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

[Dadwen]

On my pet class I don't expect it, and if I'm on my healer I will, if I think about it but it's low priority.

[Rhaktor]

No. Anyone who says otherwise is wrong.

[eternalwhitemoon]

Pets are part of the Hunters mechanics, so I believe they are responsible for keeping their pets alive. However If I am not having mana issues and have a moment where I can throw a hot on their pet I will do so. But I won't heal a pet over the tank/other raid members ever.

Pretty much this. Tank>myself>raid>>>pets. I'll do it if it's convenient to do so and a pet needs it, but the primary responsibility always lies on the DPS whose pet it is. They have healing mechanics for their pets for a reason.

[Deleted]

I am a hunter, and I have never EVER expected healers to heal my pets in raids, LFRs or random heroics.

Sometimes, when we do a guild run, and for example dk queues up as a tank, but never tanked before - I don't even have to say anything, they know my pet is gonna tank, and will heal it.
Sometimes my pet helped tank a bit in dungeons, with strangers) then I asked very politely healer if he COULD heal my pet.
If not, that's fine.

If we turn growl off, there is now way a pet would die before us.

So no, it's not a healer job to heal our pets.

[endersblade]

Nope. ALL pet classes have efficient ways of healing their pets. If their pet is taking significant damage, there's probably something else entirely wrong going on. They hardly take any damage at all from AoEs, so they're most likely being focus targeted for whatever reason. Hunters at least have plenty of ways to make the pets taunt, drop agro, heal their pets, etc. It is a healer's job to heal the party, and pets are not part of that. I don't even have their frames turned on.

For reference, I have two healers and 5 hunters/locks. So I know what it's like on both sides. I don't EVER complain about the healer in the extremely rare situation where my pet dies. It isn't their fault, it isn't their job. It's my pet, it's part of my DPS, I need to take care of it.

[nightfalls]

Pets are the responsibility of the owner and managing them is part of playing their class. How hard is it to hit mend pet? I have 3 healers and dont even have pets enabled on my VuhDo.

I don't enable pets on Vuhdo either, probably should but the point is pets don't die, really. And if they take damage from encounters (i.e. bug) they usually die very quickly. Any incidental damage is easily healed by multiple AoE/smart heals.

That said, if for some reason a pet is tanking (which is usually pre-arranged), I can heal it by setting up a focus frame on Vuhdo. I also use mouseovers + target-target frames, so if a pet is tanking in an emergency (which only happens in 5-mans) I can toss it heals that way as well.

[Taurenburger]

If I got time to heal them and feel like doing so (less often than not), I'll heal them pets. Otherwise, it's part of the class to have your pet safe from dieing.

[Azutael]

For 5 mans ? not unless for some weird reason some pet is tanking better than the tank, if so then I will heal pets.
If someone is leaving their pet with taunt on, and refuse to turn it off. Then I will not heal them.

In raids they get healed by all the ground heals etc so there's no issue.

And on my warlock I always heal my pet if needed, not like that happens a lot though.

[Deleted]

If I have the mana to spare, & a pet is low then I'll toss a heal or 2 their way, otherwise its the responsibility of the User/Owner to keep it alive. Likewise, I don't expect healers to go out of their way to heal my pets on my 'Lock or Hunter, if I'm on my Hunter & see my pet take a header, I'll use mend on it.

TL;DR: No, not the healers responsibility.

[Valedus]

No, a dps' pet should never die. They take like 10% aoe damage. Anything else and the hunter should spend a global casting mend pet because its more of a dps loss to have a dead pet. Shouldn't be a burden to the healer.

[Sivick]

it's not the healer's job to keep a pet alive. pets shouldn't really be dying unless they're doing something stupid. As a tank i have no problem letting a growling pet die. Hey, it's less damage i have to take.

[skitzy129]

My pets loved dying for no reason on heroic madness.

Just randomly 1 shotted by nothing.

Fun times.

But no, I can mend pet easily enough if for whatever reason it is taking damage in a raid.

[Shink]

If they die, it's usually because they had growl on, the only other time is when the pet class let them run wild and they dragged adds from somewhere else

[Static Transit]

A pet is the owner's responsibility. Hunters and locks have abilities that can keep the pet's health up, and most of the time they don't take significant enough damage to worry about it anyway.

The only two fights this tier that I've had to worry about my pet's health/survivability are Vizier (make sure your pet doesn't go attack the boss during platform switches before the tank hits him) and Protectors (when Kaolan is last, due to Defiled Ground).

With the first fight, the hunter/lock can just put the pet on follow during platform switches until the tank gets aggro, and for the second, a hunter would just throw up a Mend Pet every now and then and lock would heal the pet through Soul Leech.

[dryankem]

I don't even have pets showing on Grid. If a smart heal hits them, then fine. Otherwise, they're on their own. Pet classes need to take care of their own pets.

^^^^^ This ^^^^^

I don't even know why a healer would keep pets on their frames. Pets are a part of the mechanics for a class, not another party member.

A healers job is to keep the raid alive, it's the DPS's responsibility to maximize their DPS (hence look after their pet if that's were the bulk of their damage comes from). In 5 mans, the healer looks after 5 players (not 6 or 7 or even 8), 10 mans = 10 players, etc. There are enough smart heals that cover pets anyways, don't know why you would waste mana.

[Scorp969]

no and i dont have them in grid but there can be one exeption in 5man hcs pets can be better tank then some players lfrom my own experience unholy dk joined as tank and tanked with frost presence so i turned on threatening presence and let felguard whole hc

[Karazee]

Our Paladin healer said they don't heal pets except for letting AoE heal, which caused several people to jump on him telling him that if we wiped at 1% and he let a pet die, then that would be his fault that we wiped, since pets contribute to DPS. He argued that such a situation should never happen and there was a back and forth, etc. Went on for like 10 minutes.

Back in Cataclysm on Nefarian, on my hunter my pet would take a lot of damage from the AoE he threw out. I couldn't do enough healing to keep him up so I always asked to be on the resto druid platform since Wild Growth would help heal him. I could not do enough on my own to keep him alive without it.

Now I'm maining a healer and I don't pay attention to pets as a primary thing, but I have no problem throwing a cheap heal or a hot on a pet if it's needed and a raider doesn't need any immediate help. If you don't, you're really not doing your job.

[Deleted]

Yep, you should heal pets. They are a big part of someone's dps and if that person has to heal them themselves, they will take a huge dip in dps as well. And you are the healer afterall. Pet owners can heal their pets for solo play, but shouldn't have to when a healer is around. Of course the pet is lowest priority, just below the lowest dps player.

[bionics]

More likely than not their pet is taking damage because they left Pet Taunt on or the equivalent thereof; so no, it's not your responsibility. All pet classes have ways to both heal their pet and resurrect them themselves, so save your mana for something more important unless you really have nothing else to do.

[IIamaKing]

I say yes, you are a healer you heal things. If my pet goes down it is a massive dps loss, and the heal I have for it doesnt heal for much. That being said, my pet never dies.