Healers must be alert at all times?

[pkm]

Is the healer the most unforgiving role when it comes to being alert and reacting to mechanics or events that happen throughout an encounter? Or can they be sloppy and it wont matter?

[jfk]

Is the healer the most unforgiving role when it comes to being alert and reacting to mechanics or events that happen throughout an encounter? Or can they be sloppy and it wont matter?

Any good player has to be on their toes/be aware at all times.

[Allarius]

Every role has stuff they need to watch out for. It's encounter specific.

Some fights are super easy as a healer, some are a nightmare.

[Inthislzon]

Is the healer the most unforgiving role when it comes to being alert and reacting to mechanics or events that happen throughout an encounter? Or can they be sloppy and it wont matter?

Depends on content.

RF? Anyone can semiAFK his way to lootz, heroic world first? noone can be sloppy there.

[Deleted]

Not really the most unforgiving, more like the most dependant on how well other people perform. If a tank or DPS messes up, chances are big the healers have to work their asses off to make up for that.

[Tinsoul]

Tank is the most unforgiving role, especially in the era of active mitigation.

Healers are redundant. Both of you can't take a sip of beer at the same time.

[Dreyen]

Healers probably have it the hardest because your attention is focused elsewhere more than your screen id say, otherwise being a good healer is mostly about reacting as fast as possible, knowing when to use what, and planning ahead your healing strategy/mana

[Retlul]

Depends if its HC, Normal or LFR rly. Every Figth is different aswell. It also depends alot on your team to do as they are ment to: hug up, spread out, avoid that, stand in that, nuke that add, interupt that. And so on.

[Woobels]

I'd say every fight on heroic gets way harder for healers then for other roles compared to normal modes.

I'm probably not thinking of some exceptions.

[Zaelkath]

I would think the tanks would be. On my warlock I VERY rarely even need a healer because I rotate my defense and healing cooldowns systematically. On my tank I can keep myself alive as well but I also need to be on the constant look out for stuff on the ground and the attacks the boss uses so I don't waste my heavy defensive cooldown on something weak like an auto-attack.

[Hurgy]

as others have said, it is dependent on the content. some fights will rely heavily on the tanks, others healers, and occasionally DPS. i would say that on most content healers are the least forgiving simply because they have to obey all the mechanics that everyone else does but they are also responsible for watching out for everyone else.

[lightofdawn]

Tank is the most unforgiving role, especially in the era of active mitigation.

Healers are redundant. Both of you can't take a sip of beer at the same time.

tank isnt that unforgiving in this expansion at all...ive seen more fights were dps need to be on their toes more often than tanks.
most fights in wrath and many in cata had tanks and healers on their toes for literally the whole fight, now its not half as bad for them.

healers do have it the hardest out of the three MOST of the time though, if only because its 2 people managing 10 peoples' health or 5-6 people managing 25 peoples' health...thats just how it is

[Thelxi]

Yes healers definitely take the cake. Tanks? give me a break. Just because tanks got an actual rotation now doesn't mean they do much more than before. If we are talking about 5mans then sure tanks do the most.

[Durandro]

Depends on the encounter.

Currently my guild is doing Ji-kun Heroic, everyone has to be on their toes. I'd say the DPS more then the Tanks or Healers currently. Any slacking killing off the nests and we may as well wipe.

[Kazlofski]

Never understood the difficulty about tanking, to me it's really really easy as DPSing, healing on the other hand requires the most responsibility and skills imo, hardest basically.

[Enosh]

Tank is the most unforgiving role, especially in the era of active mitigation.

Healers are redundant. Both of you can't take a sip of beer at the same time.

half the shit that goes out in a raid tanks don't even know exist ^^

[shanthi]

In heroic raiding, the "alertness" pressure is pretty even among everyone. While DPS don't keep anyone else alive, enrages (hard and soft) make maximal DPS vital while still maintaining survivability (executing mechanics, using defensive cooldowns)...and since (except in certain cases with crucial burn phases, like heroic Spine last expac) DPS is crucial every moment, there's no break from the pressure. Healers have to watch more things while executing mechanics, but there are often lower-stress moments where every decision doesn't have to be perfect (whereas for DPS, any non-perfect decision is lost DPS that can never be regained). Tanking pressure is extremely variable. When it's just a single boss with no adds, they can focus entirely on positioning and using cooldowns at the right moments...but if there are adds at various times, the complexity can escalate relatively quickly.

[Tarazet]

In heroic raiding, the "alertness" pressure is pretty even among everyone. While DPS don't keep anyone else alive, enrages (hard and soft) make maximal DPS vital while still maintaining survivability (executing mechanics, using defensive cooldowns)...and since (except in certain cases with crucial burn phases, like heroic Spine last expac) DPS is crucial every moment, there's no break from the pressure. Healers have to watch more things while executing mechanics, but there are often lower-stress moments where every decision doesn't have to be perfect (whereas for DPS, any non-perfect decision is lost DPS that can never be regained). Tanking pressure is extremely variable. When it's just a single boss with no adds, they can focus entirely on positioning and using cooldowns at the right moments...but if there are adds at various times, the complexity can escalate relatively quickly.

Tanking in T14 encounters was pretty harrowing. Spirit Kings calls for constant repositioning, Will of the Emperor is the best test of a tank's reflexes and skills I've seen in a while, Elite Protectors requires precision interrupting and being able to predict Kaolan's voidzones, and you get to run around like an idiot on Sha of Fear whenever you get cackled to get all the bubbles so everyone else can DPS. Also, in T14, almost everything that affected the DPS would also affect the tanks. By comparison, in T15, it's quite easy. Just a bunch of simple tank-swap mechanics and raid-coordination exercises, nothing to really tax the tanks on a personal level. Probably the hardest one to master is Horridon if you don't play a class that has taunts coming out of its ears.

[Tziva]

It depends on the context, the fight mechanics, the raid size, the difficulty mode. It's easier to hide mistakes as a healer because there are other healers to lean on, while it's all you as a tank. Also, healer making a mistake probably won't wipe the raid unless it's 10man and you're two healing and it's a pretty significant fuckup. A tank making a mistake easily could, even if it's a small mistake. Nowadays I think all roles have to be pretty active in participation and have a lot of things that require alertness, but it's going to vary who has it the "worst" by fight.

Frankly I hope everyone in my raid is alert at all times

- - - Updated - - -

Tanking in T14 encounters was pretty harrowing. Spirit Kings calls for constant repositioning, Will of the Emperor is the best test of a tank's reflexes and skills I've seen in a while, Elite Protectors requires precision interrupting and being able to predict Kaolan's voidzones, and you get to run around like an idiot on Sha of Fear whenever you get cackled to get all the bubbles so everyone else can DPS. Also, in T14, almost everything that affected the DPS would also affect the tanks.

I haven't raid tanked yet this expansion, but I'm pretty pleased with the changes they've made to make tanking more interesting. It's nice to see fights where you job is about more than just positioning and aggro. Between the new mechanics and the more active mitigation style of play, it seems like it is probably a pretty fun role to play. The other advantage of the active mitigation changes is that it more clearly separates the good tanks from the bad tanks, and it's always nice to feel rewarded for a good job by with obvious results of higher success. I mean, I like tanking before but I think it's a positive direction.

Of course, like you said - Tier 14 was probably a little overly harsh on tanks and Tier 15 probably a little too dull, but it seems like they are trying hard to find the right balance and that's a good thing. Hopefully they find it in Tier 16.

[Deleted]

The difficulty of healing is tied extremely to several factors:
-what content are you running
-how many healers do you run with and are your co-healers up to scratch
-is the raid competent enough to avoid avoidable damage

Healing can be very easy, but also extremely hard. I haven't raided normally in MoP, but in early Cata you really had to know what you were doing with the mana and all, and in wrath your reflexes mattered slightly more as it could take some serious spamming to keep people alive, especially tanks. I remember healing Mimiron where you had Plasma Blast on the tank and Napalm Shell on another person at the same time. If you didn't prepare and coordinated that properly at least one of them would die.