Making a Season 3 version of this thread: https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/season-2-m-healing-tips-for-each-dungeonaffix/
Since several people have told me it was helpful. For now it’s only 2 dungeons, but I’ll expand it to the full 8 soon. Though I really do want to try them out on tyrannical first - since fort week was pretty easy for these bosses.
The purpose of this thread is to share basically how we’re handling bosses when it comes to cooldown management, etc. I’ve only got the disc perspective right now, but considering that’s the most popular of the specs, the info’s valuable I think.
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:
Everbloom
Waycrest Manor
Darkheart Thicket
Black Rook Hold
Throne of the Tides
Dawn of the Infinites: Galakrond’s Fall
Dawn of the Infinites: Murozond’s Rise
Atal’Dazar
Affixes
Bursting
If you’re struggling with pugs pulling huge pulls while your MD is down, Discipline actually has a useful tool here with Ultimate Penitence. If you know a pull is going to finish with very high bursting stacks, cast Uppies on an ally. This has saved me through 9 stack burst before, though just barely.
For Holy, PoM is your best friend this week, but you might want to consider taking Circle of Healing and Healing Chorus as well. It sucks to waste the talent point in PoH, but you do get a pretty nice safety net in a pumped up CoH if things go sideways.
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
All specs can take Shackle Undead and Dominate Mind in the priest tree to CC these.
If you dominate one, you gain quite a bit of damage reduction for that pack - as it will cast the affix on it (at reduced effect).
Everbloom
Witherbark
Discipline
- Honestly, this guy is VERY easy. There’s really not a ton of damage going out besides on the tank. Your party members will get hit every so often, but seriously can just spot heal this guy. Nothing in particular to ramp for.
Ancient Protectors
Discipline
- There’s a ton of damage in this fight. you’re VERY LIKELY to struggle in tyrannical.
- You’ll want to ramp for every time Dulhu does his charge. When this happens there’ll be a spike in the AoE damage. So make sure you have either Rapture, Mindbender or Ultimate Penitence prepped for it.
- Other than the charge, one of the bosses will be casting a pulsing AoE the rest of the fight. This can mostly be maintenance healed back up - so between your bursts, keep atonement running. Just save most the burst for each charge.
Archmage Sol
Discipline
- The boss enters different 2 element combos with her magic. (Arcane + Fire, Fire + Frost, Frost + Arcane)
- The dangerous stance here is Fire - and it is VERY dangerous. Honestly I suggest getting DBM or Littlewigs and prepping for every fire phase, regardless of what it’s coming in combination with. If you see fire coming, use a cooldown. Arcane + Frost is more of a movement combo than anything and there’s very little damage while it’s happening.
- I think a general rule I have is getting atonement on everyone just before fire phase, then getting Mind Blast up just before the phase starts - so that you’ll get the most efficiency out of penance (which you’ll use to move out of the initial fire AoEs). Generally, I’ll use Rapture before Frost/Fire so I have a bit of a buffer to move out of the circles, too.
- Worth noting - the boss STARTS with Fire stance. You’ll need to be prepped right off the bat - so it’s good to renew/PW:S/Flash heal all members just before pull.
Yalnu
Discipline
- There’s two healer checks here - Collossal Blow and Verdant Eruption.
- The most dangerous part of this fight is when they overlap - which can happen when the add lives a while. Make sure you’re pouring your damage into the add when doing your damage rotation.
- Verdant Eruption specifically spawns an add that does damage with a somewhat slow volley. Rather than worrying super bad about bender uptime when the add is up - try and time your burst according to the outgoing damage.
- So, for example, in higher key pugs if the first volley goes out, and your Mind Blast + Bender heal you up to near-full, hold onto your penance for the second volley - rather than letting it rip for bender uptime. You can’t depend on your party’s defensives in pugs - so if you overheal a ton by blowing MB/Penance/SW:D instantly, you’ll be stuck smiting while the volleys are going out doing massive damage.
Waycrest Manor
You’ll want your disease dispel here
Heartsbane Triad
Discipline
- The big healing check of this fight is Sister Malady’s Runic Mark, which overlaps with her aura. Always have a plan for when this is coming out. You can pre-rapture or just make sure Mindbender is prepped for when rune comes out and stutterstep your casting (and use penance/SW:D to move) as soon as malady has the orb.
- Sister Briar will use Jagged Nettles on a party member soon after she has the orb. A defensive penance cast normally takes care of this - but if it doesn’t, make sure to focus heal them as you need to get them above 90% health. Pain suppression is very useful in higher keys here, because the tick damage will be very high, and that damage prevention will help you catch up to it.
Soulbound Goliath
Discipline
- You need to have a cooldown up for when the tank burns the tree. This is a little tough in pugs, but if you see the tank going for a fire puddle, be ready to immediately radiance and pop your bender or ult.pen.
- You also should be standing a decent distance from the group most this fight. The reason is the adds will immediately aggro you, since they can’t be attacked - you’ll get healer aggro. Make sure these don’t hit you, because they HURT.
- Otherwise, mostly just focus heal people hit by roots. You can bank a penance on them, or pain supp if needed.
Raal the Gluttonous
Discipline
- Very easy fight - You’ll want to use your cooldown on rotten expulsion.
- Otherwise just avoid tenderize and try to damage the servants when they get called, but that’s it.
Lord and Lady Waycrest
Discipline
- If you took your disease dispel, you can dispel Virulent Pathogen when the boss puts it on a party member.
- Otherwise, this fight is a lot of spot healing. No TRULY dangerous group damage here - you’re just gonna be healing up lady waycrest’s chords and dispelling pathogen.
Gorak Tul
Discipline
- Mostly just make sure the adds are burned. Grab the little vials when they drop and pay attention to where the add dies on the ground, then throw the special action button on top of it.
- Stay somewhat spread so you’re not bouncing the darkened lightning.
- Whenever the boss hits 100 energy, he’ll shout ‘rise!’ and do group damage. Use your CDs there.
Darkheart Thicket
Archdruid Glaidalis
Discipline
- The main thing to pay attention to this fight is his cat form leap. You can make this fight a lot easier on yourself by dropping a PW:S → defensive penance into whoever gets hit by this. There’s not really a ton of group damage in this fight otherwise unless people screw up and get cleaved
Oakheart
Discipline
- You want to use your burst to cover Shattered Earth. Basically get atonement out and pop mindbender right before it goes off, and you can SW:D or Penance while in the air. It’s not optimal for damage (you’d want to MB first for Schism) so you can wait till the knockback ends if nobody is in danger.
- Pain supp the tank when they’re in crushing grip. This HURTS. Alternatively, you might want to drop your barrier on the throw target.
Dresaron
Discipline
- Use your burst on Earthshaking Roar - that’s where all the damage is.
- During Down Draft you can use rapture or pop Ultimate Penitence, but it’s kinda overkill. Nobody should be in danger till like VERY high key levels here.
Shade of Xavius
Discipline
- Dispel Festering Rip ASAP.
- Boss does a BIG burst when he hits 50% health. You might need to pre-rapture or barrier this damage before burst healing it back up.
- Player with Feed on the Weak is going to take a ton of damage. Be ready to funnel flash heals, PW:S and penances into them. If you have pain supp, this is the best place to use it in the fight, but you’ll still need to focus heal on tyrannical weeks.
Black Rook Hold
The Amalgam of Souls
Discipline
- Your main ramp for this fight is going to be when the boss hits 50% health.
- It will then go into an add phase. Once that phase is over, everyone will take large damage, so plop down a barrier and do your mindbender burst.
- Otherwise, this is mostly a spot heal fight. Doing regular damage and the occasional flash heal/PW:S will do the trick.
Illysanna Ravencrest
Discipline
- You’ll want to use your bender burst against Dark Rush or Brutal Glaive.
- Dark rush will always hit multiple people. Brutal glaive will at least hit 1.
- You can feel safe to use pain supp on brutal glaive targets if needed.
- It’s quite likely you’ll get targeted by eye beams here - Try and run straight lines back and forth across the edge and forcing it as close to any ground that already has fire - you want to maximize the space that ISN’T covered in fire.
Smashspite the Hateful
Discipline
- Biggest source of group damage here to burst heal is Earthshaking stomp. You’ll want your bender or Ultimate Penitence for it along with a PW:R charge.
- Your tank will likely plan their CDs for hateful charge. But keep in mind you can pain supp them if they’ve got stacks already.
Lord Kur’talos Ravencrest
Discipline
- If you’re in tyrannical - BE CAREFUL of the whirling blades in phase 1. Normally phase 1 is pretty much a joke - but the spinning blades specifically WILL mess you up in tyrannical keys if you get hit.
- Most healing is going to be needed for phase 2. You’ll want to plan all your healing around Shadowbolt Volley.
- Basically, just rotate bender, rapture, ultimate penitence and barrier as you see fit between the volleys. There’s enough of them that you won’t have bender for every one until you’ve got 4 piece.
Throne of the Tides
Lady Naz’jar
Discipline
- The most dangerous part of this fight, and where you’ll want to use bender/sfiend is Focused Tempest. This happens before/between high tides. Basically she’ll select a player and chain lightning them for a ton of damage. Just be on the lookout for this, and tell your group to not stand super close to each other.
- During High Tide, a decent bit of damage can go out if not interrupted. If your group is playing well, this phase really isn’t too bad. But if your group isn’t playing well, it’s also good to have bender/sfiend here. You can smite a ton for the CD when focused tempest ends.
Commander Ulthok
Discipline
- Ramp and plan CDs for festering shockwave.
- You’ll want to get atonements out before the cast happens. A lot of pug players stand in weird spots and get blasted all around the room - If they aren’t pre-atoned it could cause them to die to the DoT.
- Try and get yourself knocked into a wall so there’s not a ton of distance between you and everyone else.
- You can cast holy nova, or pop a shocking disclosure potion to help push the slimes back.
Mindbender Ghrur’sha
Discipline
- This boss puts some nasty flame shock dots on players. Dispel these ASAP. There will be moments in the fight that one player has it while dispel is on CD. Pump ST heals into them when it happens - or a pain supp if absolutely needed.
- When the totem gets dropped, the tank is going to take a TON of damage. This is your best use of pain supp in this fight while in a PUG.
Ozumat
Discipline
- The two sources of damage to use CDs for for are Blotting barrage and Putrid roar.
- Be very careful if you’re targeted by barrage on tyrannical weeks. You WILL take an extra tick from the pool as well - so pop fade, flash heal for defensive, etc. before the pool actually drops.
- Not a ton of damage happens during cleanse phase, so use it to catch up or Smite a ton for your next bender/sfiend.
Dawn of the Infinites: Galakrond’s Fall
Chronikar
Discipline
- You’ll mostly want to use CDs when people are dropping pools. The leaps don’t do much damage unless people run into orbs.
- Tank will get a healing absorb on them, just heal it up ASAP.
Manifested Timeways
Discipline
- You mostly want to stay on the left side of the slow zone when the orbs are coming out, while moving left (counter clockwise). All the gaps in the orbs are going to be on that side.
- Don’t dispel anyone with the debuff unless they’re in the fast zone.
- The damage in this fight really isn’t that high at any given point. You mostly will want to spot heal it and space out your radiance/CDs.
Blight of Galakrond
Discipline
- Be careful of corrosion in this fight. It hits VERY hard on tyrannical, and players will need to pass it off once or twice to not get MCed, so it can’t just sit on the tank. You may need defensive penance/flash heals/pain suppression on someone who has it.
- Ramp with mindbender or Ultimate Penitence for Necrotic Winds in phase 2 - this is a major damage spike.
- In phase 3, you’ll want to have something up for every Noxious Ejection from Dazhak.
Iridikron
- ALWAYS have something up for Stonecracker Barrage. This happens shortly after someone is targeted with a giant AoE - right after, stack on Chromie and do your full burst as soon as the barrage starts.
- Make sure to toss a flash heal or PW:S Chromie’s way through the fight. You don’t have to pay a TON of attention to her, but keep atonement on her when you can, especially during the barrage.
Dawn of the Infinites, Murozond’s Rise
Tyr
Discipline
- Make sure everyone’s atoned and you have a mindbender up for the Spark of Tyr debuffs. You want to put out bender - dispel → burst → dispel → Radiance → followup burst.
- The reason I do this is because the soak comes right after - and people need to be healthy for the soak. When the soak is over, you have a decent chunk of time to heal people up before damage gets intense again.
Morchie
Discipline
- Atone everyone and ramp for the clone phase. You’ll want to get behind a trap, plant, and do your burst as the clones are running into traps.
- Leap of Faith is very useful here for pug members that get lost to pull to the correct morchie.
Time-Lost Battlefield
- Tank phase is a lot of spot healing. You can basically use your bender and radiance charges just for atonement uptime/healing, and flash heal/defensive penance people who mess up and get hit by fire swirlies (unless high key, in which case they’ll just die).
- Second phase is a lot like the first. Just play it like you’d play trash - use bender on CD and atone whoever needs it.
- When Lothar/Grommash pop out, you’re going to want to save your bender for war cry casts. They do this pretty frequently and it will do more damage based on how many they kill of the opposite faction. It can get pretty painful if your pug mate runs the whirlwind through the room - so be ready to burst heal hard, here.
Chrono-lord Deios
Discipline
- Make sure people are atoned and use your bender burst for the infinity orbs dropping.
- If you are standing under orbs - make sure to run with your group towards left/right - don’t fall too far behind, or you can easily get ranged.
- Make sure to dispel Chronal burn - this hurts a lot especially on tyrranical weeks.
- Rapture’s a useful tool when infinite corruption is about to go out in phase 2. You can cast PW:S while moving - so pre-shield the party, then when you start moving, continue to spam shields and it will keep people up.
Atal’Dazar
Rezan
Discipline
- If anyone gets bit by pursuit, you can Pain Suppression and Penance them - but in a high enough key they’ll die anyway - so you might not want to spend anything on them.
- You’ll need to heal the tank up through Serrated Teeth. You can do this through bender burst, or just focus healing them with Flash Heal/Penance and Pain Suppression.
- Serrated teeth is often on the tank when hiding from Visage. One thing you can do to help is always hide on the side of the wall with the tank - then they won’t LoS you. There’s no frontals from the boss in this fight, so it’s safe to stick with them.
Vol’kaal
Discipline
- This has pretty constant damage - so you can ramp up and just use mind bender off CD. No need to plan much, here with cooldowns really.
- If in a pug - the tank needs to interrupt the boss in phase 1 or everyone will take BIG damage. You MIGHT want to save bender for this step if you’re worried about your tank.
- The only thing to consider in this fight is your movement. Make sure to stand so that a radiance will bounce off of you to the group in phase 2, and you can just always cast it on yourself.
Priestess Alun’za
Discipline
- Dispel Molten gold ASAP, and it won’t overlap with tainted blood phases.
- Plan and use your cooldowns (Bender/Sfiend, Rapture, Ultimate Penitence) during tainted blood/transfusion - this is where all the damage happens.
Yazma
Discipline
- You’ll want to use and plan your cooldowns (Bender/Sfiend, Rapture, Ultimate Penitence) for the Soul Rend phases.
- Most of this fight is about efficient use of the room and movement.
- You want the party to be mostly stacked. This will spawn all the spiders closer to each other, so your tank can move when the spiders start moving.
- Make sure when soul rend happens, everybody but the tank is in the same spot - this lets you cleave down the adds easily. Note, you don’t have to be totally across the room from the boss. If you do place it really far, you’ll need to move back in with the melee else risk having spiders everywhere.
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!