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Healing Again

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

I got my healing operative to level 55 a little while ago, and I’ve been practicing healing by running a few instances.  And when I say instances, I mean “pugs” because the stars rarely align where guildies are available at the weird hours that I can snatch for non-raiding playtime.

Remember, folks, I’d been playing a healer pretty much exclusively before SWTOR, and it’s like riding a bike, right?  But I forgot just how damn annoying that bike is.  I am a really grouchy healer!

The tank goes first, period. Any DPS who charges in front of the tank should be vote kicked immediately.  DPS are a dime a dozen, and I am not amused by having to expend any effort on saving them from their own fail.  Wait in another 30 minute queue if you can’t play nicely with others.  Morons.

Avoid the avoidable damage.  DUH.  Just because I can heal through it doesn’t mean I want to.  I don’t.  Learn to interrupt.  See that shit on the floor? Don’t stand in it.  Oh, the boss is targeted on you?  Hit your aggro dump.

If you don’t know what the hell you’re doing, ask.  You know, I understand that people are jerks, and it’s really hard to get up the nerve to say “hey, I don’t know this instance very well.”  But, at the same time, if you just fake your way through it, and that makes my life harder, I become ill-tempered.  If you don’t know kill order, and you pull aggro and get your ass killed, I’m leaving you dead.

Having played a healer in the past, I’m pretty conscientious about avoiding these pitfalls when I’m playing as DPS, but I’m resolved to try even harder, because this shit is annoying.

Comments

Healing Again — 12 Comments

  1. I am a really grouchy healer!

    I like how surprised you sound. 😀 Before you became Njessi in SWTOR, and before you became Zelmaru… didn’t you used to go under the nickname “GrumpyHealer” or something like that for a while? Or did I dream that?

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  2. Seeing your ‘The tank goes first, period’ comment is nice. I play primarily tank classes, and although I avoid PvE as much as possible, I can’t count how many times the DPS would pull, and I would be the first to die. In PuGs this is especially frustrating when the healer and their ‘pro’ DPS friend have queued together.

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    • The DPS are responsible for the long queue times they always bitch about. If they were NICER to tanks, tanks would actually queue and the wait times wouldn’t be as long.

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      • Believe it or not, the limiting role has been healers recently. I’ve been getting insta-queues with the Operative, and ~5-10 minute queues with the Assassin.

        As far as tank goes first, there’s one exception to that: delay-start abilities. For instance, I routinely start Orbital before the tank goes in, because I know by the time it actually applies damage the tank will have gone and I’ll likely be too busy healing said tank (or the moron DPS who decided to go kill that guy, way over there, that the tank only got initial agro on) to drop an Orbital.

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  3. Those are all standard –and important– parts of instance (and Heroic) running. Hell, the first one –tank goes first– is even more important in a non-addon game such as SWTOR, because you can’t run that ragged edge of aggro. But for me, the biggest one is “if you don’t know, ASK!”

    People are much more forgiving about not knowing a particular instance in SWTOR than a certain other MMO, and it makes for a much more enjoyable experience when everyone is on the same page.

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    • Yeah, people are very willing to give (brief) explanations if you say you don’t know the instance. Most things don’t require a dissertation – usually a description of kill order and stuff to avoid.

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  4. Welcome back to the world of keeping stupid people alive. 😀

    Protip: You see a DPS or tank that actually knows their shit, friend them. Immediately. Ignore the DPS unwilling to listen to basic common sense and the god complex prima donna tanks. Immediately.

    Keep in regular contact with those guys you friended, and PUGging will be much, much nicer.

    Your blood pressure will thank me.

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      • I’ve friended a couple of particularly good players, but given the way the group finder works–and the fact that I’m too lazy to actually put together a group myself–not much ever comes of it. I wonder if the group finder prioritizes players on your friends list in addition to excluding those on your ignore list?

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        • As far as I’m aware, it does, but “priority” doesn’t translate to “assurance”. Shame. Also I could be wrong. I usually am about things not specific to my job in a group. Still, anything to increase your chances of dealing with competent individuals. Plus you have a pool pf people you can touch base with if a prearranged event runs short on people and needs to PUG one or two. My guild is frequently shy a tank and/or a DPS on alt night not-raids.

          Operations was a bad choice of title in hindsight, considering how very often I see them confused with Operatives. Ops and Ops, But Ops definitely won’t be soloing Ops any time in the near ever. .-.

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