As a healer, is it my job to heal pets?

[dar0]

i'm not sure how many times this has been said already, cause i cba to read all the replies. but there's generally no moment where every player is at full health and you have "spare" time to heal a pet, cause the only reason a pet would be low is aoe dmg, wich they don't rly take alot of anyway, and when the raid takes aoe dmg, the players will be aoe healed, and it will most likely hit the pets aswell, wich means they will be at full health even before the players, because of the decreased aoe dmg they take. and if a pet dies cause they take aggro (unless it's assigned to tank something) it's noone else than the owner's fault, you can't even blame the tank, cause no pet does so much dmg that they would aggro before one of the dps would... in other words, growl is on... i play all sorts of classes, and when i tank and see any of the mobs get growled i just ignore that mob. if i heal i never have pets on my bars, cause i don't care about what happens to them, not my job. and if i dps (mage or hunter) i make sure my pet don't die. easy as that. if you heal a pet when you are healing raid, you are wasting mana. if your pet dies, you suck, go play tetris

[Luko]

It is worth noting that Mend Pet sucks if it's unglyphed, and there are often better hunter glyphs for group PvE, so don't expect Mend to take care of all incoming pet damage if the pet is tanking or something.

You and I tend to agree on almost every topic I recall us stumbling into, but I'd like to point out that Mend Pet only sucks when put in situations it wasn't intended for; See also raid tanking.

The ability is incredibly powerful when soloing and when used for keeping a health bar capped in the case of overwhelming raid damage. I'm aware you knew this and even brought it up in your post, I'm mostly reiterating for clarity of subject.

[Tehstool]

Trust me, we know this. I have no idea why some of these people are choosing to completely ignore this fact AND the fact that we've actually tried to remind them of it several times. It's getting a little weird at this point.

On most of the fights all the heals my pet has gotten are smart heals or aoe heals and they are 100% overhealing. Really, the only fight he took a considerable amount of damage on was H protectors from lightning storm and that was 363,618 which is barely enough to kill the pet, but 95.8% of the heals he got were overheals. as long as my pet got ONE smart heal from anything it is fine. If i had spirit bond on that fight (which I didn't) the pet wouldn't need any heals.

[Huntaer]

Your job? No.
Do i do it? Yes sometimes when i feel like it.
It's the owner's responsibility.

[Rowlga]

Ooh, first couple pages were mostly "no pet healing", last few there's more people popping in to say you should heal them. Interesting.

To answer "why wouldn't you, you're a healer? what's the big deal?", it's mostly just that, what's the big deal? That's one of those arguments that goes both ways. The main point for me that takes the responsibility away from the healers is just how little the situation should even arise in the first place if the pet class is being played correctly. Sure, if the healer safely can and is willing to heal the pet, if it doesn't hurt then why not? But in almost every case it just plain shouldn't have to happen anyway, and if it does come up it's almost always because the DPS was doing something very wrong. Not always, but almost always. The times when a pet should need heals are so rare these days that, really, I just deal with my own pets and don't expect the healers waste screen and mental space on them.

[Mexa]

If a pet dies, its because the hunter in question wasn't paying attention. Simple as that. No one's saying a healer is wrong for tossing a heal on a pet now and then, but it sure as hell isn't their job.

and if a tank dies, its the healer in question who wasnt paying attention, so we keep on playing the blame game and see who has had the most fingers pointed at whom when the raid night is over, or what ? is that how your guild raids ? because where i raid, someone would help the main healer if he needed it instead of letting the tank die.

And someone would help the hunters pet instead of letting it die.

[Luko]

Your job? No.
Do i do it? Yes sometimes when i feel like it.
It's the owner's responsibility.

7 pages later, this is pretty much a completely accurate representation of the reality of the situation.

[MoanaLisa]

If you can you should. Depending on the pet, they contribute one way or another and can help in a close fight. But healing them up comes after everything else and when you're not pressed for mana.

Why do people would pay so much attention to min/maxing their gear to within tolerances of less than 1% and then think that not healing up a pet that's contributing to damage is no big deal? That really doesn't make sense.

If your raid group is doing progression and is attempting to min/max then it matters.

[Luko]

and if a tank dies, its the healer in question who wasnt paying attention, so we keep on playing the blame game and see who has had the most fingers pointed at whom when the raid night is over, or what ? is that how your guild raids ? because where i raid, someone would help the main healer if he needed it instead of letting the tank die.

I'll be honest, man, you're dedication to replying to me is getting a little creepy. I mean, if you were actually staying on topic that'd be one thing, but now you're talking about tanks dying and playing the blame game as a guild. What am I even supposed to say to this? We're still talking about whether or not its' the "Job" of a healer to heal a classes pet, right? In which case:

Your job? No.
Do i do it? Yes sometimes when i feel like it.
It's the owner's responsibility.

[Arkenaw]

Absolutely not, in fact I get ticked off when my smart heals jump to pets.

[checking facts]

I have soul link on. healing me is healing my pet

[RicardoZ]

Never under any circumstances is it your job to heal a pet. They'll get some AoE heals off of you, but pretty much all classes have ways of healing their pets.

In the second place, their pets probably shouldn't be taking much damage in the first place. If they are then the pet's master is probably doing something wrong.

[Abysal]

It looks like you are a Resto Shaman. I think your HST and Healing Rain both should be enough to keep the pets alive. If the hunter even has to use Mend Pet or you have to burn GCDs specifically on the pet, then why? Is the pet taunting or something?

[Airwaves]

The point is in every raid I have ever done I have never had to heal a pet at all ever. Now if someone came along and suddenly thier pet was constantly dead all the time, I would wonder what the difference was. Horrible healer or not, I will not use my mana or my time to target a pet and cast anything on it at all. If that pet dies then it does. Out of all the times I can think of if that pet is dying I can only imagine what shape the rest of the raid is in and what as a healer I should be doing besides trying to cast a heal on a pet.

That was my point they take so little damage now that they are a joke to keep alive and a waste of a hunter gcd to heal. General aoe healing will keep it alive 99% of the time. People making out like the rest of there raid is going to die if they get a heal on it. If your hunter is gylphed into healing buff for pve well his doing it wrong and if he isn't glyphed then Mend pet is a waste of a gcd. Sure if you only do normal modes then it don't matter what glyph he choices to use but if you are pushing an enrage timer on a heroic boss then it is important he don't waste a gcd on mend pet when healing aoe can keep it alive.

[Adam Jensen]

I do not heal pets.

I refuse to heal pets. They aren't even on my interface. Take care of your own pet.

[Frolk]

If pet got taunt on, NO HEALS
If u got spare time and mana u should, but not mandatory an HoT will save the pet most times

[Mexa]

I'll be honest, man, you're dedication to replying to me is getting a little creepy. I mean, if you were actually staying on topic that'd be one thing, but now you're talking about tanks dying and playing the blame game as a guild. What am I even supposed to say to this? We're still talking about whether or not its' the "Job" of a healer to heal a classes pet, right? In which case:

So someone shares your opinion and you use that as a fact ? it is the healers job to keep dying things alive, its as simple as that.

[Veyne]

As a healer in the past, I say heal the pets, but only if everything else is under control. For the most part, a pet won't take severe amounts of damage, due to their innate AoE damage reduction and avoidance. But tossing a HoT on a pet every once in a while isn't a bad thing unless it directly causes a raid member to die.

[frogger237]

Players take priority over pets, but if your not healing players and have mana to spare you should be healing pets as it is a dps loss.

Also they need to make sure they have their pets taunt off, and if they don't, don't heal the pet.

[Rivellana]

I don't even have pets on my bars, and I believe it's the pet owner's job to keep them alive.

My aoe heals splash to pets and that should be enough if the pet owner is doing what they're supposed to do. I think of it this way...would the hunter/warlock rather I be focusing on keeping their pet alive and let them die instead because they can't be bothered to take care of their own pet?