Quote:
Originally Posted by gahnand
...Usually the MT group has a defiler, so the mystic is pretty much screwed in that he cannot cast single target wards on the MT (or it will wipe the defiler's which is very bad).
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I disagree. In a heavy fight where the MT Shaman's wards are falling faster than they can get them back up, or the MT's life is even going up and down, it is then proper to overward the MT Shaman.
Most Boss fights are single target mobs, so off tank groups do not need all the potential HPS contained in those groups. When the MT's life is going up and down, to not use
more instead of
less of the HPS contained in the non-MT groups to keep the MT alive is much more of a waste than the unlikely probability you will cancel a freshly cast ward by the MT Shaman. Ofcourse, the opposite is true as well. If the MT is stable it is a waste to overward the MT Shaman.
The way SoE has designed the healing classes in EQ is much like an onion skin. We have the Shaman's Wards on the outside, the Cleric's Reactives beneath the wards, and the Druid's HoTs and everyone's direct heals below the Reactives. The wards take the damage from the mobs first, so the wards are usually not at 100% health
ever, and if heavy constant damage is occuring, most likely not there at all.
My lawyer advised me to state one disclaimer: Every raid force and fight is different, so I leave it up to you to determine if it is proper to overward your MT Shaman in any particular situation you find your self in. -end of disclaimer
One instance where you might not want to overward your MT Shaman is when they have Master wards and you do not, you have inferior gear to the MT Shaman, or if there is only one Dirge in the raid
and they tell your they don't put Gravitas on you usually (Remember the Dirges can and should be putting Gravitas on four healers in raid, and they can not spam it on only one or two healers due to the nature of the spell - look it up.) However, in any fight where the MT is taking large spike damage, or there is a chance of both the wards and reactives to be down at any time, the priority should be to replace the wards and reactives instead of spamming just raw heals cross raid.
One example of what I mean:
Before a fight, the MT is warded with a group ward and single target ward for a total of lets say 15,000. The fight starts. The MT begins taking 10,000 point hits every second, and the wards on the MT now drop to 5,000 in one second, and zero the next second. I am sure the MT Shaman has noticed and is already in the middle of casting another ward which might take 2-4 seconds, but eventually if these big hits keep landing our poor MT will have no wards left on him and will have to depend on the Cleric's reactives and any HoT heals on the tank which might not cut it. Now if an offtank Shaman happens to be spamming their single target ward instead, then when that second or third 10,000 point attack lands on the MT there will be a ward absorbing part of it instead of a reactive taking it all. If the off tank Shaman were
only spamming heals instead of wards the heals cast would have no effect unless even the Cleric's reactives were gone, then the tank will most likely die if he keeps getting pummeled with large hits. Although, if you instead cast a ward and then the MT Shaman finished casting their ward right after yours goes down you "Kept the Shields Up" instead of loosing your safety blanket of reactives or maybe even the tanks's health.
Ofcourse, once you cast your single target ward, you can cast your three other single target heals incase the wards and reactives failed anyways. Another bonus to casting four heals instead of three on the MT is that your ward and mit procs have a 10-25% higher probability of landing on the MT as well, like Hate Shield, Runic Cover, Hate's Fate, Ancestral Barrier, Star Darkened Armoring, etc... If the MT healers have the same gear as you, it is possible to keeps these added heal based procs up all the time instead of only occasionally.
Stoicism
