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I'm a discipline priest. What I'm going to say applies to pretty much all healers. This is Basic grouping 101 and it's going to be even more important when Cataclysm comes out.
1. If your healer has no mana you will die. That little blue bar underneath your healer's character portrait? WATCH it. Please just don't go merrily chain pulling and ignore your healers cries of 'MB' or announcing low mana. If your heals has to do a raid warning to get you to stop then you're going too fast. I don't care how fast the dps wants the tank to go, if it's too fast for the healer it's too fast. Wait at the beginning of an instance for a healer to remana after buffing you - just look at how much mana buffing a group takes. Without that courtesy your heals is playing mana catchup all instance which puts them under more pressure. It also means that if the brown sticky stuff hits the fan they won't have any reserves to pull you out. While we're on the subject of too fast, watch your healer. They're still healing you after the mob has died, probably still after you've looted the corpses and are ready to move on. They haven't stopped working from that last pull yet. Can you just wait ONE MORE SECOND for us to grab our loot? I've lost more loot to impatient tanks than I care to mention.
2. Watch your aggro. The healer's mana is first and foremost for the tank. It's supposed to be that way. The tank grabs the aggro and holds it, the healer focuses on healing the tank. If everyone else then grabs aggro off the tank they will all need healing at the same time and that makes it really tough on the healer. So use all of your anti-threat abilities as a dps class, and really work on holding aggro as a tank. Look out for your healer; if they have aggro they can't shake they will die and you will wipe.
3. Watch line of sight and range. If you run off round a corner and grab aggro on a mob while your heals is still drinking or looting and you're out of line of sight and or range you will probably die before your heals gets to you. As a tank your best friend is your healer. You can take a little direct damage before you need healed up, but if you let me catch up, I'll pre shield you and prayer of mending you at no threat generated cost at all, and then I'll sit and drink my mana up while you pull. I can't do that if I'm not with you. If I have to catch you as you pull I'll grab threat. Just slow down and let me do my job, please.
4. Don't stand in the green/purple/orange stuff. The one thing your healer can't heal is stupid. That debuff is not removable.
5 Don't over pull. For at least the first few pulls in a new group take it really steady, don't go all out dps, save the aoe for well into the fight. Let the tank get the aggro and watch how your healer is coping. If the healer is doing ok, at nearly full mana after a pull the tank can up the pace a little. If you're a dps then you don't pull. Ever.
6. If you're going to pull a stunt warn the group first. If you're going to run in and pull back to the group TELL ME so I can preshield you and stay put. Else I'm going to follow you. I can't read your mind. My crystal ball skill was well nerfed the second I rolled a healer. There are hundreds of different tanking styles, I don't know what you're going to do. As the man said in Independance Day 'I think we need to work on our communication'. Don't just go off doing it and expect me to guess. Before a big pull warn me so I can tell you if my CD's are up or if I'll need to get mana first.
7 EAT SOMETHING! In between pulls the nicest thing you can ever do for your heals is eat something and get your own health back up to max. Also you have 'oh snap' abilities that you can use to save yourself in a crisis and let your healer catch up. Use them. Use all the buffs and comsumables you have at your disposal. Gem your gear. Enchant your gear. Buy potions, flasks and elixirs. Have a full stack of whatever you need to cast your spells before you group. Repair all your gear. Even pop a healing potion if you think your healer can use that extra few seconds to catch you.
8. Don't expect to be resurrected. If your healer has just run back into an instance after a wipe they need to heal themselves, mana up and then rebuff. I drop a good third of my mana buffing, and at that point I probably don't have other class buffs to help with that. Wait after a wipe until the healer says that they are ready to move. It takes a lot of mana to get the group back up to full health and rebuff.
9. Please monitor your buffs. If you buff me and then forget about it I may not be working at optimum level. Don't wait to be asked, rebuff generously and regularly. It makes sense because you're only going to get through an instance faster. Don't expect everyone to understand the buff mechanics. If you can't use blessing of wisdom because it'll be over ridden by someone elses buff tell the group. Ignore people who tell you not to, more info is always a good thing.
10. If you didn't wipe it was a good run. Any group you walk out of with the goal complete was a good group. Thank people.
.
1. If your healer has no mana you will die. That little blue bar underneath your healer's character portrait? WATCH it. Please just don't go merrily chain pulling and ignore your healers cries of 'MB' or announcing low mana. If your heals has to do a raid warning to get you to stop then you're going too fast. I don't care how fast the dps wants the tank to go, if it's too fast for the healer it's too fast. Wait at the beginning of an instance for a healer to remana after buffing you - just look at how much mana buffing a group takes. Without that courtesy your heals is playing mana catchup all instance which puts them under more pressure. It also means that if the brown sticky stuff hits the fan they won't have any reserves to pull you out. While we're on the subject of too fast, watch your healer. They're still healing you after the mob has died, probably still after you've looted the corpses and are ready to move on. They haven't stopped working from that last pull yet. Can you just wait ONE MORE SECOND for us to grab our loot? I've lost more loot to impatient tanks than I care to mention.
2. Watch your aggro. The healer's mana is first and foremost for the tank. It's supposed to be that way. The tank grabs the aggro and holds it, the healer focuses on healing the tank. If everyone else then grabs aggro off the tank they will all need healing at the same time and that makes it really tough on the healer. So use all of your anti-threat abilities as a dps class, and really work on holding aggro as a tank. Look out for your healer; if they have aggro they can't shake they will die and you will wipe.
3. Watch line of sight and range. If you run off round a corner and grab aggro on a mob while your heals is still drinking or looting and you're out of line of sight and or range you will probably die before your heals gets to you. As a tank your best friend is your healer. You can take a little direct damage before you need healed up, but if you let me catch up, I'll pre shield you and prayer of mending you at no threat generated cost at all, and then I'll sit and drink my mana up while you pull. I can't do that if I'm not with you. If I have to catch you as you pull I'll grab threat. Just slow down and let me do my job, please.
4. Don't stand in the green/purple/orange stuff. The one thing your healer can't heal is stupid. That debuff is not removable.
5 Don't over pull. For at least the first few pulls in a new group take it really steady, don't go all out dps, save the aoe for well into the fight. Let the tank get the aggro and watch how your healer is coping. If the healer is doing ok, at nearly full mana after a pull the tank can up the pace a little. If you're a dps then you don't pull. Ever.
6. If you're going to pull a stunt warn the group first. If you're going to run in and pull back to the group TELL ME so I can preshield you and stay put. Else I'm going to follow you. I can't read your mind. My crystal ball skill was well nerfed the second I rolled a healer. There are hundreds of different tanking styles, I don't know what you're going to do. As the man said in Independance Day 'I think we need to work on our communication'. Don't just go off doing it and expect me to guess. Before a big pull warn me so I can tell you if my CD's are up or if I'll need to get mana first.
7 EAT SOMETHING! In between pulls the nicest thing you can ever do for your heals is eat something and get your own health back up to max. Also you have 'oh snap' abilities that you can use to save yourself in a crisis and let your healer catch up. Use them. Use all the buffs and comsumables you have at your disposal. Gem your gear. Enchant your gear. Buy potions, flasks and elixirs. Have a full stack of whatever you need to cast your spells before you group. Repair all your gear. Even pop a healing potion if you think your healer can use that extra few seconds to catch you.
8. Don't expect to be resurrected. If your healer has just run back into an instance after a wipe they need to heal themselves, mana up and then rebuff. I drop a good third of my mana buffing, and at that point I probably don't have other class buffs to help with that. Wait after a wipe until the healer says that they are ready to move. It takes a lot of mana to get the group back up to full health and rebuff.
9. Please monitor your buffs. If you buff me and then forget about it I may not be working at optimum level. Don't wait to be asked, rebuff generously and regularly. It makes sense because you're only going to get through an instance faster. Don't expect everyone to understand the buff mechanics. If you can't use blessing of wisdom because it'll be over ridden by someone elses buff tell the group. Ignore people who tell you not to, more info is always a good thing.
10. If you didn't wipe it was a good run. Any group you walk out of with the goal complete was a good group. Thank people.
.