Decided to try some 24-man content. Looking for tips.

After some arm twisting, aka FC mates linking me drops from Dun Scaith, I decided it's time to try my hands at healing some 24-man. Not sure if I need to start from square one and progress to Dun Scaith, but I am anyway, so I unlocked LoTA and I'm ready to queue. I am super excited, and they seem like fun, but I'm a little (very) nervous, and looking for tips specific to 24-man.

General tips would be awesome. Things that you know now that you wish you knew your first time going in. I do play on controller, and definitely interested in configurations you have found to be a ton of help. Especially when it comes to targeting, as one of things I am worried the most about is if/when I need to target someone from another group.

Ahhh to be green again!

Have you done Rabanastre yet? If not, I would likely suggest starting there first. The drops are useful and despite what you might see suggested here, it's actually quite a simplistic raid. The first two bosses require you to pay attention to things but for the most part, as long as you ask for tips from your group before each boss, you'll do fine with a couple of simple pointers.

As far as overall tips go.

Probably the biggest tip right of the bat, make sure your chat window is clear of any combat spam. You'll often see people making calls in /party or /alliance and it's hugely helpful for everyone involved if you can actually see them and act accordingly.

Secondly, at least whilst your starting out, focus primarily on your group and your tank. From there, any spare attention should be aimed at learning mechanics and watching what's happening around you as well as things that are potentially being said. Tunnel visioning hard on the raid frames might appear to be helpful, but it'll get you killed and make it tough for you to actually get a handle on the various mechanics.

If you can dps then that's great, however don't feel obligated to be spamming rocks if you're not comfortable doing so whilst keeping a tab on the encounter, do a reasonable job of at least maintaining your dots and very few if anyone will complain at that.

Like Sebazy said, focus on your own group first and foremost- especially if your tank is the main tank. And totally feel free to focus on learning the mechanics in your first run. If you think about it as an 8-man group with a lot of extra help you might not feel so overwhelmed at the start.

LotA is an ok place to start if you just want to get a sense of scale without worrying about holding the group back since it's such a face-roll now. Chances are you can just hang back and get used to things because the other healer is more than enough by themselves (just let them know you're new and nervous so they don't kick you).

Toss regen/aspected benefic on the main tank even if he's not in your alliance. Besides that, though, stay with your group -- don't chase down that one ranged DPS standing across the arena and leave your party alone. If you start with LotA, you might be surprised at how little healing is needed.

Besides that,t here's not really much to say. Ask your party if you don't know a certain boss's mechanics. Heal as you would with any other content. Good luck.

Take note of which alliance you're in (A/B/C). It's listed at the top of your party bars. Some mechanics require you to go to a specific spot with your group, and going to the wrong one can lead to accidental wipes. A lot of raids will put A/B/C markers up to make clear who goes where. If not, your group is blue on the minimap and the other groups are green.

Turn down other people's visual effects, as with so many people it can lead to a LOT of visual clutter if everybody is on full. That will make the fights much easier to see.

Rest of the advice you've been given is great. :)

There's no real reason to be nervous outside Rabanasty tbh. Especially with LotA, Syrcus Tower, and Void Ark. Those three are especially facerolly.

I would also suggest Rabanastre first because it's the most relevant content for 24man and it will actually show you how a 24man is supposed to run.

Prepare for some frustration though. With 24 people running around you know there are bound to be some issues here and there. Wipes are common place in Rabanastre, but don't let that discourage you.

Just follow the advice of everyone else and you should be golden. I will further emphasis the knowing what alliance you are in though. There are A LOT of times when the alliances need to split and deal with mechanics seperately. Stick with you team!

Learn the fights and pay attention and you should be fine.

My tips:

If there is a mechanic, do it right, because if you're dead, you can't help your party members :) . Learn and remember the mechanics! This is especially good for hard cast resurrection, while you're casting people arround you can die and if a mechanic interrupts while doing it, it sucks even more. There is no shame to wait with res until swiftcast is ready.

Like the others had mentioned it, focus on your group first. And if you know how the battles works, you have plently of time to do other stuff like keeping your dot's up and do some damage or help healing the alliance members. After the 5-6th run you'll get the hang of the raid :)

If the other alliances do main tanking and you have access of a regenetion spell, use it at the current MT. They are highlighted whith a red box in the alliance group window.

Dont panic if a lot of people die in your alliance. Or other alliances.
If you need to LB3 because you don't have MP or know you can't res everybody+make them healthy- go into the middle, the range is smaller than you might think. Seen Healer completely wiff it and res like 1 person...
Don't be to shy to res people from other alliances. There are occasions where one alliance dies a lot. Be it because a lot of newbies or whatever. Check real quick if a dps or anything has the res symbol- if not, res them. If you see it pop up in the middle, cancel it to not waste your mp. I do have a res macros for alliance when i help with hard casting Raise.
A friend and i have a raise-list and who keeps the alliance healthy while the other raises others. Thats a pretty big factor in not wasting mp but i don't think it works with randoms because you don't know how they have their party list organized. But maybe telling your priority like "I'll get up the tank and that bard/blm/whatever if they die, so don't waste your mp on them" can help with it if the other healer is willing to listen.

Always keep yourself alive and pay attention to mechanics and MOVE if you would get hit. Not worth getting hit. Even if you survive it, only get hit if its unavoidable.
Like if everything goes wrong for diabolos hollow in dun scaith: If i was healer, and nobody managed to stack for the last part and people died left and right - I ran away. To where nobody was and only kept myself healthy by avoiding balls and healing through earth shatter thing. Then i got up the tanks and dps just to be meatshields till he kills himself. Occasionaly running in the middle to LB3
Or rabanastre: Keep an eye out for stragglers in the orb phase, they can have the stack marker and they WILL stack with your alliance and wipe you all. Run away if that ever happens.
Be egoistical and raise your meatshields as often as you can. You're more important than everybdoy else, think that.

Regen the tanks: Just because they're not YOUR tank, you can occasionaly just throw a regen on them.
Don't be nervous, if you can keep yourself and your alliance alive through aoes and don't die on everything yourself, you're doing good.
If you see a dps die on an super avoidable mechanic: Not your fault, don't think that. Theres only so much you can do against oneshots and people not moving.


Don't let anybody tell you a wipe is your fault unless you ltierally balcked out and did NOTHING at all.

Thanks for all the tips! Quite a bit more than what I was expecting, and all are helpful. Just to be clear, I do not have SB so Rabanastre is out :p That's ok though. I'm ok if the early raids are roflstomps now. Those will still be helpful so I can at least get used to anything new on my UI that I am not used to such as the alliance list, alliance chat, the main tank indication mentioned by Sieben, and which alliance I belong to and blue vs green dots on the minimap mentioned by Tridus. Those specifics are very helpful, and if not for those helpful tips, I wouldn't even know what these indicators mean.

There are some drops I'm targeting as well such as the Puff of Darkness minion and the Diabolic healing set. Every raid through HW has something I want, or wouldn't mind having. That leads me to another question. How does loot work in 24-man? Does each group get their own drops to roll on, or do all 24 players roll on the same loot? That's kinda scary to think about.

Also, queue times. I put in anywhere from 2-4 hours when playing solo. When planning on running stuff with FC mates or buddies, I can put in a couple more hours. I heard these queues can take up to two hours plus to fill, so I am hoping my playtime is sufficient. Supposedly the older ones can fill a bit faster on reset day since everyone is tackling their weeklies.

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Originally Posted by Gemina

I heard these queues can take up to two hours plus to fill, so I am hoping my playtime is sufficient. Supposedly the older ones can fill a bit faster on reset day since everyone is tackling their weeklies.

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The alliance roulette should keep those queues considerably shorter. Maybe if you queue at strange off peak times...

Gear loot is party specific. Minions and such are rolled on by the whole alliance, so yes, sometimes getting those is difficult.

Some of the minions are fairly common and untradeable, which means at this point not many people can roll on them. Some of the other ones drop less often and are harder to get, but none of them are that bad now that you can run them relatively easily.

I know it's been said but it bears repeating - don't automatically blame yourself for a death/wipe. They're rather commonplace in Dun Scaith specifically. 23 other people can mean a lot of different skill levels.

Maybe one time you get a bunch of accomplished raiders who handle mechs flawlessly and breeze right through. Maybe the next time you get the dumbest group of bads to ever bad. Generally it seems like an even mix but on the off chance you get a group that just can't get it together don't assume the problem is you or it can get quite discouraging.

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Originally Posted by Gemina

After some arm twisting, aka FC mates linking me drops from Dun Scaith, I decided it's time to try my hands at healing some 24-man. Not sure if I need to start from square one and progress to Dun Scaith, but I am anyway, so I unlocked LoTA and I'm ready to queue. I am super excited, and they seem like fun, but I'm a little (very) nervous, and looking for tips specific to 24-man.

General tips would be awesome. Things that you know now that you wish you knew your first time going in. I do play on controller, and definitely interested in configurations you have found to be a ton of help. Especially when it comes to targeting, as one of things I am worried the most about is if/when I need to target someone from another group.

Ahhh to be green again!

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Believe in yourself, Gemina. You will do fine!

I'll be cheering you on from the stands.:D

As others have said, minions, triple triad cards and orchestrion scrolls are all rolled on by all 24 people (if all 24 decide to roll). So you have to battle it out with the whole alliance XD However gear is party specific so that should be a little easier to obtain (hopefully what you want drops ^^).

Also, something which does make sense but I didn't actually realise at first is that there are a bunch of healing abilities which will only affect your party. So obviously things like Medica/II and Medica II's HoT only affect your party. However things like Eye for an Eye, Sacred Soil, Asylum, etc. also only affect your party (I have on occasion tried to use Eye for an Eye and Excogitation on the MT when they're not in my party XD ).

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Originally Posted by Kacho_Nacho

Believe in yourself, Gemina. You will do fine!

I'll be cheering you on from the stands.:D

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Thanks a ton Kacho! Especially for believing in me. I am in the queue now. so nervous!!!

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Originally Posted by Gemina

Thanks a ton Kacho! Especially for believing in me. I am in the queue now. so nervous!!!

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I'm sure it already happened, but you can do it! :)

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Originally Posted by Tridus

I'm sure it already happened, but you can do it! :)

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I did it! \o/

I can't appreciate your guy's support enough, and all these tips were so helpful and made the experience a little less scary. A few FC mates also came along, which helped a ton. One of them MT'd and he marked me with an 'O' and himself with an 'X' so I knew where he was at all times. The only really bad part was when King Behemoth pretty much wiped everyone with Meteor except me (I guess an Iron Giant cleaved the comet everyone else was standing behind). I also got caught outside the protective barrier during the last boss and died, so quickly went from being the only to survive a mechanic to the only one who failed it. Should make for a good story later :p

Next up: Syrcus Tower

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Originally Posted by Gemina

I did it! \o/

I can't appreciate your guy's support enough, and all these tips were so helpful and made the experience a little less scary. A few FC mates also came along, which helped a ton. One of them MT'd and he marked me with an 'O' and himself with an 'X' so I knew where he was at all times. The only really bad part was when King Behemoth pretty much wiped everyone with Meteor except me (I guess an Iron Giant cleaved the comet everyone else was standing behind). I also got caught outside the protective barrier during the last boss and died, so quickly went from being the only to survive a mechanic to the only one who failed it. Should make for a good story later :p

Next up: Syrcus Tower

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Congratulations! I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT! \0/