Healer PVP: What works and what doesnt

[Kalakbar]

PvPing as a WHM, as SCH suffers badly from no CC and also having a pet that's incapable of sprinting.

Tips!

1.) Always be aware of where the enemy tank is. Frequently, their only job is to CC you, so make sure you're always aware of where they are.

2.) Sleeping pets is an incredible way to neuter an enemy SCH or SMN.

3.) Surecast needs to be saved for when they are out of stuns/silences.

4.) Keep Medica 2 and Regen ticking as much as you can.

5.) Swiftcast Holy can save you from needing to Swiftcast a Res.

6.) Purify can save you from a full row of SMN dots AS WELL as the stun the enemy PLD just dropped on you. Use it.

7.) LoS as much as humanly possible.

[Rainsford]

Vitality! I went 30vit and wear my i90 armor/weapon with i70 Astral gear with full Vit. With food, my HP is about 5400~. I don't lose enough healing potency for it to matter, but there's tons of times where I'm knocked below 1k~ HP and able to recover when it would have been death without the Vit.

Also, as a healer, being able to eat more burst gives your team more time to kill their healer.

[Kam8T88]

I wish I had something constructive to say I really do, I didn't expect it to be great, but I hoped it to be fun. I usually play a healing role in these types of games and am fully aware of what a healer is like in PvP. It's just to easy to shut me down, all you have to do is set a pet on me to endlessly autoattack me and I can basically cast regen. Or Surecast 1 spell every 30 seconds "that can be stunned" or swiftcast 1 spell every minuite. other than that run and regen.


After 15 years of MMO gaming I hate to say it, but it was the worst PvP experience I think I have ever had.

I'm in the same boat here. I hate not having control of my character. 100% interrupt rate is just too much. Any other mmo I've played when someone is attacking the healer, the healer still has options. With this game if someone's on you all you can do is run away. If they're CCing you while dpsing there's literally nothing you can do. It's simply no fun at all.

[Sciwolf]

Im not a healer but i saw this MNK video where he just had the sprint aura on and just kept on hitting the healer the whole match and they won.
Im not even sure how the healer could have defended against that because even with sprint the MNK would sprint and still had enough TP to interrupt.
In top of that the MNK had some ranged attack that could nullify the healers sprint. And if that wasnt enough he used that MNK intercept (shoulder tackle?) ability whenever the caster got a little too far.
They dont even need to kill you. All they need to do is to merely hit you.

[YuriRamona]

I wish I had something constructive to say I really do, I didn't expect it to be great, but I hoped it to be fun. I usually play a healing role in these types of games and am fully aware of what a healer is like in PvP. It's just to easy to shut me down, all you have to do is set a pet on me to endlessly autoattack me and I can basically cast regen. Or Surecast 1 spell every 30 seconds "that can be stunned" or swiftcast 1 spell every minuite. other than that run and regen.


It sucks and I pray to whatever MMO god that might be out there that class adjustments don't start bleeding over into the PvE for......one......map. I know it was stated they can adjust things separately, but I am dubious. I would imagine there are limits, we shall see. I have seen PvP ruin a lot of games, I hope it doesn't go and ruin this one on me as well. After 15 years of MMO gaming I hate to say it, but it was the worst PvP experience I think I have ever had. Guess this time around I will stick to PvE in this MMO, and again hope they don't ruin it adjusting PvP.

Im not a healer but i saw this MNK video where he just had the sprint aura on and just kept on hitting the healer the whole match and they won.
Im not even sure how the healer could have defended against that because even with sprint the MNK would sprint and still had enough TP to interrupt.
In top of that the MNK had some ranged attack that could nullify the healers sprint. And if that wasnt enough he used that MNK intercept (shoulder tackle?) ability whenever the caster got a little too far.
They dont even need to kill you. All they need to do is to merely hit you.

Yes, at the moment, BRD, MNK, and SMN (and/or their pets) can lock down healers for a majority of the time with the possibility of killing you. SCH has Miasma 2 and Ruin 2 for Heavy/Blind and WHM can Regen to extend their chances, but it's very difficult to cast under this kind of harassment.

The key thing here is that these jobs are much deadlier than tanks, who can do little more than harass you (obviously they are deadly if paired with DPS, due to Holmgang bind or Shield Bash stun, so Purify is needed to dodge their blitz). If they decide to use a DPS to chase you instead of a tank (or in addition to a tank), then you should have free reign to catch one of their DPS off-guard or when they are far from their healer: if your team's tank is effectively harassing/pulling away their healer, then you should have two DPS free to focus on one of their DPS.

So to answer your concerns, there is no real counter to BRD, MNK, or SMN chasing you (besides maybe the new PVP abilities). The only response (especially if you're being double-teamed) is to go on the offensive. Obviously, the healer can Swiftcast+Raise, but you just need to be aware of where the spell resolved and camp the DPS when they accept the raise (and come back with usually 500-700 HP). If the healer tries to come back to heal the weakened DPS, they open themselves to attack and may end up losing their DPS in the process anyway.

P.S. If you have Annulment, you can bait their DPS to target you while your team's DPS focus one of them down. Annulment is also a perfect counter to a full-team blitz if the other side tries to do so. (3-4 against you in stun lock)