I use it in scenarios, 5 man groups in which people don’t stand in bad and the tank actually uses cooldowns and for nuking demolishers in Strand of the Ancients. It can also be handy in one v ones against certain classes (i.e the ones which don’t currently hit very hard themselves) as long as you’re ready to swap back to defensive mode Serenity the second they get a mate. The other thing to consider is how many healers are on your team. If I end up in a healer heavy side and no one has the gear/spec set up, I’ll use Chastise for dps, especially to help kill flag carriers whilst the others heal. My Dps isn’t awesome but I’ve never come bottom yet although in random battlegrounds that’s perhaps not surprising.

Above all, don’t be afraid to play around with them. Also I have it on good authority that chastise the disorient is cheating (rich coming from a Paladin :p) so use it often!

Patch Notes Thoughts: Easier Chakra Surfing

I’ve been keeping a vague eye on the notes for the forthcoming patch, oohing over the thought of riding dinosaurs but my brain has been rather disengaged. However one little tidbit I spotted today changed that:

The 4pc PvP bonus for healing priests has changed: Reduces the cooldown of Chakra by 25 sec and during Spirit Shell, Flash Heal costs 50% less mana. (from MMO Champion).

I’m not particularly interested in the second half (Holy for life!) but the first bit had me thinking. Now I’m a chakra hopper by nature and the thirty second cool down between switching annoys me considerably. I’ll happily admit to not being the greatest fan of chakras as I think their implementation has always been clunky and I hate running around with huge disco lights under my feet yelling “Holy Priest….try and kill me” to all comers. However I think a five second cool down between switching states is a huge improvement, so huge in fact that I feel it’s got no place being a set bonus at all.

The whole point of chakras as I understood them was so that we could switch on the fly as sadly PvP in particular doesn’t come in nice perfectly timed segments with the opposing team seguing politely from aoe to single target and back again. I know from playing against plenty of other Holy Priests, most seem to pick a chakra and stick with it regardless of the situation, especially now they last after zoning/death so hopefully this change will change that, pushing people into a bit more experimentation. That said, I don’t see why this change couldn’t be either baseline, leaving the PvP set bonus as it currently is or altering it’s implementation slightly. Why for example can’t it work like the Monk roll? In that you could switch once and then again without incurring a time penalty. It would be more dynamic than just a flat cool down and would potentially allow for more tactical play.

Right now this is a necessary change but a really boring set bonus.

Slightly off-topic, one of the more common searches which seems to bring people to my blog is “What chakra should I use in pvp?” and that to me feeds into the sense that quite a lot of Priests feel trapped in one chakra because of the cooldown. (For those of you which are interested, I’m currently working on a rather massive post with flow charts and possibly diagrams to cover what I use, when and why).

 

Dark Dreaming of the Moon

The Darkmoon Faire has rolled into town once again, bringing with it a whole host of new and shiny things to tempt the eye.

Up first we have the Carousel with it’s experience and reputation buff (sorely needed in the Age of Dailies). All you have to do is buy a ticket and ride it for a while, just like the Maypole buff from the Fire Festival the duration ticks up the longer you spend spinning around. Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately riding it backwards doesn’t seem to effect your age unlike Bradbury’s.

What I also like about this is that Blizzard seem to have drawn heavily on the design which featured in their Student Design Contest, even down to the watching eye on top.

Borrowed from MMO Champion

Sadly the balloons haven’t made it into the finished product though, perhaps if we’re really lucky they’ll turn up as mini pets some time in the future.

As seen from a distance

The new Pet Battle Master was an okay fight, easier than a certain gentleman in the Argent Tournament grounds for example. I took his team on with a Beast (Spider), a Flying creature (my Cenarion Hatchling) and a Humanoid (my Hopling). My reward bag yielded no Eye but then this week I have been fairly lucky with other pet drops (the Vanilla raid ones and the tailoring ones) so fingers crossed I’ll get one this week as it’s the pet I’m most excited about.

Buoyed up by this success, I went and purchased my Darkmoon Hatchling, which when inspected closely has a very prehistoric look. Sprout will definitely be careful when feeding, I suspect it’s pet biscuits thrown from quite some distance.

Finally I hit the wilderness looking for the two tamable pets. Finding a Darkmoon Glowfly was easy, the woods seemed filled with them, albeit with a massive level range.

The first one I tamed was level 11 and the first one Mr Harpy accosted was level 1. Sadly it seems that the other pet I actually want, the Crow still hasn’t been fixed. Here’s hoping Blizzard get it done before the end of the week.

All in all, the new additions to the Darkmoon Faire get a massive thumbs up from me and no doubt I’ll be spending even more time here than before.

A Happy Harpy Day

The first thing I did yesterday on logging…

 

Transmogrification – Heirlooms in Disguise, plus post patch wonderings

First thoughts on 4.3.

Transmogrification + heirlooms = fun.

An Identity Crisis

My lv 2 rogue sporting an autumnal palette which matches her hair.

This year, the perfect accessory is an angry octopus!

My lv 14 mage who just needs some acceptable shoulders, shame she can’t have the leafy ones too.

I know the heirlooms are meant to lose their transmogrifications when you mail them (I mailed mine the way I always mail stuff and the transmogrification was still there at the end) and no doubt Blizzard will get around to fixing it at some point but in the meantime…. time to smash some people in the face with a angry octopus. I admit I have mixed feelings about that rule. Eventually my alts could just farm the items themselves, it’s not as if they don’t exist in the game any more so why not let transmogrification work across battlenet accounts.

Still sulking about about not being able to use lv 60 PvP set on any character. “I” as in the person who  plays the game met the requirements on four separate characters but the one I want to use it on, I can’t :(. I was marginally appeased by this blue post:

It’s the player that earned those items, really, not any specific character. If we had a way to make them account-wide right now, we would. We can’t, but account-wide achievements are planned for Mists of Pandaria, and we hope to be able to include Feats of Strength with that system, which would open up these items to all characters on that player’s account.

Then I realised that even if I could equip it on any and all characters, it still doesn’t seem fair that it’s the only armour set with a restriction. I’d rather they had left the titles as a unique piece of the game’s history and let everyone dress up the way they want.

I’d actually forgotten that my very first character, a warlock reached Knight Captain until someone reminded me last night so I ran all the way to Area 52 to have a look.

If Blizzard do get around to allowing us to have more than 10 characters on a server, I’m going to rescue her along with my two other Priests and my vanilla Druid. She’s even still got bits of Forsaken and Troll in her bags from the “good old days” when you could collect body parts for hand-ins in Alterac Valley.

Divine Hymn could be slightly overbuffed as Holy. 40k crits in my PvP gear came as a surprise. Just seems like sticking a plaster cast on a bruise. I’m not denying Holy has issues but not convinced this is the answer. Being a tiny little Gnome and hiding in bushes and watching your battleground team’s health shoot up is pretty priceless though.

The general atmosphere and attitude in random battlegrounds also seems to have improved ten fold, either that I’ve just been exceedingly lucky since the patch. People can talk and not just to say “LOL NOOBS!111! U SUCK!!”, but are announcing before they lose nodes and just generally chatting. Even the few games I lost weren’t particularly painful and no one said “lose fast”. Hopefully this will continue.

Listening to everyone talking about the new raid instance has made me realise I do miss raiding. Unfortunately I’m not in a position to do anything about it right now but hopefully come MoP, I’ll be able to find a guild who really needs someone addicted to Priests.

I’m still working on transmogrification sets for my mains.

Excuse me, your squid is on fire!

Yes, my Rogue wants to be a Druid when she grows up.

Ideally I’ll get her a staff from somewhere so she can have either Benediction or the Staff of Rampant Growth. That’s the Virtuous belt which isn’t a perfect match either.

Hope everyone else’s post patch experiences have been as relaxing and as fun.

 

New Beginnings and Sad Goodbyes

The end of the world is upon us.

I’m torn between looking forward to a new beginning and mourning the end of a world I’d come to know and love so well. On the negative side, no more Holy Word: Aspire. I will miss you. You were one of the best things about the whole chakra system.

On the plus side though, finally my Hunter can tame this little fellow.

I’ve wanted one of these as a pet ever since I first started playing. My warlock used to use enslave demon on them as I quested through the Plaguelands but now one of the first things I’ll do when the servers come up, is go and grab one.

In the minus camp, the changes of the zones I’ve come to know so well. No more Southshore, no more desolate Desolace and a devastated Auberdine.

The other side of the coin of course is so many new places to explore and new quests to find. Perhaps the biggest draw of WoW originally was the sheer scope of the world and if the Shattering can recreate even a 10th of that sense of wonder, well then it’s been well worth every penny.

Goodbye Feathermoon Stronghold, can’t say I’ll miss that boat ride. Taking a scenic cruise around the islands is fine once or twice, but every single time….

Farewell Hillsbrad Fields, I hope Stanley is somewhere safe from undead poisons now.

Holy Priest PvP: Aspire to be the best

Holy Priesting is finally viable for PvP so get out there and grab some chastise fun whilst you can. Reports from the Beta are depressing to say the least about PvP healing at 85 so this might be our only window of opportunity. The fact that we’re losing Holy Word: Aspire is sad too, I wish there was some way of adding it to our arsenal even though Renew Chakra is going away.

First up, a handy macro which cancels your current Chakra state and lets you cast Power Word: Chastise instead of the corresponding heal.

#showtooltip Chakra 
/cast Chakra 
/cancelaura Chakra: Prayer of Healing 
/cancelaura Chakra: Renew 
/cancelaura Chakra: Heal

Hit once to enter a Chakra state, hit it again to leave.

Whether it’s by design, oversight on Blizzard’s part or some sort of bug, cancelling the Chakra makes Chastise available straight away. For example I’m in Chakra Renew state and I’ve just used Holy Word: Aspire and then I use the macro to cancel my Chakra, I can Chastise someone right away.

I imagine that once the cooldown of Chakra is dropped to 30 seconds on live as well, this macro or something similar would be useful in PvE too for easier “stance” switching.

Back to PvP

Do

Stack Resilience, including gems. Ever since Blizzard buffed it to counter damage numbers, it’s been crazy (even now they’ve nerfed the buff a bit). At the moment I’m sitting at around 1650 and unless you’re an arcane mage or someone who actually uses silences/interrupts and the like, dspers are merely annoying flies buzzing around you. Arcane mages on the other hand are the devil incarnate who should be avoided at all costs.

Body + Soul is amazing. Yes, my shields don’t absorb a huge amount but being able to outrun people or help your flag carrier escape means those two talent points are well worth it.

Keep moving. As a dpser it’s far easier to kill stationary targets as you can just fall into a pve rotation rather than the person hopping around like a jumping bean.

Remember you can dispel poisons from yourself if you are specced into Body & Soul. Chastising a rogue, dispelling their slowing poison and speeding off to your teammates leaves you feeling all warm and fluffy inside.

Lightwell is handy for two reasons, A. some people actually stop trying to kill you whilst they kill it. This means that they aren’t hitting you or your squishier team mates. B. If they don’t kill it, you can use it to heal whilst killing them. On top of that, you can use it whilst stunlocked, hexxed, feared or frozen. I’m definitely learning to love my lightwell in PvP. Whilst solo defending nodes in Arathi Basin, you can use Smite Chakra + Lightwell to great effect.

Guardian Spirit early and often. Whenever it’s off cooldown I find myself throwing on people.

Use your Chakras. So far my favourite has to be renew for PvP because I like being able to cast on the move but in mass zergs like bottlenecked AVs, PoH definitely has a place. Get 40 people together in a small space and watch the numbers from Sanctuary covering your screen in green awesomeness.

Stick with instant casts as much as possible. Prayer of mending, circle of healing, renew, holy word: aspire, shield are all essential tools. Always keep a renew on yourself, use them as a cushion just like you would shield’s as Disc.

With Serendipity maxxed out, two flash heals make the next greater heal have the same cast time as a flash heal. If you have a two stack, remember to use greater heal rather than flash.

Remember that Chastise and Mind Control work really well together. Ideally use fear to make them trinket, Chastise them and then use those three seconds to cast Mind Control. Chastise breaks and you can just run them off the nearest cliff. Great for defending the Lumber Mill solo or just keeping their defending Holy Paladin out of action whilst someone else tags the flag.

Glyph Inner Fire. Having 12k armour plus lots of resilience makes a huge difference against melee.