nyquist

Background: I wouldn't consider myself or my raid alliance 'hard-core' but we have recently cleared VP and take down a little ToMC (first two names, haven't recently tried anything else).
I used to be MT shaman (as a mystic) with the defiler as either the OT shaman or merely a dps grp healer. The MT group never had any issues with staying alive.


Okay, so this week they decided to switch it up and put me in a melee dps group and took the defiler as the MT shaman. I know that defilers are known for their 'better' healing spells than mystics, but I really enjoyed being in the MT grp. (I use 'better' loosly here)

I find myself consistently bored...I don't get to heal much (other than my grp wards and spot heal/cure)...and my debuffs last long enough to where I don't do anything but sit and wait for my CA's to refresh...

My questions are:

Are my fellow mystics out there MT or other shammies? and do you enjoy being OT/dps grped? Also, how do you stay occupied???

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-- nyquist --


(Downloadin' like a BOSS)

Saracen

I'm an OT mystic and I love it. The only down side to being ot shaman is that your group will change considerably more and so you might need to switch gear a bit to maintain things like 100% heal crit and enough power regen etc.

tank and spank names are kind of boring froma healing perspective but mystics have the option to pump dps up quite high with the groups they generally are in with templar dirge coercer berserker etc

When you move on to the more challenging encounters you will start enjoying yourself. They will generally involve some pretty heavy offtanking and/or a lot of cross raid healing of MT and curse curing :P

for now with the names you are on I would practice maintaining debuffs on bosses while cycling your single target spells on the MT and keeping your group ward up and curing everything instantly.

If you are feeling up to it you can then start timing spells with auto attacks and casting CA's for maxing raid dps.

If this defiler proves to be unable to handle it. just show him or her up by asking to be switched in. Skill comes way above class tbh.

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Arcanemundi

I can relate. A while ago I used to be a MT Shaman too, but now I have adjusted into playing a different role in raid. Defilers and Mystics are more similiiar than alike, and I have never bought into the argument that Defilers are superior to Mystics in healing abilities. There are differences in the classes that give Defilers a slight edge over Mystics like their ability to break stuns and their set gear is better, but the Templar should be able to handle stuns with their Steadfast ability, and once you get good enough gear the gap is almost non-existent. I have occasionally had to stand in for the MT Defiler in a couple raiding guilds I have been in, and my heal parses in the MT group are almost exactly the same as the Defilers parses on other nights, and we didn't wipe.

When you get to the harder mobs like Zarrakon, Gynok, Ultracypse, and Mynzak you might be challenged more. However, I have noticed some severe nerfing lately, so even those mobs seem gimpish now. Some Mystics that get the boot and wind up in the OT or other groups prefer to delve into DPS, others perfect their skill at cross raid curing and healing. Mystics are so flexible in our abilities that switching between DPS and heals is very quick and easy, and once you get the gear might intrigue you more.

KFizzle

I always preferred to be in the MT group for 'stability' of what your doing, because in the OT group or MT group your role changes so often (forget fight to fight, it changes sometimes DURING the fight) , but mostly i would focus on my debuffs and dps if your group is fine.

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Malachani

I am almost exclusively in one of our two dps groups. I can and have solo healed the group through nearly every encounter in game (Anashti, Zarra and Tyrannus of our current farm nameds are the only ones I usually get a second healer for) and I have found myself enjoying the place I am. The other mystic (who is our OT healer) and I have a very strong working relationship and don't even really have to talk about things like Bolster cycles (only one or two places we ever use that) or where I should and shouldn't be applying out of group heals. Our MT defiler, though, is VERY strong, so I have no qualms about letting him have the spot. I've filled in for him though, without much issue, even before I got some of my better pieces of gear.

You just have to learn to adjust to your role. Being in the MT group doesn't mean you are a better healer. You can have alot of fun in the dps/OT groups, especially if you tend to have the same people quite regularly (like my dps group almost always has the same troub, one of two illys, and the same sorc in every raid. We have dubbed ourselves 'Group Win' lol) and it isn't all about dps. I had one of the other healers, who is normally solo healing the other dps group, get put into my group the other day, and he told me that he didn't get many single-target cures off because I was so on top of all of them.

Just try to not take it personally being moved out of the MT group, because honestly, I much prefer a dps/OT group to the MT group. With the MT group, its always the same! In the other groups, things change quite often and it requires alot of flexibility and adjustments.

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nyquist

Thanks for the input!

I use profit UI (for now) so I've been timing my auto attacks trying to keep as much DPS as possible; also, I have accumulated a LOT of DPS gear from various shard runs/WoE...
Though I have been keeping my hopes high for a swap back in the MT group, if they don't slot me back this weekend I'm gonna start coming to the raid in DPS spec and wearing my WoE DPS set gear + DA/DPS mod jewelry so I'll see how that goes...

He is not a ~bad~ defiler...but he's definitely not amazing (or as good as me )

I really liked the MT group setup and peeps that were always in it...tho I will try out DPSing and maybe I'll like it and end up staying there

And this seems to fix my 'being-bored' issue

All these infoz make me wonder why I was so reluctant to join the OT/DPS groups sounds like I'm about to have LOADS of fun!

__________________
-- nyquist --


(Downloadin' like a BOSS)

KFizzle

lol yeah dude, your gunna want macro's for offensive, defensive gear, you might want to change your AA spec (iwould have a different spec in the MT group than OT or DPS), plus your gunna get better at DPSing, because alot of fights you'll have a two hander and be doin dips (but be ready to switch weps back in with one of those macro's and switch to your heal stance, shame with that long ass cooldown).

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nyquist

WAAAAY ahead of you :P

Have my mirror already set up; tho not a big difference between my two specs. For DPS I have: the parry/dps in mystic line; offensive stances/pet stance and pet dps increase in TSO; also did the DPS/DA/Sheild efficiency in Mystic&Shammy lines; whereas in heal I did more debuffing and RoA.

Have the following armor specs: Heal, Melee DPS, Casting speed, and Heat/Magic resist

Do need to make some macros for stances tho...so I can change in combat w/out having to open my knowledge book

And I HAVE to find a better two hander...using the leviathan spine from Chelsith still!!!! (\aITEM -1938030881 1168278821:Colcatoth, Spine of the Leviathan\/a absolutely HORRIBLE imo, but only 2h I have...)

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-- nyquist --


(Downloadin' like a BOSS)

KFizzle

The way you explained your AA Specs, i have no idea what your talking about really...

Honestly, Parry?!??! WTF? Shield Efficiency? Do you mean the Stamina Line? And Pet DPS increase?!? Do you mean those uh 3 'other stances' (i use the debuff casting speed one unless i'm straight DPSing then its the Double Attack).

As for a two hander, uh ... i wish i could give more advice other than beg to farm Pawbuster, thats what i did :-)

I dont make macros for my stances i just have the buttons hotbarred, it just sucks that its not like instant change like fighter stances.

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nyquist

Yeah, Shield Efficiency is what I remembered from STA line (but it also added DPS or DA or something good) and the "Weapon Mastery" line in the Mystic tree has parry (which is that stat I remebered off the top of my head but wasn't the determining factor obviously :P ) but also adds crushing and pets DPS I think...as well as the 3 'other' stances and "Ancient Pedigree" in the TSO line.

And that is what I meant by macros, hot-barred :D

Edit: clarity

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-- nyquist --


(Downloadin' like a BOSS)