Is pre-buffing neccessary?

[Lycinder]

I adlo first, its a good habit and makes it easier for the tank since you don't need to heal the first hit in a pull (and risk gaining aggro if the tank ain't fast enough) in a large pull I also cast an adlo and stoneskin otherwise during the large pull the tank will melt before he even finishes the pull since I need to wait for his aggro to build before spamming heals otherwise aggros on me.

Basically the tanks in his own right if he feels more comfortable knowing he won't be fighting the healer for aggro at first pull.

[Blitzace]

As a healer i always precast. That in mind i usually play tank and i'll wait a few seconds, if healers don't precast i'll just jump in.

No big deal.

[Blessedbythesun]

Man, this was taken to a whole other level while I was away. I haven't encountered much in terms of tanks forcing buffs out of me, but I haven't been doing lower level content lately either. From my understand though, there's a lot of bad SCH out there, I'm starting to understand why they feel it's important when I know I got there backs.

[aisustrong]

From my understand though, there's a lot of bad SCH out there, I'm starting to understand why they feel it's important when I know I got there backs.

yeah, i started out as war, and after i hit 50 i worked on getting all tanks and healers to at least i95 + zenith
and when i got to brayflox and vigil on scholar (which i did last of the 4), i thought to myself, "man, some of these sch ive had in the past were really really terrible"
like i recall them often having issues in those dungeons (including the times when i redid them, so including when i knew what to do and had good gear [plus i always stayed as upto date on gear as i could without gc gear leveling up war]), and then healing them and its just like, i dont even understand how they could even struggle as much as they did

[Blessedbythesun]

-snip-

I was groomed to be a healer back in the day so of playing Ragnarok Online on an awkward job class (Alchemist/creator with Throw Potions) and was forced into healing on FFXI (Main SMN by choice but always had to cure in parties then later picking up WHM). I did story as SMN and then SCH during dungeons here and I never relied on Eos to do all the healing. No one had a problem with that when I was leveling. Being a screw up isn't exclusive to SCH. I was leveling PLD and a WHM absolutely refused to heal me in Haukke Manor. I died 4 times because he got "caught up in DPSing". I had to quit.

[CycLee]

shield do in general only work if they are up before the damage hits. If you have them up before the tank pulls, also means, that it didnt generated any hate. In addition to not having to heal for a little longer after the fight started it gives your tank a comfortable start (berserk-DD's not counted so far) and you have more time to get in a proper position.

Ofc there are alot sitiuations where you just dont need it as the content is just easy enough but i rly dont see any reason to not prebuff.

[Cabalabob]

If you don't pre-buff you're simply being lazy no two ways about it. You claim you play your job seriously and effectively, obviously not if you're not doing this, stoneskin and adlo can be the equivalent of up to an extra 4k HP on a WAR before they pull. That's enough time for you to cleric's stance get all your DoT's and shadowflare up before you even have to worry about curing at no cost other than you having to press buttons.

[Kidblinks]

I always pre-buff, constantly keeping stone skin on everyone but the tank. The tank is also stone skinned and adlo'd before pulls. And I cleric stance DPS at down times when heavy healing isn't required. Healers who just stand there doing nothing until the tanks hp gets low are just lazy.

[Synestr]

Decided to go as SCH to ST yesterday for my weekly quest chain. Was in there with another SCH. I don't think they had Stoneskin, not once did they cast it. Just me. Same with an expert run yesterday, went as PLD. Had a SCH heals in teh group...again I did the SSing. I don't know if the new "idea" is that it's not necessary or what but it seems lazy to me.

[KisaiTenshi]

My opinion:

I wasn't playing the game for a while, and then StoneSkin II became available, but found it has one fundamental flaw: All targets must be destroyed before it can be re-deployed. What this means is that if your tanks are too eager to rush (eg no pre-buff) into combat, you won't get a chance to complete casting it. Hence tanks waiting for a pre-buff might be waiting for this, and it might not be available if you're speed running.

I'm of the opinion that if you are playing a healer:
1. Cast Protect
2. Cast StoneSkin II
3. Don't cast any heals before the Tank grabs aggro.

However, the way I play is that I exclusively play WHM as a healer, I don't throw any DPS out there unless the battle calls for it. What I have noticed is that there are quite a few WHM's that spend more of their time DPS'ing than healing with PUG's, and sure enough someone dies because they're not paying attention to the party's HP.

If you are playing a healing class, your first priority is healing the party members, including the other healer. The point of 2 healers in the 8-man parties is to heal characters in tandem (two people casting cure, vs you just spamming cure II on the tanks) to conserve MP.