Over the months I’ve stopped expecting heals on my pets, just because so many healers don’t. I raid with pet survival in mind, pulling her back when a ‘bad’ fire wall appears, or a melee void zone. Heigan is the one fight that really irritates me, since as SV I don’t have the points in Improved Mend Pet to dispel the disease on my own.

In addition with the pre-3.1 6/14/51 spec, I can squeeze out that extra 1% damage from having my pet alive.

Another good reason to keep pets alive, especially for SV and MM, is that spending 8.7 seconds to pet-rez is not fun at all. When my pet dies, unless my pet is specced for/Heart of the Phoenix is up, I usually have to leave it dead for the remainder of the fight because I just lose so much dps if I stop to rez it.

But I was starting to feel guilty and wondered if it isn’t part of my job to heal the pets anyway. But no hunter ever complained about it so I’d figured it was fine.
I still couldn’t decide wether to heal them or not,though do I decided that hunters could give a better opinion about it. So I made a promise I would start healing pets again if a hunter would make a comment about it.
I haven’t healed a pet for two years, until now.
I guess it’s time to put the pet hp bar back into my UI.

Healers same same, play a Hunter so you can get their side too.

A line by line tutorial on Grid would be much appreciated on getting Pets on my Raid Grid – they are already on my Group Grid.

Everybody has different ways of doing what they do, but I don’t ever want to hear bitching or a single groan from Healers on 1% wipes if they refused to heal a pet.

I think you’ve blown things out of proportion and gotten really touchy on this subject.

This post was for healers, not hunters. I think if you read through Amiva’s blog, or had ever played with him, you’d see that he advocates hunters healing their pets as well. He’s pretty darn good at pet management–I know, I raid with the dude.

As far as the quality of the post goes, I’d say it’s one of our best ever for generating discussion. That’s what blogging is all about–exchange of ideas, leading to improvement in our technique. I think all the debate on this question shows that Amiva’s message is one that a lot of healers need to hear.

In the cycle of learning things, the first step is often resistance–why do I need to learn that? My way is better! Eventually, though, people will try out a new technique or idea. After all, the only way to figure out whether you’re a better healer if you sometimes heal pets is to try it out and see what the results are.

This is a lesson I encountered in BC–and yes, I’m a better healer because Judit made me heal pets. For me at least, this was something I needed to do. If I restricted my healing to only players who were managing their resources perfectly, well, I’d be a pretty crappy healer. It’s much easier to think well, if Grid tells me someone or their pet needs help, I provide it. Thinking through whether the Grid square in question “deserves” my heal is a big time waster, at least for me.

If someone were to suggest that hunters should get into melee range and whack on the mob, then you’d agree that that would be highly ignorant of the class capabilities. There’s even a derogatory name for that kind of hunter.

Similarly bandaging a pet. Just because hunters out there do it, doesn’t mean it’s smart. We get our pets at level 10, we learn Mend Pet at level 12. We learn Feed Pet at level 10. We are quickly taught to feed our pets to maintain happiness. Why bandage a pet out of combat when you can feed it. Bandaging a pet in combat, when soloing, is pointless – you either recall the pet and the mob trails over to you, or you run over into your dead zone.

Bandaging a pet when someone else is tanking – that’s entirely possible albeit still inefficient. If I have mana then an instant cast mend pet is better. If I don’t have mana then recall the pet and let it sit by my side, wounded, while (a) Spirit Bond gives it a tick or two, and (b) papa works his AotV mojo (one hit and I’ve sufficient mana again for an instant cast mend pet, much smarter than an 8 second channel when I really need to be regenerating mana instead). If there’s a DoT active and I’m out of mana, then I might try getting one tick of a bandage on the pet before it’s interrupted by said damage. Heck, depending on the boss fight, I’ll even squeeze in a Feign Death & Feed Pet during phase changes (only works on a few fights, but always fun seeing the surprise from other players).

“C’mon, you’re seriously saying that I’m ignorant because I suggested bandaging a pet?”

I didn’t say you were ignorant, I said your ignorance was showing. One is labeling you on a personal level, the other is a comment on your depth of understanding of a class capabilities and strengths and optimum play flow.

Were you showing your ignorance of class capabilities and optimum play flow for suggesting bandaging pets during _solo-leveling_ as a _preferred_ option? Yes.

Consider: would I be displaying a profound ignorance of your class abilities and strengths by suggesting you spam Holy Nova as your main solo-leveling spell, and carrying that over into group play as your main healing spell? I’m betting I would be.

“Well, I guess no one is ever going to convince you that you should ever heal a pet.”

I just haven’t seen a situation where a hunter couldn’t reasonably manage their own pet’s health. That’s all. If a raid is so DPS-starved that a healed pet made all the difference then there are other problems to address. I would rather be effective at the other X number of higher priorities than judge if healing the pet is worth the effort.

I understand no one (hopefully) is arguing to heal pets above others, however I would have much rather seen a disclaimer link at the start of the article, “How to effectively heal your pet in raids.” Does that make sense? I’m being sincere – from the perspective of a healer looking at the hunter’s request to heal their pet, wouldn’t you want to see there had been due diligence?

Knowing that the hunter has done everything they can to commit maximum DPS and heal their pet goes a long way to show me they aren’t using my mana as a crutch. It’s beyond frustrating to hear statements like Garumoo’s:

“… just because the healers are having an easy time doesn’t mean the rest of the raid can take time out to do their job for them.”

This further displays the ignorance I’ve seen over and over in raids: Everyone is responsible for their own survivability and that includes pets. “Easy time” is subjective and further derails the discussion. The healer’s job isn’t to just “heal” – their job is to do so effectively keep the raid alive until the end of the fight, not facilitate a Recount race or /flex over who got max DPS at the expense of wasting a healer’s mana.

I R SO IGNURUNT!

LOL – thanks for bringing to my attention that I’m so ignorant – obviously because you never ever bandaged your pet, therefore no one ever needs to or has in the history of WOW bandaged their pet. Sorry I don’t have a blog to link so as to prove to you my narcissistic intelligence. (C’mon, you’re seriously saying that I’m ignorant because I suggested bandaging a pet?)

Anywho, my experience with DPS races is that the healers are typically tasked with juggling so many variables that again, watching a pet bar is an inconvenience. Think Gruul pre-farm. Sure the pet adds to the DPS but again if it’s your pet, it’s your responsibility. I’m not saying that every single instance or raid tasks the healer’s attention to the max however I will always guard my mana pool from excessive waste.

Again, my point is: if a hunter has mana (and with AotV there shouldn’t be a mana problem) and without bandages then there’s no reason I should have to manage their pet’s health for them. If some healers want to do so, then fine – I’m not saying it’s a waste for them, however it is my choice to delegate pet health to its owner.

Well, I guess no one is ever going to convince you that you should ever heal a pet. Grats on being extremely set in your ways! I’m sure that’s a successful tactic for improving your own healing in raids.

I’d just like to reiterate that no one is suggesting here to prioritize healing pets over players or to heal them when your mana management doesn’t allow for it. A good healer should know when he or she can afford a GCD for a pet. At least in my raid experience, this happens pretty often if you’re playing in a team of capable healers. Sure, it’s not every fight–but it might even be most of them.

Neither am I suggesting that hunters shouldn’t heal their own pets. I have observed, however, that what they can do isn’t always enough to keep the pet alive, not since the days of the 2 pc T5 bonus anyway.