Raid Rx: Yor'sahj healing on hard mode
by Matt Low 
Mar 9th 2012 at 7:00PM
Did you manage to knock out heroic mode Hagara? Wondering where to go next? The summoner of ooze, Yor'sahj should be next on your list. Perhaps the biggest change in heroic is the extra ooze that spawns that your raid needs to deal with. This means Yor'sahj has more abilities with which to assault your raid. This encounter doesn't exactly have a set script, since Yor'sahj cycles through different slime combinations.
For healing setups, I strongly advise bringing in no more than six healers. Healers will want to configure their UIs so that they can view Deep Corruption debuffs on their raid frames. All in all, Yor'sahj hinges heavily on the ability of your raid to react to the different combinations.
Handling purple ooze
Deep Corruption is the ability to be wary of. If a player receives five heals, they will detonate and deal approximately 50,000 damage to everyone around them. Distribute your raid so that each healer is responsible for their group. If I'm in group 5, I'm taking care of anyone who is taking damage in group 5. I suggest sticking to large bomb heals. Be wary of using AoE healing spells here, since some of them may trigger Deep Corruption stacks. For a full list of spells that activate Deep Corruption, consult this list. Don't go over four applications. Abilities like Divine Hymn will automatically wipe the raid. Abilities like Power Word: Barrier and Rallying Cry are a big boost.
Tank healing is going to be tricky. If you get a chance to use paladins, do it. We assigned the two healers (one on each tank) so that there would be no crossover tank healing (and unwanted detonations).
Of course, if you don't see a purple ooze during a wave, do use Divine Hymn or Tranquility to take advantage of the fact that you're not going to wipe the raid.
Handling blue ooze
Mana voids tank the mana of the entire group. One of the accepted strategies out there involves players using mana cooldowns (Mana Tide totem, Hymn of Hope, etc.) to restore mana to the group and bring the health of the Mana Void down to around 10%. The next time the raid group sees a blue slime, they let their mana drop to zero mana again and then crush the low-health Mana Void, restoring every player's mana. Of course, the raid starts the same cycle again after by beating the newly spawned Mana Void down to 10%.
If you're having a hard time with this, what my group ended up doing is parking a rogue and having them focus down the void while the rest of the raid destroyed one of the incoming oozes.
Tip: If you know your raid is about to pop open a Mana Void, feel free to contribute some additional DPS if raid health is stable. The death of the Mana Void will restore the mana lost when you were DPSing anyone.
Handling black ooze
Yor'sahj will spawn a number of adds called Forgotten Ones. These guys can hurt, and your raid needs to AoE them down as quick as they can before the group fans out to deal with the next wave of slimes. Chances are, your group won't be able to kill all of them in one sitting. The problems I had in dealing with them revolved largely around aggro. Some of these adds will still be alive when your raid is trying to work down another incoming ooze. Make sure there are healers who can cover the bulk of the group. No player should be caught at all on their own.
Handling red ooze
Extremely straightforward. As long as no one's standing outside of melee range, you can simply unload healing as needed. Unlike normal mode, though, more players will be affected by the Searing Blood ability (eight instead of three on 25-man).
Handling green ooze
Players need to stay at least 4 yards away from other players; otherwise, the explosions will hit others nearby. This is up to the rest of your raid. Drill into their heads and get them to stay spaced out or else you're not going to get out of this phase alive. Don't even think about trying to leave green and red up unless you want to force a wipe.
Handling yellow ooze
Pray that your raid doesn't see this guy very often. Abilities are used twice as often, and Yor'sahj's attack speed increases. If you do hit a yellow, though, it's a fantastic time to use a Heroism/Bloodlust to power through that phase.
Fatal combinations
One of the deadliest combinations your raid group can experience is the dreaded blue/green/purple combination. Not only are you starting off with zero mana, the damage from the green ooze and the storm of dropping ooze from the sky is going to cut down on your ability to stack up for a Mana Void. The limited healing that can be done from purple means that you can't fire out the raid-wide AoE healing that would help. Setting up five points around the area and having each of the five groups spread out around those points helps to ensure that the healers are within range of the rest of their group.
This encounter is going to be random everytime you start it. A little luck will help you for that elusive first kill. The best strategy is to simply be exposed to the encounter repeatedly so that everyone in the raid gets the hang of what they need to do against the different slime combinations.
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: Raiding, Raid Rx (Raid Healing)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ray Mar 9th 2012 7:37PM
WTB more 10-man information :-/
Diatenium Mar 9th 2012 9:14PM
For 10-mans, this is a 2-healer, 1-tank fight, having 3 healers is redundant (Either you're OOM or you're burning the majority of your mana anyways during a heavy aoe phase which will be redistributed anyways, and while the latter might be slightly easier with 3-healers you're still throwing cooldowns left and right so it's not as bad as you think) and you won't have the DPS to beat it otherwise.
In terms of debuff from the purple ooze for 10-mans, the easiest technique with the least amount of communication is basically what's suggested here, assign one healer per group. As a paladin I'm in the tank's group and the best result, I found, was divine lighting the tank and immediately following up with a WoG (from ToR) on the tank or another party member depending on their health, even healing a member of the other group (Since Word of Glory doesn't proc corruption stacks so you have no issue with causing your other healer's group any undue stress), and then holy shock any non-tank raid member and repeat with WoG.
What this guide doesn't tell you is that the debuff resets mid-phase, so keep an eye on the debuff's duration when judging how high you want to get those stacks up. Another tip is realizing that the tank doesn't get stacks from beacon heals, so you can holy light spam a pet (which doesn't get the debuff) if things get tight.
Another general tip is to try and stay close to the mana void when it bursts, the thing CAN sucker you out of all your mana.
Shammytime Mar 10th 2012 12:22AM
For 10-man, Dk tanks can make the fight a lot easier due to the short cd on AMS, though any tank is viable.
When mana void is out and your dealing with red, don't be afraid to have the boss move so that all can burst it down (depending on healers and the amount of raid dmg mana may or may not be needed asap good communication about mana cooldowns is helpful)
My guild found that having the kill priority green>yellow, because this caused less issue with healers having to deal with people spread out and we felt that there was less dmg over all this way due to spreading out causing some issues with guildies.
I would not say always save healing cds for yellow,red,black, but this combination we found to be the most healing intensive especially if an unlucky person was targeted by multiple adds and a bit out of position for the red bounce. (Grouping up all together mitigates the dmg due to the bounces dealing more dmg the farther away a person is from the last person it bounced from)
Learn to love that purple slime, he reduces the healing needed due to eliminating a "dps" slime.
Sumadin Mar 10th 2012 4:19AM
I am not sure how different 25 man is, but on 10 man the Green-Purple-Blue is one of the easier comboes. As the guy above me said, purple eliminates a dps onze. Well now you just eliminated 2. Handleling the blue onzes is key here. Think of them as an extra mana pool. You can keep all your mana CDs on CD and will always have natural regeneration(Your healers are spirit-addicts at this point right?) You should have the main healer make a calculated decision when to take down an orb. The best way of dealing with the start of blue phase is to release another one afterall.
Now Red-yellow-Black is a teeth-puller. Get ready for a defensive heroism and make´sure your healers got enough mana. Did i mention that it is time for tank CDs?
Saeadame Mar 9th 2012 7:37PM
Not going to lie, I found blue/green/purple to be one of the easier combinations on 10 man. The damage happens at predictable intervals and, provided no one is standing close to someone else (which could be a bigger problem in a 25 man?) the damage will never kill someone in one or even two hits. As a healer, therefore, I have plenty of leeway when healing my assigned people. I just can't recall which one my 10 mans have found difficult, but I think it was a phase with both a yellow and black ooze. There was no healing debuff, but my group often had yellow/red/black and (?) yellow/blue/black back-to-back, and having enough mana/healing CDs to heal through these was difficult.
I'm surprised you didn't specifically mention the holy paladin "trick" for this fight, which makes them invaluable tank healers. Beacon of Light heals do not trigger Deep Corruption, so a holy paladin can simply beacon a tank and heal a hunter pet (which do not get debuffed anyway), and not have to worry about gaining deep corruption stacks on the tank.
Some other specific tricks: the Power Word: Shield glyph causes people to gain 2 stacks from PW:S instead of just one, so disc priests should remove that glyph for this fight. Druids can be great for relieving some of the stress from the beginning of these phases, particularly if there's also a mana void, by pre-HoTing everyone right before the Deep Corruption debuff goes out (not when the ooze is absorbed, there's a small gap between the ooze absorbtion and the debuff going out).
The only other suggestion is to avoid "random target" AoE heals at all costs, as these are often uncontrollable (on one memorable wipe, a Shaman accidentally cast Chain heal and it hit someone in another group who was already at 4 stacks, causing them to explode). There are similar issues with any "heals lowest raid member" type heals.
If you have a lock, make sure to get everyone to pick up a healthstone, if you usually don't bother. Cookies don't cause stacks, so if someone's at 4 and they're still taking damage, cookies will save your life ;).
TTFK Mar 9th 2012 9:16PM
Paladins are actually not the best tank healers for purple slimes; that honor goes to Resto Shamans.
Properly buffed, a properly buffed GHW crit can heal for 130K or more with minimal heroic gear. Couple this with the buffs from Ancestral Healing and you provide breathing room and mitigation that no other tank healer can match on this fight.
To maximize tank healing, you should be using a spec such as http://www.wowhead.com/talent#hhZbhZfGfMsbcRcz:MdbocrM which included Focused Insight, Totemic Focus, but NOT Blessing of the Eternals as it provides a minimal benefit.
The next step has to do with your healing UI: Get everyone's pets on there, because that's what you'll be buffing your heals on as the tank healer. After ensuring that you have as long as possible Riptides rolling on both tanks BEFORE the slime hits, you will be casting RT and UE on the pets along with shocking the boss on CD. This will give GHW both the 30% speed AND 60% healing bonus on top of mastery, allowing for ungodly healbombs.
The other thing to remember with purple is that it is not the hits from the boss themselves that cause the most trouble, it is the ticking dot on the tanks that will cause you heartburn.
Another large omission from this article is that when timing your heals, keep in mind that Deep Corruption falls off halfway through the slime phase. The debuff lasts 25 seconds, resets, then starts for another 25. When it resets, the stacks do NOT fall off all at once. They drop at a rate of about 1 every .75 seconds. Any heals done during the drop cycle will get added onto the 2nd half.
TTFK Mar 9th 2012 9:17PM
Just realized I linked the wrong spec. Should be http://www.wowhead.com/talent#hhZbhZfGfMcbcRsz:MdbocrM
Saeadame Mar 10th 2012 12:17AM
I think the reason Paladins make great healers for this fight is that they can heal a tank without triggering Deep Corruption at all, which means they can heal as much as they want. Resto Shamans might be able to heal for more, but they're still constrained in that they can only cast 8 heals over the course of a purple phase.
rodmin Mar 10th 2012 6:08AM
The heals Saeadame are the ones from the Holy Beacon and Word of Glory. And even better, a double WoG can occur, helping a lot in the healing without increasing those stacks.
rodmin Mar 10th 2012 7:10AM
The heals Saeadame is refering are the ones from our Beacon and Word of Glory.
And Word of Glory heals a lot ;)
TTFK Mar 10th 2012 4:05PM
@Saeadame: If you need more than 8 heals to get tanks through a purple phase, you're doing it wrong.
TTFK Mar 9th 2012 9:20PM
Just realized I posted the wrong spec: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#hhZbhZfGfMcbcRsz:MdbocrM
Lipstick Mar 10th 2012 2:01AM
Maybe it's the difference between 10 and 25's but I am surprised you covered hagara before yor'sahj. Yor'sahj/ultraxion and morchok aren't giving us any trouble but Hagara is. Course we don't have a hunter for that fight but still.
Keldion Mar 10th 2012 5:10AM
Hagara is arguably tougher in 10, as you're performing the same tasks to overload her shield (8 lightning conductors, 4 extra-thick Frozen Binding Crystals) with fewer players. This also means it's more likely for a player with Ice Lance stacks to be targeted by Shattered Ice.
Hagara's damage output is sudden and dangerous, but more straightforward than Yor'sahj's chaotic carnival of convalesence.
terph Mar 10th 2012 12:01PM
We were having some problems too, but got some good ideas from the Vox Immortalis guide. We tweaked our approach for our group and it went much better. There's definitely some ways to save time on the lightning phase as 10 man. (Provided the jumps don't start bugging out) The ice phase sucks without a hunter or druid, but it's not impossible. It also had a different tanking strat to deal with Shattered Ice. We also used Grounding Totems to eat them.
http://youtu.be/leEuGBDmyI8
Gennifurfur Mar 10th 2012 10:15AM
This is the next fight we're going to learn (10 man). We've only tried it a few times. We're struggling to get the healers to not blow up the raid like crazy on purple phase (I'm one of the healers.)
I think I'll have to bring up the beacon/heal a pet strategy to our paladin. Not sure if she's been doing that or not.
Leafie Mar 10th 2012 3:52PM
Use single-target big-bomb heals. Put your paladin on your tank & the other healer can keep the raid up easily. There's plenty of time to heal the incoming damage if you've killed the correct ooze. Call out healing targets on Mumble to avoid overhealing a single target. Watch for the debuff reset, too, because you can start re-building stacks. Also, do not worry about healing the raid up immediately as the new ooze phase begins. You have plenty of time while they're dpsing it down after the debuff falls off. There's no incoming damage during that window. An exception is if you've got adds + debuff, but even so, it shouldn't be too much.
For our raid, the risky combo is red/yellow/black, where we have to plan cooldowns & heal like mad. Mostly when I see purple I know I'm going to be laying back & thinking about each heal.
Caelys Mar 10th 2012 11:57PM
We've been obliterating H:Yor'sahj for a few weeks now (I say obliterating because our mage topped out around 105k dps during the fight, and ranked somewhere around 90k dps at the end...) on 25 man, and we NEVER leave green up. Ever. Never ever ever. Also, when there's a blue ooze up and we'll be blowing up the former mana void, we have our rogues and feral swap off from the boss (who they've been stabbing enthusiastically) to the mana void while the rest of us are killing the ooze. Once we're back and lost our mana, we have a DK grab the void in and we blow it up. Handy little trick to do that won't have people not dpsing the boss during a time they normally would be.
Additionally, there's an addon, Yor'sahj Announce that you can customize depending on your raid group size or skill to announce which ooze to focus killing (it works in LFR, Normal and Heroic), which is fantastic.
Tanner Mar 12th 2012 8:08PM
What are his hp/mp addons? Those are clean