Some advice to healers.

[Marael]

I've been playing MMOs for over ten years now. I always choose a healer class as my secondary class to make myself more useful to my guild/linkshell/free company/whatever. Whether it be on an alt character, or like in FFXI/XIV where you can have multiple classes on a single character. I've never chosen to be a healer as my main class, but I enjoy doing it enough that I don't mind being asked to come to anything as a healer when needed. If there's one bit of advice that I can give to any healer in any game, and especially in this one because I have never see so many healers that need to hear this bit of advice in any other game, it's don't panic. Now, I'm not saying that every wipe is the fault of a healer. Far from it. Everyone makes mistakes. Tanks miss something that wipes the party. DPS does something stupid and it wipes the party. Just plain old bad luck wipes the party and it's no one's fault. But lately I've been seeing a lot of wipes in FFXIV that could have been avoided had the healer not panicked, kept his head, and kept on healing. Whatever happens, whatever is going on, your party needs you to be in control, on top of things, and doing your job. Because when a healer panics, freezes up, and starts making mistakes because of it, a probable wipe becomes a definite wipe. Not every wipe can be saved, but a lot of the time, if you've got a healer that is really on the ball, standing firm, and doing everything that he can instead of freaking out and locking up, you can pull through.

So, here's a few tips I've learned over the years and throughout several MMOs for how to keep yourself from panicking while healing.

1.) Trust your tank. I know, some of them suck, it's true, especially in lower level dungeons, but the majority of them are at least decent, if not excellent at their job. Trust your tank to be able to keep aggro no matter how much you have to heal him, or to regain it quickly if he happens to lose it.

2.) Don't be afraid to take a few hits. I see this all the time, a mob runs for the healer, and the healer runs away instead of standing his ground and doing his job, and then everyone dies because he's not healing anyone, and only thinking about running away. Sadly, I see this in lvl 50 fights and instances a lot more than I see it in lower level ones. Stay put and do your job, and trust everyone else to do theirs. Most of the time, a tank will run straight for any mob that breaks off of the pack and runs for someone and do everything in his power to regain aggro on it, so don't sweat it. Help is coming, take a few hits for the team and keep on healing.

3.) Make a healing priorities list. This is really important. If more than one person gets hit with something big, you'll be wanting to heal the right person. If more than one person dies, you'll be wanting to rez the right one. If you heal a DPS when a tank is low on HP, the tank might die. If you rez a DPS instead of your other healer, things are going to get pretty interesting for you. My list looks like this: Tanks > Healers (including self) > DPS, and when EVERYONE is hurt AoE heals. If a DPS dies because you're healing a tank or a healer, you can rez them later and recover a lot easier than if a tank or a healer dies.

4.) Don't be afraid to ask for ballad. If you're running low on MP, and don't think it'll last to the end of a fight, and there's a Bard just shooting away without singing a song, tell him to do his job. I play as a Bard main. Sometimes I lose myself in what I'm doing, and don't notice the healer is low on MP, a friendly reminder is always far more welcome than a wipe because the healer was too timid to ask for help. The key word here is "friendly". Try not to be a dick about it. Even the best of Bards need to be reminded sometimes. I always try to keep on top of it, but I'm not perfect. Every now and then you'll get one that refuses to play songs because it lowers his DPS, but most of them will play a song if asked.

FFXIV has the most chaotic fights of any MMO I've ever played. It can get confusing, and hard to keep track of everything. And that makes it really easy to panic as a healer. But if you keep your cool, and keep on top of what everyone else is depending on you to do, you can usually pull a party out of a pretty nasty situation and keep on truckin'.

And other healers, feel free to add in your own tips and tricks for keeping on top of things.

[Risvertasashi]

I like your post, but unfortunately, even following that advice, not panicking is just not that easy sometimes...
But it does help with not freezing. Yet even prioritizing, when things are going south I sometimes find myself wishing I'd started a cast on someone else half a second later, or so on...

For number 4... I'll hit my low on MP macro once, but leave it at that. Too many bards will rip you up for daring to ask for ballad no matter the circumstance...

Still, good post and good advice, thanks for sharing^^

[AldoVonAlexandros]

i have 1 word, diazepam

[Aphrini]

i have 1 word, diazepam

...
LMAO!!!

[Roll]

Here's some of my tips for White Mages:
Divine seal. Abuse the crap out of it. Most people don't know Divine Seal helps with Regen and Medica2 healing over time.

*Divine Seal+Regen right after the tank has hate on everything and you don't have to worry about the tank and you can DD a bit until the regen fades or unless more healing is needed (Unless you're doing speedruns, then you can throw in Cures).

*Divine Seal+Medica 2 after everyone's hit by a big aoe and take lots of dmg. Powers it up and it quickly heals everyone a lot faster.

*Don't spam Medica 2 when it's already on everyone. If Medica 2 is ticking, use Medica instead.

I see a lot of White Mages who never use this amazing skill. It's on a short cooldown too so use it on every pull and you'll notice how amazing it is!

[Eidin205]

I have made a point of maining a Healer in every MMO that I've ever played and I have to completely agree with everything that Marael has said and I also really like Roll's advice. Divine Seal can be used almost twice a pull. Do NOT be shy to use it! Also when I accidentally grab aggro I'll even run towards the tank to help him grab the aggro back faster instead of waiting for him to run to me. I can't currently recall my WHM's HP right now but Healers tend to have better HP than some DPS classes in many MMOs so taking a few hits should definitely not be an issue.

Keeping calm may not be easy but it is an important part of being a good/excellent healer and in case things get hairy and people start blaming you for wipes then thick skin is also a must. There are a lot of varying situations that occur during even random pulls that may sometimes lead to a wipe that are unavoidable. Don't be afraid to admit a mistake if it happens, just do your best and have fun!

[Raestloz]

Your message is not entirely correct.

It's not "don't be afraid to get hit" but "know when the tank is uncaring".

There is a huge difference between tank not realizing you get hit and tank inherently not caring. Know the diference. If the tank would rather die than covering you, see if one of the DPS cares. If nobody cares, get the hell out of there and don't look back. Try to wait near the shortcut spawning point, or just high tail it back to the very beginning and use the shortcut again

[Eidin205]

My only problem with that advice is that once you've run away from the group you have a significantly higher chance of dying and at that point you may be risking a wipe. I'd rather risk dying while helping my party out rather than running off to a corner somewhere in a dungeon and healing myself over and over again hoping that the tank might eventually come running to help me. And if the tank is so uncaring to come help you while you're still around your party then there is definitely no way they care enough to come running after you halfway backwards through a dungeon to save you.

[Raestloz]

My only problem with that advice is that once you\\'ve run away from the group you have a significantly higher chance of dying and at that point you may be risking a wipe. I\\'d rather risk dying while helping my party out rather than running off to a corner somewhere in a dungeon and healing myself over and over again hoping that the tank might eventually come running to help me

The goal is not to run away entirely, the goal is to run all the way to the spot where you\\'ll land after you use the shortcut (where the tank will be after he\\'s dead since nobody heals them), to force the tank to admit that there is indeed something wailing at you, the healer, in hope that they will take it off your back.

At the very least there are 3 other people that are not healers. If none of them cares enough to get the heat off your back, healing them is a suicide with no payoff.

[Sirantha]

SNIP

Some of these are great points, but I'd like to elaborate a bit more on them.

1. Trust your tank to be able to hold agro, but make his job a little easier by not overhealing. He doesn't need to be at 100% constantly, just keep him alive comfortably.

2. Don't be afraid to take a few hits, but if you pull agro run to your tank to make it easier for him to get hate back off you. If this isn't an option, prioritise healing yourself, then healing the tank.

3. THIS! But also remember that if you can't res, that's okay. There will often be other people in the party who can help you out here, so focus on keeping yourself and your tank alive. Raising people is secondary to this.

4. THIS again! But also try to work on prioritising Cure I over Cure II unless Freecure procs, so you don't have to rely on the Bard too heavily. Use Shroud of Saints when you've dropped a little, and get used to how much it regens your MP so you know when it's optimal to use it. This is more important at 50.

I'd also add that panicking comes naturally as a healer, and it's hard to combat that. This is normal, don't beat yourself up over it. It's just important to remember that you're doing the job that other people either aren't willing to do, or aren't good enough at, so try to take their complaints with a pinch of salt. Get whatever constructive feedback you can from what they say, and ignore the rest.