Disclaimer: this is just how I do it, and I’m usually the only holy paladin in the group. If you have more than one, Beacon assignments and whatnot will probably be a bit different.
Lord Marrowgar
This is the OHMYGOD SO MUCH DAMAGE, WHYYY fight, and one where we holy paladins really shine. The damage comes fast and heavy, so you have to be on the ball about topping it off. What happens if you take a break to rest your poor Holy Light finger for a few GCDs (or worse, if you’re repeatedly boner spiked)? DEATH, that’s what.
Yeah, you did that. Anyway, you will probably be assigned to the MT for this fight, and you will want to put your sweet, delicious Bacon Beacon on the OT, who will be taking quite a lot of damage as well. Especially when he stands in the Coldflame. Stick yourself in with the caster dps group, who will probably all be standing within Marrowgar’s hitbox, because that makes things easier for everyone, especially when it comes to Bone Spikes, because if you have to count on dps to come find you in order to break you out, you’re probably gonna die.
Possibly the hardest part of this fight is the cat herding fest that is Bone Storm, because everyone is going to scatter, and they’re not all going to go in the same direction. Ideally you should stick on top of your tanks so that you can quickly get back to healing them ASAP when this part is over, but if you’re like me you probably just run to a corner while going OMG QUIT FOLLOWING MEEEE. We keep raid markers on the tanks so that we can quickly find them and stack back up. If you run a 51/20/0 build, Bone Storm might be a good time to pop your bubble and Divine Sacrifice, if you happen to notice a lot of people waltzing through Coldflame or trying to give Marrowgar hugs. Just … don’t sacrifice yourself without bubbling, unless you’re prepared to stand still and heal all that incoming damage to yourself, which will be hard. Bone Storm is also the best time to pop your Divine Plea, but because chain casting Holy Light is very draining, you’re probably going to have to just use it when you can.
Assuming that everything goes well, Marrowgar will keel over, you will cry because spell plate is a myth, and then move on! \o/
Lady Deathwhisper
During Phase 1, I find it more useful to have your Beaconhax on your assigned tank so that you can help out the raid healers, because this is a fight where people will inevitably stand in things and take stray damage. Do remember to keep a close eye on your tank’s health though, because he will sometimes be hit mercilessly by empowered mobs, and you’ll need to give him extra attention. For the 25man version, you will want to stand roughly in the middle, so that you can help out the other tank healers when their targets are taking extra buttloads of damage. Curse of Torpor will be a big pain in your side for this fight, because it will lock you out of one of your spells (probably FoL or HL, depending on what you were casting when it hit you) for 15 seconds. It’s annoying, but shouldn’t be too hard on you.
In Phase 2, you’ll only need to focus on one tank at a time, but they will be trading off. I like to put Beacon on whichever tank currently has aggro, but if I’m having mana issues (LOL DOES NOT COMPUTE), I’ll just keep it on the MT. It’s nice to help out your raid healers with the Frostbolt damage when you can, and if it looks like everyone’s getting low, there’s always the bubblesac option.
Gunship Battle
This is the easiest Lower Spire fight, which means that BoO will always wipe on it once. Chances are that your raid leader will want you to stand on the ledge between the canons, toss Beacon on the tank who’s going over to the enemy ship (… we call them the Away Team), and keep the home and away tanks both healed. If you whine about being bored and getting cheated out of using your rocket pack, which I may or may not do, you might get to be the Away Team healer, YAY. In which case your major obstacle will be hearing when to go over and back on top of one of your guildies playing “I’m On A Boat” over vent. /facepalm
The Away Team tank will take a lot of damage when he goes over, so be sure that you keep an eye on him. Otherwise, this fight is mostly about keeping your eyes on Grid/Vudho/what have you and peppering around FoL where needed. If you get a lot of aggro from the Axethrowers, BUBBLE then yell at your tanks.
Deathbringer Saurfang
Another fight where everyone will be pleased to have your Beaconhax. Once again, you will probably be on the tanks. I heal the first tank to take Saurfang and put Beacon on the second. This means that when Tank 1 has him, I need to focus primarily on healing him, and when Tank 2 has him, I can help out the raid healers by keeping people with Boiling Blood topped off and healing anyone who gets hit by the blood beasts’ melee. As usual, if you don’t have mana issues and would like to, you can simply switch Beacon from tank to tank.
When Saurfang hits 100 Blood Power, that’s when you go FUUUU and things ramp up. You need to put your Beacon on the person who gets Mark of the Falling Champion, and then you need to heal the tank with the aggro for all you’re worth, to keep the Marked person up. If Blood Power management is Not So Good, you get to play YAY SOPHIE’S CHOICE and decide whether to stick with the original Marked player, or switch Beacon to the new one. If it’s a healer or a tank who gets the Mark, they also get the Beacon. If it’s between two dps players, I’d recommend keeping up a player who kites the blood beasts. If none of those are factors, just slap it on the person you like the most. That’s right, everyone be sure to lavish love on your paladin healers – it may save your life! I take bribes in the form of unicorns, rainbows, and hugs.
If you have a group that can successfully manage Blood Power and you don’t break out in a cold sweat from healing stress, then YAY TIEM FOR PLAGUEWORKS. Just uhm, maybe don’t forget to bubble if you’re the first one to zone into the next wing, because the mist wants to give you not so nice cuddlings.
#1 by Kotakh on February 5, 2010 - 2:22 pm
The only reason your target tank is staying alive is because you have a friendly druid putting HoTs on him hon.
#2 by Cel on February 5, 2010 - 2:31 pm
@Kotakh I definitely don’t underestimate your HoTs and Amber’s bubbles, that’s what makes our awesome 10 man groups run so well. :D
#3 by Kotakh on February 5, 2010 - 2:43 pm
@Cel Amber is just pretending to cast Bubble on our target.
#4 by Xuna of Ragnaros on February 6, 2010 - 12:49 am
love the tags…
#5 by Dristanel on February 6, 2010 - 4:52 pm
This post needs more tags!
Pretty much how I do these fights, too. Good to see holy paladin unity. We’ll conquer the world someday. Back when bubbles still did something on this fight, I used to toss Sacred Shield on a Boiling Blood target and Hand of Protection a caster when it was on cooldown. Still do the latter, but the former is a bit less useful now.
#6 by Cel on February 6, 2010 - 5:57 pm
@Distanel I didn’t even think about using SS! We run with a disc priest (… Amber, duh XD) who pops a PW:S on the Boiling Blood to take care of it. I like to keep my SS with the FoL HoT on the MT, because I’m paranoid about something happening and like to have a buffer, however small.
#7 by shadowtycho on February 7, 2010 - 2:08 am
cool stuff, as a request, tell us whom posted what since there is more then one contributor now.
following with interest
#8 by Brangwen on February 7, 2010 - 8:14 pm
Tip for marrowgar – Bacon yourself and stand there and heal things. Chances are its off chasing everyone else… and if it whirls by, you are healing the person it’s chasing? right? so you will be healing yourself too. Just a quick step to the left to dodge the coldflame, and all will be well!
#9 by Echo on February 8, 2010 - 9:45 am
Thanks for the post I giggled like a schoolgirl.
Couple differences to the way we do it. On the Gunship the “away team” healer doesnt have to jump and provided the tank pulls Saurfang the elder to the side of the boat they should be in range. Getting the tank to use his jetpack on the boss also slows his attack speed and means less incoming damage.
On saurfang we just plain let the first mark target die on 25man. It stops the boss gaining a shit load of Runic Power and buys quite a lot of time. We then have an agreed paladin bacon order. The only problem is it tends to place it on healers and tanks so we cant really let them die. Like you say, your job is as hard as how useless your dps are at blood power managment.
#10 by Cel on February 10, 2010 - 10:59 am
@Brangwen I will try that tonight when we do our 25s, to see if it saves my sanity a little. I can keep myself alive just fine, but when Marrowgar finally stops spinning and I’m too far away from the tanks, it’s panic time!
@Echo That might be what we end up having to do in 25s. In 10s we usually don’t make it to the second mark any more, so I’ll happily keep the first one alive.