Question about healing

[AvaZope]

So, I just finished my first instance in FF14. (Sastasha.)  I was straight up 15 conj, healing a level 16 marauder. 

 

Before I get to my question, some general info: I've priest/monk/paladin healed in both pvp and pve in WoW extensively. While I haven't raided with say, a guild, I have progressed to end game in the LFR area. So while I'm not "uber leet", I do have some experience.

 

Now the question: Is it normal in this game to have to literally spam your single heal in order to keep the tank up/above 50%? Is striving to keep the tank topped off something that just doesn't happen in this game? It didn't seem that the issue was that I was under geared, each time I healed him he went from about 65-75% up to 100% again, but within the time it took my spell to CD, he was right there again. 

 

I also realize that this is very early game healing, but it was just so different from my experiences leveling my paladin, priest, and 2 monks in WoW 1-max via healing. 

 

Answers from any and all appreciated, though I'd really love if someone who healed in WoW were able to throw in their 2cents and tell me if I'm crazy or not.

[Olofantur]

Shammy heals/Disc Priest reporting

 

I'll post when i'm done in ST D:

 

TLDR Not crazy

[AvaZope]

Thank-you thank-you! I shall await your return eagerly.

[Olofantur]

Liliths going to answer on my behalf because i'm in a dungeon. Sorry, i'll make sure to add something if she's a complete EJ about it

[Naunet]

Yes, and no.

 

Have I run into moments where I'm desperately spamming Cure I and Cure II to keep a tank up? Yes. Does it tend to happen as a rule for an encounter? No, not really. Damage on tanks tends to come in bursts. If your tank is constantly taking a lot of damage that is leaving you spamming your single target heal(s) like mad, then your best guesses are 1) the tank doesn't have their damage reduction stance on, or 2) the tank is under-geared. You may want to check for debuffs on the tank to see if those are the culprit as well (though you don't get Esuna immediately).

[Miss Marigold]

Now the question: Is it normal in this game to have to literally spam your single heal in order to keep the tank up/above 50%?

 

For Santasha? No, not at all. If your heals were hitting for as much as you say they were, your tank probably had inappropriate armor.

[Lilith.Grimoire]

Hello! I am an ex-progression (Sigh, Quar is making me change this. I'm RETIRED progression) main healer. What does that mean? I tend teh green bars! In all seriousness, it means I've completed most endgame content currently available as a healer. I was one of the first three scholars to receive their Omnilex on the server, I've completed Titan literally dozens of times and have tried my skills in Coils. I play both White Mage and Scholar extensively.

 

As a level 15 Conjurer you only have access to one heal, Cure. That, itself isn't a big problem. It's all thats really needed at that level of content. 

 

The problem you ran into, of the tank taking too much damage could have several different causes.

 

1. DPS is slow, or not focusing on one mob at a time. This lengthens the fight and the amount of mobs hitting the tank at once. 

 

2. Tank is undergeared! Always the Catch 22, how do you get gear without doing content that you are currently undergeared for? You depend on the healer of course! Healers are the buffer, picking up slack from other members of the group. Dps too slow? Tank undergeared? Healers can use their cooldowns to help during a long fight. If people are playing poorly, a good healer can make the difference.

 

3. Bad or new tank. Frankly, at that low of a level I'm honestly not sure how many "defensive cooldowns" tanks have. Surely not a lot. A good tank will use their cooldowns to mitigate damage when they know spike damage is incoming. Cooldowns are useful at the beginning of a fight for when there more mobs hitting the tank. 

 

3. YOU are undergeared. Again, it's hard to be "geared" at that level. If you find your heals aren't having the OOMPF needed, think about checking the Market to see what upgrades are available. 

 

Keep protect and (if you have it?) throw stoneskin up onto the tank between fights. That should help!

 

Edit: If you need some more help with healing, or would like a more advanced lesson please contact me ingame. I'm more than willing to help new healers get on their feet, this server needs more talented healers!

[AvaZope]

Thanks for the input, guys. I had a feeling that may have been the issue, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask.

[Olofantur]

Just a quick follow up, i'd like to add about Tank skill,

 

they are notorious at lower levels for bad positioning, moving while fighting, having mobs behind them ect. I recommend, if possible asking the Tank to wait after the first engagement, and maybe bringing up that he should be staying still and keeping all enemies in front of him. (except when catching aggro, dodging, ect.)

[AvaZope]

Awesome, OK. Yeah, I totally get that the issue was probably heavily dependent upon gear, our levels, and the amount of available spells. As long as that kind of cycle isn't what goes forward with the game in further levels, I'm not worried.

 

 

Also- When healing the final boss, I took to helping click/eliminate the bubbles that spawn the adds... I'm 90% sure that took the tank off as my target. If so, does that mean that most healers just leave mechanics like that to dps/tanks? I'm used to being able to kill adds or dispelling mechanics while healing in WoW.

[Lilith.Grimoire]

Awesome, OK. Yeah, I totally get that the issue was probably heavily dependent upon gear, our levels, and the amount of available spells. As long as that kind of cycle isn't what goes forward with the game in further levels, I'm not worried.

 

 

Also- When healing the final boss, I took to helping click/eliminate the bubbles that spawn the adds... I'm 90% sure that took the tank off as my target. If so, does that mean that most healers just leave mechanics like that to dps/tanks? I'm used to being able to kill adds or dispelling mechanics while healing in WoW.

It depends on your personal comfort, to be honest. If you've done this instance many times, you are bored, no one seems to be taking much damage.... go ahead, dps/whatever. It's a bit easier for Scholars to do the multitask thing (since they have Lustrate), but a competent WHM on a dungeon they've been in enough to know how it works? Go for it.

 

I don't use focus target, myself. Or macros. I'm a bit oldschool. But if you think they would help you, use them. (I use a Razer Naga, which simplifies healing since all my healing buttons (1-12 with Shift and Ctrl variations) are on the side.)

 

I was a very lazy healer when I was leveling up my Arcanist/Scholar. I let the dps handle all the running out hitting objectives. Now that I'm experienced.... I still kinda let the dps do it all, since I'm usually alt-tabbed letting my fairy do all the healing.

 

 

....what?

 

 

Eos: >.>

[Olofantur]

 

Eos: >.>

 

Tinkerbell, carrying Garuda runs since 2013'

[Naunet]

Awesome, OK. Yeah, I totally get that the issue was probably heavily dependent upon gear, our levels, and the amount of available spells. As long as that kind of cycle isn't what goes forward with the game in further levels, I'm not worried.

 

 

Also- When healing the final boss, I took to helping click/eliminate the bubbles that spawn the adds... I'm 90% sure that took the tank off as my target. If so, does that mean that most healers just leave mechanics like that to dps/tanks? I'm used to being able to kill adds or dispelling mechanics while healing in WoW.

 

To the first paragraph: Get used to spamming two or three buttons, because WHM doesn't have much in the way of situational spells to moderate or react to damage. Cure I, Cure II, and Medica are going to be your heals for pretty much your entire leveling process. Medica II comes in at the end but is not something you use regularly (just for big burst aoe damage). It's not that you're mashing the buttons to keep tanks up, but Squee didn't really give us much in the way of interesting spell choices.

 

To your second paragraph: I highly suggest you employ mouseover macros, which are by far my preferred method of healing and something I've used all through my progression raiding in WoW (disc priest and holy-on-the-side holla). Mouseovers don't change your target you can safely target something (the boss, an add, the tank, whatever) and still heal whomever without losing your target. I usually keep the boss targeted so that I can keep an eye on cast bars for abilities.

 

The mouseover code looks like this:

 

 

/macroicon "Cure"

/ac "Cure"

 

 

The /macroicon command ensures the macro displays the icon of the spell you're using (in this example, Cure), as well as the mana cost and GCD. If you don't use it, you won't be able to see things like Freecure procs (a trait you earn at higher levels on CNJ) either. The second line is the mouseover macro part. I use mo macros for Cure I/II/III (though I rarely, rarely, rarely cast III), Esuna, Stoneskin, Regen, Benediction, and Raise. Basically, any spell that I need to target a person to cast. Medica I and II don't need mo macros because they're centered around you.

 

As far as doing other things aside from healing - that depends entirely on your comfort level. I usually get a little cocky and/or bored in dungeons and often take on the responsibility of CC bot in addition to healing in instances (hint: Repose, when you get it, can be cast on multiple targets, so you can keep more than one mob CCed at a time! Just be aware of the diminishing returns - you can sleep something 3 times before it resists fully), and I'll even dps stuff if I know I don't have to worry about stressing my mana healing soon. If I trust my tank, I've been known to run ahead and chain pull mobs as well. >_>;;

 

Dispelling will definitely be your responsibility, however, as only healers have the Esuna spell (or whatever it is Scholar's get), so don't forget those! Keep in mind that some debuffs are more deadly than others and at times it may be more efficient to just casually heal through certain debuffs than try to dispel them (especially at low levels when they don't do much damage). Over time, you'll get a feel as for which debuffs are the most dangerous.

[Lilith.Grimoire]

 

Dispelling will definitely be your responsibility, however, as only healers have the Esuna spell (or whatever it is Scholar's get), so don't forget those!

 

Leeches.

[Olofantur]

A quick note on the "spamming Cure + Cure2" if you check the "Traits" panel. You'll notice "Free cure" and "Over cure" which lend themselves to chain casting Cure, then bumping up to the next level when its free or an emergency.

 

If I can suggest something, Get Thaumaturge to 26 when you have the chance. You gain the ability "Swift Cast" allowing for one instant cast ability once per 60 seconds which can be quite the boon.

 

(I also grabbed Virus from ARC and Sure Cast from THM to aid in debuffing and interrupt prevention.)

[LiadansWhisper]

Should you get used to spamming Cure a lot?  Yes.  Besides the fact that it's one of the only two heals you have until level 30, it's also cheap and doesn't build threat/hate as quickly as Medica does (Note: Medica pulls more threat than a tank's Flash, so avoid using it if at all possible).

 

As you level up as a CNJ/WHM, you'll get various extra tools to augment Cure and Medica, and you'll be doing a lot more than just healing.  For example...

 

At level 18, you'll get Esuna, which is important because it allows you to dispel most harmful status effects from the target.  It's super important to keep on top of dispels because some status effects are really detrimental to your ability to keep people topped and the tank's ability to, well, tank!

 

At level 26 you'll get Repose.  Ever wished you could just crowd control some of the things beating the shit out of your tank?  Well guess what?  Now you can!  Repose puts a Sleep debuff on your target for a duration of 30 seconds.  Beware - any direct damage the target receives after the Repose is placed on them will break it.  Also, Repose does suffer from Diminishing Returns and will break increasingly quickly as you reapply it.

 

At 28 you get a trait called Enhanced Raise.  This allows you to use Raise in-combat, meaning that if someone dies during a fight you can immediately raise them to continue on.

 

At 30, you'll get an ability called Cure II, which has the same cast time as Cure, but costs more and heals for much more.  Cure is your little heal, and Cure II is your big heal.  You want to use Cure II when the tank is taking intense damage and it's more than your Cure can stay on top of.

 

At 34, you'll get Stoneskin.  "But," you say, "Stoneskin doesn't heal!  It just provides the tank with damage reduction!"  Yes and no.  Damage prevented is damage you don't have to heal up (which means you won't incur threat at all if the Stoneskin is pre-cast before a pull and absorbs damage afterward, and it generates much less threat than Cure, Cure II or Medica do).  Think of Stoneskin as a shield on your tank that represents a percentage of his health.  You start at 10% flat damage reduction, but later receive a Trait that bumps that up to 18%.  Stoneskin scales with your target's gear, not your gear, so as your tanks become more geared, Stoneskin will become increasingly effective.  It's absolutely worth using for every pull.

 

At 35 you will get Regen.  Regen is a Heal Over Time (HoT) spell that heals for a fairly good amount for a fairly cheap cost.  It is instant.  Regen is good as a buffer on the tank's healthbar to keep him from spiking quite as hard (which helps you avoid casting as much).  However, Regen does overheal if placed on a full health target, and it still builds threat whether the healing is effective or overhealing.  So, you want to save it for boss fights, and for packs of mobs with more than 2, and never recast it when there is only one mob still up.  This way, Regen should be gone by the time the group is done with that pack of adds and ready to move on (and thus you don't have to worry about pulling immediate threat on the next pack).

 

At 38 you'll get Shroud of Saints, which has two uses.  The primary use is to drop your threat to half for the duration of the spell.  The secondary use is to return mana (as it applies a Refresh effect to you for the duration of the spell).  If you pull threat, using this spell will help the tank re-establish threat, as well as helping you out when you have to do heavy healing (which will both spike the threat you generate AND eat your mana pool).

 

At 40 you get Divine Seal, which is on a 1 minute CD.  This spell increases all of your healing done by 40% for 15 seconds.  The only "healing" spell this doesn't affect is Stoneskin.

 

At 42 you get Cure III, which is a targeted AoE with a high mana cost and a very small (4 yds) radius.  Cure III is situationally useful if you are doing an encounter with a lot of Melee and they are very close to themselves while taking spike damage, or if you have two tanks tanking on top of one another (as happens in Hydra) and taking damage together.  Bear in mind that this spell heals for a lot, and can spike your threat on the mobs/bosses.

 

At 50, you get Benediction and Medica II.  Benediction is a "Get Out of Jail Free" card.  This spell will heal your target to their maximum HP - regardless of any status debuffs they may have that affect healing - and is on a 5 minute CD.  Medica II is an AoE spell that does a middle amount of healing + a HoT (similar to Regen) on each person it heals.

 

I hope this helps to illustrate that you actually have quite a large toolbox of spells and abilities you'll pick up as you level.  Not all of them are healing spells, but they all work together to make your job easier.

[Naunet]

I hope this helps to illustrate that you actually have quite a large toolbox of spells and abilities you'll pick up as you level.  Not all of them are healing spells, but they all work together to make your job easier.

 

To someone who has healed extensively in WoW, Rift, and TERA, it's really not a large toolbox at all. But I could rant for hours about boring oversimplification in WHM class design, so I'll just leave things at that.

[LiadansWhisper]

I hope this helps to illustrate that you actually have quite a large toolbox of spells and abilities you'll pick up as you level.  Not all of them are healing spells, but they all work together to make your job easier.

 

To someone who has healed extensively in WoW, Rift, and TERA, it's really not a large toolbox at all. But I could rant for hours about boring oversimplification in WHM class design, so I'll just leave things at that.

 

Difference of opinion.    I've been playing WoW for 6 years, and I play every single healing class.  While the toolkit isn't as extensive as, say, a Holy Priest's options, it's quite extensive for what it is.

 

A healer's toolkit doesn't have to be all about healing.  There's lots of other things healers need to be doing that aren't actual healing.  

[Naunet]

A healer's toolkit doesn't have to be all about healing.  There's lots of other things healers need to be doing that aren't actual healing.  

 

That's not actually what I said at all (and is exactly the opposite of what I was discussing in my previous posts), but whatevs.

[LiadansWhisper]

A healer's toolkit doesn't have to be all about healing.  There's lots of other things healers need to be doing that aren't actual healing.  

 

That's not actually what I said at all (and is exactly the opposite of what I was discussing in my previous posts), but whatevs.

 

Well, then it's possible I misunderstood.  

[Lilith.Grimoire]

*Munches popcorn from the sidelines, eyes glancing back and forth before she speaks up.* If it matters, I was also a bit disappointed at the healing toolkits. They both feel small and uncomplicated (and by complicated I mean boring) with odd spells that don't seem to have an immediate use. Like Cure 3? 

 

"Quick, EVERYONE HUMP ME while I cast Cure 3 else it isn't going to hit you at all!"

 

I miss that spell on WoW's priest that healed the current target and the healer at the same time.

[LiadansWhisper]

*Munches popcorn from the sidelines, eyes glancing back and forth before she speaks up.* If it matters, I was also a bit disappointed at the healing toolkits. They both feel small and uncomplicated (and by complicated I mean boring) with odd spells that don't seem to have an immediate use. Like Cure 3? 

 

"Quick, EVERYONE HUMP ME while I cast Cure 3 else it isn't going to hit you at all!"

 

I miss that spell on WoW's priest that healed the current target and the healer at the same time.

 

You're thinking of Binding Heal.

 

I think that Cure III is one of those spells that Square designed for a fight we haven't seen yet.  That said, I've found it's useful on Garuda if melee heavy, P5 Titan HM when you're stacked on his butt, and for Hydra to heal the tanks (especially when one or both is debuffed).

[Lilith.Grimoire]

*Munches popcorn from the sidelines, eyes glancing back and forth before she speaks up.* If it matters, I was also a bit disappointed at the healing toolkits. They both feel small and uncomplicated (and by complicated I mean boring) with odd spells that don't seem to have an immediate use. Like Cure 3? 

 

"Quick, EVERYONE HUMP ME while I cast Cure 3 else it isn't going to hit you at all!"

 

I miss that spell on WoW's priest that healed the current target and the healer at the same time.

 

You're thinking of Binding Heal.

 

I think that Cure III is one of those spells that Square designed for a fight we haven't seen yet.  That said, I've found it's useful on Garuda if melee heavy, P5 Titan HM when you're stacked on his butt, and for Hydra to heal the tanks (especially when one or both is debuffed).

 

I hadn't thought of using it on Garuda, since I do her almost exclusively on scholar (bow chika wow wow). But.... right before the kiting phase when all the mages and long ranged are huddling together would be a good moment for cure 3.

 

Thank you!

[Magellan]

Yea sadly, CNJ is a pretty boring class in this game. Not to mention lvling pretty much consists of spamming Stone II.

 

I was disappointed by the seemingly lack of strategy put into the class. I mean... they had to throw in a class specific mount just to get more people to play WHM.

 

On the plus side, I find I can be a lot more chatty on my CNJ during dungeons runs, since I'm just there spamming one button. I almost pray for bad groups just so I get the variety/challenge of using Medica occasionally, or having to keep two ppl healed cuz a dps has pulled aggro

[KitKat]

CNJ/WHM isn't a boring class. You're just not doing enough things in that case. If you're finding it easy to heal and keep your team topped up, go cleric stance and DPS between heals. CC some mobs to prevent more damage being done. Don't just sit there and say it's boring when all you do is cast Cure 1 over and over. If that's how you're playing, you're playing it wrong.