Totem Talk: How to heal Morchok and Zon'ozz in the Siege of Wyrmrest
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and co-host of the For the Lore and Raid Warning podcasts), shows you how.
Dragon Soul is full of fire, black goo, explosions, dragons, and an odd shaman that have gone off the deep end and sided with some Old Golds. To be honest, it's an impressive raid zone in both scale of story -- and it's one for sure that most restoration shaman should fall in love with. (For full details of the encounters or full raid strategies, please read Ready Check for WoW Insider's boss guides.)
Morchok is an elemental baddie straight from the pits of Deepholm, the most powerful elemental still under the control of Deathwing. He'll be your first roadblock on the highway to defeating the aspect of death -- and honestly, he's a fight designed with the restoration shaman in mind. Morchok's bark is much bigger than his bite when you're a restoration shaman. So what makes him such a good boss for a resto shaman healer? Well, the mechanics of the fight first and foremost lend themselves very well to your raid staying grouped up. This plays well the vast majority of our AoE healing spells.
Resto tips for Morchok
Stomp will deal massive amounts of damage to the raid, divided between all players within 25 yards. The two closest targets take double the share of damage. In a 25-man raid, this will total 2,500,000 damage that you have to deal with. On every Stomp, your raid group should be within that 25 yards of the boss so that no one explodes from the force of the elemental stomping. Lay down Healing Rain as soon as you see your timer or warning go off that Stomp is inbound. Make sure Healing Stream Totem is down to help you even out a little of the healing, and make sure Riptide is up on a target to buff your Chain Heal. With an early Healing Rain and a well-timed Chain Heal, you can make all the damage from this boss ability disappear in a few short seconds.
The ability Resonating Crystal will conjure an explosive crystal on the battlefield that explodes after 12 seconds, dealing massive shadow damage. The damage is inflicted and shared between players in range and marked by the crystal, and the total damage increases depending on how far away from the crystal each player is. Keep an eye on the marked people and when you see the crystal explode, let a CH fly to help them out. They will be close enough that they should all be within jump range, and that snap heal will help keep them alive.
Occasionally, the boss will pull all of the players toward him, dealing 5% of their total health as physical damage every second for 5 seconds. Then he will release the players and summon pillars of stone randomly through the area. This is very similar to Slabhide in The Stonecore, and just like there, you will have to run behind those slabs to avoid Black Blood of the Earth. Pop Ghost Wolf, get behind them ASAP, and wait for the blood to drain back down into the ground. At 20% health, Morchok will gain the Furious buff, when he will hit harder and hit faster. Just keep healing and keep your raid team grouped up, and you'll get through the fight in no time.
If you happen to be assigned to tank healing duty, be aware of the extra damage he will be taking not only from the Stomp, but also from Crush Armor, which places a stacking debuff on the tank that reduces the amount of armor he has.
After you burn the boss down to the ground, it's time to collect the goods. Here are some wonderful items you can get a chance to earn for downing this elemental.
Resto advice for Warlord Zon'ozz
The warlord actually once waged war against the forces of C'thun and Yogg-Saron under the banner of the Old God N'Zoth. He's angry, looks like a disgruntled lobster and has some serious issues. To be honest, though, we just call him the Ping-Pong Boss and try to get through him as quickly as possible. He's not an overly tough fight, and just like Morchok, he's a boss that favors a grouped-up style of handling the encounter. Your raid group is going to be divided into two groups, melee with tanks and ranged.
Void of the Unmaking is the big thing to watch out for here. Zon'ozz summons a giant Void Diffusion that travels forward until it touches someone. When it touches someone, it explodes for some AoE damage and then starts traveling back in the opposite direction. Each bounce increases the damage dealt by the ball by 20%. This can lead to some hefty damage to deal with -- but hey, that's why you're grouped up. Make use of CH and HR, and keep people topped off. Our mastery, Deep Healing, comes in quite handy here, as your raid group is going to want to make sure to bounce the diffusion between the groups as many times as it safely can. The reason for this is that once it touches the boss, it will cause Zon'ozz to be Diffused and will increase the damage the boss takes by 5% for every bounce you had.
After the ball makes contact with the boss, he lets loose his focused anger and summons a tentacle disco dance party. Black Blood of Go'rath will cause massive ammounts of shadow damage to everyone in the raid. For this phase, make sure your raid team groups up and stays grouped up tightly. Lay on the HR and CH like you've been doing, and keep that Riptide rolling. When the time is right, make sure to drop Spirit Link Totem to reduce the amount of incoming damage and help even out the health of the raid to make it back into the first phase.
Throughout the first phase, you will also have to keep your eyes peeled for Disrupting Shadows. This is a magic debuff that causes massive shadow damage every 2 seconds. After the ability is dispelled, it will cause more shadow damage and will knock the player back. You need to make sure that this ability is not allowed to tick for too long, or either the damage tick will kill the player or the damage from purging the debuff will kill them. So be vigilant and keep your finger on the Cleanse Spirit button.
If you get assigned to tank healing duty, be mindful of which way the boss is facing and watch out for Psychic Drain, which deals damage in a 30-degree cone in front of the boss, and for Focused Anger, which will increase the physical damage the boss does by 10% and increases his attack speed by 10%.
The fight plays to the strengths of the shaman healer, and once you down the boss, he does have some nice possible rewards for your time and effort.
These are the first two bosses that you'll encounter in the new Dragon Soul raid. While they may not be overly complicated when it comes to mechanics, they sure do love some shaman healing. It's a refreshing way to start a raid tier, as far as I'm concerned, letting us shine much more than we had the opportunity to do in Firelands. What do you think of the first two bosses of Dragon Soul?
Totem Talk: Restoration lets you Ask a Shaman about the tricks of the trade. We'll introduce you to the very latest pre-raid gear and show you how to manage your cooldowns. Happy healing, and may your mana be plentiful!
