Healer's Role In A Group?

BXR_Lonestar

As a healer, your primary job is to heal and keep everyone (particularly the tank) alive. Everything outside of that is secondary, but the ability to buff your group and debuff the enemies and have high uptimes on both is what will separate average healers from good healers.

In terms of needing to do damage? Just use common sense and know the fights you are doing. There are places in dungeons and arenas where the healer MUST be able to do some damage because the game gives you multiple objectives that need to die fast - Example: in ICP, the Gravelight fight, you have those skeleton mages that summon other skeletons. There are 5 of them so you get overwhelmed if you rely on just your DPS to take them out. So a healer being able to do some damage is useful. Another one is the Daedric sacrifice round in VDSA. There are three areas where the sacrifices walk into the font and if the healer and tank ignore one, your screwed.

Other fights are going to be less intense and demand less of you in terms of damage, but more of you in terms of healing/purging, like Rylis on Banished 2 or the Poison Engine on Dark Shades 2.

Healer just needs to be flexible to be able to give the group what it needs. Heals are always expected. But sometimes the group will need extra crowd control or extra damage, in which case you should be prepared to contribute. That is why I carry in addition two two resto staves, a lightning staff or an inferno staff.

phileunderx2

It's sad that I have to tell DPS in veteran content to not stand behind me.

Ilision

[quote="BXR_Lonestar;c-6447875"Healer just needs to be flexible to be able to give the group what it needs. Heals are always expected. But sometimes the group will need extra crowd control or extra damage, in which case you should be prepared to contribute. That is why I carry in addition two two resto staves, a lightning staff or an inferno staff. [/quote]

I disagree, you are putting too much trust into healers and also expecting way too much from them. I have found my balance, I use shields to help the group, I use heals to heal them and yes I have some DPS. I do not expect a tank to heal the group, why should we as healers do everything that others can also.

I, for example, run with a tank from a guild/friend who has shields, healing, taunts and damage abilities. He is a great tank and understands that sometimes helping out goes a long way but I never expect him to do all that nor will I ever talk sh** if he fails by trying to use all the abilities.

Maybe I am wrong but your first sentence in the quote sounds like healers should be jacks of all trades, yet you are not expecting the same from DPS or the tank. We are all aware that a great DPS does not need a healer nor is tank but healers need all of you because most sacrifice our damage for heals.

I think that this kind of applies to most MMO's. You can't really level a healer as a healer because we cant use healing to heal people to death.

idk

TBH in GF you will meet a lot of players that are not very skilled. In ESO those numbers are pretty high due to the B2P.

I suggest you find a decent guild, one where players are actually active in that guild. You will find that even in a more casual guild the players are much more competent than what you will often find in GF.

Ilision

idk wrote: »

TBH in GF you will meet a lot of players that are not very skilled. In ESO those numbers are pretty high due to the B2P.

I suggest you find a decent guild, one where players are actually active in that guild. You will find that even in a more casual guild the players are much more competent than what you will often find in GF.

Done and Done

xenowarrior92eb17_ESO

holding the beer.

Katahdin

Love it when I am in a trial and have to run around rezing other people because the other 7 dps cant get it through their head that it's not the healers job to rez because the healers are keeping everyone else alive and if they stop healing to rez, everyone will die.

SquawkTheMajestic

I run with a carry squad, which means I have 2 close friends who sell dungeon carries to a 4th who needs skins or monster helms. These guys are total pros who have no trouble with the toughest content in the game. Sometimes standing in stupid happens. Sometimes on purpose because they know I can keep them up while they finish a boss, and sometimes it's just because dungeons can be hard.

I might pick on then in jest when they do it, but I heal them. Healing a group who never stands in bad stuff is insanely simple and easy. Healers are here for when things go wrong. My tank basically self heals, so most of my job is helping the dps to have an easier time so they can burn things down.

I get being annoyed when some guy dies while standing in red then blames you. But your attitude is awful. If everyone played perfectly, they'd just boot you from group and use vigor. Being a support in this game means rezzing people who screwed up and occasionally healing through avoidable damage.

THEDKEXPERIENCE

Katahdin wrote: »

Love it when I am in a trial and have to run around rezing other people because the other 7 dps cant get it through their head that it's not the healers job to rez because the healers are keeping everyone else alive and if they stop healing to rez, everyone will die.

I want to give you 10 thumbs up for this.

IT IS NOT THE HEALER WHO SHOULD BE REZZING!!

The tank should be tanking. The healer should be healing. The DPS should ... and this is crazy I know ... stop DPSing for 5 seconds and revive the downed player.

If someone is dead then you’re not gonna win any leaderboard award anyway. Fastest way to have a bad situation turn into a total cluster F is to get the healer to stop healing.

kargen27

lagrue wrote: »

Well on one hand you have healers who get mad if you do stack. On the other hand you have healers who get made if you keep moving and dodging the AoE's etc.

I guess most of DPS and Tank players have just gotten used to being cussed out in chat because the healer can't do their job right, and so now alot of us just stand still to make it easier for potato healers. (in pugs anyway)

There are situations where stacking is the best strategy and there are times to move. With only one orb now when I use orbs I try to position myself so the DPS is between me and the tank. If DPS makes that impossible then the tank gets the orb. With PuGs I have been slotting shards instead of the orb.
I know going the random group route can lead to an interesting adventure and that is usually why I do it. I can group with guild members and the runs go smooth. We all know what to do and what the others will do. Breaking that up from time to time with a complete train wreck of a group can be a fun change of pace. Two things bug me in these groups though. A tank that moves the boss out of AoE for no reason and DPS that gets aggro of some adds then runs away. The tank should as much as possible keep the boss still and DPS should trust the healer and tank. Run that add to the tank and let him grab it on your way by and you can get back to damage.
And I am convinced out there somewhere is a guide that tells bow builds to stand behind the healer. Several times I have positioned myself to be able to include the archer in the group in my heals to have them move again to get behind me. Been times no matter where I moved or how often the player with the bow would then move to be behind me. It is irritating but if I can I'll keep them alive. They just aren't top priority back there.

kargen27

Aznarb wrote: »

FierceSam wrote: »

srnm wrote: »

Healers don't heal experienced players that much - except in DLC content that is intended to stress healers

Well, except the bits where I’m debuffing the enemy, buffing you and adding about 30% onto your DPS.

You are constantly being ‘healed’

It’s why the content you do with me seems ‘easy’ to you.

Yeah, but no.
The guys is right. Good player don't need healer in most 4 man content.
I've do vDSA, vBRP, vMalatar, etc.. with 1 tank + 3 DPS.
Way easier and faster.
Doesn't mater the few buff-debuff, it will never replace another dps who can pull 60k+.

I'm a healer main, and I now play tank a lot since for my friend a healer is just gonna slow down the run.
I keep healer for Trial or less experienced friend.

A group I run with often was doing vBRP with the tank and three DPS setup. They brought me in on my healer and told me the run went smoother and quicker than when they run with the three DPS. I do slow them down though when doing vDSA. I'm guessing the DPS averages around 50k+ on the good runs. I also get into groups that have DPS that is happy when they hit 30k. Those groups (and there are way more of these than groups that hit 60k) really benefit from a good healer.

morrowjen

Jaimeh wrote: »

Ilision wrote: »

Okay, I did not want to do this but I have to.

I just leveled a dragon knight healer and I am currently healing in dungeons. I did not have any issues healing or keeping folks alive until level 2 dungeons/pledges/DLC dungeons (as expected due to gear). I am also using one of the online guides from Alcast's Website so I know its not ME.

Previously running through dungeons I have noticed that some if not 50% of players do not care for the mechanics of the game and will do whatever the f*** they want. I do not disagree with this in some cases. My issue is with folks that expect you to heal them while they are standing in poison, fire, spikes, etc. I am sure that most of us know that healing has a radius and only certain healing abilities can heal past that radius. So here is the question to the idiots that do not help others in the group and still expect a tank to pull agro and heals to heal them while standing in s***. Why are you playing in group content? Go play Skyrim!

Okay enough of that and back to my concern. Are we really expecting healers to heal through all the crap on the ground? Don't we all have self heals that can help healers to not spam heals 24/7 and break their fingers? Isn't this supposed to be a team effort not a fracking Tank/Heals battle? I also noticed that in most case I am doing 20% of all the group damage, WTH is wrong with that picture... I am a healer.

Please explain because I do not understand.

This used to frustrate me a lot as a healer as well, and I still feel bad when someone dies 'on my watch', even if it's their own fault due to ignoring mechanics or standing in AoE etc., but I learned to accept that DDs will do as they like (especially in PUGs when there're no comms in which you can tell them to stack, and so on); good DDs will know to avoid damage, bad DDs... well you can't do much other than maybe ask politely in chat. Sometimes I wonder 'why are you moving away, don't you want minor beserk??' when I try to be behind DDs so I can combat prayer them, but then I remember that as a DD I'm guilty myself of moving around too much, and an experienced DD will do their thing anyway, so now I try my best, but won't sweat about it anymore.

This. I play both dps and healer and even tho I had a great time laughing about my PUG the other night when I was healing. Last night, *I* was the DPS giving my healer fits. Not on purpose mind you but I got put into a dungeon that I was unfamiliar with and happened to be very mechanics heavy. The healer took the time to explain the mechanics and we slogged through even though I know I was that frustrating DPS that didn't know what she was doing.

That's why you just have to have a good attitude about PUGs and roll with whatever comes your way. If you're not having fun even when you or a teammate screws up then you may need to leave the group and find a smoother run (ask your guildies or even zone chat as with zone chat you're more likely to get someone who isn't blindsided by dungeon finder putting them in an unknown dungeon). But I really can't stress enough how PUGs should always be about fun first because things will go wrong at some point and you can't take it too seriously or you'll get stressed out or fed up. Also, ignore the idiots. The one good thing about not having comms built into PC PUGs is it's really easy to ignore a toxic person in chat.

morrowjen

p00tx wrote: »

If you're doing vanilla dungeons through the dungeon finder, you're probably being grouped with other players who are learning as well. They may not understand the mechanics yet, or it could just be that your healing was so on point, they decided to take a little risk and stand in some stupid for the sake of doing a little extra damage. Our job as a healer is to mitigate the impact of some of the damage so the dps can do their jobs better. If you have your HoTs down, your orb constantly out, and you're keeping up Combat Prayer, they should be okay to stand in the red a bit more. Most of it isn't going to outright kill them.

This is more true than some healers might realize. My DPS is a dual wielder and my guild healers have spoiled me to the point where I take risks in certain trials because I know they've got me. A good healer can make you overconfident and I know as a DPS a lot of the times I've died it's been because I got too greedy.

Ilision

Well, now folks are complaining because they not at 100% health at all times lol. I guess i can not win.

zaria

kargen27 wrote: »

Aznarb wrote: »

FierceSam wrote: »

srnm wrote: »

Healers don't heal experienced players that much - except in DLC content that is intended to stress healers

Well, except the bits where I’m debuffing the enemy, buffing you and adding about 30% onto your DPS.

You are constantly being ‘healed’

It’s why the content you do with me seems ‘easy’ to you.

Yeah, but no.
The guys is right. Good player don't need healer in most 4 man content.
I've do vDSA, vBRP, vMalatar, etc.. with 1 tank + 3 DPS.
Way easier and faster.
Doesn't mater the few buff-debuff, it will never replace another dps who can pull 60k+.

I'm a healer main, and I now play tank a lot since for my friend a healer is just gonna slow down the run.
I keep healer for Trial or less experienced friend.

A group I run with often was doing vBRP with the tank and three DPS setup. They brought me in on my healer and told me the run went smoother and quicker than when they run with the three DPS. I do slow them down though when doing vDSA. I'm guessing the DPS averages around 50k+ on the good runs. I also get into groups that have DPS that is happy when they hit 30k. Those groups (and there are way more of these than groups that hit 60k) really benefit from a good healer.

This so much, vDSA dps is kind of pointless as its lots of adds. VO and false god was designed for this
Done it in all roles and its my level of fight.

stileanima

In my opinion, what is expected of a healer will vary from group to group, and fight to fight. There is no "one size fits all". I would not heal a PuG or less coordinated Sunspire the same way I would heal it for my core raid team, for example. I know what my core team expects me to do, and I know what I can get away with on my core team. In a PuG, who knows what's going to happen? And on a less coordinated team, maybe my DDs will take more damage than I know my core team will, so I can't play as aggressively and need to keep a closer eye out for reactive healing.

Again, there is no right answer to this question, especially in PuGs. Play it by ear. If you're not sure what your group needs or expects, you can always just ask them what they feel would be most helpful for you to do. Conversely, if you aren't bothered either way, just play how you want, but at the same time don't be surprised or upset if the approach you take is not what your groupmates want.