Things you learned about a Job/role by not playing it

[dragonseth07]

Hello, everyone!

I'd like to see what y'all learned about a Job/Role by playing a different one.

For example: I knew that I shouldn't spin mobs when tanking, but that didn't really hit home until I played Monk. It was a big "Oh God, I'm a fool" moment.

Second example: "Would you do something other than the SIT EMOTE?!" <- Me learning how important Healer DPS is when a WHM would /sit for all of his healing downtime.

[Khalithar]

Seeing healers dps all the time and wondering why they weren't focused on healing. Then actually playing a healer and seeing that I actually have plenty of time to dps in a lot of situations.

[Atoli]

Not putting regen on the tank pre-pull on healer. It's not impossible to deal with it (even without clicking it off),
but I sure as heck had a really hard time catching all monsters that made a beeline for the healer as soon as they saw me when I played tank.

Not sure if it counts because BLM is actually my main, but..singing songs for my magic DPS on BRD,
because I knew from my BLM that it makes such a noticable difference (even back when all songs would gimp BRD dps).

Not standing close to/on top of BLMs, BRDs and MCHs, especially not on BLM's Ley Lines, when an encounter throws AoE circles at random players soon.
I keep away from them on all other classes, because I know from playing BLM how much it hurts when the Ley Lines get covered by lava because DRG no.3 thought he had to drop his AoE there.

Not healing DRKs who popped Living Dead when I'm on healer. Until I played DRK myself,
I wasn't aware of how much of a waste it is to get healed when you popped it, to the point that you actually never hit 0 HP and then it just runs out unused...>.>

Also, never understood all the MNK "MY STAAAAAACKS" cries and whines and rants until I finally finished MNK a few weeks ago,
after not playing it since 1.0 and therefore being completely oblivious to any stack traits it had.
Didn't exactly change how I play other jobs, but it raised my understanding for MNKs just ramming into bosses and mob groups without waiting for the tank to pull them

[Shurrikhan]

Not putting regen on the tank pre-pull on healer. It's not impossible to deal with it (even without clicking it off),
but I sure as heck had a really hard time catching all monsters that made a beeline for the healer as soon as they saw me when I played tank.

Sometimes the opposite for me. If the tank is going to pre-pull, I can either sprint-drag the mobs to where the tank wants them to go, in which case Regen is fine and ideal for others being able to pop DoTs on the few he does grab with actual enmity, even if it means the tank has to move off the quickest way to the gather point, or I can just run ahead and ready a Holy, Gravity, or Bio II pre-cast. I didn't realize how clear the cut is though until doing speedruns from both perspectives. Either allow the face-tanking, or tank yourself (really just gather mobs for the tank's ease of tanking).

The healer's perspective also taught me when my stance-dancing really isn't costing nearly as much as the healer (who spends half the time idle and refuses to HoT) would have me believe.... Sometimes the shock therapy of forcing him or her to use more than just Cure/Physic/Benefic has lead to smoother experiences over the rest of the run, even if my life was never at risk. Scholar further taught me that I rarely actually need a tank in 4-man content, unless the lead enmity dps insists on taking TBs in BFB, simultaneous with a critical strike auto-attack. So if they're holding up a pull by more than their personal dps and positioning could aid rDPS, rudely and/or overly frequently, I will pull, usually to the DPSs' satisfaction.

[RLofOBFL]

Back in the old times I would pre-gen tanks....such a fool I was until I saw how frustrating that was as a tank.

[Kosmos992k]

I learned from playing Paladin that many (not all) DPS believe that their positional attacks matter more than avoiding avoidable damage.

I learned from playing WHM/SCH that many tanks underestimate the amount of damage they take trying to pull the entire dungeon; especially when the healer is wearing level appropriate gear, and cannot really keep up with the incoming damage.

From actually playing Bard I learned how incredibly frustrating it is when bards a) don't use Wanderer's Minuet, b) don't use all their DoTs - Windbite exists for a reason and c) forget flaming arrow even exists. You notice these things if you play Bard for a while and go back to tanking, you wonder why you only ever see/hear one or two attacks from Bard when Bard has so many damn options for off GCD attacks.

[LordNickage]

After taking WHM to 60 a year ago, I began playing a little more defensively as a tank.

Make the healers life easier, and everyone's life is easier. Lose a few hundred dps, gain more since the healer can dps. And/or I'm not dead.

I'll still stance dance on fights I'm comfortable with, and especially if the healer has good gear and is skilled. But I learned how much of a pain in the ass it is to heal a tank that stays in dps stance all the time.

[Skeltal-Bons]

I learned an annoying little thing about MCH and WHM playing as a tank, especially as a pre-40 PLD

Whenever a mob shifts it's enmity to them for even a second, their knee-jerk response is to hit their panic button and use their knockback ability, this is fine if they are far away from me and are facing me so that the mob is knocked close enough to me to pick it up, but most of the time they are relatively close to me and send the mob way beyond my reach.

I'm not going to follow that mob to pick it up and risk having the other mobs attack the other party members.

The best thing you can do is deal with it and let the tank pick it up if you are close enough, a good tank will grab the mob off you before it can get a second or third hit in, or even before it gets the first hit in if the tank is really on to it, but it seems we have MCH and WHM who are afraid of taking a little bit of damage.

[TaleraRistain]

Second example: "Would you do something other than the SIT EMOTE?!" <- Me learning how important Healer DPS is when a WHM would /sit for all of his healing downtime.

LOL makes me wonder if they played EverQuest. There you had to sit to initiate the meditation state so you would regen your mana pool.

[Pells]

LOL makes me wonder if they played EverQuest. There you had to sit to initiate the meditation state so you would regen your mana pool.

With the spellbook open, so you couldn't see what was going on either.