Healing a11s advice?

[LadyKairi]

My group has been working towards clearing a11s for well over a month now. We tried again tonight for a clear before reset, but still no clear. Going into raiding, I felt confident in my healing ability. Now, I've been doubting myself completely, and I have begun to feel really depressed about it. Healing well was something I took great pride in... Even healing with a great main healer (whom I pick up some ast tricks from), I feel really crappy. I'm starting to wonder if I should even continue with raiding.

I'm reaching out to other healers who know a11s. Any tricks or tips for a scholar off healer? I need to learn, I need to know what I could be doing better T_T

[AmeliaVerves]

First of all, can you explain why you are wiping all the time?

• Are DPS dying because they can't dodge AOEs?
• Is the damage too low and you can't finish/skip phases?
• Are you/your teammates not able to handle mechanics? (And if so, which ones?)
• Is the general healing not enough?
• Is the healing not on point (for example for photon)?

There are various reasons why you can wipe in A11s and it might not even be your fault, because if people keep collecting vuln stacks or dying, there is not much you can do, even as an awesome healer.

[Taika]

I'm healing it with Astro in our static (and have also healed it with a WHM who was healing it for the first time). For us the biggest problem in that fight was our DDs being sloppy with Optical Sights and collecting vulnerability stacks, thus easily dying to next Opticals or Whirlwinds if we weren't able to provide them with extra shields. Based on this experience, I think the first key to beating this fight is people being really careful with Opticals (and boss Swords), so that the healers won't have to cover for other people's mistakes. Then for the rare occasion someone (other than tank) messes up and gets a vulnerability stack, we've Stoneskinned and Adlo'd them for the upcoming Opticals / Whirlwinds.

Second important thing is skipping the first Shield. Having to go through that mechanic gives boss a damage buff which will make the rest of the fight harder. So at the end of the Lapis Lazuli phase (when they're all dead) and the beginning of next phase (with the burning floor), focus on burning the boss low enough to skip it (I think it has to be under 54%). As SCH, I Succor everyone before and after Eternal Darkness and before Optical Sight, but other than that I don't think I do any healing there, just focus on DPS. Our DDs also use some minor cooldowns (not Raging Strikes) here to push the shield.

Last phase is all about pushing DPS and protecting the towers as much as possible. We start by everyone stacking North on the boss and we use potions (us healers too!) and everything we got (DDs should have all cooldowns here) to push as much DPS as possible during the OT buster. We also have one tower we try to never hit no matter what.

These are the main points that helped our group beat the fight. What issues do you have in particular? Do you feel certain points in the fight that feel particularly tricky for you? Are you healing with an AST or WHM partner?

One particular SCH tip: if you manage to Crit Adlo and spread it during the 2nd shield, you can skip the DoT from the boss Charge.

In case this might help, here's a video of our first time clearing this with our full static group (we had cleared it once before this with a visiting off tank) from my SCH PoV: https://youtu.be/ESM50TjcOFU. It's far from perfect and I'm now working on more optimised DPS and fairy use and less overhealing.

[technole]

Yeah good advice given so far, probably will help if you can tell us where you believe the majority wipes are coming from. I imagine it's the last phase (like I explained in the other thread)?

Protecting one tower at-all-costs is the safest strategy for a first clear. Sometimes it may get hit due to Shiva, or someone reacting on-the-fly. It's still okay to hit if you have to, just not abuse it. Just something to put in everyone's head. Don't hit the "C" one if you have to dodge stuff. The amount of raid DPS and tower health determines how much time you have left to kill Chaser until a soft enrage. So saving one tower with plenty of HP should allow the group to make it past whirlwind after the 2nd shield, and then the GA-100 soft enrage. After that whirlwind, it's a race to kill so pull out all the stops at that point.

In terms of healing, the last phase blaster circles/double Whirlwind/photon spam can be daunting. I Adlo Eos when we go out for the dps/tank hawk blaster circles, and do the Adlo spread as everyone comes back in so it covers the double whirlwind, and virus can help. Makes it easier on the other healer to not use more than 1 GCD of healing there. Then the photon is just perfect for Succor/Indom.

[lulunami]

Just DPS as much as possible on SCH. Keep DoT and Shadowflare uptime. Broil and Energy Drain when possible. Bane for EDD.

Healing is light for SCH except for certain parts. You need to heal for Whirlwind, Optical Sight, Photon, Eternal Darkness, dash DoT, and Laser Sword X.

Players with 2 vulnerability stacks or more: RIP

General tips for all phases
- If you need to do high burst AoE healing: Indomitablity + Emergency Tactics->Succor + Swiftcast Succor
- If you need more AoE shielding, Succor and Sacred Soil. You can use Deployment Tactics instead of Succor if you will not need it soon.
- Optimize Virus uptime to mitigate the most AoE attacks.
- HoTs all the time. Regen. Medica II. Aspected Benefic. Aspected Helios. Whispering Dawn.
- After breaking Cruise Chaser's shield and he dashes at a party member: Use Lustrate on that party member. Adlo and Regen that party member. Keep an eye on that party member's HP as they have a DoT debuff.
- Have the WAR maintain Storm's Path to reduce damage (especially for tough healing phases) and be a team player. Eye->Path combo rotation.
- Always reposition your fairy somewhere close to main tank and off-tank, so you can heal less.

Lapis phase
- Succor party for Whirlwind
- Shadowflare one Lapis. Miasma + Bio all the Lapis. If you have lower raid DPS, Bio II might be good to use. Otherwise Broil the 3 Lapis that the tanks are not hitting.
- Adlo main-tank for Laser Sword X tank buster

Pyretic (floor burn) phase
- Photon #1: Targets off-tank. Finish casting Adlo before Photon finishes cast. Immediately Lustrate off-tank.
- Photon #2: Targets 4 DPS players. Use Deployment Tactics to shield the DPS players before Photon. Sacred Soil for the following Whirlwind and EDD add. When damage for Photon resolves, immediately use Indomitability and Emergency Tactics->Succor.
- Photon #3: Targets 1 random healer. Try to have an Adlo on each healer before. If you are targeted, do not move and let other healer heal you. Use Lustrate on other healer if she is targeted.

The Three Tower Phase
- Shiva optical + Whirlwind: You can Deployment Tactics this Optical Sight. Virus + Sacred Soil the Whirlwind.
- Photon + orange Laser bits + Whirlwind x2: Emergency Tactics-> Succor + Indomitability + Sacred Soil for 1st Whirlwind. Succor again for 2nd Whirlwind.

Last Phase
- Photons and Whirlwind: No floor burn so not scary anymore. Make sure players are topped off for Whirlwind (AoE HoTs).
- Laser X Sword: Virus and Adlo main-tank.

Depending upon your group's DPS, you can skip a lot of phases. If you have to overheal to save a run, do it.

[Taika]

I looked you up from Lodestone and I'm wondering if you're meeting the accuracy cap? With the gear you had on there it showed your accuracy as only 482 while the current cap is over 100 points higher.

[technole]

People can survive 2 vuln stacks if their HP is decent and with an Adlo, or sometimes with Fey Covenant. I only use Selene in Phase 1 until after Limit Cut-Numbers nowadays. I wouldn't advise it during progression because of silly mistakes that can happen. I just make fun of my DPS for making me drop cleric.

Lapis phase, you should have some Eos cooldowns back up for this. Fey Illumination is perfect here, then Succor/WD will help the other healer stretch their HoTs more so they too can DPS more in that phase. Remember it's not just Scholar damage you are after, it's helping combined healer DPS.

You can always prepare Eos Embrace spam for the healer photon or even have her solo heal you if somehow the other healer isn't alive to heal it.

[LadyKairi]

Thanks for the advice so far, but let me clarify some things.

In my team, we tend to have some oopsies and get hit by extra aoes, getting vuln stacks (at least lately). I am healing with an Astro main heals, and I feel like they have focused more on doing DPS, and I end up having to pick up their slack. My mp/aetherflow stacks suffer for it. I try to trust them, but the tanks end up dying because they ignore the healing (possibly thinking my fairy can do it?). It's extremely frustrating to me, because I feel like it has caused quite a few of our wipes. But, I healed with a healer sub lastnight who was really good, but things still went wrong.

Here's a little explaination of what I do during the fight (all of what I can remember off the top of my head):

As we are counting down to start an encounter, I usually try to get a a crit aldo on the MT so we can try to pump out more dps. Then when there's 3 seconds left on the count, I place my shadowflare, apply my dots and DPS. For the whole first phase I usually let the main healer practically solo heal (support from Eos) and help with first E.D.D. with dots, then I focus boss. I almost always get my succor up before whirlwinds, even if I think we may push past it (just in case), but there still are times where i space on the damage.

We don't push past Lapis, so I put up shields, SS the OT + Eye for an eye (because he takes it right where it spawns) and put up the defense/healing potency boost from Eos. Then, I leave it up to the main healer/Eos while the MCH and I focus a Lapis together. We are always able to get the lapis down before whirlwind and the last set of tethered orbs/lasers, so I succor and place sacred soil and start doing damage again.

We are then able to push past the first shield, so when OT gets targetted with photon, I place a shield on them. Since I always have Eos in the middle (slightly north to try and hit the MT), I focus on her to try and get a crit aldo and spread it + Eye on the dps for their photon then help with the second E.D.D. and put dots on boss. Then what my team has me do is I succor and don't move before healer photon. If the other healer gets targetted with it, I get them up with a single lustrate and succor (main healer topping themselves and everyone else off), and continue with doing damage/managing Eos.

In the last phase, it seems we have the most trouble. I always make sure to succor before the first two optical sights. I usually swift cast a succor before double whirlwind and just replace shields. We try to stack after the tank Laser X sword, and I put up shields for people. Then, right before photon-whirlwind-lasers, I try to set up crit aldo + eye on Eos, then spread it on everyone when we stack in mid. Sometimes RNGesus doesn't bless me with a crit, so I don't know if its even worth doing?

We Haven't dealt with the third E.D.D. much. How I handled it when we got the furthest (2.9%), I probably healed more than I should have. I tried helping with the healing, so my damage suffered (bad Kai!). The second shield, we had the tanks stand together, and then the rest of us stood in a spot where we weren't facing a pillar. Main heals used their bubble (I'm sorry I'm so bad with skill names), I spread crit aldo + eye on us and place sacred soild. We don't even get a bleed because of all the shields. Then I focused on damage again as well as the other healer. What wiped us was the last GA-100. We probably would have survived it, but it always ends up killing our remaining pillars.

I hope my explaining all that helps. I'm bad at the writing thing, as well as the whole "remembering skill names". Also, no my acc isn't maxed out yet. It probably would be had I not made myself proke trying to penta meld some things (among other things). But thanks to the sticker books, I can trade for some more materia (which I hope to do the next time I log in). I know for a week or two, my leader wanted us all to meld all of our accessories with +12 vit to see if it would help. I just haven't been able to replace them until recently.

I don't have any special macros for Eos either :x I've always done everything manually, I'm not sure if that's an issue.

[Judge_Xero]

It sounds like you do things very similar to my group.

Me on A11S - Old Video

For the DPS Photon getting a CRT Adlo is pretty overkill. You can have a DPS Mantra and your OT use Convo, then spread the adlo off them.

Try to use Indom for the DPS Photon as well as for the Laser Whirlwinds to help your co-healer top everyone. Being able to time your precasted heals is very important too because there is not very much time between Photons and Whirlwinds and Double Whirlwinds (and dodging lasers) so you need to use the time you have as best as you can.

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Tips
- Making sure your group has enough HP to handle getting stacks and not getting 1 shot by AOEs.
Mages/Healers 22k
Melee/BRD/MCH 24k (Ideally the BRD/MCH will have 28k lol -> More MDEF PLZ)
Tanks - not a big deal

- Getting that accuracy. If both healers are DPSing then both should be capped/as close to cap as possible. It is such a huge thing to have fight consistency and acc% is a large part of that. You will also find that you get a larger DPS increase on a healer than the % of accuracy you've gained.
(i.e. 70->90% accuracy would be larger than a 20% DPS gain simply because RNGesus will make sure all your strongest attacks are the ones that miss)

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Accuracy wise without repecing your Relic for Accuracy.

Remeld your Body - ACC5 X 2 and ACC4 X 3
Get a i250 Crafted Ring and Meld it with Accuracy - T5 + 4 T4 Accuracy. (can also use T3 acc for some melds if cost is an issue)

Those are two pieces you will keep even after A12S is cleared unless you get the Alex Body first drop.
It will also give you a ton of freedom on upgrading other pieces without a large loss in Accuracy.

Those two will give you 99 accuracy paired with Grilled Sweetfish (<-Cheap Food) will keep you comfortably capped for all the turns. (593 accuracy required for all of Creator Savage)

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Also, don't feel down on yourself. TBH a month in A11S isn't that long for most groups. It's also just one of those fights where there is a ton of burst healing and shielding required and if people have stacks they will drop like a rock with only the minimum amount of HP. (despite others thinking you can spread CRT Adlo, Sacred Soil and Virus every Whirlwind to save them)

[LadyKairi]

For the DPS Photon getting a CRT Adlo is pretty overkill. You can have a DPS Mantra and your OT use Convo, then spread the adlo off them.

Thanks For the advice! I guess I've tried doing the crit aldo since the floor is on fire. I've felt it gives the dps more time to do damage on E.D.D. Since my cohealer has focused more on doing damage, I've always felt it was needed, because people used to die a lot from not getting healed in time for whirlwind. Or they would survive whirlwind, but die because they were hitting the E.D.D./ moving for positionals. The crit aldo has cut the deaths there significantly. Although, with the healer sub we had lastnight didn't seem to need that help. So I guess it just depends on who I have healing with me.