by Matt Low

A great team of healers need a leader who can help them stay focused and give them the right assignments. Without their direction (or at least, someone to coordinate healing actions), it can get pretty messy fast. Being the boss of healers and acting as an intermediary between them and the raid leader or officers can often times be stressing. They’re often the first person people go to after a wipe wondering what happened or who failed and so forth. As a healer though, you can help ease the stress that they experience.

Have a dual spec: In current raids, there’s a degree of variability on the number of healers used in a fight. Want to be valuable? Pick up a DPS and healing spec. Offer to do both depending on what the raid needs. A fight like Valithria could benefit with 7 healers for raids that are just starting out. On the other hand, Festergut needs a reduction in healers in order to match the DPS requirements. You can get away with about 5 on that encounter. Your second spec doesn’t have to be one of a different role either. I myself run holy as one spec and discipline as the other. It’s handy in case I need to mass cast Power Word: Shield against Saurfang and then switch it up later to holy for Valithria.

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by Matt Low

The focus is a feature that came out several years ago. I’d say that there’s still a number of players who don’t have a firm understanding of what it is or just have yet to realize the potential it has. DPS players frequently make use of focus to keep enemies crowd controlled. Think Polymorph or Banish as examples.

What exactly is the focus?

I’m going to pull a definition from WoWWiki as I can’t explain it anymore eloquently:

A focus target is a secondary target system, used to keep track of a second unit other than the currently targeted unit. The focus is a sort of “target memory” meaning that the focus can be set then recalled with simple macro commands. Furthermore, the user interface supplies full real-time updates for the currently stored focus, including health and mana updates and enemy casting bars. Some user interface addons provide a complete unit frame for the focus.

This is incredibly valuable for healers. It opens up a wide array of stuff we can do while healing. For Priests, we can Shackle targets without risking too much (such as in Halls of Reflection). Shamans can then Wind Shock to interrupt mobs without losing healing time (Lord Jaraxxus and his Fel Fireballs anyone?).

Those are just some of the applications that can help in raid settings
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by Euripides of OutDPS

Lady Deathwhisper is the second boss in ICC, and while this fight was recently nerfed, it is still a challenge. Especially on 25 man. Hunters have a few unique roles in it too, so today we’ll go over what it takes to take down Deathwhisper.

The fight

There are two phases in the fight- during one, you have to take out adds and focus down the boss’s mana shield, and as soon as you get the shield down, the adds stop spawning and you can burn the boss down.

Phase one, add management

The ultimate goal of this fight is to take down that mana shield I mentioned. Since all damage done drains it, don’t use viper sting, use serpent sting. Unless you’re about to go onto some adds and you need a convenient mana battery. The DPS on the boss while you’re 100% focused on adds is great, but not better than finishing the adds without going into aspect of the viper.

There are two types of adds that spawn- casters (cult adherents) and melee (cult fanatics). When they first spawn, they are not immune to any types of damage, however the casters will reflect spells back at players. You should always single target casters when you can, allowing your mages and locks to focus on the melee adds.

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via SpicyTuna

“Lord Marrowgar is a unique creature created of skeletons. He is the first boss in the Icecrown Citadel.”

He has one of the coolest boss character models- he is a 4-headed winged skeleton torso, with a big ice ax! As the first boss of Icecrown Citadel, he’ll serve as a gear check for Guilds to see if they are “ready” to tackle this raid instance.

Boss Stats:

• Hit Points – 5,200,000 (10man), 23,740,000 (25man)
• No Enrage Timer

Abilities:

• Saber Lash: Inflicts 200% weapon damage split evenly between the target and its 2 nearest allies.
• Bone Spike Graveyard: Hurls a spike at a random player, impaling all players between the boss and the target on Bone Spikes, inflicting 9,000 direct Physical damage, and additional 10% health as damage every 1 second until the spike is destroyed.
• Coldflame: Inflicts 6,000 (9k on 25man) Frost damage every 1 second for 3 seconds to anyone caught by the moving line of frost.
• Bone Storm: Inflicts 6,000 (12k on 25man) Physical damage every 2 seconds to players caught in the storm.

Recommended Consumables:

• [Flask of the Frost Wyrm]
• Spell Damage food of your choice or Feast

This is a simple fight with a bit of target switching, and a lot of raid awareness. You would want any consumables which may help your DPS.

Frost Mage Overview:

• Pet Friendly: Friendly
• Cooldowns: You may want to save your Ice Blocks, and Cold Snap for when you get trapped in a Bone Storm.

Your Water Elemental won’t be targeted by Bone Spike and is immune to the Coldflame- but he can be damaged by the Bone Storm. You pet will have a 80% damage reduction to AoE damage so you don’t have to worry about moving him around. Just have him keep on attacking.

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by Matt Low

Welcome to the first test of Icecrown. Once you’ve blasted your way past the many patrolling skeletons, you’ll run into this giant floating bundle of bones. You can consider this boss a warmup compared to the rest of the instance. Marrowgar shouldn’t be too taxing on us healers, eh? How hard could he possibly hit anyway?

Well, that largely depends on the rest of your raid adapts. The amount of healing needing to be done depends on how quickly the rest of the raid responds and how much damage they deal.

Same old story, right?

Healing setup

Bring in 2 tank healers and 4 raid healers. All 3 of your tanks will be playing an active role here by absorbing Marrowgar’s Saber Lash. Basically, your tank and 2 nearest raid members will be splitting 200% of Marrowgar’s melee damage between the 3. You may also wish to assign a healer to cover any melee in need of healing.

For positioning, park 2 healers in the center of the room. Place 2 to the left and 2 to the right of Marrowgar’s chamber. Try to cover as much as the raid as possible with the healers. There’s going to be lots of movement required by the raid. If your raid frames support it, having range finders toggled on to see who is or isn’t in range is a big plus.

This worked in the PTR but I’m not sure if any adjustments have been made since. You can park your tank healers directly inside Lord Marrowgar’s hit box so that they don’t have to worry about Coldflame. The streaks of fire only emanate from just outside his hitbox instead of the center of his character. By standing there, they should be safe. On the other hand, it brings them perilously close to Lord Marrowgar. That’s your call to make. It’s not difficult to avoid the Coldflames, to be honest.

If you made it this far in raiding into Wrath, dodging fires should be reflexive in nature by now.

Phase 1

How good are your situational awareness skills? You won’t have to draw on them as much as you did on Illidari Council (which is the superbowl of not standing in fires). Be prepared to strafe and barrel roll your way from his Coldflames. Keep your head up. You might be able to eat one (8000 frost damage every second for 3 seconds) or so throughout the fight. That luxury won’t be there in hard mode so this is a good time to start practicing. (On a side note, I don’t know when hard mode is activating. Arthas needs to be killed before that happens.)

Be sufficiently far away from Marrowgar that you give yourself plenty of advanced warning for Coldflames! However, you need to remain close and tight enough to the rest of the raid to keep them alive.

Periodically, your fellow raiders are going to be hit with something called Bone Spike Graveyard. Those players lose 10% of their health per second until the Bone Spikes are broken by the rest of the crew. The longer that process takes, the more you have to do. When I was affected by Bone Spikes, I wasn’t able to control my character or cast anything. You are at the complete mercy of the other raiders.

It’s possible for Coldflame to affect players stuck on Bone Spike Graveyards as well. Be prepared to blow a cooldown to keep them alive if it comes down to it.
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Make a raid and go in Zul’gurub, start farming all the trash there but i recommend that you skip the “Gurubashi Axe Thrower’s” since they do some annoying and long stuns that may end up getting you killed. What you are farming is :

All the Bijou’s, colour does not matter. For around 30 minutes i was able to get 20 Bijous, wich sell for 15g a piece in the ah, or if people on your realm dont actualy sell these make em 20g a piece but not more since nobody will buy them. People need these Bijous to raise their rep with the Zanadar Tribe so there will be alot of customers i guarantee it. I sell them sepherately since more people will buy them that way. So that’s like 300g per 30 minutes or 600g a hour for me. If you dont get the idea for what bijous im speaking of
heres a picture Blue Hakkari Bijou – Item – World of Warcraft i randomly linked that picture , doesnt mean you gota farm the blue one speccificly.

Also if you are better geared and have a way to survive through some 95-111k HP mobs id advise you to go in to the Molten Core and start farming trash.
The trash drops Lava Core and Fiery Core – these moneymakers sell for 50g each ,but the drop rate is kinda low so you’ll get like 1 lava or fiery core for every 10 monsters you’ve killed and if lucky you can also get some BoE epics wich i also sell around 30-40g each. These Core’s are also used to gain reputation, with the Thorium Brotherhood or they can also be used to craft classic weapons, legendary materials etc so expect to have alot of costumers again. I grinded for an Hour There and i got 6 Lava Cores and 7 Fiery Cores + some BoE belt (worth 35gold in AH) so that makes is 685g in a hour.

But i also have to mention that its all a matter of luck – you might get a lot of drops or less drops

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by Matt Low

This is the second boss in Trial of the Crusader. After you healed through the gate bosses that comprise the Northrend Beasts, Lord Jaraxxus is the next step.

My raid group managed to get this demon lord down this past week. We got the 10-man version down several weeks ago but the 25-man version eluded us for some time. Compared to Northrend Beasts, this boss should feel relatively easier. Your raid will spend less time learning Lord Jaraxxus than the previous boss.

Let’s check out the healing side of things, shall we?

Setting up

Your healing group should consist of 6 players. 2 tank healers will suffice. Big plus if you have 2 holy priests or other AoE type healers.

When you’re getting into position, direct your healers to cover the room as much as possible. Ideally your healers should be spaced out evenly from each other in a circle around the center. If each player can be covered by at least 2 or more healers, your raid will be in excellent shape.

Things to watch for

Incinerate Flesh: You thought this debuff was a pain on normal mode for healing. It becomes even more dangerous. If it goes off during normal mode, it’s easily healable. Healers can cover the damage. On heroic, it’s just about a guaranteed wipe when Burning Inferno lands. On normal, 60000 damage has to be healed up. On heroic, that amount increases to 85000. Priests, if their health was already low to begin with when they get this debuff, drop a shield on them to prevent any instant gibs while they get healed up to full.

Legion Flame: This green trail of heat can surprise even the most seasoned of healers. I confess I was exhibited signs of tunnel vision while healing. In one of the earlier attempts, I was roasted alive. Don’t let this happen to you!

No one likes barbequed dwarves, right?

Space yourselves out to avoid Fel Lightning. You can eat a 2nd or 3rd jump from a Fel Lightning and still live. In other words, you should be safe standing next to 1 other person if there’s no room around you due to fires on the ground.

Touch of Jaraxxus is a DoT that will be applied on random players. It’s also going to hit nearby players around them with Curse of the Nether (which is also a DoT). The damage that both abilities do are negligible. That being said, druids should dispel them when they have an opportunity.

Strong communication will play a large role in dealing with the above debuffs. Your healers should be talking to teach other. it keeps everyone focused and on task. It alerts healers as to which raid healer is healing which player.

Optionally, you can designate a player to call out debuffs on your raiders. Unfortunately, the problem with this is that by the time the other player hears the command, it may already be too late for them. it all depends on latency and reaction time.

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by Matt Low

Welcome to the NBE encounter. And no, I’m not referring to Megatron. NBE is shorthand for the Northrend Beasts Encounter. It’s a straightforward engagement on normal. Once the switch is toggled to heroic, the fight goes into over drive. There’s a few changes that us healers need to grasp. For one, there’s a strict time limit on each set of beasts. Can’t kill Gormok quick enough? Too bad! Ready or not, here’s the twin snakes!Setting up

If you’re starting out the first time, I strongly advise bringing in 6 healers. As your raid continues acquiring more gear, you’ll be able to slowly drop down to five. But even that might be a tough stretch. Coming in with three strong single-target healers and three raid healers should be enough to withstand the demands of the fight.

Phase 1 – Gormok the Impaler

The damage has increased substantially. The debuff on the tanks have had their duration lengthened slightly.

Setting up

If you’re starting out the first time, I strongly advise bringing in six healers. As your raid continues acquiring more gear, you’ll be able to slowly drop down to five. But even that might be a tough stretch. Coming in with three strong single-target healers and three raid healers should be enough to withstand the demands of the fight.

Flasks - This is a relatively short fight. I would suggest Frost Wyrm for increased throughput. If you want to give yourself an advantage, down a Stoneblood for some extra health. This will help buy some time if you happen to get caught in a fire or a poison or something. It just increases the survival buffer.

Important:If you’re having disconnecting problems during the encounter (particularly due to the fires), see this thread on some possible solutions to resolve it. The issue seems to occur when fires are tossed out. There doesn’t seem to be a permanent fix for it yet. It’s happened to my main tank and some of the DPS a few times. If it happens repeatedly, there’s nothing more you can do other than call someone up from the bench and sit the player with the disconnect issues.

Phase 1 – Gormok the Impaler

The damage has increased substantially. The Impale debuff on the tanks will stay on slightly longer. So when one tank taunts Gormok, the previous tank is still going to suffer and is still going to need heals.

Fires that get thrown around hurt a bit more. This is especially dangerous for healers. If you’re not paying attention, you can die really fast. A Discipline Priest who is in the “zone” may be able to squeeze off a Shield on a player who is on fire. It should be enough to absorb at least one tick.

Two Paladins with beacons on different tanks will shine. Resto Shamans will wish to to target players within melee range and dishing out Chain Heal. Other than fires, ranged DPS and healers won’t be taking any damage.

Snobolds are an even bigger threat than before. Make sure you’re spread out. Just being near a player with a Snobold will trigger the occasional interrupt. If you’re lucky enough to have one o these gremlins on you, run within melee range of Gormok. The point is to allow incidental AoE attacks (a la Chain Lightning or Divine Storm) to strike the Snobold and Gormok.

Remember, you guys are on the clock.

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by Matticus

Val’kyr Twins is one of the more interesting fights in the Coliseum especially for healers. The encounter consists of two Val’kyr who share a relatively large health pool (28 million+). This encounter requires relatively decent buff management along with snap DPS switching in order to get through it.

Setting up

Divide your raid equally in two groups. Split the tanks, DPS, and healers down the line. One group will be on the left, and the other group will be on the right. For the sake of healers, use groups 1 and 2 on the right, groups 3 and 4 on the left. Doesn’t matter which groups. Just have it set in such a way that group positions match group numbers.

How the essences are positioned

Right clicking on the color provides the appropriate essence buff. Your DPS will wish to pick up the buff that is opposite the twin they are engaging. Healers may wish to collect the same colored buff as the twin their DPS is attacking.

Example: The half of the raid that is attacking Fjola Lighbane will be picking up a dark buff. The healers on that side will wish to pick up the light buff.

Main abilities

Vortex

Each twin has a vortex that will do ~6000 damage per second every 5 seconds. It’s an 8 second cast. The best way to mitigate it is to gain the same colored buff that matches the twin who is casting the vortex.

Example: Eydis Darkbane is about to case Vortex. The players who are attacking Darkbane should immediately pick up the dark buff to mitigate incoming damage until her channel is finished.

When I did this encounter as DPS, I would stand next to the buff that was opposite the one that I currently had. This way, I could switch easily and DPS the opposite twin.

Twin’s Pact

One twin will cast a shield on themselves. It absorbs ~700000 damage. While their shield is up, they will cast Twin’s Pact. It takes 15 seconds for them to cast that and when it goes off, 20% of their health is restored. The idea  here is to have the entire raid switch to the twin who is casting Twin’s Pact and break their shield. A Rogue or a Shaman can then interrupt Twin’s Pact.

Example: Fjola Lightbane just cast Shield of Light and is channeling Twin’s Pact. The DPS attacking Edyis Darkbane will run behind her, pick up the darkness buff, and start opening up on Fjola. MacktheKnife, a Rogue, manages to kick and interrupt Lightbane from healing.

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