Legit question, is it the healer's job to get Explosive Orbs on M+?

Community General Discussion
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Before servers went down for maint., I was the healer (resto druid) for a NW+13 in which we had a DK tank, a frost DK dps, a rogue dps, and a ret pally dps.

First pull, tank is getting clapped so I’m spam healing them, they’re getting shrek’d even through ironbark. They are doing a lot of self heals, but they’re way undergeared to be tanking a +13, they were only 229ilvl and 0 IO rating. (I didn’t pick them.)

2 orbs go off, all 3 dps were within melee range of both orbs, but then the dps DK says “it is the healer’s job to get the orbs”. To which I disagreed and said that I’ve never heard of it being the healer’s job, but I’ll help get as many as I can. DK disagreed with me, but agrees to help get as many as they can as well.

Second trash pull has those casters that do “Drain Fluids” to stunlock a player. It is a channeled ability and interrupting it will free the CC’d person. I do not have any class utility to get myself out of it by myself, a dps needs to interrupt the channel to free me. I don’t get free’d out and an orb explodes. Orb explosion + 6 full seconds of no heals to an undergeared tank = a group wipe. I got blamed, told I was a bad healer.

I explained that the Drain Fluids needs to be interrupted, and I can’t get orbs if I’m trying to heal a dying tank. We make it to the boss fight, I am the only one getting orbs, but it’s no big deal because they’re scarce on boss fights, but dps are standing in literally everything and doing no mechanics. No one dies and I don’t complain, I just want the key done with no more drama.

Third trash pack, right after the 1st boss, the tank pulls an extra group by accident somehow. I get Drain Fluid’d and am CC’d, I cannot heal or get any of the 4+ orbs that are out. Melee dps don’t do anything to interrupt to free me or get any of the orbs. I am freed from the CC right as the tank dies and the other 3 dps are at low health. I choose to tranquility instead of getting orbs, because surely the dps will get them, right? They’re not gonna just tunnel vision the adds wailing on them, right? 4 orbs explode and we wipe.

Tank says nothing, but leaves the group and hearths. Dps DK that was party lead (and their key) thanks me for ruining their key then dips out too. Rogue says “well maybe if we had a healer we could’ve done this key”. The ret pally then says “healers get orbs, you’re why we wiped”.

I know I am not in the wrong for being unable to heal while CC’d and am not responsible for magically pulling a way to get myself out of Drain Fluids all by myself. My main question, is it really usually exclusively the healer’s job to get the explosive orbs? All 3 of those dps seemed very sure that it was at various parts of the run. If it was just one of them I’d have shrugged it off as him being inexperienced or lazy. But it was all 3, so it makes me question my sanity.

I have never been in a group before where it was ONLY the healer’s job to get orbs, or even on the healer’s shoulders at all. I am all for helping out and that healers should get the ones they can, especially ranged orbs in a group of all melee dps. Am I in the wrong here??

EDIT: Thank you to all the replies! The consensus seems to be: Yes, healers are main person to get the orbs in lower keys, but the tank and dps NEED to help out when they can and if the healer is too busy healing or is CC’d. If you want the key to succeed in higher keys, then you ALL need to be doing the mechanics and not shoving it all on one person.

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Correct, healer should be the primary orb killer with the free GCDs they have. It’s also why you should be DPSing.

Tank is secondary, and DPS are last-resort.

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Yes, typically people assume that healers will handle them as you can one stop them with any of your spells. You really don’t want your DPS to be target swapping and taking time away from killing the important targets. That said, if I notice one in melee range and it is more than half way thru it’s “cast” I will auto attack it to deal with it. But typically I don’t have to as most healers handle it already.

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My understanding is the healer and tank should be taking care of the orbs, although realistically if the odd one or two aren’t taken care of by them, then a dps needs to step up and deal with them. It’s a group effort to clear a key, don’t see why taking care of orbs shouldn’t also be a group effort, even if certain roles should be the ones primarily taking care of them.

I think the biggest issue in your group were bad dps who didn’t know how to interrupt mechanics. If you can’t do something because you’re stunned due to bad players, that’s not on you, that’s on them.

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Even in the case of the party being low health? Is healing and keeping people alive not a higher prio than the dps doing big meter numbers?

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Healers can get a good bulk.

If you want a heal though, you’d better kill a couple yourself. Lookin at you, lazy deeps. winky eye

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Sorry but if you are doing nothing but healing every cool down, your group is already doomed to fail. If you are being over whelmed then just say something but typically it is the healers job.

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This (for the most part) and with a dk, their health is going to be all over the place. They will be fine. Their mastery works best when they have low health. Heal to like, 75% they will be fine.

However, I don’t agree with how they were toxic towards you. They agreed to help with orbs and you tried your best.

If dps weren’t even bothering touching the orbs at all in an attempt to keep them from going off, that’s an issue.

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As a healer, I have always believed that everyone should get orbs, or at the least, if you see an orb about to explode, someone better hit the thing. I average 70-110 orbs per run depending on the dungeon as a Holy Priest.

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Thank you for the honest reply. I do try to get all the ones I can, but only when no one is dying. I barely had the GCD to spare a moonfire most of the time in that group, it was a +13 and the tank was 229, no IO, and the 3 dps were all carries basically. I have no idea why they just accepted literally the first ppl to apply to the key.

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In all groups I’ve been a part of, both pugs and guild groups, it is the healer’s job to get explosives unless otherwise preoccupied with massive pulls in which case the tank / dps know to assist. Healers first, tanks second, dps last.

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I don’t think I’ve been in a run that doesn’t pull like 3+ groups at a time in forever. It is just generally expected that we deal with absolute insanity at all times.

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I am of the mind set that getting explosive orbs is the responsibility of the group, not just the healer. Every group I have been in, whether it be dpsing on my mage or healing on my paladin, everyone goes after the orbs. Usually melee dps or tanks get to them first, but I end up getting the ones they either don’t or can’t get to. No group should rely on one person to do that.

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Oops, that posted under the wrong character.

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Generally you want to be getting as many as you can as a healer.

I actually think that explosive would be AMAZING if each orb you kill provides some buff. Maybe like 1% haste per orbs for 5 seconds.

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Yea, should be the tank and healer, but I think it really falls to melee to ensure that nothing goes off. Unless they are in ranged, melee have far less DPS loss by giving it a white hit than a ranged DPS during their burn phase. It’s just how Blizzard set all this up.

In places like the add room in HoA it’s everyone’s job to get them. They are constant.

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Ahhhh this would ease up our globals for huge pulls so much. I love this, but we’ll never see it happen lol.

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As others have said your group was doomed from the being. But as a resto druid it should be fairly easy for you to get most of them. make a macro to target the explosives and cast moonfire. That’s an easy 1 click button.

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I really don’t want the DPS in my group using their damage on orbs. I’d rather they just blast and kill the dangerous mobs asap.

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:thinking:

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