The boss looms before you. Psh! Boss? More like pansy! You’ve worked on this guy for a whileand are just not yet on farm status. You look at your raid frames and see that everyone seems to be taking minimal damage. The tank is taking slight damage, but it’s nothing like the early days of learning Patchwerk. Your mana bar is moderately full, everyone seems to have everything under control. Your finger hovers over Smite/Lightning Bolt/Wrath/Holy Shock.
You start pressing.
In a very broad sense, this makes my skin crawl. The hairs stand up on the back of my neck. My ears start to bleed and my eyes start to fog over. Okay, maybe it’s not that dramatic, but it certainly ignites a chain reaction. Basically, a little bit of my soul dies.
The Good
There’s always a reason to need some extra DPS from the healers. I usually only do this at the request of the raid leader. He/She (He, in my case) is running the show. I try to keep cycling Shadow Word: Pain on the boss when I can. As Holy, I can use my Surge of Light proc to throw a quick Smite here or there.
When working on Heartbreaker, I usually expect to stop healing, pop cooldowns, and Smite until that heart is dead. Unless the raid is overgeared for the encounter, this is usually how I’ve seen it done.
Any fight that has a small “add” (Loatheb Spore, for example), it’s not detrimental to help the dps down it quick. It usually requires minimal mana, and can help get the benefit to the raid quicker.
Notice that I said, “a little nudge”. The emphasis is on the word “nudge”.
The Bad
There’s a point when it becomes excessive. If you find yourself DPSing to a point where you’re making a significant effort to damage the boss, then that’swhere I start to have issue with it. I’ve seen it happen a number of times. Thankfully, I’ve only seen this happen in PUGs. I would really have a tough time in a guild where I continually heal alongside that kind of “healer”.
If you’re paired with someone else to heal a target or many targets, your shift into DPS mode then places responsibility of your original healing job solely on the other healer. I have little faith that most “DPS Healers” will keep an eye on their original assignment if they choose to DPS instead. Imagine carrying a TV up a flight of stairs with someone else. Maybe they could feasibly handle it alone, but it makes it easier if you’re there to help out.
If you’re expending all that mana to do maybe a third of what the other DPS classes are doing, what are you going to do if something unforeseen happens and you have to go into overdrive healing mode? Someone accidentally gets caught in a cleave, or another healer gets bombarded by too many of the wrong orb on Twins. We all know accidents happen. A raid’s strength is measured by it’s adaptability. If you’re not capable of helping out when it’s needed most, then you’re not doing your job.
In my eyes, you’re running the risk of being disrespectful to the other healers in your raid.
The Unfair
Let’s say that you get through the encounter okay. Let’s say everyone’s alive at the end. A key healing piece drops that everyone has been vying for. You roll/bid on it? In my opinion: No. You just spent a majority of the fight DPSing the boss while the other healers did the healing work, right? Why should we reward a player who didn’t do what they were supposed to do? It’s like giving a raise to the guy in the office who sits on his computer checking Facebook all day.
If you find yourself in raids consistently where your healing is not needed, then let a DPS class go in and take your place. You’re essentially taking the raid spot of a player who can do what you want to do, but he/she can do it better. If you’re determined to keep along your path, then re-spec/re-gear/re-gem into a DPS spec. Healing has times of being slow. It’s the nature of the beast. If you’d much rather snipe some damage instead of heal, then guess what? You’re not a healer. You’re a DPS. And as a DPS, you’re not specced or geared right.
Some fights may require more healers than others. Dual spec is a fantastic thing. Make your off-spec a solid DPS spec, complete with proper gear. When you know a fight’s coming up where your heals aren’t needed, recommend to the raid leader that you switch into your DPS gear. If you find yourself in your DPS spec more than your healing spec, it’s time to consider changing your “main spec”. I would be significantly upset if someone was getting healing gear over me, although they DPS’d more than they healed. Would you give awesome tanking gear (an upgrade for the main tank) to the 2nd off-tank who only tanks for 1-2 fights each night?
—
Is “Healer DPS” taboo? Yes. Why? Because in the eyes of this Discipline Priest, you shouldn’t do it unless the raid leader calls for it. Remember, raiding is a team sport. Maybe you need to take a step back and figure out which part of the team you really want to be on.
Email: Elder.Thespius@gmail.com | Twitter: @Thespius
Its not always taboo, only 95% of the time perhaps. There are a few rare times where a healer can get away with some useful dps. One early example would be Hodir, assuming you’re in a competent raid. Generally theres not much damage going around except for frozen blows and you can take the opportunity to lay some smites down while you’re by a campfire to help stack the buff up. Or if you accidentally get the storm buff you can lay some rather large smites down.
The most recent example where I’ve DPSd some was Heroic Anub in TOGC 25. We bring 6 healers to that fight but honestly thats just for p3 when things get messy. Until then the healing is insanely easy and 6 is a bit overkill. So I take the opportunity to holy nova a bit whenever the adds come out and holy fire/mind blast/smite the boss in between add waves. In P3 there is absolutely no time to dps, but on our most recent kill the meters said I did a bit over 1k dps overall. So that was kinda cool.
Aside from these two cherry picked examples you’re right though. Healers DPSing would tend to cause more problems then they solve.
Well, for druid healers, DPS is a non-starter: the only DPS we can do in tree form is hitting the boss w/ our tree limbs because we can only cast healing spells in tree form, and we don’t want to lose the mana and the armor buff to shift to caster form and do a little DPS during the fight. So once tree form became viable in WotLK, resto druid stopped doing worrying about DPS.
When I’m mana capped on trivial content, I make a point of rolling mend pet and the draenei racial whenever I can so when they link the healing meters, I’m well ahead of everyone but the actual healers 😛
.-= EuripidesOutDPS´s last blog ..Lingering Lich King! =-.
Since healing disc, I’ve learned there are certain fights I find myself tossing out some dps, mostly through holy nova. Heroics I quite consistently bubble, POM, and then holy nova heal. I’ve pulled as high as 9k dps during the first whelp pull on Ony25.
Granted at the same time, it’s important to keep your raid up, but as stated, on bosses and such if I have a moment to spare, I find throwing out a swp here and there will help prevent those 300k wipes.
.-= Xillian´s last blog ..Destination: rusted protodrake =-.
Yarr, when healing on the Resto Shammy I just can’t stop doing Flame Shock, Lava Burst and CL once in a while 🙂
Especially in heroics, not so much in raids.
.-= Armagon´s last blog ..Cooking, the cheap way =-.
I have never personally come across a healer, ever, who has dps’d to the detriment of the raid (5man, maybe…). Personally, on both druid and shaman, I’ve dps’d almost full fights on some occasions and still would have been happy to roll on that tasty healing loot afterwards. There are certainly fights where, when first doing them, healer dps can make a difference.
You seem to assume everyone who might dps in a low-healing fight has a dps offspec – I don’t.
You seem to assume you would go into a fight knowing how many healers is enough – most pugs I’ve been in I / the RL never know this.
You, basically, assume that by ‘raiding’ you’ll be doing it within a controlled raiding guild setting – the problem, then, as I see it is a raid lead one, not just a personal one – either someone is over-assigning healers, or someone is not bollocking people hard enough for not doing what they’re told.
I don’t think this is really a big issue – if you’re in a pug there are usually worse issues, if you’re in a raiding guild it’s at least partly leadership / assignment problem.
When talking about 5-mans… I spend half my time out of tree form these days debuffing and throwing some dps rather than stand at the back being bored to death as my 39k+ hp tank fails to take any damage ^^;
/hug
.-= Aurik´s last blog ..I’m Sorry… =-.
My main spec is DPS and on those (fairly) rare occasions where I’m required to use my Holy offspec, it’s habit to jump in and do some whacking. Using the “bubbledin” spec actually requires me to throw out DPS between heals, as critical hits give me mana. Further, judging light is like a free HoT for the melee and tank.
Still, as a *fairly* competent player (who’s VERY glad there is no statistic shown for “Number of times killed by void zones, fire on the floor or easily-cleansed poisons”) you have a job to do in your spec, so you do it. Everything else has low priority.
I don’t try to dps in raids. But when I am the healer in 5 man heroic farming….I do my best to dps as much as possible. Makes things go faster and its fun to see what kind of dps I can do as a holy paladin….lol
I also sometimes find myself playing tic-tac-toe with PW:Shield and the other Disc priest in Coliseum 25 normal (yes, Grid can be setup to do that). Which is better ?
The issue is, once content becomes trivial, as Coliseum quickly does, you can either optimize and take more DPS, or try to maintain raid setup even if that means too many healers, and possibly too many tanks.
I have dual pve raid heal specs, so whenever I’m in a raid, i can heal and nothing else. I’ve tried DPSing, the outcome is shameful. But, if the raid leader starts switching out healers in favor of DPSers, it means one month from now for Icecrown, the healers will be undergeared, out of practice, or just plain not in the guild anymore.
I vehemently disagree with your accusation that healer-DPS ought to invalidate someone from getting rewards from a boss. Aurik brings up some great points – especially for PuGs, healers will find themselves with extra GCDs every now and then.
But more than that, any sort of “healer DPS is wrongbadfun” outlook is indicative of either a lack of trust amongst healers or an unhealthy prejudice.
First, you note that you don’t trust a healer to be able to keep their assignment up if they’re DPSing. That’s bad, and Holy Fire isn’t the culprit (likely, it’s a series of past healers who did easily lose focus). If a healer let’s their assignment die, they’re responsible whether they’re DPSing, healing someone else, afking, dead, or whatever. Casting Flame Shock does not make a healer any more or less likely to ignore their target.
Second, you argue that other healers may work harder while the utility infield healer Dots up the target. While that may be true, healers shouldn’t be going into Smite Mode and casting nothing but DPS spells. Likely, they’ll weave DPS in with healing, making it very easy to shift towards healing as pressure ramps up.
Third, you note that DPSing healers may not have mana to respond to emergencies. However, good healers should know how much mana they have and how much they’ll need for a fight, including what would be required if Overdrive Mode had to be engaged. In my experience, Healer DPS tends to come in towards the end of a fight as healers are able to narrow their predictions of how much they need in the tank. Also, what fight in current content can be salvaged by overdrive mode for more than a brief period of time anyways? Incoming damage doesn’t tax us by being bad for our mana, with a few exceptions. Early deaths in progression fights, especially in 10s runs, are death knells simply because the throughput isn’t available. Mana longevity is rarely the issue.
Finally, healers are Raiders before they are Healers. This is, of course, why Raid Leaders can call healers to do some DPS if necessary. But to argue that healers should Not DPS because they were brought to Heal is mixing priorities.
Wasted GCDs and wasted mana don’t help the raid. There are times when extra Dots and Smites are better than nothing. There are also times when bad players are bad. And I am shocked to hear someone advocate a loot freeze because they, and not the player in question, can’t tell the difference.
I don’t know Thespius, your post seems to conclude in an “old school” or dated mentality. Gone are the days of +healing or healer rotations for mana conservation or down ranking spells, or gemming for regen…
I see team work as everyone working towards dispatching an encounter. If healers have free globals and mana, isn’t it team oriented to jump in and help where you can.
I have to agree with Olivier above that maintaining slots for healers as progression turns into farm is crucial. In fights where you know you will need less healers I always have one or two flip to a dps spec. Some fights however having a full heal team is a must for certain phases. Other phases are less healing intensive. Lets take a look at an example, Ony25:
http://worldoflogs.com/reports/bb74ovwxe3ohvmwa/sum/damageDone/?s=2327&e=2609
Ony25 is extremely light on healing in Ph1, Ph2 really requires nearly a full heal team. Ph3 is also on the light side once Ony gets settled into position. So we need 5 spec healers to make it through Ph2 into Ph3 but outside of that the heal team is just picking their nose. We did lose a Ret to a cleave, as you mentioned might happen, but he was hit for 45k if I am reading it right. No healer can help that whether he is dps’ing or healing.
You mention that healers will not heal if they starting getting their hands dirty on the boss. I actually find the opposite to be true. I find that bored healers are paying less attention to raid if they are not actively involved. Healers who are actively engaged in the encounter whether DPS’ing or healing are paying much more attention.
Blizzard has really made healers DPS a lot more attractive since AQ40. I am not going to sit on a high horse and tell my raid I am too good to DPS. I do what I can to get the encounter over with. If that means I heal the whole fight, thats what I do. If it means I heal half and DPS half, I will do that too. If I am not needed to heal, I got a Shadow spec just waiting.
I do in all honesty though appreciate you posting on the topic. I think it is very interesting the number of views there are regarding this.
Dahk
Hmm interesting post and pretty strong opinion. As I read it more closely though, this is the difference between guild and pug run. You are noticing that puggers get a spot in a raid to heal, but spend most of the time doing meager dps and leaving the pressure on the other healers.
Yeah for a pug that is bad/not nice.
Yeah for a guild run I like what Olivier and Juzaba.
–Ly
@Aurik — You do raise very good points, and thank you for being eloquent in your response. However, please don’t assume things that I did not put in my post. I, also, do not have an dps off-spec. You’re right, in PUGs, you don’t know what will be enough, but my point is a healer asked to DPS is different than a healer who just DPS’s and puts healing at a lower priority simply because they’re bored. As for Heroics, I lolsmite until my heart’s content. My opinion is merely for raids.
@Olivier — Nice name, by the way. =) In my guild, the Disc Priest and I have a mutual understanding of who we’re responsible for watching. We rarely bump heads with shields. Second, once content has become trivial, then your “first stringers” should be about geared to the teeth, wouldn’t they? Once I get geared out, I gladly will swap my spot for a DPS or a standby healer. As long as the Raid Leader is talented enough to swap people out, the overall quality of the guild rises. You make your standby’s stronger, in my opinion. If you’re leading 45-3 in the 4th quarter, would you still be playing your first string?
@Juzaba — I appreciate your vehemence. Thank you, as well, for being eloquent not inflammatory. =) Your notes about the “how much they need in the tank” and the “weav[ing] DPS in with healing” are things that any good healer should know, and I assume any smart player reading my post would understand that. As for PUG healers, I don’t trust them. I’ve seen priests wand the boss almost the whole time while I heal both tanks. I’ve seen the OT healer on Jaraxxus do 0% Incinerate Flesh healing and 0 Nether Power dispels. So, I may be skeptical, but I trust my guild, and a few select healers outside of it. That’s it. If any class is doing something other than told, then I have a huge issue with the loot that they get rewarding that behavior. As for the Raiders vs. Healers, as well as some of your other points, maybe you should read the “The Good” section again. Seems like you may have glanced over that. =D
Cheers!
While I am not a huge fan of healers DPSing, especially in a raid environment, I don’t necessarily agree with how bad you are making it seem. In my experience, the healers will only DPS when they feel comfortable doing so, and will rarely end up having issues that affect their ability to heal.
For example, I regularly find myself throwing up a few DoTs during low healing times, and if I run into a situation where I run out of mana (though those situations are few and far between) I will usually start attacking with my wand. However, I don’t think that healers should be using abilities that can use up their mana in a short period of time (like Smite can for priests).
If you are a healer, and do find yourself with little to do but DPS, try using abilities that cause damage, but cost little mana, your raid may even thank you (though don’t count on it).
.-= Spazmoosifer´s last blog ..Circle of Killers! =-.
I agree with Spaz here. When I’m in new content where I don’t have a feel for what the damage will be like, or in content where I know the damage will be hard and fast, or prone to sudden, unexpected spikes, the extent of my dps is a Judgment at the outset for Judgments of the Pure haste buff (since my dps team doesn’t leave any rats or other small critters around for me) and a once-a-minute refresh if I can spare it. Once I’m comfortable with a fight and know the damage patterns, etc., I’ll fill in damage here and there when it’s safe to do so: mostly melee swings for mana return, but a few judgments, Holy Shock or Wrath, and my ever-favorite Hammer of Wrath when things are well in hand.
The last thing you want to have to do as a healer is try to explain that your target got no heals because you were busy casting something on the boss. In my view, there is absolutely nothing wrong with a healer throwing some damage around provided it is safe to do so. There are plenty of opportunities to do this in Wrath raids.
.-= jeffo´s last blog ..Ups and Downs: 2-1/2 Years of WoW =-.
Personally, I never really do any DPS until about the last 100k of a boss fight. And even then, it only comes in the form of Holy Shock or Hammer of Wrath. Typically I wait until we’re pretty much done with the fight and we aren’t going to wipe if I start tossing some DPS onto the boss. That’s just the way that I like to do things.
.-= Casual Adam´s last blog ..Shared Topic: The PTR and You =-.
Healing dps is a completely situational thing, of course. In a raid environment, i rarely find myself dpsing at all. I am usually keeping such close track of my mana and regen that throwing dps is completely improper. But that is only end game. (Uld,toc, and htoc raids mostly).
However, when doing something like the daily it is a completely different story. At my current gear level a wipe in a heroic is something that has not happened in a long long time. My guide to my tank as to the size of the pull is always pull the room. And speaking of the tank this is mostly when i find myself dpsing as heals. One of my current favorite little games is to try and out dps the tank while letting no one die.
I am a disc priest and I know other healing classes have a much harder time of it (druids esp), but as a disc priest there are many things in your favor. You still have 3 dots if u count holy fire. The blast – death combo is still available, and smite is still surprisingly powerful, although i dont have the cast time speced down which is viable in many priest builds.
While healing the whole group doing 1200-1500 dps is definitely not unpossible, and totally fun to boot. doing everything kinda good at the same time… no one is better than the priest lol
@ Thesp –
Ah, someone who appreciates my vehemence! Ye internet, are there no limits to your wonders? =P
I certainly understand what you’re worried about when it comes to healers not actually healing. I have also seen my fair share of people doing really stupid things. But I think that it is all summed up in “bad people are bad,” and that losing focus to Smite Spam isn’t a special case of Bad that deserves more or less scrutiny and criticism.
I think the gear thing is a separate issue, and potentially more serious. According to the position, if a player is doing something that defies the Raid Leader’s instructions, then they shouldn’t get loot. It includes DPSing instead of healing, but what about Pulling Threat? “If you pull aggro, you get a minus 50 DKP for a not knowing what the fuck to do!”-style? =D We can expand the list of Screwing Up to most anything, and I think any system that ties loot to fuck-ups is going to be viewed as too harsh in addition to also being either too broad or really arbitrary (at least for most guilds). And that is a recipe for drama.
Ack, comment was eaten by the web monster!
@ Thesp –
Someone appreciates my vehemence? Internet: what wonders do you have in store next? =D
I understand where you’re coming from when you describe these pug healers not doing their jobs. It’s definitely a pity to watch, and very frustrating on the rest of the team who has to pick up the slack. But I think it really just is an example of Bad Players being Bad. And I got the impression that you’re crusading specifically against DPSing while Healing. However, I will happily stand with you on this one – pug healers need to carry their own weight!
The loot issue is a separate issue, however, and arguably more sticky. Denying loot for not following the Raid Leader’s instructions is a dangerous slippery slope. Does a DPSer lose out on loot if they pull aggro? Who loses loot if they stand in the fire? For how many ticks? Do people lose loot if they’re not geared/gemmed/chanted/flasked/fed? It’s a system that is prone to corruption, arbitrary decisions, and drama.
And it’s even worse if you are really only talking about Pugs. Any Raid Leader who links Recount at the end of a Pug and calls out RestoShaman for casting a few Shocks and Bolts and then tells the Shaman that they can’t roll on the dropped loot is asking for trouble.
And what about the pallies who use Art of War procs for Flash of Light? Or Maelstrom Chain Heals? Or Enraged Regeneration? Or Drain Life? I think it all comes down to everyone needing to do What Is Best For The Raid at any given time. Hopefully, you fill your raid with people who are good at making that decision.
I agree that it’s a taboo. I a player wants to DPS… they should run a DPS spec or play a DPS class. Why waste the mana on a few inconsequential attacks? If it’s because healing is too boring then something needs to be addressed 🙁
.-= We Fly Spitfires´s last blog ..The Urge To Return To EVE Online =-.
Play your character to the max.
That includes dps-ing as a healer. Not doing it is kind of a tunnel-vision of “I’m a healer not a dps”.
I understand that it’s hard for druids, but priests and shamans surely can. Every time you have been picking your nose because there was nothing to heal, you just wasted precious global cooldowns which could have been used getting the boss down. (the ultimate goal).
If you are not dps-ing as a healer you are not playing your character to the max of their abilities. It’s the same as a mage that never decurses or a warrior that doesn’t use enraged regeneration.
I don’t want to say it’s bad to not dps as a healer, because 95% of the players doesn’t play their character to the max but I certainly don’t want to discourage it.
I can’t blame anyone really because it’s hard but certainly possible. If you don’t have the skills to pull it of just stick to healing.
As a healer you have to make quick decisions all the time, adding in dps is just the next level of play. Ofcourse it should make you a worse healer, absolutely not. It requires training. And maybe it’s for you or not. But if you manage to correctly set priorities, do the same job as a healer AND pull of 1500 dps, you’ve just become a more valuable asset to your raid.
Ofcourse it should NOT make you a worse healer…….
(somehow magically the “not” which I meant to be there disappeared.)
While dps-ing as a healer is good, it shouldn’t make you do a worse job at healing.
“There’s always a reason to need some extra DPS from the healers. I usually only do this at the request of the raid leader.”
“There’s a point when it becomes excessive.”
“A raid’s strength is measured by it’s adaptability.”
A smart player is a smart player and is treated as such. =)
Cheers!
My guild has horrible dps, that’s a known fact. As a tree healer I’ll constantly dps anub sense we need it. That’s what we needed to get him the first time and old habits die hard if your raid dps isn’t at par.
“Remember, raiding is a team sport.”
We need to get this mounted on a plaque.
.-= candy´s last blog ..More Sunday Retro Raiding =-.
Considering a healers gear usually have 0 hit the mana cost per dps point is way higher than geared for dps as alot of your casts will miss.
Then again a healers job is to keep hp bars up, we shield to minimize damage, I guess in a way you could argue that by DPSing the boss you get him down faster thus minimizing its damage output. Hmm would that mean all DPS could be considered healers and should roll on heal items?
.-= Uskan´s last blog ..Shared topic: Breaking news =-.
My MS is shadow from last spring while I’ve been holy-only for 3 years before then.
I still get to heal quite a bit, mostly in pugs but often also in guild raids when we are short on healing. Very good shadow gear, good healing gear (I only get the items when all healers are set, and have the 232 t9 from badges there).
In pug raids, I don’t dps when healing. Most of the time there’s someone with no experience or little gear who would need extra emergency moves, and I want to be sure I won’t be late.
In guild raids, I do some dps when raid leader asks for it (XT heart etc), but often throw DP (and maybe SW:P) on bosses to help my health and damage boss when the fight is known, under control and my mana almost full.
In heroics though, especially with a geared tank, I dps to my hearts’content: otherwise I would spend the whole instance with 90% mana. Sometimes, I mend/renew/shield tank so I can Mind Sear. COS timed with a good group is a Holy Nova orgy. Clearcasting procs, I smite is Flash isn’t needed, etc.
I don’t think I do anything wrong there, and I’m also the shadowpriest who dispels, cures, throws a shield on the overaggroing dpser etc. – without being asked.
I think it all comes down to class experience – only dps if you know what you are doing, it doesn’t distract you from your main job and it doesn’t waste too much mana.
I have this really neat little thing called a wand. Its short cast times and takes no mana. Granted, it doesn’t do much either. But it makes cool graphical contributions and gives me the illusion I’m doing something useful in between healing times. (I sometimes contribute as much with my wand as I do Shadow Word: Pain and Devouring Plague.)
Other than that, I’ll throw my two instants, Shadow Word: Death and Penance particularly towards the end of a fight, but that’s about all. All my other spells simply take too much cast time and I think its just fine if I finish a fight with a full mana bar as well as everyone alive. My guild seems to agree with me on that point.
.-= Starets Sayas´s last blog ..New Must Read for Me =-.
My philosophy: spare mana + spare cooldown + sufficient control on the fight => dps
If dps’ing interferes with your job, then obviously it’s a bad thing but if it doesn’t then there’s nothing to lose with it. I’ve seen more wipes because our dps was just a tad too low or kills being close shaves because the healers assisted than I’ve seen wipes due to healers dps’ing too much. Even in hardmodes… 🙂
That said, I find myself only dpsing in farmruns we overgear or hardmode runs where it is part of the tactic.
As a healer, your primary job is to keep people alive, right? Killing the boss is merely a creative way of accomplishing that 🙂
The only boss I usually DPS on is ToC 25 Anub. The 2 trees, holy priest and pally, do a good enough job keeping the raid up to 50% that I and my fire elemental can afford to dps phase 3. I do however, keep a close eye on the raid frames and will interrupt my rotation to throw in a heal should anyone be getting too low, <15% or so.
I’d have to respectfully disagree with the general sentiment of the original post. If you get a raid slot in my raids than I’m taking you as a raider filling a dps, tanking, or healing roll, not as a dps, a tank, or a healer. I see a very subtle yet important difference between those two ways of looking at raid slots.
All healers are hybrids and to close yourself off to the hybrid aspect of your class strikes me as counterproductive. Especially when learning new 10 man encounters, those hybrid abilities can make the difference between dead bosses and wipes. When I heal on my pally, my dps is less than impressive, but that doesn’t mean I can’t provide benefits to the raid. My judgements provide health, mana, a movement speed debuff, and a small crit buff. Granted my hit rating is pathetic, but there are plenty of non-boss levels add around to harass. Holy wrath and hammer of justice are very effective on the Anu’Barak’s adds, reducing the healing I have to do. On Onyxia, I can sacred shield/FoL myself, taunt, and bring some whelps over to the tank. I play a paladin, so I’m coming from that perspective, but the other healers all have extra dps and other abilities they bring to the raid.
I know that none of what I just mentioned shows up on a WWS parse or recount report. I hope that wouldn’t stop players from doing what they need to do to get the job done or get it done more quickly and easily.
Wylson
Haha this made me laugh. My Heal lead and I have tried to see who could put out the most dps when in our healing gear and specc’d for healing (he’s a holy priest and I’m a holy paladin SHOCKADIN FTW!). Not a typical behavior and only on fights where we know we’re not needed. Usually forays back into Ulduar.
The only time I am not DPSing while healer is when the raid is taking constant damage or if I know I need to conserve mana.
I think more healers need to think this way imo. But far too often they are content to just sit there and throw an occasional heal.
I pride myself in being top healer in a 25man AND top dps of the healers 😛
You bet your arse I’m rolling on healer loot.
Man I would to see someone just go in holy spec’d and DPS an entire raid just to see how those numbers come out
.-= Angry Gamer´s last blog ..As a healer do you ever just let someone die? =-.
Completely unrelated to the topic of the post:
I use Reader.google.com to keep track of new posts and then nevigate to them from there. The weird thing is, Thespius’ posts always show his “signature” twice on google and only once on your site. Thought you might want to know 😉
If I am at near full mana and no one is taking much damage I can’t help but throw out some dps. I have done 1500 dps in heroics without really trying. One of these days I may heal one in Shadow spec. And then how could I possibly resist Holy Novas during whelps in Ony? I can finish an Ony run with 1700 dps and all I did was Holy Nova during whelps.