Playing healers (or not)
by Elizabeth Harper 
Sep 20th 2006 at 1:00PM
Relmstein had an interesting series recently on why healing classes are so unpopular. I know from experience that healing classes are rare, because some days there's a lengthy queue for my time starting from the instant I log on. The following is representative of my daily login attempt -- and is usually enough to make me go log on my rogue!Welcome to World of Warcraft!
[Guild] Friendlymage: Hey Lizzy - want to heal Scholomance?
[Randomshaman] whispers: need healer for BRD! last spot!!
[Randomhunter] whispers: LBRS?
[Randomwarlock] has invited you to join a group.
You have declined [Randomwarlock]'s group invitation.
[Guild] Lizzy: Okay!
You whisper to [Randomshaman]: Sorry, going to Scholomance.
[Friendlymage] has invited you to join a group.
You whisper to [Randomhunter]: Can't, heading to Scholomance.
[Randomshaman] whispers: pls!!! will pay 5g.
You whisper to [Randomshaman]: I can't -- I'm already committed to going to Scholomance.
[Raider] whispers: Hey, we need more priests for Razorgore, wanna come?
[Randomshaman] whispers: 10g?
You are now ignoring [Randomshaman].
[Raider2]: We need healers for BWL!
You whisper to [Raider]: Sorry, busy atm.
[Raider3] whispers: BWL?
Sure, it's nice to be wanted, but it gets old to be invited to the same instances I don't want to run day after day by people I don't want to run with. (And, yes, I have been invited randomly to Blackwing Lair -- and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to be part of a raid group that added random, unknown players to their Blackwing Lair raid lineup.) But there are more troubles to being a healer than being in high demand, and Relmstein points them out nicely.
- It's hard to solo as a healer -- killing and questing on your own can be painfully slow.
- In dungeons, you're essentially playing whack-a-mole with everyone's health bars. Did we just defeat a new and exciting boss? Oh, I must have missed that...
- The healer's goals aren't important. As Relmstein says, "Healers are often treated as if their main purpose in life is to help other people progress."
- The healer is the first to be blamed, but the last to be praised. Did your tank die? Never mind the fact that he's swinging around a two-handed sword wearing mail DPS gear -- it's the healer's fault.
Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Greater Healer Sep 20th 2006 1:26PM
I don't understand the wack a mole thing. May be it's just my guild, but all ways doing more than just healing. I use mind control quite frequently for added crowd control. I'm asked to silence caster rather than LOS pulling them. Debufing with dispell magic, and cranking up the shadow weaving for the warlocks. No, I'm not up front tanking, but I'm not sitting in the back spaming heal over and over.
jpc Sep 20th 2006 1:32PM
Healers aren't the only ones that get random tells to go to an instance. Tanks and aoe (mage mostly but some warlock) are often needed to fill a group.
Spec shadow and you can solo all you want. Or you can try to max your %crit and smite those mobs to death. Keep 2 outfits; one for healing and one for dps. Your +healing won't help you at all while soloing.
Try watching what's going on so that you stand in the right spot too in your raid fights. Also get healing meters so that you can see how much you're contributing. Once I noticed that I was always in the top 3 (in fights I live through) healing in my guild raids started feeling alot more rewarding.
If your goals are being ignored, change guilds or leave your group.
You have to be able to give it back. If they blame you and you were doing your job, say "well if you had been holding agro better" or "if this groups dps didn't suck so bad I wouldn't have had to use 2 mana pots only for us to finish in a wipe" etc. Defend yourself!
method Sep 21st 2006 5:50PM
Excellent, Excellent, Excellent!
One of the truest write-ups I've read. It's honestly unfathomable for someone that has never played a healing class, priest primarily.
For instance, My Undead lvl 48 priest has been running ST for 2 levels now. PUGs are in such high demand for healing, they will take anyone that is remotely close to the level required.
At lvl 48, when I log on, within 5 minutes my tell tracker logs around 5-10 msgs from randoms 90% of the time requesting help in a dungeon of sort. While this is great, it also has it's downside.
Good:
You never have to bother with XX Priest LFG (Instance/Quest)
Experience racks up extremely nicely, especially in instances with rested maxed out.
Bad:
Annoying after the first week. "/DND" is a must know for anyone playing a resto shaman/resto druid/holy priest.
Tons of game content are bypassed by individuals that roll a Healing class as their first toon. They're su busy "helping" others out, they miss out themselves.
Many solo portions of quests are skipped or looked over, due to several reasons. You're invited to a group out of the way, or you can't concentrate on what the task at hand enough to complete it.
As everyone in my guild chat says, "REROLL ROAG LOL!!11"
see you in Azeroth,
meth
Matt Sep 20th 2006 1:35PM
Please forgive my ignorance, but I would like to know...What is wrong with a warrior "swinging around a two-handed sword wearing mail DPS gear"?
Mordiceius Sep 20th 2006 1:40PM
Matt, here is why (i'm a 60 raiding priest): tank gear plus sword and board gives the tank around 400-450 total defense and 7000-9000 armor. DPS gear with a two hander gives the tank about 300 total defense and about 5000 armor. Tell me, which one will die faster? if you have hard hitting mob going against this tank, no healer will be able to keep him up.
Sean-ers Sep 20th 2006 1:55PM
To #4: Nothing wrong...unless you're trying to be a main tank doing that :P
elizabeth Sep 20th 2006 1:56PM
Matt --
Perhaps I was unclear in my comment about warriors DPSing. Obviously warriors can contribute signifigant DPS to any group. However, it is problematic when the warrior who is supposed to be tanking is attempting to DPS, for several reasons. Their armor is lower without a shield (and sometimes you do see DPS warriors in mail pieces), which means they take more damage from every hit. DPS gear focuses on stats such as agility, strength, +crit, and +hit rather than more important tanking stats of stamina, +defense, +dodge, and +parry. So they tend to have lower health and lesser damage mitigation. (+defense, especially, which helps against crits.)
They're doing more damage, but if their role in the group is to tank, they're doing a worse job of it and making it harder on whoever is healing them -- they need healing (much!) more frequently and their lower health leaves less room for error when casting heals (have to stop chain-casting heals on that tank to keep the mage alive? Tank's down -- wipe!).
Doug Sep 20th 2006 2:23PM
Matt, pre level 60 I don't really care what gear you have as long as you hold aggro. Until you are raiding any decent healer should be able to keep you alive without running out of mana, as long as they don't have mobs pounding their face in. As a 59 Priest I run out of mana most when I have to heal myself as well as everyone else. I judge the quality of a tank by the number of charges left on my Inner Fire an the end of each fight, and the percent of damage taken relative to the rest of the group.
I rarely get asked to PUGs because as I usually chose to start them. By doing so I can chose which instances to run and when, to best suit my current quest log. As a PUG leader I do spam for warriors, and /friend all of those that tank well.
Back to the original topic, I originally started out as a mage, and got bored spamming the same buttons for hours on end DPSing the crap out of anything in sight, and never being able to find a healer (or tank for that matter) to run instances with. Hence I rerolled a Priest.
Kyle Joh Sep 20th 2006 4:10PM
Warriors dpsing in a raid? Dumbest thing to do. Warriors don't have range attacks or aoe, even with a faster 2h or 1h sword in dps gear they are no match for leather and a daggar or multishots and any kind of magic dps.
The role for warriors it take take aggro and tank the bosses, keeping them at bay so the dps'ers can blast them.
By design.
roxet Sep 20th 2006 2:30PM
Very nice piece on healing, the only problem I have is the part about the healer's goals not being important to the group. As the healer it is your job to make your goals important to the group, especially in a pick up situation. You are the healer, *you* hold the keys to the kingdom of phat loot in your hand. Somebody doesn't want to kill a boss you need to get something, well ok, they can start looking for a new healer. I used to pull this trick in UBRS when people would try to skip the rookery on me. "No rook? Ok, see you guys later =)".
Axium Sep 20th 2006 2:35PM
Hmmmm i dont understand why people dont like playing healers or rerolling for a diffrent class.....my main is an 39 almost 40 undead shadow priest on my server, I off heal or main heal most of the time...i dont have trouble soloing mainly cause im shadow i can hit around 500 with my gear...and i dont miss out on what is going on cause i help dps most of the time, imo i think if it wasnt for the us priests/healers every group would fail in every Instance.
Dominick DiGregorio Sep 20th 2006 3:09PM
I had to laugh out loud at the chat example. I get tells like that all the time, although no one has yet offered me gold to heal. I've tried to sell my healing services and I've gotten nasty tells in response, only to see those people still looking for a healer half an hour later. Wouldn't it have been worth 5-10g to have me come along in the first place. ;)
Anyway, I digress.
>It's hard to solo as a healer -- killing and questing on your own can be painfully slow.
Strongly agree. Even as a full shadow grinding will be fairly slow and it's hard to handle adds as your only form of CC is Psychic Scream which can just draw more adds.
>In dungeons, you're essentially playing whack-a-mole with everyone's health bars. Did we just defeat a new and exciting boss? Oh, I must have missed that...
I agree somewhat. I do find that I enjoy the fast pace of healing and the variety of actions--healing, curing disease and magical afflictions, and silencing casters. I even make sure I'm carrying the strong anti-venom so I can cure poisons if need be. I'll even occasionally save us from some adds by dropping a runner with Mind Blast if I see no one is on top of it.
>The healer's goals aren't important. As Relmstein says, "Healers are often treated as if their main purpose in life is to help other people progress."
Very true. The majority of my groups usually deny my requests to finish certain quests while within an instance, but this might just be a symptom of PuGs more than a symptom of being a healer. If you're feeling used, just leave the PuG. I've left more than a few who were treating me as a henchman (see Neverwinter Nights) who can heal.
>The healer is the first to be blamed, but the last to be praised. Did your tank die? Never mind the fact that he's swinging around a two-handed sword wearing mail DPS gear -- it's the healer's fault.
I would say the majority of the time the healer will get blamed. Which is ridiculous as we're not the only class with aggro control. In fact, Fade is pretty poor in comparison to Feint, Iceblock and Feign Death, yet I find I'm always having to bail out a rogue, hunter or mage who can't manage their aggro. I've begun letting them die in 10 and 20 man raids as there is usually enough DPS around to compensate for the loss of one or two DPSers. Then I spend a leisurely minute or two drinking before I rez them. :) What's that? "REZPLZ!!!"...I don't speak moron.
My personal pet peeves:
Players who, after a wipe, dont' corpse run. I'll get back to my body with everyone else and there's always one or two a##h###s who say. "Can you rez please. After I died I went and got a snack." Gee. I'd like an f'in snack too, jerk. I'm going to start leaving groups where this happens. Nobody likes to corpse run, but everyone should have to do it after a wipe. Wipes are a group effort. ;)
Players who can't wait until at least two or three sunders land before they DPS.
Players who don't watch my mana bar. If I see players run off to another pull and I'm oom. I back way up, sit in a corner and drink while they die. Sure, I'll rez them, but ouch...those repairs must hurt. Kinda like stupidity hurts.
Warlocks who don't stay on top of Soul Stones or who get upset when ppl ask for Healthstones. If I'm here to heal, you're here to use your support skills as well.
Pallies who just cast Blessing of Wisdom on me and don't listen when I request certain blessings. Sometimes the tank is bad and I need Salvation more than Wisdom. LISTEN!
and lastly. Jumpers. Not related to healing, but people who can't stop jumping give me hives and cause me to leave groups.
On the bright side. I've just joined a great guild on Durotan. They're a lot of fun and very considerate. I was in Strat with some guild mates and we had a bad pull. Really bad. On top of it we had two gargoyles spawn on us in the middle of it. I used everything. Inner Focus. Mana Pot. Desperate Prayer. We managed to survive, but the tank died. He said "It was an honor to die for you". Huge compliment from a great tank. So, there are some compliments and recognition to be had out there. Just don't expect it. When you survive a potential wipe, it's usually because everyone did something right. If you wipe, the group should take responsibility as a whole as well. So next time you wipe, think hard. Was it really any one persons fault? It's usually a matrix of things from bad communication to bad luck. (okay, except the hunter with the pet on aggressive. lol).
-D
Dominick DiGregorio Sep 20th 2006 3:11PM
I apologise for the bad formatting of my previous comment. I composed my comments in Word and then pasted them in. Most of the line-spacing was lost. Thanks to anyone who tried to read through the entire thing.
-D
Paul Sep 20th 2006 3:12PM
This article is aimed more at post-60 gaming for all of you not seeing the problems. Every piece of gear we get from any raiding instance as a healer LOWERS our ability to solo or farm more and more. While for any DPS class, any raiding gear they acquire helps them PvE, group or solo. People complain as healers because to be able to keep up with repair bills, and buying things here and there, it is almost required to roll a second character. Unless you want to be a shadow priest, and be shunned by any raiding guild...
Kazuel Sep 20th 2006 4:38PM
I feel the reason there are so few healers is because most players do not feel that healing and performing what can be considered a support role is as exciting as being able to stealth, stun, and eviserate an opponent in 10 seconds. However, I enjoy healing because, as some of the posts have mentioned, we have the power to make an major impact in instances and in PVP. I think I really began to enjoy healing the first time I arrived at a base in AB and was able to spam enough heals on our forces there to stop a zerg where we were outnumbered 2-1. Or in WSG where I was able to keep the flag carrier alive just long enough to cap. Or in AV spam healing a top notch tank and watching him cut a swath through his opponents. And I get enough thank yous from players to make me feel like I am making a difference in their gaming experiences and contributing to successful groups. Damage meters are nice, and I do have to admit, I am jealous of the way rogues can down in opponent in 20 seconds, but for me, I get a rush hitting any ally that is outnumbered and down to 200 hps with a heal helping him turn a loss into a win. (Plus I'm a druid, so if I get tired of healing, I can always spec feral!) ~Kazuel Gul'dan
shawiiing Sep 20th 2006 4:07PM
To #8:
(Disclaimer: I do not play a warrior, I play a Raidbot spec'd Druid) Kyle, you obviously have missed out on the other 2 trees in the warrior talents. I want you to show me class that can put out as much continuous single target DPS as a fully endgame geared Arms/Fury warr, at the individual player level. (ie rolling ignites don't count because it takes more than one mage to keep it going, etc)
Have a nice day!
Jean Sep 20th 2006 4:20PM
>>> "It's hard to solo as a healer -- killing and questing on your own can be painfully slow."
The problem is in the way you describe your class. A Priest is more than a healer, a Druid is more than a healer. To view them as nothing but healers is your own
mistake. My Druid grinds just fine with a nice set of blue dungeon gear and some leftover epics.
Grinding in small groups never hurt anyone either.
>>> In dungeons, you're essentially playing whack-a-mole with everyone's health bars."
Healers watch player health bars. DPS watch mob health
bars. No real difference there.
>>> "The healer's goals aren't important."
Your guild/group is bad. Leave them.
>>> "The healer is the first to be blamed, but the last to be praised."
When was the last time you thanked a rogue or a hunter for their DPS contribution? I doubt most ever did, why is it that you expect those classes to single you out in their praise? There is no I in TEAM.
Kaylos Sep 20th 2006 5:08PM
Kyle JoH, it is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool, than open it and remove all doubt. Despite being wrong and showing your ignorance of how the game works, it has nothing to do with the topic.
The too most sought after classes are those in the least supply. Healers and tanks. There are plenty of warriors, but few tanks it seems. Its odd considering how any warrior can pretty much be an exceptional tank if he throws on a shield and uses his base class abilities like tuant, sunder armor, mocking blow, shield block/revenge combo, etc, etc.
Healers though are defintely given a thankless job. Good ones do get compliments, but when being good is expected as the norm, because anything less can cause a wipe, healers tend to get a lot of grief. They really are the offensive linemen of WoW. Without them, nothing happens. Without good ones, you get barely anywhere. Yet most of the glory goes to other classes.
However, newer damage meters do have some interesting means for providing healers with better way of measuring their effectivness. Many new DMs have stats for overhealing and immediately discount overhealing from overall healing. Healers can quickly judge their efficiency how how well they stacked up with the rest of the raid in this manner.
Chad Sep 20th 2006 5:19PM
Maybe its just a possibility that blizzard designed the game so that all classes are needed at one point or another. Mages get random invites. Hunters get random invites. Everyone at some point is needed somewhere. For 40 mans the better the class spread the better. Everyone complains all the time about whats wrong with their class. Stop complaining. If you dont like the game quit. I am so tired of hearing bitching about how your class got nerfed, or other classes can out DPS you. shut up and play.
Trudie Sep 20th 2006 6:22PM
I just started playing a healing class, and I've already been flamed in the Deadmines and been told to "learn to heal, noob," when the deaths were not my fault. As a druid, I had initially put my first several points in the restoration tree. After that bad experience I decided to respec feral. I totally agree that healers are in high demand, but underappreciated at the same time.
On another note, I have a reply to #8 (Kyle Joh) who said, "Warriors dpsing in a raid? Dumbest thing to do..."
OK, you must not raid do you? If you do, you must not pay attention to a lot of things. In the average Molten Core raid, you usually have five or six tanks. In our case we have five warriors and one feral druid in bear form. Only two out of five of our warriors are fully protection specced. Two others are fury, and I am specced 31/4/16 (mostly arms). THAT's because I'm usually #4 or 5 on the tank list (Our two protection warriors are first, followed by our feral druid). I don't actually tank any bosses. I tank core hounds, and I tank the bosses' guards (in the Lucifron, Gehennas, Garr, Golemagg, Sulfuron, and Majordomo fights), but on trash mobs and on boss fights without adds, I'm mostly dpsing. That's really how it works. If a warrior isn't tanking, he/she is usually dpsing. That's why the warriors who aren't in the top 3 on the tank list usually wear dps gear in between boss fights. Granted, my tank gear is a little better than my dps gear, plus I'm switching roles a lot, so I don't rank really high in dps, but one of our other warriors usually comes out #5 or #6 on the damage charts. Warrior DPS is not a myth. It exists. And it exists in raids, too.