“I know things about pigeons, Lilly.”

Here is a news flash for you all. Ready? The archmage is a support class.

I can sense the shock in you.

No, seriously. We are healers. We have damage spells, and it is a nerf to our healing to not use our damage spells, but we are healers. Healing on a character is much like bending notes on a guitar. Because you can bend notes on a guitar, you must bend notes on a guitar: explore its full potential, its full range of sound and power.

We don’t do a lot of damage; this is not an accident. We do heal, and thus we can heal other classes who can do a lot more damage than we can. We can actually heal many of them at once…and – as we heal them – they become an extension of us…their damage is our damage. They continue to do damage as we keep them breathing, much more damage than they would do if we weren’t healing them. All of that additional damage counts as ours. <3 Think about it.

I’ve seen a lot of chatter forums speaking about how the Archmage has already been pigeon-holed into the healer role. I mean, yes…we have. Because that’s what we are. However, we needn’t put up with anybody yelling at us for “DPSing when we should be healing” because – frankly – we have to dps in order to heal as effectively as possible. Sure, in the heat of combat, I have waited the full three seconds for my big heal to go off…but I much prefer throwing out DoTs and dropping Boon of Hysh as an instant. Our DPS could stand to be bolstered (as Dastion reports, our DPS is severely lacking end-game)…but if you – like me – count all the additional damage my heal targets get to do as my damage, then I can see why it’s so small. I’m ok with it, for now.

Meanwhile, my official recommendation is not to marry yourself to any point-by-point mastery spec…because that stuff is *always* changed and tweaked after launch. Go play with the Mastery calculator =) but don’t wed yourself to it just yet. I can’t back it up, but I do have a feeling it’s going to see substantial changes.

Also, incase you missed it, Felicia Day touched my blog. I’m like…a super blog now or something. I don’t even know. Maybe she’ll forsake WoW, join WAR, and join my guild. Hell, maybe I’ll finish my masters program in my first semester and learn tai chi and braille. Forget this. Four days until OB…what are you going to roll? =)

*NOTE: The biggest search term to find me is “archmagery wordpress”. The second biggest search term is “Rydia”. Well, now both parties get to find something here!

~ by thade on September 3, 2008.