Heals, DPS, and comms

[Ferrasper]

Mayhap this is just my own personal pessimism acting up, but rewards for bad behaviour only serve to beget more bad behaviour. Commending a DPS who ran ahead of the party to engage on the next pack of enemies simply tells them that such a thing is desired activity even though it is disrespectful to the wishes of the tank and, often as not, to the rest of the party, in addition to potentially placing the group in a dangerous situation by forcing the tank to become involved in a situation they avoided specifically because they were ill-equipped to deal with it. There is a very good reason that some tanks and healers have adopted the policy of, as goes the popular saying, "You spank it, you tank it." Myself and my static healer included.

Not that kind of bad. More of the dps wasn't the best, and they screwed up and died a little because they didn't see the AOE in time bad.

[Erit]

Not that kind of bad. More of the dps wasn't the best, and they screwed up and died a little because they didn't see the AOE in time bad.

Ah. Apologies for mistaking your intent, then. Personally my commendations sit unused for every few runs as people oft fail to impress or outright disappoint me, though I'm not afraid to commend a DPS who was indeed a boon to have.

[Ferrasper]

Ah. Apologies for mistaking your intent, then. Personally my commendations sit unused for every few runs as people oft fail to impress or outright disappoint me, though I'm not afraid to commend a DPS who was indeed a boon to have.

I don't see coms as a reward to give people if they impressed me or not. They are more less here you go because they are overall useless gear wise. The only thing it gets you is a mount really.

[AniCelestine]

Well. I always dps on my sch, and mostly now rhat gear is starting to be better on everyone, I can sit in Cleric for something like 90% of time in both expert roulets, only exception being a pull count being 2(4,6 +chimera) when I have to start really healing for the latter pack from 1st boss to 2nd boss (usually tank's does 3 pull's with 4,3,3+chimera) in Fractal and generally always getting 2-3 commendations, it's just random with if you have people that commendates and if they just automatically gives it to tank and such.

[Raminax]

I'll admit there's some kind of double standard on me. I have absolutely no faith in other healers until we've done a few pulls, so me being below 75% HP while watching DoTs fly about makes me think "Oh dear, it seems I'm going to die. I'm hoping this healer drops Cleric Stance soon."

...even though I practically do the same thing as the healer that's doing some DPS, so I can only imagine how many poor tanks and DPS I've upset by letting them fall below half HP while unloading some damage. They'll think that things aren't going very well if they aren't healed up to full health within 10 seconds of damage being taken, even if they don't risk dying.

I mean, I love a healer adding some DPS just as much as the next person, but it's weirdly uncomfortable at the same time, somehow. -_-

[PetiteMalFleur]

My friend would go in on his leveling black mage, accidently cause wipes or tunnel and die, but make funny comments and be very interactive. He'd always get the commendations.

[Adrasteia]

My friend would go in on his leveling black mage, accidently cause wipes or tunnel and die, but make funny comments and be very interactive. He'd always get the commendations.

That's been my experience. The times where I actually end up getting 2-3 comms (and I'm reasonably sure it's not just a group of friends queuing together) are where I crack jokes, keep up morale, or provide explanations of boss tactics. People tend to reward commendations to someone trying to make it a pleasant experience beyond just silently plowing through.

[Amiaze]

Interesting thread here. In my experience, having been each of the three roles at some point, there isn't a huge difference in player commendations. DPS tend to get lower, but I'm currently a MCH, and I usually get a commendation even during an 8-man run.

I think people who DPS are more likely to pay attention to the DPS and give them a commendation. When I was only a healer, Lord knows I gave most my attention to the tank. I only really gave a DPS a commendation if they did something outstanding or I noticed that they took advantage of positioning and knew the mechanics/quickly learned the mechanics. While tanking, it normally goes to my healer.

None of this takes into account how friendly the players are, of course.

[416to305]

This isn't overly valid, he did one way 2 months then another 2 months, things change, I didn't read it all but if it was 2 months before HW and 2 months after that would change a LOT. I think commendations are random and that most DPS are not paying attention to what healers are doing. That's based on me playing with my DPS friends, they never have any idea, even when they take a huge AoE and are 1 hit from death and I Benediction them back to 100%, it's like "See that!?!?!" and they are like "See what???".

[Waterdeep]

As AST I usually end up with 2 comms. Sometimes 1, sometimes 3. I do my best to spam Gravity, dot singeltarget mobs and keep a good distribution of buffs depending on the others rotation. Sometimes a tank dies because I cut it too close but even then I usually end up getting some commendations.

So maybe people:
a) Give me pity AST comms
b) enjoy their buffs
c) AST dps spells are a lote more flashy than other healers spells

But in all honesty, it is pretty random. Just do your job the way you want and not for some arbitrary number value at the end.