Priests. Why we are so ..umm.. difficult.

[Treesh]

Lately I've been playing a character of every class in the game, and when grouping I experience this a lot.  If I'm not the tank or the healer, it's so...different.  It's hard to quantify.  No longer playing a big role in how the party progresses casts a different shadow on an instance run.  I'm only marginally aware of "how hard" a fight really was, because I'm focusing on doing damage, or providing various support mechanisms.  A fight might end and the tank/healer are going "phew," while I'm thinking "that wasn't so bad, we kick butt."  Turns out we might have been an inch away from a solid wipe and only a mana pot/heal pot/last instant heal saved the day.  The tank and the healer are the ones who are completely aware of this and are the ones best able to judge how easy or hard a fight was.  If you've never played a tank or a healer, but you find that some groups seem to do so well while others wipe over and over and you're not sure why...guess what, it's the tank and healer that are making it seem so "easy" on the good runs.
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I really do agree with this. Taking my rogue into an instance (now that I've stopped having to explain every single time that sap has to be done before combat starts) is so much more laid back and relaxed (for the most part) than doing instances with my priest. The only thing that makes things not so relaxed is when we get adds and I wonder "I am on the same target that others are expecting me to be on?" I solve that issue by usually being main assist now. ;) The priest is a bit easier for me in an instance though, oddly enough, because I don't have to worry about that too much - when things go bad, I hunker down and heal. It's plain and simple. ;) Let my DPS monkeys worry about dishing out the damage, let the crowd controllers crowd control and let my tank tank.

Like the Paladin who casts Blessing of Might on my Priest, or the players that insist that sending everyone in on the same target is a good strategy, leaving the Priest to get pounded the moment they heal anyone - WTF?[right][snapback]76346[/snapback][/right]

I love the pallies that just don't know what blessing to cast on what class. That blessing of might is so much more important to cast on the mage than salvation or even wisdom. :wacko:

I think I've been spoiled by having two mages behind Aleri and Gnolack. We can usually weed down the enemy into a small group where it is beneficial for everyone to focus fire on the one target. Aleri still doesn't normally draw aggro while healing. Get your tank to lock aggro on everything better. ;) Of course, in Sunken Temple we had to change that up a bit because of all those little demon slaves, but now I'm digressing. In Razorfen Downs, it was more beneficial to the group for them to deal with the other critters while I shut down the casters with my rogue so I was off basically doing my own thing while they did whatever they needed to back there.

Rambling aside, the point is there are cases where the focus fire tactic is good and other where it doesn't make sense. Don't dismiss the focus fire tactic completely. Dismiss the monkeys who refuse to ever change how they do things. ;)