DPS versus Healing

No this is not about the eternal struggle of good vs evil.

This is about changing gears from healing to DPS or DPS to healing.

In Shadow Rising – I heal as a priest (either with AA/A or no AA/A spec) – Liyhe

In Crits and Giggles – I raid as a mage of the furry kind. /sniff sniff sniff – Velineda

Going between the two roles can be a bit disorienting at times, cause I find myself looking for bubble/ice block/invis at times lol.

However, knowing the fights does help the confusion a bit but does not make it any easier biting at the bit.

T11 – for me being the priest vs the mage is no real issue as the fights (with the nerf) are very forgiving and can faceroll them….111111111111111111 – 2 – 11111111111 (arcane mage rotation in a nutshell lol)

T12 – not knowing the fights in and out, will punish you and your raid.

Shannox
Liyhe – for our normal 10 we will 2 heal this fight. Kerick will stay on the Shannox tank for the whole encounter for the most part. I will watch the Riplimb tank – for the most part the bubbles to all the work, so I can help the Shannox tank with bubbles and PoH/spot heal the raid.

Raid has to be aware of the placement to avoid the bad. Secondly, tanks will have to watch the distance between the two, so the healers can watch each other’s back and also to prevent the dogs from gaining the Wary Determination buff. When the 1st dog dies (aka rageface) – pay a little more attention to Shannox tank. When 2nd dog dies – pump heals into the Shannox tank. Pop appropriate cooldown and hope DPS can avoid bad.

Velineda – for the most part healing and DPS will have to do the same. Avoid bad. DPS has the added task of blowing up Rageface – especially when he is faceraging. More then likely he will then rage onto me, Addoe, or magefriend. If it is me, I try to pop Iceblock to mitigate dmg, if it is down, popping Lifeblood, and Manashield.

Beth’ Tilac
As heals it really depends if i am on group duty or web duty.

If it is Web Duty – bubble, PoM the tank before they hop up. Then I jump on myself. Once on the web. Binding heal as needed the tank and DPS up there. Avoid bad. Jump back down and rince and repeat.

Ground duty – PoH, Pom, smite the adds if AA spec. Yell at people to get spinners down lol.

For p2 – stack on the bosses rear. if AA spec – build up stacks and save for later in the fight. PW:Barrier around in the 30% range. And Heal heal heal.

As DPS, the spider is a lot easier on the ol’ brain – pew pew pew….don’t die from stupid. If i can I will try to use CD to help out the healing where I can.

Rhyolith
As heals, it’s the same as being a DPS – avoid bad. More bad means more heals and stress. But as a healer – heal the raid…and if people are doing what they are supposed to, dmg is actually quite light since the nerf. PoH, PoM, bubble as needed before p2 is all that is really needed. If you are AA/A spec, smiting the Spark of Rhyolith makes it easy.

As DPS – it’s as i stated above – avoid BAD! Kill adds – bring adds to tank as you can. DPS the boss in p2.

As p2 healing – tell people to stack – BW:awesome. win…p2 should not last any more then a few seconds. Heal the hell out of the raid and win.

As p2 DPS – stack for AoE heals – pew pew pew.

Alice-Razor
As heals – oh boy….for this fight, for the most part do not worry about your mana pool. Heal like it’s 1999 – go for the gold. Your goal is to keep your assigned tank alive. Make sure to get 1 feather to be able to heal on the run. (I found for this fight AA/A spec is nice) Smite the bird and a free heal for the tank. Watch your tanks debuffs and be aware of where the worms are placed (don’t get singed).

Gushing wound – your tank will take so much dmg for a while till he falls till 50%. watch it and have a big heal lined up.

If it is about to tantram, have an O shit spell ready, and/or CD. If not, I spam FH, penance, bubble.

Another thing to watch for as a healer is if for some reason the adds in p1 get a spell off..make sure to dispel the debuff….it hurts a lot.

p1 your raid will have to execute to make it past easily. Most of your focus has to be on the tank, not them (other healer, DPS). Your raid must execute for your to do your job.

p2 – simple if the hatchlings are not dead by this time – it’s a wipe. If you raid cannot dance – it’s a wipe. Dmg in p2 from tornados is really not healable. So don’t let it stress you when someone dies here.

p3 – yay! Hit that evil bird and get some mana back. take a breather. Once again your raid will need to execute – make sure they interrupt the add’s channel. VERY IMPORTANT. At 50% she will get back up and pulse 5-7k a sec. Not too bad. Except she hits the tanks like a truck as well. So the raid will need to stack up behind her, as she cleaves. Use AoE heals and direct heals on the tanks. Pop what cooldowns you have at about 75 energy. At this point the other tank should taunt off the 1st tank. The 1st tank should then pop what raid cooldown that they may have as well. You just need to make sure everyone has more then 50k when she reaches 100 energy, as she wil pulse a 50K at that point.

As this point it’s a repeat of the same phases over and over again till you or the raid is dead.

As DPS – it’s going to be the same as the other fights – kill your add and interrupt, avoid bad. Put dmg on the Hatchling – time permitting.

If you are flying – avoid bad. Play Starfox and pew pew pew. Come down as approp if help is needed on the hatchlings.

p2 – AVOID TORNADOS….

p3 – stack up and use any def cooldown you may have – Iceblock etc etc etc. Then its back to p1 again.

Baleroc
Healer

3 healer setup for now.

Vanicus and Zarm on the bubbles, me on the tank for the 1st 2 crystals. After that I swap with Zarm and vanicus and we ride it out. Very little changes on the healing assignments after the 1st 2 crystals. In this case, healers are like DPS in this fight – they must build up a buff ASAP to “DPS” this fight down.

Only thing I may do while healing crystals is I will snipe heals on the tank to activate my Vital flame buff to help out and help out with crystal healing.

As DPS – I find this more difficult then healing…you mean I actually have to move into bad and then out??? ZOMG >< But yeah I find this fight easier as a healer then a DPS. As the roles are so different. Healers and DPS do not share a common theme here. Healers are safe to "pew pew pew" away. While DPS are the one managing the actual mechanic of this fight. If DPS cannot manage stacks and order, forget about this fight.

Majorlamo Staghelm

Never seen this as DPS but from what I can see – it's all about move from bad when you have to. Controling your stacks from flame orbs – see Baleroc, and knowing when to stack and use personal def and off CDs. Kill adds while he is in catform.

As a Healer

We start out in Scorpion Form and take about 8 flame scythes before we force him to change. Time your raid cooldowns as approp. After 4th and before the 5th – Arv will pop Divine Protection or what ever it is called. After 5th and right before the 6th – Cayle pops Anti – Magic Zone. And then before the 7th Aura Mastery from Van. You want to time CD so they can hit 2 of the flame scythes.

For cat – if i recall we take 7 stacks? Again as a healer – avoid bad and heal.

This fight as a healer and a raid is about managing CDs and seeing how much you healers can heal.

End?

Overall, the transition from healing and DPS is odd in the sense of what one has at hand, but at it's vital essence: DPS and healing are the same. AVOID BAD AND KNOWING HOW TO DEAL WITH MECHANICS.

As a DPS you should know when to use what when, it's no different from a healing know which ability to use when.

Your tools are different and abilities are different, but all raiding, really is (be it as heals or DPS): playing to the best of your ability, using the tools at your disposal well, and handling mechanics well.