Building a better healer post 1.18

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Originally Posted by feint2021

Have ethers helped?

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Ethers can only be used once every thirty minutes I believe. (I'd test it if I was in the game right now JUST to be sure... but maint. prevents that -- so correct me if I am wrong).

Regular ethers restore 50 mp, I don't know about the elemental ones. I'd appreciate a cooldown reduction for ethers for sure, or an increase in potency of them, especially when siphon MP restores roughly 100-120 MP.

Yes they help (barely) and if the fight matters a healer should probably have at least a stack on hand. Overall you're still going to generate more MP with the active/passive toggling -- which is why its a messy mechanic.

Ethers can be used waaay more often than 30 minutes =P It's like 30 seconds or something, fairly long wait for an item timer though. I'm guessing we will see hi-ethers and the like next patch.

Thanks for reminding me about nerve potions Brucey, I forgot they existed. I get a ton of mileage out of a lot of the other stat afflicting/curing potions but I haven't made Nerve potions since enmity was kinda impossible to understand back when I first became able to make them.

Unfortunately I made all the mandrakes I got back then into Maddening powder for Maddening potions for my Gladiator friend. Time to go harvest I guess!

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Originally Posted by Estellios

Ethers can be used waaay more often than 30 minutes =P It's like 30 seconds or something, fairly long wait for an item timer though. I'm guessing we will see hi-ethers and the like next patch.

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Like I said, I wasn't too confident on the timer :) I will test it when the servers go back up for sure.

I have a 50 CON and 33 THM. I expect to be playing a full-blown healer after the advanced job system comes out. I agree with all of your propositions to improve healing in FFXIV, including your suggestions regarding enmity, spell additions, and buff durations. I only have a few comments I'd like to add:


1)

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Originally Posted by Tibian

Aggro reducing abilities: I have both Silhouette and Elemental Shroud, unfortunately they seem to do nothing (like many of the other skills in the game). So unless these skills are made better to actually dump an entire color of aggro -- I probably won't be that impressed with them.

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I agree with this completely. I would also suggest the addition of an ability similar to Fade (perhaps it could reduce threat by one color of aggro, or just drop it to green).


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Originally Posted by Tibian

I feel MP consumption is nearly where it should be. However -- I do feel it is slightly more expensive than it should be.

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I think giving mages more effective means of recovering MP in battle would alleviate some of the problems being caused by the high MP cost of cures. One suggestion I support is strengthening the effectiveness of Radiance and Damnation. As I seen in my post in a Battle Mechanics thread:

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Originally Posted by Alyssa

Both Damnation and Radiance are really underwhelming. You say you're getting 5% of your MP back with these abilities? I think the most I've ever gotten (while on my 50 CON) is 30-something MP. Usually it's much more pitiful, like 7 or so.

If they could make these abilities more effective I think we'd see less unhappy mages. I think the return of ~10% would be more than sufficient. For me, that would be around 100 MP - which is what I get, on average, from a successful Siphon MP.

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Originally Posted by Alyssa

I have a 50 CON and 33 THM. I expect to be playing a full-blown healer after the advanced job system comes out. I agree with all of your propositions to improve healing in FFXIV, including your suggestions regarding enmity, spell additions, and buff durations. I only have a few comments I'd like to add:


1)

I agree with this completely. I would also suggest the addition of an ability similar to Fade (perhaps it could reduce threat by one color of aggro, or just drop it to green).


2)

I think giving mages more effective means of recovering MP in battle would alleviate some of the problems being caused by the high MP cost of cures. One suggestion I support is strengthening the effectiveness of Radiance and Damnation. As I seen in my post in a Battle Mechanics thread:

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I was going to mention Fade but I figured if I mention anything related to World of Warcraft the trolls would run with pitchforks just to troll. Fade is a wonderful mechanic, I'd love to have that ability in XIV -- would eliminate a LOT of problems.

Just for reference for people who don't know what Fade is.

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Fade out, temporarily reducing all your threat for 10 sec.

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The fixes to Radiance and Damnation wuold be nice but they need to remove the TP requirement for those abilities. How am I supposed to generate TP while healing? They would also have to alter aggro generation on those moves because I don't want additional useless aggro.

Sometimes I feel cure is better than taunt for generating hate... which shouldn't be the case.

good post. i just recently switched over from thm to con (both are r50) because i really feel con plays a larger role in battles now, especially with aoe cures, raise II and rebirth. that, and it's hard to find a good, smart healer who always keeps buffs and stoneskin up. as a healer, you really need to be aware of what everyone in your group is doing, and that sort of motherly/overseeing playstyle currently appeals to me greatly. i was honestly getting tired of dotting mobs to death as a thm.

here are some playstyles i implement in battles to help alleviate overall enmity generation for healers:

chameleon - i use it when i know i'm going to go blinky red with a cure.
accomplice --> chameleon - my team mates and party members use this on our healers when we start to draw aggro.
bounce enmity - having two healers allows you to spread the enmity thinner, as you can take turns healing. all you have to do is call out yellow/red and have the other take over.
out of sight - always have this trait on.

i don't personally think the system is out of whack; the whole "cure = damage" enmity-wise seems to be fair enough. a cure should not, at the beginning of a battle, pull all hate, but as someone before mentioned, roaming soul + sacrifice should be a staple before any large battle. i rarely go blinky red, if at all, anymore (a large shout out to my team mates who help with this by either mitigating inbound damage or by doing crazy damage output). it took some adjustments and there was a short learning curve, but to me, healing is a lot more engaging and entertaining, especially because there is now an associated danger affixed to the task. should i curaga ii this shizz and risk pulling all hate, or do i cure iii // sac ii only those who really need it? can i take that risk? can i do it without anyone dying?

encouraging this sort of thought process while actively playing, to me, promotes smarter gameplay. i'm glad SE is finally getting around to implementing things that address that.

all in all it's so much more fun now, and i really have to pay attention to how much damage everyone is doing and what's really going on, rather than siphon mp --> all and spam aoe cure-bombs all over the place.

Well sorry, i dont agreed with u. Be4 patch things r too easy. At current state, all the problem u list can be managed. 8 ppl pt allow u have 3 mages in pt, two healing, one debuff, it work and mp r fine with 3 mage. Stop ask this and that, u just need to pay more attention now and play more skillfull. :)

Hint: as a healing role in party, sometimes, offence is the best defence. :)

Ps: just read the post above, i agreed with him. I believe he is a good healer. It might hurt, u said u play a lot of healing job, but be4 u complain about all this, have u ever try to find out the way to heal better with current skill and enmity. If u tried every thing and none of them work, ok, post it and u can tell SE this sucks, tell your dev team change it. Well for me and some ppl who always try to find the way do our job better. This system WORKED.

i think stoneskin is a bad way to start a fight. im not sure how the emnity works in ffxiv but if damage taken creates emnity, then stoneskinning at the beginning is just going to hurt ur tank's emnity gain more than help it.

if the tank has healing spells, its better to have him take some damage, heal himself a few times, then everyone can jump in cause he would have built a good amount of emnity from damage taken and damage healed.

damage taken doesn't generate enmity, i think. it's damage dished out, heals taken in and actions performed. stoneskin at the beginning lessens the total overall amount of damage taken in, saving everyone precious mp. the tank can heal himself after stoneskin wears off to generate enmity.

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Originally Posted by Tibian

The fixes to Radiance and Damnation wuold be nice but they need to remove the TP requirement for those abilities. How am I supposed to generate TP while healing?

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Yes, the TP requirement definitely sends these abilities to the back burner.

More demanding situations make the act of generating TP for these abilities nearly impossible. In most cases, however, I'm usually able to make use of them. On my 50 CON, I'm able cycle through Spirit Dart, Nature's Fury, and Elemental Shroud between my cures (I expect to be able to do the same on Thaumaturge, between debuffs/nukes). Including the TP I generate when I'm occasionally hit or get in a strike with auto-attack, I find Radiance/Damnation fairly easy to make use of (but ultimately not worth my time because of their ineffectiveness).

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Originally Posted by Tibian

They would also have to alter aggro generation on those moves because I don't want additional useless aggro.

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From my experience, Radiance/Damnation haven't been strong enough to increase my enmity level - but that's on my 50.