Loatheb as a Priest = Prayer of Healing! And I’m Disc so if I time it right I have time for at least half a Penance on the lowest person healthwise. Or a Divine Hymn if you feel like it.

Warms my healer-heart when you say that healing is harder – although I have just started getting my warriortank in order and that is soo much harder for me…

I personally like Loatheb and Heigan because it’s a challenge =)

For Loatheb, the two main tips I give the trees in my guild are to

1) make sure Lifebloom expires during the 3 second window – that’s a huge heal you don’t want to waste. That means casting the last LB between 7-9 seconds out.

2) make sure the Regrowth cast lands during this window as well. This usually means you need to start casting 2-3 seconds before it opens up (depending on your haste rating).

To me, tanking is toughest – healing a bad PUG vs tanking a bad PUG? No contest… Never mind that if a bad pull is survived the healer is (sometimes) praised, whereas if you wipe the tank is blamed. :(

Loatheb a while back taught me that my UI was too spammy, but for a shaman that’s not too bad a fight. As you get better at it you can start DPSing outside the healing window without it cramping your healing, but if you’re not careful the lack of focus on that healing window really stuffs you up. Same as with Heigan – the better you can dance the more you can heal, but you’d better prioritise the dancing or your healing will drop to zero.

We’re definitely now coming up to the point in Ulduar that the stress is on the healers (Mimiron and General V), but healing is still the role where I’m happiest.

My druid’s a tank and will never, ever heal. But I have the highest respect for healers and always thought healing generally looks like the trickiest of the three roles by far, at least in bigger battles. Sure, on trash it seems to be easy while the tank runs in circles trying to keep everything off the nutty AoE-frenzied DPS. But some bosses? Ouch! Blizzard apparently does love to stress healers. Tanks always have to work, DPS have to work harder now too (and that’s how it should be!), and healers? There are fights that honestly make me marvel how the eff they do it, or why they would want to. I guess it takes a special mindset to enjoy it, like tanking.

Hugs for all healers!

So, strafe and click for heals — that’s my suggestion for healing non-dancers on Heigan.

HEIGAN:
As others have said, for the Heigan dance, WG. Personally, I hotkey WG and move with my mouse. As I come off the pedestal, I target myself, and put one finger on the WG hotkey so I don’t even have to look at it. Run and hit WG key. Repeat.

Seriously, Wild Growth will take care of most of the people who take one shot, and will take NO concentration on your part – staring at health bars while dancing leads to eating lava dirt. If someone gets hit once, the HOTs will continue to target them and have them healed up by the time Heigan comes off again. If people take more than one shot, odds are they don’t have the timing down, and will continue to get clipped til they go down — and you trying to keep track of them is going to lead to you going down, so it just prolongs the agony.

LOATHEB:
Before my first time at this fight, I actually took out a scratchpad and counted the intervel out backwards to see what HOTs I could set up that would all bloom during the gap so I wasn’t wasting a GCD on a single shot spell that would only help one player. You can set up a couple of people with full LB stacks that’ll bloom during the gap; you can start a regrowth just prior so it lands and then gives you the option to Swiftmend; you can Wild Growth; you can Tranquility.

I basically Lifebloom stack the two people I’m most concerned to keep up – could be casters, whoever’s low, or proactive on major DPS. – I cast the LBs one at a time on each person to time the bloom right. Right before the gap, I start Regrowth on who’s in most danger. At the gap, I immediately Wild Growth, then Swiftmend the Regrowth person if I can. If Tranquility is up, and more people are low, I will skip the Wild Growth and the Swiftmend and just use Tranquility on the whole party instead.

If you do plan on using Tranquility, make sure you’re in the right party before the fight. It’s still party-only and most of the groups I’ve been in, the ranged and melee teams are far enough apart that your Tranquility won’t reach to party members in different areas. So many buffs and spells have gone raid-wide, it’s easy to forget this spell hasn’t.

That said, I’ve done Naxx on both my Paladin and my Druid – both as healers – and I’ll take the Druid in most fights. So many tools and toys to play with.

Rejuvenation is not the best choice for the 3 second interval, as Rejuv only ticks once every three seconds. Instead, you should time your Lifeblooms to bloom during those three seconds, or roll Lifeblooms, since they tick every second. Use Swiftmend, and cast Wild Growth right before the Aura wanes. This will free your GCD to Swiftmend or NS+Nourish or NS+HT during. You can also set up emergency Tranquility groups, and can start casting Tranq to give a nice 5/6k hps boost during the waning period.