Coming to understand WHM in endgame

[Filmakus]

So for the most part it comes down to the situation as far as which heals are priority to use.

Sad to hear lilies truly aren't used cause on paper the idea sounds great but after looking over exactly how it works I due see its flaws.

So if I am understanding everything correctly to sum up healing in general terms, and I'm talking super general, for example throw out Medica II, Regen on tank(refreshing both when needed) and then from there fill in time with DPS such as Aero II and Stone II (or stronger variants once I get them) and Holy then if tank is about to take full frontal damage from a tank buster be ready with a Cure II or III depending and making sure Asylum is out during extended fights?

Thanks for all information given so far and any more received after this been truly enjoying WHM and want to see it through to the end and the more I understand the better!

[manamoppet]

Sad to hear lilies truly aren't used cause on paper the idea sounds great but after looking over exactly how it works I due see its flaws.

There was a lot of improvement on various issues in patch 4.5, but lilies probably won't be useful until the new expansion. We'll just have to see.

So if I am understanding everything correctly to sum up healing in general terms, and I'm talking super general, for example throw out Medica II, Regen on tank(refreshing both when needed) and then from there fill in time with DPS such as Aero II and Stone II (or stronger variants once I get them) and Holy then if tank is about to take full frontal damage from a tank buster be ready with a Cure II or III depending and making sure Asylum is out during extended fights?

Well, generally you don't use Medica II when fighting mobs outside boss-fights in the lvl. 60 dungeons and up, as it can affect the tank aggro more than regen, especially since most dungeons (that I can think of) have ambushes/ reinforcements. Cure III if more than one PC can be healed from it, otherwise Cure II. But that's the gist of it, yes

[Ghishlain]

So for the most part it comes down to the situation as far as which heals are priority to use.

Sad to hear lilies truly aren't used cause on paper the idea sounds great but after looking over exactly how it works I due see its flaws.

So if I am understanding everything correctly to sum up healing in general terms, and I'm talking super general, for example throw out Medica II, Regen on tank(refreshing both when needed) and then from there fill in time with DPS such as Aero II and Stone II (or stronger variants once I get them) and Holy then if tank is about to take full frontal damage from a tank buster be ready with a Cure II or III depending and making sure Asylum is out during extended fights?

Thanks for all information given so far and any more received after this been truly enjoying WHM and want to see it through to the end and the more I understand the better!

You more or less get the gist of it, though Medica II is an AoE heal so it's better after a raid buster - it's usually not worth the GCD usage to use Medica II if the only person who will benefit from the heal is the tank.

And as mentioned earlier, sometimes it's not even Cure II you want to use, you'll get Tetragrammaton which is essentially a free Cure II that's instant cast on a 60s cooldown (you'll get this at level 60).

In terms of healer priorities, you tend to want to exhaust your instant and free abilities before you start to spend GCDs on heals as it's generally more efficient to spend an ability that uses 0.75s versus a GCD that spends 2.5s. Once those are exhausted, you start to move into your spells like Cure II to heal.

Also, due note that Cure III is a very small AoE. It's not as MP efficient as Cure II for single target but it's pretty much the best on demand GCD AoE heal in the game, offset by the fact that your party members have to be in closer proximity of the target.

Asylum usage pretty much comes down to what you want out of it. In some cases it's best to use it as a stationary single target heal that will assist the tank, though if you can get 4/4 or 8/8 people stacked in Asylum for the entire duration, that's a lot of free healing that can be done for a single ability. It's unlikely, but if you can set it up well, it can save you a Medica II GCD since both Asylum and Medica II have similar potency / use. I find Asylum is about personal preference as well as the content you're participating in. You'll find very little use of it in 24mans in some regards because it's so chaotic it's hard to keep your party in your Asylum so it's best to just help the tank's HP if they're MTing. Even in more structured environments, there's no reason to use Asylum as an AoE just because the boss is so big and people seem allergic to enter the boss' hit box, lol. So again, just use it to keep your tank's HP up at that juncture.

Happy healing~

[Gemina]

So for the most part it comes down to the situation as far as which heals are priority to use.

At level 57, you are only going to have one ogcd heal in Benediction, so you'll be casting Cure II more often in the lower levels. At 60 you get Tetra, which will give allow you to begin to rotate these two ogcds before you have to resort to using Cure II. Using your regens effectively will also prolong the need for heals. The idea is to try and give continuous healing with your ogcd heals so you don't have to resort to Cure II, but do so if it is needed. This is also contingent on your party working with you and not against you.

Cure I is a spell that gets pointed out from time to time about its usefulness because Cure II is more gcd efficient. You still need to keep Cure I on your hotbars because of level sync. But if you are about optimizing your gcds and recognize that you don't really have MP problems at all as a WHM, it will almost always be better to cast one Cure II instead of two Cure I's to get your tank up past your threshold.

Sad to hear lilies truly aren't used cause on paper the idea sounds great but after looking over exactly how it works I due see its flaws.

It's a passive trait, so you honestly don't have to pay attention to it at all. The devs don't seem to want to give WHM a gimmick they have to micromanage like the other two healers. The concept isn't that bad, but it really does very little to actually benefit the WHM. Secret of the Lily 2 however is complete trash and still leaves a lot of us scratching our heads. Hopefully come 5.0 they figure something out better as I don't think the lily mechanic is going away; just getting reworked.

So if I am understanding everything correctly to sum up healing in general terms, and I'm talking super general, for example throw out Medica II, Regen on tank(refreshing both when needed) and then from there fill in time with DPS such as Aero II and Stone II (or stronger variants once I get them) and Holy then if tank is about to take full frontal damage from a tank buster be ready with a Cure II or III depending and making sure Asylum is out during extended fights?

Use Medica II sparingly. A mistake I see far too often is WHMs keeping medica II up full time. Regen is your sustain spell, and Medica II is actually more suited as a recovery spell more often that not. It can be used to sustain when constant AoE is inflicting damage whether it is unavoidable, or peeps are derping. In these cases, Swiftcast it. Otherwise, a well-timed largessed Medica II going off quickly after a large AoE blast is superior to Medica and more gcd efficient. This is great when people are spread out as they often are. Cure 3 is great when mechanics force the group to stack; and this happens often after a certain point.

When you don't need to heal, regen, rezz then your downtime is filled with DPS. Keep your dots up as best as you can and throw rocks when you have nothing else to do. Assize is your bread 'n butter and should ALWAYS be on cooldown unless the timer somewhat lines up with raidwide AoE.

There's a little more to it than that such as weaving ogcds like Divine Benison, Cleric Stance, Presence of Mind etc. between castings, openers on bosses but I think you'll get the hang of it as you go along. WHM is very fun to play and just needs a little love. Good luck out there.