Am I doing something wrong with healing dungeons?

Hi all,

Just wanted to ask: Are MAR/WAR tanks supposed to take tons of damage quickly? it seems like even if im spamming Cure, on trash packs if its a MAR tank, 3 seconds and its basically a wipe. I am new to healing in FFXIV, I have ZERO problems healing GLA, but with MAR, it seems like I cant do anything except spam Cure as fast as I can, if others take damage I throw a Medica in. I pay attention to the threat markers, but even noob healers know that spamming Cure is a great way to get a facefull of mob. So I guess my question is this: does healing MAR/WAR get easier, or is it nothing but a Cure spamfest? im CNJ btw..

If this is happening often, then it could be a spell potency issue. In lower-level dungeons, make sure your tank has Stoneskin up. Use repose whenever you can. And use SS as a primary heal if you find threat easy to pick up.

The difference between healing a WAR and PLD is very noticeable, lacking the damage mitigation of PLDs it can be surprising how big the chunks of damage they can take with each hit.

But even with that, if you had to spam cure to keep a MRD/WAR alive it's almost certainly a bad tank. You'll be surprised at how some tanks take tanking way to literally and soak up all the heavy damage aoes instead of dodging them.

Tanking via base class most mitigation comes from simply having up to date gear and while this always holds true throughout a tank's career it's noticeable in the early levels because they have none of their damage mitigation tools. Although GLD does have 1 damage reduction action (I'm talking like early game dungeons). When I leveled CNJ (and later WHM) I never noticed too much of a discrepancy between having to keep either of them alive.

It doesn't sound like its your fault based on what you said but then again:

"It's just that you're a healer in a MMO which means you don't matter...until you do and by then its completely your fault your group lost."

Anyways j/k on that last bit I think you'll be fine although all the above advice is very sound advice and you'd do well to take it. Best of luck on your healing career and don't let it get you down when you have a bad run. We all have them.

It depends to the tank by a large margin. Gladiators stun eg. is for interrupting spells but the Marauders stun is a very good tool for mitigating damage and should be Held on CD unless rupting is mandatory. Also the Gladiators CD´s are obviously good - so they use them. Marauders are similar good but they tend to either don´t use them or all in them instead of cycling them.
My observations as leveling the healers.
Gladiator is imortal. Marauder is fine.
My observations as leveling the tanks.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Darkdrover

Hi all,

Just wanted to ask: Are MAR/WAR tanks supposed to take tons of damage quickly? it seems like even if im spamming Cure, on trash packs if its a MAR tank, 3 seconds and its basically a wipe. I am new to healing in FFXIV, I have ZERO problems healing GLA, but with MAR, it seems like I cant do anything except spam Cure as fast as I can, if others take damage I throw a Medica in. I pay attention to the threat markers, but even noob healers know that spamming Cure is a great way to get a facefull of mob. So I guess my question is this: does healing MAR/WAR get easier, or is it nothing but a Cure spamfest? im CNJ btw..

---

Basically, prior to level 30 there is a major difference in survivability between the two tank classes (at this point GLD and MAR not PLD and WAR).
MAR doesn't have anywhere near as much damage mitigation as GLD does - they can self heal a bit, but take more damage.

At level 30, MAR gets access to Defiance (via WAR). In terms of survivability this puts it AHEAD of GLD until level 40, when GLD gets Shield Oath (via PLD).

At this point, WAR works by having more HP and being healed for more (Defiance) PLD works by taking less damage in the first place (Shield Oath)
The actual percentages of their Health bar should be reduced and restored to roughly the same places though (with a VERY slight edge to PLD in terms of healing received).

After level 40, both classes are pretty much the same now survivability-wise after patch 2.1... especially at 50 (endgame).
WAR has a big mitigation occasional-use cooldown in Vengance, a very regular smaller one in Inner Beast, and more self-healing.
PLD has a much larger number of occasional-use cooldowns, the ability to self-cast Stoneskin, and a GCD Stun.

Bad PLD players will last longer than bad WAR players. Decent players are roughly equal, with PLD better at certain content (example: Turn4 MT) and WAR better at others (example: Turn5 MT).
At endgame in an "Ideal" party setup, you'll take one of each - one WAR and one PLD.

I've often noticed the same problem in dungeons.
And then I realized that my Cleric Stance was still active.

I leveled MRD and GLA to 30 recently using only dungeons and at pretty much the exact same time. (The GLA leveled in the dungeon first, collected the gear and then that same gear passed down to MRD, so the MRD actually had it easier being overgeared).

The thing that I most noticed while doing this was that the MRD was substantially more "squishy" while using the exact same gear and running the exact same content in the exact same way (my style/tactics don't change that much between the two). To generalize the difference between the two, GLA has defense but lacks offense(threat) and MRD has more Offense but lacks Defense(block/cooldowns).

As a healer, there is only one thing you can do to help this situation.
REPOSE.
Repose is your best friend, learn it, love it, macro a /emote to tell which <t> you are putting to sleep.
Reposing a target or two will make healing a much easier job.
You will every once in a while find a tank that will not adjust their tactics to account for CC/Sleep, or even openly ridicule it. Please realize that these are extremely bad players and any poor performance is on them and not you. Players that know even the most BASIC of MMO play know how to handle CC. It's considered a core thing to know, like pulling and holding threat.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Moontide

I've often noticed the same problem in dungeons.
And then I realized that my Cleric Stance was still active.

---

Haha been there, done that! More than once. :)

Make sure you have the best gear you can afford, focusing on Mind. It gets much easier after you have Stoneskin and Regen, but spamming cure is really all you can do early on.

If they are taking a lot of spike damage it's one of two things: either their gear is really really bad, or they're getting hit in the back. When I see a tank continuously turning their back to groups of mobs I'll politely ask them to position mobs in front of them. It reduces damage considerably. Damage mitigation based on percents is meaningless in low level dungeons and practically meaningless in level 50 dungeons. To me a good war was very easy to heal through content like AK. (before 2.1) If they were getting hit in the back though, well forget it. Paladin I could somewhat manage despite bad tanking but a WAR tank would drop like a rock.

Or you were in cleric stance.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tzain

As a healer, there is only one thing you can do to help this situation.
REPOSE.
Repose is your best friend, learn it, love it, macro a /emote to tell which <t> you are putting to sleep.

---

No need to tell which one is slept. just push it out of the group and sleep it as it is rooted. If they hit him out of the sleep more than 2 times they would ignore callouts anyway.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sinaloa

No need to tell which one is slept. just push it out of the group and sleep it as it is rooted. If they hit him out of the sleep more than 2 times they would ignore callouts anyway.

---

Good tip! I would only recommend using the Push back (Fluid Aura) when dealing with MRD tanks though, Newbie GLA get a little panicked when things are out of Flash range.

I would still recommend the emote macro, it doesn't slow you down at all and it informs your group of exactly what you are doing (less confusion is always good). It's really all pro and no con.

Also, on the subject of fluid aura, you can use it to extend your sleep past diminishing returns.
Repose (30 seconds), Repose (15 seconds), Repose (7 seconds), Fluid Aura (5 seconds) and just as its about to break from the bind effect, start casting another Repose, by the time the Repose lands, diminishing returns wears off and your back to 30 seconds. It's not often you'll have to pull that card out of your sleeve, but it's a darn good one to know how to use.

WAR is slightly more dependant on the player. A good WAR is a pleasure to heal. Plus they look so cool. ♥♥

I haven't actually done much healing in lower-levels but, since the changes, I've found WAR as easily healed as Paly. Really, in panic "I've used all my defensives" situations they might actually be easier to heal withe the heal-buff.

I appreciate all the info, it makes me feel much better to know that healing MAR/WAR will get easier. And yes, the first thing I checked was if Cleric Stance was off lol. I like healing so far, the instant queue is fantastic. I don't have Repose yet, but I am a HUGE fan of CC (was a WoW player for several years} and it hurts my face to see people not using it, or ridiculing it, or worst of all, ignoring it ; ; but its an adventure, right? I plan on taking up GLA next, I want to be as well rounded as I can, its just good sense in any MMO.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Darkdrover

I appreciate all the info, it makes me feel much better to know that healing MAR/WAR will get easier. And yes, the first thing I checked was if Cleric Stance was off lol. I like healing so far, the instant queue is fantastic. I don't have Repose yet, but I am a HUGE fan of CC (was a WoW player for several years} and it hurts my face to see people not using it, or ridiculing it, or worst of all, ignoring it ; ; but its an adventure, right? I plan on taking up GLA next, I want to be as well rounded as I can, its just good sense in any MMO.

---

Make a macro that says "Sleep is my #1 heal. Please don't break sleep targets." Once you get into late 30/40s dungeons, you will be using it almost as much as you might in Haukke. It's super helpful. Anytime I see WHM not using sleep on my bard, I teach them about it. Good luck!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tzain

Also, on the subject of fluid aura, you can use it to extend your sleep past diminishing returns.
Repose (30 seconds), Repose (15 seconds), Repose (7 seconds), Fluid Aura (5 seconds) and just as its about to break from the bind effect, start casting another Repose, by the time the Repose lands, diminishing returns wears off and your back to 30 seconds. It's not often you'll have to pull that card out of your sleeve, but it's a darn good one to know how to use.

---

I think they removed being able to do this in the patch. I managed to sleep a mob for 30, 15, 7 at their full duration, and was unable to sleep again for the 30 seconds it took for my party to kill it.

True, I've only tested this on a couple of mobs so far, but it looks as though long sleeps have been eliminated.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Stuzack

I think they removed being able to do this in the patch. I managed to sleep a mob for 30, 15, 7 at their full duration, and was unable to sleep again for the 30 seconds it took for my party to kill it.

True, I've only tested this on a couple of mobs so far, but it looks as though long sleeps have been eliminated.

---

Darn. I haven't actually logged in since 2.1 launched so you may be right. I'll have to test it out.

Hi all! As a Warrior, my advice with CC (sleep, Etc) would be tell the tank before hand that you'll be CCing. Warrior get two high threat AOE moves that break CC and if you see them using them, it's not because they're bad and want to break CC. They're doing it so the mobs don't scatter to the healer and DPS. The only AOE threat move we can use that doesn't break CC is Flash and our MP is very limited (we can't just spam it like Paladins). If you plan on CCing, tell the warrior you'll do it after the first Overpower (our AOE cone threat move). That way, the tank can mark, then AOE threat, then focus on the mark while everything else gets put to sleep.

Quote:

---

does healing MAR/WAR get easier, or is it nothing but a Cure spamfest? im CNJ btw..

---

As already stated in the thread, until MAR turns to WAR and gets Defiance, they're harder to heal.

Just make sure and ask them to use their defensive cooldowns, Sleep mobs you don't need to be killing (you're not going to be able to just AoE everything down, so focus one mob at a time and sleep the rest...or at least one), make sure cleric stance isn't active and gear yourself appropriately. If you're going to be healing dungeons, you're not going to be able to heal in gimp gear as if you were FATE grinding.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tzain

Darn. I haven't actually logged in since 2.1 launched so you may be right. I'll have to test it out.

---

From the patch notes:

Quote:

---

Status affliction resistances will now begin counting after the last corresponding status affliction is received.

---

Before 2.1, the resistance reset started counting down with the first stun/sleep/whatever. Now, the reset countdown starts over at the full 60 seconds every time stun/sleep/whatever is used (not sure if it gets reset on a resisted debuff, though).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sinaloa

Gladiator is imortal. Marauder is fine.

---

Funny because I got Sastasha on Duty roulette last night with my Gladiator. Had 2 ACN and a DL/Relic SCH, well after the second time beating the pirate, both carbuncles go racing after him, pulling almost every mob in that last area before the final boss, there was at least 7 or 8 enemies that came rushing. Both DPS died, Gladiator did just fine rotating Rampart/Featherfoot/Keen Flurry, I can't hardly believe it even now, should have been dead, WOULD have been dead if I was MRD lol. Course I'm sure having the sch helped a bit, had it been a newbie healer probably would have died regardless of GLA/MRD.