Getting Discouraged with WHM

I have played CNJ in beta phase 4 and now am playing WHM. My question is this: I am trying really hard to be a good mage but my parties keep wiping and then blaming me. I am trying everything I know how to prevent this from happening, and take responsibility for the times I cant get out of AoE's quick enough but I honestly don't know what else I can do as WHM to keep all these people alive. Stone Vigil is a prime example...I could not heal 3 people sleep mobs and watch out for tank. Please any advice would be welcome. I am lvl 43 atm and my stats are:


INT 207
MND 270
PIE 200
Spell speed 329

Thanks in advance.

I'm not sure what to say since I haven't been to that dungeon (nor at that level. LOL). What I can tell you is to not lose any confidence with regards to your healing/supporting capabilities. It's not entirely your fault that the party got wiped unless you really didn't dodge that life-taking AoE. You have to take into consideration a few factors like:

- Gear of the Party-members (can be a good judge but not always)
- Experience of the Party-members
- Play-style of a member
- The Battle Plan
- Coordination... and many more.

The ones I have stated above are some of the few factors that can either increase or decrease the clearing rate of a dungeon or raid. Lacking one of them can reward you that fiasco.

I'll take your example in that Stone Vigil, I believe you have the Healer role and that your primary task is to keep everyone, especially the tank, alive (while being a sub-CC). If you're having difficulties in keeping their bars filled while CC-ing, then you should tell them that and have someone from the party assist you in doing CC. Just plan out the encounter and hopefully that things will go as planned. If it's someone's first time for the encounter, expect him/her to die at least once. I'm not gonna go to your stats since I'm a Gladiator.

Hope this helps

Ah, Stone Vigil - remember that one.
This is one of dungeons where tank is the most important factor of finishing it without wipes. If dps keep getting aggro and is hitting the same mob as tank (not randomly pulling mobs) then it is tank's fault and you should not be too worried about it.
Of course there are always tanks who say "The heal let me die", but in most cases it is due to bad pull or bad place where to stand.
Don't sleep mobs - just do it for mobs who have aggroed on you. It is not your job to sleep mobs and honestly nobody can expect you to do it as casting time is too long and you can only sleep one target at the time (blackmage can sleep more).

So anyways - don't be discouraged to play with WHM. Just watch your threat level and always remember - healing yourself comes first, then tank and then dps ;)

If it's Stone Vigil, the worst enemies in that dungeon are the Aevis and if you didn't notice they cannot be slept. They roam around the area and they will assist any enemies they are nearby. This includes if they are walking around and come across any enemies fighting, which is different than every regular enemy in the game.

Next time you get into a party try and let the party members know to take it slow and cautiously because these enemies will cause wipes quite easily.

Aside from that even if you are a healer it will be impossible for you to do your job if the rest of the players aren't doing theirs. This means the tank not having crappy gear and holding hate on enemies, DPS not pulling hate, and everyone staying out of AoEs.

Also check your weapon to see if maybe it is underleveled or damaged. The Magic Damage rating on CNJ weapons greatly affects heal potency and if your weapon actually breaks your heals won't even break the double digits.

Hi Noni,

I want to ask if you have tried to use a healing macro? The one I currently use on my WHM is:
/macroicon "Cure"
/ac "Cure" <mo>
/ac "Cure" <t>
/ac "Cure" <me>

What this does is when my mouse is either highlighted on the target's health bar on the party menu or on their actual character and begin casting Cure, it will cast Cure on that target. If my mouse over target cannot be casted on (such as currently moused over a mob) then it will heal my target instead and if I am targeting a mob and not moused over anyone then it will heal me. It takes some time to get use to but I macro Cure, Cure II, Stoneskin, and Regen to this and it helped a lot.

This is helpful because I do not need to click/press F1-5 to cycle to my target and heal while my focus is being taken off my character to avoid red circles. Also another advice is that if the tank is still above 60% and a red circle pops on me I tend to walk off and disregard my cast and then use a Cure II to make up for it.

Keybinds also help a lot. Instead of clicking and taking my focus off the fight I keybind all my abilities for quick responses, you do not need to copy my set exactly, but it is just an example of how I like it:
1 Cure
2 Cure II
3 Esuna
4 Cure III
5 Stoneskin
T Presence of Mind
F Repose
Push down Scroll Wheel (mouse) Medica II
Mouse Button 1 Regen
Mouse Button 2 Shroud of Saints
Ctrl 2 Protect
Ctrl D Benediction
Ctrl T Divine Seal

Sorry for double post: 1000 character limit.

I feel the exact same way about stone vigil.. I've had problems even attempting to cast a single cure because the tank couldn't keep hate.. It's really not you if you're doing what has been working.. That dungeon is awful as a healer -_-

That is a good thought, and yes I was aware of Aevis not being slept, however I may need to take a closer look at my weapon. It is:

Aetherial Walnut Cane

Two-handed Conjurer's Arm ..

Magic Damage 35

Auto-attack 20.26

Delay 3.20

It is only lvl 29 but I honestly cant find a better one.

If it's weapon you seek, you can buy the level 42 2h cane from your GC. If you run stone vigil enough, eventually you'll get Dryad Cane which is a green staff dropping from final boss. I'd still go with Lominsan Cane though, you get more MND and spell speed if you have another piece.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Birii

Keybinds also help a lot. Instead of clicking and taking my focus off the fight I keybind all my abilities for quick responses, you do not need to copy my set exactly, but it is just an example of how I like it:
1 Cure
2 Cure II
3 Esuna
4 Cure III
5 Stoneskin
T Presence of Mind
F Repose
Push down Scroll Wheel (mouse) Medica II
Mouse Button 1 Regen
Mouse Button 2 Shroud of Saints
Ctrl 2 Protect
Ctrl D Benediction
Ctrl T Divine Seal

Sorry for double post: 1000 character limit.

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What if ye PS3.
Boned.

I know exactly how you feel. After my first run of Stone Vigil, I was thinking I was completely useless as a healer and was about ready to give up, too. But now I realize we just had an undergeared gung-ho tank, and that combination is going to lead to inevitable wipes.

The mobs in Stone Vigil are harder than the bosses. It's important to take it slow and watch out for those patrols. The tank should be grabbing the patrols and pulling back so you can fight them 1 or 2 at a time. If you go rushing in, you'll end up fighting 4/5/6 enemies at a time, and you'll have a bad day. The last room before the final boss has 4 dragons in it. The treasure in the room is always junk and not worth it. Just skip it.

When I've done it with tanks I know, who take a slow and methodical approach to pulling, we've done it with little trouble.

As for the red circles and other enemy AOE, just get out immediately. Don't wait for your heal or whatever you're doing to finish, just run and cancel it and get out. The tank/dps will just have to survive those couple seconds until you can get off a clean heal.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Arriverderci

What if ye PS3.
Boned.

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Easy. Have focus on tank by clicking X. When dps needs heal, use up and down on D-pad to change to next target but don't click X to switch focus, do the heal and target automatically switch back to tank. Leave the target filter on enemies so you can use left and right on d-pad to target mobs to use repose. Also disable the top half of the filter settings windows to make the selection sticks.

Stoneskin really helps in that dungeon. I start casting it on the tank when the last mob is at 10% if the DD are any good.

And yeah, a new weapon will definitely help. :) For that dungeon, your heals need to be as strong as they can be. Probably even one on the market boards will be better than one that low of a level.

All the efforts to reveal the damage/heal mechanics seem to confirm that weapon damage is essentially the primary stat of importance. Get a new weapon and you'll find your heals to be much more effective. For the more detailed discussion, reference this fantastic post on the topic.

That aside, as others have said, careful enmity management is integral to Stone Vigil, particularly since the Aevis mobs cannot be slept. Your DPS should be making sure they target the same mob as the tank, the tank should be maintaining aggro on all mobs, and you should avoid spamming Medica if at all possible (AoE heals pull tons of aggro).

Yeah pick up a new weapon, your current one is way underleveled. As was mentioned, if you cannot find any on the market boards NPCs out in the world in level 40-ish camps will sell weapons you can use. Hell you can probably pick up a level-appropriate weapon right in Camp Dragonhead or one of the towns in Coerthas.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Birii

Sorry for double post: 1000 character limit.

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Just edit your first post to add more text ... ;)

I had 0 issues with Stone Vigil as healer, did not wipe once yet
And I was quite surprised because Cutter's Cry was a hot mess (oh so many wipe that I though I was a terrible terrible healer)

Don't think you are a bad healer, at worst you just need to practice more and keep your skills and equipment updated
It is also hard to find great synergy sometimes in DF

the succeed/wipe is sometimes out of your hand but Tank and Healer are the one who will always get accused first

here is the pattern:

• Tank blame the Healer
• Healer blame the Tank
• DPS blame Healer and/or Tank

Don't worry too much, do your best and keep trying
If you have good LS/FC, ask for some help as well ^^

For Stone Vigil:
1) DO NOT fight at a place where the dragon can swoop down and douse you all in fire... If there is an opening in the roof, let tank edge forward first and see if it swoops down...
Pull enemies to a safe place to fight them...

2) Aevis can't be slept as others said already, so whenever possible, try to get them first without pulling other enemies at the same time.

3) Be careful in the later part of the dungeon as ice sprites will spawn out of nowhere, and some Aevis roam around that place.
Always let tank go first to check what enemies are around, and wait a few to see if any Aevis is roaming.

4) Before every fight, try to put stoneskin on yourself and the dps.
Do not cast regen until tank is engaged.

5) DO NOT try to speed through the vigil...

I'm a Whm too and I think the main difference is as you get to higher lvl dungeons you play with more veteran players that have no patients for dying, unfortunately that's not a realistic outlook to have, this means that you will be subject to many a flame out for things that are entirely out of your control, this is sadly just part of the way people behave when afforded the anonymity of Internet gaming. Don't ever question your WHM skill, take solace in the fact people will always need healers, and if your using duty finder you will likely never encounter that person again.

I have been a healer for over 7 years. The biggest lesson i learned over the years, is everything is an experience. With experience comes the ability to determine the reality of the situation. If you keep at it, you WILL get better, and you will learn to see the signs. You will learn when it is in fact your fault, when it is the tank's fault and yes, those DPS that stood in the fire deserved it. And it was their own fault.

Understand one and only one thing from what i am trying to say - if a group wipes it is because something went wrong. I will not tell you what it was that particular time as i was not there. I will tell you this - if you keep trying you will know what it was. You will understand whose fault it is. If it ends up being your own fault - make it your mission to GET BETTER. If the fault lies with the tank, ASK (dont demand or dictate) that he help you out. If it was the DPS's fault... well they had it coming. :P