So this week Ecclesiastical Discipline went to Blog Azeroth’s and asked When Should a Healer Let Someone Die? I have not yet participated in this so I figured now was a good time, especially after my last post about people making healers angry.
I think the basic question here is a little complicated. I feel there is a difference between letting someone die and having no choice but to not heal them. To me, letting someone die can be construed as malicious: I do not like X so I will not heal them. On the other hand, when you have no choice but to not heal someone, you are in a situation where either X or Y dies. This can and usually will happen in raids.
As a healer, I hate seeing anyone not a full health. It tugs at my soul! Just yesterday my husband was running me through Shadow Labs to level my baby priest. It took all my strength to not throw heals on him and pull aggro. He kept laughing as I was squirming in my seat itching to heal him. Now there is really only one reason I can envision for not healing everyone in a raid or party. Like most healers, I have a priority list:
Me – If I am dead, no one gets heals!
Tanks – If they die we all go squish.
Other healers (if in raid) – I try to keep them alive since it usually takes more than one person to heal.
DPS – They need to live to make sure the boss dies.
If I am assigned to a certain group of people, they will have prioroty over tanks, which usually happens in raids. Now, I will try my hardest to heal everyone that I can, like I said before I am OCD about healing, but I know that is not realistic. So if Joe Warlock is dying but so is the tank, I will heal the tank and let Joe’s fate be up to the other healers and the WoW Gods!
What about the players that are notorious to stand in the fire? Do I heal them? It kills me to say this but yes. Now I cannot say that I have not threatened to not heal them. But during a fight, I feel it is harder to realize who is who on my grid, I just look at the health bars going up and down.
I have known players who will not heal others and this is something I feel is wrong. Causing problems in a group and creating issues can just make players get mad and leave. I think it just makes the raid “feel” weird with unnecessary tension. When raid leaders notice this, they can get pretty angry and I do not blame them. If I don’t heal the tank because I do not like them, and we wipe, I am just wasting time.
What do you think? Have you ever disliked someone so much that you would not heal them?
July 14, 2010
Sarindre
Through the Eyes of a Tree 
3 responses to “Letting people die? Is this ever ok?”
ecclesiasticaldiscipline
July 24th, 2010 at 14:15
Thanks for responding, even if you were late. Welcome to BA.
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Baro
September 27th, 2010 at 02:55
I typically give people lots of chances but as a tree of my own i have to draw a line somewhere. If someone is constantly standing in fire or eating a delicious whirlwind i ask them if they have connection problems. If they do i just put up with healing them when i can. However if the person is doing it just cause they’re too lazy to move i decide that i am too lazy to heal them.
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sarindre
September 27th, 2010 at 08:25
That laziness is the worst! I reall yhope that DPS (and other healers alike) will get it in their heads that they need to start moving come xpac! There will be no choice then and they really will die.
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1 Trackbacks / Pingbacks
When Should a Healer Let Someone Die? « Ecclesiastical Discipline July 24th, 2010 at 14:22
[…] …but there were a few healers who feel pretty strongly about always doing one’s best to keep everyone alive. While Calsong at Mindspike had arguably the most differing perspective than mine, I have to say she explains her reasoning well and I completely respect that. Type “H” For Heals has some triage. Too Many Annas wants every green bar healthy and happy. Through the Eyes of a Tree heals them too. […]
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