Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Healer assist.

Do you help your healer? I started WoW as dps. A warrior, a priest (shadow) and a shammy were the first toons I leveled. I didn't want to tank and honestly rarely healed. I think wailing caverns was the last instance I healed on my priest! I enjoyed the simplicity of dps. It wasn't until recently that I started to actively heal on my shaman and priest. Once I started, I noticed a change in how I dps. Up until recently, I took my healer for granted. I didn't make things difficult by pulling or grabbing aggro or anything, I just assumed my heals would come when I needed them. But recently, I've noticed that I pay as much attention to the group (via grid) as I do when I heal. If I'm on my shammy I almost always ask the healer if they have a preference for totems. Some appreciate the extra armor of stoneskin (if you have a DK in your group stoneskin should be your default totem as HoW does not stack with SoE totem). Some want cleansing totems in HoR or AN or any of the poison throwing instances. Some healers would rather have the benefit of health or mana totems. If your healer is a shaman, check what totems they are dropping and change as needed. Duplicated totems have no added benefit. Depending upon the situation I find myself throwing bubbles on party members when I'm on my spriest (the final boss in FoS comes to mind...you know the one where dps never stops on "mirrored soul"). I can think of many instances where the extra bubbles made a significant difference. Of course how and what you do depends upon the healer, the instance and the situation. Don't assume your healer needs your help, but don't assume they wouldn't appreciate a little as well! If you started as a healer, do you dps differently? If you play multiple classes do you find that it affects how you play generally?

2 comments:

  1. For me, playing different roles helps me to understand the game, and work well with others. I have done everything. Healing and dpsing most in raids. I even like healing on two different classes and dpsing on 3 different classes. It helps me to understand other people or help them out when they are struggling. If you understand the class of someone else you can buff them accordingly and you know the questions to ask them in a raid, or what to assign them to when raid leading.

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  2. That's a great point. PLaying other roles really helps you understand how you can maximize your own role as well as your party members. Even if you dont play other classes, you really should know enough to buff appropriately.

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