Any tips for dodging AOEs as a healer?

As many other posters have mentioned, this game is very scripted. Once you learn the script, it becomes much easier to anticipate what big moves are about to hit the table and how you can react to said big hits. There's a level of randomness in healing depending on how well the rest of the party is dodging the avoidable stuff that you will just need to deal with, but understanding the script will allow you to realize when you can heal and when you should be on your toes.

If you're having a lag problem (thus giving you less time to react) and you're playing on PC, there are programs like WTFast and Pingzapper that could potentially help alleviate that. I dunno if that's the case or not though.

Sprint. For us healers, it's free.

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Originally Posted by Gillionaire

Also, check your play style and see if you're unable to move AND cast skills at the same time.. I've noticed that some people have trouble doing both at the same time, if that's the case, you could practice it. maybe try playing BRD or something and be constantly on the move without stopping at any time.

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I recommend this as well - I had quite a bit of trouble in Titan HM till I switched to Bard for a while. It was quickly a cakewalk on Bard, and the practice transferred over to when I'd play WHM again. A lot of my trouble spots I got over using Bard. Now I consider Titan HM fun o_O

The main thing, though, is to not wait to finish casting - unless you intend to take a hit from a WoTL (but Never landslide!), knowing you can take it, if something is truly that dire (like low health MT and Bene on CD). You can also hit sprint at any time - for casters it's free movement speed since they're not penalized by the TP loss (unlike melee are).

If it's not that - check the graphics settings or the speed boosters mentioned earlier x.x An FC mate of mine had such bad lag that I still outran his sprinting, while running normally. Pingzapper cleared that right away, as soon as he tried it. He didn't do the whole Disconnect symbol dance or jumping places.... just everything for him was incredibly slow (and he appeared slow on my screen, too) - which meant things appeared incredibly slow, too (AoEs, spawns, etc). While that may not be the case for all content for you (as he only had this happen -worst- for him in some openworld areas and some dungeons (Brayflox. As a new tank. He cried for days.) you can stilll run it during instances where you suspect this could be happening... especially Titan HM

Op, are you playing on WiFi or directly wired in? The latency playing over a wireless connection is an issue for this game. Also use sprint. It helps a lot.

I use wireless connection and get laggy time to time and sometimes hardcore runnerbanding lol.
But imo
-use sprint when possible cuz its free
-keep moving if ur unsure if the boss will cast some heavy DDR AoE. I.e titan plumes
( ur a healer tht can't dodge aoes tht well so prioritize ur safety above others who can probably dodge )
- keep trying lol the more u soak in the better u'll remember
-if u rubberband / everything freezes for 10 secs, just run to the middle if ur in titan as chances r when u catch up ur already dead. But at least u won't get knocked off.

Just remember the golden rule. You can't heal if you're dead so don't take pointless risks. Dodge then heal. You can use swiftcast to get off a heal while moving in an emergency or if you are WHM you can use regen while moving so you can at least throw something on somebody who needs a heal for a lot of situations regen will be enough anyway. Divine seal + Medica II is a big help too in fights with a lot of dodging the party will get some healing even if you are unable to stop and cast a bigger heal.

The easiest way for parties to handle Titan plumes is to spend the whole time stacking on Titan's butt so the plumes fall over a smaller area and everyone dodges out of it by moving left or right. The only drawback is that if you can't get out of this it is more likely to kill you since you get hit by 3-4 stacking on top of each other.

When you learn content you become more confident and know what you are doing so you can afford to play more risky especially if you have a competent party. If I'm doing EXDR and the party is comfortable i tend to play pretty reckless to try to finish in a faster time XD.

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Originally Posted by FengPopo

I always loved playing the healer role in every MMORPG that I've played. I can say that I'm a fairly good healer. I started my WHM job in FFXIV thinking it'd be a similar type of play style as other games, but I got a rough awakening when it came time for Titan. FFXIV has a ton of movement and AOE dodging during fights that is unlike other games I have played before. I've never had to move or dodge so much as a healer before.

No matter how hard I try, I just cannot avoid dodging at least one AOE. I've fallen off the ledge in Titan many times to my utter embarrassment. I would see him put down landslide but I would just be a second too slow to react. I feel like maybe my reaction time is too slow. But what can I do if my reaction processing is a few seconds slower than the average person? Am I doomed to just keep getting eaten by AOE and failing my party members?

This has become very frustrating for me because I WANT to be a good player and do harder content, but I'm just inherently a slow reactor. :(

Does anyone have any tips/advice on how to deal with dodging AOEs in time?

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Three things, only one of these are under your control:
a) 95% of battles, you as the healer are going to be dodging AOE's. Unless you have a VERY good Tank who stuns all the AOE's.
b) Reduce your screen resolution (or get a better video card) if you aren't getting 60fps. For whatever reason AOE dodging is made much harder if the frame rate is dropping below 30fps.
c) Learn the boss patterns and preemptively move.

Bosses that have omnidirectional AOE's, you can focus target and proactively move. Other cases such as WoD's Angra Mainyu's Mortal Gaze, and Amdapor Keep's Anantaboga Imminent Catastrophe attacks you can actually see them coming from the casting effects and move.

As a healer, the hardest AOE to avoid so far is Wanderer's Palace (Hard)'s Manxome Molaa Ja Ja, cone AOE, as it seems to ALWAYS target the healer and the only way to avoid it is to hug the Boss without the AOE slamming the DPS as well.

For the Trials, the trick, more or less is to learn the order. Anyone who plays Mainstream Roulette, likely knows the patterns by heart since the same patterns are used by a specific boss later.

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Originally Posted by Riepah

If your reaction time is really consistently slower than it should be and you can't change it, try learning the boss patterns by heart. You don't have to "react to" as much as "anticipate" the attacks, then.

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^ This.

Literally every fight in the game is a dance. You can't dance the dance without knowing the steps first. There's very little RNG.

The most RNG a boss fight has in XIV is Shiva EX, which consists of "Will she do Staff or Sword form first?". Almost every other fight follows a strict pattern that will be the same every time.

FCoB also has phases where RNG is a factor (T10 P5, T11 P3, T12 P2), but that probably isn't a concern for the OP atm.

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Originally Posted by KisaiTenshi

As a healer, the hardest AOE to avoid so far is Wanderer's Palace (Hard)'s Manxome Molaa Ja Ja, cone AOE, as it seems to ALWAYS target the healer and the only way to avoid it is to hug the Boss without the AOE slamming the DPS as well.

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That makes it one of the easiest to avoid since all you need to do is stick to the butt of the boss. He uses the same 3 attacks over and over again. Sets rot bomb thing on a person this is a purple looking debuff, Cone AoE, Rot gas which will explode around him and the person he put the AoE on so just avoid them both. Repeat with some idol summons and a few adds at certain percentages. That's the one thing about this game that makes experience count because bosses are so consistent in their attack rotations very rarely they have an RNG attack like Shiva's floor freeze. It's normally a mix of consistent AoE's in various spots where you learn the safe zones and targeted which will appear under a random party member at certain times which might feel random but the attacks are always in a certain order so you know they are coming.

In AKHM Boogey has this massive half room cone thing where if you are in it you won't dodge out unless you are at the edge i found that annoying until i realised all you need to do is not face him and the confusion debuff misses XD. It's the same as Mortal Gaze just it's an AoE.