Tips and Suggestions For a Nervous New Healer

[ChaoticCrimson]

So, as the title implies, I've decided to try my hand at some healing. I'm currently leveling CNJ so I can play as a WHM. While I've technically leveled SCH by virtue of having leveled my SMN, I haven't actually played SCH since it doesn't sound much like my style for healing. Basically, I am brand new to the role, and getting ready to try my first dungeon as a healer.

While I have minor experience in assistance with healing support duties as RDM and SMN, like rezzing people, I'm nervous about doing actual healing for other players. So if anyone can give me some input on things I can do to help ease my anxieties, and help me to get my bearings for what to expect in a dungeon/trial setting, I would really appreciate it!

[ManuelBravo]

Know your actions, learn to use the party list if your on PC, have fast cast ready, assist with dots only when you feel you can without jeopardizing the party ( remember healing is your main concern ), learn to cancel your casting when your targeted ( better to avoid then get killed ) Have back up Mega ether, just in case they help at times specially if you get resurrected, Be always well geared. ( Food is your friend )

Most importantly have fun ^^

[Ghishlain]

Things to remember:

• Make sure to let the players know you're new to healing but not the dungeon. Being honest and up front about that will mean if simple mistakes happen, people will generally be quick to forgive and keep pushing on.
• Your heals are meaty! The size of your heals are ridiculously large compared to similar staple healer spells from other MMOs. This means you generally won't need a lot to use a lot of resources to keep people tanked up.
• Give yourself a comfort level of "I should definitely start healing at this point". This can be as high as when you see the tank fall below 75% HP. Once they hit that threshold, slap them a Cure and keep doing what must be done. Don't be shy about the overheal at your current skill level. You'll learn how to better manage your resources and play more efficiently as you both gain new tools from the healer kit and understand the limitations of those tools via experience.
• Once you understand the flow and party dynamic (how much damage is the tank taking at a time? Are the DPS dodging AoEs? Etc.), don't be shy to spend a GCD or two tagging things with Aero at opportune moments. Gauging these moments might take a few pulls and don't be afraid to shy away from the DPS buttons until you're self-assured everything will be okay. The nice thing about Aero is that it's instant and thus allows you to move while the GCD is on cooldown do avoid AoEs.
• Have fun

[EaMett]

Don't get too anxious, FF14 does a great job of increasing the difficulty level as you go. Your first dungeons you will only have a couple of skills so it's very straightforward. Just always stay close to your tank and then spam that cure 1 (healing requirement is generally pretty low unless your tank pulls big)

[Tridus]

Check your role actions, there's useful stuff in there! (Lucid Dreaming and Esuna as you get them, most groups also like you to have Protect).

Early on, don't worry about overhealing and don't worry about doing DPS. Get a feel for how the healing spells work and how much you can comfortably heal. Once you get the hang of that, you can start adding in Aero and Stone spells when you have healing downtime.

[Squintina]

The first suggestion I'd give to a new healer is don't worry too much about other people.

Everyone has opinions on healers and we're usually one of the first to be blamed when something goes wrong. If it's constructive criticism, welcome it. If it's someone bashing you, just ignore it.

In a 4-man setting, you priority is to heal. That doesn't mean you shouldn't help out with dps (you should), but not at the expense of someone dying. When you first start out you'll probably get a little panicky and heal when people just barely take any damage. That's fine.

As you get more comfortable and you get to really feel how much your heals do, you can wait a bit more (70% health, 50% health, etc..).

You'll also learn to rely on your regens more (because you're choosing WHM). New healers have a tendency to treat regen as something to do in advance, but once they see people go down to 50% health, they might panic and use a non-regen healing spell, and thus the regen is wasted. If you're unsure of the fight that's ok, but if it's a fight you know a bit, you should ask yourself if you can wait for the regen or if there's an actual need for you not to wait (like a massive aoe that's coming up in 2 seconds). If you can, let the regens do their job while you help out with dps/mechs.

In an 8-man setting, you have a cohealer, so while you're still supposed to make sure people are alive, you do have help. Learn a little bit about all the healers so you know what you kind of help you can expect from them.

[Risvertasashi]

While I have minor experience in assistance with healing support duties as RDM and SMN, like rezzing people, I'm nervous about doing actual healing for other players. So if anyone can give me some input on things I can do to help ease my anxieties, and help me to get my bearings for what to expect in a dungeon/trial setting, I would really appreciate it!

For the most part, dungeons are pretty gentle, especially early one. There are some breakpoints though, such as Brayflox's Longstop and Dzaemel Darkhold, which can be problematic if you or the tank neglected gear. In any case, you should find keeping up with heals generally isn't too hard. And once you get regen, you can toss that on the tank to worry about them a bit less.

That said, if there's one thing I would caution about... especially when you start getting pressured to DPS... tunnel vision. If you feel really confidence in keeping track of things you can ignore this advice, but generally, I'd suggest moving your party frame closer to the center of the screen. Somewhere where you'll be looking at it a lot.

Even in settings like endgame savage raiding, I've seen players switch to healing and do OK... but then fall into the trap of completely failing to notice that someone in their party failed a mechanic, perhaps even dying. So, for starting, I recommend moving the party frame to ensure you always have good awareness of the party and can react quickly when someone stumbles.

[Kaozurei]

As a DPS main who recently decided to give healing a try, I can 100% relate to that nervous feeling. Something that helped me a lot was reading up on Zyrk's guide to healing found here, which was a pretty good way to get a base as to what I should and shouldn't be doing as a healer. Starting with a CNJ is also a good idea since it'll let you adapt to healing starting from the easier dungeons.

What I do is look up guides on dungeons I may have forgotten, that way I know what mechanics to look out for and when damage spikes may occur, mentioning that you're new to healing a dungeon also helps a lot. Also, if you struggle healing a specific dungeon, run it over and over until you get it even if it no longer gives good exp. I think it's better to get practice healing through mechanics that may give you trouble even if it means a longer leveling process.

[MicahZerrshia]

I'm going to play devil's advocate here and say, don't get to hung up on the job title and remember your ABCs (always be casting).

If you want to be cautious at first, its fine but if your spending a majority of the dungeon just standing there waiting for someone to take dmg, bite the bullet and dps. It will get you used to weaving your dps and healing and I feel this is something healers should do from the get go so its not foreign to them later on and becomes natural. This is esp important in early dungeons since there is very little healing needed in them.

In Tam Tara today we had a whm who stood there and didn't even take their weapon out during pulls because no healing was needed and in steps we had one not take their staff out for the first full half of the fight since the other healer had heals covered and then stood there for the rest of it and there is nothing more annoying than that.

Pick up good habits early on and you will have far less stress later.

I find the healing and dps combo extremely easy to manage because I did it early and I find healing overall easier and more fun. The best advice is to read your tool tips, get your hotbar set up so you have easy access to single/aoe cures, esuna and a "oh crap" insta heal (just in case) and just do it. Nothing will make it harder to do than over thinking it.

[ChaoticCrimson]

Thanks everyone for all the responses! I ended up diving in and doing a handful of dungeon runs tonight, and they went pretty well for the most part. I let everyone know ahead of time I was new to healing, though there were actually quite a few newbies running the dungeons too lol. I even ended up getting a fair amount of comms, and a compliment from the last tank I ran with. All-in-all, it wan't as bad as I was expecting, and I really like the near-instant queues compared to waiting 15-20 mins as a DPS.