Spine of Deathwing

Does anyone out there contribute to the tendon DPS while healing? I've only contributed via fairie fire (yes, the realities of 10 man raiding) but we're only just getting the tendon down with a single tank strat, and we've missed them before. I've never felt that resto druids can contribute meaningful DPS, and I don't think popping treeform just for DPS would be wise in this encounter.

I make sure everyone is topped and then wrath spam with IS and Moonfire ticking on it. Any dps is dps that could be helping.

I wouldn't suggest doing it over trying to keep everyone up should bloods still be up or anything.

The Corruptions have a nasty habit of using Fiery Grip on a raid member right after a nuclear blast, your dps may be better spent (provided you're not gripped) on breaking this person out to free the main dps up to dps tendons, after chucking up initial dots. Unless you have another healer assigned to do that of course All depends on the strat you're using too.

As far as resto druids providing meaingful dps, I was required to dps a decent amount on Heroic Ragnoros, and let the pally healer handle things, after the 2nd hammer phase so that we could only have one meteor. We are fairly useful and can output a decent amount compared to some other healers ^_^

I'll usually try to toss up an Insect Swam and Moonfire, but I usually have things to heal at that point, or my mana is tight and I don't want to be casting too many dps spells.

How do you handle the heal absorb debuff I was using Rejuv, swiftmend on CD and throwing HTs?
I sucked hard way yesterday... had to go, respec and go resto.... had a new piece unencanted, but not to suck like that! I think I did 8k HPS... and I was OOM just before 2nd tendon

We used CDs like this:
Spirit link on first stack to barrel roll
I used Tranq on the first exploding amalgamation,
Aura Mastery on 2nd stack
Tank died while the amalgamation was on 9 stacks, with the add almost dead... (used ToL, but seems couldn't do much)

but I really felt I was fucking the raid up

There really isn't much damage when trying to get him to roll. I suggest saving spirit link for when the exploding of the amalgamation happens.

If you are healing the people with the debuff, making them a lifebloom target does help. Its up to you however.

I Regrowth them on the spot, Rej, then 3 stack lifebloom. Then I ignore them as the healing becomes more than enough and I go back to the raid. Making sure to keep Swiftmend down on the group of people.

You are healing the absorb buff about correctly. You can toss in a RG if you get an OoC proc, and WG after the person (or anyone with the debuff) takes damage to help as well (wait for them to take damage so that you ensure WG will hit them). I will also rejuv anyone with the debuff to help out the other healers as well, since a full duration rejuv is a pretty healthy amount of healing.

Depending on how quickly your team works, you may have tranq up after each roll (especially while learning). We've found that using tranqs and Hymns for at least 2 of the rolls really helps to keep the debuffs under control (we use it after the roll and everyone is back in the middle) - so if it's not up for all three rolls, try to use it for roll 1 and 3 - but if it is up, it also means that SLT will also be up for all three rolls (we also use SLT to help clear debuffs after the rolls). Additionally, I'll use ToL to help clear debuffs when there are a lot of them active, as a three stack of LB does a fair bit of healing towards clearing off the debuff.

I do, however, use a healthy amount of HT during the encounter (in last night's kill, I cast 25). To keep your mana under control, be sure to innervate early and often - and sneak in a concentration potion right after a roll, once the debuffs are under control.

When we stack to make a roll, I see people getting pretty low... that's why I decided to use SLT while stacked on the fire patch...
So it would be better to try heal people stacked, wait for the roll, then SLT and a tranq (or hymn)?
And regular heal the explotions, with maybe AM for it? (we are pretty good at downing the amalgamation with few ticks)

Thanks for the help.

We downed spine on our next night of attempts, couple of things that really made a difference IMO:

* Use preventative cooldowns for rolls and pre-explosion burn downs when the raid is in danger

* Use throughput cooldowns (tranq, hymn of hope) to burst off debuffs when you get too many

* Keep moving that lifebloom stack to a debuffed person, and get a feel for when letting it bloom will clear the debuff so you don't waste anymore GCDs on that target. Always rejuv a debuffed person, even those not in your scope of responsibility; that spell is just tailor made for this job.

* When the blast is about to knock a plate off, start getting rejuves on the raid to stabilize their health so that you can assist DPS without worrying about healing when the tendon comes up.

congrats on getting spine down!