Yes, I heal pets just like players
Yes, I heal pets, but only as the lowest priority
No, I don't heal pets, it's the pet class's job to keep them up
No, I don't even have pets on my bars
I heal pets, but they are the lowest priority for direct healing. They can scoop up all the AoE healing they like, but I'm only casting a direct heal on them if they're almost dead and everyone else in the raid is fine.
I agree that pets are primarily their controller's responsibility but you shouldn't ignore pets just to make a point to their player about how its their job and not yours. It's also player's responsibility to avoid damage, but that doesn't mean I don't heal them if they fuck up and take a tick of standing in fire. Unless it's a habitual problem where your hunter never casts Mend Pet, it's not worth the power play. Do what is reasonable. If the pet is almost dead and everyone else is fine, toss them a heal.
It's worth noting that players usually have limited amount of healing they can offer their pet. They might be doing what they can but still need catch up help form a healer sometimes.
I'm practical. A dead pet is a DPS loss for the raid. I don't like DPS losses in my raid if they can be avoided by two seconds of work on my part.
Stroks "QQ heal my pet"
Yes you're definitely obligated to maintain the health of a pet while its master is incapable of doing so. However, UH DK's have extremly good defesnives and should for the most part deal with them by themselves.
I'd be more pissed at the hunter for not doing his job right, than the healer that has his own job to do too. I mean as others have said, with aoe damage reductions and if the hunter knows how to play then his pet shouldn't be dying, they have many abilities to keep their pets alive. Unless your hunters are just dps whoring and don't want to waste time using non dps abilities thinking the healers should be doing his job.
Of course if its just a now and again situation and the healers outright refuse to heal pets full stop then that would also be an issue too.
The only healing pets will get from me is if they're in my aoe heals. They take less damage than almost anything else in the game, so imho if they're dying in a raid, something is wrong somewhere.
"The further a society drifts from the truth the more it will hate those who speak it" - George Orwell
Throw a heal if theres nothing else going on in the fight :P
Like many others have said I'll heal the pets, but only as the lowest priority. Also only in 5 mans. In a raid the AOE healing should be sufficient for most damage the pet takes.
On my hunter I feel it is my job to keep my pet up. Typically if the pet is taking damage it is doing somthing it shouldn't. Of course unless it is being used as a tank. I have mend pet for a reason (not the strongest but I use it all the time).
I think the above says it all.
I stopped healing pets 5 years ago when it was a choice of a player vs a pet in raids, since then I have never had them on my bars.
It costs them a lot less in terms of healing for them to resummon their pet, than it does for me to waste healing on them, people who say they "need" to heal pets are usually doing it to help boost themselves up the healing epeen meters.
My healing priority has always been:
Tank
Self
Other Healers
DPS
Keeping mana topped off
Pets dont even get on the list.
In a raid its the owners job, in a 5 man, if the stupid hunter or lock has a tank pet out, plz healers, let it die so they learn, otherwise they are like "wtf why is the tank bitching about this growling sound. "
No, I think it's totally on the owner's shoulders.
If they are having to rely on 1 pet to kill a boss, then they need people to put out more overall dps.
And its the responsibility of the pet owner to keep it topped off, if the pet died, why didnt the warlock or hunter use their abilities that can insta-res once per fight...
Heal the pet when I can, and have the spare time to notice. It's not the healers focus to keep pets up, but they can still have an open mind about saving a precious pet (If you need the buff), or have the ability to.
Short: No
Long: No
You're taking raiding too seriously. I've watched a few healer streams for some of the top guilds and I think all but one of them didn't even have pet health displayed. It's almost impossible for a hunter pet to die, they're pretty much immune to everything that would normally kill a melee. They shouldn't even be taking damage let alone need healing. Definitely not more healing than they'd passively soak up just by standing in AoE healing. Pets also get a self rez.
It really shouldn't be an issue though.
I usually heal pets whenever there isn't anything else to heal. If it comes between topping off the rogue or a pet, I'll usually choose the rogue.