Do Tanks and Healers deserve more leniency in a raid? Compared to dps class?

Jxb1a

I know there are numerous times where a group might complain about the tank not holding aggro or healers not healing the right people or not having a quick enough reaction, but at the same time don't tanks and healers deserve the most leeway?

 

I mean you can't hide when you're the tank, everyone knows what you're doing during the raid and you're in plain sight of everyone. I would guess the same goes for healers - healers can't really hide either, as we know when they're healing we can hp counters fluctuating when we see the healers try to keep up.

 

Obviously, I'm not saying DPS or Indirect Skill Users are less important. I mean, you can't win if you don't kill the boss, which is the entire point of dps. And, Indirect Skill Users causing status effects to the boss makes life easier for everyone - whether it means the boss does less damage on the tank, lowering defenses to do more damage, or increasing healing output from.

 

However, if a raid has 10 people, and 6 are dps,  it's easier for the dps to kind of hide in the background isn't it?

 

Any tanks or healers care to share about their experiences and the pressure they have to endure knowing that everything they do is magnified?

Or am I wrong and that all roles are held equally? Honestly, I don't mind if I'm wrong, I'm more interested in what people think. So it's okay

Oh and just to note, I usually play support classes.

achesoma

Well, it's far more important for the tank and heals to be good otherwise it's all for naught.  They have to be held to a higher standard.  Encounters can still be completed with sub-par dps.  Sub-par heals and tanks = fail.  Long time healer myself.

Shadowguy64

The cocky DPS who keeps pulling agro because he isn't targeting the correct mob needs to keep his trap shut.

 

That being said, the tank needs to know the encounters, so if he doesn't, then he's open to criticism.

theAsna

 

Most of the time it's a balancing act. The tank tries to maintain as much aggro as possible, The healer(s) tries to keep the party alive without getting too much healing aggro. The DPS try to do as much damage as possible without stealing aggro from the tank.

 

The tank can't tank when the DPS are too reckless. The healer(s) cannot keep the party alive if everyone else is not trying to look a bit for themselves (e.g. optimal positioning, avoid AE effects, etc.). It's a team effort and it's up to the whole team to make the run as smooth as possible.

 

A big issue lies with perception and availability of analyzable data. If a tank dies most will of course look at the healer first. But then you have to ask whether the healer was busy with keeping the party alive or otherwise distracted (e.g. swarmed by adds). Did the DPS focus fire adds or did they run around like headless chicken and attacking different targets?

 

While some games provide monitoring tools (3rd party or built-in) the question remains whether that is sufficient? Sometimes a replay from different perspectives will tell you what the numbers don't tell.

Jadedangel1

Originally posted by theAsna

 

Most of the time it's a balancing act. The tank tries to maintain as much aggro as possible, The healer(s) tries to keep the party alive without getting too much healing aggro. The DPS try to do as much damage as possible without stealing aggro from the tank.

 

The tank can't tank when the DPS are too reckless. The healer(s) cannot keep the party alive if everyone else is not trying to look a bit for themselves (e.g. optimal positioning, avoid AE effects, etc.). It's a team effort and it's up to the whole team to make the run as smooth as possible.

 

A big issue lies with perception and availability of analyzable data. If a tank dies most will of course look at the healer first. But then you have to ask whether the healer was busy with keeping the party alive or otherwise distracted (e.g. swarmed by adds). Did the DPS focus fire adds or did they run around like headless chicken and attacking different targets?

 

While some games provide monitoring tools (3rd party or built-in) the question remains whether that is sufficient? Sometimes a replay from different perspectives will tell you what the numbers don't tell.

I agree with this fully. Definitely a balancing act. It all comes full circle. You can't blame the healer for the team wiping if the tank is not keeping agro properly, you can't blame the tank if the healer is not keeping up the heals so s/he has to keep backing away. And as a long time DPS player, I know I can end up throwing everyone off if I'm not watching my surrounding carefully or dodging AoE attacks when I should or using a skill that is too strong for the amount of mobs we're currently focused on causing others to aggro.