vor_lord,May 5 2005, 11:27 PM Wrote:This is the third thread (one of them not here) I've read today which has brought up the question of secondary healers healing in a group.
So for all you primary healers out there, I keep hearing two different conflicting things with respect to secondary healers:
1. "I hate it when just before my big heal goes off, the shaman/paladin heals him/herself, or heals my target"
2. "I laugh at stupid paladins who die with full mana bars--I'm sure not going to heal them"
With respect to number one, why is it such a huge deal? If the secondary healer hadn't healed, you'd still have the same amount of mana you do now, and more aggro. The secondary's mana pool is the worse for it, but I still don't see why it is such a huge deal to the primary healer. Just because I healed someone else, or myself, does not mean I think you aren't doing your job. I'm trying to make your job easier.
If it's a paladin who isn't main tank, he doesn't have a better use for his mana anyway (shamans do).
With respect to #2, how is this reconcilable with #1? How is a secondary healer supposed to know which healer philosophy is followed?
To get back on thread topic directly:
Brista, just let them know. I wouldn't care if primary healer wants me to heal myself (unless I'm main tank where doing so decreases my tanking effectiveness such as it is) -- but I do need to know. I don't want to risk ticking off the majority of healers that feel strongly about #1 (even though I don't fully understand why).
Splitting healing duties, ensuring a secondary never heals anyone EVER, I guess I don't care. But I do need to know what expectations are.
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Apologies for any repetitiveness
I think this is sound advice. I'm a big fan of education but it's a gradual process and I don't think it's feasible in the average pickup group where you play with 4 strangers none of whom want direction, for fear that it implies they are noobs
Coming straight from EQ2 where roles are very clearly defined and where people almost always play grouped with a defined main tank and main healer WoW has been something of a change. The average pickup group is indeed very much like 5 people playing solo. with the added bonus that if anyone's going to die, it's not going to be you if you don't add threat or heal anyone.
It will be interesting to see how high level instances go. So far both in pvp and in instances if you heal people you do lots of corpse runs. Now I don't mind corpse runs all that much but it does rather grate that not only am I expected to heal everyone else but I am also expected to be the person who dies every time
Am I missing alternative solutions to this? I don't really like not healing people who may drop, I don't like always being the first to die, and I'm pessimistic about my chances to get people to hold aggro by educating them (with the exception of friends and guildies who are excellent). Maybe I could try something like "No heals until I see a sunder on the mob"
I guess part of my trouble is reacting to a society where discussion of tactics is considered threatening, like if you listen to someone's advice it means you're a noob
It's not that I'm not enjoying WoW, I love it. It's more that I'm surprised, as someone pre-disposed to playing healers, to discover that my Hunter's more fun than my Restoration Druid