TIps for White mage

I just hit 15 on my arcanist yesterday and today I will be a White mage. Now, my question is the proper way to play one?

Usually they way I do it, I stand in the back and wait for everything to aggro the tank and I heal. Depending on the situation, I wait till about 40-50% health loss before healing, cause spamming it its honestly a waste. I've been reading about stance-dancing, but I never had the use of it unless I solo. Reason? Because the other roles know how to play accordingly so its never been an issue

I just wanna make sure Im playing my role correctly, and if not I wish to learn how to.

Healing, so far (done everything up to Garuda hard mode) has been fairly simple. Keep the tank topped off, and learn about the moves during a boss so you can expect the large damage spikes and heal right after they hit. Use Regen, keep an eye out for debuffs to Esuna, and don't spam and drain your MP pool. Learn how much MP Shroud of Saints will return so you can use it at the right time.

Stance dancing, thus far for me, hasn't been needed. Your main job is to keep everyone alive, not DPS.

I also suggest trying out some Mouse over macros to see how you like them. I didn't enjoy them that much, but that's just my personal playstyle. The macro template is: /ac "Cure" <mo>

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Originally Posted by Rona

Healing, so far (done everything up to Garuda hard mode) has been fairly simple. Keep the tank topped off, and learn about the moves during a boss so you can expect the large damage spikes and heal right after they hit. Use Regen, keep an eye out for debuffs to Esuna, and don't spam and drain your MP pool. Learn how much MP Shroud of Saints will return so you can use it at the right time.

Stance dancing, thus far for me, hasn't been needed. Your main job is to keep everyone alive, not DPS.

I also suggest trying out some Mouse over macros to see how you like them. I didn't enjoy them that much, but that's just my personal playstyle. The macro template is: /ac "Cure" <mo>

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Yes, marcos! I wanna learn how to use those. I've never used marcos so, um...I could use a quick lesson if you dont mind lol

Set your UI up so the party list is near the center of your screen. Here's a screenshot of my UI for reference:

http://i.imgur.com/CyLBEeo.jpg

Notice how I set the party frame a little off center for ease of access and to keep a tally of everyone's HP without distracting too much from what's happening around me. Normally, you have to click and then cast the spell of your choice. With a macro you simply need to place your mouse cursor over the target's name and then cast the spell. No clicking required. Best bet is to get someone in your FC or LS to join up with you and test it out.

I just got mind fucked by the fancy words you thrown at me lol. God, this is gonna be harder than I thought. I wish we were on the same server

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Originally Posted by Rona

Normally, you have to click and then cast the spell of your choice. With a macro you simply need to place your mouse cursor over the target's name and then cast the spell. No clicking required. Best bet is to get someone in your FC or LS to join up with you and test it out.

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Mouse-over has been confirmed as a bug right now and will be fixed in the future; so I wouldn't rely on it completely. Sometimes, for no reason at all, your heals will start healing yourself and you have to manually switch off a target and back to heal. (This has nothing to do with distance from your target as well.) It's frustrating wiping in Coil cause of this. I have my Macros set up so if I have nothing MO, it will heal my current target, which heals the tank I want to heal usually. But, you just have to watch and make sure your heals land. It's rare, but it does happen.

Stance dancing/DDing is all well and fun on trash. On bosses I focus on heals/dispells/running out of the way of ground targets.

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Originally Posted by Rona

Notice how I set the party frame a little off center for ease of access and to keep a tally of everyone's HP without distracting too much from what's happening around me. Normally, you have to click and then cast the spell of your choice. With a macro you simply need to place your mouse cursor over the target's name and then cast the spell. No clicking required. Best bet is to get someone in your FC or LS to join up with you and test it out.

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This is kind of how I have mine setup except I have mine on the left side, above my health bar. You and I both have the same UI setup. I have my mini map in the center with 2 hotbars on each side. I've been using this type of configuration since I played WoW. But I find having the party members frame closer to the bottom/center of the screen allows me to focus on the fight and still be able to keep track of everyone's health. Also makes it easier to click on their name and heal.

You don't necessary have to wait for 40-50% health to start healing. As long as you see GLD/PLD tanks pop Flash (all mobs turn red) and MRD/WAR use Overpower (AOE attack that generates enmity) it is relatively safe to start casting as long as you don't over heal. Because later on, some bosses can 2-3 shot your tanks so you don't want to take too much risk. Whether u do stance dancing is up to you (healing gets kinda hectic later on so u might not have time for that) but MP management is always a priority. Take adv of the Freecure Procs.

Stance swapping is great and really speeds up the runs but it does take some practice and might not be too viable unless you are with a tank you know. There are many times you will not have to heal 100% of the time, especially once you get Regen and Stoneskin, and your DPS is not to be discounted as while it is not the damage of a DPS it is a significant increase in damage nonetheless and is better than not doing it if you have the opportunity to.

It does depend on what you are fighting, though. If you are new to a boss it's best to play it safe, obviously, but for most normal enemy groups with 2-3 enemies you should be perfectly fine nuking, especially if the enemies can be slept.

Having done everything up to and including HM Titan, you can get a ton of opportunities to Cleric Stance nuke once you get a feel for when it is safe to do so.

2 tips regarding cleric stance:

A) You can't toggle it ON and then immediately back OFF. There is a 5 second CD that doesn't allow you to turn it OFF. However, you can toggle it OFF and then immediately back ON. So when you go into cleric stance, you should be certain that you won't need to heal for at least 2 GCDs. I tend to get the tank at full health, apply regen, then apply stoneskin and cleric stance to pewpew for a few GCDs. But even then you need to know the fight and know that the tank is geared and competent enough to not derp.

B) You only really ever do cleric stance on trash. And while moving from 1 trash pack to the next, you can prolong the amount of time that you can spend in cleric stance by using abilities not affected by your mind stat. Just talking about repose and stoneskin. Stoneskin has its full effect with cleric stance on and repose reduces the damage to the tank and it is not affected by cleric stance either. This makes it nice to just not have to deal with the laggy feeling animation toggle. And any extra MP that is wasted by using Stoneskin will be fully regenerated by the time you get to the next pack of trash.

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Originally Posted by Onolock

Sometimes, for no reason at all, your heals will start healing yourself and you have to manually switch off a target and back to heal. It's rare, but it does happen.

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The healing your self or wrong target thing bugs me but I figured out what was happening. Trick is to make SURE you are not moving and then cast; if you don't it will either target you or what ever you were targeting before and not the intended target. Due to this games horrendous input/server lag; my general rule of thumb is target who you want, stop moving for .5-1 second, and then cast. Basically have to wait a moment, sucks but this is apparently how the game works.

Cleric stance toggling: if I can get away with it, I will dps a bit if I can. However, I much prefer to be in healer stance the whole time b/c you never know what's going to happen. Nothing worse than being caught flat footed when stuff hits the fan, waiting on a GCD only to have people die while swapping out of dps mode. Also, most dungeon groups will never let me regain all that mana I blow on DPS so I tend to play with caution.

I've never had this mistargetting bug or needing to stop for a second before casting, and I've played WHM almost exclusively since early access.

If you are using gamepad make sure you aren't subtargeting someone else or targeting an enemy. If you are targeting an enemy it will default to you.

Edit: Or is this only a bug with mouseover targeting?

No, I don't use a game pad. I know exactly how to heal since this is same as what I did in WoW for 7+ years....here in FF 14, I get mis target bug often unless I practice what I describe. It's something I never had a problem with in other trinity MMOs except this one.

p.s. I don't use mouseover targeting since that does not work to well atm.

Turn off auto face in your set up menu. I can not tell you how many times I was running out of ae just to turn around and run back into it because I was casting regen. Pro tip you do not need to be facing someone to heal them. Auto face made me fell foolish on last boss in stone vigil.

get your crossclass skills asap, most important would be Swiftcast which you get from THM level 26. well worth the effort. it gives u an easier time during tough times. instant ress, instant medica you name it :)

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Originally Posted by bonniebru5

get your crossclass skills asap, most important would be Swiftcast which you get from THM level 26. well worth the effort. it gives u an easier time during tough times. instant ress, instant medica you name it :)

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Agreed. (That's what I'm doing now)

Swiftcast + Raise can help get your healer or tank up pretty quickly if they drop. It's really useful. Surecast is also handy if you know big damage is heading your way you can pop Surecast with Medica or Medica 2 and not be interrupted.

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Originally Posted by bonniebru5

get your crossclass skills asap, most important would be Swiftcast which you get from THM level 26. well worth the effort. it gives u an easier time during tough times. instant ress, instant medica you name it :)

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+1 for Swiftcast!! :D

Also, at the OP:

As a Healer you're basically there to keep the team's HP bars from hitting zero. For the most part, this will involve spamming heals on the tank... but it's important not to forget buffs (like Stoneskin, which gobbles MP but doesn't pull as much hate as Curing) and CC abilities (like "Repose", your sleep - remember to mark slept foes so that DDs know to ignore it) and also in later dungeons, you'll need to learn what debuffs to remove with Esuna as soon as possible (Light poisons are usually OK, but stuff like Paralysis is VERY BAD!)

If you can manage all that and dodge enemy AoEs properly and still have enough time left over to deal a bit of damage, "well done!" :)

You will also have to watch and manage your MP levels quite carefully, particularly until you hit level 38 and get 'Shroud of Saints'.

Any tips for game pad user UI set up?
And game pad helps me duck and dodge great, but the macro limitation kind of pulls that advantage back a bit.

Many discount the usefulness of Stoneskin...for me it gives major breathing room on intial pulls. It's literally 2x cure 1s that you do not have to cast and gives no threat unless applied during combat. I make sure to have it up on party members at all times if possible.

Also, getting Eye for an Eye is a good idea imo. Not only does it have an awesome animation, it is a decent oh crap button as well.

Big fight = pre stoneskin and refresh protect
Make sure cleric stance is off when healing (I forget this sometimes when questing)
Wait till tank attacks and takes 10-20% damage.
At this point, I usually cast cure I + immediate regen (if I know dmg constant)
Once threat meter pulls up, sleep any red targets and targets not taking damage.
Kite kite kite kite kite (to tank if you can)

Shroud at about 30-40% mana depletion (level 38)
Don't heal stupid more than once. Yell at them.
If people break sleep, let them know that is your strongest/cheapest heal.
If they keep breaking, let them die. They need you, not you them.

Know that most of this info probably changes at level 50.

Learn how to heal-tank (read: tank as healer, not heal the tank), because chances are you will have to do it starting with Sunken Temple, and being able to do so makes you a hero.

Don't rez unless you know that person is worth the mana burn.