Dear Tanks (From your Healer)

#0 - Feb. 18, 2010, 4:21 p.m.

First of all, you know I love you guys. A good tank/healer combo is awesome.

However, there have been a few... minor issues lately, and I thought I'd clear the air.

First of all, please give me a couple seconds when we zone in to buff everyone and get ready before you pull every mob in the place. It's kind of a pain to get there and find the tank is in the middle of 15 mobs and half dead before I've even cleared the instance gate.

Next, please don't run two rooms ahead of me and pull. You may have "improved vroom vroom" that makes you run 10x faster than everyone else, but I don't, and I can't heal you through walls or when you've run up two flights of stairs and I'm still chugging my way up. It's called LoS, and it's a b*tch.

Also, if I manage to find the time to type "mana" through all your chain pulling, it isn't an advertisement for how healing works. It means I'd like you to stop a sec and let me drink something. I'm leveling, my gear isn't the best, and (especially if you're having trouble holding aggro) sometimes I run low.

On that note, if you don't know how or are unable to hold aggro, are in DPS gear/spec, have no points in damage mitigation whatsoever, and/or are just queuing as a Tank because the line moves faster, please don't. See, the Tank and I have kind of a special relationship, and you pretending to be a Tank just causes bad feelings. So either go back to your DPS queues or learn how to tank.

Thanks for listening!

Sincerely,

Your healer

Bornakk

#51 - Feb. 19, 2010, 1:30 a.m.

Q u o t e:
First of all, you know I love you guys. A good tank/healer combo is awesome.

/hug

Q u o t e:
However, there have been a few... minor issues lately, and I thought I'd clear the air.

First of all, please give me a couple seconds when we zone in to buff everyone and get ready before you pull every mob in the place. It's kind of a pain to get there and find the tank is in the middle of 15 mobs and half dead before I've even cleared the instance gate.

I can be a pretty generous guy so I usually wait to see the healer move and know they aren't still just zoning in. The initial trash pulls tend to be very weak and since I can probably last through them with no healing, I like to get moving. Yes, I like beating that 15 minute timer.

Q u o t e:
Next, please don't run two rooms ahead of me and pull. You may have "improved vroom vroom" that makes you run 10x faster than everyone else, but I don't, and I can't heal you through walls or when you've run up two flights of stairs and I'm still chugging my way up. It's called LoS, and it's a b*tch.

I know this can be a bit daunting at first, but believe me when I say that I am a decked out uber heroic farming tanking machine. I time things out pretty well and often have my cooldowns available so as long as you keep running I won't be anywhere close to dead when you are in range.

Q u o t e:
Also, if I manage to find the time to type "mana" through all your chain pulling, it isn't an advertisement for how healing works. It means I'd like you to stop a sec and let me drink something. I'm leveling, my gear isn't the best, and (especially if you're having trouble holding aggro) sometimes I run low.

At what point do you usually ask for this? I tend to monitor my healer's mana (and ignore the dps), but if you still have 50% mana or more I feel we can keep moving. I also feel that drinking to fill up mana right before a boss makes much more sense than the 1 trash pack before it that we should kill in ~15 seconds.

Q u o t e:
On that note, if you don't know how or are unable to hold aggro, are in DPS gear/spec, have no points in damage mitigation whatsoever, and/or are just queuing as a Tank because the line moves faster, please don't. See, the Tank and I have kind of a special relationship, and you pretending to be a Tank just causes bad feelings. So either go back to your DPS queues or learn how to tank.

In case I haven't made it clear by now, I rock. I love my healers and they love me.

Q u o t e:
Thanks for listening!

Sorry, was tanking the next pack. What was that again?

Bornakk

#101 - Feb. 19, 2010, 5:49 p.m.

Q u o t e:

First off, I'd like to say I laughed rather good on this, thanks Bornakk :)

Next, I am absolutely perfectly fine with this... if they're my tanks. What I mean by that is if the tank I'm healing is in my guild or is a friend of mine. I know these people. I trust them, and I know what they are capable of, and they know what I'm capable of.

If it's random, and I happen in with the healer spot, and I've never met you before, Bornakk, I assure you I'll watch this for a few pulls, do excellent, and then in the middle of you pulling 3 rooms, I will shadowmeld and laugh when you die horribly, and then leave the group. You see, I do not appreciate being forced to push myself as hard as I possibly can for someone who may, or may not, know what they are doing. I've seen far, far too many horribly bad tanks when I pug as both DPS and heals, and I simply no longer wish to associate myself with such.

I will gladly take the forced "time out" and go do dailies for a bit than run with someone who's decided to make my life a rushed living hell.

While I totally understand the tone of your post, and I do find it funny, I must ask if you talk to your healer when you pug in? Do you say "hey, you're geared, I'm geared, lets rock socks?" In that case, I am so ready to roll out and roflstomp it's not even funny. 3 groups of trash in HPoS, you bet, lets see what happens! But only because you asked first. You didn't make false assumptions that the rest of the group has to live with; you asked first, and fully expect some feedback and will tone it up or down based upon player response.

It boils down to communication. If we zone in, and you ask the healer if they're ready to rock and ruin and beat the 15 min timer in HNex, and the DPS seems agreeable, then I'm the tree who can get 'r done. If you get a response of "I need it a touch slower than that", please respect that. If you don't ask and go about ripping the entire instance upon us... Best of luck with that, I'll be the see-thru tree over in the corner snickering.

Sometimes I say "lets rock" at the start of the instance, but overall I'd say my actions speak louder than words as sitting there and typing usually takes up more time than it's worth in the current dungeons - this is something that will probably change for me though when like Cataclysm is out.

Just seeing the gearscore (or health) on my tank is usually a good sign that I'm not there for gear and want to get through it quickly. My healers occasionally say things "wow, you take no damage" or whatnot, but either way whatever I am pulling is something I know I'm capable of and will get us through the instance in one piece as a solid pace.

And for those who are taking things very seriously here, I generally push a hard pace since I can't really slack off as the tank and I hope everybody else can push themselves for the 15 minutes that I have to. That said, I am a fairly understanding person and if all the dps and/or healer are not in very good gear I do move a little slower - just don't expect me to slow down and take breaks when everybody is in ICC gear.