Seeking Any Healer Advice

I just started playing FFXIV a couple weeks ago (Steam sale pickup). After some playing around with different classes and jobs, I think I've settled on WHM. I might second as PLD, but WHM is where I'm at, I think.

What is healing done right, and what is healing done wrong?
Also, I'm an older guy, and speed is an issue, I'm not quick like you kids. Is there a way to set macros or even just something like how the tab key cycles through enemies, but for your own party?

To give you an idea of where I am in the game mechanics, I just figured out today that Stoneskin is great to cast on the nontanks, but pretty useless on the tank, and that Regen rocks all kind of awesome. I only hit level 35 today.

Enhanced Stoneskin = 18% shield of max hp.
I'm a whm with 6254 hp ( 6.4k hp in party ) and 18% shield does wonders on me.

For sure!
Where I'm at, level 35 (abouts), I don't have Enhanced Stoneskin, just normal, and it does 10%. On a tank at my level, that's 150-200 (1500-2000 HP), and my Cure1 does ~400-450 for half the MP. Because the numbers don't correlate exactly, I expect that the usefulness of Stoneskin will change as I advance, but the maths dictate I use it on everyone except the tank - for now!

You are currently in the most awkward stage of your WHM-journey. The reason for this is because you do not have the skill Shroud of Saints (to be obtained at lvl 38, with its more potent, traited version later on at level 48), but the fights are starting to be a bit mana-intensive if you do not have that great or experienced people with you. (Shroud of Saints is a skill that regenerates MP and also halves your current enmity - both of which alright uses but the standard use for it being mana restoring on cooldown). Of course, it might be that this feels a bit different somehow, as of 2.3, but when I leveled WHM on release, I felt like the late-30s to mid-40s were the hardest levels!

Just keep it cool, try to pay attention to the aggro mechanics of the game, enjoy the ride and don't mind the mistakes. Keep Regen up on the main tank as much as you can, but do not use it preemptively before a pull. Try to keep up with Cure 1s and Freecure procs, combined with Regen. Stoneskin before encounters, but do not bother casting it mid-fight for now - later on this becomes a good tool to buffer up near one-shot tank killing mechanics, at level cap. (And Stoneskin is also not an enmity bomb like Cure 2s and so forth).

I see you already have THM at past 26, which is brilliant, because Swiftcast is THE skill to have. Mainly used for instant-rezzes, though in a 8-man party setting, a SCH (or a SMN, if they leave Swiftcast unused) is nearly always above the WHM in terms of the rezzing-ladder priority, due to the more careful MP-management of WHMs'. You might also consider leveling Arcanist to at least 34, for Eye for an Eye, as that is a great tool for some extra mitigation, which of course means less heals required. Also, you'll get one of your best skills soon at level 40 - Divine Seal. Get comfortable with this as much as you can - it's only on a 1m CD and can be used to great effect.

As to what is healing done 'wrong' or 'right', well, that has many variables to it - no doubt. Healing is the most variable-dependant of the trinity by far, thus the answers can and will vary. Minimize overhealing and conserve MP, know when to heal and when not to heal, observe your healing partner's casting bar (in 8-mans) as well as a tank's status effects. You should aim to get familiar with all of the relevant tank-cooldowns to know when they will take less damage, so you can also adapt depending on the situation. It's really hard to give a general reply here, because SCHs and WHMs are different, but you'll no doubt get a feel for it later on. Also, don't stress about these kind of things too much for now, let the knowledge sink in little by little via observation and you yourself possibly branching off to leveling other classes, such as the tank ones so you can synergize your healing better with tanks.

TL;DR: try to have fun, use common sense (as I am sure you will), observe, worry about the finetuning later on.

Your question about swift targeting can easily be solved by using the keyboard (I assume you're playing on the PC, as you picked the game up on Steam).

The "F" keys along the top correlate with your party members. "F1" is you, and then each one after that follows the order as per your party roster on the top left. If you have your UI set to display in Tank -> Healer -> DPS -> Other, then "F2" and "F3" should be your Tanks, "F4" your other healer, and the remaining 4 keys your DPS units (in a Full Party).

Alternatively, you can click on the names individually and click on the spell, that's what I do. It makes controls fluid, as I have my controls set to Legacy, which means that when you press "S", rather than slowly walking backwards, your character will turn and run that way (better for avoiding AoEs). This option can be changed in the System Settings menu, I believe.

I hope this helps. :D

Tranquil: Swiftcast has been a great asset. I've noticed it for doing rezzes, and also for just combating screwups in normal healing (I threw a rock... oh wait, I needed to heal!)
But why not cast Regen pre-emptively? Given the mana efficiency on it, I just tried to keep it up on all times on the tank, and during boss fights, additionally on any melee DPS... Pre-emptive casting means I can usually make use of non-combat mana regen as well. Given that I only -just- got Regen, I've not had a lot of experience with it - please expound!

Eltaire: You answered my question, but that's not helpful! I play on an (Alienware) laptop, the F-keys are 1/3rd smaller than the rest of the keys. It's actually a great keyboard for 90% of everything - I don't feel squished when I type for example - but the F-keys are the sacrifice. Well, perhaps I just need to train myself to use them... Or rebind the keys. :)

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Originally Posted by PWilson

But why not cast Regen pre-emptively? Given the mana efficiency on it, I just tried to keep it up on all times on the tank, and during boss fights, additionally on any melee DPS... Pre-emptive casting means I can usually make use of non-combat mana regen as well. Given that I only -just- got Regen, I've not had a lot of experience with it - please expound!

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Well, it's not the biggest sin in the book and most tanks can handle it ok. Basically it isn't a problem vs. bosses, but if you cast Regen before the tank engages with the enemy, the mob(s) will usually yoyo towards you, especially if it's part of a bigger trash pull wherein a tank just tags a mob with minimal enmity creation and goes on to pick up more. Regen creates healing enmity per tick.

General tips / advise.
Over healing generates more threat than normal
Get swiftcast asap.
Get Eye for an eye after you hit 50.
Don't use medica til at least 3 party members could use it.
In settings, you can pick how the party window is arranged. I usually go:
Healer, tank, dmg.
Don't limit break. Into the rare event that a heal lb is needed and a bard isn't using it or isn't in the party, then u can use it.
Regen is great, esp with divine seal, but try to make sure it expires before the next pull.
As the last mob gets low on HP, cast stoneskin and time it so that the mob dies just before the cast finishes.

Macros:
I like the mouse over kind. Ex:
/ac Cure <mo>
/ac Cure <t>
Cursor hovered over party window + activate skill. Added <t> to assist in healing things not in the party.

After taking the time to read some of the other posts I it appears you may underestimate stoneskin. You were talking about adding regen on tank before pull. Don't cast anything on the tank til he has aggro. Stoneskin will give plenty of time for you to hit the tank with it afterwards. Stoneskin, like regen, will let u recover with out of combat mp, but unlike regen, it doesn't generate threat outside the initial cast and it lasts for up to 30 mins.

There are some more specific uses for stoneskin, but the above is most common.

Don't use regen before the tank has established enmity on all targets. This is because once the first tick of regen goes off, any mobs that the tank hasn't picked up yet are going to come straight for you. Wait until you see a flash or overpower from the tank before casting regen. Similarly, don't use regen towards the end of trash packs, since the regen effect could last until the next pack and cause the same scenario. If you do happen to get hate, go to the tank so they can peel mobs off of you.

At this point, most of your healing should be done by regens and cure I and free cure procs for cure II. Once you get shroud of the saints you can start experimenting with more mp intensive spells like stoneskin more often. Regen + stoneskin on the tank is a nice way to keep the tank stable while keeping your enmity low.

I'd consider healing done right as keeping everyone alive, keeping members out of k.o. range (above 50%), keeping on top of debuffs, and reacting quickly to patch up mistakes. As far as doing the wrong thing, you'll be fine as long as you don't pull hate and you keep everyone's butt out of the fire. Just have fun with it, experiment with all of your new skills, and good luck!

Stoneskin is far from useless on your tank. They're the one that takes most (ideally all) of the damage. o.o

It's not something you cast during a pull. It's something you cast before, especially on big pulls.

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Originally Posted by PWilson

But why not cast Regen pre-emptively? Given the mana efficiency on it, I just tried to keep it up on all times on the tank, and during boss fights, additionally on any melee DPS... Pre-emptive casting means I can usually make use of non-combat mana regen as well. Given that I only -just- got Regen, I've not had a lot of experience with it - please expound!

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Because of enmity issues. Regen creates enmity per tick per person that it's on. This is the reason that it's so hard to hold hate in T2 if your healers overspam Medica II (not to mention they run out of mana, lol). Seasoned tanks won't have much of a problem dealing with it, but fighting an inexperienced tank (which you will be running into quite a few of) for enmity will end up with one very dead healer. Incidentally, if you are getting hit you should generally not kite the mob away from your tank as they cannot take it off of you if you do.

I found these youtube videos really useful when I started learning to heal (especially regarding macros).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak0nrdkii-Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWgPLlsGpHQ

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Originally Posted by Yumi_umi

Enhanced Stoneskin = 18% shield of max hp.
I'm a whm with 6254 hp ( 6.4k hp in party ) and 18% shield does wonders on me.

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As an addendum to this, don't expect to have 6,254 HP off the hop. Most WHMs at 50 begin with 2.8K HP, I think. This particular individual utterly enjoys ramping up the VIT as a self-styled WHM tank. At i95 in full healing gear, I only sit at 4.8K HP inside a party.

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Originally Posted by winsock

General tips / advise.
Over healing generates more threat than normal

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Is there any evidence to back this up? As far as I know, overhealing generate the exact same enmity as normal healing.

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As has stated before, Regen is amazing. The HP/MP ratio is superb and having 100% uptime on Regen DURING combat is very good. Just be aware that with Regen active on the tank, most adds will make a zooming beeline towards you due to enmity. You'll want to try to stay near the tank when this happens so the tank has a means to get the adds off you.

When you hit 50, Medica II is a good way to normalize party wide damage, and I've found a lot of good uses of Medica II in Syracus Tower and specific instances of Titan HM, though I use it significantly less often outside of that. Cure III's niche uses are similar but the instances you can use them, you'll grin and smile. Try to learn the Cure III ranges and make use of it when you can as it proves to be a more efficient heal than Medica II for group heals.

The absolute best advise to give is to be adaptable. Easier said than done, I know, but once you have seen a few scenarios and fights, you can start building "what-if" contingencies in your head on the fly and know what move you feel is best and be prepared for it. This comes with time and experience though. Also, understand your abilities. Your bread and butter will be Cure, Cure II with Freecure procs, and Regen, but knowing when is a good time to use your other abilities will differentiate you from the other healers.

Happy healing!

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Originally Posted by Ghishlain

Is there any evidence to back this up? As far as I know, overhealing generate the exact same enmity as normal healing.

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I think they just meant that if you're spamming Cure on the tank when he's at full you're generating more enmity than if you left well enough alone with the healing and cast some Aero/Stone or something.

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Originally Posted by Tranquil and Seryl and Ashkendor

Regen creates healing enmity per tick.

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Okay, good reason! Thank you! :D


Winsock: I get what you're saying, but that's not convincing. I completely get that Stoneskin's usefulness will change as I advance, as it's based on the target's HP rather than my own skills, but I'm really, really not impressed by a 150-200 HP damage block that I can cover with a simple heal that costs half as much - and does twice as much healing.
It's great to cast on the non-tanks, at the moment, because I don't want to actually active-heal anyone else when the damage is flying, but to use on the tank, it seems silly.
I will say, I did do a run of Sunken Temple of Qarn where I tried to rely on Stoneskin and Regen instead of Cure/Freecure/Regen, and Stoneskinning the tank felt like a waste, which is generating my opinion here. I didn't run out of MP, because the DPS classes were awesome, but it really felt like I could and should have been more efficient.

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Originally Posted by PWilson

Winsock: I get what you're saying, but that's not convincing. I completely get that Stoneskin's usefulness will change as I advance, as it's based on the target's HP rather than my own skills, but I'm really, really not impressed by a 150-200 HP damage block that I can cover with a simple heal that costs half as much - and does twice as much healing.
It's great to cast on the non-tanks, at the moment, because I don't want to actually active-heal anyone else when the damage is flying, but to use on the tank, it seems silly.
I will say, I did do a run of Sunken Temple of Qarn where I tried to rely on Stoneskin and Regen instead of Cure/Freecure/Regen, and Stoneskinning the tank felt like a waste, which is generating my opinion here. I didn't run out of MP, because the DPS classes were awesome, but it really felt like I could and should have been more efficient.

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Like I said, SS isn't something you cast during a fight, though there are exceptions. It's typically something you cast before as a preventative measure. The first time you see a speed run you'll know why Stone Skin is great. :3

Basically, your tank will barrel through the first 3-5 pulls of a dungeon, sit them in a pile, and let the DPS nuke them. You want as much damage mitigation in place on your tank as humanly possible while they gather because you cannot reasonably heal them while they have such a tenuous hold on the enmity of so many things. Doing so pretty much guarantees a swift death for you, followed by the rest of the party. xD

Stone Skin is also nice if you can sneak it in before hard-hitting boss skills, though this is harder to do because of the long cast. You basically would have to know the boss' attack rotation (focus target helps too).

Don't worry too much about Stoneskinning for now. People are right about it being good, but at the same time, I wouldn't lobby it too much just yet. All you need to know is that Stoneskin doesn't generate a lot of enmity, so it has its uses for that. Also, the biggest reason it's used is to offer flat, HP-based mitigation, as at level cap you have many tank-killing moves, which you should mitigate before they get wound up. This game likes its (near) one-shot mechanics. Just Stoneskin people when you're casting Protect at the start of a dungeon, then before bosses if you wish. Apart from that, only if you're about to rip aggro. This obviously completely changes at level cap, though. In general, you'll want to cast it on the tanks often, but spare casting it on the DPS for the rare moments, again, endgame only.

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Originally Posted by PWilson

Winsock: I get what you're saying, but that's not convincing. I completely get that Stoneskin's usefulness will change as I advance, as it's based on the target's HP rather than my own skills, but I'm really, really not impressed by a 150-200 HP damage block that I can cover with a simple heal that costs half as much - and does twice as much healing.
It's great to cast on the non-tanks, at the moment, because I don't want to actually active-heal anyone else when the damage is flying, but to use on the tank, it seems silly.
I will say, I did do a run of Sunken Temple of Qarn where I tried to rely on Stoneskin and Regen instead of Cure/Freecure/Regen, and Stoneskinning the tank felt like a waste, which is generating my opinion here. I didn't run out of MP, because the DPS classes were awesome, but it really felt like I could and should have been more efficient.

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Stoneskin will see more utility use later (level 50+ content) when there are moments to use them appropriately, but is definitely lackluster are your level given the mitigation it gives for the cost of a Cure II.

Examples:
-Mountain Buster during Titan Hard Mode is a heavy damage attack that comes in set intervals during his pattern, so it's easy to predict when you need to Stoneskin your MT
-There are times during certain raid fights in Crystal Tower that the MT doesn't actually need to tank at that very moment and is instead dealing with mechanics of the fight. This is a good time to give them Stoneskin so they are prepared for the next boss onslaught
-High ilvl Warriors with Thrill of Battle up can have somewhere upwards of 10K+ HP. You can imagine 18% of this is a HUGE boost compared to the 150-200 you see at your level. Depending on your gear score, it's more efficient for you to use Stoneskin versus Cure II.

Regen is fantastic.

I would suggest caution with Stoneskin, enhanced or not. It is slow, expensive, and weak compared to your heals, even on high health tanks where the percentage is maximized. It cannot crit, will not save a tank that is getting hit as you apply it, and you can't use it to fish for free casts like you could with cure I. If your time or mana are even slightly an issue, stoneskin is usually the wrong tool for the job.

Stoneskin has reasonable use as a buffer and it's nice to have people just a bit tougher in general, but be aware of its drawbacks when used as a staple spell.

Dont ever overheal, know when not to heal, also always check your agrro number and kids? We r old here, i dont think there are kids at all

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Originally Posted by Eltaire

Your question about swift targeting...

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I found the greatest key, and I thought I'd mention it since nobody else did - though I'm sure some of you know!
"T" (default) changes your target to your target's target. This is great. I can throw a heal at the tank, hit t, throw a rock at the tank's target, and then hit t again to go right back to the tank - or if the tank lost aggro, go to whoever the mob is going after!
Still gotta manually click or Fkey for damage as a result of AOE, but it's helping me a ton and I don't always feel like I'm clicking all over the place.

AldoVonAlexandros: Heh :)

@ PWilson
I'm not quite sure I follow your logic about stoneskin.
It's not a skill you spam, it lasts 30 mins for a reason.
You see the value of preemptive stuff, and you see the value on the non tanks, but don't see the value on the tank, who arguably gets the most benefit.

I guess I'd ask ya like this:
Proper MP management, protect, healing cooldowns, healer dps, etc. None are necessary at lower tiers, but can aid in picking up the slack / making up for mistakes made by newer players in pugs. What are you casting in the last 2.5 to 3 seconds of combat that is more beneficial than stoneskin?

Since it looks like Stoneskin is still up for debate, I'll throw my opinion in.

Stoneskin is absolutely vital for some endgame fights without a scholar, but otherwise the only time I ever cast it is in between pulls. I usually start casting when the last mob in a pull is around 15-10% health so the tank will get the buffer and we can move on quickly.

I don't have to cast stoneskin, I could just heal any damage that comes the tank's way, but there's a very specific reason I make sure it's up, once that nobody here has really touched on yet: Stoneskin lets me know when it's safe to start healing the tank. It gives the tank a safe period to generate pure aggro without having to compete with my healing. By the time stoneskin goes down, I have a divine seal regen waiting that won't pull anybody towards me except in the worst scenario. If I leave stoneskin off and I have to start worrying about damage right away, there's always a chance that I could pull an enemy, especially if the tank is a warrior and hasn't had time to position the mobs for a proper overpower yet.

And since it hasn't been explicitly said yet: Stoneskin is 10% (18% with the Graniteskin upgrade) of your target's hp, not your own. That's nothing to sneeze, especially if you have a warrior with defiance.

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Originally Posted by winsock

@ PWilson
I'm not quite sure I follow your logic about stoneskin...
...What are you casting in the last 2.5 to 3 seconds of combat that is more beneficial than stoneskin?

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Absolutely nothing, because I am playing in pugs and maintaining MP was more important.
The logic is simple, the cost to payoff ratio was terrible. Now that I'm levelling up further - and have this nice little MP regen buff - 'skin is seeing more use! :)

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Originally Posted by Niamh_Rillemaugh

Stoneskin lets me know when it's safe to start healing the tank.

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Oooo, that's a good idea!

spacing and timing are big things as you get farther along. in lower level dungeons your 4 person team stays relatively close together. it's pretty rare that you have range issues or major AOE (area effect) damage from bosses to dodge. healing is more or less finding a nice place to stand and keeping people alive. pretty soon you will find yourself in situations where an 8 person team is running around like crazy dodging a never-ending cycle of stuff flying at them. if you can develop the ability to know where people are, keep yourself in range of them, and cast while moving from place to place, then you will have a lot fewer headaches later. i spent way too much time staring at the health bars in early levels, and it was a hard habit to break. try to get into the habit of planning your movement as you plan your spells. i think it will help a lot, if you aren't already doing it.

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Originally Posted by chesspilgrim

if you can develop the ability to know where people are, keep yourself in range of them, and cast while moving from place to place, then you will have a lot fewer headaches later. i spent way too much time staring at the health bars in early levels, and it was a hard habit to break. try to get into the habit of planning your movement as you plan your spells. i think it will help a lot, if you aren't already doing it.

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Oh god I needed this advice so much earlier! Titan was a rude reality check: my first try at Titan was also my first ragequit! I apologized to the entire party for being such a noob, and gave up after the 13th attempt or something. Though, I wasn't the only one getting blown off the platform! (And it seems like they happen a lot faster after the heart goes down)
Still my single worst problem - staring at those captivating, luscious party health bars. They... they entrance me so... :O

Use focus target (Ctrl +F is the default hotkey), this allows you to keep track of enemy's casting even when you're targeting your tank.

Titan is an extremely scripted fight, meaning for each phase, he will follow 1 particular set of skills:
For example (NOT ACTUAL ROTATION) : Landslide -> whack tank few times -> Weight of the Land -> Landslide->whack tank few times->Weight of the Land.

If you're finding it hard to reactively dodge these attacks, you can try to pay attention to titan's skill rotation so that you know what skill is coming up next, and be ready proactively for it.

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Originally Posted by DreamWeaver

Use focus target (Ctrl +F is the default hotkey), this allows you to keep track of enemy's casting even when you're targeting your tank.

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That is a super great help.

I wanted to thank everyone who took the time to post here and help out a noob, maybe especially those that I didn't necessarily agree with! I really do appreciate it!

I do have a specific question now - is Grand Company gear (Level 50 req.s) worth using? And if so, from when to when? My GC is the Flames, because I started out as a BLM, but I could change over to the Gridania one if it's worth it. :)

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Originally Posted by Velo_Vandore

I found these youtube videos really useful when I started learning to heal (especially regarding macros).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak0nrdkii-Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWgPLlsGpHQ

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That guy's voice is more droning than "Bueller, Bueller..." I'm sure there's good info, but how did it not put you to sleep? :D