The ramblings of a Prot Paladin who's been cleaved a few too many times.

I raid healed for the first time significantly ever on my Paladin last night.  We’ve been short of healers and have three geared tanks for our 10 man group at the moment, and my Holy set had been not far behind my Prot set.  So, I’ve been gearing and practicing over the last week, and last night was my night to give it a go.

Let me just say that this is not my first foray into healing, lest you expect a horror story of wipes and QQ.  I healed extensively through ICC on my Shaman, and I have the basic concepts and toolset well in hand.  I was very proud the night I posted 9K hps on a heroic Blood Queen downing.  However, my Paladin has only really ever been called upon to get smacked repeatedly in the helm ( poor thing is ever so forgetful… ).  So this is – again – just my first time raid healing on him.

First of all – Wow!!!  No, not the name of the game.  “Goodness.”  “My gosh.”  “Holy… Holiness, Batman.”  He heals a LOT.  Since I usually raid lead and tank, I’m used to watching Recount for lots of things.  But I was fairly surprised by the numbers I put out.  12K hps at certain times.  Never really under 10K.  And I had a fairly good – if a bit stressful – time of it.  We did not get anything down boss-wise.  But I definitely healed many targets.  I just had onnne liiiiittle problem.  The fight was Magmaw, and if you’ve done this fight you know that there is a fairly predictable point repeatedly where the entire raid goes down to 10-20% health.  Well, naturally, I start blowing up the Holy fireworks at this point.  Beacon hissing, Radiance ticking, FoL rocking your face off.  And then pretty much by the time the head hits the spike, I … was… ooooommmmmm.

Eventually, someone mentioned Judgments.  I found out rather quickly that this was an important topic that I have good grasp of on Ret or Prot.  But on Holy, sadly, I had missed the boat.  Right seal! ( Insight ).  Right concept! ( Judge ). WRONG schedule! ( Once-a-minute-ish ).  So I started mashing my 1 key every time it came up and BOY did that make a difference.  My oomness has gone the way of our raid group: Dead.

But that got me thinking.  We Paladins sure do Judge others quite a lot.

Early on in life, we Judge from the perspective of Righteousness.  We believe ourselves morally above the fold.  Ahhh, youth.  When things seem so simple.  So black & white.

Later on,  we Judge based on our perceived Insight.  Having learned that the world cannot be broken down into right & wrong so easily.  But, do we really know so much more about situations than others?  It seems like we shouldn’t necessarily have the market cornered on clarity of understanding.

Eventually, Truth becomes the basis of our Judgments.  Truth?  Hah.  To quote Oscar Wilde, “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”

And, finally: Justice.  Of all the bases for Judging others, perhaps the most susceptible to misuse and abuse.  So easy to ask for.  So hard to truly define.

Why MUST we Paladins BE so judgy?  Can we not accept others at their own merit?  Is it a flaw in ourselves that constantly seeks change?  What about the Here, the Now.  What about letting what may be, be.

I think this is a good time for us all to take a step back and consider – just CONSIDER… that there might be a better way.  And that way MAY just be to stack Spirit.

Wait, wait… Hold on a minute.  I’m being told that…. Yes, sorry.  The fine gentlemen at Elitist Jerks have informed me that stacking Spirit over INT makes your “Super Fail” and that Theck has conclusively disproven it’s value.  Well… shoot….

Judge away, my friends.  Judge away.

Heal Well!

– Llama