Why do so many healers not use specific abilities?

Hello!

For a while now I've been noticing that many healers just don't use specific abilities. Either only very rarely or never. Recently, I've also been in many practice, clear and then farm parties for Suzaku Ex as a healer and I've noticed this about my co-healers even more.

I'm not even talking about players that only rarely play healers and/or only stand there while pressing a heal button every 10 seconds. I'm actually talking about players who have at least a decent understanding on how healing works, are usually able to keep people alive, many of them even dps like normal and a lot of them even only have healers leveled and aren't undergeared. So while they aren't the best, they aren't really "bad" in fulfilling their role.

Have you noticed something like that too? What do you think why some healers don't use these abilities? It's always the same ones. Here are the abilities I noticed them not using:

WHM: Divine Benison and Asylum. Many WHMs just ignore these abilities completely. There are some fights where you can't get everything out of Asylum, like the last boss from Ridorana Lighthouse, because most times people are too spread out or the boss moves around. But for example in Suzaku Ex it's great. And then there is Divine Benison. I usually play WHM and use it for every tankbuster in that fight. That means that I'm not using it on CD, but if I did I wouldn't have it for the tankbuster and I just can't trust my co-healer to shield the tank or the tank to use the right defensive CD. When I'm on AST and I get a WHM as co-healer they just never use it at all.
(Also, many WHM don't ever use Presence of Mind, and Thin Air only rarely. WHM has the least buttons but so many WHM players don't use like half of them.)

SCH: Excogitation. They either never use it at all (and also only use like 2 Lustrates at max and like 3 Indomitabilitys - even though it IS needed), or if they do they use it pre-pull once so that its duration is over like 1 second before the first tankbuster and then they never use it at all anymore.
(Another case is with healers who refuse to dps. If they are SCH, why don't they at least use Shadow Flare? It is FREE and oGCD and doesn't hinder them in their healing.)

AST: Earthly Star. Most times I got ASTs as co-healers and most times they didn't use Earthy Star at all (and no, it's not that I'm spamming Cure III for raid-wide AoEs and they think Earthy Star is not needed - they rather cast Helios 2x). Some of them used it sometimes. Very few used it regularly. Yes, it's kind of more difficult to use than a normal healing spell that immediately takes effect. But if they can't plan when to place it, they could at least use it for the damage instead of ignoring it completely.

I can't speak for others but personally I tend to go full throttle the first few times I clear some content and after a while just get lazy.

Most fights are way too easy once you are familiar with them and thus start to feel like a grind when you (have to) do them too often. How do you deal with a grind? By shutting your mind off and doing the bare minimum needed to succeed. Why carefully plan an earthly star if I just can go full braindead and throw easy aoe heals out there? I mean it's not like the mechanics don't give me enough time to do so.

So to me not using some abilities is more about not needing to and overdoing some content. Funny thing is, the worse my group is the more I stay on my toes and the better I play.

I actually see a lot of WHMs and Di ASTs not using their single-target HoTs on the MT. And it gets to be really annoying for me, especially if I'm rolling Noct AST because it's not MP efficient for me to spam a Noct Aspected Benefic or a single-target GCD healing spell to heal up auto attacks because my co-healer won't use their Regen/Di AST A. Benefic. And the majority of the time they aren't tunneling in DPS; they're just standing around, or I guess hoping the Medica II or Di Aspect Helios they spam is enough for the MT. It's a bit easier when I'm on SCH because I can try to place my fairy to keep up Embrace casts on the MT, but I still don't understand the allergy to Regens. I'm not expecting 100% uptime on it, but I expect to see more than 1~5 casts of it in an 8~10 minute encounter.

I've noticed some ASTs don't creatively use their Collective Unconscious for things like stack markers, and instead use them for an Ultimate (like Delta Cannon or Protostar), which they then top everyone off to full and don't let CU's HoT do it naturally. I personally enjoy doing a drive-by CU for stacks if I don't have Earthly for it, because being able to weave it between GCDs now is amazing.

Also, >ASTs not using Earthly Star.
/screaming

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Originally Posted by Belgianbeer

I can't speak for others but personally I tend to go full throttle the first few times I clear some content and after a while just get lazy.

Most fights are way too easy once you are familiar with them and thus start to feel like a grind when you (have to) do them too often. How do you deal with a grind? By shutting your mind off and doing the bare minimum needed to succeed. Why carefully plan an earthly star if I just can go full braindead and throw easy aoe heals out there? I mean it's not like the mechanics don't give me enough time to do so.

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Once you do a fight enough, your careful planning of healing CD usage becomes automatic. Even in casual content: in V12N, I use my Earthly to heal large amounts of AOE damage, saving both myself and my co-healer the need to use a GCD heal and waste the MP (because we're gonna need it later for raising, typically).

For example, I use it to heal up after Omega-F's Laser Shower about a minute or so in, the one that happens right after the first Optimized Fire III. I also use it to heal up stacks, such as the one during Omega-M's second appearance where he does the donut AOE followed by the proximity AOE (this also helps because it detonates either automatically or at my command, and the party is topped off while moving out of Efficient Bladework - I can save my Swiftcast for something else, and I have no need to cast a GCD healing spell once the bosses stop being flashy; I can reserve my mana).

Most of the abilities you mention are powerful instant abilities with a long cooldown. My gut instinct is to save those for emergencies. It takes some time to learn when they are safe to use without risking them being on CD when they're needed.

Some WHM specific comments since I've been playing that class a lot recently:

Asylum: With the longest cooldown of all healing abilities aside from Benediction and the requirement for players to stay in the area it's hard to use optimally. Upon reaching Lv70 content a couple of weeks ago I taught myself to use it at the end of every big pull; killing the enemies generally takes long enough that it's ready again for the next pull. At bosses I still use it only sporadically.

Divine Benison: I try to use it for tankbusters but I'm often too distracted to notice the boss cast bar (rearranging the UI might help here). Or I may not remember what the tankbuster for each boss is called since I haven't done too many Lv70 dungeons yet (some of them only once).

Thin Air: I tend to save it for situations where I'm (close to) out of mana and need to do some emergency healing or raises.

Presence of Mind: Used for emergency healing or the occasional DPS burst. Often I just forget it exists because of the long cooldown.

Plenary Indulgence: This one seems to suffers from some design problems. It's supposed to be a followup to Medica (II) or Cure III, but those are powerful enough in themselves that Plenary is often not required. And the confessions usually run out before the next group-wide damage. I do use it occasionally, it's just that I rarely get a good chance to.

Incidentally, my rarest-used skill is probably Cure III. I've been trying to teach myself to use it in grouping situations, but Medica is more versatile thanks to the much bigger radius so I instinctively go for that.

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Originally Posted by tdb

Most of the abilities you mention are powerful instant abilities with a long cooldown. My gut instinct is to save those for emergencies.

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How would you save Asylum for an emergency though? It's a heal over time bubble without an instant heal. Or are people saving it for when they need slow AoE healing but are out of MP?
It's true that in dungeons it can have less uses when you have to move a lot. But for example in big pulls you can use it on the tank as another regen. Unfortunately, if you use it during dungeon bosses instead of Medica, ranged DPS often don't get inside. So I have to single-target heal them anyway.
I get that some WHMs like to save Benediction because it's a full heal. But I've actually seen more uses of Benediction than of Asylum.

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Or I may not remember what the tankbuster for each boss is called since I haven't done too many Lv70 dungeons yet

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That is understandable, I also don't remember every tankbuster in dungeons and so on. But if you're farming an extreme trial, doing it multiple times in a row, after a while you should know what the tankbuster is called. But even then they don't use it. This is what I'm talking about. Not dungeons where someone may be new, someone may be severely undergeared, you don't remember all mechanics and so on.

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Originally Posted by tdb

Incidentally, my rarest-used skill is probably Cure III. I've been trying to teach myself to use it in grouping situations, but Medica is more versatile thanks to the much bigger radius so I instinctively go for that.

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To be fair I don't know that the OP was necessarily referencing dungeons here but I do think that it's harder to keep your oGCDs on CD in a dungeon as opposed to a trial/raid. In dungeons there's a lot of down time running from pack to pack and you also don't have a cohealer that you're coordinating with.

The best advice I can offer us just to try to use things more. Using MP tools when youre low on MP is like putting a bandaid on a cut you made yourself - cut out the middle man, just use them whenever they're up and make sense.

For dungeoning on WHM I tend to Thin Air the first pull alongside PoM for Holy spam then rotate Thin Air and Lucid from there.

Overall the whole point is to stick as many abilities on CD as quickly as you can (while not wasting them) so that you get more uses out of them over the course of an encounter. Even something like Asylum when combined with a Regen on a tank can basically make him self-sufficent for quite a while during a boss fight, even better if you're popping DB as it comes up to give the HoTs time to tick up any missing HP. There you go, that could be a couple of Cure II GCDs that you can turn into Stone IVs now \o/

Cure III in casual content is often drastic overkill and I wouldn't worry about not using it much in dungeons specifically. I'd avoid Medica though - my rule of thumb is that it's a real last resort. If it isn't enough damage to justify a Medica II it can probably just wait for Assize to come off CD or get ticked up naturally. Or, again, there's always asylum.

As to the OP - yeah, it's sad when you see this. I still struggle to use Largesse more. I don't understand the concept of holding onto CDs without a specific mechanic in mind (like Bene for Holmgang/LD or something) but this is my personal struggle.

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Why do so many healers not use specific abilities?

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Can't speak for everyone, but probably the big one for me would be this perfect gem right here, which sums it up nicely. Anything longer than a one minute cooldown is pretty much this to me.

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Originally Posted by Limonia

How would you save Asylum for an emergency though? It's a heal over time bubble without an instant heal. Or are people saving it for when they need slow AoE healing but are out of MP?
It's true that in dungeons it can have less uses when you have to move a lot. But for example in big pulls you can use it on the tank as another regen. Unfortunately, if you use it during dungeon bosses instead of Medica, ranged DPS often don't get inside. So I have to single-target heal them anyway.

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I did say "most". Asylum is not very useful in emergencies because of the reasons you mentioned, and as such it went mostly unused for me until I learned to use it in Lv70 content. Note that I started playing around the time SB came out so I've never done Lv60 content when it was the current endgame.

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Originally Posted by Limonia

I get that some WHMs like to save Benediction because it's a full heal. But I've actually seen more uses of Benediction than of Asylum.

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Benediction is pretty much my last resort save button when someone takes a big hit, possibly there's another mechanic coming and all of my other instant heals are on cooldown.

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Originally Posted by MoroMurasaki

The best advice I can offer us just to try to use things more. Using MP tools when youre low on MP is like putting a bandaid on a cut you made yourself - cut out the middle man, just use them whenever they're up and make sense.

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That's more or less what I try to do with Lucid Dreaming and Assize. Sometimes I forget to watch my MP or CDs though. Having a BRD or MCH who uses refresh also makes me save my own restoration tools for later.

My brain handles Thin Air a bit differently because its benefit depends on what you do while the buff is active. In an attempt to optimize it I often end up not using it at all, which is certainly not optimal. Unlearning bad habits takes a lot of effort.

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Originally Posted by MoroMurasaki

Cure III in casual content is often drastic overkill and I wouldn't worry about not using it much in dungeons specifically. I'd avoid Medica though - my rule of thumb is that it's a real last resort. If it isn't enough damage to justify a Medica II it can probably just wait for Assize to come off CD or get ticked up naturally. Or, again, there's always asylum.

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I get skittish if the entire party has taken a significant amount of damage. If Medica II is about to end or already ended I use that; if not then Assize if it's available or will be in a couple of seconds; otherwise Medica. In many cases such damage occurs in situation where the party will be grouped up so Cure III would be a better choice, but I haven't quite finished wiring my brain to properly recognize those situations yet.

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Originally Posted by tdb

I get skittish if the entire party has taken a significant amount of damage. If Medica II is about to end or already ended I use that; if not then Assize if it's available or will be in a couple of seconds; otherwise Medica. In many cases such damage occurs in situation where the party will be grouped up so Cure III would be a better choice, but I haven't quite finished wiring my brain to properly recognize those situations yet.

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A good rule of thumb to consider whenever you fret between “should I Medica/Medica II right now” and “should I wait for Assize to come up” is to consider the timeline of the fight. If, for example, Assize has 15 seconds left on its cooldown, and there are no instances where the party will have to spread or will take AOE damage that would otherwise be fatal within the next 15 seconds, then allowing them to sit at a level of HP that is not full is perfectly fine. Now, if Assize has 30 seconds left on its cooldown, and there is an incoming mechanic that needs people to be topped off, you should Medica (if the mechanic happens within the next 5~10 seconds and people need fast top offs) or Medica II (if there is enough time between your cast and when the damage comes out that the HoT tick will put everyone at a safe HP level to survive).

Same when you are judging when to use HoTs—if the regen ticks will tick everyone up to full and there is no incoming mechanic within the next 30 seconds, then you can allow them to tick without any extra top off.

Damage in this game is incredibly scripted, so once you do content enough times, you start to learn where there are lulls and when you need to get your party up to full HP (or close to full HP) to prepare for the next wave of incoming damage. You also get used to seeing just how much initial heals hit for (Medica, Medica II’s initial heal, Cure III) and how much your HoTs tick for every 3 seconds to determine which course of action you take when deciding your healing (HoTs? A GCD heal? Assize? Asylum? Etc.).

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Originally Posted by Joe_Schmoe

Can't speak for everyone, but probably the big one for me would be this perfect gem right here, which sums it up nicely. Anything longer than a one minute cooldown is pretty much this to me.

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Indeed, anything above iron swords might get your units killed in hard or extreme mode. So better put your soft gloves on and relax :p

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Originally Posted by Limonia

Hello!

For a while now I've been noticing that many healers just don't use specific abilities. Either only very rarely or never. Recently, I've also been in many practice, clear and then farm parties for Suzaku Ex as a healer and I've noticed this about my co-healers even more.

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I'm going to guess it's from sheer ability bloat.

I myself am guilty of this somewhat. I really don't use E4E as much as I should, mostly because I haven't had it for so long and perhaps partly because it's yet more clipping to play around. And well, when you have 4 hotbars of ability, it's hard to not neglect something now and then.

But I hope SE doesn't use that as an excuse to axe Benison come the expansion, I love that ability...

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Originally Posted by Risvertasashi

I'm going to guess it's from sheer ability bloat.

I myself am guilty of this somewhat. I really don't use E4E as much as I should, mostly because I haven't had it for so long and perhaps partly because it's yet more clipping to play around. And well, when you have 4 hotbars of ability, it's hard to not neglect something now and then.

But I hope SE doesn't use that as an excuse to axe Benison come the expansion, I love that ability...

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I'm going to agree with this here too as a WHM specific complaint. Both SCH and AST have tools that allow them to use oGCDs without clipping with either no DPS loss (AST) or small DPS loss (SCH). WHM doesn't have the same tool to use so they have to be particular picky about the what abilities they want to use when to avoid clipping when possible.

If anything, the change to having all the role actions available to WHM was an indirect nerf to WHM just because you WANT to use all the abilities, but only have maybe... 6 GCDs in a minute where you can use abilities without clipping anything (3x Regen and 3x Aero II)

I am also very guilty of not using E4E often either, lol.

Mostly the skills i forget to use are ones that have specific functions that i just don't need. For SCH its the skill that sends the fairy away. The only real use i can see for that is one that probably doesn't exist: using it after you're raised and your fairy is dead (you probably cant use it in that case--i assume your pet has to be summoned for it to even light up).

For AST, its the skill that ties you to a single-target, who then receives a portion of your overall heals. This is for tanks i guess and it just never lasts long enough for it to really be effective. Also sleeve draw and a few of the card discard skills. I only use the discard skill for the initial draw and not spread or rr.

For WHM its actually Cure 3. Mostly its Heal Buff skill + Medica 2 or 1 and i actually save it for those instances. I use the heck out of Asylum in dungeons especially during large trash pulls. Asylum + regen + medica 2 = thin air quickened holy spam with no need for healing. Pack dead. :3

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Originally Posted by Limonia

AST: Earthly Star. Most times I got ASTs as co-healers and most times they didn't use Earthy Star at all (and no, it's not that I'm spamming Cure III for raid-wide AoEs and they think Earthy Star is not needed - they rather cast Helios 2x). Some of them used it sometimes. Very few used it regularly. Yes, it's kind of more difficult to use than a normal healing spell that immediately takes effect. But if they can't plan when to place it, they could at least use it for the damage instead of ignoring it completely.

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Ah, RIP, I'm one of those ASTs. It's not that I don't like earthly star, or even forget about it. Outside of [savage] raids, I simply don't have the fight memorized and with 10 seconds needed to get the full benefit of the heal, I usually end up using just helios or plopping down Collective for that instant regen and going back to what I was doing. Times when I have remembered an AoE is coming up in 10+ seconds, but below 20, I plop it down ... and my co-healer spams the party to full HP, wasting earthly star (and making me cry just a little inside). The damage off of it is free, sure, but it mostly boils down to wanting to use it when it'd potentially be the most effective, which is with an incoming AoE.

Earthly star needs some prior knowledge of the fight, and sometimes will not be used on CD because you want to keep it for a specific raid AOE.
For instance i only use it in Suzaku Ex for that share after individual marked players, because most parties groups back in the back of the boss and I know people will be there. But during the colours phase it is a nightmare to optimize haha. On O9S i use it for big elemental attacks (especially the earth one as tanks and heal need full heal), akh morns on O10S...
Maybe I could milk one for free DPS or tank AA healing in between those specific times, but I have yet to look into it.
And it also depends, if you have a WHM you can ruin an Asylum / Medica II with an Earthly Star, and with a SCH you can have your ES rined by an indom too...

I genuinely thought me and my WHM FC chum were the only people who used Divine Benison, and I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who actually used Plenary Indulgence since day one. It's a free arena-wide heal that is quite powerful if stacks are managed right.

Also, PoM > Cleric Stance > Thin Air > Holy spam FTW.

Clipping could be reason for WHM,if they're DPSing heavily. The thing is, using Divine Bension and such really clips into your GCD if you're not using it after Aero. I'll gladly clip it for a Thin Air or PoM, but Divine Bension and Asylum are sadly things that I'll put off a bit at times because it clips into my GCD.

SCH and AST don't have this problem with clipping, so that's probably why you notice skills being used more on them and less on WHM.

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Originally Posted by tdb

My brain handles Thin Air a bit differently because its benefit depends on what you do while the buff is active. In an attempt to optimize it I often end up not using it at all, which is certainly not optimal. Unlearning bad habits takes a lot of effort.


I get skittish if the entire party has taken a significant amount of damage. If Medica II is about to end or already ended I use that; if not then Assize if it's available or will be in a couple of seconds; otherwise Medica. In many cases such damage occurs in situation where the party will be grouped up so Cure III would be a better choice, but I haven't quite finished wiring my brain to properly recognize those situations yet.

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I could be misunderstanding and if I am I apologize - you mention if Medica II is ending or has just ended you will use it but if not you use Assize/Medica. While I would never fault anyone for overhealing via Assize if you have a Medica II ticking you don't then cast Medica, do you? It's not super clear, as I said I could just be misunderstanding.

As for Thin Air you're right to prioritize it for times where you need to spend a lot of MP quickly. I rarely use it during boss fights in dungeons for this very reason, preferring to save it for trash packs and Holy. Holy is by far the best bang for your buck that you're going to get out of Thin Air in a dungeon situation unless you find yourself chain raising and even then it's debatable.

I think what you do with Thin Air is exactly my own problem with Largesse - I tell myself I might get more bang for my buck later with it but then later never comes and I've just wasted an entire use of it or more. It's definitely a hard mindset to leave behind.

As for being skittish when people have taken damage I use an 'innocent until proven guilty' philosophy with pugs - I trust them to not eat avoidable damage until I see them do so more than once. At that point I then weigh my options as to how much extra effort I will have to spend keeping them alive instead of just swiftcasting a raise after they die to teach them a lesson. I know it's optimistic and not for everyone, just offering my take on it.

One thing I noticed immediately after the 5-slot role skill restriction was lifted was I felt like I went backwards a bit on the learning curve. Granted, I am also still leveling. So in addition to the role skills I also have my new SB abilities I am working into my gameplay as well. Result: missed skills, misused skills, and just a general trip to derp city. It's better now, but there was a definitive adjustment period despite that I already had all skills set to my crossbars anyway.

That being said, I will also mention that there are times where I make adjustments to my crossbars, which can produce the same derps. I do try to plunge into lots of solo content to get things into muscle memory, and try to bring FC mates along for such situations.

The more a skill is used, the better we get at using it. So abilities like Rescue with really long cooldowns and limited situations to use it has many healers misusing it, mistiming it, or not using it at all. For more common skills like our gcds and ogcds on a short timer, I tend to notice when they are misused rather than not used, and this is largely due to the sound effect, which means I need to be familiar with it. I don't notice any derps from DPS players right now unless they take unnecessary damage. That's it. When/if I start playing these jobs, I will notice a lot more when I hear or see their skills firing off when they shouldn't.

Other than that, I am too dialed in on what I am doing to pay attention to what my team is NOT doing unless what they are not doing is clearly making things go south. I'm not a babysitter, and I am relying on the playerbase to know their jobs so I can concentrate on mine.

As a not-so-great Astrologian (I’m a Scholar when it comes to healing), I often find myself forgetting to set earthly star at the right moment whenever I’m pulling and placing cards, especially if Sleeve Draw is up. I also tend to forget to weave card draws between Malefic III’s and end up clipping my gcd looking at who gets what (as a PS4 player I can’t just throw Balance on the highest DPS, because I don’t know who it is).

I assume other healers that forget to use skills like Asylum / Earthly Star / etc are in a similar situation, they’re focusing too much on one thing to realise that doing something else is just as a good (if not better).

Like I said though, I’m not exactly the greatest Astrologian lol, and I imagine the majority of them don’t have a problem with weaving cards and/or Earthly Star between Malefic III casts.

I’ll also say that I’ve never really experienced this as a Scholar, maybe because it’s so much easier to weave stuff between gcd’s with Ruin II / Miasma II

When I read OP list, I was expecting like Largese, Lucid Dreaming, or Cleric Stance, not abilities engrained into their kits. I have no words, I'm just glad I'm not one of them...

Now, how do I faerie again?... lol.

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Originally Posted by MoroMurasaki

I could be misunderstanding and if I am I apologize - you mention if Medica II is ending or has just ended you will use it but if not you use Assize/Medica. While I would never fault anyone for overhealing via Assize if you have a Medica II ticking you don't then cast Medica, do you? It's not super clear, as I said I could just be misunderstanding.

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Did you perhaps read it as "(Medica II or Assize) then Medica" or "Medica II or (Assize then Medica)"? The intent was "Medica II or Assize or Medica" - i.e. it was a description of how I choose one AoE healing spell to cast when the party has taken significant damage. If that wasn't enough to bring the party to satisfactory health levels I'll cast another, but I won't waste MP casting Medica if it isn't needed. It's hard to quantify how much damage is significant enough to warrant an AoE heal; it depends on the flow of the fight and how good the others are in avoiding AoEs. My experience is undoubtedly colored by playing with randoms since my FC doesn't have enough active endgame players to form our own raiding group yet (but several members are my IRL friends so I'm sticking with them).

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Originally Posted by Eloah

When I read OP list, I was expecting like Largese, Lucid Dreaming, or Cleric Stance, not abilities engrained into their kits. I have no words, I'm just glad I'm not one of them...

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I wish they didn't exist. xD But I've seen them too often unfortunately.

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Originally Posted by Exiled_Tonberry

The thing is, using Divine Bension and such really clips into your GCD if you're not using it after Aero.

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But in a situation where you would need Divine Benison for a tankbuster, wouldn't it be better to clip into your GCD because you would have to heal less then? I'm quite casual but I feel I have to heal much less and can dps more if I use Divine Benison. I understand that in a 100% planned out rotation in a perfect group you may not need it maybe, but at least in normal farm content with random players it's a great ability that seems worth clipping into your GCD. (I've given up on trying not to clip into my GCD as WHM anyway though. If I tried it I wouldn't be able to use 80% of my oGCDs when they are necessary. But as I said, I'm more of a casual player anyway.)



Besides, what I actually wanted to say with this thread was not "which healing abilities do you sometimes forget to use?". I mean, I'm guilty of not using Eye for an Eye as often as I should. Sometimes I forget about Cleric Stance when it's already up again too and so on.
It's about healers who don't use abilities like Asylum, Divine Benison or Excogitation AT ALL or only like once or twice during a fight where it's needed or really useful, like extreme trials or savage raids.
I've seen those kind of healers so often now that I'm just tired of it and wanted to know if others have noticed the same... phenomenon. And what they think about it.

Me on WHM:

There's very few CD's worth holding. It's no good to you if it's not being used. The only exception I have for this is Benediction. After all, while it's no good if it's not being used, it DOES help to have at least one fail-safe. if we're in a raid or trial where I suspect shenanigans then I'd much rather have it in my back-pocket, preferably for the tanks, though I won't be stingy if I need someone else topped up immediately and I don't have time to long-cast (assuming Tetra is on CD).

Asylum:
I plop it on the tank during multi-pulls or plop it pre-mechanics/markers that inflict AoE.

Benison:
I plop it on tank pre-pull. If multi-pulling, either before the pull or in-between packs while we're all on the move. Can use it pre tank-buster. Use it on lower-health targets during mass-movement moments where long-cast healing isn't an option and other oGCDs are on CD. Failing all that, use it on the tank every CD. There is no reason NOT to use it as it is still a low-CD mitigation that you can weave during DPS/heals. Sometimes use it on myself during fights where you gain single-target "force the group to spread out" mechanics and the tanks are all healthy.

Thin Air:
I use it along with Lucid (provided casting needs to continue), thus you gain as much MP return as possible. Failing that, use it with Cleric Stance & PoM for Holy bombardment without denting your MP. Failing that, pop it whenever raises are required, with or without SwiftCast.

Presence of Mind:
I pop it on pull along with Cleric. Most fights open with regen + benison on tank, thus they're not going to need much attention while I throw stones. If multipulling, use it with TA+CS and go Holy Moley. I rarely use PoM for healing given how Healing is typically so telegraphed and we've oGCD abilities all over the place to remedy 'oh no' moments.

P-Indulgence:
I typically pop this after AoE heals just to ensure less need of more AOE heals. We've all had that moment where you medica the group to 90% health, PI just fills that gap. Failing that, there are repeat-AoE-mechanic moments where you can save a medica by simply using PI. It's an awkward ability but I use it more than various others.

Regen, only the WHM's best heal.

I was inspired to write here by a WHM wonder who used nothing else but Cures and Medicas during a dungeon run with an occasional Plenary Indulgence...

At that point you are not even playing an MMO, you are wasting everyone else's time and making their gaming experience miserable by having them carry you. Even worse, they were French so I couldn't effectively advice them to use the remaining 90% of their kit.

I see healers use all ones you mention rather regularly. Some of the abilities you mentioned are niche as well or sometimes just are not needed due to how steam roll a lot of the content is currently. It also could just be that you have been getting a lot of lazy or bad healers. Not sure why this is a surprise since I regularly run into the same kind of people playing tank/dps. Just the other week in pagos the tank on louhi had a ultimate curtana and ate every ae. Obvious that he was good enough to get the weapon but was just to lazy to do the content.

I think it depends a lot on context and your co healer. If I use EOS HoTs and my co healer crushes them by topping everyone off, you can bet I'm not going to bother anymore, might even pull Selene out.
If my co healer is topping tanks after busters... I'll save my excog. etc.. etc.. Hell, sometimes you're just waiting for misama II to fall off so you can weave your indom (becaue you know there's no damage output on it's way) and the other healer tops everyone off.... Fine I'll just use my aetherstack to dps.

I find that pugs are often a bit of a tug of war between healers. We try to come to a silent agreement on who heals what/how whilest getting as much dps out as possible.

Because they too lazy to think, since these abilities require proper planning and fight knowledge.

If you play the game enough as any job you start realizing that in order to preform your best; you must use most of your skills kit. I use most skills but some I don't always need depending on the fight. I think it's more than "get good" it's more about understanding each of the skills and when they best apply.

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Originally Posted by EaMett

I think it depends a lot on context and your co healer. If I use EOS HoTs and my co healer crushes them by topping everyone off, you can bet I'm not going to bother anymore, might even pull Selene out.
If my co healer is topping tanks after busters... I'll save my excog. etc.. etc.. Hell, sometimes you're just waiting for misama II to fall off so you can weave your indom (becaue you know there's no damage output on it's way) and the other healer tops everyone off.... Fine I'll just use my aetherstack to dps.

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This is why in any PUG I don't normally use AOE HoTs. Because they're always immediately invalidated.

I remember a v12n I had recently with a WHM cohealer (I was AST - I think I actually elected to go Noct; I usually use Di for A.Benefic after the split for my tank) who used the following rotation after Cosmo Memory: Medica II > Medica > Medica > Plenary Indulgence. I had actually popped CU to mitigate and give a HoT to tick up the party and ended up with it being 100% overheal on all but the tanks.

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Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

Once you do a fight enough, your careful planning of healing CD usage becomes automatic. Even in casual content: in V12N, I use my Earthly to heal large amounts of AOE damage, saving both myself and my co-healer the need to use a GCD heal and waste the MP (because we're gonna need it later for raising, typically).

For example, I use it to heal up after Omega-F's Laser Shower about a minute or so in, the one that happens right after the first Optimized Fire III. I also use it to heal up stacks, such as the one during Omega-M's second appearance where he does the donut AOE followed by the proximity AOE (this also helps because it detonates either automatically or at my command, and the party is topped off while moving out of Efficient Bladework - I can save my Swiftcast for something else, and I have no need to cast a GCD healing spell once the bosses stop being flashy; I can reserve my mana).

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This is a good use of Earthly Star. My issue when I use it, even when placed properly, half of my team (usually pugs) just stand outside of the range so I need to burn MP to heal them anyway. It is very annoying lol.

Pretty late to the party but from a sch point of view about excog:

Using it is a dps loss in many cases, since in order to use it, i gota sacrifice an aetherflow which could be an energy drain. So, the question is, is excog NECESSARY or not. if you survive without excog since theres no 2 back to back big damage (like from o4s exdeath, with his thunder 3 tank buster followed by his pretty huge auto attack damage that were known to be letal), then, if excog isnt exactly necessary, normally, WHM got tetra and Bene for tank healing right after a tank buster, and AST got Essential Dignity, which would heal less if i actually used excog here. Also, as a sch, if there is no danger of tank death immediatly after a tank buster, Fey Union is a better use of resources so that the Aetherflow can be spent on ED and the tank will still recieve a crapton of healing from the tether, just, not immediatly.

Excog is very very niche in its raid utility, only good for back to back big tank damage, since if its aoe followed by tank damage, you would be using Indom if Hots wont be enough, and if the other healer isnt wasting resources, they should have a big tank heal available as mentioned earlier. The priority for healing in general is :
free resources healing (fairy stuff and cohealer)> limited resource healing (aetherflow) > casts
In most cases, in a well oiled healer duo, you shouldnt need excog unless things go wrong or unless a specific mechanic calls for immediate spot healing without enough time for hots or with damage fast enough that maybe the cohealer wont have the time to use an oGCD if he's in the middle of a spell.

I did use it in o7s on the missile bleed dps, along with fairy tether, might have been overkill here, but its good if you dont 100% trust your cohealer. In o6s the offtank did take significant enough damage that the sch had to use a bit of aetherflow to be safe unless well geared.

Excog has the issue of being a trade off for dps, using it means no ED, as i wrote before, so, unless its absulutely required, or unless its planned by the 2 healers planning their whole fight, don't expect excog in general. You might see excog being used as an instant 800 potency heal when things go bad instead of the actual post tank buster prep heal, but excog itself hasnt been a make or break thing in most cases. If you got time to be healed and not in immediate danger of death, Fey Union and Whispering Dawn should usually be good enough.

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Originally Posted by Nyxn607

This is a good use of Earthly Star. My issue when I use it, even when placed properly, half of my team (usually pugs) just stand outside of the range so I need to burn MP to heal them anyway. It is very annoying lol.

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+_+ Sacrifice!

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Originally Posted by Nyxn607

This is a good use of Earthly Star. My issue when I use it, even when placed properly, half of my team (usually pugs) just stand outside of the range so I need to burn MP to heal them anyway. It is very annoying lol.

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That's when I play the "How low can you go?" game with cheeky DPS (mainly ranged) don't get in my Earthly Star.
Usually they end up coming by my side to signify their need for a full HP bar :D