Cataclysm Dungeons: Healing Blackrock Caverns

Welcome to the second of my guides on healing strategies for the Cataclysm dungeons, yes I KNOW we're many months in and us veterans can do it sleep walk but many alts and new players are coming through now. My viewpoint will be from that of a priest, but much of the information will be generic to help out other healing classes also. Even if you're not a healer you can get some benefit from reading as you'll understand how you can help out your healer at key times during the encounters.

Blackrock Caverns is a medium length dungeon with 5 bosses, it is located in Blackrock Mountain and consists of tunnels created by the Twilight Hammer who are using this as a transport hub for reinforcing Ragnaros in Mount Hyjal as well as conducting experiments to turn humanoids into dragonkin.
As you enter the dungeon Finkle Einhorn is to your left and offers the first part of a quest chain that you can complete while running the instance, this is a very good XP boost on normal and each stage just requires a boss kill so if you haven't done it pick it up.

Trash packs
The route to the first boss is relatively short, there is a 2 man patrol that is relatively harmeless befoer you enter the first cavern, which has a fair bit of trash in. Watch out for the roaming patrols which can suddenly join in the fight but that aside the biggest issue is pulling them without pulling the boss who wanders around the cavern.

Rom’ogg Bonecrusher

• Be aware of the mortal strike;
• Be aware of the quake it has a 40 yard range and damages all of the party;
• When he pulls you to him, he’ll root you with Chains of Woe, then AOE the group.  As the DPS and tank kill chains, toss a few group heals and prepare you escape route so as soon as the chains die you can move and avoid death;
• Heroic: He summons adds, which will most likely die to the bosses or the tanks AoE attacks, they'll focus on you initially so have Fade ready and stand near your tank.

Trash packs
After killing Rom'ogg, Raz the Crazed will come and clear the room of any remaining trash and thankfully a squad of the nasty Evolved Twilight Zealots, you will still get these but only one at a time and beware as they have 2 particularly nasty attacks Gravity Strike and Shadow Strike. Gravity Strike cannot  be avoided and hurts real bad but Shadow Strike can be interpreted and everybody with an interrupt should try to do it or the tank WILL die if a Gravity Strike comes immediately before or after it..

Corla, Herald of Twilight

• She has 2 adds – players have to stand in front of their beams to block them, as a healer you can do this but I recommend using ranged dps.
• Party members cannot get 100 stacks of the beam debuff – step out of the beam until your debuff drops if you get above 75.  Other party members should pick the beams up when this happens.
• The boss will fear your party members, fear ward yourself or one of the people in the beams and hope someone interrupts the fear before it happens;
• Heroic: There is a 3rd add, if you weren't in a beam already now you must step up to the plate and do it. The boss hits real weak so you're OK to move at the time to avoid the transformation. If you have a good tank, you can simplify the fight by letting one of the adds evolve and kill it.  Do this to all 3 adds to get the achievement.

Trash packs
After killing Corla, move through the caverns killing the packs of humanoids. They can be tricky because there are a lot of casters in the group so if you aggro one use line of sight to pull it t your tank.Raz will once more assist in clearing some trash for you on your way to Karsh Steelbender. As the Conflagration trash is killed stand at max range from your tank and tell everyone not to use any AoE abilities so that the Quicksilver slimes aggro on you and solidify as this speeds the kill up and makes your job a whole lots easier

Karsh Steelbender

• To damage him he needs to be dragged through the central pillar of fire to stack a debuff on him, this will cause AoE damage on your party and after a few ticks is tough to heal up, shout at your tank if he is not moving him fast enough! 
• He cleaves so make sure you and any DPS are stood well clear of him;
• Heroic: When his debuff stacks drop, he spawns adds which of course will like you. Fade is your friend but if the tank is doing his job properly the stacks should NEVER drop off.  When the adds are killed, they drop a lava puddle that behaves similarly to the central pillar so avoid the puddles;

Trash packs
After killing Karsh comes the worst trash packs, caster humanoids and caster flame elementals. Dispel everything and heal like crazy. Next comes the Defiled Earth Rager elemental patrol, they have a nasty Meteor attack which thankfully is shared between all victims, almost insta death for 1 person easily group healed for all 5 so  beg your group to hug up!

Beauty

• Pull and kill the 3 puppies in front of Beauty. Beauty will not aggro.
• Beauty can be pulled without aggroing Runty (the puppy behind her).
• She has a fear, a knockback, a charge, and an ‘explodes when dispelled’ debuff.
• Heroic: Both puppies (yes we lose one!) and the boss are linked – crowd control what you can, kill the puppies first.  Damage can be tricky here as the fear spreads teh group puts people in lava puddles and invariably happens when people are low on health. Keep your tank at full HP as much as possible and keep renews up on the group.

Trash packs
After Beauty is dead you get more of the same trash, that we had before Beauty, before Raz comes to our rescue again.

Ascendant Lord Obsidius

• He comes with two unkillable adds that stack a healing debuff on their target.
• Kite or off tank the adds – they don’t have a normal aggro table, but instead follow whoever hit them last. Renew and a shield on the add man should be enough to cover the times he will be out of range.
• Adds can and should be snared and rooted.
• The boss will switch bodies with an add periodically – just switch targets.
• Boss abilities include a knockdown, a dot, and Thunderclap (dispel this);
• Heroic: He comes with a 3rd add so you may need to apply a little more healing on the add man.

All that is left now is to loot and move on to the next dungeon, but thats for another day. If you have any comments, corrections or amendments to this guide please leave a comment below.