I've been a very lucky priest, it seems.
First off, I have about 4 tanks I use almost without exception. There will be 5 as soon as Galreth is capped. The good news is, those tanks watch my health and watch my mana, and I, in turn watch theirs. It's an even exchange. If you feel your tanks are not doing that, create the macro "Something's eating me, get it off" or "Drinking, don't pull". Usually, people listen to direct instruction, and to a point, I feel it's the priest's JOB to let everyone know that they have to stop and breathe. Sometimes, in the heat of the fight, tanks are so busy trying to get a mob down before an add wipes their party that they might not get the chance to look at the top left of their screen. Nine times out of ten when I hit that "I'm getting attacked" macro, SOMEBODY comes and attacks the encroaching mob. Rogues are great as that somebody, by the way, because they can deal so much damage SO quickly that I'll usually lose aggro rather quickly and have the chance to get myself back to 100%.
A few things I've read that I'd like to comment on:
Priests can be bossy, and by all rights they should be. The fact of the matter is that the number one aggro snatcher SHOULD be the MT. Because the priest is flash healing them, or renewing them, or shielding them, it stands to reason that much of the time, the priest might be 2nd on the hate list. Because we're so squishy, it's important to keep an eye on everything that's going on in the party. It's even more important to communicate. MT's and Priests often find themselves in the position of ring leader because their roles are clear cut and there's no room for question as to what their purpose is. If I see that the MT of an instance is not taking charge, I step up to the plate (supposing I'm familiar with the place) simply because I don't want to die, and if the MT goes, I'm next. It's very seldom that that's not the case.
Also, there have been many comments on AoE and the difficulty of keeping mages/locks alive during such times. If you've never played a healer, it's rough, guys. I'm not awful at it, but I'd say it's an 80/20 on an AoE'er going down depending on how many crit hits they take to bash through the shield. mjdoom had a great point about shielding early so weakened soul goes down ASAP. I try to do that myself, and after that, spam flash heals. Sometimes even the flashes aren't fast enough and your super squishy finds itself in a dead sorta way. It happens, and the most you can hope for is the mage to have had the insight to use frost armor beforehand.
One side note: some mages - pre aoe - hit amplified magic, or whatever the heck the name of that ability is. If they're getting attacked by scorpions, for example, they're not taking magical attacks, so the healing done to them is drastically increased thanks to the ability. It's a nice touch if used at the right time, and can spare the caster's life.
So yeah, that's my 50 cents. Cha-ching.
First off, I have about 4 tanks I use almost without exception. There will be 5 as soon as Galreth is capped. The good news is, those tanks watch my health and watch my mana, and I, in turn watch theirs. It's an even exchange. If you feel your tanks are not doing that, create the macro "Something's eating me, get it off" or "Drinking, don't pull". Usually, people listen to direct instruction, and to a point, I feel it's the priest's JOB to let everyone know that they have to stop and breathe. Sometimes, in the heat of the fight, tanks are so busy trying to get a mob down before an add wipes their party that they might not get the chance to look at the top left of their screen. Nine times out of ten when I hit that "I'm getting attacked" macro, SOMEBODY comes and attacks the encroaching mob. Rogues are great as that somebody, by the way, because they can deal so much damage SO quickly that I'll usually lose aggro rather quickly and have the chance to get myself back to 100%.
A few things I've read that I'd like to comment on:
Priests can be bossy, and by all rights they should be. The fact of the matter is that the number one aggro snatcher SHOULD be the MT. Because the priest is flash healing them, or renewing them, or shielding them, it stands to reason that much of the time, the priest might be 2nd on the hate list. Because we're so squishy, it's important to keep an eye on everything that's going on in the party. It's even more important to communicate. MT's and Priests often find themselves in the position of ring leader because their roles are clear cut and there's no room for question as to what their purpose is. If I see that the MT of an instance is not taking charge, I step up to the plate (supposing I'm familiar with the place) simply because I don't want to die, and if the MT goes, I'm next. It's very seldom that that's not the case.
Also, there have been many comments on AoE and the difficulty of keeping mages/locks alive during such times. If you've never played a healer, it's rough, guys. I'm not awful at it, but I'd say it's an 80/20 on an AoE'er going down depending on how many crit hits they take to bash through the shield. mjdoom had a great point about shielding early so weakened soul goes down ASAP. I try to do that myself, and after that, spam flash heals. Sometimes even the flashes aren't fast enough and your super squishy finds itself in a dead sorta way. It happens, and the most you can hope for is the mage to have had the insight to use frost armor beforehand.
One side note: some mages - pre aoe - hit amplified magic, or whatever the heck the name of that ability is. If they're getting attacked by scorpions, for example, they're not taking magical attacks, so the healing done to them is drastically increased thanks to the ability. It's a nice touch if used at the right time, and can spare the caster's life.
So yeah, that's my 50 cents. Cha-ching.