Hpal Dungeons Guides
Avanoxx has two major healing checks dealt in two different damage profiles. The first is Alerting Shrill which is heavy AoE damage dealt in a short burst. This will be the best place for your groups defensives, immunities like Bubble/Sac, BoP (it immunes all damage from this ability), or Aura Mastery. It's important that for each of these damage events you go into them with your group topped, holy power pooled, and virtue available, so make sure you track and pay attention to the cooldown of these abilities via a boss mod like DBM or Bigwigs. Cast Virtue right before the Alerting Shrill charge up finishes, then once the first hit of damage occurs press WoG -> HS -> WoG, each time prioritizing the lowest health player.
The second major healing check is Gossamer Onslaught which is also a heavy AoE damage ability but is dealt over a longer period of time (8 seconds instead of 4) so healing this should be a bit easier. You still need to make sure you go into it with holy power, virtue and your group topped, but defensives won't be quite as necessary as you should have your full virtue window to heal through the damage.
Always prioritize Divine Toll if available during either of these abilities. The key to this fight will be rotating defensives and cooldowns well which may take some time to get used to, so don't feel bad if it feels rough the first few times, it'll get much easier with practice.
Unlike the first boss, this fight has a very low healing check unless your team is getting hit by all the dodgeable mechanics so you should use your cooldowns offensively. Help with kicking on the Webmage that spawns and watch the player that gets Burrow Charged as they'll take a pretty heavy single target hit (this can also be BoP'd). Infestation is a moderately strong DoT that has to be healed so just make sure you focus heal anyone with it. Any deaths on this fight will likely be caused by poor positioning or being hit by mechanics so just do your best to position well and dodge and hope that your team does the same.
The difficulty of Ki'katal is unfortunately highly dependent on group comp as the more poison dispels you have the easier your life will be. The highest damage part of this fight is the Cultivated Poisons she casts which applies a nasty poison debuff to the entire group which upon removal spawns waves that have to be dodged. I don't recommend using Divine Steed to run out and drop your waves as you'll want mobility for Cosmic Singularity, so make sure to move away from the boss right BEFORE Cultivated Poisons goes out so you're pre-positioned well and can dispel yourself immediately to get back in melee and heal. Remember to always prep healing for each Cultivated Poisons cast (it happens every ~23 seconds so you can Divine Toll every other one.
You'll need to find yourself a pool for Cosmic Singularity casts, but after the cast finishes you should use Blessing of Freedom to remove yourself from the root. Keep in mind you can also HoJ or Blinding Light your add to free yourself and then Freedom an ally who may be struggling to break free on their own.
In the first area of Ara-kara you'll find spiders galore (unless you have arachnaphobia mode on like I do... highly highly recommend), many of which can be dangerous if not kicked or stopped properly. Trilling Attendant's Resonant Barrage cast is the most deadly, but they also spam cast Web Bolt which deals heavy single target damage to a random player so I highly suggest sending kicks on Web Bolts and Blinding Light on Resonant Barrage as it's one of the few casts left in this game that can still be AoE stopped. Starved Crawler's will Ambush random players so feel free to use BoP to help with the damage if someone is getting spam targeted, although these really don't hit hard so that shouldn't be necessary unless other things go wrong. The only other non-mini boss trash mob to worry about are the Engorged Crawlers who will cast Venomous Spit on random players which you should be dispelling new applications of whenever your dispel is off cooldown. These are also your best targets to use HoJ on since the cast cannot be kicked.
The first mini boss Ixin doesn't do much other than a frontal and a cast (Horrifying Shrill) which HAS to be kicked or it's almost guarenteed to be a wipe. In the event the cast does go off for any reason, press bubble IMMEDIATELY and Sac the tank as that's the only way your group can survive the 5 second fear + group damage. The second mini boss, Nakt, is the dangerous one for healers, so make sure you have holy power and virtue available going into each Call of the Brood cast (it has a long internal cooldown so you're likely to only get the first one but always be ready for a second in case your group is light on cooldowns or damage). Atik, the third mini boss, is not very deadly but IS extremely annoying for melee since the poison clouds fill up the area very quickly. Focus on dodging and kicking as there shouldn't be much damage of any kind going out unless your friends are all bathing in the poisonous clouds.
The only difference between the trash in the first area and here are the Hulking Bloodguards which do a big single hit AoE and the Sentry Stagshells who have to be stopped to prevent their 10 second spam cast of Alarm Shrill from getting off. Make sure you top your group before each Slam from the Hulking Bloodguard as they will be taking damage from the Web Bolts and charges. Track the cooldown of the Slam with a nameplate cooldown weakaura like this so you can make sure to prep a virtue a few seconds before the Slam goes off.
While the Bloodstained Webmages in this area are similar to the Trilling Attendants in the first area, the big difference is that their big cooldown cast Revolting Volley recasts if AoE stopped so you'll need to make sure someone has a kick ready for it. This entire area is full of mobs that HoJ and Blinding Light are very useful for between the Sentry Stagshells and the Bloodstained Webmages, utilizing these heavily will make more of a difference in your groups survivability than any throughput cooldowns you have.
In this area you have to watch out for the purple pools lying around the room, if anyone steps in them the Black Blood add that spawns has to be CCd immediately so use HoJ or Blinding Light to help with this if you or your friends accidentally walk into one. Freedom can also be used to free your friends as well, but its generally best used on the tank any time swirls spawn as the Reinforced Drones in this area apply a stacking movement slow debuff (Grasping Slash) that makes dodging very difficult for your tank.
The Overseers here are just a simple kick and dodge mob so set your focus to these guys and make sure they never get Venom Volley off. The Nerubian Hauler mini boss in this area does a big single damage AoE hit (Massive Slam) that increases its damage with every hit so you'll want to kill it as fast as you can before stacks get so high that your group can't survive the hit. This generally isn't too hard but to be safe you should always save your defensives until the later hits since they'll hit a lot harder.
This is a very simple boss to heal if the mechanics are executed well but messing up the mechanics is very punishing and usually results in deaths no matter how good of a healer you are. The most dangerous part of this encounter is actually not the AoE damaging ability Vociferous Indoctrination, but rather the single target dispellable DoTs, Shadows of Doubt, that are put out before that. These DoTs hit very hard so you'll want to dispel one quickly so your team can dodge the first set of orbs that spawn from the debuff dropping and you can focus on healing the remaining DoT. If you don't dispel quickly, both players will drop their orbs at the same time which can be very difficult to dodge so it's imperative that you get a dispel out quickly on the player furthest away from the rest of the group. Make sure the dispel isn't TOO quick though as you should always give the rest of your team 1-2 seconds to adjust their position so they don't get hit by the balls spawning.
I highly recommend sending a Virte a few seconds BEFORE the Shadows of Doubt debuffs go out as you'll have extra throughput and DR for the debuffed players, while still getting Virtue back in time for the Vociferous Indoctrination AoE.
On the first few attempts this fight will seem like absolute hell for melee, but once you get used to it you'll find that it's not as bad (still pretty bad). Positioning of the bosses jumps is very predictable even if extremely annoying so the flow of the fight and positioning will get easier with practice. The most dangerous moments will always be the Ice Sickles cast which does a big AoE and leaves a nasty DoT on everyone. This is a magic debuff so you should immediately dispel the player most in danger. Make sure you go into each Ice Sickles cast with Divine Toll and Virtue ready as well as at least 3 holy power. Your combo should be Virtue right before the cast, then WoG to top your group, Divine Toll once the cast damages the group, dispel, then WoG -> HS -> WoG.
I find the most dangerous overlap of the fight to be the second time Ice Sickles is cast so I always recommend using Bubble+Sac here as well for extreme group safety. You can also BoP a friend a little bit before to prevent the Knife Throws from getting them low and also giving them DR for the Ice Sickles. If you can make it through all the Ice Sickles casts, the rest of the fight is pretty straight forward, just some moderate AoE healing, spot healing, and a lot of heavy movement.
This boss was pretty much a joke throughout most of beta but got buffed to the point where the mechanics should be respected and the healing requirement will be moderate. As a melee healer you should be the last line of defense for balls coming into the boss that need to be soaked so make sure you never let any that make it past your ranged touch the boss. You'll also have a lot of healing absorbs to work through as soaking each ball leaves a large absorb on the player it hits so make sure you're tracking healing absorbs on player frames.
The main AoE hits very hard but has a long charge up so you have plenty of time to prep your Holy Power and make sure Virtue is available. You want to use Virtue right as the wind up finishes and start spending your holy power. There is no bad place to use Divine Toll on this fight since there is pretty constant AoE damage but if you don't have it available for this I'd also recommend popping Aura Mastery to help with damage mitigation.
One ability that may catch you by surprise is Blood Surge because the ability blends in with the textures of the fight, making it sometimes very hard to see. Make sure to attach an extra loud sound to this via your preferred boss mod (I use an Airhorn sound) so you know it's happening and leave melee quickly!
Izo is a very, very scary boss both mechanically and throughput wise. It's incredibly demanding on healing throughput and positioning so you'll have to be on your A game for this one. The first ability she casts is Umbral Weave which you should always use Freedom on to clear your roots (this can be done before or after, it doesn't immune the damage taken from the initial hit). After that you'll have to start dealing with the other two big AoEs: Tremor Slam, a bit single damage AoE hit, and Splice a 6 second DoT placed on the whole group.
The complexity of this fight is entirely about the overlaps of AoE damage abilities. Anytime two of the abilities are happening in close proximity you'll need to have big group defensives or a major throughput cooldown so timing your Virtues, Divine Tolls and Wings is crucial to keeping your group alive through this encounter. Bubble/Sac will come in incredibly clutch as well if you're lacking throughput so don't hesitate to send it.
Positioning can be awkward on this fight as a melee healer as you'll have to constantly be dodging orbs. Make sure your group kites the boss in a circle around the room, moving every time the orbs shift, and play on the opposite side of the boss from the tank so you can easily move from the Process of Elimination tank buster mechanic.
There are some very scary mini bosses in the Umbral Bazaar and a host of mobs with abilities to send kick on so get ready to use HoJ and Rebuke a lot! Silk Binding can be AoE stopped with Blinding Light, while Web Bolts should be HoJ'd or interrupted. Royal Swarmguards will deal two types of AoE damage: a group wide ticking DoT called Ravenous Swarm, and a big single damage AoE hit called Earthshatter. The scary part of this mob is when these two abilities happen in close proximity to each other so whenever that happens is when you'll want to have a big throughput cd, defensive, or immune.
Herald Of Ansurek does the boss mechanic Shadows of Doubt which will need to be dispelled. Fortunately there's only one so just spot heal them until they're out of the group, then dispel them and dodge the orbs. Twist Thoughts is the highest priority kick from any mob in this area so set focus to the Herald and make sure you kick it whenever available.
There is almost nothing to discuss here from a healer perspective as none of the trash in this area does significant group damage of any kind. The biggest danger to your group will come from people not doing the maze correctly which is a death sentance no matter how you try to help. Focus on dodging the frontals, navigating through the maze safely, and when the small AoE damage hits happen just toss a Virtue out and your group should be fine. Make sure you use Wings/DT for damage in this area!
Covert Webmancers here need to have their Mending Web interrupted or it'll full heal a mob so always be on the lookout to kick or HoJ these casts. Your tank should really be the only one in danger from the smaller mobs here so look for a good time to use Sac on them.
The only dangerous mob is the Royal Venomshell which you should be very prepared for. This mini boss throws out a Venomous Spray that leaves a very nasty poison on the entire group. As usual you'll need to go into each one of these big AoE casts with Holy Power and Virtue ready. When the cast goes out, prioritize dispelling your squishiest player first, then Virtue and start spending Holy Power. This is generally a great spot for Bubble/Sac as well because there isn't another big dangerous damaging ability in the dungeon for a while.
The only real trash before Izo is the double mini boss, both of which are just copies of the bosses abilities so you should be well prepared for these! Whether or not you pull them together should be dependent on the coordination of your group, your confidence in healing, and what cooldowns are available to your group at the time.
If you decide to pull both together, just like the boss your survival will be very dependent on watching for and covering overlaps with heavy throughput cooldowns / defensives. I generally recommend letting 2 Umbral Weaves go off and then pulling in the other mini boss as you'll generally finish off the first mini boss from cleave before the third cast happens.
Shadowcrown may be the easiest boss to heal this season as it's almost entirely a mechanics check fight (and a relatively easy one at that). Watch your tank when Obsidian Beams spawn, this hit is what will likely cost your group the most pain. Always use your cooldowns offensively here as the only thing to heal should be the healing absorbs Burning Shadows puts out on your group, which is very small. For each Burning Shadows cast you'll want to use Virtue first, then dispel and top your group.
The only other thing to worry about is the Collapsing Night zones which you can pre-move from, but in case you're a little slow I always like to save a Divine Steed charge for that so I never take more than one tick of damage from the zone.
Unlike the first boss, Anub'ikkaj snaps us back to reality with two major AoE abilities that have rather unfortunate timing for Holy Paladins healing profile. The first ability, Dark Orb, you won't have much control over unless you're targeted as it deals damage based on the orbs proximity when it explodes. Aim it so it has a clear path away from the group (straight down/up a hill or path, NOT to the side or into a wall) but DO NOT use Virtue to heal the group damage from this as it won't be back up for the hardest hitting AoE ability happening next: Shadowy Decay. The tricky part to this boss, which seems to be a recurring theme this season, is watching for the overlaps of these two AoE abilities so you can use Bubble/Sac or huge healing cooldown to keep your group alive.
Watch your positioning when the Dark Orb spawns because if you touch the orb at any time it will leave a DoT on you that will likely kill you. So if you're aiming it, you'll need to back away from melee and walk around it once it's position is locked, and if you aren't targeted, make sure you're playing on the opposite side of the boss as the player targeted by the orb.
This boss is an absolute messy casserole of abilities from a visual, mechanical, and throughput perspective. It's not the hardest throughput check boss but the combination of dodging, mechanical requirements and unique damage patterns make this fight particularly tricky to deal with.
In Phase 1 you ideally can convince a ranged player to help with the bombs that have to be carried to the boss as having to do that while being a melee healer can be a pain. ALWAYS your Virtue casts for the Erosive Spray cast from the boss as it does heavy ticking AoE damage that will absolutely hammer your group without Virtue or a major healing throughput cooldown. This is also generally the best place to send an immune, Aura Mastery, or your personal as you can't be targeted by any of the single target abilities the dps are targeted by.
In Phase 2, focus on spot healing the players that get Spinneret's Strands debuffs, but remember just like Phase 1 you have to save Virtue for Erosive Spray. The boss dies at 60% so don't freak out when you see its health barely move while you're sweating trying to keep the group alive.
This entire area is full of dangerous mobs with deadly casts. Prioritize kicking Nightfall Shadowmage's Ensnaring Shadows and send HoJ on any casters that aren't being kicked to help slow the group damage. Don't forget to dispel Stygian Seed as quickly as possible and spot heal the two players targeted by Tormenting Ray. On the main boat try not to have your dps aggro the casters fighting with the NPCs on the side of the boat, but if it happens just be prepared for extra damage to go out on your group. I almost always use Bubble/Sac, Aura Mastery, Wings/DT and every other button possible here because the other two boats and the boss are very non threatening comparatively.
For each of the smaller boats, continue sending kicks on Ensnaring Shadows, HoJ's on Shadowmages, and watch the player that gets the Bursting Cocoon debuff as it hits very hard when expiring.
The trash here is some of the most heavy healing requirement trash in any dungeon this season. Between the casters constantly putting out unavoidable Abyssal Rot dots that need heavy spot healing, Tormenting Beams that need to be AoE stopped or kicked, the Manifested Shadow that AoE pulses damage on the group after ~30 seconds of being in combat, and the mini bosses that each echo the bosses major abilities, you'll have your hands very full. Throughput cooldowns, defensives, HoJ, kicks and immunes will all need to be used frequently and aggressively or you'll fall behind very quickly.
Don't worry about holding Virtue for anything there is rarely a bad Virtue cast in this area since the AoE damage is pretty constant. The first major thing to look out for is the Manifested Shadow's Dark Floes cast. If this starts going off and you don't have any cooldowns or Virtue, you'll want to use your emergency buttons like health pot, Lay on Hands, Bubble, etc because the damage ticks very quickly.
The mini bosses in this area each of which have a strong single target debuff ability Abyssal Blast, plus their own unique dangerous ability that echo the bosses kit. For each of these mini bosses you'll want to keep an eye on the players with Abyssal Blast who you'll need spot heal very quickly. Look for a well timed Sac to help cover someone that doesn't have a defensive if you're low on throughput. Ideally on each of these encounters you should spread out your Wings and Divine Toll casts so you get more Rising Sunlight coverage for extremely strong spot healing power.
The first mini boss, Ixkreten The Unbreakable, is just a tank buster and shouldn't present much trouble for you. The second mini boss is Ascendant Viscoxria who has the bosses Shadowy Decay AoE ticking damage ability. Fortunately it's heavily scaled down so as long as you have virtue and some holy power for each major cast it should be pretty simply, just watch for the player that has the Abyssal Blast debuff during the AoE as they'll be in extra danger. The final miniboss is the one you really need to watch out for, the Dark Orb explosion deals heavy damage even when it hits max range which can one shot the player with Abyssal Blast if they aren't topped. Aura Mastery, Bubble/Sac and major throughput cooldowns should likely all see use during this mini boss.
EDNA seems pretty chaotic but once you get the flow of it down it's relatively simple. The first thing that most players will mess up is the dispel mechanic on the tank. For this, I've made a weakaura that will highlight the frame of the tank and play a phone ringing sound when you are supposed to dispel. Use this to trivialize that part of the fight so you can focus on healing!
For the pillars on this fight, how you clear them depends on the healer you're playing as each healer brings its own unique healing profile. For Holy Paladin the best way to clear them is by full clearing each set every time. When the beams go out, don't overlap with other players but make sure someone is always aiming them through every one of the pillars. Build holy power outside of virtue, then right as the beams are going out press Virtue and start spending.
The dangerous set is always the second set of beams as it will go straight into the bosses AoE so make sure you prioritize defensiving right as the second set of beams come out. This is also a great spot for Divine Toll and Aura Mastery.
Skarmorak is lots of fun for the healer as you get a ton of healing amps to juice your hps. The most ideal way for healers to collect orbs on this fight is to get one orb on the first set that go out and a second orb from the second set, this way you have the healing amp for the entire shard phase, plus double amp for the shield.
Use Virtue liberally during the shard phase as every add explosion will hit your group pretty hard. The shield phase also has a fair amount of chargeup time so you will generally have enough time to get Virtue back even if a shard is popped late. In the event you don't get Virtue back up by the time the shield begins to tick, you should send Aura Mastery or Bubble/Sac
Pro tip: If you use Bubble during the shield phase, the shield popping will not remove your orb stacks and you can refresh it from the next set of orbs.
This fight is much more of a positional and mechanical check fight than it is a healing check. The actual damage from this fight is relatively low except when the two AoE abilities intersect. The first AoE ability is Exhaust Vents which will deal periodic damage to your party while channeled. This doesn't deal a huge amount of damage by itself but you should always have virtue available for it as there aren't many other damage events in the encounter (unless your team is missing a lot of kicks).
The second major damage event is Blazing Crescendo which is a big single damage AoE hit. If this ever happens while Exhaust Vents is channeling, you should ALWAYS Bubble/Sac as this will be by far the most dangerous part of the encounter. Outside of this just help with kicks on Molten Metal and make sure you practice positioning as it can get a bit hectic for melee.
There are few fights more frustrating as a melee healer then High Speaker Eirich. Between the massive frontals, the spread mechanic, the pools filling the room, the void zones you have to drop at the edge of the room... it's pretty hellish even when executed well. That being said there are a few things to keep in mind to help mitigate the difficulty of this boss.
Firstly, as with almost every healer check dungeon boss in The War Within, watch for the two damaging abilities and when they overlap; this will always be the dangerous spot that requires defensive/throughput power. The two major damaging abilities of the fight are Entropic Reckoning, a large AoE single target hit that requires your group to spread out, and Void Corruption, a brutal DoT that can only be cleared by running close to a portal at the side of the room.
Always use Virtue for Entropic Reckoning and focus your spot healing on the players with Void Corruption when it goes out. Look to clear yours as quickly as you can with Divine Steed or by pre-positioning by a portal when the ability is coming out. Whenever Entropic Reckoning goes out while players have Void Corruption, you'll need a lot of healing for them or a major group/personal defensive. This is where you'll want to use things like Bubble, Sac, Aura Mastery or Divine Protection.
Where do I even begin with this hellish trash.. the curses alone are a nightmare for Holy Paladin because it's the one debuff we can't cure and good luck convincing your combusting mage or ascended shaman friend to take a break from mashing their dps rotation to help you out. The most important thing to watch for interrupt wise is the Ghastly Voidsoul's Howling Fear which is pretty much a guarenteed wipe if it goes off. Use HoJ frequently on Invaders (and kick as well if the Ghastly Voidsoul is covered) to help slow the outpouring of curses and bolts going on your group and watch closely for the big Golem's Ground Pound cast which will deal heavy AoE damage to your group. Defensives, group cooldowns, throughput cooldowns, throw them all at these early packs and use Virtue basically on cooldown.
The double Golem pack before boss may actually be the easiest pull here because they are naturally desynced, just remember that there is a lot of downtime between Ground Pound casts so all you have to do is top the group quickly after the first one casts. Pool your Holy Power right before the first Ground Pound then cast Virtue as the cast is going off so you can use your first global to WoG -> HS -> WoG, and potentially Divine Toll as well if needed.
The danger in this area comes from the Void Bound Despoiler's fast ticking AoE spell Void Outburst, that being said it's a pretty straight forward AoE spell so just don't get caught unprepared and you'll be fine. Set focus to Void Bound Howlers to interrupt their Piercing Wail cast as letting that cast go off is the main way your group will wipe here.
Any Void Infections that go off, similar to the first area, will likely just need to be spot healed so make good use of HoJ, Sac and Rising Sunlight here if you don't have a friend that loves to decurse for you.
The only real dangerous mechanic for healers in The Singing Forge is the Forge Loader's Molten Mortar debuff which fortunately Holy Paladin has a pretty cool trick for. Despite this debuff being a fire debuff it can be immuned with BoP so if your friend is ever taking a DoT with no defensive and you're light on spot healing power, throw BoP out to make your life easy. I highly suggest your route does not include the double Forge Loader in this area as two of those debuffs going out at the same time is very very dangerous. If you do pull it, you'll want to utilize everything in your kit: BoP, Bubble, Sac, AM, and every throughput button you have to cover the debuffs when they go out.
Outside of the Forge Loaders, the main burden here falls on your tank who has to deal with an extremely quick stacking tank debuff. A well timed Sac will help a lot but also your tank needs to know when to kite, which unfortunately you can't do much to help with. My best advice is to use your kicks on Forgebound Mender's Restoring Metals and hope that everyone does their job.
There is very little to like about the trash before High Speaker Eirich. Watch closely for the blue arrows coming out from the Honor Guards as they can be really hard to see and will likely kill you if you're hit by their frontal charge. The Rock Smashers will deal a big single damage AoE hit that hits harder each time it casts so just like the Nerubian Hauler in Ara'Kara you'll want to use Divine Protection / Aura Mastery on later casts that are more amped up.
Cursedforge Stoneshaper's Stone Bolt should be the main thing you're interrupting and watch carefully for their Earth Burst Totem spawns to help kill them before they explode because the detonation is basically a one shot if it finishes its cast.
The main damage phase of this fight is the Death Shroud DoT that starts ticking once the boss casts Embrace Darkness. Make sure you focus Droman Oulfarran down quickly to phase the boss and remove this DoT. If you can you want to try and save your cooldowns for Ingras damage amp phase, but in a lot of cases you'll need to send a little early to help your group make it through to the intermission healthy. This is one of our best Blessing of Summer uses as it helps phase the boss while keeping your group safe and should last through a lot of the damage amp phase as well.
The hardest lineup of abilities is when the boss fears your group during the Embrace Darkness phase. This will always be your best use of Bubble/Sac, and keep in mind when you do that you should look for a kick on the boss as you may be the only non-feared player who can kick the bolt. If you don't have Bubble, Aura Mastery is another great option, or just make sure to position yourself safely and top the group as best you can before the fear occurs.
If you're playing Lightsmith, make sure you have Fear No Evil talented to reduce the fear duration for your friends and yourself.
Mistcaller is really the only healing intensive boss in Mists and even then, it's not that bad as long as your dps know how to tell shapes apart! The main phases of the boss there is essentially 0 damage going out, so focus your efforts on damaging the boss and CCing the Freeze Tag fox with HoJ.
The biggest thing to prep for in this fight is the intermission phase. Make sure you solve the riddle quickly because the faster that add dies the less damage you have to heal through. There are 3 intermissions and you'll want to have something for each. I generally recommend using Wings + Divine Toll on 1 + 3, and Aura Mastery / Bubble / Sac on 2. If any of these phases seems like it's taking longer then it should and people may not be safe, health pot and yell at your dps to do better.
In an emergency of the fox needing to get cleared, you can Bubble and run into it but in any non coordinated environment this is very dangerous since the explosion will also hit nearby allies so use this trick with caution
There's not much danger in this fight other than the fixated player and intermission AoE, both of which aren't that threatening. You can use BoP to immune the melees on the Marked Prey fixate target, so make sure to do this if it's on a player in trouble. Save your Divine Steed for Coalescing Poison as the suck is deceptively strong, especially if you aren't playing at max melee range.
The majority of the deaths on this fight will come from players moving TOO much when Acid Expulsion goes out. Remember that this boss echoes your movements when dodging the swirlie so the less you move early on in the fight the easier your life will be later. Ideally every time you don't do anything more than simply side stepping. Fortunately we don't have significant movement speed in the first place so we don't have to worry about blinking / alter timing halfway across the world and creating a missile that moves 100 miles an hour for everyone to dodge the entire fight. Not that anyone would ever do that...
The starting zone is chock-full of dangerous mobs that punish poor mechanics very heavily. The Spiteclaw's that patrol around will leap out to anyone at range and leave a deadly physical DoT on the target that stacks. This is easily avoided by your group simply standing in melee but if you happen to have a stubborn ranged player, use BoP to clear their stacks and immune them from the damage.
Make sure during any pulls with Soulcleavers you help your tank to mitigate the Soul Split damage (Sac, Devo, HoJ) and once it goes out make sure you instantly dispel the debuff. For Tirnenn tree pulls, focus heal any player that gets Overgrowth as they'll be stunned and unable to protect themslves.
The two Boughbreakers before first boss is the big AoE damage pull of the zone, so make sure you're prepared for their Furious Thrashing. Since they don't channel the ability until 50%, the strategy with these is to either push them together and pop big personals + throughput cooldowns, or to push them separately (much more PUG friendly) and just heal through the AoE. Whichever your group does, I highly suggest using BoP (if available) on your squishiest dps as it will fully immune the damage. If you're healing through these, I generally suggest using Divine Toll to heal the first Thrashing and then Devo Aura + BoP to cover the second Thrashing.
The maze can be difficult for healers since we're expected to solve the puzzles while healing the group, which can be especially tricky for Holy Paladins who rely on being in melee to heal efficiently. The first thing I suggest is to download this weakaura (READ DESCRIPTION) so you don't have to focus too heavily on solving the puzzle and can just focus on healing.
Fortunately there isn't much AoE damage in these pulls, it's mostly all tank damage, so you really only have to watch out for the two most dangerous abilities: Mistveil Stalker's Bite and Mistveil Stinger's Anima Injection. When the Stalker gets its Mistveil Bite off, if you're low on spot healing power or out doing the maze, use BoP or Sac on the player to mitigate the bleed damage. If the Anima Injection goes off you need to drop whatever you're doing and dispel this immediately.
The new abilities introduced in The War Within are very very frustrating for melee players as the mobs are constantly dropping pools they need to be dragged out of and charging out of range. Make sure you watch out for anyone being repeatedly charged as the damage can pile up very quickly, especially if you only have one ranged. This entire zone is pretty much all spot healing with no AoE so Virtue can be sent on cooldown to help with 2-3 player healing.
This area is also very toxic for melee since the swirl ground effects are extremely frequent and quite large. Between that and the Volatile Acids constantly going out, I always play the packs in this section weaving in and out of melee so I can always stay spread out and see my feet clearly. Any time you pull a pack in this area you should focus the Spinemaw Staghorn as it does all of the most important abilities. Send your kick into either the heal or shield ability it casts and watch for Acid Nova casts as it'll deal heavy group damage so you'll always want Virtue out right before this goes out so you can top the group both before and after the cast.
Avoid pulling Reavers where you can, but when they do get pulled remember to always prioritize dispelling their poison debuffs. For my Blood Elf friends, if any Stimulate Resistance casts get off, use Arcane Torrent to remove all the shields!
There isn't much complexity to this boss, and there shouldn't be any need for healing cooldowns so feel free to use your CDs for damage. Make sure to quickly dispel the player with Heaving Retch and use Sac on a player if they aren't topped or have no defensive as the initial hit deals a lot of damage.
If the Carrion Worms that spawn reach their target and start casting, use HoJ or Blinding Light to disrupt them and give the fixated player time to move away.
This is the main reason you take Repentance, as it makes this fight much easier. The idea here is to use Repentance on one of the Frostbolt Mages when they spawn and leave it CC'd until Final Harvest when it will get consumed by the cast. Just make sure none of your dps break the CC before Final Harvest or it'll explode and wipe your group. It is worth noting that you can also use Turn Evil to CC another mob, but I don't recommend this since the mobs pathing is completely random and can potentially run into melee and get broken and wipe the group.
As far as actually healing the encounter, the only real AoE healing requirement comes from the Final Harvest DoT so make sure you have a throughput cooldown for after each of these casts.
What did they do to this fight??? Something seems to have gone horribly wrong with scaling on this boss or during tuning because he is hitting like an absolute truck. Be prepared for massive consistent AoE damage, and focus heavily on the players hit with the bleed. If any player that is fixated by the boss doesn't land the hook properly to stop the fixate, BoP them so they don't have to kite the boss around. My best suggestion for this fight at the moment is to save all your weapons for the first down phase and then just lust and burn him so you don't have to do a second phase as the fights difficulty ramps extremely hard.
Paladin brings some crazy tech for this boss so make sure you utilize your full kit here! The first thing to know is that when Nalthor casts Frozen Binds, you can actually see who he's targeting and Freedom them before the cast goes off. If you do this properly, the ability will be immuned and no one will get rooted. PLEASE BE AWARE that if you don't Freedom the target until AFTER the cast finishes, you'll dispel them with the debuff and root anyone in the radius, so make sure you Freedom them BEFORE the cast finishes.
The only healing intensive part of the encounter (assuming your group isn't getting hit by Comet Storm) is the stacking Icebound Aegis cast he does while shielded. Make sure you save Devo / Bubble / Sac for any time a shield lasts for more than 3-4 stacks.
Most of the trash here hurts pretty bad so be prepared for some heavy lifting at the start! The little mobs (Soldiers and Blight Bags) in this area can be surprisingly deadly so getting most of them out of the way at the start in a big lust pull is a great way to simplify this starting area.
While you should simply be able to heal through the AoE caused by the smaller mobs, any time a Corpse Harvester is involved, the difficulty of the pull goes way up. Make sure you use kicks or HoJ on the Harvester to stop Drain Fluids and Throw Flesh when you can. Additionally if you see someone in danger of dying is being targeted by Throw Flesh, use BoP to immune the damage.
I strongly advise against pulling any Zolramus Gatekeeper's as they give very poor count and are much more dangerous than any other trash in this zone. If you do happen to pull one you'll need a throughput cooldown or group DR for each Wrath of Zolramus cast that goes off so be prepared.
One of the main recurring mobs of this area is the Zolramus Necromancer which should be easy as long as you remembered to swap to Repentance! Simply Repentance the Brittlebone Mage and the mob won't give your group any trouble.
If you decide to pull the mini boss Nar'zudah, I highly suggest using the tank orb for this pack or you'll need some massive throughput cooldowns to survive. This is definitely the most dangerous pack in this area so pop everything and use kicks and HoJ to stop Necrotic Bolts. While we're on the topic of mini bosses, I don't recommend pulling the Skeletal Monstrosity patrol, but if you do I highly recommend Freedoming yourself on Reaping Winds.
Every pack here with a big brute looking guy is going to hit your tank extremely hard, so be prepared to bomb heals into them and use Sac/Devo religiously. Once again you'll have to deal with Corpse Collectors but this time they have an extra ability that will likely wipe your group is not stopped so set your focus on this every time one is pulled and always kick their Goresplatter ability.
The only dangerous mob in this entire area for healers is Rotspew who does constant AoE to any nearby players plus a huge single target hit on a player periodically that leaves behind a cloud of poison. For this mob I'll sometimes weave in and out of melee to avoid as much of the damage as I can while still getting the Crusader Strikes I need, but in general you should be fine to stay in as long as you have a throughput cooldown running (I highly suggest having Wings available for this pull). This is a great place for DRs like Devo / Bubble / Sac as at this point you shouldn't need them for anything else until last boss.
The secret to this boss as a Holy Paladin is to make sure you always have a ranged dps playing with you. If there is no ranged dps in the group the fixate will be random and everyone will hate their life, whereas if you bring a ranged dps the fixate will always target them and only ONE person will hate their life :)
The only healing check on this boss is Fiery Ricochet which is a moderately hard ticking DoT on the group. As this is the only real damage event, you should always have Virtue available and often also Divine Toll which should trivialize this mechanic. I highly suggest using Wings to help push damage during her down phases as it should never be needed for healing.
Hadal may have a decently large single damage AoE hit, but Break Water only happens once every 20-30 seconds so you have plenty of time to top everyone in between hits. Remember to pre-pop virtue for the damage reduction and then send a few WoGs to top the group before getting back to dps. Keep an eye on your tank and watch your positioning during waves, but otherwise you can play very offensively and use your cooldowns for damage.
Viq'Goth is the only truly dangerous boss in Siege of Boralus, and once again it's another case of watching for overlapping damage events. Periodically Viq'Goth will send out two dispellable debuffs, one of which needs to be dispelled immediately so you can focus on spot healing the remaining debuffed player. This mechanic requires very quick decision making, indecisiveness will cost your groups countless lives so make sure you are always quick with your choice on the first dispel. Keep in mind that when dispelling, the debuff will deal damage to anyone within a few yards of that player so you need to stay loosely spread from any other melee when these are going out.
The only other damage in this fight is the tentacle Slam which doesn't deal a ton of damage, but when overlapping with a debuff being out can easily kill the debuffed player. Make sure any time this lineup happens they have a big defensive up, and if not, be ready to send Sac if you don't have a ton of throughput to top them before the Slam cast finishes.
All the trash at the start of the dungeon is fairly simple. Run out of the Savage Tempest, kick Irontide Waveshaper's Watertight Shell, and throw HoJ's out on Irontide Powdershots to stop their Molten Slug spamming. Feel free to send your cooldowns offensively here as there is almost no healing throughput requirement on any of these packs.
The Ashvane Commander by the docks shouldn't present too much of an issue, just make sure you top the player targeted by Azerite Charge and use your kick on Bolstering Shout. The Spotters and Cannoneer leading up to Lockwood are also relatively painless and mostly just involve a lot of dodging so just don't stand in the swirlies or frontals!
Bananas, bananas EVERYWHERE! Beware the constant barrage of bananas on the ground, this place is a literal minefield of stuns. Be quick and smart with your movement, use your kicks on Bilge Rat Tempest's Choking Waters as it's the most dangerous cast in this area for healers (if a dps gets targeted you can dispel it). HoJ should be used on the Pillager's Stinky Vomit cast, and always press Virtue right before each Crushing Slam cast so you can top your group before and after the AoE.
The quadruple Sniper + Spotter pull at the top of the stairs is extremely dangerous if your groups positioning is on point. If everyone stays on one side of the Snipers and your tank faces them the opposite direction, they will always shoot the tank, making this pack very easy to heal. However, if anyone is out of place the Snipers will start rapid fire shooting everyone on your team causing a huge amount of AoE healing to be required. In pugs it's highly unlikely your groups positioning will be on point so I'd suggest having some throughput cooldowns here and making smart use of Bubble/Sac/BoP/AM.
In Darkfathoms room you'll encounter Invaders that put out a nasty poison dispel on your tank, make sure you always dispel this whenever it's above 3 stacks. Continue kicking and HoJing Waveshaper's Watertight Shell / Brackish Bolts, and Spot healing the player that gets Azerite Charge.
General Umbriss is an incredibly easy boss to heal as there are no overlaps with his AoE damage abilities. Use your cooldowns offensively, press Virtue on each Commanding Roar cast, and otherwise just focus on dodging the waves of dragonfire and placing your Rock Spikes on the side of the room. Try to hold your Divine Steeds for dodging dragons even though its tempting to use them to place your Rock Spikes as sometimes you have to move very far across the room when the dragons spawn.
Forgemaster is another relatively non-threatening boss healing-wise but positioning can be a bit tricky as melee. Forge Swords is the big AoE damage ability of the fight so you want to make sure you always go into that cast with Virtue and Holy Power available. Molten Sparks will periodically go out which leaves a moderate ticking DoT on players who will need to be spot healed as they drop the pools of lava. If one of them goes out on you make sure to drop them along the wall so you don't fill the room with lava.
If Molten Spark debuffs are ever out when Forge Mace is ticking, that's when you'll want to send major defensives / throughput cooldowns.
The adds on this fight are the core mechanic your group will need to deal with. If they ever reach their target it's likely a wipe so use HoJ to help give your teammates time to move from and kill them. DO NOT USE BLINDING LIGHT ON THESE ADDS. Any Blinding effect will cause them to refixate or sometimes instantly explode (hopefully this gets fixed).
The main healer check on this fight is Twilight Buffet which is just a big single damage AoE hit so Virtue will be your best friend here. Most of this fight is simply dodging fire tornadoes and managing adds so unless your group is highly prone to standing in fire you should be free to use your cooldowns offensively.
Erudax is probably the most demanding fight positionally this season. This entire fight revolves around dodging tentacles, running to safe spots, and then spreading out within a tiny safe spot. On top of that a lot of the effects are very similarly colored (send thank you cards to The Void), making it incredibly hard to see the right position to be in at times.
Fortunately, the two AoE abilities on this fight never line up and are spread far enough apart that you can send Virtue on both Abyssal Corruption and Void Surge. The more dangerous of the two is usually Void Surge but if your group is bad at spreading out in the small circle Abyssal Corruption will hit incredibly hard when overlapped so this is generally where you'll need emergency buttons like LoH/Bubble/Sac.
Grim Batol is filled to the brim with dangerous trash mobs, most of which are heavily punishing for the healer if handled poorly so be ready for some fun! In the first area you'll encounter the most annoying mob for any melee healer: Twilight Destroyers. These dragons do a huge AoE damage ability that knocks you back VERY far so you have to position yourself so that you always get knocked into the wall. Note that this ability can also be line of sighted, which I highly recommend as it immunes the damage AND the knockback. If you can, have your tank keep the dragon close to a wall corner so you don't have to move very far each time it casts Umbral Wind.
Your kicks here should always be sent into Twilight Earthcaller's Mass Tremor while your HoJs should be used to slow their Earth Bolt spam casting. Ideally a lot of this trash is killed by the friendly dragons you ride in this area. Min/maxing your dragon time is really important to the dungeon timer so make sure you know how it works. You have a limited number of your "1" uses, all of which should be used on the biggest group of mobs you can find (if the patrol is lined up on the left with the other pack this will be your best use, otherwise send on one of the 5 packs by the boss).
Forgemaster's Anvil has a few big AoE hitting golems but otherwise is the easiest section of trash in the dungeon. Use Virtue on every Molten Wake golem cast and send kicks on Twilight Bolts.
There are two highly dangerous new mobs in this section which both heavily burden the healer: Twilight Warlocks and Twilight Lavabenders. The Warlocks will frequently cast an uninterruptable ability that places massive healing absorbs on your party. These will time out so you don't always have to heal them off, and they can also be decursed, so depending on your comp/route these can either be a major issue or rather easy to handle.
The Lavabenders don't present much of an issue until they hit 50% health at which point they transform, dealing a big initial AoE hit plus then ramping up pulsing AoE damage on your party until it dies so you'll want to make sure you have a lot of throughput whenever this happens. If you decide to pull the final two lavabenders together, you should have your group focus kill one first and then focus the other as pushing them at the same time is almost certainly a death sentance.
The biggest issue in this section occurs when Warlocks are alive and placing healing absorbs on players while the Lavabender is transformed and pulsing AoE damage. If this ever happens you'll want to send LoH/Bubble/Sac or major throughput cooldowns to fight through the absorbs quickly so you can to your team.
Erudax trash only consists of one unique set of mobs, but the main mob is VERY scary. The small mobs around the Faceless Corruptors place a debuff on your team when they die that increases damage taken so when the Corruptor stars channeling his Corrupt cast on someone it deals very heavy damage that needs to either be mitigated via a defensive or an external, or healed through with a ton of spot healing. Rising Sunlight and Divine Favor will come in very clutch here so try to spread out your uses of Divine Toll and Wings to cover more casts with Rising Sunlight.
The final trash pack has two of these with a ton of smallies, making it especially deadly. If you can, avoide this pack entirely with invis pots in higher keys. If you end up fighting them you'll almost certainly have to pull out all your emergency buttons. Bubble is especially strong for this as it will clear your stacks AND immune one of the sucks completely so make sure you prioritize using that first if targeted by an early Corrupt.
