Healer rant (Kinda)

[mdillard]

I am basically a new player.
I have a couple of 40s geared to Officers Ward, but they are WE 40/32, and a Sorceress 40/40.
I leveled them without a clear idea for how to gear them and I chose the classes because they were the ones I heard mentioned most.
Fast-forward to now, I don't feel like I'm contributing much as a DPSer, but say I sure hear a lot of talk about a healer shortage.

I rolled myself a shaman and sure enough, I could tell my contributions had gone up due to the flow of renown and crests. I also seriously enjoy healing.
I need a little help from my tanks and DPS though.

Don't LOS my heals:
Stay near the objective (unless moving to another one.)
Especially don't run into a building and leave the enemy between your healers and the entrance.

Stay in range of heals:
Don't run after that random arch-mage trying to lure you away.
That makes it hard to hold the objective and I might have to let you die to attend to people fighting on objectives.
It'll be easier once I have gather round.
If you ain't getting gather round ticks you're more than 100' from your heals.

Don't leave us to die:
Don't run past the opposition to the objective, leaving your healers and the enemy DPS staring at each other.
Right before they slaughter us and come get you.

Obviously **** happens when going from one objective to the next and people get isolated and snuffed.
But that isn't the responsibility of the war band, or anybody except the snuffee.

I'm not complaining, I'm happy to keep healing and hope to see more healers among my destruction family.
I'm still low level and I don't imagine my heals are real strong right now, but I'll do what I can.

[Aethilmar]

Don't leave us to die:
Don't run past the opposition to the objective, leaving your healers and the enemy DPS staring at each other.
Right before they slaughter us and come get you.

It is your responsibility to move with the warband and not get left behind. If the warband leader moves through them then you are expected to do so as well. If you do not, and get caught out by the opposition DPS, then all the bad that happens next is on you. Far, far too many healers in this game think that they need to stand off to the side while the warband engages and then are shocked when the enemy warband pushes through the frontline to hit all the healers who have conveniently clustered together with no hope of being rescued and thus leading to a wipe.

[mdillard]

Don't leave us to die:
Don't run past the opposition to the objective, leaving your healers and the enemy DPS staring at each other.
Right before they slaughter us and come get you.

It is your responsibility to move with the warband and not get left behind. If the warband leader moves through them then you are expected to do so as well. If you do not, and get caught out by the opposition DPS, then all the bad that happens next is on you. Far, far too many healers in this game think that they need to stand off to the side while the warband engages and then are shocked when the enemy warband pushes through the frontline to hit all the healers who have conveniently clustered together with no hope of being rescued and thus leading to a wipe.

In an actual warband I agree, I was speaking in generalities. for scenarios and smaller scale stuff.
I always mark the warband leader and stick close to them.
Scenarios can be hell on earth for healers, in warbands we got it pretty decent.

EDIT:
I had to think about it for a minute, and I realize that I am guilty of being one of the ones to try to keep clear.
It's something I learned in other games where the healers DO hang back.
I will discontinue that practice immediately.
So if someone is guarding me I need to keep the tether green at all times then, right?
Am I basically that tank's pocket healer?

[anstalt]

There is no "one correct only" positioning as a healer, you have to judge each situation on its own. It can be a pain figuring it out, and even if u get it correct you still might die. But thats WAR!


If you are being targeted by enemy DPS, then you wanna kite. Towards a tank (assuming they will guard you), towards your healers (so they can save you) or to break LoS of enemy RDPS.

If you aren't being targetted, then you still need to move with the group, but u can stop and cast big heals when the opportunity arises. As a shaman, as soon as you can get Fury of da Green (FodG), you'll be wanting to balance your HoTs / Gather Round with FodG. It counts as a DPS skill in terms of waaagh mechanic, so cast time gets reduced by 40% if ur balancing waagh properly.

It's pretty rare that you get to stand around and just spam heals. It happens at sieges, forts, but otherwise not much. Learning how to keep on the move whilst still finding time for ur big heals is a big part of healing in this game. Its also fun!

[Aethilmar]

Don't leave us to die:
Don't run past the opposition to the objective, leaving your healers and the enemy DPS staring at each other.
Right before they slaughter us and come get you.

It is your responsibility to move with the warband and not get left behind. If the warband leader moves through them then you are expected to do so as well. If you do not, and get caught out by the opposition DPS, then all the bad that happens next is on you. Far, far too many healers in this game think that they need to stand off to the side while the warband engages and then are shocked when the enemy warband pushes through the frontline to hit all the healers who have conveniently clustered together with no hope of being rescued and thus leading to a wipe.

In an actual warband I agree, I was speaking in generalities. for scenarios and smaller scale stuff.
I always mark the warband leader and stick close to them.
Scenarios can be hell on earth for healers, in warbands we got it pretty decent.

EDIT:
I had to think about it for a minute, and I realize that I am guilty of being one of the ones to try to keep clear.
It's something I learned in other games where the healers DO hang back.
I will discontinue that practice immediately.
So if someone is guarding me I need to keep the tether green at all times then, right?
Am I basically that tank's pocket healer?

As a healer you should only expect to be guarded situationally. This is why survival stats are generally valued above willpower for healers since you are expected to be able to take care of yourself except under extreme pressure and, for the most part, healers have to tools to do so. With practice you will eventually learn to "feel" the correct spot to stand such that you can support your warband and also have the support of your warband without making yourself an obvious target for the enemy.

Of course now I feel bad for offering practical advice to a Shammie since your best state is waiting for respawn. But hopefully some Order healer will get something out of this conversation and balance things out.

[Zxul]

On the side note, there is also a different option- go dps healer. I can guarantee you, every order player absolutely loves dps shamans, they post about it all over the forums.

[mdillard]

As a healer you should only expect to be guarded situationally. This is why survival stats are generally valued above willpower for healers since you are expected to be able to take care of yourself except under extreme pressure and, for the most part, healers have to tools to do so. With practice you will eventually learn to "feel" the correct spot to stand such that you can support your warband and also have the support of your warband without making yourself an obvious target for the enemy.

Of course now I feel bad for offering practical advice to a Shammie since your best state is waiting for respawn. But hopefully some Order healer will get something out of this conversation and balance things out.

You can put foreign policy on your resume now Mr. Ambassador!
Just for the record, I don't feel entitled to guard, I understand that it's situational.
I think it's cool when someone does guard me, but it isn't mine to demand.

[Lion1986]

Don't LOS my heals:
Stay near the objective (unless moving to another one.)
Especially don't run into a building and leave the enemy between your healers and the entrance.

LOS is their responsibility. When they die and complain tell them next time to use brain.

Stay in range of heals:
Don't run after that random arch-mage trying to lure you away.
That makes it hard to hold the objective and I might have to let you die to attend to people fighting on objectives.
It'll be easier once I have gather round.
If you ain't getting gather round ticks you're more than 100' from your heals.

My experience as healer is that 90% of melee dpsers here are brainless bots. They see red name: they charge. LEave them to die. Once they get bored to respawn maybe they will listen.

Don't leave us to die:
Don't run past the opposition to the objective, leaving your healers and the enemy DPS staring at each other.
Right before they slaughter us and come get you.

This is more, in my experience in this server, about totally incompetent tanks that have no clue to guard swap. Or dps that have no clue on how to peel from friendly healer. Again, not your fault sir.