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 No Stock UI, a WoW blog for all things UI, macro, and addon related.

Icecrown Citadel has been out for a little over a week now and most progression guilds have cleared the lower area. Even now I get asked on Twitter from anxious healers who have yet to step into Arthas' domain about the difficulty level and their readiness.

"How do I know if I can hold my own in Icecrown?"

"What are the minimum stats required for me to go in?"

That's a judgment call that only you can make!

I've been able to heal Icecrown on both my priest and my shaman. I dare not set foot inside the area yet with my paladin (even though they are clearly superior healers*). Let me give you an idea of where my characters stand so far. My Priest has a little over 3000 spellpower. My shaman is sitting at around 2700. My poor paladin, the best healer class she may be, is holding up the rear with about 2300.

So how did they each do?

The priest

As expected, the priest passed with flying colors. I alternated specs a few times on different fights to see there was any struggle. Other than Deathbring Saurfang, it didn't feel like I had a hard time healing as either spec. Discipline felt a touch more powerful to me due to the inevitable high raid damage that would come in at the tail end of the fight from the Blood Power build up. Power Word: Shield was put to great use.

The shaman

My totem dropping counterpart blasted through Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper and the Gunship battle with a bit of discomfort. I definitely had to work a bit here to keep the raid and the tanks alive. Obviously, I'm not as fluent with healing on my shaman as I am on my priest. In some cases, I have to think about who to heal and what spell to use instead of simply reacting. But that's just a case of familiarity with the class. Sadly, I got stoned at Deathbringer Saurfang.

The paladin

I haven't tried running this instance yet with my Holy Light-bomb healer. That's largely due to the fact that I don't believe her gear is ready yet. Yes, some people will raise the point that skill is better than gear and I do agree to an extent. I'm still using a few blue items and I don't want to compromise the raid that's going to take me in there. I still have some Emblems of Triumph to farm and invest in my holy gear before I think I can come remotely close to going.

Are you ready?

Let's put it this way. If you're not sure whether or not you can heal Icecrown, you're probably not ready.

• Cleared out Trial of the Crusader repeatedly to the point of boredom?
• Knocked out a few hard modes in either Ulduar or Trial of the Crusader?
• Screaming for something challenging to do?

If you answered yes to any of the above, then you're good to go for Icecrown.

On the other hand, if you or your guild has had issues progressing through Trial of the Crusader, then you might want to keep honing your abilities. If your guild can't bust through Val'kyr Twins or Anub'arak, then you'll want to wait and keep trying until you get those bosses down several times.

Don't let me stop you though. By all means, if you want to see the instance and get a familiar with the place, just charge right in. Couple of pickup raids I've been a part of have had difficulties with the trash mobs alone. if the players you are running with are able to cut through the trash with ease and stability, then you have yourself a decent shot at cracking the bosses of Icecrown.

From a numbers stand point

Personally, healers who are rocking spell power above the 2700-2800 range should have an okay time within the place. Expect to do a bit of work. The difficulty gap from Trial of the Crusader to Icecrown isn't quite the same as the one from Ulduar to Trial of the Crusader.

Having mana regen that's past 750 or so should be enough to last you throughout the encounters. With high grade DPS, mana regeneration won't be an issue as your DPS players will be able to take down the boss before mana becomes an issue at all.

Telling someone they're not ready

No one likes to be the bearer of bad news. No one likes being the "mean" person that says a player can't come in because they're not ready. But sometimes, it just has to be done for the sake of the raid. If they're still causing frustration, bite the bullet and bring them anyway.

One of two things will happen:

Either they perform beyond your expectations and can do the job that you asked them to do.

Or they realize that they're not belting out enough healing to keep their targets alive and that experience serves as a reminder that they still need to work on their gear or skills further.

Hopefully, this will help settle the anxiety you might have about venturing into the place. I'm afraid that Trial of the Crusader may have caused healers to become complacent. I don't want to say lazy here but I wouldn't be surprised if the guard has been let down. All the accessible encounters in there are technically simple to understand. It's just up to you now to execute it.

You'll be fine.

* Since the Canucks fell to the Predators in a recent game, I agreed to publicly acknowledge the awesomeness of paladins to Gregg in my column (even though I love priests the most).

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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.

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Filed under: Paladin, Raid Rx (Raid Healing), Druid, Priest, Shaman, Analysis / Opinion, Raiding