When to use Cure 3 or not

So I fnally took down Titan HM. (Had a few months break but still paid for the subbed) And I noticed something during my tries on him and other 8 players bosses.

When I am with another White Mage we both rarely use Cure 3. Most of the time we buff our healing and use Medicia 1 or 2 (Depending on agroo or how much healing is needed) So the question comes to this. When is it viable to use Cure 3?

I used it a few times on Garuda hardmode but that is the only time I used it.

Am I playing white Mage wrong?

The basic rule of WHMing is: the less you can cure (and the lower potency heals you can use) while still keeping everyone alive the better. Medica has 300 potency and Cure 3 has 550 potency. If Medica is enough to heal your party full (combined with heals of your healing partner), you shouldn't use Cure 3.

Cure 3 does have its uses though. It's great for situations where you have to heal a group from big damage hit (and that group is able to stack tightly) or if you have to heal a group of people who are far away from you. I generally use it for turn 5 fireballs and Garuda Extreme when I'm in different tornado place than the people I'm healing. I also use it in Ifrit Extreme after Hellfires, for example.

Cure III is extremely situational and is, as Taika described, used mostly for big damage AoEs where people are stacked or if you're solo healing AoEs (again with people stacked), so don't feel like you're doing something wrong if you don't use it often - you're not supposed to. If you're worried about all those Overcure procs going to waste, they're not.

-Point of notice: As you'll play through the dungeons, you'll find the 'sweet spots' where certain spells are more useful than others. Cure III has a place.-

Useful and general instances:

• When tank pulls >5 adds, WHM steals 1/2 of them. Self-cast Cure III in proximity to the tank and wait for Flash Spam to take back the adds.
• Titan
• BCoB enrage timers
• Ifrit Ex group heals when searing (Target DPS)

Someone has rightly pointed out overcuring as an issue.
However, simply waiting an additional tick for aoe damage to turn over can make a Cure III worthwhile and cost-effective.

Turn 2 enrage:
Wait 1 pulse, both healers cast Medica.
Or
Wait 1 pulse, WHM1 Cure III
Second pulse, WHM2 Cure III
Alternating.
It's easier, and mana consumption tends to be better.

1 Divine Sealed Cure III can restore almost 80% HP of a group.

The most important rule for being a healer is do what you want/ think is best.
If you keep ppl up without stealing aggro etc then by all means do whatever. You can do all the math u want but at the end of the instance the only thing that mattered was if ppl were healed or not.
Anyways imo:
Cure 3= a cure 2 medica it's like ur using cure 2 on everyone.
It has faster cast time than medica 1/2
Medica 1= when ppl r spread out and there's little damage incoming / sustained.
It's like cure 1s for everyone.
Tbh i actually haven't used medica 1 in a lonnnnng time.
It was always divine seal + medica 2 & regen or just cure 3 with DS or PoM.

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Originally Posted by UlricCraft

[list][*]When tank pulls >5 adds, WHM steals 1/2 of them. Self-cast Cure III in proximity to the tank and wait for Flash Spam to take back the adds.

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I'd rather swiftcast me another Stoneskin first instead of driving my healaggro, that is above the tanks at this situation anyway, to the very sky.

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Originally Posted by Spoekes

I'd rather swiftcast me another Stoneskin first instead of driving my healaggro, that is above the tanks at this situation anyway, to the very sky.

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Oh I agree, but I like to keep SC for either derp control or 2x Holy on bigger pulls.

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Originally Posted by Yumi_umi

The most important rule for being a healer is do what you want/ think is best.

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That is great advice... for players who do not seek to learn and improve.

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Originally Posted by Pikken

That is great advice... for players who do not seek to learn and improve.

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I think it was worded badly and you forgot to quote the second sentence, it belongs to the first.

As long as you keep the group alive, do what you think is best, let it be damage, click the switch mechanics or whatever.
I would interpret it as: Do you Job, improve on the rest at your pace that is fun for you.

No one will dispute that doing a little damage instead of being idle is better, but you do not need to do that to succeed, especcialy while you are learning basics of your job

Cure 3 Is by far and large one of my favorite spells - especially since the range increase. Understandably situational but it has a fairly fast cast time in relation to the potency it dishes out. Most commonly I use it for such things as geocrush in titan EX where large damage will be taken by the party followed by an immediate need to dodge. Also comes in handy when eating fireballs in turn 5 or keeping both myself and the OT up during turn 4 when he is gathering adds, very useful for the Orbs in ultima too. Also a very good heal for any melee near the tank if you can estimate how much health they will lose before it becomes a major overheal, this of course assuming that the tank also needs healing.

Not that anyone is running this anymore, but Ultima HM, Cure III after running into Aetheric Boons.

I once happened to get an overcure proc right before Titan's Geocrush. Perfect for that as well.

Anytime you have people grouped up that you want to heal quickly, Cure 3 is a solid option.

The more people grouped up and the faster they need to be healed, the stronger the case to use Cure 3. Even at two targets, it's roughly as efficient as throwing out two Cure 2, but takes half the time.

This is highly situational but very powerful. There's simply no other spell that can patch up a group so quickly.

Ever needed two medicas to get the job done and wanted to get it in one cast instead? Cure III.

Other than that, situational crap where the party is actually stacked during aoe damage. i.e. Twintania, Titan, Ifrit EX sometimes.

That's basically your entire list.

Also remember that Medica is a self centered AoE, while Cure III can be thrown. Useful for groups with several Melee DPS where you need to heal the group from a distance. And as already stated, when you know heavy damage is coming and the group is tightly stacked, like Geocrush and Aetheric Boom.

The Medica's are normally the better heals for AoE purposes. When you have phases where you need to A. Stack up and quickly top off party, or B. Need an AoE heal without being being around the party, Cure III is useful. Best examples are (for A) Thornmarch Ex, Titan Ex, Garuda ex. For B, Ifrit ex.

Seeing as you havent made yoru way to any Extreme Primals, you have little use for Cure III as of right now

Cure III works well in instances where you have multiple Melee DPS and the Tank taking large amounts of damage, since Cure III can be thrown to the Tank and it will heal the Tank and the DPSes all at once.

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Originally Posted by zeroaru

Cure 3 Is by far and large one of my favorite spells - especially since the range increase. Understandably situational but it has a fairly fast cast time in relation to the potency it dishes out. Most commonly I use it for such things as geocrush in titan EX where large damage will be taken by the party followed by an immediate need to dodge. Also comes in handy when eating fireballs in turn 5 or keeping both myself and the OT up during turn 4 when he is gathering adds, very useful for the Orbs in ultima too. Also a very good heal for any melee near the tank if you can estimate how much health they will lose before it becomes a major overheal, this of course assuming that the tank also needs healing.

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Can you use Cure 3 in place of medicas for the increase in potency? What is the range of healing around the target compared to any medica?

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Originally Posted by EvianEverdeen

Can you use Cure 3 in place of medicas for the increase in potency? What is the range of healing around the target compared to any medica?

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Cure 3 has a radius of 6y while Medica has 15y. This means Medica has 150% more radius, which is why Cure 3 requires a very tight stack to be worth it over Medica.

If it means anything, when Overcure procs, Cure 3 has a slightly higher Potency/MP than Cure 2.

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Originally Posted by PenutButter

If it means anything, when Overcure procs, Cure 3 has a slightly higher Potency/MP than Cure 2.

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Last I checked, that was only the case if you hit 2+ people with the Cure III. Otherwise, it's like using Cure II without a Freecure proc and that burns your MP quickly. There aren't many times I can think of where I've needed to use Cure II right before a stack heal and also magically get an Overcure proc.

Cure 2 is 650 pot, 266 mp vs Overcure Cure 3 550 pot, 200 (199?) mp. That is 2.44 vs 2.75 pot/mp, so if you were gonna use a non-Freecure Cure 2, it would be slightly less efficient for a single target heal than Overcure.
Not gonna go into a debate of how often that might be useful here, just saying.

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Originally Posted by ManaKeKz

Cure 3 550 pot, 200 (199?) mp.

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did they change cure3 mp cost or have i missed something on Overcure that saves you mp o.O

Overcure: Grants a 15% chance that after casting Cure II, your next Cure III will cost half MP.

Cure III MP Cost @ 50 : 399

That's how it is, dunno what might have changed since you last checked

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Originally Posted by sheepysheepy

did they change cure3 mp cost or have i missed something on Overcure that saves you mp o.O

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Originally Posted by Spoekes

Overcure: Grants a 15% chance that after casting Cure II, your next Cure III will cost half MP.

Cure III MP Cost @ 50 : 399

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Originally Posted by ManaKeKz

Overcure Cure 3 550 pot, 200 (199?) mp

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I don't know of any changes to Cure 3, it has always been 399 mp afaik. I just can't remember if they translate the 50% reduction from Overcure (199.5) to 200 or 199 mp in the game. Or do they even work with decimals internally?

must've just been so uninterested in Overcure that i skipped over it and lived in ignorance, good to know:)

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Originally Posted by sheepysheepy

must've just been so uninterested in Overcure that i skipped over it and lived in ignorance, good to know:)

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Overcure proc used to provide 100% crit rate before the Cure III changes in 2.1. That might be where some of your confusion stems from.

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Originally Posted by PenutButter

If it means anything, when Overcure procs, Cure 3 has a slightly higher Potency/MP than Cure 2.

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For an extremely increased aggro cost. {No thanks.}

What shady sites are you guys getting your information from? Cure III costs 505 mana for me, 252 with Overcure active. O_o

(With those numbers, Cure III would be sitting at 2.18 potency per MP spent on a single target. Cure II is 2.44 potency per MP spent.)

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Originally Posted by Raminax

What shady sites are you guys getting your information from? Cure III costs 505 mana for me, 252 with Overcure active. O_o

(With those numbers, Cure III would be sitting at 2.18 potency per MP spent on a single target. Cure II is 2.44 potency per MP spent.)

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I do got the same numbers has you. Dont know where they took theirs from.

Cure III is boss in the Titan fight.

Cure III's usefulness is limited to specific situations as listed in prior posts, which is sort of disappointing, seeing as there is a lot of wasted potential with the spell itself.
I mean, it's Cure III. You would imagine it's viability would somewhat exceed Cure II, but it's very rare utilized.
Not a terrible spell, just be careful with it.

Cure 3 = Everyone must be healed up to full because heavy damage AoE is coming soon in the next 5 seconds.
Best Example (Final phase of turn 8, 2x tower burst + possible Allagan Field damage, for a total of three extremely high AoE damage hits over a span of 20 seconds.)

Medica 2 = Boss just used a heavy AoE and goes back to smacking the MT with no follow up AoE attacks.
Example (Pretty much everything pre 2.2)

Disclaimer : Medica 2 usage described above is for when dealing with competent players, as it is assumed competent players will be able to dodge avoidable AoEs that may come after a heavy unavoidable AoE damage (IE: Garuda's feathers, Titan's WotL, Ifrit's plumes).