This Thing You Call Aggro.

[mjdoom]

If the priest doesn't pay attention to mobs, it's a poor priest.&nbsp; If you watch the fight rather than solely health bars, it's easier to heal.&nbsp; You can see incoming patrols and see who's going to be hit first, you can monitor the critters health bars and if you see a critter who has a tendency to run start to get low, you can start the mind blast before he runs and kill him.&nbsp; You watch who has aggro or is about to get hit.&nbsp; You watch to see if sheep/saps/charms/<insert CC here> breaks early.&nbsp; You watch to see if one of your AoErs is going to unload and will need extra healing.

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This is very true. Especially in lower number groups the priest's dps (haha) is a part of killing mobs even if it is rarely more than SW:P and wand shots. I learned early on about the importance of targetting SW:P and not breaking CC. I did it a few times, I learned. As the priest the first thing I ask when joining any raid is MT/MA? I need to know the MT so I know who I'm healing and I like to know the MA so that when I have a chance I can add a bit of damage without doing anything foolish. I do stare at health bars most of the time but I also have awareness of where the mobs are and what is going on as well. I like to think that to be an effective priest you have to understand the aggro situation of every member of your party/raid and how it changes over time. A few simple examples are understanding how rogue aggro works (they generally lose it pretty quickly after taking it so renew is good enough) or understanding the breaking points of when mobs are dying to mage aoe. Also, though it's uses are limited (both Strat and Scholo will use it though) shackle is another form of CC and the priest has to handle that while healing. That means attention on your entire group as well as at least two mobs (primary target and shackle).

I mentioned above that it helps if you understand aggro for the entire group. I think this is a very key point. Once you get a better feel for how aggro goes and how battles go it makes a big difference. I still remember times in BRD where I understood the group's aggro situation well enough that I could devote more time to engaging mobs than healing my party. I almost don't even have to look at health bars to heal because I just knew what was happening inherently. Any good priest will eventually hit that point where they are only looking at the health bars for verification of what they know is happening or in case something goes wrong (someone steals aggro where they shouldn't have, adds, etc.)

I'd also like to throw in one completely different point here. I get heckled for it often (and I bring it on myself) but I like to break out priesttank from time to time. If a situation arises where a greater heal or something pull some massive aggro and it is late in the fight I will occassionally just decide to tank the offended mob instead of try to give it back. With a single target left I can just heal myself instead of the MT (and become the MT in the process). If there are only two mobs left I can let the party finish up on the one that is locked down and then they can come kill the mob that is eating me. It requires an understanding of the situation and the mobs involved but I know when I can handle a mob and not to bother calling "on me" to divert the attention of the dps (and thus potentially still have 2 mobs running around where they could have dropped the other one in 2 or 3 seconds). Calling for help as a priest (understandably) diverts attention of most of the dps classes and can break up focus fire very quickly. Also, these peeled mobs can sometimes be harder to transfer back over to the tank. For that reason I don't call for help when I don't need it so the dps can finish the first target first and then focus fire on the mob who wants a priest snack. With Inner Fire up I can take hits fairly well :)

- mjdoom