Healing on the run: Faction Champions

Faction Champions:

Where to stand –

In this fight, PvE meets PvP. Your raid will be up against six faction champions (ten in 25 man). There are no threat tables, plenty of CC, and damage spikes popping up any where and everywhere. Where you stand depends on where you’re needed. Go into this fight with a PvP mentality.

What to watch for –

1. DPS! – Unlike true PvP encounters, killing the healers first is actually a bad idea in this fight. Druid heals are easily purged and tree of life prevents them from CCing or dpsing, which makes the Faction Champs' tree a non factor in this fight. The Priest healer has no disc. spells to cast meaning that well timed kicks can lock up their holy spell class for most of the encounter. The Pally healer, while obnoxious with it's bubble and more difficult to lock down than the previous two classes can be contained effectively by a talented rogue. The only exception to the "kill dps first" rule is the Shaman healer Saamul. His heals are too rapid to be adequately interrupted (from my experience) and should therefore be your first kill if he is chosen to fight. The Faction Champs DPS hits hard, CCs like crazy, and has a knack for finding and murdering your fellow healers. Your raid should focus fire on a clothy DPS before moving on to higher armor classes. Also, your raid should take a moment to have it's pets target their pets. Why? Because, unlike this tree, the Faction Champs healers will target and heal pets. Once one or two of their dps go down, this fight becomes very easy to heal, and therefore becomes very easy to win.

2. Healers. – The NPC healers in this fight do NOTHING but heal. They should be interrupted, CC’d, feared, ect… whenever possible, but they should not be focus fired on until the end of the fight. I repeat, the healers in this fight do NOTHING but heal. They will not contribute to dps and they are not a danger in this encounter.

3. Debuffs. - I hope that all you trees out there have Abolish Poison and Remove Curse mapped to your healing addon. If you don't, you should do just that for this encounter. The Faction Champs Warlock and Rogue will be passing out plenty of curses and poisons for you to despell, and you will be doing your raid an injustice if you're not meeting that challenge (especially if you have no cleansing totems down).

Should I freak –

If your raid leader insists on downing their healers first, then yes, you should freak. You will be silenced, you will be feared, you will be spell kicked, and eventually you will become a favorite target of a lock, rogue, or hunter. Do your best to root, stomp and cyclone your way to survival. If, however, your raid leader takes the easy road and agrees to down their dps first, this fight will be the easiest encounter in the Colosseum.

Healing on the run: Lord Jaraxxus

Lord Jaraxxus

Where to stand. – The raid will be spread out in a semi-circle around the center of the room, making it difficult (if not impossible) to stay in range of everyone. Coordinate raid coverage with your other healers and do your best to remain on your side of the room throughout the fight. As usual, don’t stand in front of the boss.

What to watch for –

1. Incinerate Flesh! – This nasty little debuff will be cast on a random toon every 30 seconds or so throughout the fight. It decreases the target’s damage done by 50% for 12 seconds and it absorbs the next 30000 (60000 in 25 man) healing received. More importantly, if the debuff is not removed it will result in a burning inferno, which puts a hard hitting DoT on the entire raid for 5 seconds. The only way to remove incinerate flesh is to heal the target for 30000 hp before it expires. Also, the target will not be taking any damage from the debuff (which will make it hard to find on your healing addon), so keep an eye on your deadly boss mod to find out who has it. Prioritize this target above all others (excepting for the main tank).

2. Legion Flame! – Yet another debuff from Lord Jaraxxus that’ll make your healing life more difficult. This single target debuff will put fire under your feet (yay, more fire) but as you run away it will follow you around leaving a trail of fire behind. Obviously you want to avoid burning your fellow raid members, so when you get this debuff, turn and run straight back to the outer wall, avoiding everyone that you can. When it wears off, try to find a fire free path back to your position so that you can resume healing.

3. Fel Fireball. – The bad news is, these fireballs hit hard and they put a DoT on their target making the task of keeping the victim alive very difficult. The good news is, it can and should be interrupted by melee every time Jaraxxus attempts to cast it. Keep your eyes peeled for any fireballs that slip through, but if things are going well, Fel Fireballs should be a non-factor.

4. Chain lighting. – Yes Lord Jaraxxus has a chain lighting so the raid will want to spread out. However, it doesn’t hit terribly hard, and unlike other chain lightings, it doesn’t get more powerful each time it jumps to a toon, so don’t worry too much if you can’t find a spot 10 yards away from everyone else. If you can find a place to stand that isn’t on fire and allows you to be in range of half the raid, you’re in good shape.

5. Mistress of pain. – This if the first of two adds that Jaraxxus will summon. She likes to jump around, picking up random toons to pile drive them. All melee (except for those responsible for interrupting fire balls) and all range (except for those responsible for spell stealing) will burn down this add asap. Be prepared to be picked up and dropped on your head, and make haste running back to your spot afterward, being sure to avoid running through fire.

6. Infernals. – This is the second of the two adds that the boss will summon. They have a nasty AoE, so don’t stand near one and be sure to scramble your roots should one chase after you. Only ranged will dps these buggers, so if everyone is paying attention, only your OT will be taking dmg from these adds.

Should I freak? Honestly, this fight is easier to heal than the Beasts of Northrend. So, if you survived that, this should be a walk in the park for you. A very long, intense, fire riddled walk, but you get the idea. Good luck champions of Thunderbluff!