Please tell me there will be less healers soon...

[Zetor]

cross class arcanist and black mage spells. also, your not DPS, you excel at healing, preferably dungeon healing.

When you're questing, you are DPS - can't heal mobs to death. Even in the story scenarios where you have to help NPCs kill enemies, it's better to actively DPS their targets instead of healbotting them. BTW, when healing dungeons, I don't have many options either (small heal, big heal fueled by RNG proc, pbaoe heal, instant HOT), but that's a topic for a different discussion.

Which spells are worth to cross-class? Ruin is inferior to Stone II in every way, and I assume so is Thunder except if the DOT can tick fully. Speaking of which, Aero is only useful if I need to cast a nuke on the move, something to put on enemies in dungeons, and for tagging mobs in FATEs.

I'm not convinced it's even worthwhile to cast Aero against a typical quest mob that dies before the DOT can finish ticking -- I could just cast an extra Stone II in that time and do more damage. Or if a mob is casting an AOE cone at me, I'm better off using Fluid Aura to knock it back and spamming some more Stone II. Etc etc.

[Morthis]

Aero needs 5 ticks to beat Stone II, so less than 3 seconds left on it. Thunder needs 4 ticks, so less than 6 seconds left on it.

If you aren't at the point yet where these dots fully tick down when soloing, you will be soon. Killing slows down a bit at higher levels.

[Zetor]

Aero needs 5 ticks to beat Stone II, so less than 3 seconds left on it. Thunder needs 4 ticks, so less than 6 seconds left on it.

If you aren't at the point yet where these dots fully tick down when soloing, you will be soon. Killing slows down a bit at higher levels.

Good info, thanks! Yeah, I did a few tests earlier and found that trying to dot mobs just wasn't worth it, 2.5sec GCD and all. Still not sure it's a significant win to use Thunder / Aero on normal quest mobs (can dot ticks crit?), but even if it's just a break-even, it makes things a bit less monotonous

That said, just having another button to use during combat (or even a proc to make the next nuke instant / do more damage / whatever) would be great. Even a dedicated healer must spend most of the 1-49 levels solo killing mobs, after all!

[sheepysheepy]

is this still the case? i currently que for wp and cm at the same time and just take whatever pops up first, taking about 20minutes, definitely not instant, are the other dungeons just more popular?

[Tzain]

There is always a bottleneck in a queue system. The bottleneck is a moving target that changes based on lots of factors and going through them all would require a class on the subject. Lately, the bottleneck has been tanks for Brayflox groups. The ones I talk to are reporting near instant queues while my white mage can wait significantly longer.

One of the most interesting ones though was myself, as a white mage and a summoner bud queued in back to back Brayflox groups and ended up grouped with the same Black Mage in both runs but getting a different tank. I'm still trying to figure out how in the heck that happened.

[ProvidenceBreaker]

It's probably the most boring and mind-numbing experience I had levelling any class in any MMO, ever.

Until level 22:
Stone, Stone, Stone, Stone, Stone, Stone. Maybe Fluid Aura if the mob is casting something.

After level 22:
Stone II, Stone II, Stone II, Stone II, Stone II, Stone II. Maybe open with Stone if it's a melee mob and is worthwhile to kite (nb: pretty much none of the mobs the player has to kill during quests are like this)

Seriously? Stone, Aero while moving away from the mob, Thunder, Stone II until it reaches you, Fluid Aura it away from you and Stone II until dead. DoTs are usually close to finishing up as the mob is nearly dead, so they definitely aren't wasted. This is assuming level appropriate questing in average gear. CNJ has been far more efficient and dynamic in solo content than any other class i have tried. THM feels like a chore by comparison.

[Kako0404]

Been a healer all my life but in FFXI, WHM was very popular (official breakdown) given the authority, ease of finding group and provenance of the class. On the other hand, in SWTOR, Healers (Sorc/Ops) are actually one one of least popular classes. Everyone wanted to be Darth Mauls and Skywalkers chopping with their lighsabers lol. So it really depends how the classes are marketed.

[Leiloni]

No I mean I understand the new job thing, but in every MMO ive played, healers are generally not that popular, Even in this. I see 4x as many scholars as I do SMN. Its not about scholar though its about healers in general. There is ALOT of healers which is very unusual for an MMO...

It depends on the MMO. Some games I've played had a lot of healers. TERA had a lot of both healing classes because it was fun in that game, and it's fun in this game. When a class is well designed, fun to play, well marketed, and has other fun things like a mount or a fairy, etc. - it attracts players to it. Games that didn't have a lot of healers were games where the healing classes simply weren't as good as others. And that comes from someone who has played healers in every MMO I've played. Aion as well had a lot of healers - again, both healing/support classes in that game were really well designed and fun to play.

And at 50, I still get insta queue's in DF if I dare queue in DF, although usually I make groups with guildies or via shout chat.

[Kajimadoushi]

I've never really waited that long in duty finder to get into an instance and my main is a 35 WHM

There was even this one time in Haukke Manor when i got in, the 2 dps were the only ones in because apparently Tank and healer got mad at each other and rage quit. After 15minutes of waiting for new tank, we decided to do this on our own and actually pwned the place with a BLM, SMN and WHM only xD

So i don't know, maybe the population who do have a healer is big but the population of MAIN healers isn't all that big?

[Menae]

Seriously? Stone, Aero while moving away from the mob, Thunder, Stone II until it reaches you, Fluid Aura it away from you and Stone II until dead. DoTs are usually close to finishing up as the mob is nearly dead, so they definitely aren't wasted. This is assuming level appropriate questing in average gear. CNJ has been far more efficient and dynamic in solo content than any other class i have tried. THM feels like a chore by comparison.

Wouldn't even bother with stone I, actually, unless you are chain pulling or pulling things 3+ levels higher (or they have a bunch of red zone attacks, like treeants). OOC regen is high enough so that you will heal back most/all of your damage taken even if the mob gets to you a half second sooner.

I usually go Thunder>Aero>Stone II forevers.