Given that some people were so horrified by my last admission of stupidity that they've stopped reading my blog, I almost didn't post this. But then I remembered this isn't a blog about making me look good. There would be a lot more epeen and loot linking if I was out to impress.
No, I can assume that anybody looking for nothing but a marginally competent wow player to learn from has already gone elsewhere. And if that sounds vaguely like an insult to you, dear readers, I can only protest that it is not. I know you are all better than me, I just hope you enjoy the tales of my incompetence with a fatherly smile instead of a sneer.
Yesterday, I learned something. The story doesn't paint me in a good light, but it might — just — be news to one or two of you too, so I share it in good faith.
This is a post about my initiation to RankWatch, an addon that looks for players in your party who are using downranked spells and whispers them about it. You already see where this is headed, don't you?
I had caught the odd reference to the addon before, but didn't think it applied to me. After all, I haven't downranked since before they changed the mana costs of spells, and only then when healing.
So there I was in Heroic Pit of Saron on my resto shammy, bravely trying to heal a good-but-undergeared tank and agrowhore dps who didn't care who the mob was hitting when I get a whisper from one of the dps. Apparently I'd just used a downranked chain heal. And then there was another for a downranked healing wave. And then lesser healing wave!
Clearly, I was horrified. I had to halt the group while I scrolled back up and read the reams of info from RankWatch. It turns out there's a bug with duel spec toolbars where the rank of a spell on your unlearned toolbar (the spec you are not currently using) does not update automatically when you learn a new rank of the spell. So if, like me, you levelled with a secondary healing spec but tended to visit the trainer in your dps spec, there's a very real possibility this could apply to you too.
What a really stupid bug, right? I mean, who ever checks their spell ranks? Clearly not me, but if someone felt the need to write an addon for it, I can only hope this problem is more common than I fear. So, for what it's worth, here is another cautionary tale from my adventures of incompetence and proof if any were needed that you learn something new every day.
If I stop drinking, will my brain cells grow back?
Avowing my price sensitivity
9 hours ago
14 comments:
Holy healing bars, Batman! I was not aware of that bug!
So ... what is the fix - just go drag the right rank spell to the bar?
I might need to update one or four characters ...
(See? Now aren't you glad you posted?)
Don't feel bad about this! Several people in our guild have had this same issue-its made for some fairly interesting heroics when our normally high dps players start pulling below 2k.
And don't stop posting because of a mistake. If anything, tell us about getting your account fixed! I've been lucky enough so far to have never been hacked, and a friend recently purchased me an authenicator ( I wanted the corehound pup). However, I'm really interested in how well you felt customer service treated you, how difficult restoring your account was, and if your account is back to its former glory. Details!!
Okay, so I fail at reading the post below this one. LoL. You were way ahead of me!
OMG, the same thing happened to me, too, so I WAS aware of the bug, but glad to see it really was a bug. I'm an arms warrior, and I was using lvl 3 Mortal Strike instead of the LEVEL 8 that's available. Only in my case, it really might have been some actual mistake, b/c the level 8 wasn't in my spell book. I promise, I've trained since lvl 80, but...yeah, I had to train it. Very embarrassing. My DPS has improved dramatically though, lol.
yeah figured this out on my own by accident a few weeks ago, but very easy to not know about. Which reminds me I probably just fixed it on my holy priest...need to double check shadow again..
Gratz on getting your stuff back
Yikes... got to remember to check clique bindings tonight... what an annoying bug! Thanks for pointing it out.
I use Rankwatch and have seen many, many geared players using down-ranked spells in the Heroics I've run. I do know that Dominos auto-updates your spells, and with Bartender it might be a toggled option.
Nothing like an TotC geared Hunter gimping themselves by down-ranking Steady Shot.
Your not alone, this past weekend I was subjected to the same whispers. I honestly had no idea what was going on and the person with the add-on stopped the group and singled me out. In a defiant, yet sheepish retort I asked if anyone had died yet..... while I scrambled to fine out wtf was going on. Always wondered why that spell never worked so good.......
Oh yes, and then it happened again on the next run on a different toon.
Just wanted to say, mistakes happen. You are one of the only shadow priest bloggers left, and for me, its always a great read. Please continue to post. :P
Also as far as rankwatch goes, I run it now for exactly the same reason.
This is funny to me because I was in Forge of Souls with my buddy who was tanking for me... while I was going disc on my alt priest... He stopped us about 4 pulls in and asked what rank of Penance I was hitting him with? Becuase he thought it usually hit in the 3k-6k range?? Not the 1k-2k range... I check and sure enough I have rank 1 penance!!
The sad part is I took him to our guild's ICC25 and actually kept up without the best healing spell of the discipline priest!
I join the list of having been called out for using down ranked spells in a heroic.
As a long time disc, I'd never played much as a shadow. In heroics, raids, and at the target dummies I couldn't figure out why my dps seemed so poor compared to the effort and gear I was putting in.
After I'd earned my Patient title I ran a random with a tank that told me his chat was lighting up from all the warnings he was getting about my downranked spells. All but about 2 of my spells weren't the proper rank.
I felt a little foolish, but I've never gotten a drop in an instance that improved my dps so much as that little bit of knowledge.
I just recently installed Rankwatch to try it out and every other heroic or pug instance it shoots a wall of text at someone in the party or raid group. The most common reply: "Huh?"
I've gotten a few thank you's as well tho.
Solution found: Untick the "show all spell ranks" option in your spellbook and drag the spells to your secondary bar again. I think this should mean you'll always cast the highest rank, even if you train in your other spec.
Methodology: http://reviveandrejuvenate.blogspot.com/2010/01/clique-inspecting-ranks-again.html
:)
I noticed this when a guildy had the addon in my group.
I was playing my Priest alt, level63 at the time, and was healing in my Disc spec. I was using lower heals, renews, SW:P.
I was shocked and worried I was doing this on my 2 level 80s also!
In reference to your recent loss of account - I never judge people who get keylogged/phished as its so easy.
People clicking on Porn links and generally visiting dodgy sites and not even attempting to protect themselves I have no pity for but everyone is capable of slipping up sometimes.
This was an elaborate phishing site thats been reported to Google many times and has taken far too long to be taken from their search results.
A rule of thumb in regards to WoW is Blizzard will NEVER ask for your username/password apart from when A) You're trying to log into your account management or B) You're trying to log into the game.
When logging into Account Management always go to wow-europe.com and then select it from there - never follow any links from elsewhere to it.
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