How does healing *feel*?

In any game I play, I'm always interested how classes *feel* to players. I'm not looking for what you think about individual spells, but the actual feeling of just playing the class. Thrilling, boring, easy, difficult, relaxing...?

That's all I want to know! Describe to me how you feel when you play your chosen healing class/job. :)

Thank you!

I play a healer because it is by far the most interesting for me. Your job is to keep everyone alive. Especially the tanks. Without you no one advances and you can take care of yourself better than most classes. If someone is being a jerk to you, well stop healing them if you wish. On top of making sure everyone is ok you can also sneak in damage here and there when the opportunity rises. You don't have to just sit there spamming cure all day long. Make the fights interesting for yourself, but don't put you or your party in jeopardy. You are protected by the other classes and they'll come to your defense the moment you are in trouble. Think of everyone as your own personal body guards. Hehe.

I used to play dps classes, but I made the switch to healers and I doubt I will ever go back again.

Eos feels like a partner. I've grown bored of easy "maintenance healing", she handles that. She's not so smart, so I handle the intense parts and cooldowns. It fits my playstyle perfectly.

However, the party UI is horrid. I don't need to see other's cast times or DPS's MP/TP bars. With all the HUD customization elsewhere, I shouldn't have to mentally block unnecessary information. I'm reluctant to level Scholar until addons are out.

Can be boring in places like preatorium, exciting in ifrit hardmode, and just stupid stressful against crap like demon wall with 'meh' for DDs as a scholar.

When I read this topic title, I thought of the epic stoner guy from that 70's Show saying it! lol

But healing for me feels great. I'm used to tanking, but when ever I switch to a healing role, I always feel like there is that special link between me and the tank. So romantic! =3

(Also, I apparently have a twin from Hyperion named Ava. :eek: )

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Originally Posted by Nullie

I play a healer because it is by far the most interesting for me. Your job is to keep everyone alive. Especially the tanks. Without you no one advances and you can take care of yourself better than most classes. If someone is being a jerk to you, well stop healing them if you wish. On top of making sure everyone is ok you can also sneak in damage here and there when the opportunity rises. You don't have to just sit there spamming cure all day long. Make the fights interesting for yourself, but don't put you or your party in jeopardy. You are protected by the other classes and they'll come to your defense the moment you are in trouble. Think of everyone as your own personal body guards. Hehe.

I used to play dps classes, but I made the switch to healers and I doubt I will ever go back again.

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I've adopted a similar play-style, used to be a hardline DPS until I got sick of being at the mercy of healers who hadn't figured out the finer points of their class.

Being a Healer gives you a pretty good overarching view of the fight, good for leading raids, which is always nice for improving tactics later on. I suppose DPS gets a little less tantalizing as you get older - the blood stops boiling as fast.

With FFXIV in particular though Healing is pretty fun once you get to end-game. There's plenty of decisions you have to make; can the tank survive long enough for me to pump out some AoE heals on the DPS? Do I need to mitigate this next big hit with a Stoneskin? How important is that paralyze debuff on the BLM? Before that though, especially before the 40ish bracket, it usually boils down to a snooze fest of spamming Cure 1 most of the time. And I certainly would not suggest solo mob killing on any CNJ/WHM before 50 unless you really like mashing two buttons constantly.

WHM is pretty fun though once you get to the end, looking forward to trying SCH next =)

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Originally Posted by ttyl

Eos feels like a partner. I've grown bored of easy "maintenance healing", she handles that. She's not so smart, so I handle the intense parts and cooldowns. It fits my playstyle perfectly.

However, the party UI is horrid. I don't need to see other's cast times or DPS's MP/TP bars. With all the HUD customization elsewhere, I shouldn't have to mentally block unnecessary information. I'm reluctant to level Scholar until addons are out.

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I have a feeling accounts will get banned for using addons... seen it in 11 and I doubt 14 will be any different... this is SE not Blizzard

Healing doesn't feel good as a scholar. I'm always overhealing and wasting mana because my fairy decides to heal someone right before I do. My AOE heal is worthless. My single target heal works fine for the tank since he'll use the shield. However, most of the people hit by an AOE heal won't be getting hit again soon. So basically my AOE heal is at 50% power. It doesn't seem like sacred soil is a significant buff, especially considering it's stuck in one place and uses a stack of aetherflow. They should double its power and cooldown and the MP reduction should be changed to succor 1. The only fight so far where free succor II would have been useful was the last phase of Garuda, but I didn't have sacred soil yet for that fight. The UI is terrible for healing. Everybody has several icons next to them. If I have to sort through 32+ icons to see if anyone has a debuff I can remove the tank is going to die so the result is that I just never use leeches except on myself in PUGs and only on people who request it in Teamspeak while partying with my FC. I feel like I depend too much on bards for mana. The tools I have to regain mana rarely get used in boss fights since I spend most of my time dodging AOEs or frantically spam healing. There just isn't time to use them on cooldown consistently during boss fights unless you're a Korean Starcraft player with 300 APM.

TLDR; The UI sucks and I wish I was a white mage.

Edit: And succor II needs a bigger range. With everyone constantly running around to dodge AOEs it usually misses half the party.

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Originally Posted by Valiant

I have a feeling accounts will get banned for using addons... seen it in 11 and I doubt 14 will be any different... this is SE not Blizzard

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You need to do your homework on the game then. Square said UI mod support is coming 6 months or so after launch.

I like playing WTM but it really depends on the party... some people make it more stressful(pulling when they shouldn't, tank ignoring stray aggro... etc) while I've had parties that were so good at their jobs I almost fell asleep, it was that relaxing.

and then there are the parties that just rant at everyone from start to finish. -__-... not so much a healer centric thing but it makes it hard to want to heal them.

MP is manageable if you don't panic too often and making the call to "take a hit" to get the heal that the tank needs off or run and hope he makes it till you're in position lol

healing is a lot of fun but can leave you feeling like you're letting the team down when things go south(and they will) just remember that its a game and most of us are here to have fun!

Sch here, I've played healer-type classes in almost all mmo's I've come across (i.e. Ragnarok Online, WoW, etc). Must say that I enjoy healing in FFXIV quite a bit. Most of the end-game dungeons require constant movement for all classes, so even as a healer its pretty busy.

I don't trust others with healing so its how I end up with that role. Only thing I hate about being a healer is being unable to see a boss's casting bar (maybe there's a solution but so far the dps/tank just call it out for me). As a scholar it's somewhat underwhelming, since the heal numbers are ridiculously lower than a WHM in terms of AoE heals and base heal numbers. It's useful being able to top off a main tank's hp with a shield (esp. for PLD), but overall may feel lacking (especially for inexperienced healers).

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Originally Posted by Fisren

I don't trust others with healing so its how I end up with that role. Only thing I hate about being a healer is being unable to see a boss's casting bar (maybe there's a solution but so far the dps/tank just call it out for me). As a scholar it's somewhat underwhelming, since the heal numbers are ridiculously lower than a WHM in terms of AoE heals and base heal numbers. It's useful being able to top off a main tank's hp with a shield (esp. for PLD), but overall may feel lacking (especially for inexperienced healers).

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If you target the boss and use Shift+F it'll be desegnated as a focus target, more or less a secondary target on your screen somewhere (can be moved via the HUD settings menu) - you can see the name/hp/debuffs/cast bar with that.

The only downsides are if the boss teleports (all the primals do) then you will lose your target along with bosses that have long names partially obscuring the cast bar even if you upsize the focus window.

I enjoy healing a lot more in FFXIV than I have in the past. I am looking forward to the end-game dungeons and seeing how much harder and more challenging healing can get. Sometimes, especially in the DF, I feel that we can be under appreciated and are just there to be a "healbot". Many DPS should try being a healer cause it really isn't that easy. A good tank and a good healer in the same Dungeon have a great bond and respect towards one another.

Overall, healing feels good and I love helping random people in the world with raises/heals.

I am healing as SCH and I find this class being close to overpowered. In 4 man instances we get off 2 heals while WHM get only 1 that makes up for our weaker aoe heals and fact that we can have 2 heals on one target or 1 heal on 2 targets or 1 single heal and aoe heal put us even ahead imho. Also we can send fairy out of 30y range and cover larger area and we can use her to heal on the move, on top of our 20% of max hp instant heals we have better mobility and reach than WHM. Shields can give huge advantege when you can predict damage be it big hit on tank or aoe on raid.

But it does not stop with heals we get also defencive cooldowns, and while 10% less dmg from Sacred Soil does not sound a lot, it adds up very fast with tanks own CD and other CD we have, Eye for an Eye, Virus and Shadow Flare add even more dmg reduction and if we stack all 3 CD tanks take a lot less dmg. Did I mention that we have much less problems with mana than WHM?

We also have option to dps if tank takes little dmg, fairy heals don't get reduction from cleric stance and with all dots scholar dmg is extremly good for being healer.

So far only thing I see where WHM wins over SCH is in 8 man where 2 WHM is better than 2 SCH but then 1 WHM and 1 SCH is better than 2 WHM. We can also bring speed bufs to the raid.

P.S. I really enjoy healing in this game so far, there is always something to do as SCH, and I love the feeling of being in control of battlefield.

I play a healer in most games I play :)
I like it so far in FFXIV.. but I haven't reached end content yet and I'm not sure how it changes..
Depending on the party its either easy or frustrating.. especially when you get a tank who can't keep/pull hate >_<
But its a pretty awesome feeling when people thank you for a job well done.. so over all its a very rewarding class to play ^-^

It feels good. So good.

As many people have mentioned healing does feel like a more interesting role. Feeling wise it changes through the leveling range. To start out as a white mage I felt incredibly strong, sat back relaxing spamming the only healing spell I had "Cure". As I got to around the level 30's any mistakes made by people stood somewhere they shouldn't be made a noticeable difference and became more stressful. A lot of it depends on the tank and the rest of the party.

After playing whm/sch, whm feels kinda like pld is for tanking, where you get a ton of cooldowns and you sort of need to learn when to use them. It's very reactive as well and a bit dynamic with the freecure procs.
Scholar is way more about off-gcd healing spells alongside really nice aoe buffs/shielding. Between the two I'd definitely say scholar is the tougher one to play, then again that's only because I don't like having to control pets but at the same time I like sch more than whm simply because I enjoy having support abilities like fey glow/fey light/sacred soil/etc.
The thing about scholar having 2 heals at once while whm has one heal at once is whm heals more per heal so they can definitely burst heal someone a lot more effectively than a scholar, but a scholar is better for spread healing between a few people and giving support for whm's aoe heals with sacred soil/succor/fey covenant/etc.

I was White Mage main in XI for the many years I played it. Then situations forced me to quit the game and my desire to go back slowly faded as I heard the changes that were being made from LS mates. So I started looking for other games to play. Started playing GW2. Pretty solid game for buy to play. But there are no specific roles in that game.

When I got accepted into beta, I went right back to CNJ and missed healing way more than I thought I would. Many WHM and tanks complain about the enmity issue WHM has with over curing. But I like it. I like having to be careful, but at the same time not being able to be too careful else someone will die.

I did try a few other classes during beta. PUG, THM, ARC, ARN in phase 4, and they just weren't the same as healing.

I always play as magic classes in every game but this is the first time I choose healer role rather than attack or support role. (Since black magic without elemental advantage is boring)

The first time I entered the dungeon, I experience the pressure I never felt before. I use to think that healer role was easy since my friend (natural born tanker) always assigns his wife to this duty and she can heal while maintain her CHAT skill. But once I try it myself, I can't let my eyes away from party's hp bar.

I love this feeling of trying help team staying alive. The thrill is not less than playing DPS but its pressure is something you cannot find when playing other classes.

I love playing a White Mage. So far I've also tried out Pugilist, and I fate grinded Thamaturge to 26 for Swiftcast. I love the Pugilist, it's a blast and the spells look awesome with my tiny little midlander female in a halter top/skirt combo. Despised being a Thamaturge and was counting the XP to 26 to go back to being a healer. Healing is fun, nothing new, but fun and I'm proud to be maining as a WHM.

Anyone who has trouble keeping mp up on other classes will not like white mage. Spamming cure two will leave you dry. Regen is the best heal by far. Holy is the most awesome AOE I can think of.
White Mage is best mage.

I love WHM! Proud to be one. I only wish people would stop comparing WHM and SCH. They were created to complement one another not to compete. It does no good to say either is better. They both have strong and weak points. It really makes me feel sad for WHM's when people constantly say SCH is better. I am sure SCH's feel the same way. So please lets just say they are both good?

Thank you all for responding! I didn't think many people would respond, so this was a great surprise. :) I greatly enjoyed all of your responses; very interesting to see!

How is the healing in FFXIV while using a gamepad?

I've been curious to know if people use it and use it with ease, I'm curious about maining a healer, as I mained a DPS on FFXI for 3-4 years. However, I do enjoy using the controller since I'm used to that also from FFXI, I find the target system with the settings I have now fairly hard to interact with certain objects.

I hate it, It feels like I have no control, I am just reacting . talking Titan here, I couldn't complete it after 16 tries so I deleted my 34 whm, just not working for me.

I do much better with my tank. hats off to you healers. I will do everything I can to help you, but I will never play another in this game.

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Originally Posted by Krxfty

How is the healing in FFXIV while using a gamepad?

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I love the gamepad for 4 man instances. I keep target on the tank and up and down dpad slides through each party member it works well. For DPS support and quick left or right on dpad to fire off a dot or two without loosing target in the tank is great.

Action managent is easy, at least in whm, I don't like the sch pet hot bar on the gamepad, but I had to level the class to 15 and after that I got used to it.

I don't know if this will hold up for eight man content later but for now it's great!

Now what I hate the gamepad for is freaking fates as solo, tough to catch targets intime to add any damage.

I think more than anything you have to want to gamepad to work for you, and I do so it does ;)

White mage feels very generic and oldschool but I consider that to be fun.
That aside unresponsive and clunky.

Being a WHM for the most part has been fun, and a learning experience. I came in with more experience as a tank and dps from other MMOs, so I figured I would give healing a try just to see what it feels like to be on the other end. Like anyone, there are horror stories involved, but those thankfully are not the majority of my experience with the role. I think one of the winning points FFXIV has in its favor right now is that the challenge is ever increasing. There's so little room for error that you have to stay engaged in what you're doing just to ensure success in almost every fight; trash or boss. Used to be one of the more annoying aspects of other games that a high lv could just carry a lazy lowbie through anything.

Love playing WHM overall but I feel there is a few things that could be improved like the party UI having some options like removing resources (tp/mana/etc) since I don't need to know those and better de-buff icons.

Also I feel the 2.5 sec GCD is a bit long, I am used to 1 sec GCDs and healing feels....slow/unresponsive/clunky over all. Plus I feel there might be a tad to many buttons to deal with once you start adding the must have cross class abilities which can make things rather confusing at times. I guess practice with 30+ mandatory hotkeys will take some time to get used to again after playing GW2 for a year.

Lastly, PuGing the dungeons up to level 40 was fun but after that it gets pretty stressful and first person they always blame is the healer. Now I am used to this but in this game it feels worse than usual. There is absolutely no margin for error in 40+ dungeons and one slight mistake usually means a wipe which is good in some ways but also can discourage people from playing the healer since it is a high stress/high skill needed role. Sure it should not be face roll easy but on other hand it should be a little forgiving at least in normal modes; HMs is were top notch skill should be needed imo.

Solo wise: WHM feels boring and weak. I will have to focus leveling THM or ARC I guess for that.

For parties: exciting, stressful, and active all at once. It all depends group, if everyone (including me) knows the fight then it's not so bad but if there is any sorts of problems it becomes a real nightmare fast.

i love to play WHM, even sometime the party dungeon is hard, yesterday we play the garuda primal. four times do the final boss but cannot succeed, im feel bad healer because we cannot kill the final boss. but the party is always saying its ok, we are cool.. dont say sorry.. >.<
for me the important is to enjoy the game, accept the challenge and try try until its succeed.

Healing can be very boring at times! but.. it's the "oh S***" times that keep me doing it and that's why i love it :D

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Originally Posted by Valiant

I have a feeling accounts will get banned for using addons... seen it in 11 and I doubt 14 will be any different... this is SE not Blizzard

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You do know SE will eventually be putting out framework for people to make addons with right? They will be totally legit.

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Originally Posted by Kesia

In any game I play, I'm always interested how classes *feel* to players. I'm not looking for what you think about individual spells, but the actual feeling of just playing the class. Thrilling, boring, easy, difficult, relaxing...?

That's all I want to know! Describe to me how you feel when you play your chosen healing class/job. :)

Thank you!

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Of all the gameplay types (healing, dps, tank); healing best transfers to a 2.5GCD system. Healing in this game is well done and very active, but it can also be pretty stressful. Lots of fights are very healer intensive, especially when DPS and Tanks are being stupid. The long GCD can make a single mistake pretty painful, so you need to be on your toes.