Why I Heal the Stupid

I’m bewildered when I hear sentiment by healers, “if DPS is being stupid by standing in the fire, I don’t heal stupid.”  Presumably this means the healer just throws heals on the tank and lets the stupid DPS die.

Except… I can’t do that.  The 51 point talent and defining ability of Holy paladins is Beacon of Light, which means I heal by healing everyone but the tank.  And if that damage was caused by stupid, well, I’m still healing the tank by healing the stupid.  So doing what these other healers are suggesting basically means not using the defining Holy paladin ability, which is kind of silly.

That being said, stupid DPS does frustrate me, and I’m not thrilled with feeling like I’m carrying them, but if I’m using the LFD tool, I have one goal, and that’s to get get through the instance and some emblems.  Not healing stupid DPS is ultimately just going to slow me down when he dies, and the likelihood they’ll learn any sort of “lesson” is minimal.  I also risk dead DPS meaning the fight becomes too overwhelming to just 2-man (e.g. Phase 3 of the Black Knight), and wiping slows me down even more.  And lastly, am I even correctly judging who is stupid?  Did the trash do some sort of AOE damage attack?  Did the DPS lag out right before the guy started to whirlwind?  Is the tank slacking off on aggro?  Is it really worth having a superiority complex about the whole thing when at best, it’s not going to do any good, and at worst, I’m not even evaluating the situation correctly?

Well, I say no.  There’s this idea that there’s a whole generation of WoW players that now suck because of people like me, but I disagree.  I got better at WoW because I wanted to get better, and I did things like research class specs and boss strategies, and sought out advice and information from other players.  I never got better because someone let me die in a fire, and these people won’t either.  You can educate and advise, or you can ignore and belittle, but don't fool yourself into thinking you're doing the same thing at once.