It's me, again! (AST checkup)

So, I took a hiatus, and I just recently started playing again, figured with Shadowbringers on the way I'd make a push to get a few more jobs up to at least 60, and that brings me back to AST.

It took a few dungeons to break off the rust (I think I got most of it by now), and I happened to be streaming some random stuff for a friend, when I did a Sohm Al run that the rest of the group seemed to have liked.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/426827802

So, here's me with a 'Good/Bad/suck?' type thing. For some reason, Twitch's Highlight system cut off the first few minutes of the dungeon, I struggled a bit because of trying to target specific enemies with all of those stupid poison plants in the way, but nothing that big happened.

I think that Tioman fight went pretty well all things considered!

BTW, I moved to Cactuar not that long ago to join with a friend's FC.

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Originally Posted by Maeka

I struggled a bit because of trying to target specific enemies with all of those stupid poison plants in the way, but nothing that big happened.

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Bind Cycle Up through Enemy List / Cycle Down through Enemy List to something convenient (I think the default is alt+num8/6, not sure though). This can also be bound to mouse wheel in /characterconfig ->ControlSettings->Mouse. You can use these to target enemies without having to sort through "trap"-type enemies.

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Tioman fight

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You don't have to top everyone off every time they take damage. You spent lots of GCDs casting Benefic/II on people who were in no danger of even getting hit soon. There are few unavoidable arena-wide AoEs in msot fights, this one included. Natural HP regen will be mostly enough for your DDs; just throw out an Aspected Helios after the unavoidable arena-wide AoE. You also used Benefic/II+Dignity on the tank. Dignity heals for more the lower the target's health is. Using it to top someone off is a waste. Better would be to use Dignity on the tank when low, then reassess healing needs later.

Hullo! :d I haven't watched the whole thing, but actually that's only because I have so much to say already from what I did watch (which was a sizable chunk!)

Okay, first. I think you're way too hard on yourself. To take what someone else said recently about tanking and apply it to healing: It isn't an exact science in scenarios like this. It's an art.

Your reaction times are excellent. When I tank, that's what I look for most in a healer.

I do, however, have some genuine advice!

As Rongway pointed out, when you cast Benefic II at the start, it wasn't really necessary. DPSing and then using Essential Dignity when the tank gets truly low would have been better. What "truly low" means is going to depend on your latency, the tank, and the situation. Your tank was good, and for me, it would be under 50%.

But here's the thing: You cast Benefic II because you had just started and were still gauging the situation. It's always okay to play it safe. When you get more experience, you'll have a better understanding of the game's rhythm and you'll start making plays that you think are risky now but are actually not at all.

Where you're at right now, I'm at with tanking. ^^

The general gameplan of pulls like this is to do as much healing with Essential Dignity (and your regen!) as possible, which means letting tanks drop low enough to use it without overhealing. Edit: I should mention that this is the gameplan, but it's not a hard and fast rule (remember, art, not science!) It's better to overheal than underheal in any sort of pug/random content.

You can also Combust on mobs as you're running.

One last thing: You want to get used to Malefic -> Draw -> Malefic -> Spread. That sort of thing. You can use your card skills right after Malefic casts before the GCD is up. This, to me, is tricky and annoying to get perfect in dungeons, so don't think too hard on it. It's just something worth practicing. You don't need to do this while spamming Gravity, as you'll already have used a card buff before the Lightspeed -> Gravity spam.

You're definitely going to achieve a level of excellence most people can only dream of. It's a shame you're on Cactuar. I'd mentor you myself if I could. c:

Edit #24178: Onelastthingforrealthistime. :d Trust your regens! Experiment with letting your Aspected Benefic do most of the healing, and then bring the tank back from "oh god please heal me" territory with Essential Dignity.

Thanks for the input!

I have somewhat bad experiences with Tioman, and it takes a lot of trust for me to relax during that fight, SO many wipes, so many people failing to dodge stuff, I never take it for granted that they will in fact dodge, especially the star-shaped attacks.

But yeah, I will admit being a little over-cautious. That comes from a couple times I've had to main-heal that fight as a RDM, I suppose, and my first few times going through it as WHM, people dropping dead constantly.

I did notice one thing in my video is I was missing a lot of card draws, I think the extra stuff going on, I've gotten somewhat lazy about pulling cards, and also working out the best ways to handle the ability to hold cards, when I should Royal Road, when I should pass a normal card or hold it and wait for a Royal Road, etc.

Binding the cycle enemies...hmm, might try it with the mousewheel maybe? Hmm, but if I do that, then I might not be able to use the mousewheel in menus... though admittedly very few menus actually make use of the mouse wheel though, right? I didn't think of that. huh. I really need to try that. That's been consistently a huge "thing" with me in the game, especially enemies that are too tall to fit on the screen.

As far as combusting on the run... I have Combust on Shift+4 and that creates a few problems trying to shift+ anything while running though I suppose I could set auto-run for a sec if I plan on doing that maybe? I'll give it a try!

And thanks for the compliment about the response times! I've really been trying to work on hitting the F keys faster when stuff happens, and/or casting a spell so that it lands a second after someone takes damage. I find people seem to love that, a tank buster happens and before they even get time to lookat their HP meter, most of it is already healed back. Though I've found it's dangerous, mistiming means I heal for 0 and that sucks. I've had that happen a few times. I'm getting better at the timing though.

As for me achieving a level of excellence, I've limits to how much I can process at once, sadly. Reactions and stuff are good, but when there's too much going on, my mind just starts melting and I start locking up and fumbling everywhere even on basic stuff. But perhaps that's a barrier I could someday pass?

Your mind melts because you're actually doing something that is very, very hard -- optimizing your play in content that is a lot less predictable.

My Combust is on Shift+1. I use an MMO mouse, and I just tab target and toss it out without worrying too much about whether I get everything or not.

The key is to not stress yourself out and overthink it.

I highly, highly recommend watching Baka Games/Tsuki's videos. Watch what he does. Take note of his mistakes -- he'll forget Cleric Stance sometimes, for instance. He'll forget to use Thin Air (watching his WHM is educational too).

Then do better. You can do it.

You're playing exactly how I used to play. I only needed experience and someone to show me that even the best players make mistakes (and enough people have shown me to make me realize I was better than I thought).

I think in terms of fundamentals the main two areas you have that could use work are keeping your GCD rolling and not healing over your own HoTs. As an aside I would also say think about a debuff before you Esuna it - you and the dps aren't taking any damage but poison during the initial sets of trash so you're generally safe to let those tick.

For example let's look at the start of the first boss. You apply an Aspected Benefic to the tank (and use the time to move! Good instinct!) but then when he starts taking damage instead of letting your HoT tick you Benefic him. This is a really good way to find yourself OOM because the Aspected spells are quite costly. You do a similar thing but with AoE a bit later on, applying Aspected Helios but then casting another Helios while the Regen is up and no one is in any danger. There is a time for a Helios after an Aspected Helios but it generally is only applied when you need to top the group up for another incoming hit. I think you even Benefic yourself around the same time despite only missing maybe 1k health. It's really MP and GCD inefficient and can leave you without the necessary resources if the need to heal a lot happens to arise.

Speaking of GCD efficiency - this is your other big opportunity. I see you get into your groove on some Malefic spam and it's wonderful but in general you've got a lot of down time specifically surrounding using card actions. These are all oGCD which means if you've just casted Aspected Benefic, Combust or Malefic you've got a window to take a card action or two. It also means it's a free for all during Lightspeed. I know it's a bit harder to find that happy spot on AST compared to some other jobs since most other jobs that have cast times only have one cast time (or instants) on the majority of their spells but AST has long casts for the non-instant heals, a fair number of instant things used frequently and the reduced Malefic cast time. It's just something that will come with time but it's something to be cognizant of.

The last thing is a good rule of thumb for most jobs but can be particularly important on AST and that's keeping your CDs on CD. At 70 (or really just 60+) the best MP management tool you have is extending Lightspeed or Lucid with Celestial Opposition. Syncing these up and keeping them synced is important so using all your buffs more or less as they arise unless you're holding them for a specific mechanic is generally a best practice. This also applies to Essential Dignity! It's a free (and potentially huge) heal every 40 seconds. I think it's the single best single target heal in the game right now, with quick targeting you can cast a Malefic on a boss and hit the tank with ED without even clipping your GCD.

I don't mean to come off overly critical, I know text doesn't convey tone very well, but it's all coming from a good place and I think just by being willing to not only accept but actively seek out feedback means you're on the road to being a much better player than most! Keep up the good work!

*reads the latest couple responses*

I'm still trying to break out of that "Save emergency-type spells for emergency that probably never come" thing...

Essential Dignity, for some reason, gets seen like Benediction... I keep thinking it's a "I better not use this in case I need it 10 seconds later" type thing. need to break myself of it, true! Took me awhile to break myself of having that mentality towards stuff like Rampart back when I used to tank.

I do admit I need to work on that, and actually use it more often.

And I'm still learning just how much my heals land for, and what I can expect to get out of them. What I forgot to mention, is the run before this one, I had done with a Lv41 weapon equipped and I had to spam Benefic2 the whole time (this was in Dusk Vigil) just to keep people alive because I did not notice I forgot to change my weapon when I arrived in HW dungeons, lol.

So now I have a good weapon and now suddenly my heals are landing for way more and I'm getting used to it, albeit slowly!

But yeah, very valid points, thanks!

EDIT: Also something else to note, my main is a WHM so I'm used to being an endless mana battery. I full well know I need to actually watch my MP as AST, lol. I have nearly run myself out a couple of times.

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Originally Posted by Maeka

I'm still trying to break out of that "Save emergency-type spells for emergency that probably never come" thing...

Essential Dignity, for some reason, gets seen like Benediction... I keep thinking it's a "I better not use this in case I need it 10 seconds later" type thing. need to break myself of it, true! Took me awhile to break myself of having that mentality towards stuff like Rampart back when I used to tank.

I do admit I need to work on that, and actually use it more often.

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Last I read, Dignity maxes out at 1000 potency when the target is at 1HP, and is about 700 potency when the target is at 50% HP, so if you use it when the target is at half, it's essentially a frinstant Benefic II. The beautiful thing about Dignity is that its cooldown is so short you can use it 4~5 times before Benediction would cool down. If you use it frequently, that frees up 1.5 GCDs per minute that you could spend on DPS or AoE heals. It also frees up about 1000 MP per minute, which should help since you mention MP worries on AST.

Speaking of MP worries, more frequent use of Lightspeed and Synastry will help relieve some stress there. Lightspeed reduces the cost of 4~5 spells by half, and if it happens to fall within your Celestial Opposition (later, lv60 action) it lasts for 9~10 spells. Synastry will also save you MP on heals, as its piggyback heal effect can be used like a stronger version of Largesse if the tank is taking lots of damage, or to spread the healing around without having to take extra actions or spend MP on AoE heals.

Ahh, cool, I'll have to keep that in mind! Thanks!

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Originally Posted by Rongway

Synastry will also save you MP on heals, as its piggyback heal effect can be used like a stronger version of Largesse if the tank is taking lots of damage, or to spread the healing around without having to take extra actions or spend MP on AoE heals.

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I'm fairly certain they nerfed the healing recieved bonus on Synastry so that if you cast a direct heal on the person you've targeted with it they don't recieve any bonus heal beyond the initial hit.

Also using ED on CD can once you're I believe 68 can reduce the CD of Lightspeed by 5 seconds. I honestly don't pay much attention to CD reduction, it may only be when ED crits or something like that, but it's defintely another reason to use it frequently.

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Originally Posted by Veis_Alveare

I'm fairly certain they nerfed the healing recieved bonus on Synastry so that if you cast a direct heal on the person you've targeted with it they don't recieve any bonus heal beyond the initial hit. .

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They get the piggyback heal whether you Benefic/II/Aspect yourself, them, or another party member. It's counted as having an unspecified source though, so it won't show up in the chat log and you won't see it if you have pop-up text disabled (like a DoT).

I'm not sure why they programmed it that way instead of making it flying text like a HoT tick, other than it might have implications for enmity generation (that is, the piggyback heal doesn't generate additional enmity).

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Originally Posted by Maeka

*reads the latest couple responses*

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Just relax. c:

Let yourself learn. Go easy on yourself.

Any mistake you make will be caused by inexperience, and I guarantee you it will be the result of you trying to compensate for someone else's mistake.

This is totally different from the sort of negligence, willful ignorance, or belligerence that gets people kicked from groups.

You are attentive, conscientious, you learn, and you are putting in a lot of effort. No one can fault you for anything.

We've all wiped parties. We've all stood in something and exploded. We've all forgotten how to do a mechanic.

See, responses like the ones in this thread from various people are why I love the XIV community, and why I say that it is miles better than WoW's.

If I had posted something like this on WoW oboards I would have gotten a 5-10 page thread of people telling me I suck and I should go back to playing Hello Kitty or something, lol.

Thanks! I'm still reading responses, and hopefully here sometime like when I get home, I can get the opportunity to do some more dungeons and see if I can slowly start working some of this stuff in.

So, a thought came to me as I was doing today's Trial Roulette..

One thing I have always sucked at as a healer is trying to get into a decent routine of how to access the F5 through F8 keys to heal the latter 4 people of the alliance quickly and easily because I've found that the only way I can do this reliably is click-target them from the group window which is far slower than the F keys. It works but there's a good 1-1.5s delay and it limits my movement when I'm trying to do that.

Part of the problem is that I use an ergonomic keyboard and F6+ is split up from the rest of the F keys (google image 'microsoft natural keyboard' if you've never seen one).

Kinda wondering if maybe I should try pulling out the Nostromo or something for that.

EDIT: Looking at it, I'm not sure that would work either, because it does have 14 keys, so 12 hotkeys + 2-3 extra keys but that doesn't fix the targeting problem.

Hmm.... Shift+Mouse Wheel for Group List? That'd be a little faster..

EDIT2: Nevermind, there's no Cycle Party List, only Alliance. Weird.

I click on party members. c: It can be faster than you think!

I have a single macro that is basically just <tt> to quickly swap between the MT and an enemy the MT (or anyone else I've selected) is targeting. I click everyone else.

My UI is setup in such a way that I keep the party window near the bottom, to the side of my skills and enemy list/healthbar, and I make sure to keep my mouse close to it at all times.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.n...40E87ABC5732A/

Edit: This is a better screenshot of how I setup my HUD. I made some improvements today, actually.

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Originally Posted by Maeka

Hmm.... Shift+Mouse Wheel for Group List? That'd be a little faster..

EDIT2: Nevermind, there's no Cycle Party List, only Alliance. Weird.

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For some reason they didn't use the same terminology for Alliance targeting as they did for Party targeting. It's "Scroll up through Party List" and "Scroll down through Party List" in the mouse wheel settings.

Also another question:

I attempted to bind one of the buttons on my mouse to "Cycle Down Enmity List" and when I do this, it highlights the mobs in the Enmity List (kinda like mousing over them) but won't actually target them (my previous target is still targeted).

What's up with this?

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Originally Posted by Maeka

I attempted to bind one of the buttons on my mouse to "Cycle Down Enmity List" and when I do this, it highlights the mobs in the Enmity List (kinda like mousing over them) but won't actually target them (my previous target is still targeted).?

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That's the soft target feature. It's meant to allow you to use a one-time buff or spell at someone and then go back to what you were doing on your original target. Maybe you want to Combust a secondary target and then go back to Maleficking your main target, or throw a card at a DD before going back to focusing on the tank. That's what this is for. It'll use your next action on your soft target, then switch you immediately back to your hard target.

If you want to convert it to a hard target, you can press the Confirm button (numpad0 by default, but you could bind it to a mouse button or something if you want).

That won't really work for what I want it to do then... mmh. That's kind of frustrating. Wish there was a way to turn that off. I wanted a hard-target, one button solution that instead of cycling through targets near me, I wanted it to cycle targets in the enmity list so that I wasn't limited by what was in my direct viewing angle that I can pick up a target and start DPSing immediately. But having to hit a confirm button after finding the right enemy means yet another keybind and at that point I might as well just click the target from the enmity list, something I was trying to get away from in the first place.

Also.... changing the mousewheel so that it cycles the party list... is that hard or soft target?

If you have nothing selected, it will select that party member. If something else is already selected (including an enemy), it will soft target.

Hmm. In a way that could be good? But in a way that could be bad. I'll have to play around with it I suppose.

I just took it into a dungeon, and it's a little awkward.

It's extremely sensitive. There were times when I brushed over my mousewheel by mistake and ended up soft targeting myself and not being able to attack.

With practice, it'd be a really valuable tool. But I'm not sure it's better than just clicking on everyone.

Yeah probably just end up clicking, was kinda hoping I could come up with some other way of doing it but apparently not lol.

Ah well I've done plenty of fights clear up to Lv70 by clicking; I can just continue to do that.

Also, did another run (Aery this time) today and I think I'm getting more into the habit of letting Aspected Benefic do most of the work, I streamed this morning's run and other than a few panic moments I think it probably went a lot better this time. I didn't actually highlight it so one might need to sort through it a little (https://www.twitch.tv/videos/428266454 @ about 24min in is when it starts). Still end up missing card draws when crap hits the fan though lol.

And I keep forgetting about stuff like that link heal skill (Syn something rather). And not entirely sure when to use Time Dilation... also, does that work on Card buffs too? Thusfar, I've been using it to extend Aspected Benefic in boss fights so I could spend the first 30+ seconds of a boss (or large pull) not having to worry about the tank much but I'm not sure that's really where I should be using it.

If it works on card buffs, maybe I should get an Enhanced RR and Dilate an Enhanced Balance on somebody or something instead?

I will watch in a bit. :d I just want to talk about Synastry, Time Dilation, and Celestial Opposition right now.

Think of Synastry as Largesse that works on only one person. It's great for AoE pulls (arguably the only place where Synastry is truly useful). It can be tossed on someone else to heal two people at once, but it's almost never required.

Time Dilation can be used for two things: To extend Synastry's and Aspected Benefic's durations, and to extend a single card buff. Synastry -> Aspected Benefic -> Time Dilation is a good combo.

AoE Balance + Celestial Opposition is my go-to for boss fights. The math suggests that, in 4-man content, a 200% buff can do a lot of work when it's put on a particularly talented DPS, provided the fight will last long enough.

For now, don't overthink it. Don't stress yourself out too much over how to use Time Dilation or Synastry. Just focus on using the combos I detailed above.

Edit: I watched up to the first boss (and a little beyond that, actually).

It's great that you experimented this way because now you probably have a much better understanding of what you can and can't get away with. It's like Van Arn says: The only thing you can't do is let anyone die. And you didn't. So, good work!

So, the goal here isn't really to let Aspected Benefic and Essential Dignity do most of the healing. It's to minimize the amount of GCDs you use to heal. This next part is extremely important: While maintaining the comfort level of the party.

We don't want to give tanks heart attacks just to save a GCD.

When a tank drops to about 50% and Essential Dignity is on cooldown, cast Benefic II. You may have to start the cast a bit early if the tank is taking a lot of damage.

But this one GCD will save a lot of heartache, and you still won't overheal this way -- it'll usually place the tank at around 90-95%, and the Aspected Benefic will take care of the rest of the incoming damage.

Just repeat this process over the course of the pull. Default to ED, then a single Benefic II.

Think of the tank's HP as a timer. When the tank is taking a lot of damage (like in an AoE pull), Regens are damage mitigation more than they are heals. They exist to add time to the timer.

Once you commit all of this to muscle memory, it'll go very smoothly for you.

Time Dialation is best used to extend a single target card which (in 4man content) should be your go-to in terms of cards. Theoretically an AoE card seems to march up at first in terms of people buffed (50% × 4 people = 200% like Extended would) but when you look at it that way you're weighting tank and healer damage being buffed as being the same as a buff on a dps which shouldn't really be the case.

I get that sometimes the dps are really weak, more than once I've found myself Enhanced Balancing a WAR because it was the best option available to me, but in general dps should be doing considerable more damage than you or a tank. For dungeons what I look for as far as performance indicators of a good dps is basically are they properly AoEing and are they tossing out their utility abilities. Most people who do those things are going to be worth single buffing because they probably know their role.

In short - for a dungeon/light party setting you should shoot for Extended cards first (Balance > Spear > Arrow) then Enhanced and Expanded should kind of be a last resort. This is due in part to proper use of time Dialation really increasing the card uptime on DPS.

You shouldn't be afraid to extend regens on a tank (though if you're going to do so might as well load them up with both regens and potentially even the one from CU and maybe even the Largresse'd versions) but it also shouldn't be your primary goal with Time Dialation in terms if efficiency. Saving yourself one GCD reapplying Aspected Benefic is almost always lost potency when compared to what a dps could do with extra time on a Balance.

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Originally Posted by Veis_Alveare

In short - for a dungeon/light party setting you should shoot for Extended cards first (Balance > Spear > Arrow) then Enhanced and Expanded should kind of be a last resort. This is due in part to proper use of time Dialation really increasing the card uptime on DPS.

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You're not really wrong, but we need to be more flexible in PUG content. An AoE card is usually the safest bet because you never know who's going to fumble their rotation, stand in something and panic, die, etc.

The difference between an Expanded and an Extended is actually pretty small.

If you know for a fact one DPS is completely outdoing another, it's fine to use the 200% buff.

We also don't want to put Maeka on information overload. That kind of optimization depends entirely on the group. Learning AST is tough enough as it is without having to also pay such close attention to what the DPS are doing.

Edit: The biggest thing that Maeka needs to do is make his/her buttons rote. To know where they are without thinking about them. Muscle memory first, otherwise people become overloaded and burn out.

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Originally Posted by Lynesse

Edit: The biggest thing that Maeka needs to do is make his/her buttons rote. To know where they are without thinking about them. Muscle memory first, otherwise people become overloaded and burn out.

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I myself will second this, because there are times I just completely forget about buttons, or I end up pausing for a second or two trying to find something, like Synastry (at the end of that boss fight, IIRC it took me nearly 2 seconds to remember where it was, find it on the bar, and then hit the key combo to activate it).

I've gotten Draw/Spread and Undraw working mostly, the main heal buttons down pretty good... starting to use Lightspeed more often without having to think about it, eventually end up adding in Synastry and Dilation too.

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Originally Posted by Maeka

I myself will second this, because there are times I just completely forget about buttons, or I end up pausing for a second or two trying to find something, like Synastry (at the end of that boss fight, IIRC it took me nearly 2 seconds to remember where it was, find it on the bar, and then hit the key combo to activate it).

I've gotten Draw/Spread and Undraw working mostly, the main heal buttons down pretty good... starting to use Lightspeed more often without having to think about it, eventually end up adding in Synastry and Dilation too.

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Right now, you're ignoring buffs that you don't need in order to focus on the more critical parts of your job. This is perfectly normal!

Using Synastry and Time Dilation each time you cast Aspected Benefic will teach you to stop ignoring them by making them rote. Using Time Dilation with your cards right now isn't good for memorization because card draws are inconsistent.

When do you stream? I'd be willing to sit in and watch. All I'm doing right now is leveling SCH.

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Originally Posted by Lynesse

Right now, you're ignoring buffs that you don't need in order to focus on the more critical parts of your job. This is perfectly normal!

Using Synastry and Time Dilation each time you cast Aspected Benefic will teach you to stop ignoring them by making them rote. Using Time Dilation with your cards right now isn't good for memorization because card draws are inconsistent.

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Yeah, that's how I kinda looked at it! As long as I do my primary job first lol.

But I do want to actually do better too!

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When do you stream? I'd be willing to sit in and watch. All I'm doing right now is leveling SCH.

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That is... rather inconsistent, depending on my work schedule, and other factors. I will try, though, to do a few dungeon runs around noon-ish EST when I can, though sometimes I just throw in runs other times too! Uh. Hmm. I mean I can try and drop a message in here ahead of time or something but I dunno, it'd require you to actually see it! lol.

EDIT: Unless you were interested in something like a discord or steam or something but the lack of a PM system makes that somewhat difficult without everybody else seeing it!

If you have Steam, you can add me if you like: https://steamcommunity.com/id/boopsuhide/

It'd be easier to get a proper one-on-one. I do this with a lot of people. I actually do what the mentor crown asks of me. :d

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Originally Posted by Lynesse

If you have Steam, you can add me if you like: https://steamcommunity.com/id/boopsuhide/

It'd be easier to get a proper one-on-one. I do this with a lot of people. I actually do what the mentor crown asks of me. :d

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I'm getting close to that crown too, like <100 dungeons! hehe.

Though I dunno if I'm really in the position to actually BE a mentor, eh, maybe for basic stuff. But okay!

EDIT: Okay, I sent one. The avatar should look like a silver dragon.