Healing dilemma, should I heal bad players who pull mobs before the tank?

[Mirishka]

IMO healing dps who do stupid things is basically saying 'its ok for you guys to be dumbasses, I'll heal u' which is obviously encouraging them.

Mistakes happen of course but if people are playing stupidly, or in a way that makes your job or the tank's job harder... let them die, don't res them and then vote kick them if they persist.

[Viscoe]

I would advise you to not heal them. There are tanks like me out there who will pop cat and stealth away from the whole group when I see a devilish DPS trying to play tank. And I won't save the healer if they decide to heal the DPS playing tank, nor will I save the DPS DPSing his pack of mobs (at least that's on my bear; when on pally or warrior I can't exactly stealth away. So I mount. :P)

After the dust settles and they're all dead, I tell them that if they let me do my job of pulling and keeping aggro, I'll let them do their jobs of healing without gaining aggro or DPSing without gaining aggro and dying. That usually gets the message across.

[ThrashMetalFtw]

I would advise you to not heal them. There are tanks like me out there who will pop cat and stealth away from the whole group when I see a devilish DPS trying to play tank. And I won't save the healer if they decide to heal the DPS playing tank, nor will I save the DPS DPSing his pack of mobs (at least that's on my bear; when on pally or warrior I can't exactly stealth away. So I mount. :P)

After the dust settles and they're all dead, I tell them that if they let me do my job of pulling and keeping aggro, I'll let them do their jobs of healing without gaining aggro or DPSing without gaining aggro and dying. That usually gets the message across.

This is also a good way to get yourself kicked, but by all means, enjoy redoing the entire instance again. Thank god for /ignore

[Ultima]

Meh. You say bad players, but I think the tank is bad if they aren't pulling fast enough. I say this as a Tank, Healer and DPS.

I heal anyone and everyone to end the tragedy that is 'Cataclysm Heroic Dungeons' as quickly as possible.

[Ihsatakar]

Meh. You say bad players, but I think the tank is bad if they aren't pulling fast enough. I say this as a Tank, Healer and DPS.

I heal anyone and everyone to end the tragedy that is 'Cataclysm Heroic Dungeons' as quickly as possible.

This is perfectly correct. Sure, it doesn't teach you to be good by letting you live (if you can call just letting them die without explaining anything "teaching"), more more importantly it slows the run down for everyone.

[Deleted]

I didn't read all the replies. But if you don't like to carry people you shouldn't have picked a healer in the first place.

[Sharrel]

So I'm a new priest purely healing and I'm loving it. I never like seeing people die while on my watch.

However while running pugs, I'm coming across players who frankly give me a hard time. Hunters who pull bosses for example, and not by accident either. Or DPS who run ahead of the tank and engage mobs.

Should I let players who do this die to teach them this isn't good for them and show them some 'tough love' or should I do my best to heal them as that is my job?

I'm torn. On the one hand I'm there to heal, and heal I will.. and I never like to see people die. But on the other hand, my tank friend explained that if the idiots keep getting healed, they'll keep pulling expecting heals. One druid who pulled a trash group even had the cheek to say 'ill just heal myself then' and I politely explained to them if they didn't act like a tank they wouldn't need to heal themselves.

So do you turn a blind eye to such 'idiots' ? Or do you try to advise them? I politely ask that they let the tank pull the mobs but I'm not sure they get the message. Perhaps a few graveyard runs would help?

one would hope that if the hunters are pulling. they are at least misdirecting to the tank and not being compleatly stupid

[Felade]

I think you are on shaky ground refusing to heal people. You are making the problem worse not better. How would you like it if someone stopped dosing or tanking if they thought you weren't using the right heals? If you heal and their behavior still causes a wipe, you are insulated from any accusations.

As a tank/healer/dps, I look at poor play from my group as a challenge and a chance to improve. I also get to mercilessly berate them in guild chat.

We don't have the whole story here. First, hunters md'ing is probably ok. It might be a little upsetting to the tank, but I think what we've got here is a timid tank issue. Remember, at this point, people have been running za/zg a lot and they are used to a certain pace. If the tank takes way too long to pull you are liable to get this sort of behavior.

[Arlee]

one would hope that if the hunters are pulling. they are at least misdirecting to the tank and not being compleatly stupid

I can't even tell you how often I am in a group with hunter who pull but don't MD... I actually dread having a hunters in my groups for that reason ><

When I heal, I generally don't heal stupid... but that is because I can usually manage to heal everyone else. I also usually ask the tank not to taunt off said dps who pulls dumbly. So most of the time it is just the one dps that dies... and then he nerages at me and quits group, and then we get someone new.

[QwertySham]

you dont need a tank for headless horseman, its faster if you have a dps tanking it.
I dont think the tank was the idiot in this situation.

The way I see it: DPS Queues are 2-3 minutes for HH. Tank queues are mostly instant. Healing queues are 10 sec - 1 minute. If a DPS cannot wait 3 minutes MAX to fulfill the role they are in the spec to do, then they can die.

Better example happened just last night. Ret paladin (full blue PvP gear and 2h wep from ZG/ZA) came in to fulfill the role of the tank in my HH random. Rightous fury on, and grabbed aggro (good job). Well, impatience bugs me. He couldn't wait 3 minutes, he can die. He died without using any cooldowns (LoH, Divine Shield). The DK in the group battle res'd him and then he took a whirlwind and died again. I was very happy, not only did he die the first time, a DK res'd him and he died again! It was great. I even took a screenshot it was so amazing.

Removed image for naming and shaming -Arlee

[Deleted]

Should u heal them, well personally i do as i dont care much as long as the dps do it properly lol.

If the eager dps pulls and uses some defensive cd's than he survives and i heal if i get aggro than i say hello to fade.
The tank should take over if not than heal more is my moto and drink after.

Its a challenge to keep them up, is it faster ?
Depends on the tank, if he taunts off than yea it can be faster or as fast if u use ur mana cd's between pulls if not than the dps should notice a decrease in pace and eventually die and that prolly leads to dps not pulling anymore.

I leave it up to the tank to say something about it as its his job, i just do what i do and thats healing no matter what happens.

So yea should u heal them, dunno its up to u and how u feel about it personally.
Thats the beauty of healing as its all based on personal preferences on how to heal properly, nothing is set in stone if it comes to healing.
The pulling dps faith lays in ur hand (or the tanks) and u get to decide if he dies or not make ur choice on ur own feelings as thats what healing is.

[ThrashMetalFtw]

The way I see it: DPS Queues are 2-3 minutes for HH. Tank queues are mostly instant. Healing queues are 10 sec - 1 minute. If a DPS cannot wait 3 minutes MAX to fulfill the role they are in the spec to do, then they can die.

Better example happened just last night. Ret paladin (full blue PvP gear and 2h wep from ZG/ZA) came in to fulfill the role of the tank in my HH random. Rightous fury on, and grabbed aggro (good job). Well, impatience bugs me. He couldn't wait 3 minutes, he can die. He died without using any cooldowns (LoH, Divine Shield). The DK in the group battle res'd him and then he took a whirlwind and died again. I was very happy, not only did he die the first time, a DK res'd him and he died again! It was great. I even took a screenshot it was so amazing.

Ppl like you make me cry inside. How can you function properly IRL?

[achaeon]

I don't heal them, because their asinine behavior just makes your job unnecessarily harder. Unless it was clearly an accidental pull.

[Deleted]

The way I see it: DPS Queues are 2-3 minutes for HH. Tank queues are mostly instant. Healing queues are 10 sec - 1 minute. If a DPS cannot wait 3 minutes MAX to fulfill the role they are in the spec to do, then they can die.

Better example happened just last night. Ret paladin (full blue PvP gear and 2h wep from ZG/ZA) came in to fulfill the role of the tank in my HH random. Rightous fury on, and grabbed aggro (good job). Well, impatience bugs me. He couldn't wait 3 minutes, he can die. He died without using any cooldowns (LoH, Divine Shield). The DK in the group battle res'd him and then he took a whirlwind and died again. I was very happy, not only did he die the first time, a DK res'd him and he died again! It was great. I even took a screenshot it was so amazing.

You're the jerk here tbh.

You're the person who'll never accomplish anything raiding wise either most likely.

Yes, people make mistakes, or might not do everything as your perfect dream world, just heal them through it, and get over with it.

Image in quote removed -Arlee

[Christan]

You could heal them, but remember the priority is on the real tank, yourself, and the dps who are actually doing their job. Don't go out of your way to accommodate them if the rest of the group will suffer for it.

this, i would like to add,

your job is healing people who are doing their job.

and a dps pulling for the tank is not, whisper tank to not pull aggro off them if they do it, and let em tank it, continue like normal.

3 - 4 manning stuff is easier with a good tank, or healer that outgears the place, but even in reg gear it isn't to hard.


let the dps who do that die, over and over, when the tank pulls, heal them, when they pull, dont heal them, go out of your way to not use any sort of aoe heal as well (prayer of mending / healing, efflorescence / wild growth, light of dawn / ???) well you get the idea.

after a few deaths when they yell about you not doing your job,

remind them, that a healers job includes triage in cataclysm, reference them to ghostcrawlers blog about it(let me go find link again after this, or if someone has it bookmarked ^.^ link it please)
and part of triage is only healing those doing their jobs. let them know pulling for the tank is not part of their job, so healing them is not part of your job.

[s0rel]

on my drood tank, when i enter an instance after the hello i tell them this: you pull it you tank it! it solves the "happy trigger" dps problem.

[Karazee]

The time it takes to throw some heals is much less than the time it takes to rez, rebuff, and get set up again (and chances are you'll STILL have to heal them before the next pull!)

Why would you rez them? Let them run back. That's the only way they learn.

[Deleted]

You're the jerk here tbh.

You're the person who'll never accomplish anything raiding wise either most likely.

Yes, people make mistakes, or might not do everything as your perfect dream world, just heal them through it, and get over with it.

I agree on the "your the yerk" part, is it necessary to be a jerk on the HH boss ?
I seen healers not doing anything for a long time on this boss cuz of the low amount of damage going on.

Or they spam wrath/smite/lightning bolts.

Look, dps in pvp gear que for tank roll and enters ZA/ZG than yea u have every right to let him die alot to make a point, but on the HH boss is just sad imo.

Why would you rez them? Let them run back. That's the only way they learn.

So u making the 5 man taking alot longer and wasting time for the others in the group in order to teach him a leason. Than just let him die but rez him after, they learn just as fast, alot of tanks waits for the group being a whole again before they pull specially for boss fights.

But its all personal, i heal them and rez as i want to get out the dungeon as fast as i got in. If they die alot than they learn it that way.

[Deleted]

"Let's ignore the health of the raid."
"Let's tunnel the tank and myself." (Being priests, this is almost the most ridiculous one)

Some of the advice in here is just the dumbest, most nonsensical healer advice ever. They don't even make sense.

A five-man presents the most uninteresting style of healing in the entire game. It's both passive and utterly predictable. The only time your qualities as a healer is challenged, is when people fuck up. Your job, is to keep everyone alive. Doctors don't discriminate between intelligence, so what gives you that right?

If someone fucks up, heal them through it (prove to yourself, if no-one else, that you're actually a healer who can respond to the health of your group) - if the damage was preventable, rant about it afterwards. It's likely you'll never meet that person again either way - you're definitely not "teaching him a lesson" for letting him die.

Really, if you're not abled to respond to sudden spikes in your groups health, you're already a failure as a healer - please don't queue up for LFR at the same time as me. Five-mans act as a training facility for all of these scenarios.

[Deleted]

It's your choice it depends how petty and vindictive you are about it. Personally I heal all party members whilst prioritizing the tank. If someone is to blame for something then I talk to them.