Seeking Any Healer Advice

Stoneskin is far from useless on your tank. They're the one that takes most (ideally all) of the damage. o.o

It's not something you cast during a pull. It's something you cast before, especially on big pulls.

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Originally Posted by PWilson

But why not cast Regen pre-emptively? Given the mana efficiency on it, I just tried to keep it up on all times on the tank, and during boss fights, additionally on any melee DPS... Pre-emptive casting means I can usually make use of non-combat mana regen as well. Given that I only -just- got Regen, I've not had a lot of experience with it - please expound!

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Because of enmity issues. Regen creates enmity per tick per person that it's on. This is the reason that it's so hard to hold hate in T2 if your healers overspam Medica II (not to mention they run out of mana, lol). Seasoned tanks won't have much of a problem dealing with it, but fighting an inexperienced tank (which you will be running into quite a few of) for enmity will end up with one very dead healer. Incidentally, if you are getting hit you should generally not kite the mob away from your tank as they cannot take it off of you if you do.

I found these youtube videos really useful when I started learning to heal (especially regarding macros).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak0nrdkii-Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWgPLlsGpHQ

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Originally Posted by Yumi_umi

Enhanced Stoneskin = 18% shield of max hp.
I'm a whm with 6254 hp ( 6.4k hp in party ) and 18% shield does wonders on me.

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As an addendum to this, don't expect to have 6,254 HP off the hop. Most WHMs at 50 begin with 2.8K HP, I think. This particular individual utterly enjoys ramping up the VIT as a self-styled WHM tank. At i95 in full healing gear, I only sit at 4.8K HP inside a party.

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Originally Posted by winsock

General tips / advise.
Over healing generates more threat than normal

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Is there any evidence to back this up? As far as I know, overhealing generate the exact same enmity as normal healing.

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As has stated before, Regen is amazing. The HP/MP ratio is superb and having 100% uptime on Regen DURING combat is very good. Just be aware that with Regen active on the tank, most adds will make a zooming beeline towards you due to enmity. You'll want to try to stay near the tank when this happens so the tank has a means to get the adds off you.

When you hit 50, Medica II is a good way to normalize party wide damage, and I've found a lot of good uses of Medica II in Syracus Tower and specific instances of Titan HM, though I use it significantly less often outside of that. Cure III's niche uses are similar but the instances you can use them, you'll grin and smile. Try to learn the Cure III ranges and make use of it when you can as it proves to be a more efficient heal than Medica II for group heals.

The absolute best advise to give is to be adaptable. Easier said than done, I know, but once you have seen a few scenarios and fights, you can start building "what-if" contingencies in your head on the fly and know what move you feel is best and be prepared for it. This comes with time and experience though. Also, understand your abilities. Your bread and butter will be Cure, Cure II with Freecure procs, and Regen, but knowing when is a good time to use your other abilities will differentiate you from the other healers.

Happy healing!

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Originally Posted by Ghishlain

Is there any evidence to back this up? As far as I know, overhealing generate the exact same enmity as normal healing.

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I think they just meant that if you're spamming Cure on the tank when he's at full you're generating more enmity than if you left well enough alone with the healing and cast some Aero/Stone or something.

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Originally Posted by Tranquil and Seryl and Ashkendor

Regen creates healing enmity per tick.

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Okay, good reason! Thank you! :D


Winsock: I get what you're saying, but that's not convincing. I completely get that Stoneskin's usefulness will change as I advance, as it's based on the target's HP rather than my own skills, but I'm really, really not impressed by a 150-200 HP damage block that I can cover with a simple heal that costs half as much - and does twice as much healing.
It's great to cast on the non-tanks, at the moment, because I don't want to actually active-heal anyone else when the damage is flying, but to use on the tank, it seems silly.
I will say, I did do a run of Sunken Temple of Qarn where I tried to rely on Stoneskin and Regen instead of Cure/Freecure/Regen, and Stoneskinning the tank felt like a waste, which is generating my opinion here. I didn't run out of MP, because the DPS classes were awesome, but it really felt like I could and should have been more efficient.

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Originally Posted by PWilson

Winsock: I get what you're saying, but that's not convincing. I completely get that Stoneskin's usefulness will change as I advance, as it's based on the target's HP rather than my own skills, but I'm really, really not impressed by a 150-200 HP damage block that I can cover with a simple heal that costs half as much - and does twice as much healing.
It's great to cast on the non-tanks, at the moment, because I don't want to actually active-heal anyone else when the damage is flying, but to use on the tank, it seems silly.
I will say, I did do a run of Sunken Temple of Qarn where I tried to rely on Stoneskin and Regen instead of Cure/Freecure/Regen, and Stoneskinning the tank felt like a waste, which is generating my opinion here. I didn't run out of MP, because the DPS classes were awesome, but it really felt like I could and should have been more efficient.

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Like I said, SS isn't something you cast during a fight, though there are exceptions. It's typically something you cast before as a preventative measure. The first time you see a speed run you'll know why Stone Skin is great. :3

Basically, your tank will barrel through the first 3-5 pulls of a dungeon, sit them in a pile, and let the DPS nuke them. You want as much damage mitigation in place on your tank as humanly possible while they gather because you cannot reasonably heal them while they have such a tenuous hold on the enmity of so many things. Doing so pretty much guarantees a swift death for you, followed by the rest of the party. xD

Stone Skin is also nice if you can sneak it in before hard-hitting boss skills, though this is harder to do because of the long cast. You basically would have to know the boss' attack rotation (focus target helps too).

Don't worry too much about Stoneskinning for now. People are right about it being good, but at the same time, I wouldn't lobby it too much just yet. All you need to know is that Stoneskin doesn't generate a lot of enmity, so it has its uses for that. Also, the biggest reason it's used is to offer flat, HP-based mitigation, as at level cap you have many tank-killing moves, which you should mitigate before they get wound up. This game likes its (near) one-shot mechanics. Just Stoneskin people when you're casting Protect at the start of a dungeon, then before bosses if you wish. Apart from that, only if you're about to rip aggro. This obviously completely changes at level cap, though. In general, you'll want to cast it on the tanks often, but spare casting it on the DPS for the rare moments, again, endgame only.

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Originally Posted by PWilson

Winsock: I get what you're saying, but that's not convincing. I completely get that Stoneskin's usefulness will change as I advance, as it's based on the target's HP rather than my own skills, but I'm really, really not impressed by a 150-200 HP damage block that I can cover with a simple heal that costs half as much - and does twice as much healing.
It's great to cast on the non-tanks, at the moment, because I don't want to actually active-heal anyone else when the damage is flying, but to use on the tank, it seems silly.
I will say, I did do a run of Sunken Temple of Qarn where I tried to rely on Stoneskin and Regen instead of Cure/Freecure/Regen, and Stoneskinning the tank felt like a waste, which is generating my opinion here. I didn't run out of MP, because the DPS classes were awesome, but it really felt like I could and should have been more efficient.

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Stoneskin will see more utility use later (level 50+ content) when there are moments to use them appropriately, but is definitely lackluster are your level given the mitigation it gives for the cost of a Cure II.

Examples:
-Mountain Buster during Titan Hard Mode is a heavy damage attack that comes in set intervals during his pattern, so it's easy to predict when you need to Stoneskin your MT
-There are times during certain raid fights in Crystal Tower that the MT doesn't actually need to tank at that very moment and is instead dealing with mechanics of the fight. This is a good time to give them Stoneskin so they are prepared for the next boss onslaught
-High ilvl Warriors with Thrill of Battle up can have somewhere upwards of 10K+ HP. You can imagine 18% of this is a HUGE boost compared to the 150-200 you see at your level. Depending on your gear score, it's more efficient for you to use Stoneskin versus Cure II.

Regen is fantastic.

I would suggest caution with Stoneskin, enhanced or not. It is slow, expensive, and weak compared to your heals, even on high health tanks where the percentage is maximized. It cannot crit, will not save a tank that is getting hit as you apply it, and you can't use it to fish for free casts like you could with cure I. If your time or mana are even slightly an issue, stoneskin is usually the wrong tool for the job.

Stoneskin has reasonable use as a buffer and it's nice to have people just a bit tougher in general, but be aware of its drawbacks when used as a staple spell.

Dont ever overheal, know when not to heal, also always check your agrro number and kids? We r old here, i dont think there are kids at all