[Resto] Healing 25man Heroic Seige of Orgrimmar by CptDan

[CptDan 25]

This thread is a discussion regarding restoration shaman healing in 25 man siege of Orgrimmar. The fights tend to play out quite differently in 25 man than in 10 man and as such will have their own healing mechanics.

 

General notes:

Strategies are open to discussion and adjustment. These can be valuable tips to bring to your Raid Leader but they are just that, tips. Your RL will make the call on the strategy as they see it based on current team composition etc. We discuss these a lot in our healer chat and/or healer binds. Difficulty is based on how hard I interpreted the fights to be DURING PROGRESSION. These will obviously go down significantly as the bosses enter farm status. (and better gear) This thread also assumes you know the basic mechanics of the encounters and will not go deeply into those. I posted a good reference number for the number of healers during progression. You could probably swap a healer, maybe 2 once the boss is on farm status and the raid's dps and gear levels are higher.

 

Useful Links:

 

• Icy-Veins Restoration Shaman (basic reference for those just starting out)
• Icy-Veins Siege of Orgrimmar Raid Guide (Explains heroic differences in each encounter)
• Warcraft Academy - Video Guides with 25 man teams

 

Stat Priorities:

 

We are still tweaking these every fight. Currently the only builds I've seen differ only on the amount of haste in the build. I advise you to go with the haste break that is easiest to achieve in your gear (without sacrificing a lot of other stats) The general consensus is: 

 

Int > Haste (breakpoint) > Crit > Mastery > Spirit > Haste (additional)

 

I personally go for about 9100 haste, but haven't found if mathematically I am actually getting the HST tick or not.

 

Changing from 10 man to 25 man healing?

 

• You will be using more multi target heals and these heals will make up a larger percentage of your total healing.
• Your stat priority shouldn't change much besides spirit if you aren't comfortable with your mana regeneration.
• HST and HR will make up the bulk of your healing totals
• Unless absolutely called for by leadership, don't stack mana simply to act as a "mana battery" our throughput has improved much and this role is a waste of your abilities as a shaman.
• It will be much easier to find a good place to put Healing rain down but be mindful of optimal placement. (it may be better to keep it at range vs melee in some cases)
• if your add-on supports it, consider tracking a "cluster" where it will show the groups that are in range of each other or break the add-on down by groups (i.e. tanks, melee, ranged, etc)

When healing in a 25 man situation, especially in higher difficulties you will need to be more coordinated with your co-healers. This is the largest change when moving from a 10 man healing team with 1-2 co-healers to a 25 man where you'll have 4-5 co-healers. Be mindful of the needs of the healing team and remember to drop mana tide when it is needed by the other healers.

 

In 25 man, things usually hit harder so damage can be more spiky. Coordinate this with co-healers so you aren't over healing excessively.

 

Lastly, some fights that seemed really easy on 10 man will be significantly harder on 25 man and vice versa. 

 

Restoration Shaman Encounter Strategies:

 

Immerseus: (Difficulty 2/10) [5-6 healers depending on raid composition]

 

Talents/Glyph Selections:

• Consider Glyphing Glyph of Riptide on this encounter, so the targets will have a hot rolling on them when everyone spreads back out.

Tips: 

• The raid is going to stack very briefly and then spread greatly, use the stacked times to get everyone topped off.
• Spirit Walker's grace paired with a raid healing cool down can be a life-saver if done correctly. 
• Save cool downs for when Immerseus merges. The damage during this can be intense.

Split:

Heal the blobs in your assigned area as fast as possible and try to get as many stacks of the buff as you can. This will help on merge.

Merge:

be ready to bring lower health players up a bit and use cool downs if necessary to avoid as many deaths as possible. coordinate these with your co-healers.

 

Protectors: (Difficulty 3/10) [5-6 Healers]

 

Talent/Glyph considerations:

• Consider glyph of cleansing waters to add a bit of healing to the many dispels.
• HST isn't a huge help on this fight but can add some resistance to the meteor target.
• Consider using Ancestral Guidance which lines perfectly with Ascendance on Sun's Desperate Measures.

Encounter Tips:

• Dispel on cool down if there is a debuff up.
• SLT on stack for meteor
• Keep HR and HST on cooldown
• Riptide on tanks and targets you can't dispel right away.

 

Norushen: (Difficulty 4.5/10) [4-6 Healers, depending on DPS]

 

Talent/Glyph considerations: I personally use Rushing Streams, but i've seen other shamans use conductivity with some success. I prefer to have the mobility offered by Rushing streams for this fight. 

 

Inside the instance put ES on your tank, HR down and stand in it with 2 of the NPCs and bounce chain heal to keep them topped off, dispel the debuff when it occurs and use your fire elemental and DPS when you can to get it down ASAP and rejoin the raid.

 

Save big cool downs for the period following when bloodlust/heroism is cast as the ticks of icy fear can become overwhelming. If needed, spec AG for burst healing on this phase. Save Healing Tide for the last 5% and use this to add DPS if your raid is close on the enrage.

 

Sha of Pride: (Difficulty 6/10) [5-6 Healers]

 

Talent/Glyph Considerations:

• The raid will be very spread out so chaining may be advisable.
• HST glyph will not do much as the fight is mostly shadow damage.
• Cleansing waters can add some much needed healing to dispels.

Tips:

• Heal your assigned area of the battlefield. 
• Play towards the outside edge if you can keep everyone in range and run close just before the adds spawn. This will allow you to close rifts faster.
• Study the pacman on banish, you should only have time for 2-3 turns at most.
• Rotate cooldowns to ensure people are topped off before/after/during swelling pride.
• You will not be able to wait until you have gift to dispel, the damage becomes enormous very quickly. Manage your pride and be ready to run to your projection if needed. 
• Coordinate dispel with the other healers so the pride gains are shared evenly.

 

Galakras: (Difficulty 5/10) [5-6 Healers]

 

Talent/Glyph Considerations

• HST glyph is pretty powerful here with the resistance added to fire.
• TC would also help especially in the early phases where there isn't a ton of damage to heal.

Tips:

• I haven't healed the tower groups, so input is encouraged
• Healing on the ground is very straight forward and the mechanics are identical to normal mode. 
• Add some damage to the mobs and interrupt the shaman, put capacitor into the pile when you can.
• When she lands, position on your assigned marker and rotate cool downs as needed to keep your group alive as debuff stacks raise, be ready to run behind the group. The first phases require almost no healing so be ready to earn your loot here.

 

Iron Juggernaut: (Difficulty 6/10)

 

Talent/Glyph Considerations:

• Glyph HST for this fight, it's added resistance will help a lot.
• Astral Shift can help mitigate your damage during the knock back or if you get a period of RNG that you end up taking a beam, a blade and a cannon before you can move.

Tips:

• Coordinate cool downs for the knock back and healing the group between pulses. Healing Tide, SLT, 4-piece, etc. 
• Keep HST and Healing Raid down in assault phase, watch your feet for blade and beam, etc. Keep as many passive heals out as possible (RT, HR, HST, etc) to top players off after beam.
• Use an instant HR when everyone is getting into position after the shock pulses.
• Even with a shield, do not attempt to take a mine.

 

Dark Shaman: (Difficulty 6/10) [5-6 Healers in two groups]

 

Talent/Glyph Considerations:

• Astral shift is a great cool down to use to mitigate your iron prison debuff if it's cast on you. If you are on the top, this talent loses some of it's power.

 

You will heal in one of two locations: main group or the top.

 

Main Group:

• Mobility is king, keep your tank shielded and hotted. 
• Put HR on the range, as the melee likely won't stand in it long or won't be there at all.
• If a member gets iron prison and they don't have a mitigation CD, stack with them and SLT as it goes off.
• Use SWG when you need to heal on the move, especially when slimes and fire is about to hit.

Up Top:

• Keep HR on the melee pile and tanks. Bounce chain heal off of your shielded tank, rotate ES on tank currently tanking.
• Keep RT rolling on targets with the mist debuff [you may have to glyph RT for this]
• Move as needed to avoid iron tomb but keep the tombs out of the walkway.

General Nazgrim: (Difficulty 6/10) [4-5 Healers]

 

Talent/Glyph Considerations:

 

• This encounter is a great encounter in that it encourages you to use many items in your toolkit in order to perform optimally. 
• Work with your raid in addressing weaknesses. If you are controlling adds very well and enrage is tight, consider anything that allows you to squeeze DPS in on the boss (fire elemental, TC, etc.) if you are good on enrage and weaker on adds consider things that control adds. (Capacitor totem, projection, frozen power, etc) 
• I found that putting ES on the sniper target really helped smooth the damage intake on that target.

Tips: 

 

• Try to stay in range of the raid, and yet near to a wall in order to position the sniper correctly. It really seems to prefer healers so get to a wall and make sure you're the only one being hit by the volley.
• Astral shift is great for mitigation on the sniper attacks, also consider using SLT if you are caught between cool downs with a sniper attack and try hitting it with capacitor totem if you are able, this will allow you to prevent one volley so that a cool down can come up.
• following the rotation in your healing order, use cool downs if war song is cast, it shouldn't happen often but 1 (maybe 2 per fight) seems to be a reasonable expectation. HT cast just before will top everyone off and allow you to replenish lost health after the cast.

 

 

Malkorok: {Not Yet Cleared}

This is where we are currently at for progression, i'll keep updating as information comes in.

Spoils: {not yet cleared}

 

Thok: {Not yet Cleared}

 

Siegecrafter: {Not Yet Cleared}

 

Paragons: {Not Yet Cleared}

 

Garrosh: {Not Yet Cleared}

 

 

 

That is as far as I've progressed but would love input from some of the more progressed restoration shamans that frequent this forum. I will update this post in the thread with input from those bosses and update based on input for bosses that I've already cleared. There is always more than one way to skin a cat.

 

Please, submit your tips so I can fill out the details on this thread. Indicate if the advice is more 10 man or 25 man oriented. 

 

Also, would you, the reader be interested in our kill videos and/or logs posted in this thread? As stated above, we are only 7/14 so this isn't coming from an elitist player but more a player that is very much learning as I go.

Edited February 12, 2014 by CptDan

[Stoove 347]

Just a question, what motivated you to post in a separate thread rather than adding your tips to the SoO Resto Shaman Style thread that we already have?

[Horcored 17]

I gotta ask how u can give norushen 4,5/10 in diffuculty? =O

 

This was the first boss i did hc in SoO and me(druid healer) and another shaman 2 healed it at a point where i had 532 ilvl and he has 540. This boss is a shame to the name of Heroic and is no challange what so ever.

[Stoove 347]

I gotta ask how u can give norushen 4,5/10 in diffuculty? =O

 

This was the first boss i did hc in SoO and me(druid healer) and another shaman 2 healed it at a point where i had 532 ilvl and he has 540. This boss is a shame to the name of Heroic and is no challange what so ever.

 

I think that it's worth respecting his opinion here.

 

Anyway, this is about the 25man version. It's quite different on 10man, where I assume you 2-healed it.

[CptDan 25]

Stoove, if it helps I can put it in that thread but my logic was to keep the heroic mechanics separate.

The difficulty on norushen was based on his difficulty during progression. To meet a tight enrage timer we were using 4 heals, 1 of which went fistweaving at the end. In 10 man it was possibly easier, but to me it felt difficult.

[Stoove 347]

Stoove, if it helps I can put it in that thread but my logic was to keep the heroic mechanics separate.

The difficulty on norushen was based on his difficulty during progression. To meet a tight enrage timer we were using 4 heals, 1 of which went fistweaving at the end. In 10 man it was possibly easier, but to me it felt difficult.

 

Well, we do label in the guides with Heroic: before each tip. However, I think that it's not exactly an optimal way of doing it and when the new tier comes out (eventually!) I'll find a better way to do it.

 

Also, I think it's quite nice to have a 25man thread here. Most of the players and tips we get are 10-man focused. If you're really serious about keeping it maintained, I'm happy for you to keep the thread here.

 

If you'll agree to a title change, I'll even sticky it.

[CptDan 25]

Well, we do label in the guides with Heroic: before each tip. However, I think that it's not exactly an optimal way of doing it and when the new tier comes out (eventually!) I'll find a better way to do it.

 

Also, I think it's quite nice to have a 25man thread here. Most of the players and tips we get are 10-man focused. If you're really serious about keeping it maintained, I'm happy for you to keep the thread here.

 

If you'll agree to a title change, I'll even sticky it.

I'm not fussed on the title, And i'll update it with my finding and any that others share. Hopefully our progression won't stall too badly at malk. I also would like to clean it up a bit with more specific data and reasoning behind talent and glyph choices

[Stoove 347]

Cool, well then I updated the title. What do you think? Once we settle on a nice one I'll sticky.

[CptDan 25]

I'm up for any title, as long as it's clear. maybe we can get some 25 man discussion going.

[Stoove 347]

Hope you get some discussion! I know nothing about 25s really, it's been five tiers since I raided that size xD

[CptDan 25]

25 man is a blast. I think that the way that encounters are designed, some lend themselves better to 10 or 25 man but in the end it can always be a challenge. In normal mode 25 man, it seems really easy to "carry" someone but in heroic 25 man one person can still wipe the raid. (galakras is a great example of this) I hope that with the advent of 20 man raiding being the top tier that we'll see more people loving the larger raids.

[Stoove 347]

25 man is a blast. I think that the way that encounters are designed, some lend themselves better to 10 or 25 man but in the end it can always be a challenge. In normal mode 25 man, it seems really easy to "carry" someone but in heroic 25 man one person can still wipe the raid. (galakras is a great example of this) I hope that with the advent of 20 man raiding being the top tier that we'll see more people loving the larger raids.

 

I was a bit ambivalent about it. The more healers you have, the more you reduce to just spamming and the less personal skill it feels like. Cooldown rotations get much more important, too, and while those are fun on some fights they're not fun to do every fight :)

 

On the other hand, it feels a lot more epic :D

[CptDan 25]

I agree and disagree, yes it does feel more epic, but in heroic content spamming doesn't work until you over gear the encounter. Coordinating cool downs and getting the kill will be harder. Sometimes you have to use less healers to beat the enrage and then each healer is really important. In normal modes I totally agree and feel like I could just sit out for a dps

[Starrfyre 7]

I've noticed that this thread is a bit lonely and I've just joined the site. So I thought I'd give the topic a bit of love! I've just moved to 25 man HC raiding a couple of weeks a go and it is very different from raiding 10 man (personally). Ive struggled quite a bit with my healing, those pesky Disc Priests. But I'm getting there! I have to agree with Stoove, 25 man just doesn't feel personal. I must confess I miss 10 man raiding so much but as a guild we're preparing for WoD and we're enjoying some success as 25 man sitting at 10/14 HC.

 

Just to add to your guide a little, I've found AG to be useful on Malkorok. With the 2m CD you can get away with using it in those "OH CRAP" moments. Oh.. on the pull I use Ascendance and AG, riptide a few people and chain heal off the tank. Spoils is a rather dull boss (on the kill I was actually Elemental) so I have nothing to say about it haha. Now Thok is an interesting fight! AG here too!

 

I've waffled enough! Hope this is of some use to you all!

 

Starr

[Stoove 347]

That's a really nice contribution to the thread, thanks Starr!