The Tank from a Healer perspective

It is Xandiaver a Undead Holy Priest of the Odyssey guild in Nagrand back to talk about the Tank who is almost the only person I focus on in a 5-man dungeon. It is my job to help them survive taking all the damage and if they do their job particularly well they end up being the only person I have to heal in a whole run.

But there are some things that tanks do that really frustrate me as the person they take for granted to keep them alive. Probably the most annoying thing of all is when a Tank rounds up more mobs then they can handle and ends up losing all their life almost instantly and then they complain to me with statements like "WTF am I hard to heal" or "No Healz". What they don't realize is that I know what is going on with their life situation better then they do, their job pretty much as far as I understand it requires that they trust the healer to keep their life up while they focus on aggro and make sure it is all on them. My role involves spending 80% of my time constantly staring at the tank's health bar and making sure to make intelligent decisions to heal them with whatever heal keeps their life topped up, while not burning through my mana by using big heals when they aren't necessary and also making sure I cure any status effects that they are inflicted by.

The second thing that ticks me off is most tanks I come across never seem to consider the mana situation of other classes and especially the healer. I almost never get to recover my mana to full before they start charging at the next mobs, which causes me to go through twice the amount of water I would have to if they could just wait 10 seconds between each challenging mob and this not only impairs my mana reserve in each encounter but costs me gold as I have to keep buying huge stockpiles of water. But what makes it even worse is when they run ahead so far ahead while I am drinking that I have to run for about 10 - 15 seconds after canceling my water just to get back in range with my spells. In Utgarde Keep which I started running at lvl 68 (the minimum level allowed) is a very challenging instance at that level especially when the rest of the party is at the minimum level. But when I say "WTF" to the tanks and ask why they keep running running ahead when I say "out of mana". They reply with "No you have 30% of your mana". Are tanks really stupid enough to think that is enough mana for most encounters not to mention that it's not like they give me a break every 2nd encounter either so I I'm to always have 30% mana for the entire instance. On a lighter note a majority of the tanks that do this a least have the courtesy to stop before a boss. The thing they don't realize is that I normally find bosses easier then mobs because their are normally fewer adds to worry about aggroing other people meaning I don't have to worry about healing everyone rather then just the tank.

The third thing that ticks me of is how they keep running ahead straight away after buffs are cast at the start not letting me get my mana back. I don't know about other classes but as a priest I cast 4 big buffs that leave me with surprise surprise 30% of my mana after casting them Prayer of Fortitude, Prayer of Spirit, Prayer of Shadow Protection and Inner Fire. Then they also do the same thing when I try to reapply buffs after a wipe or after one person dies.

and forth the tank doesn't look at their own or anyone elses life at the end of a fight and rush ahead with me at 30% mana and a lot of people including themselves at low life meaning I have to cast a big heal at the start of a fight and be left with even less mana which also make the rest of the fight harder since I didn't get the chance to cast my damage prevention spells like Renew and Power Word: Shield

It's normally after the Tank makes one of these mistakes that follows with them calling me a bad healer and I cannot be bothered correcting them and explaining the situation every single time, especially since I play randoms and normally don't see them again. I cannot for the life of me understand how a tank gets to be level 60+ without learning these things, it's probably because like me the healers can't be bothered correcting them.

In case anyone is wondering I have common strategy that I repeat most encounters whether they be mobs or bosses. I start by casting Power Word: Shield and Prayer of Mending on them as they start charging the mobs and then while the shield prevents damage I cast Renew on everyone in the party and then go back to targeting the tank and use mostly Flash Heal when the tanks loses a little bit of life or Binding Heal when I've taken damage as well and only use Greater Heal when the tanks drops below 50% health. I used to make the mistake of using Greater Heal most of the time and Flash Heal rarely which cause me to have worse mana issues. Not to mention that I would be waiting for their life to drop lower before acting. But it was thanks to someone who suggested the other way around in Dire Maul that I changed my strategy. At first I was annoyed that he was judging me but tried it anyway. Which goes to show that you should at least try suggestions to see if they work, especially if the person asks politely. Finally I use Guardian Spirit as my panic button, which heals them to 50% life if they reached 1 hp and increase healing by 40% for 10 seconds if this effect isn't triggered.

So in conclusion I am actually considering playing a tank eventually and I think that having experience being a healer will give me valuable understanding and empathy for the healers I get in my group and will most certainly watch mana and health bars at the end of each fight and not go forward unless they are at 90%.

So if any Tanks are reading this please save yourself from having to play a healer for 70 levels to be a good tank and take my suggestions.

Thank you.