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Healing Aggro - 2005/10/20 09:43
This is part of a draft article on healing. Please add your corrections, comments and questions.
== HEALING AGGRO ==(draft 2005.1020)== Healing generates Threat that causes mobs to aggro on the healers if the tanks can’t hold on to them. Healing Threat accumulates per health point healed and does not dissipate over time, which means the only determinants are the amount healed, the timing of the heal, and which mobs are aware of the target of your healing. For extensive discussion of healing aggro and aggro management/tanking and related healing issues see Tactical Manual 201.
There are two opposite scenarios to keep in mind. First, a party vs. a single miniboss with a tank with heavy damage mitigation. If the tank holds the mob and takes all the damage, it will be greatly reduced by armor and defensive stance and require the minimum amount of healing. It is very unlikely healing Threat will exceed tanking Threat. The more common problem is that a Mage or Rogue will create damage Threat, pull aggro, and take heavy damage that requires heavy healing, or that the tank dies due to a string of critical hits and the mob aggroes on the next person on its list. This is the situation in which your healing Threat is liable to earn you aggro.
The second scenario is a party vs. a large number of active mobs. The tank has the challenge of building threat enough to hold all the mobs. The group helps him by targeting all damage on one mob selected by the Main Assist, usually a melee class, so that the tank only has to compete with damage Threat with the party on that one mob. This means he can hit the others a few times to build light aggro and focus on the targeted mob, which quickly goes down under heavy attack, as do the others in turn. The danger here is not for the players doing damage so much as the healer, because all the mobs are aware of the tank and your heals on the tank build healing Threat for each mob. (If you heal another party member, only the mobs aware of that member – ideally just the one being targeted at the moment – will gain hate against you.) who has tagged only If your healing Threat grows faster on each mob than the tank’s Threat, you will eventually get aggro from one mob, then more. If the tank dies, you are next on the list of all the mobs except the one being targeted by the group. So the challenge is to keep the tank safely alive but try to build healing aggro at the slowest rate that is safe. Don’t top off the tank in this situation, but you must ensure he has enough health to take a few crits without falling. The better the tank’s mitigation (does he have a shield?), the less damage he takes per hit (note that armor does not matter vs. casters), the less you need to heal, and the slower your risk increases. The higher the tank’s health, the more damage you can let him take before starting to heal and build healing Threat, and the more upside room so that larger heals are not wasted.
If you do get aggro and can’t shake it with Fade if you are a Priest, you may kill it if it is almost dead but if it has ample health left try to avoid damage to it and group healing in order to make it easier for a tank or off tank to pull it off. Either way, hit your “Help ME. Healer aggro!” emote/yell button, use Barkskin if a Druid, and move towards the tank (don’t run away so the tank has to chase you!) to make it easier for him to grab this mob. This is when the secondary healer steps in to heal you and the group until you are clear.
In general, healers should not be doing damage as that increases their Threat. The exception is jabbing at the main target while healing in order to proc free or instant heals, such as the Druidic Omen of Clarity. Another exception is that healers who go OOM can do some damage (if necessary) while they regenerate mana. Priests can Wand, Druids can go to Cat (since Bear builds added Threat), while Shamans and Paladins pull out their 2 handers. However, if a Druid healer is high on health while everyone else is low then going to Bear and pulling the mobs (with Challenging Roar if needed) may be the most help to the group.
Bear form is also a defensive alternative for a Druid who pulls serious aggro - it burns mana but extends your lifespan - stun and frenzied regen but avoid attacking that would glue the mob to you unless you are switching to off tank rather than planning to pop back out to heal. Tell the group ahead of time means that Bear = serious healer aggro. Druids should remember to keep the tanks thorned to significantly increase Threat generation for the tank against multiple mobs.
Many players seem to think that the priority is doing maximum damage and the number of mobs focused on at one time or the group damage taken is irrelevant as long as the healers have some mana left to heal it. It pays to explain to those players intelligent enough to understand that asking the group to use assists, the tank to use a shield, and the group not to expect being topped off against multiple mobs is not about how much mana you have but about how much aggro you will get. It is aggro management that makes the biggest difference between a good group and a bad group.
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