How to heal Tanks...

Heyaz again!

So, most of the time Instances go well. But sometimes, there are some really, really awful tanks. Any advice on how to deal with:

- undergeared tanks

- jittery tanks

- selfish (is that the term for that?) tanks

- a combination of the above

My gear is decent enough, so I can outheal most stuff. And a SC Raise is always possible. But y'know how it goes sometimes...

Thanks in advance

For undergeared tanks there's not really any answer. If you're at the point where you're spamming heals and it's still not enough, even with your gear being solid, then you have to accept that there's nothing you can do. Just get them to pull smaller packs, and suggest upgrading their gear as soon as they leave the dungeon.

For selfish tanks, I assume you mean tanks that don't bother with cooldowns and just expect the healers to do more work? If so, again, all you can really do is talk to them and try to get them to mitigate a little more. If you get hit with a "You don't pay my sub", then at least you tried, but you're not the jerk in this case.

For jittery tanks do you mean tanks that aren't all that confident and are maybe not using cooldowns optimally? In cases like that, again, explaining that dumping all of your cooldowns at once instead of spreading them out isn't ideal, or using your big 30% ones when there's only 2 enemies left from a 7-mob pull is a waste. The problem I found with jittery tanks, however, is they take the "You can use fewer cooldowns" and dial it to 11 and accidentally become selfish by overcompensating.

All in, it's mostly a communication issue. If you're absolutely sure that your gear is up to speed and you're outputting as much healing as you can, then the only issue lies with the party. Especially at your current level, which I assume isn't much higher than the 30 White Mage. For any general tips at that level I'd say try and keep Regen on the tank while you're fighting if you can spare a cast on a slower spell, as that ticks in the background for more healing than Cure 2 over its duration. And try and save Presence of Mind for moments when the tank should be out of cooldowns, but still taking heavy hits. Cure is more MP efficient than Cure 2, if running dry on MP is the issue, so while Cure 2 is a bigger heal bomb and is real good for keeping tanks topped between casts of Stone, it's a massive drain on your own resources if you need to go ham with it. You get a free-proc trait for Cure that lets you cast Cure 2 for free on a 15% chance which really helps with MP management. Also you should be using Lucid Dreaming from your role skills early and often. Don't keep it until you're already out of MP: much like tanks and their Rampart it's better used to prevent problems, not solve them. So if you use it at about 7000 MP it will tick in the background and keep you well stocked.

Eventually you'll get more tools to deal with it, but for now more than later, dungeons are very dependent on the party: you can't heal a tank wearing tissue paper, likewise a perfect tank will still have issues if their healer runs dry after 5 seconds. And it's all well and good both being ideal, but it won't matter if the DPS don't kill the enemies quickly enough and everyone runs out of cooldowns and the like. This last point is also something to take into account: if you're doing Tam-Tara or the like and the tank pulls wall to wall, that's fine if you have, say, a Red Mage and a Machinist, since they have great AoE attacks at that level and can kill everything really quickly. But if you're with a lancer and a rogue they can only kill enemies one at a time so if they pull a massive group then they have to deal with the massive group for longer.

tl;dr- communication and managing your MP.

To emphasize the core of Metsonm's point: communication is key, regardless of what kind of tank you're running with. It tends to solve most issues, and if they're unresponsive or belligerent then you at least know you gave it a fair attempt. Sometimes we just have to bite the bullet and pull more than our own weight, but luckily this happens very rarely at higher levels in my experience.

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Originally Posted by Metsonm

For any general tips at that level I'd say try and keep Regen on the tank while you're fighting

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Moreover: I'm sure this is what you meant, but just to avoid confusion for OP's sake I want to chime in and clarify that one should ideally not use Regen pre-pull. This can easily net you aggro before the tank has had a chance to establish it. Wait until they've got them, then pop it. Just something to be aware of as a new White Mage that will make your tank thankful. =)

Good luck to you OP!

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Originally Posted by ZeSeKa

Heyaz again!

So, most of the time Instances go well. But sometimes, there are some really, really awful tanks. Any advice on how to deal with:

- undergeared tanks

- jittery tanks

- selfish (is that the term for that?) tanks

- a combination of the above

My gear is decent enough, so I can outheal most stuff. And a SC Raise is always possible. But y'know how it goes sometimes...

Thanks in advance

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If the problem is purely behavior, try talking to them. Unfortunately, there is a risk of people getting 'defensive' (aggressive really), but hopefully they'll be responsive and there aren't exactly much in the way of other options either.

Undergearing can be the toughest one, if they're really undergeared, and unfortunately there's just very little you can do about it.

Pretty much just hope your gear is good enough to outheal stuff, and that you and the DPS can tank stuff if it comes down to it. This is much easier in 50/60/70/80 dungeons, and can be much harder in leveling dungeons, due to the relative sync points of them.

But in the end there are limits to what's within your control. Minimum ilvl requirements help, but they're a bit low for tanks. Though it's very rare this happens, if I do get a tank that's so atrociously geared I can't keep them up once my oGCDs have been burned through... well, that's a prompt for me to leave. A 30 minute duty finder lock is better than some alternatives, and past a certain point it's just futile.

But sometimes there can be exceptions, like a well geared DPS that both has the output to hold aggro and enough tankiness thanks to that gear. For the rest of them, well, just heal like mad.

But just to emphasize: don't feel obligated to stick around if there's someone making a run so awful it's thoroughly ruining your experience. Doing something else for 30 minutes can be better than sticking through something that makes you not want to play anymore.

- undergeared tanks
Heal as normal. Very likely will have to resort to GCD heals to keep alive. Do so. Tight DPS windows. Do so only when safe, which is usually when the enemy is casting something, but this will likely give you a much needed breather. If the tank still dies after resorting to GCD heal spam; you'll have to let them know that the pull is too large for the group.

- jittery tanks
I'm not exactly sure what you mean by jittery. I'm guessing take a little bit to hit the gas pedal? Just be patient if this is the case.

- selfish (is that the term for that?) tanks
Just roll with the punches. Raising a stink about the situation makes you just as bad.

- a combination of the above
A combination of the above

- My gear is decent enough, so I can outheal most stuff. And a SC Raise is always possible. But y'know how it goes sometimes...
Just keep it up. Over time, you will learn to quickly gauge how much punishment your tanks are able to take. All in all, do your best to support them. There are very few, if any situations where you don't do this.

Thank you!

Most of my problems come from undergeared tanks pulling half the dungeon and then getting smacked around really hard... Or running out of my sight and disrupting my Cure.

Should I always save PoM for Raise, btw? Casting Cure or Cure 2 doesn't take that long.

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Originally Posted by ZeSeKa

Thank you!

Most of my problems come from undergeared tanks pulling half the dungeon and then getting smacked around really hard... Or running out of my sight and disrupting my Cure.

Should I always save PoM for Raise, btw? Casting Cure or Cure 2 doesn't take that long.

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PoM is usually thought to be more of a DPS cooldown. For Raise, ideally you have swiftcast.

That said, if swiftcast is on cooldown, PoM+raise is an OK combination - but I would not recommend going to it before swiftcast.

No, PoM is nearly always used as a dps cooldown. For example, getting more Holy casts on a large trash pack or extra Glares on a boss. Remember dps on trash pulls is important since Holy will stun all mobs, giving you a nice window where your undergeared tank isn't taking damage and the adds can be burned down.

Speaking of Cure, once you unlock Cure II you generally prioritize that. Freecure is a trap. This is especially true for an undergeared paper tank where Cure spam probably won't keep up with the damage. If it burns you out of mana, the run was probably hopeless, but remember to keep using Lucid on cd.

So, save SC for Raise? And PoM for Stone spam? I don't have Holy for quite a few levels...

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Originally Posted by ZeSeKa

So, save SC for Raise? And PoM for Stone spam? I don't have Holy for quite a few levels...

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You will find that as you gain more skills, it'll become a lot easier to deal with the tanks you have issues with while also being able to put out a lot more damage on things too.
I see you're only 30ish? By 50 it'll be great and by 80 you're unstoppable!