Need tips - healing LoathebFollow

I've only run Loatheb as dps before and next week I'm healing on my holy pally - Alguin. Judging from the sign-up, our other healers for the run will be another healadin and an under-geared druid, so I'm having nightmares already. Any tips would be most welcome.

From what I've seen, there's a 3 second healing window every 20 seconds. If you time it right, that's enough for 2 holy lights, normally. When everything is on cooldown, you've got a holy light, divine favor + holy shock and another holy light. This doesn't strike me as being enough to keep the tank up, let alone give the dps a fighting chance as well.

What am I missing? What can you suggest that might help me?

Also, don't worry too much about the tank. When I first read about this encounter I was wondering about that too, but as one could expect Loatheb deals exceedingly low damage on the tank. It's not like he's going to get 3-shot while you are unable to heal him.

I guess this fight is hell for paladins (I play a priest), but you will be alright. Just beacon up and throw in as many heals in that interval as you can.

I put beacon of light on myself. That way I dont have to worry about staying alive. You should have a priority for who you heal Tank and yourself then your best DPS in order of how much DPS they put out. Also make healing assignments. That way you dont waste your short window on healing the same target. Preloading a Holy Light to go off right before the aura fades is also a good idea. Make liberal use of Holy Sock for its insta cast goodness. If you are getting behind on yourself you can bubble to reduce periodic damage for a bit but with beacon on it should not be a problem.

Good Luck!

The thing that's helped me the most is not trying to cut the window too fine, what with varying haste (infusion, light's grace, judgements of the pure) and latency - while going too far into the window cuts down what you can get done, a heal (in particular HL due to the cast time) that lands even a millisecond outside the window /doesn't happen/. Quartz has been a big help for me here, as it shows both my current cast time and estimated latency on my cast bar itself.

My plan after tonight's reset is a HL straddling the beginning of the window, a HL with LG entirely within the window, then a HS, and ride the GCD into the next Necrotic Aura*. Remember, HL with the glyph should help the raid healer top off the melee...

Outside the window, refresh Beacon and Judgement - that should leave enough GCD for each of two pallies to SS everyone in their group. As Bode mentioned, mana should not be a problem since the DPS are the only ones who need to worry about choreography, and the healers can whale on him without worry.

* Note that if there had been enough haste on Kara/T4 gear, this would have been a very nice rotation for healing the mage tank on HKM in Gruul's Lair - there was (potentially) a three second gap between fireballs...

Just make sure you guys aren't all healing the same person, as time is precious. Between healing times, each healer can call out who is going to be healing who.

He's pretty easy to get down, and Glyph of HL is very nice to have, for all encounters.

Well, you have very good advice so far. But what the hell, I'll be repetitive.

Mana is not a problem, one of you judge wisdom and the other light. You really want the haste from judging.

I keep holy shield up during Necrosis Aura and when the timer is down to two seconds I cast a Holy Light, then a Holy Shock, then spam Flash of Light (the first of which often is instant) and thanks to Holy Shield the FoL usually crits.

I usually beacon the tank and focus on whoever is lowest in health unless there is no one low enough to reflect the tank back to full - then you have to heal the tank directly. Coordinate with the other pally, even if it's on the fly. Remember Lay on Hands but try to save it for the end of the fight as damage comes in heavier as the fight progresses.

Definitely get the Holy Light glyph. You need to squeeze every drop of healing you can into that 3 second window. It's a very fun fight.

I have seal of light glyph because right now I'm only doing heroics and mana longevity isn't a problem. Raids will certainly have longer fights so that makes more sense. I'll definitely pick it up.

I've dropped Flash of Light glyph in favour of Holy Light and I've kept Divinity. I just need a few enchants - back, chest, gloves and boots - then I'll be good to go.

Thanks to everyone for the help :)

Personally, I go for the FoL glyph. 5% crit helps to give you back the mana you need to keep casting, not to mention the extra healing X two targets if you've got bacon on someone.

Divinity should never really be needed for anything IMO. With divine plea + wisdom glyph + emblem libram + divine illumination, you should be fine in terms of mana. If you're unsure, bring a few pots with you for that "just in case" moment.

I may be totally wrong, but I don't think I've ever been in a situation where Divinity would have saved anything I didn't otherwise have options for.

Because I didn't recheck his build before posting that, and because I don't take PoJ. So, I made two assumptions, which is beyond stupid and indefensible. I have considered replacing Icewalker with a speed enchant so I thought to suggest he consider it. I readily concede, with him having PoJ, the suggestion to consider it is dopey.

Well, see, that's the thing and why I have only been "considering" it. I always wind up telling myself "ahh, forget it, not worth it" but always come back to wanting to consider it.

You could throw one more point into improved LoH, but then that one remaining orphan point isn't going to do much anywhere. Also, you would have to then consider what you gain by not having to use two points for the speed boost versus what you lose from using your boot chant for the speed boost. And the only EJ PvE build that forgoes PoJ is their kings build; meanwhile the only EJ build that takes Imp Conc is the PvP build, so that gives you an idea of EJ's feelings on this. Even now, as I write this, you can see I'm really arguing against it. I'm just a conflicted Pally I guess.

Okay, I'd like to thank everyone for their help here. My guild made it to Loatheb tonight and we downed him with no deaths. I healed group 2 while the other paladin and the shaman took group 1, which included the tank. The main points I took from here and used in the run tonight were:

* Assign who heals whom before the encounter. Duplicating heals here is very wasteful
* Set up Beacon and refresh it between every 2nd necrotic aura
* Start casting Holy Light early so it lands just after necrotic aura drops
* Cast another Holy Light and then Flash of Light in the healing window.

The holy light glpyh helps immensely here - any extra healing to other people is a massive bonus on this fight.

Pretty much everything has been covered, but one additional thing I would suggest is to get a good boss mod. I use Deadly Boss Mod, and it tells me exactly how long I have before the aura fades. At about 2 seconds before, I can wind up my big heal. With beacon on someone else, I heal them too - then holy shock a third person, usually I crit (because of the spore buff!), so I can also squeak in an instant flash of light on someone else. That's quite a bit of healing in 3 seconds.

edit: grats on the kill ;)

Edited, Mar 16th 2009 1:08am by rorkin