MC raid signup for Thurs, Oct 13

[Bolty]

Wow, 6 bosses stomped into the ground, with not a single wipe! We are back with a vengeance![right][snapback]92048[/snapback][/right]

Thoughts and observations on my "virgin run" raiding MC (these aren't complaints! These are just things I learned and maybe some suggestions):

1) Healing styles best for 5-man groups are pointless in raid situations.
This I already knew, and was aware that Greater Heal would be rarely used because 85% of the time, some other healer will have flash healed a tank before you can get a big heal off. But what kinda disappointed me was how useless Renew was for me. In 5-man groups, Renew is awesome for keeping Main Tanks afloat while the big heal is casting, and it also serves the critical role of healing non-tanks who have taken some damage but are no longer being hit, i.e. rogues, mages, warlocks, etc. With my standard uber-healing 26 disc/25 holy talent build, Renew is by far the most efficient healing spell. And using it was a waste in the raid.

Ramala the rogue at 82% health and not taking hits at the moment? I slap a Renew on him and forget about it, because it'll top him off in a jiffy and use very little mana...except that another healer would put a quick heal on him and my Renew is wasted as an overheal. Three non-tank members of my group taking fairly significant but not extreme damage? Cast an uber Inner-Focused, critical-hit Prayer of Healing - only to watch 2 of the 3 get flash healed while I'm casting and thus my big group heal is wasted with a veritable crapload of overhealing - think 400 points healed out of a potential 3,600 (800 point heal since it's not level 60 x 6 players (5 + pet) x critical hit = 2400 + 1200 = 3600). Nice 3200 point overheal there! While in a 5-man group, my abilities at casting the right heals at the right time to survive for the longest time possible are treasured, but in a 40-man group they're a waste.

It comes down to Flash Heal. When someone's hurt enough, Flash Heal them and that's about it. Renew can be cast on tanks who are engaging targets, since they will get something out of it, but for the rest I'm just overhealing and wasting mana. Like all classes, I need to reduce my skill set to one or two things that my class does best and milk that instead of trying to be fancy. That means Flash Heal. The other solution is to establish true healer rotations - e.g. "these two healers flash the main tank, the other queues up greater heals, and every other healer trusts these three to do their job." Unfortunately, we don't have anything close to a healer rotation. We will likely need one for the harder fights, I dunno. Most healing I saw last night was "every healer for themself" and even when people were assigned specific tanks to watch, heals were raining down from outside those assignments. I wouldn't complain about this, help's always appreciated - except that on some fights (like Garr), tanks were dropping like flies and I lost Darian once the guards killed other tanks and came for my Dwarf butt. Darian was my assigned tank, and I noticed heals landing on him that weren't mine - even though he was doing fine thankyouverymuchkthxbye. :) Not sure what happened to the other tanks, since I can't keep track of the whole fight.

So, no more fanciness, I'll be stickin to me Flash even if it's not as efficient.

2) In situations where a single main tank is on a boss, our healing setup could probably use some improvements. ***This is not a complaint or a dig on anyone, just a suggestion for a possible better way to do things***
The Druid class is actually the superior class for maintaining health on a main tank. Their heals are better for one-on-one healing. What makes Priests shine is their "oh crap" abilities to save wipes on large numbers of people, due to PW:S and Prayer of Healing. A fully Restoration-spec'ed Druid is a better choice for these fights.

I'm thinking Magmadar here. The Big Doggie casts a group fear every thirty seconds and I enjoyed being the Fear Ward bot for Anadrol. But then I noticed two things:

a) Everyone was getting pretty spread out, and it made healing difficult. I'd see that some people were getting hurt pretty bad but I'd have no idea where they were in the thick of things.

B) Most players stayed in front of Magmadar. I pointed out in Healerchat that players will take more damage staying in front of Magmadar instead of behind or to the sides of him. This puts more strain on the healers to keep squishies and leatherwearers alive. During the fight, I noticed this pretty quickly and moved my butt to the safer positions. I think I was the only healer back there for the various other players who had taken position in the back.

I think the most efficient setup for the Mag fight is to have two or three Druids out front healing the main tank, with Priests in position on the sides and back where everyone else would congregate. I also recognize that this was my first ever encounter with him and I'm a n00b, so feel free to tell me why this is a bad idea. But at least consider it.

3) I don't see what the big deal about Molten Core was. Gee, that was easy! ;) :-) :P :0 Six bosses, no wipes, and I am not the bomb. Gawd, my fragile ego...

4) That was hella fun. Group 3 for-e-var! Goooooooo Group 3! I finally managed to get a "I can't believe I lived through that" comment near the end of the night. I was beginning to think something was wrong with me!

5) You guys in healerchat are a riot. Good thing the other raid members don't hear what we say about them! *snicker*

*Cleoboltra whistles innocently*

6) I need better gear. Darian died against Shazz when the boss was at like 5% health (dammit!) because I had to blow 2,500 mana keeping a Paladin alive who wasn't aware they were inside Shazz's AoE range and getting rocked, so I lost my main tank. With better gear I would have had mana left after blowing my Inner Focus, mana potion, and a Demonic Rune. Did everything I could to keep my tank vertical and it just wasn't enough.

7) Speaking of that, do you other healers tend to go through a lot of mana potions or is it just my gear? On the Baron Geddon fight I blew through three mana potions - yes, the fight was that long - scaring myself silly just getting enough mana to keep Darian afloat until the very end when those gargantuation AoE fire blasts started leveling everyone.

-Bolty

Edit: fixed my bad math and typos.