New WHM - Need Direction

Hello - I am a newly minted WHM (31 with both THM and ARC @ 15). I've been going back and forth for what to do next. Should I bring my THM and ARC up to get Swiftcast and E4E? Can I meddle around as WHM for a bit to develop my healing technique? Should I advance main story line? I can only play like 10-12 hours per week until May so any direction will be most appreciated...

Peace!

First and foremost, have fun with whatever you plan to do. Swiftcast is nice to have, but not required early on in your White Mage career. It can be helpful though don't get me wrong, but if you are currently having fun just testing the waters with your WHM by all means stick with it.

Keeping up with the main storyline is also helpful, and would suggest you stay up to date on that as close as you can. Shouldn't be too difficult though.

Also did you get your Unicorn at level 30? You have to actually un-equip your White Mage Crystal to see the quest in the Conjurer's guild, and leave the Crystal off until you complete the quest, just makes it easier.

I just finished the Unicorn quest. I have not done any crafting yet nor materia work. Should I start messing around with that?

Thanks for your reply!

Swiftcast may be useful in lv44 story trial, but not essential because it can be passed with only healer + tanker alive. But having a swiftcast will allow to revive a dps (if they die).
Eye4Eye may be useful in lv41 and lv50 dungeons, but not essential - it works like an extra damage mitigation cooldown for tanker, but tanker will not need it unless decides to speedrun (which is a bad idea with new players).
I suggest getting swiftcast after you get to lv50, because some people just get upset when are not revived asap. Most of people will not notice if you don't have eye4eye.

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Originally Posted by theonefin

I just finished the Unicorn quest. I have not done any crafting yet nor materia work. Should I start messing around with that?

Thanks for your reply!

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While I do enjoy crafting myself, its not for everyone. It is also very time consuming. If you do go this route I would suggest you plan ahead of time what craft you plan to take up. Also each craft benefits from 1 if not more Gathering Classes, such as Mining, Botany, and Fishing. You will want at least one of these gathering professions to help you craft, unless you plan to buy all your materials from the Auction House.

Swiftcast is almost a must-have unfortunately. The first time I felt the lack was when I ran Stone Vigil for the first time (as a SMN, who should also really get Swiftcast ASAP). So I would say you can get to lvl 40-45 before needing it.

re-roll tank. there are plenty of healers! ;p

just play the way u want to and enjoy doing...u don't really need others telling u wat to do.

Hi there! As an end-game raider, here's a few tips that I find -extremely- useful. Don't listen to @bloodsp3c. While there may be tons of healers, there's very few AMAZING healers. The tips that follow are just that -TIPS-, intended to help you with the class, if you choose to incorporate them. By no means is this an "end-all be-all" of the WHM, but comes from experience.

1. Get Swiftcast AND Surecast from THM (level 8(?) for Surecast and Level 26(!) for Swiftcast)
-Not only will both of these be useful end-game, but you get one for getting the other. Swiftcast gives you an instant-cast ability once every minute (60s cooldown), and Surecast makes sure the next spell is uninterrupted (moving will still interrupt, but no damage can interrupt the cast). Surecast is a MUST for end-game raiding, even if people tend to find it lackluster. I've used it for Twintania during fireballs, which will interrupt on hit. Also used during Leviathan EX when he casts the huge AoE while you're under the Elemental Conversion barrier (I cleared Levi EX last night, so this is from experience).

2. Get Eye for an Eye and Virus from ACN (Virus is early on, and is the more useful of the two, E4E is great for end-game raiding as a tank buff, but nobody will notice if you have it).
-Virus will reduce a mob's damage by several degrees for 10 seconds, after which the mob gets a buff that prevents virus from being applied for 1 minute (60s). Better for a SMN or SCH to apply this, as theirs comes with an INT and MND debuff as well, but if no SCH/SMN present, feel free to virus. Eye for an Eye you can use on rotation with any SCH and SMN in the party to keep it up. You have a 3 minute recast on E4E, whereas SCH/SMN have a 2 minute recast.

3. Benediction is not as useful as you might think.
-In fact, in many situations where Benediction might be useful, the animation takes far too long to apply the heal, and it winds up with the intended target dying, leading to you using it on yourself, even if macroed with <t>. If you have a SCH in the party, Lustrate is by far the better choice for a tank at low health. This doesn't mean don't use Benediction, just be prepared for the delay on the heal (which takes about 1s to apply after you hit it).

4. Use Shroud of Saints when you have used about 1000 mana. HQ X-Ethers are your Friend.
-This is because SoS doesn't stack the way Aetherflow does for SCH/SMN. Theirs is a 20% MP regen, ours is a flat 1060mp restore (Much like a potion which gives us MP over time). HQ X-Ethers, if you can afford them at end-game (and you should be able to, they're fairly cheap on Gilgamesh), will help with your MP management if you don't realize that you've gone past that 1000 mana threshhold for using SoS.

5. Macro Shroud of Saints to give you an echo.
-This is my one and only "useful" WHM macro, until they fix the <t> on Benediction. It consists of:

/macroicon "Shroud of Saints"
/ac "Shroud of Saints" <me>
/echo Shroud of Saints off Cooldown in 120 seconds!<se.9>
/echo Shroud of Saints off Cooldown in 60 seconds!<se.9>
/echo Shroud of Saints off Cooldown in 30 seconds!<se.9>
/echo Shroud of Saints is off Cooldown! GO GO GO! <se.1><se.1><se.1><se.1>

This echos to you the amount of cooldown left on Shroud of Saints, so that you don't really have to watch its recast icon. Just beware: If you use another macro, this one is interrupted.

6. There are some other useful macros for WHM that I find myself using on occasion.
-One of these is a Cure 3 macro:

/macroicon "Cure III"
/ac "Cure III" <me>

This macro casts a Cure III on yourself. Great for when people are stacked together. Titan HM/EX jumps, Ifrit Hellfire, some other occassions. Another good one, until they removed the functionality of <t> was:

/macroicon "Benediction"
/ac "Benediction" <t>

This would make the macro fail if your target was dead, and would stop the skill from being cast. Now it is simply wasted on yourself even if your target is dead. Hopefully they'll fix this functionality sometime soon, but for now this is just a macro I save in my macros list.

7. Food is your Friend.
-Pineapple Juice HQ is where it's at now. Don't worry about food until you hit 50 though, most content doesn't require it. This'll give you decent amounts of Piety, Vitality, and Spell Speed, and is better for the WHM stat-wise than Pineapple Ponzecake.

8. For end-game content, there are many guides available on YouTube. Feel free to use them!
-Most people go into a raid without knowing the mechanics. For the new 2.2 stuff like Leviathan EX, this is natural and expected. However, for content that has been out for a while now (Primal HMs, Ifrit/Garuda/Titan EXs, Coil 1-5), there are many hundreds of guides available. Use these to your benefits to garner experience before attempting them yourself. You'll thank yourself for not having to learn them in progressive attempts later. Trust me, I spent 11 hours learning Leviathan EX yesterday. It was fun, and certainly worth it (The MNK weapon dropped, lucky bugger), but I wish there had been a true guide to it before I had attempted it.

9. Don't be afraid to fail. It happens more often than not.
-Often times, a new party will fail to a given mechanic. This is expected and you just have to push through it. Most people give up or "ragequit" after a few attempts. Take it worth a grain of salt.

10. You will be called a bad healer at some points. Don't let it get to you.
-This generally comes from people who have no clue as to how to play the healer, or what the healer priorities are (Which for me come Tank>Healer>DPS, for the most part). Which means that if I have a choice, I'll save a Tank before a DPS. If it was you who messed up, apologize and learn from your mistakes. If it was someone else, offer suggestions, but never be offensive.

Just the top 10, off the top of my mind.

Wow - great tips from everyone. I'm gonna push through story until about lvl40 and reevaluate. I do want to start messing around with materia though.

Thanks and peace!

Swiftcast is great; I'm not saying this from an "if you don't do this, you won't be a good healer" point of view, but as a fellow WHM, Swiftcast will just make you feel like a better healer. When you get it, know that it's there for much more than just Raise.

A Medica followed by a Swiftcasted Medica puts a ton of green numbers up in a really short time. A Medica followed by a Swiftcasted Medica II helps if you're expecting more AoE soon. If you cast Medica, but whoops! you were out of range of someone, Swiftcast a Cure II and you're back on rhythm. Maybe you've fallen a little behind on your healing on Titan, or too many people ate a Weight of the Earth. And Titan's jumping, but a few people are at a low enough health that they'll die when he lands. Swiftcast a Medica so they'll still be alive for the precasted one when he lands.

Swiftcast is on a 60 second cooldown, which is a lot shorter than you would probably expect it to be. Use it whenever you need it!

Anyway, I would suggest getting Swiftcast next. As much as I hated every second of THM, it was definitely worth it.

Thank you for the tips guys! Sorry for hijacking your thread Theonefin, but I'd like to ask a question as well, when should we be concerned about gear and materia?

Definitely not until at least 50, when you get your Artifact(?) Set. Quest rewards keep you geared nicely, and dungeon drops even moreso.

Brayflox drops the Battlemage set, whose robe I used until like 45. It might have even been 50.

You do want to keep your weapon nice and current, however, since that has the largest effect on your healing.

At 50, the game very rapidly changes to grinding dungeons for tomes and CT for i80 gear.

Brayflox HM is a dps check and should be easiest for a healer, once you reach lv50 unlock it asap and try to max weekly soldiery tomes (i100 gear trade). It also drops i70 gear and lots of tomes for i90 gear, if you have a limited play time it should be #1 priority.
CT (labirint of ancients) drops very few soldierly tomes (4 times less per time spent) and better to be avoided if you have limited play time.

Tyvm for the responses guys :)

Order your cross skills!
It is vital to order your skills so that you have everything you need as you need it. Here is my preferred order:

Blizzard II: You will be doing lowbie stuff quite a bit thanks to roulette. Blizzard II gives you an AOE you would otherwise lack for off-DPS. This can speed up these runs for you.

Swiftcast: This ensures you will have Swiftcast for Halatali and beyond. This will also make sure you can swiftraise ASAP.

Virus: Placing Virus here means the earliest you have it is Haukke/Brayflox, which is a very good time to have it. You will likely still be the only person with Virus, and the debuff eases a lot of pressure.

Surecast: The first dungeon you will have Surecast access is Stone Vigil where you will need to make sure every heal lands because things there hit like a truck.

Eye for an Eye: As others have mentioned, this is mostly for end-game, and no one is gonna die or notice if you don't have it.

2) Triage!
Triage is a skill that is controversial among healers but it is vital. Triage is simply healing priority. While you'd think it's simple, it can be difficult to grasp. One of the most important lessons to learn is this: Healing is about keeping the group alive until success, not every single member. There will be situations where it is disadvantageous to keep certain people alive, because they will die again, or you are unable to leave your main target long enough to do so. This will cause quite a bit of anger. No one likes sitting around dead while you win a fight. Explain that you decided to make the choice you thought would ensure the win. Some people understand triage and will understand your viewpoint. Learning triage is an ongoing process. As you're playing, learn the situations where your intervention will be unhelpful. Some of them are easy and some of them are much less so. Know your limits. Know the limits of your party to the best of your ability.

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Originally Posted by subteraneanbird

2) Triage!
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I cannot stress this enough! As a healer, our main focus is to keep the group healed up. However, if doing so would endanger the group as a whole, it is best to let certain people "bite it" in favor of sustaining the group as a whole.

As a whm I think you're expected to be able to swiftcast raise. Eye for an eye is very valuable, but others can and should have it.

I'm 50 in all crafts and honestly don't think it's that helpful. Materia slots aren't on as much gear as you might expect, and it's not worthwhile to swap out differnt combinations like good old FFVII - you just meld it once and forget it.

I have enjoyed being a WHM, then I went to Cutters Cry! I feel like such a newb. I have figured things out mostly, but Tanks think I can kite adds and heal, lol sure. The Chimera boss is crazy hard and I'm being told to use Esuna to remove status effects but I can't tell when someone has a staus effect. I have tried Cutters Cry 6 times and I am not going to give up, although most parties are not too happy with me. I did reorganize my hot bar because I noticed it was not efficient for that dungeon. Any words of encouragement or tips would be great.

I'm really not looking forward to getting THM to level 26, lol. I would rather spend the time on White mage. oh well

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Originally Posted by Deadlydave

I have enjoyed being a WHM, then I went to Cutters Cry! I feel like such a newb. I have figured things out mostly, but Tanks think I can kite adds and heal, lol sure. The Chimera boss is crazy hard and I'm being told to use Esuna to remove status effects but I can't tell when someone has a staus effect. I have tried Cutters Cry 6 times and I am not going to give up, although most parties are not too happy with me. I did reorganize my hot bar because I noticed it was not efficient for that dungeon. Any words of encouragement or tips would be great.

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You can. It's called Regen. The Queen herself does almost no damage so Regen alone is sufficient for that fight.

What a great thread with very helpful healers everywhere. UOdhn already gave a great list and reasons for the cross class skills, I agree with him on that list. I would like to expand on the Triage response by subteraneanbird (oh gosh, what a hard name to type! ha ha).

I was a DRK and RDM in FFXI and when I started with 1.0 I started as a WAR. When 2.0 released, I decided to do something different and did my story quests as a CNJ/WHM and ended up loving it so much it became my main now (more so than WAR). Everything was dandy until I got to Suken Temple of Quan and I had a tough time healing. I had to learn the this the hard way: heal yourself first before others.

Triage:
As a healer, like subteraneanbird said, is to keep the group alive, but not necessary everyone alive. Tank in this game, for the most part, can take quite a few hits before going down. If you get hit by an AoE along with the group, your first priority to heal YOURSELF.

For the most part, if you die, the rest of the group will go along with you, even more so than the tank dying. There is something innate in someone playing the healer role that wants to make sure your save other even if that is to sacrifice yourself. You have to learn (and trust) that the tank can take care of him/herself for that 2-3 seconds while you heal yourself.

Positioning:
Another important lesson to learn is positioning. Start to train your eyes to not just looking at the health bars of others but the big picture. Pay attention of what's going on. You will need to when you start to get to the 8-players fights as a lot of AoE can one shot a healer if you don't pay attention. Again, like the triage situation, you need to save yourself first. If someone is low on HP, you are casting a Cure II but an AoE circles pops underneath you, move immediately, no question ask. It will be very tempting to finish the cast, but the risk is too high.

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Originally Posted by Sorata

What a great thread with very helpful healers everywhere. UOdhn already gave a great list and reasons for the cross class skills, I agree with him on that list. I would like to expand on the Triage response by subteraneanbird (oh gosh, what a hard name to type! ha ha).

I was a DRK and RDM in FFXI and when I started with 1.0 I started as a WAR. When 2.0 released, I decided to do something different and did my story quests as a CNJ/WHM and ended up loving it so much it became my main now (more so than WAR). Everything was dandy until I got to Suken Temple of Quan and I had a tough time healing. I had to learn the this the hard way: heal yourself first before others.

Triage:
As a healer, like subteraneanbird said, is to keep the group alive, but not necessary everyone alive. Tank in this game, for the most part, can take quite a few hits before going down. If you get hit by an AoE along with the group, your first priority to heal YOURSELF.

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In Qarn WHM should not cast anything else but Regen and Repose (also Cure I if WAR is tanking). I remember once during the 2nd boss fight one dps was disconnected and just stood there in the middle - i kept Regen on him and he never died lol (just stood there, never dodging or anything). But new WHMs would run in panic and spam Cure II on every scratch, ending with no mana or being killed themselves. I use Cure II / Cure III only if person will die without it or if i have a free proc.

Regarding priorities, healer should not cast single target heals on anyone but self and tanker. The way ffxiv fights are designed dps are supposed to dodge harmful areas and only take damage during unavoidable mechanics, which then must be cured by Medica, Medica II or Cure III, but not single target heals. I often see new healers trying to compensate someone's inability to avoid damage and then dying themselves or letting tanker die, because they were doing something they were not supposed and combat was not balanced for. It's funny to see how someone's dodging skills dramatically improve once they notice healer does no healz and non-dodged damage can kill them xD

To back my words a little, yesterday i got Titan (HM) in roulette and solo healed (10% echo) it without ever using targeted heals on anyone but the tanker. Tanker alive, me alive, 2 dps alive, rest are dead and die very fast even after being revived again and again. But those who could dodge stuff had no troubles surviving and team was fine with just 2 dps.

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Originally Posted by Deadlydave

I have enjoyed being a WHM, then I went to Cutters Cry! I feel like such a newb. I have figured things out mostly, but Tanks think I can kite adds and heal, lol sure. The Chimera boss is crazy hard and I'm being told to use Esuna to remove status effects but I can't tell when someone has a staus effect.

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I remember my first time at Cutter's Cry, being told I needed to kite the adds on that particular boss...I agreed to try, but inside I was thinking nooo, I can't do this! I did manage it after a couple of deaths, and it was a few minutes later that I realised hey, that would have been a lot easier if I'd used Regen!

Status effects should show up as a list of icons next to each person's name/HP bar in the party list. Even if you don't recognise the icon, you can tell if it's good or bad by the shape. Good effects have a slightly pointed top, like an 'up' arrow. Bad effects have a slightly pointed bottom, like a 'down' arrow.

One tip I have for newer healers is that Medica is actually significantly more MP-efficient at healing up the group if you have to heal 3+ people, and the range is huge. Some storyline bosses like Stone Vigil's boss have a room-wide AOE and using Medica will help you conserve your MP and get the entire group up to a safer HP level in case it flies away right after and your party has to dodge the tricky-at-first AOEs.

Also Regen adds enmity each time it ticks, so despite how amazing it is DO NOT use it before the tank has built hate on all the enemies he has on him. This also means Medica II (which heals everybody AND applies its own Regen effect) is incredible amounts of Enmity and while it is a fantastic spell you will probably need to save it for the tail end of boss fight after you've used a Shroud of Saints or two.

Guys, some great advice, thanks. I never really considered regen for my self and I am definitely guilty of worrying about others before healing my self.

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Originally Posted by Deadlydave

I have enjoyed being a WHM, then I went to Cutters Cry! I feel like such a newb. I have figured things out mostly, but Tanks think I can kite adds and heal, lol sure. The Chimera boss is crazy hard and I'm being told to use Esuna to remove status effects but I can't tell when someone has a staus effect. I have tried Cutters Cry 6 times and I am not going to give up, although most parties are not too happy with me. I did reorganize my hot bar because I noticed it was not efficient for that dungeon. Any words of encouragement or tips would be great.

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Don't forget you can sprint too. You don't need TP, so use it whenever you have to kite, or you think you aren't going to clear out of an AoE. Sprint in for dragons voice on chimera too. Sprint if your heal target is out of range. Sprint because I think it looks kinda badass. I don't know why I don't see casters sprinting more.

The debuff is applied to people who get hit by the big aoes on chimera. So if they do the rams or dragon's voice and if you need to heal someone after because they got hit they'll likely need esuna too. Ram's voice is most important to clear as the DoT effect it adds is pretty mean.

Debuffs are usually red squares with a pointed bottom on your party list. If you're running default UI, consider moving party list closer in to center so you don't need to shift your gaze as much to keep an eye on it.

Personally I didn't get swiftcast until I was 50. And I played at 50 for a while without getting it. I decided I wouldn't risk EX primals without it though, as a courtesy to my group. I would definitely say it's a necessity, but I wouldn't rush it. You can do fine without it for a while yet. If you're struggling, it's not because you don't have swiftcast.

And get excited for Aurum Vale at 47. That place is pretty rough to heal for the first time. Not to freak you out or anything, just be prepared for some failure. :P

By the way, if you are new to the forums you can edit your posts to bypass the stupid 1000 character limit.

I would like to add something - I am not an experienced healer...at all. I got called in to help a friend on Haukke Manor yesterday on my lvl 30 WHM. I used Eye for an Eye on the tank on each boss and for the first two, I barely had to throw a Cure out (well, except for the DRG getting hit by avoidable attacks, as usual). Do not knock how useful that buff can be!

No one is saying Eye for an Eye isn't useful! The issue being it takes longer to get than any of our other skills (and most of those are needed much earlier) so it's often prudent to save it for last.

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Originally Posted by Estellios

One tip I have for newer healers is that Medica is actually significantly more MP-efficient at healing up the group if you have to heal 3+ people, and the range is huge. Some storyline bosses like Stone Vigil's boss have a room-wide AOE and using Medica will help you conserve your MP and get the entire group up to a safer HP level in case it flies away right after and your party has to dodge the tricky-at-first AOEs.

Also Regen adds enmity each time it ticks, so despite how amazing it is DO NOT use it before the tank has built hate on all the enemies he has on him. This also means Medica II (which heals everybody AND applies its own Regen effect) is incredible amounts of Enmity and while it is a fantastic spell you will probably need to save it for the tail end of boss fight after you've used a Shroud of Saints or two.

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You don't have to wait for shroud. All heals generate enmity based on the amount healed, whether it's overheal or not. The reason you don't use regen at the start of a pull is that when the tank grabs something with say shield lob, he gets aggro from the other mobs too, but only at 0 enmity. One tic of regen is plenty to change their minds. Another example is similar, except you put regen on yourself, since you haven't done anything to the mobs, OR the people who have hit the mobs yet, you don't get any enmity (unless they are showing up on your enmity bar).

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Originally Posted by subteraneanbird

No one is saying Eye for an Eye isn't useful! The issue being it takes longer to get than any of our other skills (and most of those are needed much earlier) so it's often prudent to save it for last.

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Actually some people were saying that people won't notice if you don't have it in end game... which is false.

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Originally Posted by theonefin

Hello - I am a newly minted WHM (31 with both THM and ARC @ 15). I've been going back and forth for what to do next. Should I bring my THM and ARC up to get Swiftcast and E4E? Can I meddle around as WHM for a bit to develop my healing technique? Should I advance main story line? I can only play like 10-12 hours per week until May so any direction will be most appreciated...

Peace!

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Originally Posted by lxSch

Swiftcast may be useful in lv44 story trial, but not essential because it can be passed with only healer + tanker alive. But having a swiftcast will allow to revive a dps (if they die).
Eye4Eye may be useful in lv41 and lv50 dungeons, but not essential - it works like an extra damage mitigation cooldown for tanker, but tanker will not need it unless decides to speedrun (which is a bad idea with new players).
I suggest getting swiftcast after you get to lv50, because some people just get upset when are not revived asap. Most of people will not notice if you don't have eye4eye.

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Originally Posted by subteraneanbird

Order your cross skills!
Eye for an Eye: As others have mentioned, this is mostly for end-game, and no one is gonna die or notice if you don't have it.

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Originally Posted by subteraneanbird

No one is saying Eye for an Eye isn't useful! The issue being it takes longer to get than any of our other skills (and most of those are needed much earlier) so it's often prudent to save it for last.

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Originally Posted by ispano

Actually some people were saying that people won't notice if you don't have it in end game... which is false.

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Looks like really noone was saying that. I cannot consider lv50 dungeons to be endgame because they can be done in lv55-60 gear.