When did this become a trend?

[Hayward]

Lately I've been noticing a disturbing trend in A11. Healers seem to be outright ignoring Preyed players during the final phase and letting them get vaporized. I'd like to know if there's some talking point going around that's telling healers that this is OK, because I'll tell you right now as a Summoner it is NOT.

If I get marked for Prey without someone healing through it, that makes it all the more difficult to recover and get back into form (Recalling Ifrit, getting enough MP to do rotations again, etc.). That and hoping nothing else takes me out in the meantime.

There are 2 healers allowed in Alexander fights for a reason: One to keep tabs on the main tank/off tank, the other for everyone else and some damage if everything is OK. Prey on a DPS is dangerous, so take your eyes off the parser for a while and help a team member out of that jam, please.

[Culfinrandir]

It's what happens when everyone insists that DPS is the pinnacle of game play & healing comes second. If healers were encouraged to mainly heal, rather than DPS, I guess they'd spend more time looking at the friend's health rather than the foe's.

[Cynfael]

Let's not twist a complaint about players being bad into yet another broad-brush complaint about healer DPS.

I've played with plenty of healers who were just as bad without casting even a single attack spell.

[Rawrz]

Well, as a SMN, your only hope is that they are so bad that they forget to virus and maybe Max-Pot if you want insurance. Most bad healers blow virus off the cool down, sooo you may not have any luck with that either. :[

[Urthdigger]

Perhaps it's gotten better (I haven't run A11 in a while), but I know during the first few weeks I usually let players die simply because I'm busy elsewhere. Between dodging AoE and healing all the party members who can't dodge the attacks going out at the same time as prey, I typically scarcely had time to both stoneskin beforehand AND cure them after the first hit, both of which were required to keep them from dying. Typically I just made the call to let them die and swiftcast+raise them so I could ensure the REST of he party didn't die in the meantime.

I got better eventually with more practice and ilvl, just saying I remember that being a rough fight to heal when I was running it regularly.

[Raminax]

Let's not twist a complaint about players being bad into yet another broad-brush complaint about healer DPS.

I've played with plenty of healers who were just as bad without casting even a single attack spell.

Usually, I find that the "Heal Only!" healers are worse at precasting/preshielding stuff like A11 Prey than the naughty DPS healers.

And they're usually even worse at using Tetragrammaton and its equivalents to save the poor DPS, because that stuff needs to be saved for 'real' emergencies.

[Atoli]

Basically what Urthdigger said.
I ended up in A11 for the first time in weeks this morning, and people were just dying left and right, getting hit by every concievable AoE + dps was so low that none of the unpleasant phases got skipped (resulting in like 6/8 players getting hit by confusion, killing each other). Didn't help that my SCH co-healer was appearently convinced that SCHs only DPS and let the WHM do all the healing work (which is fine, if the healing is within normal limits..) and the BRD thought Mage's Ballad was something to eat.
By the time someone got prey, I was like "You know what? I literally have NOTHING to save you with. Goodbye!" because Tetra, Bene and even Swiftcast were all on cooldown (heck, I barely had MP for a single heal left). And from what I remember from weeks ago, that's just normal everyday A11. So yeah. Prey = death sentence.

[Ghishlain]

A11N is one of the first instances where a healer has to handle a decently tight healer check that will result in a DPS dying outside of Savage and Trial EX content. This is gonna jam up a lot of healers if they don't realize what's going on and at this point there are probably going to be a lot of healers who are either new or alts that don't realize what the Prey mechanic does in the fight. It should probably be noted at the start of A11N that the DPS with Prey will need to spread out and get ready to be healed out the ying-yang to survive.

Also, please do not blame poor performance of a healer on DPS / Cleric Stance. It's a method to optimize as a healer and the pinnacle of healer performance is making full use of their tool kit in an optimal manner.

[technole]

Oh I've been killed by prey several times when I go DPS in A11N. MCH, i don't have Blood for Blood up, don't have a 2nd wind. So that is completely up to the healer. I can't wait for the day for a healer to tell me I need to use a healing potion.

It is like the only instance where I always go as healer. Healer alts that really have no clue about the prey, among other things. It's usually the 0 DPS healer sitting there while the prey target gets glazed. But we all know how it is, just like with pug tanks. We better sit on healing cooldowns for an "actual" emergency.

[Taika]

I've noticed this trend too. Last time I notified the healers about it (nicely!) one (who was only healing) replied with "YOU try healing this!!!" I was progressing as SCH in A11S then (and have beaten it since). :P At the time when Prey comes there really isn't anything else going on, and it always comes at same time, so there really isn't an excuse not to at least try to heal the target. And often when I've been the target the healers really aren't even trying, since I don't receive a single heal.

It's what happens when everyone insists that DPS is the pinnacle of game play & healing comes second. If healers were encouraged to mainly heal, rather than DPS, I guess they'd spend more time looking at the friend's health rather than the foe's.

As already said by others, I see way more ignoring prey from "I'm here to only heal" healers than from the healers who are actively using their whole tool kit.