Go roll a healer. Seriously

[TheSavage]

The current theory on Orien is that the healers have formed a union and all gone on strike without telling anyone...

[Baervan]

Hireling healbots may help out some pugs but the answer is that there are simply too few healers on at any one time. Have a look at the LFM page and tell me I'm wrong.

DDO needs the druid class and it needs to be F2P to help with the healer shortage.

[Sarisa]

Playing both cleric and favored soul to 20 does give great perspective and strongly influences how I build and play my fighter, trap wizard and barbarian. They stick close to clerics' auras whenever reasonable and never ask favored souls for top offs while I've got more than 25% HP left. I build characters with as much HP as I can reasonably squeeze in because they're the cheapest and easiest to keep up.

This is so, so true. My Cleric was my only character for the first six months I played. Capped, TR'ed, and capped again before I made a second character. My bard has UMD and heal boosting equipment. My 18/2 archmage in the making has enough UMD to wand heal now, and soon will be able to do Heal scrolls. I carry pots and top myself off without bothering the divine casters, uses the aura whenever possible (but I'll be separated from the group on both for traps/locks/etc), and both use CC a lot more than most others I see in PUG's. I have about as much HP as I can squeeze out of them for the same reason you mentioned, easier to keep up.

[unfiguroutable]

I am always "grouped" so if you didn't talk to me based on that you would never talk to me. I am also always annon on any toon that can heal. I also never play my highest (was max) level toon becuase he is a cleric. I have zero interest in healing in this or any other game. I do remember what you're talking about though. On a normal night my cleric would get tells so often I would turn off incoming "tell" from time to time.

[der_kluge]

If I do, does that make me a "Holy Roller"?

Playing both cleric and favored soul to 20 does give great perspective and strongly influences how I build and play my fighter, trap wizard and barbarian. They stick close to clerics' auras whenever reasonable and never ask favored souls for top offs while I've got more than 25% HP left. I build characters with as much HP as I can reasonably squeeze in because they're the cheapest and easiest to keep up.

Though I almost always PUG, I don't often respond to those tells if I'm already in a quest and I don't think there are any hard feelings about that. I've been getting a lot of those for SoS lately which is funny because it's one of the few things you're NOT likely to be flagged for already. Do other people stockpile those essenses and not use them right away?

I'm 1 essence shy of having 2 full sets in the bank. *shrug*

[TheIvanovFamily]

I have two capped and geared FvS's on Cannith. I get a moderate amount of tells/requests to join stuff, all of which I reply to with either a "no thanks" or "sure." I have never been anonymous, because I can spare the few odd seconds required to type "/r no thanks" without having an aneurysm because someone sent me a tell. The point of that statement is to point out that i am decently reasonable and tolerant when it comes to playing well with others.

However, more often than not i decline these tells because I either do not wish to do the quest/raid they are on, or have seen the LFM up and avoid it due to what it contains (whether that means people, builds, or whatever sillyness).

The problem in endgame Cannith content is not that there are an insufficient quantity of divines. Rather, there are more than enough divines, but they don't want to do the raids you are doing, or they want to do the raids you are doing, just not with you. Lately there seems to be a large quantity of capped characters that exhibit... highly insufficient or otherwise unacceptable performance.

Here is a rather simple and common sense approach to attracting divines to your raids:

1) Realize that the divine is not there to save a bad or otherwise failed raid. They may possess the ability to do so, but they are in no way required to spend their own personal resources to act as a bilge pump for a Failboat. Nobody cares about the SP pots they spent once the raid is over, and they are usually not compensated for them, even if people say they will beforehand.

2) While a cookie-cutter party/raid makeup is not necessary for success, it is important that it at least looks like a feasible combination if you want a divine to be interested in joining. No divine is going to be enthusiastic about joining a group that looks like couldn't survive without being constantly hooked up to life support.

3) Remove Curse, Neutralize Poison, Blindness Removal, Lesser Restoration, etc. Potions, how do they work? Carry potions, because divines are not your personal convenience-dispensers. It's cheaper to rez you than it is to remove your curses for you. No, I do not carry Feast, the Auction House is that way if you need a poison immunity item and can't be bothered to carry potions for it.

4) Wear your big-boy pants. Just because you are bad at maintaining a positive hit point total does not mean that the divine drop what they are doing and rush to re-fill your red bar. If Horoth is mostly full and your support melee can't be bothered to not get cleaved horribly due to bad positioning, you get to die (and most likely get your stone moved to the far corner by the portals). It's called prioritization and triage.

Being known as a responsible and reasonable player will make divines MUCH more likely to join your raids. Being known as a responsible and reasonable player that also requires people that join his/her raids to act the same will have divines fighting over who get a spot on your raids.

The More You Know™

[aurum1]

I also got a few tells last night while I was actively in eADQ, eVON, ToD... I certainly understand asking for people to fill your group, but at least look to see if the people you're recruiting are in quest before sending /tells. It's not like I was standing around the market, I was in a group and in a quest. I'm pretty polite to the ones that ask if I am standing around, but usually don't bother to answer the ones while I'm in quest. *shrug* I'll just use the anonymous feature if it gets bad, but a little courtesy would be nice.

Wow if Holy is getting random tells the vendors must be out of Wyoh...

[der_kluge]

The More You Know™

5) Heavy Fortification isn't a novelty item. Find one, and wear it. Even if it means taking a lower AC on your armor.

[TheIvanovFamily]

5) Heavy Fortification isn't a novelty item. Find one, and wear it. Even if it means taking a lower AC on your armor.

I was trying to assume a base competency, but you're probably right that I should have added this :3

[mws2970]

I have two capped and geared FvS's on Cannith. I get a moderate amount of tells/requests to join stuff, all of which I reply to with either a "no thanks" or "sure." I have never been anonymous, because I can spare the few odd seconds required to type "/r no thanks" without having an aneurysm because someone sent me a tell. The point of that statement is to point out that i am decently reasonable and tolerant when it comes to playing well with others.

However, more often than not i decline these tells because I either do not wish to do the quest/raid they are on, or have seen the LFM up and avoid it due to what it contains (whether that means people, builds, or whatever sillyness).

The problem in endgame Cannith content is not that there are an insufficient quantity of divines. Rather, there are more than enough divines, but they don't want to do the raids you are doing, or they want to do the raids you are doing, just not with you. Lately there seems to be a large quantity of capped characters that exhibit... highly insufficient or otherwise unacceptable performance.

Here is a rather simple and common sense approach to attracting divines to your raids:

1) Realize that the divine is not there to save a bad or otherwise failed raid. They may possess the ability to do so, but they are in no way required to spend their own personal resources to act as a bilge pump for a Failboat. Nobody cares about the SP pots they spent once the raid is over, and they are usually not compensated for them, even if people say they will beforehand.

2) While a cookie-cutter party/raid makeup is not necessary for success, it is important that it at least looks like a feasible combination if you want a divine to be interested in joining. No divine is going to be enthusiastic about joining a group that looks like couldn't survive without being constantly hooked up to life support.

3) Remove Curse, Neutralize Poison, Blindness Removal, Lesser Restoration, etc. Potions, how do they work? Carry potions, because divines are not your personal convenience-dispensers. It's cheaper to rez you than it is to remove your curses for you. No, I do not carry Feast, the Auction House is that way if you need a poison immunity item and can't be bothered to carry potions for it.

4) Wear your big-boy pants. Just because you are bad at maintaining a positive hit point total does not mean that the divine drop what they are doing and rush to re-fill your red bar. If Horoth is mostly full and your support melee can't be bothered to not get cleaved horribly due to bad positioning, you get to die (and most likely get your stone moved to the far corner by the portals). It's called prioritization and triage.

Being known as a responsible and reasonable player will make divines MUCH more likely to join your raids. Being known as a responsible and reasonable player that also requires people that join his/her raids to act the same will have divines fighting over who get a spot on your raids.

The More You Know™

Wow, very well stated!! (except leaving out about heavy fort :P) +1

One other thing about the most popular heavy fort helm in the game......ZOMG.....it has an additional 20HP too!

[arjiwan]

log off, and go roll up a healer.

You'll almost never have to wait for another PUG group to fill, and you'll almost never be denied a spot!

But but, but sir, I did roll one. I was denied a spot

17-20 LFM Let the sleeping dust lie quest on Normal, LFM says needs spell caster (hey! clerics are now in the same sub-forum so please don't blame me). They already have a cleric but the Cleric icon in the LFM is still active. So I joined. Nothing for 5 minutes. I send a tell, level 20 cleric. He said, I am looking for a caster. I said, I am a caster. He said, you can only heal, destruct, slay living, nothing else, you can't CC the spiders.

Wow, I said, it is your LFM, your rules, just decline me man. Then he declined me. Good times!

Cheers!

[bryanmeerkat]

I've been getting a lot of those for SoS lately which is funny because it's one of the few things you're NOT likely to be flagged for already. Do other people stockpile those essenses and not use them right away?

A lot of TRs will be preflagged on this as they will do a bunch of runs when its level appropraite for all the flagging runs , I prob have 4-5 worth of essences in my bank at mo .

[markusthelion]

I typicly don't like to pug my cleric (currently lvl 11) because I know I suck at healing. Sure I get random tells, but I will ususally just say 'nope' and move on because 'see first sentence.' I'd almost always rather run with people that I like and know me because they:

A) don't care and will take me anyways
B) think I'm decent enough to not /fail at clericing
C) are good enough they'll just let me pike and occasionally throw a mass cure
D) all of the above

My problem is I haven't quite been comfortable yet with my healer. Once I get in a comfort zone I won't mind healing anything pug or non-pug but I think Vaska is right, It will depend on what quest/raid I WANT to do.

[aristarchus1000]

I have two capped and geared FvS's on Cannith. I get a moderate amount of tells/requests to join stuff, all of which I reply to with either a "no thanks" or "sure." I have never been anonymous, because I can spare the few odd seconds required to type "/r no thanks" without having an aneurysm because someone sent me a tell. The point of that statement is to point out that i am decently reasonable and tolerant when it comes to playing well with others.

However, more often than not i decline these tells because I either do not wish to do the quest/raid they are on, or have seen the LFM up and avoid it due to what it contains (whether that means people, builds, or whatever sillyness).

The problem in endgame Cannith content is not that there are an insufficient quantity of divines. Rather, there are more than enough divines, but they don't want to do the raids you are doing, or they want to do the raids you are doing, just not with you. Lately there seems to be a large quantity of capped characters that exhibit... highly insufficient or otherwise unacceptable performance.

Here is a rather simple and common sense approach to attracting divines to your raids:

1) Realize that the divine is not there to save a bad or otherwise failed raid. They may possess the ability to do so, but they are in no way required to spend their own personal resources to act as a bilge pump for a Failboat. Nobody cares about the SP pots they spent once the raid is over, and they are usually not compensated for them, even if people say they will beforehand.

2) While a cookie-cutter party/raid makeup is not necessary for success, it is important that it at least looks like a feasible combination if you want a divine to be interested in joining. No divine is going to be enthusiastic about joining a group that looks like couldn't survive without being constantly hooked up to life support.

3) Remove Curse, Neutralize Poison, Blindness Removal, Lesser Restoration, etc. Potions, how do they work? Carry potions, because divines are not your personal convenience-dispensers. It's cheaper to rez you than it is to remove your curses for you. No, I do not carry Feast, the Auction House is that way if you need a poison immunity item and can't be bothered to carry potions for it.

4) Wear your big-boy pants. Just because you are bad at maintaining a positive hit point total does not mean that the divine drop what they are doing and rush to re-fill your red bar. If Horoth is mostly full and your support melee can't be bothered to not get cleaved horribly due to bad positioning, you get to die (and most likely get your stone moved to the far corner by the portals). It's called prioritization and triage.

Being known as a responsible and reasonable player will make divines MUCH more likely to join your raids. Being known as a responsible and reasonable player that also requires people that join his/her raids to act the same will have divines fighting over who get a spot on your raids.

The More You Know™

Well said. +1. I, too, have leveled and capped 2 healers, and my FvS/healer is my main (at least, the best geared) character, and has been capped and running end-game stuff for over a year.

I actually never go anon, but I have no guilt or shame with typing "/r sorry, can't right now".

I agree that my "can't" can mean a lot of things. I agree with the general premise. If you are having trouble getting healers, you might want to ask yourself why.

[Combat_Wombat]

Pretty well agree with allot of what is being said here. I don't think I will ever go anon but I know I am much less likely to heal random groups recently because it often turns into me literally or figuratively carrying the group. ToD groups are a good example you even get one person who isn't even reasonably competent and it can turn into a multipot blackhole just trying to keep it from getting worse.

Also it is good for everyone to understand that save a few specific quests many would rather solo then join an non-guild group.

Reminds me of a saying I have seen in someone sig that goes something like "Want a Challenge? Invite 5 people to pike as you solo a quest. Want a real challenge? Ask them to help."

[Talon_Moonshadow]

My healers usually have "anonomous" checked. Or do so after the first /tell if I do not want to group for some reason.

My other chars are usually self sufficent.
And I find hirlings very useful for most quests. Even used them to two-man(and two-hirling) Dreaming Dark successfully. (although I did have to rez hirlings a couple of times.)

I hate waiting for a healer.
I avoid putting up my own LFMs mostly because I hate fighting with people who insist we need a healer, or some other class to complete a quest.

I've two or three manned most quests on norm, at lvl, and many on hard/elite at lvl.
Hirelings have allowed me to do even more quests, a lot cheaper than before.

I wish they would auto-heal other paty members though. Currently it is almost beter to take three players and three hireling healers into a quest, than five players and only one hireling healer.

But people really need to try to be self-sufficent IMO.
And perhaps the most important thing they need is to make an effort to get the ability to Raise Dead in some way.
Many times I just want a healer for that capability more than their healing ability.

[Mellifera]

I had a cleric as my main before I took an extended break. When I came back, I switched servers, rolled a barb for a change, and found a nice guild. After awhile I rolled another cleric for kicks and shiggles. I got off the boot, and had just gotten my weapon from that wf npc when I got /tell'd "Hey wanna do Depths?" Sure why not. As soon as I joined I hear *DING* *DING* *DING* and notice that everyone is either dead or just rezzed in a tavern. Oh no... no wait, it'll be fine. It's not like this is the first time I've been a cleric. I main heal on my squishy bard for crying out loud. Then I get in, and it's so not fine. The rogue is running ahead, not to scout mind, but to aggro everything in sight. Noone waits for buffs, despite it being clear they need them. Still, we made it by the skin of our teeth to the end of the dungeon. I'd just got back from running a stone to the shrine, and was in the middle of typing "I'm going to buff and then can we please all go down together?" when the rogue ran ahead, aggro'd everything, and got himself and at least two other ppl killed.

Now, unless I'm feeling particularly masochistic, my cleric is guild only.

[vVAnjilaVv]

I have a better suggestion, they should roll a FvS or a Cleric.....because healbots allow melees to get away with playing like morons...while "real" Clerics and FvS keep them on their toes because they make it known they are not going to babysit them and heal their stupidity.

[darkzane]

I have a better suggestion, they should roll a FvS or a Cleric.....because healbots allow melees to get away with playing like morons...while "real" Clerics and FvS keep them on their toes because they make it known they are not going to babysit them and heal their stupidity.

Must be different on Cannith. According to a bunch of the flac I got from my post about letting people die

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=304979

It's my job as a cleric to enable the "Top DPS" to play like the star of an action movie and run behind them spamming heal to keep them up because it's most efficient way to play.

No healers friend warforged barbs are my personal favorite right now. Especially when they decide the best place to be is two or three encounters ahead of the rest of the party dragging agro along the way.

Funny when you see groups waiting for a cleric, look back 30 min later and that group is STILL there. They should spend the time leveling up a divine caster instead

[chodelord]

Turbine needs to fix the healbot AI so that one hireling will heal the whole party.

Then the divine players will be getting a LOT less requests for pugs.