(09-12-2013, 01:13 AM)BlessedSilence Wrote: OMG I cannot agree with this enough. Â As a CNJ turned WHM I swear I have a bullseye engraved on my forehead.
Every dungeon, any adds that pop ALWAYS aggro me and make a beeline. Â I could be picking my nose, doing nothing, and wham, 6 mobs on me. Â I tell my group before the fight, the adds will aggro me, every time. Â I hug my tank like he/she is my lifeline, praying they can get some AoE taunt off to grab the mobs.
So don't be so quick to blame the healer. Â We have it hard enough chain healing a tank with poop gear while trying to keep ourselves up.Â
A couple of tips borne from experience as a healer in WoW, Rift, SWTOR, and now FFXIV:
1) Pre-cast Stoneskin will not give you threat when it absorbs damage. Â So after every pull - every single one! - you need to re-cast Stoneskin on the tank. Â If you're like me, you'll cast it on anyone who doesn't already have the debuff, just in case.
2) Delay doing any healing at all when at all possible. Â This includes Regen. Â Sit on your hands and bite your lip until the tank takes enough damage for you to get a fully-effective Cure. Â Then go into a healing rotation/priority list. Â Mine normally starts with Regen, and then follows up with Cure, weaving in Cure II when I get a proc (or the tank takes a spike).
3) Medica will pull everything and anything and generates more threat than Flash. Â Avoid, avoid, avoid at all costs! Â Unlike Cure, Cure II, and Regen, which build "healer threat" based on effective healing, Medica will generate threat based on both effective and overhealing - on everyone in the party who is in range. Â Including pets. Â If you have to use it, make sure to have Shroud of Saints ready to pop, and keep an eye on the threat meter.
4) Try to position yourself with the tank between you and the mobs. Â This isn't always possible, but it's definitely something to try to set up.
5) Remember that your primary job as a healer is to keep yourself alive. Â I know this sounds backwards, but it's the truth. Â You accomplish nothing by being dead. Â Even if the tank goes down, there's a possibility the DPS can offtank the rest of the trash or even the boss under the right circumstances. Â If you die, mostly likely everyone is going to die in the party. Â So watch your health bar and make sure to heal yourself early and often!
6) Don't be afraid to stop healing someone who is refusing to follow the strat, or causing trouble in the instance run. Â Every now and then you'll find someone who, for whatever reason, just can't play well with others. Â They're targeting every mob but the mob the tank tells them to DPS, and thus end up tanking half the trash pack. Â You tell them to stand at point A, and they make sure they're out in Bumblefuck Egypt instead. Â They're out of range. Â They're out of Line of Sight. Â You can't heal through walls. Â You've told them you can't fucking heal through walls three times. Â It doesn't seem to be sinking in. Â OKAY. Â THIS IS THE POINT WHERE THEY GET NO FURTHER HEALS.
Not a Cure. Â Not a Cure II. Â Not a Regen. Â And they probably aren't close enough to get hit with Medica anyway, so none of that, either! Â Don't waste your mana trying to heal stupid. Â You can't heal stupid.
![[Image: hFalP38.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/hFalP38.jpg)
