Blood Pact: Mistakes other people make
by Dominic Hobbs 
Jan 25th 2010 at 4:00PM
While I try not to read Arcane Brilliance if I can help it, I did notice that the one on January 16th had a lot of comments and an intriguing title. While I didn't expect Mr. Pants to actually start flaming mages I did hold out some hope for all those comments. Anyway, the piece inspired me to write a similar article. Not so much because there are a lot of warlocks that need improvement but rather they need a place to point others, so they may learn how to play with a lock.
So here's a short list of things I see in groups and raids that could be improved and make the whole experience a lot smoother.
Resource management
As locks we are masters of managing our health and mana. While we have limited ability to fill up the green one, this should be no issue when we have a healer around. The problem is that so often the healer doesn't realize that his healing you after Life Tap is a direct link to his being able to get his gear (...emblems or whatever). You are there to kill the stuff for him, he is there to let you do that faster and with less dying. It gets so bad that sometimes we have to actually ask the healer to heal us! This sorry state of affairs has gone on so long that there are even locks that extol the virtues of self healing abilities and Dark Pact simply because they make it easier on the healer.
Healers, please listen. We locks want to kill all the nasty things between you and the goal, be they bosses, trash or that creepy looking spider that startled you earlier on. We will happily do this and never shirk on the dealing of the damage. Please remember us in your healing and think about how we want to use the health bar for our mana. We get through mana so much faster than you (seriously locks, if you have never played a healer you wouldn't believe how long they can go without drinking and they have no Life tap at all!), and while you regenerate it passively all the time we have to tap. Throw us a HoT after every pull and we'll just tap for the duration, or be ready to throw a heal before each pull as we tap between fights.
After all that though, there are some things that us locks can do to make things easier on our more healing-shy healers.
- On long fights (bosses) tap little and often, this plays well with GaLT anyway but also means that you will probably either heal yourself up or pick up incidental heals from the likes of PoM, CoH, CH etc.
- Don't tap away half your life just before the next trash pull. Make sure you have what you need but if you go into the fight with a big deficit then you not only distract the healer from the tank (which may be nasty) but also force that healer into a big(ish) heal at a time when the tank may not have much threat on all the mobs (especially any ranged mobs).
- If you just want to proc GoLT then use a rank one Life Tap.
- Make sure you can see HoTs when they are on you, if you notice one then you can consider using it to top up your mana as well as your health.
- If you use addons such as PitBull you can set this to show any heals incoming. If it is going to have some overhealing to it then you might want to get a quick Life Tap in before it lands. The healer is only going to be frustrated by the lock that taps just after they topped them off.
Pet inclusion
Pets are part of the team. Pretty much every pet or minion has some synergy with their master and as such the better one performs, the better both perform. When a minion or pet dies a significant portion of what that character has invested in, has been removed from the fight. Healers, for the love of God, have pets on your healing bars and show them a modicum of care. I'm not suggesting that any pet gets heals in favour of a player (well, maybe a mage) and especially the tank, but to disregard them completely is crazy. Minions these days are pretty damn hard to kill (probably because Blizz knows they are important and can't persuade healers to care) but that doesn't mean they are invulnerable. On the other hand, they are very easy to heal, with all that mitigation something as simple as a disc bubble lasts them for ages and a small heal will normally fill up any health bar.
And buffs. Dear lord how many times have I entered an instance after a wipe and every buffing class rattles through their buffs while I summon my minion. Yes it is good to get back into the fight faster but you wouldn't give the mage a lower rank spell than everyone else just because it saved you a few seconds, would you? That's what you do to pet classes by not buffing their pets. Demonology locks make great use of minion buffs with talents like Demonic Knowledge. So to all buffing classes, don't forget the pets.Again, there are things we locks can do to help here:
- If you have the chance to summon your pet before you get to the place where buffs are cast then do so. Even the most fastidious pet-buffer can easily forget how many pets there should be before he can start. No good in TotC, but most other places you can summon as soon as you step through the instance portal then move on for buffs.
- Tell your imp to stand away from you (and anyone else) if the fight includes targeted AoE attacks (such as Northrend Beasts and Professor Putricide) so they don't end up standing in nasty stuff for ages. Just not so far from healers that they can't reach them.
- Switch off Phase Shift. Seriously, it was standard form in TBC to have your imp act as a portable and immune mana-battery but these days he is (or should be) actively taking a part in combat. Having Phase Shift on auto-cast is just a waste of his mana and means he is safe when he is out of combat and is completely impervious to getting buffs. Switch it off.
Target selection
Ok, this is a tough one for the PUGs that many of us are doing these days but it is one of the easiest ways to reduce the "WTF factor". Let the tank mark up, if that means he has to become the group leader then so be it. Tanks, mark the target you want us to make dead first. Tanks will often bemoan the difficulty of AoE tanking and blame the AoEing DPS for pulling aggro. This is all very well if you want the DPS to focus one target but if you don't tell them this, then you'll likely get the DPS doing whatever delivers the most damage per second, that's what they are there for. Slap a skull on any mob and most DPS will be itching to see how fast they can kill it, affording you a little time to throw in some AoE moves on the rest. Threat generation in Wrath is crazy and while AoE threat-gen may feel weak in comparison these abilities are tuned to be effective enough for burst damage classes to wail on even with every buff n the game.
What can we locks do to help here?
- If the leader marks something to die then kill it first. The tank should be generating their threat hard and fast on that target so go for it. If you are asked to nuke skull then don't AoE simply because there are more than two mobs within 20 yards of each other.
- Get a feel for your tank's abilities. While it's the tank's fault if they're about as threatening as a sock puppet it's still the DPSers fault if they pull aggro. Use a threat meter and watch it. If you are constantly well behind the tank then you know you can open up with every can of whoop-ass in the larder.
- Know how to ramp up damage. This might be by starting with slow DoTs (CoA for example) or even waiting a little while. If your tank needs time to generate threat then give it to them; it's frustrating but better than paying repair costs.
- Be aware of threat ranges. In the Blood Pact about voidwalkers we talked about threat mechanics; remember that you can have more threat before taking aggro if you stay at range.
- Know when you have aggro. It may sound silly but many people don't even know if they pull aggro. Addons like PitBull again make this very easy with the banzai module but there are many, many ways to know and this is something not to be ignorant of.
- Run towards the tank. If you do get aggro, then running from the fight and leading the mob away from your tank like some Benny Hill sketch will probably result in the mob chasing you till he catches you and kills you. if you run towards the tank then they have a better chance of getting it off you.
- Shatter. I know it uses a shard and has a cooldown but don't be that guy that never uses his cooldowns in case one day he needs them. If you rise high on threat then dump it if you want to carry on blasting. If you get aggro then get rid of it.
- Don't always just assist the tank. This is kinda opposed to what Pants said but he made the assumption that the tank was not swapping targets much or at all. It is true that what the tank is looking at as he starts the fight is probably what he wants dead first, this isn't sure enough to work with. Having the focus frame and seeing their target is good but a decent tank will be tabbing away and making sure none of the mobs he is controlling runs off and splats their healer (yes, they care more about the healer than you). Get used to knowing which mob is next to die (assuming you aren't AoEing) and work on that. Often it's better to reduce the enemies number one at a time than keeping them all alive until the end, even if that makes the fight shorter. A mob on half health hurts just as much as one on full health (normally).
Blood Pact is a weekly column detailing DoTs, demons, and all the dastardly deeds done by Warlocks. If you're curious about what's new with Locks since the last patch, check out WoW.com's guide to patch 3.3 or find out what's upcoming in Cataclysm from the BlizzCon 2009: Class Discussion Panel.Filed under: Warlock, Raiding, (Warlock) Blood Pact
Reader Comments (Page 6 of 8)
DrowVampyre Jan 25th 2010 6:42PM
As someone who used to play a lock as a main and now mostly plays a priest, allow me to give other locks some advice from someone who knows what they're going through and what the healers are too.
- Use life tap, but use it intelligently. I know this is your mana regen method. It's fine, great even, but you have to think about it. Don't use it when heavy damage is about to hit, or has just hit. Don't use it to get back to full when you're empty on mana. Tap when you're at 60% or so, so that a single tap will bring you back to almost full.
- Don't wait until everyone has finished drinking/rezzing/healing up to tap after pulls. Don't tap 20 seconds after a pull right before we get to the next one. Tap as soon as a pull is over so that your healer can get you back to full along with everyone else BEFORE they drink and refill their mana.
- If you're affliction, tap right after you cast haunt so that it will heal you back to full when it hits. This doesn't really apply to destro or demo, of course.
- If the fight is healing intensive, tap, then death coil (assuming the enemy is immune to fear...which every boss should be). If you need to tap again and it's STILL in a healing-intensive phase, suck it up, lose some DPS, and drain life. Yes, your lifetap allows you to keep DPSing. Yes, healers should be aware of this and help out with heals. No, you still don't get priority over the tank.
- As the author said, summon your pet before buffs, and never ever ever put phase shift on auto cast - manually cast it when it's called for, then manually dismiss it as soon as possible.
- Watch your pet, and move it if you need to. I know, it's a pain, but make a macro or something to sert your pet to passive to pull it out of AoE problems. I'll heal your pet when possible (especially if it's a melee pet - AoE heals are almost certain to hit it now and then) but you still need to be aware of it and save it if it's not getting heals - that means a player needs those heals, and players take precedence.
- If I don't get to your pet in time, health funnel. You, being a player, will take precedence over the pet, and you can drain life to heal yourself back if you need to because the tank is taking so much damage that I can't spare a heal for you. If the pet still dies, drop an infernal in, or a fel domination summon, or whatever. Your pet is, in the end, your responsibility, and while I'll heal it when possible, ultimately you need to take care of it if I'm too busy with other players.
- Keep your healer soulstoned. If your SS is about to run out and you're heading into a fight, go ahead and create a new one, and be ready to toss it up mid-combat if things go south.
- Be courteous to your healer. This goes for all classes really, but don't ever, ever demand a heal. We're trying to heal everyone, I promise, but sometimes we have to play triage and, unfortunately, tanks and other healers take priority. Being a lock, you have the tools to heal yourself if we're not getting to you - at least give them an attempt. Sure, it'll hurt your DPS, but a lot less than laying dead on the ground will. Use death coil, use drain life, use haunt, use your healthstones, use your potions. If you die (and didn't get one shot by newly spawned adds or something) without even attempting to heal yourself, you have no right to whine about it to your healers - they know that keeping you alive improves their chances of victory, and they'll try to heal you, but sometimes things just go wrong.
splodesondeath Jan 25th 2010 6:56PM
I haven't leveled a lock to the endgame, but I'd think that if a mage can hit 30,000 mana buffed up, then a lock can get pretty high too (mages do have a few talents that make intellect more attractive though).
So why are these warlocks bitching that they aren't getting heals? Just because the healer isn't going to step in immediately once you start slowly killing yourself so you can pewpew more doesn't mean that you can just be a complete dick to him or her. The healer has a player that they are supposed to keep fully alive all the time, that's the tank.
If you're knocking yourself down to 10% of your health after every pull, then you don't deserve to get those heals, just eat (or drink in the first place for that matter).
Please be conscious that you aren't the only group member, and Life Tap Responsibly.
Additionally, I feel I should voice my feelings on pets. First off, pets are annoying. There's nothing more frustrating than a ghoul breaking a shackle, a cat with growl on, a felguard making the pulls. However, from a glimpse at a warlock's talents, there are few specs that demand your pet to be getting hit by stuff, so why do you need to get heals on them? Blizzard has added impressive avoidance benefits to pets recently, so if your pet is dying, then you should check your own stuff before you go complaining to the healer.
P.S. I have noticed in hindsight that you warlocks do have less mana regeneration than a mage or a shadow priest, such as no Mana Gems, Evocation, Vampiric Touch, etc. (although Destro gets Replenishment), but I do feel that Mr. Hobbs has voiced this article with the idea that healers have endless mana pools and the warlock is their second priority always.
Possum Jan 25th 2010 7:16PM
Mr. Hobbs has voiced this article with the idea that healers have endless mana pools and the warlock is their second priority always.
Dominic is actually advocating sensible Life tapping. Tossing hots onto a warlock isn't really a problem for healers (or it shouldn't be) but having to pull out heavy heals every pull shouldn't be necessary. Dominic seems to be in favor of the former not the latter.
On pets: I'm not an expert on warlock pets but I know hunter pets are a big part of a player's dps, they get heals but only so long as the players are safe. Basically:
Priority:
1. Tank
2. Healer
3. DPS taking damage
4. Life tapping Warlock/Pets (Not because Pets and Warlocks are equal in value but because the Warlock should at least be watching their own health and not overtap)
5. People asking for heals (seriously, your health bars are a large part of my screen, I can see you're low on health, if I'm not healing you there is a reason, i haven't wandered off to get a coke, note that this includes Warlocks who have tapped down to 10% while I'm drinking, sit there for 10 seconds waiting for me to finish, then demand a heal)
Possum Jan 25th 2010 7:17PM
Man I wish you could edit comments, the first sentence is a quote of the poster above.
Sleutel Jan 25th 2010 7:04PM
"Don't always just assist the tank. This is kinda opposed to what Pants said but he made the assumption that the tank was not swapping targets much or at all."
It's amazing how many people don't understand this. Number-one side of a bad (well, okay, inexperienced) tank is one that (a) doesn't mark targets but (b) assumes that you'll just /assist them to focus-fire something down. No, if you don't mark a target, that means that you are confident in your ability to hold the entire pack, assuming a reasonable amount of lead time to get your AOE down (Consecrate, TC, whatever). If I'm DPSing, I'm going to assume that you're at least as smart a tank as I am, and the mob you have targeted when you first pull a pack isn't the same mob you'll have targeted five seconds later.
Possum Jan 25th 2010 7:24PM
Yup, and it is incredibly frustrating that it is tanks who seem to believe this the most "just assist me, it's not hard!
How about if you mark mate, it's not hard!
*sigh* no? Then I guess I'll just guess which target you want me to attack, you're going to have to live with that.
dippymister Jan 25th 2010 7:10PM
The only thing that annoys me as a healer with locks is after I rez them/others. I'll get everyone healed up to full health (which usually winds up in me being almost out of mana if I've just been rezzed too), and then right when everyones topped off and I go to drink the lock is back down to 1/4 or less health and is asking for heals. Seriously? Just drink like the rest of us.
tomteboda Jan 25th 2010 7:53PM
I think you hit something big on the head here. Group wipe, everyone waits for the healer to run back, the healer drinks, resses everyone, drinks again.. while everyone stands around at 20% health and then the healer heals everyone.. drinks, and the lock lifetaps and says "heal plz". If I had a dollar for every time I'd seen this, or something similar happen....
Dominic Hobbs Jan 25th 2010 8:04PM
I can't speak for all locks but it is common after a wipe for a lock to have to do all his pre-fight stuff asap, this can include:
- Fel Armor
- New weapon stone
- Summon minion
- Soulwell
- Wardrobe (seriously!)
Locks have high-cost spells and comparatively small mana pools with next to no regen. In exchange they get Life Tap. Doing all the above not only takes a lot of mana (more than you zone back with) but also a lot of time (even if people click quickly). Tapping for mana to start all that means you can get on with it quickly but often means low health while the healer is drinking (healer gets frustrated right there). Once that lot has been done most people are ready and have buffed and drank, but the lock has just blown their mana, hence a second round of tapping. We could drink at that point but then you have to wait for us. A heal costs very little mana and is quickly regenerated, hence this is more efficient.
As I say, I can't speak for *all* locks but I think many are doing this but getting tagged as being "lazy" or "rude".
Kylenne Jan 25th 2010 8:59PM
They're getting tagged as lazy and rude because it IS lazy and rude. I guess you think every other class's buffs are birthed from sunshine and happy thoughts.
Just sit and drink with the rest of the class. Even with the sad mana pools of the average lock, going through your post-wipe recovery is not going to cost you exorbitant amounts of mana. You will have enough to get through the next encounter.
Diadan Jan 25th 2010 8:03PM
I have run my share of instances as lock and prot warrior, so i too have seen both aspects as dps and tank.
Healers have a stressful enough job trying to keep players alive, a pet is like having a nice sauce to go with your fries, although useful when controlling to do extra dps, abilities and destroying totems while your lock is channeling etc. which are often missed. It is not integral to raid or instance success, a lock shouldn't demand pet
healing and the pet should recieve the lowest priority.
Playing as a lock, I life tap as much as the next and being a ranged spellcaster, am afforded the luxury of always being aware of my health, mana, aggro and survivability due to various addons. I try and sustain myself by whatever means is available to me (bandages, drainlife etc.) until the next mb is available and not behaving like a compulsive gambler with a fat paycheck, lifetapping away. Healers shouldn't feel offended by this, as locks burn through mana at an alarming rate. Being generally far back and relativily out of harms way, compared to the melee tank and dps, who are recieving AOE and melee damage (some without without any form of self healing rogues etc.) I feel demand a higher amount of attention although healing me after lifetapping is nice it shouldn't be demanded but this doesn't mean you should be stingy on the healing after encounters either.
With regards to the lock and certain tanks, tab devastating does take time as warrior tanks are also trying to spam shockwaves, thunderclaps, taunts, and keeping our eyes on the mob and healer etc so try not to target mobs out of the tanks range. With engagements in general, be aware that every engagement is a race for aggro with a tank,
regaining aggro is hard once its been lost, ultimately dps, healing and tanking are all just as important so try and be more flexible and aware of situations, mistakes happen, attacking wrong targets, mobs breaking aggro etc. take a bullet for the healer if you must.
unfixed Jan 25th 2010 8:47PM
as much as i dislike those cheating mages... i also hate whiney complaining healers.
HeartStrikeMOAR Jan 25th 2010 8:53PM
I have a holy paladin, and I do understand the lock's need to LT. However, what trouble's me is when I do randoms, some locks take me for granted. I mean, during a boss fight sometimes the lock would use his most expensive spells and then LT the fuck out of himself to like 10% of his health. And after I nearly go oom just to keep them up, some will LT the fuck himself again while during a mana break.
LT when you need to but damn, I know you need mana as much as I do, but please understand that heals needs mana too. ;_;
MightyMuffin Jan 25th 2010 9:03PM
"Don't always just assist the tank. This is kinda opposed to what Pants said but he *made the assumption that the tank was not swapping targets much or at all*. It is true that what the tank is looking at as he starts the fight is probably what he wants dead first, this isn't sure enough to work with. Having the focus frame and seeing their target is good but *a decent tank will be tabbing away and making sure none of the mobs he is controlling runs off and splats their healer* (yes, they care more about the healer than you). Get used to knowing which mob is next to die (assuming you aren't AoEing) and work on that. Often it's better to reduce the enemies number one at a time than keeping them all alive until the end, even if that makes the fight shorter. A mob on half health hurts just as much as one on full health"
If only tanks admitted to this. I know there are several good tanks that actually do this, and I know even more that do this without caring what you start dpsing on, because the trash will die easily anyway. However, it seems that a lot of tanks are having a...disagreement with what dps should do about assisting tanks or not.
Here is the solution, tanks who might be reading this Warlock comment section:
1.) If you want dps to assist you, mark the first target. If you don't have leader, ask to have it to mark. Yes, it isn't hard for people to figure out target of target, but for some reason...most good dps, when they see a skull, realize "HEY! That means he's wanting it dead first! I may have known which mob to kill first already, but he has given me a visual aid! Thank you tank with a name!"
2.) If you are a good tank and are agreeable to dps either AoEing or you know that no matter what the dps does, you'll keep aggro, then just run through it. In fact, chain pull if your healer is able to handle it (geared or not, some healers just can't handle chain pulling yet). Also another suggestion for this thing is that a little communication at the beginning might help in alleviating the issues between tank and dps.
As someone who has pugged and done guild/friend runs, number 1 is the BEST way to groups that either have a few undergeard dps or have trigger happy DPS (which is most likely every single PuG a tank has been in). There are dps out there that will follow your lead, but you gotta give us visuals or give some communication. A picture is a great way to communicate, you don't even have to type (except if you don't have party leader, but this usually doesn't take long). Honestly, just say something or use the marks. It will most likely stop this whole "DPS FF" or "TANKS HOLD MOAR AGGRO" threads that appear throughout the internet. Most people aren't psychics. If it causes your run to be 2 minutes longer because you put a mark over trash, I think it'll be fine.
Of course, the likelihood that this will be read by the thousands (or hundreds, depending on how many tanks you believe is in your battlegroup and how long pugs take to form) is unlikely, but would be nice if everyone learned that saying more than hi could fix the issue. But meh, my thoughts.
Nagi Jan 25th 2010 9:07PM
With my warlock toons (yes, I have two, one on the Horde on one server and another on the Alliance on another server), I actually take a fairly different tack from...well...more than half of this column. As an Affliction warlock, or even as an accomplished Destro with the Soul Leech talent, you are an impressively self-healing entity. Typically, as long as you're dishing out good DPS, you're healing yourself for as much or more than you're Life Tapping for. I actually get a little frustrated with healers that obsessively heal me after every Life Tap because frankly, I'm spamming Haunt as soon as it's off cooldown for a reason, and that reason is I DON'T want you wasting mana on my Life Taps unless I take a big hit from the mob right after I do one. Haunt heals my Life Tap almost exactly, and Corruption's Siphon Life ability handles any discrepancies. Heal me when the MOB damages me, not when I damage me unless the mob just adds extra pain when I do it. We're a self-healing class for a reason.
As for pets, warlocks are incredibly lucky in that it takes almost no time and effort at all for us to heal our pets. If I just take two seconds out of DPSing to Health Funnel my minion when his or her health is low, it's back to full (and realistically, I haven't even stopped DPSing because we're the DOT CLASS, and only the worst scrub of a warlock doesn't have some form of those ticking at all times!). That spell is absolutely absurd in how powerful it is; just a couple ticks and your pet goes from 2% health to full, and the element that damages you as you heal practically doesn't exist anymore by the time you're high-level. And if you're truly lazy and can't be bothered to Health Funnel, all it takes is two talent points in Fel Synergy. Then you're healing your pet for a large portion of the damage you do, and the whole concept of warlock self-healing increasing proportionally with how much DPS you do just rears its big, not-so-ugly head once again. C'mon, HUNTERS don't even have it this good (or at least they didn't as recently as 3.1-ish when I last played mine), so we should be using our luck with regard to pet healing for all it's worth!
Really, I've had phenomenal success with this class by NOT horribly inconveniencing the healer at every turn. We're self-sufficient and we should damn well be using that, not pretending like we're some feeble little special case that needs more healing than everyone else, because we DON'T! About the only parts of this article I can honestly, firmly agree with are the use of a Level 1 Life Tap macro to activate Glyph of Life Tap and the portion on target selection. The rest just paints us in a bad light as heal panhandlers when that should be the LAST thing a good warlock is.
Nagi Jan 25th 2010 9:35PM
Reuben got it, nail, hammer, and head.
In between pulls, I ALWAYS Life Tap to full mana and then eat, because food restores health faster than drink restores mana (or at least it seems that way when watching those little green and blue bars refill). The only exception, and the only time I'll even THINK to ask for a heal between pulls is when the tank is impatient and already in the next room of the dungeon/raid/whatever. So if I do it, don't get mad at me. Tell the tank to sit on his effing hands for a second.
But, then again, by the time we are in that situation, you're hating the tank as much as I am and probably saying much nastier things to him or her anyway. :)
Nagi Jan 25th 2010 9:42PM
...what the-?
Bugger all, this was supposed to be in reply to http://www.wow.com/2010/01/25/blood-pact-mistakes-other-people-make/comments/24967440/ , not its own separate comment. My bad.
Kamaris Jan 25th 2010 10:25PM
I think this article is ridiculous. As a Destro lock with a couple of points in Fel Synergy, I have no trouble keeping my pet alive. My attacks heal it through any AoE troubles (even though it already has that avoidance ability) and a quick health funnel will bring it back up to full health within three seconds. Does it affect my dps? No, because the imp being alive is a major part of that.
I have always been told that Hunters are responsible for keeping their pets alive (not during boss fights obviously) and that Warlocks are responsible for keeping their demons alive. I've always taken this to heart, and on that note I feel responsible for keeping myself alive. If the healer won't heal me after a life tap, so what? We have drain life, death coil, and an endless supply of healthstones.
Warlocks are very very capable classes. We are our own batteries, we have crowd control to keep any stray mobs off us should our soulshatter cooldown be down, and those who have specced a certain way even have an AoE stun.
I'd say that anyone complaining about needing heals for their pet/for themselves after a life tap has either a really really bad healer or needs to learn to play their class.
Jerry Jan 25th 2010 10:49PM
I play a raiding healer as a main. I am absolutely stunned when I come across fellow healers who refuse to heal pets, or worse don't even display them on HB or Grid. What is up with you? It isn't that hard to toss a couple small heals to the pets during a fight and that extra DPS might just help you beat an enrage timer. It will definitely make the experience more enjoyable for the person whose pet you just healed, and it will keep you busy and make you a better healer if you continue the practice.
Another thing, if a lock needs mana in my raid, I tell them to tap away. Actually, I don't even tell them to, I just expect them to do it. That is the mechanic of the class. Obviously don't life tap if you are low on health or just before a big pull... but if you are close to topped off and need some juice to blow through a boss fight then go for it. If you are getting ready for the next pull and I'm just standing there go for it.
I'm a big proponent of everyone pushing for their personal best. Me healing you a little extra so you do a little extra DPS is exactly the kind of synergy I enjoy.
Jagoex Jan 25th 2010 11:10PM
Speaking of mistakes people make, someone should have a talk with the Warlock in the image regarding his Mark of Sanctification use. Upgraded chest/helm > upgraded shoulders! =P
Good article, Dom. ;)