Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Warning: Dense Vegetation Ahead

Well, this is a rer post that is not about tanking. This one is going to be a bit about healing. I have been playing my Resto Druid lately and have run a couple of very successful pugs. Both of the groups had Druid tanks in two very different situations. One was a level 80 balance druid that was bear tanking Utgarrde Keep. It worked out OK, but we actually had to use crowd control (which was actually a kinda nice change).

The second one was with a pretty well geared Druid tank that was level 71 in Nexus. This one actually went a bit smoother depsite the level difference.

Anyways, on with the healing mumbo jumbo. I have noticed something about healing. Somethimes it is better for the fate of the group to let somebody die. As hard as it is to not heal someone has a healer, sometimes it has to be done. This takes great situation awareness. I have a great of example of this from the second pug.

We had just finished the caster boss in Nexus and we getting ready to move on. We skipped the group across the doorway and went down the hallway. As the Druid tank was pulling one group, the mage backed up into the second group. What do you do?

a) Try to heal the mage who has pulled the group
b) Let the mage die

I let the mage die. In  a split second, I typed "ADDS" in party chat and let the mage die. I let the Druid pick up the second group and I kept everyone else up during the overpull no problem. Had I healed the mage, he would have likely been killed anyways, followed by the adds smashing me to bits and ultimately causing a wipe. Sometimes it is hard to not heal someobe, but sometimes it is neccessary.

Healing, just like tanking takes situational awareness. Just like when the tank diues, if the healer goes down, the group will go down as well (more times than not).

Have any of you had a situation like this? 

5 comments:

Rohan said...

Heh. It's very common, especially with a paladin (no multi-target heals). Welcome to the life of a healer.

Darraxus said...

Yeah, my old healer was a Paladin, but I have gone Ret with him since the expansion. Healing really is a 'team' role. You arent competing against anyone else on the meters.

HolyGhost said...

Those situations are fun if your on a pally healer.

Smack the mage with a quick heal or 2. Hopefully he realizes wtf he just did and hits ice block or whatever it is that turns him into ice.

So now you have some mobs heading twards you and your running to the tank. You have your instant cast heal necessary if you get hit too much while running.

I run to the tank so he can see there are more mobs that need aggro'd on. I'll get to him, pop my bubble and prepare for a crazy healing extravaganza!

Beacon of course is on your tank so everyone you heal that may get hit to your still healing the tank which just rocks.

These are the times that you wait for to really use a pally's mana in a 5 man.

Most of the time I barely drain half my mana bar and thats if I am just slacking off.

Pulling off situations like these is a great confidence boost.

Having a good tank that can recognize what is going down and can make that split decision to aoe aggro or do whatever it takes to get all the mobs is the difference between living and dieing in these situations.

But no one lives very long without heals too.

Of course sometimes you just let the mage die.

And of course sometimes the mage hits his iceblock and it chain aggro's the mobs to the rest of the group and everyone dies.

WTFspaghetti said...

"Have any of you had a situation like this?"

ALL

THE

TIME

Even in those situation where things are getting sticky. You start to giving other toons priority over others. Tank is first, but the highest dps is a close second.

In these times, whoever is lowest on the dps meter is no longer going to be receiving my heals.

Sometimes you have to make sacifices for the good of the group

Anonymous said...

Just to echo everyone else - it's very common & all the time! ;)