Zon'ozz heroic guide incorrect?

[Dreamtears 5]

I am not sure if the contributors of the guides read this but I am concern your guide may be incorrect in regards to NOT dispelling the Disprupting Shadows but to heal thru it on Zonozz Heroic. I read many sites and guides and even asked on wow forums if people heal thru the disrupting shadows and you are the only one who mentions this. You may need to heal thru it if they are about to hit a transistion phase or if they are about to take damage from the ball but generally the person with the debuff on needs to run immediately ten yards away from people and get dispelled.

Myself and another guildie love your guides -they are great and very detailed however when I was researching Zonozz Heroic for some reason I did not read your guide and went to other references. However my follow healer came to your guide as you have never let him down. He spoke with such authority that we just heal thru it contrary to what I read and we disagreed.

If we heal thru it we are healing that person continously for 20 secs and in that twenty seconds we are healing 36099 every two secs - which leads to healing for 360,990 Hp and I believe three people have the debuff - let alone all the other healing that needs to be done...I think your straetgy could be (as i never tried it nor found anyone who has on ten man to confirm) a very mana inefficent way of healing and could leave the healers with severe mana issues and could lead to a wipe. Also I have read anywhere from 33392-38807 every two seconds. So my calcuations could be less or worse.

Edited June 8, 2012 by Damien

[Astropolix 10]

While you are right, and the 'intended' strategy by Blizz was most likely to go out and be dispelled, it is (mostly) more viable to trust in your healers ability to heal through a somewhat higher damage then relying on everyone in your raid not screwing up movement. This is especially true for 25 man runs.

Furthermore stepping out leads to a DPS loss, leading to a longer fight, more black phases, more dps loss, etc. If you happened to watch the speedrun contest through dragon soul HC 25 man w/o nerf activated (organized by Athene) you will have noticed all 4 contesting guilds healing through that debuff and downing the boss in the second black phase. This is obviously an extreme example, but proves the point.

It all comes down to what you prefer, how you're geared and how skilled your players are. If you are struggling with the enrage (or don't struggle at all but just want to clear DS as fast as possible, because you're annoyed by it ;-)) you will want to maximize DPS. That includes reducing movement wherever possible. If you're struggling with movement you want to reduce it again. If however your healers are struggling to heal through the black phases at the end because they're oom for healing through that dmg then obviously stepping out is an option.

Edited June 3, 2012 by Astropolix

[Zagam 1,982]

I feel that comparing two of the top guilds in the world to the people who use these guides is a bit of an oversight here. The people using these guides clearly need help on the encounter, so telling them to ignore a mechanic and add strain to the healers for a very minor DPS gain is not beneficial.

In a 10 or 25 man encounter, using the DBM alert or any other comparable alert system should easily notify any decently raid-aware raider that something has happened to them that requires their attention. Telling healers to heal through this very damaging debuff that can be readily cleansed is equivalent to telling melee DPS to go ahead and eat that whirlwind because they don't want to lose DPS. The only time that debuff should be healed through is when someone isn't moving (bad on their part, shows lack of raid awareness) or when it is applied to someone at or below 50% of their maximum life. Once they are brought up to 75-80%, they can and should be dispelled.

[Astropolix 10]

As I said that example was meant to be extreme. Last time we pulled a player through DS, so basically only had 9 players and were still able to two-heal the boss while not dispelling the debuffs. It just comes down to how good your healers are...

[Dreamtears 5]

But isn't it more than how good you're healers are? I am talking about ten man heroic with an average guild and all healers and all other raiders with virtually no heroic gear. Our raid can not nine man it yet...reg DS, yes we can. I found the last comment a bit insulting as I am the healer in our raid and myself and the other healer are on equal footing in our healing ability..and it comes down to how good I am? If you have done this strategy with virtually no heroic gear - and heroic mode, with a nerf, and just healed thru it...then I will take my hat off to you and will make an extreme effort to go down this path. sorry if I sound frustrated but most guides tend to be geared towards geared raids and exceptional players. But now with the 25% nerf this whole topic might just be pointless...and doable.

Edited June 10, 2012 by Dreamtears