Any tips for Vashj?

This week my guild had our first encounter with Lady Vashj. It seems like a
fun fight, but very hard. We got her to 65%, which I though was reasonable for
a first evening's trial, but I was wondering if anyone here could provide
any useful tips, especially from a healing perspective.

The guide on bosskillers.com recommends 8 healers. We took 7 - the healing
didn't seem especially strenuous, but we haven't reached phase 3 yet, which I
presume is rather more stressful for the healers.

However the DPS guys were having trouble downing the striders & naga quickly
enough, so the raid leader would like to try it with 6 healers to allow for a
bit more DPS. Now I'm willing to give it a try (I've often found bosskillers
will recommend more healers than necessary, anyway), but I thought I'd seek
the opinions of people who've successfully killed Vashj.

What's your approach to the healing on Vashj? How many healers do you take?
How do you assign the healing for this fight?

Any non-healing tips also welcome!

--
Zil, Level 70 NE Priest, Aman Shan're, Stormrage Europe

Zil wrote:
> This week my guild had our first encounter with Lady Vashj. It seems like a
> fun fight, but very hard. We got her to 65%, which I though was reasonable for
> a first evening's trial, but I was wondering if anyone here could provide
> any useful tips, especially from a healing perspective.
>
> The guide on bosskillers.com recommends 8 healers. We took 7 - the healing
> didn't seem especially strenuous, but we haven't reached phase 3 yet, which I
> presume is rather more stressful for the healers.
>
> However the DPS guys were having trouble downing the striders & naga quickly
> enough, so the raid leader would like to try it with 6 healers to allow for a
> bit more DPS. Now I'm willing to give it a try (I've often found bosskillers
> will recommend more healers than necessary, anyway), but I thought I'd seek
> the opinions of people who've successfully killed Vashj.
>
> What's your approach to the healing on Vashj? How many healers do you take?
> How do you assign the healing for this fight?
>
> Any non-healing tips also welcome!
>

as far as i can recall (i need to take screenshots to confirm as i
hardly pay attention to raid setups most of the time), is:

1 holy priest, 2 resto shamans, 2 holy paladins, and a resto druid.
sometimes there is another holy priest and/or resto druid and/or holy
paladin depending on if we have apps with us or if someone needs
something as we generally fill the raid with 30ish players and swap
around for specific bosses and what not.

healing for this fight is generally a non-issue. phase1 is a normal
burn, and is easy enough. we usually station a healer either at each
post, or in between posts for very well geared healers for phase2 to
heal the dps on the tainted guys and such. left over healers or those in
range will spot heal dps on the striders and naga. the only issue is
phase2 as this is where communication is key. you *must* get the cores
as quickly as possible passed from the tainted guys to the node to shut
it down. missing one or someone dying with the core will usually mean
its time to wipe and try again as you will get to far behind.

phase3 is the same as phase1 for the most part except that she spits
poison on the ground. again, this phase is pretty easy so long as people
pay attention and move out of the poison as quickly as possible. this is
the only point in which healing can be vital if people arent paying
attention and are slow to move. also you will need your paladins to give
blessing of freedom on you tank(s) as they will get constantly rooted
and if rooted in poison and not bof'd fast enough, they could also die.

6 healers might be pushing it for first tries at this. generally you'll
want a bit more healing so that you can last longer. i guess the best
way i can think to learn a fight, and how we did with kael is to take
extra healing so that everyone gets a chance to see as much time as
possible at any given stage. this gets them used to what they will need
to be doing and where they will need to be. once a phase is constantly
being shifted to the next phase, then you can begin streamlining and
making the raid a better setup to actually get the kill.

vashj is indeed a very fun fight, but its also very challenging due to
the pure communication and coordination required to kill her. this is
one of those fights where one person can ruin the attempt depending on
their function; especially if they're dps.

--
kim <3