How to GG Spine Heroic

As DS winds down to a close, I figured I would start this blog as a way to dump some of the knowledge and experience I have gained throughout the 5+ years that I have been playing World of Warcraft. I try to excel at each encounter and figured that a quick run through of the bosses where I exceed the mob would be nice.

Heroic Spine:

Very simple actually. With an acomplished raid group much of this simply depends on you. With the BoL glyph, you will find that being able to switch beacons makes your mana, though a major concern, no so much of an issue as you would believe.

1. DO NOT BEACON YOURSELF.
   Even if you have the Searing Plasma debuff, beaconing yourself is an HPS loss. And on spine, especially if you attempt without the buff, HPS loss is SRS BUSINESS.
   Reasoning is as follows:
   Doing this is retarded. If you have even a single point into Protector of the Innocent, it is an hps loss. Actually, having searing plasma on your self and 2 others, and spamming holy light on the non beacon is an easy way to regen mana.
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2. GoAK IS AN INCREDIBLE TOOL.
   During progression attempts on spine H, you may find that the searing plasma buff has gone... AMG OUT OF CONTROL. Pop Guardian and spam divine light whilst switching beacon. You just singlehandedly saved the raid, at the cost of 5 divine lights, easily 1million healing in just 10 secs, and if they are stacked up for nuclear blast from the hideous amalg, doing this almost nets you 2million.
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3. At the third plate, CHANGE YOUR BEACON TO THE OFFTANK.
   Simply put, because the healing on this tank is going to become INTENSE. Much of the paladin's utility lies in the fact that we do most things ok, but the one thing in which we break from the pack is Tank healing, even now.
   The off-tank will have so many bloods on him that his health bar will literally zig zag up and down with all of the healers pouring all they can spare into him.With your beacon full time on him now, this eases the burden that you all have to carry, freeing up mana to deal with the Searing plasma.
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4. DO A BARREL ROLE. (pun intended)
   By the time the raid is about to roll deathwing, you will notice that everyone is stacking up... TIME TO UNLEASH THE KRAKEN. Unload holy radiance with a single cooldown, either AW or DF. One only, so you will have the other up for the Nuclear Blast on the amalg. AS THIS IS HAPPENING, switch your beacon to the most recent Searing plasma victim. Opening up holy raidiance 3 times the LoD will pop the SP as well as doing a lot of healing in the approx 8-13 secs you are stacked up. Doing this correctly SAVES TIME AND LIVES.
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5. REFORGE TO A CRIT HEAVY BUILD
   Crits on this fight are so valuable that I can hardly describe it. With decent gear and a few buffs, you will find that hitting 30% crit is easy as pie. 30% crit on divine light on searing plasma, or holy raidiance whilst stacked up, makes this fight significantly easier. As an unintended side effect, reforging away from haste will make your mana pool seem bigger, if only because you cast less spells in a given amount of time.
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6. Be AWARE OF YOUR POSISTION IN THE RAID
   This is one of the most difficult things to master. How well you do this directly affect LoD and HR, therefore translating to awesomeness potential. There are so many spell effects and shit on the ground in this fight, that I find it difficult to see my self sometimes, not to mention if you are to far back, and move your camera in just the WRONG way you will initiate player humping, with the camera zooming in and out super fast. There are a few addons as well as nameplate and scrolling battle text that can help with this.
   
   
   • Vuh'do
     This is a grid type addon, with lots of options, but my favorite being that you can setup a cluster finder, that does a check every 30ms(adjustable I set mine to 20) to see how many players are in range (adjustable (set to 6yards for HR)) of eachplayer. In essence it takes all the guess work out of holy radiance.
   • Sexy Map/Hud Map
     Imagine if you will, amid the shit storm a-brewin all around, you notice a clean, stark circle with cardinal points, and the dot (like on your minimap) of every other player (colored according to class) arrayed inside. O WAIT ITS A MINI MAP ADD-ON. Both of these addons have the option to overlay an transparent minimap over the battlefield, allowing to see just where everyone is. Makes finding the dipshit who ran in the middle of nowhere easier as well. Sexy map is verysimple, usually best for finding nodes and things, but I use it in raids. Hud-map is much better with overlays for pings and markers (yeah the star and square things) but it seems to work when it wants to. Being updated sporadically.

My horse is amazing.