The First Chapter: Head first into Naxxramas

I've been 80 for about a minute. I never played Resto up until that moment. Yet, Tuesday night, I was one of TWO healers for 10man Naxx. Even my first time on my Disc Priest, we had three healers. I had with me the H-Nexus War Mace of Unrequited Love, the Heroism Emblem Healing Shield, and probably two lower-end purples. At this point, I was lucky to get my spell power to 1500, which is the globally known starting point for running heroics. (FYI, if you don't have 1500 spellpower, or a good group of friendly guildmates to run with, I'd recommend doing the higher lvl 80 regular instances. Use that opportunity to get your rep up.) Anyways..

5ish hours, 2 nights, 10 people... full clear FTW!

The other healer with us was Nagrarok, an Ulduar10 geared Shaman. My initial reaction is that Shamans are normally raid healers, so some of the tank-heavy fights we might have a tough time. However, I realized that this is not the case like it was back in BC. I remember BC days meant Shaman MT healers went OOM very fast. When we just had to focus on one or two people, the fight went a lot smoother. Earth Shield my target, Riptide to pad them up, and then Healing Wave if anything really needed to be done. AoE dmg and I whipped out my massively underpowered Chain Heal. (Like I said... 1500 spell power LoL). I personally think that Nag was my saving grace in this raid, and hopefully I can return the favor at some point.

Preceded by an awesome live rendition of Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight", we stepped into Spider Wing:

• Anub'Rehkan - I'm used to one MT healer, and one Raid/OT healer. Since Shaman Totems don't stack with each other, Nag threw down Healing Stream, and I had Mana Springthrew down. He threw Flametongue, and I threw down Searing...some of our group was a little on the underside, so my extra 46.x dps could be the deciding factor! /sarcasm off. The locust swarm proved to be easier than I originally thought. Priest can Shield, PoM, and Renew the tank. I've got Riptide, Earth Shield, and can stop for a Healing Wave along the way. I've been very impressed with the range of a Shaman Healer, compared to my Priest.
• Grand Widow Faerlina - This fight was cake. Instead of Mana Spring, I opted for Cleansing Totem to save mana on all the poison dispels that happen in this fight. Nag dropped Mana Spring. If you haven't noticed, your mana regen is crucial, so ALWAYS focus on having Water Shield up.
• Maexxna - Fight was even more cake. Luckily the only real challenge is the enrage at 30%. Since the raid-wide wrapping will still happen through that, make sure you have Earth Shield and Riptide up. Line your buffs up (BoWisdom, etc) so you can have your cleansing totem down. The healing poison that gets put up on the tank can be pretty wicked. I'd rather save my mana for keeping him topped off rather than using the GCD for a Cleanse.

Then came Plague Quarter:

• Noth the Plaguebringer - Your main job is going to be cleansing curses. If these things tick down to zero, it can make your life not-so-happy. Otherwise, tank and spank. If your group is lacking in dps, then be sure you're conserving mana. The more waves of adds you have to go through, the more dmg they do. There are certain mobs that will run into your group and do an arcane blast-like explosion. Too many of these can wipe the raid. I always consider this the "de facto enrage timer".
• Heigan the Unclean - All you really need to know is keep your cleansing totem between the stage and where the tank is going to be kiting the boss during Phase 1. This will keep the disease off both the casters/healers and the melee on the ground.
• Loatheb - In all honesty, one of my favorite fights as a healer. This fight is ALL about you. There's no avoidable damage, and he hits like a sissy girl. "Necrotic Aura" is really the boss you're fighting. It's a debuff that restricts all healing done for a set amount of time (I believe ~16 seconds). Then, once the debuff wears off, you have roughly 3 seconds to get as much healing out as you can. The raid takes dmg over time, so everyone is going to need heals. I set up a Riptide on the lowest target before the debuff wears off. Time a Chain Heal to go off right after the debuff faded, then pop another riptide after that, and maybe throw in a Lesser Healing Wave for good measure. Make sure you're getting the buff from the spores, cause those are going to increase your throughput HUGELY!

That's only my impressions from the first two wings of Naxx. In my next post, I'll go through my thoughts on healing through Military, Construct, and Frostwyrm Lair. If there's more you'd like to know, simply leave a comment!