Raid Rx: How to heal Yor'sahj and Hagara
by Matt Low 
Dec 9th 2011 at 9:00PM
Ready for a trip back into the Eye of Eternity? Oh, don't worry, you'll get your chance to reminisce. This week, we're going to look at the next two bosses within the Dragon Soul raid instance. Some movement will be required -- hope you have your running shoes equipped. Last thing you want happen is to complain to your raid leader that your feet are in pain.
Yor'sahj is one of the bosses that some raid groups may have some difficulty with. I know that green and red slimes up can be the hardest combination to deal with. We'll go over how to handle those. ... Could always ask Greatfather Winter for a hand! I'm sure he'd be happy to help with some brand new raid loot.
Yor'sahj the Unsleeping
We like to call Yor'sahj the ooze boss. In a way, he (or it?) reminds me of Professor Putricide. Yor'sahj will summon help from Shu'ma (otherwise known as the creature you're fighting within). Three different colored globules will appear and make a run for Yor'sahj, who will then temporarily gain abilities and powers based on the globule colors. All of the globules will affect healing in some manner.
If a Glowing Globule (yellow) hits Yor'sahj, Yor'sahj starts doing things way more quickly. He'll start hitting 50% more quickly. Watch the tank very closely during this, especially with a yellow up.
I actually save mana cooldowns if I know a Cobalt Globule's going to hit the boss. I'll use a potion or a mana Hymn. It's not that I don't trust the DPS to burst it down fast enough, but sometimes they might cut it a little close. I'd rather have the mana reserves there to use during that phase, anyway. Stay within 30 yards of the Mana Void when it explodes so you can benefit from Mana Diffusion.
Crimson Globule (or red) isn't so bad if everyone knows what to do. Those beams do more damage when players aren't as close to the boss as they should be. Easily healable.
Any Dark Globules that spawn shouldn't be taken too lightly. If you happen to pull any healing aggro from stacking, burn a cooldown! If you're getting beaten down, run to a tank (and pray that it gets peeled off).
The last type of globule is called Shadowed Globule, which keeps you busy every fifth beneficial heal. To be more specific, it will trigger some kind of violent explosion whenever a fifth spell lands.
Luckily, you only need to deal with three of them (one of which should be destroyed before the other two get to the boss). Stack up quickly after the remaining two oozes have hit the boss, and prepare to deal with those abilities.
If for some reason you get the Christmas combination of red and green, try to spread out a little bit if you can to minimize the splash. Don't stray too far or else the abilities of the red globule will slice through the raid. Use your raid cooldowns to survive them if you can.
Hagara
Right off the bat, Hagara will start applying Focused Assault on the tank. It's potentially lethal and can catch even experienced players off-guard. If your tank isn't fast enough, burn a quick cooldown on him.
Dealing with Ice Lances are trivial. These crystals will launch missiles toward a player standing near Hagara. Damage is pretty easy to heal through. I've experimented with intercepting missiles so that they wouldn't affect our overall DPS. Unfortunately, that stuff does kind of get annoying and builds up after a while.
During the Frozen Tempest, the platform will become filled with all sorts of nasty frost attacks. After several seconds, Ice Waves will spawn and divide the platform into four sections. The catch is that the Ice Waves will sweep clockwise around her, so you need to keep moving while the rest of your DPS team takes down the binding crystal. Doing so means that phase is over.
By the way, be careful if you have any sprint effects or abilities. The last thing you want to do is get yourself killed by running into the Ice Wave. You might be laughing, but I've seen this happen firsthand. Players were so eager to get moving and running that they ran into them. While it may not be lethal in the Raid Finder, you can bet it'll cut you down in any normal-mode difficulty setting.
After that, it's back to normal until you get to the Lightning Storm phase. You'll need to stay within close proximity with the rest of your group to chain the lightning charge to the other players near you. Be careful, as there is random lightning that occurs, and you're there to help support the rest of the raid as you're running around. In other words, while you are trying to chain that lightning from one area to the next, remember to actually heal while doing that and don't focus so much on your position.
In between the two storm phases, you'll need to remain diligent when it comes to Ice Tombs. Five players will be trapped in 25-man raid groups, while 10-man will involve two players being trapped in random tombs. My raid groups sets up a central point for players to run to when they are affected by debuff. Having a central location means maximum DPS on both the tanks and the sheriff. I recommend dropping HoTs on those players right away. There's always a chance that tombed players will die. Be sure to hit them before just before the tomb lands with HoTs so they can remain safe during the explosion.
Good luck!
Need advice on working with the healers in your guild? Raid Rx has you covered. Send your questions about raid healing to mattl@wowinsider.com. For less healer-centric raiding advice, visit Ready Check for advanced tactics and advice for the endgame raider.
Filed under: Raid Rx (Raid Healing)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Magicslime Dec 9th 2011 9:16PM
Not too related, but does anyone know why we can go to the eye of eternity? Last I was there before raid finder, the red flight blew up the platform.
Necromann Dec 9th 2011 9:24PM
I think Kalecgos fixed it.
DracoSuave Dec 10th 2011 12:13AM
A wizard did it.
No really, that's what the blue dragonflight are all about, and the Eye of Eternity's kinda in another dimension or some jazz.
Furious Kalleck Dec 10th 2011 1:51PM
The aspects said they needed something to focus the Dragon Soul; Kalec is all "What about that giant lense at the EoE?"
They needed the focusing lense, and Hagra was there in an ambush.
Magicslime Dec 10th 2011 2:49PM
Ah, I see. So it was just "coincidence" that he happened to have rebuilt it in his spare time of a year and a half of being an aspect :P
Helston Dec 9th 2011 9:35PM
The best way to deal with Focussed Assault is to have an OT (or even an mdps) taunt her from a distance the moment she starts it. It cancels her cast outright.
Tolsimir Dec 9th 2011 10:42PM
There's no real reason to have an OT for this fight. The four seconds of increased healing for Focused Assault is not worth the extra DPS of having a second tank switch into his/her DPS spec. Just have the tank hit a CD and heal through it, or back up as other commenters have noted (though realistically I see a patch coming where she will follow the tank during FA).
MortalCoil Dec 9th 2011 9:38PM
"If your tank isn't fast enough, burn a quick cooldown on him."
Or let him die so he learns from it!>:(
Instead of taking the entire focused assault all the tank has to do is merely back up out of hagara's melee range because while she channels focused assault she remains stationary and will NOT follow the tank while he backs up!
Apple Dec 9th 2011 10:39PM
Alternatively, the tank can sidestep the attack. Either way it saves everyone a lot of trouble!
Central ice tombs are good, but it's better to position them slightly to one side, and make certain your primary tank healer is on the other side. Ice tombs block LoS, and if the healers can't see the tank the raid will be in serious danger. Also, try to burn the tombs down one at a time in 10 player mode, so that the first victim can help break out the second.
As to the Ice Lances, my raid team has four players in the ranged group stand at the cardinal points (N, S, E, W) to intercept the three lance beams. Ice Lance chains to allies on impact as well as crippling melee dps, so eating the lances at a range is enormously helpful.
CursedMonk87 Dec 11th 2011 2:32PM
So I'm wondering something, but haven't tried: If you can put HoTs on the Ice-Tomb victims, would you also be able to put a Paladin's Hand of Protection on them as well? They're going to be immobilised anyway, so why not make them immune to damage? Again I haven't tried it, and I honestly don't think Blizzard would have overlooked it. I know you can't bubble out of an ice-tomb so I'm sure the same applies to any of the forebearance spells. But it would be nice. So nice.
The fight really isn't that hard to heal through. Our tank just strafes around her to avoid Focused Assault. The Ice-phase is damage free as long as people do what they're supposed to. Good time to recharge your mana pool. I find the only complicated part to be the Lightning phase. For chaining we separated our raid into groups of 3, with a healer in each. We would just chain all three at the same time, but that's a pretty damage heavy part.
Our main issue with Hagara is getting a little too close to her enrage, but that's more of a dps issue anyway.
This is my first raid-tier healing as a holy paladin, and I'm having a blast. The new Holy Radiance is just what the field-medic ordered.
incarnation723 Dec 16th 2011 4:35PM
Only one way to find out =p. tho i do know that non targeted heals will hit the people in the ice tombs. like tranq.
Yobbam Dec 13th 2011 7:53AM
So funny you say that. My first try, I'm ready and waiting for the wall. I'm running and looking ,and boom I ran right into it as it spawned. I laughed and laughed as the mechanic was explained over vent like I didn't know what was coming.