Just a quick question to those who have done both healing and tanking at end-game, which do you find to be most stressful? Healing for me with grid and clique is like a game of "Keep the colored bars up" however if I let one of them fall, the blame shifts to me first, which is annoying. When I tank though, I have to constantly keep track of all the mobs, several cooldowns, and keep an eye on my own health and mana.
I haven't played too much in raids, only tanking kara up to the Curator, but I'd like to hear from people who have raided as both and which one of them seemed to be the easiest. I only ask because I'm thinking of getting back into raiding over the summer, and I can't decide if I want to go in as a healer or as a tank.
Also, a grid question. Do the people who use it configure it to show pets as well? How do you handle pets or do you just let hunters/warlocks worry about their own pets? Normally it's not a problem, but I've been known to accidentally heal an enslaved pet when I shouldn't because they popped up on the grid and I wanted to get their bar up.
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I don't really find either easier.. I find healing to be less involved than tanking, but not easier. I run around clicking on boxes... wow -- still, everything has to land at the right time, there's more manuevering and moving involved than in tanking, and there's less room to have an "off day". Tanking, I know what to do.. go in and do it. Normally I can keep control (and therefore the initiative) of nearly all fights. Everthing's proactive and there's very little stress even though quite a bit relies on you. Healing is almost entirely reactive. Even proactive healing (bad name for it) is reactive in nature. Where tanking keeps many dangerous situations from occurring at all, healing diffuses situations that are already becoming dangerous.
When I see my health drop down to 10% as a tank, I have faith that the heal is coming. When I see a tank's health drop to 10% as the healer, there's a little more of a "rush". Even if the job involves less "work" I find healing to be more stressful for that reason. Still fun though :D
When I see my health drop down to 10% as a tank, I have faith that the heal is coming. When I see a tank's health drop to 10% as the healer, there's a little more of a "rush". Even if the job involves less "work" I find healing to be more stressful for that reason. Still fun though :D
They both present a challenge.
It is dps that has it easy.
It is dps that has it easy.
Bode - 100 Holy Paladin - Lightbringer
I have been a healadin for 2 years (respecced prot. last week). Pally healing can be like “wack a mole†on crack until you get used to it. It all boils down to what your used to.. I’m finding tanking to be very stressful, almost to the point that I’m considering speccing back to holy. Unless I run into AOE bosses (2nd boss in MT *twitch*) pally healing isn't bad @ all.
Pets: I started buff pets back when I was running Gnomer and would get laugh @ for doing it. Now, It is considered standard practice to buff pets. If you have a warrior in the group the pets are buffed along with the warrior. As far as healing them is concerned, Most Hunters / Warlocks know that if it is a close fight then “fluffy†will be taking one for the team. Yes, You do heal them as long as it does cause a team member to croak. (cause pets don’t wear epics).
Edited, Jul 3rd 2008 1:48pm by soulfulstrut
Pets: I started buff pets back when I was running Gnomer and would get laugh @ for doing it. Now, It is considered standard practice to buff pets. If you have a warrior in the group the pets are buffed along with the warrior. As far as healing them is concerned, Most Hunters / Warlocks know that if it is a close fight then “fluffy†will be taking one for the team. Yes, You do heal them as long as it does cause a team member to croak. (cause pets don’t wear epics).
Edited, Jul 3rd 2008 1:48pm by soulfulstrut
Alright cool, just wasn't aware of the standard on that. I'm going to play around with grid more and see if I can set some parameters to see if they are enslaved mobs or not.
Edited, Jul 3rd 2008 10:36am by CapJack
Edited, Jul 3rd 2008 10:36am by CapJack
Grid annoys me in that I have played with having pets show up and it seems hit or miss as to whether they were summon before or after/died etc. There is probably a way to fix it but I am lazy and just have the Xperl pet bar up and click to casts set up on it as well.
Bode - 100 Holy Paladin - Lightbringer
The hardest boss I have both tanked and healed on is Gurtogg Bloodboil. Healing Gurtogg involves edge of the seat pant wetting fear every fel rage, and worring about how you're going to get to the next fel rage with enough mana for the rest of it. Tanking it is pressing your threat buttons as fast as you can while chatting with the other tanks about how/when you're going to drop aggro, followed by a quick breather every fel rage, I find healing MUCH more stressful.
There are several other fights that can be as stressful as Gurtogg in healing terms, such as Mother Sharaz or Illidari Council, as well as most of ZA. The only fight I can think of that might come close in tanking terms is the fire adds on Illidan, precision, co-ordinated movement whilst threating as fast as you can? no thanks!
It really depends on the level you are operating at, and what the rest of your group is like. Looking back on some of the T5 fights like Hydross or VR, tanking is probably more difficult and therefore stressful than healing, but the sheer intensity of the healing in BT and (I presume, having not been there yet) SWP fights has drastically increased stress levels for this holy pally.
Edited, Jul 3rd 2008 4:51pm by Tinyknight
There are several other fights that can be as stressful as Gurtogg in healing terms, such as Mother Sharaz or Illidari Council, as well as most of ZA. The only fight I can think of that might come close in tanking terms is the fire adds on Illidan, precision, co-ordinated movement whilst threating as fast as you can? no thanks!
It really depends on the level you are operating at, and what the rest of your group is like. Looking back on some of the T5 fights like Hydross or VR, tanking is probably more difficult and therefore stressful than healing, but the sheer intensity of the healing in BT and (I presume, having not been there yet) SWP fights has drastically increased stress levels for this holy pally.
Edited, Jul 3rd 2008 4:51pm by Tinyknight
I have to agree with bodhi: both are a unique challenge, DPS is the easy part. While for me healing was quite boring and almost no fun at all, it was still a challenge, requiring more then just rolling my face across my keyboard like some people have described Paly healing to be. Fights like the aforementioned Gurtogg Bloodboil are very stressful, particularly as a Paladin when you are the first to be blamed when someone dies to a Fel Rage.
Other times though healing is pretty mindless: you sit there spamming one button, not moving, trying not to fall asleep.
For the most part, for me at least, tanking has been more involved, more fulfilling, more fun. I'm not sure I'd really say it's been more stressful, but maybe that's because I enjoy doing it so much and I've gotten used to the stress of it, while healing I don't enjoy and haven't done it much, so it's more stressful for me.
Other times though healing is pretty mindless: you sit there spamming one button, not moving, trying not to fall asleep.
For the most part, for me at least, tanking has been more involved, more fulfilling, more fun. I'm not sure I'd really say it's been more stressful, but maybe that's because I enjoy doing it so much and I've gotten used to the stress of it, while healing I don't enjoy and haven't done it much, so it's more stressful for me.
Not necissarily from a Paladin POV (haven't raided with one), I reckon tanking (in raids) is most stressful for the simple reason that you're constantly flipping your camera around, creating an annoying/hazy situation, whereas for healing it's more of a "watch the bars", which while not necissarily easier to do does create a less stressful situation due to the fact that it's easier on your eyes.
Wow, that was one sentence.
Wow, that was one sentence.
I've done both in raids, and find healing to be much more challenging. However, I've tanked for almost 2 years, and only healed for about 4 months - so this is something I should take into account as I'm still learning the tricks of the healing trade.
Another reason I find healing to be more challenging is you're the top of the totem pole in my mind. The DPS damages. The tank keeps the mobs off the DPS. But the healer is insuring everyone's health pools are not touching 0.
Both should be noted as - fun as hell! =D
Another reason I find healing to be more challenging is you're the top of the totem pole in my mind. The DPS damages. The tank keeps the mobs off the DPS. But the healer is insuring everyone's health pools are not touching 0.
Both should be noted as - fun as hell! =D
CapJack of the Seven Seas wrote:
I only ask because I'm thinking of getting back into raiding over the summer, and I can't decide if I want to go in as a healer or as a tank.
If you are looking to get back into raids over the summer you shouldn't think of yourself as being a tank or a healer. You are most useful to your guild when you can be either. I'm primarily a tank but have built a full healing set giving me 2000+ healing, so when there are to many tanks but not enough healers a quick respec and I'm there. My tanking set is far better than my healing, but I can still jump in and heal anything in BT when needed.
With the summer giving a drop in active raiders (bbq's instead of raids for lots) it's better for your guild if you are clued up on both aspects.
Unfortunately my guild haven't yet required me to don my retri gear :(
I believe it would be easier for a tanking endgame, but that's just judging from observation of our recent raids in SSC and TK. Tanking, from what I remember when I used to tank, is simply a game of to maintain threat by maximizing CD time in a spell cycle. As long as your dps don't do anything stupid then it's usually decent.
Also, we only use one prot pally (typically) in our raid as OT or AoE tanking situations, so they can also be fairly specialized as our Warrior/Druid tanks can typically generate far greater threat on a single target.
I find the challenge with healing is to avoid going tunnel-visioned on your heal bars (grid/clique in my case). With many T5/6 raid bosses, if you stand in one spot for very long you will die. Big Wigs or DB addons help, but can get tuned out in lengthy fights at times. Call-outs on Vent/TS can help with tunnel-visioning, but there can be a second or two lag which can easily cause a raid wipe in some cases.
Now, with respect to "Stressful" (the OP question)? Personally I don't get stressed... and here is why:
1. I trust my own skill at my job in the raid
2. I trust my guild/raid members
3. I know what to expect (watch youtube and read wowwiki for trash pulls and boss fights)
4. I do not jump in over my head
Also, we only use one prot pally (typically) in our raid as OT or AoE tanking situations, so they can also be fairly specialized as our Warrior/Druid tanks can typically generate far greater threat on a single target.
I find the challenge with healing is to avoid going tunnel-visioned on your heal bars (grid/clique in my case). With many T5/6 raid bosses, if you stand in one spot for very long you will die. Big Wigs or DB addons help, but can get tuned out in lengthy fights at times. Call-outs on Vent/TS can help with tunnel-visioning, but there can be a second or two lag which can easily cause a raid wipe in some cases.
Now, with respect to "Stressful" (the OP question)? Personally I don't get stressed... and here is why:
1. I trust my own skill at my job in the raid
2. I trust my guild/raid members
3. I know what to expect (watch youtube and read wowwiki for trash pulls and boss fights)
4. I do not jump in over my head
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