Finding good Emerald Nightmare boss guides, and a question about healer roles

[mrshow]

I need some help finding useful resources for preparing for Emerald Nightmare. What raid/boss guides are people using? Searching online turns up a mix of stuff based on alpha and beta content. Is there any particular source considered to be more authoritative than the others at this point? I'm trying to avoid planning incorrectly because I based my understanding of the fight on an inaccurate/out of date video or guide.

The second question I have is related to healers specifically. Can people just help me understand what healing specs provide what role given all the class re-working in Legion?

Thanks for the help.

[Ragnarocket]

The only decent stuff I've found thus far is some WoWhead guides. As a general rule I don't usually use WoWHead for my strategy guides as I seem to have issues navigating their site (uses up so many of my CPU resources). But here is a link to the overall guide, it has the first 5 bosses done already.

http://www.wowhead.com/guides/emeral...9-demon-hunter

They seem pretty detailed.

Second Question

This is the way I see it currently with my experience being that I've run quite a few mythics as either a DPS (Enhance) or Resto and I'll be running the raids for my guild so I've been trying to play with a diverse set of groups in order to figure out comps.

Resto Shaman (most comfortable with this assessment) seems to be really good at stacked raid healing and saving a group from what looks to be a wipe. They have Healing Tide and Spirit Link by default which can save lives as well as Ascendance and Ancestral Protection Totem if talented into them. Lots of cooldowns and fairly versatile. They are a fairly weak at spot healing groups that are spread out though. I'd call us the "Oh Shit!" Healer or usually just a Stacked Healer.

Resto Druid fixes the issue that Shaman have, as they are good at keeping large amounts of people stable even if they are spread out. They can keep a tank alive fairly well with a steady rotation of HoTs and Barkskin as well. In general they seem to be one of the better healing classes at the moment between their mobility, raid healing, tank healing (probably their weakest trait), and cooldowns (Tranquility anyone?). They are without a doubt the most mobile of the healers, so while they are overall just amazing I'd label them as the Mobile Healer.

Holy Pallies are close range healers now, in the sense that they heal targets near them very, very well. I think that their niche as a tank healer is still very valid. Raid healing is really not their thing. I like to think of the paladin as a healer who tries to mitigate what he can. Between the Judgment ability that heals allies who attack the pally's target as well as Aura of Mercy which heals allies near you. It's a bit like Healing Stream Totem, except you are mobile and able to sit near the people who need the heals. I think the best way to describe them is as a Proximity Healer. Allies near them are going to stay pretty healthy, but they aren't great at healing lots of people from a distance.

Despite the Mistweaver being the healer I see the most of aside from myself as a Resto Shaman, I'm not too certain about their strengths/weaknesses. From what my friends tell me, it really depends on your talent choices, you can either be a REALLY good tank healer or a REALLY good raid healer...but you'll never be both. I'm actually happy to have that as it means that we can bring a MW and not feel too terrible, if we are lacking raid healing one of them just has to swap their talents to give us the edge there. They have great passive healing from what I can tell as well with Soothing Mist. I'd call them the Versatile Healer.

Holy Priests feel a bit weak to me at the moment. If I had to give them a label it would be Support Healer because a lot of their CDs feel like support for the rest of the healing team. Guardian Spirit and Divine Hymn both increase the amount of healing the targets take while under the effect, and Hymn of Hope allows all healers in the raid to spam healing for the next 10 seconds. They are good, no question. But I feel that by themselves they only bring so-so tank healing and pretty good raid healing. We will probably run 1 for the wonderful benefits they bring though.

Discipline Priests are easy to label, they are the Damage Healer. If you need slightly more DPS without sacrificing too much healing these are the guys to bring in. Their damage is pretty good and their healing can get quite strong from what I've seen, although they struggle with 5 mans from the little bit I've seen. In a raid I have a feeling they will find a niche for flex groups that increase their size and feel like they don't QUITE need another healer at whatever new amount of people they have.

[mrshow]

Thanks you so much for all this great info. Somehow I had missed the Wowhead guides, despite spending time looking there before posting. And the detailed healer info is really useful. I really appreciate all the effort.

[Kizrael]

Hey man, I would check out Fatboss's youtube guides on the emerald nightmare fights, they go into a decent amount of detail for each role.

[Deleted]

Hey man, I would check out Fatboss's youtube guides on the emerald nightmare fights, they go into a decent amount of detail for each role.

Those are from alpha and miss information

[Zodd]

The only decent stuff I've found thus far is some WoWhead guides. As a general rule I don't usually use WoWHead for my strategy guides as I seem to have issues navigating their site (uses up so many of my CPU resources). But here is a link to the overall guide, it has the first 5 bosses done already.

http://www.wowhead.com/guides/emeral...9-demon-hunter

They seem pretty detailed.

Second Question

This is the way I see it currently with my experience being that I've run quite a few mythics as either a DPS (Enhance) or Resto and I'll be running the raids for my guild so I've been trying to play with a diverse set of groups in order to figure out comps.

Holy Pallies are close range healers now, in the sense that they heal targets near them very, very well. I think that their niche as a tank healer is still very valid. Raid healing is really not their thing. I like to think of the paladin as a healer who tries to mitigate what he can. Between the Judgment ability that heals allies who attack the pally's target as well as Aura of Mercy which heals allies near you. It's a bit like Healing Stream Totem, except you are mobile and able to sit near the people who need the heals. I think the best way to describe them is as a Proximity Healer. Allies near them are going to stay pretty healthy, but they aren't great at healing lots of people from a distance.

I'd like to provide a little feedback on the Holy Paladin assessment. Firstly, a Holy Paladin should probably not spec into Judgment of Light unless specifically instructed to (for some reason) as it will prevent them from getting Sanctified Wrath, which is just absolutely amazing. Extending the duration of the best CD by 50% and reducing the CD of the most potent heal (and likely giving it a 100% crit chance which synergizes with other abilities) is just too good to pass up in probably 99% of situations. JoL heals for a relatively insignificant amount.

In raids I suspect the go-to talent will be Beacon of the Lightbringer in most situations, this essentially gives Holy Paladins two anchor points for their Mastery to base off. Holy Paladin Mastery scales very quickly with relatively small rating. As long as people are within 10 yards of the Beacon and 10 yards of the Paladin their mastery will hit for the full amount, it drops off after that linearly to 0 at 40 yards.

Most Holy Paladins will also spec into Rule of Law which will enable a 50% range increase on their mastery that can be applied as needed, lasting 10 seconds.

I can see Holy Paladins being pretty flexible and being able to place with melee or ranged as the fight dictates.

Holy Paladins also have the largest amount of potentially life saving instant abilities (on rather long CD's) that can be very useful - BoP, BoS (tank DR), Lay Hands. The Holy Paladin should also be a resilient healer assuming they are following the mechanics of the fight due to having Divine Shield and Divine Protection available (immunity, 20% DR).

Aura of Mercy is ok, but I think that for a lot of encounters Devotion Aura will outshine it by a relatively large margin. In others, Aura of Sacrifice will be more useful. I don't see Aura of Mercy being particularly suited for anything in its' current state. Reasoning: Devotion Aura w/ Aura Mastery provides a 20% DR for anyone within 40 yards. Kind of like an invisible Power Word: Barrier. This can be used to reduce overall healing of raid-wide mechanic damage by a huge amount. A raid of 20 people taking 500k unavoidable damage, for example, will take 400k instead. This is 2 million effective healing. Aura of Mercy cannot compete with that kind of effectiveness. Aura of Sacrifice can be more useful in situations where there is not a one-shot mechanic but where large group healing will be required, as with Aura Mastery it will duplicate 15% of all the healing the Paladin does to everyone within 40 yards. The base duration is 6 seconds, and can be extended to 8 via artifact trait. In that 6 seconds, the Paladin will likely Holy Shock, followed up with a 50% empowered Flash of Light, and perhaps a Light of Dawn. Light of Dawn can duplicate itself via artifact trait and cast twice, and if talented into Divine Purpose can fire multiple times (which can also trigger Divine Purpose procs, longest streak I had was 4 in a row). The burst potential here is very high.

Overall, Holy Paladins do not excel at group/raid healing though they aren't impotent. Outside of Light of Dawn and the Artifact Ability, Holy Paladins are great as a Snipe Healer. Holy Paladins can put HP into a target very quickly via Holy Shock -> Flash of Light -> Light of the Martyr. This yields, in the space of two GCD's starting from the Holy Shock cast, a total of 400% SP (Holy Shock, very high chance to crit w/ baseline 24% increased crit effect from one of the first artifact traits) + 425% SP (Likely with Infusion which increases heal by 50%) + 500% SP from Light of the Martyr (does not transfer to Beacon, however). As the heal from Light of the Martyr comes at the exact time of the cast it will be applied instantaneously along with the Flash of Light cast. This is essentially the Paladin way of duplicating the Holy Priest spell Holy Word: Serenity, and it can be done every time Holy Shock is off CD quite reliably. The biggest weakness of the Holy Paladin is their mobility and requirement to be close to allies to benefit from Mastery. The best way to overcome these is through experience and raid coordination - the Paladin must be acutely aware of where allies are and what they will have to do to maximize throughput.

Finally, with regard to Discipline Priest, I see them being very useful to counter certain mechanics. Their artifact ability when used in conjunction with Atonement up on as many targets as possible has the potential to provide massive raid/group healing, though it's not something they can do very often and requires extensive preparation beforehand.

[Micronetic]

So the wowhead guides are the only recent ones at the moment? Would like to have some videos rather

[Ragnarocket]

"Snip"

Thanks Zodd...my expertise on the new styles of healing for Pallies and Monks is woefully weak. I've been trying to get healers up to 110 in order to best understand each class' strengths and weaknesses...and of course at this point in time all I have is my Shaman (which is my main) but I also have a Druid that just hit 110 so I'm getting familiar with them as well. This is good information for me as well...since I'm putting together my raid team at the moment and we have a ridiculous amount of pally healers signing up.

[shonist]

fatboss tv and you will be ok.

[Djriff]

Gonna address the priest ones in particular since this is a little incorrect.

Holy Priests feel a bit weak to me at the moment. If I had to give them a label it would be Support Healer because a lot of their CDs feel like support for the rest of the healing team. Guardian Spirit and Divine Hymn both increase the amount of healing the targets take while under the effect, and Hymn of Hope allows all healers in the raid to spam healing for the next 10 seconds. They are good, no question. But I feel that by themselves they only bring so-so tank healing and pretty good raid healing. We will probably run 1 for the wonderful benefits they bring though.

Holy is the jack of all trades, master of none type healer. It provides fantastic raid healing, both spread and stacked, and has Lay on Hands on a 1m CD that can be reduced by casting ST healing spells. Additionally Holy Priests bring Symbol of Hope to the raid, which lets your healers (Priest included) cast for free for 10 seconds on a 6m CD. EoL will do a lot of healing, and holy priests can provide some great sustained and burst healing. They are definitely not just a support healer. Lastly Holy Priests have Apotheosis which is a powerhouse cooldown and can bring some unbelievable throughput as long as you have the mana to sustain it.

Discipline Priests are easy to label, they are the Damage Healer. If you need slightly more DPS without sacrificing too much healing these are the guys to bring in. Their damage is pretty good and their healing can get quite strong from what I've seen, although they struggle with 5 mans from the little bit I've seen. In a raid I have a feeling they will find a niche for flex groups that increase their size and feel like they don't QUITE need another healer at whatever new amount of people they have.

Discipline priests are crazily strong in raids. Their current niche in raids is burst healing while their weakspot is spot healing. They can do it, but it's not their best option. Disc does bring some meaningful boss DPS to the raid group, without sacrificing heals. Additionally, shadowmend is the strongest ST heal in the game without a CD and can be spammed on the tank if they are getting trucked. Disc doesn't really struggle with 5 mans, it's just a lot of Shadowmend spam since attonement healing is weak in that kind of environment. Disc also scales exponentially with size and the more players you have in the raid the more healing they will do, adversely disc also benefits the most from underhealing as they can maintain ToF more which increases their healing substantially.

Also priests in general bring Mass Dispel, Mind Control, Fear, Purge (Dispel Magic), Leap of Faith, and Shackle Undead (lol).

[Ragnarocket]

Gonna address the priest ones in particular since this is a little incorrect.

Holy is the jack of all trades, master of none type healer. It provides fantastic raid healing, both spread and stacked, and has Lay on Hands on a 1m CD that can be reduced by casting ST healing spells. Additionally Holy Priests bring Symbol of Hope to the raid, which lets your healers (Priest included) cast for free for 10 seconds on a 6m CD. EoL will do a lot of healing, and holy priests can provide some great sustained and burst healing. They are definitely not just a support healer. Lastly Holy Priests have Apotheosis which is a powerhouse cooldown and can bring some unbelievable throughput as long as you have the mana to sustain it.

Discipline priests are crazily strong in raids. Their current niche in raids is burst healing while their weakspot is spot healing. They can do it, but it's not their best option. Disc does bring some meaningful boss DPS to the raid group, without sacrificing heals. Additionally, shadowmend is the strongest ST heal in the game without a CD and can be spammed on the tank if they are getting trucked. Disc doesn't really struggle with 5 mans, it's just a lot of Shadowmend spam since attonement healing is weak in that kind of environment. Disc also scales exponentially with size and the more players you have in the raid the more healing they will do, adversely disc also benefits the most from underhealing as they can maintain ToF more which increases their healing substantially.

Also priests in general bring Mass Dispel, Mind Control, Fear, Purge (Dispel Magic), Leap of Faith, and Shackle Undead (lol).

I agree with your assessments, I've been grouping up with more Disc/Holy priests this last week and they are stronger than I originally thought. Disc in particular is starting to make me really think I've been missing out. Whatever the Artifact ability is, one of our more geared DPriests was healing a group and was able to hit an enemy for about 4.5 million with that ability and healed everyone in the group for 2 million. It was a little bit silly. If I didn't have the log of it I'd think I was hallucinating. I'm looking forward to seeing what comes out of our raiding this week.

Currently our healing set up is Resto Druid, Resto Shaman, 2 Holy Pallies, and a Mistweaver. Our priests are currently less geared than all of those I just mentioned so we're having them take a bench this week. We had like 10 people sign up for healing so we kind of had to make do with what we had.

[Djriff]

That's actually the hidden artifact ability. It passively generates a stack up to 150 iirc that makes our next Light's Wrath (artifact ability) deal % more damage. It's fairly insane, but totally RNG.

[Ragnarocket]

That's actually the hidden artifact ability. It passively generates a stack up to 150 iirc that makes our next Light's Wrath (artifact ability) deal % more damage. It's fairly insane, but totally RNG.

Well it's beautiful when it works out lol.

The healer, the tank, and myself just all went "Woah! WTF just happened?". As a resto shaman I was fairly jealous, I've hit 1.5 million on a single (very weak) person so that was quite nice to see.

[Djriff]

I've seen 2m crits from HW: Serenity as a holy priest, was in heaven.

OT: I plan on reading a bunch of different guides, wowhead + icyveins are a good start as those are both reviewed. Icyveins one is good atm, although it's basically a regurgitation of the dungeon journal with some very rough strats.