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Dk's too hard to heal?wtf healers?
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Post by
Skadja
DKs do take spikier damage, that's true. And DK tanks have taken some nasty nerfs lately (while Pallies get a built-in Guardian Spirit, yeah.) However, a healer has to be familiar with the tanks he will be healing. You don't get to go to sleep on the job, and just because you usually heal a Pally doesn't mean you can treat a DK like a Pally. Just as we recognize we have different tools than other healers do, we need to recognize that Tanks also have different tools to bring to the task.
In Heroics, as a Holy Priest, I find a steady stream of Shield, PoM, and Renew on a DK tank helps even out the damage taken immensely - I probably Renew a DK tank more than any other, precisely for this reason. Yeah, it'd be easier if I were Disc, but I can certainly handle a DK tank as Holy. And besides, a glyphed GS for those "oh crap" moments is wonderful.
A trait I really like in a tank is
communication
. When my brother tanks with his DK, he has a macro on his Icebound Fortitude to alert his Healer (usually me) that IBF is up and how long it will be. This lets me top him off, recognize that he won't be needing as much healing during IBF...and know that around the time it ends I need to be
ready to go
. Likewise, I appreciate Warriors who alert me to their use of Shield Wall. Tell your healer when you pop IBF, then they have no excuse to say "I didn't know you were about to take that kind of damage".
I don't have any trouble healing a decent DK tank. One who won't use any CDs at all - as a CD reliant class - is another matter ;) But that doesn't sound like it's the problem here.
Take a close look at your gear and rotation, just as a matter of course...but mostly, get better healers. And recognize that a lot of players are spoiled and expect that everybody no matter how freshly dinged have a ton of iLvL 245 stuff ;)
I've had DPS whisper me "Do you think you can heal that tank with his low hp?" when I've looked at the tank and am like...uh, I could heal that blindfolded. First time I did H ToC it was with a Warrior with 22K hp unbuffed, both of us had dinged around the same time so I didn't have fantastic gear either. One of the DPSes had superior gear to me, the other two did not. It was fine, though yes, it was a guild run and we did wipe a few times before getting it. Still, people are spoiled.
Post by
Bllets
From an experienced resto shaman's PoV, I always have to heal DKs more often than other tanks. Why this is, I don't know, as I haven't dabbled in the Death Knight since there are a trillion of them. I'm guessing it's because of the lack of a shield, however I do not have this problem with bear tanks, so it may lie elsewhere. Also, 90 percent of the DKs that I PUG heroics with are terrible, I'll be honest. I'm not sayin all DKs are bad, as I've seen excellent ones, but there are many giving them a bad name.
I still think it's total bullcrap you guys can't use shields...
Bears are given the increased armor. That was taken away from us. :<
Post by
404185
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Warriorforlife
Warriors and pallys have shield Block Value.I have a blast tanking heroics on my warrior with 2000 less damage taken from EVERY hit and EVERY Mob,I always have blood runes on Cooldown and still have healers complaining.I think Dk's should be able to use shields so we can have better survivatilibity.
Post by
sunwukung
Healers like me. Some even tell me how amazed they are when I pull a large group and take the same amount of damage as when I was tanking a small group.
Post by
Bllets
Warriors and pallys have shield Block Value.I have a blast tanking heroics on my warrior with 2000 less damage taken from EVERY hit and EVERY Mob,I always have blood runes on Cooldown and still have healers complaining.I think Dk's should be able to use shields so we can have better survivatilibity.
Give me a shield and i'll roll DPS as main spec.
There is a reason I play a DK and not a pala. One of them is the shield.
Post by
sunwukung
IMO, shields are overrated. L2dodgemore. HAHA
Post by
GenXCub
I'm on both sides of this, as mostly a healer, but I also DK tank (not in raids... I leave that to more insane people while I heal).
In Burning Crusade, I actually preferred bear tanks because the incoming damage was more predictable. Bears got hit with big hits more often, and they could soak the damage.
Then they gave Bear Tanks a shield in LK. Savage Defense. it smoothed out the damage even more among the original 3 tanks.
I'll see a DK tank with almost 40k hit points run into heroic VH and have the packs of 3 slap him down to 10k in 2 seconds, and it makes me realize the druid shield got me out of my old habit of just throwing spells all the time like I did in Kara, Gruul, Mags, and TK.
DK's, you aren't tougher to heal, but you're very different from the other 3. You're not even similar to bears because of Savage Defense. Your healer needs to know how to heal a DK, and that you WILL take more damage than a warrior or paladin. You repay them by being able to blow good cooldowns during big damage enrages, and keeping a huge threat lead, so that I never have to throw a giant heal on a rogue.
DK's, your healers don't suck. For being the new 'huntard' out there, I think it is every DK's job to help people understand the best way to play with them. Don't throw the blame around, just let people know that it can be easy to fall into the paladin tank trap of easy healing. Heroics in Burning Crusade used to be tough on all tanks, and healers had to do stutter casting all the time with giant heals, and they've gotten out of practice.
Post by
Modibybob
IMO, shields are overrated. L2dodgemore. HAHA
While taking avoidance over mitigation is always better, it's best to keep in mind that blocking is not subject to diminishing returns, while dodge/parry is...not that DKs need to be concerned with blocking anways... =<
Post by
sunwukung
DK's have shields. Its called letting the DPS'er with the most agro have full agro and die. Living Shields FTW!
No, really I am joking. I try to not let people die when I am tanking. Too many DK's haters as it is.
Post by
353266
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
sunwukung
All I know is that the next time I get told that DK's can't tank raids, I will kindly tell them that I solo'ed Anub and his adds(ToC10) as a Frost tank. If they argue with me, ignore. Their loss.
Post by
307569
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
dizzll
As a holy pally I have no trouble with healing dk's (exception being retards), but my buddy who is a better geared drood does? Have no idea, I'm just glad I don't have to reject someone based on class...
Post by
474779
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
385615
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Hennix
I have noticed a small difference in healing dk's then healing shieldwearing classes but it's not that big a difference to complain about, as long the dk's got gear for tanking and knows what he's doing(like with all classes)
Post by
Animer
Tanking and Healing are the 2 "hardest" roles to play in a Heroic dungeon or raid. It's the classes that needs to be 'awake' the whole time and know what's going on. Sadly since tanks and healers get the easiest into groups, people that do not know what they are doing tend to play them. Not in all cases but it happens. Don't get me wrong I've seen great tanks and healers, but I've seen loads of epic noobs as well.
On topic as it was said before, DK are a CD based tanking class. If you are defense capped and you've learned how to manage your cd then don't mind what the healers say, since if you keep agro and doing your job then they shouldn't complain that they need to use more than one healing spell to keep you alive!
The tanking styles differ as does the healing class styles differ. Not to sound like an elitist but the L2P can be a factor since there are people that don't take the time to read up and learn there class.
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