First time healing (AST) - what should I know?

So this will be my very first time healing - not just in this game, but any MMO. I get that I should probably juggle what little damage I can do with mostly focusing on healing -- I'm still learning what each of the cards do, but what else should I know?

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Originally Posted by Stormfur

So this will be my very first time healing - not just in this game, but any MMO. I get that I should probably juggle what little damage I can do with mostly focusing on healing -- I'm still learning what each of the cards do, but what else should I know?

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While we could write pages and pages of healing tips... Honestly, I think the best thing for you right now is just to get out there and heal. You'll learn the most from pragmatic experience. If you'll be DPSing, don't tunnel vision, maybe consider moving the party frame closer to the center of the screen.

For AST, when I was learning it, I found it helpful to have a reference of what card does what (both in terms of buff and royal road) up on another screen, until I had them all memorized just from using them.

agree @ River

though, i may give you a Tipp or two. AST is my first healer here aswell, though i have been healing in other MMOs so ... let's go

1)
read the tooltips. Look which heal does what, and how strong. Try it out a little bit. Also, read carefully what several Cooldowns (CD) do. Like... Lightaether or something.

2)
just focus on healing. Yeah, one should also DPS a little, but, you should learn and take it slow. Tell the other Mates you are new if they complain, and that you want to learn to heal. When you feel safe, Add DPSing.
When you start DPSing, you will probably cause a Wipe here or there. This is part of the learning Process and needs to be done. Don't give up at any Time, if you have Fun with the Healer-Part.

3)
don't Panic and smash all buttons because the Tank looses a little bit of his Health. Keep observing. If there are 30 seconds gone and he is at 50%, the other 1/2 Healthbar won't probably disappear by some Wizardry. (though, there might be Tankbusters but ... not on lowlevel) just keep cool and begin to heal.
Don't just smash your Big Heal always, when the Tank loses a tiny bit of LP... you won't make it long then. You need to know your Mana

4)
you need to get a ... feeling. When is which heal needed? Is this Spell really the right thing to cast right now?
this ... feeling will come in Time. Best is, just go as much as you can in Dungeons and play with friends. I also say, go random. You will find Tanks that are horrible in their job. So you can learn what that means. :)

all those Tipps are... a bit squishy. That's because healing doesn't have a certain Style like a Rotation. You need to evaluate the Situation and than answer with your Spells to it. This is mostly the big trick.

oh and ... draw your Cards. ^^ as an Astro, you need to learn which card is for what and what Royal Road does. But this will come when you use it frequently.

Thank you very much! I've only hit level 31, so I don't have Royal Road yet but it's very much a juggling act so far between trying to keep everyone healed and doing a little bit of dps. Copperbell was my first dungeon last night - I make sure to let everyone know I'm very new at this. If they don't like it, they'll soon find out they should slow down :)

And yeah, you really learn (and respect) good tanks after taking on healing. I'd encourage healers to level a tank job as well to see the other side. I have a whole new appreciation for using my tank cooldowns now.

Apart from Luminous Aether, is there anything else I can do to reduce aggro? It seems like whenever I heal, it draws monsters to me.

One more quick tip I can think of:
Check if your tank is level synced and in sync'd gear. If you happen to get a true newbie tank that maybe doesn't have the greatest gear, stuff in some of the leveling dungeons can hit a lot harder than you might suspect. Brayflox's and Dzemael, for example, really punish tanks (and actually healers too) for being behind on gear.

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Originally Posted by Stormfur

Apart from Luminous Aether, is there anything else I can do to reduce aggro? It seems like whenever I heal, it draws monsters to me.

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Your stances reduce aggro as well, so don't forget to put Diurnal up (and level syncing removes stances generally, so watch for that). Try not to overheal. Time your HoTs (i.e. aspected benefic) so that it falls off the tank before the next pull.

Of course, at some point the tank needs to established aggro. If they're not hitting some mobs in the pack then... as soon as you heal, they'll go for you. This can be a problem in FATEs too, by the way-- Not that they're very popular right now but for future reference.

I have one of those annoying "Hey stuff's hitting me tank pls take aggro" sound macros for those kind of situations xD

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Originally Posted by Stormfur

And yeah, you really learn (and respect) good tanks after taking on healing. I'd encourage healers to level a tank job as well to see the other side. I have a whole new appreciation for using my tank cooldowns now.

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oh yes. Tanking means, you learn a lot useful stuff for playing healer too. That's a good Thing to do.
I think it's good, to call out that you are new, but also, watch out that it is not ... "to easy" ... it's like going to the fitness centre. If you never change your training and never make it harder, you can't improve.
One Day, you will say "now Tank, pull some Grps together i want to heal my Ass off" ^^ but... one after another

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Originally Posted by Stormfur

Apart from Luminous Aether, is there anything else I can do to reduce aggro? It seems like whenever I heal, it draws monsters to me.

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as said, stances. But asides from that... no not really and honestly, a Tank should NEVER have Problems with Healer-Aggro.

yet, there are certain situations:
when you HoT the Tank BEFORE he pulls, then, the first HoT-Tick can arrive before he can Overpower or something, making the Mobs instantly switch to you. So... better not do that. Let him pull, let him do something, ... then you begin your heals.

IF you are having Aggro...
RUN
TO
THE
TANK
....
this is something ... even experienced or at leas really well equipped Healer sometimes don't get. (not just healers, also DPS have this Problem)
you are basically running away from the only Thing that can help you.
Best Guys are those, who even activate Sprint. If you do that, you deserve to die an awful Death ^^

srsly i see this a lot when i Tank and i don't get why.

As an AST learn how your cards work as far as how extended road works. Depending on the card it will have different effects from aoe effect, to extended time and so on.

Know what you can handle; if tank over pulls, feel free to speak up. Ask for tips and advice.

Don't depend on cleric stance too much.

Know when to switch between them, your first priority should always be healing, dps when to slow or seems appropriate.

Go well geared, max your key trait and focus is possible on spell speed. Use materia, I take spell speed first and then ability speed if my gear slot can't take any more spell speed.

Make sure you have your cross overs traits active. Fast cast is a must.

Bring a supply of echo , and back up MP replenishment. Good for tight situations and CD's.

Use food, specially in mayor battles.

Last tank a few times, so you can see a different perspective. If you have you pretty much will have an idea what a tank needs.
Hope these helps and have fun.

after learning the cards... there is one point which really make the difference on the way to become a good AST: the knowledge and instinct to use the right stance.

It's more than choosing between "Reg or Shield", most of the random ASTs i met just don't care about being flexibel with stances at all... a few days ago had an experience most of the comm would never confirm with... i (ast) was thrown into a really novice-like grp on a12... co healer was a Sch so i switched to Diu stance (unwritten rule cause Noc and Adlo don't stack and negate themselves)... we wiped 3x times until I switched back to Noc - 4/7 player asked me if im serious about that and guess what... we cleared it as Noc/Adlo team without any further wipes. It's not the common way and like I said the Sch was still in training or at least it seemed so. But breaking the "rules" and knowing how to use your stances right might be the last few % to become a good Ast in the end. (Like Schs should know about fairies...but i already gave up on this quite a while ago)

Don't forget to pick up conjurer and level it to 15 for cleric stance and protect, bare minimum; you also want THM to 26 to get swiftcast, and optimally CNJ to 34 for stoneskin.

People will get pissy at this, but just heal. Forget damage. Your job is to heal and keep everyone alive. Focus on that first and foremost. Seeing as you're just starting out you aren't exactly doing Savage raids or something.

My advice for a new ast is don't let your card distract you at first. Use them, but don't get so focused on getting the right card you forget to heal.

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Originally Posted by bounddreamer

Don't forget to pick up conjurer and level it to 15 for cleric stance and protect, bare minimum; you also want THM to 26 to get swiftcast, and optimally CNJ to 34 for stoneskin.

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This. OP, at the VERY LEAST please obtain Protect from the Conjurer class. You only have to level it to 8 and that takes less than an hour. It's also expected and the first thing you should be casting in a dungeon when entering, not to mention just having it on all the time anyways when fighting.

As a few have said though, just focus on healing for now. Be sure to read of each spell description thoroughly so you understand what it does. The cards will take a little time to get used to but you'll get the hand of it. Here's a useful guide for 8 man content for the AST cards: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...ayers_content/

I think the best advice I can give a new healer is, if you get agro, run to the tank. If you start taking damage, don't run away, run to the tank. focus on your healing first and foremost. Adding DPS is nice, but if you can't keep people up, than you aren't healing. Though those are all common sense things, the most important, bar none is to never take your role as an easy one. Even if you are familiar with the content, something can always throw a wrench into things. Be ready, be adaptable and always ask advice!
There are tons of advanced healing methods to get into, but that first reply also has the best advice, get out there and do it. Make mistakes, overheal, ignore mechanics...but learn from those, so that you don't do them again! Have fun!

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Originally Posted by Neela

after learning the cards... there is one point which really make the difference on the way to become a good AST: the knowledge and instinct to use the right stance.

It's more than choosing between "Reg or Shield", most of the random ASTs i met just don't care about being flexibel with stances at all... a few days ago had an experience most of the comm would never confirm with... i (ast) was thrown into a really novice-like grp on a12... co healer was a Sch so i switched to Diu stance (unwritten rule cause Noc and Adlo don't stack and negate themselves)... we wiped 3x times until I switched back to Noc - 4/7 player asked me if im serious about that and guess what... we cleared

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Yes I ve had ast ruin my adlo spread a few times and wonder why It can be a bit irritating cos its a waste of my cds. Think theres also a bit of competition going on not sure, but yes can clear stuff with 2 sch or noct ast its not optimal though. Actually sounds more like sch was concentrating more on dps maybe as thats more their job, either that or not using their shields. in either case you may be almost soloing. Ast heals are higher in noct stance

over healing is better than not enough healing
just healing is better than getting the team wipe
so basic stuff keep everyone alive
observe how the tank took dmg, soon you will know when to pop ur healing
keep an eye on the dps all the time, everyone make mistake, dont just focus on tank
situation awareness, see where all you party are, if u think one will get hit by AOE, be prepare for that
drawn card have a much longer uptime now, it can wait, focus on keeping everyone alive
forget about DPS until you are familiar with the dungeon mechanic and you know you party well
protect is a good tool to reduce some stress on healing, swift case is very useful in emergency, stone skin could save someone @ss in emergency

Focus Target the Boss incase u have to deselect it to heal or are using DMG attack marco's with <tt> in them so u can see when the boss is casting something u may need to prepare for (Tank busters, untelegraphed room AoE's, etc.) all other reply's have explained everything else better

since u were a tank i dont think you will have problems healing, simply keep on doing content

Unpopular opinion- go play conj. Start with sastasha. Get comfortable healing and dpsing in there. Move to he next dungeon. Etc. These ppl advising you to focus on healing and not dps at first are the reason why so many healers get to 60 and have no idea how to anticipate incoming damage and respond. They play reactionary. Dpsing as a healer is primarily what forces you to learn to play proactively and anticipate damage.

Theoretically you can do this if you start as Astro and just go level synchronize into baby dungeons. But since you will need 34 (?) conj anyway for stone skin you might as well learn that first. If you start as a low level healer you will have an easier time tbh. One of the greatest crimes on this game was allowing ppl to start a tank or healer at level 30 without requiring they already had a healer at that level. What you miss is the foundations. And these foundations are what you need to build your skill off of at higher levels. It is much much harder to try and dps later in content that requires more healing and you have a more complicated rotation. The easiest way is to start from day 1.

From you comment "what little damage I can do" I feel like you don't parse. This is a big misconception about healer dps from people who don't parse. If the healer has any understanding at all of thir dps rotation, they can do very considerable damage. Enough that in dungeons and 24mans its equivalent to adding another dps. It's is very substantial. But you need to work at it and the time to do that is in the easiest content of the game - the starting dungeons and then work up from there.

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Originally Posted by Tiva

But you need to work at it and the time to do that is in the easiest content of the game - the starting dungeons and then work up from there.

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the only problem with your recommendation is that either ast nor sch got a decent aoe-dmg skill on low lvl - and for dngs its the most useful dps-support a healer could give his grp. practicing single dmg dpsing won't help you to be confident in mass-pull dpsing... its way more stressful and way more dangerous than throwing out a single blow in low inis here and there.

But yeah Tiva is right as sooner as you try to get in touch with healer-dps the less stress u will get with this community... (a sadly fact...)

Do what "The_NPC" said and have some focustarget on boss battles. Seeing a castbar from a boss helps bigtime how to time heals. I made a macro for this and assigned a hotkey to it.

/focustarget (the macro).

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Originally Posted by Tiva

Unpopular opinion- go play conj. Start with sastasha. Get comfortable healing and dpsing in there. Move to he next dungeon. Etc. These ppl advising you to focus on healing and not dps at first are the reason why so many healers get to 60 and have no idea how to anticipate incoming damage and respond. They play reactionary. Dpsing as a healer is primarily what forces you to learn to play proactively and anticipate damage.

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unfortunately running the same dungeon numerous of time will only get you better timing of the dungeon mechanics
but you could not help when queuing 3 total strangers, you will takes time to understand them, their ability, their CD timing, and their equipment
and to be honest AST only get gravity at 52, which change the dps of AST in big pull
actually those 5X leveling dungeon is a better learning environment, at least for my AST is

Hijacking this thread to ask how/when should I use each sect. I'm talking about solo healing/light party

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Originally Posted by HELLruler

Hijacking this thread to ask how/when should I use each sect. I'm talking about solo healing/light party

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Sadly, Diurnal Sect is so overwhelmingly powerful compared to Nocturnal sect that Nocturnal Sect hardly has any uses. All Nocturnal Sect offers is the ability to snipe heal someone with Aspected Benefic if they're low from taking damage and about to take damage again. But this is rather niche and not worth the benefits Diurnal brings over Nocturnal. Especially in lighter content where nothing can deal serious lethal damage. You could switch to Nocturnal between each pull to throw in some extra mitigation on the tank (combined with Stoneskin). But aside from that, there aren't that many uses that Nocturnal brings over Diurnal

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Originally Posted by Lyrica_Ashtine

Sadly, Diurnal Sect is so overwhelmingly powerful compared to Nocturnal sect that Nocturnal Sect hardly has any uses. All Nocturnal Sect offers is the ability to snipe heal someone with Aspected Benefic if they're low from taking damage and about to take damage again. But this is rather niche and not worth the benefits Diurnal brings over Nocturnal. Especially in lighter content where nothing can deal serious lethal damage. You could switch to Nocturnal between each pull to throw in some extra mitigation on the tank (combined with Stoneskin). But aside from that, there aren't that many uses that Nocturnal brings over Diurnal

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may I ask when you personally played Ast the last time yourself, your profile said its your main cls right?... your statement fits the Ast right after release... but after two cls buffs, I see way more Nocs than Diurs... especially after Noc got the heal-boost over Diur, I see them very rarely nowadays.

edit: and an instant shield is not useless at all... if you think so than Sch is useless too - and every fairy-whisperer should change to whm as well ; )

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Originally Posted by Neela

snip

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I do believe I answered in the context being asked for; which would be light party content.
You're also not reading correctly. I never said (instant) shielding is useless. Which, by the way, Scholars do not have constant access to. I said taking nocturnal sect over diurnal sect for described situation and content doesn't outweigh the advantages diurnal offers

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Originally Posted by Neela

may I ask when you personally played Ast the last time yourself, your profile said its your main cls right?... your statement fits the Ast right after release... but after two cls buffs, I see way more Nocs than Diurs... especially after Noc got the heal-boost over Diur, I see them very rarely nowadays.

edit: and an instant shield is not useless at all... if you think so than Sch is useless too - and every fairy-whisperer should change to whm as well ; )

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I agree I only use diurn for raiding with sch co heal. All othe content I use noct especially with wmg co heal. Asts seem to get annoyed if im on sch with them cos they like noct more. Dungeons I use noct. Must say here though last boss in vault I prefer diurnal so its content biased sometimes.

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Originally Posted by Neela

may I ask when you personally played Ast the last time yourself, your profile said its your main cls right?... your statement fits the Ast right after release... but after two cls buffs, I see way more Nocs than Diurs... especially after Noc got the heal-boost over Diur, I see them very rarely nowadays.

edit: and an instant shield is not useless at all... if you think so than Sch is useless too - and every fairy-whisperer should change to whm as well ; )

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I also see a lot more ASTs running Noct, but I'm with Lyrica in this one. In lower level content the HoTs from Diurnal + increased attack speed are WAY more relevant than a bit more healing. I think the appeal of Noct for many players in simply the flavor of the sect. I use Noct between pulls + SS for additional protection, but Diurnal for me is clearly more useful.

I think people learn best by doing. Jump into some low level dungeons, for most, you can probably get through most of those pressing only the basic heal button XD although you should experiment with the cards too if you can. They are all beneficial buffs so you can't make a grave error by misplacing them.

Make sure to say "Heart of the cards" before using Draw each time in order to continue not getting the card you want.

Noct for Regular Pulls, Diurn for Bosses.

My reasoning behind this is that during any (most) regular pulls, the tank is the only target taking damage, Nocts potency boost is nice, I can normally ignore the tank after casting Aspected for the majority of the pull, and because the shield is an instant cast, it lets me react quickly to the tank taking spike damage (More time in Cleric), and an Aspected -> Essential -> Aspected is a great recovery combo.

Now, the reason I use Diurnal for bosses is because the universal pattern among bosses, is that the damage is widespread, however, in most cases, the AoE damage doesn't require a real heal, and the regen is more than enough for the DPS, so I always open with Helios -> Benefic on Tank, and go straight into Cleric and basically ignore everyone.

Ultimately, I love running like this because it effectively uses BOTH stances during a standard dungeon.

So to add on what others have said:

Healing in general: Get a good feel for the "chunk" of the HP bar each heal can do (if you are a numbers person you can go that route too). You'll get a feel of what each heal can do and if it will overheal or not.

Don't be reliant on your Benefic II spell. Unless the target is going to die if they do not get another heal right after, your Benefic I heal will do great and save MP. That being said, if their HP bar is going down quickly, go ahead and use II !

Make sure your gear is up to snuff. Even moreso than a tank, you need to make sure you can recover from those big hits.

For AST in particular:

I wouldn't worry too much about the cards when first starting out. If you can apply the cards to the right person, great. Heal first, DPS if you feel comfortable, and cards are last when starting. Once you get into a groove, you can balance all three parts.

As a new AST, I love it, especially since I started the game as CNJ/AST (plus AST reminds me of COR, which was my main job for years in FFXI).

The problem I have with AST is, I'm almost always in groups where I am off-healer (OH). One of two things happen:
- If there's a WHM, the group MAKE me got OH stance for the shields. Often-times, we find our MT dying from lack of heals or he's always critical on HP because I'm doing mechanics (generators) and healing the party.

- The main-healer (MH), if it's WHM or AST in Duirnal, stays in Cleric Stance often. My shields as OH would go so far, then I need to spam a few Benefic IIs.

My point is, I prefer to MH, so I may have to go back to WHM for that reason alone, unless it's content where I can solo heal (A9S).

*EDIT*
On a side note, I guess I also dislike people telling me to hold cards. While I know WHY and WHICH to hold, I don't want to always spam Royal Road and Redraw while I have Balance sitting in queue from Spread because I'm hoping to Royal Road the next Ewer or Spire for Balance AoE.

If I have Bole, I like to hit the MT with it rather than Royal Road'ing 5 times and NOT applying buffs for 150s all because I want to AoE the Balance.

Well, I've got a few tips and tricks, although some of them are more advanced.

1. Learn to stay calm in the face of a healing crisis. This mainly just comes with time as you become accustomed to healing. And honestly, nobody ever gets perfect at this. When a crisis happens, even the best of us get distracted from other things. But the mark of an experienced healer is being able to keep track of what you're going to cast in which order as a situation unfolds, regardless of how bad that situation gets. Be Captain Kirk: the one who doesn't believe in unwinnable battles. What I love about healing is pulling off miracle comebacks when everyone else is saying "wipe".

2. Keep your eye on the party list and use focus target. Since healing is all about keeping the party alive, the party list is your primary target list. Enemies are something you usually keep in the corner of your eye on. But sometimes it's vice versa. Your eye movement is a lot like Cleric Stance. If there are no incoming damage risks, my eyes are on the battlefield, with the corner on my party list. If there are, my eyes are on the party list, with the corner on the battlefield. Always have the focus target's cast bar in the corner of your eye as well.

3. Don't use Cleric Stance until you either know the fight, or are experienced enough to be able to decently guess when you can go into it on a new boss. If it's a hard boss, I recommend never using Cleric Stance the first few tries. The leading cause of Healer-caused tank deaths, IMHO, is when a healer switches into CS right before a big tank buster and has to wait 5 seconds until they can heal.

4. Preemptive healing is huge. When you know an attack is coming, start casting the counter-heal before the cast finishes. If you do it perfectly, your allies' HP bars won't even appear to move. This may seem a little overkill, but in some content it really helps, or is even necessary to at least get the timing somewhat. The most obvious example is A12S, where there are multiple enemy casts of high-damage attacks in a row. If you wait to cast until the party takes damage, you'll fall behind and the next casts will land before the party/player is healed.

5. Both sects have their uses. Diurnal is great for passive healing and DPS. I use it for mobs and some bosses. Nocturnal is fairly useless for most mobs, but is very strong in many boss encounters. Not that it's always better for bosses, but mitigation is just better for preventing deaths in general. Aspected Benefic on Nocturnal is one of AST's strongest tools, as an instant-cast shield with fairly high potency. If you don't have time to cast Benefic II, if a player has too many stacks of Vulnerability to survive an incoming hit, or if someone is out of position and is about to take heavy damage, it saves lives.

6. This is very much a preferential one, but I personally recommend holding Spear as often as you can in harder content, particularly if you're in a PUG where you can't count as heavily on everyone playing consistently. This is to use on yourself when a crisis happens, or when you need MP, because it significantly reduces the cooldowns of your emergency spells. Since I prioritize safety over speed, I run fairly heavy on the MP sustain because I tend to overheal for safety's sake. My basic MP regen method is to use my held Spear, followed by Luminiferous Aether and Celestial Opposition for the duration increase. This basic combo is very versatile because you can throw in any other abilities you need to use in a pinch for reduced cooldown and before extending their duration on yourself and others, including other card effects, Lightspeed, Synastry, Time Dilation, Swiftcast, and Collective Unconscious, to name the most significant. One of my favourite combos, and what I use if the raid is in need of a Healer LB3 but either doesn't have enough LB gauge or I don't think it's necessary yet, is this:

Spear (held) > Luminiferous Aether > Swiftcast Ascend > Draw/Redraw (hope for the Arrow) > if Arrow: Arrow myself; if Bole: Bole the tank + Time Dilation; if Other: Royal Road > Lightspeed > 3x regular Ascend with massively reduced cast time > Synastry the MT > Celestial Opposition > Helios spam like mad.

This can be difficult to pull off, depending on the boss and how much damage it's putting out on at the time. But if it's a moment of low total raid damage, this combo can bring the party back from what seemed like a wipe, or at least some of it (getting the full 3x regular Ascend is next to impossible due to having to heal the tank too).

Diurnal and for bosses i tend to prefer to switch to Nocturnal, just personal preference. (Especially in Palace of the Dead)
Cleric stance but know when to switch it off, sometimes damage can happen quickly. So a party member could have 13K health and drop down to 5 or 6 easily at times as example and your heals are not worth much while in cleric.
As others have stated just start off for now perhaps as healing (not using Cleric) until you get more comfortable, with time you will get there