Disc's HPSFollow

What's a good amount of HPS for healing heroics (reg not troll) as disc? For the most part I'm doing fine with healing, but there's been a few fights I've really struggled with. Namely Ozurk and the chick in Stonecore, and Fel Reaver in DM. Trying to finish up Stonecore earlier, I got called out for my low HPS. It was just under 3k, although in my defense the tank was having trouble keeping the adds off me and I was doing a fair amount of running away from them. On an average fight I seem to do 3500-4000 hps, and on a more intensive fight where I do well, it's in the 5k range. That seems really low to me, although I know that disc is more about preventing damage than it is healing damage.

I try to use Penance, PoH and PoM as much as I can or is needed, but other than that I stick to shielding, smite healing and casting G. Heal. I have a tendency to forget about barrier, but the fights I struggle with are the ones you have to move around a lot anyways, so I'm not sure barrier would help much. I logged out in my healing gear/spec. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. I will admit though, I'm mostly learning just so I can run reg heroics faster and so I don't have to do as many troll dungeons.

However much hps you can pump out, its all about whether or not you can keep the group alive. I don't have a meter, but from raid logs I know (as holy) I don't do so well relatively (to resto druids) on very mobile fights.

On the last boss in Stonecore try to keep on the far side (that the ads enter) of purple circles (i.e. to the left if you're facing the boss). Ads will run to you naturally, so its helpful if they just run into the circles and die.

Troll dungeons can drag on.

You need to be able to pump out 15k HPS every once in a while. Remember, over the course of a fight that number may only be needed twice for 10 seconds each time, so your total HPS may be much much lower, especially as Discipline.

PoM is absolutely your friend, where PoH is something you don't want to be spamming unless absolutely necessary - it's an awesome tool to use when everyone in the party is getting hit lightly and the shield and HoT (if glyphed) have time to work. Also, as Disc your Divine Hymn is awesome when everyone is getting frustratingly low.

Healing Ozurk is a weird fight, but for the most part it is doable with 4kHPS or less, so your numbers most certainly aren't the problem. Understanding the fight's intricacies is what will set you apart. Disc is very good at this fight.


The Order Never Changes:
Elemental Shield will Reflect Damaging Spells back onto the caster. As soon as he does this, Shadow Word: Pain for a long lasting Debuff.
Ground Slam is a Conal AoE that targets the tank. If he/she gets hit by this, they are a goner and it is beyond your control as a healer to handle this.
Paralyze will freeze everyone in the zone for 15 seconds - if this stun lasts for its entirety, it will explode for about 50k shadow damage. If you are hit with any other damage it will break it early and avoid the damage. By SW:P yourself you effectively keep a steady DoT going that will help you break Paralyze early.
Shatter is a Point-Blank AoE for which everyone must run out. This will kill most people and severely injure the tank, so again if anyone's getting hit by this they shouldn't be.

As the healer for this fight, healing is not the priority - what is a priority is controlling the fight so that your group is able to do damage the majority of the fight and are able to avoid the damage from Paralyze and his AoEs.

To accomplish this:
SW:P quickly when he uses Elemental Bulwark
Immediately after DoTing him, use Dispel on Ozurk to remove his Elemental Bulwark so your casters can continue to do damage.
Once Paralyze takes effect, be ready to Dispel anyone else trapped by Paralyze once SW:P breaks you free. If you have 2 or more Ranged DPS, Mass Dispel is awesome here. This will allow the DPS more time to wrack up damage on the boss.
Be ready for his Elemental Bulwark for the quick DoT and Dispel, rinse and repeat.

As for Fel Reaver and High Priestess Azil, it is almost certain that it is your group that is doing something wrong and not the heals. For instance, getting nailed by a Harvest is almost certain death for anyone, including the tank. Again, Rock Throw is an instant kill, as is getting trapped between a number of gravity wells.

One thing that's tough to learn when healing is that you really can't heal through stupid somethings, and that's not meant to be sarcastic or degrading. If people aren't playing the encounter correctly, it's made to be unhealable.

I watched skada a bit closer in BWD tonight, and my HPS (absorbs and heals) per fight hovered around 7-12k, with a high of 14k. Of course, the need to move (or mind sear adds) will affect your numbers.

I'd say the average is ~5k for reg heroics and ~9k for troll ones.

Preventing damage, absorbs, shows up in both Recount and Skada so saying its low because I'm Disc is a fallacy.

Personally, I love PoH. I use it often.

As an unrelated side note I respec'd into a more balanced set up. So my haste/crit/mast rating are all around 1k give or take.

Edited, Jul 8th 2011 7:21am by AstarintheDruid

I don't think Crits necessary for Disc or Holy, but as Disc the numbers you see with Crit Greater Heals are just phenomenal. For Holy, Crit ain't bad but I was never under the impression that it was that important either. In any case, a lot of the stat-weight models put Crit a decent bit below anything else still.

That being said, Healing someone for 70k is just hysterical, because even on the tank that's generally about a half-health heal and a pretty nice bubble to go with it. The only problem there is that with Crit, as always, you can't always count on it when you need it. For that reason I'd say get comfortable with your cast speed first.

Also you could probably shed some Spirit and not miss it at all.

I find over 2k is a good number, I think I'm running around 2.2k right now.