Hydross the Unstable July 25, 2008

Healing Assignments

Tanks:
There are two main tanks for this fight, one with frost resist gear and one with nature resist gear.  They will pass Hydross to each other every minute or so.  These two tanks get hit hard!  So be sure to have at least 3 healers assigned to tank healing, preferably one with healing over times (hots) such as druids and priests and the others direct healers such as paladins. All three should be focused on keeping the two tanks alive.

Raid:
The other healers, should all be focused on raid healing.  Randomly targetted raid members will take damage, maybe 3 members at a time, so you should be on the look out for these and be ready with heals for them.  It appears as a bubble of blue or green around the player so it’s fairly obvious who is being affected. It only lasts for a few seconds so just be sure to keep them topped up.

The Frost and Nature Transition

There is the upper (frost) “platform” and the lower (nature) “platform”.  When Hydross is passed between the two tanks over these two platforms, hydross changes between his frost and nature forms. Everytime this happens there is an aggro reset and 4 new adds will spawn.  Usually the raid will stop dps’ing until the new tank has an aggro lead.

You don’t have to, but generally I like to be on the same platform as the boss, Hydross, when I heal.  Simply because if I draw aggro by healing during this aggro reset/hydross transition stage, I won’t accidentally force Hydross to come chasing me to the other platform, hence causing Hydross to change forms again and thus spawning another 4 adds. So I recommend standing to the side out of the way and following Hydross to each platform everytime he is transitioned.

During each transition, any healer that has hots should put them on both tanks.  This avoids casting huge heals on either tank during the aggro reset which reduces the chance that you will gain aggro.  Be wary though, because the tank who is gaining Hydross will take lots of damage, so you may need to use larger heals anyway depending on how many hots you have on the tank.

Raid healers should be ready when the 4 adds arrive after every transition since the 4 adds will probably be tanked seperately by 4 off-tanks who will take damage from the adds. So make sure you conserve mana before the transitions happen.

Netherspite July 25, 2008

Preparations

Everyone in the raid will take aoe shadow damage periodically so ensure everyone is buffed with the priest Shadow Protection spell. If you have an extra 1-2 pieces of shadow protection gear, wear that too just to help with the healing, but it’s not a big deal if you don’t have any.

Assignments

One healer should be focused on healing the person standing in the blue beam at all times and raid healing the rest of the time.  The person in the blue beam takes more damage than others but in return is able to do a ton more damage to netherspite instead, so keep them alive!

The other healers should all be raid healing through the shadow aoe damage and healing any poor souls who stand a little too long on top of the void zone (black) circles.

The tank standing in the red beam will take damage, but no where near as much as the person standing in the blue beam.  If the person standing in the blue beam dies thats when the red beam person will begin to take more damage until someone else hops into the blue beam.

Mana Regen

During the banish phase, tell raid members to bandage/heal themselves as this is your time to get outside of the 5 second rule and regen some mana.  Activate your Inner focus talent if you have it and don’t heal anyone until you’ve all run back out and the tank is in the red beam again.  That way, your first heal will also be mana free and you’ll still be outside the 5 second rule.  If you still need more mana after this, drink a potion or send your shadowfiend in after running back in.

Things to Note

DO NOT run through or touch in anyway the RED beam.  You’ll get aggro instantaneously and die on the spot unless you have 16k hitpoints and look like a tank. 

At ALL times, the green beam shouldn’t touch netherspite as it will heal netherspite and waste all your hard work. If there’s no one standing in the green beam, it’s fine for you to stand in it until someone else, preferrably a dps who uses energy instead of mana, stands in it instead.

Wrath of the Lich King Holy Priest Talent Tree July 20, 2008

Just checked out the new talent tree for holy priests in the new expansion WotLK.

(Update: This is the holy talent spec that I use: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bVcbzhZcxtcd0qihVIst)

I tried raiding without the pushback effect talent (Healing Focus), and found I had no troubles at all with healing.

Some new talents I’m excited to see in action are:

Serendipity (3 points)
If your Greater Heal or Flash Heal spells overheal the target for greater than 50%, you are instantly refunded 60% of the spell’s mana cost. 

I thought that was nice how they singled out greater heal and flash heal, because those two spells are a priests best friend (aside from circle of healing of course).

Improved Holy Concentration (3 points)
Increases the chance you’ll enter holy concentration by 10% and also increased your spell haste by 60% for the next three greater heal, flash heal or binding heal spells after you gain holy concentration, last for 20 seconds.

I was really excited that they added some spell haste into the talents.  That way, those that don’t want to stack spell haste don’t necessarily have to.  Or those that do, get an even faster bonus every so often.

Test of Faith (3 points)
Increases healing by 15% and spell critical effect chance on friendly targets at or below 50% health.

How awesome is this one!  50% or below is a huge margin especially on a tank who has 20k hitpoints.  I’m very impressed by this talent.  I would have thought the percentage would have been around 30% as a kind of saviour for the person you are healing, so the fact it sits at 50% or below is just fabulous.  Beware of lazy priests! You may not get a heal if you aren’t below 50% health… ha!

Guardian Spirit (1 point, Instant Cast, 6% of base mana, 3 min cooldown)
Calls upon a guardian spirit to watch over the friendly target. The spirit increases the healing received by the target by 40% and also prevents the target from dying by sacrificing itself. This sacrifice terminates the effect but heals the target of 10% of their maximum health. Lasts 10 seconds.

6% of base mana for myself at the moment is around 650 mana so I don’t think that’s too bad for this 3 minute cooldown spell.  I have a question about this one though, when do you think it would be most useful? Would you treat it as a spell to use when things are going very pear shaped and use it on a raid member?  Would you use it on the tank as often as you could?  Or would you save it for yourself for those not so often but scary moments when you gain aggro and use it as a ‘holy crap Im going to die’ type spell?  I’d like to know what you think!

I believe we will also be getting a new spell called Divine Hymn.

Divine Hymn (Instant Cast, 750 mana, 10 min cooldown)

You recite a holy hymn, granting your party protection from attackers. Any attacks done to you or your party will cause the attacker to be afflicted by sleep for 20 sec. Divine Hymn will last 10 sec.
10 min cooldown

Sure it has a 10 minute cooldown, but will be awesome to use in a desperate situation. Can’t wait!

Laj July 18, 2008

Laj is the second-last boss of Botanica and is basically a flower!

Position

The position of the healer should be wherever the tank is.  Laj gets called back to his original position every so often, so the tank will most likely stand on the middle dais. If he does, you should be standing there too.  You cannot heal from the ground level up to the middle dais, due to line of sight.

Healing Through Boss Fight

There will be two adds that pop up whilst fighting Laj, which means your heals are going to be spilt between healing the tank and healing the other dps members who are attacking the adds.  Laj won’t hit terribly hard on the tank in comparison to the other bosses, so I find a heal over time, flash heals and the odd group heal will keep the tank alive while you are also doing big heals on the dps killing the adds.