Holding Out For A Hero

A hero is one who knows how to hang on one minute longer.–Novalis

Heroism/Bloodlust is an essential raid buff on nearly every encounter. On some it’s just a way to get it over with a little faster. Other fights require it to meet a benchmark or cover all of the healing required.

This is a simple post that simply lists in a simple fashion when I hit (or call for) Heroism:

• Lord Marrowgar (Normal/Heroic): Start of the fight.*
• Lady Deathwhisper (Normal): Start of the fight.*
• Gunship Battle: By the time you’ve read this far into the guide, you already have won
• Deathbringer Saurfang (Normal): When Saurfang frenzies at 30%
• Deathbringer Saurfang (Heroic): When you think you can win in the next 40 seconds.
• Rotface (Normal/Heroic): Start of the fight.*
• Festergut (Normal/Heroic): As the first gas expunge is casting.
• Professor Putricide (Normal): After one complete tank rotation (All tanks have 2 debuffs). This generally lines up with ~20% and will aid the raid healing quite a bit.
• Blood Prince Council (Normal/Heroic): First time the Darkfallen Orb passes to Taldaram. The melee doesn’t have to move.
• Blood Queen Lana’thel (Normal/Heroic): After all 16 vampires are active.
• Valithria Dreamwalker (Normal/Heroic): After portal #3 or #4, depends on how fast you are moving. Make sure GS is ready to go up on her when you exit the Dream/Nightmare.
• Sindragosa (Normal): Final ground phase (generally ~40%), this will allow you to push back the enrage and also not put your DPS in jeopardy if you use it later (Mystic Buffets!)
• The Lich King (Normal): During the second Remorseless Winter when the first Raging Spirit spawns.

As a bonus, I’ll throw in To(G)C:

• Northrend Beasts: After the first Jormungar burrow, when Acidmaw is mobile for the first time.
• Lord Jaraxxus: Start of the fight*
• Faction Champions: Start of the fight, when the melee are actually on their target (wait for them to run in).
• Twin Val’kyr: After the second vortex, or when you see a good number of dps empowered. On Heroic Mode we tended to use this as late as possible regardless of empowered just to guarantee we had the healing to power through the last 20ish%
• Anub’Arak: Start of Phase 3 (Leeching Swarm, phase). This is the best way to counter the massive amount of healing done as he transitions over.

*Make sure the boss is fully debuffed before activating Lust/Heroism (Sunders, Ebon Plaguebringer, etc.)

UPDATE: The above are from a 25 man point of view, but also all work for the 10 man versions of these encounters.

I’m sure these aren’t universal, but this is what we do. Typically I like to get feedback from my DPS so that they can sync their cooldowns with Heroism. If the fight lasts long enough for them to come around a second time, then we’ll wait near the end of the fight (typically when most fights are their diciest).

However, there are times when as a fight goes on there is so much movement/confusion that  you see little to no DPS gain (which is the primary reason you’re using it). It’s certainly nice to use it to get your healing going, but only if it’s critical. The perfect example of this is Putricide and Festergut (Heroic). Losing a player on Festergut hurts your chances of meeting the 5 minute timer. Losing people during Putricide Phase 3 increases the raid damage significantly (the raid damage is a single split among all alive raiders). Using it at the points described above will help you both meet the Berserk and keep up with the increased healing load where applicable.

Who is casting it?

It depends on who it hurts the most to interrupt their rotation. It’s easiest for an enhancement shaman to do it, but on a fight like Blood Queen you don’t want DPS thinking about anything other than pouring out damage. I’ve called for Heroism before and it will go off 20 seconds later because everyone is waiting for someone else to hit it. The best way to get Heroism/Lust the moment you want it is to call the shaman out by name.

Heroism/Lust During Progression

What’s the best way to get better at a fight? Practice. But how can you practice when you keep wiping due to being overwhelmed early in the fight? You can use Heroism/Lust to get over the hump on a certain phase to see more of the encounter and actually get some learning done. The more of the fight you see, the more confident everyone will be in executing later portions of the fight.

This can be true on a fight like Festergut Heroic where the damage at the start of the fight is quite high and can surprise healers the first time they see it. Hitting heroism immediately when positioned will keep everyone up solid through the first Spore. People will get to see more Malleable Goos and more Spore Spawns. You can’t learn the movement if you’re dieing within the first few seconds every time.

The same philosophy applies to combat rez. The cooldown is short now. As soon as someone dies send out that battle rez. If they die again, leave them dead, and figure out what their problem is.

Cooldowns are important, and shamans bring the most important one. Just make sure that Heroism isn’t the only reason your raid drags you along.