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

[Danner]

At lvl 73, you cannot really sustain healing that pull as a holy priest; and as you level up it will only get worse due to the constanly decreasing spirit regen. Not until you hit some heroic gear will you comfortably be able to heal it.

That's not to say it's impossible. It's just hard.

* The best way to make your tank to use the lightwell. It's healing for a hell of a lot, and unless the tank is severely undergeared, incoming damage won't break the effect. By using the lightwell, the tank will remedy your mana issues, but the workload is now on him.
* Get a better geared tank. Having a damage spunge tank will be a lot harder than a tank dodging 80% of the blows.
* A druid giving you innervate will be your best friend until you get some heroic gear. Bring one!
* Bring a lot of mana potions. You will need them!
* Consider getting some of the dark runes. Every little ounce of mana helps
* Keep Prayer of Mending bouncing. This is the hard part, but if it bounce a lot it's your most mana efficient heal after the lightwell. Learning to use it well is vital for surviving the time until you get heroic gear.
* Get someone with replenishment. It makes a lot of difference.
* Flash Heal is too expensive. It's a staple spell at raiding, but until you get heroic gear, spamming it is no option as you likely won't even have replenishment. Use it, but hold back as much as possible. Don't use it on the tank, ever. Make sure that you always trigger Serendipity if you do use it.
* Same problem with greater heal. They say it's more efficient, but it's not that much more efficient. Casting one will hurt your manapool severely. Use it, but hold back when possible. Try to trigger Serendipity AND Test of Faith for the best effect. Doing so is a timing-critical job, but without both procs, you are not maximizing the use of your build.
* Renew is more expensive than a flash heal, effectively heals for less and slower and doesn't proc Holy Concentration or Surge of Light. Don't use it, ever. Reconsider that stance in 3.1.
* Consider respeccing Discipline. Holy is a horribly mana-inefficient healer which doesn't work without lots of support from other classes. Discipline has infinite mana until 3.1 hits us and while bringing weaker heals to the table can still hold his own much more reliably than holy.
* If you are very pressed for mana, stand in a cleave. The 15 extra healing in angelform seconds will be the last thing you do you, but it usually saves the tank. If you have a warlock, get a soulstone before doing that. Either way, expect to run a lot.
* Call for assistance! A shadowpriest, shaman, boomkin, cat or retardin can all help you with the healing. For this pull, it's not a sign of weakness to require assistance.
* Use a bandage. You are desperate after all.
* Give your tank and party some healing potions. This will save you a quarter of a manabar. Warlock soulstones are of equal value.

[AetherMcLoud]

I imagine this being really hard as a holy priest. It's still the hardest part of any instance on heroic if you don't completely outgear it.

I would say disc has no problem there, because of shields and their almost limitless manapool.

What matters most at this part of the instance is the DPS, yes. If they don't do enough dps to kill the skirmishers ASAP the healer will go down, period. Holding aggro as a DK there is no problem (as long as you're tank specced and defequipped, if not both of these you are no tank, period). If the mobs go down fast healing it is still hard but very doable even as holy. But if the mobs, especially skirmishers take ages to go down, the group is finished and a wipe immediate.

I once did the instance on heroic with my full epic / Naxx10 equipped DK tank, and a ok-to-good healer. Terrible DPS though, with 2 under 1000 DPS and one barely scratching 1200. We never saw the first boss because those packs are simply not doable with terrible DPSers.

[Lent]

every time the daily HC comes up to be AN, i shit a brick, my level 80 pally can just about handle it, dispelling the poisons works for a time, but then the time comes that you gotta start healing the whole party, and then dispelling becomes a choice between - waste a GCD on a dispell and noone gets a heal or put out a 14k holy light which beacons onto the tank healing two party members for a total of 28k.

the latter choice is when i end up reverting to, but by the time the boss comes, im close to halfway through my mana pool ZOMG's!

[Deralte]

I'd say it was the tanks fault. There are a few that think, 'I can't wear a shield, so what need i defense for?' or something like this. At least that happended to me once, so that's the problem i guess.

[adalet]

Ok, first of all, holy/disc no matter what i can for sure say your tank was very very crapy. As a DK even at that lvl it shouldn't be a problem for him to tank/keep agro on those mobs if he knows how to pull his CD's and ofc counting in the proper gear. Second of all, if you're still TBC geared, dump it, d/e, sell it, destroy it, it will only pull you down. Find int/spi/sp gear, you need sp and regen and no, a disc priest is a noob healer at your lvl even with his imba shields or rapture blabla. Do not spam FH cuz it will get you oom in a matter of seconds, a good holy healer will always feel when his heals are needed or not; that means timing GH with a pom and a handy abolish disease make miracles there. Never turn your back to mobs and never blame yourself for the crapy tank/dpsers. If you wipe 2 times it's enough, that means you had a really crapy group.

[gaymer77]

For all of you saying that its not doable by a holy priest, you're dead wrong. When LK came out, I as a shadow priest healed it at 72. I will agree that it is indeed the hardest thing currently in any dungeon for heroic or normal (at that lvl). The key to that fight is YOU have to start the event by a shackle pull on the caster bug. I can't remember the name of it but its the only one of those bugs with a mana bar. As for the healing itself, keep renews up on the tank. Also make sure your tank is geared enough to tank it. That particular pull is not tankable by a dps spec or a tank in dps gear. Be firm when you tell the tank he's not geared enough for it. As for your 900 SP, that's pretty low. I don't even think my shaman was that low at 68. Do you have your gloves, bracers, & weapon enchanted with spellpower? If not you should get it done. The low end versions of those enchants are fairly cheap to get mats for unless you're an enchanter & can do it yourself. Link your armory so we can see if maybe its a problem with your spec/gear.

[steve80]

Well when I got home from work, I got a group (Paladin tank level 71) and we cleared it 3x in a row with not 1 death... I guess the DK tank I originally had was the problem... I did nothing different the 1st run, then run 2 and 3 I used the 5SR and I like that much more.

One problem I had before was I tried to shackle the skirmisher... which are immune... so I thought hey, they all must be immune.... but I was wrong.. now I always shackle the caster... easy as pie.

Thanks for the help.

[taek]

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

Instance is easiest with a DK / druid. Most of the damage is poison & shadow in the instance, armor/shield block does nothing against that.
Most of the dangerous mobs are casters, DKs shut down caster mobs fairly easy.

Priest is easily the worst healer for this run (on heroic). No nature resist, no silence, no stun, no poison cure, cloth armor vs the random skirmisher attacks. I've had awesome priest healers struggle on this heroic, i've had newb resto shamans sleepwalk through this on heroic.

If you're a priest, my advice is to get hybrid DPSers so they can cure poison/put up nature resist. Emphasize to the DPSers:
* interrupt/silence/stun as often as possible
* cure poison (if you can)
* make sure tank knows which mobs uses AE Poison and make sure he's turning that mob away from the group

[adalet]

Priest is easily the worst healer for this run (on heroic). No nature resist, no silence, no stun, no poison cure, cloth armor vs the random skirmisher attacks.

That's why pugs are bad.

[Laotzu]

I levelled my priest alt as Disc - but decided to test out holy spec again as priest used to be my main in original WoW but was an alt all the way through TBC and shadow spec;ed so I was curious as to how Holy played now compared to disc. AN was also the place I decided to go and try heal as Holy spec - around the same kind of level as you. Mostly geared in stuff from Kara with 1 or 2 items I had replaced while levelling (geared in what was shadow spec gear - so not the greatest amount of +Spirit on it).

I healed the first group of mobs and HS'ed and respec'ed back to discipline as mana was a big problems (whereas I had no problems as disc spec).

Reflective shields is great for levelling - but as others have suggested dropped this once I hit 80. Mana is less of an issue as disc spec and its easier to solo as disc compared to holy.

Give Discipline spec a try. I personally love it. I know some priests who really dont like it but holy is definitely a more gear dependent spec than discipline.

[Triceron]

Only time I've done it with a Holy Priest was when I was off healing as Boomkin. The poisons and intensity of heals required on both the tank and full party is overwhelming for a lvling healer.

[Kelesti]

cloth armor vs the random skirmisher attacks. I've had awesome priest healers struggle on this heroic

Your awesome priest healers didn't figure out that if they stand in melee range they're too close to charge so they don't get targeted? Deadzone it, people. >.>