If I struggle on Titan Story Mode, should I hang up my wand?

[ColorOfSakura]

No worries OP - I had a horrifically difficult time healing through Titan Story Mode when I fought him and an even worse time with Garuda Story Mode. Those battles are intended to be pretty difficult. Titan thankfully has a pattern rotation so you can just memorize it pretty quick and then you'll laugh your way through it. And as long as your party stacks together during Titan's Geocrushes (where he jumps up and knocks down part of the stage), you can Medica the whole party and get a fairly decent heal on everyone.

Trust me, struggling through some of these doesn't make you a bad healer. A bad healer wouldn't learn from problems, and you're clearly attempting to learn.

And while later content will get more difficult, you'll thankfully have way more tools to work with. White Mages get additional buffs and stuff we can use to make our healing better and help our mana management as we get closer to Level 50. You'll get Shroud of Saints at Level 38, which will grant Refresh for 15 seconds and help restore some of your MP (around ~500 MP. It's about ~1000 when you obtain Enhanced Shroud of Saints at Level 48.) and at Level 40 you'll get Divine Seal, which will increase your healing potency by 30% for 15 seconds. (Super useful when people are taking a ton of damage.)

Another thing to keep an eye out for is make sure you watch for when you get Freecure (it took me forever to notice when I had Freecure up because I rarely paid attention to it, now I notice it every time.) Freecure is the main reason to use Cure as your main healing spell and only use Cure II situationally, since Freecure grants you a 0 MP Cure II. Since Cure II is a big MP sap, this will help with mana management.
Also - using Medica is helpful, but make sure the party needs it before throwing it up - you can run out of MP super quickly if you spam Medica too much in a fight (which I've totally done!) Same thing with Stoneskin - it uses a lot of MP and should really only be applied at the start of battle to mitigate healing right off, don't worry about reapplying it.
And feel free to keep an MP restoration item on your hotbar. I always had Hi-Ethers set in one space so that I could easily use them if need be. They can come in handy if you suddenly find yourself running out of MP.

As you get further in the game, a lot of this will become more second nature to you and a lot easier. You'll also likely find yourself not following these suggestions as strictly either. You'll find ways of healing that work for you better. Don't give up though!

[Kienkarajo]

That's right never give up. I had the same issue with Garuda Story mode, I thought that maybe I was a bad healer but then I said "if I like it why would I stop?". I also had a really hard time with Garuda HM and extreme but after extreme mode I can heal HM without any problem and not because I'm good just because it's practice. Having a hard time now with Titan extreme but I know that I can do it with some practice.

[micropanther7]

Thank you again for your advice guys, tis really appreciated Did Cutter's Cry and Stone Vigil today, it was a major struggle (if anyone reading this squadded with me thank you for your patience, kindness and help!), my FC was really supportive in every aspect so a massive THANK YOU to them all!! Lots of deaths, re-adjustments and learning which though stressful, will really help me in the long run

[Cassandaria]

Congrats on your completion of Stone Vigil! That was the second time I had any real issues as a healer and some content is really unforgiving. There's lots of small t hings to learn as a healer and it's a road that's never easy. It's so rewarding when you get the skills necessary to be great at the job though, after movement, the next biggest struggle for me was mp management, and, in some ways, it still is even when I do well. It's far too easy to panic heal and blow a much bigger cure than you need, so learning a fight really helps with that so you know when burst damage is coming and when damage is lower so that you can focus on healing with standard cures over using cure 2. Also, regen, best friend a whm ever had! ^_^. Good luck out there Micropanther, if you are ever make a character on Exalibur look me up, my free company is all about helping others and teaching their roles so that we can all improve!

[micropanther7]

Thank you for your kind words Yes it is pretty unforgiving, I think people need to have the patience of a saint when learning or teaching in this game. It's good in a way though that it challenges you to improve, and helps if you're stubborn too lol despite the sulking, self-dobuting, and "I wanna quit this class QQ" I find myself getting back in the saddle after falling off! Yeah I found in Stone Vigil I was blowing Cure 2 too much, and panic healing, when I didn't need to. So stuck to regens, didn't over-regen on dps too much, saved stronger heals for bigger damage. I was bouncing around dodging the last dragon, feeling more confident "I got dis!"... *one-shot dragon breath*in mid-leap which was pretty darn funny. Thank you for the offer of joining up with you guys, I will do if I make a character on that server

[Moqi]

Stone Vigil can be very tricky, congrats! Tbh I think HM dungeons are easier than Stone Vigil and Aurum Vale, so if you can do those, you'll have no troubles in endgame, at least until Coil and Ex Primals (well, Garuda is easy for healers).

[micropanther7]

Thanks Moqi for your words of encouragement My intention is to try and spam the tricky ones, cos it keeps me on my toes and helps me improve! Garuda NM next Gotta revise for that now

[Starsmore]

The fight with Titan was the first moment I had a hard time healing. It all burns down to knowing his mechanics and skills. Just keep practicing and you will be fine!

[Cassandaria]

Stone Vigil can be very tricky, congrats! Tbh I think HM dungeons are easier than Stone Vigil and Aurum Vale, so if you can do those, you'll have no troubles in endgame, at least until Coil and Ex Primals (well, Garuda is easy for healers).

Definitely! AV is one of those hit or miss dungeons though, get a good group and it's easy, but your healer (mainly...everyone in this part of the forum :P) must be on the ball. It's a huge test of a healer, but honestly, it's one of my favorite dungeons! Stone Vigil is more tank related than healer and certainly a test to learn when to and when not to heal. Next big dungeon that does that will be Amdapor Keep, then again...I haven't really run that since they changed it, so maybe it's easier now, hard to say.

[Artemiz]

Just wanted to post to add my voice to those suggesting new healers shouldn't lose confidence if they struggle with Titan story mode. I started this game as a WHM and hit the brick wall that is Titan story, it was back when the severs had bad lag and I just couldn't dodge landslide and it was wiping the group. I ended up swapping to BLM and continuing the story that way but since then I've leveled both WHM and SCH to 50 and I really enjoy playing healer in most content now. Titan is still one of the tougher fights, that's just the way he is. Once you've memorised his rotation though this fight does become much easier.

Either way I'm glad to hear the OP got past it and as others have mentioned if you can heal SV and AV then you can heal any 4 man dungeon other than perhaps a Brayflox HM speed run, which you'll need decent gear for no matter how skillful you are.

What I find unique about healing roles is that the group determines how hard content is for you much more than it does for other jobs. With a really good group healing can be super easy but that can change to impossible if your party doesn't reduce incoming damage when they can, Titan HM is a great example of this. Mountain buster is much less theatening if your tank can time his cooldowns well and with a good party Geocrush and Tumult are easy enough to deal with, throw out some AoE healing and you should be good. If your party are already low on health just before those attacks land though the healer is under massive pressure. Same goes for raising people, it costs a ton of MP and distracts you from your primary tasks, most of the time people get KO'd is because of stuff they could have dodged so it's frequently not the healers fault but it's still the healers problem to deal with. That's why if I play SMN I like to raise people quickly and make a note in party chat that I've done so, just so the healers know if it happens again I've got it covered and they can focus on their primary tasks.