Hello! Advice for a newbie healer and new friends?

I'm still on a free trial currently and I joined the Byrn server, because a friend of mine invited me to play with them on that server. I'm currently a healer and I can't say I'm decent at it, it's actually my first time doing healer class in general - but I think I'm doing ok.

What would be advice for a newbie healer? I think I'm doing alright so far, I haven't been getting any complaints (So far, inb4 I jinx myself). I plan on leveling the healer before I move on to other classes.

But is there anything I should keep a eye on, what to put the points into, etc? I hope this is the right forum, because I felt like it didn't quite fit into the healer forum.

I'm also looking for friends to play with! I mean I'm already in a Free Company but I wouldn't mind having more people to chat with and become friends with them :).

As a Conjurer and future White Mage, here are a few things:
-To unlock White Mage, you'll need to level Conjurer to 30 and Arcanist to 15. I would highly recommend you do this when you get Conjurer to 30 because White Mage will give you some great spells and abilities.
-At level 30, you'll get Cure II. Do NOT spam this, it will eat up your MP. Use it when someone in your party is at 50-60% HP or lower.
-At 50, you'll get Medica II. For this one, you want to use it once when the whole group gets hit then use Medica for any additional AoE healing, until Medica II's Heal-over-time effect wears off.
-At 38, you'll get Shroud of Saints. This will recover your MP. Use it when you're at 70-80% MP.
-I would highly recommend getting Thaumaturge to 26 so you can get Swiftcast, which will make one spell instant cast (great for using Raise)
-Once you feel acclimated to healing and think your party can survive for a little bit, you can turn Cleric Stance on and add some DPS (just be sure to turn Cleric Stance off when you need to heal).

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Originally Posted by Mimilu

-At level 30, you'll get Cure II. Do NOT spam this, it will eat up your MP. Use it when someone in your party is at 50-60% HP or lower.

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Just to add one more thing:
-There is an exception to the no spamming Cure II rule: at level 32 you'll get a trait called Freecure that will give you a 15% chance whenever you use Cure, your next Cure II will be cost free. It will show up as a 15 sec buff on you. Use it. It will help your MP.

Put your character points into Mind, cleric Stance flips the Mind and INT stats, so having high Mind will translate to High Intelligence when in Cleric Stance. This makes a nice difference in both healing (high mind) and attack (high int).

Consider leveling Arcanist and then Scholar, it's a healer role, but you get Arcanist leveled up by leveling Scholar, and in effect that levels Summoner for free.

I agree with Mimilu on Swiftcast.

Find a friend who plays a tank as their main roll as well, if you can. a healer/tank tandem can Q for anything and get an instant Q.

Practice just keeping the tank upright at first. As others have said, Cure will be your bread and butter, save Cure II for use in emergencies where the tank is taking heavy damage. However, once you're comfortable with healing, it may be a good idea to try DPSing as well. Generally, so long as the tank can survive the next 2 actions or so without healing (take into account how fast the tank is taking damage and his current health), you can DPS some. By contributing damage, you can make sure things die faster, and thus inflict less damage and make your main job easier. Plus it helps with the boredom between cures.

When DPSing, pop Cleric's Stance and put up your DoTs first (Aero and its higher tiers) before using your highest tier Stone spell to whittle them down. When dealing with larger groups you can also try using AoE spells, namely cross-classing Blizzard II at lower levels (More damage per cast than Stone with 3+ monsters, and more damage than Stone II at 4+ monsters) and later using Holy once unlocked (Highest damage spell outside of Stone III, which it surpasses with 2 monster. But chews through MP fast)

That said, never forget that healing the party takes precedence. Always err on the side of caution, preferably only doing so in cases where the tank is taking little damage (such as if you've placed regen and Eye for an Eye on them, or they pop defensive cooldowns) and the tank is nearly topped off.

Go on youtube and write ''White Mage rotation''.
And follow MTQ capture. She is the legend.

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Originally Posted by The_Greatest_Evil

Go on youtube and write ''White Mage rotation''.
And follow MTQ capture. She is the legend.

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Alternately, play the game, learn the skills and what they do so you can be prepared to alter what you do in response to changing circumstance on the battlefield - it's more fun this way in any case.

Following a set rotation doesn't work well as a white mage since you have to react/respond to what is happening.

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Originally Posted by The_Greatest_Evil

Go on youtube and write ''White Mage rotation''.
And follow MTQ capture. She is the legend.

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What rotation?
Other then DPSing, which is literally just placing Aeros and spamming Stone spells or Holy (and maybe throwing in a Fluid Aura IF the enemy is immune to pushbacks), healing is way more reaction-based.

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Originally Posted by Mimilu

What rotation?
Other then DPSing, which is literally just placing Aeros and spamming Stone spells or Holy (and maybe throwing in a Fluid Aura IF the enemy is immune to pushbacks), healing is way more reaction-based.

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I'm trying to help her before people start to complain that she doesn't watched the video on youtube and doesn't read the guide.
By the way I don't play as White Mage. But I'm certainly that MTQ capture did it well.

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Originally Posted by The_Greatest_Evil

I'm trying to help her before people start to complain that she doesn't watched the video on youtube and doesn't read the guide.
By the way I don't play as White Mage. But I'm certainly that MTQ capture did it well.

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MTQ only covers boss battles and their mechanics.
She doesn't cover how to actually play as a job.
Plus, if people are unwilling to help newbies learn mechanics, that's their issue... >w>

The thing with healers in general is that you cant just stick a guide and be like "THIS is the way you heal." Like yeah you can try but healing is all about being in the moment not having a set skill rotation lol.

On topic though, later on in rare cases when people stack up for an aoe hit, you can also use cure III instead of medica, as cure III affects those in range of where its casted, and isnt that bad of a skill if you use it right. Please dont spam it though thats what cure is for.

MTQ capture may well be very good, but I expect that push-back was because videos tend to be better for showing dungeon mechanics than they are for teaching job rotations. That's largely because mechanics tend to be relatively fixed for a given dungeon but vary a lot between different dungeons, whereas rotations tend to be either a simple matter of following a "Combo Action" chain (which you should know anyway just by reading the skill descriptions) or else are driven more by reacting to circumstances (which is hard to give in a video unless all those circumstances occur). In the case of WHM in particular, it's almost all reaction based. A good job skill guide should discuss which actions to prioritize over others and which type of situations each skill is most useful for, and that type of guide is more commonly (and effectively) written rather than videoed.

What constitutes a "good" rotation also varies according to whom you're grouped with. A lot of a WHM's skill has to do with being able to accurately assess how how much damage their tank (or other party members) can withstand and how much they're likely to take. If you're running with a tank friend you play with regularly, you'll have a head-start on this part. But if you're joining DF or PF groups with strangers, you have to be able to vary your healing and damage output to match a team you're unfamiliar with. A brand new inexperienced tank with minimal equipment is likely to need a lot more healing focus than an over-leveled over-geared tank with enough experience and skill to be making optimal use of all their defensive cooldowns. If you try to play the healer role the same way for both of them, then you'll probably be doing badly for at least one of those two runs.

Thanks for all the advice! I just managed to get to lvl 30 so I'll focus on Arcanist to get it to lvl 15 before I switch back to Conjurer.

In response to the videos, I haven't watched it and I'm not sure if I will either - I just wanted to get a bit of advice so I don't put the wrong points into the wrong things or have the wrong equipment. I'm learning as I go along, but I figured I would ask for advice so I have a better view on what I'm doing.

Thanks again! I have this thread bookmarked so I can look back on it.

Edit - Although, Arcanist wise - what should points be put into when the time comes to need to do that?

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Originally Posted by FebLalah

Arcanist wise - what should points be put into when the time comes to need to do that?

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Up until level 30, what you want is Intelligence. After that, it depends on which of its jobs you'll be focusing on, since that's the class that can extend to either of two different jobs, Scholar or Summoner. Scholar is a healer, so is best served by Mind. Summoner is a damage dealer who does better with Intelligence. If you're only planning on doing one of those two jobs, put all your Arcanist points into its primary stat. If you're planning on alternating somewhat evenly between both SCH and SMN, I'd start with a half and half split on attribute points. You can get an item from your Grand Company for a few GC seals to reset them if you change your mind and want a different focus later.

If you're only doing Arcanist for the sake of your White Mage job, and don't plan on advancing either Scholar or Summoner beyond that, its highest level cross-class skill that your WHM can use will be Eye for an Eye from ACN level 34. (So, up to level 15 is necessary, whereas up to level 34 is useful. Start with the 15. You can move on the rest of the way to 34 later.) In that case, put your ACN points into Int until 30, then unlock SCH and optionally reallocate them to Mnd for the next few levels.

You honestly don't have to look at videos for clearing dungeons in this game.
Not even for classes/jobs, unless you are a visual learner and you just aren't understanding or something.

I've never watched a video for informational purposes. (In fact it does nothing for me, I have to actually do the content). Everyone is different though, so if you are still having trouble, look into reading some guides, or asking someone to show you a few skils ingame.

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

Up until level 30, what you want is Intelligence. After that, it depends on which of its jobs you'll be focusing on, since that's the class that can extend to either of two different jobs, Scholar or Summoner. Scholar is a healer, so is best served by Mind. Summoner is a damage dealer who does better with Intelligence. If you're only planning on doing one of those two jobs, put all your Arcanist points into its primary stat. If you're planning on alternating somewhat evenly between both SCH and SMN, I'd start with a half and half split on attribute points. You can get an item from your Grand Company for a few GC seals to reset them if you change your mind and want a different focus later.

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Would you say it's a good idea to get Arcanist up to level 30 and switch to scholar? And what's a good way to level besides doing all the side quests? I know of levelquests, haven't tried guild quests as of yet but I plan on at some point and dungeoning.

Also, I started a new character on Behemoth, the same name, to practice things better and I finally hit lvl 40 as my white mage on Byrn :D.

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Originally Posted by FebLalah

Would you say it's a good idea to get Arcanist up to level 30 and switch to scholar? And what's a good way to level besides doing all the side quests? I know of levelquests, haven't tried guild quests as of yet but I plan on at some point and dungeoning.

Also, I started a new character on Behemoth, the same name, to practice things better and I finally hit lvl 40 as my white mage on Byrn :D.

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Switching depends on how you want to play as a healer: IF you want to have the strongest heals, White Mage might be a better choice. If you want to function more like an off-healer, adding DPS and placing shields before big attacks, then maybe Scholar.

As for leveling, dungeons and FATEs can help level as well.

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Originally Posted by Mimilu

Switching depends on how you want to play as a healer: IF you want to have the strongest heals, White Mage might be a better choice. If you want to function more like an off-healer, adding DPS and placing shields before big attacks, then maybe Scholar.

As for leveling, dungeons and FATEs can help level as well.

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Mm, alright. Thanks for the help!

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Originally Posted by FebLalah

Mm, alright. Thanks for the help!

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Once you get into Heavensward, there's also Astrologian, who can do either heal-over-time spells or shields and can throw buffs on party members.

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Originally Posted by FebLalah

Would you say it's a good idea to get Arcanist up to level 30 and switch to scholar?

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Since White Mage has Conjurer as its primary class and Arcanist as its secondary, whereas Scholar reverses those same two, with Arcanist as its primary class and Conjurer as its secondary, maximizing either of those includes meeting the unlock requirements for the other one. Plus, both of them have Thaumaturge as their tertiary class (the one that's not required for unlocking them, but you can still use cross-class skills from it).

So, to maximize either of the ARR healing jobs (White Mage or Summoner), you're going to end up at least dabbling in the other one as well. (You'll also want to take THM up to at least level 26 for its Swiftcast skill.)

The order in which you do things is a personal preference sort of question, but at some point, you're going to want to get all three DoM classes up to at least 26, CNJ and ACN up to 30 and unlock WHM and SCH, then continue WHM and SCH up to 34 (for Stoneskin from CNJ and Eye for an Eye from ACN). Past 34, continue whichever of those jobs you like better (or continue both of them if you like).