The Stories of O

On Tuesday, my guild successfully downed the Heroic Madness of Deathwing encounter on 25m and thus wrapped up our time raiding in this expansion.  We spent Thursday night in Heroic Firelands and cleared up to Heroic Ragnaros, but decided that we didnt want to spend all of tonight wiping on that (which we probably would end up doing because that encounter is still really tough), so we decided to take tonight off.  Next week will be spent getting people their achievements for the Glory of the Dragon Soul Raider achievement and then we are officially done until Mists of Pandaria comes out.This is the first time that I have ever killed every boss in the current expansion before the next one comes out.

While I was not one of the first few to receive a Beta invite, I did pay close attention to all of the information that was trickling down through Twitter, MMO Champion, and WoW Insider.  I figured I would start compiling all of the priest based information and share my thoughts on what we do know about various things that could affect us, so far.  As with anything that comes out of the Beta, this information could change at any time. Lets begin! Glyphs*  Glyph of Circle Healing – Your Circle of Healing spell heals 1 additional target, but its mana cost is increased by 35%. Currently, the glyph only increases the cost of Circle of Healing by 20%.  While this may sound like the new version of the glyph is going to make Circle of Healing even more costly, it actually makes sense when you consider how much larger our mana pools in the next expansion are going to be – what with the staggering amounts of Intellect that we can expect from even green and blue quality gear. *  Glyph of Dispel Magic – Your Dispel Magic spell also damages your target for ___ Holy damage when you successfully dispel a magical effect.The current incarnation of this glyph heals a friendly target for 3% of their health when you successfully dispel a magic effect from them.  This new version seems to be a bit more aggressive, as it will only see any use against hostile targets, and not friendly ones.  I wonder if this glyph implies that we may be doing some offensive dispelling in a PVE setting, or if this is just something that priests who PVP may get some use out of.*  Glyph of Fortitude – Reduces the mana cost of your Power Word: Fortitude spell by 90%.Currently, Glyph of Fortitude reduces the cost of your Power Word: Fortitude by 50%.  This glyph is usually taken simply for lack of any other minor glyphs to take, and it can help reduce the cost of having to re-buff someone if they come back from receiving a battle res. *  Glyph of Holy Fire – Your Holy Fire spell is now instant.This is great news for Atonement priests, for whom Holy Fire is a staple in their rotation.  The faster you can get Holy Fire out, the faster you can dish out some more Smite, or focus on healing the tank or the raid. *  Glyph of Inner Sanctum – Spell damage taken is reduced by 6% while within Inner Fire, and the movement speed bonus of your Inner Will is increased by 6%.This glyph does exactly what the talent called Inner Sanctum in the discipline tree does right now, which leads me to believe that this talent may be on the chopping block, and replaced with this.  I consider Inner Sanctum to be a staple for anyone doing Heroic raid content, so this is probably something I would suggest that you pick up when that time comes. *  Glyph of Leap of Faith – Your Leap of Faith spell now also clears all movement impairing effects from your target.Leap of Faith is already useful for pulling people out of things that they shouldnt be standing in or for pulling people close to you who need to get somewhere fast.  With this glyph, it also means that Leap of Faith can help pull people to you who may not have been able to get to you, otherwise.  This may see some use in a PVE setting, but I think it will see a lot more use in PVP. *  Glyph of Lightwell – Increases the total amount of charges of your Lightwell by 2.This glyph could be considered a bit of a nerf, as the current version gives you 5 additional charges, instead of just 2.  Assuming that Lightwell comes with the same amount of charges (10), this means your raid will only have access to 12 charges, instead of 15.  I dont think its going to cause a dramatic loss of healing or affect us in a huge way, but it is certainly a noticeable change, and one that I am not too pleased about.*  Glyph of Penance – Reduces the mana cost of Penance by 20%, but increases the cooldown by 2 seconds.Currently, Glyph of Penance reduces the cooldown of Penance by 2 seconds.  The updated version serves to do the opposite – it increases the cooldown by the same duration of time, but also reduces the cost by 20%. While I dont have too much experience with discipline, I do know that Penance was never something that anyone really spammed, or used on cooldown.  It is best used in situations where someone needs a fast, emergency heal, or for when you need to build stacks of Grace on someone (usually the tank).  I dont see this glyph really changing this in any real way.*  Glyph of Renew – Your Renew heals for 33% more each time it heals, but its duration is reduced by ___ seconds.The way Renew works right now is that it generates one tick of healing every 3 seconds (or 4 ticks) for 12 seconds, but you can gain extra ticks depending on how much Haste you have.  At 12.50% Haste, you can receive one extra tick from Renew (5).  A second tick can be gained by reaching 37.50% Haste (6).  The duration of the spell itself doesnt change, just how many ticks are included in it.Lets say for example that this new version of the glyph will shave off 3 seconds from the duration of Renew.  That essentially means that Renew will generate one tick of healing every 3 seconds (or 3 ticks) for 9 seconds, with the extra ticks still becoming available once you reach certain Haste breakpoints. The current incarnation of this glyph increases your overall healing from Renew by 10%.  Lets use the amount stated in the tooltip for Renew to do some math here. Right now:1224 healing  x 10% = 122.41224 + 122 = 13461346 healing  x 4 ticks = 5384Now lets add this all up, assuming that we were using the newer version of the glyph.1224 healing x 33% = 403.91224 + 403 = 16271627 healing x 3 ticks = 4881So assuming that Renew works the way that it does in Cataclysm, this appears to me like the glyph will result in a loss of healing – not an increase.  Factoring in Divine Touch could close the gap, but it still seems like an awful lot of work just to net the same results from a spell that we shouldnt be relying on too heavily to begin with.*  Glyph of Spirit of Redemption – Increases the duration of Spirit of Redemption by 10 seconds.In Mists of Pandaria, Spirit of Redemption is looking like it is going to become a passive ability or talent that every holy priest will end up having.  My thought is if they are going to basically make us take it that they can throw in a little incentive to make it more enjoyable for us.  This glyph could serve to do just that.There is also another glyph floating around with an unfinished name that indicates we may be receiving some kind of instant cast heal that can only be used while under the effects of Spirit of Redemption.  Im excited to see what that turns out like, if it even makes it to Live at all. EnchantsThe Heartsong v.

Have you ever had one of those moments where you take a second to look around and you think to yourself  How did I get here?  I have those moments more often than most people do, but I felt compelled to answer the question a bit more seriously after some other bloggers started a trend of writing posts detailing where their characters came from compared to where they are now. I wasnt quite sure how I wanted to tackle this one.  The character that I play now is not the one I started out with, so I wasnt sure if I should talk about the history that I have with my current main, or my previous one, or even the one before that.  This post could be as long or as short as I wanted to make it.  In the end, I decided that I wanted to go all the way back – back to the beginning.  How did I get here?  Let me show you.It all started on a little realm called Thunderhorn, which is actually still around, and is considered to be one of the oldest realms in the game.  I was an Alliance healing priest named Kemintiri, in a guild called Chosen of Valhalla, which was run by Shoryl.  I was so green.  I didnt know how guild politics worked.  I didnt know anything about what it meant to be a raider and how to handle yourself as such.  I knew nothing. Thunderhorn was grossly overpopulated – so much so that before Burning Crusade was released Blizzard was thinking of either splitting the realm in two (so there would be a Thunderhorn 1 and a Thunderhorn 2), or they were going to offer free realm transfers to lower population realms.  The guild that I was in was part of an alliance of guilds and they all agreed that the free realm transfer was the better option, rather than staying on Thunderhorn and leaving fate to decide which half of the server we ended up on.  As it turns out, the split never took place, so we really had nothing to worry about.Shortly after we arrived on Zangarmarsh, I was kicked out of the guild.  I was pretty distraught over what happened and what I perceived to be a betrayal from people that I thought I could trust or who I thought were my friends.  I really wanted nothing to do with the Alliance anymore at that point.  I decided to create a Horde character, but I couldnt come up with a really good name for my character.  Codi was my roommate at the time and she had an encyclopedia of gods and goddesses that I used to borrow from her frequently. I remember browsing through the pages and the name Ouranos jumped out at me.  It was unlike anything I had ever heard of before.  Since I was thinking of making a Tauren druid anyway, the name seemed kind of appropriate.  Codi loved the idea and told me I should name my character that, so I did.  I had an issue with how the Tauren females looked, so I opted to make a Tauren male instead.  I thought it would be kind of neat to have such a masculine looking character and be someone seemingly so girly behind the screen.  I really got a kick out of that dichotomy. So I leveled Ouranos as a balance druid with some friends of mine and we even created our own little guild to call our own.  Once we hit level 70, the urge to raid came back strong.  We took the guild apart and joined a guild called Resilience, which was run by a rogue named Ricen.  Little did I know that the real person running the show was a warlock named Raaziel, who paid for the website, the Vent server, managed the DKP, ran the raids, etc.  I also didnt know that Raaziel and I would eventually end up dating and that I would be part of the reason the guild fell apart.Raaziel really didnt want to be running the show.  I grew tired of hearing him complain about things that he really didnt want to do and so I politely suggested that maybe he should do something that does make him happy for a change or maybe even take a break.  He went one step further – he quit the game completely.  Without having him on board to run the show, the guild slowly descended into chaos.  Raaziel and I broke up a short time later and the guild eventually split into two – half the guild chose to stay with Resilience to try and make the best of it and the other half formed a guild called Ens Entium.One night, while partying in Halaa with some friends, I ran into a boisterious warlock named Joecmel, who was the de facto raid leader for a guild called Big Tymers.  Joe and I hit it off right away and he was amazed that I was guildless and not doing more with myself and my character.  Within days I had joined the ranks of Big Tymers as a raiding moonkin and he and I started to get to know one another.  Before we knew it we were dating and even making plans to move in together.  This of course didnt sit too well with the guild.I was constantly fighting off accusations that I was being carried or that I was using  Joe for status, or gold, or a raid spot.  He was coming off winning the Gladiator title during the first ever Arena season, so everyone on the realm and even some people outside of our realm knew who he was.  He was this sort of celebrity and I was a total nobody.  We became affectionately known as O and Joe, and before we knew it everybody seemed to be involved in our business.  It got worse when I actually did move out of state to be with him.We decided to leave Big Tymers together and threw our lot in with a guild called Scurvy Dogs, a pirate themed raiding guild, where you would literally get greeted with a Yarr every time you logged in.  This is where I got my first real taste of serious raiding and I loved every minute of it, with the exception of one little thing.  It was a labor of love to be a moonkin back then and you either played one because you truly loved to do it or because you were a masochist.  I felt like I had taken being a moonkin as far as I could go, or like I was starting to plateau in that role.  We had just started to break into Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep when a couple of resto druids on our roster had decided to take an indefinite break from the game.  This left a huge gap in our healing line up that was going to need to be filled.  I felt like I needed a challenge, so I offered to respec and try out resto, to see if I could potentially fill that void.  My guild master, who was also named Void, took me on a Karazhan run to sort of test my mettle.  I two healed it with a holy paladin and I had never been more scared in my entire life.  Did I forget to mention that Void was wearing a wedding dress the entire time?  Petrified.From that point on I was a raiding resto druid and things continued to progress nicely until Joe and I fell apart.  I used to say that we were the Ben and J-Lo of our realm and everyone wanted to know what happened and had started to choose sides.  I was miserable – crying on Voids shoulder on Vent because I had nobody else to talk to and it all got to be too much.  I decided that Joe could have custody of the guild, while I went looking for more elsewhere.  Shortly before Wrath of the Lich King came out, I joined a guild called Invalid Target back on Thunderhorn.Things with Invalid Target started out well enough.  I was able to finally clear Zulaman (which was a very difficult 10m back then) and get an Amani War Bear.  I was able to see progression fights at a steady pace.  I was happy.  At least until Ulduar came out and the controversy over who was going to be awarded the legendary healing mace began.  There had been a lot of talk on our forums about who was going to get Valanyr and the officers still hadnt made a decision by the time we pulled Flame Leviathan for the first time.  I guess they thought that the odds of getting a fragment our first night on the first boss on Normal mode were rather slim.  They were wrong.The officers were frantically trying to figure out what to do, and so they just decided to have all of the healers roll on it.  I rolled a 98 and was to become the first recipient of Valanyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings.  Needless to say the other healers were not pleased at this and things only got worse from there.  One healer, in particular, felt very slighted and it didnt he
lp that she was friends in real life with most of the guild.  Things got ugly fast.  People were making comics about me on the boards.  I was being goaded into fights in guild chat.  It was not pleasant.I decided to leave and joined the top guild on our server (Horde side, at least), a guild called Lobster Brood.  This guild had a great reputation and they really believed in me as a healer and as a person and I was very excited to be a part of their ranks.  It wasnt until after I joined that I got to see the inner workings of the guild and I didnt really like what I saw. The guild had an unusually high turnover rate and I felt like we were in this endless cycle of gearing up people, losing them, and then having to recruit more people that we would have to gear and train.  We could have gone a lot further, progression wise if we werent constantly losing people and then replacing them.  I started to resent having to repeatedly sit for new people again and again, just because we either couldnt keep people on board, or because of a string of bad luck with recruitment. After that, I moved the now female Oestrus (who had her name and gender changed shortly after Naxxramas was released) to Khaz Modan, and joined a guild called Retribution.  The guild was serious about progression, but still home to a likeable cast of characters, including an openly gay GM, and a fantastic resto shaman named Natoro.  Seeing as how Natoro was also our healing lead, he was the one that I had the most contact with during my trial period, and he and I hit it off right away.  He began to court me and the feelings became mutual.  Before I knew it we were dating and he was flying in to see me over Labor Day weekend of that year.Natoro and I didnt make it much past that weekend, and so I left Retribution for a brief stint on the Hydraxis realm, only to return to Zangarmarsh.  Joecmel and I had long since made amends after our relationship ended and he was now running a guild called Cause for Concern.  Although the 25m raids werent very successful, he had his own 10m group and asked if I wouldnt mind being a part of it.  I got most of my Heroic experience in Icecrown Citadel with these folks and it was a very enjoyable experience for me.  I had started to take on some recruitment duties for the main raid and I was happy.  Or at least I thought I was.The truth is that I missed a certain standard of raiding that just doesnt exist on Zangarmarsh.  It never has and it probably never will.  Zangarmarsh tends to exist in a bubble and what they consider raiding is very different from what I consider it to be.  I had tried to take more of a hands on approach to replace the bad players by handling the recruitment myself and it just wasnt working.  I started to really resent the people I was raiding with who werent trying as hard to do well and I also started to resent the officers and Joe, who seemed to stand by and let it all happen.  The guild had literally become a cause for concern. I left Cause for Concern for a guild called Scientific Method on Maelstrom.  With their help, I was able to finally complete my Valanyr and clear up to Heroic LK 25.  I didnt really have much in common with them on a personal level, but I certainly enjoyed them on a professional level.  They got shit done.  Thats all I really wanted at the time.  Around this time I had gotten my hands on a Beta key for Cataclysm and I was very unhappy with the direction that Blizzard seemed to be taking resto druids.  I was pretty sure that I wanted to re-roll for the next expansion, but I wasnt sure if Scientific Method would have room for me as the class that I wanted to play next.I had begun to get to know Kurnmogh through my early adventures in the blogosphere and she was attempting to breathe new life into her former guild, called Apotheosis.  This guild sounded like a dream come true to me.  I really wanted to be in a guild that would allow me to see progression, but with people that I could genuinely like, and not just have to stomach in order to get what I want.  I moved my former alt priest (now my new main, Obscene) to Eldrethalas, turned her into a Dwarf female, and spent the rest of Wrath and my time in the Cataclysm Beta trying to master my new class. I enjoyed being in Apotheosis immensely – from the leveling process, to the process of gearing up through Heroics, and then our first raids together.  Where I started to take issue with certain things was on a social or administrative level.  I felt like there were certain situations that I was bringing to peoples attention or that others were creating for themselves that could have been handled proactively and wouldnt have turned into the firestorms that they had become.  They were molehills that were allowed to become mountains, so to speak.  There were situations that I felt I had to handle myself, because Kurn or the other officers werent doing anything about them.  This ended up being my downfall.Eventually I had gone too far and I had received word that the officers basically didnt know what to do with me, that they didnt know if I really wanted to even be in the guild anymore (based on my behavior), and that they would need to sort of deliberate on what to do next.  I felt like I had been backed into a corner and I didnt like the prospect of waiting for other people to decide my fate.  I felt like I needed to take the power back and that if I was going to be made to leave a guild that I was going to do it on my terms.  Before the officers could make their decision, I told Kurn that I was going to leave. I definitely could have handled that situation better.  I dont know what the officers would have decided, had I stuck around to see the final outcome.  What I do know is that I still consider Apotheosis to be the guild equivalent of the one that got away.  I was never happier than when I was raiding with my two best friends, Dahrla and Hestiah.  I enjoyed Kurns long winded and yet necessary explanations and posts on the forums.  Those things became a distant second to the burnout that I was starting to feel, which would lead to my most dramatic outburst ever.I had been in Occasional Excellence on Queldorei (now the home of both Dahrla and Ophelie) for about two months when we came up against the wall known as Heroic Nefarian.  I was tired of caring more about the fight than other people did.  I was tired of wiping due to human error – not even due to Nefarian himself.  I felt like there was a lot of fuckery going on in the raid and like that focus should have been put into our performance, not on Heavy Leather Balls and the like.  A couple people thought they were being funny and amusing and I wasnt having it.  So I left the raid. I was given the opportunity to stay in the guild, if I would offer up some form of apology, and I refused to do such a thing.  I felt like I was owed an apology for the poor performances of others and that this was again a situation where people saw something like this coming and they did nothing to prevent it.  I made it clear that I was annoyed, that I didnt enjoy the Leather Balls, and people still kept throwing them.  I told them they would be sorry and I wanted to make very sure that I stuck to my guns on that.  Was it the right thing to do?  Of course not.  Would I do it again?  No.  At the time I wasnt thinking about all of that.Somehow my priest (now known as Oenomel) made her way into Serious Casual on Malganis, which marked my return to the Horde side of things.  Firelands had just been released and things were not looking good for holy priests.  I was very clear during the application process about the fact that I was predominantly holy and I assumed that the raid knew what they were in for.  I remember being told my first night there to Go disc or go home.  Eventually I was given an ultimatum by the healing lead at the time that if I didnt go discipline when asked that I could be benched – possibly even permanently.  To me this was the final straw.It was never being discipline, in and of itself that I had an issue
with.  I took issue with the fact that I wasnt given a say in when I got to go discipline.  I was never trusted to make that call for myself.  It was basically Youre going to do this and youre going to like it, and I wanted no part of it.  After certain people in the raid found out that I had blogged about this there was a heap of drama and it all became too much to bear.  I was pretty sure that I was done with World of Warcraft for good and threw my lot in with some friends who were playing Rift.  This lasted for about four months, or until shortly after BlizzCon.BlizzCon made me realize how much I missed the community and how much I missed having people with a similar interest to discuss said interest with.  I met a few folks from Big Crits there and was encouraged to apply for their more casual run, known as the Da Crew run.  I was told that they already had 2 10m runs under the Da Crew banner and that they were looking to recruit for a third one.  This sounded like a good fit to me.  I had been gone long enough where I didnt have the history or experience to get back in with a more serious group and I wasnt even sure I wanted something that serious to begin with.  I figured this would give me an opportunity to sort of get my feet wet again and to figure out where I wanted to go from here.Big Crits ended up being nothing like I imagined.  If I had to describe my time in Big Crits, I would probably compare it to sitting at the dinner table with a really dysfunctional family.  You know – one of those families where everything looks perfect, but dads really an alcoholic, and moms having an affair with the tennis instructor, the daughter is secretly a lesbian, and the son is a pyromaniac.  But nobody talks about it – and as long as you dont talk about certain things, and you dont acknowledge that theyre actually happening you will get along just fine.  So there were a lot of issues that kept coming up that nobody wanted to deal with and because I did (although maybe not in the best way possible) I got a lot of flak for it. There were other issues, with regards to personality conflicts and such, but it all led to the same conclusion.  It just didnt work out.  I took about two weeks off from raiding after I left Big Crits and had a one week stint in a guild that a friend recommended, which then led me to my current guild.  I enjoy the people I raid with now.  I enjoy the progression that Im seeing.  I like that they trust me to make my own decisions, with regards to my character and my class.  I feel good.  I cant say that Ill be here forever, but I also cant say that Im looking to leave them anytime soon.  Im just taking it one day at a time.I have certainly come a long way and I have learned a lot in the five years or so that I have been playing this game.  There are things that I would do differently, if I could, and there are things that I would probably have never done - if I knew then what I know now.  Its been a wild ride and I am proud to say that Im not going anywhere anytime soon. I really do believe that you cant know where you are going until you have known where you have been, and so I encourage anyone reading this to really take a good look at what brought you to where you are now.  Relive the highs and the lows.  Remember the friends (and the enemies) that you have made along the way.  They helped make everything you are today possible.  Dont ever forget that.  I know I sure wont.

Whenever I write a post about being a healing priest, or more specifically a holy priest, I try really hard not to tell people what to do.  I try not to make it seem as if there is only one right way to do things.  Most of the advice that I give is meant to be taken as a suggestion or as something that I know has worked for me and that could possibly work for you.

It has been one hell of a year here at The Stories Of O, and I figured now would be the perfect time to take a look back at the previous years worth of entries and single out the 10 which I am the most proud of.  Some of these posts were funny and perhaps even heartwarming.

Im not proud of the time that I have spent in Cataclysm.Im not proud of the fact that I went through three different guilds, to get to the one that Im currently in and that I dont know how long I will remain with this one, either.  Im not proud of the fact that theres a huge three month gap in my activity, due to burnout, which led me to try other games and to pursue other avenues.

This weekend, I was one of the 26,000 people in Anaheim, California to attend BlizzCon 2011.  I was there bright and early on Friday morning, for the opening ceremonies and for the preview panel that came shortly after that.  As expected, the trailer for the next expansion, Mists of Pandaria was released and there was much discussion afterwards about upcoming changes to our characters and many of the systems or mechanics, at large.I was particularly interested in the proposed changes to the talent system.

Start your weekend off right by listening to a podcast that I was recently asked to be a guest host on.  The show is called The Holy Shatt podcast and its hosted by a friend of mine who I met through my time on The Sundering podcast.  You can check out the episode here:http://raleighite.com/2011/08/holy-shatt-episode-7-o-i-guess-i-should-record-a-podcast/I dont think Ive ever laughed this much or this hard on a podcast before.  Travis was a lot of fun to record with and we were both extremely candid, regarding our thoughts on why Blizzard is losing subscribers, how to properly say my name, and how to best handle stressful situations in the Dungeon Finder.If youre looking for an episode with a lot of laughs and some heartfelt opinions on the current state of things in WoW and Rift, take a listen and have a good time along with us!Have a great weekend!

Need something to listen to while waiting for the patch to download on your painfully slow Internet connection?  Something to help you pass the time while you farm Firelands trash for rep?  Well, have no fear because Episode 5 of the Double O Podcast is here!http://thedoubleopodcast.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/episode-5-what-a-long-strange-trip-its-been/In this episode, Ophelie and I take a step back from the normal routine of having a guest host and sticking to a theme.  Its just the two of us and we spend most of the episode relaxing and having a chat about her tour through Canada and the U.S.

The other day, I was listening to a podcast that I did with Kurn which was released slightly before opening night of Cataclysm.  It was fun to compare the changes that we were predicting would happen and the ones that actually took place and have stuck.  I would like to think we were pretty spot on about most things, but one change that we and most healers felt pretty strongly about never seemed to take hold.  That change was the advent of a new way of thinking and healing called triage healing.The concept of triage healing was pretty simple.  Players would need to get used to the idea that not everyone would need to be topped off at all times and we would have to get comfortable seeing ourselves sitting at 75% health or even 50% health at any given time.  This would lead to healers not having to feel like healing was such a reflexive action or like Whack a Mole, as some have described and it would lead to DPS having to play smarter, knowing they wouldnt be allowed to continue making stupid mistakes and expecting their healer to heal them through it.  These changes were made to not only change how healing is done, but also because there were sizeable changes being made to how mana works in the game and how healers would need to start managing their resources again.Cut to today and it feels like that idea is all but gone, except for 5 man Heroics.  Healers are still racing to be the first to top off that errant ret paladins health or that entire group they have been assigned.  I know triage healing was a controversial idea and not every healer reacted positively to it, but I assumed we would still see some evidence of it being practiced.  Where did it go?  Why did the idea not take off, the way some of us had hoped? Lets go over some of the reasons why triage healing didnt seem to last too long, with the help of some friends and fellow bloggers that I posed these questions to.Reason #1:  GearBorsk was the first one to respond, stating he felt that Tier 11 gear was causing raiders to possibly outgear current content already.  This is a valid argument, one that was supported by the Every little bit helps mindset that motivated people to take the time to better themselves in smaller ways to prepare themselves for 5 man Heroics and beyond.  I know when I started Heroics, I had the attitude of Its just a bracer enchant.  What does it matter?  Slapping that extra spirit on my bracers made my mana regen better, so I could make it through healing those initial Heroic boss fights much better. People were finding that even the most basic upgrades were setting themselves worlds apart from the competition.  Compare your mana and health that you have now from what it was when you first hit 85 and were running regular dungeons.  You will find that you and your stats have come a long way.  You can probably afford to go all out a little more and even more so with a full spread of raid buffs.  This could be one reason that players are healing more, because higher stats on gear have given them the means to do so.Reason #2:  Boss fight mechanicsLissanna suggested that one reason triage healing may have lost some allure was because of the burst AOE damage that goes out on a lot of boss fights in beginning raid content.  This is true, beginning with what are considered entry level bosses, such as Magmaw or Halfus Wyrmbreaker.  Granted, there is damage on both fights that can be avoided, but there is also a lot of damage that everyone will just have to eat and that will need to be healed through.  Much of this damage could easily kill someone, if theyre not healed up to full or close to it.  Cooldowns like healthstones, health pots or Lightwell charges can only do so much.  They are still going to need heals from you and probably more than the triage style of healing would normally allow or suggest.Reason #3:  More healersIts a pretty common reaction when someone is taking damage to want to heal them.  If the other healers in your raid are anything like you, they will probably have that same reaction.  So that person sitting at 35% is probably going to attract the attention of other healers and your carefully thought out heal could end up being just one of a slew of heals suddenly thrown at them.  Its not that you werent practicing the triage style of healing, but that everyone else was, too and you all reacted at the same time.  I wouldnt say this is a bad thing, but having more heals to go around will almost certainly lead to nobody staying below a certain threshold of health, unless your healers are asked to keep it that way or youre on a particularly taxing encounter.These are just some of the reasons why triage healing may not have grown in popularity as an acceptable style of healing.  What do you think?  Do you still practice triage healing?  If you dont, why did you stop?