Disc Priest preparing for Garrosh 10M hc - (E)WW & a solo tank

[Ken-Ken]

Hi, I'm looking for advice from experienced fellow disc priests on handling Garrosh hc 10-man healing with just one tank (warrior) when it comes to (Empowered) Whirlwinds. I've only had two nights experience on that encounter so far and we're not yet consistently reaching P2. But when we do, there is a consistent problem:

I find myself between a rock and a hard place trying to keep the tank up with his 10+ stacks of Gripping Despair and simultaneously pre-shielding the raid with a maximum of Divine Aegis + Spirit Shell for Garrosh's Whirlwind, particularly later when the Whirlwind is empowered.
For the non-empowered Whirlwind we stay stacked after the MCs are freed. For the Empowered Whirlwind we spread out to one half of the room (a bit too soon for my taste, but hey, we're a bit nervous).
My raid leader suggested that I spam Power Word: Shield preemptively. Since Shields may now crit, he reckons that would be a lot of absorb.

Still I am in the uncomfortable position that if I look after the tank my logged AoE healing will be laughable. However, if I go through the moves of building up Divine Aegis + Spirit Shell on the raid and the tank bites the dust, it's my fault, too, because Spirit Shell will not record as healing until it's done doing its job.

So I'm wondering, have any of you accomplished discs out there found yourselves in such a position? - If so, how did you solve it? - If not, what did you do to avoid it?

[Sillychan]

What other externals are available?

Raid cds?

Are you 1 tank/1 healing?

[Ken-Ken]

Hello Naer, thanks for replying so promptly.

I would have loved to insert a link to one of our better tries here. Unfortunately the forum does not let me do that, yet. (Error message: "You are not allowed to post any kinds of links, images or videos until you post a few times.")

So here's what our raid composition was on the last night of our tries:

Tank: Warrior
Healers: Druid, Disc Priest
MDPS: Rogue, DK, Ret Pala, Monk,
RDPS: 2 Hunters, Shadowpriest

As far as raid CDs go, our composition may vary slightly. We've also have an Ele Shaman and a Mage on our roster, who could not make it on that night. One class we currently have none of is Warlocks.
There is no plan that I'm aware of to go solo-healing, but I am watching disc solo heal videos of Garrosh hc 10-man kills.

[Dracodraco]

It's quite easy really. Your tank should be spamming shieldbarrier with his 4-500K vengeance, and thus pretty much be self-sustained for the most part. When I solo tank it on my DK, I call for an external at ~5-6 stacks (lasting untill 9 stacks) and pop a personal cooldown going in for 9->11 stacks, and then AMS during the whirl to absorb the magic damage. He can't AMS, but he can shieldbarrier everything beforehand, so he needs to do that.
I'm not fully aware of what CDs warriors have available outside of Last stand and shield wall, but I'd personally say go like this:
6 stacks first whirl - Ironbark. Follow up with shield wall.
6 stacks second whirl - Hand of sac (ret pally) - follow up with pain sup.
6 stack third whirl - Ironbark. Follow up with Hand of sac (ret pally)/last stand.

This way he should be minorly cooldowned during the part leading up to the whirl, and heavily cooldowned (+40% or 25% and EHP) during the whirl. If he has the Rook trinket, it will lower the damage from the Whirl as well.

Apart from that, there's not much to say really. As disc, you should really be more focused on preparing the raid for the whirls than the tank, as the druid has a much stronger tank healing toolkit than you (especially with 4 set - instant healing touches for blanketing the raid), and having a full set of shields on people will be much stronger than a full set of rejuvs.

While it has nothing to do with the tank healing, you should attempt to get the ele shaman in over a hunter. Your comp is lacking severely in power during empowered whirls due to "just" a tranq/VE and devo aura/rallying being "effective" raid CDs while spread. Adding AG+Healing tide to that would keep the raid a lot more stable.

[Jaydenkor]

The first thing that pops into my head reading this;

This fight is solo healed with 2 tanks.. and you are 1tank 2healing it -- eg; 1 of you healers should be able to raid heal entirely (+cooldowns or such), while the other primarily focuses on the tank.

Your comp;
Tank: Warrior
Healers: Druid, Disc Priest
MDPS: Rogue, DK, Ret Pala, Monk,
RDPS: 2 Hunters, Shadowpriest


The monk and 2 hunters kinda hurt you. Don't get me wrong, you need 3 ranged dps to bait desecrates.. but those 3 classes (and the shadowpriest other then VE) don't bring much to the table.
Warlock self survivability.. an extra warrior dps for banner/rally, an extra ret for more sacs/Auramastery.. etc.. all would be better if you could.

That being said. Your first(and only, in phase 2) empowered whirl should probably be an AM+Tranq. The second (in phase 3) probably VE +Shield spam//Spirit shell, while the druid watches the tank healing.

Not having a boomkin or feral cat for an ubertranq during 1 of those really hurts

Best of luck.

[Ken-Ken]

Thank you for taking the time reading and posting back. I'll see how it goes on our next raid night.

I guess linking a log would help. But I can't post any links at my current forum rank, sad to tell.

[Sillychan]

You can just put spaces / periods in.

Ie

Google . Com / stuff-here