Levelling Healer

Hi everyone,

So, I am starting to level my CNJ (lv25 at the moment) and has some questions. Whilst WHM will not be my main class, I still want to be good at it! I don't really need levelling tips as they are in abundance already.

While I FATE grind, hunt log etc I will obviously queue for dungeons (being BLM main I already love the short wait times :D)

I guess my question is around expectations of me in dungeons. I've read lot's of threads were some parties expect a healer to also DPS, and some don't. If it is expected, at what level is it usually expected, or is it more of a skill that you learn as you go on? I would assume that healing would always take priority though.. Is it more of a 'if you feel you can do it' thing?

Any tips for dungeons would be great :) Thank you!

EDIT:
All good. found this thread with some good tips :)

I recommend making a macro for swift cast+raise, with a party tell to let them know who your raiseing, that away if there's 2 healers in group you both don't waste mp reviving same player

When you get it, Regen is your most efficient heal. However, never have it on a tank during the pull, always apply after the tank has agro. DPS when the tank is above 70%, switching out of cleric stance after he falls below this point *(Unless he is taking excessive damage, and you have no time to DPS)*. For the WHM, I find a macro for raise is nice:

/ac "Swiftcast" <me><wait.1>
/ac "Raise" <t>
/p Raising <t>!

Another good one is for shroud:

/ac "Shroud of Saints" <me>
/echo Shroud off of cooldown in 120s. <wait.60>
/echo Shroud off of cooldown in 60s. <wait.30>
/echo Shroud off of cooldown in 30s. <wait.30>
/echo Shroud off cooldown, USE IT. <se.1><se.9><se.1><se.9>

Other than that, so long as you're keeping people alive, you're fine.

Fantastic! Thanks heaps for the tips :-) Will be putting these to use for sure.

Good to know about the Regen/aggro too.

Do the Roulette once a day for the large XP bonus. When you get a low level dungeon it's a good place to practice Healing and DPSing. Depending on the tank you get you might not have to hit cure but once or twice on trash? IN those cases I will stay in Cleric stance till the boss.

No worries. The things most healers don't realize is that any healing that brings a target over 100% generates threat equal to twice the amount of overhealing. There's not really an easy way to estimate the amount of threat that this does on any given occasion, but the easiest thing to note is that there is an available agro meter while healing, and you've probably seen it. The green circle, upward yellow triangle, downward orange triangle, and red square. Just be aware that you shouldn't surpass the upward yellow triangle while healing, or you risk ripping agro of the tank.

As far as WHMs go, your general go-to should be Cure I, and sparing use of Cure II when and if it's needed. If you've got a Freecure proc, use it before it expires, as it is free healing. Here's a guide I wrote for a friend.

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Originally Posted by UOdhn

No worries. The things most healers don't realize is that any healing that brings a target over 100% generates threat equal to twice the amount of overhealing....

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There are many testings concluded that over-healing generates same threat as the healing number.
With that said for example healing 1hp = 0.5 threat, healing 1000hp = 500threat fixed regardless the target is full hp or not.
Did I get you wrong? ^^;

Each has their own playstyle :) I for one do not use Cleric Stance in groups. Not on my Whitemage and not on my Scholar. Sure I throw out my dot's and some ruins as Scholar, and Aero and some Stones as Whitemage given the chance. But I prefer to have my full healing potential available at all times. It does depend on the group of course. Some level dungeons I can pretty much DPS as Scholar 90% of the time while Eos heals the lot. As Conjurer/Whitemage I tend to open up with Aero on the tank's target after he pulled. Then between heals I throw out a Stone. Aero enemy nr 2 if tank targets it etc. Some groups the tank has a tendency to take a truckload of damage, well that means I won't be DPSing outside the occasional Aero and I'm fulltime healing.

This works for me, and I never had any complaints about it. :)

Well, I can't say there aren't some parties out there that will attempt to vote-kick healers for not DPSing, as a general rule of thumb, you never have to DPS as a healer. Bottom line, your job is to heal and keep everyone alive, not to help do damage. That isn't to say that you shouldn't help DPS, but only once you become comfortable quickly switching between both, and become comfortable with stance-dancing.

You'll likely find yourself doing it just because "straight up healing" can be rather boring, and find that DPSing between tank damage gives you something else to do and is a fun dynamic that makes Healers have little-to-no downtime in a battle.

Your primary goal in a dungeon is to keep the party healthy, unimpeded, and just going ham on the mobs.

With that being said, there will always be opportunities to DPS in any dungeon. It just comes down to a matter of two things:
(1) How comfortable and familiar you, as the healer, are with the mechanics of the dungeon
(2) How competent the rest of your party is. If you're constantly mending people due to not dodging AoEs, not using cool downs, etc.; you're going to have very little opportunities to DPS on the side.

DPSing as a healer is a skill acquired as a healer gains more experience and comfort and should be flexed whenever possible as long as it doesn't impede the party's progress by allowing party members to die.

I'm levelling WHM to cap atm as it is my last 50, Since I have seen every dungeon hundreds of times before, I already know where the large or more dangerous pulls are so it is already immediately easier to heal when you know how much damage the tank is likely to take, which allows you to maximise DPS in cleric stance before switching back to heal. I generally start every pull in cleric stance (Tank has full hp at this point anyway) and stick Aero on all the enemies, if it is a large pull I will switch earlier and begin healing, most 3 enemy packs and a reasonable tank (better geared tanks will give you more time to cast Stone for extra dps, worse geared less time) Some dungeons have groups of 4 or adds roaming (or ones that hit VERY hard) so you should be prepared to heal quickly should their hp drop, if you have already been through all the dungeons before and can remember these things your job is instantly already much easier, if not then don't try and over DPS on a pull you aren't sure on or haven't seen before because it could be the one your tank dies on.

I always check the Tank's gear before the start of the dungeon, if they are wearing any Disciple of War equipment or even DRG/WAR/PLD equipment you can already assume their defence will be lesser than that of a properly geared tank for that level and will require additional healing (underleveled gear also contributes, accessories aren't a big issue during 1-49 and the dungeon appropriate green gear is the best, failing that a level synced high level tank will be very well geared too this all decides how much DPS you can expect to get out of a dungeon before having to take care of the tank, some tanks you will have to babysit the whole run) the tank's skill on maintaining enmity on all enemies will also decide on how you can approach the dungeon. It is little point DPSing the enemies if you are only going to tear the hate of a tank who doesn't use overpower and/or flash and everyone is running around chasing enemies. If you do accidentally pull hate DO NOT run around (except in the case of Cutters cry first boss where your job IS to run around with all the ants on you), run TOWARDS the tank and stand still, it is easiest and quickest for them to get it back off you that way and if the DPS are attacking it do not need to chase it down either, also in this case DO NOT use Fluid Aura (you can use it on some bosses where there is no pushback but I don't have any specifics on which ones so personally I don't really use it at all unless I am soloing) as there is nothing more annoying for a melee DPS or tank to have to chase the enemy you just sent flying away.

These are things I have picked up on levelling all the other jobs to 50 that I notice. People who have posted before me will provide better information on rotations and skill usage as they are likely full time WHM's as opposed to my measly level 45.

As a leveling conjurer still, there are some things you should prepare for that will be coming your way. For one, if you don't have arcanist to 15 yet fill that in as soon as possible so when you hit 30 you can get the white mage job.

Secondly, not too long from now you get to Brayflox's Longstop and this dungeon is just a good test of your capability to handle things going WRONG, because they usually do. This is often the first test of a tank's ability to be aware of positioning, and a dps check of sorts for dps pulling sub-optimal damage. Since this isn't your first class you probably remember it but going as a healer is a whole new perspective. Just be glad you aren't a scholar and have esuna (scholars don't get leeches till 40 so nearly all lvl synced content they cannot remove debuffs) and bring along some hi ether for the final fight. Try and keep to cure1 to get some freecure procs unless necessary, and don't bust medica unless pretty much everyone is in range.

As a reward for surviving that dungeon, soon after at lvl 35 you get regen. Regen is your BFF. You shouldn't have it precast though before the tank pulls since it will automatically get threat thrown at you before the tank can grab anything. Keep an eye on speedrunningish tanks that may run to the next pull before it falls off and plan accordingly. One level after regen you get stoneskin, which you can usually throw on the dps at the start and only need to refresh after bosses with aoe, unless they are derping and taking avoidable damage or pulling agro off the tank.

When you get shroud of saints be aware that this is not just your mana regen button (which you're probably in desperate desire of by hitting that level) but it ALSO reduces your threat by half the moment it casts (no refreshing threat lowering with the mp ticks unfortunately). I didn't really have to use this for threat dump a lot till Stone Vigil when tanks have issues with getting caster agro, or they are super squish and I had to bomb heals on them.

Don't be afraid to sue your cooldowns on trash! many times certain trash pulls can be more intense than actual bosses >.> Divine seal increases healing by a ton and it makes regen even MORE efficient. Presence of Mind gives you spellspeed so pop it (possibly also with divine seal) if the tank is just getting chunked very quickly, so you can push out cures faster. If you are in dire need of ressing someone and swiftcast is on cd, presence of mind speeds that up a fair bit too. Speaking of swiftcast, you certainly don't need to save it for a res, several times a swiftcasted cure2 has saved me from needing to res.

As for dpsing as a healer, it's really just 'nice bonus' until you get to about Dzemael Darkhold. This is typically the first place you will see a speedrunning tank, and if you are lvl 45 all the better. Why? Holy. Wait for the tank to finally STOP wherever they choose to (usually a crystal light), do some stabilizing heals and a regen after he has threat, then pop cleric stance and spam some holy. Watch your mp carefully though since holy costs a lot and you may need to drop out of cleric to heal.

Aurum Vale is evil. Prepare to yell at dps for standing in the gold stuff, prepare for someone to come take your morbol fruit that you are CLEARLY standing next to for your own use so you have to run out of range of healing the tank to get that other fruit on the other side of the room. Or for them to not clear stacks at all and promptly die. I honestly would recommend avoiding this place it usually isn't worth the headache unless you have your own premade that you can rely on.

Level 50 brings a new aoe heal to the table, and your "oh crap' button, Benediciton. Doing 8 man content will have you with a cohealer. WHM and SCH work well together, hots + shields = living party members <3 There may be times however where you find yourself near-solo healing while the scholar lets fairy assist you and goes dps some, don't fret. As someone already said, making a raise macro so that you don't both try to raise the same target can save mp and a swiftcast cd for one of you. You may consider macroing some text to other abilities as well, for this same reason. There is a lot more to healing at 50 of course, but let's get you there first ^_~

Macro for raises is good only when you make mention of who you're raising (in teams that contain at least 2 healers). Otherwise, it's faster to cast it manually and less inclined to "break", for various reasons (lag, players gets out of sight, and so on...)

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Originally Posted by cgbspender

Macro for raises is good only when you make mention of who you're raising (in teams that contain at least 2 healers). Otherwise, it's faster to cast it manually and less inclined to "break", for various reasons (lag, players gets out of sight, and so on...)

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Or a nice summoner that wanted to combat raise a dps. It could happen.....

Wow! So much great advice and tips. Really appreciate all your time and effort. I'll have no reason to suck at WHM now! :p

EDIT: had to split my replies due to forum character limits.

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Originally Posted by UOdhn

Here's a guide I wrote for a friend.

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Great guide and thank you. I'll take some time to read through it properly. I've already set up that raise macro though. Haven't has need to use it just yet, which I take to be a good thing!

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Originally Posted by Ghishlain

With that being said, there will always be opportunities to DPS in any dungeon. It just comes down to a matter of two things:
(1) How comfortable and familiar you, as the healer, are with the mechanics of the dungeon
(2) How competent the rest of your party is. If you're constantly mending people due to not dodging AoEs, not using cool downs, etc.; you're going to have very little opportunities to DPS on the side.

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This is starting to make much more sense tome. I spammed low level roulette (dungeons up to lv28). At first I just healed but then would start to throw in an aero in here and there. on the 2nd/3rd runs I started to DPS a little once I knew what to look for such as how much damage the tank is taking, are the DPS moving properly etc. I started to really enjoy swapping between healing and DPS, although I always erred on caution and made sure healing was my priority.

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Originally Posted by Firepower

I always check the Tank's gear before the start of the dungeon

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I never even thought about checking gear of other players..

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Originally Posted by Firepower

If you do accidentally pull hate DO NOT run around (except in the case of Cutters cry first boss where your job IS to run around with all the ants on you), run TOWARDS the tank and stand still, it is easiest and quickest for them to get it back off you that way and if the DPS are attacking it do not need to chase it down either, also in this case DO NOT use Fluid Aura.

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I learnt this one as DPS, good to know it is still the case with a healer.

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Originally Posted by LycorisSelunis

As a leveling conjurer still, there are some things you should prepare for that will be coming your way. For one, if you don't have arcanist to 15 yet fill that in as soon as possible so when you hit 30 you can get the white mage job.

Secondly, not too long from now you get to Brayflox's Longstop and this dungeon is just a good test of your capability to handle things going WRONG, because they usually do.

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I had my ACN at 14 just a few mins ago and my CNJ is at 29 with less then 5k exp needed for 30. I pre prepared for this one :)

Ah, Brayflox. I have heard many an interesting story about how it is the first real test for healers. Looking forward to it. lol

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Originally Posted by LycorisSelunis

Aurum Vale is evil. Prepare to yell at dps for standing in the gold stuff, prepare for someone to come take your morbol fruit that you are CLEARLY standing next to for your own use so you have to run out of range of healing the tank to get that other fruit on the other side of the room. Or for them to not clear stacks at all and promptly die. I honestly would recommend avoiding this place it usually isn't worth the headache unless you have your own premade that you can rely on.

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yeah, I think I may have been the fruit stealer the first time I did this. Was with FC so not as big a deal, but they let me know about it.

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Originally Posted by Viuiji

EDIT: had to split my replies due to forum character limits.

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You can actually make your post longer, you just need to edit your post to bypass the 1K character limit. It's really silly but, eh, gotta be done.

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Originally Posted by Viuiji

I never even thought about checking gear of other players..

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Once you play healer enough, you'll be able to tell an approximate gear level of a player just based on their HP total alone =D But yeah, having an idea of how geared a tank is will be a good indicator on how smooth or turbulent the run will be, ususally.

Toooooo be honest, he best times I had running Aurum Vale were as WHM and as PLD.
Probably PLD because I can choose where we go (we're farming everything, you got it? I wanna level) and WHM because of Regen. If I could I'd marry Regen. I like playing SCH more often but if someone needs me to heal AV, I go as WHM.

Regen is the perfect friend in Aurum, yeah... and assuming you have a normal gear (as opposed to undergear), regen will perfectly match the stacks of poison. (2 stacks against 1st boss, 3 stacks for third boss), and you'll minimize the damages a lot, and all you'll have to do will be to throw now and then a medica or a cure.

Best and worst stuff:

1) Because it's such a big whine point on THIS forum - You DO NOT have to DPS, no matter what anyone says. If they make a stink of it, you are better of leaving because they have no faith in their own DPS. Your job is Healing you, the tank and the DPS last.
1a) The worst healers are those who queue as healers just to get a faster queue, you will see this more typical of SCH, who then do little or no actual healing*, or let the fairy autopilot.
*If you get a SCH in a pre-level 30 dungeon, they don't have any SCH abilities to use. Just the fairy, so it's no different than ACN or SMN in those dungeons.
1b) The worst tanks will be those that don't turn on their tank stance immediately. Second only to those not wearing Tank gear in all left-hand slots.

2) If you do WHM and SCH, set up your healing skill bar the same (eg Esuna/Leeches, Cure/Physick, Medica/Succor, Cure II/Adloquium, Revive/Resurrect, Protect/Protect,Shroud of Saints/Aetherflow) to make use of "muscle memory" from one job in the other. Even though SCH skills are more about damage mitigation, and don't combo the same way.

3) Macro Swift-Revive/Resurrect on WHM, Swift-Resurrect on SCH.

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/micon "Raise"
/ac "Swiftcast" <me> <wait.1>
/ac "Raise" <t>
/ac "Raise" <2>
/ac "Raise" <3>
/ac "Raise" <4>
/ac "Raise" <5>
/ac "Raise" <6>
/ac "Raise" <7>
/ac "Raise" <8>

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I got that one off reddit. Mainly it avoids wasting the Revive if there are other targets in the party.

4) Macro Swiftcast-StoneSkin II on WHM

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/micon "Stoneskin II"
/ac "Swiftcast" <me> <wait.1>
/ac "Stoneskin II"

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Sometimes fails. Mainly because you have impatient speedpulling tanks, and anyone who dies in the first 60 seconds is just playing bad.

5) Macro Medica II into high power healing on WHM

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/micon "Medica II"
/ac "Presence of Mind" <me> <wait.1>
/ac "Divine Seal" <me> <wait.1>
/ac "Swiftcast" <me> <wait.1>
/ac "Medica II" <me> <wait.1>

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The only reason I have it set this way is it's just long enough to use before raid-wide damage (eg Ultima Weapon, Xande's Ancient Quaga, Cloud of Darkness)

6) Some dungeons are harder than others depending on what you play.
- Brayflox Longstop NM(Normal Mode) will tend to be a disaster if you have a new tank or new DPS. It's easier on WHM, but it will be the first instance of burning out your available MP, where as SCH will have to heal straight through the poison stacks.
- Cutter's Cry is harder to do on SCH since the only "regen" comes from the fairy, and it's possible to do without party healing, but you probably want party healing and leeches before attempting. WHM will already have Regen and Esuna.
- Aurum Vale... don't get me started. The very very first time I played this on DPS and got a SCH for a healer, and it took multiple tries because SCH is mostly shielding, not straight up healing. On WHM it's generally not a problem, but the bosses leave little room for error. This, like the final boss in Brayflox will test your MP management.

7) New Tanks ... and DPS tend to stand in AOE's. Not-new tanks will purposely stand in AOE's to be lazy, let them die once. If they overpull, let them die once. Your job is to heal, not compensate for laziness or incompetence. Which means...

8) Tanks and Healers want to be treated like princesses and it's better off to grin and bear stupidity from them than to create an argument that will just waste time. Don't take grief from DPS though. DPS players can be replaced, usually instantly. Tanks and Healers tend to vary from 90 seconds to 20 minutes to be replaced, depending on time of day.

9) The Healer often has to do more AOE dodging dances than the DPS. This has to do with Enmity tables, where the healer will tend to be the highest priority target any time the Tank isn't generating enmity.

10) Overhealing, Proactively casting Medica II, Regen, or doing Medica at inopportune times will tend to generate more enmity on you than the tank can deal with. The Healbombs are best saved for raid-wide damage, and not proactively used. This includes the Fairy on SCH (Whispering Dawn) which has the same effect as Medica II, minus the initial heal burst. Ideally you'd just stick to Cure I (WHM) or Psysick (SCH) until the healing target is below 50% to avoid overhealing. SCH is a bit harder, strategy-wise since Adloquium is not Cure II though it "fits" in the amount-of-HP-recovered slot if cast on the target before they are at 80%. The shielding effect apparently doesn't generate enmity (but YMMV.)

11) Field combat is awful as WHM and SCH(at least compared to SMN/ACN) since neither really do high power damage (SMN/ACN, the pet is supposed to contribute half the damage) or fast damage(Aero/Bio does work to tag single targets.) It's more awful trying to do FATE's since most DPS (eg BRD) can fire stuff, including their AOE's without delays. If you're doing the storyline and start as CNJ/WHM it will take a LOT longer than it will on a DPS-specific class. Typically many of the solo-DPS encounters will take twice as long, but you have the advantage of healing yourself, so the difficulty isn't quite as bad.

As a final note, you don't need to take anyones advise and can play whatever way you want to, but it's better to work together. Toxic people are bad people in general, so if someone starts trash talking you, ignore it, leave, but don't bother to engage them.

Please take any advice with a grain of salt.
Much you will read is biased by personal playerskill and bad/good experiences.

I applaud the effort Kisai has put into this reply, but some things, especially about the SCH play, low level dungeons and solo play may be true for him/her but they are nowhere near facts.

1. Let's practice full disclosure and mention that most of the "whine" regarding healer DPS comes from players who are either adamant about not improving their reactive and/or lazy playstyle or are refusing to consider and apply the tips and general information liberally provided to them.

2. Field DPS as WHM or as SCH is fine even at lower levels provided you use cleric stance. What time you lose by not having the output of a true DPS class you gain by being basically indefatigable. Then, at 45, WHM becomes a faceroll trash compactor with Holy.

I m afraid this is going the usual "do or do not dps". Sigh.

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Originally Posted by KisaiTenshi

1) Because it's such a big whine point on THIS forum - You DO NOT have to DPS, no matter what anyone says. If they make a stink of it, you are better of leaving because they have no faith in their own DPS. Your job is Healing you, the tank and the DPS last.
1a) The worst healers are those who queue as healers just to get a faster queue, you will see this more typical of SCH, who then do little or no actual healing*, or let the fairy autopilot.
*If you get a SCH in a pre-level 30 dungeon, they don't have any SCH abilities to use. Just the fairy, so it's no different than ACN or SMN in those dungeons.
1b) The worst tanks will be those that don't turn on their tank stance immediately. Second only to those not wearing Tank gear in all left-hand slots.

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I am going to expand on this point.

Healer's primary function is to heal - keeping the party healthy and capable of fighting. An average healer will do just this and only this. This tends to lead to high amounts of idle time in high gear situations.

An exceptional healer will find means of maximizing their GCD-usage and doing "something efficient" with all their GCDs. This can mean many things such as:
(1) Healing harder if the group is taking an exorbitant amount of damage
(2) DPSing to ensure mobs / bosses die faster thus decreasing actual dungeon time and also decreasing actually healing time needed

Kisa Kisa is notorious on these forums for being on the anti-DPS train as a healer. While I do agree that healer's aren't expected to DPS, I also believe healer's should understand the dynamics of the fight and contribute as efficiently and effectively as possible to a party without putting the party health at risk.

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Originally Posted by KisaiTenshi

7) New Tanks ... and DPS tend to stand in AOE's. Not-new tanks will purposely stand in AOE's to be lazy, let them die once. If they overpull, let them die once. Your job is to heal, not compensate for laziness or incompetence. Which means...

8) Tanks and Healers want to be treated like princesses and it's better off to grin and bear stupidity from them than to create an argument that will just waste time. Don't take grief from DPS though. DPS players can be replaced, usually instantly. Tanks and Healers tend to vary from 90 seconds to 20 minutes to be replaced, depending on time of day.

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Please don't let your tanks die. They might be a crap tank, but being openly hostile towards them is just going to breed more toxicity and just drive everyone nuts. I personally just consider it a challenge, as a good healer is an adaptable healer. Being able to handle any situation (whether it be a dungeon mechanic gone awry or just piss poor play) is the mark of a good healer. Being able to grin and bear the bullcrap associated with the drama just puts you on a morally higher ground as well.

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Originally Posted by KisaiTenshi

9) The Healer often has to do more AOE dodging dances than the DPS. This has to do with Enmity tables, where the healer will tend to be the highest priority target any time the Tank isn't generating enmity.

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Factually false. Healer's have more to deal with because they have to deal with mechanics of a fight while keeping their group healthy - a particularly difficult task for some fights. However, mechanics that specifically target healers or not are different from each fight. For example, Earthshakers in T13 only target the DPS or the OT - never the healer (unless quite a few people are dead).

Now, if the healer's have the dodge more often due to poor enmity control, that could be the fault of either the healer (spamming Cures too hard) or the tank (unable to snap aggro effectively), but this is an entirely different discussion. You will run into moments where a low geared tanked won't be able to hold hate on a high geared healer or DPS due to the gear disparity. In fact, OP, you might even see this already as you do main BLM.

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Originally Posted by Spoekes

Please take any advice with a grain of salt.
Much you will read is biased by personal playerskill and bad/good experiences.

I applaud the effort Kisai has put into this reply, but some things, especially about the SCH play, low level dungeons and solo play may be true for him/her but they are nowhere near facts.

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^ This

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Originally Posted by cgbspender

I m afraid this is going the usual "do or do not dps". Sigh.

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Yeah, while it's a discussion that happens frequently, it's important for a new healer to understand the pros and cons of both and know what steps they can do to improve. If it attracts the die hard "OMG NO DPS" crew, I'm willing to fight that front for the sake of helping a new player get better.

Call me a masochist at heart~

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Originally Posted by cgbspender

I m afraid this is going the usual "do or do not dps". Sigh.

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Ikr lel
But anyways try and practice in DF, imo the more u heal bad/ messy parties the more better of a healer u become. Because it'll force u to play 110% sometimes due to the fact tht sometimes tht dps or tank cannot dodge for their lives.

If u can heal a bad party then obviously u'll have a super easy time healing a good one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Spoekes

Please take any advice with a grain of salt.
Much you will read is biased by personal playerskill and bad/good experiences.

I applaud the effort Kisai has put into this reply, but some things, especially about the SCH play, low level dungeons and solo play may be true for him/her but they are nowhere near facts.

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Agreed.

Brayflox NM is fine as SCH. As learning to manage Aetherflow stacks soothes the so-called pain of not having leeches. Although it is true having a bad tank and/or DPS in that instance will be the most punishing for either healer job because big mob pulls or the last boss just won't die in an appropriate amount of time. I'd even say a SCH will have an easier time dealing with mistakes during the last boss just because of Aetherflow.

Cutters Cry is so easy with SCH that with appropriate fairy placement during each of the bosses you actually can dps more or spot heal.

AV, even without regen you still can elevate some of the boss pain again with appropriate fairy placement and using Eos cool downs appropriately.


Nonetheless I get a bit tired of hearing SCH bashing in low-level content when I can manage it just as fine as I do with WHM.

As it is true, that a healer who can support with some damage while keeping everyone alive is a big help in dungeons, a healer who understand that he is not capable of doing so is in some way better.

Healing imho is alot about experience and the right feeling for the situation. if i'm in a random dungeon (duty finder etc) i always wait for the 1st pulls to see what the tank is capable off, before i decide if i'm jumping in and spam my holy. And even if i got some experience, it happens once in a while, that i missread the situation and the tank just drop dead. So a dpsing healer can be a great help, but in special as a white mage it also means a decent risk.

i also suggest to have Cleric stance on a easy to reach shortcut, as it makes stance dancing a lot easier.

If you get to the holyspamming part, always try to launch your 1st holy via swiftcast. The incoming damage on the tank will stop as soos as the bang got off. And in addition, as you have to wait for the GCD to finish before you can start the next holy, the stuneffect will have ended before your 2nd holy explodes and will nearly instastun again. If you jast cast your holy the usual way, there will be 1 sec of stun remaining as the 2nd go boom and the stun will have no effect this time - wich means, the just the 3rd holy will stun again.

Using this you can get about 3-4 Holys out beforethe tank start taking full damage again.


BUT AGAIN: You are a healer, your job is keeping them alive. as long as you are not confident in dps'ing, or even it's just that you feel uncomfortable doing it -> leave it. There is not a single (non coil-)dungeon where it is mandatory for a healer to dps. it's just an extra to get the job done quicker.


If any group kicks you because they think it will take then to long if you dont, let them do so and hope that they will have to wait for half an hour for a replacement. or that the replacement also focuses on healing. or that the next one is just bad and they have to abort the dungeon ^.^

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Originally Posted by technole

Agreed.

Nonetheless I get a bit tired of hearing SCH bashing in low-level content when I can manage it just as fine as I do with WHM.

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Honestly I find low levels easier on SCH. Everything before 30 you are still a dps class. Eos can handle all the healing.

The "healers do or do not dps" debate is fun. I've always broken it down like this: healers are casters, and casters need to mind their ABCs.

Always
Be
Casting

Naturally you apply some sanity checks to this... if mana or time is tight, you hold off. But if you're just idle then you're slacking.

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Originally Posted by KisaiTenshi

The only reason I have it set this way is it's just long enough to use before raid-wide damage (eg Ultima Weapon, Xande's Ancient Quaga, Cloud of Darkness)

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Using surecast>medica II works a lot better than wasting presence of mind and swiftcast on the same rotation. You'll want to save PoM for stone II spam (mainly on the duties mentioned) or to cover massive damage with cure I/cure II rotation. There is no reason to make a slow cast faster and then make it instant, mainly when there is no real high damage output afterwards.

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Originally Posted by mp-please

Using surecast>medica II works a lot better than wasting presence of mind and swiftcast on the same rotation. You'll want to save PoM for stone II spam (mainly on the duties mentioned) or to cover massive damage with cure I/cure II rotation. There is no reason to make a slow cast faster and then make it instant, mainly when there is no real high damage output afterwards.

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Divine Seal is in that Macro too. I use it as part of a "pull everyones ass out of the fire" macro and surecast still requires surviving the cast time of Medica II. I can take PoM out of it but then Divine Seal's time is wasted when the next spells are Cure/CureII anyway. I don't exactly remember why I put it in the order I did, but It was probably with cutting the recast time.

For the macros - i noticed, that you can only have ONE "wait" running at a time - every new will overwhrite it running and you might not get the echo notifications. That means you should decide wich CD is the most important for you to be reminded off and only make a macro for this.

some other macros a can suggest if you are using mouse/keyboard, are mouseovers wich allowes you to cast on certain targets without switching the target.

its generaly looking like this:

/ac <mo> "skillname XY"

My favorite is embrace with the sch.

I can do dps while giving out my fairy the targets to heal or split the healing targets between me and my fairy (for recovering after AoE) it also works for healing player who are out of range or just in another party (CT1-3)

Other examples are:

virus - dont lose sight on your healing target while you debuff

Eye for an Eye or lustrate - keep doing DPS while saving your tank

Esuna/leeches - keep on the tank while cleansing nasty stuff

Personally my favorite macro type is

/ac "Cure II" <mo>

Casts cure II on whatever your mouse is hovering over. Only useful on the PC of course, but if you are using mouse and keyboard it is really useful.