Hey guys,

So I havent been healing with my Sorc long. I have done all tier 1 HMs with no problems but only done EV and KP SM so far OP wise.

I am in a mixture of Columi/Rakata and BH gear, mostly Rakata.

I tried LI HM for the first time tonight and I dunno if it was cause I hadnt done it before but we didnt even get past the first boss before people rage quit and left.

The droid boss is insane, the damage is massive and people spread out WAY too far so I always have to run around trying to catch them wasting time.

The tank only had 19k HP and raged at me for him dying but he just kept falling so quick, any tips from the top healers out there?

The DPS was a Merc and a Sin. The Merc was fine to look after but the Sin was ALWAYS out of range, I had to chase him the most and with 17k HP he was dropping pretty fast.

Between the adds, the lava and the electric balls I just couldnt keep up. We died and they rage quit.

I'm not going back until I have full Rakata and maybe more OPs experience but honestly I dunno what else I could I have so if the raid healers here could offer some advice I'd greatly appreciate it.

1. Welcome to tier 2 content.

I tried LI HM for the first time tonight and I dunno if it was cause I hadnt done it before but we didnt even get past the first boss before people rage quit and left.

That's somewhat common. If you can beat this boss, you're capable of finishing the instance because the last boss has similar mechanics (not saying you'll kill him or savrak on the first try, though).

The droid boss is insane, the damage is massive and people spread out WAY too far so I always have to run around trying to catch them wasting time.

This is, more or less, why people who can complete this use guildies instead of pugging it. This is a group positioning problem, not a healer problem. While it depends on the raid composition (ranged groups and melee groups will do different things here), where the dps and the tank take the boss must be coordinated or there's no way to beat the boss.

The tank only had 19k HP and raged at me for him dying but he just kept falling so quick, any tips from the top healers out there?

Two reasons for this.

1. The tank was missing an interrupt or getting it late

2. When he misses the interrupt or gets it late, you need to hit him with a cleanse or it's game over

There's a debuff you'll see on his bar that looks like a fire and it stacks. If it gets to three(?) stacks, it ticks for something ridiculous like 12k per second, which a much better geared healer still isn't healing through.

The DPS was a Merc and a Sin. The Merc was fine to look after but the Sin was ALWAYS out of range, I had to chase him the most and with 17k HP he was dropping pretty fast.

This is the type of composition I like the least for this one. prefer all ranged DPS or all melee DPS (but then, I normally heal this with an op).

Anyways, the Tank needs to plot out a course he's going to take the boss and make it clear to the group ahead of time. You and the merc should be stacked on top of each other at ~20 m from the tank. When one of you gets the circle, drag it away from the other one until it drops (preferably on the grates and preferably without taking fire damage), then head back to the other ranged/heals.

Between the adds, the lava and the electric balls I just couldnt keep up. We died and they rage quit.

The adds are not your responsibility. The merc needs to stop what he's doing and kill the first two groups. The tank should AoE taunt the third while everyone focuses on the boss. The "not keeping up" bit is a group coordination problem, not a healer problem.

The advice I'd give you is to get a guild group or 4 friends together to do a first clear. There's a number of mechanics and strategies in the flashpoint that need to just be learned through repetition. That works best with 3 other reliable peeps on the same page you are.

Pugging this is bad unless, by blind luck, you get 3 HM/NiM Ops vets who happen to be doing the rakghoul weekly because they need a couple stabs to buy a mod for an alt or craft something. But with such a group, you probably don't learn what it is you need to know to clear it.

My way, the 4 of you will be ready to try your hand at EC HM once you're done.

The mechanics on this flashpoint, and this fight in particular, are pretty tight. You need at least a couple of people who have done it before and can explain the fights before you go charging in. As previously mentioned, if the tank missed the interrupt for incinerate, he would die very quickly. You can cleanse, but it really is the tank's responsibility. If you have ranged DPS, then you as the healer should stack with them and move with them. This allows you to drop your AOE heal on yourself and the DPS as you move out of the lightning domes. If there is a melee DPS, the tank has to move the boss around the room, and it gets a lot more complicated.

For the droid fight, these are the most important things to do.

1. Tank MUST interrupt the droid's incinerate ability

2. No one can stand in lightning domes. Someone will get a white ring on them a couple of seconds before they drop. That person should run the dome away from the group. Move as needed around the room.

3. Don't stand in fire. The tank can move the boss to the sides where there is no lava.

There are two other difficult fights. Sav-rak and Dr. Lorrick also both have tight mechanics.

On Sav-rak:

1. DPS should stand to the side of the boss during normal phase as he has a frontal cleave.

2. Everyone MUST stand directly on top of the boss as he does his smash leap thing. If you are not right on top of him, you will get ledged.

3. When he jumps up on the towers, the tank and both DPS each get one panel. His acid spit hits hard and it will tax your healing. Use your AOE heal wisely and make sure everyone is topped off before the spitting phase.

On Lorrick:

1. Don't stand in green circles.

2. When he says "I have a few tricks up my sleeve, the tank has to run around the kolto tanks to avoid getting hit with satchel charges that explode after a few seconds for a lot of damage.

3. DPS kolto tanks and the adds that come out.

4. During second phase with burning rakghouls, everyone must stay away from them. Use knockbacks if needed. They stun on contact.

5. During the burning rakghoul phase, Lorrick will stun everyone and then ravage somebody. This needs to be interrupted.

6. In final phase, everyone should gather by a wall so as not to get knocked back. Use AOE heal liberally. This is a straight burn phase. He stuns and does lots of damage. It's a DPS race.

Honestly, its a teamwork, like people here says.

I'm primarily a dps sorc, but I also heal with it, and i've done it for a guild HM LI.

That run was doomed imo.

1st - 19k hp tank means tionese pretty much. In that FP in a pug, his TTK is very short, so you'd need to be constantly on him.

2nd-L5 fight has lots of damage, but many of it is avoidable. If people don't avoid it, healer can eventually be overwhelmed/run out of ressource.

Always aim for a columni or better group.

Only thing I'd say that Sooner didn't is that,

1) You can purge incinerate stacks, and if the tank isn't getting the interupts before 2 stacks then he's a bad tank.

2) you have to keep purging the virus things in the end fight. They build up and will do crazy damage, I tend to purge about 3-4 stacks on a person.

I have healed LI HM with only a half-decent geared operative (so not a sorcerer, but that's beside the point. I know sorcerers who have done the same) in a group where the "tank" was a Powertech in full dps gear (not because he did not have tank gear, he had, but he did not want to use it) and he was in dps spec too, and was not even using ion gas cylinder, but cgc like proper pyrotech dps.

Despite the "tank's" good gear, since he was in full dps spec and dps gear his survivability must have been much worse than that of a proper tank even in crap gear (like tionese or worse).

Even with that dps powertech tanking, I was able to heal it so easily that I was practically able to use orbital strike on cooldown and to waste my energy doing all kinds of dps from time to time, and still clear it without any wipes. Many proper tanks have been harder to heal.

Why was it so easy?

Because the group knew the tactics and interrupted everything that needs to be interrupted and avoided all avoidable damage with great skill.

So what was the point of this story?

The point is that you should be very selective with whom you go to do LI HM with. Instead of random people from group finder, you should try to find someone whom you know for sure to be skilled and experienced with it.

I've done LI HM many times with group finder or with straight PUG groups, and I've cleared it in 25 minutes with no wipes. I don't mind explaining the fights. I do mind if people come in wearing horrid gear or can't follow instructions. You should be in at least partial columi before doing LI HM. Anything less than full Tionese is absolutely not good enough.

Honestly, if you want to get through it quickly with no wipes and you have to PUG, you need to make sure everyone is overgeared and has done it before several times. If someone is new, you are likely going to wipe a couple of times while they learn the mechanics. I don't mind a wipe or two as long as I see improvement.