Being a priest... A new priest

[Dark Orbit]

Hey, so I've decided I'd like to try out the priest class. The only problem I have is the fact that if you do anything wrong in an instance you will be the most hated person on the realm.

This is also a generalization on if you do anything wrong in WoW, with any class. How do you deal with it?

The thing is, I'm worried about doing anything in a party because if I make a mistake then everyone will think I'm a noob, then this will backfire on me later in my WoW life. Say if I wanted to get into a guild, and there's a guy who remembers me 74 levels back in deadmines when I made a mistake and says on the guild application forums "Ye I remember this guy, I went through deadmines with him, he was a bit sheet really." then another member of another raiding guild will see the post.. I then post on that guilds forum and the guy who read the bad thing about me sees my post and says "Well <insert name of raiding guild> guys said he was a bit sheet cause this one time he messed up in deadmines". (That bit might be hard to understand, just read through it a couple of times and you should get it)
Then just because I made that one mistake it will haunt me for the rest of my character's life, and so I have to go and make a new character.


This also goes into 'You pay to play a game which other people play for you'. What I mean by this is I pay to play a game in which other people hold the fate of my character in their hands.

I mean, are there seriously people who haven't made one mistake in their whole entine WoW life and therefore are able to get into the best guilds?

I really really want to play this game and be really good at it, but if I make one mistake then it's all for nothing.

Could you tell me if you've made a mistake and what the outcome of it was?

[semiiramiis]

Hey, so I've decided I'd like to try out the priest class. The only problem I have is the fact that if you do anything wrong in an instance you will be the most hated person on the realm.

I mean, are there seriously people who haven't made one mistake in their whole entine WoW life and therefore are able to get into the best guilds?

I really really want to play this game and be really good at it, but if I make one mistake then it's all for nothing.

Could you tell me if you've made a mistake and what the outcome of it was?


Every raider has made mistakes. I'm pretty sure all of us have achieved raid wiping glory in our mistakes. And we still raid. Quite bluntly, none of us are so #$%$#!!!! good at this game that we haven't made mistakes. Raiding guilds are used to wiping. We take our licks, pick up our people, and the better guilds try to make those people better. I've stood in death and decay. I've failed to turn and run at the right time. I've failed to bring down my Teron phantasms. I get lost in instances and need to be summoned. But that degree of lovely stupidity has not ruined my reputation as a dedicated healer who tries her best. Wipes happen. Stupidity happens. But if you don't try, you will never learn. Most good raiding guilds are forgiving and willing to work through your issues.... you have to remember that 25 people do not miraculously come into a guild already seamlessly working together. It takes time, work, and a willingness to let things go.
And yeah...about that Magtheridon wipe... Still sorry. :(

[Wintrow]

On top of what semii said. NOBODY will hold you accountable for what you have done 70 levels earlier. You're still learning the game AND your class at those levels.

On top of that, a class usually gets his best abilities at L40/L50. Often a certain spell (like a priests Prayer of Mending or a feral Druid's Mangle) was added in The Burning Crusade that changed a lot about how the class "works".

Don't worry, try everything, you'll get better as you go. We all did. Only if you're still crap at max level you should start worrying. And even then people understand that most level with a levelling spec and when they switch to raiding they need to get used to the change.

[Bancduese]

The only way to learn to play a class properly, in my never humble opinion, is to play the class. This includes making mistakes; every player, no matter how "l33t" they think they are, has made and will make more mistakes. Don't worry about it, tis all part of the learning process. The real mark of a good gamer versus a "wannabe" is the willingness to acknowledge and learn from a mistake.

Playing a priest as a healer gives you an unique role in the party and will give you plenty of chances to learn from mistakes--not only the ones you make, but the ones others make also. Mistakes such as rogues who think they are tanks, tanks who can't handle more than one mob at a time, DPS who think they can take down every mob all by themselves--oh but the list goes on and on.

Honestly, yes you will make mistakes as a new priest; but so what, acknowledge your mistakes to the group, recognize what you can do to improve, and then try to do better on the next effort. As Semiiramiis noted, "Every raider has made mistakes. I'm pretty sure all of us have achieved raid wiping glory in our mistakes. And we still raid."

(LOL, glad to see I am not the only one who still gets lost in instances. It is a standing joke in my main's guild that following Banc is a serious no-no if you want to get back anytime soon. Years ago now, and my guild leader still teases me about the time I led her off the side of a cliff while she was on follow...)

[Manaru]

We each learn from the mistakes we make.

"He who is without fault, cast the first stone"

I know there isn't a single player out there who hasn't made a mistake.
I know i certainly made a few.
Like it is said before, play your class and learn from mistakes.

[NickKish]

On top of everyone else's good advise, I recommend letting your Deadmines group know that you are new to healing (or healing as a priest). Tell them you'll do your best but you may make mistakes. If they're not noobs themselves, they will be cool with that, glad that you told them up front, and willing to work with you to help you out.

Another thing to do is read as much as you can about healing and healing as a priest so you'll at least have the knowledge of how to do it, if not the experience.

[Alaris Mystique]

Some people are jerks, and if you happen upon such a group... well deal with it and avoid them later.

Take advice, be humble, do your best...

Be nice to people, and hope they are nice back to you. And if they're not, well, they just lost a potentially helpful ally. As a healer, remember that you get a larger share of blame, but you're also more in demand than dps'ers.

[Cattleya]

As others have said, just let groups know that you are new to instances, and that if they have any advice, you would appreciate it. (People like to help others, and if they feel more like a mentor, they will be a lot more tolerant as you learn the ropes.) Just make sure that you are polite about accepting the advice, even the advice that is less than useful.

No one is going to care if you hit the wrong button in a deadmines run when you go to apply to a guild at 80. The only think that would hurt you from a run at level 20 when you get to 80 is if you were an incredible jerk to people.

I did have one case where I got someone I grouped briefly with for a quest in my 60s removed from a heroic run I was in at 70. (Being a healer has it's perks. :grin: ) So, what did this person do to stick out in my head as someone I never wanted to group with again? Well, I was out farming Cenarian Circle rep, and they needed to do a quest out there that they were honestly too low a level for. He asked me to group with him, and I said that I was just farming Twilight Texts. He said I could have any that dropped, and so I agreed. He then put the loot on free for all and proceeded to loot just about every body. As we proceeded with the quest, a world epic dropped. Guess who looted it without a word? At the end, he went to turn in his quests and I guess realized that the Twilight Texts were actually useful and then harassed me to sell him the ones that I had for about 1/10th the AH price. (Remember, the only reason I was out there in the first place was to farm those stupid texts for my own rep.)

Welcome to my "never group with again" list.

Now, this silly quest was given out way too low, and so he wasn't the only one who saw a level 60ish character nearby and asked for help. There was another case when someone asked for some help on the quest. He had some serious connection issues, and was apologetic about me having to wait for him to come back online. Before we could get to the third camp, he DCed and didn't come back. I added him to my friends and went back to my business. A couple hours later, I came back from a break from the game, and saw he was back online, and asked if he still needed help with the last part. He did, so I flew back out and we did it. At the end, he gave me some gold for my trouble. I had no expectation of payment, but it let me know that he appreciated that I took the time to help him.

Now this guy actually took up a lot more of my time than the first one, but he was nice, and respected the fact that I was taking the time to help him. When I would run into him at 70, I was always glad to heal a group for him.

The important thing to note about these stories are that I have no clue if they made mistakes while playing their characters or did things that caused me to have to scramble to keep us alive. I remember that the first guy acted like an entitled spoiled brat, and that the second guy was nice and pleasant to be around. As an old guild member use to say, "you can teach someone to play, but you can't fix a jerk." (Well actually, he didn't use the word jerk, but you get the idea. :laugh: )

[waflob]

Also, just to chip in with something that hasn't been mentioned yet ...

Almost certainly, if you're levelling a healer in Deadmines, most of the other players will be levelling an alt there. The chances are also good that their main is a healer class. The advice and tips will be very useful to you, but as mentioned, don't be afraid to be up front and honest about the situation. It will be appreciated and probably (hopefully?) lead to good advice and understanding.

[rgirty]

I wouldn't really advise healing in low level instances at all, it isn't an accurate representation of what you will see at later levels.

Instead, spend your time questing/leveling and once you reach an appropriate level choose the right add ons (healbot and or grid/quartz power aurus classic etc etc) then head into AV and test it out. AV is a decent representation of a raid setting, while at the same time giving you the least pressure to check and see how things work. Test your abilities etc etc...

In the past I used AV to test all new addnons, spells etc... haven't needed to do that in a while.

[Ashenshugra]

As hard as it is to find healers and tanks (at least on my server), I dont think people are going to hold it against you if you make mistakes. They will be grateful to have a healer and get the buffs. In most cases that tanks die and they say "I got no heals" its the tank that ran outa line of sight, pulled while you were drinking, pulled too many mobs, etc. Also Ive got a few 80 raiders and I play with the same people over and over. We have a system, routine, route, whatever you wanna call it. Its easy and we never die, wipe or anything (at least on most content), Now I sometimes get into groups where we are all strangers well its not so easy then.