Healing in MC

[Meshuggah]

Just curious to see how other (horde)guilds handle their healing in MC..

How many healers?
How many from each class?
How do you assign your healers on trash/bosses?
How do you arrange the groups?

I organize our guild's healers in MC, and I think we're doing pretty well. But I do think that we often are too many healers. So I'd like to hear from others how they do it..

[Rinnhart]

Just curious to see how other (horde)guilds handle their healing in MC..

How many healers?
How many from each class?
How do you assign your healers on trash/bosses?
How do you arrange the groups?

I organize our guild's healers in MC, and I think we're doing pretty well. But I do think that we often are too many healers. So I'd like to hear from others how they do it..
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Alliance, but:

10-15, 15 for a difficult encounter, lets you stack for more utility.

5 priests/5 paladins or shamans/5 druids, mix and match, really. Just make sure you have enough of whatever class to cover heals and dispelling.

Trash- just make sure healers are watching their groups before they ADD off to the CT window. Trying to top charts by spam healing tanks is how DPS classes get owned.

Bosses- really depends on the fight. Generally, MT healers know who they are and are doing their thing while the rest spam the raid. Long fights require some rotation work. Consider what debuffs the boss uses, if they fear or not, LOS issues. Your priests are going to be spending alot of time dispelling on a few encounters, your druids and shamans on others, do you have enough of the other classes to manage?

Groups - MTs gets a dedicated priest and hopefully a paladin or shaman for buffs. At worst, one healer/group. If you can't field 8 healers total, and it's not a completely trivial fight, you're probably not going to do it. If you have a full compliment of healers, double up priests/druids for your main tanks and assign paladins/shamans where their auras/totems will be best used. Shamans have alot of tasty utility, consider where to place them carefully.

[Yurup]

Just curious to see how other (horde)guilds handle their healing in MC..

How many healers?
How many from each class?
How do you assign your healers on trash/bosses?
How do you arrange the groups?

I organize our guild's healers in MC, and I think we're doing pretty well. But I do think that we often are too many healers. So I'd like to hear from others how they do it..
[right][snapback]108235[/snapback][/right]

How many healers? How many from each class?
We have some big problems here. we usualy have between 3-5 priests, 2-4 druids and an unending suply of paladins. In one of our runs we had 12 paladins.

How do you assign your healers on trash/bosses?
Trash: 1 priest and 1 druid on the MT and 1 priest and 1 druid on the OT the rest will be on raidheal.
Bosses: We just got to Golemagg last monday so we dont have alot of experience with the final bosses but..
Its basicly the same for all bosses. Unless there is a need for offtanking its just everything on the MT. On some bosses we have 1 druid or priest on each offtank while we lured each of the targets to their death. The rest of the raid usualy takes care of themselfs during boss fights. So far this has worked perfectly.

How do you arrange the groups?
Nothing special.. We basicly have 5men groups like you would find in any 5men instance. We dont do anything special with them.

[Kevin]

Just curious to see how other (horde)guilds handle their healing in MC..

How many healers?
How many from each class?
How do you assign your healers on trash/bosses?
How do you arrange the groups?

I organize our guild's healers in MC, and I think we're doing pretty well. But I do think that we often are too many healers. So I'd like to hear from others how they do it..
[right][snapback]108235[/snapback][/right]

This is alliance side again but when we went to a tiered team system we decided on the following and this was with Blackwing Lair in mind.

6 Warriors (2 prot, 3 DPS, 1 prot/DPS)*
6 priests (1 shadow)
4 druids (1 moonkin, 1 feral)
4 paladins
6 mages
4 warlocks
5 hunters
5 rogues

*Note that warrior spec wasn't the biggest factor, the real split is 2 full time tanks, 3 full time DPS, and 1 who depending on the fight swaps between DPS or tanking. Every warrior may need to tank and every warrior may be tagged to just do DPS, spec doesn't play that big a part in our decisions. We've had arms/fury and fury/arms warriors MT all of MC before. but generally the players who spec prot like to tank more, and those that don't like to DPS more

For trash pretty much only the 5 healing priests heal. 1 per tank, 3 FFA healing. The paladins are up there swinging at mobs and spot healing. Most of the druids are in cat form. Sometimes a druid will volunteer to heal and priests will then throw out smites and holy fires for DPS.

On bosses, it depends on the boss. If we are facing a lot of magic debuffs the druids will be main healers (like on Sulfuron) and the priests and paladins will dispell more and heal less. And yes feral and moonkin druids that bring their healing gear can heal just fine for these fights.

On bosses like Magmadar the feral druid is usually in cat form doing damage a paladin or two will be up there hitting him as well. The druid will pop out and casts heals on the rogues and stuff (as well the paladin) when you are running out of fear range. For me it seems I DPS for 2 fear cycles and heal for 1 on average with my druid.

Generally though 10 healers has proven to be enough for everything in MC. The hybrid damage and healing classes (a shadow priests the feral and moonkin spec druids, paladins designed to do damage over healing) are fantastic because you get decent DPS (we've got feral druids that are only behind the rogues on the damage charts and if you factor out the 3% crit they provide to the rogues in front of them and give that to the druid, the druid is doing more damage than the rogues). But on fights like domo where you may want more healing it's great.

In BWL on Firemaw the feral druids running out of LoS to get rid of the debuff and self heal provide a lot of extra healing for the DPS (just watch for recently bandaged and current health) so the 6 healers on the MT, and the 4 on the OT's don't even have to think about DPS and DPS that bandaged but is still not healthy can get back in faster.

But 10 people healing is often overkill on many of the fights in MC at least after you learn them. While learning the stuff and gearing up 15 is probably more like what you need. We've gone with as few as 4 priests, 3 paladins and 3 druids in some of the early runs (when we still didn't have domo on farm status) and we were successful though it was more painful. So even in learning stages when you aren't fully geared 10 healers look to be enough.

But yes I would love to hear what some of our horde raiding members see for groups.

[MongoJerry]

What I would recommend to a group going into MC for the first time and what my guild does are definitely two different things. We've been doing MC so long that most of us can do it in our sleep and half of us are probably asleep as we're doing it. For a group that's new to MC, I'd say go with about six priests, five shaman, and four druids -- mix and match as needed. The Horde needs more priests than Alliance do, because the priest is the only Horde class capable of dispelling magic debuffs. For trash mobs, I'd suggest making two main tank groups made up of:

Warrior
Priest
Druid
Shaman (fire resistance totem and also windfury totem for extra damage and aggro)
Warlock (for the imp stamina buff)

This should give your two tanks a core set of healers who always make sure the tank stays alive. The other healers in the raid keep their groups alive and also toss heals on the main tanks. When you go up against firelords, assign two priests to dispell the raid. (Insert arguments about whether Decursive is the best invention since sliced bread or the sure sign of the apocalypse here).

How one sets up groups for boss fights depends on the boss.

[Rinnhart]

(Insert arguments about whether Decursive is the best invention since sliced bread or the sure sign of the apocalypse here).
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It's a sign of something. <_<

[MongoJerry]

It's a sign of something.&nbsp; <_<
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Yeah, yeah. Let's leave the Decursive argument alone. Suffice it to say that with the raid health windows up and showing debuffs (either the default UI or RaidAssist windows are fine), two priests can play Punch the Monkey and remove the Firelord magic debuff off the raid. If a priest has Decursive, he or she can be the monkey and remove the debuff solo by hitting the Decursive key repeatedly as long as a second priest is ready to dispell the debuff if the first priest gets the debuff himself or herself. It's up to you as the raid leader to decide how you want to handle it.

[Meshuggah]

We're normally 2 druids, 8 priests and 4-5 shamans, and we seem to be doing what you are doing... As we're only two druids, we're normally having one on MT, and the other on HoT duty on the OTs. If there's no need to have OT HoT duty, they just rotate on MT. Works really well IMO.

I'd really like to see two of our priests specc shadow for added flexibility, and I'd really like to see how well VE works in a raid..

We've also been moving around our shamans a bit in different groups, especially for the sake of the Tranquil Air totem. We use it on Hakkar to lower the treat for our dps, and it made a huge difference. On the tiger boss, we start of with having one shaman together with the priests for mana totems. When phase 2 starts, the priests get their own group for PoH, and shammys and druids pick up MT healing.
I was just a bit curious to see if you guys had any other tips for putting groups together..
One I haven't had the opportunity to try yet is..

Warrior (dps, battle shout)
Hunter (dps, trueshot aura)
Rogue (duh)
Shaman (dps, tranquil air totem, other totems)
Shadow Priest (dps, VE, single target healing)

Farming MC for FR gear is pretty dull, so trying to make it as fast and efficient as possible is what I'm after here.. Besides... fewer priests, more epix for me...

(Insert arguments about whether Decursive is the best invention since sliced bread or the sure sign of the apocalypse here).

I refuse to use it...

[oldmandennis]

I've never been a big fan of priests in MT groups - they don't actually DO anything by being there. Hopefully your priests should know what they are doing, and keep an eye on the tanks without actually being in their groups. Often we put the two main tanks, a shaman and a lock + 1 other in group #1.

We usually go with healing battery groups for boss fights - a mana tide shaman with 4 other healers.

15 healers is pretty optimum, I think. For just the healing part of it, 2 druids is pleanty. Druids are probably the weakest at "spot healing the raid". However, druids are the only healers who can do a lot of damage without burning mana, which is nice for easier encounters. More priests is better then more shamans, as you are starting, but I feel as you mature, shamans close some of the mana gap, and the buffs are great to spread throughout the raid, especially fire and nature resist.

Edit: sounds like you have a good idea of what you are doing :)

[MongoJerry]

We've also been moving around our shamans a bit in different groups, especially for the sake of the Tranquil Air totem.&nbsp; We use it on Hakkar to lower the treat for our dps, and it made a huge difference. On the tiger boss, we start of with having one shaman together with the priests for mana totems. When phase 2 starts, the priests get their own group for PoH, and shammys and druids pick up MT healing.
I was just a bit curious to see if you guys had any other tips for putting groups together..
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Are you having problems with people pulling aggro? If not, the Tranquil Air totem is unnecessary. Throw a windfury totem with your main tank, make sure people know to give the tank a couple seconds to lock aggro and then go.

[Olon97]

If you really love your tank, give 'em two shaman for windfury AND grace of air. Throw a DPS war (for "imp. battlehsout" - yeah, that's it) with hand of sulfuras or the like (who knows how to manage his aggro) in there too and enjoy the ride. ;)

[Alrin]

Just curious to see how other (horde)guilds handle their healing in MC..

How many healers?
How many from each class?
How do you assign your healers on trash/bosses?
How do you arrange the groups?

I organize our guild's healers in MC, and I think we're doing pretty well. But I do think that we often are too many healers. So I'd like to hear from others how they do it..
[right][snapback]108235[/snapback][/right]

...

Omg? Meshuggah? I remember you from the old DSF!
Is that you? I think we ran some BNM games in D1 together.
If not you, just ignore this crazy swede.

Lääääget? :)

[Meshuggah]

...

Omg? Meshuggah? I remember you from the old DSF!
Is that you? I think we ran some BNM games in D1 together.
If not you, just ignore this crazy swede.

Lääääget? :)
[right][snapback]108326[/snapback][/right]

Yup.. Same Meshuggah :)

I currently stuck in the tragedy that is the migration from Bladefist to outland... don't know if you heard of it... but here goes..

- 040406: Migration from realms Bladefist and Daggerspine to Outland is announced to occur 170406 between 0300AM and 1500PM

- 150406: Due to technical problems, migration is postponed to 240406

- 240406 0300AM: Migration is not working. 0430AM a CM says they're working on the problem, and that it should be working soon. Short vague messages like that keeps being posted by CM through out the morning.
- 240406 1000AM: Migration is postponed until tuesday morning 0300-1500.

- 250406 0300AM: Migration is not working... again.. This time, no Blue post until TechLead seemingly surfs the boards from his breakfast table. TechLead is pissed off by the way this is being handled, and promises that as soon as he gets to work he'll have some answers for us. One hour later, that thread is deleted without any mention. A new messages apears, saying they found the problem, and that it requiers a restart of the realms, so migration will be postponed until Thursday morning 0300-1500. The first apology for this farse appears on the forums tuesday afternoon. Of course it is in good old auto reply stylee. Blizzard also gives GMs the service to be able to send in lists of all members in the guild that are moving. This feature does not work.

- 270406 0300AM Migration opens, and some players manage to move their characters. 20 minutes after our first successful move, Outland shuts down, and migration is closed once again. 1140AM, migration has opened again.. Servers are TERRIBLY slow, so I took my time to post this here...

[Meshuggah]

Yup.. Same Meshuggah :)

I currently stuck in the tragedy that is the migration from Bladefist to outland... don't know if you heard of it... but here goes..

- 040406: Migration from realms Bladefist and Daggerspine to Outland is announced to occur 170406 between 0300AM and 1500PM

- 150406: Due to technical problems, migration is postponed to 240406

- 240406 0300AM: Migration is not working. 0430AM a CM says they're working on the problem, and that it should be working soon.&nbsp; Short vague messages like that keeps being posted by CM through out the morning.
- 240406 1000AM: Migration is postponed until tuesday morning 0300-1500.

- 250406 0300AM: Migration is not working... again.. This time, no Blue post until TechLead seemingly surfs the boards from his breakfast table. TechLead is pissed off by the way this is being handled, and promises that as soon as he gets to work he'll have some answers for us. One hour later, that thread is deleted without any mention. A new messages apears, saying they found the problem, and that it requiers a restart of the realms, so migration will be postponed until Thursday morning 0300-1500. The first apology for this farse appears on the forums tuesday afternoon. Of course it is in good old auto reply stylee. Blizzard also gives GMs the service to be able to send in lists of all members in the guild that are moving. This feature does not work.

- 270406 0300AM Migration opens, and some players manage to move their characters. 20 minutes after our first successful move, Outland shuts down, and migration is closed once again. 1140AM, migration has opened again.. Servers are TERRIBLY slow, so I took my time to post this here...
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13:31PM... Still trying...

[Alrin]

13:31PM... Still trying...
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Haha, nice man. Totally awesome to see/hear from you.
Thought I had lost you there after I moved on from D1 :D
Maybe I should get myself an EU copy of WoW soon, hehe.
Come over and harass you :shuriken:

[Snowy]

We have a weird group composition for our MC in that we carry 8 shaman usually. We add in 6 priests and 2 druids for 16 healers. However, I'm shadow specced and spend the majority of the time (even boss fights except for Lucifron/Geddon/Shazz) in shadowform. A shadowpriest is very versatile, and still can heal plenty on his own if too many healers should fall.

As for how we heal, at the beginning usually we assigned 2 priests to each MT, and one druid watched each MT for rejuv/regrowth. Shamans would spot heal the raid as needed, and fill in on the MTs. The other priests would decurse during firelords for example, or just be backups in case things went awry.

As someone else stated, a priest really has no business being in the MT groups as it just wastes a spot. Any priest should be able to heal anyone from any group - or they dont have CTRA (which should be mandatory) or have extreme difficultly working it, which is a problem IMHO. The only exception to this is in the case of shadowpriests. Usually I get fought over which group I get put in, since everyone loves the free 300-400hp every 3 seconds. :D It's not a bad choice for a tank group since it's just that much more of a buffer.

On bosses early on, to be safe we would use a rotation. 2 priests would be on the MT, and then 2 priests would rotate in as the 1st pair got low on mana. Shamans/Druids spot healed the raid and topped off the MT as needed. On a fight such as Gehennas, we would have 3 priests up by Gehennas with the other 3 back for the 2 adds. We usually just split the priests up as needed, and the other healers were the fillers. (which is arguably just as important, not using filler in a derogatory sense)

[MongoJerry]

As someone else stated, a priest really has no business being in the MT groups as it just wastes a spot.&nbsp; [right][snapback]108410[/snapback][/right]

The logic here is impeccable. The psychology is not. The priest nature when he or she sees hurt partymates is to heal his or her party first, assuming that "other people can handle things" for the moment on the main tank. Of course, if the reason the party is hurt is because of an aoe that has affected the entire raid, every priest does the same thing and the main tank dies. Seen it too many times, especially in raids with less raid experience. I guess my main thing would be that if you don't put a priest in the main tank groups that you make sure to specifically assign priests outside the group to heal the main tank no matter what and make sure that those priests understand their role.

Personally, I think it's less hassle to just put the priest in the main tank groups. This has the benefit also of clearing up what happens if an aoe hits the entire main tank group party. Without the priest there, the druid and shaman would have to drop their duties and single target heal everyone while possibly overhealing with both of them healing the same people at once. It's much less confusing to have a priest there who can Prayer of Heal (which will heal the main tank as well) or toss the occational instant cast renew to keep the party up when needed, freeing the druid and shaman to spam heal the tank.

[Yurup]

Ow? Thats weird.. I never even look at my party screen in a raid unless there is a spare moment or i know alot of aoe is incomming, then the only thing i do is pop 1 prayer of healing and return to tank healing. Unless ofcourse I am on MT healing duty. I dont do anything else when on that.

[Mirajj]

Warrior (dps, battle shout)
Hunter (dps, trueshot aura)
Rogue (duh)
Shaman (dps, tranquil air totem, other totems)
Shadow Priest (dps, VE, single target healing)[right][snapback]108296[/snapback][/right]

My "heavy DPS" group that I go with, when drawing up a roster looks like this.

Hunter, Trueshot aura
Feral Druid, LotP
Fury Warrior, Imp.Battleshout
Shadow Priest, VE
Rogue.

Depending on raid composition, I may also be nice to some of the other rogues, with a setup like this.

Shadow priest,,
Fury Warrior,
Rogue
Rogue
Rogue

So as to not be completely off topic, my Ragnaros MT group is

MT
OT
Warlock
Paladin
(open slot, depending on raid composition. Doesn't really matter what class goes here.)

And my MT healing group
Druid
Druid
Druid
Priest
Pally

[oldmandennis]

Ow? Thats weird.. I never even look at my party screen in a raid unless there is a spare moment or i know alot of aoe is incomming, then the only thing i do is pop 1 prayer of healing and return to tank healing. Unless ofcourse I am on MT healing duty. I dont do anything else when on that.
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It depends on the fight, but I always have my party screen off, and usually the little CTRA windows too. Mostly I go by the emergency monitor, and by the main tank target list.