Always guard a melee dps. They will be in range to benefit from the guard, they will be able to dps harder without worrying about aggro, and if they get hit by splash aoe damage your healer will thank you for reducing the damage by 5%. Win all the way around.

Hey, as healer I don't mind being guarded in a pug. Chances are for the more chaotic trash pulls the DPS will all attack the elites/strongs with the tank and I'll tank the norms. Especially in places like Kaon, where with undependable DPS I can take a lot damage. Unless there's a Marauder (he gets auto-guarded), I wait a few pulls before giving Guard out on my tank. Mostly because I'm rarely in the mood to police people if we're not wiping. I know, I know, not helpful to the community.

 

But yes, in a group where you want to hold people accountable for being bad, do not guard the healer. If you don't feel like fighting about it, maybe guard the healer, depending on the fight, what the dps are doing, etc.

 

Actually you could probably forget to guard anyone and be fine.

Edited July 7, 2012 by Pubsam

Great story, Kenjigreat, but have you ever played a healer? Never ever calculate healer's power via his health. Tionese level geared healer has way less than 18k HP and is perfectly suited for any HM (LI included). Even HM Ops (not EC, of course) are doable with 15k HP healers.

 

I wouldn't want to be in a solid FP with a 15k healer. even my comps could probably heal better. Same goes for 17-18k tanks, I'm currently a sentinel with 18k no buffs if I'm not getting far in a FP and the tanks only got 17k then that's probably why. When the tanks not good enough to hold the agro or dies the DPS is usually first to get it.

I wouldn't want to be in a solid FP with a 15k healer. even my comps could probably heal better. Same goes for 17-18k tanks, I'm currently a sentinel with 18k no buffs if I'm not getting far in a FP and the tanks only got 17k then that's probably why. When the tanks not good enough to hold the agro or dies the DPS is usually first to get it.

I wouldn't want to be in a FP with someone who thinks their companion could heal better than a 15k healer.

Well I agree with many points of the guide, however I do have to put in my opinion on one of them. The whole skipping thing and I'll provide an example. My smuggler is wearing RD-07A boots and pants, I've been trying to get replacements but havent been lucky yet. I could get Tionese pants but I need some more crystals so I que up for a HM flashpoint, my group says they want to skip everything because it "is a waste of time"..so, if people want to skip bosses and not get currency how do you expect people to get the gear for the harder stuff? I don't mind space baring conversations since I've done most flashpoints on NM, but honestly if you don't want to do everything don't try to force it on your entire group, maybe there are others that want to do things..but apparently it seems to be "expected" to skip everything you can almost makes me feel like Im playing with a bunch of WoW elitists all over again:mon_evil:

Well I agree with many points of the guide, however I do have to put in my opinion on one of them. The whole skipping thing and I'll provide an example. My smuggler is wearing RD-07A boots and pants, I've been trying to get replacements but havent been lucky yet. I could get Tionese pants but I need some more crystals so I que up for a HM flashpoint, my group says they want to skip everything because it "is a waste of time"..so, if people want to skip bosses and not get currency how do you expect people to get the gear for the harder stuff? I don't mind space baring conversations since I've done most flashpoints on NM, but honestly if you don't want to do everything don't try to force it on your entire group, maybe there are others that want to do things..but apparently it seems to be "expected" to skip everything you can almost makes me feel like Im playing with a bunch of WoW elitists all over again:mon_evil:

If you do not want to skip anything, just ask. I have never been in a group which refused to beat one extra boss or complete bonus objective. Some bosses are skipped because they are quite hard. If you can skip 4 bosses in Teral V it does not mean you have to.

 

Conversations are another story. Depending on FP it can be very very long to listen every line. Esseles, for example, can turn into 1h journey without spacebar smashing.