Hello everyone and welcome to my rather basic healing guide for some of the bosses in Flex SoO! Its been a while since I posted anything related to the shaman healing POV and with an awesome flex run last night, I wanted to follow it up while the idea is still fresh in my mind. I really did love healing all the way through my leveling experience and now I'm in SoO it feels so great. Shaman healing in general is in a really great spot right now and have so much utility on every encounter, it really does show how much blizzard have worked on the shamans finally! Of course Smart heals are taking over in this current day in age but we still are regarded as one of the better healers this patch/teir. Below will show the tips and tricks on each boss that I have encountered, Note: This is not a strategy guide on how to kill X boss but what you as a healing shaman can do per boss. REMEMBER GUYS, I'm new to Shaman healing in MOP so the things I say may be odd, but its just my perspective. I'm not a good player, but make this so others may learn something and help me document things as I go in my healing journey to make me a better player.
Special Mention to my guild EQ for letting me tag along and hopefully be moving in to normal modes soon! Was an awesome first raid with them and hopefully see more in the future and in WOD!
Special Mention to my guild EQ for letting me tag along and hopefully be moving in to normal modes soon! Was an awesome first raid with them and hopefully see more in the future and in WOD!
Immerseus - Ahh the good old introduction fight to this Tier. I rather enjoyed this fight for healing compared to being a DPS, I found myself using chain heal a lot more and more on single target healing. My duty here was to focus on the tanks and the ally blobs that spawn around us. I used Healing rain on the tanks (Don't stand by the tanks.. I learned that the hard way) but either to the right or left of them on another platform and use Chain heal as your filler here, spot heal with Healing wave if you need too. I also saved my Tidal wave procs for my greater healing waves on the blobs to get them to full health in about two heals. Use Healing stream on cooldown and save your Healing tide for the last or second from last reform to counter the aoe damage. Spirit link is not really worth it here as the raid is spread all over the place.
The Fallen Protectors - This encounter plays extremely well to the Restoration Shaman and I for one love healing this! Throughout the fight the raid will be taking damage, so your smart heals here will be sniping away, So keep Healing stream on cooldown, try and keep two riptides on the tanks as they will both be taking some serious damage, use chain heal off of each tank to maximize its output. I use the Primal elemental Talent most of the time if not all of the time and I used it on the first stacking phase with empower and dropped a instant healing rain with a Unleashed Elements before hand to get the maximum effect. Use chain heal here on cooldown. Soon as each phase ends make sure to refresh your healing stream and Use Healing rain on cooldown around the melee or whichever boss is being focused (Make sure you use Unleashed Elements before each Healing rain). On each stacking phase try to use one cooldown and not stack them so much; you will get more output in doing so as each one of ours is extremely good here. Example: First stack, Powered healing rain with Elemental empower. Second, Ascendance with healing stream and healing rain. Third, Use healing tide with another Empower and healing rain. Spirit link is great on this fight, use it wisely, I found using it when stacking on the adds works great.
Norushen - Another fantastic fight. At first I was not sure if this would be any good for us Shamans with the amount of moving you do when moving from each beam, but again, smart heals and some clever use of spells can work wonders here. Same as before, try and manage riptides on both tanks. Earth shield on which ever one is tanking. Use healing rain on cooldown around the tanks or along the path your raid takes when moving from the beam. Again, healing stream on cooldown and use call of the elements to place another down ready for the moving. To me, it seems the raid takes more and more damage as the raid goes on so use spirit walkers grace when you need to move and ascendance if things get tricky just to spread your healing. When you get moved in to the other realm and having to heal the protectors, just use greater healing wave combined with tidal waves to heal them up and yourself before you leave. Soon as you're out drop a healing tide or healing stream to top people off. (Primal Empower is also great here for the moving phases when used with spirit walkers grace and Healing rain)
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Sha Of Pride - Love love love this fight for healing! Through out the whole encounter the group will stay stacked and only spread for swirling pride and the add spawns. This encounter plays to every one our our strengths. Use Earth shield on the main tank and cast chain heals, with chaining they will reach back in to the raid (keep riptide on him 100%). For each Swirling mechanic you can have an empowered Healing rain ready to rock so do so through the whole fight. Use healing stream on cooldown as usual and save your oh crap totems for towards the end of the fight or when people sort of fail at moving out a little. Also an important mention, only dispel the debuffs on players when you have the Titan buff.
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Galakras - To me, this is a rather boring fight till the last phase. During the encounter as a shaman you tend to stay at the bottom at all times, ccing when you can and keeping up the spread healing. On the last phase that's were things get interesting. The ranged group and healers are forced to stack, which brings in our fantastic stacked healing in to play. Healing rains, Healing tides and ascendance work great here but spirit link is the savior, save this for when damage really starts to kick it up a notch.
Iron Juggernaut - I was not a huge fan of this encounter to start with and not exactly great for shaman healing here. Before the shocking pulse we can really put out some huge heals on the tanks taking damage, our only problem is when we do get that knock back, it can really punish our output - Why? We only have spirit walkers grace once during this encounter generally, and the knock back can be huge IF you don't get in a decent position and recover quickly this can happen 3/4 times. I tend to keep riptides switching on the tank currently having the bosses attention and use healing totems like healing stream right before a pulse. A fun fight and a great way to test your imagination to prevent as much knock back as possible! Healing rain works great here but I tend to keep it in and around the melee dps and tanks as the bomb pick ups can hurt!
Dark Shamans - An awesome healing fight, although something that will really really annoy you as a shaman! It is the amount of movement the tanks have to do. Our healing Rain is one of the top healing abilities when used and placed correctly, but due to the amount of movement it makes it a rather waste of mana using it on that section of the raid group so I tend to use it central of the fighting zone and in and around the ranged/healers. I use riptide on the Main tank with earth shield and spot heal with healing wave and chain heal when needed. Another problem is Spirit link totem, of course it will only work with players in the totems radius and due to the nature of the beast, the fight counters it, so again use it well, I yet have found a perfect time to use, so please any feedback would be much appreciated!
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General Nazgrim - Ahhh Nazzgrimmm! You beauty! I loved this fight on my Windwalker and even more so on my Shaman. Healing here is a real breeze as long as the DPS don't fail on the defensive phase. A simple fight here, dont stand in the fire, move from swirling axes and if you have a rogue hitting you, dont stand there.. Cast spirt walkers grave and get healing! Use Healing rain between the tanks on DPS phases and range don defensive phase and when the adds are up. The add s do hurt so silence them, slow them as much as possible, I tend ot keep an earth bind totem down just to help. As usual, Healing stream on cooldown and use ascendance when huge aoe damage comes. Simple stuff really.
Malkorok - Ughh.. Just Ughh.. For other healers like priests and druids Im sure this is an awesome fight. With the absorb affect much like on heroic Tortos, they can boost out some insane healing at the start by using huge cooldowns to heal the whole raid, Us shamans don't do that.. WE DO NOT DO IT BLIZZARD! So your healing tides wont work here as it works as a smart heal, so don't freak out when you see your heals ticking for 1 and 1 and more 1s. We come in to play when we stack after the three hulk like smashes and the raid take a considerable amount of damage. Again healing wave with a boost from Unleashed elements work well here and spirit link totem is a gods send, this will happen two or three times during the whole encounter so use your cooldowns effectively and not at once. Think smart... much like our smart heals. A side note: But Astral Shift works well for soaking pools!
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Spoils Of Pandaria - I adore this fight, there is always something to heal here and so much to look out for. I wont go in to details on what to keep your eye out for and such, there's plenty of guides around to do so, But for Shaman healing, your healing stream is your best friend here. With the glyph you also receive a magic damage resistance which works fantastic here. Keep riptide on your tank, the groups will be split up and on flex/10 mans 2 healers per side works well. Anyway.. Healing rain can once again be used here when the tanks stay stationary for a brief moment so try and work out were he is going to smash some boxes next and pre heal that zone ready for when he is there, that's how I took a better use out of it! There is not a huge amount of moving to do unless your dropping some bombs off so just be careful were you stand and were you're running too here. If there is a ton of adds up which can happen with the new tanks, Primal Elemental works great here with that extra amount of healing you receive from the empower buff, a great help here for your spread heals!
Thok The Bloodthirsty - This is what I'm talking about! A Jurassic like Dinobitch with armor and a really good amount of stamina to chase people down all night long! This is a AWEEESOMEEE fight for us shamans! The stacking phases are perfect for our rotation of cooldowns like healing stream, Ascendance and such. Keep an our out for the nature lock though, it can be a real killer but as long as you have a Healing rain ticking away and some totems up, You will be covered! When you're being chased, kite him while in Wolf form and make sure to run the correct way! If you're on dispelling duty like I was, as well as being chased by the Dino your dispels will suffer so make sure every healer do this. I tend to use spirit walkers grace, Healing tide and Ascendance towards the end on the fire phase. You're required to move a hell of a lot which may slow down your output so think smart about when you will be moving too, were to drop a healing rain etc. Remember Glyph of healing stream is your friend, that further reduction to fire damage can really help here!
Mana management - Noticed in each of the bosses I did not mention the best way to save mana and such? Well as I have learnt it is pretty simple to work around. Even at my gear level which is rather bad, I still have no mana issues and are yet to oom in an encounter, Granted I could drop some spirit but Im using crit as my main regen stat. It makes it so our crit heals refund a small amount of mana back, thanks to resurgence. I also Use call of the elements to recover my totem, with the glyph once I recall the totem just before it expires I get a full refund of the mana used to cast that totem which is huge! This is even before I get my legendary meta! Also mana tide totem here is amazing, Instead of saving it towards the end, Use it once when you're around 80% mana and again when you or someone in the raid needs it, this enables you to use it twice, and twice is better than once. I always use a mana potion as well during a Mana tide for that little extra boost, Its not vital but something I like to do.
A little side note: Again thank you for my current guild for letting me take part in last nights raid, Has a really awesome time and I hope my apparently rather good Pingu impressions put you guys off! :P Also I just bought a new pet for my collection as seen below: Grab yours today!
Galakras - To me, this is a rather boring fight till the last phase. During the encounter as a shaman you tend to stay at the bottom at all times, ccing when you can and keeping up the spread healing. On the last phase that's were things get interesting. The ranged group and healers are forced to stack, which brings in our fantastic stacked healing in to play. Healing rains, Healing tides and ascendance work great here but spirit link is the savior, save this for when damage really starts to kick it up a notch.
Iron Juggernaut - I was not a huge fan of this encounter to start with and not exactly great for shaman healing here. Before the shocking pulse we can really put out some huge heals on the tanks taking damage, our only problem is when we do get that knock back, it can really punish our output - Why? We only have spirit walkers grace once during this encounter generally, and the knock back can be huge IF you don't get in a decent position and recover quickly this can happen 3/4 times. I tend to keep riptides switching on the tank currently having the bosses attention and use healing totems like healing stream right before a pulse. A fun fight and a great way to test your imagination to prevent as much knock back as possible! Healing rain works great here but I tend to keep it in and around the melee dps and tanks as the bomb pick ups can hurt!
Dark Shamans - An awesome healing fight, although something that will really really annoy you as a shaman! It is the amount of movement the tanks have to do. Our healing Rain is one of the top healing abilities when used and placed correctly, but due to the amount of movement it makes it a rather waste of mana using it on that section of the raid group so I tend to use it central of the fighting zone and in and around the ranged/healers. I use riptide on the Main tank with earth shield and spot heal with healing wave and chain heal when needed. Another problem is Spirit link totem, of course it will only work with players in the totems radius and due to the nature of the beast, the fight counters it, so again use it well, I yet have found a perfect time to use, so please any feedback would be much appreciated!
General Nazgrim - Ahhh Nazzgrimmm! You beauty! I loved this fight on my Windwalker and even more so on my Shaman. Healing here is a real breeze as long as the DPS don't fail on the defensive phase. A simple fight here, dont stand in the fire, move from swirling axes and if you have a rogue hitting you, dont stand there.. Cast spirt walkers grave and get healing! Use Healing rain between the tanks on DPS phases and range don defensive phase and when the adds are up. The add s do hurt so silence them, slow them as much as possible, I tend ot keep an earth bind totem down just to help. As usual, Healing stream on cooldown and use ascendance when huge aoe damage comes. Simple stuff really.
Malkorok - Ughh.. Just Ughh.. For other healers like priests and druids Im sure this is an awesome fight. With the absorb affect much like on heroic Tortos, they can boost out some insane healing at the start by using huge cooldowns to heal the whole raid, Us shamans don't do that.. WE DO NOT DO IT BLIZZARD! So your healing tides wont work here as it works as a smart heal, so don't freak out when you see your heals ticking for 1 and 1 and more 1s. We come in to play when we stack after the three hulk like smashes and the raid take a considerable amount of damage. Again healing wave with a boost from Unleashed elements work well here and spirit link totem is a gods send, this will happen two or three times during the whole encounter so use your cooldowns effectively and not at once. Think smart... much like our smart heals. A side note: But Astral Shift works well for soaking pools!
Spoils Of Pandaria - I adore this fight, there is always something to heal here and so much to look out for. I wont go in to details on what to keep your eye out for and such, there's plenty of guides around to do so, But for Shaman healing, your healing stream is your best friend here. With the glyph you also receive a magic damage resistance which works fantastic here. Keep riptide on your tank, the groups will be split up and on flex/10 mans 2 healers per side works well. Anyway.. Healing rain can once again be used here when the tanks stay stationary for a brief moment so try and work out were he is going to smash some boxes next and pre heal that zone ready for when he is there, that's how I took a better use out of it! There is not a huge amount of moving to do unless your dropping some bombs off so just be careful were you stand and were you're running too here. If there is a ton of adds up which can happen with the new tanks, Primal Elemental works great here with that extra amount of healing you receive from the empower buff, a great help here for your spread heals!
Thok The Bloodthirsty - This is what I'm talking about! A Jurassic like Dinobitch with armor and a really good amount of stamina to chase people down all night long! This is a AWEEESOMEEE fight for us shamans! The stacking phases are perfect for our rotation of cooldowns like healing stream, Ascendance and such. Keep an our out for the nature lock though, it can be a real killer but as long as you have a Healing rain ticking away and some totems up, You will be covered! When you're being chased, kite him while in Wolf form and make sure to run the correct way! If you're on dispelling duty like I was, as well as being chased by the Dino your dispels will suffer so make sure every healer do this. I tend to use spirit walkers grace, Healing tide and Ascendance towards the end on the fire phase. You're required to move a hell of a lot which may slow down your output so think smart about when you will be moving too, were to drop a healing rain etc. Remember Glyph of healing stream is your friend, that further reduction to fire damage can really help here!
Mana management - Noticed in each of the bosses I did not mention the best way to save mana and such? Well as I have learnt it is pretty simple to work around. Even at my gear level which is rather bad, I still have no mana issues and are yet to oom in an encounter, Granted I could drop some spirit but Im using crit as my main regen stat. It makes it so our crit heals refund a small amount of mana back, thanks to resurgence. I also Use call of the elements to recover my totem, with the glyph once I recall the totem just before it expires I get a full refund of the mana used to cast that totem which is huge! This is even before I get my legendary meta! Also mana tide totem here is amazing, Instead of saving it towards the end, Use it once when you're around 80% mana and again when you or someone in the raid needs it, this enables you to use it twice, and twice is better than once. I always use a mana potion as well during a Mana tide for that little extra boost, Its not vital but something I like to do.
A little side note: Again thank you for my current guild for letting me take part in last nights raid, Has a really awesome time and I hope my apparently rather good Pingu impressions put you guys off! :P Also I just bought a new pet for my collection as seen below: Grab yours today!
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