Nightbane

[Bolty]

It's disheartening to hear that a group that isn't exactly ideal may be screwed. However I'm still not convinced that the healing game has changed all that much. Sure I've only healed a few of the early regular instances on my enhancement shaman, but I have still solo healed in TBC. I fully expect that to main heal a raid or heroic you need to be heal spec, that was something you didn't necessarily have to be before hand at least for the earlier raid instances (and you don't need to be for most of the non heroic 5 mans either in TBC). I'm just not sure the sky is falling or that healing is that radically different.

Not radically different?

Normal mode instances: Cleoboltra casts Renew and Prayer of Mending, then scratches her butt and comments on how her father always used to say, "Shut up and get out." Once a minute or so, she casts Greater Heal. It's so laughably easy compared to heroic that it's quite normal for us to be on such a run and constantly go "on heroic, these guys hit for such-and-such" and "wow, this is a joke." Your whole perspective on instances changes once you start running heroics.

Heroic mode instances: Main Tank starts a pull of 5 mobs, one of which is sapped while the other will be sheeped. Prayer of Mending is already on him. Mobs approach. Cleoboltra queues a max-rank Greater Heal. BAM ZOMG Main Tank is hit by two mobs for 7500. Greater Heal lands for 4.5k. Cleoboltra gets aggro. Decision - hit Fade and suffer the 1.5 seconds of global cooldown, risking the Main Tank's life, or keep healing the Main Tank. I decide to Fade. Aggro returns to the Main Tank. BAM ZOMG the Main Tank, still getting slammed, is down to 3000 hit points, one-shot range. Flash Heal spam. Massive aggro build. Fade runs out, I have aggro. I'm one-shot for 11,000+ damage. At no time do I have the TIME to engage in defensive activities; even casting Psychic Scream costs me a 1.5 second global cooldown which sometimes leads to a tank's death. Prayer of Mending? Generally useless, because spending 1.5 seconds to heal a tank for 1500-1600 only gets him killed. We wipe.

Mana is very, very rarely the concern in heroic-mode instances. Any idiot can drink potions and use some tricks to keep going. It's sheer incoming damage that's the problem, damage that outpaces healing.

Nightbane is simply a numbers game. You must have this much healing to enter, and only 2 members of the raid spec'ed for healing without any kind of "mana battery" players to help can't be done.

I know you mean well, GG, but you're trying to pass judgement on things you haven't tried yet.

-Bolty