What tank do you like to heal most?

[Ghishlain]

Honestly, a competent one. Doesn't matter to me what tank you are as long as you know (1) how to hold aggro and (2) use your CDs to help me keep you alive.

If you're neither, well, my life just became much more interesting as a healer.

[aisustrong]

I mean they literally say "Cast ESUNA on me!" Or "Esuna me." Everytime they get Pacification. I can see your stats. I will heal it if I have time. I can understand if it was a notification to warn people it was happening but don't tell me to Esuna you, please.

And I agree on the PLD thing. I find that I have to babysit WARs more often. Not overly so, but it's generally a WAR if I am babysitting a tank.

NIN and DRG are the worst for babysitting though. Get. Out. Of. AoEs.

thats not the jobs' fault
those are bad players

[Vorpal_Spork]

I just want to know, when you play as WHM do you have preference for WAR or PLD?, and when you play SCH what tank you like to heal most?

Well played? Paladin. Badly played? Warrior.

[Niroken]

I prefer Paladins for almost everything, especially entire room pulls.

[SpookyGhost]

Well this is a given. If the PLD was hit for a 2000 damage attack AFTER mitigation, it was a larger attack than what the Warrior was hit with. So... the comparison isn't even possible. You're essentially saying that the Warrior is easier to heal up because he took a smaller attack while the Paladin is harder to heal up because he took a larger attack. It's really misleading.

Not what I was saying at all, don't know where you got that from. Was saying that if a WAR is hit for 2,000 it's not the same as a PLD being hit for 2,000 - which is true, and you said so in this very post. If a WAR is hit for 2,000, you shouldn't heal him the same way you would a PLD being hit for 2,000. That was my point.

[VanilleFang]

thats not the jobs' fault
those are bad players

I never said it was the job's fault. But it's only WARs that have this macro, because PLDs don't have pacification.

I'm not saying this against the WAR class, it's just something that has happened. And again, it has only been WARs that do it. Nothing against the job. Just some people who use it.

[SakiKojiro]

I....what? Paladin can get way more out of bad play than War can...

[aisustrong]

ive seens some really bad tanks
why, just yesterday i got a level 41 gladiator in vigil
his left side gear was decent 38-40, but about half his right side was like 15

he couldnt hold more than one thing at a time in the first trash pack, even with both dps solo targetting (blm ended up sleeping things)
after the first trash pack i said sheild oath in party chat to remind him
but then i look at his icon, and hes a gladiator
like i just dont even

so hes standing at the corner, staring down the first hallway for about 2 minutes
and then he says in party chat "wait theres a dragon coming" (the second boss likely what he meant)

about 30 seconds later he finally goes up to the first aevis
he didnt hold hate, didnt dodge, didnt pop any buffs or use cooldowns, he dies, the nin tanks and i keep the nin and blm alive
blm had leader and initiated vote dismiss on him after

about a minute later we got a pld that actually knew what he was doing

[SlyRoyale]

As long as the tank is competent, I don't mind healing either of them despite how they handle incoming damage. Although, I have to say that my preference leans more towards WAR as I can establish a better rhythm of when to heal and when to DPS over PLD. With incoming damage, I always expect the worst and know when it's time to turn off Cleric Stance to recover the tank's HP. With a WAR, I have an easier time recognizing those moments as the damage they take and when they mitigate it is usually predictable, not to mention the self-healing. PLDs, on the other hand, have passive RNG mitigation (Block), which can mess up my rhythm and increase the risk of overhealing. That time would usually be better spent getting in one or two more offensive spells in. I like to avoid overhealing as much as possible since it generates unnecessary aggro, which makes the tank's job unnecessarily more difficult. In my experience, I find that I have a higher risk of overhealing PLDs than I do WARs. Perhaps I need to learn and become more comfortable with healing PLDs, but this is how I feel on the matter.

[Sleigh]

Well played? Paladin. Badly played? Warrior.

PLD in unskilled hands is much better than WAR in unskilled hands.

PLD has 123. This is both simple and optimal for all purposes. On the other hand, WAR has 3 combo paths, and I'm sure we've all seen WARs who ignore the other two and use 123 as if they're PLD. DPS wise there's more to handle with WAR, between Berserk, Unchained, using Wrath stacks on DPS at times or more IB ... a lot more going on than just Fight or Flight and 2 attack CDs used as they come up.

Survival wise, in hard content a WAR must be far more preemptive and calculated. Their survival depends on having an IB stored and ready to use within X time frames, and that's the core of their survival, while a PLD can without knowing a fight just cycle through CDs when needed and often get away with it (a huge part of why PLD is the choice MT in progression, far more unlikely to catch them with their pants down as you're learning or getting acclimated). Also, a PLD will block just by existing - WAR has advantages but they're upon use and CDs, not just by existing.

I've seen some terrible WARs, WARs who OT in Defiance in one tank fights who spam 123, or never use stacks, or CDs. I've seen plenty of terrible PLDs too but the worst that usually springs about there is OTing in Shield Oath or just not using CDs, which in most non-Coil content means very little.