Game mechanics : avoiding AoE for healers (casters)

Hi everyone

I think this subject has already been debated a lot but I wanted to add my own experience as healer (45 WHM). I played FFXI for 8 years, I'm used to avoid AoE before castbar reaches 75% completion

As a healer, I cast 90% of the time on boss fight, I look at my feet to avoid facing boss/standing in AoE and I focus HP bars and ailments. Therefore :

1) I mainly don't see the mob castbar since I don't target it
2) I move as soon as I see the red lines, most of the time interrupting a spell I was casting and go far away, I think way before the cast bar is at 75%

I STILL GET HIT BY THE AOE

After testing, it seems that the game records the position when you start casting but it doesn't take into account the fact that you interrupt and move. If you want it to be registered, you have to start another action when you done moving, which is hard when boss starts spamming AoE

This needs to be corrected or some healers won't help in dungeon anymore

Take care :)

I think it is caused by the amount of people on the instance servers. I call this the "titan bug." It originally was found in titan battle in the beta phases. Yes, SE has YET to fix it. They were suppose to when they took Titan (hard) down for 5-6 hours. Level 50 instances are packed that you have to wait for a slot in the server. Best way I found to counter this is "Swiftcast." Or basically Medica 2 and run around. You can also use the cast trick by casting the skill and when its almost done move to the left/right and it will still cast. Titan Hard you have to keep moving or you are not dodging his plumes at this point. It's frustrating especially if you have a paper tank. I really want this issue fixed. This and the gil spammer. That is all I ask!

I cant deny that this does happen, but 90% of the time it does not. As long as you are out of the red circle before it disappears you should be fine. You can ignore enemy cast animation, and cast bars. Only pay attention to the red on the ground.

Yes, and it's definitely not fixed considering my experience in Stone Vigil and Dzemael Stronghold this week end.

I will ask one more think :

Please people don't get angry at a healer or another caster from not getting out of AoE and don't call them liar when they tell you they were out. This happened to me and to other people in my PUG or with my FC.

DPS most of the time don't have this problem but consider things wider and stop yelling at people for ruining your run, it's certainly not intentional and it's not making them morons...

Thanks in advance, have a nice and fair game.

Hm, the explanation that it is a server-client synch problem sounds more reasonable than the servers being overloaded. Of course the overload explanation is better, since it means it is not SEs fault (to a degree).

I mean the example given of casting, and running about 0,5 seconds before the cast finishes and it still finishes is a good example. Same goes with every channeling ability. You can cast a spell, and press the button to cast it again about 0,5 seconds before the cast is done and you will start casting faster than you would when waiting for the bar to finish.
Funny thing, this is pretty nice for black mages, who get a buff that allows you to cast spells from the other element faster. The idea was to have it switch from Fire to Ice quickly. Meaning one cast of the other element would remove the buff, what it does.
However, timed correctly, you can get two spells off at greatly reduced casttimes that way, before the server realizes your speed buff is already gone.

Honestly, this didn't strike me before reaching the level 45 dungeons. Previous ones were easy enough not to hinder me in some way. At 45 on the other end, it's a complete different story.

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Originally Posted by ntall1

I cant deny that this does happen, but 90% of the time it does not. As long as you are out of the red circle before it disappears you should be fine. You can ignore enemy cast animation, and cast bars. Only pay attention to the red on the ground.

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You must not have done titan hard. D;

Just like how people are RQ tank class.. now healers are for the same exact reason. Yet, it isn't their fault! Its SEs for whatever is causing this issue. Whether its server overload or the synch is way off. If players are yelling at you because of it this, shame on them.
I am not sure why it has been happening truly, but it has got worse. Just hope other players can share some tricks and tips to spread around faster. I am in a lot of newer player link shells to offer advice, and basically since this is pretty much an aspect of the game that has caused a lot of grief for casters its becoming extremely well known. Black Mage Skills might just save your life on a WHM.

There are times when I move with a little over a second left on a cast and then start a new one when the first one hits the target. It definitely glitches from time to time.

I wish there was some way for healers to see the cast bar. I suppose I could lock on the boss and heal the tank with a <tt> macro, but that seems more likely to cause problems than solve them. Also, UK player so that doesn't help things.

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Originally Posted by Mysi

Hi everyone

As a healer, I cast 90% of the time on boss fight, I look at my feet to avoid facing boss/standing in AoE and I focus HP bars and ailments. Therefore :

1) I mainly don't see the mob castbar since I don't target it
2) I move as soon as I see the red lines, most of the time interrupting a spell I was casting and go far away, I think way before the cast bar is at 75%

I STILL GET HIT BY THE AOE

This needs to be corrected or some healers won't help in dungeon anymore

Take care :)

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1) Focus Target the mob and you'll see a castbar the name of the spell being cast isn't always readable but this is enough of a warning if you can't survive without tunneling the party frames to look at the mob itself(they all have casting animations or other tell's to be aware of).

2) There was a theory in reddit that using an instant cast/attack after moving updates your position you could try this with Regen i've not noticed a difference myself but then my AoE dodging success rate is pretty high the only thing that seems to hit me these days is the odd weight of the land.

Game is pretty laggy and unresponsive you will get hit from time to time even with perfect movement you can test how laggy cast a longish spell 2/3 seconds cast time and move when it's 3/4 of the way through the bar the spell will still cast even though you were moving.....laggy game.