Raid Rx: 5 Heroics to help toughen your healers
by Matt Low 
Mar 15th 2009 at 4:00PM
Raid Rx has returned from retirement! Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of PlusHeal, a new healing community for all restorative classes. This week we look at which heroic encounters will help strengthen your new healers and why!
A question I get asked from healers is how can I prepare myself for raiding? On the other side of the spectrum, guild leaders ask me how can they judge or measure a healer in other areas other than healing output. Let's knock out two birds with one well timed stone.
Ahn'kahet, Old Kingdom: Herald Volazj – The first time I worked on this boss on heroic, I had no idea what needed to be done. I never tried it on normal when I was leveling up to 80. Anyway, with this boss it becomes becomes a test of endurance. There's a phase where all the players are forced to fight mirror images of your party. You're relying on the other players in your party to blow up their mirror images to help you out. Can you survive and kite your four comrades around? It's a great way for you to test your longevity.
Like for me as a Priest, I'd practice things like Psychic Scream timing and kiting around the various large pillars. You'll be relying on Renews, Shields, and Prayer of Mendings. As Holy, I'd even tap Circle of Healing praying for a Surge of Light proc.
When I did it on my Shaman, I'd drop my Earthbinds and use focus Wind Shock macros to help stall the casters. Earth Shields, Riptides and really fast Healing Waves should help.
Oculus: Mage-Lord Urom – There is no instance I hate more than the Oculus. I don't exactly know why. I think it's because the pickup group failure rate's pretty high for this instance (at least when I ran it). Pickup groups I joined were never able to fully complete the instance and the cost-benefit ratio just wasn't that high for me.
Urom is the third boss you'll encounter going up the chain here. The big kickers here are Time Bombs, Frost Bombs and the Empowered Arcane Explosion and all of which are able to completely screw over your party. Pick a direction to kite the boss around. This is done in order to stay ahead of the Frost Bombs. Starting out, this boss took about 90 minutes for my party and I to do (this was hours after I turned 80). This boss will test the situational awareness of healers.
Questions I had to ask myself frequently:
- Who has the bomb?
- Am I moving fast enough ahead of the group?
- What do I do if I know "that guy" isn't going to make it behind the barrier to line-of-sight the explosion?
Halls of Stone, Tribunal of Ages – Welcome to the boss that isn't really a boss. What your crew is taking on is nothing more than a glorified security system. One of the faces will fire off a steady stream of Arcane damage to a member in your party. Not only that, you'll start engaging waves and waves of Iron dwarves bent on stopping your buddy Brann Bronzebeard. After a couple of waves, the second face will activate. Keep an eye out for orbs that come flying toward you. If you happen to get hit by it, it increases the amount of damage you take by 100% (Heroic, remember?). Not too long after that, the final face will activate. That face unleashes a channeled beam into certain parts of the area. If this combines with the with the debuff from the second face, you're going to have a heck of a time healing all of that up. Lots of moving around to do at this point. This encounter really pushes situational awareness skills to the extreme.
Actually the hardest part of this instance just might be staying awake for the wall-of-text boss after you manage to survive all of that.
Culling of Stratholme, Bronze Drake event – To be fair, this event requires a combination of strong healing and strong DPS. To go for this achievement as a healer, down time spent drinking must be minimized as much as possible. Mana regen abilities like Innervate, Shadowfiends, Mana Tides and Divine Pleas should be used as often as possible. Sit down and drink the moment you're clear after combat. Even if you can only squeeze off a few seconds of precious drinking time, you never know when you're going to be caught in combat for extended periods of time. This is a test of mana management and speed.
In hockey, there's a tactic known as "pinching". It's when a defenseman comes off the blue line to help join the offense. The downside to this is that this can lead to a dangerous turnover by the other team because you'll have one defenseman instead of two defenseman on the opposing breakout. To help increase the speed at which your group cuts through the event, your healer can also help offensively. For example, tossing up a few Holy Fires, Mind Blasts and Shadow Word: Deaths as a Priest. In the grand scheme of things, it might not mean much. But it's still extra damage that helps to speed up the run. But you can't lose track of your role as a healer. Help DPS if you can get away with it but don't forget your responsibilities as a healer.
(My personal best was 9 minutes remaining on the clock when we looted the Bronze drake. Good time trial run just for fun!)
Note that none of these encounters can help gauge the quality of your healer recruit. There's no way of knowing whether they'll truly mesh in with your guild or if they have the skills to raid. These heroics can't solve a good old fashioned Patchwerk healing test or an OS3D awareness test. But it's a great indicator of what your healer needs to work on and what they excel at.
Want some more advice for working with the healers in your guild? Raid Rx has you covered with all there is to know! Looking for less healer-centric raiding advice? Take a look at our raiding column Ready Check.Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, Analysis / Opinion, Raid Rx (Raid Healing)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Zephyrion Mar 15th 2009 4:23PM
Loken's dropped to number 25 last I checked...with Archavon at number 2.
Vault pugs ftw
Tobias Mar 15th 2009 4:31PM
You know you can prevent falling asleep in HoS by talking to Brann and telling him you dont have time for the story?
Thus skipping the wall of text or as my guild call it "Story Time"
Just a little FYI for those not in the know.
Chamual Mar 15th 2009 7:31PM
It's a shame there is no way of skipping all the talking in CoT: Stratholme :\
SBKT Mar 15th 2009 7:31PM
If you come to my realm, I need to give you a gift for this godly piece of information.
Hoggersbud Mar 15th 2009 4:32PM
Old Kingdom is easy as a priest, especially if you have a melee heavy group. Why?
Holy Nova baby. I'm never the last one done.
Blacksword Mar 15th 2009 4:45PM
Same as a Holy Paly, its easy> Im normally the first done and I tend to have to help the other groups kill myself...
Kakistocracy Mar 15th 2009 5:29PM
Not for some people apparently...
I had one heroic run in which the holy priest when oom, and all three dps died in the first insanity, luckily DK's have some handy cool downs, and the priest eventually got some mana back.
Kirsten Mar 16th 2009 9:53AM
I use MC for easy kills on this, actually. MC the tank, then, when everyone else is dead - fear him, toss out SW:P, throw a smite or two and we're done : )
h8rain Mar 16th 2009 10:19AM
Even better is you can MC and then immediately release (it instantly kills the clone) for all but the clones except for the last one.
ClayMask Mar 15th 2009 4:45PM
How difficult each of these is depends on a lot of factors, such as how much they've been there before, how good the rest of the group is, and what type of healer they are. I think it would be hard to judge how good the healer is unless you could keep all of these factors constant and then look at the healers side by side.
Wistoovern Mar 15th 2009 4:51PM
For Herald Volazj, as a Disc priest, I handle my 'comrades' the same way that I handle AoE kills. I shield up, hit each of them with a Shadow Word: Pain, and then Psychic Scream. While they're running, it's ticking off, and I can cast Hymn of Hope to recoup some mana while they're gone. When they get back, Weakened Soul is usually down, so I can shield up again, and Holy Nova until they're dead or help arrives.
With Hymn of Hope and Shadowfiend, mana consumption isn't a huge issue, though you may need to pop a pot by the end. Maybe.
Microtonal Mar 15th 2009 4:54PM
I feel the Oculus hate. It's still the only 5-man instance I've never completed on either normal or heroic. Urom is fairly painless once you get the positioning down, and I'm stupidly overgeared for it at this point anyway, but Eregos is and will probably always be the dumbest boss encounter in the game. Even Malygos is less stupid.
pax368 Mar 15th 2009 4:54PM
In heroic OK as a priest you can just mind control your adds and they instantly despawn, a quick psychic scream then hit each one with mind control and youll be done in no time. And cycling through the rest of your groups enemies with mind control only takes a few seconds, especially when you mind control yourself to stop the healing.
Marveen Mar 16th 2009 5:08AM
I found the achievement Chaos Theory (Nexus heroic) a great challenge for a healer. Loads of moving to keep the DPS from killing the rifts, LoS issues around those big rocks, massive AoE damage and trying not to get overaggro and die as the healer.
Other tricky achievements to test your healers on are: Volunteer Work (Old Kingdom), Better off Dred (Draktharon Keep) and Abuse the Ooze (Halls of Stone). And maybe Snakes (Gundrak) - tricky achievement to get for healers unless you're good at kite healing.. :D
webaccount Mar 15th 2009 5:10PM
You put way to much weight into AOE or HOT healing, completely ignoring paladin healers.
Charlie Mar 15th 2009 5:13PM
Loken isn't a great for pure healing. As a priest it's not that hard.
It's a great retard check though. I ran a pug last night where the guy kept asking if he was doing well because he had to heal naxx and sarth 2d the next day.
The first pull he died to the dot AoE(didn't know to stand close)
Next time he died to Big AoE thingy.
Third time he died to dot AoE.
Then he left. (well he 'd/ced')
There are such things as bad players.
Kaphik Mar 15th 2009 5:34PM
Loken isn't even too difficult to heal through, if you're an experienced healer with new 80 gear. The fight can be done with just a tank and a healer if need be. Make sure you keep yourself alive.
Really, none of these are terribly difficult or challenging as a healer. I find the King Ymir fight and the Anub'arak fights to be much better tests of a healer's abilities.
McRaider Mar 15th 2009 5:52PM
In addition to that Loken can be defeated with only a healer and a tank, he can be defeated easily without moving. I've never moved a bit in the whole fight. When I went for it with a PUG, they complained about me not moving. I didn't seriously know I had to move.
I just can't get it why some guys make the fight more difficult by running away from the lightning nova (stupidness?) as some of the tactics tell you to... o.O
Is it just all about the healer? We have a lvl 80 shaman with almost full t7 set (1 missing) and full epixx... or do other healers just suck so much that they have to move away from the nova? And I don't even have my def capped! Gettin' crits from time to time and today was the first time a crit from a boss wiped us... (champion of the frozen wastes done ofc)
Dave Mar 15th 2009 7:30PM
Loken really is a joke to heal as long as folks do stop running around. The most likely cause of death on him is someone fleeing, still getting hit by the nova, then picking up a DoT tick.
If you can get everyone to stand still at short range to eliminate the dot, the fight becomes trivial for everyone, including paly's who just have to bacon themselves and then heal everyone else with the expectation that, worst comes to worse, the paly and the tank will finish the fight.
As noted though, bring a resto shaman, and the fight is trivial - chain heal the folks cuddling his feet through the nova + nature resist totem FTW.
Microtonal Mar 16th 2009 4:43AM
Mmmm...bacon pally.