[ Opinion ] Healing Pugs is much worse than Tanking Pugs

[clevin]

So... I ran a regular mythic with a guild tank. Good tank. Pulled the first 15 or so mobs in BRH. DPS was Pugged. NO ONE interrupted the healing mobs in that group. So they kept pounding and pounding on people. This was just in regular MYTHIC. Annoying as fuck.

[Theoris]

I agree. I started healing on an alt and it's a lot harder than tanking (especially when the tank doesn't use CDs and people stand in fire).

To be fair, though, I'm not the best healer in the world, so there's also that. (Proving Grounds ftw)

[Blood Raven]

To me healing always seemed like the hardest role in the game. It's because no matter what happens, if something goes horribly wrong it's always the healer's fault. I can't tell you how many times I see idiots stand in stuff and die then proceed to blame the heals for not saving them.

I've only healed a few mythics on an alt, but the stress in it has really put me off doing more. I can't even imagine doing any M+'s, especially after this +2 I did where the tank had no idea how to use cds and kept pulling the whole damn room and where nobody knew how to interrupt to save their lives.

[TheRogue]

I find as a tank when I do it, I am in total control of the run. Aside from retard dps pullign for me cos 3 chesting by 7mins is more important than 3 chesting by 6 mins 45sec.

Even with bad dps and a healers, as a Prot Pal I can usually handle the run.

When I heal, I am at the mercy of the tank and the dps not being 100% window licker grade.

[Floopa]

healing in this expansion specifically is fucking shit. I urge everyone to stay away from it.

[barrinek]

I am a healer main, and have been since wrath. I don't really do much tanking.

That said, I feel I can get pretty ruthless during pugs. My personal philosophy has been, healer keeps up the tank, tank protects the healer. DPS is on their own unless I actively get the chance to heal them. Obviously I don't just not heal the DPS, but its more of "in an emergency" scenario. If the tank is taking damage and needs my full attention, they are getting it. While I will do what I can to keep them up, they aren't the focus.

If I see a DPS doing something like standing in fire or trying to speed pull for the tank, I won't heal them. Period.

I feel the same the few times I have tanked, if I notice someone trying to speed pull for me, I won't taunt. I'm just gonna let them die. I even right-clicked a hunter misdirection once. If they wanna pull, they should level a tank and pull with them.

[Thetruth1400]

I just found that being out of control and at the mercy of a semi-bad tank and often-bad DPS is very stressful for me.

100% agree. I won't do PuG groups without one of my guild tanks because the I find PuG players to be mediocre at best. Why stress myself with bad players when I can do it with a tank and DPS that I know are reliable, know my strengths and weaknesses, and overall still can beat the timer on a 15+ without all the hassle of potential stupidity?

At the end of the day, I agree with OP, healing a pug is horrid. If anyone dies, they blame the healer, not themselves for their tunnel vision "I have to be top DPS" play style. Nope, "It's the healers fault I died! You should be able to heal through the one shot mechanics I tell ya, I have to be highest DPS!"

As a priest healer, I can tell you that I've had a few PuG DPS people get near rage level mad when I've used Leap of Faith on them to pull them out of places they shouldn't be because "You're cutting into my DPS!" They would rather die on the top of the charts then move out of the bad things because of their egos.

[Raxz]

I'm a healer main myself and the most annoying thing about the role isn't the stress, or the difficulty, but just the fact that you join a group and you have to sort of just deal with the hand you're dealt.

Either the tank or the DPS, or both, could be really bad and there's not much you can really do about it and it can make your job straight up impossible to do. DPS who are so low that we end up fighting the same pack for what feels like a good minute, which can be really stressful on healing especially if they enrage or do stacking debuffs, tanks who never stop pulling so damn much no matter how the rest of the group is performing, tanks who don't pull enough even though you've been sitting on max mana for the whole dungeon. And then there's people who stand in shit, never use stuns, and don't seem to have interrupt bound. None of these things are mutually exclusive, even the too fast/too slow tanks (as sometimes when a tank is told to speed up/slow down, they way overdo it.)

Ultimately the frustration boils down to lack of control. Every healer has a little bit of non-healing utility but it's not really enough to be a relied upon, it's more of a "someone fucked up because the healer had to life grip you/BoP you/steal an interrupt."

[Deleted]

It's a bit more bearable as a Shaman healer since you've got quite a few cooldowns to blow (ASC, AG, HTT, SLT, EST) to get the group through difficult pulls. I can stun mobs and slow them, I can interrupt and purge and hex. My DPS isn't too bad especially if I'm running Echo. So we've got a lot more control over how we want the fight to go than many other healer classes.

Pugging as a healer is always going to be a lottery though. I try to avoid it unless it's low keystones, will only do higher ones with guildies since I know that'll be hassle free.

[Sencha]

Pugging while playing the healer or the tank is pure masochism.

[Nayami]

I play as DPS but I've never seen anyone giving shit to the healer/tank during Mythic+ runs, the only time I see people giving others crap is if they pull an extra pack by mistake. Although I have to say I generally have a much more pleasant experience with pugs than what people report in the forums, maybe I'm just lucky with pugs.

[Deleted]

Issue is with how healing works. When healing you are looking at what other players are doing. Someone is standing in stuff? You will notice it. Other dps and tank won't.

[Akka]

I have to disagree with this, at least on an individual basis. DPS can sometimes require getting out of the way of things, but the overall responsibility of DPS is split between a ratio of 3:1 compared to tanks(more in raids). Depending on the encounter, tanking requires much more in-depth knowledge of the fight. Usually if a DPS screws up it can be accounted for by the other DPS. But if a tank screws up the entire raid or dungeon group will wipe.

His opinion and yours ar both correct : tank is the lowest skill-dependent role to play, but the one with the heaviest responsability.

[Sail into the wind]

Half the difficulty in healing is having a proper UI for the task - once that is done, you are on cruise control for success. Much easier than Tanking or DPS.

I will say, though, that healing is a role that will attract the thin-skinned like nothing else, hence these threads.

"I'm so tired of hearing that I suck!" Well, how about not sucking then?

[groparu]

I am playing a resto druid at 896-898 ilvl depending on the trinkets i use and i gained my gear mostly from M+. I usually pug high keys( +13 and up) while doing the +15 weekly with some friends. I can say that healing this expansion is at 2 extremities: either the tank and the dps are good geared and exceptional players doing good/very good dps while also properly avoiding mechanics and interupting/stunning key targets at witch point I throw a Hot here and there and help with dps or the dps output is low, people stand in every possible avoidable ability and don't interupt/stun almost anything......at witch point your reactive healing has to be top notch.

Of course at high level keys depending on afixes( some being 1 shot style) you have to decide who will live or die, simple as that.
I believe the changes they want to make to dungeon optimization ( higher artefact power to the more difficult ones) shouldve been done from the release of M+ system.

Halls of Valor on tyrannical +12 and up is just a total pain to execute properly, same goes for black rook hold.

In the end though healing gets easier as you get better gear, the OP was stating that he was 850 ilvl if i read properly so a +2 with dps and tank and similar ilvl that pull lots of mobs and stand in the lobster fire spray and so on bad things can happend

One more thing to add, at high level keys,especially on tyrannical, having some proper addons to track tanks defensive cooldowns are important in order to not overlap yours with their since it might result in a wipe regardless of your healing output ( for example the Tree boss in dark heart ticket on tyrannical +15 and up).

[Deleted]

Know the feeling. My main is DPS, but I used to tank in cats and MoP. Always had a healer alt as well.
Personally I think it helps alot of DPS players to also play a healer and tank (alts). You get a better understanding of why and how to use more of your toolkit to keep your health bar full. You also learn about positioning and timing.
Everyone can go do "OMGPEWPEWDPS" , but not all can do so while moving and position correctly, and using the defensive CD correctly.
You might think you are doing stuff right, but most dosnt.
In short: If you play DPS try out tanking and healing. It gives you a better understanding of your role, and makes you a better DPS.

[Wild]

[...]

Thanks for listening my vent, feel free to tell me to L2P, or share your own horror stories.

I feel ya. However I have not made that kind of experience, rather the opposite.
I play RDruid main (895 eq) with tank as off spec. I do pug almost every M+ up to 15ish. I feel that I am in control as healer. If people fk up, I can make up for it. If people stand in shit, I will heal them and keep them alive. If the tank fks up or uses no mitigation, I will keep him alive.

When I play as tank, I have to rely on the healer 100%. If I have a bad healer, I die. If the DDs fk up, the healer lets them die, or heals them and at the same time lets me die. (of course I use CDs and mitigation, but u still need a good healer)
I have made far worse experience as tank, as I feel I am not in control of staying alive / keeping people alive.

[Grimnakh]

Just did a 14 nelths and one of our dps bailed, another was like half a player needed all our cooldowns up on each scorp to kill them, bosses were easy enough though.

[hulkgor]

I rather have a bad dps in the group, than a bad healer or tank, since those are way more impactful roles.

When i pug, i rather tank since i can have the biggest impact on the run, and make sure things go smooth, making it easier and faster as a whole.

[Gyrotex]

When I play as tank, I have to rely on the healer 100%. If I have a bad healer, I die. If the DDs fk up, the healer lets them die, or heals them and at the same time lets me die. (of course I use CDs and mitigation, but u still need a good healer)
I have made far worse experience as tank, as I feel I am not in control of staying alive / keeping people alive.

I hear you and see it as a valid argument. My guess is however that you might feel this way more if you play non-self-sustaining tanks, i.e. not a DK, DH, and Pally, to a lesser extent? I.e. if you NEED to be healed pretty much all the time like a Prot Warrior or Druid - then yes, you 100% rely on how decent your healer is.

This is partly explaining why we see so many "bad" DH tanks who just leap out of reach all the time, knowing that they'll self-sustain for a while. DKs would do the same, if they could, but luckily they are nowhere as mobile - lol...

Posting this thread and reading responses was actually an interesting experience for me, that put me back on the fence, I have to admit.

As in -

I already have 3 tanks (DH, DK, Pally), and I don't want to tank every night. Yes I still believe that I do better (and have better overall experience) as a tank, but I simply don't feel like tanking all the time.

Which is why I think I've chosen Resto spec for this new Druid. Sure, it was painful, and less "in control", as I've shared in the OP, but e.g. last night I've jumped on Resto again and healed DHT+2, and had the best experience ever! It was chilled, people were mutually respectful, I didn't need to dash everywhere and grab mobs like crazy - was just running behind everyone keeping them up like a grandpa.

I think there is definitely a place for this spec-playing variety. I guess I'll just avoid flat-out shit places like EoA and VotW when I'm healing?