Group composition (normal/heroic)

[Deleted]

I am the raid leader of our little (not so little anymore) gaming community. We do normal raiding, and hopefully in a few weeks we will venture into heroic. We did kill Nythendra on heroic, but will likely wait a few more weeks before we start to tackle heroic.

We have the "unfortunate" issue that we have too many healers! And while every healer can have an offspec, some choose to not pick one (or would prefer to raid as a healer). This is a bit of a headache for a poor raid leader such as myself.

I have two questions that I need clarification on (or maybe just a brushup).

- What are the recommended amount of healers for different group sizes? I'm looking at very general numbers, of course. At what point should you have 2, 3, 4, 5 (?) healers in your group?

- Assuming Brian is a healer and he doesn't have an offspec, is it worth adding the extra healer just for the hell of it, or should I ask Brian to wait outside the instance like the scrub he is, because bringing an extra healer would make the encounter more difficult? If I can add "one extra healer" and still perform well, where is the upper limit for this?

Thanks in advance

[Adramelch]

The general rule of thumb is 1 healer per 5 people. Typically, adding an extra healer above that (so having say 5 healers in a 20man raid) is not that big a deal unless the fight has dps-checks that your raid can't achieve (whether that be a tight enrage, or specific mechanics (like an add that needs to die fast). Normal and heroic typically have more relaxed dps requirements so it shouldn't be that big of a problem.

[Deleted]

I am the raid leader of our little (not so little anymore) gaming community. We do normal raiding, and hopefully in a few weeks we will venture into heroic. We did kill Nythendra on heroic, but will likely wait a few more weeks before we start to tackle heroic.

We have the "unfortunate" issue that we have too many healers! And while every healer can have an offspec, some choose to not pick one (or would prefer to raid as a healer). This is a bit of a headache for a poor raid leader such as myself.

I have two questions that I need clarification on (or maybe just a brushup).

- What are the recommended amount of healers for different group sizes? I'm looking at very general numbers, of course. At what point should you have 2, 3, 4, 5 (?) healers in your group?

- Assuming Brian is a healer and he doesn't have an offspec, is it worth adding the extra healer just for the hell of it, or should I ask Brian to wait outside the instance like the scrub he is, because bringing an extra healer would make the encounter more difficult? If I can add "one extra healer" and still perform well, where is the upper limit for this?

Thanks in advance

As mentioned above, general rule of thumb is 1/5. But there is no acual limit that we could tell you. It's all about how much DPS your raid can produce combined, even if that would mean 10 healers and 10 dps.

[Deleted]

So, just to make this fool proof: 1 healer for 5 people, where the healer is one of the five?

[Accendor]

Just in addition to that: Remind your healers that they are also able to do DPS besides healing. When every healer only has to spend 75% of his time to healing / mechanics the remaining 25% can be used for DPS. Of course this does not replace a full DPS player, but it really helps.

[Adramelch]

So, just to make this fool proof: 1 healer for 5 people, where the healer is one of the five?

That is correct. Some bosses this tier "lend themselves" to going past that limit, like Nythendra, Elerethe and possibly Il'gynoth and Cenarius, so it's not like you'll struggle if you have that one extra healer. Out of curiosity, how big a raid are we talking about? Because as you understand, having 1 extra healer in 15 people is much more impactful than having an extra healer in 25 people.

[Deleted]

Just in addition to that: Remind your healers that they are also able to do DPS besides healing. When every healer only has to spend 75% of his time to healing / mechanics the remaining 25% can be used for DPS. Of course this does not replace a full DPS player, but it really helps.

as a healing druid with cat affinity you have 2 gcds on your 100% dps rotation that you can spend on healing without losing too much dps, but of course thats nowhere near a dps specced played but may contribute to emergeny healing or group healing with wild growth and effloresence

[Deleted]

That is correct. Some bosses this tier "lend themselves" to going past that limit, like Nythendra, Elerethe and possibly Il'gynoth and Cenarius, so it's not like you'll struggle if you have that one extra healer. Out of curiosity, how big a raid are we talking about? Because as you understand, having 1 extra healer in 15 people is much more impactful than having an extra healer in 25 people.

On last weeks raid, I had 15 signups. 2 pure tanks, 3 pure healers, 4 pure DPS. The remaining people were a mix of DPS/Tank or DPS/healer. So people are signing up with everything they feel that they can perform in.

The easy answer is to just say "Well, you had three healers for 15 people", but I know that some of the people who signed up as DPS/healer prefers to be a healer, but offers to switch to DPS if they need to. And I can't just go "Well, these guys only want to play as healers", and force everyone with an offspec to play DPS.

[Adramelch]

4healing a 15man group might be more of a stretch.