Healer Role in Dungeons

[Jyoeru]

At that level, neither you nor the other players have the full skill set required to more tactfully deal with the encounters. Therefore, you can very easily spam your skills and acquire aggro and get yourself into trouble--because the game mechanics are tricky.

Use stoneskin to generate less enmity. Use repose (28, I think), to lock down mobs the tank is not focused on. Black mages should have that skill early on, so if they're not using it--shame on them.

It gets easier around 30, but only if you are paying attention to your heals and using your toolkit. If you spam heals like no tomorrow, then you will run into some problems.

[Imakles]

Well, try to think of it like this...no one likes to see a group member just standing around not doing anything while they wait to "do their job"; Likewise doing something like healing when it's not needed is equally as wasteful. Overhealing generates unnecessary hate (which forces the tank to work harder) and wastes mana (mana management is very important for healers...if they run out of mana the party usually dies). This goes for AoE healing as well, like using medica. Try to only use it when you know it'll land on most of the group and they'll get most of the benefit of it.

Some groups can be abusive regardless...even when the healer isn't finger fumbling. Don't take the criticisms to heart and always strive to do better. Remember, the option is always there for you to disband if people get irrational with you.

[worldofneil]

Just throwing this in because I think it might be helpful, but by default the T key (on PC anyway) switches your target to the "target of your target", so if you're on the tank, most of the time it'll switch your target to the mob everyone is fighting so you can quickly check your hate level/make sure you aren't getting too high and then press T again to switch back to the tank (assuming of course the mob is still targeted on the tank).

[LiadansWhisper]

Just throwing this in because I think it might be helpful, but by default the T key (on PC anyway) switches your target to the "target of your target", so if you're on the tank, most of the time it'll switch your target to the mob everyone is fighting so you can quickly check your hate level/make sure you aren't getting too high and then press T again to switch back to the tank (assuming of course the mob is still targeted on the tank).

You can see your level of hate by looking to the left of your party frames. There's an Enemy Target Frame and it shows whether you're okay (Green), getting a bit too much Hate (Yellow), really need to watch yourself or have the tank swap to that add (Orange), or need to hit Shroud RIGHT NOW PLS CUZ YOU'RE TANKIN', BRO (Red).

You don't ever need to swap targets to watch your threat level.

[worldofneil]

Thanks for this info and that sounds pretty cool, if a little limited in precision, but where exactly is this "enemy target frame" please?

I have nothing changing colours anywhere that I've noticed, certainly nothing left of the party members list. Only time I ever see anything left of the party list is when I target the enemy and then I see the hate bars/order.

Edit: Nevermind, didn't realise you meant a different box and I turned that one off as I didn't see any use to it as I didn't know they changed colours!

Good to know though, although after being used to seeing the exact level of my hate I don't think I'll be turning it back on as it just sounds too vague, but thank you for the info!

[SeraphS]

If you are healing for a dungeon and you are being blamed for wipes and other fails, there is one important thing you should remember...you are the healer...you don't need to take their crap!

Good healers are hard to find and good healers don't need to take the crap from any noob group who loves to blame them for their own mistakes. However, if a group is blaming you, you should look at the circumstances objectively and discover if you truly are doing something wrong or not. If you can find compelling evidence that you are doing everything you are supposed to be doing and yet things are still going pear shaped, there is a good chance that it's the deepz or the tank that are fudging things up.

So don't be afraid to ditch a group in the middle of a run IF (and only IF) they are giving you crap for their own mistakes, it's not hard for good healers to get good groups to run dungeons with them.

[Garnatian]

In Dungeons, your role is to DPS and Heal. In Raids, just Heal.