Breakfast Topic: Having fun in old, familiar places
by Danny Waller 
Aug 26th 2010 at 8:00AM
We all run random dungeons. Usually, we'll just do our job, tanking, healing or DPSing to get through the dungeon as fast as we can. But every once in a while, we may get the inclination to mess around a bit.
My main character is a disc priest. Since all I really have to do in heroics is shield the tank every once in a while, I'll often run around like a crazy person using Holy Nova to try and beat the DPS. Not only does it make the runs go faster, but it's more fun than just standing around doing nothing. Sure I could use other, more normal DPS abilities, but it's fun to see those golden bubbles everywhere.
If I'm in a group with guildies and they know it's coming, it's sometimes fun to play "how low can you go" with the tank's health. I'd never try it in a PUG random, but with friends who can laugh if it goes wrong, it's fun. One thing I've always wanted to try but never have is healing in shadow spec. While it wouldn't really be difficult, I don't really know how random groups would react to it, having their healer running around in Shadowform all the time.
While some things that you could do are borderline griefing, there are many options to liven up your daily heroic while still doing your job. What do you do, if anything? Or is there something that you'd like to try, but never have? Are heroics just a daily chore that you grind through, or do you look for ways to make them more interesting?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Gamer am I Aug 26th 2010 8:07AM
I know this probably isn't the kind of answer the author of this post was hoping for, but once I needed to do things myself to make heroics interesting, once they became a chore that necessitated being made fun, rather than actually being fun, I stopped running them. I don't want to have to find ways to entertain myself while doing something I'm paying 15 dollars a month for; I'm paying to be entertained. That's not entitlement, that's basic economics; if I have to entertain myself, then what, exactly, am I paying for?
pacjag Aug 26th 2010 8:33AM
Hmm, don't take up golf, bowling, boating, traveling, or any of 1000 other activities where you pay to play but can't sit there and let it happen around you.
JBcani Aug 26th 2010 9:07AM
@pacjag
what he's saying is that running the heroics itself should be fun all by itself, and the fact that he has to change a normal routine a bit to keep his interest is not what he's paying for.
Gamer am I Aug 26th 2010 9:10AM
@pacjag: That wasn't what I was trying to say. I would never forgo an activity just because it requires effort, assuming that effort was rewarded somehow. When heroics were a challenge, I would put effort into them, and they would be fun. That effort was rewarded with enjoyment. Now I put effort into heroics, and I am not rewarded with fun; I am only rewarded with emblems for gear to make the runs even easier and less enjoyable. Why pay to put forth effort if that effort isn't going to be rewarded with any semblance of enjoyment?
Gamer am I Aug 26th 2010 9:20AM
@JBcani: As a tank, I don't have many options when it comes to changing my routine. Anything I do to make the run more interesting could put the rest of the group in jeopardy or just piss them off. Intentionally wearing worse gear? Now everyone else has a much lower cap on how much damage they can do, and they will all resent me for it. Wearing DPS gear instead? Tried it, doesn't make a bit of difference. Pulling large crowds and DPSing them down? Hooray for one-button swipe spamming! Plus, pulling large crowds makes everyone else more likely to die.
Besides, if I change my routine to make heroics more fun, it's still a form of acknowledgment that heroics have become a chore, and like I said, I'm not paying 15 bucks a month to do chores.
Vladeon Aug 26th 2010 1:50PM
You know Gamer am I, you could always just run the instance in your healing gear or dps gear instead. that makes it a bit more fun because you get hit a lot harder. I do this all the time with guild runs in randoms. I'll stay heal spec, then pop righteous fury, then once we started, put on my healing gear. it's a lot more difficult and therefore a lot more fun.
Skarn Aug 26th 2010 3:04PM
His point is that while there ARE things you can do to make an instance more interesting, once you reach the point that you have to come up with these crazy things, is the place really worth running any more? Hasn't the activity worn itself out?
Gamer am I Aug 26th 2010 5:20PM
@Skarn: Thank you; that's exactly what I was trying to say.
Rockstaert Aug 26th 2010 8:08AM
I love healing in my shadow spec :-) Just be carefull only to do it when the tank is geared enough and be ready throw in some flash heals when needed.
"Don't worry, I will just facemelt you all back to life!"
AltairAntares Aug 26th 2010 8:30AM
Yep, have a guildie who heals heroics in shadow. He has fun- he pulls another shadow priest from our guild and they duel in seeing who can pull the most dps.
Anathemys Aug 26th 2010 5:01PM
I've been healing out of tree form on my druid for the last couple weeks. Right around when they announced the change, I decided to see how I would look healing in non-tree form and casting the occasional wrath. It's pretty fun, and so far only one group has been a problem, and that was just an idiot rogue who complained, while the rest of the group just shrugged and let me do my job.
Priestess Aug 26th 2010 10:44PM
This. I started doing this with my husband's blood DK because he was so boring for me to heal. ICC gear on us both, him healing himself, I was practically asleep.
Soooo, I made this messed-up shadow spec that's soley intended for dungeon running. I spec'd into Improved Vampiric Embrace, glyphed PW: Shield, set my Shadowform action bar to have a few insta-cast heals available, and then set the out-of-shadowform bar to be accessible when the heals would pop me out.
When I get tanks with over 6k GS and over 50k health, or even really good tanks in lesser gear, I switch between pulls, use Hymn of Hope, and move on. A slight issue is that you have to do single-target Shadow damage to heal people, but that's what 3/3 Improved Devouring Plague is for imo. =)
It's a lot of fun, and no one has ever had a problem with it when I've done it. They seem to be understanding that they won't always be topped off, and I never let people die. A lot of people express surprise that it can be done. And since it's heroics, you don't even have to have a good set of +hit gear to do it, your healing set is usually fine by the time you've got enough gear that this tempts you.
Also: http://www.samueltempus.wordpress.com/2009/08/13/shadow-shenanigans/ --fun stuff!
Aruku Aug 27th 2010 1:20AM
I remember healing a heroic as shadow before dual-spec came out, it was rather fun especially with the whole group being people I'd ran with before and understanding that I wouldn't be pumping out the raw heal I do on my main priest. Was actually reluctant to try since I never had done it before, but they insisted on dragging me with. (seems to be the life of a healer lol) Same group of friends who had me DPSing heroics back in BC (before the doom patch nerfed all mobs) as my funny disc/holy spec - it worked!
Then again, I've had some 'tanks' do interesting things that make me have to pay attention too, like tanking in pvp gear and/or as arms, fury, kittie or ret, or one of the DPS subbing in as 'tank' when the tank drops - drops dead or drops group for whatever reason. (rogue tanks can actually be pretty awsome, though highly critable. Also one of the few classes crazy enough to do it without hesitation. Hunter/lock pets can be decent, and boomchickens... well, they're crazy too. Then again, I was crazy enough at one point in BC to try taking the red beam on Netherspite as a healer (it was a wipe already, I'm not that mean to my raid)... worked for all of 5-10 seconds amazingly)
garrettlgolden Aug 26th 2010 8:09AM
Maelstrom Healing ftw!
Deewon Aug 26th 2010 8:14AM
nice article bro'
Josin Aug 26th 2010 8:52AM
I like to find opportunities for my shaman to throw Waterwalking on people as we drop into water. Always entertaining to see them cursing at Blizzard for bugginess, rather than the shaman who made sure they splatted. Still, this is one for friends, not PuGs. (Well, unless you have a terribad tank or DPSer that needs to be brought down a peg.)
Early in my shaman career, I used to drop onto the ledge just below the Stormwind flight path and cast Waterwalking on people who were jumping out into the moat. Good times.
Josin Aug 26th 2010 9:07AM
No idea why this ended up tacked onto this comment... blah.
Drakkenfyre Aug 26th 2010 10:20AM
There is an old saying.
"Be nice to your Shaman or he'll cast Waterwalking on you when you jump down the waterfall in Maraudon."
klink-o Aug 26th 2010 10:30AM
I instinctively point my camera down to avoid hitting water even when I know I'm all alone from dieing more than a few times over the years to this. :P
Anyway, I think the best way to liven up heroics is to do 'em without a tank or healer. Five DPS go!
Hal Aug 26th 2010 8:11AM
I kinda gave up on daily heroics when my guild stalled out on raiding. At this point, I'm just leveling alts, so there's not much sense in running daily heroics.
On topic, however, I tend to tank, so my "screwing around" options are a bit limited. Still, I've gone towards switching in DPS equipment while staying crit-immune, just to see how much I can push out. I've also taken to swapping around different specs on my DK, just to get a feeling for the strategies necessary in using them.
Another thing I've done has been to swap back to heroic (~ilvl200) gear. The heroics are a "chore" these days because they're no longer a challenge and they don't offer much that we want, save those two badges at the end. At least with a gear swap, there is an element of challenge added back in.