ICC 25 HM Resto Tips - Frost Wing

These tips assume you have a basic idea of how the fights themselves work. They are not complete overviews of the fights, but rather hints, tricks, reminders and ideas.

Valithria Dreamwalker
Portal Healer
Keep a HoT on yourself and nearby healers. You're going to start taking more and more damage from your stacks. Luckily you heal for more, you just have to remember to keep yourself up. Other healers without HoTs will appreciate the help as well.

Stack your HoTs, roll your Lifeblooms, spam your Nourish. Make sure you hit Swiftmend on cooldown, and don't clip your Rejuvenation. The only time you should clip your HoTs is right before you're going to hop back into the Nightmare. Your powerful HoTs are all that Dreamwalker has to mitigate her slow health drain while you're inside.

Raid Healer
Manage your mana like a champ. Use your innervate as early as possible, and make deals before the start to get the feral druids to give you innervates and sneak into the Resto Shaman groups to drop totems on command. As your gear gets better, it's not as daunting, but in the beginning you'll really need some help.

Throw HoTs on Valithria when you have a chance, but remember that it isn't your job. The raid, for you, takes more priority than the dragon.

Throw some HoTs on portal healers. They sometimes forget to heal themselves.

Be hyper-aware of your surroundings. Avoid crap on the floor, and watch out for wayward undead. Make sure your Shadowmeld (if you're a Night Elf) is ready, and your Barkskin as well. A heroic Blistering Zombie can destroy you in one hit, so don't be afraid to GTFO.


Sindragosa
Pre-pull, HoT with Regrowth. It ticks for a long time and provides a nice buffer. Watch Sindragosa; as she moves towards you to land, begin HoTing with Rejuv and hitting WG on cooldown.

Watch your timers. If Unchained Magic is about to go out, stop healing for just a second. If you get it, continue to not cast. If you don't get it, go back about your business until the next time it is about to go out, and repeat.

Always HoT those about to get frozen (unless you have the debuff). Help them live through the hit. Save Barkskin for when you're about to get blocked.

Monitor which healers get debuffed. If you see two or more tank healers suddenly get the debuff, take a moment to HoT up the tank. Otherwise, stay on your job. You can and will wipe if your raid dips too low and dies because raid healers are too busy with other things.

DO NOT CAST WITH THE DEBUFF. If people die while you have the debuff, that is not your fault. It is much worse, and more likely to wipe the raid, if you start gaining stacks and exploding on their face, especially during phase three. Just trust your other healers and take a breather.

ICC 25 HM Resto Tips - Blood Wing

These tips assume you have a basic idea of how the fights themselves work. They are not complete overviews of the fights, but rather hints, tricks, reminders and ideas.

Blood Council
HoT yourself up before or while moving and you shouldn't even feel the debuff. At the same time, don't take it as a license to run around without a care; your debuff will still stack.

Save Dash for being chased by the augmented fireball. Pop Barkskin if necessary, but book it through and out of the group. Through the group so they diminish its size, and out of the group so you don't hit others with the explosion. Do not just soak it with Barkskin and not move; you can kill others around you.

Be wary of last-second Empowered Shock Vortex invaders. Hover over your Barkskin button (provided it's not on cooldown) and if someone invades your space, hit it. It could save your life from the domino effect of adjusting people.

Be aware of your surroundings. It is easy to get killed by not paying attention to the stationary shock vortex about to spawn (that you're about to run into). Do not be afraid to shift out and hit a Kinetic Bomb with a Moonfire if it gets close to the ground. Be adaptable and adjustable.

Blood Queen
Pre-HoT before the pull with Regrowth. Weaker ticks, but longer duration, will ensure that a large amount of your raid will have a good buffer heading into the fight.

Do not tunnel-vision health bars. It is very easy to do this since the basic heal strategy for BQ is Rejuvenation, Wild Growth on cooldown, Swiftmend if necessary. You still need to be aware of your surroundings, especially if you have to drop dark fire around the outside or run to the center for Pact.

When the person with Swarming Shadows is announced, give them a Rejuvenation, and a Lifebloom. This is a little extra buffer against increased damage they are taking, but much more is a waste since other healers are likely picking up slack on them as well. If not, Swiftmend them.

During Blood Bolt Whirl, Barkskin. Make sure not to use it too early so you have it for the entire duration.

When your Wild Growth is ready to be spammed again, hit it on a tank. This should ensure the greatest amount of people receive it.

Always HoT Bite targets. They will take damage, and it is often a large amount for clothies especially. If you are using an addon like Vamp, your bite targets should be marked. If not, have people call them out or warn you if their target is low health.

ICC 25 HM Resto Tips - Plague Wing

These tips assume you have a basic idea of how the fights themselves work. They are not complete overviews of the fights, but rather hints, tricks, reminders and ideas.

Festergut
Do not get hit by the Malleable Goo. However, if you do (because the floor mechanic was covered up by bodies or you were just slow), use your instant casts (Rejuvenation, Swiftmend, Lifebloom, Nature's Swiftness) so as to remain unaffected by the casting debuff. Watch carefully for green ooze on the ground.

As the raid starts taking less damage, you can slowly wean them off of your HoTs and begin stacking more on the tank. Still remember that unless the tank is your main assignment/you have been reassigned to the tank after a healer death, tank is not your priority and to switch to the raid immediately as they need it.

Always pop Barkskin on Pungent Blight. There is absolutely no reason not to further reduce incoming damage before it happens, especially as the raid is going to start taking large amounts of damage all around, and Barkskin should further reduce your need for healing (so you can focus on others).

Make sure you pre-HoT for Pungent Blight so you are not playing "catch up" after the fact.

Rotface
Hold onto your Barkskin for Slime Spray, especially if you are one of the ranged. This can help reduce damage if Rotface turns the spray on you and you do not have a quick exit for the damage cone. Barkskin, HoT yourself and run for the closest edge of the damage cone.

Always have an escape plan, especially in the ranged groups. Know where to go if the ooze is being kited by you, know where to go if the person next to you is spewing Vile Gas, know where to go for Ooze Explosion, if the pipes behind you start leaking, and so on.

Damage on the raid is unpredictable; damage on at least one tank will always be constant. Roll Rejuv on the tanks after taking care of damage on the raid. Sometimes your tank healers have to run, and that powerful (and usually hasted) HoT will help relieve even a small bit of pressure. If your raid is particularly adept at not taking damage, throw a few Lifeblooms up, too.

When Unstable Ooze Explosion is announced, count to three before moving. Use this time to see where no one else was standing, and move there. If Barkskin is off cooldown, pop it now in case of Explosion + Slime Spray.


Professor Putricide
Request prior to the start of the fight to be placed in the tank or a DPS group. During phase 3, you will want to pop Barkskin and Tranquility at three stacks on the tank. The entire raid will be dipping low, so each group should have a contingency heal/cooldown such as Tranquility.

This is another fight to have an escape plan. In Phase 1 and 2, you need to know who you are passing Unbound Plague to. Know who is around you, and pay attention to where the plague has been passed before. Don't build too many stacks up on a person, and have a contingency plan should the person you want to give it to become targeted by another ability such as Malleable Goo or an experiment.

Save Barkskin for RNG gibs. There is the distinct possibility of getting targeted by an experiment, gaining the plague and having goo thrown at you. Pop Barkskin and pray for a miracle.

So long as there are enough ranged at a proper distance, there are three good ways to avoid Malleable Goo: watch the Goo spawn from Putricide and track their trajectories, move to where no one was standing previously, or run into melee. If you choose to run into melee, be sure there were enough ranged out to keep the goo from going into melee, and move out as soon as the goos land.

Keep Rejuv on the Abom as much as possible. S/he needs the replenishment help and sometimes even the healing. Do not worry about other HoTs; if they are really starving for energy, throw Wild Growth on them as well.

Save Dash for when the kiting experiment (Gas Cloud) gets close. Dashing too early helps nothing; the experiment does not follow your path but rather takes the shortest possible distance (straight line). Do not kite it through Choking Gas Bombs.

Take advantage of your mobility and HoT on the move.

ICC 25 HM Resto Tips - First Wing

These tips assume you have a basic idea of how the fights themselves work. They are not complete overviews of the fights, but rather hints, tricks, reminders and ideas.

Marrowgar
Make sure you and the other healers have evenly distributed points to run to during Bonestorm.

Do not be afraid to pop Barkskin; you cannot use it while on a spike anyway. If Marrowgar heads towards you, pop it and run.

Watch your timers. Start throwing out Regrowths on the raid 10 to 15 seconds before he starts spinning around. Though the HoT portion is weaker than Rejuvenation, it will last much longer. You can cast Rejuvenation as you are running around the room since you do not have to stand still.

Don't be afraid to stack full HoTs on someone spiked during Bonestorm. Try to do this especially if Marrowgar is spinning on top of them, and there is no Hand of Protection available.

Lady Deathwhisper
Have Cyclone bound in Tree Form. Unless your guild has given you a priority mark, your main goal should be to cyclone mind controlled raid members who head into melee. They stand a good chance of being cleaved to death, with no other CC able to save them by granting them immunity.

After her mana barrier drops, the easiest way to avoid ghosts is to switch sides whenever she pops them out. Since you are a Druid, you are a mobile healer. A ghost will always target a person and chase them down. No matter where you are, if a ghost pops down and you immediately run to the other side of the room, you will not get hit by a ghost.

Curses and MC's are priority. Healing Damage is important, and you will spend most of your time doing that. But never ignore an MC running loose, and never ignore a curse on someone.

Macro Nature's Swiftness and Cyclone together. This could save someone's life.

Gunship
LOL DON'T GET HIT BY ROCKETS LOL

HoT up the tank before he goes over and keep him HoT'd. HoT up the tank on deck. Play some catch up with the other raid members on board, but their damage is unpredictable and HoTs are often overwritten by Chain Heals and the like. If axe throwers are levelling up, though, buffer with HoTs anyway. They can get nasty (and are one of the few ways to wipe on Gunship).

Saurfang
Make sure you set up healer assignments for each mark. Have a plan for up to six marks. Paladins, then Priests, then Druids, then Shamans.

Make your Paladins call out when they are off the tanks (i.e. healing two marks). As a Druid, you should be able to help by adding HoTs to the current tank while still buffering Marked targets, also with at least one HoT.

If you are just starting HMs and your gear is on the lower end, manage your heals wisely. Your Paladins, especially, may need your Innervate more than you, and if a Mark goes down it's a wipe. It is unfortunate, but at this point your Innervate is likely no longer your own, unless you have a fair supply of Feral DPS and Moonkins.

If you are marked, move to melee range. This allows you to gain maximum benefit from AoE healing. If you are able, stand behind the boss and right click him so you begin to punch between heals. Even a small amount of Judgment of Light healing helps. Only do this behind the boss so as not to parry-gib your tanks.

4Haelz LFM for ICC Fun Times PST

"...those who serve -- who serve wholly, unquestioningly, with utter devotion of mind and soul -- elevated to heights beyond your ken."

Interested in doing ICC 25 Hardmodes? Interested in doing them with me? Yeah, you're listening now. I can tell.

Without going too much into it, I'm in a guild called OverWhelming now, and it's a pretty kickass group of people. We're 11/12 HMs with some good progress on HM LK, and recruitment is opening up for, well, just about everything.

If you're doing so well, why do you need so much?

Well, it's getting to the point in the year where many people get busy. As well, you always lose people to Real Life and other sorts of attrition. The guild itself still runs every week, still does raid all three of its nights and has not canceled a raid in the month I have been here. They like to cycle people in and out a lot, too.

Specifically, OverWhelming is looking for Hunters, Ret Paladins and Elemental Shamans. But all are encouraged to apply. I would, however, suggest talking to one of the officers first if you are a Resto Druid, Enhance Shaman or Death Knight, as there seem to be a good amount of those who are generally reliable/dependable.

Basic Guild Information:
Guild: OverWhelming
Server: Dark Iron (US) - PvP
Faction: Alliance
Progression: 11/12 ICC 25 HMs, all Faction Firsts
Raid Times: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 4:30-9:00 PM PST (server time)
Loot System: EP/GP
Main Website----Recruitment Forums

Understand that this guild is choc-full of young adults (think 20's). Vent and guild chat will contain profanity, political incorrectness, and other "questionable" behavior. If this is not your cup of tea, I would not suggest applying. Also if your feelings are easily hurt, you have no raid awareness, or you think GearScore is an actual raiding addon, please save yourself the pain.

I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Obligatory disclaimer: My involvement with actual recruitment decisions is none. I will not be making any decisions on your application should you choose to apply.

Know More Than Just Your Job

It's very easy to fall into the "I know my role, and that's all I need to know" trap. I do it a lot. I could tell you the role of a healer in any non-heroic (and most heroic) ICC 25/10 fights, where they should stand, and what mechanics they have to worry about. But up until recently, the DPS and tanks were a mystery. I knew you needed 2-3 tanks depending on fight, and about an even smattering of melee and ranged.

Well, it's not your job, Bell. Why do you care what they have to do?

To be honest, it is a healer's job to know what the other roles have to deal with. Please notice, I said know, not micromanage. Keep that in mind.

It was once said to me by the Paladin Sharlet: "Good tanks make great healers; good healers make mediocre tanks." Though you can debate it until you're blue in the face, the fact is that healers who understand tanks and their mechanics are better at their jobs than healers who react to damage whack-a-mole style or blinder-zoom on their raid frames. Do you know when your tanks have to routinely pop cooldowns? I am not talking about dangerous, near-death experiences, I'm talking about boss fights in which they need a regular cooldown rotation.

Yes, I am a mediocre tank. I admit it; I tried it on Bellbell and I was just semi-competent in heroics. However, to compensate for that, I've started paying much more attention to boss abilities and cooldowns, understanding when a good tank pops cooldowns and when a mediocre or bad tank would forget to. ToC 25 is a snoozefest for many people in this game, yet on Bellwether my anxiety can shoot up if the PUG DPS is slow and the PUG tanks don't know how to use their cooldowns. That is responsible for more phase 1 tank deaths than shoddy healing, though if a healer with a cooldown had used it, it could have covered for the tank's forgetfulness.

I have never tanked ICC, but I know that tanks need to cycle cooldowns through Festergut's triple stack buff.

Knowing when the melee is all going to get hit, or understanding mechanics like Sindragosa's stacking debuff, can only help you pre-HoT or anticipate health loss for a quick chunk. Is Healbot or Grid set up to tell you who has Unchained Magic so you can pre-HoT them in preparation for the chunk of life disappearing?

It seems like pretty average stuff. Life goes down, I heal it up. Why do I need to know more? As the fights become more involved, as the battles get harder, you will need to know who is standing where, who is heading in what direction, and when tanks are powering through cooldowns so you are able to compensate.

After all, this is, in essence, no different than timing your HoTs to boss mechanics. It is understanding on a deeper level, however, than just "damage happens now." It is "damage happens now and I understand why, so I already have the best possible spell ready."

Again, I'm not telling you to micromanage everyone. Do not be a backseat raider. Just be a smarter healer!

Low Tech Raiding

This is the visual I used during hardmode Sindragosa to ensure I placed my beacon properly. Actually, it was originally just quickly scribbled in pencil 10 seconds before the first pull as the heal lead whispered me instructions, as everyone else had downed her before and I was the new kid, expected to kill someone with an ice block or do something else stupid.

For the record, we one shot her and I didn't die until the very end due to too many stacks (it was the last-few-HP-push and I was out of ice blocks to duck behind). Literally, I died then she died. /preen

So, what about you guys? What's your "low tech" raiding gear look like?

From Leaves to Light

A long-time reader/commenter/friend Kayeri recently had a dilemma; her guild asked her to do something she'd never done before. Normally a Tree, they requested that she switch her main to her Holy Paladin (as they seem to be becoming some sort of endangered species). She agreed to give it a shot, and then came to me to talk about it.

I wrote a while ago about some differences I noticed immediately when starting a Paladin after only healing with a Druid. Cast times, mobility loss, no HoTs, AoE issues...it all hit rather hard, to the point where I was stressed whenever I tried to heal on Bellbell. It was so different, and at the time, it felt weaker.

This, unfortunately, was due to me not playing to, nor understanding, its strengths.

Druids are HoT healers. Anyone spamming Nourish is almost certainly doing it wrong. We blanket raids, we roll stacks of various HoTs, we run around and hop side to side. We shift out of snares, dispells curses and poisons, and we Cyclone, on the rare occasion it is necessary. But what makes a Paladin?

Paladins are direct damage healers. Except for their HoT on targets effected by Sacred Shield, they do not have any skills that continue healing after the initial burst has landed. With a Paladin, what you get hit with is what you get. This takes a lot of habit breaking from playing a Druid. You can't just pop a heal on someone and leave them alone if they're low; their health won't continue to rise on its own.

A Paladin's strengths are in big (costly) heals and cooldowns. This class has cooldowns for everything. Increase healing. Regen Mana (at the cost of healing). Reduce Mana cost. Take damage for another. Take damage for the raid. Make another player immune to physical damage. Make yourself immune to all damage. Drop someone's threat. Remove and prevent snares. Heal to full in an instant. A sudden boost to any aura you're wearing to weather practically any elemental storm or, since it's usable while mounted, burst your entire raid from teleport pad to Gunship in six seconds.

It is very easy for people to say "All Paladins do is Holy/Flash of Light." That is the really boring, really narrow, mediocre, annotated, TL;DR, lazy version of Paladin healing. And it may seem like, wow, next to a Druid, there seem to be so few spells...

Well, that's because most of the spells aren't about directly healing, even if the ones you use for the majority of the time are.

Druids are about rolling HoTs, right? Well, then you should already be familiar with the concepts needed to maintain, and transfer, Sacred Shield and Beacon of Light to appropriate targets. They are, in application, like extended HoTs in that you do not want them to fall off. If they fall off, your tank starts taking more damage or your heals around the raid are not going to your Beacon target. I'm not sure about you, but if my HoTs ticked on the tank every time they ticked on someone else, I'd make sure that Beacon never disappeared. The same holds true for the Haste buff that comes from Judging on an enemy target. Without it, your heals are slower and less effective.

Oh yeah, and Holy Shock is like Swiftmend without the need to heal them with something else first. Very pro.

Holy Paladins are highly mana-dependent, especially when going into a Holy Light spec (this is the Holy spec that delves into the Devo tree for improved shields and the ability to absorb damage on the raid). There are very good reasons why Paladins gem as much Intellect as possible; Holy Light is expensive to "spam," and Divine Plea will restore a quarter of your mana (usually used in conjunction with Avenging Wrath to buffer the loss in healing output). Think of it like an Innervate with some penalties, and that needs to be managed well. You can also use it along with Divine Illumination, and with 2-piece T10, Divine Illumination buffers your healing as well, making it a good candidate to use in combination with Divine Plea, allowing you to stagger the cooldowns and have more options to gain mana.

Paladins should have sharp raid awareness. You should be ready to switch auras for situational damage just like you would be ready to shift forms out of a snare. People will call for a lot of things you never had to worry about before as a Tree. Freedom through ooze, Salvation for a tank on Festergut or an over-eager DPS on any fight, a Hand of Protection for a Warlock about to pull every Vengeful Fleshreaper on his face on the way through Plague Wing trash, an iceblock breaking too early on Sindragosa and needing to Aura Mastery + Ice Resist Aura through a Frost Bomb...you get the idea.

But really, until you've lived it, you don't. Druids aren't cooldown based classes at the moment, because we don't mesh well with them. Paladins do. They open their magic toolbox and throw their toys around and they have a magic toy for almost any situation. If all you are doing is spamming Holy Light, then you are doing as poorly as a Restoration Druid who only hits Rejuv or Nourish.

Remember how Resto Druids have a sort of "bastard cousin," the Dreamstate Druid? How, at one point, Dreamstate was where the hip kids were at, and then it changed?

All right, now I'm sure you've heard about Flash of Light and Holy Light Paladins. There is a difference. Astounding, I know! Flash of Light is less bastard, however, and is more the spec that is just not bad but not as good when it comes to a raiding situation. Flash of Light goes into the Ret tree instead of the Devo, upping personal crit instead of gaining a raid cooldown. They are about quick, high-hitting Flashes of Light on as many people as possible. They go for Crit gear and Spellpower gems, when a Holy Light Paladin would prefer Haste and Intellect gems.

Do you guys know that belt off of Gunship 25 man? That belt every Paladin seems reluctant to take?

It's because it sucks. You're better off with a mail belt than that thing. The Mp5 is okay (did you know Crit was devalued and Mp5 revalued for mana regen?) but the crit just destroys the belt. Most Paladins get their crit from combined haste and crit pieces; solely crit pieces are a bit of a sacrifice.

So if you've ever wondered why that belt goes for so low in your GDKP run, to an offspec Paladin at min price, it's because it's just not something that great to wear. Sure if it's a huge upgrade, you'd put it on, but it's about as great as an Intellect Trinkett with a Spellpower cooldown would be for a Druid, and looks just as pro to any Paladin who knows what they're doing.

Oh yeah, and, 2 piece T10 is awesome! 4 piece isn't worth your time; find better off pieces for the other slots.

This has been my extremely nutshell'd version of Paladin healing, with some Druid analogies and comparisons thrown in to help ease the way. I hope this helps a bit with the drastic class shock of switching between the two types of healers, for Kayeri and anyone else attempting the switch. I'm happy to answer any questions in the comments, and if I don't know the answer I'll probably just go whine to Sharlet (my mentor in the ways of Paladin'ing) until I get it.

Kingslayer

First title I've worn, ever, that was not "Corporal." Also, for those of you who don't know, that floating tree body is me. I didn't get enough heals through the Lich King's Harvest Soul ability, and when I died my soul floated outside my body. After Tirion raised us up, it was still there.

I wonder if this is how a Death Knight feels?

I can't wait for 10 man hardmodes.

Guest Post: ULTIMATE WARRIOR

Hey everyone, it's Bell here. This is a post written by one of my friends, who thinks he knows a thing or two about healers. Or, well, how you should heal him, I guess. So, enjoy! Remember, I'm always open for guest posters who want to flex their writing muscles.

Hi. I am a Fury Warrior, and I stand in things.

I stand in fire, I stand in void zones, I stand in poison, and I stand in pretty much every other thing I can possibly stand in.

I don’t do this because I hate you. I do this because I love RAGE. I do this because every little bit of red stuff counts towards me hitting that something just a bit harder. I do this because I love to see a full bar of anger under my portrait. I want to unleash every bit of that on that poor bosses face.

When you see me standing in that nasty cloud, it’s not because I’m not too bright (well, not completely). It’s not because I didn’t see it. I might say I turned my effects down, but I didn’t. I saw it. I ran to it. Oh yes, I ran right there. I’m there because I hate that guy we’re fighting, and I want him dead. I want to kill him dead faster, harder, and with more love, baby! And I’m gonna stand in that fire over there to do it.

Think of it as a spotlight. I’m in center stage and I am ready to rock.

So next time you see that Fury Warrior’s green bar drop, do him a favor. Don’t ignore him. Don’t scoff at him. Don’t turn your head and pretend like he “dropped too fast.” Throw him a heal. Give him that little bit of your mana bar, the part that says, “I love you and your ridiculous oversized weapons.”





DISCLAIMER: This article was written in satire. I don’t really stand in stuff. That’s just silly. But all the same, don’t forget to heal us, because sometimes we do die in fires, and that makes us sad.

Social Differences in Raiding

The following occurred as I was talking with a friend about raiding and how there's a difficult balance between doing necessary content and content people want to do. It's a balance of needs, wants and social structure that's much different than just playing the game by yourself.

(1:41:43 AM) Paradox: It's a game. If you don't want to go on that raid, why not just not go?

(1:43:28 AM) Bellwether: it's kind of different once you're in a raiding guild

(1:44:10 AM) Bellwether: it's like being on a sports team. People depend on you. If you decide to just up and not come because, for one night, it doesn't benefit you, what incentive does the guild as a whole have to do things that do benefit you?

(1:44:27 AM) Bellwether: After all, you've just proven you're only in it for yourself, and the hell with the other people.

It's easier when you're just playing by yourself or with a few other people. It ends faster, and you have a lot more control over what you do, who you play with and how long you play. When you get into the more complicated area of guild play, however, there's much more to it than that.

In a twenty five man guild, twenty four (or more) other people depend on you to be there not just for yourself, but for the group as a whole. People want to be able to rely on you and trust you'll be there for them like they were for you. Show you're just there for that sweet trinket or weapon, and they'll be less inclined to give it to you. In fact, you're more liable to be replaced or phased out for someone new.

(1:44:53 AM) Paradox: There's a difference between "not going because there's no incentive for you" and "not going because it's not enjoyable for you."

(1:45:15 AM) Paradox: I'd be willing to go on a raid I didn't need just for kicks if that's what my friends were doing.

(1:45:48 AM) Paradox: I ran a few people I met in PUGs through low level instances for the hell of it on Duranon a few times.

(1:45:57 AM) Paradox: If you're bitching about it, you do not need to be there.

(1:46:46 AM) Bellwether: Like I said; it's different when you're in a raiding guild. And we have incentives that make people want to be valuable to us. Our most valuable players are the ones who do things for the good of everyone, even if maybe on that particular raid night we are not doing the bosses they like.

(1:47:16 AM) Bellwether: You cannot cater to the desires of 25+ people and have a functional raid.

Raiding guilds can get a lot of flak in this area for taking a game too seriously. If you aren't enjoying a game, you need to leave, stop playing, go do something else, right? Well, in a raiding guild, that's not always an option.

As mentioned previously, a guild wants to know you are valuable to them. The guild is already valuable to you; unless you can find another guild of similar or greater progression, you need the guild, as a working entity, to get to the content you want to see, to get the gear you want to wear, and to play the game where you've said you want to play.

Except on first boss kills (and sometimes not even then) you will probably never find a raid group of 25 people who are completely chill and totally happy about what's happening. The main goal is to maximize the enjoyment of the most raiders possible; when the amount not enjoying it exceeds the amount enjoying it, it is time to switch. If only one or two are upset...well, it is tough luck for them.

Sounds pretty mercenary, doesn't it? Mercenary, maybe, but necessary.

(1:47:43 AM) Paradox: Mmm. Sounds to me like raiding guilds just aren't where I wanna be.

(1:47:56 AM) Bellwether: It isn't for everyone.

(1:48:04 AM) Paradox: I'd like to do raids when I get back in, but the idea of being obligated to play a game just boggles my mind a bit.

(1:48:45 AM) Paradox: When you get to the point that you're complaining about what you're doing in the game beyond an occasional bitch about this or that minor thing, it's time to reevaluate things I think.

(1:49:03 AM) Bellwether: You're not obligated. You do exactly how much you want to/feel the need to -- and the guild makes a decision on whether or not you're the kind of person they want around.

(1:49:17 AM) Paradox: //shrug

(1:50:09 AM) Bellwether: There's no forcing. There are incentives, such as "if you prove you're unreliable, we will replace you." or "we can't trust you to show up when we need you so there isn't a real incentive for us to want to give you gear over the person who is always here when we need them."

(1:50:38 AM) Bellwether: Raiding doesn't work without synergy and people moving together towards a goal.

(1:50:57 AM) Bellwether: Sometimes, to get to the things you really want, you have to kill the boss you hate.

You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you might find
You get what you need.

(1:51:33 AM) Paradox: Mmm. When/if I get back into it, I might give it a try. I do want to check out more endgame content.

(1:51:40 AM) Bellwether: You can pug a lot of it.

(1:51:50 AM) Bellwether: But you won't get as far as a real, organized guild.

(1:52:26 AM) Bellwether: (with good players; there are "real, organized" guilds who do not get as far as pugs because their player base is lacking)

(1:53:21 AM) Bellwether: Raiding guilds aren't for everyone, by any means. But if you want to try one, understanding the social difference is important.

WoW has admittedly gotten easier. But some things do not change, and that is the fact that to get as far as possible, as soon as possible, you need a dedicated, working group of good players who know how to play and who work together. And this means that, sometimes, you have to sacrifice what you want to do and get done what others need.

In a perfect world, everyone would love all the content, would love all the encounters, the trash, the grind. But that's never going to happen, so you have to seek the proper balance in your raiding. If it eventually turns out that the cons out weigh the pros, then raiding is not for you.

Being Extraordinary

Let's face it; the current game can be largely brute-forced. Unless you're doing some select hardmodes, you can rofl-faceroll your way to victory. There may be some wipes, some frustration, but eventually the stars will align and you will be teh winnar. And it's this kind of situation that reinforces the "good enough" mentality. This works, kind of, so it's "good enough."

But, seriously, who wants to be just "good enough"?

If you like being just "good enough," sliding through content and so forth, you can feel free to stop reading now. There's no shame in it, you just won't find the rest of this post interesting.

If you're still here, I'll assume you want to push past the "good enough." Maybe you're working on hardmodes or are entering a srs biznas raiding guild. Maybe you just want to be more than "good enough" because you're an over-achiever. Maybe you wish to be hyper-critical of any advice I post here! Whatever your reasons for sticking around through my rambling drivel, I salute you.

So, what does it take to be a better-than-average healer? Many things. However, there are some basics that first must be met before you can even start healing. These are:

1. You must understand your spells. If you don't understand the mechanics upon which your healing operates, you cannot heal.
2. You must be willing to adapt based upon what situation you are facing. Not every encounter behaves the same way, so neither can your healing follow a singular routine.
3. You must be able to quickly react to a changing situation as it occurs, in hindsight, and in foresight.
4. You must have OCD that operates upon a switch and has a shiftable focus.

Those are the basics. And, no, point number 4 is not a joke. I am quite serious.

Let's break these points down a little more and explore the differences between "good enough" and "super awesome" before going further, shall we?

First up is understanding your spells. This seems like a no brainer, but if that's true then I'm not quite sure what some healers are using to operate their characters. Perhaps a sea sponge? I digress. But, really, don't just read the text and go "Oh, huh. Neat-o." Actually attempt to understand what you're reading. Look at how the puzzles pieces fit together. The spells don't have labels on them (yet) telling you which situations they fit. They don't come with a manual. There isn't even a "healing dummy" that can give you practice. Outside of actual implementation, you need to understand the basics of each spell before you throw it into the fray.

Of course, you also have to be able to adjust this understanding with each new patch or hotfix. Just something to keep in mind. Moving on!

All right, adapting to situations! This is key. We don't have a "threat rotation" or a "DPS rotation" like the other members of our raid (the non-healers). We have certain spells that do certain things and make no sense to be used in a rotation (usually). And, as every encounter has its own unique "quirks," these need to be met with an ever-changing arsenal and selection of spells. Sometimes this can be predictable, sometimes it won't be. You have to be prepared for both.

The next part is your ability to react to change, quickly. QUICKLY! TOO SLOW THEY'RE DEADWTFMANWHEREWERETHEHEALS?!

Sometimes, things just go wrong. Or they go correctly but someone does something stupid. Sometimes RNG just spits in your face and then curbstomps you to the ground. And you, the healer, need to heal through that curbstomp as best you can so you can tell RNG to go fornicate itself inappropriately. You have to be ready for the melee to scramble through poison and void zones and lightning bolts. You have to be ready for the tank to forget his cooldowns or not have one up. You have to be ready for a sudden wall of white orbs bearing down upon your black-aura'd group mates.

Yes, you. Don't sit there and go "Oh the others will cover it." Maybe they will, maybe they won't. You don't know because this is an unexpected situation. You should react as quickly as you can to remedy it within your capacity as a healer and without neglecting your assignment. And you have to make that decision in a matter of seconds. Less than seconds. RIGHT NOW!

Too late.

And, the final part of the basics, your healer OCD. You must obsessively, compulsively, follow health bars, boss mechanics and fire-huggers. You must be able to shut this OCD off during boss fights in which it is inappropriate (see Anub'arak). You must be able to shift the focus of this OCD based upon your assignment. And you must be able to control this OCD to allow for trust upon the other (hopefully exceptional) healers.

To check a healer's OCD, raid leaders should follow this procedure: invite someone to the raid, who is not near the instance, with less than full health. Count how many frustrated healers begin roaming around the room, exclaiming in Vent and clicking/jamming buttons frustratedly. You hear that? That is their OCD on overtime.

All right, that's the basics. But that will just make you "good." Remember, we're going for EXTRAORDINARY. In caps. So, what do you need to lump on top of those basics?

It is not "I can't do this," it is "How can I do this?"
There is no such thing as a fight you cannot heal. There may be people you cannot heal, there may be healers you cannot work with, but there is no encounter you cannot heal. None. Zero. Don't even start with me because I have healed every fight and I say you can too.

There was a time where I was under the impression there was some stuff I couldn't do. Like healing people through Ignis's crotch pot. My HoTs just didn't tick fast enough! Well, I was wrong. I had to adjust my view. I had to think about it. I had to refresh my knowledge of my skills and my current gear situation. After all that, I adjusted so that I never allowed a crotch pot victim to die where I had a choice.

If something is not working, adjust. If the adjustment doesn't work, adjust some more. You can heal it. No ifs, ands or buts. It's like that cheezy can-do attitude stuff you learned in Kindergarten, only it doesn't apply to things like believing you can be a dinosaur.

You may hit some sort of wall, like your tanks need more mitigation or your DPS starts believing that standing in fire gives a buff. But that doesn't mean you can't heal it, it doesn't mean it's impossible.

Now, I know you can eventually bash your head aganst content and it'll fall over and give you its loots out of pity, but that's the "good enough" way. We're working on being extraordinary. Never forget that.

Use Raid Awareness to Precast
There will always be damage you know is coming. It's not about intuition or psychic powers, it's about a boss having scripted mechanics. Koralon is going to Burning Breath now, Gormokk is going to Impale now, XT is going to throw a hissy fit now. You know when it's coming because you have DBM or an equivalent/better, or you simply watch the boss. You know these things are coming.

So, what do you do with this knowledge? Precast.

You know that Koralon's always going to do Burning Breath before he does any Meteor Fists. There should be HoTs ticking all over that raid before he even fills his lungs. You know Onyxia is about to breathe fire on the tank because she's pulled her head back. Your Holy Light should already be processing. Gormokk's about to stomp and cut off half the melee's HP. You're already channeling a Chain Heal, cutting it off if it's about to be wasted, right? Of course you are, you're extraordinary.

Learn the Difference between "Aggro" and "Attention"
Many addons used to create special healing frames (such as Healbot and Grid) have the option to adjust themselves visually in some way when a character has aggro. This is incredibly helpful to healers because tanks often don't call when they're grabbing Gormokk (because they like watching their health dip?) and you can quickly adjust to healing their uncommunicative butt.

However, this also lights up when a raid member gets the boss's "attention." This isn't aggro, this is simply the boss switching to target them for a moment to cast a singular spell, usually a debuff. They then immediately return to the tank. This can be seen on Jaraxxus or Onyxia during the air phase.

Why is this important? For starters, someone who gains boss "attention" is about to either receive damage, or do some damage to others. Paying close mind to these "attention" warnings can give you anywhere from a split second (instant-cast debuffs) to a few full seconds of preparation time. When Onyxia is in the air, people who gain her attention have a few seconds before they, and the people around them, are victims of a fireball and splash damage. This gives you time to prepare with either a HoT or precasting a spell.

"Attention" is a common mechanic used by many bosses. XT, Jaraxxus, Onyxia and Icehowl are just a few of the bosses who utilize "attention."

Never Discount a Spell Completely
There are spells many classes scoff at, say are worthless or useless. For Druids, this was Healing Touch. Only wanted if his girlfriend, Nature's Swiftness, was doing the talking, he otherwise never got invited to the parties. He chilled alone with Tranquility, but at least Tranquility was cool on the 5-man scene. Healing Touch, he couldn't catch a break.

Then along came a boss called Hardmode Anub'arak and this guild, Apex, and they decided HT totally needed to come to the party, just so long as he was fast. And, indeed, with the proper glyphs and gear, HT was cast in under 0.8 seconds and verily did Anub eat much dirt.

Never, ever, take a spell and throw it out the window. Never assume a spell is pure trash. Somewhere, somehow, there is a purpose for that spell. It may not have been invented yet, but its day will come. And then won't you feel foolish when you have to go digging through the dumpster and apologize to it?

Don't Fall Into the "Good Enough" Trap
Be wary of the healer rut. You can get so used to something that "works" that, when you come upon the antithesis of your working model, you break down into blubbering healer tears and mutter disconsolately at the shattered pieces of your bubbles and earth shields. That's when the warlocks gather your tears and sell them on the black market. And you really don't want to give 'locks extra income.

If something doesn't work, you have to stop hitting your head against the wall. To really be extraordinary, you can't play by the "eventually it will work" rules. You can't think in terms of "good enough." Being extraordinary is a state of mind; it's in your approach, in the swish of your hips as you walk into the boss's room and tell him he might as well hand over your trinkets now because he is your bitch.

You got all that?

Good. Now go be extraordinary.

Anger Isn't Helpful

We were doing ToC 10, and by "we" I mean me and another guildy were in someone's PUG ToC 10, me on Sugar and him on his Tankadin. Group got together, entered the instance, and we downed it without wiping. I got a pretty new sword and thus was rather pleased with the whole experience.

However, during the process of the raid, there were some issues. A certain Mage within the group had never been there for more than Beasts before, and kept having some issues. Many of which were loudly pointed out and bashed upon.

On Beasts, he died in the beginning in a fire. Which, you know, is generally bad. After the fight everyone seemed to be rather upset with him, telling him not to die the next fight and how could anyone die in a fire? And, since they had apparently missed it the first time I said it in chat and we weren't using Vent, I said, again, "He got headcracked in the fire. That's why the snobold was chasing you on the ground and not humping your face after he died."

Okay, I didn't say the last sentence. But I should have.

Anway, people shrugged it off and we go to Jaraxxus. The Mage speaks up: I've only watched the video for this. Now, honestly, I'm pretty impressed. PUGs without experience generally don't even bother looking up strats or videos, so at least he tried to do his homework before the beginning of the raid.

Here's where the problem enters: since we're not using Vent and the raid leader is trying to get this done as quickly as possible, he gives the Mage the most extreme annotated version of the boss strats. Basically: red fire means stay, green fire means go. And the Mage, suspiciously, asks if we're messing with him (this is legitimate; I have known many people to joke about how "standing in fire gives you a buff"). I whisper him giving him the full details; if he runs out with incinerate he's likely to kill us because he'll explode, but if he stands in green fire he'll die.

Now, of course, having never played a Mage or Shaman on the fight, I forgot to tell him to spell steal the buff. In fact, no one told him to spell steal the buff until we were halfway through the fight and suddenly my Tankadin friend is raging at him in raid warnings. And just at him, not even at the DPS shaman who could have been purging.

It is rare to find a PUG who tries to prepare before a fight and readily admits "I don't know this boss, please explain." So, once again, I jumped in and said how it was not only his responsibility to purge it off, and no one told him to do it when he asked about his job for the fight.

What in the world does yelling at him for it do?

The rest of the raid I spent the time between bosses whispering the mage to explain the boss fights in more extensive detail than what the raid leader was managing. After all, expecting someone who has never done Twins before to understand "switch colors and shields when you're supposed to" is possibly putting too much faith in their psychic abilities.

The Mage never messed up for the rest of the raid. Afterward, he thanked me for my help; apparently a lot of people weren't even willing to give him a chance.

I've gotten angry at PUGs before. It's pretty easy, especially when they challenge you when you point out their mistake, or are annoyingly obtuse about their own failings. Hell, I fail plenty of times, but I always try to admit it, as I'd honestly rather own up to it myself than have someone else point it out. Sometimes they won't even tell you they don't understand the fight and just assume they can pick it up as they go. That, really, is probably the most annoying thing a PUG could do.

So what made this PUG different?

They had tried to learn before the raid. They had admitted that they didn't know. And when they were given proper, detailed instructions? They did well. They never blamed their problems on someone else, nor did they whine or pout because they were being yelled at. They didn't make excuses; telling someone "you didn't tell me I was supposed to" when they had specifically asked pre-fight what their job was is not an excuse, it is a legitimate point.

Getting mad at them was pointless. Just a waste of energy and emotion that could be channeled into actually helping them, and therefore helping the raid overall.

Loot Rules Make PUGs Complicated

Every weekend, at 12PM server (3PM Eastern), I run a 25 Tournament of the Crusader for guild alts, applicants, raiders who were sat/unable to make the main raid, and, inevitably, PUGs. These runs have been very successful, and even on the worst week we never failed to down Anub'arak. Now I have people whisper me throughout the week, people I barely know, to ask "When is the raid? Is it always at the same time? Can I have a calendar invite?" and I check up on their gear and achievements (I don't require full achievements but I like to see at least some ten man experience) and then I say "sure" and add them to the list.

To make my life "easier" I came up with some simple loot rules, and had them approved by my guild leader (as it is technically a guild run). The rules are as follows:

1. Your main spec is what you are here as. If it is for your offspec, you do not roll unless no one needs it mainspec.
2. Roll for patterns only if you have the skill to make it. Does not count against you.
3. When you have won a piece of gear, people who have not won anything will be given preference over you. I am keeping track.
4. If everyone rolling for an item has won something, it will be given out normally (highest roll wins).
5. Crusader orbs are reserved, All other loot is fair game.
6. If you win an item uncontested it does not count against you but don't be greedy.
7. Do not talk in raid while loot is going out.

Simple, straightforward, macro'd and spammed at the beginning of every raid before the first pull. Crusader orbs are reserved because, since this is technically a guild run, they're transferred to the guild bank where they are then distributed to raiders who need them for crafting raid gear. Also, this ensures they get used, whereas the first time I tried it with Runed Orbs, they were later found on the auction house when I had stated to please only roll if you need them for crafting.

Lesson Learned.

You would think with such a set of rules, loot would be a relatively simple thing to distribute. Yet every. single. week. something comes up to give me a pixellated headache. Regular members of the raid try to tweak my rules by adding things like "if you fail, you get no loot." Which would be fine if a) I was a competent judge of all class failures and successes and b) you didn't wait til the !@#$ encounter started to modify my loot rules. And yet there's pressure for me to add that clause in, as everyone hates for loot to go to people who pulled aggro on the worms and got the raid spewed or ran out with Incinerate so people couldn't heal them or blew everyone up on Twins.

I'm pretty sure that's going to bring about plenty of arbitrary and opinion-oriented loot arguments, so I'm still fenced about that.

And then there's things like item trading. Last week, someone who had used their main spec roll then decided to trade the piece to another raider, without telling me at the time that they had decided to pass. This other raider narrowly missed beating someone else out for a main spec roll, and I only know about it because the original person later rolled and won on a trophy, and when I went to pass them the whole thing came to light. So now I need to make a clause about trading items and using your main spec roll because this is just annoying, honestly.

It seems the more rules you have, the more rules you need. And every week I get someone(s) unhappy over pixels. It's the most ridiculous thing ever. I've given my loot away to other people without returning my own main spec roll. I've watched items that would have been amazing upgrades for Bellbell vanish into the inventory of a healer who did half her healing and gone "Oh well." So perhaps it's just my damage, but getting so many complaints week after week over loot confuses me.

Or maybe my damage is that, despite this, I continue to set these raids up every week...

Lord Jaraxxus, Hardmode (25)

This fight against Lord Jaraxxus is one of the easier fights in Tournament of the Grand Crusader. There are, of course, a few changes designed to make the fight more difficult. Those are:

1. Mistress of Pain will now cast Mistress's Kiss.
2. The Portals and Volcanoes that spawn adds must be DPS'd down before they will stop spawning adds.
3. Everything hits/ticks harder.
   

Setup
Before the start of the fight, you want to arrange your healers and ranged DPS in a circle around the outside of the middle. Don't stand on the points of the stars; they're misleading and too far removed from the raid on the opposite side of the circle. Stand a little away from the inner ring, inside the triangles. Separate your healers first, then your ranged DPS; ranged should stand on healers, no more than two to a healer. The boss should be tanked in the middle, and after the pull it should look something like this:


Obviously, you can utilize the triangles that work the best for you, this is just an example. As you do this more and more, you'll notice healers and DPS getting territorial over their triangles. This is perfectly natural. After all, the Northeast triangle is mine, and my DPS is Francesco the mage and occasionally a Warlock. It's my spot.

Before you pull make sure your ranged directly South and your melee stand away from the boss so they don't get smacked in the face and one-shot.

Execution
Once the boss is pulled, a lot of the fight depends on your DPS and their ability to change targets quickly to the portal/volcano and DPS it down so there are not too many adds. It's especially important for the portals, as more than one Mistress of Pain can lock up your healers very quickly, especially if you're running with a bunch of Paladins. The Kiss can be counteracted, true; just target Jaraxxus or a Mistress and start casting Starfire as a Druid, or a Shadow spell for a Priest or a Fire spell for a Shaman (remember, it has to have a cast time!). Paladins, only having Holy spells, are SoL as soon as Kiss lands on them. Their choices are to cast something, take the interrupt and the damage but be locked out for less time, or to sit out the fifteen seconds of the debuff, which is not recommended.

More Mistresses equal more Kisses equal more locked out healers, as even Priests, Shamans and Druids can become accidentally locked out if the Kiss lands on them while they're in the middle of casting something. If your DPS is having trouble getting the portals down while only spawning one Mistress, consider going to five healers and having an extra DPS; we did this for our first kills and, despite the loss of one healer, it was easier without the Mistress running rampant.

Believe me, any girl whose signature kink is the 360 Pain Spike isn't someone you want to be locking lips with, extra arms or no.

Getting the volcanoes down quickly is also important, as too many Infernals can start wrecking your raid. A couple ticks of their channeled AoE followed by a chain lightning from Jaraxxus and you could be looking at a lot of dead people. Get away from them, even if you have to abandon your spot. Your spot will be there when the infernal goes away, I promise. Unless someone dumped fire in it, and then maybe you should think of getting a new spot, because your spot currently sucks.

Your tank will round them up, the DPS will knock them down (no interrupts for their inferno nor banishes to keep them in line; you have to just work with them), and things will go back to business as usual. Healing Incinerates is of paramount importance because if people blow up, so does the raid, even more so than in normal. Likely, if not everyone dies, a lot of people will be dead at the end. If people are locked out from Kiss, heal the Incinerated people harder. Blow your cooldowns because the tank won't or shouldn't need them. Just get them healed ASAP.

Make sure you run out when you're affected by Legion Flame, so you're not dropping fire on your group or the melee or wherever you are with fire. However, please realize: you don't have to run all the way to the wall! Get to the outside of the group, then start this rotation: pause. drop a patch of fire. move. pause. drop a patch of fire. move. repeat from the beginning until the debuff is gone. It's not a constant drop, and running all the way to the outside just leaves a perforated trail of fire through the raid and you start ranging healers, as opposed to leaving a nice, consolidated patch outside the ranged that's easy to avoid and not nearly so hazardous to your health. And, for goodness's sake, don't run out for Incinerate. Recognize the difference! Red Fire means STOP, Green Fire means GO.

That's it! Adjust to AoE's and fire, don't get locked up by the Kiss if you can help it, and heal! Then he should die and you'll be ready to face the Faction Champions.


Yes there are a lot of bones. This was our first kill. Subsequent kills have been far more successful and bone-less, unless you count having to get a DK to respec for corpse explosion just so we could clear out the boss's annoying, non-despawning corpses.

Beasts of Northrend, Hardmode (25)

It may surprise some of you who have never been in Heroic Trial of the Crusader (25) that the first string of bosses are, in fact, one of the harder fights in the instance. Those of you who have actually fought these encounters, however, probably know why.

Not much changes mechanically from Normal to Hard modes. The main differences are:

1. The bosses hit much harder
2. There are strict time limits before the next boss/set of bosses emerge
3. There is no speed boost to get out of the way of Icehowl's charge
4. Icehowl's enrage cannot be removed by Tranquilizing Shot

Vigilant runs a 3 Tank, 6 healer, 16 DPS setup (with about an even number of ranged and melee, sometimes a little melee heavy). This allows for minimal Impales on tanks, no need for a ranged (and somewhat squishy) tank for the Jormungar, and gives us a bit of a buffer should one of the tanks take a bad hit. The downside of this is sacrificing a DPS spot, and with the stringent timers for the entrance of the next boss phase and the final enrage, everyone needs to live and dish out as much damage as possible.

Gormokk the Impaler
For the first boss, we arrange the raid so he is tanked parallel to the boss entrance doors, with the tank on the left and the melee behind the boss on the right. Ranged and healers spread out around the boss in a semi-circle, not standing too close to one another. This is to prevent Fire Bombs from landing on too many people at once.



A good idea is to angle your camera up so that you can see above Gormokk, and watch the bomb trajectory in the air. Though sometimes difficult with needing to also keep track of debuffs, health pools and snobolds, if you can manage to see it you can often avoid the patch of fire all together.

Your tanks should be on a rotation, calling out when they are taunting off of each other. They should also be using cooldowns regularly towards the end (as Gormokk will have more stacks of Rising Anger), and calling out to the healers with cooldowns to use them. They will want to taunt at 2-3 stacks of impale, and waiting (hopefully) until their stacks fall off to taunt again.

When Snobolds go out, it is a time to prioritize. If the snobold lands on a ranged or a healer, that person needs to immediately move into the melee. This will allow it to be cleaved. All DPS who can quickly ramp up DPS should switch to this snobold to remove it, while those who cannot (such as a Feral Druid who would have to build up bleeds) should simply try to cleave it. Ranged DPS should switch as well, especially if it is a snobold on a healer or tank. Snobolds on tanks must also be DPS'd off quickly to reduce their chance of being stunned and killed.


Snobolds on melee DPS, however, can be ignored for the time being. They do not present a serious threat and are not worth the DPS sacrifice on the boss. They will be cleaned up either near Gormokk's death (in the case of having a good head start on the Jormungar timer) or during transitions and submerges.

Acidmaw and Dreadscale
After 2 minutes and 20 seconds, Acidmaw and Dreadscale will be announced, and ten seconds after this, Dreadscale will strike. Gormokk needs to be dead by this point. Immediately, everyone should move away from the door. It's possible for a Jormungar to go for a squishy melee DPS right off the bat, and if they die without the Jormungar being damaged or gaining threat from anyone else, they will despawn, wasting your attempt. It's also a good idea to use Hand of Protection on the tank with the most Impales (or the longest duration remaining), immediately followed by Hand of Freedom to remove the Hand of Protection.

You will have a grounded worm and a mobile worm, and throughout the fight their positions and status (grounded or mobile) will switch. You should always have two tanks on the mobile worm and one on the grounded worm. However, on the mobile worm, only one tank should be in front of the boss at any time, and no DPS, healer or other tank should stand in front of the worm. The mobile worm should be moved in a circle around the outside of the room, only being moved after it drops a cloud of poison (to reduce poison spread over the whole room).

Whenever the first tank gains the debuff (be it Burning Bile or Paralytic Poison), the other tank should taunt the boss. However, the second tank should only taunt after the first tank has been hit by the worm's spewing attack. If the second tank taunts off prior, the first tank will remain the target of the spew and the Jormungar will turn to face that tank to use its attack, hitting everyone that tank is near and likely causing a wipe.

You may notice there's no map for this fight, but that is due to its highly mobile nature and the Jormungar's ever-changing positions. There are some keys to remember, however. Everyone should spread out. This will reduce the chance of a mass of people being debuffed with Burning Bile or Paralytic Poison. Healers have priority of position. If a healer is near you and you are a DPS, move away from them. They need to be able to reach the tanks and/or raid to keep them alive. Their targets may often be on two different sides of the room, while you will only have one target to position around.

Unless you are trying for the achievement, Acidmaw should die first. According to personal preference, you can blow Heroism/Bloodlust as soon as your tank has a nice hold on threat to burn him down. When attacking any grounded worm, your melee should be able to self-divide into groups to minimize possible spreading of Paralytic Poison (and, later, prevent Burning Bile explosions that decimate half your attack force). They should also check behind themselves to ensure they are not going to be launched into patches of poison when the grounded worm whirls around.

Managing debuffs is important in this phase. People with Burning Bile need to seek out people with Paralytic Poison to burn off the debuff, without damaging people in the raid too much and without standing next to each other (blowing each other up for multiple sources of damage). When Acidmaw is dead, everyone with Burning Bile's only job is to stay away from other people (and, if you're a healer, keep healing, or a ranged DPS, keep DPSing). You can very easily cause a wipe by blowing up other people in the raid, so just be safe.

When Acidmaw is dead, all DPS should (obviously) switch to Dreadscale. Dreadscale will enrage, so it's important to make sure adequate healing is on the tank. Keep performing as you did when Acidmaw was alive, and you should have your kill. Make sure to monitor your timers; Dreadmaw should be dead or near-dead by the time Icehowl arrives.

Icehowl
Three minutes after the beginning of the worm fight, Icehowl will emerge. A tank needs to pick him up immediately and bring him to the center as soon as possible. Your raid needs to then arrange yourselves around him in a circle, as spread out as possible (including melee; use the sides and back).


This is important for two reasons: to prevent a large portion of the raid from being hit with the Arctic Breath, and to prevent stacking when Icehowl uses Massive Crash to knock people into the walls (and perhaps making them unable to see through someone else's character model). Healers should be spread out evenly to be able to cover people caught in Breath.

It is important, while arranging yourself, to look behind you. Will you be knocked into the few patches of lingering poison? Are you going to be knocked into a doorway (boss entrance doorway is okay, smaller doorways are not)? Are there a lot of people around you? Move. Make sure wherever you are is well-positioned both for your role and for boss mechanics. Remember, you have no speed boost and no recovery from an enrage. While it is possible one tank may survive the enrage through stacking cooldowns, it is also very likely you will be down many DPS from the Whirl or random threat before his enrage wears off.

Something else important to note is not to charge into Icehowl too early while he is running at the wall. Even if he seems to have hit the wall, wait a moment before charging in, as you may get caught in front of him, causing an enrage. This happened to one of our Feral Druids and, while not his fault (other raid members confirmed that his charge had been immediately after Icehowl had hit the wall), it is better to be safe than sorry. If you still have Heroism/Bloodlust, when he is stunned and against the wall is the time to pop it. When he comes up, resume your positions, rinse and repeat, and you should have a dead Icehowl.

The Secret is to Complain

I have found that as soon as I start whining about something, life comes back and slaps me upside the head to go "Why did you moan and cry about this? It's all better now and you just look stupid."

Vigilant downed Twin Val'kyr in 25 man Heroic last night!


If you'd like to watch our kill video, there's a link to Filefront here where you can download or stream it, recorded from the view of one of our Ret Paladins, Comandantes. I'm the tree in the bottom right you can barely see, who is soaking.



That's right, I was still soaking, but this time, way less stress and much more fun.

Why?

Well, when I'm able to get up the strategies (which we switched up a bit), all will be revealed! Unfortunately, I have some papers to write that are due today (one at one, one at midnight)...so you'll just have to be patient!

Crucial Roles and Failure

Currently, my guild is working on hardmode Twin Val'kyr in ToC 25 (we've beaten it several times in 10). We've tried many different strategies, but they all revolve around one thing: soakers.

If you're not sure what a soaker is, it's a person who is the opposite color aura of the group they are closest to, and their job is to soak incoming orbs before they hit the raid, as well as dodge their opposite color orbs so that they do hit the raid (and thus buff damage). A soaker has to be highly mobile, as standing still to cast is a bit of a danger to them, depending upon persistence of orbs.

But because the soaker's job is so vital, and because they are a little ways out of the group, when they mess up...it is very, very noticeable. And if one dies, it can often cause a chain reaction for other soakers to die, as they suddenly have to cover a wider range, with more chance of being swarmed by the wrong color orb. You can take a hit from one opposite color orb, but more than that and you're generally dead, if you're not a tank.

My guild spent 3 hours, 25-26 attempts, last night on this fight. I was a dark soaker for the light side the entire time. Sometimes I could execute it perfectly til a wipe; many other times I died early. Some of it is RNG; you have nowhere to go and too many orbs of the wrong color flying at you, and your Barkskin can't soak that much damage, or you get a debuff of the opposite aura at the wrong time. Some of it is a split decision gone awry; you make a pathing choice under pressure and it puts you into a dead end of your own design. Some of it is lag; with so many orbs flying around, spell effects and people packed into one space, your computer can hiccup you into a stack of death, or your latency can show the orbs to be farther away than they actually are. Some of it is just being human; it's a high pressure fight, you have a high pressure job (run, soak, dodge, heal, stay alive), and you're going to mess up.

The worst part is the feeling that you messed up, you know you messed up, and it's likely your mess up is going to cause a chain reaction of deaths, either from orbs getting through or because your other soaker(s) now have to cover more ground (making their jobs more stressful and have a larger margin of error). Besides that, your mess up is obvious, when a soaker dies, it's a Bad Thing. You can lose a DPS or two so long as your damage can keep up with shields and the enrage timer. When a soaker dies, it's often a multiple blow: you lost a shield for the raid and, in our strategy, likely a healer.

The only fight that has stressed me out more was trying to two-heal hardmode Anub'arak 10 with a Disc Priest, and not by a lot. Playing a role that is so crucial that, within the confines of the encounter's start to finish, you have a very low margin of error (and your errors in fact increase the others' margins of error), tacked onto a job that already had a low margin of error (raid healing for auras requires intense upkeep, especially on those with Touch of Light or Touch of Dark when there is no aura switching) is very taxing. And the knowledge that not only did you mess up, but some of the things you messed up to are out of your control while plenty of others were and you just made a stupid split second decision, and sometimes you're not even sure which ones are which...

Let's just say I feel rather terrible about last night and the wipes I contributed to. I feel even worse because I don't know if I am even improving at the job. I really hope I am, because we have 17 attempts left for tonight.