73 Holy priest - trying to heal 1st waves of mobs in Azjol'Nerub... can't do it?

[steve80]

I am a 73 Holy priest with ~900 healing. Went to Azjol'Nerub yesterday with the following classes:

Tank - 63 DK w 14k HP
Mage
Hunter
Rogue

For the life of me I could not keep the DK tank alive on the 3 waves of mobs before the boss... I run out of mana so fast and my heals are not big enough (Flash Heal non-crit for 3000). I do have low mana regen while in combat and of course I cannot dispel poisons.

Is there anything that I could be doing wrong? Or is it because there is nobody to remove the poisons? I can heal Nexus and UK with ease. I have tanked and dps'd every instance on other toons... but this is my 1st healing class.

Any suggestions?

Thank-you in advance!

[Illidren]

Level to 68 then start in northrend ^^

[steve80]

oops sorry, I meant level 73.

[Daeveren]

I suppose you mean that you're lvl 73 there. And an advice on healing the tank on the waves to 2nd boss, make sure you remove that disease the tank gets. Perhaps that's why you're burning too much mana keeping him alive.

[Omgitschris]

Hmm I don't know what to tell you but it is my understand that Flash Heal is a huge mana hog for priests no?

[steve80]

"Flash Heal is a huge mana hog for priests no?"

Not that I am aware of, most priests I talk to use this ability the most.

[Omgitschris]

"Flash Heal is a huge mana hog for priests no?"

Not that I am aware of, most priests I talk to use this ability the most.

Ah well IDK then, I was always under the assumption that Greater Heal had better mana efficiency than Flash Heal.

[Dubious]

checked the gear on the DK?
myave he was in wrong "presence" or whatever they stance thingy they need to be in

[quanger]

Flash Heals are definitely not the way to go....what you want to try and do is cast gheal then and instant heal right after so you can take advantage of the 5 second rule regen as much as possible. also take full advantage of PoM jumps before you cast the next one, and keep renew up. between you and the tank, there are some cooldowns to blow to reduce damage done or increase healing taken (ie. Ice bound fortitude, death coil minions, guardian spirit...etc)

just try and not spam flash heal...it's not the greatest idea ever...

[Kimaru]

Questions about the tank:
Is the tank blowing his cooldowns at the right times?
Is he properly geared with defence, dodge, parry etc or just stamina stacking?
How is he spec'd? does he have the proper tanking talents or has he maxed out for dps for leveling?
Is he keeping mobs in from of him?

Sorry to ask obvious questions, but I'm just trying to assess weither it's a mitigation/survival problem for the tank or if it's a healing strategy.
I tried dk tank a while back and remember feeling very fragile at times even with the right gear. Cooldowns are really important for them. Just make sure he's pushing the right buttons at the right times and not panic spamming or forgetting them completely.

Have you tried the encounter with other types of tanks?

Edit:
If the poisons are making things difficult and you're in the same kind of group again. Try making the hunter use aspect of the wild or whatever else is at your disposal. Shaman totem, pala cleanse, druid poison removal.

If all else fails, 'Body and Soul' (Holy tree as of patch 3.1) will give you a chance to remove poisons and with abolish disease.

[steve80]

Ok, I will try the 5 second regen thing today..

And no, I have not tried it with any other types of tanks... I went back to healing UK after failing 4-5x with that group in AN on the 3 waves.

[mutantboy]

"Flash Heal is a huge mana hog for priests no?"

Not that I am aware of, most priests I talk to use this ability the most.

Most priests who spam flash heal are lvl 80, have a raid group behind them with replenishment and have hundreds of mp5 ticking away. At lower levels with 900sp you need to think about mana use a lot more.

Or go Disc. I did this as a dics priest at lvl 71 (admittedly with T5-6 gear) and ended up with stuff I couldn't use for 2 levels. Shields up, penance, Pom, the odd renew occaisionally and G/heal where big damage is incoming. At those lower levels I found Disc build way way better

[Selerious]

I would say, your tank does not have the appropriate gear for the job. At 73, all the decent tank gear is pretty much crafted. If he is wearing dps gear and has no defence that will make it much harder on you. 14k health is also very low for a 73 tank. I have a Dk in all DPs gear that has almost 14k health at 72.

Flash heal, is a great spell, and with the glyph isn't to hard on mana. At 73 though spamming it is probably not a good idea (at 80 there is no problme here if you ahve the gear). GH is far better for mana conservation but slow sometimes. That's where PoM (should always be up) and PWS come in.

[steve80]

what would be a good disc/holy build for level 73? I am new to healing as I leveled as shadow like 99% of the priests.

[Selerious]

For Holy, something like this

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/...00000000000000

Healing Focus isn't a bad talent for new healers, though many people say it's a waste of points. You could drop divine providence and pick up healing focus until later level's if you had trouble with bad tanks a lot.

I leveled from 10-80 as holy, never had any trouble.  Just a preference.  I have no experience so far playing disc.

[NathSB]

Never gotten past those with a DK tank, so... maybe it's a sign?

[Kimaru]

Try something along the lines of this for a disc build. Might need a few tweeks but it's probably what I'd go for.

[mutantboy]

My disc build was: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bVcbuhhtMhsVfRt0xx

Many people have commented on reflective sheild - i found it invaluable leveling. I dropped it at 80.
Always remember the effect of Borrowed time: 25% spell haste after casting sheild - so my idea was always to sheild when damage is incoming and hit GH straight away (normally between penance)

I had the odd Warrior get upset about rage generation so I wouldn't bubble him straight away but normally for places like AN you are getting smacked around enough so that isn't so much an issue.

I never found mana a big deal - but then I also use a lot of Rhino dogs and had a massive amount of Mana flasks left over from lvl 70 raiding

[greenmasheen]

Ah well IDK then, I was always under the assumption that Greater Heal had better mana efficiency than Flash Heal.

still does, just not as much as it used to, since they removed downranking at least.

spamming flash heal will most likely net you an empty mana bar, use other heals such as renew and prayer of mending to gain the 5 second mana regen.

[Darshana]

Hardest pack to heal on in any 5 man imo. I can't do it in heroic, I stopped even trying to go to that stupid instance. I did do it alot in normal though whilst leveling up. It was hard though. I kept getting webbed a lot. Have you tried to shackle one of the mobs? And make sure you kill the skirmisher first and be ready for random agro on yourself. I was disc spec when I did it and needed to keep myself healed more than anyone else. Also if the dps is rubbish it makes it harder too. Make a macro for when u get webbed so they know when to help you.