My first challenge mode was Mogu’shan Palace, and we finished it on bronze the first go through.  We managed to redo it and nab a silver that same night.  However, I could have performed so much better if I had actually prepared ahead of time. Here are are a few things I wish I had done before embarking on challenge modes.

1. Reevaluate my talents and glyphs. I went in the instance with the exact talents and glyphs I use for raiding. In fact I haven’t reevaluated those talents in a while period. Not the most wise choice!

2. Consumables. I brought a few mana pots, yes, but I didn’t have any water, buff food, elixirs or other useful consumables geared towards timed runs at all.

3. Awareness. I knew it would be challenging but what I didn’t prepare for was stepping up to assist more with crowd control and even dps as needed.

Admittedly I still need to work on my spec, both for raiding 10 mans as well as challenge mode heroics. I have since read up on consumables such as restorative amber and invisibility potions that I would normally never use. I have plans to improve my user interface to allow easier spell usage between healing and casting, though not quite implemented yet.

All of these things will make our challenge modes run smoother along with strategy of course. What tips do you have for someone just heading into challenge modes?

I will leave my farming/cooking guide up for now, as *most* of the info it contains is not going to be outdated when the patch drops!

While I do NOT plan to stop writing entirely at this time, my posts are going to become even less frequent as a result of little time and minimal time healing this expansion thus far.  I do plan to update my guides and have them back up once the patch hits and there are resources to link to (and I have time to actually put them together!)

My Healer Resource Guide as is:

http://healingmains.com/guides/healer-resources/

We are always looking for more resources, so if you’d like to be included, OR know a source that would be a nice addition, please let me know in the comments!

http://jetpack.me/annual-report/36181861/2012/

However, this does mean that my posts will be fewer in number, and very much less focused on healing unfortunately.  While healing is still the thing I enjoy most in game, I have been playing as Guardian/Boomkin since Pandaria launched (other than a few times healing while we had a healer on vacation).

I’m still very much planning to heal on my Shaman and Priest and possibly a Pally and Monk, I just don’t know how much time I’m going to have to focus any energy on them specifically while running the guild and keeping my main character raid ready.

That being said, I will still be here and maintaining the blog!  I just may post more about generalized stuff than healing specific things.  If any of you readers would like to guest post, please drop me an email at eluna @ mydomain.com  ;-)

I will be converting my Elemental Shaman to Restoration over this week, and hopefully I will have a nice blog about it up before Christmas!

Hi I’m Kurby, here for a guest posting about the new Brawlers Guild.

I think this new feature Blizz came out with is probably one of the smartest things they have ever done.  Bear with me on this for a min, and hopefully I can make you see why something so simple could drastically change a person’s play style, and remember this is from a Warrior standpoint so ranged might have a different view on some parts.

I thought I was a pretty dang good player before I joined the Brawlers guild. I thought, this will be cake and I will sail through as I do most other content.  Between a decent tank set and second wind, I thought I was invincible.  So turns out it’s really hard to do these fights as a tank…the DPS requirement isn’t bad but you still need to do more than face roll, but for the first couple fights, or honestly the first 3 ranks, it’s more about not standing in the bad shit then great DPS.

BRUCE:  Blizz has created a new wow MEME here, you walk in to the Arena and the Chants of BRUCE BRUCE BRUCE immediately tell you this place is going to be fun.  He is the first fight and he sets a tone for the rest of the event.  He is simple by design:  do not stand in front while he cast his frontal cone.  Yeah easy enough for some but in the heat of the moment with your heart pounding and everyone is watching you as the pressure builds.  Also you’ve been standing around watching others fail miserably were you now stand, you know the enrage timer is coming you can see the fire building below your feet, and then woopsy  a little too slow and Brucey noms your face.

No second chances, no oh I barely survived, these fights leave no room for error.  But that is what is amazing about the design, there not hard fights by WoW standards, simply don’t stand in front while he cleaves, don’t stand in fire, avoid tornadoes  avoid the bosses charge, kill the correct mob.  All things we should know how to do, but have become jaded by wows hand holding.  Welp the cut the cord kicked us out of the nest, das boot, and reality is a well…you know.

One more thought on the Guild, and I’ll use Feng as good example.  In the Feng the Accursed encounter phase three one person gets a giant glowy bubble of doom that kills all other around you, simple enough to not run into the group when the call to collapse for the AOE comes out, so WTF mate, why do people still run in?  Because we know healers will save us? Our Raid leader will see us flinch and scream over vent GTFO and save us from a wipe? So how does this compare to the brawlers fight, personal accountability, if you screw up in the Bruce encounter you die plain and simple, you killed yourself, no question, you burn up in a fiery death because you didn’t DPS enough no one else fault.

To kinda bring it all back around, Blizz really has made something amazing that really could be game changing for everyone, so if you can afford it check out the Brawlers guild, it could be a great wake-up call.  I can honestly say I have not had the heart pounding experience that I did the other night… since Vanilla PVP, it really can be a great experience.

While Santa isn’t going to be able to get EVERYTHING they asked for, He is managing the top four items, which is a pretty good feat of strength considering.  (And a pretty big hit to the savings account, but hey, it’s what we were saving FOR!).

Now, then, I give you my in game Christmas list of things I’d like!

Dear Grandfather Winter, I’ve been a very good druid this year!! I would love it so much if you could grant me the following things:

I’d like to finish leveling some pets for pet battles so I can capture all the cool stuff I see while doing dailys!

I’d like a weapon please, for my tanking set.

I’d like to have time to work on my Shaman’s healing, without feeling like I’m wasting everyone’s time!

I’d like Spirits of Harmony to be bind on account, so that my poor blacksmith can finally finish and get me the achievement for having ALL the professions!

Faction Peace on my home server, because Elune knows that trying to fight the Horde for resources to do dailys is bad enough without having to fight jerks from my own faction too!

Oh and while we’re at it, could I get a new refrigerator bag full of the foods I most need so I can stop fishing for a bit and enjoy my weekends playing alts?

Thank you EVER so much!
<3 Elunamakata

Readers, what would YOU have on your list?  Share with me!  =)

On the second day of raiding my raid leader gave to me, two toy trains and a campfire with a burning tree.

On the third day of raiding my raid leader gave to me, three repair bots, two toy trains and a campfire with a burning tree.

On the fourth day of raiding my raid leader gave to me, four ready checks, three repair bots, two toy trains and a campfire with a burning tree.

On the fifth day of raiding my raid leader gave to me, five count downs, four ready checks, three repair bots, two toy trains and a campfire with a burning tree.

On the sixth day of raiding my raid leader gave to me six feasts a laying, five count downs, four ready checks, three repair bots, two toy trains and a campfire with a burning tree.

On the seventh day of raiding my guild leader gave to me, seven health stones, six feasts a laying, five count downs, four ready checks, three repair bots, two toy trains and a campfire with a burning tree.

On the eighth day of raiding my guild leader gave to me, eight raiders waiting, seven health stones, six feasts a laying, five count downs, four ready checks, three repair bots, two toy trains and a campfire with a burning tree.

On the ninth day of raiding my GL gave to me, nine nightelves dancing, eight raiders waiting, seven health stones, six feasts a laying, five golden carp, four ready checks, three repair bots, two toy trains and a campfire with a burning tree.

On the tenth day of raiding my raid leader gave to me, ten raiders flasking, nine nightelves dancing, eight raiders waiting, seven health stones, six feasts a laying, five count downs, four ready checks, three repair bots, two toy trains and a campfire with a burning tree.

On the eleventh day of raiding my raid leader gave to me, eleven afk’s, ten raiders flasking, nine nightelves dancing, eight raiders waiting, seven health stones, six feasts a laying, five count downs, four ready checks, three repair bots, two toy trains and a campfire with a burning tree.

On the twelfth day of raiding my raid leader gave to me, twelve sha crystals, eleven afks, ten raiders flasking, nine nightelves dancing, eight raiders waiting, seven health stones, six feasts a laying, five count downs, four ready checks, three repair bots, two toy trains and a campfire with a burning tree

First, since I play another healing class that I’m quite familiar with, I can head over to  Cannot Be Tamed where Jasyla has compared the various healing spells of all the classes….I can learn to shaman by looking at the chart to see what spells compare to healing like a druid.  While it won’t teach me the nuances of the class, it will help me to start healing.  If you’ve never healed before, it will take more time to learn, but it will help you to figure out how to compare your spells to other classes.

Next I would head over to Icy-Veins to check out what most people are using for stat priorities and glyphs, as well as gemming…but while it can help me with quick glyph choices and such, I will head to Mr Robot to look at my reforging needs.  Generally I start with the recommended things, then I customize to my own play-style.  Both sites are great  for people like me who trust other people to do the math, and thus don’t need to know the equation, just the answers.

Lastly I also tend to go to the Class specific blog, in this case, I would head over to Life in Group 5.  While I like the quick, no nonsense ease of using generalized guide for getting my glyphs and such lined up, when I’m learning a class I find reading about the class by someone who plays it makes it easier to identify.  I also can read the comments to their blogs to see if others had the same questions as I may have.

If you are a new healer, having never healed at all before, the best way to learn is to honestly get out there and heal.  I’ve seen suggestions of hopping into pvp, where folks are used to dying, to learn how your spells work.  I have not tried that method, as all of my other healers were leveled as healers until at least level 85!