some advice on whic hc's in order to start us off

[woodyman]

Hi im raid / hc leader for a casual guild and we have just started runniing regular HC's in mind of gearing towards raiding in the future.

The real pain is that our main healer is a priest and is having major oom issues at the moment.

despite vortex pinnicle being the obvious first choice we have found it really bad for priest healers as the fights are long and 2nd boss has lots of movement.

so basically any hints on where to head
group shud basically be 3 x 7-8k dps
warrior tank
priest heals

Ive found DM hc fairly gentle on healers mana up until last bosses
thanks in advance

[Ellóren]

Throne of the Tides isn't too bad either (I've a healing priest myself).

It's kind of obvious but bears repeating that the group should avoid avoidable damage as much as possible, as well as help with the healing - as in, pop the occasional healing potion or a bandage, or throw in a support heal from dps classes that have heals at their disposal

[Passive]

I actually found that when I went into heroics at gear level 329 average and CC'd all mobs but 1, it was so easy that the healer was never below 90% mana. We ended up just CCing one or two mobs depending on the difficulty of the pull, but this just proves that CC can make a lot of the pulls so easy.

My group setup tended to be: me as prot warrior, warlock, balance druid, shaman or pally healer, and usually a hunter or another lock. Obviously my setup had great CC and a balance druid innervate for the healer is great too. All of the heroics aren't that bad if you can get a strong group together and avoid as much damage as you can.

I do remember having trouble on the commander boss in SFK so I wouldn't suggest going there just yet until your group can pick up some more gear. I honestly found Grim Batol to be fairly easy but this seems largely dependant on your groups ability to CC and avoid taking damage from boss mechanics. Throne of the Tides isn't too bad yeah, and I managed to pug Deadmines successfully. BRC isn't too bad if the tank knows how to do the boss with the fire thing in the middle, beauty is made easier if you can cc 2 or even all 3 of his small dogs in the encounter.

For that second encounter in Vortex Pinnacle, your priest should spec body and soul if they are holy, it makes moving to the correct place much easier and you shouldn't have much problem with practice on it.

[Fetzie]

Instances i would rate as "fairly easy"
Grim Batol
Vortex Pinnacle
Lost city of tol'vir
shadowfang keep
Halls of origination
Stonecore

slightly harder
Deadmines
Blackrock caverns
throne of the tides

think that is all of them. If the random finder puts you in the last three, embrace the challenge

[Passive]

Wow your 3 harder ones I would consider 3 of the easier ><

[warboss]

Instances i would rate as "fairly easy"

Vortex Pinnacle
Lost city of tol'vir
throne of the tides
shadowfang keep
Halls of origination


slightly harder
Deadmines
Grim Batol
Blackrock caverns
Stonecore

Thats about what I would say(in that order too). Tips: Use vent if you can. Many times I will tell my tank crucial info like, pop c/ds im regaining mana(hymn etc) or, take this killing blow(with guardian angel) so I can regen etc. Also if your priest is disc, he is better off switching to holy there are less regen issues atm. CC trivializes alot of trash pulls. Vortex pinnacle is absolutely easy if you know the mechanic to the dragon. upwind literrally means you are closest to the wind's direction ie: if the wind is going from right to left, you are on the right side of the platform doesnt matter which way you face. Knowing the mechanics of the encounters and how to avoid/trivialize them will take the difficulty down quite a few notches.

[Quinafoi]

It differs from person to person what you will consider more difficult.

For example, I consider Erudax in Grim Batol and Setesh in Halls of Origination to be the two easiest boss fights in heroic to heal when done correctly... because I've done both without a healer. Erudax all damage except direct melee damage on the tank is avoidable and direct damage on the tank can be so trivial the tank can heal themselves. Setesh is similar, in order to reduce the amount of damage you take by a ton, you do more DPS (portals die faster, less adds, less damage taken, more damage on the boss). The tank can take care of themselves for a very long time before they are overrun. These types of experiences are not the same for everyone.

[Quinafoi]

Bottom line, you need practice. You're going to die a bit, but things will become easier and easier with experience. CC makes trash easier, but not as much as experience. Understanding how to handle each mob is more important than simply crowd controling it. Sooner or later you have to fight it, and if you forget to interrupt the one shot everyone ability, you still die. Granted dealing with as few as possible at a time makes it much easier to manage. When you have experience with it, then you can afford the luxury of handling more at once.