Healers, It's ok we really do love you!

[SturmChurro]

By the way, what "should" happen isn't always what actually happens.

Well done! You have gotten the point!

[Hezzlocks]

It's a mixed bag.

I generally don't ask much of my groups when I heal. I found it's best to just keep my mouth shut and do what I can to keep an overzealous tank alive. I've found that if I say something about perhaps a tank who is overzealous, bad with rotations, or just undergeared - I get a "Deal with it" attitude back more often then not. So I just see if I can keep up. If I can't, I leave rather than waste time and bandwidth on it. I have plenty of other games I can play for 30 minutes if it comes to that.

Only time I speak up anymore is if the Tank asks if he should pull bigger. I appreciate they ask first, and will always tell them to do what's comfortable for them. It's been my experience that people who ask first usually know what they're doing and are smart enough to adjust if they find they can't handle it. I'll also say the same thing if the DPS begs the tank to pull bigger - at which point I'll say "Pull what you're comfortable with, I'm your healer not them - and I got your back either way"

As someone who is only just starting to get into tanking, and is nervous as all hell when I enter a new dungeon and try to carefully balance between speed and caution, this is a welcome attitude to me. In fact, I would love it if a healer would offer me constructive criticism - so long as it's actually that and not outright abuse.

They've all just stayed quiet though, and while I totally understand why, it's a little bit of a shame as I spend much of the dungeon wondering if I'm stressing the healer too much or if I'm boring him or whatever. Even more so when I try out a technique that I've seen other tanks do but botch it up pretty badly. Most recently was Sohm Al, the level 53 version, trying to pull the trash before the frost dragon down so we wouldn't have to worry about those AoE ice bombs and end up causing a bit of a mess. Not a word was said, but I could tell there were "WTF is this tank doing" thoughts going on.

[Nixxe]

Sometimes I have a bad run and get complimented for it, and unless I get a bunch of coms it sounds sarcastic because clearly I am aware that I did not in fact do a good job. I just forget sometimes that people have really low standards for what constitutes a good tank or healer.

[Tsukino]

Sincere Comments of Support on Internet Perceived as Sarcasm

Full story at 11.

[MomomiMomi]

I don't know what's so funny here. Sure, a RDM can't really do much to mop up AoE/group damage from stuff like 8-man trials/raids, but this topic is talking about typical 4-man dungeon situations where it's mainly only the tank that needs to be looked after. They sure can throw out a meaningful ST heal in a pinch, and I've done this before myself.

It's better than just continuing to attack, oblivious to the situation, and letting the tank die to a pile of trash with the rest of the party soon following suit. I'm not sure why you would encourage more of this inattentive behavior (by insinuating their heals wouldn't matter anyway) among non-healer classes that possess healing tools that can potentially salvage a bad situation.

It's a thread praising healers. Yet a RDM is apparently saving the party. If the RDM has to do that, the healer has either failed at their job, or the RDM doesn't trust the healer. Of course they're going to take offense.

[Skivvy]

It's a thread praising healers. Yet a RDM is apparently saving the party. If the RDM has to do that, the healer has either failed at their job, or the RDM doesn't trust the healer. Of course they're going to take offense.

Some parties are just impossible to keep alive due to everyone else getting hit by every last mechanic. It's not just a healer that can fail a group. I personally appreciate any raises SMNs & RDMs toss out, because by that point, stuff has generally turned bad for whatever reason.

[MomomiMomi]

Some parties are just impossible to keep alive due to everyone else getting hit by every last mechanic. It's not just a healer that can fail a group. I personally appreciate any raises SMNs & RDMs toss out, because by that point, stuff has generally turned bad for whatever reason.

Unless if they're one-shot mechanics, it's not impossible. Either trust your healer or your healer is bad.

[Hawklaser]

As someone who is only just starting to get into tanking, and is nervous as all hell when I enter a new dungeon and try to carefully balance between speed and caution, this is a welcome attitude to me. In fact, I would love it if a healer would offer me constructive criticism - so long as it's actually that and not outright abuse.

They've all just stayed quiet though, and while I totally understand why, it's a little bit of a shame as I spend much of the dungeon wondering if I'm stressing the healer too much or if I'm boring him or whatever. Even more so when I try out a technique that I've seen other tanks do but botch it up pretty badly. Most recently was Sohm Al, the level 53 version, trying to pull the trash before the frost dragon down so we wouldn't have to worry about those AoE ice bombs and end up causing a bit of a mess. Not a word was said, but I could tell there were "WTF is this tank doing" thoughts going on.

As someone who heals mainly, the quickest way to probably tell if you could be stressing your healer out, is pay attention to how much, and how fast your HP is yo-yoing. If your hp is constantly swinging down by around 40-60%, then right back up from a heal, you are probably stressing out your healer. As in that situation, if they might have to make the choice of letting a dps that is taking a little bit too much damage from AoE's die in order to keep you alive
If the healer is bored, that is totally on them for not finding something to do that contributes.

It's a thread praising healers. Yet a RDM is apparently saving the party. If the RDM has to do that, the healer has either failed at their job, or the RDM doesn't trust the healer. Of course they're going to take offense.

Or a wet paper bag was stronger than the tank. It can be pretty challenging to save that kind of tank that does wall to wall pulls solo with every single tool available ranging to down right impossible if the group just wiped and/or tank isn't using their own cooldowns. In those situations. I'll gladly take an observant RDM or SMN helping keep that particular tank up long enough to survive the pulls.

[Nyvara]

It's a thread praising healers. Yet a RDM is apparently saving the party. If the RDM has to do that, the healer has either failed at their job, or the RDM doesn't trust the healer. Of course they're going to take offense.

At no point was it said the RDM saved the party. She was trying to let the healer know they could rest easy knowing the RDM was doing their job as a support class.

This has been quite an enlightening thread. It would seem that most would prefer no complement at all. I suppose that would be easier, To just stick to the normal "Hello" and "Thanks for the group!" Then no one will be inadvertently offended. Hell at this point I'm feeling like this thread which was meant to be nice has offended :P

[Fynlar]

It's a thread praising healers. Yet a RDM is apparently saving the party. If the RDM has to do that, the healer has either failed at their job, or the RDM doesn't trust the healer. Of course they're going to take offense.

Maybe if people stopped taking innocuous comments/genuine praise as personal offense, realized that DF things are a team effort, and realized that no one person may necessarily be to blame for a healer occasionally needing a helping hand (including the healer themself), this sort of thing wouldn't be as much of a problem. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯