Spell Review : Frisbee

I’m starting a series (actually 2, but you’ll see the other series later).  I’m going to take a look at some of our Priest-ly spells one at a time and discuss tips, tricks, pitfalls, and give some general advice for each.  I’d like to make these posts a center for information, if you have something in your blog (or a blog you read) about any of these spells and think a reader might be interested, please leave me a comment with the link.

We start with the Frisbee.  Before you go frantically searching your Spellbook, I mean Prayer of Mending.  I stole the term from Ego, and I whole heartedly agree with her that Prayer of Mending is long, undescriptive, and no fun.  I will therefor referr to it as the Frisbee.  While I’m on that subject, go read her article on the Frisbee, it’s very good.

Let’s start, as all good things should, at the begining:

Tooltip

“Places a spell on the target that heals them for XXX the next time they take damage. When the heal occurs, Prayer of Mending jumps to a raid member within 20 yards. Jumps up to 5 times and lasts until cancelled after each jump. This spell can only be placed on one target at a time.”

Mechanics – What does the tooltip mean?

1. Cast the Frisbee on a target and it heals them the next time they take damage.  It’s passive and isn’t guaranteed to heal for anything right away.  The heal only occurs when the target takes damage.
2. Jumps to a raid member within 20 yards.  After it heals the initial target, it jumps to another within 20 yards; raid not party, isn’t that nice!  It will then heal THAT target when THEY take damage.  If the target takes no damage, they never get healed and they never pass it on.  I call this “swallowing the Frisbee”  If no one is within 20 yards, the Frisbee jumps into the ether.
3. Jumps up to 5 times and lasts until cancelled after each jump.  It cancels after 20 seconds on any target.
4. Can only be placed on one target at a time.  A new Frisbee will automatically cancel any existing Frisbees out there.

Between the Lines – What the tool tip doesn’t say

The “Between the Lines” for this spell is huge.  The threat for any healing this spell does goes to the target, not you!  That’s awesome!!  Anyone else noticing that your beloved tank is an excellent candidate for this spell?  The other thing to note is that only one Frisbee may be active on a target at a time.  If 2 Frisbees from different Priests land on the same target, one disapears into the ether.

Tips, Tricks, and Pitfalls

This spell was obviously built for the tank.  Ideally he’s going to be the only one taking dmage, and the threat going to him is a thing of beauty.  My tank gets one of these before any and every pull.  As I said in a previous article, if your tank (for whatever strange reason) doesn’t use Bloodrage before a pull, I’d recommend waiting until after the first hit to give him a frisbee.  If it only goes for a piddly amount, seems like a waste to me.  But since Bloodrage costs him health in exchange for rage, it’ll heal that back to him.  If you are in a raid and have more than one tank, bive the Frisbee to the tank that will be tanking the Skull (or whichever mob will be dying first) since the other tank will have time to get a good threat lead. 

In this recent patch we all thought that Lifetap would make the Frisbee jump… alas, this was not the case.  Your Warlock will be a prime target for “swallowing the Frisbee.”  The UI for deciding who gets the Frisbee when it jumps is… not perfect.  In theroy it will go to the raid member in the 20 yard range who most needs healing.  It also seems to use proximity if the group is all at the same health level.  I think it calculates the needed healing by precentages, so your caster who is down by 2k out of 8k health will get the Frisbee over your offtank who is down by 2.5k out of 12k health.  I wish it were the other way around, but I don’t have a dev in my pocket I can yell at. 

There is also an addon that tracks where your Frisbee is.  I don’t have it, but Ego mentioned it in her article.

Related Macros

My “Oh, S!@#” macro casts Frisbee, Renew, Flash Heal, and Greater Heal on my current target.  Since both Frisbee and Renew are instant cast, they’re great for the “Oh crap, tank needs a heal”  That one also times out after 10 seconds so if I don’t end up needing the Greater Heal, it’ll be ready for the next time I use it.

I can’t think of any other macros that might be used for this spell, but if you have one please leave me a comment!

SuperCoolPoints

“Then, on the fourth day, he roped himself a couple of sea turtles, lashed ’em together and made a raft. ”  “He roped a couple of sea turtles. ”  “Aye. Sea turtles. ”  “What did he use for rope?”  [from beside them] “Human hair.”  [pause]  “From my back. ”

Name that movie!

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