25H Galakras – Metro’s Healing Guide!

Welcome to Metro’s 25 man Heroic Healing guides for the Siege of Orgrimmar! It is important to understand that these guides are first aimed at helping healers understand their role, and then helping them maximize their play. Each will feature a general overview of the mechanics that matter to the healers, and conclude with a class-specific discussion. Let’s begin!

Understanding the encounter –

The fifth encounter in Siege of Orgrimmar does little to differ from the normal encounter for the healers. To understand the normal mechanics are to understand the heroic, but it bears repeating that this encounter suffers the same damage increase as the previous, and thus needs to be taken as serious as any other.

Also like Sha of Pride, we find ourselves in a position to help the DPS do their jobs easier, with the amount of downtime we have, and should consider this as much a part of the job as actually casting spells.

For those participating in the tower groups, familiarize yourself with the new mechanic there and lend what you can to its completion. This doesn’t affect healing so it will not be discussed in this guide, but it’s important to know exactly when you are going towards the tower, and then going up.

Understanding the Healer’s Role –

The healer’s role on this fight, as touched on earlier, is more support than actual throughput for the first phase of the encounter. We immediately find ourselves in another position like on Sha of Pride, where opportunities for AOE damage and AOE healing are hand in hand, and should be treated as such.

For this reason, Monks, Priests and Paladins can do a lot to impact the fight, as it can be a very strenuous dps back-and-forth type encounter. Specifics will be discussed in the class section, but in general, any AOE dps you can lend that also supplies some healing is extremely useful.

The first specific change you should make to your intentions here is handling any of the banners or totems that are placed. The Dragonmaw Flagbearer will drop a Banner that increases damage exponentially of all mobs, and since they are literally one-shotable, you should make it your priority to handle them, as they can’t be killed by AOE damage and having DPS specifically switch off to hit something that has negligible health is a massive dps loss. The Dragonmaw Tidal Shaman will drop a Healing Tide Totem,  that will heal percentage based health (20 percent flat) every 2.5 seconds. Once again, this should be your priority for the same reason.

To understand why I feel like this is the Healer’s job over the DPS is because the nature of the encounter and the nature of the objects. The banner itself, if left alive, will do considerably more damage than any one heal could do in a global, and that’s all it takes to kill it. A DPS could handle it surely, but losing DPS on this fight is not something I would foster. The healing totem is the same issue. Its percentage based health being healed, so if it’s not reacted to immediately, it can and will heal the bonecrushers up a huge portion of their health. As a healer, one global towards the totem’s death means less time on the bonecrushers, less stuns needed, and less we need to worry about the NPC’s survival.

In order to properly handle this task, you should make a macro to quickly target and destroy them. There is an option to make two macros separately, but I would simply recommend this:

/tar Healing Tide Totem
/tar Dragonmaw Banner

“/cast SPELL NAME”  can be included as well.

This will tab through the targets, so if there is a totem and a banner up, it will target the totem first, which is far more volatile.

From here, the next task you can take on is interrupts and stuns. This will be exclusive to Paladin, Monk, and Shaman healers, with varying degrees of success and will be discussed further in the class specific section. The long and short of it is as follows:

Bonecrusher – Stun when Fracture is channeled.
Tidal Shaman – Interrupt Chain Heal cast, Stun on CD to keep Tidal Wave casts from happening.

The tidal wave will do solid damage to anyone it hits, so once again a global to lock them down is better than healing 15 + people afterwards. It’s extremely likely that the tidal shaman will be the kill target though, so interrupts should be going out from DPS already attacking it.

Past this, the fight is exactly the same as it was on normal. If you are a part of the tower team, recognize the fact that the tank is going to get man-handled up there, so be prepared for huge heals and external cds.

Kogra’s damage should be considered lethal, and if not killed quick enough, be ready to use CDs. I’d recommend Tranqs or Hymns, as they won’t be needed again until the very end.

The reason I reserve Devo Aura, is because of the Drakefire mechanic which is absolutely the biggest silent killer I’ve seen on any fight ever. You have no indication its happening until it does, and it can’t be helped other than to heal through it. If your tower team falters at all, this can reach near 600k hits, so I would recommend using a Devo when you see people starting to get obliterated. Chances are one 6-second window will enough for the tower team to finish its job and the disaster will end.

In terms of potion opportunities, make sure you are getting one in before grounded, as there won’t be time to waste. You realistically may never need a zzz potion here, but if you do, make sure it’s not used during Thranok’s appearance, as his hook can break it, or his crush will break you! When the Demolisher is out is my preferred time if needed.

Grounded –

Once the beast is grounded, the fight turns into a numbers check and there are a few things you should be prepared for as healers. It’s essentially your typical burn phase mechanic, so to sit here and discuss exact times you should use CDs and when would be trivial, as you will need healing steadily through the phase, increasing as it gets longer.

The exception is the Pulsing Flames mechanic. DBM will inform you of when you need to be prepared for this, but this is absolutely the most volatile part of the phase, as it scales with the fire damage she does and makes everything else more complicated. Amongst your healing team, you will want to discuss options here, whether it is Devo Aura or Tranq, you will need something. I would spend more time on the topic, but its jut not that complicated, so as long as you and the rest of the healers are awake, the 2 minutes you are in this phase will fly by. Rule of thumb: if you see pulsing flames, use a CD – just don’t overlap!

Class Specific Tips –

Holy Paladin: Holy Shock to one shot any totem or banner. Rebuke / Fist of Justice to handle interrupts and stuns discussed. Make sure beacon is on the tank staying down if you are as well, and on the one going up if you are as well. Cycle Favor and Wings with Light’s Hammer = amazing aoe dps and hps/mastery spread. BoP people if you see them fall from tower like noobsrofl. Use Devo to survive Drake fire if it’s getting dangerous. Guarding and Light’s hammer at the end will be insane hps – make sure you have it coupled for a Pulsing Flame.

Resto Shaman: Amazing fight for Healing Raid + Chain heal. Keep it down in the flamestrike. Earth Shield the tank on the way up the tower, even if you aren’t following him. Spirit Link will split health percentages with the NPCs = Lay on Hands for the group towards the end. Use it wisely! Make sure to wind shear as much as possible, and drop cap totem in anticipation of the Fracture.

Resto Druid: Knockback the bonecrusher when channeling Fracture to break it – careful not to knock back the adds from the flamestrike. Eff+mush perfect to keep down in the flamestrike and consume when the aoe pulses happen or a tidal wave gets off. Tranq will be the reason you don’t wipe if she is Pulsing Flame and throwing fireballs.

Holy / Disp Priest: Divine Star is just insanity on this encounter. Will do a ton of damage and healing if timed right. Barrier can be used with Drakeflame intensify to save lives. Lightwell is great for this fight as well. Life grip a player who is about to fall from the tower if they roflnoobomg. Throw feathers up the tower ramp to help the tank get there first.

Misty Monk: (Do not currently have a monk healer in our progression.) Amazing AOE double-dip fight. Fist weave for the win! Life Cocoon can save the tank’s life on the way up, as he will often reach the top while you are still out of LoS. Leg Sweep is OP, can be used to break two fractures at once, or in conjunction with interrupts on Tidal Shaman.

TLDR Recap –

Make macros to /tar banner or totem and handle that for the DPS. Double dip any damage and healing you can as much as possible – the more the group gets ahead the easier it is to heal. Stuns and Interupts on Fracture and Tidal Shamans is more important than healing up the mistakes.  Know which tank is going where and be prepared for him taking massive damage if you are in tower group. Be prepared for Pulsing Flame and use CDs appropriately. Pray heroic warforged staff drops so you can get the mace from Shamans 😉

As always, this guide is from the perspective of a Holy Paladin in 25 man heroic raid leadership perspective. Experience is limited when it comes to priest and monk healers, so if you have input feel free to join the conversation! Otherwise, if you have any questions feel free to ask! Enjoy SoO!