v3.3
Hi all. Long time no speak, etc. 
Just thought I’d post to chime in on the current fashion for posting about healing the Lich King (hereafter called just LK) as a disc priest.
Several bloggers have posted about healing the LK fight in its various incarnations. Dawn’s done it, Derevka’s done it and Avalonna’s done it. They all pretty much suggest similar tactics, which should work great. One of the main ‘tricks’ to the LK fight (normal modes) for a disc priest is to down rank PW:S so that it is consumed each time Infest is cast. If you have no idea what i’m talking about go read their posts.
Guess what? Downranking PW:S is far from mandatory! You can heal, the normal modes at least, just fine with your normal, full-strength PW:S. Here’s how you do it, or at least how I do it. This generally aimed at 25 man but I will add some comments for 10 man.
Phase 1 – Actually it starts before phase one. About 20s before the start of the fight Power Infuse yourself and shield the entire raid, except the tanks. With power infusion on you can shield 22 people just fine. With full strength bubbles, in normal mode, Infest will not consume your bubbles. As soon as infest has landed reshield most of the raid starting at the same point as last time. You should be able to shield four groups of raiders most times. You can pretty much ignore the tanks and anyone who has agro (usually DPS warriors and ret paladins). You will be reshielding players who still have a small active shield on them.
Once you mana hits 50%, which it will, cast shadowfiend on the LK and keep shielding. This usually results in having about 80% mana remaining at the end of phase one.
About the same time as you cast shadowfiend Power Infusion will be ready to cast on yourself again.
In 10 man Power Infuse who ever you like. I usually do the holy paladin/tank healer as they work the hardest. You might not need your shadowfiend either in this phase. In 10 man I was using my shadowfiend at the start of p2. 10 man is a bit easier, but a lot more interesting.
Transition 1 – If you followed my plan above you will have about two very bored raid healers and a third who will be glad to stop staring at Necrotic Plague timers. I tend to let them do most of the healing in the first transition. I throw a few heals but only work at about 30% capacity. Once we have all started to use some mana I shield myself and cast Hymn of Hope. This should result in close to 100% mana for phase 2. Try to do this no later than 20s before the end of the transition.
About 10s before the end of the transition start reshielding the raid. The first infest will be a little messy as there is a balance between shielding early and having the LK blow the shields away in the transition and shielding late and missing players.
In 10 man I have more mana and I use PW:S and PoM through out. You can just start shielding the instant he starts to destroy the outer platform.
Phase 2 – You should start this phase with near full mana.
Rinse and repeat shielding the entire raid as per phase one. Its generally messier due to your regular repositioning to avoid Defile and Val’kyrs, but with practice you’ll get this pretty tight. You will end this phase near empty mana-wise, although shaman mana tide totems will usually be used here and I usually have about 20% mana remaining.
In 10 man I have lots more global cool downs to use and heal the tank, especially during Soul Reaper. In 25 man Infest is your job almost 100%. In 10 man its only about 50% Infest and 50% helping with tank healing.
Transition 2 – Be ready to use Divine Hymn as soon as you get off the center platform. Usually there is at least one raider that takes Remorseless Winter and this helps stabilise the raid for the other raid healers to take over.
Once again I do only emergency healing in the transition and let the other raid healers use some of their mana. Shadowfiend will be ready for use about the start of this transition, but I find it better to delay its use slightly.
For 10 mans I tend to heal a lot more though this transition. Mainly i’m shield spamming as LK slams them down with his lightning.
Phase 3 – The money phase. First thing to do (as I’m getting off the outer platform) is to select the target of the last raging spirit and cast PW:S and PoM on them. I find most players don’t realise they are the target of this spirit and don’t strafe, or start kiting to the off-tank, or use other survival strategies at least for the first few seconds aft the rager appears. If they are known to be bad with raging spirits Pain Suppression them too.
Anyway after that little bit of fun target LK and Shadowfiend him again. If you are running on empty use Hymn of Hope at the same time. A full mana bar should be plenty for this phase, even if you end up losing a healer at some point.
There is no infest in this phase and it is very different to the first two phases for the disc priest. I mainly switch to assisting the tank healers. When Vile Spirits are up I watch my raid frames for agro alerts and PW:S them. Provided people are sensible and don’t stand near each other the shield + their native health pool makes surviving the spirits fairly easy.
In both 10 and 25 man the main thing is to assist with the tank healing, avoid Defiles (of course) and then top up those who get chased by the spirits.
If you get sucked into Frostmourne heal the friendly guy and watch his debuffs. As soon as he gets a new debuff Mass Dispel it off him.
So that’s it. The PW:S down ranking method widely suggested is probably a bit easier, but priests have plenty of mana regen tools and can do it fine without the Rapture trick.
Gobble gobble
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