Playing healers (or not)
Relmstein had an interesting series recently on why healing classes are so unpopular. I know from experience that healing classes are rare, because some days there's a lengthy queue for my time starting from the instant I log on. The following is representative of my daily login attempt -- and is usually enough to make me go log on my rogue!
Welcome to World of Warcraft!
[Guild] Friendlymage: Hey Lizzy - want to heal Scholomance?
[Randomshaman] whispers: need healer for BRD! last spot!!
[Randomhunter] whispers: LBRS?
[Randomwarlock] has invited you to join a group.
You have declined [Randomwarlock]'s group invitation.
[Guild] Lizzy: Okay!
You whisper to [Randomshaman]: Sorry, going to Scholomance.
[Friendlymage] has invited you to join a group.
You whisper to [Randomhunter]: Can't, heading to Scholomance.
[Randomshaman] whispers: pls!!! will pay 5g.
You whisper to [Randomshaman]: I can't -- I'm already committed to going to Scholomance.
[Raider] whispers: Hey, we need more priests for Razorgore, wanna come?
[Randomshaman] whispers: 10g?
You are now ignoring [Randomshaman].
[Raider2]: We need healers for BWL!
You whisper to [Raider]: Sorry, busy atm.
[Raider3] whispers: BWL?
Sure, it's nice to be wanted, but it gets old to be invited to the same instances I don't want to run day after day by people I don't want to run with. (And, yes, I have been invited randomly to Blackwing Lair -- and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to be part of a raid group that added random, unknown players to their Blackwing Lair raid lineup.) But there are more troubles to being a healer than being in high demand, and Relmstein points them out nicely.
It's hard to solo as a healer -- killing and questing on your own can be painfully slow.
In dungeons, you're essentially playing whack-a-mole with everyone's health bars. Did we just defeat a new and exciting boss? Oh, I must have missed that...
The healer's goals aren't important. As Relmstein says, "Healers are often treated as if their main purpose in life is to help other people progress."
The healer is the first to be blamed, but the last to be praised. Did your tank die? Never mind the fact that he's swinging around a two-handed sword wearing mail DPS gear -- it's the healer's fault.
