JoltinJoe wrote:
Quote:
The TANK don't need to know you are doing a 10sec cast (what is the poor sap going to do anyway?) but the other healer has to know.
It would probably seem that way, but we're not completely powerless in that tough situation. We tanks have a feel for the rate of damage we've been taking so if we feel the 10 second cast won't arrive in time, we can switch on Evasive Discpiline, or call for another tank to get aggro, or in the worst case, start kiting - i.e. run around for your life in a big circle waiting for the heal - it's funny to see, but it's saved my life once or twice.
Gonna add to this comment.
Everyone needs to have an idea of when that CH will land. Everyone. Assuming that you only need to have a CH message when there's another healer is a horrible mistake. Hybrid tanks can use their magic to extend their lives for a bit if/when needed. Warriors have dicsiplines they can pop if they think that they might not last to the CH. The "poor sap" most certainly has options during combat. We do a lot more then just hit autoattack and mash the taunt key with it comes up you know...
Paladins and Rangers have heal spells that can make that little bit of difference in a tight CH. Necros and SKs have spells/abilities that can take life from mobs, and give HPs to other players (including the tank). Wizards, chanters, and paladins (and clerics, but I'm assuming he's casting the CH) can all stun mobs to keep the MT alive until that CH lands). Any class in the group can potentially grab agro for a few seconds until CH lands and probably live until the MT can grab agro back. You're missing a hell of a lot of group options if you assume that no one can do anything about a CH that will drop too late.
As a paladin, healers that don't have CH messages literally drive me nuts. If all I know is that you haven't healed me in a bit, I can hope and pray that you are casting a CH, but I don't don't *know* that for sure until it lands. 10 seconds is a freaking eternity when you are tanking some of the nastier mobs out there. If you're *not* casting a CH, I need to know right now, not after 10 seconds have gone by and my health is still plummeting, and I'm left to wonder if I need to do something drastic or not. A CH message lets me know that you haven't gone LD if nothing else (nothing sucks quite as bad as waiing for that CH to land only to realize too late that your cleric went LD).
In general messages during combat should be kept short and to the point. They should also be restricted to those things that the group needs to know. Specifically, the group needs to know if you have done or are doing something that they are either waiting for, or which will change their own actions. I don't really need to know if/when you are attempting a spell that can be resisted. If you are the slower, I'll assume you are trying to slow the mob. Same goes for the snarer, and any other debuffs. Let me know when it lands since that will affect what I do, but I don't need to know anything else.
I do *not* need to know when someone assists. I assume you are doing that if you job is to do melee damage. I do *not* need to know when you nuke. Again. I assume that's your job, and I'm not likely to need to change what I'm doing to compensate. There's some argument for dot messages, but I tend to think that the CC'er should make the call and the issue of whether to use dots should be resolved before the fight, not during it.
Keep them short, not because it's hard to read, but because I only have so many lines in my chat box. Even with as much spam as possible filtered off, there are still a number of aspects of the battle that I need to know about. As a paladin, one of my jobs is to interrupt spells. I'm watching for that. Other classes may have other things that they need to watch for as well. What you don't want to do is have players miss something important because a couple people in the group insist on continuously spamming the group with "amusing" chat messages.