Tips for new (and some not-so-new) healers

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Originally Posted by ariaandkia

Second issue: Aggro control
Sometimes, that little bit of DPS can throw you into the aggro zone. Especially for scholars who tend to be able to stack massive amounts of DPS.

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Not to be rude, but this statement here says to me you don't really play a Scholar. I can tell you that Scholar off-DPS adds an absolutely laughable amount of enmity (ie. very little). Were you to get aggro off the tank from dotting and multidotting, Ruin spamming, Energy Draining, whatever - you name it - you would have a gigantic tank issue at hand. You are spending most of your Scholaring days in the glorious green aggro zone, free of worry and pain. (Possibly hitting yellow with intensive Succoring!)

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Originally Posted by Tranquil

Not to be rude, but this statement here says to me you don't really play a Scholar. I can tell you that Scholar off-DPS adds an absolutely laughable amount of enmity (ie. very little). Were you to get aggro off the tank from dotting and multidotting, Ruin spamming, Energy Draining, whatever - you name it - you would have a gigantic tank issue at hand. You are spending most of your Scholaring days in the glorious green aggro zone, free of worry and pain. (Possibly hitting yellow with intensive Succoring!)

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Most tanks I've met can't handle a SINGLE non-crit cure (Cure I) or physick when at critical health. Soon as I do it, either all but 1 mob on the tank comes to me or...


All the mobs come to me period.

And yes, I am fairly new at scholar (I've done a lot of healing as Arc though since some healers ditch the party-probably same reason as tanks do (had one tank quit/rejoin the party like 20 times in 15 minutes trying to join his party for commendation farming-whatever happened to the 30 minute wait and why is it so hard for some people to get commendations?)). As for "laughable" it might be laughable at first but it adds up in prolonged battles. Great when you start at green then by the time your dot ends, it turns orange, then an actual physick/adol/etc. when needed turns it red. This is WITHOUT Ruin or Energy Drain. This is just from my DoT rotation.

Same thing happens with WHM. I put on a DoT and that can be the difference between pulling the enemies off the tank.

When ONE heal of the WEAKEST type NONCRIT can pull ALL the mobs off your tank when he is about to die if you don't, doing DPS is not helping the situation.

On the PLUS side... It is safer as a SCH since most likely, your pet will get the aggro before you do if you are just DPS'ing and not healing (though if your pet dies from the amount of damage it is pulling...)

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Originally Posted by AnimaAnimus

And as for the harassment, I doubt it is considered harassment to kick someone for DOING NOTHING but following the group. I will have to check tos but if your in a dungeon and not doing a thing there is no reason to keep you imo.

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well, doing nothing is a good reason, and its called AFK, but if he is healing, u cant

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Originally Posted by ariaandkia

Just to give an idea of why DPSing could be bad for a healer.

First issue: 2.4~2.5 second CD. (I'm sure you could get lower, but you get the idea)

How many enemies could murder your party in 2.4 seconds? I know of quite a few. Even trash mobs if you are doing speed runs can murder your entire party in the time it takes for your CD to end (for instant DPS such as Aero or Bio).

Second issue: Aggro control
Sometimes, that little bit of DPS can throw you into the aggro zone. Especially for scholars who tend to be able to stack massive amounts of DPS.

And depending on your party, having even 10 of the 20+ mobs move away from the AoE zone could result in a party wipe. And with that many enemies, walking into the middle of the mob group would be suicide no matter how good you are.




Yeah, but sometimes I want specific players in specific slots. Though I see how you can do it through the party menu, I wish there was a faster way. At least psort gets them into the general right location though.

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I tried dpsing on both whm and sch and have to say on sch it is way easier and better for multiple reasons (there is another thread about dps where i think stating them would be more appropriate). Being a 2nd healer i am much more comfortable if whm is just healing so i can focus on dps and back him up with lustrates when needed.

What I really wonder is why ppl get so upset when you even broach the subject of a healer dpsing. I can understand if you are healing or need to be at the ready but when there is no heals needed and nothing to do I don't get why asking a healer to throw an aero, rune, bio or holy is SUCH a HUGE deal. If it speeds things up, great. But man oh man ppl just get so defensive when you ask them why they haven't even drawn their weapon or cast a spell for the past 3 pulls or why they refuse to. Are you really that indolent that you gotta start a fight about it?

To me its just being a team player and helping the group out. Maybe my gaming style is just too altruistic. But hopefully the new healers that are reading this will realize that its a win/win situation that will benefit everyone, including themselves, if they learn good habits early on.

I knew I was going to get slammed by a select few for #3 but I stand by it.

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Originally Posted by AldoVonAlexandros

well, doing nothing is a good reason, and its called AFK, but if he is healing, u cant

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That's the point tho, they are not. If you don't heal within 3-5 pulls or do anything else, I consider you afk and I will kick you as such. Same goes for any other role in a pt.

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Originally Posted by ariaandkia

Most tanks I've met can't handle a SINGLE non-crit cure (Cure I) or physick when at critical health. Soon as I do it, either all but 1 mob on the tank comes to me or...

All the mobs come to me period.

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Well this isn't a healer issue, this is a very very bad tank issue. Unless you are curing before he has had a chance to establish hate, even then a tank should be able to get them off you easily. This is also not most tanks that I nor my friends have met. Tanks I have run with, even strangers in df pts can handle me curing, curagaing, nuking, doting, etc etc without loosing hate or being able to regain control of a rouge mob if they happen to stray, even in large pulls. Regardless its a poor excuse to use for not dpsing/curing and any healer worth their salt will tell you the same. Enmity control is part of the healers game as well as the tanks.

You need to know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away, know when to run

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Originally Posted by AnimaAnimus

Well this isn't a healer issue, this is a very very bad tank issue. Unless you are curing before he has had a chance to establish hate, even then a tank should be able to get them off you easily. This is also not most tanks that I nor my friends have met. Tanks I have run with, even strangers in df pts can handle me curing, curagaing, nuking, doting, etc etc without loosing hate or being able to regain control of a rouge mob if they happen to stray, even in large pulls. Regardless its a poor excuse to use for not dpsing/curing and any healer worth their salt will tell you the same. Enmity control is part of the healers game as well as the tanks.

You need to know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away, know when to run

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I'm sorry, but when DPSing can lead to a party wipe, I'll avoid the DPS and leave it to someone else. Enmity control is part of the healer's job, but...If the tank can't hold enmity, not much can be done except minimize enmity. I've had to turn cleric stance on while healing before just to try to lower my heals enough that the tank could hold aggro through my first heal. Of course, this only helped for the first heal.

Maybe I'm just unlucky with tanks, but honestly, I think it should be the healer's decision whether to DoT, Nuke, DPS, or w/e. All healers should heal, but beyond that should really be on the healer's call.

As for "not healing" if not healing one person means I can save the rest, I'll drop that one person. Example. Group (with a decent tank) is fighting 6 mobs, semi struggling, but otherwise doing fine. One guy suddenly decides to pull every mob they can find to the group.

Generally? I don't heal them because more often than not, it will cause a party wipe. And if the tank doesn't see a reason to try to hold aggro on the extra mobs, I see no reason to force him to try. Just let the DPS die so that the rest of the party will be safe.

But I guess I'm not worth my salt since I choose to not heal them.

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Originally Posted by AnimaAnimus

What I really wonder is why ppl get so upset when you even broach the subject of a healer dpsing. I can understand if you are healing or need to be at the ready but when there is no heals needed and nothing to do I don't get why asking a healer to throw an aero, rune, bio or holy is SUCH a HUGE deal. If it speeds things up, great. But man oh man ppl just get so defensive when you ask them why they haven't even drawn their weapon or cast a spell for the past 3 pulls or why they refuse to. Are you really that indolent that you gotta start a fight about it?

To me its just being a team player and helping the group out. Maybe my gaming style is just too altruistic. But hopefully the new healers that are reading this will realize that its a win/win situation that will benefit everyone, including themselves, if they learn good habits early on.

I knew I was going to get slammed by a select few for #3 but I stand by it.

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The post you wrote makes it seem like your telling healers to help DPS or get kicked. Better advice would be, "If you can try help dps if healing is under control. Throw some DoTs if you can!"

Not everyone is looking for a speedrun. If you want a speedrun don't go trying to find it in Duty Finder. Some people like to relax and complete a dungeon with ease. LOL a healing dpsing is not a good habit. I've been in some stupid wipes because the healer thought it was fine to dps. Some healers should just not try to DPS. They are HEALERS. They don't have to do it. That should be a choice, not something they are forced into. If they want to DPS, role a DPS class. The dps skills we have were meant for solo content, which is why we have little of it. (More false information in #3)

Either you heal your party the way you want or just never find random healers. Because it's natural for a healer to worry about keeping their party alive instead of dpsing to speed things along. Which usually end up as a wipe for most people.

also, some times when Im on my whm, if i dont dps is because i want to recover some mp, but yeah, I agree with the dps, as i said before, i always dps, dots and bane help a lot, also shadowflare, miasma II and Ruin II for the blind also helps, most of the time im on CS because I know eos/selene can heal and if an emergency comes I can lustrate, but if a new healer is not confident enough, it can lead to a wipe and he will feel bad cause people will say"why u dps, heal, u wiped us" and stuff like that and at some point, the healer will dps but u cant kick somebody for not dpsing, thats the point.

its not same to say "hey whm/sch, try to dps a little when u can, it would be great =)" instead of "hey, why the f*ck u dont dps?"

but yes, healers, dps if u are confident enough to do it