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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsRaid Rx: Handling healer mana in raids
by Matt Low 
Jan 7th 2011 at 6:00PM
Nothing brings a healer down more than realizing that he screwed up. It gets worse when the healing lead is the one who messes up such a simple oversight. I'm really beating myself up over this, because it was such an easy fix. In fact, it should be the first thing that should be checked before entering encounters.
I'm going to share the conversation I had here with my fellow columnist Joe Perez. I hoped that confessing to him might help alleviate the despair. (It didn't.)
Matt: Hey Joe, can we talk for a sec? I think I goofed yesterday.
Joe: Again? What did you do this time, son?
Matt: ... I uh, forgot to put the resto shaman in the healer group.
Joe: <10 seconds of silence> ... You know how bad that is, right?
Matt: Yeah. Realized it after the fact. I'm surprised the WoW Insider editors haven't fired me yet for making such a rookie mistake.
Joe: I think you need a re-education. Take a seat.
By the way, my guild scored the Critter Kill Squad achievement finally. Next step? Crittergeddon.
Personally, I've found mana management in 25-player raids to be far more forgiving in comparison to 10-man raids. Would you agree with that? I'm basing this on my own experience, but it does make sense. With more raid slots, it means there is a higher likelihood that additional players can be brought in for mana cooldowns.
Think about it as a form of opportunity. When building a raid, a 10-player raid group might not have a shadow priest. However, in a raid involving 25 player slots, the odds of having a shadow priest are higher. Having that class and spec means another Hymn of Hope is available in the event the raid needs it. Perhaps there are extra restoration shaman with additional Mana Tide Totems at their disposal.
Personally, I'd try running a raid composition with five healing priests and five shadow priests. But that's an excellent reason why I'm not in charge of the raid roster.
The deal with resto shaman
What is up with resto shaman? Well, they're the new hotness right now when it comes to mana regeneration. One simple drop of Mana Tide Totem can reset the mana of every healer in the party. Couple it with a Core of Ripeness from the Valorous Quartermaster for even juicier mana.
Yes Joe, I know you're right.Mana is an issue, right? Restoration shaman are the new mana battery. It isn't Innervate anymore; it's the totem. It should be the first thing you check before the first pull. Ask yourself: Do you have a restoration shaman? More importantly, is he grouped with the healers? If not, then you're creating your own hard mode which you don't have to.
-- Joe, to me
I just don't know what caused me to make such a mistake. So make sure you park your shaman with the rest of the healers. I tend to place them together in group 5 (and I do notice multiple raids and guilds place their healers in group 5).
One thing I do want to add is that your shaman should set up a macro or a warning in such a way that the rest of the healers know a Mana Tide totem is about to be dropped. The other healers can then set up their spirit procs or trinkets to really maximize the return.
Are any classes running out of mana during raids?
Nothing excessively bad is going on that I can see. If all healers are timing their cooldowns and consumable usages at the right times, there should be enough mana to get through it all. I've noticed discipline priests seem to have more mana throughout fights. With six healers, I would then place the discipline priest in the non-healer group, since it seems to me that he or she doesn't need mana assistance as much. Agree or disagree?
Holy priests? Yeah, despite the regeneration buffs, I'm still chugging through mine at a nice clip. That's most likely due to my own playstyle, however. During the intense AoE periods, I'm casting Flash Heal on player A, Flash Heal on player B, then following up with a Prayer of Healing.
The upcoming 4.0.6 patch offers a variety of fixes that will be affecting the costs of numerous healing spells and talents. Some of these have already been hotfixed into the game.
- Rejuvenation is now trained at level 3, down from level 8. In addition, its mana cost has been reduced from 26% to 16%.
- Divine Plea now lasts for 9 seconds, down from 15. It grants 4% mana per tick instead of 2%, for a total of 12% mana, up from 10%.
- Glyph of Divine Plea now adds 6% mana, for a total of 18% over 9 seconds.
- The mana cost of Renew has been reduced by 24%.
- The mana cost of Power Word: Shield has been increased by approximately 31%, but its effect has been increased by 208%.
- Holy Concentration now increases the amount of mana regeneration from spirit while in combat by an additional 15/30%, down from 20/40%.
Lastly, remember that another way to lighten healing mana load is to ensure that fights go more quickly. Press your DPS players to do everything they can really bring it. The faster boss fights go, the less mana you need to use.
Joe: So what exactly compelled you to set up the healing groups in such a way that your shaman was isolated?
Matt: I wish I knew. I'm going shadow from now on.
Need advice on working with the healers in your guild? Raid Rx has you covered. Send your questions about raid healing to matticus@wow.com. For less healer-centric raiding advice, visit Ready Check for advanced tactics and advice for the endgame raider.Filed under: Raiding, Raid Rx (Raid Healing)
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
cyanea85 Jan 8th 2011 1:09AM
Speak for yourself.
I've never enjoyed healing more than I have been this past month.
Twill Jan 8th 2011 4:30PM
Holy Paladin is by far the easiest healer to level. Taking those shockadin talents until 85 makes it equal (and sometimes even higher) DPS than Ret.
Mir Jan 9th 2011 1:01PM
If you didn't get Denounce in the holy tree, you're playing a shockadin wrong :)
Jeremy Jan 8th 2011 2:50AM
We rarely have mana issues in our 10 man group, Resto Druid, Shadow Priest (Hymm of Hope), Resto Shamman, Holy Priest (Yet another Hymm), Boomkin, Feral Tank, DK tank we are sitting at 8 bosses down already and have only been raiding for a week and a half
Yshara Jan 8th 2011 9:23AM
This artictle summarises everything wrong wtih resto shaman right now - the class is balanced entirely around mana tide, which is frankly overpowered. Blizz seem to think it's OK for shaman to have massively underpowered heals, because they can keep the powerful healers going longer. Being a mana battery is *not fun*, but right now it's the only reason to take a resto shammy to a raid. So much for bring the player, not the class.
Kinghappo Jan 8th 2011 12:30PM
I completely agree with Yshara, being a resto shaman i've noticed the huge difference between my healing and that of our raid druid and priest. when our safe heals don't even touch the ticks on a druid's hot and their heavy heals double our crits, i've been finding myself watching our tank go down even while spamming our heavy heal on the tank during heroism.. we also do not have a secondary damage reducer besides nature's swiftness. many of times even speced for tank healing have to switch temporarily so that the other healers can use their healing cooldowns on them during the hard phases. yes it does push for teamwork but for the resto shaman's its a slap in the face after 3 expansions of watching other tank healing classes handle their own business without the need to call on every tom, dick, and worgen to pop a cooldown because you can't handle the pain that's being dished out. But this article has made me realize what our real role is in raids... and that leaves an even nastier taste in my mouth...
Radiophonic Jan 8th 2011 5:00PM
Aww you guys voted me down, I feel special now. Leave it to the fanboys to rate down the true statements.
Hih Jan 8th 2011 6:37PM
"True statements" as you put it was nothing but anecdotes and opinions and whining. That tends to get voted down.
Yes we have more mana, yes spells cost more. Those are in fact true statements, though pointless to make statements.
"spirit that doesn't scale the way it should" is an opinion, not a fact. What about it specifically doesn't work the way you want it to? That it doesn't give enough regen? Sorry, this ain't Wrath. You aren't meant to spam anything but the cheap heal. Every other heal you're supposed to use intelligently and sparingly.
"70% of the pug groups I've been in via LFG think they can just run into an instance, pull everything and the healer will just heal it." 90% of all statistics are pulled out of someone's ass. Almost every heroic I've been in people have been willing and able to use CC, interrupts, etc. Granted, I didn't pug until a couple weeks in, since I healed guild groups until then. But hell, now that I have 10 epics, healing heroics is pretty easy, and I almost never have to drink.
"Healers were fine the way they were, even in BC." In BC we were fine, yes, kind of. Downranking was an unintended way to have better efficiency than we were supposed to. That's what the "big, small, fast" main 3 heals everyone gets is supposed to be based on. Max rank flash heal, Max Rank Greater Heal, Max Rank minus 4 Greater Heal.
Healers however were not fine in Wrath. That statement I just made is entirely subjective, but when you compare healing styles from Vanilla, BC, and Wrath objectively, you'll notice that healing and mana regen were both greatly overpowered in Wrath. People were spamming their best heal pretty much non-stop. Players were either full health, half health, or dead, and they didn't stay in the middle for very long.
"Now it's just frustrating and not "more fun" as Ghostcrawler wanted to make it." Healing now is different from Wrath. If you started during Wrath, I can see how the change is quite a shock. It takes more effort and can be frustrating at times, especially when you're just starting to gear up. It gets better as you get gear though, I can promise you that. Once you get used to the changes and get some epics, healing becomes a *lot* more manageable.
Matticus Jan 8th 2011 6:47PM
Hih, have an upvote.
Radiophonic Jan 8th 2011 10:40PM
TL;DR
Hih Jan 9th 2011 5:33AM
Go dps or something then, it should suit your ADD much better than healing.
Also, learn how to use the reply button please.
Mitternacht Jan 9th 2011 9:55PM
I'm a bit interested in the comment about resto shamans being the new mana batteries and how important their streaming mana totem is to keeping mana pools up. However, does that still cancel out a paladin's Blessing of Might?
Matticus Jan 9th 2011 10:49PM
Its actually a reference to their mana tide totem not their mana spring totem. Mana tide increases regeneration by 350% for 12 seconds or something whereas mana spring is the consistent mana increase which is similar to blessing of might.
Shinhan Jan 10th 2011 3:31AM
Atonement Disco has infinite mana (especially when I go full smite).
Other Disc spec is pretty good on mana. Still have to use sfiend, HoH and potion of concentration sometimes, but I have less mana problems than the holy priest.