Thanks from a tank

[Liunatic]

<p>Ran Court of Innovation last night with a Warden 55, and 48 Defiler, 51 coerc, 55 lock, 53 wizzy ( I'm a 52 zerker ), and I have to say, I love Defilers. The buffs are great. Nothing like seeing my HP 1-1.5k more than they usually are. Although I felt sorry for the guy when he left his ward on me when I pulled and the mobs came and smacked him around and left him in the dirt a few times. ( Hard to stop him from being 1-2 shotted , heh ).</p><p>Anyhow, just wanted to say, I wish there were more of ya. Keep up the good work.</p>

[Vexy]

I wish there were more tanks like you. I've grouped with people who didn't know what a defiler even did. Infact, yesterday, I was doing Crushbone keep (I'm only in my low 20's with this toon) with a fairly good group, when a Troub asked if we had a healer, after I had been warding him and debuffing for him. It's kinda irritating that people don't realize that defilers are healers too ;_;Thanks though for the appreciation of defilers <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Sedenten]

I've run into the same problem--I've had level 80 characters assume I'm a DPS class.  They'll be looking for a healer or two, I'll send them a tell to join and they continue looking for primary/backup healer when I join.  That doesn't happen as often in the higher level groups, but sadly enough I've run into cases like that.

[Liunatic]

Run the same instances again last night, different defiler. Great guy, definatly my preferred backup healer, or even main for that matter.

[cggerth]

I've come across that "defiler isn't a healer" many times also, The reason is we don't act like other healers.  Other healers will heal you up as you lose the health, but like someone said in another thread we do our job by preventing damage.  There are some people out there that if they don't "SEE" the healing they don't think it's going on.  If a defiler is doing his/her job really well, you won't see the healing.  They will be preventing the majority of damage so it looks like they are doing nothing.  They really don't od alot of DPS, they usually stand in the back and just "stand around" as some people have told me.  We are really casting wards like crazy and debuffing the crap out of the mobs.I consider my job well done when the tank says "wow that was easy" and he didn't take much damage the entire fight. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Cadori Seraphim]

<cite>Liunatic wrote:</cite><blockquote>Run the same instances again last night, different defiler. Great guy, definatly my preferred backup healer, or even main for that matter.</blockquote>/gigglesWhen you have a defiler in your group they are the main healer. As wards get eaten up before any heals. Alot of people don't realize how defilers work and how awesome they are as healers. As mentioned already, I have also seen the *do we have a healer* when I was the healer for a group on my defiler. That gets so annoying and I end up letting that person die on purpose <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> /winkAnyhow, its refreshing to see a post like this.. its about time Defilers got some recognition!

[Plunderbunny]

I was worried I wouldn't be able to pick what kind of healer to be, but thankfully I found this topic and I've gone ahead and rolled my defiler. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Narae]

I'd say that 1/2 the people I run into day "oh cool. defiler - healer!"To which I reply that I made a defiler so that I didn't have to be a healer again and that if I'm spending all my time healing, I'm not doing it right. That's my take on the class. We have heals, but we have many other "more important" things to be doing, not casting our incredibly mana inefficient heals.What's the saying.. "an ounce of prevention..."

[Uumuuanu]

<p>As a warlock, I ADORE defilers.   Sure a fury can buff my int and we all know that wardens and templars can keep even crappy tanks up, but honestly, I would rather run with a defiler ANY DAY.</p><p>Why,  because as a warlock I have the mitigation of a wet paper bag soaked in fabric softener (IE my HP go down faster then the servers do on bad patch day).   Most healers simply cannot keep me alive if I get aggro, especially on an hard hitting mob (the scout mobs eat casters for dinner with those huge spikes of damage).   Even last night while raiding, the defiler KNEW I would get aggro because of the type of mob (the Lyceumm 8way encounter for those wondering).  A wonderful pre-ward and TADA,  I came out of it alive and pretty with an 8k parse.</p><p>I have seen so many people say look at that defiler, he isnt even healing (mostly because defiler power seems to stay up better then any class due to the use of HP as heals), little did they know that the defiler was keeping everyone in the group alive and that in a parse of the heal, that fury taking the credit was doing about 10% of the heals compared to the wards of the defiler. </p><p>Oh and not to mention all of your pretty debuffs that make the mob a death waiting to happen.   Over all, I think you rock and you deserve the recognition for it!</p><p>So KUDOS! Defilers.</p>

[LoraJ]

<p>I thoguth of this trhead last night when I was in a nightmare PUG. I was only lvl 32. My main and other alts that I play are dps, so it's definitely a learning experience for me. I enjoy it. Sadly, I've only grouped about 5 times. This was my first time being the only healer, so it was a challenge. The group had 3 fighters, a ranger and a troub. The MT and guy who MT'd later were both 6 levels higher than me. </p><p> Ar first it was a mess because the MT would run one way, and the other tank would run the other way. I would follow the MT, someone else seemed to follow the other guy and then another group member would be liek wher ethe heck am I supposed to go. That person would get blamed for going AFK, when I think they were just lost. They got killed by a roamer once when they were lost. That was the only death we had before "the incident",</p><p> Second tank goes AFK for a little while and suddenly things went so much better. Everyone stuck together, everyone was nice and healthy. Guy comes back, everything is chaos again. Bad communication. MT decides to leave. Second tank takes over. We're in a fight he kills the mob, I have an add on me, tank runs off with group. I'm stunned, do whatever I can, but die. They come back and rez me (at least I remember to hand out rez thingies). I attempt to start re-buffing but he's off running again. When I catch up, he's on a mob with some adds and it is just a mess. There's no way at this point I can get everyone warded and healed. We all die. Some bystander rez's me. So I rez closest group member I can find. The tank guy starts making comments in group "Oh that's just great, you FD and let us all die". I'm thinking, is he talking to me?</p><p> The other group members had had enough and decide to quit as well as this tank guy. Who then starts making comments how they needed a better healer. And starts ripping into me that I don't know how to play my class. I will not claim to be an expert, I am still learning, especially being in groups. But I have done well in groups before, or in duos. I explained to him that if he runs off like that it's hard for me to ward him and he said "you were never warding me, I need you to heal me". I start to laugh and tell him, "don't tell me I don't know how to play my class if you don't even know what my class does. "</p><p> But the thing that gets me is that he actually thinks I FD'd. And he was talking about how well he was hitting those things until I let him die, and again I told him about the wards. he still refused to believe it. I mean, he had lvl 15 armor on and he's lvl 38. I think I did a fine job keeping him alive under those circumstances. </p><p> I barely get to group with my defiler, so probably the next time I do group, I won't have to worry about being in a group with him. He'll probably be in his 50's.</p><p>But I really am enjoying the class. Although it is painful soloing compared to my Ranger. It's definitely a challenge doing something different. But I like it. </p>

[Wilyum]

<cite>LoraJ wrote:</cite><blockquote><p> Second tank goes AFK for a little while and suddenly things went so much better. Everyone stuck together, everyone was nice and healthy. Guy comes back, everything is chaos again. Bad communication. MT decides to leave. Second tank takes over. We're in a fight he kills the mob, I have an add on me, tank runs off with group. I'm stunned, do whatever I can, but die. They come back and rez me (at least I remember to hand out rez thingies). I attempt to start re-buffing but he's off running again. When I catch up, he's on a mob with some adds and it is just a mess. There's no way at this point I can get everyone warded and healed. We all die. Some bystander rez's me. So I rez closest group member I can find. The tank guy starts making comments in group "Oh that's just great, you FD and let us all die". I'm thinking, is he talking to me?</p><p> The other group members had had enough and decide to quit as well as this tank guy. Who then starts making comments how they needed a better healer. And starts ripping into me that I don't know how to play my class. I will not claim to be an expert, I am still learning, especially being in groups. But I have done well in groups before, or in duos. I explained to him that if he runs off like that it's hard for me to ward him and he said "you were never warding me, I need you to heal me". I start to laugh and tell him, "don't tell me I don't know how to play my class if you don't even know what my class does. "</p><p> But the thing that gets me is that he actually thinks I FD'd. And he was talking about how well he was hitting those things until I let him die, and again I told him about the wards. he still refused to believe it. I mean, he had lvl 15 armor on and he's lvl 38. I think I did a fine job keeping him alive under those circumstances. </p></blockquote><p>Wow, everything about that Tank just screams "ignorant noob".  It was kind of you to let him off easy.  I don't think I could have done that.</p><p>My wife plays a Defiler (playing shammies since 1999) and I duo with her almost exclusively.  There is no other type of healer I would rather duo with.  Between her debuffs and mine, the mob turns into serious "weak sauce".  My stuns usually keep the hits from the mob to a minimum but any that do get through are absorbed by the Wards.  </p><p>So all you Defilers out there, keep your chin up.  You rock!</p>

[Zira]

I love when tanks (mostly Pallies) get all happy in the pants when they group with a defiler... thinking how uber they seem to have become.  Not even realising we are holding their health at 100% due to wards and slows and debuffs."Wow these mobs dont seem to be hitting as hard as they were before... maybe we didnt need the healer"

[Grimwell]

This is just the thread I was hoping to find today! I just started a defiler on Nagafen with the pure intent of spending 90% of my time grouped and keeping my friends going. I know that defilers are great for it, but have no feel for the class and how best to approach it as a support character.If anyone has suggestions for AA's, or best use of spells/abilities with the pure directive of keeping the tank (and friends) alive, I'd really appreciate it. I am very willing to nix my solo capacity if it keeps the group alive.(and anything that frames it from the PvP perspective is good too!).

[Aull]

<p>I would like to include that I have a favorite healer when I am tanking and it is the defiler. However maybe that is because every defiler I have grouped with knows how to play the defiler class so my hats off to all you guys.</p>

[Jida]

<cite>Grimwell wrote:</cite><blockquote>This is just the thread I was hoping to find today! I just started a defiler on Nagafen with the pure intent of spending 90% of my time grouped and keeping my friends going. I know that defilers are great for it, but have no feel for the class and how best to approach it as a support character.If anyone has suggestions for AA's, or best use of spells/abilities with the pure directive of keeping the tank (and friends) alive, I'd really appreciate it. I am very willing to nix my solo capacity if it keeps the group alive.(and anything that frames it from the PvP perspective is good too!).</blockquote>I found a pretty awesome <a href="http://www.eq2flames.com/defilers/4844-combined-defiler-information-thread.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">thread here</a> with screen shots and quite a bit of feedback on what PVE and RAID specs to go down. Its worth the time to look at.Good luck! =)

[big perm]

<cite>Zira@Najena wrote:</cite><blockquote>I love when tanks (mostly Pallies) get all happy in the pants when they group with a defiler... thinking how uber they seem to have become.  Not even realising we are holding their health at 100% due to wards and slows and debuffs."Wow these mobs dont seem to be hitting as hard as they were before... maybe we didnt need the healer"</blockquote><p>Oh, that's when you put them in check by going afk for a sec. They'll pull a mob beacsue "they don't need a healer after all", you come back when they are red, </p><p>/g back, geez guys i said i was going afk.</p>

[Grimwell]

It's been a few days, but have been sick and not playing. So I just looked into the linked information today and I see a clear path to imitate, but not a good explanation of why that path is wise. I like to understand choices instead of following them blindly. If anyone has info to share, please throw down. I'm going to be spending some time online this weekend, feeding the Q's writ rewards, and I'd like to better understand my role in keeping the tank alive (I don't heal much in these games. It's a new direction for me).

[Ithielle]

<cite>Grimwell wrote:</cite><blockquote>It's been a few days, but have been sick and not playing. So I just looked into the linked information today and I see a clear path to imitate, but not a good explanation of why that path is wise. I like to understand choices instead of following them blindly. If anyone has info to share, please throw down. I'm going to be spending some time online this weekend, feeding the Q's writ rewards, and I'd like to better understand my role in keeping the tank alive (I don't heal much in these games. It's a new direction for me).</blockquote><a href="http://www.eq2flames.com/defilers/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.eq2flames.com/defilers/</a>EDIT: Pasted the wrong link.<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.eq2flames.com/templars/7264-templar-guide.html" target="_blank"></a>

[Kari]

I could post some PVE advice, but I haven't done any pvp in EQ2 at all. So anything that I would have to contribute might be counterproductive. I suspect that most of us on this forum play PVE, as I don't think that defilers are really favored as one of the top PVP classes.

[arieste]

<cite>Grimwell wrote:</cite><blockquote>It's been a few days, but have been sick and not playing. So I just looked into the linked information today and I see a clear path to imitate, but not a good explanation of why that path is wise. I like to understand choices instead of following them blindly. If anyone has info to share, please throw down. I'm going to be spending some time online this weekend, feeding the Q's writ rewards, and I'd like to better understand my role in keeping the tank alive (I don't heal much in these games. It's a new direction for me).</blockquote>i have some write-up for reasoning posted in this thread here.. <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=400422" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=400422</a>that's leveling AA advice for PvE tho.. not sure for pvp.