Quote:
Originally Posted by
Carin-Eri
Wasn't sure whether to make a separate thread for this, but thought this thread would suffice.
Firstly, I'll note that I'm new to healing. Although have been playing for almost two years at this point, I avoided trying/playing a healer job as hated the idea of anyone else relying on me, and I tend to be clumsy/slow reacting to mechanics. Anyway - I bit the proverbial bullet and levelled White Mage to 90 and, more recently, decided to give Sage a try.
Which brings me to this thread. Still relatively new to both Healing in general and the Sage job in particular, I did the same as I did with WHM - doing a few Dungeons with Trusts, and then dungeons/trials/raids with some friends before branching out and joining general roulettes.
Yesterday, I queued Levelling roulette with a friend, who opted to play as DRK, and we got Tower of Zot. And to be honest, I had a pretty miserable time. The friend I queued with, again playing DRK, died quite frequently. I obviously put Kardia on them from the onset and worked my ass off casting shields and heals (and using Dyskrasia and Dosis) but simply couldn't keep pace with the damage they were taking Vs healing/shielding and attacking (to keep the Kardia buff active). We actually wiped a few times to both trash mobs and bosses - I kept Swiftcast/Egeiro handy when realised my Tank friend was taking damage faster than I could heal it, but myself and the two DPS still became overwhelmed a few times. We finally got to the last boss and wiped. I apologised for my poor performance and did imply that I could leave if they wanted someone better. However, my DRK friend took that as me saying I was going to leave, made their apologies and bailed. Wasn't sure what to do at this point, but a new player popped in - a Paladin. And the run went as smooth as silk from that point onward. The Paladin only needed minimal shielding/healing, seemed to have some self-healing, I was able to put more effort into keeping the DPS healthy and we finished the boss without much fuss. Also, thanks to the DPS in the team who were kind enough to comment that they could see I was doing my best.
Afterward my friend commented that I was "probably undergeared" before logging off. I'm not convinced that's the case - whilst level 81 I have equipped a full set of Augmented Cryptlurker weapons and equipment.
I mean, it's not as if I haven't encountered Tanks that seemed to need a lot of healer attention before, but hadn't really experienced it on this level. And I'm not saying I wasn't responsible - I'm still learning the job and more than willing to accept I'm probably not very good at it..... but I still can't help but think that the run would've gone more smoothly if that Paladin had been on the team from the start.
To compliment what was said above me, I'll go further and mention that SGE has actual mitigative abilities beyond shields that are honestly more important than the direct healing GCDs are in situations likes this. Tauro and Kera are such short cooldowns, it's ideal to have them for every pull.
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SGE
I'm pretty sure a good SGE and a good DRK combination is absolutely busted. You get the DRK damage, you get the SGE damage, and you get the sturdiest TBNs. With the massive amount of oGCD, self-reapplying shields SGE brings, things like Kerachole, Holos, and Taurochole combine with Oblation, all of those oGCDs having short recasts that further amplify Haima, Panhaima, and TBN. The only thing I would ever have to alternate between pulls were Panhaima and Haima, everything else was easily handled by these other incredibly powerful oGCDs, with me spamming AoE the entire time, applying Soteria once the Panhaima/Haima shields fell off. Even on first pull where I would use the weaker Panhaima, it was more than made up for by a Krasis+Physis II and Zoe+Pneuma combo once I let the DRK get a little bit low after I had used the initial suite of damage mitigation. It's not like I needed weave slots, or that any of these had particularly long cooldowns. SGE is a true maverick in this department, and I not only performed the best using it, I had the most fun working together with general tank mitigation for mutual benefit. Seriously, this comp is brutally good if both players are playing at their peaks, I cannot recommend it enough.
You know what the problem is? I had to use my entire kit on all healers to heal a DRK in a way I thought was comfortable for both sides. Since I'm of the mindset, "Perfect practice makes perfect" I would play dungeon pulls like I'd be in an extreme trial or something. Use your entire kit, ABC, space out mitigation properly, do as much damage as possible, eat food (since it's so easy to make now/EXP), etc etc etc. This was MANDATORY. The same thing was demanded of the DRK, even when I play it. Reprisal, AL, doing actual damage, the works. It was actually quite enjoyable and easy when I found the right tank.
But when I healed the other tanks? I still did all those things, but it didn't feel nearly as needed, and if the DPS were slacking, as long as the tank pressed even a handful of mitigations, I don't think I'd be any the wiser. The high skill floor for basic adequacy on dungeon DRKing is not conducive to players who are not willing to put forth the effort to not be at a bare minimum competent in their dungeons on each party slot. If you get a Cure Iing WHM, or a Diagnosis-only SGE, or a single-targeting anything, you as a DRK are going to die, painfully, there is nothing you can do about it. Just take the penalty, it will be a lot less annoying.
When I had good DRKs, DRKs that would play like I would in dungeons, it was easier to heal them than all of these bandwagoning WARs who think that 1 Bloodwhetting is the only CD they need to press in an entire dungeon pull. For the casual player who doesn't press all of their buttons, healing DRKs or tanking as a DRK must be an absolute nightmare, which would explain the discrepancy in experiences. I've never had any problems healing DRKs or being healed as DRK if both parties were capable of playing at a high level. But you need all parts of the team to be doing that to really get the most out of it in dungeons, while other tanks are running around soloing things all day, carrying people with literally nothing inside of their skulls, no problem.
So that once leaves us with the tried and true DRK problem that we are all familiar with. Noticeably more effort for the same overall result as other jobs in the role, now extended to the entire light party. I don't really care if they adjust this, since I like being challenged, I'm just pointing out what I've observed now that all my tanks and healers are at 90. BiS DRK is going to shred Smileton and Sigma pulls to pieces though. With damage CDs, I'm already slicing some packs down in less than twenty-five seconds with a decent group, the damage is already pretty obscene with a i600 greatsword. I'm not justifying this, I'm just saying Living Shadow and two Shadowbringers/SaD/Floods are enhanced multi-enemy deletion devices.
Keep in mind, I wrote this during a time when I was way more passionate and way harsher, and angry at FFXIV in general. I'm not like that anymore, for the most part.