Post by Rheyna on Mar 13, 2006 3:30:32 GMT -5
((I have no idea where to put this, so I'm putting it here for lack of a better idea.))
Rheyna was up to her eyeballs in carnage. She was standing in the middle of what appeared to be a lair of spiders, but there had been trolls wandering around, too. She and two other priests, one druid and two paladins were working madly to keep a small band of adventurers alive.
They had been sent here to kill a mighty priest to an alien god, a foe of all that was good and right in the world. This priest not only had spiders as minions, but she seemed to be able to turn herself into a spider from time to time. When she did that, she immediately webbed all those who were up close and hitting her, and then forgot about them, and rushed towards the rest of the company to see who she could kill.
The fight was long and hard. It had taken several hours of careful and fierce fighting even to get to this point, to be able to take on this evil being, and now the fight seemed to be turning against them.
The healing team had conferred for quite awhile before the battle began. They all had their assignments and they knew what they had to do. The paladins were cleansing poisons and magic effects, as well as de-webbing the heavy fighters so they could drag the spider-priestess away from the vulnerable ranged attack squad. The druid was pouring heals that ran over time into those same heavy fighters, holding her battle rezz in reserve in case they lost a key member of the team. One priest was concentrating on the lead warrior, and when the paladins had a moment to spare, they, too were sending healing prayers towards that same warrior. The other two priests, of whom Rheyna was one, had a triage list. Their job was to keep the healers up and healing, and then the heavy fighters. After that, they were to try to keep the casters alive. Rogues and hunters had been told that they would, unfortunately, get the lowest priority in healing and that they should be prepared to exit the fight to bandage themselves if need be.
The fighting was furious, and it had been going on for hours. Rheyna and her comrades on the healing team were drained. The fight was not only brutal, but it required finesse. In order to beat this evil creature, the band of adventurers had to coordinate their attacks to the split second. A single spell cast out of order could lead to the deaths of the whole band.
Everyone had been warned to keep quiet except if absolutely necessary In order to make the split-second timing work, the paladins needed to know instantly when the warriors had been webbed. The ranged attack squad needed to know when they were about to be attacked. Everyone needed to hear instructions on increasing or decreasing the rate of damage they were doing. There was so much necessary communication required -- the healers had taken to communicating with one another using hand signals to avoid cluttering the already nosiy battle with their messages.
For awhile, things went well, then some of the rogues started to take a lot of damage. The healers did what they could for them, but when the heavy fighters got into trouble, the raid leader called for rogues to start taking themselves out of the fight to bandage and then return to the fray. This should have worked, but for some reason, several of the rogues kept yelling into the fray. They said things like:
"I'm hurt! Heal me!"
"Ivan needs healing!"
Susanka calls out for healing!
There was so much of this kind of yelling that it got harder to hear the critical messages. A paladin missed the lead warrior's warning that he had been webbed and failed to free him in time. The druid did not hear the instruction to use her battle rezz until the fourth time it was repeated. The battle went from difficult to impossible, and then people started to die.
Rheyna healed and healed, she prayed as hard as she could, she drank potions, she counted off the seconds needed to let her healing energy rebuild so she could keep going. She signaled her partner, and they took turns so that they never ran out of power. Soon, with the mistakes people were making because of the confusion, they had to stop working in so controlled a way and just resort to chain-healing their main targets. For awhile, they managed to keep the healing team alive, but then they lost the druid. Soon after that, the priest healing the lead warrior died, too, and Rheyna and one of the paladins had to take over that task. As less healing became available for people low on the triage list, more and more of them screamed out to be healed. And the confusion they created with their screams caused more mistakes.
As Rheyna lay dead, waiting for the paladin with the Soul Stone to recover and cast Redemption on the other paladin and then on the priests, she realized how angry she was. Unnecessary calls for healing had cost them their lives, and cost them the battle. They would have to retreat and try again another day.
((Okay y'all, here's the deal. If you have a mod or macro that automatically calls out for healing, I am begging you to turn it off. Think of it this way . . .
Either I am a competent healer or I am not. There are no other choices.
If I am competent, that means I have the tools and the skill to see the whole battle all at once. I am not only aware of who is bleeding health, but I am making decisions about the best way to ensure that the party survives this fight. If I am not healing you, it is either because I haven't gotten to you yet, or it's because I have decided that I cannot afford to heal you. I hate letting people die, or letting them fend for themselves, but I'll do it if it's the only way to save the whole party. You yelling out for healing suggests two things. It first suggests that I haven't noticed that you are losing health. It also suggests that screaming at me in the middle of a battle will get me to change my healing priorities. Neither of these suggestions is true.
If I am not a competent healer, nothing you say to me in the middle of the battle will make me a competent healer.
Therefore, automatically calling out for healing is somewhere between useless and seriously annoying.
In a very complex fight, like the ones in ZG or MC, it's worse. There, a lot is going on in /raid. DPS calls, announcements of MTs being webbed and needing BoF, announcements of who the target for a battle rezz should be, reassignments of healers when one goes down, instructions to rearrange the mana drain squad, and so on. If all five rogues and several hunters are auto-demanding healing when those classes have been told that they will receive no heals, and that they need to shed aggro, exit battle and bandage when their health goes down, then the repeated calls for healing will cause important messages to scroll by so quickly that they may be missed for no good reason -- remember, in this case, these people will not get healing no matter what. In cases like that, the automatic "heal me!" messages can contribute to wipes. Even people who *are* getting heals need to understand that healers are not deciding who to heal based on who asks for it.
Please. I'm begging you. Turn those things off. Useless at best, annoying most of the time, and downright dangerous in high-end raids.
Besides, I don't stand in the middle of the battle and scream at you to tell you how to do your job. Please don't do it to me.))
Rheyna was up to her eyeballs in carnage. She was standing in the middle of what appeared to be a lair of spiders, but there had been trolls wandering around, too. She and two other priests, one druid and two paladins were working madly to keep a small band of adventurers alive.
They had been sent here to kill a mighty priest to an alien god, a foe of all that was good and right in the world. This priest not only had spiders as minions, but she seemed to be able to turn herself into a spider from time to time. When she did that, she immediately webbed all those who were up close and hitting her, and then forgot about them, and rushed towards the rest of the company to see who she could kill.
The fight was long and hard. It had taken several hours of careful and fierce fighting even to get to this point, to be able to take on this evil being, and now the fight seemed to be turning against them.
The healing team had conferred for quite awhile before the battle began. They all had their assignments and they knew what they had to do. The paladins were cleansing poisons and magic effects, as well as de-webbing the heavy fighters so they could drag the spider-priestess away from the vulnerable ranged attack squad. The druid was pouring heals that ran over time into those same heavy fighters, holding her battle rezz in reserve in case they lost a key member of the team. One priest was concentrating on the lead warrior, and when the paladins had a moment to spare, they, too were sending healing prayers towards that same warrior. The other two priests, of whom Rheyna was one, had a triage list. Their job was to keep the healers up and healing, and then the heavy fighters. After that, they were to try to keep the casters alive. Rogues and hunters had been told that they would, unfortunately, get the lowest priority in healing and that they should be prepared to exit the fight to bandage themselves if need be.
The fighting was furious, and it had been going on for hours. Rheyna and her comrades on the healing team were drained. The fight was not only brutal, but it required finesse. In order to beat this evil creature, the band of adventurers had to coordinate their attacks to the split second. A single spell cast out of order could lead to the deaths of the whole band.
Everyone had been warned to keep quiet except if absolutely necessary In order to make the split-second timing work, the paladins needed to know instantly when the warriors had been webbed. The ranged attack squad needed to know when they were about to be attacked. Everyone needed to hear instructions on increasing or decreasing the rate of damage they were doing. There was so much necessary communication required -- the healers had taken to communicating with one another using hand signals to avoid cluttering the already nosiy battle with their messages.
For awhile, things went well, then some of the rogues started to take a lot of damage. The healers did what they could for them, but when the heavy fighters got into trouble, the raid leader called for rogues to start taking themselves out of the fight to bandage and then return to the fray. This should have worked, but for some reason, several of the rogues kept yelling into the fray. They said things like:
"I'm hurt! Heal me!"
"Ivan needs healing!"
Susanka calls out for healing!
There was so much of this kind of yelling that it got harder to hear the critical messages. A paladin missed the lead warrior's warning that he had been webbed and failed to free him in time. The druid did not hear the instruction to use her battle rezz until the fourth time it was repeated. The battle went from difficult to impossible, and then people started to die.
Rheyna healed and healed, she prayed as hard as she could, she drank potions, she counted off the seconds needed to let her healing energy rebuild so she could keep going. She signaled her partner, and they took turns so that they never ran out of power. Soon, with the mistakes people were making because of the confusion, they had to stop working in so controlled a way and just resort to chain-healing their main targets. For awhile, they managed to keep the healing team alive, but then they lost the druid. Soon after that, the priest healing the lead warrior died, too, and Rheyna and one of the paladins had to take over that task. As less healing became available for people low on the triage list, more and more of them screamed out to be healed. And the confusion they created with their screams caused more mistakes.
As Rheyna lay dead, waiting for the paladin with the Soul Stone to recover and cast Redemption on the other paladin and then on the priests, she realized how angry she was. Unnecessary calls for healing had cost them their lives, and cost them the battle. They would have to retreat and try again another day.
((Okay y'all, here's the deal. If you have a mod or macro that automatically calls out for healing, I am begging you to turn it off. Think of it this way . . .
Either I am a competent healer or I am not. There are no other choices.
If I am competent, that means I have the tools and the skill to see the whole battle all at once. I am not only aware of who is bleeding health, but I am making decisions about the best way to ensure that the party survives this fight. If I am not healing you, it is either because I haven't gotten to you yet, or it's because I have decided that I cannot afford to heal you. I hate letting people die, or letting them fend for themselves, but I'll do it if it's the only way to save the whole party. You yelling out for healing suggests two things. It first suggests that I haven't noticed that you are losing health. It also suggests that screaming at me in the middle of a battle will get me to change my healing priorities. Neither of these suggestions is true.
If I am not a competent healer, nothing you say to me in the middle of the battle will make me a competent healer.
Therefore, automatically calling out for healing is somewhere between useless and seriously annoying.
In a very complex fight, like the ones in ZG or MC, it's worse. There, a lot is going on in /raid. DPS calls, announcements of MTs being webbed and needing BoF, announcements of who the target for a battle rezz should be, reassignments of healers when one goes down, instructions to rearrange the mana drain squad, and so on. If all five rogues and several hunters are auto-demanding healing when those classes have been told that they will receive no heals, and that they need to shed aggro, exit battle and bandage when their health goes down, then the repeated calls for healing will cause important messages to scroll by so quickly that they may be missed for no good reason -- remember, in this case, these people will not get healing no matter what. In cases like that, the automatic "heal me!" messages can contribute to wipes. Even people who *are* getting heals need to understand that healers are not deciding who to heal based on who asks for it.
Please. I'm begging you. Turn those things off. Useless at best, annoying most of the time, and downright dangerous in high-end raids.
Besides, I don't stand in the middle of the battle and scream at you to tell you how to do your job. Please don't do it to me.))