Grouping with Priests for the non Priest

So, some of you may not be Priests, you may just be reading up on Priests to better understand the class, good for you! For you, it is important to discuss what other classes need to understand to group well with a Priest. For Priests reading this, feel free to send this part to errant party members. These are suggested contributions for each class, they are not intended to be the sole thing you do, nor hard and fast rules. However, if at a minimum, you follow these suggestions, your Priest will love you, and your groups will do much better.

 

Rogues:

            Rogues are one of the two most troublesome classes for Priests. Most Rogues are pretty good at their class, and they can do a ton of damage which is often the problem. Many Rogues have issues when it comes to avoiding aggro and they end up taking much more damage than they should, which means a Priest must use far more mana than they should keeping them alive.  This in turn creates far more healing aggro than it should. As a Rogue, you should not be taking very many hits at all in a group/raid. If you start taking damage, you need to back off and let the tank take aggro back. At the start of a fight, consider holding off on using cheap shot until the Warrior has secured aggro.  This will reduce the likelihood of you taking damage, enable the Warrior to improve their chances of retaining aggro and enable the Warrior to gain more rage to power the abilities that will facilitate their keeping aggro off of the Priest.  Remember, if it comes to a choice between healing the Warrior, and the Rogue, the Warrior will always win.

 

Warlock:

            Not much to say here, except you should always keep Soul Stone on the Priest, never expect the Priest to have your pet as a primary healing target, unless its been specified before hand, and if you are going to convert tons of health, learn to bandage, do not waste too much of your Priests mana healing you unawares.

 

Warrior:

            You are, as you know, the tank. You need to make sure to get some kind of aggro on each and every mob in a pull, so the Priests first heal does not pull mobs to him. You also should get in the habit of watching the Priest’s health, and if something goes for him, pull it off immediately. If you are the secondary tank this is a great opportunity for you to shine, by keeping mobs off the Priest so he can heal.

 

Druid:

            Keep an eye on the Priest’s health. You are a great healer in your own right, and have other things to add to a group. If there is a Priest in your group, watch for his health dropping and heal him immediately, and help out with the healing by healing non-tanks. Try to manage your heals so you are not healing the same target as the Priest, unless it is an emergency.

 

Mage:

            You can help the Priest by freezing things that have aggro’d him, just be ready with your own shield after they break because the Priest might not be in a position to shield/heal you right away. You also need to be careful to not over nuke, or nuke too early in a fight. As with the Rogue, if a Priest has to heal you, its mana wasted. Be sure your Priest is aware that you need to aoe, so he can drop a shield on you, and watch for shackled mobs, nothing annoys me more than a Mage using AoE and breaking my shackles.  Also, try to keep you Priest buffed with Arcane Intellect and well supplied with Conjured Water.

 

Shaman:

            A bad Shaman is the bane of my existence. Shaman are usually elected as backup healer, but many are not inclined to take this role. From a Priest’s perspective, a Shaman’s number one responsibility when partied with a Priest is to watch the Priest’s health, and if he is getting hit, to heal him immediately. Not 10 seconds later, not 5 seconds later, but immediately. A Priest should never have to heal himself, this just draws more aggro. You can also pull mobs off the Priest if his Fade does not work, just be sure to do it right away. You also will put totems down, and can add dps to the fight. A Shaman who can do all three things simultaneously is phenomenal; however they are a rare breed.  If you cannot handle melee and watching the Priest’s health at the same time, then do not engage in melee activities. Shaman also can backup the Priest on healing duty, similar to a druid. It is preferable for the Shaman to watch soft classes in particular, and save his mana for healing the Priest as the primary healer and for healing the Warrior in bad situations as the primary tank.

 

Hunters:

Some hunters will try to pull aggro off the Priest from behind. While well-intentioned, this is a bad idea, since the Hunter is also a soft class, and since the end result is that other party members end up racing back and forth, running even farther to grab that mob, now to save the Hunter. Also, sometimes the Hunter will try to feign death, once pulled off the Priest, but then the mob just goes back to the Priest so this tactic is ineffective. It has been suggested, that a Hunter can use his pet to draw aggro off the Priest, and this will be tested more thoroughly for updates to this guide this as it sounds like a great use for a pet, however that Hunter would need to have great control of his pet. Also, Hunters should be considered similar to a Mage, in that they need to watch the over nuking (overshooting?) and try to do as much damage as possible while avoiding drawing aggro off the tanks.

 

What it boils down to, is it is the entire party’s job to keep the Priest from drawing aggro, and it is the entire party’s job to help pull aggro off the Priest when he does. It’s a group effort, the Priest is a force multiplier and will help you take on fights that you are sure you’d never win, but you must keep him alive for him to do this.