Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsOfficers' Quarters: Be kind to your tanks and healers
by Scott Andrews 
Jan 3rd 2011 at 1:00PM
If you've queued as a DPS for the dungeon finder lately, you've probably marveled at the estimated time and wondered what happened to all the tanks and healers. Maybe fewer players want to tank when crowd control is necessary; maybe fewer players want to heal when mana must be managed. Maybe it's the fact that gear is more critical at this point in an expansion, so people are shy about signing up for those roles. Or maybe all the tanks and healers are skipping the unpredictable dungeon finder crowd altogether and looking for guilds to join.
Whatever the cause, dungeon finder queues for DPS are absolutely brutal at the moment. If you don't want to wait 30-plus minutes for every run, you're going to need tanks and healers in your guild who are willing to run heroics. You may wonder, why wouldn't they be willing to run heroics? After all, the content is fresh, the upgrades are flowing, and most people still need justice and/or valor points.
The question isn't so much whether they want to run heroics; the question is whether they want to run heroics with you, right now.
This week, I'm going to focus on what players and officers can do to avoid stressing out your tanks and healers and help them to enjoy the game along with everyone else.
It may seem unfair to even broach this topic. Officers should strive to create a pleasant and rewarding environment for every player, regardless of his or her role. However, the fact of the matter is that your tanks and healers are the grease that keeps the gears turning on your loot assembly line. And they are the ones who will be quickest to burn out when they are overworked and underappreciated.
Keep in mind that at this point in the expansion, the reliable tanks and healers in your guild are getting asked to run dungeons nonstop pretty much from the moment they log in. Everyone needs specific gear from specific heroics. Everyone needs the daily random. In a larger guild, that's a lot of people who need runs, every day, and none of them want to wait in a dungeon finder queue.
There's a reason tanks and healers sometimes become divas. They are in constant demand, and it's easy to let that fact get to their head. My purpose here is not to encourage you to coddle them but to help them feel good about logging into the game, rather than dreading what might be asked of them when they do.
As a DPSer
If you play a pure DPS class or if you can't or won't play a different role, the last thing you want to do is annoy your guild's tanks and healers. Here are some tips for making life easier on them.
- Don't ask for a specific tank or healer in guild chat. Whispers work just fine. If the player doesn't want to run a dungeon at that moment, don't make him or her turn you down in public. It's awkward for them and for you, and it makes other tanks/healers feel second-class.
- If you're going to ask, ask. Don't fish for sympathy by bemoaning your green trinket or make a case for help by explaining how close you are to getting your camel mount. Just ask.
- Don't demand, sulk, whine, bully, beg, or offer bribes. If your tanks or healers turn you down for a run, ask when might be a good time for them. If they just don't want to, accept it. They are under constant pressure to run dungeons, and you are probably not the only one they're turning down right now, so don't take it personally. The absolute worst thing you can do is get all passive-aggressive about it in guild chat by typing something like, "If only there were a tank online who wanted to run heroic Deadmines."
- The dungeon finder still exists. I know it sucks waiting in the queue, but while you're doing that, you could be gathering materials, completing dailies, questing for rep in a zone you skipped, or a dozen other productive things.
- Stay at the keys. If you have other things going on that prevent you from staying in front of the keyboard, don't ask for a run and don't volunteer for one that's forming. Wait until you can focus on the task at hand before you jump into a dungeon.
- Enchant and gem your gear. Tanks and healers don't have the luxury of going without enchants and gems while running heroics at this point in Cataclysm. Any enhancement they forgo could lead directly to a wipe. If they see you show up in a set of unmodified armor, they're going to blame you if the run takes much longer than normal or if the healer goes OOM because the boss isn't dying fast enough. Green gems and many enchants are still relatively inexpensive. You don't have to use the absolute best, but at least make an effort to eke out more DPS from every slot.
- Say thanks. If you specifically ask someone to tank or heal a dungeon for you, thank them afterward. It's a small thing, but it goes a long way. And that goes for DPS who get roped into runs as well!
- Don't be greedy. After a successful run, don't ask for another. If you'd like to do multiple runs, say that up front and try to find a healer and a tank who'd also like to run more than one dungeon. If you're really itching for more justice points, the best approach is to ask a tank or healer if there are any dungeons they need to run.
- Would a PUG vote-kick you? When in doubt, ask yourself if your behavior, attitude, or lack of appropriate gear would get you booted from a dungeon finder PUG. If it would, then don't subject your guildmates to it. This one goes for everybody!
As an officer
Part of our job as officers is protecting our tanks and healers from burnout. Too often, that means protecting them from our own overeager guild members.
- Schedule specific times for heroic runs. These times could be daily or they could be several times per week. Doing so gives your tanks and healers some breathing room, because when they're asked to run heroics (and they will be asked), they can say they're waiting until the scheduled time to do any runs the guild might need. It also helps your DPS to get into heroics without relying on the dungeon finder -- which means they may not desperately plead for a run the instant a tank or healer logs in.
- Encourage DPS-spec hybrids to help out. Every guild has members who could tank or heal with their class but who are reluctant to do so for any number of reasons. Speak to these members privately about the possibility of gearing up and playing a tanking or healing spec just for heroics. Assure them that they won't be asked to perform that role in raids if they aren't comfortable doing so.
- Establish guild-wide crowd control marks. Now that we're all back to using CC, marking and explaining pulls is generally left to the tank, and it can quickly become a tedious chore. You can help out your tanks by asking people to learn a specific set of marks. There are more ways to CC a mob than there are marks, but the most common can be assigned. For example, skull = tank's target, X = tank's secondary target, moon = polymorph or hex, square = freezing trap, star = sap, triangle = bind or banish, diamond = fear, and so on. It won't always work out exactly, depending on your composition, but it can save time for most groups. Likewise, make sure your tanks know that they can bind these marks to specific keys, which saves them an enormous amount of right-clicking.
- Recruit more tanks and healers. Don't assume just because you generally have enough tanks and healers for everything you need right now that those players are happy with the amount of time they're putting into the game and that they will always be around when you need them. It's better to have too many tanks and healers than just barely enough. Most of them will be quite happy if they get to DPS (or opt out of) a dungeon or a raid now and then, especially later in the expansion.
/salute
Join us to learn how to survive the leveling process, deal with guild perk freeloaders, and discuss the guild talent controversy or the guild reputation system. Send Scott your guild-related questions and suggestions at scott@wow.com; you may find your question the subject of next week's Officers' Quarters! Filed under: Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)
Reader Comments (Page 7 of 7)
Worldworstretadin Jan 3rd 2011 5:10PM
Our guild has suffered a severe shortage of healers since Cataclysm, so I put together a healing set and put my hand up to heal the odd heroic or two (trying my best to hide my Paladin's T9 chest - giving you an idea of when the big blue lug was last tasked with waving his hands around in a dungeon or raid). They're stressful, but made easier when surrounded by other players who know their class well and possess a modicum of patience.
Being a rage-y old man, I set a couple of guidelines that the guild now uses and I would like to impart on the greater WoW player base:
1) if you're playing a class that can heal, heal yourself between pulls whole the healer sits to drink. I'm not going to drink, get up and heal half the group and then drink again. The GM asked me why i wasnt healing the kitty between pulls and my answer (at approx 70dB) that he has his own bloody healing spells and should dust the effing things off and use them had the groups' ears ringing.
2) Warlocks using Life Tap to get their mana back and waiting expectantly for me to use up half my mana to get their health to full will be in for disappointment. Drink damn-it!
3) almost every class has the ability to throw in a quick heal to help out the tank. Paladins, use your Word of Glory - it gives you a damage buff. Druids, use your Predator's Swiftness to throw in a heal.
4) regardless of what anyone says, you do not get a buff for standing in fire to get in that extra hit or finish that spell. Blizzard is not hiding candy in the fire either.
5) use your aggro-reduction cooldowns and don't be afraid to bubble/Ice Block/whatever. Gone are the days where I'd heal with Righteous Fury on for a giggle.
6) most importantly: communicate! If you're in a guild run, use your voice over Vent. Tanks, healers and other DPS are not mind readers and generally the only indication they will receive that you're in trouble is when your health plummets.
Firestyle Jan 3rd 2011 5:12PM
My biggest complaint as a healer has to be the hordes of plate dps in LFD. I usually run with a set crew, but we're down to 1-2 runs a day for the valor/achievements, typically < 1 hour runs. However, I had to rep grind out some boots and healing LFD is the fastest way.
Droves, upon droves, upon droves of plate dps. TBH, with vengeance as OP as it is, I'd prefer to run with 2 tanks over 1 tank + a plate.
My issues:
1. No threat drop.
2. Failure to use utility, i.e. interrupts.
3. Failure to react to movement mechanics timely.
4. Failure to quickly move to dps down adds, possibly including pulling off the boss before they spawn.
5. Failure to identify fight mechanics before they happen, and preemptively move.
6. Failure to identify adds on me, when the tank is preoccupied, and sacrafice your dps for the sake of the group.
Bossy Jan 3rd 2011 5:23PM
Blizzard should have learned quite a few lessons by now ...
There is a HUGE market for an easy dungeon crawler game ...
like Wotlk.
There is a huge reluctance to play difficult dungeons in Pick Up mode.
You don't nerve the healers because you undermine the fun of the DPS people who no longer find enough healers to do the dirty job.
Of course WE KNEW this would come, I hope for Blizzard the subscriptions will not be gone before they take measures.
And like always .... Blizzard listened to the wrong people again.
Make it harder make it harder make it harder ...
I bet you a 1000 Dollars those yelling this in Beta,.... were the first to quit.
Lesson learned:
NEVER EVER listen to whiners WITHOUT analysing their REAL playing status first.
Emile Jan 3rd 2011 9:14PM
Are you really saying you loved the brainless AoE grindfest that was the last year of WotLK?
Stray Jan 3rd 2011 5:42PM
Disco priest here (and fire mage on the side). One of the best ways to get on my good side as a mage is to make me mana cake. It is delicious, and vendor-bought water is EXPENSIVE. I'll often tip a random mage on the street five gold for them to conjure me four stacks of cakes, because that's actually far cheaper than buying four stacks of water. Sometimes I'll work on getting my daily BG out of the way before venturing into heroics due to the chance at free cakes. And I know setting out a table isn't entirely free, but it goes a long way towards making my life easier, especially if the other DPS and tank eat between pulls as has been suggested before me. You'd think this was simple enough, but today I was in a battleground and the one mage in there ignored my polite request for a table one minute before the battle started, and a feral kitty actually gave me a stack he had lying around instead.
Aside from that, my biggest plea is that everyone, regardless of role, please, please treat one another with respect. And pointing fingers doesn't get anyone anywhere. When things go wrong, be willing to discuss what happened to make it better next time. People often remark that my tank girlfriend always waits for rezzes instead of running back like everyone else, but she's always looking up strats while she waits. If you're going to be an arrogant corpse, may as well be a useful one! c:
Blayze Jan 3rd 2011 6:17PM
I've been running normals and the odd heroic with my guild for reputation and specific drops. Once we start raiding and get to the point where we hit the weekly Valour Point cap on a regular basis, I will never touch the LFD tool again unless it's as part of a guild group.
I don't trust the people I meet through LFD to find the large portion of the room not covered in murderous fire, nor do I trust them not to insult me for apparently letting them die and tanking too slowly--apparently my job is to do their job for them.
Likewise, I don't trust myself not to snark back at them. While my tendency towards sarcasm is a wonderful tool for enduring the antics of stupid players, it may eventually backfire and see me banned for the many, many things I wish I could say to those people and not get punished for.
Spellotape Jan 3rd 2011 6:20PM
I've found on both of my max level healing toons that guild support is rarely, if ever, a problem - random dungeon support? I'm not sure it even exists most of the time. Aside from people not regaining their own health by eating or drinking between pulls, the sheer number of tanks who refuse to mark anything (maybe one in ten randoms I'll have a tank who will mark the target they want attacked or controlled - most of the time if no one does it for them they run in and it's worse than a boss fight mana-wise) or DPS who won't CC or get offended when they're asked (or even something as simple as dispelling themselves if they have the ability to do so) is astounding.
Both of my healers have DPS offspecs, on the occasion I do DPS these are the things I find totally not hard:
*Decursing/dispelling myself and/or others (and letting the healer know I will be doing this so we don't waste mana on it).
*Eating/drinking/healing myself between pulls if necessary.
*Using my mana cooldowns for the healer if need be (Moonkins and Shadow Priests - we need Hymn of Hope or Innervate sometimes!).
*Running back if there is a wipe.
To the DPS who are mindful of all of these things and more: you are awesome and getting into randoms with you is the best. Nothing makes a group run smoother than DPS who know what they're doing.
kburleigh19 Jan 3rd 2011 10:09PM
Right now I'm only tanking if the party is mainly guildies. Too much qq in pugs right now.
Continuous Jan 3rd 2011 7:57PM
As a healer my biggest problem isn't being forced to run dungeons nor burnout, I like heroics, they are a nice challenge.
My largest challenge is my guild. I am part of a large guild with many player (surprisingly large DK population :P) and when I say in /g that, "I am queuing up for a random!" I invariably get many people asking to join. The problem is, many of these players aren't very good at CCing or are of the belief that "gear = skill" and since, my guild has an open recruitment policy doing dungeons with these players is not much better than the dungeon finder except that if they do poorly I can't kick them without the guilt.
This is compounded with the fact that I suffer from LHSE, (Low Healer Self Esteem) often times when a wipe occurs I will feel its my fault, regardless of weather the tank neglected to kite or the dps stood in bad stuff its my fault - I'm not talking about the group blaming me, I am talking about my own crushing doubts about my own skills.
Because of all the above and more I have taken a liking to queueing randomly instead of with a guild group, I bring my own tank friend and maybe a dps who I particularly like, and queue. The upside is that if we wipe I don't need to feel guilty about doing poorly since the people I am queuing with are close friends or random people who expect poorly skilled players to play with them (its all about self jutification...) and if we dont wipe I wont get spammed with PSTs the next time I log in to to do more dungeons.
I love the dungeon finder - even the player who often are called "nubs" turn out to be quite good when pointed in the right direction and without guildies I feel more comfortable with being average.
The Lesser Evil Jan 4th 2011 3:20AM
Aw, don't automatically think it's you. I mean, it COULD be you, but that's not always (and probably usually isn't) the right assumption. Just look at all the succesfull things you've healed through, then look at what happened when things go wrong. Does someone with your accomplishments really perform in a way that's lacking enough to have caused that wipe?
I mean, I don't say I don't ever screw up because I have the attention span of a goldfish, but I've healed groups through nigh-impossible situations. When I'm on the ball and shit still hits the fan, I feel quite secure in placing the blame elsewhere. Because of the healer's unique perspective (standing at range, having to coddle four other people, usually a higher awareness of fight factors), I usually find myself in the position to point out exactly what went wrong too.
In short: it's not you, it's them. Well, it COULD be you, it's probably them. :P
Emile Jan 3rd 2011 8:57PM
A bright light in a lot of darkness:
Even though I mostly run with guildies (I am a tank and always ask in guild first if anyone wants to join), sometimes there are not enough people on, or they're busy or anything - sometimes I pug the remaining members. Every now and then there's some rude person that we can easily get rid of, but in my case I've mostly met 2 kinds of people.
1: Friendly person & good player, they know their job play well and have a nice chat while running the dungeon.
2: New player & willing to learn, usually a bit quieter, but I always ask if they're new so that I'll explain tacts.
I enjoy both those kinds, I enjoy doing a nice run accompanied by a friendly chat, and I enjoy helping someone learn the new stuff, in hopes that they will then teach others too.
Maybe I've been lucky, but to me it seems that the harder dungeons are starting to weed out the facerolling-aoespamming-badmouthing people who only want their easy epics instead of enjoying the game as it's intended.
rrouland Jan 3rd 2011 9:27PM
I've been healing WoW on my Holy Priest since open Beta 6 years ago. My priest is my only 85 character. Every night I either do instances/heroics with my guild, or I go level my Worgen Druid. I tried doing some early PUGs, and quickly realized that - 1. DPS and tanks were totally oblivious to the changes brought by Cata. They stood in fire, chain pulled and did all the stuff in Wrath that would have been no problem, except now, I'm out of mana. They died. Then I get yelled at. When I told my first PUG tank that he will have to adjust to the new healer mana management, he said, "What healer mana management?" People are clueless. 2. Nobody eats, bandages, etc. Nobody wants to take responsibility for their own health, even though they should clearly see I'm OOM...again. 3. All the talk of how hard the new dungeons are, mana limitations, use of crowd control, etc, is a little daunting. It's downright scary. It has really put me off to even trying with a group of strangers.
amijes Jan 4th 2011 12:45AM
We do have an inbuilt to the game ability to deal with obnoxious and rude players: /ignore
Grab the ignoremore addon and ignore away to your hearts content.
Makes Trade chat almost pleasant remarkably quickly.
There is no point arguing with the buffoons and trolls. They'll simply drag you down to their level of stupid.
Or just drop group. But don't be rude and do it mid pull, that helps no one.
DoubleCrit Jan 4th 2011 9:18AM
/ignore is a good option but think about this.
The servers are so connected that if you were to ignore 1000 people you would likely never run into that 1000 people again anyway. Thus making /ignore a useless tool.
cheezygonzalez11 Jan 4th 2011 4:00PM
My guild is a little short on tanks but has the opposite problem for healers--too many! It's a struggle to make sure everyone gets occasional practice healing. But having hybrids in runs means theres somoeone to help if the healer goes OOM, and if i really can't handle a fight we can try a different class of healer
Our tanks we always try to be nice to. Our guild has tons of alch (cause of all the healers!) so we give the tanks free pots and flasks for heroics, and make sure to be kind when we realize the undergeared DK we coerced into his first Cata run at all didn't know blood presence is for tanking now
amijes Jan 4th 2011 4:05PM
I'm not concerned about ignoring them forever. Just within a given instance. They can be rude to their hearts content then. I won't see it.
JKWood Jan 5th 2011 1:51AM
Report Spam has the same effect, and doesn't clog your ignore list. It also tells Blizzard they're being an idiot.
Katherine Jan 4th 2011 11:15PM
And don't ask to come along when a tank/healer are queueing and then ask in party chat in front of the puggees whether they are geared enough. We are perfectly capable of finishing heroic runs on average ilevel 329 gear as long as the dps know what they are doing, and as long as we know the fights (sometimes, it might even take a few wipes to get the hang of something, especially cc on trash pulls it seems).
What I don't understand is why DPS will leave after one wipe on what is, for the majority of us, progression content. I've never not completed a heroic after some DPS has proclaimed my healer/friend's tank combo "fail" once they've been removed from the group. Less whining, more helping please.