MMO Gamers

A topic over at Clockwork Gamer discusses hate lists and agro and who is responsible for controlling hate. Many argue that it’s the tank’s job and failure to keep agro is indicative of a poor tank. The DPSers must remember that they are responsible for their own hate, or rather, minimalizing it. Kresyllus left a comment that I have to agree with.

A solid tanking creed I’ve adopted that isn’t always true but worth the chuckle.
“If the tank dies, it’s the healer’s fault.
If the healer dies, it’s the tank’s fault.
If DPS dies, it’s their own damn fault.”

One could argue that it’s more complicated than this but in essence it’s not. As the main healer in any group my role is to keep the tank alive and nothing more. The tank’s job is to keep me alive by keeping the mobs off me. So long as the tank and the healer are still standing the group has every chance of success, assuming they didn’t over extend themselves in the first place. Of course I don’t want anyone to die so I’ll do my best to heal whichever player needs healing, but doing so comes at a price.

Firstly, while I’m healing one of the damage dealers I can’t be healing the tank, AoE heals the exception. If I have to take time away from healing the tank it can be dangerous, particularly where multiple mobs are concerned.

Secondly, if I have to heal someone other than the tank then that’s more healing I have to do, and more mana that I use. I can use fewer and less mana costly heals by healing a well armoured tank only. If I have to start throwing big heals on squishies or use AoE heals as well then I’m going to burn through the mana, meaning I eventually run out of heals resulting in a possible wipe or, at the least, more downtime between pulls.

Lastly, healing for me is the equivalent of a mage throwing fireballs, it builds hate. The more heals I throw out the more hate I build, and the bigger the heals the more agro they’ll attract. Conversely, placing small heals and HoTs on the tank alone will keep me right where I want to be, the bottom of the hate list.