Tips for new (and some not-so-new) healers

[AiChyan]

Quite often, I violate these 'rules', lol. My healing style is a tad different.

What is annoying is the lack of communication from most tanks. There is no: Oh hey, I'm attacking this group but once everyone is engaged, I'm going to aggro the entire map. It is just, they start attacking and then suddenly... they are running ahead, pulling everything. And then they yell at the healer for not healing them. And usually, if you cast regen, you'll get ALL the aggro (most in a second or two, the rest will follow shortly). So you have to let them die or have a party wipe.

1: Nice information, didn't know I could do that. Wonder how I'll do it on the ps4.

God yes I hate it when tanks don't inform me of their plans -.- learned this the hard way and now I'm always tense when healing SR prone dungeons because any kind of pulls could happen at any point of time.

as for the party sort there is a button in the party screen or you can use /psort

[BinaryJack]

[*]Use Lustrate 3 times per minute. It is not an emergency heal. Avoid Sacred Soil unless you are expecting 1 massive hit. Lustrate is better.

Thanks for the tips. I am always looking at improving myself as a healer and player in general.
Can you please elaborate more on this comment?
Did you perhaps mean Sacred Soil 3 times per minute and avoid Lustrate unless you expect 1 massive hit?

As a Scholar I consider my role to be damage prevention by using my "shield spells" Sacred Soil, Adloquium and Succor.
Using Sacred Soil, Succor and Whispering Dawn (depending on AOE, gear etc) to minimize damage to tank and melee DPS.

If I see my range DPS need cover during Aurum Vale or other mob based dungeons because the tank is not able to keep aggro, I've cast Sacred Soil to cover them.

[AldoVonAlexandros]

1: Heal, its what your there for. 3: SE gave both whm and sch multiple ways to help dps and nothing is more irritating when I am on a dps job than a healer who sits on their hands and does nothing if there is no need to heal.

well, people should not get mad if the healer dont dps, as long he/she is healing you, I always dps, always, but u might want to change number 3, i dont care if people gets irritated if i dont dps, u say it on number 1, we are there to heal xD, healer will dps if he/she is confident enough, but if demmand a healer to dps and his not confident enough, u will get mad if tank dies, so, dont expect the healer to dps, healer dps is a plus, not an obligation

Fun fact: It is against the rules, and considered harassment, to kick someone from the party for performance reasons. Please don't advocate people engaging in harassment.

[AnimaAnimus]

Thanks for all the good feedback everyone.
The only thing I would like to add on the most controversial topic of a healer dps is this...

The point I was trying to make was there is no reason for a healer to stand there and do nothing at all. I have been in dungeons where the tank or dps do not need a cure and the healer stands there doing absolutely nothing mob after mob after mob. There is no reason a healer cannot throw an aero or stone or holy out there now and then instead of absolutely nothing. Even if you have to cure maybe once, there is no reason to just stand there otherwise. You are just a body at that point and a waste of space in the pt slot if your not even drawing your weapon or casting a single spell pull after pull after pull which I have encountered again and again. Its good to learn early on so you know how to manage enmity, mp and timing.

And as for the harassment, I doubt it is considered harassment to kick someone for DOING NOTHING but following the group. I will have to check tos but if your in a dungeon and not doing a thing there is no reason to keep you imo.

[Airal]

Thanks for the tips. I am always looking at improving myself as a healer and player in general.
Can you please elaborate more on this comment?
Did you perhaps mean Sacred Soil 3 times per minute and avoid Lustrate unless you expect 1 massive hit?

He seems to be advocating the exact opposite, actually. (Also, you can't possibly use Sacred Soil 3 times per minute since it's on a 30 second cooldown. :P)

I find Lustrate to be a very good controlled heal, but I also wouldn't advocate overusing it. To be fair, you should be using all 3 stacks of Aetherflow by the time the 1 minute cooldown is up, but I would definitely recommend keeping at least 1 stack for a minor emergency. Sometimes your tank just takes a crit that's unexpected and Lustrate will go a mile to save them where Physick is just slightly too slow.

Another point I'd like to make regarding the DPS capabilities is to work with the other healer to figure out a pattern for Cleric Stance if your situation allows for it. I've almost always preferred healing with a person of the other healing class because their unique DPS capabilities work well together. If the SCH uses Cleric Stance to apply DoTs (while still having access to a full powered Lustrate in the process) and then turns off Cleric Stance, it opens up the WHM to use Cleric Stance "safely". Communication and knowing your capabilities within the fight are incredibly key to making an impact beyond "good heals".

[Darkseth]

Tipp for WHMs: Use Regen alot (and learn how/when to use it). Thats a 1050 Potency heal over 21 seconds, for 186 MP.
Keep it up on Maintank as much as possible, as it reduces the needed healing in the next 21 seconds alot. And that also saves MP.

Regen also ignores future added Healing-% debuffs, like Twintanias Death Sentence (infirmity). Apply Regen (maybe with divine seal, since the cd is only 60 seconds) shortly before Death sentence, and the full healing potency will remain untill the effect wears off.

(Aggro problems due your Regen = your tank sucks / your tank is very undergeared. I never faced aggro problems, or anything thats close to aggro problems. Even when regen is up during pulls (for example T1 trash pulls at start)

[Velox]

And as for the harassment, I doubt it is considered harassment to kick someone for DOING NOTHING but following the group. I will have to check tos but if your in a dungeon and not doing a thing there is no reason to keep you imo.

The healer's job in a dungeon is to heal, plain and simple, and that's where the definition of harassment is centered around.
If a healer queues for a dungeon and refuses to heal, he/she is effectively harassing the rest of the party and this justifies a kick.
If a healer queues for a dungeon and refuses to DPS, he/she has every right to do so if he/she chooses (there are a myriad of reasons that are justifiable). It would BE harassment to kick said player.

[Takeva]

I agree with everything but #3. That's just a lie.

A healer doesn't have to dps and they won't get kicked because of it. Matter of fact there are some groups who hate when a healer dps instead of concentrating on healing. They rather have their healer staring at health bars.

If adds don't die fast enough, that is a dps problem. If you want to help out, fine, but you are not obligated to do so. Throwing some DoTs is easy and every healer should try to be doing that.

[Airal]

I wouldn't say #3 is outright wrong but yes, there is wisdom in knowing when to be idle and ready. Not DPSing when there is no reason why it would be a hindrance is almost like a bard not using their songs when they could be helping a Black Mage in their party do more damage. Both require an understanding of the situation and knowing whether or not something else is needed later.

[ariaandkia]

Just to give an idea of why DPSing could be bad for a healer.

First issue: 2.4~2.5 second CD. (I'm sure you could get lower, but you get the idea)

How many enemies could murder your party in 2.4 seconds? I know of quite a few. Even trash mobs if you are doing speed runs can murder your entire party in the time it takes for your CD to end (for instant DPS such as Aero or Bio).

Second issue: Aggro control
Sometimes, that little bit of DPS can throw you into the aggro zone. Especially for scholars who tend to be able to stack massive amounts of DPS.

And depending on your party, having even 10 of the 20+ mobs move away from the AoE zone could result in a party wipe. And with that many enemies, walking into the middle of the mob group would be suicide no matter how good you are.

God yes I hate it when tanks don't inform me of their plans -.- learned this the hard way and now I'm always tense when healing SR prone dungeons because any kind of pulls could happen at any point of time.

as for the party sort there is a button in the party screen or you can use /psort

Yeah, but sometimes I want specific players in specific slots. Though I see how you can do it through the party menu, I wish there was a faster way. At least psort gets them into the general right location though.