Raid Healer Dilemna

So, here’s the the deal.

I am currently at SCH/SMN Lv. 60 and WHM Lv. 56. I’ve been gearing up my SCH, and at ilvl 164 by sometime next week will likely be ready for Alex Normal provided I keep doing Ex Roulette every day. I’m excited, because I used to raid heal back in World of Warcraft. It was some of the most fun I ever had, and I’m looking forward to doing so again in FFXIV.

On the other hand, however, I’m finding myself on the horns of a dilemma.

Here’s the thing: The only reason SCH is at level cap is because I insisted on going through the HW MSQ as SMN. Which I’m sorely tempted to try raiding as, but I’ve learned DPS+dodging don’t mix well for me (and my first try at Ex Roulette as SMN ended with a member claiming I was ‘carried’ which was certainly discouraging). Keep this in mind, it’s going to be important.

For raiding, the eventual intention was to go in as WHM, but for various reasons, it’s taking *forever* for me to get it to level cap. The gear I’m getting as SCH is/was ultimately intended for WHM (thank god they share Law gear). But as I keep running dungeons and learning, SCH is growing on me. Being poised to get enough Eso tomes to buy a i120 weapon next week, it will soon be time for me to make a decision.

Now, I would be perfectly happy switching over to SCH permanently and healing as that, except for a huge hang-up: The perception that SCH is essentially a hybrid Healer/DPS. A SCH is under *huge* pressure to contribute DPS. Remember what I said a couple paragraphs ago about trouble dodging while DPSing is why I’m otherwise not going to raid as SMN?

I have latency issues, which I’ve somewhat fixed by using WTFast. But even with that, it turned from ‘Ahahaha yeah dodging Landslide isn’t going to happen’ to ‘Fighting chance but only if you move NOW.’ The ‘downtime’ while healing is often spent watching my feet and the focus target. In this, SCH is potentially a better fit than WHM. Slap Alodiquium or Succor before the attack happens, don’t have to worry for those precious few seconds I’m running for my life.

So here’s the dilemma: If I stick with SCH, I’ll likely be pressured to DPS, and will likely be considered incompetent when I inevitably fail. Even if I’m otherwise good at my actual job of helping to keep everyone alive. On the other hand, I don’t know *when* I’ll be able to level-cap WHM. Leveling it is giving me burn-out, a sharp contrast to the precipice of excitement I’m having with the soon-ready-to-raid SCH. But WHM is under much less pressure to DPS. At the least, the ‘DPS for a minute or two’ expectation for WHM feels more manageable than the ‘DPS and only sometimes heal’ expectation of SCH.

TL;DR The expectation healers have to DPS may potentially drive me away from the game for a while. :\

If you're talking about progression Savage raids, Scholars are 80% DPS, 20% heals.

1 thing tho, if you're unable to DPS+dodge, then can you heal+dodge?
Many mechanics in Savage Alex is a one-two punch combo where you have to handle mechanics AND the tank is taking massive damage at the same time.
Thus I would say if you're really keen on raiding, I would say work on your ability to DPS/heal +dodge/perform mechanic, rather than choosing a healer class based on your inability to do so.

SCH is the most orientated DPS Healer
Then WHM, then AST.
Though AST would not be the class for you (in my own opinion, feel free to try it) because the cards are a distraction.

Changing classes won't resolve any latency issues. You still need to be able to heal and dodge, pre-cast and dodge etc Savage is particularly faced paced on some fights so you need to be moving and healing on fights.

If you aren't interested in top tier progression then it won't matter. Alexander normal is easy and no one will criticize you if you don't DPS as a SCH.

That being said, it sounds like you're anxious raiding and fear not meeting expectations that may hinder your performance (taking risks DPSing on landslides when its perfectly okay to move then resume DPS/healing). This might be just to a lack of experience raiding or raiding in this particular mmo. Out of the three classes WHM gives you the most room for panic and wtf moments due to the strength of the heals and the healing utility.

Honestly, levelling WHM to 60 won't really take that much time if you run a couple of dungeons, do side quests and FATE farm for variety (you could cap this weekend if you had some time to set aside) so it is probably the best route..

If you're talking about savage raiding, both healers DPS throughout the fights. For normal Alexander, you can get away with not DPSing on any of the healers at all if you really want to.

How bad are those latency issues? I think the main reason for your anxiety is because of dodging problem due to latency. I used to experiment bad lag a bit later after the game launched and I understand how not knowing if you are going to dodge something or not can be stressful. I was a WHM at the time and while I don't get the bad lag I used to before, I learned to play with it and just go on about it when I do get lag. I don't get stressed anymore. It's just about feeling confident on the job you are playing.

So I would recommend playing the less demanding job between the two. Honestly, I always hated DPSing as a healer in dungeons because switching to/from clerics was always a risk specially with a tank I didn't know. I'm also part of those who think that I'm playing healer to heal, not DPS and that that's why I have DPS jobs leveled. :p Eventually I learned to tolerate it for progression and don't mind it so much now, mainly because I feel confident about playing healer (and I think Astro had something to do with it) and because I just want to get the content over with as fast as possible.

So first, I think you should try everything in your power to improve your latency, WTFast is a good choice to aleviate the problem, sometimes when I do get lag I use it, too and it improves it by a tiny percent but the change in lagspikes is obvious, so even though I think WTFast isn't as good as what it used to be before, it works for me. However, it seems your lag problem is more intense so idk if WTFast would be the best choice.

Second, I would recommend choosing the less demanding between the two of them, which in my opinion, would be WHM. Keep doing dungeons, practice in these dungeons, the 50-60 quests are good place to practice too, practice your dodging+healing in fates, with say your chocobo as a tank. I'd say start small first so you control your anxiety. You won't get nervous when you are solo. Dungeons get more tricky because now you interact with people who you are responsible for to keep alive, so if you got some available friends you can level up with, the more relaxed you'll feel. If this is not possible, I recommend only focusing on healing while you are doing dungeons first (no dpsing), then when you feel ok with this, start DPSing without cleric's on so as to not deviate your attention so much from switching stances. Then when you feel ok with this, you can start practicing with cleric's on. This is how I did it back then, starting to go farther and farther my comfort zone once I felt confident enough on each step. Maybe it can help you.

If however, you like SCH that much then it might be good to just start practicing with the job you like already instead of later. I said WHM is less demanding the way I saw it back then but lately there's been fights where the SCH is required to DPS more that the other healer kinda has more responsability as a main healer, to the point of solo healing, so this could be stressing, too, but it does give more room for error with the insta heal abilities and the healing potency.

Either way you'll have to learn to dodge+doing something anyways and since you are playing healer, might as well start on the healing+dodge aspect first before worrying about the DPS and on this issue, it really doesn't matter what job you choose.

I would say spend your eso on shared gear for SCH and WHM. Do your Alex once you there and get the healgear and bring the WHM in the pace YOU want. Once WHM hits 60 just try Alex nm Alex savage primals dungeons for 1-2 weeks on both then decide.
Don't use latency issues to decide important is which healstyle you prefer.
I have all 3 healers on 60 and main sch .... for alex and ex primals I randomly switch to the other two just because the change keeps me having fun. Also don't be shy trying your smn once more.
I kept my mains since 2.0 (SCH/WAR) and I toy around with the other classes enough to have all few weeks a new main DPS or Dungeon Healer or Tank ;)
Just don't loose motivation to keep trying and toying around :)

It takes about two weeks and bits to get the main hand weapon. If you really are not feeling for WHM now you can always get that one later when it's reasonable to expect to have your WHM on level to actually benefit from it. If you're going to get eso set anyway you can very well start gathering it from the shared pieces. It might not be the most optimal way by some standards but it's surely a valid way. I myself have had trouble to choose even if I'm fairly set on my WHM as main class so that's what I have done.

As for choosing the class, play what you feel like you like. If leveling some class feels too much of a chore, force leveling it can just make you feel bad towards it overall. If you're not aiming for the cutting edge server firsts savage raiding style, then your dedication and feeling to your class means more than min maxing the numbers.

I would stick with WHM. It doesn't take long to reach level 60. Just make sure you do the challenge log - dungeons, fates, guildhest rewards on this with the most recent dungeon according to your level and it won't take long.

a quick tip for leveling: do the HW hunting dailies, they give nice exp and dont take long

best will be you get both to 60 and try yourself which one you like better. take your time and find the right one for you ^^

IMO I would take all the above advice but in the end try to excel at both SCH/WHM for the sake of fitting into more raid compositions when you're trying to find raid groups later. Also so that you can keep both sch and whm perspectives in check as you progress through the fights. You should learn to develop a practiced hand at heal+dodge and dps+dodge eventually and it'll come easy to you get over your anxiety. Regarding latency I don't have much advice on as a console user. :P

I´ll be straight. Alex Savage is brutally challenging- even if you don´t have latency issues. Doesn´t matter whether you play as a Whm and focus mostly on "healing , managing your mp and dodging" or you play as a Sch and focus mostly on "dps+ dodging with some healing to top it off" - i played it with both sch and whm (main) on AS1+2 and either way there was little room for errors (Ex primals seem like a fun ride now).
If you want to do regular content including Alex normal - just buy the sch weapon and go.Tho i do think every healer should help as much as they can - it´s not mandatory to dps for normal content.So do it in your own pace - Tyla´s advice seems good if you´ve never dpsed as a healer before.
As for the summoner - get a decent weapon and look up some good rotations. Dont let other people spoil your fun - we all started somewhere. Atm the summoner is a great choice if you want to play dps. Just work on getting better and ignore the people who are toxic and unhelpful.

Pretty much what Moonfox said. If by "raid healing" you mean things like Crystal Tower or the coming Void Ark, and Alex Normal... not the end of the world if you lag a bit or struggle to multitask. Don't really need healer DPS at all for those.

Savage is an entirely different ballgame and if you can't act with swift precision in all things (including but not only stance dancing), you're not going to get far.

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Originally Posted by Alisa180

I have latency issues, which I’ve somewhat fixed by using WTFast.

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I definitely know where you're coming from. I was a WHM on PS3 *with* additional latency issues, and it made certain fights (Titan EX, Leviathan EX, T5, T9) incredibly painful. But I still cleared them all.

The best advice I could give you would, honestly, be to just stick with SCH. I've learned that the class you love to play is the one you'll be best at, and that you're more likely to find ways around issues. I initially started healing to speed up my queue times, not because I wanted to. But I fell in love with WHM and, by the end of 2.55, could solo-heal most raids, heal through dungeons with no tank, and eventually found ways to work around latency. I can't speak so much for Alexander Savage, but I learned that there were places I could stand where I was less likely to get hit by an attack that I didn't see, and that I could watch other party member's movements or try to remember the order/percentage in which attacks were executed so that I could move earlier than needed.

As far as DPSing goes, I don't think you'll have an issue with that, either. DPSing as a healer, especially with latency, is just something that's going to come with practice. I recommend going into earlier content that you've already cleared and practicing switching between healing and DPS there so that you can get a feel for it. I know that, with WHM, there were little gaps in which I can pull off an emergency heal while moving or cast an offensive spell really fast to help with DPS, then switch out of Cleric Stance. I'm not quite sure how it works with SCH and your pet, but I'm certain you can do it. It all comes with practices.

Best of luck! :)

Like Amiaze mentioned, I'd also recommend going with the class you enjoy most. Being comfortable healing with that class would at least ease the stress of keeping everyone alive and allowing you to focus on other things. Once you get your WHM up there, see which of the two you prefer more and go from there.

Don't let latency choose the class for you though! I'm quite far from my data centre and have a natural ~200-250+ ms delay, so I know how it feels when dodging unforgiving mechanics like landslides.. The best advice I could give you is to be mechanically prepared - since most of the mechanics have been scripted, they're predictable and will allow you to ready yourself for the upcoming mechanic you need to dodge, heal, etc. In TEX, I had to make up for my latency by knowing when plumes would spawn and sprint out of that immediately after the previous mechanic finished.
Focus on the mechanics of the raid first, then worry about dpsing later. Once you're comfortable with the mechanics of that particular raid/instance, you'll be able to worry less about mechanics and slowly contribute to dpsing in the raid.

Few others have already mentioned this, but you can get away without dpsing at all in normal content raids. That being said, this is a good place to also start practicing on both dpsing and healing once you're comfortable with healing part.