Healer Horror Stories: Redux

[Makeda]

Dusted my healer off for some dungeons over the weekend as I level her through Stormblood...

Last night I went into the Ruby Princess dungeon to farm up the entire glamour for it.

Two of the tanks I got refused to ever use their tank stances - so we had multiple wipes when even Cure II could not keep them up in stacks of adds.
(One of the tanks was even called out on it by a DPS, and she responded with "I'm not a PLD". Lolwut? The DPS shot back "DRK is still a tank".)

one would switch to DPS stance any time there were lots of ads or a boss... So basically he used tank stance when he didn't need it, and used DPS stance when he absolutely needed the mitigation of tank stance - 100% flipped from proper... So again... trouble in stacks of ads. Followed by - if I did heal any of these three, the ads would peel onto me...

Only one of them stuck to tank stance - at least any time he was actually in the thick of incoming damage... So I had one good tank all night...

All of this compounded by the ONLY the last one understanding the "first rule of tanking" : never let the enemy stand behind you...
- Those guys who'd use DPS stance when mobs by 8+ mobs... they'd leave 6 of them on their back...

As a tank main the whole experience was driving me nuts... as a person trying to keep up with healing... it was extremely taxing.

I've had some arguments in these forums over the whole 'sometimes I can't DPS while healing because if I do... in that lost GCD, I can't get off a heal...' That was basically several of the wipes I had last night.
I couldn't keep some of these guys up even spamming my heals on every cast...

- Everyone else always thinks they are perfect, so they post up these forum ideas of a perfect scenario... But some tanks are letting themselves take so much incoming damage at such a fast pace... Perfection is out the window.

That said... when I can, if the tank is actually holding agro and using mitigation... I will toss in a very heavy dose of DPS. But you can really only 'DPS as a healer' if both the other people are already doing their jobs, and your heals at enough to keep them up between your DPSing...

[NewAgeDoom]

One of my first times healing, I got a simple Sastasha, or so I thought.

Tank runs in, pulls are going normally, until we get to the room with the clams, and he just charges and pulls literally the entire room.

I was a sad healer that day.

[duvvvv]

LotA--was SCH paired with a WHM, I decided to summon Selene and maybe DPS more. it seemed like a good call because first room the party got debuffed, Selene took care of that. then I noticed the tank's health is dropping rather fast. I spent most of the time until first boss healing/rezzing, which turned my attention to my co-healer because not a single regen for our tank. was she just spot-healing? no, she used medica 2 though not at the best moment. maybe just DPSing? fine, I can solo heal this. changed to Eos, swapped cleric stance to largesse just in case. suffice to say it was one of the more intense healing I've done in LotA in a while, co-healer died a few times too, bomb adds were ignored, wiped at Behemoth, the usual stuff. but what got me to speak up was at Behemoth when co-healer decided not to use aoe heals and just spam cure 3, when the party was so spread out and people were dropping left and right until eventually the alliance wiped. she replied something like "yeah I figured" which lead me to believe this person just went in without a good grasp of how to play WHM, hoping perhaps she'll get a carry OR maybe just your run-of-the-mill lazy healer when doing "easy" content. but if you're gonna be lazy, at least keep yourself topped up

[Kacho_Nacho]

Dude was a dickhead, and he was probably on the edge of overpulling for a geared veteran healer. Ultimately when we've all bled our cooldowns and you are still dropping by 50% health every GCD I'm fairly limited in what I can do to keep you from going splat. I was doing a rare bout of DPS'ing (Was leveling RDM I think) when we ran into a tank like that in 50 roulette. He dropped out and I told the group I'd be right back, dropped out myself requeued as tank and got my sprout healer through it.

Sorry for the late response. Just saw this particular post. I've wanted to do the same thing when a tank has dropped. How did you know you'd pop into the same group?

[Risvertasashi]

Two of the tanks I got refused to ever use their tank stances - so we had multiple wipes when even Cure II could not keep them up in stacks of adds.
(One of the tanks was even called out on it by a DPS, and she responded with "I'm not a PLD". Lolwut? The DPS shot back "DRK is still a tank".)

In the old thread I posted up a story about a tank like this. tl;dr, deltascape had just released (normal), and the main tank never used tank stance/cool downs while building up vuln stacks until he died. The attitude of some tanks is just complete cancer.

As you note... It's kinda like those people that go overboard on DPSing as healer, "But I'm really just a DPS with some extra stuff!" To which the reply is: No, you're a tank/healer with those basic duties first, and no one cares about your DPS if you aren't holding aggro/keeping people alive, etc. But from the sounds of things, you've encountered the type of player in both roles. But yeah, there's really too many tanks out there that just give no thought to the healer. Just remember, us healer mains really do appreciate tank mains like yourself; it's a relief even if we don't say anything in chat.

[Locathus]

So, I'm relatively new to the game. My first char was WHM and I took it to 70 before I completed HW, so I've been mostly levelling some other stuff since I don't get any XP on the healer.

Lately I've been playing DRK more often, and while I'm not going to pretend to be the best out there I think I'm generally competent. One of the ways I determine if I'm doing a good job is how much the healer is DPSing - if they are popping off a lot of damage (and nobody is dying) I figure I must be doing something right.

[Alrin]

So, I'm relatively new to the game. My first char was WHM and I took it to 70 before I completed HW, so I've been mostly levelling some other stuff since I don't get any XP on the healer.

Lately I've been playing DRK more often, and while I'm not going to pretend to be the best out there I think I'm generally competent. One of the ways I determine if I'm doing a good job is how much the healer is DPSing - if they are popping off a lot of damage (and nobody is dying) I figure I must be doing something right.

I am not playing tanks so I dont know a lot about them but when I have DRK in the party I tend to roll my eyes at the beginning because it almost always means that i will need to heal more and DPS less (slower progress then).

Kudos to you then

[Wilford111]

I am not playing tanks so I dont know a lot about them but when I have DRK in the party I tend to roll my eyes at the beginning because it almost always means that i will need to heal more and DPS less (slower progress then).

Kudos to you then

This makes me curious. If DRKs usually mean more healing/slower progression, then why run with them? Like, are they just severely unbalanced from the other two tanks?

[Alrin]

This makes me curious. If DRKs usually mean more healing/slower progression, then why run with them? Like, are they just severely unbalanced from the other two tanks?

Because I understand that someone over there is trying to learn that class or just like it. Its just my responsibility to keep him alive if possible.

There are several threads in Tank section forum about DRK. They are talking about several problems with that class. I dont play that class to be able to confirm or deny that. My friend plays PAL and DRK and he agrees though.

You may want to read them. Dont let it discourage you from playing DRK. If you like it then learn to go past the weakness. I have read statement somewhere on the forum that 85% of DRK are bad. Be someone in the 15% spot then. There is huge satisfaction out there when you play underrated class well to make it looks good.

[RopeDrink]

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.