Healing Night Bane: ZOMG Dragon!

Heyo! Welcome to another installment of Healing Kara! Yea, I know, I'm missing Prince, Opera, Curator, etc, BUT! Nightbane is a dragon. He's a f*cking dragon! I lurv dragons, every since I was | | big! In order to get to this boss, you need to finish this quest line, Medhiv's Journal. That quest requires things like killing the Shade of Aran, then doing Heroic Settheck (ANZU IS MINE!) and Heroic Shattered Halls ( /shiver).

Ok, enough with the foreplay (though, yet again, check out Wowwiki for a good over view of the strat ^.^).


The Strat:

Ok, he's a dragon. So Draenei and Dwarf priests have a leg up in that they can fear ward the tank. Other wise, your tank must do some creative stance dancing that is beyond this priest (care to elaborate Brig? XD) because he does fear. Our group make up for this fight has been 1 tank, 3 healers, 6 DPS (with at least one being a mage). Nightbane has two phases, on the ground and in the air. His air phases come at ever 1/4 of his health (so at 75%, 50% and 25%).

Trust me, you'll want the three healers for this fight. If you have two pallys with you, great, the tank will definately be topped off, but having you there is great for when Nightbane really wackes him. And he will. Nightbane hits HARD. Really gorram hard. Celli and I were goofing around right after I got the urn, and he and I summoned him (fully expecting to die) and ZOMG, he hits hard! Having the third healer for this group is a godsend, because you'll get more time with the 5SR (and everyone will love you for it, trust me).

Now, while on the ground, Nightbane should only be hitting the tank. Melee has instructions to slice and dice his armpits, while the ranged DPS and healers should be at their max distances on either side. This is to avoid cleaves (which will 1 shot you, clothie, it did to me -.-), tail swipes and breath weapon of doom. More than likely you're going to be out of range of some of your raiders, so in case they take any damage, it's ok, there's going to be a healer with them. You just concentrate on the tank while the dragons on the ground.

Prayer of Mending? Check. Renew? Double check. GHeals? Of course, but not necessary every second. Your Frisbee is taking care of bad hits by giving your tank some healing back, the renew is nice insurance when you or your other healers need to run out of a Charred Earth (nasty AoE on the ground that does damage to you, but you can just move sideways to get out of it). Those Fears are annoying, but they're on a long timer, so you'll have plenty of time to re-Ward your tank after a fear. You can even spare a few seconds to toss them a heal first, since they were going with no heals for all of 3 seconds, and then re-Ward.


Now, once Nightbane launches himself into the air at 75/50/25%, things get a little interesting. Firstly, Power Word Shield yourself. Trust me, you'll want this. Nightbane is going to target someone random and start a Rain of Bones. Its a bunch of skeletons that start attacking people, watch your mage and heal him/her, since they're going to be taking care of downing most of them ASAP. Nightbane is also going to target the healer with the highest healing aggro and start fireblasting them.

That's right, the highest healing aggro. I suggest that as soon as Rain of Bones starts, you Fade. If you have a holy pally in your group, they can start flash healing themself, and since the fireballs Nightbane tosses count as a physical attack, the Pally, with boatloads of armor, takes less damage, and takes the heat off your back. As a clothie, the bolts were hitting me for around 3K, every couple of seconds. It wasn't fun. The pally can handle it, and I imagine a shammy can too. But we've had a pally in our group for him, and it worked like a charm.

Also, make sure people are grouped up in the center of that platform. If anyone gets more than 40 yds away from Night bane, he gets cranky and starts hucking random fireballs all over the joint. To prevent this, everyone stay close and play nice with the big angry skeletal dragon.

Nightbane only stays in the air for about 45 seconds, then he'll land, whether you've finished off the skeletons or not. If you have a hunter in your group, make sure he has a Misdirection up to bring aggro back to the tank. Nightbane's landing is an aggro wipe, and usually our poor mage has bit it since he just annihilated the skeletons. Luckily, we have many druids with us, so a battle rez is readily available. AC is like the druid mecca, it's funny.

Anywho! After Nightbane lands, it's lather, rinse, repeat. Just toss your Frisbee to the tank, slap a renew on and wait until the next air phaze. Its the transition from Air to land phaze that's the toughest, but once you get that down, you're on your way to Nightbane pwnage.
Also, a note on Mana. You will go through tons. This fight is long, so if you have Mp5 gear, abuse it. I'm lucky in that I have a pocket Boomkin who loves to innervate me if we think I need it. For Nightbane, I do, but only about 4 to 5 mins into the fight. If you use your Fiend early, I guarantee, your first few wackes at Nightbane, you'll get to summon your fiend twice for the fight (both times I've fought and won against him, the fight took about 11 mins). I go through about 4 pots in this fight too. So bring many, especially if it's your first try. You will use them.

What does the priesty have to look forward to after this fight? Well, if you're one for staves, and Prince hasn't coughed up Light's Justice yet, than the Nightstaff of the Everliving is a pretty swank healer staff. Nightbane also drops the Emberspur Talisman, an Ok healing necklace. (Personally, I think the Necklace of Eternal Hope is better. It has some needed stats and it only costs 25 heroic badges.)


Well, that's about it folks, tune in later for Prince Malkazaar: I'm Super! Thanks for Asking!