Resto Shaman vs. Karathress - a Healing Guide
Posted on April 9, 2008 - Filed Under Guides, Healing, Raiding, Shaman
This is one in a series of posts covering resto shaman-specific information for tier4 and tier5 boss fights. It will NOT be a boss kill strategy, rather a list of tips and tricks for your friendly neighborhood healy flavored shaman to make these fights run a little more smoothly.
Other Tuesday guides: The Lurker Below, Leotheras, Hydross, Tidewalker.
So your raid leader announced that next raid you’ll be taking on Fathom Lord Karathress. You’ve made some progress in SSC, you’re killing Tidewalker or Leotheras (or both), and now another angry naga and his cronies are on the list.
Fathom-Lord Karathress Basics:
- There are FOUR Bosses in this fight - Karathress and his three stooges Sharkiss (Hunter, compete with pet and viper sting), Tidalvess (Shaman, with windfury, spit-fire totem, and FROSTSHOOOOCK), and Caribdis (Priest, complete with heals, a tornado, and an AOE stun).
- Each boss will have a tank and at least one healer.
- Karathress is the last boss killed. Each of his stooges, when they die, gives Karathress a buff, making him stronger, more powerful, and generally more of a pain in the arse.
- For actual strategery, check out wowwiki.com or bosskillers.com
Group Composition quirks: If at all possible, you want to be in the same group as whoever is tanking Tidalvess, for a couple of reasons, but namely… Totems. Otherwise, nothing particularly special.
Totems:
If you are in Tidalvess’ tank group, you will need to drop Stoneskin Totem, Frost Resistance Totem, Healing Stream Totem, and Grounding Totem. Tidalvess hits like a truck full of trucks, driven by bears. Oh - and he windfuries and frostshocks too. So if you’re in the Tidalvess tank group, until Tidalvess is dead, your totems are there to extend the survivability of that tank. Period. And yes, he will frostshock the totem instead of the tank.- If you are not in that tank group, or if Tidalvess has already been corpsed, drop totems standard to whichever group you are in.
Earthshield:
- On the Tidalvess Tank (even if you are not in her group).
- After that, on the Karathress tank if you can reach him; if not, on the healer who is healing the Caribdis group for spell pushback protection.
Heroism/Bloodlust? Once all the adds are dead and everyone is focused on killing Karathress himself, burn heroism. I usually shoot for around 35 to 45% health, to give the buff time to run out before he dies.
Don’t stand in the….
- Tornado. You can’t heal while you bounce around in the air, and this one comes with an increased cast time debuff. Similar to the Crone in
Karazhan: Opera. - Spitfire Totem - DPS should be getting rid of this. It hits for approximately ow.
Shaman Friendly or Unfriendly? Friendly. Your totems and earthshield make a HUGE difference for the Tidalvess section of the fight. The spitfire totem and Caribdis’ AOE frost nova thing generate a fairly large amount of AOE raid damage, particularly in melee, so chain heals are effective and mana efficient.
Other Advice: This is a long fight - four fights really - so focus on survival and mana regen. Healing will make or break this one, and the healing team needs to be coordinated and communicating about what is going on where, since you’ll be spread out all over the room. Also keep in mind that Karathress does a single target shadow bolt that will hit you for half of your health - so pay attention to your OWN little green bar, and not just the other ones on your screen!
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Been doing much the same for the hunters on the TRI boards - can you post these to TRI forums as well please? <3