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

[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.

[Tranquil]

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.

Not to be rude, but this statement here says to me you don't really play a Scholar. I can tell you that Scholar off-DPS adds an absolutely laughable amount of enmity (ie. very little). Were you to get aggro off the tank from dotting and multidotting, Ruin spamming, Energy Draining, whatever - you name it - you would have a gigantic tank issue at hand. You are spending most of your Scholaring days in the glorious green aggro zone, free of worry and pain. (Possibly hitting yellow with intensive Succoring!)

[ariaandkia]

Not to be rude, but this statement here says to me you don't really play a Scholar. I can tell you that Scholar off-DPS adds an absolutely laughable amount of enmity (ie. very little). Were you to get aggro off the tank from dotting and multidotting, Ruin spamming, Energy Draining, whatever - you name it - you would have a gigantic tank issue at hand. You are spending most of your Scholaring days in the glorious green aggro zone, free of worry and pain. (Possibly hitting yellow with intensive Succoring!)

Most tanks I've met can't handle a SINGLE non-crit cure (Cure I) or physick when at critical health. Soon as I do it, either all but 1 mob on the tank comes to me or...


All the mobs come to me period.

And yes, I am fairly new at scholar (I've done a lot of healing as Arc though since some healers ditch the party-probably same reason as tanks do (had one tank quit/rejoin the party like 20 times in 15 minutes trying to join his party for commendation farming-whatever happened to the 30 minute wait and why is it so hard for some people to get commendations?)). As for "laughable" it might be laughable at first but it adds up in prolonged battles. Great when you start at green then by the time your dot ends, it turns orange, then an actual physick/adol/etc. when needed turns it red. This is WITHOUT Ruin or Energy Drain. This is just from my DoT rotation.

Same thing happens with WHM. I put on a DoT and that can be the difference between pulling the enemies off the tank.

When ONE heal of the WEAKEST type NONCRIT can pull ALL the mobs off your tank when he is about to die if you don't, doing DPS is not helping the situation.

On the PLUS side... It is safer as a SCH since most likely, your pet will get the aggro before you do if you are just DPS'ing and not healing (though if your pet dies from the amount of damage it is pulling...)

[AnimaAnimus]

Most tanks I've met can't handle a SINGLE non-crit cure (Cure I) or physick when at critical health. Soon as I do it, either all but 1 mob on the tank comes to me or...

All the mobs come to me period.

Well this isn't a healer issue, this is a very very bad tank issue. Unless you are curing before he has had a chance to establish hate, even then a tank should be able to get them off you easily. This is also not most tanks that I nor my friends have met. Tanks I have run with, even strangers in df pts can handle me curing, curagaing, nuking, doting, etc etc without loosing hate or being able to regain control of a rouge mob if they happen to stray, even in large pulls. Regardless its a poor excuse to use for not dpsing/curing and any healer worth their salt will tell you the same. Enmity control is part of the healers game as well as the tanks.

You need to know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away, know when to run

[ariaandkia]

Well this isn't a healer issue, this is a very very bad tank issue. Unless you are curing before he has had a chance to establish hate, even then a tank should be able to get them off you easily. This is also not most tanks that I nor my friends have met. Tanks I have run with, even strangers in df pts can handle me curing, curagaing, nuking, doting, etc etc without loosing hate or being able to regain control of a rouge mob if they happen to stray, even in large pulls. Regardless its a poor excuse to use for not dpsing/curing and any healer worth their salt will tell you the same. Enmity control is part of the healers game as well as the tanks.

You need to know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away, know when to run

I'm sorry, but when DPSing can lead to a party wipe, I'll avoid the DPS and leave it to someone else. Enmity control is part of the healer's job, but...If the tank can't hold enmity, not much can be done except minimize enmity. I've had to turn cleric stance on while healing before just to try to lower my heals enough that the tank could hold aggro through my first heal. Of course, this only helped for the first heal.

Maybe I'm just unlucky with tanks, but honestly, I think it should be the healer's decision whether to DoT, Nuke, DPS, or w/e. All healers should heal, but beyond that should really be on the healer's call.

As for "not healing" if not healing one person means I can save the rest, I'll drop that one person. Example. Group (with a decent tank) is fighting 6 mobs, semi struggling, but otherwise doing fine. One guy suddenly decides to pull every mob they can find to the group.

Generally? I don't heal them because more often than not, it will cause a party wipe. And if the tank doesn't see a reason to try to hold aggro on the extra mobs, I see no reason to force him to try. Just let the DPS die so that the rest of the party will be safe.

But I guess I'm not worth my salt since I choose to not heal them.

[lxSch]

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.




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.

I tried dpsing on both whm and sch and have to say on sch it is way easier and better for multiple reasons (there is another thread about dps where i think stating them would be more appropriate). Being a 2nd healer i am much more comfortable if whm is just healing so i can focus on dps and back him up with lustrates when needed.