Breakfast Topic: The bandages
by Amanda Miller 
Jan 23rd 2008 at 8:05AM
This morning, while catching up on my weblog reading, I came across a post written by Kestrel pointing out that many players still have not trained first aid, and are not carrying, or using, bandages. Although this shouldn't have struck me as surprising, it did make me pause. Didn't everyone get the memo that post-expansion, bandages are integral? Hasn't everyone been bullied into training it? Are there really still players running around wiping more often simply because they won't carry a stack of bandages?
Evidently. If you need convincing information as to why you should be carrying this item, posts like Kestrel's will walk you through some of the situations in which not doing so can be disastrous.
As a last note on behalf of all hunters; please heal your pet in groups. Better yet, get a macro.
| has 0-50 first aid | |
|---|---|
| has maximum first aid, carries, and uses bandages | |
| has high first aid, but forgets to carry or use bandages | |
| has no interest in first aid | |
| doesn't exist |
Filed under: First Aid, Breakfast Topics, Buffs
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
springz Jan 23rd 2008 10:23AM
On my paladin I have max first aid, but dont carry any since i'm holy and obviously never had any need for it.
On my hunter and mage i dont think i have it maxed, but i can use heavy netherweave, but always have 20 stacks and rarely have to restock. So i do carry, but almost never use them.
Zefyr Jan 23rd 2008 10:25AM
I have it on all my characters. I find its very useful when soloing with my paladin as it allows me to chain pull without having to stop and eat or drink.
springz Jan 23rd 2008 10:26AM
On a sidenote, i do use bandages on my warrior and rogue toons which I am lvling atm. my rogue is now lvl 56 and can use heavy netherweave, so it is nice to pretty much keep grinding without having to eat for health.
One bandages boosts me from 5% to 100%.
Perderedeus Jan 23rd 2008 6:23PM
Maxed on all my characters, and typically I carry a stack of 20 on each. Few actually USE them, however. The pally will use one when bubbled if mana is too low for an equivalent healing spell... the druid has no use of them... the hunter gets the most mileage out of them. My warrior is in mothballs but during his leveling in Outland he also extensively used bandages and food between fights.
Evil M Jan 23rd 2008 10:54AM
The only instances I've heard where first aid is a non-issue is with those classes who are dedicated healers. Most of our holy paladins and priests have bandage skill, but in all our raiding I've never seen an instance where a Holy Light/Flash Heal/Renew wasn't the easier solution than a bandage for a healer.
They're extremely necessary for any dps class.
SteveK Jan 23rd 2008 11:09AM
Actually, only one of my 70's has a full 375 First Aid. All the other toons only go as high as they need to for access to using the high end bandages. I can always make them on my main, and mail them over easy enough, and I don't have to waste stacks of cloth skilling up. It is a bit easier in BC than it was pre-expansion, but I still don't see the need.
SirCasey Jan 23rd 2008 11:59AM
That's a great idea! Will do that for my Druid...
Kien Jan 23rd 2008 11:03AM
I like the fact that Master First Aid only requires 300 FA skill. That means as soon as you hit 35...you can learn 375 FA.
It's fun in lower level battlegrounds when you can go from nothing to full in about 2 seconds.
original2k Jan 23rd 2008 11:34AM
all of my toons have FA maxed and use them
the only times i don't use them on my holy paladin is when i'm questing in area's where mobs don't often drop them, it's just more effecient to use them instead of healing myself. especially in pvp situations when u may not have time to get away and heal yourself. often in bg's i'll be healing a big fight and when i get targeted instead of healing myself i'll bubble and bandage which saves me mana for healing everyone else.
SirCasey Jan 23rd 2008 11:58AM
On my first 70, a Paladin, I had no idea bandages could be useful until I ran out of mana in Shadow Labs on Blackheart the Inciter and felt so helpless. After that, I skilled up to max.
On my 70 Warlock, he always had max bandages while levelling.
On my fast-approaching 70 Druid (61), I have not bothered with bandages yet. Plan on maxing out after 70.
On my 42 Warrior, maxed bandages for his level if I'm not mistaken.
I plan to max asap on my presently 19 Rogue that I will be levelling.
Max 225 FA on my 19 BG twink Warlock, Heavy Runecloth Bandages are HOT.
Alex Jan 23rd 2008 3:28PM
My 70 is a Fury Warrior so I use them all the time, also my First Aid was maxed before getting to Outland.
PropogandaPanda Jan 23rd 2008 12:58PM
Im a Holy Pally, and i never bothered with bandages.
Yeah, sure, there may be a situation where i have no mana, and no pots, and im being stunned and knives are in my legs and blah blah blah....
The situation has never happened where i said, hmm bandages would have saved this raid or heroic. Bandages are great on my other toons that don't heal, i wont lie, but on my Holy pally, its useless.
Orestes Jan 23rd 2008 1:03PM
I have it maxed on my pally and priest, and carry a stack around most of the time but it's extremely rare that I'll ever use one outside of group runs. Even then it's iffy
Lemming Jan 23rd 2008 2:56PM
As my resto shaman, I typically don't bother with bandages because healing myself is faster than bandaging myself.
On the otherhand, my rogue uses bandages a ton, especially to the point that I bandage myself over eating because it takes less time to do so.
Cynra Jan 23rd 2008 1:20PM
All of my girls have maxed First Aid appropriate to their levels. It's one of those things that I just feel necessary, despite the fact that most of those characters are healers of some sort. As a priest doing SSC and TK, you bet I'm using bandages when I can. I'm pretty mana efficient, but there's nothing like taking the opportunity to pop a bandage when able and it's appropriate (the time to bandage is not when someone needs a heal, especially if you're the main or only healer in the group), even if it's to conserve mana and dance around the 5SR. One of the things that I do sometimes is bandage when my mana is low: I use Inner Focus, cast (usually) that nice ranked 7 Greater Heal on the tank or another target that would benefit from that large crit heal, use my Earring of Soulful Meditation, and bandage while letting my mana regen.
For me, playing as a priest means being mana efficient. Mana conservation is important to me, even with that large bugged mana pool and downranking/cancelling spells as necessary. If I have the flexibility to conserve mana that could be better used on other players by bandaging now when there's no rush to heal, heal, heal now, why not? It's a single slot in my bag and I find that it works well.
And many healers will appreciate if you take the opportunity to bandage yourself during fights as able!
Cynra Jan 23rd 2008 1:25PM
"large bugged mana pool"? Where'd that come from? Ah well, no, our mana pool isn't bugged and I have no idea why it ended up there. Just a quick clarification!
I guess it just comes down to the fact that it's so easy to level First Aid while leveling your toons that there's real good reason not to level it; the cloth is just dropping as you're fighting and it's just another tool in your belt to use as needed.
Shiro Jan 23rd 2008 2:05PM
I never had it while I played my priest. "I can heal myself, I don't need it".
Then one night while raiding, I was told by our healing team lead that he wanted me to heal hard on the first part of a raid encounter, until I got hit with splash damage. At that point the strategy was for me to move to a safe zone, and bandage while my mana regenerated and another healer would take over for me. Then once the bandage finished, I was to wait for a particular amount of mana to come back before going back into the fight.
"Uh, yeah, I don't have First Aid trained past Linen"
The response...
"OK, get it up before the next raid. We'll move you to a different spot"
Yeah, embarassed.
Later on, I was convinced to respec to Shadow for the good of the guild. Boy, was I glad that I had trained it when I became a DPS class that was required to bandage through spike damage from various sources.
Moral of the story: Even if you *think* you don't need it, train it anyway. You never know when your guild will require it during a particular fight. I'm lucky my guild is very understanding, some would have kicked me out of the raid there.
Jess Jan 23rd 2008 2:37PM
if if my character can heal herself I don't bother training first aid since usually a health potion and or a heal is more effective. If my character has no healing abilties then bandages are very useful.
Skarlette Jan 23rd 2008 3:17PM
On my main, a mage, I don't use bandages all that much when soloing, because:
A.) I kill stuff before it can beat on me
B.) If I don't kill something before it beats on me, it takes enough mana to finally kill it than I'm going to have to drink anyway, and hey, I get free food as well as free water so I can eat/drink at the same time.
When raiding, however, I do use bandages to lessen the burden on the healers. Especially on Gruul, I find it very useful.
My other characters use bandages more. My rogue uses them a ton, as they're usually faster than eating (especially if my health isn't really low) and rogues don't have mana to regain.
My hunter uses some, even uses them on her pet to save mana sometimes. My warlock does too, and Life Tap + Bandage is often faster than eat + drink.
Even my shadow priest uses bandages, since you have to drop out of shadowform to use healing spells and that costs mana. That's the only character I've lagged behind on FA skill, though, since upping the tailoring skill has been a bigger priority so extra cloth has been a bit scarce. Getting there, though.
In short, yeah, some classes need it more than others and it might be situational, but I always get FA on every one of my characters. Why wouldn't you use a tool that's easily available to everyone that gives you an advantage?
Theserene Jan 23rd 2008 3:31PM
Use them during boss fights if an unlucky spell has caught me, (or after mind-control stuff like 2nd boss in SL). The healer has to focus on the tank after all.