CrimsonSpectre’s recent post on being a good cleric brought up some thoughts on an older post I read on how to help your healer, which, as most of us who have played healers know is mostly a thankless job.

The way to tell you’ve got a great healer in the party is you never even know he or she is there.  You’re always buffed and you never once sweat the condition of your red bar.  That said good healers can spend a good deal on consumables and the older post I mentioned dealt mostly with “tithing”, that is, paying for/replacing any used consumables.  Unless your healer is still green the plat for a few scrolls isn’t a concern.  There are other ways to help your healer by helping yourself that go MUCH further.

Survivability is the biggest factor in keeping your healer happy.  You can never have too many HPs and DR is like gravy on top of it, even a little DR adds up.  Trust me we like seeing high hp characters and if you ever hear a healer complain about a character having too many HPs, he’s either new to the role or an idiot.  There’s absolutely no sweating a immovable and resolute paladin or a big angry barbarian no matter how much he frenzies.  We know they can get hit by a car or bit in half and shrug it off and be fine.  The last thing we want to see join a party is some squishy 2xxhp bloodstain-in-waiting.  The enemies don’t look at you as an adversary.  They look at you as a snack. When there’s random aggro or AoE, the healer is going to need to devote more time/energy/resources on a single character instead of the entire party or enemy which causes problems in long battles.  I call this babysitting.  We do not like babysitting.

Not every class can have 600+ HPs so be mindful of your surroundings and manage your aggro.  Not every fight is a tanked boss battle, but if you’re a class not suited towards getting Mr. Ugly’s attention, try not to get it.  If you find yourself drawing aggro let the sturdier characters get an extra hit or two in before wailing on the bad guy.  Make sure you’re out of the AoEs but close at hand to get healed. Stay grouped together.  Spot healing is a pain and can cause trouble if Heal is on timer when the tank takes a nasty spell to the face.

If you’re going to be in the melee pile one of the things we healers love to see is heal amp, and not just on the tank.  An extra 10 or 20% adds up and is greatly appreciated.  If you’re a main tank, heal amp lets us scroll or aura heal you much easier saving our SP for other things.  100+ aura crits make us very happy. Have Healer’s Friend if you’re a WF melee.  This should go without saying.

Casters, if you notice someone taking a crazy amount of melee damage for some reason, drop a displace on him.  You don’t have to cover the whole party but one spell can go a long way to ensuring success or making things easier.  If you’re non-healable or a self-healer let your healer know and by all means BE GOOD AT IT.  Don’t cost your healer and the rest of your party 10% by being a lousy PM.  If you’re a wf caster, let the healer heal you.  Trust me, we don’t mind, its what we do and we much prefer your sp be directed towards the enemy with as much hostility as you can muster.

Last but not least, and I’m sure there’s more that hasn’t come to mind. . . . Thank them! Next time you finish an epic boss off and you see your cleric with a ton of sp left compliment him on it (provided he was DoTing the whole time and not piking ).  Everyone appreciates compliments and kind words.

PS Another thing comes to mind. . . . Don’t pester them! Unless its someone you know, don’t send unsolicited tells begging them to come heal your quest.  That’s what LFMs are for.  If we’re looking for something to do we’ve already seen your ad and if we didn’t join do the math. . . .