Need help, never played healer b4.

[Snow_Leonhart]

So as the title says I've only been playing as tanks and melee dps with some bard on the side. And i'd like to level at least one of the healers before I'm done. So my question is which healer should I pick? Things to keep in mind are, I'm not planning on hardcore raiding, but IF I had to raid which would be better suited for raids? Which one is easy to learn? Highest skill ceiling? More useful to group in dungeon and trial settings? Who has the least complicated rotation or priority system? Not sure if that last one applies to healers. Oh and should I just wait for dancer. Remember I have no intention of maining a healer to. Just want to level one to say I did it mostly.

[HyperiusUltima]

Alright, so let's go through this a question at a time.

Which Healer should I pick? - To be honest, pick one and try it out to see if you have fun with it.

If I had to raid which would be better suited for raids? - All of the Healers are, unless you're going for meta.

Which one is easy to learn? - White Mage is probably the easiest job to learn healing wise since it's mainly filled with GCD Healing with damage on the side; the skill ceiling is a bit higher since you have to consider clipping your GCD for oGCDs, but that's something you can improve down the line.

Highest skill ceiling? - SCH. You have to determine how to use your stacks as well as manage your fairy and fairy positioning pretty well. People had to control their fairy during Sigmascape V4.0 because Kefka liked to dunk the fairy with Hyperdrive.

More useful to group in dungeon and trial settings? - Dungeon settings usually goes to WHM because of Holy Spam, but Trial Settings vary from fight to fight.

Who has the least complicated rotation or priority system? - WHM wins this one since it's simple. Check The Balance Discord for more info.

Should I just wait for DNC? - Nah. For all we know DNC could be an entirely different beast, but we've yet to get any information regarding it. They probably will tease the jobs in the next live letter.

[Snow_Leonhart]

Alright, so let's go through this a question at a time.

Which Healer should I pick? - To be honest, pick one and try it out to see if you have fun with it.

If I had to raid which would be better suited for raids? - All of the Healers are, unless you're going for meta.

Which one is easy to learn? - White Mage is probably the easiest job to learn healing wise since it's mainly filled with GCD Healing with damage on the side; the skill ceiling is a bit higher since you have to consider clipping your GCD for oGCDs, but that's something you can improve down the line.

Highest skill ceiling? - SCH. You have to determine how to use your stacks as well as manage your fairy and fairy positioning pretty well. People had to control their fairy during Sigmascape V4.0 because Kefka liked to dunk the fairy with Hyperdrive.

More useful to group in dungeon and trial settings? - Dungeon settings usually goes to WHM because of Holy Spam, but Trial Settings vary from fight to fight.

Who has the least complicated rotation or priority system? - WHM wins this one since it's simple. Check The Balance Discord for more info.

Should I just wait for DNC? - Nah. For all we know DNC could be an entirely different beast, but we've yet to get any information regarding it. They probably will tease the jobs in the next live letter.

Thanks for the great info. I'll probably go with whm. That holy spam in dungeons looks sexy lol

[Songwillow]

Thanks for the great info. I'll probably go with whm. That holy spam in dungeons looks sexy lol

While WHM has some nice benefits, the holy spam drives some players nuts since it will grant mobs stun immunity which is only ignored by the Monk. I used to main WHM and honestly they aren't as good as they used to be. The new patch will give them some love but most of that won't be noticed until late level when you get Assize. They have the best healing power overall but their DPS is moderate since their DoTs are decent but not as powerful as SCH. They do have the best emergency heal which is Benediction, this is AMAZING when a WAR or DRK use their Holmgang or Living Dead ability (doesn't do much for PLD with Hallowed Ground but can be useful still).

SCH has some nice features, in addition, you get TWO classes in one since you level SCH and SMN at the same time which is great to have an extra DPS on the size. SCH has a lot of healing potential, it is difficult for them to run out of MP and their DPS ability is great, with powerful early AoE potential with Bane and Shadowflare. Also most tanks like shields over regen however it is still personal preference. Their healing potential is great due to their aetherflow instant heals. Personally this is my favorite healing class now, it used to be WHM but Stormblood kinda ruined it by removing some of their good abilties making them less than stellar. They aren't horrible mind you, just not optimal as of right now.

AST gives you a bit of love on both ends, you can use either shields and regen between the two sects (though you cannot use both in battle), and you have nice buffs to grant allies, but you have to deal with RNG due to the fate of the cards. The DPS is rather weak due to the lack of decent AoEs until 52 with Gravity, and also they have some of the best emergency heal potential due to having lightspeed and essential dignity. They also have poor MP management due to it being dependant on RNG and using your draw ability carefully.

[Snow_Leonhart]

Is there a way to simplify sch? What I mean by that is I know u have the pet to manage and heal and dps so could I just heal or just manage the pet and still be capable in a group? If I had to just heal and not dps that would be cool

[Risvertasashi]

Is there a way to simplify sch? What I mean by that is I know u have the pet to manage and heal and dps so could I just heal or just manage the pet and still be capable in a group? If I had to just heal and not dps that would be cool

While you can get away with it in the low levels, the higher you go, the more pressure/expectation there will be for you to DPS.

That being said, I prefer SCH for dungeon runs and "chill DPS". By that I mean throwing up DoTs (Bio, Miasma), using bane and shadowflare, and then just broil filler. It's not playing SCH to its full potential, but it's a simple way to DPS that's also relaxing/not straining. Fairy on auto will clean up small damage, but don't tunnelvision completely.

[Tharnor]

Honestly speaking in terms of healing, they all get the job done. I tend to favor whm when I know I am going to get bad players like in 24man raids. It is just much easier to keep them up with consistent strong heals. I am not sure how ast work out at 70 but sch has a rough time when aetherflow stacks are gone. This assumes terrible group situations. In most runs they all work well and can put out decent dps. But there will always be winners and losers in the min/max world and that loser is whm like last expansion. You can clear all content as a whm but not as many people will want a whm. This is not as bad in df/pf but it is noticeable in static recruitment.

Honestly speaking on a basic level and starting out all dps very similarly. You get 1-2 dots, 1-2 nukes, and some times gcd abilities. Starting out get use to keeping dots up and nuking when you can. Once your comfortable with that move on to gcd clipping. Sadly whm is weak here as well while sch is like a well maintained machine. Whm and sch can not even be compared in this regard in terms of effectiveness. As sch you get several skills to trigger a gcd which allows you to clip 1-2 abilities in during the cooldown. So you do not have that awkward wait after an ability to continue casting. But that comes at price of increase complexity. Which is where whm shines. It is an extremely capable healer and is easy to heal and dps with.

Your going notice I did not mention AST much.... Well I do not play it because I cannot stand the random nature of the cards even though they play pretty much like a whm. On that not in 8man+ content two healers are taken. It not that all healers are fighting for a spot but whm is fighting with ast. While sch has a spot in most pre-planned groups.

[Gemina]

Unless you use a jump potion, you have to start with CNJ as AST requires one other job to be 50+ and MSQ completion, and SCH requires leveling ACN to 30 to unlock. Both start at 30 as well. If you have met these requirements and can choose between CNJ, SCH, and AST, I still highly recommend going CNJ to WHM if you are new to healing. However, you should also pick the one that interests you the most.

Whichever healer you choose, be sure to read your tooltips and understand your abilities. If there are any that confuse you, or you would like to know how to optimize them we can definitely help you there. Your #1 priority is to maintain the health of the party. Always. Yes, you should be adding damage when you don't need to do this, and optimizing healing comes from extending your DPS windows through regens/shields/ogcd heals. However, the moment healing is needing, you drop everything to do it. Not doing so is regarded as tunnel visioning, and it is one of the biggest tank killers in the game. Most, if not all healers learning/trying to optimize are guilty of this.

If you have spent time as DPS, you are well aware that you have a 'filler' ability that you use when there is nothing else for you to use. The same applies to healers. For example, Stone is the ability WHM use when there is nothing else for them to do (no heals needed, DoTs are up, regens are up, offensive abilities are on CD etc.) If facing multiple opponents, then you replace Stone with AoE, hence teh Holy spam ;p

When it comes to raids, play the healer you want to play. SCH and AST occupy the two optimal spots currently, but if you want to go WHM, then go WHM. As far as DNC goes, no one can tell you to wait for it or not. You know as much as we do when it comes to its implementation. However, if it is a healer/DPS hybrid it will no doubt attract the more DPS minded players.

[Snow_Leonhart]

Unless you use a jump potion, you have to start with CNJ as AST requires one other job to be 50+ and MSQ completion, and SCH requires leveling ACN to 30 to unlock. Both start at 30 as well. If you have met these requirements and can choose between CNJ, SCH, and AST, I still highly recommend going CNJ to WHM if you are new to healing. However, you should also pick the one that interests you the most.

Whichever healer you choose, be sure to read your tooltips and understand your abilities. If there are any that confuse you, or you would like to know how to optimize them we can definitely help you there. Your #1 priority is to maintain the health of the party. Always. Yes, you should be adding damage when you don't need to do this, and optimizing healing comes from extending your DPS windows through regens/shields/ogcd heals. However, the moment healing is needing, you drop everything to do it. Not doing so is regarded as tunnel visioning, and it is one of the biggest tank killers in the game. Most, if not all healers learning/trying to optimize are guilty of this.

If you have spent time as DPS, you are well aware that you have a 'filler' ability that you use when there is nothing else for you to use. The same applies to healers. For example, Stone is the ability WHM use when there is nothing else for them to do (no heals needed, DoTs are up, regens are up, offensive abilities are on CD etc.) If facing multiple opponents, then you replace Stone with AoE, hence teh Holy spam ;p

When it comes to raids, play the healer you want to play. SCH and AST occupy the two optimal spots currently, but if you want to go WHM, then go WHM. As far as DNC goes, no one can tell you to wait for it or not. You know as much as we do when it comes to its implementation. However, if it is a healer/DPS hybrid it will no doubt attract the more DPS minded players.

Oh ok. If u or anyone else could shoot me a msg on discord that would be great. I have a few more questions I'd like to ask someone who heals regularly. Snow_Leonhart#4945
Thx everyone

[miraidensetsu]

Unless you use a jump potion, you have to start with CNJ as AST requires one other job to be 50+ and MSQ completion, and SCH requires leveling ACN to 30 to unlock. Both start at 30 as well. If you have met these requirements and can choose between CNJ, SCH, and AST, I still highly recommend going CNJ to WHM if you are new to healing. However, you should also pick the one that interests you the most.

Well... Helps the fact he have at least a level 70 PLD and can jump into AST right away.

And level a ACN or a CNJ up to level 30 isn't some rocket science.