Whm help or guide?

Hiya everyone. So i leveled to lvl 50 whm (started off just wanting the Unicorn, lol)
And have not yet done 1 dungeon. Certainly not the proper way to do it but went in knowing i did not really want to heal. Well now i am actually ready to take those steps and wondering if some of you would have advise or even a rotation guide somewheres. So far have just been healing in fates as still sort of scarred to fail in dungeons but much appreciated for any help :)

cure/cure 2 = single target?
Medica/medica2/cure3 = raid heal? medica2 once then medica medica if the aoe dmg is huge
presence of mind + divine seal = emergency periods of heal
stoneskin = mitigation for huge amount of incoming dmg when ur tank is already topped up

A good way to do dungeon is to go youtube first and watch a vid of that dungeon once or twice to familiarise or get an idea of what is going on. Once u are familiar with the mechanics, it shd be v easy to heal

or theres no fix rotation for heals btw.. healers aint dps

WHM is a reactive healer, so there is no real rotation there. Obviously always start with your buffs (protect/stone skin), and heal as needed. Try to stick to cure 1 and then cure 2 when it procs, medica and medica 2 as needed. Divine Seal is lovely for bonus healing potency. Use shroud of saints when you reach around 70-60 percent MP so that you could safely regen your MP or use it when you gain enmity. Avoid overcuring! always. Avoid using regen before a pull or towards the end of one so that you don't steal enmity from you tank.
I suggest you first heal through a low level dungeon and then tackle something like Brayflox, which is IMO where you really have to step it up as healer.
And if you are going to heal end game you pretty much need to get swiftcast.
Good luck!

few things

cure spam is optimal, only use c2s for free off proc or when your tank is sinking. In standard 50 dungeons you shouldn't have aggro issues but you'll want to prepare for end game that actually does need aggro management.

Regen - moderate enmity generator, never use in between pulls but run it freely while the tank has aggro on a group. If you put it on before the tank pulls those enemies will come right to you

Presence of Mind - good for dpsing and in times of need, not a great skill all around due to the huge CD on it but has it's uses

C3 - good on proc, not a great spell otherwise (never use if you can't heal more than one player with it). If your melee/tanks take some damage but range don't you could use it. On proc its not bad healing/mp but its still pricey. I'll be honest, I use C3 on some battles where you are consistently stacking on one person but even then its rare. Definitely the least valuable cure spell in our arsenal.

SS - i dont agree with casting this mid battle unless a huge enemy attack is coming, even then if the tank is properly geared for the content you shouldn't have to. The MP spent is just too high in my opinion. It's rare you'll see healers cast SS mid battle, even on the tanks.

Divine Seal - put this somewhere where you can use it frequently. I original used DS in times of need, then I started using it all the time way back, never turned back. The short CD is great!!

Example: Tank double pulls, use it right away and start curing. Don't wait till they are almost down to pop it. You have presence and benediction for emergency situations. This way you can stay ahead of the healing requirement and use your lifesaver CDs at another time.

Group healing - apply medica II and don't recast until the regen effect is done. Much better to use good old medica in between.

Taking aggro - if you do draw in some monsters at some point run them back to the tank. Can't stand when i'm tanking and backline dps/healers get aggro and just stand there (or move the other way). Do your tank a favor and bring them back into his AOE range.

Shroud of Saints - your lifeline for enmity reduction and MP restoration. Great for dumping enmity when you are using holy with a newer tank. Great for dumping enmity before adds pop on numerous bosses (T4 for example) with many other uses. Starting out in lv 50 dungeons you'll probably need to use this on group pulls until you get some more gear.

Support abilities - get swiftcast and eye for eye as soon as you can. Getting those also means you have everything else unlocked. Eye for an Eye is great for mass pulls for the tank. Swiftcast + Raise is essential in my opinion for end game content. Virus is another great ability to reduce damage. You'll end up going bliz 2 and surecast for the other two, both are pretty useless in my opinion.

Regen is the most mp efficient heal you have. In protracted battles you should have as close to a 100% uptime as you can on the tank. Casting regen with divine seal up increases the healing potency for the duration of regen, regardless of whether divine seal wears off before it or not.

Medica II regen restores a hefty amount of hp over time, usually 2k or more depending on gear, but very gradually. Tune your judgement to determine whether your party can safely tick to full or if regular medica should be used to top everyone quickly. It's also good to note that medica II has a noticeably farther range than medica.

Unused cooldowns are the same as no cooldowns. You should be using divine seal at least once every pull, even if only for one regen. It's just as important to conserving mp as shroud. Presence of mind, as previously noted, makes for great holy spam (watch out for enmity spikes).

Healing is more about experience than knowing the strongest rotation. Knowing what spells in your toolkit respond efficiently to the current situation will come once you start playing around with them. If a dungeon or mechanic is giving you trouble, ask what you can do better. If you have a free company available, bring some buddies along for a couple lower level dungeons.

There's a lot of guides out there for WHM. But I'll share some Tips.

Cure 1 - Your main healing spell, to be used on the tanks and party members alike when they take damage, simple, efficient, easy to use. Do not continually spam this spell however unless needed. You want to minimize your over healing as much as possible so you don't pull threat.

Cure 2 - Great for spike damage that puts the tank or other party members at less then desired HP. Not to be used as your main healing spell though, if you spam this you will end up wasting your mana pool.

Cure 3 - Perfect for group situations where people are stacked on top of each other. It's pretty much a point blank AE heal that heals people around the target. The radius is very small though, so unless people are stacked up, this spell will just waste your mana. Typically not used very often in normal dungeons. It see's most of its use in primal fights or end-game raiding content.

Regen - Great spell to put on the tank as well as any dps who just got hit, but won't be taking constant damage after the initial hit. Be careful when using this though, you DO NOT want to cast it on the tank before a pull. This will count as over healing and will end up pulling the enemies toward you as soon as it ticks. Great for Boss Fights, 3 or more trash enemies, or 1-2 big enemies in dungeons that tend to hit hard and have a lot of HP. This will come with experience when to use it though.

Medica - Your main AE healing spell. If the group suddenly took a big hit you can use this to get everyone back up. Typically 1 or 2 casts will top off most people in dungeon fights, but again depends on what you are fighting.

Medica 2 - Much like Medica, except it has a lower initial heal, but adds a regen effect for 30 seconds to anyone hit by it. This is great for fights that have periodic AE spike damage, and there's no threat at leaving people at half health, so this can do its job of healing them back up. Again experience and knowing the fights will give you a better idea when to use it.

Stoneskin - While not a heal, this is an absorption spell that will prevent damage instead of healing it. Great for casting on the entire group before boss fights, and especially good for the tanks because it scales with HP. However the mana cost is as much as a Cure 2, so unless you have mana to spare do not worry about keeping this spell up on people. Great for using on the tank in the middle of a fight if you expect a big hit and they are already at full HP though.

Esuna - Your only way of getting rid of those pesky debuffs. Typically when a red icon appears on your buff bar or any party members, cast this and it will take it off. There are exceptions to the rule however, not everything can be dispelled, and knowing what can or can't be removed will come with experience. Off the top of my head, Silence, Paralyze, Poison and Slows are the main ones you will have to look out for.

Benediction - Your Oh-**** spell and typically what we refer to as a cooldown. It's instant cast (when it decides it wants to be), and will heal the target to full HP regardless of their current health or any debuffs on them. Has a 300 second cooldown, so typically will be saved for the tanks. For the most part you will only be able to use it once per boss fight.

Shroud of Saints - This will give you mana regen AND reduce your current threat on all enemies by half. This is how we regain mana. I would suggest you use this when you have expended 1K-1.5K mana, or if you manage to pull threat for whatever reason.

Presence of Mind - Increases your spell speed for a 10 second duration. While not the best spell, this can be useful when you are expecting heavy damage on the tank and you just need to get out those cures a little faster. However the long cooldown will typically limit you to using it once per boss fight.

Divine Seal - Increases your healing by 30%. Again another spell to use for spike damage, and to get people back up quickly. However this has a 1 minute cooldown, and works perfectly with another cross-class ability you will want to have that will be discussed later. While this is active also try to get an extra Regen on the tank. The game works in a way that if you use the buff while a Regen is active it will not add the benefit to the spell, but if you recast Regen, it will have the added 30% potency for the full duration, just something to keep in mind, recast your regen whenever this is active.


Cross-Class Abilities:

You will want 4 main Cross-Class abilities as you play your white mage.

Swiftcast - Level 26 Thaumaturge Ability. This will make your next spell cast an instant cast. This is great for using with Divine Seal and Medica 1 or 2, or even Cure 2 if you just don't have time to get that heal on the tank fast enough. You will find many uses for this spell and should be used often as it has a 1 minute cooldown, which makes it perfect to combine with Divine Seal.

Eye for an Eye - Level 34 Arcanist Ability. This will give the target (typically your tank) a buff that has a chance to apply a debuff on the enemy(s) attacking them. The debuff will lower all damage they deal by 10%. This is a great spell to use on tanks for boss fights, or big trash enemy pulls. If you know your tank is going to be pulling up to 3 or more enemies at a time, go ahead and toss this on them. Be mindful of the cooldown though.

Virus - Level 12 Arcanist Ability. Another great ability to have, lowers the STR and DEX of a target by 15%. Good for boss fights if you don't have another Scholar or Summoner in the group who can also cast this. Will lower some of the damage dealt by auto-attacks and other physical abilities from bosses. However the duration is not very long, and will apply a buff to the enemy so no further Viruses can be cast on them for a full minute. Just something to keep in mind.

Surecast - Level 8 Thaumaturge Ability. Although not used very often (in fact maybe 1% of all fights in the game), this ability will allow your next spell to be uninterrupted. This does not apply to movement though. If you use this spell and begin to cast Cure 1 and then move, you will still be interrupted. This is good for situations where you managed to pull threat and something is coming toward you, about to hit you, but you need to cure the tank. Also good for one particular fight in Coil, but you won't have to worry about that for a while.


Stats:

Weapon Damage - Your weapon damage will be one of the biggest stats you will want to upgrade ASAP. If you are using a level 40 weapon while at level 50 your heals will not do nearly as much as if you were using a level 50 weapon. The stats that come with your weapon will always be Mind, Stamina, and 2 additional stats on top of that. So always upgrade your weapon whenever possible.

Mind - Typically your 2nd most desired stat as it increases all healing done by you. All gear comes with mind, but when deciding to upgrade you will typically want to go with a piece that has higher Mind over all other stats.

Vitality - Something to be wary of for specific fights, but for most dungeon runs you won't have to worry about this. Typically the only time it comes into play is during Primal Fights and End-Game Raiding content such as Coil. Vitality comes on armor pieces as well as your weapon. You typically won't find Vit on accessories such as Earrings, Necklaces, etc. unless they are crafted items where Vit materia was added.

Piety - This will add to your total mana pool and in turn your regeneration rate of mana. The more mana you have the higher your mana regeneration rate will be when it ticks. Most accessories will come with piety on them, such as necklace, earrings, bracelets or rings. Even some weapons also come with piety. This is another good stat to have, but once you become more familiar with fights you may find yourself not needing it as much. All comes down to how comfortable you are with your current mana pool.

Determination - Increases the amount of healing and damage of your spells. Although the tooltip may be misleading if you read it in game, don't let it fool you. This will increase all healing and damage done BY YOU. A great stat to aim for as it increases Regen and Medica 2 ticks as well.

Spell Speed - Lowers the initial cast time of your spells and the cooldown rate of specific spells by a set amount. A good stat if you feel your spells are a bit sluggish and you want to get them out a little faster. However once you are more familiar with a fight and can predict when damage will come you may find that you don't need spell speed as much.

Critical Hit Rate - Increases your chance to land a critical hit with heals or damage spells. This stat works with all spells, including Regen and Medica 2 ticks after they are cast. Typically a better stat for Scholars, but has its uses for WHM's as well. Keep in that mind that this is considered an RNG stat though, and should not be relied on.


Secondary Stat Debate:

There is much debate over which stat to go for in terms of Determination, Crit, or Spell Speed. Some people even argue that Piety is a far better stat because you will have more mana to cast more healing spells, and higher mana regeneration. Really what it comes down to is preference. Each stat by itself does not add much overall. You will need an abundance of each stat to notice a significant difference in your spells, and even then the amount it changes by is fairly small.

Determination does add more healing potency regardless, so some WHM's will go this route and be able to heal for just that bit extra. You will need a decent amount to notice a difference in the amount healed though. I personally have chosen this route and love seeing huge heals, but I am also very experienced in each fight of the game, and feel that I don't need the other stats as much.

Spell Speed again is great for getting your spells out just a little faster. Although you will need quite a bit to notice a difference in your cast times, this can help out for those not too familiar with fights, and healing your group just a smidgen faster. However keep in mind this does not increase the rate at which Regen or Medica 2 tick. These spells WILL NOT tick faster or slower depending on how much spell speed you have.

Crit is RNG as they say, and can be very unpredictable. While it is nice to see big numbers on the screen its not something you can safely rely on. It also adds to over- healing as well. That being said though it does apply to all spells, including your Regen and Medica 2 ticks, as well as your damage spells.

Piety is another good stat to aim for if you are unfamiliar with fights, much like spell speed this will give you a little extra leeway on those particular fights. However end-game gear will typically come with a good amount of Piety, so for the most part you shouldn't have to worry about this stat too much.


Additional Stat Spending:

You will have a total of 30 extra stats to distribute at your leisure. Although most would agree you will want to narrow this down to the 3 main stats of Mind, Vitality, and Piety.

Mind is your main stat and will be typically prioritized over the other 2. It adds to your over all healing and anytime you are in a group will scale with your +Mind buff you give out since its based on a percentage of your total mind. Most will invest the full 30 points into this stat, but your mileage may vary depending on your needs.

Vitality adds to your total amount of health, and in certain fights can be the deciding factor if you live or die. Primal fights in particular will typically have a desired HP amount so you can survive big hits. Turn 5 in Coil against Twintania most people will want 4200-4300 total HP or one particular move will just destroy them. However the choice is up to you how comfortable you feel with your current health pool. Usually by the time you are ready to take on such fights you should be geared enough to not have to worry about Vitality, but just in case the option is there to add a little extra health via your 30 points.

Piety again is helpful for your total mana and mana regeneration, so a mix of Mind and Pie may not be bad starting out. You can always reset your stat points later using a Grand Company item (I believe it costs 20K seals though). Typically most people will not invest into pie, but again if you feel your mana pool is a little low and you aren't hurting for Seals, you may consider investing into this.

I have put together several videos that you may find helpful (the info in here is great but incase you want some video and audio here you go)

white mage guide part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak0nrdkii-Q

or my channel in general:
https://www.youtube.com/user/PharazonsVidstream

wow much great responses. I was sort of wondering when to use cure 2, Regen, etc. and so glad you all did not yell at me for the way i leveled my whm up, lol
Also was wondering about mana preservation as mine drains often but i would imagine only due to focusing on doing damage in Cleric Stance. My focus will now be less dmg but more healing.
A nice wealth of info you have all posted and is very much appreciated and helpful. For cross classes my blm is @ 50 so i do have surecast and swiftcast and have quelling Strikes from my lvl50 Bard if need be.
Also i have been alocating all attribute points to mind.
I think i will give a go at it but only with FC members for now
You all are great :)

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Originally Posted by Pharazon

I have put together several videos that you may find helpful (the info in here is great but incase you want some video and audio here you go)

white mage guide part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak0nrdkii-Q

or my channel in general:
https://www.youtube.com/user/PharazonsVidstream

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OMG I loved your garuda ex tutorial :) And dat accent <3

A good rotation i use on like 90% of the content is ( after tank has solid hate):
Cure 1 -> cure 1 -> divine seal -> medica 2 -> regen on tank-> cure 2 -> stoneskin (divine seal should wear off now) -> [ Dps time ] Cleric stance ON -> Aero 2 -> Aero 1 -> ( stone 2 as many times till tank hp drops to 50/40%)
Cure 2 -> divine seal : start the rotaton again starting from divine seal till mob dies.
It works well with regular mobs and dungeon bosses.
But if party gets hurt then it becomes: divine seal -> medica 2 -> regen on tank -> cure 2 if an indvidual got hurt bad /or/ medica 2 if more people got hurt /or/ cure 3 if ppl are stacked and have taken heavy damage. ->*[ saint of shrouds ] if abailable to lower em ity and gain mp regen*->

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Originally Posted by Yumi_umi

But if party gets hurt then it becomes: divine seal -> medica 2 -> regen on tank -> cure 2 if an indvidual got hurt bad /or/ medica 2 if more people got hurt /or/ cure 3 if ppl are stacked and have taken heavy damage. ->*[ saint of shrouds ] if abailable to lower em ity and gain mp regen*->

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-> then repeat at divine seal if available* if not, proceed to medica 2 and start from there as Medica 2 was made to last longer (heals less now) so if paired up with regen and divine seal; it'll act as a sch's fairy in some ways for the remainder of the HoT ticks.

Also throw in virus if you can cuz it helps, simple as dat. Lol.
A few good things to keep in mind tho is to always look out for urself too. Cuz remember, a dead healer is the worst healer of all.
If you think a heal is more important than dodging an aoe that will one shot.... u might want to re think that.
Put a stoneskin on urself as a safegaurd, cuz unless the boss is titan or any boss with a constant attack that is unavoidable you should always have that shield on you incase if adds jump on your butt or u get hit with an attack. That 18% shield could save you one day.... Lol
And always keep an eye on your MP bar, almost as important as your hp bar... Almost.

Never let it drop due to careless mp usage ( i.e holy spamming/ stone 2 spamming, overuse of medica 2 and cure 3, cure 2 freak out spam, misuse of stoneskin)
Don\\\\\\'t heavily rely on benediction as it is kinda buggy as it has to go through an animation before taking effect despite it being an instant cast, also that it can still go off and go on cool down even when your target dies. It either misses and goes on CD or it misses and hits you and goes on CD.And of course blah blah blah swift cast raise lol
Also PoM is good for small dps burst and speedy healing
(I.e barrage of healing paired with divine seal is amazing!)
With that said goodluck on being a whm, as being healer will allow you to do much more than intended.

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Originally Posted by AiChyan

OMG I loved your garuda ex tutorial :) And dat accent <3

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Wait! I have accent? I think its you who has the accent!


LoL

ps thanks for the kind words

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pharazon

Wait! I have accent? I think its you who has the accent!
LoL
ps thanks for the kind words

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English isn't my first language so I do have an accent lol! But you don't speak "standard american" accent as we would call it around here either.
But really, your garuda ex tutorial helped me tons and its good to say thanks directly to you :)
Just so I don't go completely off-topic. OP look at Pharaz videos :) They are really helpful!

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Originally Posted by Maero

Hiya everyone. So i leveled to lvl 50 whm (started off just wanting the Unicorn, lol)
And have not yet done 1 dungeon. Certainly not the proper way to do it but went in knowing i did not really want to heal. Well now i am actually ready to take those steps and wondering if some of you would have advise or even a rotation guide somewheres. So far have just been healing in fates as still sort of scarred to fail in dungeons but much appreciated for any help :)

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UYBHSATT. All you need to know!

More great info and thanks for the youtube vid as well Hollowed
Shall help me out greatly.
Think i am just going to jump in and try Brayflox, lower lvls would be better but want to see really if this class is for me

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Originally Posted by Maero

More great info and thanks for the youtube vid as well Hollowed
Shall help me out greatly.
Think i am just going to jump in and try Brayflox, lower lvls would be better but want to see really if this class is for me

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While healing Aitar try to stick to cure 1 alot unless your tank was eating the poison breath attack thingy. Also esuna only when he receives (or anyone else) 2 stacks of poison. Good luck!

Great advice here on all the mechanics. From a practicality standpoint and getting used to healing non FC members, go ahead and queue up the low level dungeons and work your way up. It'll ease you into the mechanics and reactionary style of whm healing without being overwhelming or punishing.

1) Understand the game mechanics well.
2) Keep track on your Regen Timer ( 20 sec ) on Tanker or other members.
3) Keep track on your Free-Cure proc, don't miss it.
4) Use Stoneskin/Virus/Eye For Eye to nullify hard damage.
5) Use your Swift-Cast and Surecast wisely, with Medica, Medica II, Resurrection or whatever skills that might needed in extreme situation.
6) Use your Shroud of Saint wisely, either to reduce emnity so you can avoid being targeted, or as a skill rotation per 2min.
7) Understand your average healing rate, so you know which Heal is better to use in different situation.


It is not necessary to top full HP on your part member.
For example, 80-90% HP is safe for MT, NEVER go overhealing.
Use Regen on your DPS instead of Cure. Unless they are really bad at dodging damage.

Use Focus Target in boss fight, be aware of the cast bar.

I consider regen my main healing spell. On boss fights you can often have 100% uptime with little wasted healing. Divine seal and regen is powerful, though it's not always obvious how helpful it is. Best of all - you can cast both on the run.

Shroud of saints is incredibly important. There are fights where the enmity dump is valuable and timing is important (In thornmarch when king mog aoes everyone you need quick healing, but a lot of tanks struggle to keep up the aggro - so you either have to save SoS, or better yet, use it very early, so it's available again after the king pops). Learn to use it effectively.

Cure I, Cure II, Cure III, Benediction, Medica, Medica II, and Esuna are all very valuable tools. If you're not using them all, try to understand the value of each.


There's only so much you can do to save bad dps, sometimes you really need them, sometimes you don't.


Once you get the hang of low level dungeons, go to Qarn, Cutters Cry, and Stone Vigil to get used to Regen, and avoid the elitist speed runs of AV etc.

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Originally Posted by AiChyan

While healing Aitar try to stick to cure 1 alot unless your tank was eating the poison breath attack thingy. Also esuna only when he receives (or anyone else) 2 stacks of poison. Good luck!

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Great info there. Thank you

and thank all of you who still respond and give more info, very much appreciated :)

Righty O, any tips I give are my opinion and what I have found to work from experience disagree if you wish.
Think of Regen as your fairy, it will supplement your main healing in the same way. As with HOTs, do not cast it until the tank has emnity of everything that is engaged.

In scripted fights like primals, see when AoE damage is dealt like friction, stomps etc then learn how much you heal on average; see the main thing on being a WHM is to MP efficient while keeping everything healthy. So, once you have an idea of how much you can heal, you want to straight up heal about 3/4s-4/5s of the damage and let a HoT(regen/MedII) do the rest
-- E.g AoE DMG is about 2000, your medica heals about 600, so lets do 2 medicas for 1200 raw hp, then a medica 2 for the last chunk and the HoT to top everyone off.
After big hits, position yourself in the center of the most people, and cure 3 yourself with DS up, the reason for not using a HoT is that after most big hits in scripted fights, the target will be fresh or adds will spawn so you do not want to give the tank a hard time getting the aggro.

The reason being is to save yourself GCDs and excessive

When running low on MP and you dont have access to manasong, throw up any defence CDs so Virus, E4AE, and tell tank do so, then Divine Seal regen the players who are taking damage, this will buy you time in order for what ever MP regen you have to build up a pool again. When you at 3/4 of MP you should be popping shroud as and when its up.