Healer etiquette and general tips for a noob healer

[Draxis_Fallspear]

1- I always focus target the boss. That way, I can see which big attack is coming that might cause problems. Once I know get a feel for the cast time, I start precasting my heal so that it lands right after the damage. Gives me more uptime on DPS.

2- Especially as an AST, make sure to read and understand the tooltips for all of your oGCD. Healers don't have rotations, but we do have to understand all the tools at our disposal to make our job easier. Knowing what these do and how they interact can really make a huge difference in your own QOL. For example, Celestial Opposition also has a stun effect and extends Collective Unconscious (which has a duration even after the bubble has gone down) so it's very useful on large pulls, especially if you extend an AOE dps card (like Balance, Arrow, or Spear).

3- I believe I saw someone else say this, but I'll reiterate. As an AST, your priority order should be heals, buffs and only then DPS. You hit the least out of all the healers so your dps contribution is mainly from the cards.

4- Regen is tricky. I've started using it a lot less and I find things have gone better for it. It heals for a lot over the course of its life, but it won't keep the tank up. I usually avoid it for the first part of a larger pull and only cast it once there are about 4 or less mobs left (really more of a feel though, if I feel like the incoming damage is getting pretty manageable then I use it so I can dps more)

5- Watch your MP. As I'm levelling through the healers, I've found that AST has the hardest time with MP management. I set a rule for myself where I stop dpsing at 50% mana and just start again if I reach 70% comfortably. I could probably start being more aggressive but it's a good rule of thumb for me at the moment and I never run out of mana. No mana, no heals.