Avoidance vs Effective Health: Healers not Focusing

Posted by admin on 04 9th, 2009

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Yesterday , we left off with a few points to discuss. There was a number of questions with one hot topic in particular being, does Avoidance actually save mana? Which frankly means, that I didn’t approach the first Myth in a very effective way. Let’s take a step back and re-focus what we’re talking about: We are talking about tanking Bosses We are talking about how easy a set is to heal I made a pretty bold assumption saying that it’s the exact same number of heals either way. The reality is that no guild or raid or run is going to have the same healer(s) and even the exact same healers can approach how they heal a fight differently given how things play out or even just based on their mood that day. We really can’t say that we’ll use the same amount of mana healing an Avoidance tank, but that’s part of the point because we also can’t really say we’ll save mana healing an Avoidance tank either. Regardless, this all distracts from the Myth at hand which is, “Avoidance tanks are easier to heal.” Healer Focus: Avoidance Healers have a lot of trouble focusing on a tank that’s at full health. It’s no secret that throwing an overheal feels very useless and as a result, Avoidance geared tanks end up simply unfocusing Healers at times. Basically, if you’re rage starved from a long string of Avoided attacks. Your healers are probably excitement starved. A bored healer often heals other people even if their job is to heal just a single tank. Healer Focus: Effective Health It’s very easy for Healers to focus on an Effective Health tank. They take a steady stream of damage, but also lose a lower percentage of their health from each hit. It allows healers to really get into a rhythm with the incoming damage on their tank. It’s true that there’ll be more situations where you “need” a heal, but your healer isn’t going to get unfocused with you and start risking your life by healing other people. Ease vs Preferred Healing Healers are people (I know shocking revelation) and as a result come in many different flavours, some prefer focused (tank) healing and some prefer unfocused (party) healing. However on top of that, some healers like to control their experience more than others as well. It’s for this very reason that some healers prefer to heal an Effective Health tank and some prefer to heal an Avoidance tank. A healer that is assigned to just heal the tank that prefers party healing, but is okay with being “controlled” will actually prefer to heal an Effective Health as the Effective Health tank will keep them on task. On the flip side, the same style of healer than doesn’t like being “controlled” will prefer an Avoidance tank as it gives them more room to party heal despite being assigned a focused healing task. If we look at healers that prefer focused healing assignments, you’ll find that both prefer Effective Health tanks. The difference is the okay with being “controlled” healer is fine with an Avoidance tank too as they’re fine with throwing the occasional non-tank heal to pass the time. The focused healer that wants to be in control doesn’t like an Avoidance tank as it leads to a lot of situations where they’re just casting meaningless heals over and over. (or queuing them and stopping them just before they will land) The focused healers have no desire to skip out on their assignment and as a result, an inconsistent level of engagement required will bore them to tears. The Healing Preference Table Effective Health Tank = EH Avoidance Tank = AV Likes being in Control Doesn’t care if they’re in Control Likes to Focus EH EH or AV Likes to Unfocus AV EH How easy healing is, is often associated not as much with just how much work it is and is more about the personality of the healer and if the frequency of incoming damage matches how the healer wants their healing experience to be. Basically, I’ve found when a healer says you’re “easier to heal this way”, they’re actually saying you’re “more enjoyable to heal this way”. Also, the idea of needs to be in “control” or doesn’t need to really just represents a healer’s flexibility in doing assignments outside of what they enjoy. So you shouldn’t necessarily interpret the above table as EH has 3 and AV has 2 so EH wins. It really just represents that EH is a little bit better at keeping healers focused on a focused healing assignment. Here’s the kicker though… all of this means nothing. Healer preferences has nothing to do with how a tank should gear. Picking the right set for the job isn’t about what makes your healers happier, but instead what gives you the best chance of surviving the frequency and size of the incoming damage. So ignore my healers? No, don’t ignore them, but take their feelings with a very large grain of salt. If a healer says they can’t keep up, you probably need a bit more Avoidance to break up the incoming damage. (read: soaking on Patchwerk) If a healer says they can’t respond fast enough to burst damage, you probably need a bit more Effective Health to give your healer more time to respond. (read: Malygos breath attacks) However, if a healer tells you with one setup that they don’t do as good on the healing meters or that they’re bored… well frankly, you should just nod, smile and ignore it. The next scheduled stop in the series will look at Under-gearing content and how we handle this situation. Once again feel free to leave any questions you’d like discussed in this on going series exploring Avoidance and Effective Health.

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