New WHM - Need Direction

[Deadlydave]

I have enjoyed being a WHM, then I went to Cutters Cry! I feel like such a newb. I have figured things out mostly, but Tanks think I can kite adds and heal, lol sure. The Chimera boss is crazy hard and I'm being told to use Esuna to remove status effects but I can't tell when someone has a staus effect. I have tried Cutters Cry 6 times and I am not going to give up, although most parties are not too happy with me. I did reorganize my hot bar because I noticed it was not efficient for that dungeon. Any words of encouragement or tips would be great.

[Deadlydave]

I'm really not looking forward to getting THM to level 26, lol. I would rather spend the time on White mage. oh well

[subteraneanbird]

I have enjoyed being a WHM, then I went to Cutters Cry! I feel like such a newb. I have figured things out mostly, but Tanks think I can kite adds and heal, lol sure. The Chimera boss is crazy hard and I'm being told to use Esuna to remove status effects but I can't tell when someone has a staus effect. I have tried Cutters Cry 6 times and I am not going to give up, although most parties are not too happy with me. I did reorganize my hot bar because I noticed it was not efficient for that dungeon. Any words of encouragement or tips would be great.

You can. It's called Regen. The Queen herself does almost no damage so Regen alone is sufficient for that fight.

[HoneyBiscuit]

I have enjoyed being a WHM, then I went to Cutters Cry! I feel like such a newb. I have figured things out mostly, but Tanks think I can kite adds and heal, lol sure. The Chimera boss is crazy hard and I'm being told to use Esuna to remove status effects but I can't tell when someone has a staus effect. I have tried Cutters Cry 6 times and I am not going to give up, although most parties are not too happy with me. I did reorganize my hot bar because I noticed it was not efficient for that dungeon. Any words of encouragement or tips would be great.

Don't forget you can sprint too. You don't need TP, so use it whenever you have to kite, or you think you aren't going to clear out of an AoE. Sprint in for dragons voice on chimera too. Sprint if your heal target is out of range. Sprint because I think it looks kinda badass. I don't know why I don't see casters sprinting more.

The debuff is applied to people who get hit by the big aoes on chimera. So if they do the rams or dragon's voice and if you need to heal someone after because they got hit they'll likely need esuna too. Ram's voice is most important to clear as the DoT effect it adds is pretty mean.

Debuffs are usually red squares with a pointed bottom on your party list. If you're running default UI, consider moving party list closer in to center so you don't need to shift your gaze as much to keep an eye on it.

Personally I didn't get swiftcast until I was 50. And I played at 50 for a while without getting it. I decided I wouldn't risk EX primals without it though, as a courtesy to my group. I would definitely say it's a necessity, but I wouldn't rush it. You can do fine without it for a while yet. If you're struggling, it's not because you don't have swiftcast.

And get excited for Aurum Vale at 47. That place is pretty rough to heal for the first time. Not to freak you out or anything, just be prepared for some failure. :P

By the way, if you are new to the forums you can edit your posts to bypass the stupid 1000 character limit.

[micropanther7]

Thank you for the tips guys! Sorry for hijacking your thread Theonefin, but I'd like to ask a question as well, when should we be concerned about gear and materia?

[Inflorescence]

Definitely not until at least 50, when you get your Artifact(?) Set. Quest rewards keep you geared nicely, and dungeon drops even moreso.

Brayflox drops the Battlemage set, whose robe I used until like 45. It might have even been 50.

You do want to keep your weapon nice and current, however, since that has the largest effect on your healing.

At 50, the game very rapidly changes to grinding dungeons for tomes and CT for i80 gear.

[lxSch]

Brayflox HM is a dps check and should be easiest for a healer, once you reach lv50 unlock it asap and try to max weekly soldiery tomes (i100 gear trade). It also drops i70 gear and lots of tomes for i90 gear, if you have a limited play time it should be #1 priority.
CT (labirint of ancients) drops very few soldierly tomes (4 times less per time spent) and better to be avoided if you have limited play time.

[micropanther7]

Tyvm for the responses guys

[subteraneanbird]

Order your cross skills!
It is vital to order your skills so that you have everything you need as you need it. Here is my preferred order:

Blizzard II: You will be doing lowbie stuff quite a bit thanks to roulette. Blizzard II gives you an AOE you would otherwise lack for off-DPS. This can speed up these runs for you.

Swiftcast: This ensures you will have Swiftcast for Halatali and beyond. This will also make sure you can swiftraise ASAP.

Virus: Placing Virus here means the earliest you have it is Haukke/Brayflox, which is a very good time to have it. You will likely still be the only person with Virus, and the debuff eases a lot of pressure.

Surecast: The first dungeon you will have Surecast access is Stone Vigil where you will need to make sure every heal lands because things there hit like a truck.

Eye for an Eye: As others have mentioned, this is mostly for end-game, and no one is gonna die or notice if you don't have it.

[subteraneanbird]

2) Triage!
Triage is a skill that is controversial among healers but it is vital. Triage is simply healing priority. While you'd think it's simple, it can be difficult to grasp. One of the most important lessons to learn is this: Healing is about keeping the group alive until success, not every single member. There will be situations where it is disadvantageous to keep certain people alive, because they will die again, or you are unable to leave your main target long enough to do so. This will cause quite a bit of anger. No one likes sitting around dead while you win a fight. Explain that you decided to make the choice you thought would ensure the win. Some people understand triage and will understand your viewpoint. Learning triage is an ongoing process. As you're playing, learn the situations where your intervention will be unhelpful. Some of them are easy and some of them are much less so. Know your limits. Know the limits of your party to the best of your ability.