First Aid, What's the Point?

[bubbalobo]

So I was looking at first aid and i had been doing it as I got materials as I looted and I'm up to skill level 100 now.

But i was looking at future recipies and it doesn't seem worthwile at all. It looked like a mageweave bandage was the only thing out there and that is just heal 800 health.

Is there other stuff out there or am i looking at this wrong?

[poopsmcgee]

yes there are much higher bandages than mageweave and it is very worthwhile. even as a priest i keep some bandages onhand to heal peoples when i'm low on mana.

[Imraath]

What's the point? It keeps you alive.

[Beruen]

Correct. First Aid skills are hard to track because they go in phases. 1-150, the recipes are from a trainer, then you go through a period where the recipes come from books, then a period when they come from a non-trainer NPC, and then, when you reach the outlands, they're back to books.

Heavy runecloth bandages tend to work well until you reach the outlands. They heal for 2000 health, which is nice, but is a drop in the bucket when you get to the outlands, since quite a bit of gear comes with large amounts of stamina. At that point, you're looking at netherweave and heavy netherweave bandages, at 2800 and 3400 health respectively. Which will still be half your health bar if that when you hit 70, but it's a lot better than nothing.

[dexterhall]

You should always max out first aid, and it's easier for you to level it as you go along, rather than having to go back and farm low level mobs for cloth later on.

[IRPander]

If you ever get into grinding as a rogue, hunter, warrioir, mage, or warlock.

Since these are nonhealing classes, you can half your downtime from eating.

[PlayThemAll]

yes there are much higher bandages than mageweave and it is very worthwhile. even as a priest i keep some bandages onhand to heal peoples when i'm low on mana.

Same here, I play a Pally and I use them frequently. They will keep you running longer if you are a non healing class and they will help conserve mana if you are a healing class. In my opinion if is the "must have" profession in the game regardless of class.

On my toons that did tailoring, I just kept tailoring a step behind the first aid. i.e. When First aid moved on to wool, I leveled tailoring on cloth, and so on.

[Orbstu]

With my lvl 61 Shammy curently grinding in outland (Zangamarsh) I find that by mixing the odd banadage along with my healing I never go OOM and hence have absolutely no downtime.

[bubbalobo]

Thanks guys! I'll keep on leveling as I go along.

[Kerosene]

my 39 lock has heavy runecloth in BGs and 2000 hp = amazing healing at that level :)

[Eonblue]

Yeah its a necessity to max it out, when you are raiding at level 70, you cant expect the healers to keep you up all the time if you are not in a tanking role. Bandages provide a nice substitue while waiting for your potion cooldown to expire in high damage fights :)

[snowieken]

Especially if you have the ability to stun, it's a great skill to use even in combat. Even stunning for just 2 or 3 seconds and then being able to heal for just two ticks can be a real life saver.

[Beruen]

True, snowieken. I can't remember which key was the hotkey for gouge on my rogue (been a long time since I played that character), but I remember that the fact that shift plus that same key being my best bandages was a deliberate decision :grin:

[Lunestone]

my 39 lock has heavy runecloth in BGs and 2000 hp = amazing healing at that level :)

I don't think anyone has mentioned that you can use bandages in combat as well... if you can get a few seconds away you can totally get your health up but there have been times i've used it when i'm about to die and so is the beast i'm killing... I use a bandages and can get a little bump in my health to make it thru.

[Terrorbl]

Vendor value.

It varies depending on the bandage, but on my server, the vend value of converting the fabric to a bandage (and then vendoring the bandage) is equal to or greater than what the stack of fabric would sell for in AH. Some of the bandages are worth twice what the fabric is worth when converted to a bandage.

Granted, there are A LOT of reasons you wouldn't want to this, for me it wasn't worth the time to get the fabric back to the AH when I could convert it, sell to the vendor, and get right back out there. One other thing, check the price of the single vs the "Heavy ....", some of heavies are only worth 1 1/2 what you could vend two singles for.

For healing I always keep a stack of 20 in my inventory, whether to use on myself or another player.

[snowieken]

Good point Terror. Cloth is easy enough to get, and I too keep a stack of 20 bandages in my inventory. As more bandages would just be overkill and a waste of space, I usually make bandages to sell to vendors as well - they are nice money indeed.

[moopy]

Hell, on those occasions where you're running on fumes, even as a healer, they can be a lifesaver. I've been known to bandage myself, get a tick or so of 5 second regen, and then continue healing the tank. Heck, in desperate situations, I have been known to bandage people in battle too- has been a wipesaver, especially in tandem with Gift of the Naaru.

Add to that the fact that cloth is free, so it's always worth having a stack of 20 of the best bandages that you can make. Having the ability to bandage in a profligate manner is also lovely in BGs.

[swaldman]

Hell, on those occasions where you're running on fumes, even as a healer, they can be a lifesaver. I've been known to bandage myself, get a tick or so of 5 second regen, and then continue healing the tank. Heck, in desperate situations, I have been known to bandage people in battle too- has been a wipesaver, especially in tandem with Gift of the Naaru.


/me remembers life as a paladin at Shazaar (or whatever his name is).

AoE precludes melee. Spend half the fight spell-locked. Bandage time!

[moopy]

Zaktly. Had a sticky moment on Murmur the other day (healing for my GM's druid alt, who'd never tanked SL before, and was a bit nervous) and Murmur touched me in bad places, silence ahoy. Tank was having some issues with timing avoiding the booms (and didn't really have enough HP/def to survive the melee after taking the boom before heals landed- staying in was not an option), so when he ran out, I did indeed BANDAGE TEH BAER. Gave us enough breathing space :)

[Ashenshugra]

Bandaging is fantastic. Its faster than eating. You can bandage someone else, saves mana for healers gives you something to do with the mats you harvest, stacks in lots of 20. Its basically a requirement for group play.
A little off topic, but everyone should work fist aid, fishing and cooking up. Cooking , like first aid can be worked up as you loot mats from dead mobs. Cooking allows you to make food and some of the food gives you a 30 min buff (like +8 stamina). Fishing goes along with cooking since many of the receips call for xx type fish. Fishing is a bore imo. I only do it when Im at a dock waiting for a boat to come and Im at like 225, but first aid and cooking are both maxed out.

[poopsmcgee]

i normally advise people to just worry with first aid while they are leveling instead of auctioning off all the cloth they loot. then one day when they want to work on fishing do that, then work cooking up with all the fishes they catch. works out well.

[Gormidan]

"What's the point?"

I'm guessing you're playing a character that can heal. If you play a warlock, rogue, warrior, mage, or a hunter then you will appreciate first aid. I level it up for my characters that can heal as well. Just the other day I had my paladin doing the Stranglethorn fever quest with a mage. Used mageweave bandage, flash of light, lay on hands and a superior health potion throughout the fight. The mage very nearly died and I bubbled with nearly 100 hp left, but we managed to kill Mokk and all of the other apes. With my warlock, I like to cast shadow bolts and replace mana with life tap then spend a few seconds bandaging. This *feels* like to quickest way to kill things and has the least amount of downtime.

[Kyras]

Get some corn syrup and you're set for Halloween.