The purpose of this thread is to share basically how we’re handling bosses when it comes to cooldown management, etc. I’ve only played Disc (and I’m in the 16-18 range for week 1) so keep in mind my personal recommendations are only up to there right now.
If other people want to share some tips on a per-boss/fight level, or just want to ask for tips related to specific bosses - please share them! I’ll try and update this OP with any useful information (with credit to you!).
Will split this by dungeon, then by fight, then healing spec.
Table of contents:
All Affixes
Brackenhide Hollow
Uldaman
Neltharion’s Lair
Vortex Pinnacle
Neltharus
Halls of Infusion
Affixes
Spiteful
All specs can take the Dominate Mind talent for this affix and use it on the spiteful ghosts. Generally good to do it on any that target you because it will entirely stop you from having to move.
All specs can also take Void Tendrils to help group mates with kiting these.
Entangling
All specs can take the Phantasm talent underneath Shadow Word: Death and use Fade to completely remove entangling. - Caithyra
Incorporeal
You can take Shackle Undead in the priest tree to CC these. They are immune to Dominate Mind, though.
Brackenhide Hollow
Hackclaw’s War-Band
Discipline
- Pre-rapture this fight. Like, as your tank is running to pull, get rapture shields on everyone. VERY early in the fight Gash Frenzy will go off, and you’ll need to heal the bleed targets above 90% health. If you shield, you’ll have much less HP to deal with healing up and can pretty much immediately Radiance after the frenzy.
Decatriarch Wratheye
Discipline
- You can rotate rapture/barrier for rotburst totems, but I haven’t found the totem being out to be particularly deadly post-nerf until very high key where it takes a while to kill. Generally Radiance → Shadow Covenant → Burst will cover its damage if your party focuses it properly. Once in high key though, you’ll want to rotate CDs for this.
- Watch for when she’s getting to 100 energy - it’s worth pre-rapturing that burst. If rapture isn’t up, time your burst damage for it.
- Bank a harsh discipline penance to use defensively into your tank when they get Decaystrike on them. If they’re not a blood DK or a pally, this is difficult to get off - and a defensive penance/dark reprimand is your best bet to get it removed quickly.
Uldaman
Lost Dwarves
Discipline
- This fight’s pretty simple so long as your group stacks when the raid starts - you’ll want to rapture for the longboat raid,
- There’s 2 single target mechanics (Dagger Throw and Ricochet shield). You can pre-bubble the ricochet pretty easily, since the cast is long, but will need to pay attention to dagger throw.
Bromach
Discipline
- Focus this entire fight around quaking totem. If quaking totem is coming up, don’t burn your penance, wait for totem to drop and use a HD reprimand, etc. You’ll want to rapture/barrier if you can on the totem spawn, and burst as hard as possible once the first tick goes off.
Sentinel Talondras
Discipline
- This is a pretty tough fight to PUG - Make sure you’re running protector of the frail, and when the DoT goes out (earthen shards), use pain supp on them, or even consider dropping barrier on them. If your group is playing well, they’ll use defensives (or BoP) to mitigate or outright get the bleed off, but if they don’t, you need to use your DR because it HURTS in higher keys.
Chrono-Lord Deios
Discipline
- Most this fight is making sure your group is topped for Wing Buffet. You should be burning Rapture and Barrier whenever possible on Wing Buffet specifically.
- Dispel the magic debuff whenever possible. It does hurt the higher key level you’re at to keep it on. But don’t dispel people in the melee or right on top of others because it will put a pool under them.
- Contrary to what guides will tell you - at least up to the key level I’ve done, reverse timeflow is easy to heal through with mostly atonement considering it gives a HUGE haste buff. It can also be good to get some renews out before it happens on targets you’re worried about, since renew scales with the haste.
Neltharion’s Lair
Rokmora
Discipline
- This fight is about mitigating shatter. You’ll want to rapture for it, as well as barrier as many as possible.
- Renew ramps are surprisingly good here, too. If people aren’t hitting defensives (like pugs do) this can TRUCK them, so having some healing going and your mastery on them to start is GREAT.
- You can use Fade (with the damage reduction talent) on each shatter. I would save desperate prayer for a shatter that’s happening if a mob is still alive - but keep it in the back of your mind.
Ularogg Cragshaper
Discipline
- When totem phase starts, you can feather yourself and start rapture - if you have a movespeed boost and you’re running around, the avalanches won’t hit you - and you’ll barely take any damage in the phase. Rapture is great for healing on the move here.
- People might get hit by the avalanches, and you’ll need to respond with Radiance → burst if they do.
- If you’re a melee heavy group, they NEED to be in a light spread during totems else they’ll get hit my multiple avalanches. If your group is being dumb here, you need to barrier the totem that Ularogg is in so they all stand in it as it’s killed.
Naraxas
Discipline
- I wish I could give great tips here, but honestly this fight is just very strongly tuned.
You should try and get a Shaman for Poison Cleansing totem. If you don’t have one, you’re going to want to spam everything during the Toxic Retch poison.
Dargrul
Discipline
- Pretty straightforward fight. Almost all the damage in this fight comes from the boss or his spawned add moving (you take party-wide damage every X feet they walk). You want to pre-rapture shield the add being spawned, and you’ll have to burst heal everyone with Rapture → DPS rotation once it’s up.
- Players are meant to walk the add into the spikes that are spawned to stun it and kill it quickly - thus, you’ll have to commit more healing the further the add spawns from the spike. If the add is decently far away, you’ll want to be ready to burst very quickly.
Vortex Pinnacle
Grand Vizier Ertan
Discipline
- Whenever anyone is outside the radius of the tornadoes, it’s constant ticking damage. As a result, you’ll want to rapture when the boss calls the tornadoes in, and likely burst as soon as the shields are taken off.
- Barrier can also be useful this fight when the tornadoes are called in - even pug DPS are GENERALLY smart enough to walk into your barrier if you drop it down on one side of the boss - there’s no reason to be super spread here.
Altairus
Discipline
- This fight is constant rot damage. You’re basically going to spend the fight using PW:S off CD, and using radiance into burst. The biggest tip I can give is DO NOT radiance back to back. Radiance → damage burst → continue DPS for atonement to fall off or be close to it then radiance again.
- When downburst is cast, and you need to walk into the tornado, you can rapture (this allows you to cast and continue rapture shielding as you’re falling back down to the platform). Otherwise, you’re locked to Penance and Renew while you’re falling until you’ve got 4 piece with instant radiance.
- With Barrier, wait till the winds change, then toss barrier upwind of the boss. That gives you the highest uptime - since people will constantly be moving to be there depending on the wind.
Asaad
Discipline
- You’re going to take the most damage on Skyfall nova casts. Focus all CDs around that.
- When he starts making the grounding field, you have a TON of time to catch up on healing - so you don’t need to worry too much about expending a bunch of burst there.
Neltharus
Chargath
Discipline
- You want to focus CDs/Ramp around Grounding Spear. Nothing else in this fight is super dangerous in comparison unless someone walks into an AoE.
- Grounding spear will only get put on your DPS unless one of them is dead - so focus Rapture/Blanketing them first. Everyone will take damage on chain break, but the people with the debuff have a DoT initially.
Forgemaster Gorek
Discipline
- Get a renew or rapture ramp up as the tank is pulling. Forgemaster STARTS this fight with Might of the Forge.
- Might of the Forge is where we want to focus our burst healing. This is unavoidable AoE, and is the only huge AoE damage of the fight.
- If you stand in a line with other players, when he uses Blazing Aegis, the fire AoEs that get released will be much easier to dodge - as they’ll overlap.
Magmatusk
Discipline
- Cooldowns should be focused around Magma Eruption. As soon as charge goes off and you’ve made sure you’re dodging the lava waves, hit rapture and blanket the group or drop a barrier in melee and run to it. That’ll prevent as much damage as you can.
Warlord Sargha
Discipline
- This fight is more about your party than you. If you’re all playing correctly you’ll be picking up treasures early and using them all right as the shield pops so the shield phase doesn’t last long at all.
- Because of that, most your healing will actually be Rot healing here on targets with the curse, and keeping the target with Molten Gold alive - feel free to pain supp/barrier them.
- If you’re making the group, try and get a curse dispel and remind them to take it - it makes this fight FAR easier in high key.
Halls of Infusion
Watcher Irideus
Discipline
- You want to focus cooldowns around Static Surge initially - but if you don’t have CDs, it’s fine - getting a simple ramp out + atonement burst and radiance will generally cover it in fort weeks. So you can feel free to use CDs on the pack before him (which is tough).
- You want to dispel Spark Volley if someone gets hit, but be careful to NOT dispel Power Overload (another magic debuff), unless the player’s outside melee, as it will drop a puddle.
- In Phase 2, after his channel, when power overload is about to go out, ramp the group with renew or rapture - you’ll want the passive atonement healing on them, because they have to run way out of range of your radiance to drop their puddle.
Gulping Goliath
Discipline
- Drop your CDs on Overpowering Croak and Toxic Effluvia.
- Generally, I would skip using a CD for the first croak - as the later ones where people might not be topped off before it starts are more dangerous.
- When the tank eats the Gulp AoE after the frogs go out - Pain suppression can help, especially a pug tank who doesn’t use a CD.
Khajin the Unyielding
Trash just before this boss
- One of the toughest parts of the dungeon. If you have a rogue you can mind soothe and cloak past the packs (the dragon can see through stealth, but you can soothe it).
- You can actually soothe past these without invis, but it’s scary - and VERY possible for someone to screw up. Be careful here.
- You can dominate mind the primalists here to make the packs easier. The glacial dragons are empowered with an icecaller near them.
Discipline
- If people are playing correctly, this is just a rot fight - your CDs are never needed for specific bursts.
- A good place to use Barrier, I’ve found is right after she uses Glacial Surge - once the initial ring blows up, put a barrier near her, as everyone will have to run in anyway, and pugs usually get the hint.
- Renew gets a lot of value here if you’re struggling with atonement uptime, because it won’t overheal - don’t be afraid to keep renew rolling if you have the extra globals - you’re not really needed for DPS this fight, so your focus should be staying ahead of the damage - if you don’t have anything to cast but Smite, then put another renew up.
Primal Tsunami
Discipline
- You want to use your Rapture and Burst around Tempest’s Fury. It’s the only bit of totally unavoidable AoE damage this fight.
- You can Dominate Mind the primalists after the gauntlet to help with the adds if you’re low on CC - though note you will have to let it go and kill it to get the boss back - so this is more a last resort.
Will get to updating this with more fights, but I have to get back to work - anyone with tips of their own, feel free to post them. Also if there’s any fights in particular that you need help with on a spec, feel free to mention it!
