Priest and Pilot

Back in the land of low ping...what lessons carry over?

2011-05-29T23:12:00.000-07:00

I am so happy to report that I am back in the States with my wonderful wife, no longer stuck in Iraq or Kuwait. So, with our U-Verse internet, I do not have the same latency or bandwidth concerns whatsoever. (I have had some serious changes to my account, and I am now playing on Medivh server when able.) I make it a point to learn long-term, applicable lessons in every adversity. Here are some of the things that carry over nicely as I transition back into a stateside environment.

If you play on a limited schedule because of family, work, or business like I do...almost everything other than mechanics will apply. Why is that? Because I often must be able to simply drop whatever I'm doing in-game for something more pressing or important IRL.
Let's expand. As a healer, I understand that my role is to be there to facilitate a group as they work toward a goal. Traditionally, this means healing a heroic instance, a raid, or a PVP battleground or arena team. Since I've been forced to focus on PVE for so long, that is my passion. I do not always have time for a heroic, because I have set a boundary as a casual player. How so? I intentionally label WoW as my "HOBBY"...and much like other hobbies, I do not allow it to monopolize my time when I would rather be spending quality time with my wife, family, or friends. The in-game effects are: I have to be doing something that I can terminate immediately without letting people down. I don't want to be constantly leaving instances midstream or leaving guildies hanging. I had to once this week and I felt bad.
So, what do I do? I efficiently manage time on the AH with TSM. I used rested exp to finish leveling a new toon, Smoogehunt. Even as impressive, I maxed out jewelcrafting and inscription on that toon. (Those professions were my motivation for starting the character in the first place.) I efficiently complete daily quests on my DK and gather at the same time (currently in Deepholm for 1 more day to exalted, then probably Hyjal or Uldum).
I also gather quickly for very basic mats...right now, Uldum is a cash cow. With the max flying speed on a Tauren DK, I can pick up 4 or 5 stacks of Whiptail in 20 minutes, and that will also inevitably be enough Volatile Life for my daily transmute to Volatile Air.
I complete a daily jewelcrafting quest, and I have accumulated 5 profitable patterns already.

Bottom line? With a sporadic schedule, and only bursts of playable time at random times during the day, I purchased Staff of Dark Mending for the priest at 18,000 gold. Enchanting is maxed and I self-enchanted the new staff with Power Torrent (not cheap). I am now back up to around 12,000 gold, and that is after purchasing 6 heirloom items from the guild vendor (for the new leveling project Smoogebear).
I have not run as many heroic instances as I anticipated, but I correctly gemmed and reforged every single piece of gear for Disc, according to my research and guild suggestions. I have accumulated 3 new 345 item level pieces, and I plan to purchase a Sandstone Drake within a week or so. This is all with about 30 minutes played on average each day.

Three 85 characters, plenty of heirloom gear for my next toons, a priest that is gearing up nicely and a DK that can pull weight in heroics (thanks to the BOE maces from ZG that sell for 1200 gold now...Hercpilot has two of those and a good PVE DW frost spec).

I am really big on systems for success. In business, this is very important...true residual or passive income can only come from a successful system, not raw amounts of effort. And that applies so well to WoW as a gaming hobby! My system involves efficiency tools like TradeSkillMaster and Auctionator, a good UI that carries well for multiple classes, clear boundaries regarding playtime (so I don't have to feel guilty about playing), and the knowledge of how to get the biggest bang for every minute I'm logged on. I know there are higher levels of AH, raiding, or PVP success available...but I am very happy because I can still enjoy my favorite game without a 3 hour per day requirement.

As a caviat, I want to thank Krrang of Alchanon for welcoming me so warmly on a new server. If you haven't heard his podcast, you really should check out "Love to the Guild Leader" on iTunes. And congrats on level 25! I hear they just dinged about 12 hours ago. I plan to post some more on leveling tunes quickly and how that might apply to overseas/deployed/crappy-connection gameplay, so rest assured I am carrying on the specific strength of this blog.

A game within a game...and a lot of RL application.

2011-05-07T18:26:00.000-07:00

OK, this is a quick post, but there will be a lot of follow-on.

I just started playing the AH, using my 4 maxed professions, and a few new powerful addons and resources.
1. TSM (TradeSkillMaster)
2. Call2Auction podcast
3. The Consortium site

I'm heading into work now, but might be able to elaborate in a little bit.

One of the better decisions I've made recently was leveling an alt to 85. I'm happy with the decision to take herbing and mining, but just like real life, the real money does NOT come from trading hours for dollars (or gold). There's more to be made if you're willing to take advantage of the market, your individual skills, and tools and training...just like real life. Seeing a trend?
In this case, I'm talking about the potential profit of the AH combined with professions and addons like TSM (TradeSkillMaster) and Auctionator.

Up until today, this was me: Go gather as quickly as possible. Smelt the ore and sell the bars. Use the herbs to make flasks and sell them. Eripedes from Call2Auction makes a great point: at some point, it is completely more profitable to use the AH and your professions versus spending time gathering. For me, that point is undeniably now.

I've been doing hours of research, reading tutorials, and listening to podcasts to start understanding what to actually DO to make gold with the AH. Today I began using TSM, using Eripedes' basic setup tutorial.
Here's what I accomplished today:
I figured out how to automatically queue up alchemy recipes.
I figured out how to set up automatic posting of my flasks.
I figured out how to search for the required gems for my alchemy transmutes.

Here's what I really wish I had:
A jewelcrafter to prospect ore.
A good use for my 525 enchanter.
Proof that the TSM pricing I'm using is actually going to work on my server.
A TSM strategy that will earn at least 2000g each day.

Some good things I've found that are already helping me out:
Automatically posting auctions at a set price below competition allows me to post large quantities of multiple items very quickly, knowing that I am undercutting everyone without posting too low. Also, the answers to all of my questions are out there, and the Consortium guys have put together an awesome community that seems relatively friendly to brand new WoW entrepreneurs.

I am still unsure how TSM determines the cost of the mats, although I'm setting up posts at a threshold of 105% of crafting cost anyways, based on guidance from Eripedes. I have about 5k worth of auctions up right now, so I'll post the results when I finish up at the squadron. Go figure, no WoW on NIPR computers.

There are some great parallels here, though. What you can do using the AH as a platform for profit is conceptually similar to finding a way to take yourself out of the "ditch-digger" categories that the bots and farmers occupy. I've heard many times from my mentors that the main element in success is the way you think. An average man could be a doctor or a janitor, and the difference between the two is simply the way they think. An average player could be gold limited or have an abundance of options, and we all know that everybody starts the game at level 1. Some people have all day to play, and some people have only a few hours each week. The crazy thing is that some of those time-limited players are gold capped. And a whole lot of those people that log 40 or more hours a week are flat broke (probably IRL too). My goal is to set myself up for a profitable strategy that will work on a bare minimum time requirement, because I have a lot of RL priorities that will go above my virtual wallet...such as my wife, my family, business, and my job. I still want to excel at my hobby though, and this is THE best chance at a win-win as I finish my second deployment.

More WoW, deployment style...lessons learned

2011-05-03T04:28:00.000-07:00

More fun with limited networks, tunneling, and “alt productivity” while in the desert.

The network setup in our “free internet” areas has forced me to find an alternative to HighPingBuster and other PuTTy tunnels.I am having very good luck with Your-Freedom and OpenVPN.I even purchased a Basic plan and it is worth $6.
Hercpilot is now level 85, with completely maxed herbalism and mining, and a 310 speed mount.He pretty much paid for himself, and herb farming is showing some serious potential.
High latency herbalism/mining is a new kind of farming.You need to make some changes, and there are some helpful addons I’m using as well.
A cry for help: Does anybody know of a viable satellite internet solution for future deployments for either an individual or a very small group of troops?I am having a really hard time finding anything remotely inexpensive and portable.

Before I start, here is a new rule I have for my characters: Don’t logout in Org. If your connection sucks when you try to get back in, you might find yourself making a new alt. The world latency in Org is considerably higher than most other zones, probably because of the bandwidth requirements.

Over here in Iraq, two of the the three routers that are set up for internet use for the troops automatically block PuTTy tunneling. This is the exact connection that HPB uses, and most of the time I am unable to connect to WoW through 2/3 of the available networks. The remaining router is usually the slower of the three, too. Skype, web browsing on common sites like google and facebook, and iTunes all work pretty well on those networks, so I knew that it was just a matter of finding a way around the preset blocks. I am quite pleased with Your-Freedom!

Small caviat: if you’re trying to log into Paypal through a tunnel, it will automatically limit your account and you will be unable to use it. My wonderful wife helped me set up the Your-Freedom account over skype, using the screen sharing function. She did great, and Y-F works wonderfully.

Setting up OpenVPN is easy, and requires a simple manual setting of the DNS on the TAP-Win32 adapter that it automatically installs. Configuring Y-F to use OpenVPN is equally simple, and that setup will allow me to browse the internet, log on to WoW, skype, download music, and even TORRENT uninhibited!

My initial tests indicate that there is slightly higher latency, but only slightly in game. Also, I did some research and found that “world” and “home” latency are different. From now on, the only one I care about is “world” latency, which is the factor for most of the send-receive functions in the game. The “home” latency only affects functions like chat, which probably explains why I can have a full conversation with a buddy on b.net while my character can’t even autoattack due to lag.

My official alt, Hercpilot, is now 85 with two maxed gathering professions and the fastest flying mount you can get. He is a DK, and leveling was fun in and of itself. I got to appreciate much of the 80-85 storyline, which I initially rushed through during late-night hours when cataclysm first launched and I wanted to get Smoogee to 85. I took time to read some of the dialogue and, probably because of lag, I followed the storyline in each zone. A good in-game friend, Kyle Rudd, hooked my toon up with a FULL set of redsteel gear AND a 2-H wpn that lasted me well through 84. The toon is still wearing most of that gear. Due to mob difficulty and latency, I switched between blood and unholy specs for most of the leveling process. I also want to point out that gathering is a good way to augment experience gains while leveling, especially with a DK. I got a flying mount promptly at 60, and it was a very quick grind to increase my gathering professions to a compatible level with outlands, northrend, and cata. It really makes gathering more viable for everyone, because you can FLY in the low-level zones now!! No more jumping around a mountain for an hour trying to get to a tough-to-reach iron node!

Gathering on a low-bandwidth, high-latency connection: It is not as easy as my U-verse connection at home, but sometimes it’s all I can do when the connection isn’t good. Here are things I’ve learned about gathering in these poor conditions.

If mobs are loaded in the area directly under you, herbs and ore will be showing on your minimap if they are present. That simple fact is how I can gauge when to stop and hover or when to blast through an area. One good strategy is to scan ahead of your character...if the mobs, critters, and NPCs ahead of you are loaded already, then you are receiving a good “feed” on nodes and you just need to continue until one pops up on your screen. If you don’t see any red, green, or yellow nameplates, you’re probably missing nodes. With an 1800ms world latency and decent bandwidth, your game will load NPCs and nodes slightly slower than you can fly. This is key: if you have the bandwidth, farming is easier. If you have the latency but low bandwidth, you need to let the game “cache”. Often, I’ll find that when I stop for one node, others will “appear” while I’m hitting that one.

Addons will help you. I highly recommend that you get rid of Gatherer and start using GatherMate2. GM2 has a Data file that will show all the nodes, and I think that is the best gathering addon out there for cata. I LOVE SimpleMiniMap v4, because it allows me to scale my minimap to 200% and it is compatible with ElvUI. This is a big part of my gathering strategy: I can see nodes clearly when they appear, and I navigate almost entirely off my minimap so it is easy to follow a pre-determined route. The simple code to make it the way I set it up is this: /smm scale 2. /smm skins skin 2. That is 200% and square.

I have not experimented with view distance and gathering nodes, but I will tomorrow after my flight tonight...(sigh, and after server downtime)

Lessons for you farmers: people still bot, apparently. My experience so far is that the bots are relatively unconfrontational and will not approach you if you are already near a node. Also, I have had no problem finding whiptail nodes whatsoever on Smolderthorn, even with what seem to be two other active farmers in Uldum. It was respawning so quickly yesterday that I gathered 12 stacks in about an hour. That is a ton of herbs. Twilight Jasmine seems to be quite rare, though, and in the time I could farm a stack of that, I would already have 4 or 5 stacks of whiptail.

Itemization for priests in cata...crit?

2011-04-16T04:25:00.000-07:00

A guildie comment sparked some curiosity in my mind. I saw a 359 staff with stam, int, spirit, and crit...and thought that it looked good to me. He said that crit had no place in healer gear. I pointed out that the compendiums indicated otherwise, but he held that no healers chose crit over any other caster-related stats. I suppose he is correct, but it got me thinking about what would be best for a player in my circumstances.

In the holy tree, inspiration adds survivability to tanks. This is entirely crit based. In the disc tree, crits proc additional bubbles, which I estimate are almost always effective healing. But the bigger picture here is really whether or not crit is useful in the long run. I have to say that personally, crits are responsible for many of the good saves, and have prevented many wipes under my current circumstances.

Here is an example: with about 2000ms latency, if a tank gets below 50%, he is immediately a priority one heal target. This is because greater heal has a long cast time and penance doesn’t heal for quite enough. Shield is probably already on cooldown, because I use PW:S on 5-man tanks on cd anyways. PoM is a good choice, but it will only heal for so much and that takes up a global cooldown. An inner focus greater heal is simply my best option for saving a tank where a lot of damage is coming in. For instance, a 5 pack pull of heroic trash with no CC, or a boss that is putting some hurt on a tank. And, of course, the all too common “5 second bandwidth choke” that practically puts your game on pause. When that happens, you better be queuing your ultimate lifesaving spell, because when your internet catches up to real-time, your tank will simply not be where he was. And at that point, you’re crossing your fingers for a crit to buy you even more time as you catch back up.

The other option, as infeasible as it was with brand new gear at level 85, is a flash heal triple cocktail. If your latency is low but your bandwidth chokes periodically, this is an outstanding way to save a single player. It is a ton of mana, but it will top him off and put him back on the bottom of your healing priority. With crit, though, the game changes some for me. First of all, I love the feeling of critting a greater heal for 60k and watching the bar fill up completely.

Here’s the deal. DPS players love crit, because any extra damage caters to their final goal of higher damage throughput. They get the gratification, from level 1 to 85, of seeing large numbers that mean they just owned something or someone. This is one of the simplest game dynamics that makes it a blast to play a mage or a rogue, or a warrior, or a DK, or a shammy...well, pretty much any DPS class. Healers will whittle their way to a new level cap if they quest, or they’ll spec for DPS and enjoy it for a little while. Perhaps you’ll have a viable shadow set alongside your healing set, but I typically did not when I was raiding at the highest levels, because I spent DKP on healing items. As far as I’m concerned, healing is what I enjoy and why I play a priest. I am gratified by the knowledge that I singlehandedly support a group and allow them to succeed at some kind of team goal.

BUT...just because I’m healing doesn’t mean that I don’t also want to see those numbers flickering on my screen that say, “You just owned at what you do.” I intensely dislike sliding by in any fight or encounter. If I’m oom and everybody ends up with 80% or more health, I feel awesome. If I’m full blue and everybody is nearly dead, well that means my connection sucks. (If you are full blue and everybody is nearly dead, that means your connection sucks or YOU suck, btw.) Crit allows me to enjoy a role that is in high demand. And, as far as I’m concerned, if I’m doing my job and you aren’t dead, let me have my crit. If I’ve got the spirit to maintain my casting rotation and I want to pommel some tank with flash heals because it’s fun and it’s a normal instance...I’m enjoying the same kind of thing that a mage enjoys when he’s popping his cooldowns and nuking a boss. When you’re squeezing every bit of mana out of your gear that you can, I suppose there really is a smaller role for crit, but I’d like to see a breakdown of inspiration and the damage reduction, as well as the AOE healing average gains from crit. I am not convinced that it is irrelevant. There aren’t enough talents that support a hands-down crit build, but I have a hunch that it is still worth keeping an eye on, especially at the higher levels of gear. Crit will perform independently of the global cooldown, and it will apply to nearly every spell, and every individual heal of a prayer of healing/mending/circle of healing/10 minute AOE. Add both heals in binding heal to that list, on top of every other single target heal on my bar.

Anyways, impressive screenshots and videos will visually lean toward crit for any class, because it is simply bigger and bolder and more fun to see. I’m a healer, and I like having fun too, not just being the robot that sits in the background while everyone else gets credit.

Mouseover and healing....a new paradigm!

2011-04-13T17:56:00.000-07:00

On a rare occasion, I get a good enough connection to play a few heroics on Smoogee. Today, that happened to be in the laundry building, of all places!

Since I’ve been relearning the priest class in general, I decided I would also start paying attention to the methods good healers are using now. In the original WoW, I never even experimented with mouseover macros…I’m honestly not sure that function was built into the game. But now, I have to say…

MOUSEOVER IS FASTER.

Does it make much of a difference on an extremely laggy connection…no…because in that situation you have all day to select a spell and a target anyways. However, a slow connection IS a wonderful way to practice new procedures.

A good parallel is this: if you come back to an airframe after having flown something different or sat at a desk for a long time, the AF will typically send you through training. This is an opportunity to re-familiarize yourself with the aircraft or learn a new one altogether. The best pilots keep their good habits, but intentionally learn new systems and develop new “flows” to be proficient at their new job. For instance, I have 3 qualifications currently: E model, H1 model, and H3 model C-130s. To some extent for each of those, I had to learn or relearn procedures such as checklists, emergency procedures, boldface, and even instrument crosscheck. Healing is a lot like that, with every new class or major expansion patch change. Our dynamics changed so much, so why not our approach to healing in general?

Here are some examples of mouseover macros that are working in 4.0.6

/stopcasting
/cast [target=mouseover,help,nodead] Pain Suppression

/stopcasting
/cast Chakra
/cast [target=mouseover,help,nodead] Prayer of Mending]

/cast Chakra
/cast Inner Focus
/cast [target=mouseover,exists] Greater Heal

/cast [target=mouseover,exists] Circle of Healing

Etc…

The point is, I have Vudho set up with my party bars to the right of my character, and whichever I mouseover is the one that my healing spell will cast on. You might not think this makes much of a difference, but my hunch is that it increases my spell throughput by about 20%! That is a HUGE difference over what I did for over 5 years.

The days of selecting a target and then casting are OVER.

The only drawback is when you are in a situation that requires a lot of movement and you are the kind of person that relies on right mouse for dynamic movement. I have no answer to that, except to say that EVERY single fight has the built-in requirement that at some point you have time to stop and heal. In every single normal and heroic instance I’ve healed, the benefits of mouseover are greater than those of my previous method.

I have held on to good habits of selecting appropriate heals, using my cooldowns often (even on trash), prioritizing healing needs, and positioning tactically. I just added a new technique, which is actually almost instantly procedure once you start. I no longer pay much attention to a target or player frame, because those are included in the 5 party bars. This, of course, would change in a raid healing situation, but the potential for target locking is so great here and I can’t wait to try it out.

Btw, you can also mouseover an actual player and get the same result, which would have made me a healing GOD during the old C’Thun fights where you are dynamic in your positioning around a very large room.

Congrats Sad Panda...and cataclysm discussion continues.

2011-04-09T10:55:00.000-07:00

As I have not kept up this blog until today, I have a lot of input. But before I get back into game mechanics, I want to give a huge shout out to my guild of many years, Sad Panda. I was online the other day when they accomplished First Level 25 Guild on Smolderthorn.

I’m honored they let me stay in as a legacy member, despite my raiding and instance inabilities. These guys have stayed competitive for years in WoW. Originally a guild called Entropy, which cleared up to BWL, we merged with another guild and became Epic. Some of the old faces are still around, such as Daedal, Bugs, and maybe even Fuse. After Epic, many left and formed a rival guild called Gloryhogs before BC released. Epic shifted to what was then an alt guild called “Sad Panda,” and Fuse led that guild for years. I know others have had some great input there, including my friends Jason and Josh, as well as Kkyle and Jessica, and now a new cadre of apparently very capable guild and raid leaders and raiders. The core competencies are still evident to me, and there are a lot of high level, hilarious, experienced players in SP…congrats on a great achievement!

On to the discussion on latency and its adverse effect on both disc and holy priest specs.

For holy, your rotation now involves heal, greater heal, binding heal, prayer of mending, circle of healing, chakra states, and prayer of healing for the most part. I rarely found myself using my old staple, flash heal. High latency hurts casters big time…especially healers, and especially priests. Refer to my previous notes on queuing spells, because you’re going to need to do that on a bad connection. First, you will notice very quickly in cata that mana is an issue when you have crappy gear. Also, latency means your throughput is even less. So, I recommend using your big spells and staying away from heal simply because it loses its value if you can’t cast it quickly. Your tank will be dead if you are on a 2000ms connection spamming heal, most likely. One good dynamic, though, is that you will find yourself in the 5 second rule for mana regen more often, by nature of not being able to cast as much. I found that I was less likely to run out of mana than wipe the party, so I had to lean towards larger, more expensive heals and just pay the price of drinking after nearly every pull if necessary. Also, I leaned very heavily on the AoE version of chakra, because of its “fire and forget” nature, along with the unconventional renews. I also glyphed for prayer of healing and used prayer of mending on cooldown EVERY time, because those spells would continue to be productive when my connection choked for a few seconds at a time, which happened frequently. Ultimately, it looked to my party like this: PoH procs HoT from glyph, renews on people that have taken any dmg, PoM on tank, chakra AoE around tank, and “why is that priest just standing there waiting now” followed by a binding heal or flash heal.

For disc, PW:S is a required pre-cast, as well as PoM on cooldown. I use PI and Inner Focus on cooldown…IF is even macrod in every gheal cast. If it’s available, I’m using it. I use PW:Barrier and Pain Suppression on cooldown too. Then I’ll Q up a penance first, gheal second. I have an A/A spec, so if the connection is decent or the damage distribution is steady and not too much, I LOVE smiting for automatic healing distribution around the party. However, keep in mind that you won’t be able to do that on trash if you have high latency and the mobs are dying relatively quickly. Your throughput will go to zero. I typically use it for big mobs and bosses where damage is manageable.

One important lesson learned this deployment: do not sit in an instance and wipe a party because of bad lag. You’ll end up just getting vote kicked anyways, and you will have wasted time queuing. Know what your playability limit is…mine is about 2500ms. Anything higher than that, or if I’m experiencing frequent bandwidth lag (game seems to pause and then catch up real fast a few seconds later), I will heal through a pull then leave the party when they are safe. That’s right, I don’t even try to finish. It’s more productive to do some of the options I’m about to discuss. Unfortunately, that means I’m not able to do a lot of instances right now.

So what DO I do?

I find other ways to support and develop my character or cater to my end goals in the game. I always play every game with a goal in mind. For instance, in Black Ops, my goal was to hit level 50 so that I could unlock all the weapons. In WoW, there are so many different things you can shoot for. For me, it is to create the ultimate healer that is asked for when any tough healing situation arises. To be competitive at the highest levels of PvE as a priest healer. What caters to my goal? Anything that adds value to my main. Gold, mats, crafted items, professions, instance experience, UI improvements, and networking.

So, here are options I have been exploring and enjoying in cataclysm when I’m not able to heal instances as I would prefer.

I started a DK at lvl 55 and leveled the toon with herbalism and mining. (I have played my priest almost exclusively since WoW released...I originally shunned the idea of serious alts, but I was missing out) Taurens get fast herbalism gathering, and pale rider in the frost tree means I can fly faster on my 150% speed flying mount.
Gathering is considerably easier and faster now that you can fly, and those mats are lucrative. The lower level mats have earned me about 2000g so far, which is really a small amount in cataclysm. However, Kyle Rudd has informed me that flask sales on the AH are guaranteed to bring in thousands with good frequency.
I plan to have my alt gathering herbs and Smoogee already has almost maxed out alchemy. I estimate I'll be bringing in about 10k per week once I have that system running.
The leveling process is fun and new, and along the way I am auctioning nearly everything I can. I anticipate that my DK will have earned about 20k+ gold by the time it is 85. And THAT could be an ilvl 359 BoE healing Staff of Dark Mending, or Vial of the Sands, or something I really want. Also, I plan to purchase some heirloom items for my DK if the timing works out with justice points…may or may not happen. Gold opens up a ton of options for anybody’s main.
I am leveling my alchemy and enchanting, and neither of those will be cheap. I’m already at a high level, and I have my rings enchanted and the alchemy trinket. Oh, by the way, pots help a ton for priests.
Networking is the last thing I’ve started getting back into. Rebuilding my friend list with current players who I can go to for parties, help, professions, or even information. Remember when WoW first started? I still have connections from the version 1.0 days, and it makes a lot of sense to intentionally redevelop that habit pattern. That way, when I can play at higher performance levels, I’ll have relevant connections on my server. (The new “add a note” feature is awesome, as well as the RealID system)

Cataclysm...2500ms style

2011-04-09T06:43:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here on my new 2011 macbook pro using bootcamp for Windows, in a place called the USO (an organization that does things for our troops). They have free (slow) wifi, WoW works to some degree, and I have made some progress while I've been out here.
Kyle Rudd, a friend who has played with me since beta, encouraged me to continue the blog, and the timing is perfect for that. Today I'll cover:

Options for high latency OR low bandwidth connections in general
"GCDA" or Global Cooldown Availability
Applications for tunneling that will work with WoW on either Mac or Windows
The effects of bandwidth/latency problems on disc and holy specs
Gameplay suggestions for instance play as a priest in poor network situations
WoW suggestions in general for consistently crappy internet situations
Cataclysm options for someone in my situation
Mouseover, the new standard for healing in WoW

I'll start by saying that I did buy that directional antenna, and it is fully functional. That means that I have a consistent internet connection in my room here in Iraq. It does NOT provide any noticeable performance increase over my old omni-directional antenna, only a more stable connection to the routers. While the latency fluctuates between 700ms and 10,000ms in game, the bandwidth is so restricted that instance play of any type is impossible under ANY circumstances. My connection provides 20Kbps during the best performance hours, and less during peak usage hours. So, like last year, in order to get some JP and start the gearing process, I still have to find external sources. However, I'll talk about what I have been able to do with that connection.

Options for extremely high latency or very low bandwidth connections in WoW.
Under the worst conditions, understand that your gameplay changes dramatically. You need to familiarize yourself with the concept of queuing your spells and building specs that improve general survivability. Here's my first example: I rolled a DK alt (more on that in a moment), and using a frost spec, I will Q up an obliterate and half the time Killing Machine will proc in the 2-3 seconds it takes for my command to reach the servers, process, and get back to me. Using this strategy of ability selection, I can actually anticipate events and speed up the grinding process. As a priest, this is even more difficult, and I HIGHLY recommend speccing for HoTs and DoTs. Hunters and warlocks, by my estimation, are probably the very best classes for high latency connections, because you can "fire and forget" and much of the work will continue to be done while your computer waits for the server to fill you in on what's happening.

Global cooldown and you...most of our overseas users already know this...
The global cooldown is a limiting factor for all competitive players on good connections...in PVP especially, but also in raid healing situations as both disc and holy (especially disc). It is the rate at which you can cast spells one after another. On a poor connection, though, your GCD changes completely, no longer limited by your character, haste, and that little circle thing on your boxes that goes clockwise to tell you that you can cast again. On a poor connection, you are guaranteed that you will never run up against the GCD again, rather you are just waiting for your GCD to even become available! Instead, you have to wait for the server to see that you casted and to be able to process your next request.
Example: you cast PW:Shield on someone and choose Prayer of Mending as your next spell. When you activate PW:S, that icon will highlight until the server sees that you casted it, and by the time it goes grey (indicating a successful cast), it's guaranteed to already be past the GCD timer (approx 1 second).
What you MUST do on a poor connection is queue up your next spell, but sometimes not immediately. You can't spam every spell on your bars and expect the server to cast them in order...otherwise we'd do this with good connections. However, you can spoof the connection by simulating a GCD before selecting your next spell. Aside from abilities that do not trigger the GCD (trinks, Power Infusion, Archangel, chakra), you can only select one spell in sequence. I HIGHLY recommend using your non-GCD abilities EVERY time they're available and activating them during that anticipated cast, before your queued ability. In this example, I'd cast PW:S, then immediately select archangel or PI, then select greater heal. Shield would cast, there would be a standard delay, depending on your connection, then the server would activate your PI and cast gheal once it caught up. (For my DK, I often Q up non-GCD abilities during that in-between "lag void.")

Tunneling WoW...a month of research and effort to save YOU some time.
USE LEATRIX LATENCY FIX...first step on any network, windows OR mac.
Learn how to ipconfig /release /renew /flushdns if you are on a wifi network that drops you frequently or seems to slow over time...this actually helps me on the connection in my room (Babtel....boooooo....hisssssss).
It is entirely possible to tunnel to log on, but not easy to describe. I began experimenting with the Tor network, as well as Your-Freedom, PuTTy with SSH to a shell server, and eventually settled on HighPingBuster.

Tor: is SLOW, due to the p2p nature. It is not ideal for any games, although it can be used to get things like Steam online, or for downloading patches. Tunneling WoW through Freecap is one option, and if you can get the Tor network online, you should be able to get the downloader working through Freecap. Word to the wise: Widecap is best for this, because you can set profiles and capture the "extra" exe's that are running, such as Blizzard downloader. In my opinion, the Tor network will really frustrate you. However, using Tor with Firefox is an outstanding way to access sites such as HBP or Your-Freedom in a lockdown situation such as mine. Those sites are normally blocked, but Tor allowed me to get the files downloaded to use later.
Your-Freedom: this is a better platform for tunneling, and it's free. If you have a poor connection, chances are you'll never exceed the bandwidth or streams allotted. Similarly, programs like Pcap are not bad utilities to actually tunnel your specific programs (just throwing out different ideas, I've tried them all and each requires tutorials). I used google to research the configuration for both WoW and Steam.
I tinkered with PuTTy and buying my own Linux shell. The company I chose never configured the shell server, but I think this is a VERY strong option...read on.
HighPingBuster is a pre-configured tunnel program specifically designed for WoW and other online games like Rift. It actually uses an embedded PuTTy program and they have a pre-loaded list of shell servers around the world to choose from. I love how they let you ping the servers through their app. It is extremely simple to set up, and it's only like $6 a month. This is a great option for connecting to WoW on a network that blocks WoW! It does not, however, help much with our crappy satellite connection. I thought I noticed a slight reduction in ping, but I honestly think it's about the same as without...but it always allows me to log in. NOTE: if you have connection issues with HPB and it was just working earlier, quickly uninstall and reinstall...that has helped me three times so far.

I'll cover the rest of the topics in my next post, because I actually want to log in and play right now, and a seat just freed up where nobody can see my screen (not supposed to online game on this network and military guys talk so much crap when they see people playing games). More to come, hope this helps...email me with any specific questions if you're in a situation like mine.

Back...in Irack

2011-01-16T05:40:00.001-08:00

Well, I'm back in the sandbox again. Got settled, started our flying routine, and met my old foe...poor wifi internet in my room.
It's fast enough to see my wife's face once every 15 seconds on skype. While I've already killed about 12 hours looking into better VOIP video solutions than skype, I am also beginning an epic search for better wifi antennas. I currently have an ALFA AWUS036H adapter connected to a 20 foot cable that goes to the included antenna. I have mounted the antenna through 2 metal tubes that I scavenged off an old broken folding chair, and attached it to the roof of my pod, going vertically.

My problem: I receive the signal from 3 different wifi routers that all belong to the crappy on-base ISP called Babtel, also commonly known as Balad WiFi. Once I'm connected, my transfer rate is typically limited to about 3-5 kbps, and that's barely fast enough to check your email.
It's NOT fast enough to skype, connect to the Playstation Network, or get on World of Warcraft...YET.
I'm on a mission, to find or create a directional antenna that will completely solve my problem by increasing my reception and transfer rate from my room.

The first question is: does it matter how you position the standard omni-directional antenna?
The second question is: is there a better antenna solution? (aka directional)
The third question is: is there a better USB wifi adapter for either Mac OSX or Windows 7?

I will update as I learn more. Here's what I've read or seen so far:

A peer had a different wifi adapter with an identical antenna setup and claimed to be able to play WoW even during peak times from his room in Iraq earlier this year. He declined to sell me his adapter, btw.

A peer who is here currently with an even larger omni antenna is having the same poor performance that I'm having.

I know for a fact that your distance from the router matters: last year one room got the same performance I get now, while one room never could connect even at all.

There are many directional antenna options out there. I'm already considering the Blueway High Gain Wireless Adapter with 8dbi Directional Dish Antenna. There is not a great availability of directional antennas out there that have any credibility.

On a separate note, I played a 5 man successfully with my priest in the USO, where gaming is apparently prohibited. My RL buddies had to carry me, as I experienced 1500-3000 ms latency. Not thrilled about that either. My situation will improve, inevitably, because I'm working at it.

UPDATES as promised: If you have an ALFA like me, you have the best wifi USB adapter available for Windows or Mac. Good luck getting it to work on OSX10.6.7 though...I've had no luck on either of my macbook pros. Good thing I have windows.

Also, I highly recommend the yagi directional antenna from Rokland.com - I am very pleased with mine, although it can only do so much with the inadequate connections here. It is a noted improvement over my other cheap omni. I recommend a program called WirelessMon to select your routers in an environment like our pods. I'm still searching for a solution that will support instance play here at Balad, but I am pleased with the ability to AH and level in my room. During an alpha alert I was able to play nearly all hours of the day, even during peak times, on the Babtel connection. The bandwidth is still as low, although consistently around 10Kbps, up to 25Kbps.

The Slight Edge and gearing a priest

2010-04-27T13:11:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard of a book called The Slight Edge? No? That's ok, most people would probably never pick it up...and even if you did, I doubt you would see it's direct connection to WoW. But, if you happen to be a reader, this book could certainly make you dangerous in a game like WoW.

The essence of that book is this: small, consistent actions, multiplied by time, yield success. This principle is exactly why my priest, seemingly "overnight" began accumulating gear that seemed unobtainable only 2 weeks ago. I persistently and consistently ran heroics, amassing hundreds of Emblems of Triumph and a meager supply of Emblems of Frost. I began making incremental upgrades, and I capped out at an average item level of 232. But, because I did not quit and continued to accumulate Stone Keeper's Shards, honor, and emblems, I also gathered a modest PVP set (even though I couldn't use it at the time). However, in two days, in a matter of hours, I began accumulating frost emblems at a seemingly unbelievable rate, killed 6 bosses I had never killed, completing 3 weekly quests, and purchased my Crimson Acolyte Raiments! (I also almost got a great healing staff, but a shadow priest rolled over me...QQ)
I also want to point out that I was really "floating the raid!"

And, on top of that, all that consistent effort, which is basically what passively enabled me to join a group that successfully ran as far as we did, also led to some new achievements. So, if you're moving slowly toward your gear and progression goals, keep in mind that your small, incremental movement ultimately culminates in seemingly large "leaps" eventually.

Fun with healing UI

2010-04-24T09:08:00.001-07:00

OK! So I have a lot of things that have been going on behind the scenes.
1. I am lvl 449 enchanting!
2. I have re-macro'd EVERYTHING in my arsenal!
3. I have created a new UI that I am play-testing when I get time.

Here is a screenie of my new UI:

OK, it's not perfect, but I am very pleased with it so far!
What am I using?
1. Viewport provides the black background.
2. Dominoes provides the action bars, which include macros for literally every spell a priest can use. Shift 1-5 on top. 1-5 on middle. F1-F5 on bottom. Then all the other keys I can easily reach with my left hand.

3. Forte provides the cooldown monitor at the top of my screen. I have found over the past 2 weeks that this mod has helped me double my usage rate of 2-3 minute cooldowns across the board.

4. Grid: Awesome raid frames, and I have included the GridStatus addon to it as well.
5. Quartz: A good castbar with a lot of options...I use it very basically.
6. Pitbull: Unit frames, which I have configured to show me the info I can process quickly. This is one area where I will make improvements over time.7. Skada: Damage/healing/ABSORB meter, which I love because I can more accurately see my disc do-gooding.
8. Minimapster and MinimapButtonFrame.

9. WIM (WoW Instant Messenger): I use this for tells, because I seem to miss them otherwise.
10. Auctioneer.
11. Bagnon for a single bag.
12. Prat: A better way to chat frame.
13. Gearscore: I don't use this as a crutch, but it is still useful.
14. DBM: for raid encounters and timers.

If I knew then what I know now...WoW in Iraq would have been better.

2010-04-20T07:01:00.000-07:00

So, I learned some great lessons from Iraq!
Some are SO important for high-latency players that I just have to list them:
1. If I’d known it was that easy: I would have been doing the weekly raid quests every week! I accomplished both Ulduar and Naxx and even with my latency in Iraq I would have had absolutely no problem succeeding in those instances! I’d definitely have enough Emblems of Frost for the chestpiece and I’d be halfway to the helm or shoulders by now!
2. CT_Mailmod is a MUST.
3. AltClickToAddItem is HUGE...because of latency, this addon makes literally any player-to-player or player-to-AH/Mailbox interaction SO much smoother. Do yourself a favor and stop clicking dragging and dropping.
4.Auctioneer scanning is ftw! Everybody with bad connectivity knows there are simply going to be downtimes when you can't party up, you can't hang out in Dal, and you definitely can't raid. There are times when you probably have too high latency to even farm your gathering profession (if you still haven't woken up to where the real $ is). How about letting the AH scanner collect useful data that can make you a ton of gold? It's easy and automated, and it's something you can do even if your ping gets up to 4000, which happened often to me over there.

5. Leatrix Latency Fix (also, google for a similar command line function for macs - I used both and both worked!) This made WoW much more playable! You can also use an http tunnel...I used Socks2Http to be able to play in the USO, where they "locked out" the WoW ports. (I used to use that trick when I was at the Air Force Academy too.) So, if you're over there, grab some latency fixes and you'll find that your latency will drop from 1900ms to about 900ms, which is a noticeable difference.
DISCLAIMER: simply improving your latency won't help with bandwidth...I have no idea what to do about that, sorry.

6. Blogs are a great way to enjoy the game even during downtime, which can be much more often over there than just Tuesdays.

Back...from Iraq!

2010-04-13T04:02:00.000-07:00

Alright! I am SO happy to report that I have exited Iraq, and I am enroute back to the states! As I write this I have 180ms in WoW for the first time in 4 months! I have to say, I am very proud of myself...I actually did not have a frame of reference for how much more difficult playing with high latency was...healing is FUN when things happen right away! I ran Naxx 10 and Ulduar 10 tonight, as well as completing 10 or so heroics and leveling enchanting up to 445! What an amazing difference it can make.
I am thankful to have had the perspective on lag, latency, and low bandwidth, and I'll continue to post in my normal fashion on healing-related observations.
So glad to be almost home! The sodas don't have Arabic writing on them...it's going to be a great day!
I even spent about an hour sketching out ideas for improvements to my UI, so I'll be reconstructing it and I'd like to start a great conversation with other healers about what they feel is important in a raid healing UI in WotLK.

Btw, you know what's a great feeling? Knowing that when I click Publish Post, it won't take 15 minutes to do it. I'm back baby!

“Changes Posted” means the same thing in WoW and the AF.

2010-04-08T20:37:00.000-07:00

In the pilot world, if you hear your stan-eval guy (standardizations and evaluations office) tell you “Changes are posted” it means that the powers-at-be have updated something and officially changed the text in one of our volumes, and that we need to go review it and make sure our personal copies are updated as well. And, we need to incorporate those changes into our daily flying if they apply to us. Well, you can find the new priest changes posted (pre-Alpha OMG Cataclysm iz coming /rant time!) on many of the best priest blogs. I’m not a subject matter expert as much as I am a comparative analyst.

I just want to point out a fantastic parallel between WoW changes and expansions and my job as an AF pilot.

On almost a yearly basis the Air Force updates our “pubs,” the governing publications that have information on our aircraft, tactics, rules and regulations about flying. There are more volumes of official publications than you can possibly fathom, but each time something new comes out you can hear all the nerds talking about every inconsequential change. “Oh man, did you hear how they changed the procedure for an ITO on the H-model?” or “Dude, they are updating the Pen-Descent charts to be more in-line with our actual descent profile!” or “They changed the checklist response and now the engineer answers first when we call Oxygen!! OMGWTFBBQ”

Bottom line: WHO CARES. I’ve come to learn that changes to any institution always appear more abrupt and revolutionary than they ever are, because in WoW just as in the Air Force, there is always a natural process of balance and remodification.

We have a saying: “Resubmit in 30 days for further disapproval.”

I’m not being a pessimist, btw…that would be someone who assumes that the changes will not be good. I’m just pointing out a fantastic parallel…the attitude that most have about change is the same. “People innately fear that which they do not understand” and “people have an inappropriate sense of what is good and bad.”

My own opinion on the changes so far is: I love gaining passive benefits to the healing I already do. Most priests would agree in principle…we all stack spell power first, and even crit, haste, and mana regen are all innately PASSIVE bonuses to the job we’d do either way. So, I like the concepts of Chakra. Now, as far as adding a whole lot of new heals and spells…there is a principle that serves me really well from the military: KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid). Might sound dumb, but that simple principle is a valid foundation for most of our elite combat specialists and most of the truly great players in WoW. Like the rest of the blogs, as we find out more I’ll comment more!

High latency gameplay...a different profession.

2010-04-06T05:18:00.000-07:00

I get a kick out of funny situations that occur naturally. And, obviously, this picture implies that I was inquiring about a new profession. Why? Because, as the title implies, WoW is different when you are connection-limited in any way. Professions actually create a different "plane" of the game, one which is much more of a level playing field. For instance, if you are a 450 alchemist, you can ply your trade at 1500ms just as easily as the guy that plays with 25ms!

So, why enchanting? For 5 years I'd been exclusively alchemy and herbalism.
But while I started gearing up here in Iraq, I made a big mistake. I maxed out herbalism and skinning, thinking that it would be easier to make gold with gathering professions, because they are easier to level. The cold hard truth is simply that you have to do something gameplay-related to gather something. In an instance if you are high latency, you DO NOT HAVE TIME TO SKIN THE DRAGONS...your party will die or the other skinner will beat you to the punch every single time. In the world, with high latency and low bandwidth, you will miss a lot of herb spawns because they won't load before you fly out of range! And then, it takes you a considerable amount of time to demount and remount. And what if you have to kill a mob and you aren't in your shadow spec? Trust me, I would have been better off farming low level instances for greens to DE and sell rather than riding around indefinitely looking for herbs.

Also, look at the benefits from enchanting vs herbalism for a priest. Lifeblood? I know I'm not running ICC right now, but I'd rather have the ring enchants, which are a passive bonus to performance, than another ability that I could use to save my butt if I got in serious trouble but had a lot of time to get healed back up...wait...I could just shield myself and hit desperate prayer.
Plus, I've always been jealous of those healers that had that extra spell power on their gear when I didn't even have that option myself. And, be honest, isn't it SO much better to be in a 5-man group when someone can DE all the crap that nobody is going to use.

From an economic/latency standpoint, disenchanting plus auctioneer equals excellent income potential in game. I actually played for years with Zuggy of zuggaming, who has put together some excellent gold guides for WoW. Zug's best advice has always been to learn how to use the auction house to generate gold. Trust me, if you are playing on a limited connection, the AH can be your best friend and some of the most productive time you can spend in game! You can buy sell, scan, DE, re-sell, and really accumulate a ton of gold through the AH, regardless of your lag. If you only have herbalism, your main venue of making gold is spending tons of time, hoping you find a good number of herbs, then selling them on the AH for a very marginal profit. I know this because I've DONE this. It's simpler to mindlessly fly around looking for the yellow dots, but not easier or faster. And you can be an all-star at the AH with a really crappy connection. This comes down to playing to your strengths, once again!

A good parallel in my line of work? Oh, this is good. Most people would think that the most valuable skill to have as a pilot are spatial orientation, hands-on, active flying skills. Or, maybe, knowledge about your aircraft, the tactics, and the specific execution of today's mission. After this deployment, I am CONVINCED that the most valuable skills you can have are not the "active" skills I just mentioned, but rather people skills, leadership skills, teamwork, and a broader perspective. Why? Well, the obvious skills can get you from point A to point B, just like farming herbs can get you a predictable, linear ROI. But those less objective skills come with a "passive bonus." At the end of flying with the same 6 people for 120 days, you have improved each of those people, got along with them, fostered an environment for a team, and created a productive atmosphere for a long-term deployment. The Return on Investment in that case is considerably less predictable but greater, both immediately and residually.

Healing, practically

2010-04-04T08:51:00.001-07:00

Healing, practically (brand new tanks): Ok, I have developed a new pet peeve in this game in relation to healing. When a “tank” decides to queue up for heroics after they have literally just hit 80 and have not a single piece of item level 200 gear. What does this mean to the healer? This individual is trying to skip normal instances and lean on completely random players to provide dps and heals. And, on top of it all, there is no way the player can be def maxed whatsoever, he has less HP than my priest Smoogee, and he absorbs more damage while having LESS health. It is simply irresponsible to queue for heroics unless you have a pocket healer, when you do not have the gear to sustain a party as a tank. So, today, without so much as a twinge of hesitation, I made a “command decision” and when I saw 2200gs under my tank after he nearly got one-shot by the first trash mob…I asked him if he just hit 80. He said yes. I right-clicked my player frame and hit “Leave Party” and happily incurred a 30 minute suspension from my daily grind of heroics. Worth it? Even though I don’t get to play much between flights here in the desert and Iraqi network downtime each day, you better believe it. When you play on a limited connection, you have to know your limits. It’s kind of like knowing your “operating limits” for an aircraft. For example, I know what temperatures and torques our 4 engines are limited to, so that we can shut one down before it becomes a catastrophic emergency if necessary. In a 5-man instance, I have some similar “operating limits” and I know when to pull that metaphorical “fire handle” to prevent my temper from overheating.

Also, I downloaded the addon Prat, so I will take screenshots of such conversations and situations to spice up the blog from now on. For now, you get more ppt editing.

From sustaining operations to sustaining a tank

2010-04-02T05:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, sports fans! First of all, thanks to Miss Medicina, I have discovered how to do a feedburner RSS feed. And, again, thanks to M for the shout-out. She is the first healing blog that I stumbled upon, and if you have any priest questions, I highly recommend you start with her site.
Also, Daffnae from wowsanggrail pointed out that I needed the Name/URL option in comments, so it has been added. I have updated the blog! Yeah! Now it has a "chicklet" and a picture, which I cleverly edited in powerpoint (lol), as well as an updated profile.

Now, to the point: There are astonishing principles that carry over between distinct areas of your life.
For example, yesterday I had quite the run-in with my "aircraft commander" (the more experienced pilot on a C-130). Well, has anybody ever had to contend with immature, abrasive, or criticizing leaders in a guild or raid environment? I imagine that most of us have. Well, in my profession, we don't get to pick our leaders. Much like you might stick with a guild for the raiding, despite terrible personalities, I get to stick with my particular aircraft commander (like it or not). Now, I'm still fuming IRL from the confrontation, because I hate confrontation...BUT I was amused because I have some similar memories from WoW. Military or MMORPG, everybody has an ego that can be trampled. Leadership is a valuable trait that you should appreciate when you find it in your "chain of command."

Some other time I'll make a full post on the organizational parallels between the military and a guild.

Today I want to draw a parallel between my job and my class! My IRL role as a copilot on a C-130 Hercules is to help get our bad-to-the-bone 1960's era trash-hauling machine from base to base. Our operations directly support, supply, replenish, or relocate troops anywhere and anytime (literally...I was flying last night on NVGs in the middle of the night and last week I was flying in the middle of the day). SO...what does that sound like on a macro level? To me, that sounds like we are major support players in this "game" we're playing here in Iraq. Now, what do I do in WoW? I replenish, support, and enable players and groups in whatever goal they are trying to accomplish! I think the reason that I've enjoyed playing a singular class for 5 years (or more) is that I truly derive pleasure from supporting, enabling, protecting, and working "behind the scenes." I could have been a fighter pilot (I could have played a mage) or I could have opted for special ops aviation (I could have been a rogue). I could have gone helos (those guys are nuts, so I think that's a lot like a warlock) or I could have flown UAVs (/spit) (that's like a hunter pet LOL).

This whole gaming vs personality vs career concept was introduced to me through a book called Now, Discover Your Strengths, which I think most WoW players would thoroughly enjoy.

Also, I want to say that sustaining operations in Iraq takes constant, planned, air-land schedules. Our daily schedules are incredibly paralleled to the way that a healer might queue up heals, shields, dispels, and HoTs. There are proportionally a lot more "dps" players in the military...AKA the Army, Navy, and Marines. Not a lot of "healers" though! And you can't kill the Lich King without healers can you? No, and you can't succeed in a major military operation without the same kind of support. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoy the role that we fill here...and I LOVE healing people in game.

Irony

2010-04-01T02:56:00.000-07:00

I find it completely ironic that I can be healing a heroic Halls of Lightning and literally 1 hour later I'm flying the friendly skies of Iraq.

Today, healing is more fun, trust me.

Slow connection woes

2010-03-29T14:24:00.000-07:00

OK, I don’t know how many people have been deployed or maybe moved to the country and had to contend with dial-up quality (or slower) connections. Here in Iraq we’ve got satellite internet provided by a civilian contractor called “Babtel.”

For a guy who likes to multi-task, research, talk, link, post, and play—all online and generally all at once—this is a bummer of a connection. Our connection runs about 850 to 1500ms latency during the day when it’s playable. During prime hours, from about 7pm to midnight (zulu +3 hours), it’s unplayable. Our bandwidth during the day is about 18 to 38 kilobytes download, and considerably less upload.

For normal internet operations, this means that it takes well over a minute to load a single profile page on armory or arena junkies, and considerably longer for forum posts or blogs that have pictures or screenshots. Watching videos is completely out of the question, regardless of the time of day. Podcasts? Not a chance. Streaming of any sort? Keep dreaming. Torrents? Oh, now you’re just teasing me. (To download a few megs in WoW patches over here takes hours or all day)

And in-game, apply that same connection…healing becomes a guessing game because you have a lot of stuff happening while your computer gets the data from the server and sends your inputs. Disc healing is better than holy, because you can pre-shield and mitigate damage. (This was a HUGE realization for me, and it allowed me to successfully heal decent groups through Halls of Reflection.) The toughest part of playing here is that what you normally experience as a “global cooldown” is extended based

As for PVP, I haven’t even bothered. Never mind the process of accumulating gear…I have most of the pieces now to at least be better than the average bg scrubs that annoy you, and I have the gold to put epic gems and appropriate enchants on each piece. I need about 100k honor or less more to have a complete PVP set. BUT, with my latency I can’t really enjoy PVP…I can sit in BGs (or even arenas) and throw a heal here and there, but I can’t perform at the level that I would have formerly considered “a bad day for Smoogee” because of our aforementioned connectivity.

This entire deployment has been a fantastic lesson in “delayed gratification” for me. Certainly, looking forward to getting married foremost, seeing family, a promotion to captain…those things are real, and important. And one of the small things that people take for granted is that wonderful DSL or cable modem back home. I can’t even call my wonderful fiancé when I want, much less be on skype while running a bg or instance. I found out the hard way that I can not run 25-man ops, because of bandwidth of all things. SO…you know what sounds really good to this pilot? Taking my fiancé out on a date, treating ourselves to a steak dinner, a good night’s sleep in my own room, spending some time with my family, and having everybody on our business team over for a barbecue. And after that, a 25ms connection, skype, multiple monitors, external speakers, and a 4-hour block of time to raid and pvp once or twice a week! I honestly can’t even REMEMBER what it’s like to be able to play WoW in what I call “real-time” or to be able to press a button and have the corresponding action occur in less than a second.

I find the irony in the fact that my primary soapbox while I’m deployed as a military member is the gaming potential of the Iraqi satellite connection. But, I always keep first things first…this blog simply isn’t about those things, it’s about the gaming potential. Ironic or not, I am really, sincerely looking forward to that beautiful “average” unremarkable cable internet that over 25% of households now have in the U.S.! It’s not the first thing I’m looking forward to by any stretch of my vivid imagination, but when I’m able to catch a little time here to play WoW, that memory of a real-time connection with voice-over-IP, and the ability to surf through web pages with almost immediate loading. The computer geek in me is really looking forward to that again!

PVP Priest itemization...which wrathful gladiator pieces do I buy?

2010-03-29T02:43:00.000-07:00

Which Wrathful Gladiator's pieces are right for a PVP Disc Priest?
Edit #1: This post should be titled "crit, regen, or haste...which one works best for a PVP Priest?"
I have pulled up the profiles on many of the top arena and BG disc priests. Here is what I've found from a pool of the top players:
Crit ranges from 11 to 19%, the average is about 11 to 13%.
Haste ranges from 150 to over 1000. The majority had well over 300 haste, but did not exceed 650 haste.
Regen ranges from 105 to over 600. (Spirit ranges from 100 to 900.) The average was 580 to 700, but not much lower than that.
The "average priest" leaned towards the items with haste. Every single one chose at least one of the hit items, which I didn't even think to link! I think this is likely for dispels.

OK...I had a couple thousand stone shards that I just converted into honor. It came out to about 130k honor, enough to make a few honor purchases in Orgrimmar.

I had no idea whatsoever which pieces I should be focusing on! I mean, there are at least 3 viable options for each slot, ALL of them are item level 264:

Wrist (ilvl 264, cost 43400 honor)
Wrathful Gladiator's Cuffs of Alacrity has haste
Wrathful Gladiator's Cuffs of Dominance has crit
Wrathful Gladiator's Cuffs of Salvation has spirit

Cloak (ilvl 264, cost 52200 honor)
Wrathful Gladiator's Cloak of Deliverance has spirit
Wrathful Gladiator's Cloak of Dominance has crit
Wrathful Gladiator's Cloak of Subjugation has haste
Wrathful Gladiator's Cloak of Salvation has MP5

Neck (ilvl 264, cost 52200 honor)
Wrathful Gladiator's Pendant of Deliverance has spirit
Wrathful Gladiator's Pendant of Dominance has crit
Wrathful Gladiator's Pendant of Subjugation has haste
Wrathful Gladiator's Pendant of Salvation has mp5

How do I know which Wrathful Gladiator's pieces are best for me as a Disc Priest? I am going to ask priests and read up on it, but I already believe that I am going to accumulate some more haste-centric pieces based on my research. So, today I'll be purchasing the Cuffs of Alacrity and the Cloak of Subjugation. I'll also pick up the ring.

Lessons learned: More heroic 5 mans

2010-03-26T04:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm limited to 5 man instances mostly, here in Iraq. I'm limited by bandwidth and schedules, so I've been healing a TON of 5 man instances. How many? Well, since I've been here, I've purchased the healing Zabra's gear AND Furious PVP gear, as well as trinket, both rings, and wand. And I have about 200 emblems of triumph left over. I have EVERY single piece of cloth healing gear available. The only 2 healing items I don't have from heroics are the trink and OH from Halls of Reflection (don't get me started).

OK, so, how about some lessons learned from 5 man healing thus far:
1. A tank with a gearscore under 3000 on a heroic is a disaster. If your tank opens up with "I just hit 80 today" you are wasting your time, and you will soon find out why.
2. The only 2 instances that will give the average 5 man any trouble whatsoever are Halls of Reflection (HoR) and Pit of Saron (PoS). This doesn't mean they're "hard" but if you have an average group where your 5 players average about 4500 GS (gearscore), those instances are going to be some work for you as a healer.
NOTE: In PoS, Forgemaster Garfrost and Scourgelord Tyrannus will typically have more damage to heal, as well as the 4 pulls leading up to the tunnel. Garfrost has been significantly more difficult as disc than holy, imo. Tyrannus significantly easier as disc.
P.S. If your group in HoR isn't high on dps, that actually will wipe you. It might look like a healing problem, but dps makes a huge difference. Once again, I've found the 10 waves in the beginning to be significantly easier as disc.
3. I love knowing who is getting us killed. If you don't have Recount, I recommend it as a reasonable way to track who might be failing epicly. If all your dps is doing great, it's never a bad idea to look inward! THERE IS NO INSTANCE THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO HEAL ONCE YOU HAVE A 5000 GS. If your average itemlevel is 219-232, you have all the gear you need to successfully farm any heroic 5 man, and you are well-geared enough for normal 10 man instances, without question.
4. You don't have to take crap from a tank who criticizes you. BUT...don't make the same mistake I have made a few times today and criticize people in your party if they make a mistake. About the time I get all high-and-mighty and feel bulletproof is when our Iraqi satellite connection will drop and I'll wipe another group in HoR.
5. USE COOLDOWNS. Specifically, if your tank pulls 3 groups and proceeds to hold aggro on most of them, do everything you can to keep the group alive. After that, call "mana" and make sure to message the tank and let him know that it was too much and to slow down a tad.
NOTE: on this note, it is one of the most common mistakes of new players to rarely use something that has a 2 minute cooldown or more, such as Pain Suppression, Power Infusion, Divine Hymn, Inner Focus, and Shadowfiend. Use these things! Be aware of your healing threshold, have an idea of what qualifies as "oh snap!" and USE THOSE.
6. Keep yourself alive!!! As disc, you have no excuse. Shield, Desperate Prayer, and yes, use POTS if you need them. In a 5 man, I use Pain Suppression on my tank or my self, pretty much exclusively. I have started using Clique to spam bubbles on my party, and I have Grid set up to simply show when someone has weakened soul on them. I almost ALWAYS have a shield up on me, and I never have mana problems in 5-man instances EVER. Keep in mind, ALL of my gear is from 5-man instances/emblems so far!
7. Binding heal makes a lot of sense. I am trying to find a good button for it that is more accessible than "shift-1."
8. As disc, I gain haste from casting a shield...I LOVE shielding and then ripping through a Prayer of Healing at reduced cast time right after that if 4 or 5 people need to be topped off.
9. In 5 man instances, you don't "dedicate" heals to your tank as much as you might in a raid. It's great to tag a flash heal on someone before a penance so that they have the faith proc...BUT, sometimes you need to use that penance on player other than a tank. Maybe nobody else will have this inclination, but I began using penance almost exclusively on the tank, almost saving it. I LOVE this spell and I now use it on just about anybody. I have also been leaning more toward flash heal now too.
10. If you are playing wow with high latency, like I am (I am usually seeing 900ms to 1500ms in 5-man groups), I recommend playing a class or spec that is not reactive. Holy is TOUGH when you are constantly reacting and you're already at a disadvantage. Disc is a fresh breath of air because much of it is pre-casting shields and Prayer of Mending.
11. 5 mans became healable ONLY after I used the Leatrix latency fix OR when I used an http tunnel...I could NOT heal with 2500ms latency, try as I might.
12. If you need a piece of loot, ROLL...you will likely not encounter those players for the rest of the day, and they would roll if they needed it. On this note, if you are a new level 80 and you are pulling some of the weight as a dps player, ROLL...you need the gear!!! This is how I got decent enough gear to be around 5100GS (average item level 238).
13. If you want really rewarding gameplay, dish out complements to players and if you party with someone from your own server via random queue, add them to your friend list if they are decent! I admit I'm currently reading "How to have power and confidence in dealing with people," but I can definitely tell you how good it is for someone to thank you by name in party chat for healing. Pay that forward and you'll get more recognition for doing some of the hardest work in the instance.

OK, this is the beginning of a list of lessons learned from hours of 5 man play every other day. I typically fly every other day, so I love to log into wow and blow off some steam after a long day of flying in a real warzone.

Circle of Healers survey

2010-03-24T01:37:00.000-07:00

OK! Miss Medicina's Circle of Healers is where this all started for me in WotLK, so here is her initial healer survey (meme):

What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer?

Smoogee, UD Disc/Holy Priest!

What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)

For now, 5 mans. I have been able to accomplish a few 10 man pugs while in Iraq, but I am severely bandwidth limited. I started trying to be a holy reactive healer, but 1200ms latency made that impractical. I LOVE disc prevention-type healing for my current conditions, so that is where I now put myself. Over time, I expect this entire survey to evolve, btw, especially once I return to the States!

What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why?

I absolutely love PW:Shield. As a holy priest, I was given the good advice that I should not use this as much. So, when I specced Disc a few days, imagine my surprise! What a great bubble. If you don't count PW:S as a "heal" per se, then I lean toward flash heal. I keep MANY spells in my arsenal, though, so don't take that out of context.

What healing spell do you use least for your class and why?

Lolwell, of course. But I'm using greater heal less these days too (and not just for latency reasons). I'm favoring flash heal as my staple "baseline."

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why?

I think our greatest strength is raid utility OR healing on the move. But keep in mind that Disc and Holy are almost entirely separate classes once in a raid.

What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why?

We're very squishy. And, maybe it's just me, but I sometimes feel as though I lack the "Oh snap!" power some other healers seem to have. That might just be a "grass is greener" mentality though, and I will NOT switch classes.

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you?

I had extensive experience in 40 man raids pre-TBC and some heavy raiding during TBC. My best assignment was always raid healing. I was an outstanding positional healer and raid booster. I never like the pressure of main tank spamming, nor do I think my class was designed for that BACK THEN.

What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why?

Like most healers probably would say, I like any other competent healer. One important disclaimer: too many bubbles is bad, obviously. I love good shammy or paly.

What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why?

Another same-specced priest. The redundancy, as far as I've seen so far, in small groups...it's not a plus.

What is your worst habit as a healer?

I click a lot of things because I haven't developed new habit patterns for the new spells that my class has in WotLK. Keep in mind that I just returned and have not raided much since my return.

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing?

I do not like being criticized unnecessarily, and I HATE being blamed for a wipe if I was honestly doing the best my class could have done. If I'm not standing in a fire or chaining a cleave, committing suicide, or disconnected...well, then I'm healing my butt off and burning every cooldown and consumable I can to succeed. You want to see an angry priest/pilot... just try placing blame when you should be shouldering the responsibility yourself. I will LEAVE and let you find another healer.

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing?

More now than ever before! I love the disc and holy dichotomy, and I have asked many successful guilds and all of them agree that both priests have a place in most 25 man raids, even at the highest levels.

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer?

I evaluate my performance in Holy via meters, but I compare myself to people who have a similar role in the raid. In Disc, I don't have a clue. If people aren't dead or someone says "thanks" then I'm performing well. If it's not a wipe, I performed adequately. (I'm always shooting for better than "adequate")

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class?

The generic expectation that a healer should be able to take a 10% health pool and make it 100% full just by looking at that character. It takes TIME to replace 25k or more health that has been lost.

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn?

So far, I can only speak from my own perspective, as I am not teaching any new healers the ropes yet. For me, it was understanding how to use your spec effectively in certain environments. As 5 man heroics have been my primary stomping ground since I've been here in Iraq, I had to learn how to effectively heal 5 people with holy, especially with a fast-paced tank. I was using PW:S and getting groups wiped because I thought that the shield was more effective than some of my other healing tools. Well, it may have been good when I was 60, but for Holy in a 5 man with AOE dmg or aggro going nuts...that's a GCD lost on something I wasn't specced for. A very wise pally in a 5 man gave me one simple suggestion that increased my healing effectiveness tremendously..."don't use shield as much, keep renews and ProM up." A world of difference. Oh, and for a brand new healer, understand pacing, where to stand, and when to expect heavy damage...knowing when the party simply must be topped off and when it's ok to pace heals a bit slower. There is a "feel" for healing, I believe, and a good healer develops a knack for saving people consistently. (Sometimes that means educating people on what not to do, but I rarely pipe up)

If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer via recount, what sort of patterns would they see (i.e. lots of overhealing, low healing output, etc)?

In years past: overhealing and top of the meters. Now: I have no idea. In Disc, significantly less "healing" but a whole ton of bubbles. I'm always good with dispels, even with high latency. In raids, I typically have been falling short of shammies when it comes to raid healing as holy, but recount would show prayer of mending, circle of healing, and renew as commonly used spells.

Haste or Crit and why?

In Holy: a balance, both are great. In Disc: haste, I think. The jury is still out, and this is a question I'd like the answer to.

What healing class do you feel you understand least?

Druids. I have a marginal understanding of the spells available to each class, although the finer elements and assignments of healers in raids is no longer my strong suit.

What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing?

I use Grid. (In Holy, ThankGod shows me my Surge of Light procs) I am currently researching new healing and survivability macros, new Unit Frames, and click casting addons. I have to say that in 5 years of playing, I have never once used a click cast addon, and I may start now.

Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why?

As a priest, I am learning that spell power, spirit, and intellect all have a primary role. Haste and crit depend on the spec. I reference Miss Medicina for some great insight into which stats are most important. If you drudge through the WoW class forums you will find people often say things like "Spell Power > Spirit > Intellect > Haste and Crit > MP5. I tend to agree, although I am gemming to boost spell power primarily right now because I feel like I need to pack a heavier punch and I don't seem to have mana issues as a Disc priest.

Edit: I stand somewhat corrected! BobTurkey has an outstanding report for 3.3 on priest stats here.

When I'm not flying I'm healing.

2010-03-23T17:35:00.000-07:00

I proudly play a Holy/Disc Priest on Smolderthorn-US.
I also proudly fly hercs as a pilot for the U.S. Air Force, currently deployed in Iraq.

About 4 months ago I decided to reinstall WoW, bought a copy of WotLK, and leveled a 70 priest up to 80. Almost immediately after the surprisingly quick grind, I deployed with my squadron to Iraq. For about 2 months, I did not even attempt to log on, because our internet source was unreliable, slow, and had extremely constricted bandwidth. After I stumbled on a "hotspot" that had a more bearable connection, I began playing again.
As I started entering 5 man instances as a priest, I immediately realized that the once familiar dynamics of healing had significantly changed. After resorting to shadow for latency reasons for about 3 weeks, I found a latency fix that allowed me to heal in instances. After wiping MANY groups on level 80 heroics, I began searching the internet for good resources on healing, gear and itemization advice, and consensus on specs and strategies.
I drudged through some of the WoW priest forums, unsatisfied. I tried to navigate Elitist Jerks but had trouble finding specific answers when I had a question. I tried to engage members of my old guild Sad Panda but theirs is not a very active forum or blogging player base.
Then I reluctantly started typing questions into google and, to my surprise, I found that bloggers, of all people, had the answers I had been looking for. The first expert I discovered was Miss Medicina. What a breath of fresh air! Intelligent, informed players apparently have started using blogs as a network to introduce relevant information to their respective communities!
So, after bouncing around a few blogs and thoroughly enjoying the topics and medium of communication, it dawned on me that I might have a unique perspective, as both a professional military aviator and an experienced (albeit novice in WotLK) dedicated healer.
(I will also comment on high latency/low bandwidth gameplay, gearing up without the option of raiding, and playing WoW while deployed.)