Healer Horror Stories: Redux

[Seredeelfer]

As a WHM, I groan any time my tank is a DRK

As a healer I cheer any time I get a DRK for tank. Give me a healing challenge please, something more than apply Excog, plant Eos, and go ham on broil. Gotta say I'm really enjoying the healing challenge progressing GodKefka is presenting.

[kidalutz]

Tank:?
Tank:?
Me:?
Tank:Why you didnt keep us alive.
Me: It was to big pull for me.
(I can manage to heal tank with double or even triplepull but this was simply to much for me)

Usually i would expect something like: Okay i will pull less / It wasnt that big but you did .... wrong and it will be better doing ...

But no it was : Enjoy your little pulls. Im off.

My response is usually why couldn't you keep aggro so I only had to heal you?

(Namely because for some reason when DPS draws Aggro they run as far as they can away from heal range.)

But seriously I think the horror story was the time I got stuck healing Copperbell Hard and the party keep ignoring the adds and the worm feeding in order to tunnel on boss trying healing people when nobody is doing anything they're suppossed to and you're drawing aggro for trying to keep them up through it. End said scenario with Worst Healer Ever by one of the DPS. My response was to add them to my blacklist and tell my healer freinds to not bother keeping the offender up. now and then I still get a giggle when one of my freinds tells me with a "yeah I let the guy die like six times because they continued to ignore mechanics then chose rez priority on the lowest damage dealing deeps."

Enjoy your repair bills you know who you are bard.

[miraidensetsu]

As a WHM, I groan any time my tank is a DRK

As a WHM, I smile everytime my tank is a DRK. DRK may be squishier, yes, but its HP variance is more previsible in general. I kind of know when to drop Tetra/Cure II when the tank is DRK. And all DRKs I healed knew that and tried to circumvent their squishyness, actually using their defensive cooldowns or keeping their gear updated. I never saw a DRK that don't use their CD (like Rampart or TBN) or don't wait for Protect.

When I see that I'll be healing a DRK, I feel that chances are that I'll have a smooth run, even if that DRK likes to pull big.

[Avatre]

most people who play them won't bother to wait with that blood-AoE,

Do you mean Abyssal Drain, which in conjunction with Dark Arts heals the DRK for every enemy hit from hit? Or do you mean Blood Price, which is a MP recovery for every hit the DRK takes?

When I run as a tank, I always go as DRK because I know I can use a combination of TBN, Dark Arts, Blood Price, Salted Earth, defensive CDs, and Quietus(AoE attack with MP regen for every enemy hit) to be able to help keep myself up while the healer does some DPS during larger pulls. The only thing that does affect that, and I pay attention to, is when I'm paired with a WHM. Holy basically negates Blood Price since the enemies won't be hitting me until they are stun immune/it wears off.

[Alisi]

As a WHM, I groan any time my tank is a DRK

Honestly, I've gotten bad tanks in all the jobs. The pleasure I have with DRK, atm, is that most tanks don't play the job because of the stigma so the quality of DRKs I see generally exceeds the quality of PLDs and WARs (being that the ones who play the class love the class and don't bend to the meta.) Like, I was in a dungeon the other day with a PLD tank and he had excog up time on him about 98% of the time. Whenever his HP fell below 80%, he started up with them clemencies. The excogs only expired, they were never consumed/needed. The entire run I'm thinking 'dude, calm down, you're not going to die'. On the other hand, I'll get a DRK and he may be squishy but I get to heal him and DPS and there's thunder & lightening flashing in the background with dramatic fight muzak/hair flipping/poses and, aw shit, he's almost ded but I got him a quick lustrate in time, and, at the end, he looks at me and I look at him and we both know we did a good job and the game is safer until the next reset.

Er, ahem, yeah, so PLDs/WARs may be less squishy than a DRK, perhaps, but that's not all that matters in a run.

[Kacho_Nacho]

As a WHM, I smile everytime my tank is a DRK. DRK may be squishier, yes, but its HP variance is more previsible in general. I kind of know when to drop Tetra/Cure II when the tank is DRK. And all DRKs I healed knew that and tried to circumvent their squishyness, actually using their defensive cooldowns or keeping their gear updated. I never saw a DRK that don't use their CD (like Rampart or TBN) or don't wait for Protect.

When I see that I'll be healing a DRK, I feel that chances are that I'll have a smooth run, even if that DRK likes to pull big.

"Previsible." I learned a new word!

For all the DRK hate, I haven't seen a problem with that job at my level of play. (I'm 57th level). It may be more of a problem with the player playing the tank than the job. If you're too aggressive with your pulls you're going to die regardless of which tank you are playing.

[Tremara]

Er, ahem, yeah, so PLDs/WARs may be less squishy than a DRK, perhaps, but that's not all that matters in a run.

You will find bad apples in every tank class but in my experience DRKs are more prone to fail than the other two. Most of the time I have the feeling ppl choose DRK because "Look at me I have a HUGE sword!!!" but aren't able to rotate their cds and/or manage to tank/do damage.

[Adeacia]

As a WHM, I groan any time my tank is a DRK - they feel squishier than both alternatives, and most people who play them won't bother to wait with that blood-AoE, so it's no surprise if some begin to whine when you start revving up Holy. Sorry chump, I'm not holding back on huge CC/DPS for... Whatever that ugly abilities name is. Give me a Warrior or Paladin who'll be less awkward for more gain, please.

I don't like when I get DRK tanks since I have to hold back on dps so they can keep their MP up by taking hits. I want to holy spam!

[NewAgeDoom]

All these horror stories are making me scared to level AST.

[Cincierta]

Oh god, the other day I was leveling my ast via duty roulette and got thrown into normal Deepcroft. About halfway through the dungeon, one of the dps asked me why I wasn't drawing any cards, and demanded I start doing so. The tank and I had to explain to them that the level sync we were at prevents that skill from being used.

Just...I don't even.