Healing Ultima is intense.

Or so I assume, I only do heals for FC or if I'm bored of Tank/DPS.
I'm not trying to start a flame thread but, between dodging and healing I can see it being alil uh hard I guess?
But please understand 2 things.
1:It's normal attacks are magical and hit about 1-1.1k on a Pld in shield oath. They can't be parryed or blocked. The Deflector beam or w/e it's called(green frontal attack) Hits for about 3k.
2: It has pretty good aoe's that hit -everyone- so be prepared to aoe heal.

Another thought during middle lazer/bomb dropping/dodging madness try to throw a cure on the tank or even more so Lustrate if your a sch. If your whm your probably gonna want a Brd for ballad.

I was trying to knock this out today outside of FC/LS since not many on. It took 2DF's/6PF's 3-7attempts each. In all, 1 if not both tanks died atleast once. Out of about 6partys one of the healers where complaining 1 of 2 things.
"The tanks needs to cycle CD's"
Since the attacks are magic Pld has rampart -20%dmg 20sec's 90sec CD, Sentinel -40%dmg 10sec's 180sec CD. War has Inner beast -20%dmg 5sec's about 25sec CD, Vengeance -30%dmg 15sec's 120sec CD. And both get Convalescence. That's it not gonna be much up time.
"Everyone needs to stop getting hit with aoe"
Welp the aoe's hit everyone.

Like I said not trying to start a flame healer/etc thread I'm just saying so healers kinda know what to expect.

Tank damage depends on how many stacks the tank has. Tank swap at 3 stacks and there should be no issues with healing tanks.

Final phase can be hectic, it becomes a DPS check rather than a healing check. Its quite similar to Demon wall in terms of - dps must kill the lazers fast or it can wipe the party. The faster lazers are killed, the easier it is to heal and the less likely you'll have deaths. Switcast medica 2 is a really big deal on this fight.

i noticed this as well.

during the ifrit goes crazy with AOEs phase i found that 2 regens and a medic II worked really good for keeping the tank alive with double WHM setup.

haven't tried it with a scholar though.

The only real AoE that cannot be avoided or reduced is Tank Purge. Often times when healing is intense it's because people are getting hit by eruptions and Ifrit, getting hit by lasers, or suiciding into linked orbs. As for tanks, many of them I see not avoiding lasers, plumes, Ifrit, or end up standing in the wrong spot when bombs drop. Then comes Deflector Beam and they don't even have enough health to survive it.

I find it helps to designate one person to the tanks and one for the rest of the raid. I usually stay close to the front so I'm never too far away from tanks; the white mage and Eos can handle the raid healing. Some tanks also tend to wait for too many stacks of the debuff before swapping, when it's perfecting doable at 3 stacks or even 2.

So healing this on my SCH today (through DF) I noticed a few things.
- This is a very healer intensive fight in late phases
- eruptions would 9/10 target at least 1 healer (no healing or only instant cast for around 10-15 seconds)
- This fight actively discourages grouping for heals

As I've only healed this through DF I'm sure that preformed groups only suffer healing issues in the final phase where there is laser dodging and constant room-wide AoE. For me, the intense healing started around Ifrit phase, as people in DF tend to get hit by either Ifrit or plumes while trying to dodge the other. overall though, I believe if players are avoiding what they can and mostly just getting hit by more unavoidable attacks, the only real intense healing area is the final phase.

Ultima Ballad is definitely very fun playing as a WHM. It kinda depends on your teammates too, as you are the one who have to make up for their mistakes by healing.

But thus far, there's really only 1 problem that I haven't see any good solution without consciously preempt for it:
In one of the DF run, the eruptions were chasing BOTH healers...ended up no one healing the tank and eventually resulted in a wipe.
I wasn't prepared for that, so Benediction and Swiftcast already used-up prior to this stage.

If doing it with FC, most likely won't have any problem as there's TeamSpeak. But DF-ing is unavoidable, so the only strategy I can imagine, is to consciously making sure that either Benediction or Swiftcast is available prior to eruption. In case both healers being chased by eruption, at least one healer can pull off a heal on tank.

If anyone know of a better way please share it, thanks.

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Originally Posted by WhoIsTheGuest

If doing it with FC, most likely won't have any problem as there's TeamSpeak. But DF-ing is unavoidable, so the only strategy I can imagine, is to consciously making sure that either Benediction or Swiftcast is available prior to eruption. In case both healers being chased by eruption, at least one healer can pull off a heal on tank.

If anyone know of a better way please share it, thanks.

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I was wondering if there is any chance to pull up some heal when dodging eruption. Seems u got about 1sec free to cast, if handled well~

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Originally Posted by Krisstina

I was wondering if there is any chance to pull up some heal when dodging eruption. Seems u got about 1sec free to cast, if handled well~

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Only thing that helped us was the SCH(me), using Lustrate, if not, you wont get a chance to cast anything.

Eruptions is definitely the hardest part for me. Running when they target you, and running when the dps runs over you when it targets them. End result is the same, no heals on tank. I've also had problems getting interrupted for seemingly no reason. That is pretty frustrating.

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Originally Posted by Elurra

Eruptions is definitely the hardest part for me. Running when they target you, and running when the dps runs over you when it targets them. End result is the same, no heals on tank. I've also had problems getting interrupted for seemingly no reason. That is pretty frustrating.

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The interruption may come from tank moving out of range. I noticed it several time as well.

And yea, Elurra, I hate when DPS being chased by eruption running over me...
Sometimes, the funniest thing is when multiple players are dodging in the same direction, you can't tell eruption is after which one, lol.

But anyway, still wondering: other than consciously avoiding wasting Benediction & Swiftcast, anyway to make sure tank gets heal when both healers targeted by eruption? There may be cases when both healers are WHM :(

Well, not that I am expecting any answer...guess that it then.

Be sure to Virus/SS the big aoe attack (Tank Purge). Fight is definitely fun to heal.

Caster DPS can also help chip in some healing when either a tank or healer is dead. Each cast is little comparatively, but enough to keep the tank from dying. Can also heal some of the melee DPS so whm can focus on tank.

This is particularly helpful during the second laser phase when everyone has to gather in the middle and avoid lasers and ultima whopping on a tank.

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Originally Posted by Elurra

Eruptions is definitely the hardest part for me. Running when they target you, and running when the dps runs over you when it targets them. End result is the same, no heals on tank. I've also had problems getting interrupted for seemingly no reason. That is pretty frustrating.

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This usually happens if you start healing the moment you stop moving because the game thinks you're still moving. Best to wait about half of a second before you begin casting.

You can also take advantage of this in the opposite way where you can start moving about a half second before a spell finishes casting.

If I really need to cast a heal, I'll usually eat one of the eruptions and then heal myself up after.

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Originally Posted by WhoIsTheGuest

But thus far, there's really only 1 problem that I haven't see any good solution without consciously preempt for it:
In one of the DF run, the eruptions were chasing BOTH healers...ended up no one healing the tank and eventually resulted in a wipe.
I wasn't prepared for that, so Benediction and Swiftcast already used-up prior to this stage.

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With 2 healers, in theory one of them should have lustrate, swiftcast, or benediction available between them. I've been in those parties where you can't rely on your other healer to get the job done, but this is one of those fights where you need both healers on the ball until everyone is dodging well. It might be that you need to macro swiftcast and discuss when you're using it with the other healer.

My only other suggestion, is divine seal + regen. It might buy you enough time and you can do it while running. Last resort, eat the eruption, cure the tank, and let the other healer raise you if you die.

I had alot better experiences with this last night. Not dieing at all, tho the other Pld died a few times. I pretty much just spammed stoneskin on myself during a few healer heavy movements eruptions/lazers etc, or when I thought i could relieve some pressure off them. Also using hallowed during outside lazer/bomb crazyness made me feel safer at least if i was tanking during it. Didn't see the other pld cast stoneskin so not sure if that really made a difference or it was just the HP difference. But looking at it like HP/Stoneskin the other Pld 6,105 hp/1.1k dmg could take 5.5 hits(other words dieing on the 6th hit) vs. my 6,995hp/1.1k dmg could take 6.3 adding 2 stoneskin's would bring me to 7.6 where 3stoneskins would bump it up 1more hit 8.2.

Overall tho I think having good healers(yes i can tell pretty easy if healers are good at this point lol) what really made the difference. Keep doing what your doing I know it's not for everyone and I really appreciate it.

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Originally Posted by WhoIsTheGuest

And yea, Elurra, I hate when DPS being chased by eruption running over me...

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The highlight for me was when I was running around the edge from eruptions targeting me and the Bard came in from the other direction running from his, causing me to get trapped and forced to run into his.

I've been main healing in MMOs for *cough* a few years, and this is the first fight I've come across where if the group doesn't get anywhere in about two hours, I actually need to rest for awhile from brain fatigue. With a good (and lucky) group that executes well and dodges all the dodgeable AoEs, it's not too bad, but that's probably because with a group like that it only takes a couple of attempts.

But maybe that's just because of all of the flashing lights, I don't know.

If people just run in a circle at their spot during the eruption time, then those are no big deal. i wonder how hard ultima is with a random group. so far i was just with my fc there :P

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Originally Posted by Calyanare

I've been main healing in MMOs for *cough* a few years, and this is the first fight I've come across where if the group doesn't get anywhere in about two hours,

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This is also the first boss fight where I get called out for not being a good healer in my career. Defo an ego check but fun.

For eruptions, my advice is just tank 1 explode if you have SS on. I've trained the AOE on the fringe and the last one always ends up next to the tank. Obviously it's better not to do it and I get called out on it but I don't feel it's that big of a problem since tanks can eat one. Prefer that than pulling it to the other 5 guys.

Healers have to learn the Tank Purge (50% dmg AOE) timing and how to deal with the lasers, second airships and spam Cure III (yes C3) for orbs. The ifrit part (except for eruption) is not too difficult just focus on the tank healing.

My item level is in the low 60s and i definitely feel a bit gimped; also spellspeed would help a lot.

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Originally Posted by Lorilin

If people just run in a circle at their spot during the eruption time, then those are no big deal. i wonder how hard ultima is with a random group. so far i was just with my fc there :P

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I haven't beat it DF, I realized it's partly my fault after running it with a premade. DF groups usually die at the purple orbs.

This is not a difficult fight to heal once you get over the initial omg-lazers-and-stuff-everywhere! panic. The "difficult" thing is to understand that people will get hit by unavoidable AoEs but that's ok as long as healers know to prepare for them. My issue with this fight was that I was focusing too much on AoE heals (because I was panicking when everyone was at half HP) instead of keeping tank topped up for the big move which resulted in both our tanks dying multiple times during our first victorious rung. Still, the fight is easy and we were able to recover from all of the deaths without many issues. Nothing in the fight is very difficult to evade even though it may feel scary at first.

So for healers, just precast AoE heals and regens so that you know all DDs will be safe and make sure to keep your current MT topped up for the big hits coming every minute or so. And don't panic.

I wish there was more fights like this, this fight is so fun to heal through. I myself haven't experience any problem with healing, if i absolutely have to move i keep swift cast up so i can cure while moving. Alot of things I have noticed that might be why some healers cant heal as effectively is they try to get way out of the way of ground aoes and the laser and stuff. What you need to realize is this fight must be so insanely finely tuned that you can be just one pixel away from the aoe or laser and you wont get hit, so instead of running like 5 feet and than stop to heal you only need to move like a centimeter at most. You really don't have to move that much.

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Originally Posted by Espon

This usually happens if you start healing the moment you stop moving because the game thinks you're still moving. Best to wait about half of a second before you begin casting.

You can also take advantage of this in the opposite way where you can start moving about a half second before a spell finishes casting.

If I really need to cast a heal, I'll usually eat one of the eruptions and then heal myself up after.

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That could be it. I do take advantage of the healing on the move trick. Never thought about the opposite causing problems like that, but it makes sense. Thanks for the tips everyone.

Most problems I have with healing this fight is DDs getting hit by avoidable AoEs (see: Ifrit's dash), killing most in one hit. Ultima is the only fight I use swiftcast when it comes off cooldown (normally with divine seal + medica II for lasers/airships or tank purge/aetheric boom), so I can't use it to raise them ASAP. This results in a lower-than-normal DPS and so we pass the 10-minute enrage timer he has :<

It's also nice to have tanks who can avoid and cast stoneskin. It's a fun fight to heal through though, definitely.

I don't even care about DDs getting hit by AoE crap because, most of the time, it won't kill them and I'm busy prepping AoE heals (or they have whispering + succor shield on) anyways.

My biggest concern is undergeared tanks on this fight. I had a PLD earlier today with full DL and the base relic. He had 5.5k HP. Defractive laser could easily take him from 90% to dead if he didn't manage his cooldowns or if I didn't babysit him every single second of the laser phases where the other tank wasn't tanking.

The biggest culprit is that tanks are pretty damn lazy and don't avoid things like plumes, Garuda, lasers, etc. You shouldn't be moving Ultima when he starts to use defractive since it's conal, but before then you should at least be trying to avoid the Garuda + Titan combo. Quite annoying to see how certain fights have made tanks complacent.

I feel like most tanks don't know how to manage their cooldowns for defractive because they have no idea when it's going to hit. If you kindly inform them that it begins at the very beginning of the laser phase and happens periodically after that, most get it. I'd also suggest saving virus for this and not for tank purge. The only tank purge that is deadly is the one that goes off after one of the aetheric booms. This only happens if your DPS is slow, though.

I honestly really love healing this fight. ^_^

HM Ultima is one of the easier fights I've been in and it's a lot of fun. Did a chain of 8 Ultima runs yesterday with half FC and half puggers we grabbed from Revenant's Toll. All runs had been successful. Only wiped like 2 or 3 times total due to stupid mistakes, but otherwise, it's been almost flawless, usually had 1 deaths per run, once had no deaths at all. Also had both tanks die within a minute of each other and me and another healer were able to get them back up and we still cleared it. It's all about everyone knowing how to avoid stuff and for healers to manage their heals and keeping on the move.

Regarding to someone mentioning eruptions chasing both healers, haven't seen that happen to me yet, though I've been chased by eruptions and I always go for the outside circle towards the back. However if critical heals is needed for a tank, I will stop and eat an eruption just to pop that heal and move on again, because I know I can live through that hit. Heck, near the end, I ate 2 orbs and one of his cone beam attack all at once and I still lived through that. Does this mean everyone else should just become lazy and take hits? no, because it'll means I have to heal those and drain my mana more, but for me to take a hit, I'm prepared for it, as I know ahead of time to respond in such, but I would not do it often anyhow for it just means more mana drain.

Furthermore, did not need ballard song at all. Had a bard put that up, to which I asked him to remove it for we did not need it. It's all about managing your mana and using shroud whenever you can.

I've gotten through this with my scholar and DF white mage twice.
The hardest part for me was the lazers because I had to constantly be dancing around instead of healing
THis is where lustrate came in handy when the tanks were taking hits.
I think when the 4 airships fall down its the most difficult because you can't see anything lol.

Otherwise the only real "challenge" was in the end when the tank has to do his LB so that people can take the exploding orbs in time.
I still find this easier than Titan Hard mode for some reason :(

utltima bane is fun and easy, garuda em is intense

Ultima HM is my favorite fight to do, and heal! It gets intense, since I'm one of the unlucky bastards with FIOS lag, but I love the fight ^^
Medica 2 has it's great moments on the fight, namely when you're about to run into the balls, or the ships are coming down. Otherwise just dodge :)

Hi as a scholar I can only say the fairy changes healing of a scholar if u know how to manual control her except leaving her for nonsense waste of spells. Almost whole fight she focuses on tanks. every spell I'm using she casts embrace for stacked tank. In time when I'm using any spell I got macroed fairy's embrace at tank. At eruptions I just save stacks of aetherflow which help a lot. at last lasers while they spawn the key is the fairy and her regen used after fey illumination. as a result u get really nice HoT and scholar can focus tank with his lustrate while dodging lasers. it's also important to tell whole team to group in the middle of arena while meteor hitting then use sacred soil and spam succor right after. that's the way I got used to make it succesful ofz if all rest don't make any mistakes and I'm not caught by plum ^^ I hate em

play this with a SCH, I play SCH and I can mitigate at least half of AOE damage.

There are only 2 places where healing can be somewhat difficult, the first two phases of bombs, and the laser phases. For the bomb part, cure III is your friend. Have one dps marked, and have all the dps and yourself follow that marked person to eat the bomb, precast cure III and everyone's hp will be topped off ready to move onto the next bomb. Have the other healer focus solely on the tank. For the lasers it's the same basic idea, having the whm aoe heal the party while the other healer focuses solely on the tank.

Eh, I did ultima for the first time last night (late i know lol just havent cared much). Didnt have a hard time as white mage. I even had a derp moment where the sch died, i wanted to raise but hit swiftcast Holy instead (LOL!) and had to hardcast raise her. Still no one else died. Adapting to the fight, i knew when to med 2, and of course medica to quickly heal whole party up.

Didnt mark anyone, didnt use cure 3. None of that. Hell I didnt even use Divine Seal until fight was almost over and i usually use it all the time.

Got ultima choker of healing as well, which is a nice 1st try reward. :)

Yeah, Ultima HM is really a challenge to heal, but I infinitely prefer it to Titan HM / EX where AOEs are one shot kills. At least Ultima HM gives you a chance to fix things.

I don't mean to get elitest but if people aren't standing in things that they can avoid (and have seen before...) it's not so bad, and can be done with a single healer. If you insist on bringing 2 one of them will likely only be doing spot heals.

First Phase : dodge Garuda's big AoE (make sure not to get knocked into it), stay inside for vortex, and rush outside for geo-crush
Second Phase : dodge Radiant and Earthen Plumes
Third Phase : dodge Eruption, Radiant Plume and Ifrit's Rush attack
Fourth Phase : dodge green lazers, green balls, blue lazers, and move to mitigate satellite fall damage, group to mitigate teathered bomb-damage.

pretty sure the only NEW attack is Garuda's in phase 1. The only time it is really difficult to dodge is during the second magitek bits phase when the satellites fall and you can't SEE where the blue lazers are.

Tank cooldowns can be saved for during Magitek Bits phases (when the healer likely has to move), and for during teathered bombs.


Assuming your DPS are only taking damage from unavoidable sources (Aetheric Boom, Tank Purge, Teathered Bombs, or Satellites) focus healing one tank though the fight isn't that resource intensive. but just like Titan HM when people start standing in things they don't have to you run into issues with being able to keep everyone up alone. MP is also seriously strained if you have to rez while healing.