Raid Rx: Basic healer raid design
by Marcie Knox 
Dec 25th 2007 at 2:15PM
Raid Rx is designed to encapsulate and cure the shock and horror that is 25-man raid healing. Ok, so it's mostly horror... Anyways, if you're a big fan of X-TREME Whack-A-Mole (or are being forced into it against your will) this is the column for you. Last week I promised you pink tutu's and syncronized healing moves. See that picture? That's all you're getting. Merry Christmas. Being a healer is about living with dissapointment (at the dps), ok?
So anyways... You have 25-people chomping at the bit to see more than just Karahzan/ZA. W00t! But from a healing standpoint, who do you invite and how many? I'm here to help.
Basic Raid Design
You have 25 slots. About 6-8 of them will be healers, which is roughly the same ratio that you had in Karahzan and even old school 40-mans, if you can remember back that far. The rest of the raid will be a couple of tanks, some off-tanks, and loads of dps. On average, you'll have 7 healers, so that's going to be my basis.
The key to Burning Crusade raiding is variety. Straight off, you're going to need one of each of the healing classes like I've said before. No joke. If you are missing a class, you're missing their utility. Yes, of course you can fake it for a while, but trust me - you will hit trick fights where each class becomes the critical one. /cough Hydross /end cough Start recruiting now to fill any gaps.
Well, that's easy. Slap 4 people in raid slots and you're 57.1% done. The real question becomes what to do with the remaining 3 slots? Well, I'm not just here to look pretty in a pink skirt. Let's examine each healing class and what balance you should aim for.
Druids - It's been my experience that no more than one resto druid plays WoW per server. And they're Alliance. If you have two, hug them tightly and bring the second one on fights were there's no aggro wipe (i.e. not Hydross or Morogrim).
Priests - With their jack-of-many-trades spell selection, I try to always bring at least two. If you have a lot of priests, more than other healing classes, it's ok to bring three. On fights where low aggro healing is critical, more is better. The more you have, the more you should encourage them to coordinate their specs. You only need one with imp spirit per raid. (I just wanted to say "more" one more time.)
Paladins - Ok, I'll be blunt here. I use them for filler. They stack very well buffs-wise and millions of 1k-1.8k heals flying around a raid never hurt anyone. Ideally you'll have 3 in a raid to cover all the buffs (this includes any ret/prot ones you might have). If you have tons of pallies, don't be afraid to bring 4 total. Like priests, the higher the number attending, the better they need to coordinate their specs. There's no excuse not to have kings, imp devotion/conc auras and imp wisdom in a raid.
Shamans - You really, really need at least one, but two for some of the fights is great, especially if there's a ton of AoE damage. From an overall raid standpoint, you need 3 total for the dps buffs, so be willing to work with the raid leads on this. In other words, you may need to run with extra resto's for the good of the group. Hopefully you have some enh/elem around if you're low on resto, though. If you don't have any resto at all, you can limp along with a CoH priest for at least a little while, but you're going to need those totems.
Example Raid Groups
These are in order of most ideal to least, imo. That doesn't mean one at the bottom can't work. You'll just be sacrificing some synergy. I'm also assuming you keep the same group for the entire evening. If you swap people out, then the perference changes based on the fight. And these are "Ideal" and may not be representative of what you actually have to work with.
From Most Ideal
Priest (2), Paladin (3), Druid (1), Shaman (1)
Priest (1), Paladin (3), Druid (1), Shaman (2)
Priest (2), Paladin (2), Druid (1), Shaman (2)*
Priest (3), Paladin (2), Druid (1), Shaman (1)
Priest (2), Paladin (2), Druid (2), Shaman (1)
To Least Ideal
*Better than the ones above it if you have a ret/prot pally, too.
Now it's your turn to explode in anger that I just listed your raid comp as "Least Ideal". Hit up the comments below with your take on how many of each class is best. I'm expecting lots of inconsolable rage. Don't let me down!
Next week I'll use 500 words to describe the depth of complexity that is paladin healing. Stay tuned!
Marcie Knox has been healing lead for over a year, including old school AQ40/BWL/Naxx. She has suffered through holy priest and now basks in the glory that is healadin. Her pally is currently dodging waves of mobs in MH and she totally killed all her constructs in BT. Like killed dead.
Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, Tips, How-tos, Raiding, Buffs, Raid Rx (Raid Healing)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Super_Duck Jun 20th 2008 6:30PM
As a hunter i just wanted to say; dont ignore resto shamans, their buffs are great, for the overall raid damage.
Joe P Dec 25th 2007 2:25PM
^^ Yay resto druid love. We do enjoy hugs.
Adam Dec 25th 2007 2:51PM
We've found that at least 3 Pallies & 3 shaman (they don't have to all be holy/resto) is ideal for totem/blessing coverage.
The thing to note is that you can actually be successful with a variety of raid healing make ups but I really like your point of bringing at least one of each healing class. My guild usually takes two resto druids and we do well. But that's probably because our resto druids have really regular attendance and so our resto druids get rewarded for showing up regularly by rarely having to sit on bench.
max Dec 25th 2007 3:00PM
Geez what server are you on? I see resto druids everday (although I am the only one in my guild). Healers: we usually run 3 priests, 3 shaman, and myself. We only have 1 healadin in guild and in the rare cases he's around, he replaces a priest or shammy. I don't see how you can say paladins are 'filler' when you have 3 in your ideal raid. To touch on buffs, we have a prot pally for his buffs and 2-3 enh/elem shaman.
Marcie Knox Dec 26th 2007 8:06PM
Here's my latest attempt at replying to a comment. /hopes it goes where it's intended
By "filler" I'm refering to the fact that sometimes not everyone shows up, and we use paladins as our fill-in class. Missing a shammy? Slap a pally in (assuming you carry extra).
Uncle Vinny Dec 25th 2007 3:32PM
Wow, I'm really looking forward to this series!
Dyermaker Dec 25th 2007 3:43PM
I think this article does a disservice to the raiding community. It fosters sterotypical roles of specific classes. Rather than say "You need N number of X class", you would be making a better point if you broke down the types of healing roles that need to be filled.
For example:
Main Tank healing - Requires steady and direct heals as efficiently as possible. Typically most fights require at least two, in case of emergencies.
Splash damage healing - When an encounter does smaller bits of damage to many people instead of a lot of damage to a singular target.
Heals on the move - When the raid will move around a lot you want heals that can land swiftly or on the run. You can also use slower heals that are positioned in advance along the run path.
Roll over healing - The insurance heals, typically heals over time, that provide a buffer for those larger heals.
Marcie Knox Dec 26th 2007 8:09PM
It's like you read my mind. I have such an article on the way. I wanted to lead with this before hand so people can get a feel of the structure. Then we'll work on what to do with your 7 healers once you have them. :)
Souljah62489 Dec 25th 2007 4:29PM
3 shaman, 2 paladin, 1 23/38 priest and 1 druid is ideal for raiding
Bulldress Dec 25th 2007 6:21PM
Don't just think that HOTs mean druids are for raid healing. Stacked druid HOTs can give you a solid baseline of healing that keeps going when the raid is moving or silenced.
Although I play a resto shaman and I love how stacking 2 or 3 of us can help heal raid-wide damage if you're going to be grouped up a COH priest or 2 seems just as good provided you can spare the totems. We run with an elemental and enhancement shaman for group buffs and DPS and our priest with COH outheals 2 well geared resto shaman on fights like Bloodboil where there's a lot of damage in a small area.
Multiple paladins are great tank healers and a quick heal that can be tossed around the raid helps to quickly stabilize people on fights like Rage Winterchill. Tidewalker and Solarian let you turn your holy paladins into multi-mob tanks provided they have a little prot gear. Plus blessings all around.
The point is its all going to be situational and skilled healers can make non-ideal make-ups work with communication and coordination. One of the things I like about the raids I've done in BC is it doesn't seem to really favor one of the healing classes over the other. Its more important to bring multiple classes to cover different types of damage.
Rob Gomes Dec 25th 2007 6:52PM
I also need to chime in that druids are not ideal HoT raid healers.
Druids are tank -- critical raid member -- insurance. Lifebloom ticks every second. Something stuns the entire raid? Lifebloom is still ticking away every second (and Rejuvenation every 3 seconds). Additionally, Swiftmend is an "oh-crap" button that puts out a substantial instant heal, and is available every 15 seconds. At 1400 +Healing, my Swiftmends are for 3200 to 4800 health. That's available every 15 seconds. It does another 800 healing/3 sec while it just ticks away.
The whole point of HoTs is largely tank stabilizing. It helps to even out spikes. When there's a spike, it's that 2 seconds or so (including reaction time) between casts where the tank typically dies. That's a guaranteed 2 Lifebloom ticks (which for me would be about 1300 Health getting to the tank), and the ability to fire off a Swiftmend (another 3200-4800). Despite a movement speed debuff, we can maintain them on the move, since only Regrowth (used largely as a throughput booster, or something you'll use with Nature's Swiftness) is the only thing in tree you'd ever use that requires a cast time.
I'd recommend reading an appropriate thread (Elitist Jerks: http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t17783-druid_raiding_tree/) to get an idea of a tree's utility. Paladins are typically a best bet for raid healers, and shamans rule melee healing with an iron fist (Improved Chain Heal ftw).
anonymoose Dec 25th 2007 9:51PM
Not sure how to say this--in many ways I agree with your suggested ideal raid healing team. However I think defining content really can help as well, because what you can get away with in SSC may not work in BT.
I switched from a raid heal priest to a raid heal shaman and the biggest problems I encounter (alliance side) are priests who cannot or will not recognize they are not the end all be all healing class in every raid, and that in fact a number of encounters in the end game content demand variety in the heal team, which would include lower numbers of priests (and for some guilds, pallies) to pull this off.
Trust me, as a former raid healing priest I am not saying this to be insulting--and if I had to pick which priest spec is most useful in end game content I would say hands down it's circle of healing.
I say this to priests in your reader audience--if you enjoyed your necessity for shackles in Kara, please keep in mind that successful raid progression is built upon variety in the healing team--and strive to be just that, a team.
Don't demand shaman spam lesser healing wave so you can use rank 1gheal, when your own flash heal is far more efficient than that lesser healing wave. Be clear that a pally can fill that spot in a better fashion, and let the shaman raid heal in cooperation with you.
Don't ask druids to HoT and then neglect the fact that you have one too, and that yours will stack.
Don't extoll your mana efficiency based upon lowest overheal, complete absence of use of consumables (including mana pots) all while simultaneously being at the bottom of the healing meters consistently. Quite likely other healing classes are covering for you by copious use of consumables and overhealing (because too much healing is better than a dead tank, provided no one is going oom)--I can't tell you how often I have been assigned to main tank heal in coordination with a priest just like this because they are starving the main tank of heals by downranking to an absurd level.
Do use your group heals, do recognize that Circle of Healing brings something bordering on overpowered to the endgame (yes, I'm talking SSC, TK, BT, and MH where I have seen this first hand), and for god's sake, Prayer of Mending all over the place. Your spirit buff is not enough to earn you a raid spot, and in fact, raids do just fine without it if they can find an agreeable CoH priest.
Sorry to call priests out on this specifically, these are all things I did when I raided on my priest, and now that I'm healing on a shaman I'm watching priests avoid doing the above things I suggested and complaining about how much I pot, or my overheal.
Not entirely related to your thread, but I think the point I am trying to make is that knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the other healing classes in your team then puts each healer in a position to further progressio by working in coordination with each other, not against each other.
And oddly enough, resto druids and shaman do just fine on Hydross. Not sure what you've seen go wrong, but it comes down to knowing how to work as a team.
GeneraleJ Dec 25th 2007 10:09PM
I don't know what priests you talk to, but on my server, there are very few holy priests and the ones that do exist have no delusions about being the best healers. Heck! They are almost annoyingly down on themselves about being "crappy healers" and how "no one needs them". Personally, I'm happy to see this article, maybe it will make them stop whining.
Balasan Dec 26th 2007 4:24AM
CoH is borderline OP indeed, kinda sad to see that still a lot of priests are ignorant of this fact (probably since it's not used much before MH).
One thing though, I think what Marcie was trying to say with regards to hydross is that you *need* a varied group of healers optimally. Raid healing is a stupid PITA in hydross without a resto shaman.
Not to say you can't do it without one. My guild did it on our first kill, but fortunately we had two priests with CoH to help with raid healing.
Marcie Knox Dec 26th 2007 8:12PM
At a point in the future, there will be an article about the SSC/TK to MH/BT transition. I'm just trying to work my way there. And sorry about your priests. :( There are good ones out there, but it sounds like you've got the jackpot on ones that are living in the past. /pat
Arbarius Dec 27th 2007 12:30PM
A lot of priests suck, and it's not because of their class. It's because they don't experiment and try different things until they are kicking ass on the healing charts. Everything they need to succeed is in their class. And yeah, they should be potting constantly just like everybody else on non-farm bosses.
I personally think the fact that there are a lot of lame healing priests is because it's the "default" healing class and so people who don't necessarily do a lot of research and thinking might pick it, so you get a bunch of random people doing it who don't think it through. Also it seems to be popular as an alt class, and alt healers just aren't as good as people who do it all the time. Also, I'm not sure but I suspect that priests are just more complicated to do well because they simply have so many different healing spells and so it's easier for somebody not very experienced to just pick the wrong spells for a certain situation.
Hellbena Dec 25th 2007 11:50PM
A typical raid healer setup for me is: 3 or 2 priests, 2 or 3 paladins, 1 1/2 druids, 1 shaman. The 1/2 druid is a feral/resto hybrid build that enables the druid to do decent heals on fights that need more healers and good dps on fights that need more damage.
John Dec 26th 2007 1:37AM
Restore shamans are amazing. Every raid should have 3. Totems plus chain heal is godly. They are by far the most potent healers, and Id take as many as I could always.
Kalandrah Dec 26th 2007 7:01AM
I'm kinda disappointed in that you didn't even bother to focus on each different type of healer and highlight their strengths and their weaknesses.
Now this entire article where you say "you need this many of this class" reads as a personal opinion, rather than an objective analysis of raid healers.
Balasan Dec 26th 2007 7:28AM
Hopefully she'll be doing that next week. She said she'll be doing paladins then.