Naxxramas from the eyes of a Resto Shammy

   I kind of debated putting this up; when I wrote it, it was for a person that I raid with who is converting from Elemental to Resto and running Naxx in the same groups that I do. As such, it’s markedly simplistic at times and makes a lot of assumptions throughout with regards to prior knowledge. Ultimately, though, I just felt like it was a resource that would be best shared – even if this only helps one or two people to get a better grip on Naxx, then that’s a good thing. Especially if their Shaman isn’t a Space Goat. 🙂 (just kidding, Space Goats!)

 

  That said, I’m sure that higher-level players / raiders will find all kinds of stuff to take exception to, or that can be done better. See the disclaimer at the end, lol – I’m just a guy with a Chain Heal button! Seriously, though – if you can add something to this in the comments that you think will benefit people that are still learning Naxx, feel free.

 

 

 

  Also, this is more written from the 25-man perspective. And I’m rambling – so, here it goes. be warned, it’s *long*! 

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Naxxramas: Step by step 

  This is intended to display, as best as possible, what *I* do during the entirety of Naxxramas as a Healer generally assigned to at-large Raid Healing. I’ll go through each boss, plus trash, with my specifics in an effort to help you tighten up your runs, and improve your output as a Healer. Note that a Healer’s overall worth isn’t measured purely on the overall healing output displayed on the WWS reports; however, it’s certainly in your best interest to be competitive with them. 

  First, I’ll explain my default toolbar. It’s typically setup as follows:

• 1 ) Kitchen Sink Macro
• 2 ) Lesser Healing Wave
• 3 ) Healing Wave
• 4 ) Chain Heal
• 5 ) Riptide
• 6 ) Magma Totem
• 7 ) Stoneskin Totem
• 8 ) Wrath of Air Totem
• 9 ) Mana Spring Totem
• 10 ) Mana Tide Totem

  On the bar above the main toolbar, I have Cleanse Spirit, my Earth shield Macro, and Earth shield in the first 3 slots, for easy switching. 

  As far as the macros go: the “Kitchen Sink” macro is as follows: 

• /stopcasting
• /cast Tidal Force
• /cast Nature’s Swiftness
• /cast Chain Heal 

  If you have an “on use” trinket that adds Spellpower for a short duration, insert a line that says “/use [trinket name]” before the first line. This allows you to throw a big-bomb Chain Heal in an emergency situation with a near-guaranteed critical hit. 

  For the Earth shield macro, I simply have it set to target a given tank – usually Taladas. 

• /tar Taladas
• /cast earth shield
• /targetlasttarget 

I do this so that I can renew the shield on him without bothering to target him in raid frames. Simply push the button, renew, and return to what I was doing. Now that you know my setup, I’ll walk you through the instance. 

Plague Wing 

  The initial trash isn’t very tough. Watch for damage spikes if someone pulls aggro on slime, but that’s about it. On Gargoyles, start Chain Healing when you see raid health dropping.. This is more important on 2-mob pulls where it actually starts to matter at the end when the stacks get high. Consider a Searing Totem nearby to the Gargoyles as well, dropped at the start of the fight Top off the raid while the debuff fades, and on to Noth. 

Noth the Plaguebringer

  Toolbar changes: move “Kitchen Sink” macro out in favor of Cleanse Spirit. 

  Food: any 

  Healing the fight: While Noth is on the ground, you’ll just be casting the odd Chain Heal or Riptide here and there while you maintain the Earth Shield on a given tank. What you *must* look out for is the Curse of the Plaguebringer, a purple debuff icon that Noth will place on up to 10 raid members at once, about 2 times per ground phase. If this is not cured from ALL affected raiders, it will blossom into very heavy DoT damage across the raid. This *will* kill people. Your #1 priority, above all else, is to remove these via Cleanse Spirit when they are up. Once Noth teleports up to the balcony, the raid will focus on the skeleton adds. Pay attention for when a Guardian appears, as they will AOE an Arcane Explosion that means you’ll have to Chain Heal fairly frequently. Once Noth teleports back down, settle into a more relaxed routine and be ready to decurse again the moment you see the debuff. 

  The trash between Noth and Heigan can deal some damage, particularly through disease. Swap your Disease Cleansing Totem into your bars in place of Mana Spring for now, and drop it on the spots where mobs are being tanked. Chain Heal into the tank and surrounding raid as needed.  

Heigan the Unclean

  Toolbar Changes: you should have already done it, but Mana Spring out, Disease Cleansing in. Also, move Searing Totem into the slot usually occupied by Magma Totem. 

  Food: any 

  Healing the fight: On the pull, you run up to the platform, heading to the back-middle part. On your way, drop a Disease Cleansing Totem on the erupting floor area; your melee will thank you later. Once on the platform, healing is surprisingly easy. You can help the most by looking for the disease debuff on melee and cleansing it, followed by a Chain Heal or two into the melee group once the debuffs have all been removed. When the Raid Leader calls that Heigan is about to teleport to his platform, drop that Searing Totem to keep him company, and head to the floor for the dance. As you are running across the dance floor, try to renew that Disease Cleansing Totem somewhere between segments 2 and 3. If you see someone lose health, Riptide them. If a lot of people spike, click the Kitchen Sink and cast it while you run. If both abilities are on cooldown, you can also help by using Cleanse Spirit on anyone who gets hit while dancing as getting hit means getting diseased. Don’t stop to cast anything non-instant, even Lesser Healing Wave. When the dance is done, get back to his platform and look around for anyone with the disease debuff, they will likely need attention quickly as it is a powerful DoT. Once everyone is safe, resume as before between phases until he dies.

  For the trash between Heigan and Loatheb, resist the urge to cast any healing spells until you reach the end of the maggot run; doing so *will* cause you to get agro, and you *will* die. Be sure to Earth Shield a tank, and just run with them. Once you reach the archway at the back end, drop a magma totem, run a little further in, and start Chain Healing anything with less than 100% on the health bar as fast as you can cast them. 

Loatheb 

  Toolbar changes: switch to your DPS toolbar. The only spell you’ll need from a healing standpoint is Chain Heal, though you may want the Kitchen Sink handy.

  Food: any but +crit. Hit Rating food is useful. 

  Healing the fight: The trick to Loatheb is timing your Chain Heal so that one casts right as the window drops, so that if you immediately start a second one, you can get in two. I will DPS up until the debuff (necrotic aura) has about 3-4 seconds left on it, just to be safe. Select a target to start your Chain Heal on, and when the aura ticks from 2 to 1, immediately start your cast. As the heal is casting, select another target and start mashing the Chain Heal button so that it casts as soon as the first one completes. With practice, and the right amount of +haste, you should be able to get off 2x Chain Heal in the available window. Otherwise, cast what you can for offense, use your Fire Elemental, and use Searing Totem when the Fire Elemental is on cooldown. 

Arachnid Wing 

  Toolbar changes: your water totem for this entire wing will be the Poison Cleansing Totem, except for Anub’Rekhan. 

  Many of the trash pulls with larger spiders will involve curses. The spiders will curse multiple targets with great frequency, reducing healing by 75% on that target (it looks like “Windfury Weapon”, kind of). If you see that debuff being applied, FORGET HEALING. It is far more important that you cleanse as much as possible, especially on the tanks, to prevent possible wipes. There are enough Priests and Paladins present to heal; you need to get those curses so that they can. I will also frequently drop Magma Totems into the pulls, especially the Skitterers. 

Anub’Rekhan

  Toolbar changes: as he does not use poison, bring back Mana Spring for this fight.

  Food: any

  Healing the fight: Run into the room off-center to the left of the green dot in the middle of the floor when the tank runs in to start it off. Chain Heal offtanks / melee as the Crypt Guards are downed, and then move within Chain Heal range of one of the melee DPS players and start looking for anyone who drops health. If you get bounced up into the air, Riptide yourself and select another target that is airborne so that you can start up a Chain Heal on them when you land. If Corpse Scarabs spawn, drop a Magma Totem. Once Anub’Rekhan starts his Locust Plague, I run back in the direction of the door, slightly to the side on which the Main Tank is kiting Anub’Rekhan back to the original entry point of the room. Target the Main Tank at this point; As soon as he gets in range, Riptide him and run in the opposite direction – Anub’Rekhan has an aura which will inflict the Locust Plague debuff, so immediately moving away keeps you from being impacted. Stop after a bit, wait for the Main Tank to come back into range and hit him with Healing Wave when he does (should be on fast-cast status due to Tidal Waves talent after the Riptide you just cast), then back away again to a spot where you should be able to heal the Main Tank once he arrives at his destination, but still places you out of range for Anub’Rekhan’s aura debuff. Once you’re sure that the Main Tank Healers have him comfortably, resume Raid Healing as before. 

  Grand Widow Faerlina’s trash is the only different trash that you will encounter from that which preceded Anub’Rekhan. They will deal massive AOE shadowbolts to the raid, and this is very dangerous if they are being chain pulled. The moment you see someone in the raid get hit by this, start casting Chain heals, and cast them as fast as you can until the pull is over on different targets. You’ll have plenty of time for mana before Faerlina. 

Grand Widow Faerlina 

  Toolbar Changes: Bring Kitchen Sink to a hotkey in place of Cleanse Spirit, and replace Mana Spring with Poison Cleansing Totem. 

  Food: any 

  Healing the fight: The biggest thing that you can bring to this fight is the Poison Totem. Try to lay it in a more or less central position for the raid to get maximum coverage. It may seem like it’s taking a long time to get all of the debuffs off, but it does help immensely. During the fight, you’ll primarily be spamming Chain Heals all over the raid, simply select a target that is lower on health than everyone else and fire it off. She does enough regular multiple target damage that it’s entirely possible for her to damage more people before you finish your casts, so be proactive instead of reactive and keep the heals bouncing all over. It’s a short fight, so don’t worry about mana and overheals, just throw them out there. Also, don’t stand in the Rain of Fire AOEs she drops. Make sure that the occasional Chain Heal gets directed at add tanks to help out. 

  Maexxna trash is just like the rest, with the occasional Shade. No big deal, just remember to decurse if a mob is dropping that debuff. I can’t stress it enough, this is more important to the raid than actual heals from the Shamans. 

Maexxna

  Toolbar Changes: swap Kitchen Sink back out in favor of Cleanse Spirit. You want this hotkeyed. 

  Food: any

  Healing the fight: Really, a fairly easy fight to heal. Put you Poison Cleansing Totem down in a central location. When someone gets webbed, Riptide them on their return or Chain Heal off them. Magma Totems when Spiderlings appear on the web. Pay attention to the Main Tank; he will be afflicted periodically with a distinct poison icon that the Totem will not cleanse, and it reduces healing TONS. If you see it, cleanse it. Remember, Priests cannot cleanse poison, so help out the Paladins / Priests healing the Tank and don’t make them (pallies) use a cooldown on the cleanse when you can. Pay particular attention to this coming out of the mass-web stages and be spamming cleanse if the debuff is on a webbed tank. Always be sure to keep Earth Shield up if you are shielding the Main Tank as well. When you see the Spiderlings appear on the web, the mass stun is about to hit as well. Riptide the Main Tank 2-3 seconds after the spawn to help him survive the wrap period. Once Maexxna enrages, there should ideally be only one mass stun left. If the Main Tank is not afflicted by the poison debuff, be spamming your Kitchen Sink macro key while webbed so that it fires immediately when you are released; if the Main Tank is afflicted, spam cleanse instead. With luck and Healer coordination, you will ride it out and down her. 

Military Quarter 

  Be aware that most of the trash in this wing can do some kind of AOE damage, usually whirlwind. Spam Chain Heal all over the place one pulls, particularly on melee raiders, to cut down on unnecessary deaths. 

Instructor Razuvious 

  Toolbar Changes: Swap out Totem of the Bay for Totem of Forest Growth.

  Food: MP5 or haste is best, but any works

  Healing the fight: This is one of the fights where a Shaman really shines. You’re likely Raid Healing on this; if you aren’t, make a macro to help your heals on the Understudy adds that goes like this:

• /tar Instructor
• /assist
• /cast Healing Wave

  Note that if you are healing Understudies, you will want to equip the Totem of Misery if you have it (reduced mana cost for Healing Wave). As you are a suboptimal class to heal them, but superior to heal Raid, though, you likely are not going to have this task. If you are Raid Healing, it’s pretty simple: cast Chain Heal, and do it A LOT. I will look at the raid frames while I’m casting to see if anyone is afflicted by the Jagged Knife DoT bleed; if they are, I will click that name as the starting point for my heal. While you’re bouncing them all over, remember two other things: if you see a Priest that looks a bit low, toss a Riptide on them (fight fails if they die!), and don’t forget to bounce the occasional Chain Heal into one of the tanks (who are holding the Understudies). Basically just Chain Heal like a madman, drop your Mana Tide Totem at some point when you are between 30-60% mana and have a window during which you can do it, and you’re doing your part. 

  Trash pulls afterwards don’t differ much from previous parts of the wing. They look different, but the result is the same – lots of AOE potential. Chain Heal the heck out of that raid!

Gothik the Harvester 

  Tool Bar Changes: Cleanse Spirit is out in favor of Kitchen Sink. If no Elemental Shaman is on your side, use Flametongue for your Fire Totem. 

  Food: haste or spellpower ideally 

   Healing the fight: Gothik is a fight that progressively gets very intense due to incoming damage. It’s so easy at the beginning that you will practically lull yourself to sleep and take it for granted; as it ramps up, though, you will need to be more or less back-to-back, nonstop casting Chain Heal to survive. The really important thing is to prevent deaths on your assigned side as much as possible. Go hell bent for leather on casting, because you only need your mana to last until Gothik teleports down to the fight on your side. There will be plenty of time to regenerate it while he’s on the other side, and healing his damage is completely trivial.

The Four Horsemen 

  Tool Bar Changes: if you are healing a single Tank in the rear, Totem of Misery. Flametongue Totem if you are assigned to either Rivendare or Korth’azz and the Elemental Shaman is elsewhere. Cleanse Spirit out in favor of Kitchen Sink. Fire Resistance Totem if you’re healing Korth’azz’ corner.

  Food: MP5 if you’re in the rear, any otherwise

  Healing the fight: The rear is the hard part, as they hit a ton on their tank. Pace your Healing Waves, Riptide yourself, and you can last. Be aware that if you are the last one out, you will be targeted and take some monster shots that will need to be healed through. Up front, be mindful of the switches, Chain Heal with the Tank as the starting point and the bounces picking up the rest of the Raid This fight is actually surprisingly low on damage if everyone executes the choreography correctly; just stick with that Chain Heal and bounce off anyone within range as often as you see health bars dip. This is particularly important if you’re the healer on the Korth’azz corner, as the Meteor damage needs to be accounted for.

Construct Quarter 

  For the initial trash, stay well back of where the mobs are being tanked, but within range to heal the tanks. If you get too close, you’ll get stunned, and people will die. Your heals are about 10 yard longer in range than the Abomination stuns, so position carefully and win. 

Patchwerk

  Tool Bar Changes: Replace Totem of the Bay with Totem of Forest Growth. Kitchen Sink Macro available on a hotkey as well. Consider swapping out pieces which lack MP5 for those that do, and gearing more towards haste than crit if that is an option.

  Food: MP5, haste if MP5 is sufficient. 

  Healing the fight: Patchwerk will test your ability to spam heal like nothing else in the instance. It’s one of the best spells for healing this fight as it bounces to all three tanks and has the added bonus of increasing their armor on criticals. Your crit rating should be sufficient to maintain a constant uptime on this buff anyhow, so don’t worry about gearing for crit. Make sure that you drop all of your totems about 10 seconds before he is pulled so that you are at maximum mana at the start, and your Water Shield is refreshed. You will not have many Global Cooldowns to spare once he is pulled. Pay attention to the tank target assigned to you by your Raid Leader, and NEVER, EVER deviate from it unless that target dies. Once Patchwerk is engaged, start casting Chain Heals as fast as you can. Don’t stop if you see the tank at full health; he can get hit in mid-cast and it simply takes too long to start and complete a new cast in that scenario. Just cast-cast-cast as fast as you can. When your mana is at approximately 50%, drop Mana Tide directly after a Chain Heal and resume casting them as soon as possible. Once the Mana Tide Totem has expired, replace it AS SOON AS POSSIBLE with a new Mana Spring as you cannot afford to have the lapse in mana recovery. Note that this action (dropping the totem) is a dangerous point in the process, as it leaves a 1 second window with each totem that can cause some bad results if you’re a tank. Other than that one totem exchange, and the possible advent of consuming a mana potion, you should be doing nothing but casting Chain Heal as fast as you can on your assigned target. Anything else results in raid wipes. 

Grobbulus 

  Tool Bar Changes: Totem of the Bay is back in for this one. Get Cleanse Spirit and Disease Cleansing Totem as far away from possibly being cast as possible.

  Food: any

  Healing the fight: Think of the room as being like an athletic field with a track around it. During the fight, you want to set up more towards the middle of the “field” part, while the main Tank and melee move around the “track”. I like to set up my totems in odd spots on this one; since most of the raid is going to be near the ramp on the pull, that’s where totems will be placed by most, and as he moves, they will go out of range. I usually place mine near the first turn, slightly towards the original entry door so that, as the kiting progresses, they come into range and benefit. For healing spells, the primary concern is to keep melee units topped off and watch the health of those hit by mutating injections. If you can Riptide someone before they drop it, do. Otherwise, hit a Riptide or Lesser Healing Wave when they get back in range. Dump Chain Heals into the offtank with the Slimes, as they have an AOE aura that will damage those near them, so you will help to keep anyone that isn’t the offtank topped off as well.

Gluth

  Tool Bar Changes: Earthbind in, Stoneskin out. Magma Totem in as well. Kitchen Sink in favor of Cleanse Spirit as well, just in case.

Food:  any

  Healing the fight: If you’re on the tanks, simply keep Earth Shield up on Gluth’s current target and supplement their healing as you are able. When Decimate hits, get the two tanks up to speed quickly and then pass a few Chain Heals around the raid. Remember that your primary focus is the tanks in this case, though, so don’t stay off of them too long. Really, though – Gluth doesn’t hit the tanks terribly hard and should be easy to manage. If you’re healing kiters, look for the debuff icon next to the player names in raid frames that indicates that they have been hit in melee by a Zombie. If you see any of these marked players below 100%, top them off. I usually do so through Chain Heal, hoping that the bounce from it might catch another kiter or two. You can greatly ease your healing load by always keeping an Earthbind Totem up as well, and very much should have one up throughout the fight regardless of your position. In the rear, this helps the kiters. If you are healing tanks, this helps slow down any errant Chow and allow more time for a kiter to reacquire it. During Decimates, first order of business is to run to a position midway between Gluth and Chows so that you can drop both Earthbind and Magma Totems to help the Raid down the Chows before Gluth eats them.  

  On the trash between Gluth and Thaddius – Geists and Shades aren’t an issue. On the Giants, you’ll want to be Chain Healing as fast as possible once they do their first knockback, as a second one can (and will) kill people in the raid, so do your best to get everyone healed at least to 75% before that second one hits. Sometimes, either due to patrolling giants or overzealous tanks, two or more of these guys will be chain pulled. It is very likely that people will die in this situation, so try as best you can to keep people up through it all and don’t stop casting (think Patchwerk) if this is the case.

Thaddius

  Tool Bar Changes: Nature Resistance in, Wrath of Air out. Flametongue in, Magma out.

  Food: any, +hit is helpful.

  Healing the fight: The first stage is either easy or moderately intensive depending which side you’re on. I forget which miniboss is which, Stalagg or Feugen; if you are healing on the one to the right (as you come into the room), be ready for consistent AOE damage on the Raid. This is why you will want the Nature Resistance totem, as it’s all lightning. Chain Heal liberally to make sure that nobody dies before Thaddius is engaged. Be aware of tank switches and don’t tarry on a tank if they’ve been tossed across to the other platform; I like to Riptide them right before they get tossed as well, just to help out a bit. By comparison, damage on the left platform is mostly confined to the tank – so just stay on top of the switches. Once you drop down to Thaddius, move into melee range on your side and get ready for the switch. Laying a Nature Resistance Totem again at this point is very helpful, as all of his splash damage is also lightning-based. He really doesn’t require much for Raid healing; most of the damage that hits is from people who screw up their charges, and they die so fast that it cannot be healed through. Set your totems down on landing if there is no Elemental Shaman in your group; if there is, just lay the Nature Resistance one and wait until you get sent to the other side for the rest; by doing this, you’ll help to spread totem buffs across both sides of charges. Much like Loatheb, you’ll likely be able to spend about 75% of this fight doing some degree of DPS. Classes like Holy Paladins and Resto Druids don’t have the flexibility to DPS as much, and if you have the raid healing pretty well covered by them (realistically, about 3 people can do this), then it is most helpful to supplement the raid DPS. Basically, fire off a Flame Shock, a Lava Burst and a Lightning Bolt, then Chain heal someone and repeat – just be sure to immediately terminate your cast and run if he shifts your polarity!

Frost Wyrm Lair

Sapphiron

  Tool Bar Changes: Cleanse Spirit absolutely needs to be in your bar on a hotkey. It’s handy to have the Kitchen Sink handy as well, just in case. Change your current Fire totem out for Frost Resistance. If you have Polar gear, equip it. Depending on your MP5 after this action, consider changing your totem of the Bay out for the Forest Growth Totem, as your mana pool inherently suffers in size and regeneration due to gear.

  Food: MP5 ideally, possibly haste. Any will suffice, though.

  Healing the fight: This isn’t a very optimal fight for Shamans to heal in terms of the “amount healed” numbers. Essentially, get your Frost Resistance Totem down to help out the Raid (damage not taken is the same as healed damage, after all), and more or less Chain Heal anyone within range that you can. Riptide occasionally if someone is particularly low, but Chain Healing is generally more effective. The bigger responsibility here is the Life Drain that Sapphiron will place on up to four people at a time throughout the fight, about 2-3 times per ground phase. This will cause a DoT effect on the target that (compounded with the frost aura) is very dangerous; the bigger point, though, is that each tick heals Sapphiron for thousands. Thus, you must work to clear this THE MOMENT YOU SEE IT, or it will lengthen the fight considerably. Other than that, when you are grouped behind an ice block during the air phases, take a moment to renew your Water Shield and then target yourself for a Chain Heal cast or two, since you can be sure that you’re in range. 

Kel’Thuzad

  Tool Bar Changes: Standard totems, though you may want to consider placing the Stoneclaw Totem in place of Stoneskin. Armor isn’t very effective here, but Stoneclaw can be used when Kel’Thuzad Mind Controls players. Cleanse Spirit is out, Kitchen Sink in. Make sure to move Hex into your bar as well, likely in place of Lesser Healing Wave 

  Food: MP5 or haste ideally. Any will do.

  Healing the fight: The first phase, with the Abominations and such, is fairly easy as damage is minimal. Just watch for spikes and act accordingly. In the second phase, it’s actually very simple as well. Chain Heal the targets of his Frostbolt Volleys to keep them topped off. It’s important that you do this via Chain Heal for a few reasons: #1, it will hit a number of people and thus keep more of the raid topped off. If players are Frost Tombed at less than 100% health, then the drop from that point to zero is too fast to be healed through. #2, Casting a Chain Heal at least every 15 seconds (yours will be far more frequent than that) means that you will keep the Tidal Waves buff up. This is vitally important for Frost Tombs; first instinct for most Shaman is to cast Riptide or Lesser Healing Wave on these targets. I would submit that this is not the right response, as the throughput from those spells is not sufficient. However, with Tidal Waves up, your cast time for Healing Wave is about 1-2/3 seconds. The moment you see the frost debuff in your Raid Frames, target that player and cast Healing Wave – this is more than enough healing throughput to guarantee that even a high-health target like a Druid Tank will survive. The one exception is this: if you see that debuff icon on more than one target (meaning it chained to two or more people) IMMEDIATELY stop what you’re casting and hit that Kitchen Sink macro to sink a Chain Heal into the afflicted; then keep mashing the key that the macro is bound to so that a second Chain Heal gets cast as fast as possible, as any targets further than position #2 in your Chain Heal will need it to live. Once the add phase comes, drop a Mana Tide Totem to get more or less topped off, renew all of your totems afterwards (along with Water Shield) and get ready to more or less spam Chain Heal all over the place for the duration of the fight. Finally, should you spot the “Chains of Kel’Thuzad” debuff in the raid frames, drop the Stoneclaw Totem and try to cast Hex on anyone afflicted, if they are within range. If everyone is on top of this, then this ability should have a negligible impact. Keep in mind, you can’t hex Druids.

Summary

  If you look it over, you’ll see a bit of a pattern develop with regards to healing selection; notably, almost everything is Chain Heal spam. Part of this is a function of the fact that I usually serve in an “at large” raid healing capacity, so that’s the best actor. The other driver, though, is that our class design is really designed to be casting that particular spell. If you’re spamming either Healing Wave or Light Healing Wave on a tank, you’ll see a noticeable decline in mana versus Chain Heal spam – it’s just too draining to keep up over any kind of a sustained term. Another thing to consider about your healing is throughput – that is, Chain Heal (over 3-4 targets) is generating far more in overall output than either single target spell. Even on a single target, it’s surprisingly comparable to Healing Wave, so it’s often best to just chuck it and hope for the bounce.

  Notice, too, that there should be an emphasis on using totems that other Shaman are not. For instance, I frequently use the damaging Fire totems. That’s because it’s a waste for me to drop Flametongue in an area that’s covered by a Totem of Wrath, since my buff is lesser. Thus, even the little damage afforded by one of those totems does more to benefit the raid than does putting down a lesser duplicate buff.

  Finally, it pays to be aware of the roles that other classes have in the fights so that you understand all of the movements better. If you aren’t sure about some aspect of the fights, it may be helpful to brush up on them here.

  Actually, one last thing: I’m not some kind of final authority or anything, just a guy who plays a lot of WoW. You may find methods that differ from mine and produce better results – feel free to experiment and see what works best for you once you’re used to the fights!