Seriously? (Holy Paladin Edition)
I was running a Warsong Gulch last night, when a teammate pointed out that the opposing team had five Paladins. You read that right: 5 Pallys. (For those who might not have had their first cup of coffee yet, let me remind you that in WSG, there are only 10 players on each team.)
So the Horde force rolls out, and it’s the same old song and dance you often get in WSG: both teams rush to get the flag, and then cleverly avoid each other as they race to return to their own flag room. This masterful exercise in futility is then followed by someone in BG chat asking how they got our flag, why you noobs didn’t defend/return the flag, sharing their insights as to how much this group sucks, and then announcing that he is taking upon himself the awesome responsibility of defending our FC (i.e. doing nothing).
I get the impression that it is going to be a turtle when the DPS I had been assisting head for our flag room, leaving me as the only player from either team at midfield. So I check my minimap and see that there are at least two intrepid souls from the Horde preparing to try and recapture our flag. I mount up and head to the Alliance Keep, arriving in time to join the lone survivor as we pursue the FC onto the roof of the Alliance Keep.
Since it’s a fail WSG, I am not surprised to learn that our flag recapture team consists of a Disc Priest (me) and a Holy Paladin.
FAIL
I figure that since both of us are really hard to kill, just maybe the Alliance will be stupid enough to try. By the time they have whittled down a Disc Priest and a Healadin, the opposing defenders should be pretty low on mana and be completely stripped of buffs, making them easy pickings for our DPS (who hopefully will have arrived by then).
With that plan in mind (mine at least, not too sure what the Healadin was thinking), we run onto the roof and engage the Alliance FC defenders.
Since it’s a fail WSG, I am not surprised to learn that the Alliance FC is a Prot Paladin, and that he is being defended by 3 Healadins.
That’s right: it’s Disc Priest/Healadin vs. Protadin/Healadin/Healadin/Healadin.
So fcuking epic.
So the dance begins and the Healadin and I get to work. None of the combatants have any significant offensive firepower to speak of, but there is plenty of stunning and bubbling and healing going on. I saw more wings in that fight than I did at the Victoria’s Secret fashion show.
After about 4 minutes we had managed to kill two of the Healadin defenders. (Amazingly, we applied enough offensive pressure that the FC had to run away from us. When he did, we were often able to get one of the defending Healadins to LOS the other defenders by going the opposite direction, giving us a chance to get a kill.)
Sadly, during that time none of our teammates joined our assault, and we eventually fell after the two Healadin defenders rezed and rejoined the fight, mostly due to our both running OOM.
While we were waiting for the Spirit Healer to do his thing, I see this nugget of wisdom come through BG chat from a Healadin on our team (but not the one who was fighting with me on the roof):
[B] [80:Holykarp-Icecrown:2]: vesser you need to learn to use something other the despell all the damn time
[B] [80:Vesserion:2]: there were 4 pallys . . .
[B] [80:Holykarp-Icecrown:2]: ya so mana drain them and they cant do a damn thing
Seriously?
First of all Holykarp, I was the number 2 healer in that BG, with 480k in healing done. That total doesn’t include any of my mitigation, which would easily have put me a couple hundred thousand over the top healer (the Healadin fighting with me on the roof did 512k). I appreciate that you were in third place with almost 400k healing, but I hardly think that I put up those kind of healing numbers by “despell all the damn time”. I was healing my ass off in that BG.
Second, I know you play a Paladin, so it’s probably unreasonable for me to expect you to know how to fight and defeat your own class, but the best way to weaken a Paladin is by stripping his buffs, and quickly removing the debuffs he places on his opponents.
Don’t believe me? Check out this great 3 part series by Zach Yonzon at WoW.com. The consistent theme running through the piece is STRIP THE PALADIN OF HIS BUFFS.
Sacred Shield, Divine Shield, Divine Plea, Avenging Wrath, Hand of Freedom, Hand of Protection, Blessing of Kings/Might/Sanctuary/Wisdom are all dispellable!
(Purging a Paladin’s target of debuffs is also a good way to limit the Paladin’s offensive output.)
Wouldn’t it be great if there were a spell in the game that could strip an opponent’s buffs and purge an ally’s debuffs at the same time? Wouldn’t it also be great if that spell was an area of effect spell that could hit multiple opponents and allies at the same time? Wouldn’t it also be great if you could talent that spell to have a cast time of less than 0.5 seconds?
Holykarp, allow me to introduce you to Mass Dispel.
Third, OMFG why didn’t I think of using Mana Burn? Oh wait, I actually did cast Mana Burn the few times that it was situationally appropriate.
Most of the time it wasn’t though, because, unlike you, I realized that 1) Mana Burn wasn’t going to be effective since I was facing three enemy healers who each had 20k+ mana pools, 2) that using a spell with a two second cast time in the presence of four opponents with instant cast interrupts was a bad idea, 3) that using a spell with a two second cast time in an area with plenty of LOS opportunities was a bad idea, 4) that using a spell that breaks most forms of CC when you are outnumbered two-to-one was a bad idea, and 5) that relying heavily on an offensive spell with a long cast time when you are a healer in a fight where you are outnumbered two-to-one by toons of the class with the best defensive cooldowns in the game was a bad fcuking idea!
Don’t get me wrong, if all three of the Alliance Healadins had shown any interest in standing in LOS and not interrupting me for the 12-20 seconds it would take me to cast the requisite 6-10 Mana Burns, to drain each of their mana pools, I would happily have employed your super amazingly awesome strategy.
Sadly, the Alliance Healadins didn’t feel like playing that game. Shocking isn’t it?
Any other strats you care to share with us Holykarp?
Seriously!
You sir, are a fcuking moron.
Vess
The Wanted Priest 
Leave a comment