While waiting for enough guild members to hit level 80 for Heroic Naxx, a group of us ventured into the 10 man version. Here are my musings on the first two quarters.
Arachnid Quarter
First of all, why did it have to be spiders? Ask anyone that knows me--spiders freak me out. I jump a foot when even the tiniest spider gets near me. And I play a computer game that throws them at me every time it gets the chance. Don't ask me why.
Anub'Rekhan
Phase One: Heal the tank and people who get impaled. To avoid getting more than one person impaled at a time, don't stack up in a straight line.
Phase Two: Don't forget to heal the tank who is running around in a circle, especially during the transition. I would toss Riptide on him to help out the priest assigned to him. Keep everyone else alive.
Bottom Line: I don't remember too much about this fight from my first foray into it, except the awesomeness of seeing a giant beetle-like spider chasing a tiny gnome with a green mohawk. Be careful during transitions, and don't get too close to the tank running around in a circle. The de-buff silences you and with only 2-3 healers that is bad news.
Grand Widow Faerlina
Bottom Line: This is a fairly straightforward fight in normal mode. The adds are off-tanked and killed one by one to avoid the huge damage spikes caused by frenzy. Keep the tanks alive and chain heal the raid if needed. Stay out of the rain of fire. Might want to use a poison curing totem to help ease the strain during poison bolt volley, and keep a chain heal going on the melee.
Maexxna
Bottom Line: There is a lot of damage flying around during this fight, and you will be flying some yourself. Stay positioned near the wall to the left of the entrance so that when you get Web Wrapped you fly into the wall and not away from the raid. Help keep the poison off people, especially the tank since it reduces healing. Heal. Heal. Heal.
Plague Quarter
Noth the Plague Bringer
Phase One: Decurse players affected by Curse of the Plaguebringer so they don't damage themselves and others. Keep the tanks up during the berzerker enrage. Watch out for blink.
Phase Two: Heal the tanks on the skeletons.
Bottom Line: A slightly chaotic fight, but it isn't that bad. Just keep heals on the raid and the tanks and decurse.
Heigan the Unclean
Phase One: Chain heal. Chain heal. Chain heal. The melee will be running across the room in an organized fashion to avoid the lava spurts and taking damage from the boss's aura the entire time. This is a fight where chain heal spam shines. Just stand on the stage, keep a chain heal going on the melee, and don't get in the aura because it hurts and slows your cast times down by a ridiculous amount--300%. Don't worry too much about mana, you'll have a chance to regen a lot during Phase Two.
Phase Two: Your turn to run. Now, everyone runs across the room in an organized fashion to avoid lava spurts, since, during this phase, the guy who needs a bath takes up residence on the stage. Stay with the group, but you alone are responsible for making sure you stop in the correct spots. You'll need to watch a video or look at positioning maps to get a feel for it, but even then you probably won't "get it" until you've seen the fight a few times and learned the timing of the spurts.
While you're running, top up the raid using Riptide and only Riptide. You do not want to take time to cast anything else. Instant heals are the only option during the lava dance. Make sure a mana spring totem is down to help you gain back the mana you blew through in Phase One.
Bottom Line: This is a very fun fight for Shaman healers. But if it is your first time to see it, expect to wipe at least once. The dance isn't difficult to master, but you probably won't get it until you see it for yourself at least one time. Be careful to avoid getting too close to Heigan during transitions so that you don't pick up the debuff. And cleanse anyone who still has the disease going into Phase Two or they'll probably die while running.
Loatheb
Bottom Line: This fight is all about timing your heals to land at exactly the right time. It isn't too difficult, and the damage isn't too much to keep up with, but you have to pay attention to the debuff at all times. Every 20 seconds the boss casts an aura that makes healing effects useless on everyone in the raid. It lasts for 17 seconds. Meaning you have 3 seconds to heal before the aura is cast again. You need to queue up a chain heal to land just as the debuff fades. The follow it up with either a riptide on a very low player or another chain heal if you are fast. You will probably have time to dps the boss between heals, but remember that timing the heals is more important than casting a lava burst.
