Our group (on kill before nerf) was 2 tanks (warrior main/dk for decimation), 3 healers (resto shaman, disc priest, and me), and 5 dps. Dps was split into 2 groups for shards, the two melee (pally and enh shaman) taking one shard, and alternating with the ranged group (mage, hunter, lock). Healing was one healer per shard, and the other two on tanks, switching between the three. I had second shard in our rotation. I found, by keeping lifebloom and rejuvenation on the current tank, I could build my stacks on the shards while keeping tanks up, which of course helped the current shard healer. I ended with 135 stacks on that kill.

After nerf, our group that night was warrior and druid tanks, two disc priests and me, and a mage, enh shaman, pally, hunter, and lock dps. Same group separation for shards, and same healing rotations, though I was third shard that time. One shotted with no problems, though one of the tanks died once (while I was on shards) and I rezzed him. I ended up around 125 stacks that time.

We know we can, and have done so previously, but our Resto Druid had only tried the encounter for the first time the day before (other than some, by all accounts horrendous, attempts with his previous guild), and I had yet to two-heal it myself on either of the healing characters I raid on. Basically neither of us were used to two-healing it, we weren’t used to working together on it in any capacity, and to top it off I realised later that we had made some poor decisions about managing our shard teams for best effect. All-in-all it was probably the worst case scenario for attempting to two-heal.

I would be happy to do it with 3 healers while our new druid learns the ins and outs of the mechanics in practice rather than theory, but the push is to ‘be ready’ for the Heroic Mode, so we either learn to get better this way fast, or probably continue to be judged harshly for our failure to excel and the reliance on the RNG of our tank’s avoidance to someone manage to get through it.

Stilmore, I don’t even have the words to tell you how far from relaxing that was.

Our strat initially revolved around our bear tank starting on the boss, and the pally tank blowing cooldowns (Tol Barad trink/glyphed divine protection/guardian, pally healer might have used hand of sacrifice) to soak an entire first shard himself, coupled with heroism so 2 of the healers can build their stacks faster. We also pair up 2 dps with good dmg reduction cooldowns for a shard, so they can each take 12-13 stacks (DK/destro lock works well for that). So, 2 healers pump their stacks up quick on first shard, then one of the healers switches to tank and the original tank healer and the 3rd healer work on that 2nd shard where each shard soaker is taking 12/13 stacks. By then, one of the healers has massive stacks and the other 2 have decent stacks. They rotate between shard soakers and tanks, I guess depending on mana usage (not sure since I’m a dps). The 2nd tank takes Baleroc after a blade to build up a few stacks, and once they pass 250k hp they only taunt Baleroc for decimation blades, with the original tank keeping Baleroc the rest of the time. With all 5 dps getting an extended burn phase with heroism due to ignoring the first shard and only 2 managing the 2nd shard, I guess that gave us the extra oomph to kill the boss before the enrage early on.

Now that everyone has more gear, we don’t have to worry about the specific strategy or healer/tank rotation we use too much, and since 5 better geared dps have no trouble with the enrage timer we still run 3 heals so they get to relax a bit more.

We have gone with a one tank/two healer strategy on 10 normal that worked beautifully with a Holy Paladin/Disc Priest set-up on a Warrior tank, but was all kinds of struggle with Disc Priest/Resto Druid on a Paladin tank. Our tank died at 3% and we somehow managed to keep all but three other people alive to kill Baleroc, but it was incredibly rough.

Have you any tips or words of advice (other than ‘why would you do that, are you crazy??’) that might help our Resto Druid get enough stacks to keep the tank up with this kind of set-up, or how I as a Disc Priest might be able to make his work a little easier on him?

We did this by having all of the healers on the DPS with torment and 1 healer on the tank, when Decimation would hit all 4 healers would spam 1 quick heal on the tank to get him back up. Also by popping Hero at the start of the fight when the first crystal pops.

We rotated by assigning 4 dps for torment then assigning a healer to each dps, when your assigned dps was up for torment it was your turn to tank heal.

That being said our OT hasnt been able to play in 2 weeks and we have really been struggling to do this fight like every one else with 3 healers.

Moar 10 man stuff pleeeeeeeeease!

we found that raid awareness is the biggest issue on this fight. Specifically the raid moving in and out of the shards. Initially we had issues keeping the shard tanks alive due to stacking mechanics and not moving (or moving too soon) and of course decimation on the tanks. The next couple nights was figuring the spark stacks, the amount of damage the shard tanks were taking, the timing of Decimation and balancing it all with mana efficiency.

Our final solution (which worked on the first try incidentally) was to use 3 healers and 2 tanks. We would start with everyone healing the tanks and front load the spark stacks when the shard came up (I forgot where I got this strat).

When the first shard appeared 2 healers (Holy Priest and myself – Resto Druid) would heal on the first shard and our Resto Shaman on the MT & OT (the tanks would need to use cool downs of course). At the end of the first shard, I would then switch to the MT & OT with our Shaman and our Priest would continue on with the shard tanks (solo) during the second shard.

Once the second shard was done he would swap to the MT/OT with me, and the Shaman would build her stacks once the third shard came up. After that, we would alternate till he was dead.

Our rotation was:
Shard 1 – Priest Druid
Shard 2 – Priest
Shard 3 – Shaman
Shard 4 – Druid
Shard 5 – Priest
Shard 6 – Shaman
repeat Shard 4-6 as needed till dead

Since then, we continue to use the above method and are now single tanking it (last week was our first try with success) and the increased DPS certainly helps.

If you or others would like to see the above strat, it can be seen on YouTube by searching “OiS vs Baleroc (guild first) Resto Druid PoV 2011-08-05″. In the video, i did a horrible job keeping LB’s on the tank(s) (still do on this fight) and not using SM or WG as often as I probably could have. Essentially, I’ve tasked myself with keeping my “rotating” assignment alive.

I only mention this as another possible solution that may (or may not work) for others that read your blog as an alternative solution to this fight. I know I certainly have looked here for help!

GL this afternoon! :\ *shiver*

We also tried 1 tank, 4 healers, 5 dps (our pally tanks offspec was holy) and the healing went very well though 2 of our 5 dps were not upto it to meet the enrage timer. Worth trying if you have good dps but slightly weaker tank or healers.

cheers