Hey, i like to heal. But i have 1 great problem with it.

I dont feel special or needed when i heal. Ive been tanking for quite some time and i get to mark and lead and tell people how its going down, set the pace and so on.

I often got told "your great, this is so smooth", "im adding you to friend list if i need a tank" etc.

As a healer i get none of this. If you get a good tank in a group he will want to mark. His in control and he gets all the fame if it goes well. Healers are kinda like just there. I get the blame when people die but no "good healing" when ever none dies and i keep all topped during tank or dps !!%% ups.

I know many will say that if none died in a instance then you did your "job". Problem is i dont just want to do my "job" i wanna do it well so people notice it but you just cant do that as a healer. Even dps can top the meters to show they are good and know what they are doing, healers dont even have that, since trying to top meters as a healer is just stupipd and cant be used to measure healer skill.

What do you all think about this?

edit:

Ok reading that agin it seems like i got major issueds with my self esteam or something lol. Not quite the case. I just really feel that healing is a aspect of the game where its hard to show your skills unless something goes very wrong. Otherwise a monkey could heal through most instances.

Well of course these kind of things have something to do with self esteem:) However I'm pretty sure majority if not all players have felt good when someone has said "job well done" and then if they see some people always getting pats on their backs and themselves never getting any, they feel "am I doing something wrong?"

Personally I mainly got thanks and "nice healing" comments while I was levelling, and that was some three years ago. I also got it in 60lvl 5man pugs relatively often. When TBC came, and now Wotlk, it seems a lot rarer and while I could ofc question my skills as a healer, I personally can with hand at heart say I'm better now than I was back then;)

From guildies I almost never ever ever hear a word about my healing in 5mans.. and rarely in raids too. Would be fun sometimes to see people opening their mouths and saying something positive aswell:) And not only to myself but to dps and to tanks and to other healers. A nice word of encouragement really keeps you going for long time.

These days I mainly only get thanks for good healing when I'm lvling a healing able alt and go through some 5mans. Even if there hasn't been any life threatening situations. Hard to say why that is.. is it because people see so sucky pugs, sometimes without healers at all... or is it because people don't bother/assume I don't care for any "job well done"s, when I'm healing on my epicced out main and do something well. Who knows:)

Getting encouraging words often depends a lot with who you play. Nice people who have to pug a lot generally show some respect. People who run a lot with their guilds do not, except if you're from a lot "lower, neverheard" guild with crap gear and still manage to do the healing well.

One reason I think good tanks get more praise is also as simple as the fact tank usually has leadership and that in instances it's the tanks job dps sees, healer usually works from behind everyone else. A good leadership is always appreciated, too often tanks are shy and don't keep up the speed. People see the tank doing fast pulls, holding aggro etc. However they rarely have time to watch the HP bars or look behind in general. Usually only times I get "whoa good healing" or such comments come after making it through from some "really bad, almost impossible 99% surely a wipe" situation. The only situations people usually notice healer's work properly is when their own arses are saved from what looked like unavoidable doom.

PvP is the realm of healer appreciation.

If you're fishing for compliments, try this in a BG:
Choose someone in your raid, preferably a suicidal melee class like Warrior or Deathknight.
Stalk him and keep him healed at any cost. Heal yourself too of course. Don't forget to toss him some HoT's before you bite the dust.
Guaranteed to get you some compliments and consequently, a self esteem boost.

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Q u o t e:
Personally I mainly got thanks and "nice healing" comments while I was levelling, and that was some three years ago. I also got it in 60lvl 5man pugs relatively often. When TBC came, and now Wotlk, it seems a lot rarer and while I could ofc question my skills as a healer, I personally can with hand at heart say I'm better now than I was back then;)

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All depends on group. Many times I heard "nice healing", usually from the tank. Of course I had my dish of flame and abuse as well, many times knowing well it was not my fault.

However, about compliments it might be I actually provoked them, something like:
"Thanks guys for the run, was fun and great tanking btw."
"Oh yeah, and nice healing too."

Hmm...
Actually I think nothing wrong with that...

I definitely find it rewarding to heal.
Maybe its because you are used to tank, and by all means, having a good tank is the most important thing in 10/25 man.
In 5 mans its more even though. If you dont have a good tank the group will wipe. If you dont have a good healer the group will wipe. If you dont have good DPSers... the bossfights/trashclears will take longer. ;)

Now it is true that often people might not notice if you end up just timing your heals perfectly so noone died on a bad pull or something, but i think thats the same for all roles.(the maqe that saves the healer by sheeping the mob on him, the tanks that saves a DPSer by grabbing a loose add fast and so on and so on)

How to be called a good healer:

Stand around and do nothing for the first minute of the fight so everyones hp is low, do some super healing and get everyone to 100% in a few second... result: "wow that was some nice healing!"

It works, i've tried it. hehee.

But seriously, its a pain to be blamed when it all goes wrong and an even greater pain when u work ur ass off keeping an undergeared tank healed and getting no praise.

BUT we have the power of life and death.... people in my group annoying me? i let them die, mwahahahaha.

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Q u o t e:
I dont feel special or needed when i heal...As a healer i get none of this...Healers are kinda like just there. I get the blame when people die but no "good healing" when ever none dies and i keep all topped during tank or dps !!%% ups

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Welcome to being a PvE healer! ;) If everything goes well - it is normal. If the group fails - healers get blamed! Get used to it. If you want people to give you cookies for doing your "job" - go PvP. Healers there are higly appreciated! In PvE you will hardly ever hear ppl praise you ;)

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Q u o t e:
people in my group annoying me? i let them die, mwahahahaha.

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And i just pop Water Walking on them right before we go for a nice big jump into the water ;) But only did it once, and the guy I did it to annoyed the whole party :)

Feeling "special" isn't the term I'd use but I do like to give myself a pat on the back if I perform well in a fight. I've been healing for a long time so I'm probably a bit more thick-skinned about people giving me comments like "LOL HEALERS FAIL", but I wouldn't expect every healer in my guild to be like this and I think it helps to boost confidence instead of just pointing out all their mistakes. Lack of confidence means a poorer performance. Luckily the healers in my guild are pretty exceptional players, even if some of them do have "wah, I suck" moments. ;D

In raids us healers often get told what a good job we have done (patchwork for the first time springs to mind).

I don`t expect to be thanked but it boosts my ego a bit when it does happen :D

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Q u o t e:
How to be called a good healer:

Stand around and do nothing for the first minute of the fight so everyones hp is low, do some super healing and get everyone to 100% in a few second... result: "wow that was some nice healing!"

It works, i've tried it. hehee.

BUT we have the power of life and death.... people in my group annoying me? i let them die, mwahahahaha.

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hahaha.

Will definetely try that if I ever set foot in an instance again :D

But yeah OP if you want to be appreciated do as some others said and PvP heal. I get /cheer and /ty sometimes. Wouldn't mind a /kiss or a /hug but I guess I gota at least go oom healing them or LoH them to get that :(

hardly ever you will get credit for your healing..

Most expected, but never really get to hear a word of thanks is during raids: ow yes, healers amongst themselves do (healer channel, person that was leading our bunch of healers commented on us doing a great job) but dps/tanks .. no

great example was the Grobbulus 10 man fight: really hectic in the end phase, first try ever and we wiped because of the dispelling.. healers got blamed., especially me since i was on the dispel duty. Yes, i could have done better, but please remember it was my first time ever.

I do was happily suprised when i got to hear a few days ago from a pug that my healing was nice..

so.. still wonders in the world :)

and yes, im a kind of "new" healer, i rerolled for wrath.. (used to be hunter ftw :p)

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Q u o t e:
Stand around and do nothing for the first minute of the fight so everyones hp is low, do some super healing and get everyone to 100% in a few second... result: "wow that was some nice healing!"

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Your man's right. The only time you get 'nice healing' is when it all goes wrong and everyone thinks they're going to die but doesn't. Ironically it may not even be down to you healing them any differently than you have all instance, its just what it looks like to them. Health bars jumping around and last gasp heals tend to make more impression than solid HoTs ticking and the tank never dropping below 50%.

To the OP, healing is about letting everyone else have the limelight and being happy in yourself that they can't do it without you. If you want to feel loved, just put 'Healer LFG, any heroic' in LFM on a Sat morning and see how much love you get then.

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Q u o t e:
How to be called a good healer:

Stand around and do nothing for the first minute of the fight so everyones hp is low, do some super healing and get everyone to 100% in a few second... result: "wow that was some nice healing!"

It works, i've tried it. hehee.

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So true. I love the priest for that; if you have a Prayer of Healing precasting just before an AoE hit, everyone sees health bars go down... and then right back up. Similarly if the DPS isn't interrupting those massive shadowbolts in Old Kingdom, have a greater heal ready to land on whoever they're targetting. If you're really pro, make sure it lands a second after it hits so they're just starting to type "OMG HEAL!" or scramble for a pot.

Bonus points if the heal crits. Triple bonus if you have Divine Aegis and it leaves them perfectly healed in a cosy protective bubble. Whine about *that* healing, you dozy cleave eater. :-p

Hmm...I usually get thanked quite a lot for my healing, especially at the end without a single death (even trigger happy dpser's -.-)

Your more appreciated for joining the group then your healing in the group, everybody needs a healer. Theyz all loves us.

The best healers are those that you don't hear about.

If your not getting any feedback while healing an instance. You are doing a good job.

Healers are like a defender in soccer.. If he does his job well, there won't be anyone complaining about him. But if he makes an error and lets an attacker score, it's his fault and everyone will blame him.

The best defenders are those that never get any comments, who do their jobs and make few errors.

You can't do anything good while being a healer, all the more things you can do wrong.

Even if you save the tank from a life threatening situation with a 15k heal combined with an instant 10k crit and manage to keep the party alive on 100 mana remaining, it 's worthless if the group wipes a while later because you were still busy patting yourself on the back for your heroic heals ealier.

If you wanna be a good healer, you should always try to perform well and focus, try to perform consistent and avoid personal errors.

You will get appreciation in time.

Greetings, Medive

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Q u o t e:
I definitely find it rewarding to heal.
Maybe its because you are used to tank, and by all means, having a good tank is the most important thing in 10/25 man.
In 5 mans its more even though. If you dont have a good tank the group will wipe. If you dont have a good healer the group will wipe. If you dont have good DPSers... the bossfights/trashclears will take longer. ;)

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Personally, I disagree with part of that. In 10 and 25 mans I find the healers are the most important people. Apart from moving the boss around a bit (think Grobbulus) and the occasional boss that requires adds being picked up (think Noth), once the tank has latched onto a raidboss, he pretty much has it. The hard part for the healers is keeping both the tank and the raid and themselves up.

In 5 mans, I'd say a competant tank is as important as the healer, since the shaky few seconds of a pull happens much, much more often. Calling in CC and picking up adds/patrols also helps.

Feel like you're not getting enough recognition? Well, to an extent, welcome to being a healer. By and large we go unrecognised for our efforts. That's fine with most of us. It means that healing only really appeals to those for whom that is ok - the average age of healers is a fair bit higher than dps-ers, according to the last poll I read.

Want to do something about it? PuG a bit and find a couple of decent tanks who you've had good runs with. Add them to your friend list and only run with them. Tank/healer partnerships are the basis of small scale PvE. They'll appreciate you eventually :P

Very few, if any, people have ever told me 'Good DPS there Dusk'. Even if I'm sitting with 1700 sustained and the other two DPS are languishing behind the tank at 600.

On the other hand, 'Nice healing' tends to turn up with some frequency, especially if something goes wrong. I've actually had the MT ask for me rather than our other priest healer because I make him feel safer, which I thought was a nice compliment. (Unfortunately, I had to say no on that occasion; the other priest was specced for tank healing and I was on raidhealing in CoH spec).

Do I feel special as DPS? Only when the meter comes out and I did like 40% myself. And then, mostly, I feel antipathy for the other DPS rather than joy at my own performance.

Do I feel special healing? Every single time I save the group from a wipe for any reason. Every time I throw ProM at the right time and see it bounce 5 times in as many seconds. Every time I observe that the tank's incoming damage works out to less than the healing rate I can sustain forever.

I think I feel more special tanking than healing, but as a healer by original trade I get backseat-driver syndrome a lot more than I should. For the good of the healing community, I shouldn't tank until I can learn not to judge how they're healing me. ^^

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Q u o t e:
Very few, if any, people have ever told me 'Good DPS there Dusk'. Even if I'm sitting with 1700 sustained and the other two DPS are languishing behind the tank at 600.

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This is very true. Healers are important, but I think some people have an inflated view of the value of healers and tanks. A tank and a healer are critical for a group, but DPS are also important. As a DPS, I've had comments on things I've done, like off-tanking a rogue mob or intercepting mobs and guiding them to the tank, but rarely for the raw damage, yet my damage was consistently superb.

I get occasional compliments for good healing, but I think I'm in the kind of company where it's just expected that everyone is good and that it takes something truly amazing to impress each other. Personally I tend to offer compliments to the group a whole, since I wouldn't be grouping with bad players for long anyway.

I suppose it comes down to the fact that you can't be doing 'good healing' in a 5man. You either make the grade and clear it without problems, or you fail and endlessly wipe. You're either just good enough, or bad. I suppose this comes back to the 'defender' analagy that was used earlier - you only get noticed when things go wrong.