Healers must be alert at all times?

[vanityking]

Keeping someone or a multiple people alive during heavy damage isn't the hard part, doing that while making sure you're not standing in void zones or running out of range/sight from the people you're healing is. I'm biased of course, but I like to think not just any fool can waltz in and heal a heroic encounter.

[rhoark]

In vanilla and BC the tank was almost always involved in the key mechanics and decision-making of a fight. The mechanics then were simpler, but aggro was harder to hold, the UI was less informative, and everyone was less savvy about the motifs of boss encounters. Healing was mostly about finding the right pacing to not go oom. BC often tested DPS, but mostly on their output rather than awareness. It seemed like healers were the lynchpin in LK, requiring more rapid focus switching, and the advent of "external tank cooldowns". Cataclysm was kind of a low point for tanking, most mechanics being something for everyone in the raid except the tank to pay attention to. I quit for awhile, and am just about to hit the ilvl to start t14 LFR - and looking at the dungeon journal it looks like just the sort of thing I've missed.

[Nairobi]

Everyone's opinion will be different and/or biased to a degree. Here's my take, from the POV of a MT since Vanilla, 16/16, 13/13 in MOP. Offspec and love melee as well, but primarily tank.

In general, the "most difficult" to "least difficult" role breakdown looks like this:

1) Healer - Most difficult. Has to manage raid HPS, tank HPS (less so in MOP), and self. Monitor mana, watch ground effects and other targetted spells abilities (unless Monk). Usually has to watch 2 places at once; unit frames and surroundings.

2) Ranged DPS - Gets saddled with the lion's share of "mechanics", such as spread/stack, kiting, target switching.

3) Tanks - Monitor AM uptime and incoming attacks/abilities. Position boss, stay out of fire (usually). Rarely ever targeted by spells/debuffs that aren't tank-specific.

4) Melee - Easiest role. Usually gets to sit on boss due to DPS downtime from running to X to DPS Y. Rarely ever targetted by debuffs due to nature of requirement to be in melee range/stacked.

That's just IMO, and I put my 2 core roles at the bottom. As a tank, I know what goes on and when, but I hardly ever have to deal with it. As a melee, I just get to tunnel