...And here lies the problem.

So, I'm running around as my Shaman, and come across a Warrior who just so happens to be doing the same quest as I. So I said to myself this is good.

So, we get to Northwatch Hold and start cleaving our way through the many squishy humans, and I think, "Great, he's compentent. Rare these days."
But then we get to one of the towers (holding Fairmount I believe) and he stops short of the entrance.

Seconds pass and it dawns on me - He wants me to go first.

Now, ordinarily I have no problem with this, but he's two levels higher than me. Sure enough, when I ran into the tower and got all the aggro, he went in and starting attacking the various enemies.
Now, I'm not an oxford scholar.
But I'm not a bloody idiot, either. You never, ever let the healer go first, with he possible exeption of a Paladin. I sure as hell wouldn't make the guy who's job it is to keep me alive go out in front and get a nice big helping of damage in his/her face, because that's the sort of thing that gets you healer-less and it's really difficult to do a instance without one.
So, stupidly, I played his little game, taking all the damage and having him arrive a few seconds into combat, when I had my health vurtually halved by the time he got there. I kept thinking, 'Sorry i died, i've never played with a tank who didn't do his flakin* job'. Thank god I'm a resto Shaman, because the reduced time to cast Healing Wave on myself really helped. It's mind boggling to think what someone could possibly achive by sending the healer out in front. Nobody else can res or heal (except maybe Warlocks), so they dying really isn't a good thing. And most of them also buff, so you lose that too.
You know what the deal was? He was talking to his goddamned GM. I wanted to scream. And not the normal kind of male scream, the kind of scream that makes the neighbours call the police because they think a woman has been murdered.

So, this little incident has prompted me to write a "What a good ____ does and doesn't do" for a future post/s, which should, hopefully, give (I'm hesitent to use the word 'stupid;, but i'm going to do so anyway) players, especially those who rolled Healers, an idea of what your job is and isn't.

* 'Flakin' is courtesy of Oxhorn, of Oxhorn Brand Movies.