The Daily Quest: Healing and you
by Anne Stickney 
Jul 8th 2011 at 5:00PM
And now, it's time for another round of Vanilla Nostalgia, courtesy of yours truly. When healing back in vanilla, "mana regen" was what you called chugging a potion. MP5? We had no idea what that was back then. Healers dragged along as many mana potions as they could stuff in their bags, and you could use as many as you wanted in a fight, although you were still limited by a 2-minute cooldown. However, you could use different kinds of potions while that first one was on its 2-minute cooldown. Enter Felwood, otherwise known as that rotten, misbegotten hole I spent I don't know how many hours in farming stupid plants on off-nights.
The plants in Felwood were useful, particularly Night Dragon's Breath. It also had a 2-minute cooldown but returned a healthy chunk of mana -- just enough, in fact, to get you to that next Major Mana Potion once it was off cooldown. Farming the plants, however, was tricky. You had to get Cenarion Plant Salve, apply it to a Corrupted Night Dragon, and then take the cleansed plant. These plants spawned on a timer in a circuit around Felwood. Night Dragon's Breath runs usually lasted three to four hours at a time, yielding enough plants for a week or so of raiding -- if you were lucky.
Lesson over! Aren't we glad we don't have to muck about with plants anymore? Today, we've got some posts from around the blogosphere with all kinds of information on healing in patch 4.2.
- Kurn's Corner discusses paladin healing in 4.2 and a gigantic lack of mana.
- Totem Forest picks apart the Eye of Blazing Power from a resto shaman perspective.
- Foofy's CupCake Factory has put together a very nice video going over the basics of resto druid healing in patch 4.2.
- World of Matticus has some tips for all healers headed into the Lord Rhyolith encounter.
Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment, and you may see it here tomorrow! Be sure to check out our WoW Resources Guide for more WoW-related sites.
Filed under: The Daily Quest
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Krz Jul 8th 2011 5:20PM
Ooh wow, nostalgia rush. I remember seeing those plants when I started playing in Burning Crusade and wondering what they were for.
Snuzzle Jul 9th 2011 3:18AM
Everyone used them for raiding, too. A Vanilla raiding world was one of "How may useful buffs can I feasibly get on my character in a single fight, every fight?" Characters would not only farm these plants, but there were repeatable buff quests in the Blasted Lands and every flask or elixir that was remotely useable for you was expected to be used.
Myself, wasn't a hardcore raider but I remember farming the Whipperroots, Songflowers and Windblossoms when I was doing the hunter epic quest. Since that was where yu had to go to turn in the item to start it anyway :)
lasiecl Jul 8th 2011 5:22PM
The World of Matticus site seems to be having issues. I keep getting a 404 error and some weird messages about rape and ping???.
jfofla Jul 8th 2011 5:24PM
If Pallies adapt to 4.2, use Holy Shock every CD and Holy Light, Word of Glory as goto heals, there are no Mana issues.
Rodrigo Jul 8th 2011 6:08PM
Yep.
Pally healing doesn't feel worse, just different. WoG heals for a ton now, take the talents and glyphs that support it. Holy Light feels awesome now, just as well as our "bad" secondary stats.
Overall, I think I really like the 4.2 changes.
styopa Jul 8th 2011 9:07PM
Some people call them needless complication, I miss those sorts of intricacies.
To me, that's what made a "world" vs. just a numbers game.
It was one way that, with a little extra investment of time in a not-so-busy part of the world, you could make your life as a vanilla raider (which was hard enough) slightly easier.
Dunno, if you take that stuff away, the game just seems too sterile now. McMMORPG compared to Al's Diner-MMO. Sure, the former is cleaner, easier to understand, less expensive, more consistent, and overall a lot friendlier to new arrivals. The latter has character. I know where I'd rather spend my time.
Kia Jul 8th 2011 10:11PM
Still trying to figure out how to get the hang of pally healing again, and I don't like what that article said. Too heavy reliance on -needing- pots around and I utterly loathe worrying about on-use trinkets instead of procs.
It's gone so far I deleted my spec since I've been seeing so many tank drops in heroics I'm putting a set together to try it for the first time. I really miss healing, I just hate it. No matter what I do I can't get the hang of it again and I healed ICC fine for crying out loud.
I'm hoping I'll be able to enjoy it on the disc priest, resto druid, or resto shammy I'm leveling, but...meh. I miss my pally. -.-
Mitawa Jul 8th 2011 10:20PM
We had Mp5! It was called eating Sagefish every 10 minutes in return for diddly and LIKING it.
EVERY 10 MINUTES. Same with rogues and squid. You want your boxes picked? You better have maxed your fishing and better hope it's December! 'Course they didn't get agility AND stamina on the squid, just agility... And only after they figured out how to walk uphill on both sides of an incline.
*Stomps out of the room with a cane*
Jon Jul 9th 2011 12:30AM
Here is an article I wrote, please feel free to feature this in an upcoming TDQ:
Has World of Warcraft Raiding Become Just Another Rat Race?
http://www.how-to-warcraft.com/index.php/2011/07/08/has-world-of-warcraft-raiding-become-just-another-rat-race/
Borick Jul 9th 2011 12:42PM
I remember farming stacks of mana runes in Scholomance to chain with my potions.