raiding advice for a n00b

[graxnip]

Hi all,I'm fairly new to raiding as a healer, (in eq1 I played a warrior, but thats an entirely different game whos tactics doesn't necessarily apply here)Anyway, my little band of brothers and myself have joined a small raiding alliance recently. So Saturday was our first night and the alliance was backtracking collecting eyes in silent city, so not a particually hard zone, which was great to learn how to get in the groove.We were fighting green x2 content - the raid force was pretty much crushing everything we came up against, the x4 content was pretty much cake, (we had 3 groups of lvl 70's)I was the sole healer in a mixed group, not the mt group. Not familiar with the zone, Im not sure what you would call this - they started some sort of mini ring event - anyways - the mt was actually starting to take dmg .  - so i swap from my battle cleric mentality to a more defensive healing role ..I was helping the templar and warden in grp 1 with direct heals to keep the mt up. also cast our debuffs when i could, few seconds into the fight the tank is stable - the mobs are debuffed, so it seemed to me the perfect time to throw out a damage spell since nothing else was going on..now the following happened 2 or 3 times in this nite - in the middle of a long casting spell - the brigand or the necro in my grp just drops - 1.5 shotted - (1shotted to like 10 hps lol, imminent death fast approaching)by the time i cancel my current spell - target them, and attempt a heal - they are taking a dirt nap..  the quick heal doesnt put enough hps on them to withstand another hit - and I do use the emergency deathres spell we get when I can.so -A) Am I over reacting at feeling bad for letting them die? they should know how to manage thier aggro since they play fragile classes? but Im their healer - i shouldnt let any of them die - so ...b) adjust my tactics so that even when things seem stable, I am not casting anything- solely waiting for either the MT or my grp to take dmg? - afraid then I will look like a sponge/slackerc) and when i get them killed - do I res the said overachiever - or do i save the combat res for more important members of the raid. I know that my questions are highly situational.. I just wanted to get some insight from seasoned raiding inquisitors on how they deal with this kind of thing.Thanks )<div></div>

[Judist]

<P>Your not overreacting. It's the healer mentality to protect your group. More often that I care to admit, by the time I target someone they're dead. However the moment that happens I'm casting a res.</P> <P>As a Defiler I have 3 in-combat resses.... 1-standard, 1-group, 1-speciality (which will res someone without sickness). I save my speciality res for dead healers or other crucial classes, and use the standard for everyone else. You may wanna flip thru your spell book and look for all the resses you have, I'm sure you have more than 1 in-combat.  </P> <P>The only time I leave someone dead is when the MT is in danger. Then they just hafta wait. Because we use Vent to communicate I can easilly ask a necro, dirge or pally to res someone if it's really important and I'm too busy. For example if I'm the only healer alive. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P>To help prevent deaths, always have your group "speciality" heal going. For me it's the group ward. With a duration of 30 seconds it's easy to maintain while I'm doing other things. I'm sure your group reactive is generally the same. Since the group heal dosent require a target you can direct heal the MT, debuff, attack and still refresh the group reactive when necessary.</P> <P>This usually buys you time to target and direct heal anyone in your group that takes aggro. Keep them up best you can, and hopefully he'll get a rescue or deaggro before he dies. If they die atleast you'll have them targeted and a res on the way.</P> <P>Dust em off, and send them back into the fray.</P> <P> </P> <P> </P> <P> </P>

[Ssinu]

<div></div>This tactic of keeping up your group reactive will work as long as you have the mana pool and the damage is physical and not magic based (like an AE). If they are taking AE/nuke damage, they probably will die -  none of that will trigger the reactive. If they are overaggroing constantly they probably will die.If your players are a bit stronger and can take a  reasonable amount of hits (enough to give you time to stop casting something and heal them properly), then I suggest assisting the Main Assist and healing off the mobs, sometimes I even tab around and heal people who have aggro that aren't the MT. This will work on times where the MT is tanking but others keep getting aggro, they won't survive indefinitely, but it should give the MT time enough to regain aggro. I would feel guilty if my group kept dying too. One lucky shot is fine, but once someone starts dying 2-3 times not during a wipe, something is wrong. I basically change my heal tactics based on the players in my group and the fight we are on. Some need all healers healing the MT (this is rare unless you don't have enough priests in the MT group), sometimes I have fighters in my group who may step up and tank occaisionally - if so I treat them as a mini MT group and heal and prep them (reactives before they pull), if its the scout and/or mage group they shouldn't be taking aggro but if they do I usually have enough time to heal them if I heal off the mob - again, they really shouldn't  take aggro alot unless the fight is scripted that way.But basically if they were constantly taking aggro on content that can pretty much one shot them, no there isn't a whole lot you can do even with group reactive up. Since its a long cast and they are constantly getting aggro you may be casting that when someone dies. Nothing wrong with trying this though.<div></div><p>Message Edited by Ssinurn on <span class=date_text>12-18-2006</span> <span class=time_text>09:38 AM</span>

[MrHell]

a) You can't stop a group memeber dying if they get aggro. Don't really even try. You should keep the group dying from AOEs though. Be ready to hit the F keys to target group memebers.If people in your group keep pulling agro then you need to bring this up with the raid leader. A class reshuffle may be needed.If a group members has a hate transfer (eg Assassin) then I often volunteer for them to put it on me. Its rare that I will pull agro even with this on.b)Aside from healing you should debuff. Since mobs are resisting taunts alot more now you may also want to cast yout mental debuff DOT.On harder raid mobs my job is often to keep single reactive on the tank (as I have M1) so that the MT Templar can save some power. I often throw other heals on the MT as needed.Try to keep Fanaticism up as much as possible as it will significantly increase your group DPS. You can toggle it on/off fairly easily.On easier mobs you can certainly head in and DPS. I've made the DPS top 10 on a few occasions on trash when some classes are slacking.c) Res when its safe. Sometimes a paladin or necro will be a designated rezer so let them do their job. Otherwise rez anyone when you can, you have lots of incombat rez but I try to save my best one for other healers.

[Judist]

<DIV><FONT color=#ff3300>a) You can't stop a group memeber dying if they get aggro. Don't really even try.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>"If" we catch it in time we can keep any class up for 10-15 seconds.... even a mage in cloth. This is due to the recent combat changes, amount of debuffs on the mob and some fantastic healers of course. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If you've done Tarinax you probably know this. He memwipes alot and with the majority of healers targeting thru Tarinax, you can save alot of needless deaths, which in turn prevents needless adds.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Personally I've seen one of our wizzies tank Yellow x4 trash for 30 full seconds before the MT finally got aggro back. This amazed us all. I've also seen the same done with a Swashy who was quick enuf to switch to defensive stance. He ended up tanking until the mob died.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The hardest players to keep up are actually the melee scouts however. Even with armor better than cloth/leather they fight in offensive stance (as they should) and have next to no avoidance doing so. So unless everyone is on the ball they'll go down in a heartbeat. This goes for any chain wearer or cleric who have little avoidance, unless its the MT cleric sharing all those wonderful HP buffs.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Druid avoidance can be decent, and a MT druid will have 8-9k health. With luck we can keep them up for a fair amount of time also. Actually you can keep any player alive if the mobs "debuffed" enuf and the players in full raid gear. Of course getting aggro on a pull before debuffs is usually a guarenteed death.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <P><SPAN class=time_text></SPAN> </P><p>Message Edited by BeatinGuts on <span class=date_text>12-19-2006</span> <span class=time_text>02:45 AM</span>

[Gobbwin]

<P>By the sounds of it, one of two things happened, neither of which are under your control, so you shouldn't feel bad.</P> <P>A) They were outpacing the tank on hate gain.  Huge no no for any DPS class on a raid.  They should always give the MT a few seconds to land some taunts before they even start and once they start, it should be w/ debuffs then slowly start dishing out damage.  I've seen many DPSers dump their biggest CAs or spells on or immediately after the pull and they die everytime.  They simply don't have the mitigation or avoidance to tank the mob and are going to die very quickly, regardless of what you do.  You could have both reactives, plus your emergencies going and be direct healing like mad, but most DPS classes are still gonna splat very quickly.</P> <P>B) If the mob was AEing, then their resistance to that particular AE sucks.  This is another thing that I've seen quite often.  If your resistances are low (below 4k), you're going to get hurt badly, even by t6 mobs as a lvl 70.</P> <P>As far as what you should be doing, well thats situational dependant.  For me, this is the order of importance: </P> <OL> <LI>You should always do what you can to keep the MT alive.  </LI> <LI>Cure any DoTs ASAP.  </LI> <LI>If they are ok, then spot heal whom ever needs it.  </LI> <LI>Run Fanaticism whenever possible.  </LI> <LI>Then throw out the odd DD or DoT.</LI></OL> <P>Until you get more comfortable as a raid inquisitor, I'd recommend just standing back and watching what's going on.  Eventually, you'll get to the point where you're almost constantly in motion doing something or other.</P> <P>Personally, I don't rez while in combat.  Thats for other non-healer classes like Pallys, Necros, and Dirges.  Rez spells have quite a long cast timer, and quite a bit can change with you out of the picture for that amount of time.</P>

[ericshaitan]

<div></div>I love to try and keep the DPS classes alive when they pull agro.  There is no reason not to.  Most of them time if they do get agro they will loose it with in 5-10seconds.  Keeping them alive ups the Raid DPS and while they are tanking the MT does not need additional heals.  There is absolutly no reason not to try and save DPS.  But again they are tissue paper and die easy, so if they do die, its no ones fault but their own.  Also, saves me a rez if they live and I also have macro that if I do save their butts that says /tell %t 3gp please. as 3gp is about the average cost for 1 death. <div></div><p>Message Edited by ericshaitan on <span class=date_text>12-19-2006</span> <span class=time_text>12:16 PM</span>

[MrHell]

Do you even play an Inquisitor BeatinGuts?Defilers can keep a group memeber alive alot better in the short term, especially if they are low mit/high avoid. Their group ward can be taken up entirely by one person in one hit. Where our reactives will only fire once for a small fraction of the damage taken.We can certainly try keeping a group member alive but for a newbie raider its not really worth it. Most of the time nothing they can do will make a difference.Either the tank will regain agro or the player will die. Though as was mentioned a scout in def stance can last a significant time but most I have seen are too slow to make the change from off.I do like using it as a opportuntity to practice putting our rez reactive on and its good practice keeping people alive.<p>Message Edited by MrHell on <span class=date_text>12-20-2006</span> <span class=time_text>09:36 AM</span>

[ericshaitan]

<blockquote><hr>MrHell wrote: Do you even play an Inquisitor BeatinGuts? <hr></blockquote>Where the hell did that come from?<div></div>

[MrHell]

He has been talking about Defiler healing which is significantly different to that of an Inquisitor. Hence the second paragraph.

[Judist]

<P>He's saying Inquisitor's cannot heal members who take aggro.... and that because I'm a Defiler I have no idea. </P> <P>Persoanlly if he thinks anyone who grabs aggro in his group "should just die, dont even try" then thats fine. However thats pretty wrong to say that on the board. And while I dont play one, our guild of course has one. Try telling her that crap.</P> <P> </P> <P> </P> <P> </P> <P> </P>