Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj and Healing Heroics
stargrace 
Continuing on with the ‘lets see what other trouble we can get into’ plan, Toargo and myself decided to try the 20 man raid zone Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj. Neither of us had been there before, but it looked pretty neat. Of course first we went back to Zul’Gurub to try to get the mounts to drop (which they did not). Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj is a fun raid zone, with some neat encounters. It was a lot easier to complete because none of the encounters involved mind control tactics. Our only ‘oh no’ moment was when Toargo decided to ‘see what would happen’ when he dove head first into a pile of slime. Of course, this was right after he told me that the slime would eat him, and then drain his life until he died. I foolishly tried to heal him through this, and we both ended up floating around the inside of a mass of jello.
Live and learn.
Achievement obtained, I decided it was time to brave my fears and work on gathering emblems for the healer. Now that I’ve played through just about every instance on heroic (aside from Halls of Reflection) on the warlock, I’m pretty familiar with all of the encounters.
Heroic Halls of Lightning went as smooth as that zone ever does. No wipes, and no deaths. Heroic Azjol-Nerub was also fairly simple. Heroic Trial of the Champion ended with three people dead but I kept the hunter up just fine and we finished the encounter. I also won a nice cloak that was an enormous upgrade over the one I had been wearing, and a pair of shoes (one of my weakest slots). After that it was time for Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle, and heroic Nexus.
None of these zones are particularly difficult, but I did learn a few things. Number one, it doesn’t matter how good of a healer you are, if someone is under geared and unaware of the fact that they are undergeared (ie: they have no idea how to compensate for it) they WILL die. I have decided it’s a lot easier for me to heal ranged players then it is for me to heal death knights and rogues. Especially rogues. Number two, if players don’t know the encounter, they will die. Not all of the time but I mean for things like – avoiding whirlwind. A disgruntled death knight called me out for “letting him die” on a whirlwind. Of course I let him die, there was no way I was going to heal him through that. Number one I was concentrating on the main tank (always my main goal) and number two – it’s whirlwind! Stop attacking and move out of the way!
Also, I changed my priests talents around. I had always gone two routs, holy and shadow (two builds). Turns out that holy MAY be the best for pure healing, but it does not appear to be the best for instance healing. Whether this is restricted to my play style or not, I have no idea. I switched over to a discipline build (57/14/0) and things are MUCH easier. For one I’m conserving far more mana, and two my groups seem to be far more resistant to damage. Both things have played a huge role in my instance survivability.
When all was said and done I had gathered enough emblems to purchase my set legs, which grants me my two piece bonus. Robe (50 emblems) is next on the agenda, and then 75 emblems for hat and shoulders. Unlike the warlock this time I won’t be going for my four piece bonus (it’s not that great).
Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself! I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend.