Seeking Any Healer Advice

[PWilson]

I just started playing FFXIV a couple weeks ago (Steam sale pickup). After some playing around with different classes and jobs, I think I've settled on WHM. I might second as PLD, but WHM is where I'm at, I think.

What is healing done right, and what is healing done wrong?
Also, I'm an older guy, and speed is an issue, I'm not quick like you kids. Is there a way to set macros or even just something like how the tab key cycles through enemies, but for your own party?

To give you an idea of where I am in the game mechanics, I just figured out today that Stoneskin is great to cast on the nontanks, but pretty useless on the tank, and that Regen rocks all kind of awesome. I only hit level 35 today.

[Yumi_umi]

Enhanced Stoneskin = 18% shield of max hp.
I'm a whm with 6254 hp ( 6.4k hp in party ) and 18% shield does wonders on me.

[PWilson]

For sure!
Where I'm at, level 35 (abouts), I don't have Enhanced Stoneskin, just normal, and it does 10%. On a tank at my level, that's 150-200 (1500-2000 HP), and my Cure1 does ~400-450 for half the MP. Because the numbers don't correlate exactly, I expect that the usefulness of Stoneskin will change as I advance, but the maths dictate I use it on everyone except the tank - for now!

[Tranquil]

You are currently in the most awkward stage of your WHM-journey. The reason for this is because you do not have the skill Shroud of Saints (to be obtained at lvl 38, with its more potent, traited version later on at level 48), but the fights are starting to be a bit mana-intensive if you do not have that great or experienced people with you. (Shroud of Saints is a skill that regenerates MP and also halves your current enmity - both of which alright uses but the standard use for it being mana restoring on cooldown). Of course, it might be that this feels a bit different somehow, as of 2.3, but when I leveled WHM on release, I felt like the late-30s to mid-40s were the hardest levels!

Just keep it cool, try to pay attention to the aggro mechanics of the game, enjoy the ride and don't mind the mistakes. Keep Regen up on the main tank as much as you can, but do not use it preemptively before a pull. Try to keep up with Cure 1s and Freecure procs, combined with Regen. Stoneskin before encounters, but do not bother casting it mid-fight for now - later on this becomes a good tool to buffer up near one-shot tank killing mechanics, at level cap. (And Stoneskin is also not an enmity bomb like Cure 2s and so forth).

I see you already have THM at past 26, which is brilliant, because Swiftcast is THE skill to have. Mainly used for instant-rezzes, though in a 8-man party setting, a SCH (or a SMN, if they leave Swiftcast unused) is nearly always above the WHM in terms of the rezzing-ladder priority, due to the more careful MP-management of WHMs'. You might also consider leveling Arcanist to at least 34, for Eye for an Eye, as that is a great tool for some extra mitigation, which of course means less heals required. Also, you'll get one of your best skills soon at level 40 - Divine Seal. Get comfortable with this as much as you can - it's only on a 1m CD and can be used to great effect.

As to what is healing done 'wrong' or 'right', well, that has many variables to it - no doubt. Healing is the most variable-dependant of the trinity by far, thus the answers can and will vary. Minimize overhealing and conserve MP, know when to heal and when not to heal, observe your healing partner's casting bar (in 8-mans) as well as a tank's status effects. You should aim to get familiar with all of the relevant tank-cooldowns to know when they will take less damage, so you can also adapt depending on the situation. It's really hard to give a general reply here, because SCHs and WHMs are different, but you'll no doubt get a feel for it later on. Also, don't stress about these kind of things too much for now, let the knowledge sink in little by little via observation and you yourself possibly branching off to leveling other classes, such as the tank ones so you can synergize your healing better with tanks.

TL;DR: try to have fun, use common sense (as I am sure you will), observe, worry about the finetuning later on.

[Eltaire]

Your question about swift targeting can easily be solved by using the keyboard (I assume you're playing on the PC, as you picked the game up on Steam).

The "F" keys along the top correlate with your party members. "F1" is you, and then each one after that follows the order as per your party roster on the top left. If you have your UI set to display in Tank -> Healer -> DPS -> Other, then "F2" and "F3" should be your Tanks, "F4" your other healer, and the remaining 4 keys your DPS units (in a Full Party).

Alternatively, you can click on the names individually and click on the spell, that's what I do. It makes controls fluid, as I have my controls set to Legacy, which means that when you press "S", rather than slowly walking backwards, your character will turn and run that way (better for avoiding AoEs). This option can be changed in the System Settings menu, I believe.

I hope this helps.

[PWilson]

Tranquil: Swiftcast has been a great asset. I've noticed it for doing rezzes, and also for just combating screwups in normal healing (I threw a rock... oh wait, I needed to heal!)
But why not cast Regen pre-emptively? Given the mana efficiency on it, I just tried to keep it up on all times on the tank, and during boss fights, additionally on any melee DPS... Pre-emptive casting means I can usually make use of non-combat mana regen as well. Given that I only -just- got Regen, I've not had a lot of experience with it - please expound!

Eltaire: You answered my question, but that's not helpful! I play on an (Alienware) laptop, the F-keys are 1/3rd smaller than the rest of the keys. It's actually a great keyboard for 90% of everything - I don't feel squished when I type for example - but the F-keys are the sacrifice. Well, perhaps I just need to train myself to use them... Or rebind the keys.

[Tranquil]

But why not cast Regen pre-emptively? Given the mana efficiency on it, I just tried to keep it up on all times on the tank, and during boss fights, additionally on any melee DPS... Pre-emptive casting means I can usually make use of non-combat mana regen as well. Given that I only -just- got Regen, I've not had a lot of experience with it - please expound!

Well, it's not the biggest sin in the book and most tanks can handle it ok. Basically it isn't a problem vs. bosses, but if you cast Regen before the tank engages with the enemy, the mob(s) will usually yoyo towards you, especially if it's part of a bigger trash pull wherein a tank just tags a mob with minimal enmity creation and goes on to pick up more. Regen creates healing enmity per tick.

[winsock]

General tips / advise.
Over healing generates more threat than normal
Get swiftcast asap.
Get Eye for an eye after you hit 50.
Don't use medica til at least 3 party members could use it.
In settings, you can pick how the party window is arranged. I usually go:
Healer, tank, dmg.
Don't limit break. Into the rare event that a heal lb is needed and a bard isn't using it or isn't in the party, then u can use it.
Regen is great, esp with divine seal, but try to make sure it expires before the next pull.
As the last mob gets low on HP, cast stoneskin and time it so that the mob dies just before the cast finishes.

Macros:
I like the mouse over kind. Ex:
/ac Cure <mo>
/ac Cure <t>
Cursor hovered over party window + activate skill. Added <t> to assist in healing things not in the party.

[winsock]

After taking the time to read some of the other posts I it appears you may underestimate stoneskin. You were talking about adding regen on tank before pull. Don't cast anything on the tank til he has aggro. Stoneskin will give plenty of time for you to hit the tank with it afterwards. Stoneskin, like regen, will let u recover with out of combat mp, but unlike regen, it doesn't generate threat outside the initial cast and it lasts for up to 30 mins.

There are some more specific uses for stoneskin, but the above is most common.

[Seryl199]

Don't use regen before the tank has established enmity on all targets. This is because once the first tick of regen goes off, any mobs that the tank hasn't picked up yet are going to come straight for you. Wait until you see a flash or overpower from the tank before casting regen. Similarly, don't use regen towards the end of trash packs, since the regen effect could last until the next pack and cause the same scenario. If you do happen to get hate, go to the tank so they can peel mobs off of you.

At this point, most of your healing should be done by regens and cure I and free cure procs for cure II. Once you get shroud of the saints you can start experimenting with more mp intensive spells like stoneskin more often. Regen + stoneskin on the tank is a nice way to keep the tank stable while keeping your enmity low.

I'd consider healing done right as keeping everyone alive, keeping members out of k.o. range (above 50%), keeping on top of debuffs, and reacting quickly to patch up mistakes. As far as doing the wrong thing, you'll be fine as long as you don't pull hate and you keep everyone's butt out of the fire. Just have fun with it, experiment with all of your new skills, and good luck!