Healer/DPS ratio in flex raids?

[Hazno]

Hi,

I've taken upon myself the task of leading my guild's second group in Emerald Nightmare (Normal) this evening. It basically consists of initiates that couldn't fit in the main raid and social members. This also means the main raid has picked the healers they needed, and the second group now only has 2-3 healers so far with the majority of sign-ups being DPS (obviously). We already have two tanks, so that's not an issue.

My question is, what would you say is the recommended number of healers vs DPS in Emerald Nightmare (Normal) ? I remember from WoD that a golden number was typically 2/3/9 (looking at the group finder) with 3 healers. Would you say the ratio is roughly 1 healer per 3-4 DPS? Would 2/3/12 be pushing it too far? And what if we only manage to get 2 healers, or maybe as many as 4?

I want to include as many as possible, but I don't want to push it too much considering several of the sign-ups are social members, and I have no idea what kind of raiding background they have at all.

I apologize if this information is already available here in the forums.

Thanks in advance.

[Deleted]

Generally you want about 1 healer per raid group...

[Djriff]

Generally speaking the ideal number for pugs is 2/4/9. This allows room for some mistakes and a bit of extra healing.
I recommend going for theses:

2/2/6 - 10m, Not advised but it's doable
2/4/9 - Ideal
2/5/13 - 20m, essentially a mythic group
2/6/18 - 25m You can easily push this to 30m if you really want to

Speaking from last night's experience it makes some bosses more difficult when you add more people, especially in a new raid with a pug. 15 people seems to be a popular comp.

[Traxion]

We decided to clear normal before going to heroic. 1 healer per 5 people for normal at minimum. I ran my full main group with 4 healers covering 25 total players. 2/4/19 and it was pretty tight and my healers are pretty good. Pugs/secondary players won't be putting up the same execution and dps which will make more dmg apply to the raid and fights take longer.


I would probably suggest going 1 healer per 5 people + 1 extra healer.

[Kranxie]

Generally speaking the ideal number for pugs is 2/4/9. This allows room for some mistakes and a bit of extra healing.
I recommend going for theses:

2/2/6 - 10m, Not advised but it's doable
2/4/9 - Ideal
2/5/13 - 20m, essentially a mythic group
2/6/18 - 25m You can easily push this to 30m if you really want to

Speaking from last night's experience it makes some bosses more difficult when you add more people, especially in a new raid with a pug. 15 people seems to be a popular comp.

For heroic, I generally find that 1 healer per 5 group members (including the tanks and healers) works best, because it gives adequate heals while increasing overall raid dps. The numbers Djriff posted are pretty close to that -- with the exception of 2/2/6, it's consistently a 1:5 ratio, with an extra healer to compensate for pugs' mistakes. For normal I usually do 1:5 minus a healer (so 2 healing a group of 15, 3 healing 20, and so on) -- but my guild usually has higher-skilled heals than dps.

[Djriff]

The numbers Djriff posted are pretty close to that -- with the exception of 2/2/6, it's consistently a 1:5 ratio, with an extra healer to compensate for pugs' mistakes.

I don't know many 10m groups that run 3 healers, usually off healer CD's such as VE or Rally are enough supplemental healing.

As for normal, it largely depends on the groups gear level. If you're going into normal at 835 ilvl, then you should probably bring an extra healer.

[Zasriel]

My guild did 30 man normal last night. Our setup was 2 tanks, 5 healers, 23 dps. We full cleared the instance in ~3 hours (had a small break, plus initial setup). Wiped once on Xavius, one-shot Cenauris, Ursoc, and Dragons. Took at least two attempts on Nythendra, Il'gynoth, and Renferal to figure out placement and when/how to move. But didn't seem too hard on the healers.

[Brogar]

Ran 6 healers on our heroic with 30

[ThePants999]

2/4/9 is really overhealing. Pugs in WoD got it into their collective heads that you needed a multiple of 5, and there were enough bad players standing in fire that they felt it appropriate to overheal. But there's absolutely no reason to take a multiple of 5, and a healer per group is plenty.

[Djriff]

2/4/9 is really overhealing. Pugs in WoD got it into their collective heads that you needed a multiple of 5, and there were enough bad players standing in fire that they felt it appropriate to overheal. But there's absolutely no reason to take a multiple of 5, and a healer per group is plenty.

Groups cap at 5, so if you're bringing 4 healers you should have 20 people total, however pugs will be pugs and people will take unexpected damage, healers won't be on their a-game, etc etc, so it's better to have an extra healer than to try and just have 1 heal per group.