I’m not sure how others are feeling, but there is so much movement on the second boss at VP, it is a total nightmare to heal. Get upwind. Avoid breath. Jump in the swirly perfectly timed. Land. Move to a safe spot, get upwind, etc. Like when and how can you do very much healing with so much movement on your plate. Without any real hots outside of renew, which kind of bites–like I dunno but it’s just flipping hard. Like sure, if nobody is taking damage in your group, people are using health pots, defensives, ok, but I’m seeing health bars dropping fast on all dps, and I dunno, but feel like compared to other bosses, that one boss, man. And with Entangled coming in whenever, like you have to move even more. It feels like it’s five key levels higher. Honestly, except for maybe the first boss there, absolutely all other bosses at all other dungeons this season are a comparitive joke. A couple others an exception depending on how boneheaded the dps are.
Or it is just me?
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Not just you.
Other bosses have much worse damage potential, but Altrius is the one who just dicks on Priests for sheer number of movement mechanics stacked on top of up to 3 DOTS (downwind, cold aura, tornado dot). It’s the one boss I feel like “I can’t cope with this” by just healing harder.
Thankfully, final boss is basically free.
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I find this to be one of the bosses where contrition does tons of work, along with higher mastery.
This is the spec I used and Renew will take for about 7.8k so it’s quite decent. I find it to be paramount to keep dps alive and just hold on until the boss dies. Properly managing Radiance charges is also key, don’t be afraid to burn Barrier or Rapture to buy time for another Radiance to finish its cooldown.
If you’re running the usual shadow talents, ramp Atonement with shields/Renew up until shadow covenant into dark reprimand for a boost of healing to bring everyone back up, then Schism into your usual rotation to stabilize.
Also, always save a penance for the knockup, you need that healing available while going up and falling back down.
edit: also get your 4pc from the Revival catalyst asap. Instant cast Radiance is very powerful.
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This boss is tough for every healer that I’ve done it on.
It’s just a pretty tough rot fight, but mostly at the point where you have to jump in the tornadoes, it’s a large damage spike, and you need to have stuff available that you can cast while you’re falling.
Disc kinda feels OK because you can pre-rapture, then continue rapture shielding while in the air with exaltation. But it’s still just a tough one.
Yeah I got one today were it felt everything lined up at the worst possible moment and it can get pretty though… It’s generally a fairly difficult fight for healers.
What has worked pretty well for me as Disc is to make sure I focus on positioning first, even if you fall behind a little it’s worth it to set yourself up for a good clean burst window, with the upwind helping you’ll catch-up really quick.
In general it’s important for everyone to quickly move away from the downwind, not only reduces haste but also adds an extra dot. Everyone should move to an upwind position first and then take the tornado upwards… That’s also the moment to use defensives, Rapture and Pain Supp are good there too.
You will definitely feel the difference between a good and a bad group that likes to sit in downwind for some time.
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This boss is so easy on my druid. Everything is harder on my holy priest. This boss was the last straw for me one day when I messed up and died twice on it trying too hard to keep failing dps up. I felt bad enough, but the tank railed against me (we were otherwise doing absolutely fine). I just…couldn’t cope anymore with how much more work I feel like I have to put in to do less damage and sweat more to keep people alive than on my druid. Maybe I am just bad at priest, though.
Like Rad said above, focusing on your own positioning first is key. Getting distracted by the dps falling health bars (that’s on them) is the easiest way to fail.
Shadow is fun.
Disc or Holy? I’ve done this on both specs. Disc actually has an easier time with it, but I’ve done it on +23s on Holy.
Disc is just keep Atonement up, use instant cast radiance when bounced up in the air or use rapture and spam PWS, and just pew-pew.
Holy is more keep Renews rolling on the entire group, cast PoM/CoH on cd, and use your Sanctuary casts on the stacked group. Pop g.s. or desperate prayer when bounced up in the air. Also, you can use Divine Hymn w/ the haste boost to top the group off quickly. I run a more hot focused build though on Holy so I have all the PoM + CoH talents and Answered Prayers. I actually looked at my last log and I got 4 Answered Prayer procs on-top of my regular Apotheosis.
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As Holy I just let PoM and Renew take the wheel
Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking. Druid has to rule on this fight cuz your hots are strong, you can drop an AOE heal, you can go into your instant cast form, you can tranq (which gives the group a potent hot–in case people dont know that) and you can move fast in cat form, you have very potent defensives, etc.
Druid, man. And even a brez.
In one group I was in I died and the druid tank in the group did not do a brez. Then the deeps died. The tank was left to solo and he soon died too.
After he died he was like, What is going on? I think he also played resto in addition to bear so had no idea. I could not help thinking that the fact that he also played resto, and likely no other healers was why he could not understand.
I have been in guilds where people were total jerks because they had not played other classes and had no idea. As I have always believed, Disc DOES totally have movement issues in some cases (of course not all) and especially if others are not paying attention. Of course if your group understands and positions themselves and bosses well (tanks that face tank are always a problem) or everyone uses defensives well, uses healing pots, even offheals, etc. to maximize what you can do, you are gucci. And then things like the damage you do and your Barrier can be first rate, etc. On an aside I have been in so many groups recently that seem to sprint out of Barrier because they seem to not know what it is!!! Lol (I have an army of alts). But resto druids also do strong damage if you know how to kitty weave, which can also be a blast…
On another aside, I regret not having gotten out ahead on keys early. That seems to make keys so much easier. Like on a 17 yesterday, one of the DPS did an eyepopping 30K dps overall. What the heck?!!? What I mean is, it helps if boss fights are not marathons and you have enough mana to actually get through the battles.
Hard casters defo struggle but it’s all about CD management. I pull around 135k to 150k hps on resto druid and over 100k on r sham. I can see priest struggling on this. What I tend to do is pop healing CDs in the air like the sham hela totem or r druid flourish. But in general it’s best to have the group use a defensive on the jump and to make sure you don’t jump until your upwind. I feel there isnt as much movement as it seems. There is defo enough time to plant and top everyone off before the jump. And from there it’s used defensives and heal CDs and then you’re good. Tbh the dragon is one of my favorite bosses in m+ this season to heal.
Disc priest for M+ here. This boss is a lot to take in, but i normally try to run MindBender here. The shorter CD means i can have a little extra healing from it more often, and to keep my mana topped more effectively. I try to use barrier in the middle of the fight when people are grouped, and before we get knocked in the air, ill throw out a rapture. So generally i try to do:
-Radiance → Mind Bender → schism → penance/mind blast/smites
- Before knocked into air: Rapture → Shadow covenant (to increase damage from my Mind Blast for extra healing during that window)
-Power Word: Barrier to keep the Rot damage down some more, then pretty much rinse and repeat.
All subject to the player, but i found rotating through these CD’s helped me to do well!
on my priest for that boss run Lightwell and keep renews and poms up. Makes it so much easier.
I find it quite easy as Disc tbh. The only thing you need to watch a timer for is the expanding circle. And then apply Atonement before going up. Penance, and Shadow Word: Death are your friends for healing while up in the air.
I don’t heal, just have dps and tank toons but when I am on any of those roles I’m always proactive in staying alive, be it potions, health stones or personal healing, shields etc. And what I always see is people not using any of those and rely 100% on the healer. That’s an issue for sure.
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Alot has to do with the dps actually using defensives… ITS A TEAM effort to keep the groups HP up. Dps and even the Tanks like to ignore mechanics and let the Healer heal their mistakes. Defensives on the whirlwind mechanics for everyone is a must. Healthstones, pots,…
Fact is some healers can deal with AoE dmg better than others… even without mistakes at higher keys the AoE damage can be alot to deal with.
Pally and druid healers are definately easier on that fight.
I have never healed in my life and do not plan on it, but don’t be so hard on yourselves. Not going to lie but most of the time its because dps do not follow mechanics and follow the upwind, tornado up ward, or follow the mechanics. Healing in general this season just sucks and is hard. This boss is a group effort and mechanics play a vital role regardless of status or role. 
I find this boss really easy to heal on holy priest (up to 23) but also you have to realize that if someone is standing on the wrong side of the boss for an extended period or they do the jump mechanic wrong they deserve to die for that. You can’t heal people through those mistakes on a high enough key. Much easier to continue the fight with 4 people doing the mechanics correctly.
Just did it on 17, and figured out another wrinkle to its difficulty.
Between breath, tornados, wind, and the constant constant damage, it’s really difficult to concentrate. It’s hard to see what’s going on through all the mess. You’re always moving. You’re always healing. And that accumulates into being hard to plan for downburst. You get caught offguard and underprepared.
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A lot of this boss (and most) as discipline is being prepared for the dmg before it hits. Like others have mentioned; make sure everyone has atonement on them at all times throughout the fight, save Penance/SW:D/ShadowCov for the knockups and don’t be afraid to rapture if you’ve got a to move a lot back to back.
I try to position myself closer to the boss so if there is a wind shift it is easy to accommodate. Also, make sure you are using fade to remove entangled as well as lessen your overall damage taken.
Oh, yeah. For sure. I feel the exact same way.
I would also add that tanks that I’ve run with could have turned the boss away so that the people who are upwind don’t have to move out of the boss’s breath. That would help a lot, but I don’t tank so don’t know if that can be done.