Pigeonholing Healers – Is It A Wise Move?
- 12.07.09
- Healing, best practice, Paladin, pigeonholed, PuG
- 3 Comments
A couple of weeks ago I was griping to some people through IM about a PuG raid that I was in. We were having a pretty rough time of it, wiping all over the place to random things, and I was getting irked with the healing assignments. Specifically, I really did not understand why the raid leader kept making me heal the main tank and the holy Paladin heal the raid.
Thing is… not too many people understood what I was talking about. I got many people giving me a quizzical look (well… I am sure they would have been if they were actually looking at me) and saying ‘But any healer can realistically perform any role now. It isn’t a big deal’.
If you read Destructive Reach at all, you will know that I am horrible at adapting to change. I’m a traditionalist. I like my classes doing the things they were initially designed to do. Is this a flaw that I have? Sure it is! I’ll admit that. But, when a class is acknowledged to be the best at something, why would you ask someone else to do their job instead?
As a Druid, I know that I could heal almost anything. I’d prefer to be on raid heals, true. Or support heals on a tank. I’m not a huge fan of Main Tank healing, because I really do not believe that plays to my strengths. But, when there is no one else around, I’ll do it.
But asking a Holy Paladin to raid heal, and a Druid to Main Tank heal? In a PuG group which was failing dismally? Why wouldn’t you use the people you had to their best advantage?
As far as I can understand (and my understanding is limited), Paladins are, or are close to, the best main tank healers in the game. Druids are pretty flexible, but we are good at raid healing. Sprinkling HoTs everywhere is what makes me happy. Now, sure, we can do other things… but why should we have to when it’s unnecessary, and possibly detrimental to the raid?
TL;DR Version
Healers on Board:
1 Tree, 2 Shaman, 1 Paladin, 1 Disc Priest
Assignments
Tree: MT Heals
Disc Priest: OT Heals
All others: Raid heals.
We wiped several times. I found that the tanks were having difficulty holding aggro, so much of the raid was going down. In at least 2 attempts, I got smashed by loose whelps that the tanks just did not seem to be able to get off me. The paladin seemed to have difficulty doing his job effectively. His healing was minimal, and much of what he did cast was overheal.
The solution? The paladin and I negotiated a secret swap. This didn’t fix our ‘please hold aggro’ issues. But it made the fight a lot easier, and it all clicked together.
When do you draw the line between ‘pigeonholing a healer into a role’ and ‘putting the healer in a role that is best suited to them’?
Haha, love the idea of “sprinkling” heals across the raid ^^
Pretty much, if you have primarily been an X type of healer, that’s what you are in my book. I know I rolled a shaman because I COULD main tank heal, but I really wanted to do some raid healing.
If you rolled a paladin, you’re gonna be tank healing — unless it’s slow, or the tank’s not taking damage, or for some reason, you are just the most awesome fast FoL spammer in the history of mankind and can bet a 4-bounce chain-heal or a dot tick…. not going to happen.
When I’m a healer I want to be good at my job. I want to be pigeonholed — just not so much that I cannot perform when we don’t have a full complement of healers.
Hello Hermia,
I’m also a restoration druid from Cenarius, but I hail you from the other faction. I’m Stornetta of Wrought from Ruin and I also do a lot of PUGging including the odd Onyxia raid like you describe.
I too much prefer to stick with my raid healing strengths, sneaking in quietly in Tree form and then having fun keeping everyone alive. On gear-sensitive fights like Emalon or Onyxia where the PUG organizers are trying to filter out brand new 80s in blues, you get folks looking at your gear and I have been spoiled by my guild. I’m not the best resto druid you’ve ever met, but I might be the best geared. No, I don’t deserve it all. But what happens is that people look at my gear and/or my guild tag (which is respected on Cenarius) and ask me to do the healing set-up.
Well, it’s nice to be able to assign myself raid healing. And I can watch to see which tank healer is struggling and keep extra HOTs and reserve Swiftmend for their target, but I also don’t like the pressure of being called out sometimes. I like to be the behind-the-scenes, quiet type.
Oh well, can’t make everyone happy all the time.