WoWGrrl's World

Balancing Healing In Progressing Raid Teams

I remember in the few weeks before Ulduar came out, how our guild faced a healer retention challenge.

You see, after months of farming Naxx25/OS25/EOE25/VoA25, our team got pretty well geared. Most of us were filling out to the Best In Slot standard, and a LOT of purples got sharded because nobody needed a lot of what dropped anymore.

When we started Naxx25 in January (since our guild allowed a leisurely 6wks to get our raid team back to End Game, enchanted/gemmed/ready to resume raiding) we probably went in with about 8 healers on average, and on fights like Patchwerk, every single one of us was healing our asses off.

As time progressed, and we got better geared and more experienced with the dynamics of the fights, less healing was needed, which (combined with dual spec, yahoo!) allowed some of our healers to switch specs and help out on the DPS side of the scale once in a while.

Some healers, however, didn't have any interest in putting together a DPS set, and as a result, started finding themselves on the overflow list semi-regularly. Paladin healers were especially hit by this in our guild, especially since in Naxx25 one needs at least two Priests in the group for Instructor Razuvious, and we have always been light on Shadow Priests.

Retaining Healers For New Content Releases

Keeping healers during this time became a priority within the guild, and it was something that each of us healers were talked to about so we understood what was going on.

You see, while the T7 content got easier and easier with every time our raid group went through the various fights, that didn't negate the fact that no matter how prepared and geared we were for T8 content (Ulduar) when it hit, those fights were going to be difficult and very "hurty" on our raid group. Lots of healing would be required, especially while our team learned the new dynamics of each fight.

Plus of course, once Ulduar opened, every raiding guild on our server was going to be SCREAMING for healers to add to their team, and our group wanted to be sure to keep everyone happy and encourage loyalty for the good of the team.

Early Ulduar Healing Numbers

When Ulduar opened and we first threw ourselves against these new bosses with only TankSpot videos to guide our way (no PTR experience), the effort put forward into keeping healers and keeping them happy during the times when less healers were needed... paid off.

Along with the awesome coordination of administrative duties throughout the raid, the solid Tanking and Healing teams that our officer core nurtured is a key reason why our team does as well as it does. From that base structure, DPS can be brought in and trust that the other duties are being handled and that they can focus on damage dealing to the best of their individual abilities.

We started with 7-8 healers per boss fight in the early days of Ulduar, and I remember how much fun it was to be working so hard as a healer again after being a "follower and occasional caster" in Naxx25 by the weeks before Ulduar's release.

But now we've been going through Ulduar25 long enough that PugChecker.com has me pegged at 16 kills of Flame Leviathan25, and I know I didn't make it to every Tuesday raid night where we would have downed him.

As of very recently with a Hard Mode Deconstructor kill and a few more Hard Mode achievements on various Ulduar bosses, our guild has moved up to the #14 ranked spot on our realm (according to GuildOx.com), which works out to #7 on the Horde side of the realm's raid teams. It's somewhere in the 4000's in terms of World Rank, as well.

As a part of this recent advancement (possibly related but who really knows with all the factors involved), our team has re-adjusted some of its numbers in terms of the balance of Tanks:Healers:DPS, going with more DPS and less Healers in the standard rotations.

Thursday's raid night (including the battle against Yogg Saron) when I was coordinating the healing team, it was a unique challenge, since we only went in with FIVE healers (and a couple others who respec'd resto/holy for particular fights as needed) and my saved templates were still showing the 7-8 people I was used to having.

What a great raiding night, however! It was challenging to slot the limited number of people into the important duties, and I felt it necessary to remind the DPS to watch out for themselves a little more carefully as well, since we just didn't have the number of fingers clicking buttons like they had been used to.

All in all, the result was that any wipes weren't really associated with a lack of healers, but rather with some other coordinational difficulty. Sure, we had to duck and weave along with the rest of the group, and it became more important for healers to ensure fellow healers didn't die in a fight, but there were no fights where I felt we were under-staffed.

But with that major change in lineup, it made me wonder...

How many healers has YOUR team been running with for Ulduar25?

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Related posts:

1. WoW Healing Tips: When To Let Them Die
2. The Most Important Part of Healing Naxxramas
3. Holy Priest Goes Disc, Seeks Healing Advice

Tagged as: dungeon playing guide, general vezax, guildmaster guide, hodir, malygos, raid healing tips, raid leader guide, Raiding, Tips and Tricks, ulduar