02-22-2005, 01:41 PM
By Boltress, level 53 Priest
If you play a Priest, (I hope) that you picked it because you like to group up for instances. It's what they're made for. Human nature is a constant, and most people prefer to play tanks or damage-dealing classes, because they're more "fun." Now, some players pick Warriors thinking that they'll be the "ultimate melee class," and find out later that Rogues actually do more damage. Oh, well. But rarely will you see someone new to the game select a Priest because they wanted to "own with spell damage."
Priest aficiados know that the Priest, with shadow talents, is quite the nuker. But the term "Priest" invokes ideas of a class that cannot solo, and is only around to heal. This is reinforced from years of other MMORPGs like Everquest where a "Priest" class was mostly a healbot. So word's just now starting to sink in with the masses that Priests can solo just fine and nuke targets, to boot. Hence the sudden recent surge in Priest populations on some servers.
Still, when the time comes to group up for instances, it's time to play the role your class was made for. Some players have troubles with this - they want to do all the cool things they do when they play solo, and refuse to reduce their bag of tricks for the good of the group. Hence the shadow priests that get uptight when they're asked to "just heal" in instances, insist that they can nuke as well, and then run out of mana when their healing services are required, leading to a wipe. We know that Warriors rock with Berserker stance, but it's not the best use of the class' abilities when grouping. Rogues and Mages can annihilate, but they have to learn to hold back or they'll get aggro, draining the mana of the healers fast...etc. So, if you play a Priest, I hope you enjoy healing and get a kick out of being the "mother" of the party. Your job is to keep everyone alive, even when they screw up. Sometimes the screwup is too big to save, but the most fun a Priest can have is rescuing a group from what seems like a certain wipe through quick decision making and just-in-time heals.
For those who have never played a healer class (Shaman, Druid, Priest - Paladins are okay, but not as a primary healer), understand that the pressure put on a healer in an instance group is immense. It is very true that the two most critical positions are the primary tank and primary healer. Why's this? Because if one of them goes down, a wipe will usually occur within 20-30 seconds. Without a solid tank, the squishy players (cloth wearers) go down hard, and without a healer, death arrives quickly. A bad player in either position equals a doomed party. The healer is under the additional pressure that if they make a mistake, someone dies. Liken it to a goaltender in hockey - sure, the defenseman might make a horrendous mistake letting a forward get past him, but if the goaltender then blows the save, that's all anyone's going to remember. The pressure of being responsible for the survival of your party and having to deal with others who have no clue how to protect a healer tends to end the career of many potential Priest players. They give up in disgust after playing with bad groups.
What do Priests look for in parties? A good tank player more than anything. Someone who understands that the role of the tank is not about doing damage, but holding aggro and protecting their teammates, accepting that if anyone dies, they'll probably be the first to go. Ironically, a tank who is dedicated to being the "first to die" will never do so, because they make the job of the Priest so easy that the healer will have no difficulty keeping the tank alive. When tanks die is usually when Things Go Wrong⢠and damage winds up getting spread out amongst too many party members, forcing the healer to use up their mana very quickly keeping everyone off the floor.
What else do Priests look for in parties? Well, along with a fantastic tank player, knowledgeable party members who understand that protecting the healer is key. That Hunter who sends their pet to growl a mob off of you, or a Mage willing to "take one for the team" by drawing aggro off of you with a nuke. This relates to what I wrote earlier - that the tank and the healer are the non-expendables. But perhaps even more important is aggro awareness. The most difficult parties to handle are ones in which aggro gets distributed. Every player decides that they're going to handle their own mobs, spreading the damage out and forcing the healer to have to zing off heals for 4 other players - this happened to me recently in a Sunken Temple run. Two Warriors (who had no idea what Defensive Stance was for taunting), a Rogue and a Hunter. On every fight, every one of them would get aggro in some way. With the Hunter and Rogue getting hurt too quickly, I'd be forced to heal them - and draw aggro in the process, because we'd be facing packs of monsters too many in number for all to be handled. Had quite a few wipes in there, and I knew I had no chance of explaining what they were doing wrong. They couldn't understand.
Another example of a bad group: I was in Zul'Farrak with a pickup group (of course) where the Warrior "tanked." I use the term loosely, since countless Warriors assume that they do enough damage in Battle or Berserker stance to hold aggro, and they don't. Anyway, this Warrior insisted that the only viable strategy to take down a boss was to zerg in there and have everyone pound solely on the boss to kill it quickly. There's a catch, of course, in that the moment you face the boss it summons about 10 basilisks to help out, and continues to spawn more as the fight continues. Patiently, I explained before the fight that this won't work.
Me: "This won't fly - the moment I heal *anyone* even one hit point, every add is going to turn and romp on me."
Warrior: "No I protect u"
Me: "This isn't going to work!"
(Warrior attacks)
Here was the fight:
1) Party attacks boss
2) Basilisks start ripping into the Warrior, Mage, and Hunter of the party, because they spawn in various locations
3) I'm forced to heal the Mage
4) 10+ Basilisks start to rip me to shreds
5) I cast Fade, basilisks head back to other party members and tear them apart
6) I heal Warrior
7) New basilisk spawns start wailing on my squishy body
8) Fade wears off
9) Boltress dies in a glorious swarm of 15 or so basilisks, while Warrior shouts "HEAL HEAL" as he's dying
10) Wipe
Here's the kicker. We did that *twice* because the other party members insisted after the first horrendous attempt that it would work, and that I just "didn't know how to heal right." I left the party after the second wipe so they could find another healer to abuse.
Then again, I've been in some great pickup groups. I did a Sunken Temple run with four members of the guild Raiders Haven, and they all knew their roles in the party very well. No wipes, no difficulties, and none of us were over level 53 (we weren't overpowered). It was a bit close on the final boss fight until their Druid cast Innervate on me to give me a huge mana boost. That was the only time we were threatened. The Warrior tank used Defensive stance (gasp!), the Mage and Warlock rocked with AoE damage when needed, and the Druid used Bear and Cat form when the situation warranted. But what made the instance such a good experience was that the Warrior was just as psychotic about holding aggro as I was about keeping everyone alive, with constant target switching, taunting, and group attacks (Cleave, shouts) to keep the monsters' attention. With 90% of the fights, the only time I'd need to heal someone else (other than the tank) in the party was when I would need to shield and heal the AoE attackers.
Other healer pet peeves:
1) Others in the party who heal. If you're in a 5-man instance, and you're a Priest especially, it can be particularly irritating when another player (Druid, Paladin) starts whipping out heals. If you're a character specifically designed to do one thing really well - heal - as I am with a Disc/Holy Priest, I don't want to see someone else doing my job. It's not an ego thing, it's an efficiency thing. When players get hurt, I'm going to heal them. However, if another player is healing them too, one of us is going to waste a gob of mana on the double-heal. Add to that the fact that "overhealing" - when you heal someone to completely full and then some - generates a lot of threat. The end result is that the Priest will get aggro more often, waste mana healing someone who was healed a moment earlier, and watch as another player used up their mana that would have been better used for offense. Kill things faster instead; I've got the healing down, thank you very much. You'll be better played using your mana offensively, because my contribution to offense is usually just my wand damage. The caveat to this is when the healer runs out of mana and requests help in the healing department, and all healers learn quickly that announcing they are /oom is crucial, so that the other players know that they're in a bind. But mana efficiency is something all Priest players devote themselves to, and good players will rarely run out (provided they're in a group with some modicum of gaming expertise and don't force the Priest to waste heals like mad).
2) Players who insist you heal them when they have only 10% damage. The most mana-efficient way for Priests to heal is in large chunks. Also, at the start of the fight, a Priest wants to wait as long as possible before starting to heal, because they want to avoid drawing aggro. At level 53, my Greater Heal can heal a whopping 2300 hit points per cast. That means that, if you're a tank, you won't see that loving until you have at least 2500 hit points in damage (because I want to avoid overhealing). Tanks that get nervous when they're at 50% health amuse me - relax, the heal's coming. You won't die unless your healer runs out of mana. I notice that the higher in level I get, the less I see the tank with the "heal me" shout macro when they get low on health. They learn that annoys the crap out of healer classes and turn it off. Trust your healer - it's their job to keep you alive just as much as it is yours to hold aggro, because if you die, they're going to die. I forget who said that if you're the primary tank, the one thing you never really need to pay attention to is your own health. Everyone else's health, sure, because you need to draw aggro off them if they're getting hurt - but you have to trust your healer to do their job.
So if you've never played a healer class, I hope reading this gives you some perspective on what pleases a healer. I've played both sides of the coin (healer and tank), so I know how difficult holding aggro is and there's nothing I respect more than a good tank player. Nothing else has a larger impact on the Priest than the ability of the tank to hold aggro.
Comments? Thoughts from another class on group play? Maybe this can be a "gripe" thread about roles in parties. :)
-Bolty
If you play a Priest, (I hope) that you picked it because you like to group up for instances. It's what they're made for. Human nature is a constant, and most people prefer to play tanks or damage-dealing classes, because they're more "fun." Now, some players pick Warriors thinking that they'll be the "ultimate melee class," and find out later that Rogues actually do more damage. Oh, well. But rarely will you see someone new to the game select a Priest because they wanted to "own with spell damage."
Priest aficiados know that the Priest, with shadow talents, is quite the nuker. But the term "Priest" invokes ideas of a class that cannot solo, and is only around to heal. This is reinforced from years of other MMORPGs like Everquest where a "Priest" class was mostly a healbot. So word's just now starting to sink in with the masses that Priests can solo just fine and nuke targets, to boot. Hence the sudden recent surge in Priest populations on some servers.
Still, when the time comes to group up for instances, it's time to play the role your class was made for. Some players have troubles with this - they want to do all the cool things they do when they play solo, and refuse to reduce their bag of tricks for the good of the group. Hence the shadow priests that get uptight when they're asked to "just heal" in instances, insist that they can nuke as well, and then run out of mana when their healing services are required, leading to a wipe. We know that Warriors rock with Berserker stance, but it's not the best use of the class' abilities when grouping. Rogues and Mages can annihilate, but they have to learn to hold back or they'll get aggro, draining the mana of the healers fast...etc. So, if you play a Priest, I hope you enjoy healing and get a kick out of being the "mother" of the party. Your job is to keep everyone alive, even when they screw up. Sometimes the screwup is too big to save, but the most fun a Priest can have is rescuing a group from what seems like a certain wipe through quick decision making and just-in-time heals.
For those who have never played a healer class (Shaman, Druid, Priest - Paladins are okay, but not as a primary healer), understand that the pressure put on a healer in an instance group is immense. It is very true that the two most critical positions are the primary tank and primary healer. Why's this? Because if one of them goes down, a wipe will usually occur within 20-30 seconds. Without a solid tank, the squishy players (cloth wearers) go down hard, and without a healer, death arrives quickly. A bad player in either position equals a doomed party. The healer is under the additional pressure that if they make a mistake, someone dies. Liken it to a goaltender in hockey - sure, the defenseman might make a horrendous mistake letting a forward get past him, but if the goaltender then blows the save, that's all anyone's going to remember. The pressure of being responsible for the survival of your party and having to deal with others who have no clue how to protect a healer tends to end the career of many potential Priest players. They give up in disgust after playing with bad groups.
What do Priests look for in parties? A good tank player more than anything. Someone who understands that the role of the tank is not about doing damage, but holding aggro and protecting their teammates, accepting that if anyone dies, they'll probably be the first to go. Ironically, a tank who is dedicated to being the "first to die" will never do so, because they make the job of the Priest so easy that the healer will have no difficulty keeping the tank alive. When tanks die is usually when Things Go Wrong⢠and damage winds up getting spread out amongst too many party members, forcing the healer to use up their mana very quickly keeping everyone off the floor.
What else do Priests look for in parties? Well, along with a fantastic tank player, knowledgeable party members who understand that protecting the healer is key. That Hunter who sends their pet to growl a mob off of you, or a Mage willing to "take one for the team" by drawing aggro off of you with a nuke. This relates to what I wrote earlier - that the tank and the healer are the non-expendables. But perhaps even more important is aggro awareness. The most difficult parties to handle are ones in which aggro gets distributed. Every player decides that they're going to handle their own mobs, spreading the damage out and forcing the healer to have to zing off heals for 4 other players - this happened to me recently in a Sunken Temple run. Two Warriors (who had no idea what Defensive Stance was for taunting), a Rogue and a Hunter. On every fight, every one of them would get aggro in some way. With the Hunter and Rogue getting hurt too quickly, I'd be forced to heal them - and draw aggro in the process, because we'd be facing packs of monsters too many in number for all to be handled. Had quite a few wipes in there, and I knew I had no chance of explaining what they were doing wrong. They couldn't understand.
Another example of a bad group: I was in Zul'Farrak with a pickup group (of course) where the Warrior "tanked." I use the term loosely, since countless Warriors assume that they do enough damage in Battle or Berserker stance to hold aggro, and they don't. Anyway, this Warrior insisted that the only viable strategy to take down a boss was to zerg in there and have everyone pound solely on the boss to kill it quickly. There's a catch, of course, in that the moment you face the boss it summons about 10 basilisks to help out, and continues to spawn more as the fight continues. Patiently, I explained before the fight that this won't work.
Me: "This won't fly - the moment I heal *anyone* even one hit point, every add is going to turn and romp on me."
Warrior: "No I protect u"
Me: "This isn't going to work!"
(Warrior attacks)
Here was the fight:
1) Party attacks boss
2) Basilisks start ripping into the Warrior, Mage, and Hunter of the party, because they spawn in various locations
3) I'm forced to heal the Mage
4) 10+ Basilisks start to rip me to shreds
5) I cast Fade, basilisks head back to other party members and tear them apart
6) I heal Warrior
7) New basilisk spawns start wailing on my squishy body
8) Fade wears off
9) Boltress dies in a glorious swarm of 15 or so basilisks, while Warrior shouts "HEAL HEAL" as he's dying
10) Wipe
Here's the kicker. We did that *twice* because the other party members insisted after the first horrendous attempt that it would work, and that I just "didn't know how to heal right." I left the party after the second wipe so they could find another healer to abuse.
Then again, I've been in some great pickup groups. I did a Sunken Temple run with four members of the guild Raiders Haven, and they all knew their roles in the party very well. No wipes, no difficulties, and none of us were over level 53 (we weren't overpowered). It was a bit close on the final boss fight until their Druid cast Innervate on me to give me a huge mana boost. That was the only time we were threatened. The Warrior tank used Defensive stance (gasp!), the Mage and Warlock rocked with AoE damage when needed, and the Druid used Bear and Cat form when the situation warranted. But what made the instance such a good experience was that the Warrior was just as psychotic about holding aggro as I was about keeping everyone alive, with constant target switching, taunting, and group attacks (Cleave, shouts) to keep the monsters' attention. With 90% of the fights, the only time I'd need to heal someone else (other than the tank) in the party was when I would need to shield and heal the AoE attackers.
Other healer pet peeves:
1) Others in the party who heal. If you're in a 5-man instance, and you're a Priest especially, it can be particularly irritating when another player (Druid, Paladin) starts whipping out heals. If you're a character specifically designed to do one thing really well - heal - as I am with a Disc/Holy Priest, I don't want to see someone else doing my job. It's not an ego thing, it's an efficiency thing. When players get hurt, I'm going to heal them. However, if another player is healing them too, one of us is going to waste a gob of mana on the double-heal. Add to that the fact that "overhealing" - when you heal someone to completely full and then some - generates a lot of threat. The end result is that the Priest will get aggro more often, waste mana healing someone who was healed a moment earlier, and watch as another player used up their mana that would have been better used for offense. Kill things faster instead; I've got the healing down, thank you very much. You'll be better played using your mana offensively, because my contribution to offense is usually just my wand damage. The caveat to this is when the healer runs out of mana and requests help in the healing department, and all healers learn quickly that announcing they are /oom is crucial, so that the other players know that they're in a bind. But mana efficiency is something all Priest players devote themselves to, and good players will rarely run out (provided they're in a group with some modicum of gaming expertise and don't force the Priest to waste heals like mad).
2) Players who insist you heal them when they have only 10% damage. The most mana-efficient way for Priests to heal is in large chunks. Also, at the start of the fight, a Priest wants to wait as long as possible before starting to heal, because they want to avoid drawing aggro. At level 53, my Greater Heal can heal a whopping 2300 hit points per cast. That means that, if you're a tank, you won't see that loving until you have at least 2500 hit points in damage (because I want to avoid overhealing). Tanks that get nervous when they're at 50% health amuse me - relax, the heal's coming. You won't die unless your healer runs out of mana. I notice that the higher in level I get, the less I see the tank with the "heal me" shout macro when they get low on health. They learn that annoys the crap out of healer classes and turn it off. Trust your healer - it's their job to keep you alive just as much as it is yours to hold aggro, because if you die, they're going to die. I forget who said that if you're the primary tank, the one thing you never really need to pay attention to is your own health. Everyone else's health, sure, because you need to draw aggro off them if they're getting hurt - but you have to trust your healer to do their job.
So if you've never played a healer class, I hope reading this gives you some perspective on what pleases a healer. I've played both sides of the coin (healer and tank), so I know how difficult holding aggro is and there's nothing I respect more than a good tank player. Nothing else has a larger impact on the Priest than the ability of the tank to hold aggro.
Comments? Thoughts from another class on group play? Maybe this can be a "gripe" thread about roles in parties. :)
-Bolty
Quote:Considering the mods here are generally liberals who seem to have a soft spot for fascism and white supremacy (despite them saying otherwise), me being perma-banned at some point is probably not out of the question.
