Vashj Down!!! (And Vashj Healing Strat)

LOKI downed Vashj last night!!!We have been working our butts off on her, but it honestly came as a surprise to me! After downing Zul'Jin for the first time the night before, I figured many of us would be slightly burnt out and not on our A-Game. We also have only really been working on her for 2.5-3 weeks. There are a few other guild on our server who have been working on her for over a month, so I thought it was just too soon for us to get it. Just makes me even MORE proud to be part of LOKI.

We had some solid phase 2 attempts, and then one attempt that we got her into phase 3 and everyone just got really excited. Yakra has been saying for the last few days, "The night we get her into phase 3, she is going down." And two attempts later she did!

I give mad props to everyone, but specifically: Vault and Mon, our Locks who kited the striders; Lum and Furnz, our hunters who did a fantastic job of keeping down the spore bats in phase three; Yakra, Neish, and Ruff, our tanking trio who picked up all the elites and kept Vashj out of the icky spore stuff; and Left (the F***ing Beast) who topped the DPS meters yet again.
Healing for Vashj:
We by no means had what I would have called our healing dream team for this fight. No ones fault, I just thought Paladins were really disadvantaged on this fight.

Positioning/Assignments:
4 Healers Inside, Assigned to Generators:
NW: Druid or Priest Healing/HoTing the Kiters
NE: Paladin Healing the Elite Naga Tanks
SW: Druid or Priest Healing/HoTing the Kiters
SE: Shaman chain healing the Melee
3 Healers Outside, Assigned to Elemental DPS:
W: Paladin, Priest, or Shaman Healing 2 DPSers (This is the largest side DPS must cover)
S: Druid Healing two DPSers (One is a Hunter)
N: Druid Healing two DPSers (One is a Hunter)
E: Both Druids from N and S HoTing 2 DPSers

Phase 1: Healers and DPSers should spread out to roughly their positions. We left areas to the north and the south, on the stairs, as an empty safe zone for people with the static charge debuff. This way healers to the North and West areas knew to look North for people to heal, and the healers to the South and East areas knew to South for people to heal. All other healers were on the Tank currently tanking Vashj. Shamans in the tank groups need to use grounding totems and Paladins need to have a Blessing of Freedom rotation up of the tank.

Phase 2: Now everyone REALLY goes to their assigned positions. Healers on the steps will be doing a lot of moving around to follow their DPS. Healers at the generators should move around to help out where ever help is needed at the moment. No one should be doing nothing. If you REALLY can't find anyone to heal, help DPS Elementals that are heading to the middle, Striders, and Elite Nagas.
~ When an Elite comes up, healers need to watch to see if they have aggro and run to the center to the tanks if they do.
~ When a strider comes up, healers at the generators need to watch and move into or out of the circle to prevent themselves from being run over by a strider.
~ When a Tainted Elemental comes up, healers assigned to generators need to get to their generators and be prepared to catch a core and deactivate the generator. Poisons will need to be removed from various people.

Phase 3: Very similar to Phase 1. Most heals should be on the Main Tank and any Tanks still tanking Naga. We had the three healers (all druids in our case) assigned to healing the raid, including people who had the static charge debuff, but still HoTing the Tank. Mostly, people need to be on their toes moving out of the green goo and not taking extra damage in the first place.

So that is how we did it!
I tend to forget bosses drop loot, but I did get the Coral Band of the Revived. Kurse should have made me spend WAY more DKP on it!
And Yakra caught the last 11% on video:

WoW_2008-02-24_22-18-04-01.avi