I've been occupied lately poking around with the guild forums/vBulletin, apparently I alternate between what I "feel like" working on lol. This is actually just something that I posted in my internal guild boards for a fairly recent 70. I figure that this might be useful to at least one person who still peruses my site. Well that and I can't think of anything else to post.
Basic Raid Etiquette
Pay attention and work as a team. Raiding is a team effort, adjust your thinking accordingly.
- Don't come to the raid flagged for PvP.
- Don't inch ahead of the raid: In general, stay behind the Main Tank.
- Watch range and LoS. I can't heal what I can't see.
- Mind your surroundings: It is very easy to become so focused on
healing/DPSing that you neglect what is happening around you. Example:
If black circle of unholy death forms at your feet, MOVE!
- Come prepared: Repair, buy reagents and potions to last you for the entire raid, read strategies.
- Be Keen: Keep an eye out for special attacks and special situations.
- Let people know when you have to AFK.
- Watch your aggro: What should you do when the Main Tank first pulls a mob? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
- When fight strategies are given out, pay close attention. If you aren't sure about something, by all means ask a question!
Healing
Though we don't have a whole lot of healing spells, paladins are one of if not THE BEST single target healers in the game.
- Flash of Light is your primary healing spell. It is the most efficient heal
in the game (efficiency = highest HP healed/mana ratio).
- Topping off: Spam Flash of Light on people to top health off. Time it so that you aren't overhealing.
- Heal aggressively: Base your heals off of what you think your
target's health will be AFTER you finish casting. Basically:
Preemptively heal and ANTICIPATE DAMAGE. If you know that the MT will
be taking a huge chunk of damage, cast an early Holy Light...you can
always cancel it right before the spell lands.
- It's okay to overheal during certain situations, knowing when to do
this is part of being a good healer. Wasting a little mana is better
than a dead tank.
- Some bosses use special abilities on regular intervals.
DeadlyBossMods will show a timer for these...watch it and time your
heals around it!
- Learn to budget mana around fight length and potion use (you can
use a potion every 2 minutes). Example: If a fight lasts 10 minutes,
you might not want to burn through all of your mana within the first
minute.
- Coordinate heals with other classes.
- While you are casting: Use this time to select your next healing target, it will save a lot of time in the long run.
- Begin the fight by using any trinkets and spells on short cooldowns
(Divine Favor, Divine Illumination, almost all trinkets). Most fights
last around 3 to 5 minutes; If you time your cooldowns like this you
can use them twice.
- Remember that bandages, potions, and even buffs generate a small
amount threat (using a 5g potion and then getting 1-shotted and wiping
the raid shortly after sucks hard).
Cleansing
Whether you like it or not, it is your duty to cleanse! No one else can
do it nearly as effectively as a paladin. Most importantly: Cleanse or
you will get bitched at repeatedly lol.
- You must always keep an eye out for debuffs at all times. Cleanse FAST and cleanse OFTEN.
- Keep in mind that cleanse has a 30 yard range, that's shorter than max healing range.
- SmartDebuff is a very good cleansing mod that is easy to setup.
It's a grid of names, when someone is afflicted with a cleansable
debuff it will highlight in red. To cleanse you just click the name,
very easy.
- Otherwise, use Clique + Raid bars (harder to setup).
Other spells
Exceptional paladins not only know how to heal and cleanse effectively,
but also know how to utilize all of their spells during appropriate
moments.
- Blessing of Protection: Protects the target for 10 seconds against all MELEE
attacks, also prevents them from using melee attacks. This is PERFECT
for casters who have aggro'd a trash mob or something. Don't be afraid
to use BoP liberally. If you BoP a rogue or a warrior they will
probably hate you for life.
- Auras: Know what aura to use and when to switch, mid fight if
necessary. Remember that resist auras do not stack with class resist
buffs.
- Most trash mobs are stunnable. If one strays, try to stun it.
(I know that the links are broken, will remedy this later). Same as the tanking gem reference, but for healing. I play a paladin, thus the reason why no spirit gems were included. Same schpeel as the other gem list: if the socket bonus is crap, don't worry about gem color, maximize whatever stat you need.
