I don't think I'm cut out to be a healer. x_x

Hey guys, so I finally managed to get my Ast up to doing SB dungeons and am now up to the level 65 one (Bardam's Mettle) and I'm starting to think that I may not be healer material. So far in my runs of this dungeon, 99% of my time is spent healing the tank or the dps that are oddly getting damaged left and right, even outside of boss fights. Any damage I do now is only coming from either the Lord card to discard it or a byproduct of using Earthly Star for healing. I might get lucky and be able to throw a Combust 2 or Malefic 3 on the rare occasion, but it is very few and far between.

I know healers are supposed to heal and dps, but I'm having to spend so much time and MP on healing that I don't get any real chance to dps and I'm feeling like a failure of a healer. :(

I'm sure your fine. Just remember not to regen while tank is doing pulls. Also if the dps are getting damaged, that's because they're stealing aggro from the tank. If you managed to heal all the way to now, you're doing fine. It's the other people you have to worry about really.

Adding DPS to your healer rotation, especially in Lv60+ dungeons, is really something for advanced Healers - especially if the tank is pulling anything more than 3 mobs. In order to DPS on large pulls you need to know exactly what you have the time to do and how you will recover from it. If you want to cast a DPS spell while the tank requires constant Benefic II casts just to survive, you're going to need to somehow create that time. For AST, you don't have many options in this regard. One thing you could do is use Largesse, put an enhanced regen on the tank, and that might let you cast a single DPS spell occasionally. Alternatively, if you're in Nocturnal Sect, you might try using Aspected Benefic for the shield, the using a DPS spell. But overall, AST is not the best class to DPS with on healer. Its actual DPS potential is low, even if you have time to be DPSing. The current top DPS healer is WHM. What WHM can do is top off the tank, use DB, then Holy spam to stun the enemies a couple times, letting you fit in a few casts. You can also use oGCD heals between these casts after the stuns wear off. You can do this on AST too, but it's important to be aware of whether you will need those oGCDs to save the tank later. If the tank is actually taking more damage than can be sustained just with Benefic II/Cure II spam, then you'll need to use oGCD heals/shields to match the incoming damage. If you used all of those oGCDs to enable healer DPS earlier, then the tank is going to die.

So ultimately, it really comes down to a lot of judgment calls from the healer on how much damage the tank is going to take.

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Originally Posted by Renryuu

I know healers are supposed to heal and dps, but I'm having to spend so much time and MP on healing that I don't get any real chance to dps and I'm feeling like a failure of a healer. :(

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Healers are supposed to heal... That's why we call them healers. If they can DPS too, that's great but their number one job is to heal. You can't play the other persons' class so sometimes that means you spend the entire dungeon spam healing. It comes with the territory.

Bardam's Mettle is tough to DPS in if the tank wants to do big pulls. I've done it as AST and WHM and even with the 110394 healing abilities + Holy stun that WHM has available I had to be cautious in attempting to DPS. On AST I definitely have to spend more time healing than DPSing. I also almost never have a full bar of MP from start to finish as AST if I DPS.

As long as no one's dying because of lack of effort on your part, you're not a failure. The new dungeons are just more brutal than what we've been used to previously.

I see, I'll keep on trying. I'd say I'd give another healer job a go, but honestly Ast is the only one of the 3 I can enjoy since I love the cards and throwing out buffs left and right (also love how beautiful their spells can be) and I'm already having a hard enough time in forcing myself to stay healer since I was originally planning to main Red Mage, but my current situation demands I be a healer if I want to do content with friends. I do make sure I keep people alive (unless for some reason they just absolutely refuse to get out of aoes or cleaves) and I at least have gotten to a point where I can throw out card buffs often unless I end up with an Aoe Balance combo, then I save that until we get to the boss and turn all card draws into Lords or Ladies until the boss and I case the Aoe Balance.

Not to say I don't enjoy healing at all, I do and healing is oddly fun in it's own way, it's just I've gotten so accustomed to being dps and I don't play many games that would involve me being a dedicated healer so being a healer in an mmo always feels a bit odd to me. I dunno, I just keep seeing talk on other forums how healers are expected and have to dps to not be kicked that I worry that I'm not up to snuff when I'm going through a dungeon doing nothing but casting heals with dps coming in the form of a byproduct of other abilities. I just want to be able to at least go one expansion being able to do raid content instead of being the 3rd in a row that I've not been able to do raid content for one reason or another.

Remember also in Bardam and up, tanks take a fair bit more damage because of the large jump in defence in gear from that point forward, in which most tanks wont even upgrade to and so you'll be healing 270 tanks when the defence buff in 273+ is pretty substantial.

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Originally Posted by NinjaDecoy

Remember also in Bardam and up, tanks take a fair bit more damage because of the large jump in defence in gear from that point forward, in which most tanks wont even upgrade to and so you'll be healing 270 tanks when the defence buff in 273+ is pretty substantial.

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Ah, I did not know this. Will things get a bit better once I'm 70 and end game tanks are in full 300+ gear or do the damage monsters do scale so that the jump in defense is only enough to ensure tanks are still taking the same relative amount of damage they were taking in the previous dungeons?

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Originally Posted by Renryuu

I dunno, I just keep seeing talk on other forums how healers are expected and have to dps to not be kicked that I worry that I'm not up to snuff when I'm going through a dungeon doing nothing but casting heals with dps coming in the form of a byproduct of other abilities.

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Well, the forums represent less than 5% of players. And the "healers should/shouldn't DPS" debate is kind of a sore subject here. The way I see it is, DPS if you can. You shouldn't be kicked for not DPSing during down-time (and many groups don't care what you do, as long as they aren't dying). I prefer to DPS as much as possible but everyone plays differently. So don't be worried about getting kicked for not playing in the way that some people want you to.

Also, as AST, you should fish for Balance but don't be afraid to toss Boles on tanks or Arrows on mages. DPS will also appreciate a Spire when they're running low during big pulls too! Lord and Lady are nice to use but the other cards are powerful too, even if they aren't a Balance. Except Spear. Feel free to RR/convert Spears. :P

Healing is all about experience and confidence.

When I was starting with CNJ, I remember forcing myself to watch the tank HP bar in low level dungeons from enemy autos and try to delay my heal as much as possible to dps.
Back then, there was a component of muscle memory I was trying to train too (to CS in and out to dps).

Many healers see HP bars slowly dropping and are instilled with a sense of dread- someone might die, you might all die and that's it, you just made a fool out of yourself.
Eventually, you'll be able to quickly appraise the situation. You'll keep track of your cds and the tank's cds and think "he can handle it for a bit longer" or "time for Essential Dignity".
Trust me, the first time I healed Titan EX I was terrified.
Months later and I was on Sephirot EX and I'd think "heh, the party can handle one or two gcds more until the next Tiferet.

Also, you must understand that healing is a duet most of the time- a good tank will provide ample time for you to dps. A bad one will have you burning through your mana in seconds.
Same for silly dps (though we all have oopsies).
I really think you should keep at it a while longer- and if you're feeling like that, feel free to tell your party that you're in training and ask the tank to use his heavier cds in a pull where you want to dps.

(This is a useless post, but I wanted to give you motivation qq)