The Abonimation Known as WTFWHM

[radioactive_lego]

In my experience, in some 800 dungeon runs (of which 600(?) I ran as a tank) the healer has only been the issue a handful of times.

My personal pet peev w/ healers is should they gain aggro on a mob, by methods mentioned earlier, is to tuck tail and run away from the group. I find it particularly more useful for them to use SoS and actually come closer to the Tank so he/she may use some aggro gen spamm on the area.

my $.02

[KisaiTenshi]

My personal pet peev w/ healers is should they gain aggro on a mob, by methods mentioned earlier, is to tuck tail and run away from the group. I find it particularly more useful for them to use SoS and actually come closer to the Tank so he/she may use some aggro gen spamm on the area.

my $.02

I'm of the opinion that if you're the healer, you're supposed to avoid aggro. If the mobs glom on to me because every heal increases aggro, then I head straight toward the tank.

I tend to cringe when the other healers in the party decide their MP is best spent on being DPS not healing. Understand that as a Healer, you do 1/10th to 1/4 the damage that the dedicated DPS will do, and thus are wasting your MP on anything that's not a DOT.

[Cynfael]

I tend to cringe when the other healers in the party decide their MP is best spent on being DPS not healing. Understand that as a Healer, you do 1/10th to 1/4 the damage that the dedicated DPS will do, and thus are wasting your MP on anything that's not a DOT.

I tend to cringe when healers with sufficient downtime and bountiful MP decide that their time is best spent casting unnecessary heals to appear busy or simply standing around, not even bothering with the pretense.

Healer DPS can make a significant difference even in end-game content, and it's huge in faceroll dungeons where healing requirements are minimal to begin with.

[KisaiTenshi]

I tend to cringe when healers with sufficient downtime and bountiful MP decide that their time is best spent casting unnecessary heals to appear busy or simply standing around, not even bothering with the pretense.

I'm of the opinion that one shouldn't DPS as WHM, because it forces the other healer's carry the dps WTFWHM.

There's a few specific cases where the DPS is more valuable due to the timing of the fight, but don't be DPS'ing as WHM if another WHM is getting overwhelmed. The point of having multiple healers is to conserve MP by healing in tandem. Not by both WHM's attempting to DPS at the same time and wiping the party, or continuously letting the actual DPS players die. When you spend 10 seconds not healing that lets the DPS die, it costs the party more DPS by taking healing time away from the party and spending time reviving party members you neglect.

[Tranquil]

-snip-

You seem to be operating under the assumption that most content in this game has somewhat harsh HPS-requirements throughout the fights.

Unlike some other games wherein tanks take a more consistent beating, in this game the fluff-damage is mostly negligible (exceptions exist - no need to call me out on that - speaking about the bigger picture). You have the fluff-damage and then the scripted spike damage. Tank killing moves at certain intervals, followed by more fluff-damage. Repeat. That is the norm for this game.

Now, while in some cases there might be other damage being inflicted at the other tank or the party - meaning that two healers need to actively heal - it is very common for there to be times wherein it suffices that only one of the healers is "maintenance healing".

By maintenance healing I refer to healing which is not a MP-strain on a healer. That would translate to keeping Regen up, Cures and then Freecure procs as necessary for a WHM. For the SCH, that would more or less mean microing Embraces while DPSing. (Or in some cases, add some manual self-casted heals in the mix and then resuming DPSing).

If we can achieve a comfortable level of maintenance healing whilst dealing some damage - we have struck gold. At times, you can extend this to calculated risk-taking in resource usage, ie. knowing that even a moderate MP-strain from having one healer overwork a bit will not result in exterior support being any more necessary than it would be otherwise. (Namely, not needing a Ballad due to this kind of careless play of the other healer).

[VanilleFang]

I'm of the opinion that one shouldn't DPS as WHM, because it forces the other healer's carry the dps WTFWHM.

So what do you do during all the downtime during fights like Titan HM? Do you just stand there?

[Kazumac]

So what do you do during all the downtime during fights like Titan HM? Do you just stand there?

You ditch those dpsers who know how to dodge and grab some derpy ones who will eat bombs and weights so you have something to heal?

[VanilleFang]

You ditch those dpsers who know how to dodge and grab some derpy ones who will eat bombs and weights so you have something to heal?

Lol. I suppose that could work.

But even with DPS getting hit by AoEs there are times when you can throw out an Aero or Stone II. I don't see any benefit in never DPSing unless it will kill someone.

[KisaiTenshi]

So what do you do during all the downtime during fights like Titan HM? Do you just stand there?

If you have a pre-made party full of pros, maybe you have time to do this. But when you play with PUG's you get anyone from the DPS with no ilevel 50+ gear, to the tanks and DPS who insist on standing still in the middle of every avoidable AOE. If the "perfect" runs, eg the ones with nobody dying, it's always with healers that either avoid DPS entirely, or only DPS during during the 10 seconds or so at the end of the fight when it matters instead of the first 10 seconds which just increase aggro on yourself.

One recent run, I was having to heal the Ninja who was losing 60% of their HP with every hit.

[Lyrica_Ashtine]

If you have a pre-made party full of pros, maybe you have time to do this. But when you play with PUG's you get anyone from the DPS with no ilevel 50+ gear, to the tanks and DPS who insist on standing still in the middle of every avoidable AOE. If the "perfect" runs, eg the ones with nobody dying, it's always with healers that either avoid DPS entirely, or only DPS during during the 10 seconds or so at the end of the fight when it matters instead of the first 10 seconds which just increase aggro on yourself.

One recent run, I was having to heal the Ninja who was losing 60% of their HP with every hit.

"My experience says X and Y" isn't a good elaboration. I could claim the contrary: Because player A and B were so poorly geared, I tripled the dungeon killing ability by helping DPS as a healer. Perhaps exaggerated, but a properly geared scholar or white mage can contribute more DPS than a poorly equipped DPS. Especially if the DPS have little experience maximizing their damage output.

People always take damage left and right, whether you heal them right now or take your time is up to you. There aren't a lot of encounters where non-tanks take one hit after another; you usually have time to heal up people. If you can't stand the anticipation by having them move around with a HP bar that isn't completely full, that's simply your own insecurity. You can always decide not to raise them if they're a liability. As harsh as it sounds, it may even be better for the entire group to leave the "useless" one on the floor, rather than constantly pick it up like some rag doll.

"It's a healers job to heal"? Yes, that's true. But let's turn the perspective: It's not a DPS' job to constantly die and potentially cause a wipe. Be it by draining a healer's MP or by not handling mechanics properly. Not healing (or raising) is actually also part of being a healer.