PLD AoE Heals and The Guild

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Holy Paladin and AoE Healing
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So there were some more conversations on the Holy Paladin changes and issues (via posts made by folks on the Healing forums) and Ghostcrawler addressed some of those.

Healing Hands
Healing Hands is one of the ways we want to let paladins raid heal and it might even be the dominant way. We want to give them a group heal that isn't Circle of Healing or Chain Heal, because we've already done those spells and we want to do something new here.

What we want to avoid: "Well, we don't have our paladin tonight to heal the tank, so let's call the raid."

What we also want to avoid: "Well, we have too many paladins and they can't raid heal, so let's replace one with an undergeared alt."

There are extremes of course. All things being equal, we'd rather you not stack too many of any one spec. We just don't want to make it impossible to heal a raid if your group of friends just happens to have a lot of Holy paladins.

I agree about the current issues where if you're short a holy paladin in the raid, you're likely calling it off because the other classes think they can't heal it. (Which I view as untrue and think a disc priests can probably do. I've seen ours do it when I'm killed by the unexpected.) And I agree with the issues that, if there is more than 1 or 2 holy paladins in a raid, you end up not wanting more because of the lack of efficiency and ability to raise up multiple targets, aka raid healing.

However, that doesn't solve the issue that as the spell stands now (according to revealed information) the Holy Paladin will not be a very strong raid healer. With this being the only real option for us to heal (thanks to the 'nerf' via mana cost to our fastest spell), I see the continued issue of not bringing in additional paladins to heal because they will continue to be inefficient healers for the raid compared to Priests, Shaman, and Druids.

What I see is, with the changes to how much hp everyone will have (blizz has hinted they will be substantially larger), the amount of damage coming in (supposedly much more over time and less spikey), and the smaller mana pools -- I see the Paladin as becoming a weaker healing choice all around based upon the current information revealed. Granted a lot can still and may change, but right now, looking at the changes, I fail to see why you would wish to take paladins over other classes.

I mean, you can argue 'bring the player not the class' to the casual guild. But the guild pushing seriously, they'll take the classes that are certain to be the best for the job they are given. And the current models they're playing with for the Holy spec of Paladin, doesn't make me feel these changes will produce a better healer. A more rounded maybe, but weaker because of what they're planning to do to the class to 'balance' this new aspect.

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Catching up on the guild
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I've tried writing something up about the guild itself a few times in the last two months or so when I realized I just had not been writing anything in my blog. But usually about 2/3s of a written post I would stop and put it away. Most posts ended up ranting and angry about issues with the politics of things and I didn't think it served myself any good outside some possible immediate theory to organize some thoughts on things while writing it out.

Don't worry, the guild itself is going well! Anyone who has seen our website should be able to see we've downed the Lich King in 25man and 10man and are working on heroic modes as of last week. Where I think once we were a bit of a laughing stock as a guild in BC because of our guild name, we've gotten a bit of respect from folks. Yeah, we still get slammed for what the name can seem in today's American society, but overall, I think we're viewed more positively. Which is nice to see.

My goal of seeing the guild live through killing the Lich King has been fulfilled and overall I'm just proud of where the guild was back in the day when I was pushing to just see Karazhan, to how it was when I was made guild leader, to now.

Can I take credit for all of this? I don't think so. I think I may have heavily influenced and talked us into things that I felt we needed as the guild grew in BC and early Wrath. I think I may have cut and slashed things into how I agreed we needed to be mid Wrath. I think that pure stubbornness and passion kept us allive in later Wrath till now.

But I think the guild grew thanks the contributions of alot of the folks who were officers as well. I don't think people would have stayed in the guild had we continued our BC loot practices and the hard work of one of the former gm, Ericks and officer Triune to beat out a DKP system that the guild would appreciate and use helped that. Without the social networking of Cressida I don't think we would have gotten so many folks in early Wrath that helped get our foot in the raiding door and allow us to have full bunny runs.

I think we could have made some serious, harsh judgements at the time with a few people if not for Ghi, who's avoidance of drama and getting angry hadn't had him pushing us so heavily to be cautious. Without Sheika entering the officer core in early wrath, we probably never would have found the ability to push ourselves towards progression as we had. Without Sylvianne, I probably wouldn't have had the willingness to be guild leader when everything crashed in early Ulduar with the leadership then.

Between the officers I had them and myself, if none of us had been willing to pick up and move with things, perhaps the guild would have died. And in October when many of those officers picked up and moved on, I don't think the guild would have lived without the continued support of Sunastus, TheBigK and Streika who stuck with me. And with the return of Sylvianne and the addition of Gorio, we were able to get to the Lich King.

And the people. Where would this guild be without so many people who have been with us for so long. I hear alot of tales about large turnovers of players in other guilds. But by God's grace, I have been blessed with about 20 people who have come to and stayed with this guild for months. And it has allowed us to create a pretty good raiding team and environment. And a lot of these folks are also people who stuck with me and the guild in October when the leadership was shaken so severely. And they are the people who helped farm old content for gearing people, rather than jumping to other guilds where they might have been able to continue progression undisturbed.

You know, it was for these folks that I think I've pushed myself the most for. These people who showed this guild so much loyalty and willingness, that I promised myself back in October that I would stay. That I would keep with them until we downed the Lich King and finished this expansion. And two weeks ago we saw that come to fruition.