Healing a11s advice?

My group has been working towards clearing a11s for well over a month now. We tried again tonight for a clear before reset, but still no clear. Going into raiding, I felt confident in my healing ability. Now, I've been doubting myself completely, and I have begun to feel really depressed about it. Healing well was something I took great pride in... Even healing with a great main healer (whom I pick up some ast tricks from), I feel really crappy. I'm starting to wonder if I should even continue with raiding.

I'm reaching out to other healers who know a11s. Any tricks or tips for a scholar off healer? I need to learn, I need to know what I could be doing better T_T

First of all, can you explain why you are wiping all the time?

• Are DPS dying because they can't dodge AOEs?
• Is the damage too low and you can't finish/skip phases?
• Are you/your teammates not able to handle mechanics? (And if so, which ones?)
• Is the general healing not enough?
• Is the healing not on point (for example for photon)?

There are various reasons why you can wipe in A11s and it might not even be your fault, because if people keep collecting vuln stacks or dying, there is not much you can do, even as an awesome healer.

I'm healing it with Astro in our static (and have also healed it with a WHM who was healing it for the first time). For us the biggest problem in that fight was our DDs being sloppy with Optical Sights and collecting vulnerability stacks, thus easily dying to next Opticals or Whirlwinds if we weren't able to provide them with extra shields. Based on this experience, I think the first key to beating this fight is people being really careful with Opticals (and boss Swords), so that the healers won't have to cover for other people's mistakes. Then for the rare occasion someone (other than tank) messes up and gets a vulnerability stack, we've Stoneskinned and Adlo'd them for the upcoming Opticals / Whirlwinds.

Second important thing is skipping the first Shield. Having to go through that mechanic gives boss a damage buff which will make the rest of the fight harder. So at the end of the Lapis Lazuli phase (when they're all dead) and the beginning of next phase (with the burning floor), focus on burning the boss low enough to skip it (I think it has to be under 54%). As SCH, I Succor everyone before and after Eternal Darkness and before Optical Sight, but other than that I don't think I do any healing there, just focus on DPS. Our DDs also use some minor cooldowns (not Raging Strikes) here to push the shield.

Last phase is all about pushing DPS and protecting the towers as much as possible. We start by everyone stacking North on the boss and we use potions (us healers too!) and everything we got (DDs should have all cooldowns here) to push as much DPS as possible during the OT buster. We also have one tower we try to never hit no matter what.

These are the main points that helped our group beat the fight. What issues do you have in particular? Do you feel certain points in the fight that feel particularly tricky for you? Are you healing with an AST or WHM partner?

One particular SCH tip: if you manage to Crit Adlo and spread it during the 2nd shield, you can skip the DoT from the boss Charge.

In case this might help, here's a video of our first time clearing this with our full static group (we had cleared it once before this with a visiting off tank) from my SCH PoV: https://youtu.be/ESM50TjcOFU. It's far from perfect and I'm now working on more optimised DPS and fairy use and less overhealing. :)

Yeah good advice given so far, probably will help if you can tell us where you believe the majority wipes are coming from. I imagine it's the last phase (like I explained in the other thread)?

Protecting one tower at-all-costs is the safest strategy for a first clear. Sometimes it may get hit due to Shiva, or someone reacting on-the-fly. It's still okay to hit if you have to, just not abuse it. Just something to put in everyone's head. Don't hit the "C" one if you have to dodge stuff. The amount of raid DPS and tower health determines how much time you have left to kill Chaser until a soft enrage. So saving one tower with plenty of HP should allow the group to make it past whirlwind after the 2nd shield, and then the GA-100 soft enrage. After that whirlwind, it's a race to kill so pull out all the stops at that point.

In terms of healing, the last phase blaster circles/double Whirlwind/photon spam can be daunting. I Adlo Eos when we go out for the dps/tank hawk blaster circles, and do the Adlo spread as everyone comes back in so it covers the double whirlwind, and virus can help. Makes it easier on the other healer to not use more than 1 GCD of healing there. Then the photon is just perfect for Succor/Indom.

Just DPS as much as possible on SCH. Keep DoT and Shadowflare uptime. Broil and Energy Drain when possible. Bane for EDD.

Healing is light for SCH except for certain parts. You need to heal for Whirlwind, Optical Sight, Photon, Eternal Darkness, dash DoT, and Laser Sword X.

Players with 2 vulnerability stacks or more: RIP

General tips for all phases
- If you need to do high burst AoE healing: Indomitablity + Emergency Tactics->Succor + Swiftcast Succor
- If you need more AoE shielding, Succor and Sacred Soil. You can use Deployment Tactics instead of Succor if you will not need it soon.
- Optimize Virus uptime to mitigate the most AoE attacks.
- HoTs all the time. Regen. Medica II. Aspected Benefic. Aspected Helios. Whispering Dawn.
- After breaking Cruise Chaser's shield and he dashes at a party member: Use Lustrate on that party member. Adlo and Regen that party member. Keep an eye on that party member's HP as they have a DoT debuff.
- Have the WAR maintain Storm's Path to reduce damage (especially for tough healing phases) and be a team player. Eye->Path combo rotation.
- Always reposition your fairy somewhere close to main tank and off-tank, so you can heal less.

Lapis phase
- Succor party for Whirlwind
- Shadowflare one Lapis. Miasma + Bio all the Lapis. If you have lower raid DPS, Bio II might be good to use. Otherwise Broil the 3 Lapis that the tanks are not hitting.
- Adlo main-tank for Laser Sword X tank buster

Pyretic (floor burn) phase
- Photon #1: Targets off-tank. Finish casting Adlo before Photon finishes cast. Immediately Lustrate off-tank.
- Photon #2: Targets 4 DPS players. Use Deployment Tactics to shield the DPS players before Photon. Sacred Soil for the following Whirlwind and EDD add. When damage for Photon resolves, immediately use Indomitability and Emergency Tactics->Succor.
- Photon #3: Targets 1 random healer. Try to have an Adlo on each healer before. If you are targeted, do not move and let other healer heal you. Use Lustrate on other healer if she is targeted.

The Three Tower Phase
- Shiva optical + Whirlwind: You can Deployment Tactics this Optical Sight. Virus + Sacred Soil the Whirlwind.
- Photon + orange Laser bits + Whirlwind x2: Emergency Tactics-> Succor + Indomitability + Sacred Soil for 1st Whirlwind. Succor again for 2nd Whirlwind.

Last Phase
- Photons and Whirlwind: No floor burn so not scary anymore. Make sure players are topped off for Whirlwind (AoE HoTs).
- Laser X Sword: Virus and Adlo main-tank.

Depending upon your group's DPS, you can skip a lot of phases. If you have to overheal to save a run, do it.

I looked you up from Lodestone and I'm wondering if you're meeting the accuracy cap? With the gear you had on there it showed your accuracy as only 482 while the current cap is over 100 points higher.

People can survive 2 vuln stacks if their HP is decent and with an Adlo, or sometimes with Fey Covenant. I only use Selene in Phase 1 until after Limit Cut-Numbers nowadays. I wouldn't advise it during progression because of silly mistakes that can happen. I just make fun of my DPS for making me drop cleric.

Lapis phase, you should have some Eos cooldowns back up for this. Fey Illumination is perfect here, then Succor/WD will help the other healer stretch their HoTs more so they too can DPS more in that phase. Remember it's not just Scholar damage you are after, it's helping combined healer DPS.

You can always prepare Eos Embrace spam for the healer photon or even have her solo heal you if somehow the other healer isn't alive to heal it.

Thanks for the advice so far, but let me clarify some things.

In my team, we tend to have some oopsies and get hit by extra aoes, getting vuln stacks (at least lately). I am healing with an Astro main heals, and I feel like they have focused more on doing DPS, and I end up having to pick up their slack. My mp/aetherflow stacks suffer for it. I try to trust them, but the tanks end up dying because they ignore the healing (possibly thinking my fairy can do it?). It's extremely frustrating to me, because I feel like it has caused quite a few of our wipes. But, I healed with a healer sub lastnight who was really good, but things still went wrong.

Here's a little explaination of what I do during the fight (all of what I can remember off the top of my head):

As we are counting down to start an encounter, I usually try to get a a crit aldo on the MT so we can try to pump out more dps. Then when there's 3 seconds left on the count, I place my shadowflare, apply my dots and DPS. For the whole first phase I usually let the main healer practically solo heal (support from Eos) and help with first E.D.D. with dots, then I focus boss. I almost always get my succor up before whirlwinds, even if I think we may push past it (just in case), but there still are times where i space on the damage.

We don't push past Lapis, so I put up shields, SS the OT + Eye for an eye (because he takes it right where it spawns) and put up the defense/healing potency boost from Eos. Then, I leave it up to the main healer/Eos while the MCH and I focus a Lapis together. We are always able to get the lapis down before whirlwind and the last set of tethered orbs/lasers, so I succor and place sacred soil and start doing damage again.

We are then able to push past the first shield, so when OT gets targetted with photon, I place a shield on them. Since I always have Eos in the middle (slightly north to try and hit the MT), I focus on her to try and get a crit aldo and spread it + Eye on the dps for their photon then help with the second E.D.D. and put dots on boss. Then what my team has me do is I succor and don't move before healer photon. If the other healer gets targetted with it, I get them up with a single lustrate and succor (main healer topping themselves and everyone else off), and continue with doing damage/managing Eos.

In the last phase, it seems we have the most trouble. I always make sure to succor before the first two optical sights. I usually swift cast a succor before double whirlwind and just replace shields. We try to stack after the tank Laser X sword, and I put up shields for people. Then, right before photon-whirlwind-lasers, I try to set up crit aldo + eye on Eos, then spread it on everyone when we stack in mid. Sometimes RNGesus doesn't bless me with a crit, so I don't know if its even worth doing?

We Haven't dealt with the third E.D.D. much. How I handled it when we got the furthest (2.9%), I probably healed more than I should have. I tried helping with the healing, so my damage suffered (bad Kai!). The second shield, we had the tanks stand together, and then the rest of us stood in a spot where we weren't facing a pillar. Main heals used their bubble (I'm sorry I'm so bad with skill names), I spread crit aldo + eye on us and place sacred soild. We don't even get a bleed because of all the shields. Then I focused on damage again as well as the other healer. What wiped us was the last GA-100. We probably would have survived it, but it always ends up killing our remaining pillars.

I hope my explaining all that helps. I'm bad at the writing thing, as well as the whole "remembering skill names". Also, no my acc isn't maxed out yet. It probably would be had I not made myself proke trying to penta meld some things (among other things). But thanks to the sticker books, I can trade for some more materia (which I hope to do the next time I log in). I know for a week or two, my leader wanted us all to meld all of our accessories with +12 vit to see if it would help. I just haven't been able to replace them until recently.

I don't have any special macros for Eos either :x I've always done everything manually, I'm not sure if that's an issue.

It sounds like you do things very similar to my group.

Me on A11S - Old Video

For the DPS Photon getting a CRT Adlo is pretty overkill. You can have a DPS Mantra and your OT use Convo, then spread the adlo off them.

Try to use Indom for the DPS Photon as well as for the Laser Whirlwinds to help your co-healer top everyone. Being able to time your precasted heals is very important too because there is not very much time between Photons and Whirlwinds and Double Whirlwinds (and dodging lasers) so you need to use the time you have as best as you can.

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Tips
- Making sure your group has enough HP to handle getting stacks and not getting 1 shot by AOEs.
Mages/Healers 22k
Melee/BRD/MCH 24k (Ideally the BRD/MCH will have 28k lol -> More MDEF PLZ)
Tanks - not a big deal

- Getting that accuracy. If both healers are DPSing then both should be capped/as close to cap as possible. It is such a huge thing to have fight consistency and acc% is a large part of that. You will also find that you get a larger DPS increase on a healer than the % of accuracy you've gained.
(i.e. 70->90% accuracy would be larger than a 20% DPS gain simply because RNGesus will make sure all your strongest attacks are the ones that miss)

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Accuracy wise without repecing your Relic for Accuracy.

Remeld your Body - ACC5 X 2 and ACC4 X 3
Get a i250 Crafted Ring and Meld it with Accuracy - T5 + 4 T4 Accuracy. (can also use T3 acc for some melds if cost is an issue)

Those are two pieces you will keep even after A12S is cleared unless you get the Alex Body first drop.
It will also give you a ton of freedom on upgrading other pieces without a large loss in Accuracy.

Those two will give you 99 accuracy paired with Grilled Sweetfish (<-Cheap Food) will keep you comfortably capped for all the turns. (593 accuracy required for all of Creator Savage)

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Also, don't feel down on yourself. TBH a month in A11S isn't that long for most groups. It's also just one of those fights where there is a ton of burst healing and shielding required and if people have stacks they will drop like a rock with only the minimum amount of HP. (despite others thinking you can spread CRT Adlo, Sacred Soil and Virus every Whirlwind to save them)

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Originally Posted by Judge_Xero

For the DPS Photon getting a CRT Adlo is pretty overkill. You can have a DPS Mantra and your OT use Convo, then spread the adlo off them.

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Thanks For the advice! I guess I've tried doing the crit aldo since the floor is on fire. I've felt it gives the dps more time to do damage on E.D.D. Since my cohealer has focused more on doing damage, I've always felt it was needed, because people used to die a lot from not getting healed in time for whirlwind. Or they would survive whirlwind, but die because they were hitting the E.D.D./ moving for positionals. The crit aldo has cut the deaths there significantly. Although, with the healer sub we had lastnight didn't seem to need that help. So I guess it just depends on who I have healing with me.

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Originally Posted by LadyKairi

Thanks For the advice! I guess I've tried doing the crit aldo since the floor is on fire. I've felt it gives the dps more time to do damage on E.D.D. Since my cohealer has focused more on doing damage, I've always felt it was needed, because people used to die a lot from not getting healed in time for whirlwind. Or they would survive whirlwind, but die because they were hitting the E.D.D./ moving for positionals. The crit aldo has cut the deaths there significantly. Although, with the healer sub we had lastnight didn't seem to need that help. So I guess it just depends on who I have healing with me.

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You will definitely need to plan things out with your Astro. Having the SCH solo heal after Photon is not very efficient because they have pretty limited burst AOE healing (Emergency + Succor + Indom). Relying on an Adlo spam hoping for a crit because your AST doesn't want to precast a Helios is terrible and is time that you could be DPSing not to mention Adlo is very MP expensive.

I'm not really sure what order my AST does their heals, but I'm sure it's probably Aspected Helios precasted to go off as Photon Hits followed by a Helios. That combined with your Indom and maybe Sacred Soil (depending on how many stacks your group has accumulated) should be plenty to keep everyone healthy. If your Adlo typically falls off before Whirlwind then you can also Succor after Photon goes off for that extra bit of redundancy.

If you are getting to the last phase GA-100 after the shield you are making the soft enrage. So if there were no deaths, then it's mostly DPS optimization at this point. Like literally after that final whirlwind, people should be getting damage potions out for their DoTs, swiftcast your shadowflare. Plan on who on the DPS is going to hit LB. Do whatever it takes to push. The OT shouldn't even bother running away with the GA if its that close, they should go-ham as most won't ever survive it because of the tower damage remaining.

Of course the fight gets easier once the raid has access to those gobdip 270 weapon upgrades, since the margins for error become significantly less. So it's worth throwing everything including the kitchen sink at clearing.

I wouldn't worry about trying to bait out a Crit Adlo for any of the spreads, the shield is there to cover that GCD so they don't have to stop doing damage. Then immediately Indom once they fall to 1. The AST should be timing their Helios at that moment too and that should top them off for the whirlwind. Sometimes I throw down the Soil too depending on stacks.

ACC is the most importance for any savage healer, and missing things like Energy Drain is the worst. Like any 270 right sides should absolutely be ACC V or VIT V (if capped by other means, like if you have anima ACC to cap can just use VIT melds). Left side mostly if not-all ACC V. So it'll come down to a pentameld right side to cap along with food. Ideally for SCH the best one to use is the crafted choker because it's the best stat weight trade-off, but many use the ring.

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Originally Posted by lulunami

- Photon #1: Targets off-tank. Finish casting Adlo before Photon finishes cast. Immediately Lustrate off-tank.

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If paired with a whitemage: Benediction is a good choice for this mechanic. Saves an aetherflow stack for something else.

Preshielding photons during pyretic is still mandatory. The photon targets will still drop to 1 HP. But the shields migitate some ticks of the pyretic damage. By this, the others don't have to stop and wait for healing.

BTW: The GA-100 in the last phase can be bypassed (just for the case towers are missíng). The target has to jump down at the right moment and it will deal no damage ;)

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Originally Posted by KarstenS

If paired with a whitemage: Benediction is a good choice for this mechanic. Saves an aetherflow stack for something else.

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When my AST goes WHM, we would save Bene for the Laser X Sword that our DRK uses Living Dead for before the DPS photon, since that can be solo'd with an immunity. I still think a Lustrate/force embrace is best use since skipping the first shield is common once DPS gets higher.

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Originally Posted by KarstenS

BTW: The GA-100 in the last phase can be bypassed (just for the case towers are missíng). The target has to jump down at the right moment and it will deal no damage ;)

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Is it just that one GA that it works for? Or does it work for the one before that too? My group has been trying to do that, but I don't think it's getting timed right because it ended up targeting our MCH last second and slaughtering us xD Then again, it seems the boss has some beef with our MCH :p

In all seriousness, my group isn't gathering tonight to try and relieve some stress, but I've changed out some melds. I'm redoing the melds on my chest too. So far I'm at 530 acc (without food), and I'm working at getting IV's to try and finish pentameld oh my gosh my headpiece and put some on my chest.

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Originally Posted by LadyKairi

and finish pentameld oh my gosh my headpiece and put some on my chest.

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Ugh, autocorrect on iPhone sucks. I meant "and finish pentamelding my headpiece"

*facepalm*

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Originally Posted by Judge_Xero

It sounds like you do things very similar to my group.

Me on A11S - Old Video

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Gj on the kill, but when I see that I wonder if SE designes the fight for 2 or 1 healer? You effectively DPSed for 95% of the duration of the encounter. With the future release of the Redmage, assuming he could bring some healing utility, will it make group bring 1 heal 1 rdmg instead of 2heals? I mean.... if the second healer is useful once every 40sec for 1 aoe heal...

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Originally Posted by technole

we would save Bene for the Laser X Sword that our DRK uses Living Dead for before the DPS photon.

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Hallowed Ground FTW :P

Saves Bene^^

We use it for the LaserX in the Lapis phase (Summoner DOTs and MT are enough for one Lapis, so the OT can go with the DDs) and in earlier days for a LaserX in the last phase a second time.

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Originally Posted by LadyKairi

Is it just that one GA that it works for? Or does it work for the one before that too?

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No. But at this point you don't "need" an offtank anylonger and having not all towers alive is a 100% wipe. So sacrifiring the OT is the onliest way to get some more seconds uptime at all.

We got this just one time to work and this try was a wipe anyway. At our first kill and later kills, we didn't got to that GA-100. This should be the focus of your group and the group needs to get even better for A12S, as there are some tighter DPS checks.

Considering warrior is practically another dps, if you are already that far behind it doesn't make any sense to sac. Just man-mode those last few seconds if it comes down to it.

In speed runs because lots of mechanic skipping, the first GA-100 in the last phase is actually mitigated by AST+SCH skills keeping the warrior on Cruiser, and helps LB build up.

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Originally Posted by KarstenS

Hallowed Ground FTW :P

Saves Bene^^

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I forget what Hallowed Ground is, PLD this tier is rather scarce.

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Originally Posted by Sylvain

Gj on the kill, but when I see that I wonder if SE designes the fight for 2 or 1 healer? You effectively DPSed for 95% of the duration of the encounter. With the future release of the Redmage, assuming he could bring some healing utility, will it make group bring 1 heal 1 rdmg instead of 2heals? I mean.... if the second healer is useful once every 40sec for 1 aoe heal...

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I'm not sure what you mean. My Fairy was healing 100% of that fight. My group runs 2 Healer, 5 DPS and 2 Tanks.

Not to de-rail OP's thread, but I hope that the next Raid Tier is a little harder. I can see that SE made this one fairly easy to allow people headroom to actually improve on their classes. (ample space for both healers to Clerics practice and extremely low tank damage to allow for Tank DPS stance practice)

Because of Healer Utility I'm sure there will always be a need for two healers in Raid. I also doubt that RDM will have any Healing White magic.

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@ Kairi Knight'

Really looking forward to find out when you get your clear. Also if you happen to keep Logs of your fights it does make it easier to analyze where any major issues are that are preventing a clear.

Hi Kairi,

It took our group a staggeringly ridiculous two and a quarter months to clear, for various reasons (holiday schedule issues, replacing members, just plain coming up short at enrage for a month or so) but my advice to you and your group is to stick with it!! It's one of the most difficult fights in the game right now. Make sure everyone concentrates on nailing the mechanics. Look at where the boss percentages are at the end of every phase. Discuss as a group where to make up the differences. We had to replace our support twice, but finally cleared and victory is sweet!

It's a major heal check for the main healer, but your off healer must know when to drop CS and help with group heals and shields or you won't be successful. Seriously though, I thought our main healer was going to blow a vein over the past month. It's incredibly stressful on the main healer most of all. But everyone has to do their job, not mess up mechanics, and if possible zero deaths. Maaaaybe one.

Raiding without progress can really be hard sometimes, and can take a toll. Trust me, you're not the only one who feels this way and starts to doubt themselves!! But the fight is about the group as a whole. If your DPS are sloppy and collecting Vul Up stacks like they're rare pokemon, then that's nothing on you.

A couple of suggestions:
1. Get up to the Accuracy cap ASAP. ~100 points under the cap means that a lot of your dps is probably missing. You could be pushing phases or ending them early if this wasn't the case. Having a spell miss is a waste of a GCD and MP. Having all your spells and dots and broils and ED's hit is probably that 2-3% that you need to clear, or more. Accuracy V's in all open gear spots and food to cap. If you have the relic, putting full accuracy points into this can really help and allow you to start dropping in some crit materia as well. Looking at your current gear/melds, you're sacrificing way too much Accuracy for minuscule gains in Spell Speed and Vit. Vit melds aren't really needed in 260/270 gear, they were great in crafted 250 gear, but overkill now, IMHO. Not having the accuracy to meet the cap is a waste and a massive DPS loss.

2. Try to understand your % of over-healing. There are tools to assist with this. Look at where you and your co-healers efforts are overkill and where it is falling short. You'll understand better when you need to step things up and when you need to back things off. It's hard to see sometimes in the heat of the fight, so if you have the ability to record a video of a fight, or see the logs, it can really help you see things in a different perspective.

3. Communicate with your co-healer & trust them. Talk to them and let them know at what points you're feeling over-stretched or feel like they are dpsing too much. Learning to trust them and trust in the HoT's can be a hard transition sometimes, but there's plenty of times when there isn't damage coming out for a good while and regen can tick people back up or the fairy can take care of them.

4. Communicate with your group. Don't get in the habit of babysitting people who need to focus on dodging and doing mechanics correctly. This doesn't help you or the group. Have an open discussion about what's causing the problems. Sure everyone messes up now and then, but if you're seeing consistently the same people with the same debuffs in the same spots, then that's a problem that needs to be addressed. Practice runs outside the instance can help people from panicking when you get to a phase you're unfamiliar with. That way you can also plan out what skills you are going to use at what time.

5. Watch other groups. Scour YouTube for POV Scholar clears and see what they're doing and at what points during the fight and how it's different from your fights.

It's obvious that you really care about the group and helping everyone get the clear, but unless people are dropping to unavoidable damage, it really doesn't sound like a healing issue.

VIT melds have the best value when capped on ACC, especially when you are progressing in A11S-A12S and don't have a fight on farm. Anyone still on A11S surely does not have full 270 left side yet. Look ahead at A12S as well.

To this day I still thank having some VIT melds back in our first A12S clear. Not all damage is planned, crap happens with missed puddles, and next thing you know you have to heal with things like a healing down stack in the last phase in that fight. All it takes is one save opportunity and you made out like a bandit with those melds. A measly Crit V isn't going to do anything when you are dead on the floor and couldn't be alive long enough to save the raid.

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Originally Posted by bounddreamer

It's a major heal check for the main healer, but your off healer must know when to drop CS and help with group heals and shields or you won't be successful. Seriously though, I thought our main healer was going to blow a vein over the past month. It's incredibly stressful on the main healer most of all. But everyone has to do their job, not mess up mechanics, and if possible zero deaths. Maaaaybe one.

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Well it's more of a check of how well a healer duo performs, it's not a sit in cleric all-fight. Like it's pretty crappy if you have a SCH that doesn't Adlo Spread the DPS photon, and help immediately to top off for the upcoming whirlwind. Otherwise that job alone is holding up DPS on EDD and potentially killing them. Fancy mitigation in the right places helps so much. Especially, when you are not skipping Limit Cuts, which adds a damage stack to Cruiser.

Vit melds can give you healer privilege. Having a healer die during stressful parts of a fight can be devastating. Like technole said, not all damage is planned. No one plans on the tank spinning the boss around and suddenly hitting the healers with a laser sword, but in the heat of battle things happen. Vit melds give you surviveability, imo that's worth a lot more then the extra crit v.

Let me be perfectly clear about my Vit statement.

IIRC from looking at the OP's gear on the Lodestone, they have about 4-5 Vit melds on their left side. Instead of full accuracy melds, they have Spell Speed and Crit in many other spaces. They are currently about 100 spots under the accuracy cap.

They are prioritizing HP over damage, on a boss where they are consistently getting to the last phase. The OP's group had A11S down to about 2-3% IIRC. Which could have easily been made up from having full healer accuracy in order to not waste damage from missed attacks.

IMHO Accuracy > Vit to survive > Crit > anything else.

Having a few extra Vit in early progression, valuable.
Having a few extra Vit in 260/270 gear, less valuable if that comes at the cost of you consistently missing attacks.

We're not talking about pushing A12S clears at minimum iLvl. The problems the OP seems to be facing is not from the party still understanding mechanics or random cleaves to the face. If you are not finding that you need the extra Vit to survive, it's a wasted stat at a time that you can be maxmizing your DPS. You can have the whole group up at the final phase in A11S and it won't mean a thing if you can't beat the DPS checks.

The SS you see is most likely my AST. On my SCH, most of my gear is melded in acc now. My crafted boots need to be remelded with higher materia, then the lower tier as over melds. Only my rings don't have acc, and instead have vit on them.

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Originally Posted by RubyScarlett

Many very good points

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Additionally to point 4: Be open to different solutions.

Not every solution fits to every group and playstyle. If something seems to be hard to manage, then try it a different way if available and find the one, you as a group are comfortable with.

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Originally Posted by RubyScarlett

IIRC from looking at the OP's gear on the Lodestone, they have about 4-5 Vit melds on their left side. Instead of full accuracy melds, they have Spell Speed and Crit in many other spaces. They are currently about 100 spots under the accuracy cap.

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You can only meld VIT on right sides in non-forbidden slots. So it's perfectly fine to have some right side VIT V and still cap with full left ACC, food, overmelds, etc.

As Chii mentioned, Healer Privileges. VIT is never a wasted stat after capping ACC.

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Originally Posted by LadyKairi

The SS you see is most likely my AST. On my SCH, most of my gear is melded in acc now. My crafted boots need to be remelded with higher materia, then the lower tier as over melds. Only my rings don't have acc, and instead have vit on them.

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Sounds good! Yeah, I too swap some gear on AST vs SCH because of some stats.

I disagree, vit melds were more important when the content was just out, and the early groups were hitting these turns at i250-260, as they only had one or two i270 pieces each. Assuming you are >i260, vit is a bit of a waste imo. as long as the mechs are done correctly and shields when needed, you'll be fine.

I would agree that getting that acc cap is top priority tho

Definitely in the same boat as Thea, I still find VIT pretty important as well.

I'm i263 with the i255 Weapon, and all i270 Body Pieces other than the Body which is the crafted i250. I still have three VIT5 Melds on my accessories and I still use Food for accuracy and VIT.
Even still there are cases where something happens and I just scrape by with 1-2k HP. (Currently @ 22,800 HP with Food/Party)

I mean, as long as people are meeting the HP values I posted earlier I wouldn't go overboard on VIT melds. But if people don't meet that minimum value then it's highly recommended especially for when A12S Progression starts.

It comes down to, as someone said previously, finding what works for your group

@xero Those aren't minimum hp values tho. They might provide a bit of a safety net, but you don't absolutely need those hp values to survive any mechs even in a12

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Originally Posted by randysquirrel

It comes down to, as someone said previously, finding what works for your group

@xero Those aren't minimum hp values tho. They might provide a bit of a safety net, but you don't absolutely need those hp values to survive any mechs even in a12

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Oh for sure you can definitely do without that much HP, I guess how I worded it it comes across that way. How I meant it, is to have at least that much HP for progression.

Definitely when things are on Farm, people have better gear with high DEF/MDEF etc then it's time to stream line stats and drop excess VIT.

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Originally Posted by Judge_Xero

Oh for sure you can definitely do without that much HP, I guess how I worded it it comes across that way. How I meant it, is to have at least that much HP for progression.

Definitely when things are on Farm, people have better gear with high DEF/MDEF etc then it's time to stream line stats and drop excess VIT.

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Agreed, and I call this "progression HP".

Here is how I put it. You are not always fighting the boss, you have seven other raid members that may do things that make you take more damage than you probably should. I became a believer back in Final Coil Turn 13 progression days, when someone flubbed a megaflare stack after divebombs, I lived with just 50 HP. I had two crafted right sides with VIT.

In A12S, did someone miss a heat stack? Maybe you did everything by the book with mitigation, but that one person was late but you still lived. Did someone mess up the bait in the last phase of Cruise Chaser? You may have gotten to the edge, but someone was late to the tank stack. Oh thats okay, that damage stack won't kill me for the next set of mechanics due to higher HP, without having the ilvl.

Vitality can allow you to see more of a fight during progression, and as a tank or healer where the difference of one GCD is a raid wipe or a save, that is the most valuable stat once you cap ACC. Anyway I've hit the stick on this subject long enough, it's backed up by several other posters whom have cleared savage tiers.

That's why I said, you have to find what works for your group. There is not one universal answer, though you're previous posts seemed to imply VIT melds were mandatory, when they aren't.

Our group considered VIT melds, but decided we'd rather try the fight first and see if there were any mechs we just couldn't survive, even when handled correctly. There weren't.

WE WON!!!!! WE FINALLY BEAT IT!!!! AND ON OUR FIRST ATTEMPT!!!

We were supposed to raid Tuesday night, but our leader decided to take that day off. Tonight we got through all our weekly clears, and to our surprise get through a very clean 11 clear! I'm so unbelievably happy right now!

The main healer focused on healing, I've been getting my acc up... Thank you guys for your advice! I appreciate all of it. I couldn't be happier right now T^T

A12 is brutal ^^;;

Congratulations! :D

Grats that's so awesome!!!

Also gj carrying your DPS ;p

Awesome sauce! gg! :D

Have fun with A12S, it's a more fun fight to progress as a healer <3

Congrats!!