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Throwing out a question about heroics. I'm just trying to get hold of a better healing mace at moment(and a tad more spell crit) before doing my first. But is healing a lot different to normal instances. Ie will I need to stop downranking and just spam FOL and HOL to keep the tank up(tank because I think dps in cloth/leather will probably get oneshotted?).
Spl crit mace not that easy to pick up in standard instances.. or heroics for that matter unless you go for a caster mace. A PvP mace may serve you better if that's what you need (I'm not a PvPer so I'll let some of the other guys advise you there).
Regarding the healing, yes it is a lot different. If you are just starting heroics you'll probably have your +heals around the +1k to 1.2k region. Remembering back to when I first started heroics your FoL will prob heal for around 1200ish? This won't cut the mustard in a heroic. 2 things you will need to learn or master is pre-empting damage and knowing your enemy.
For example, Heroic Ramparts. When you enter the instance, there are 2 guards by the bridge and one mob patrolling along it. The 2 guards, not a big deal, they hit hard and will be tough but nothing special about them. The one patrolling is a different kettle of fish altogether. If you have a similarly specced tank with you, this mob can 2 shot him. If you cast a heal after you see him land a hit, your tank could be dead before your heal goes off so you need cast early so that your heal lands just after your tank gets hit.
So know what mobs you'll be facing. Some mobs can't be cc'd, some will cast fear, some are just hard as nails. Any of these can/will wipe groups.
With down-ranking, I would never do this with FoL anyway but by all means use DRanked HL.. HL has more chance to crit than FoL and has the added bonus of triggering Light's grace. I normally always start off with a DR HL for Lights Grace if I think there's a chance things will get ugly.
All in all. Heroics are not to be sniffed at. There will be a steep learning curve when you first start out but once you get the hang of it, healing is more fun than you've known it to be.
I wish you good luck.
EDIT: Apologies, misread your remark about healing mace and spl crit. If you have the required rep with sha'tar, xiri's gift gives you 32 spl crit rating (revered with sha'tar). Gavel of Pure light (exalted with Sha'tar) is the best epic healing mace you can get before kara (except for the PvP mace). Exalted might be a bit hard to get to before you start heroics though. other options for maces, hammer of the penitent from Mech or there's another one from shattered halls that i forget the name of.
Edited, Feb 29th 2008 10:57am by bawbaag