Quick and Dirty Healer Guide

Writing guides isn't really my thing, but I'm inspired to give it a shot due to recent posts asking for help. I'm not going to explain tooltips or go into extreme detail on an ability-by-ability basis, but there will be some retread of common forum pointers.

If there's sufficient interest in more of the same, I'll expand on it with Job-specific entries and such.


Philosophy of Healing/Basic Strategy

Some important points to keep in mind:

1. The game runs primarily on a 2.5s GCD. Players and mobs alike respect this system, and the latter part is particularly important for estimating the pace of incoming damage. For example, if several mobs engage a tank at the same time, you will notice a loose pattern to the damage; instead of the tank losing small chunks rapidly, s/he is more likely to be chunked at predictable intervals. Observing these patterns and establishing a feel for when damage is applied and how much it is likely to be will help you heal more safely and efficiently and is essential to improving your offensive game as well.

2. Mechanics are predictable. If other games have trained you to heal purely on reaction, make a concentrated effort to observe the flow of gameplay in FFXIV and realize that encounters tend to play out in roughly (often exactly) the same way in each and every repetition. The moment you graduate from essentially panic-healing an encounter to planning your spells and positioning a few steps ahead, you will have gained a great deal of control and confidence. The human element (i.e. your fellow player) frequently introduces variables, but you will be much better positioned to make adjustments if you are already comfortable in your core strategy.

3. Your powerful cooldowns are there to be used. To use a common example, saving Benediction exclusively for emergencies is a great way to waste it. Healers who sit on their CDs "just in case" are at best making life difficult for themselves. Using CDs appropriately takes a lot of stress off of the healer and the party and can help prevent an emergency from occurring.

4. Your damaging skills have value and should be used when appropriate. I'm not going to use this guide to re-litigate the case of healer DPS since we have an extensive thread on the front page as of this writing, but I maintain that the healer who knows when and how to weave between healing and DPS is a well-rounded healer and a great asset to their party.


Dungeon Tips

1. Communicate with your tank if you have a preference for pulls. It only takes a few seconds to let him/her know if you are new or otherwise not comfortable with huge mob trains.

2. Pay attention to the tank's CD usage and to your own. Many tanks frontload their CDs during large pulls and sometimes fail to stagger them at all, so you can end up with a situation where both your healing cooldowns and their mitigation cooldowns are exhausted while mobs are still alive. While you can't control what your tank does, learn to recognize various defensive cooldowns so that you can adjust accordingly. E.g. Does your PLD have both Rampart and Sentinel active at the start of the pull? You will want to save Largesse for when their CDs fall off since the damage will ramp up sharply.

3. Do not sit on Swiftcast unless you truly expect that you will need to rez frequently. While some raid situations may call for more conservative use of Swiftcast, there really isn't a reason to hold onto this 60 second CD in a Light Party dungeon. If players do die, they can either wait for an upcoming Swiftcast or take a few more seconds to be raised if necessary. Swiftcast is a great movement tool and can be invaluable for squeezing in additional healing or DPS in large pulls.

4. The first few seconds of most boss encounters are the least dangerous. The majority of dungeon bosses do almost nothing in the first 30 seconds or so of engagement. This is a great window to frontload your DPS contribution since the tank shouldn't need much from you aside from a HoT of some kind and/or a shield or oGCD heal.


General Tips

1. There are no trophies awarded for overhealing and excessive mitigation. It's undeniably cool to see a big boss ultimate do 0 damage or to see massive Cure III crits, but the best healers will aim for an appropriate, measured counter to each mechanic. For example, does it make sense for a SCH to blow Largesse and Dissipation just to fish for a crit Adlo and Deploy it against a mechanic that deals roughly 15k damage even without any shields or buffs? Not really.

2. You will at some point be blamed for things that are not your fault. It sucks, but the worst thing you can do is take it to heart and let it undermine your confidence. When criticism is deserved, be candid with yourself and make of it what you can, but don't fall into the role of team punching bag. If players manage to die because they are failing lethal mechanics or are making so many mistakes, there reaches a point where it's no longer your responsibility. Help them as much as you can, but you can't save everyone from themselves.