Been on a losing streak, and I feel that I am part of the problem. Can I get advice?

[Korihu]

Hi there! So here's the tale of my little Feast adventure. I got into 4v4, did fine up to Bronze, and then started losing and losing. I got some advice and tips, got up to Silver, and once again I keep on losing. While it would be easy to just blame my party members, I genuinely feel that I'm part of the problem, that I (an Astrologian) am not healing as well as I could be. Especially last night when I kept getting paired up with a certain person and after a while they were getting very fed up with me. Of course, when I asked for advice they just trotted off. So I figured I'd come here to ask for some tips and advice on healing Feast as an Astro.

Since it's hard to describe or guess how I play, I decided to record a Feast game which I, surprise surprise, lost. I only did this one video because I'm so nervous to go back in in case I get paired up with that one guy who is angry and lose again. I feel like this game is a good representation of how I usually play anyway (except forgetting to cross class stoneskin at the start lol) so I figured it's fine for just this one. I do acknowledge that at around 6:55 I did get distracted with slowing the enemy healer instead of healing the monk, oops. My bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgRacyMApbQ


As far as gear goes, I have two Vitality accessories so I can survive LBs at full health. Someone suggested I stack Spell Speed so I can get heals out faster so a fair bit of my gear has Spell Speed.

I really want to learn how to get better but with the only advice I got was to "play 8v8" is not very helpful, since I don't know what I'm doing wrong and no amount of spamming 8v8 would help with that. PvP guides that aren't completely outdated are few and far between, and few of my FC mates PvP and absolutely none of those play Astro So I'd really appreciate any help! Thanks very much!

[JazzofEtro]

Join us and I promise help will be provided.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-4v4-Training.

[kisada]

didn't see whole vid, not sure i need to though as there are some things that can be diagnosed right away.

your biggest issues are your cancellation of casts and your lack of ABC (always be casting). around 2:40 you are trying to cast things, then stop, then go, then stop. other times you aren't casting when you should be topping people off. if people aren't capped, go ahead and keep them capped. if they are capped you can always be casting stella to heavy people, or bliz 2 to bind them. these things make all the difference.

[Ryuko]

Hey, I watched the entire video... I'm not a PvP healer in this game, so feel free to take my advice with a grain of salt... but I have PvP healed in other games, so hopefully some of my advice can help.

First of all, I think your camera is waaaaaay too zoomed in. I would zoom it out as far as it goes (or close to that if you're not comfortable with all the way). When you are running around healing, I would get into the habit of targeting people with F1/F2/F3/F4 so that you can quickly turn your camera to see what's going on with your mouse hand (rather than having to click target people on the party menu -- I know it's a habit from PVE healing, but you'll want to get out of that habit for PvP). The reason it is so important to turn around with your mouse to see the action is because you need to know where people are in space, who's getting attacked, who your team is targeting, etc. This will also help you with your own CCs.

My second piece of advice is that you should keep the PvP 'menu' up at all times. I notice you close it at the start of the match. It is important for everyone to be aware of how many medals each person has... on both teams. It is useful for planning strategies. As a healer, it will help you know who on your team is going to be focused. I know you can see medal stacks on the party menu too, but this will give you a better idea of the changing score, who needs to kill whom to get enough medals to win, etc. (Remember -- when a person is killed, they drop half their medals... so that's why people want to focus those with stacks, in addition to the fact that they should be easier to kill). As a healer, this will help you realize who's going to be taking a lot of heat.

Anyway, I don't think you necessarily did anything wrong to cause that match to be lost. It seems your team had trouble killing people too... But as far as staying alive, I think it would help you if you anticipated a lot of incoming damage. For example, BRD has a lot of burst, and you faced one in your match. As soon as you are targeted by them, you are going to want to throw a wrench in their plan to burst you down in one go by running behind a wall and healing yourself back to full before they can sprint around and continue attacking you. This will ensure that they can't take you down from half HP to Zero in one go (and yes -- BRD and MCH are capable of this). I know you do start to make a move toward a wall when you notice you are being attacked, but in general, you will want to be positioned near a wall already. That way, you can LoS a ranged as soon as they start attacking you, forcing them to actually run after you. (That sort of advice goes for any caster -- whether they be offensive or defensive.)

In essence, you want to make yourself as annoying as possible to kill. If you unnecessarily stand out in the open like that, you're going to be really easy to lock down and burst down.

Oh! Another thing I forgot to add. Don't let them bait you into popping Purify early. I noticed you popped it immediately after sleep was cast on you. Unless it is an absolutely dire situation, you can usually afford to wait a few seconds to see if one of the DPS on the other team foolishly hits you while you are asleep.

[SaveTheSunF1R3x]

get into the habit of targeting people with F1/F2/F3/F4

This is something i've been really trying to get into the habit of doing and i highly recommend you do it early while you're still learning. Ryuko explains it pretty well though there's very little to add to this. If you'd like to watch sch gameplay though you can see some over @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iTNDldRfrM. I don't claim to know it all but maybe you'll pick up on something that will be helpful to you. Overall though just play play play and try not to get to discouraged. Think of every game as a chance to learn and improve! Since you're already recording your gameplay you should rewatch it after every game and identify what went wrong and how you can prevent it. I wish you the best of luck in the feast!

[Ryuko]

Also, here's a picture of how I keep my UI. I realize some healers might prefer to keep the party closer to the center of the screen so you can see it easier, but you can fit the PvP menu above that in your setup. I have my PvP abilities bound to my extra mouse buttons so I can use them as quickly as possible on moving targets.



(And before anyone gives me heat for using Ifrit -- Yes, I always keep him on Obey. :P)

[kisada]

using f keys to target your party is a good thing if you can do it, that's not a possibility for me personally but if they're available definitely consider them.

i like my party list to the right of where ryuko's hotbar is, and since i'm a hotbar watcher it helps me keep a much closer eye on the party list as opposed to continually looking back and forth to the upper left. in the end though that's not as important as other things.

[Korihu]

Wow! I wasn't expecting so many replies so fast!

Join us and I promise help will be provided.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-4v4-Training.

I saw this thread before but I didn't know that there was a Gilgamesh part to it (or it wasn't there when I glanced at it). I'll definitely have a look!

didn't see whole vid, not sure i need to though as there are some things that can be diagnosed right away.

your biggest issues are your cancellation of casts and your lack of ABC (always be casting). around 2:40 you are trying to cast things, then stop, then go, then stop. other times you aren't casting when you should be topping people off. if people aren't capped, go ahead and keep them capped. if they are capped you can always be casting stella to heavy people, or bliz 2 to bind them. these things make all the difference.

Thanks for the response!

I'm a very jittery person by nature, i get scared easily and really paranoid. That reflects in the way I cancel and tend to kinda sit around sometimes. The reason I do that is because I'm scared that someone besides who I'm currently healing will take damage but I'll be in the middle of casting for someone else. It's a very bad habit that's only cropped up in PvP due to the unpredictable nature of it, but now that you've pointed it out I'm more aware of it and I'll try to stop that. I'll definitely do the capping people off thing too. Again, case of being too paranoid to heal for "that small amount" when that small amount can mean a lot.

Hey, I watched the entire video... I'm not a PvP healer in this game, so feel free to take my advice with a grain of salt... but I have PvP healed in other games, so hopefully some of my advice can help.

First of all, I think your camera is waaaaaay too zoomed in. I would zoom it out as far as it goes (or close to that if you're not comfortable with all the way). When you are running around healing, I would get into the habit of targeting people with F1/F2/F3/F4 so that you can quickly turn your camera to see what's going on with your mouse hand (rather than having to click target people on the party menu -- I know it's a habit from PVE healing, but you'll want to get out of that habit for PvP). The reason it is so important to turn around with your mouse to see the action is because you need to know where people are in space, who's getting attacked, who your team is targeting, etc. This will also help you with your own CCs.

My second piece of advice is that you should keep the PvP 'menu' up at all times. I notice you close it at the start of the match. It is important for everyone to be aware of how many medals each person has... on both teams. It is useful for planning strategies. As a healer, it will help you know who on your team is going to be focused. I know you can see medal stacks on the party menu too, but this will give you a better idea of the changing score, who needs to kill whom to get enough medals to win, etc. (Remember -- when a person is killed, they drop half their medals... so that's why people want to focus those with stacks, in addition to the fact that they should be easier to kill). As a healer, this will help you realize who's going to be taking a lot of heat.

Anyway, I don't think you necessarily did anything wrong to cause that match to be lost. It seems your team had trouble killing people too... But as far as staying alive, I think it would help you if you anticipated a lot of incoming damage. For example, BRD has a lot of burst, and you faced one in your match. As soon as you are targeted by them, you are going to want to throw a wrench in their plan to burst you down in one go by running behind a wall and healing yourself back to full before they can sprint around and continue attacking you. This will ensure that they can't take you down from half HP to Zero in one go (and yes -- BRD and MCH are capable of this). I know you do start to make a move toward a wall when you notice you are being attacked, but in general, you will want to be positioned near a wall already. That way, you can LoS a ranged as soon as they start attacking you, forcing them to actually run after you. (That sort of advice goes for any caster -- whether they be offensive or defensive.)

In essence, you want to make yourself as annoying as possible to kill. If you unnecessarily stand out in the open like that, you're going to be really easy to lock down and burst down.

Oh! Another thing I forgot to add. Don't let them bait you into popping Purify early. I noticed you popped it immediately after sleep was cast on you. Unless it is an absolutely dire situation, you can usually afford to wait a few seconds to see if one of the DPS on the other team foolishly hits you while you are asleep.

Thanks for the response!

I never actually noticed how zoomed in my camera was until I rewatched the video. I don't know why I didn't zoom out more that game, I'm usually zoomed out quite far lol.

As far as targetting people with F1-F4, that's kind of hard since I have those buttons bound to my hotkeys, and my hands are quite small and clicking those buttons would actually mean taking my hand off the WASD section for a moment which I feel really uncomfortable with.

Thanks for the info on the PvP menu. I didn't think it was important since like you said, I can just look at my team members stacks and I let the DPS handle the other team, but I can see what you mean with the score stuff. I'll see if I can find somewhere to fit it.

The not staying near a wall thing is a bad habit from me liking to Celestial Opposition + Aetheric Burst people at the start of matches. Thanks for pointing that out, I'll try to keep to walls more.

And I definitely see the point on Purify! Yes, I have the habit of popping it immediately when I get slept the first time. I do sometimes regret it because 0.5 seconds during that time a dumb DPS comes to hit me. I'm just really scared something will happen to my team while I'm asleep so I get really antsy about pushing that key. I'll have a look at using it more carefully.

This is something i've been really trying to get into the habit of doing and i highly recommend you do it early while you're still learning. Ryuko explains it pretty well though there's very little to add to this. If you'd like to watch sch gameplay though you can see some over @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iTNDldRfrM. I don't claim to know it all but maybe you'll pick up on something that will be helpful to you. Overall though just play play play and try not to get to discouraged. Think of every game as a chance to learn and improve! Since you're already recording your gameplay you should rewatch it after every game and identify what went wrong and how you can prevent it. I wish you the best of luck in the feast!

Hah! Funny you post that. I'm the 13ulbasaur person who asked you in your second video how you think Scholars play in Feast. :P What a coincidence. I did enjoy watching your videos, though I'm a little dumb and had a little trouble digesting everything happening in it.

using f keys to target your party is a good thing if you can do it, that's not a possibility for me personally but if they're available definitely consider them.

i like my party list to the right of where ryuko's hotbar is, and since i'm a hotbar watcher it helps me keep a much closer eye on the party list as opposed to continually looking back and forth to the upper left. in the end though that's not as important as other things.

I used to have my party list in the gap between my hotbar and my chatbar, similar to what you are suggesting, but I moved it up because when it was down near with my hotbars, I found myself tunneling the hotbar and party window too much and not looking to the center as much to take note of what's going on in the battle. So i think it's more of a personal thing.

[SaveTheSunF1R3x]

Hah! Funny you post that. I'm the 13ulbasaur person who asked you in your second video how you think Scholars play in Feast. :P What a coincidence. I did enjoy watching your videos, though I'm a little dumb and had a little trouble digesting everything happening in it.

very awesome! Small world! I honestly could do a better job explaining things i just haven't had the software set up to make proper videos again.

[Chevronone]

(And before anyone gives me heat for using Ifrit -- Yes, I always keep him on Obey. :P)

No, please feel free to leave it on auto and build up my stun resistance asap.

More SMNs need to follow your advise! !