Leveling a WHM

Just started a conjurer with the intent of leveling all the way to 80.

Already I’m worried about the journey. Dungeons and trials will be instant queue, so that I’m not worried about. What has me worried is how long it takes to kill stuff while doing all the solo quests, which is a good portion of the MSQ. (I created a brand new character)

Does it get better at higher levels?i understand I’m a healer so I don’t expect to be a killing machine, but at the same time I don’t want to be bored out of my mind while in combat. Looks like the only damaging spells we get are stone and aero. Saw a couple AoE spells later down the road, but it seems like it’s gonna be stone spam for quite some time. Which is making me dread leveling this character.

Yeah, its pretty much just one dot and one nuke all the way to 80. Your DPS will be roughly half of a real DPS.

Thanks SO much YoshiP, great game design.

Square Enix removed so much from our dps kits it's ridiculous. I honestly hate where the Scholar is right now...so boring. It's basically just mashing the same button a million times while juggling a single, low damage dot.

The Best advice I can give you is to just try to get used to the slower pace, it does get worse as you progress. And, of the 3 healers White Mages are top in damage.

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Originally Posted by Lium

Already I’m worried about the journey. Dungeons and trials will be instant queue, so that I’m not worried about. What has me worried is how long it takes to kill stuff while doing all the solo quests, which is a good portion of the MSQ. (I created a brand new character)

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For anything that doesn't have healer-specific tunings, it can take a long time. Even with good gear and doing the optimal rotation (Assize, PoM, etc etc).

Sorry. It's part of the healer life.

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Originally Posted by Truen

Square Enix removed so much from our dps kits it's ridiculous. I honestly hate where the Scholar is right now...so boring. It's basically just mashing the same button a million times while juggling a single, low damage dot.

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This has nothing to do with DPS output, however. Several skills or few skills, solo duties not specifically tuned for healers will be slow. The most recent expac has nothing to do with that.

Honestly, I want to say "it gets better" like I can do with any DPS or tank who starts slow, but IMO playing a healer is only fun once you're being pushed because healer downtime is ridiculously dull. It used to be passable enough to not get bored. Sadly much of the game's content doesn't push, though how much of that content pushes you of course depends entirely on how much you're optimising your heals and that really depends on your own skill, experience and gear. But it's there where healing can be fun. But I am also a "judge for yourself" kinda person and some people praise how healers play so continue giving it a chance if your wish, but from your current experience, it doesn't really get that much alleviated until the content is more challenging.

But if healer downtime being boring is your main issue and if WHM does end up being too boring for you. AST is another option, it isn't any more interesting from a DPS perspective and it too has a low damage output (they all do), but it has cards. Cards break up your downtime. If you've not got the old card system to compare against, you're much less likely to complain than old AST's. But out of the healers it's the busiest with the most to do.

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Originally Posted by Risvertasashi

This has nothing to do with DPS output, however. Several skills or few skills, solo duties not specifically tuned for healers will be slow. The most recent expac has nothing to do with that.

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In fairness OP also said they're bored out of their mind too and not just about the damage output. Lower damage output is expected of healer life, but being boring with little to do, that has plenty to do with the most recent expac.

Your damage spells are unfortunately limited, but you can still put out a significant amount of damage (About half that of a dedicated DPS) while having far more survivability. Don't forget that when you hit level 30 in the MSQ you should be able to accept a quest to unlock having your chocobo fight alongside you, which will help with open world combat, and you can dive deep into its attacker tree early on rather than using it for heals like a DPS would.

Ah I love my Chocobo. Getting close to level capping him.

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Originally Posted by Urthdigger

Your damage spells are unfortunately limited, but you can still put out a significant amount of damage (About half that of a dedicated DPS) while having far more survivability. Don't forget that when you hit level 30 in the MSQ you should be able to accept a quest to unlock having your chocobo fight alongside you, which will help with open world combat, and you can dive deep into its attacker tree early on rather than using it for heals like a DPS would.

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So, I’m starting to get the hang of it. It just required some adjustment on my part because I’v been nothing but DPS for years.

The chocobo is a big help. I just unlocked it and WHM officially last night. Stone II and that trait that increases its damage helps a bit too. There’s also a spell I’ve been using a lot that puts mobs to sleep (can’t remember its name). But at lower levels it has been tremendously helpful when dealing with multiple mobs. Stone actually hits fairly hard. Still takes a while to kill stuff and I’m bored during combat, but I’m also nigh impossible to kill. One Cure takes me back to 100% health. So I’ve started pulling multiple mobs.

And of course like I said in the OP, the instant queues are a huge bonus. Barely click join, and the window pops up

Healer solo leveling experience is.

- One button mash from 1-80.
- Slow at killing stuff
- Pretty much immortal

It is sadly the worst the healer leveling experience has been in a long time. All of them undergo this. AST have had the worst lore gutting of the bunch, while SCH has had the worst skill pruning of the lot. All healers suck equally now I guess.

I wish they gave a proc off of Stone, some X% change that when you cast Stone you can now cast like Water or something, just to give you some minor thing to watch for and a different button to press.

As a WHM you have the usual one dot, one nuke plus Presence of Mind, Assize and Afflatus Misery in order of acquisition.
Since you're pretty much immortal as a healer I just pulled as many mobs as I could reach without them resetting with my dot and then Holy spammed them to death at 45+. Faster and at least slightly more fun. But you're not going to get some exciting gameplay changes in regards to dps down the raid. At level 4 you have both skills and from then on, nothing really changes.
At really low levels, CNJ/ WHM hits harder than most dps but you fall behind the closer you get to HW when dps get higher potencies and more skils.

I still don't get why Aero III had to go while the literal useless button *COUGH COUGH* Fluid Aura *COUGH* is still there...and it was nerfed to boot!

this your all first MMO? in many MMOs this is how pure healers level.

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Originally Posted by Vulcann

this your all first MMO? in many MMOs this is how pure healers level.

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I mean...yes? Nicely dismissive there my friend. Let's counter it with my MMO experience as a guy who almost always plays a healer.

My time playing WoW, it was Cataclysm. My Holy Paladin had more to do. Throw in CC's and damage buffs, even more
SWTOR? My Seer Jedi Sage had more to do. Throw in CC's, as it's a CC heavy game, it gives to a variety of options you can use in your downtime.
FFXI? Loads at my disposal as a SCH healer in my downtime.
Archeage? I did a mix of a healer, bard and some DPS I cannot remember off the top of my head, filled healer shoes with plenty more to do in my downtime.
GW2? All right, this is a stretch, but Guardian, I filled the healer shoes, lots of fun stuff to do.
FFXIV: ARR? I had more to do as SCH main than I feel I do now. It didn't feel like spamming the same ability over and over. Though even FFXIV: ARR healer downtime wasn't amazing then, but better than what we have now and enough to not cause complaint.

In each of these MMO's leveling as a healer felt much less of a drag.
In this very MMO, back when I started leveling as a healer felt much less of a drag.

Sure in each MMO the healer DPS experience is usually lesser versus an actual DPS experience , that is to be expected, but /how/ lesser is variable and is usually better than what we have at the moment.

Leveling as a healer isn't so bad. The MSQ is like 90% back and forth quests or just have you kill 3 mobs here and there, and there's a dungeon every couple levels.

And WHM does solid damage among all the healers.

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Originally Posted by AduroT

I wish they gave a proc off of Stone, some X% change that when you cast Stone you can now cast like Water or something, just to give you some minor thing to watch for and a different button to press.

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Honestly 1 dps proc for healers would make a world of difference I think. It's why Archer is imo the most fun job for lower levels (e.g. Sastasha). It got a DoT and that Straight Shot proc.

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Originally Posted by AduroT

I wish they gave a proc off of Stone, some X% change that when you cast Stone you can now cast like Water or something, just to give you some minor thing to watch for and a different button to press.

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I'd like them to include the other elements into our damage rotation. Water might as well not exist.

I wish there where more stats like darkness and light. Fire and Ice, Wind and lighting. Just as the previous FF. Holy is a joke most of the time. And the only nuke we have takes too much time to regenerate. Having different kind of damage and shield would make things more interesting.

Initially I was worried about the DPS part of WHM, because I could already tell it was much slower than the War classes I tried to start with.

At some point in the journey, maybe around level 30 or 40, I stopped being worried. The pace is not so bad. Or perhaps because I was playing on an XP boosted server for new characters. Yes, the WHM dps is slower... but viable... and once I got Stone III or Stone IV, paired with Holy, I did not mind the questing at all. I also crafted my weapon and gear to make sure my item level was maxed out every 20 levels.

Look forward to the next expansion for more exciting Healer changes because everyone around the globe feels the same way about healer DPS skills as you do. They are boring but they work. Enjoy the queue time and the special WHM mount.

I didn't read all the replies so idk how many times this has been mentioned, but use your Chocobo as much as you can. They really make a difference, like a huge difference. Especially once you get them up a few lvls in their dd branch.