Is healing fun?

[Mirron]

I definitely find healer to be the most fun role so far. I haven't found a tank I like, and DPS has been very dull for me, though I imagine it becomes more interesting as time goes on. There is a lot to keep track of, and there are a number of ways you can approach it really. Only issue I find is that in larger groups there is more over healing, but it kind of comes with the territory. But as others have already said it's also really stressful. There is a lot that can go wrong, and you need to keep track of a lot of things. Pretty much everything that the group as a whole has to watch out for, but also a lot of healer specific things too.

[Sanghelios]

I did main a WHM since i started with the game and so far, i loved it. I started on Bard a Month ago and did hit 50 with him some days ago. Played a couple of dungeons with bard and man that was boring. As Healer, you always have epic moments, where you are the one who prevent the party to wipe. Let it be solo healing on titan or a limit 3 while the whole group is dead. Last week i did play Shiva hard mode in roulette. Shiva was down to 3%, only 1 tank, me as healer and one bard was alive. Limit 3 was just a few seconds away from being ready. Tank dies, Limit 3 was ready, Bard started to cast limit 3 but died before it was fully casted and so on, i was the only one alive. I did swiftcast stoneskin on myself while dodging these big aoes. Shiva was already comming to me, casted Limit 3, everyone was back on top, Shiva killed me right after. Group was able to kill Shiva in one more second. A DPS or Tank can never give me those feelings. Thats just pure adrenaline sometimes.

[Kuwaitum]

I'm a proud Whitemage, its my main and Only Class/Job I ever did and I played it since game release. Out of love to this job I leveled up and got all Cross-Skills.

I always had the tendency of healing, FFXIV:ARR is my first real MMO. Playing as a healer (Whitemage) in my, I wondered at some point that most of the runs I do the party thanks all members and me in special. Sometimes I thought that it was sarcasm. Recently I tried out Healing as (Scholar), I was fine but not appreciated as when I run as a Whitemage.

The question was why?

For me, I noticed:
- Scholar is far easier to do, less critical since Eos/Selene helps you a lot in healing. While I enjoy Bio-ing/Miasma-ing mobs, and healing in between.
- Whitemage on the other hand was harder and challenging, I heal/SS most of the time.. and try to throw an Aero/Aero2/Virus in between.

Lately I tried out as a Tank (Gladiator/Paladin), and did several dungeons with different Healers (Scholars/Whitemages). Most of Scholars are fine, nothing extra. On the other hand, white mages! a disaster, I am a Whitemage.. but suddenly I became a Grumpy Tank! why?!

Because 9 out of 10 Whitemages are ONLY healing.. and some just spam cure to a degree I want to throw up. They are lazy. Yes, if you want to /follow and only /cure & /cure2.. you're no better then a healing BOT. Thus, I (as a Paladin) only commend and type an appreciation message to the Whitemage if he/she is engaged in battle more then walk around and heal, especially low level dungeons which doesn't require healing spam.

Fun is an Active White Mage;
- SS / Heal party members as soon as it breaks (not only tank).
- SS / Heal Summons/Support pets they are part of the team.
- Don't spam unnecessary healing, and minimize chances of aggro.
- Throw an Aero/Aero2/Virus on mobs that the party is fighting off.
- Cleric stance and DPS when possible. I help in AV when there is no Bard/BLM at boss fight (Cleric+SwiftCast+Holy).
- Monitor weakest link in party and support him/her, use "Eye for an Eye" on weakest, Keep Benediction ready.
- Watch members of Alliance too, we are healers we are Global.
- Use Cleric-Holy, this spell isn't for SB-purpose only

Note: about Global, in a ST run; Amon fight. Both healers (of one of the alliances) rage-quit in mid fight. Thanks to our other healer (a scholar) and his Eos, he handled our party's healings while I was the other alliance's solo-healer... and its quite not easy healing without Medica/Medica 2 and not able to cast Protect on the Raised members.

[erkhardt]

Snip

What he said. 100%. Emphasis on active, if you stay busy, you have more fun. While speed running happy tanks are stressful, I find the overzealous tanks incredibly fun to play with..... keeps me on my toes.

[Thistledown]

SCH has an awesome game of balance between dps and healing. I have to watch:
Party HP, anticipate big hits for adlo, cleric stance cd, aetherflow stacks- do I use it for damage/bane or sacred soil/lustrate?

There are so many things I can do and improve upon that it can be as relaxing or as intense as I make it.

I make the calls and I have several backup plans for emergency (lustrate, swiftcast succor, swiftcast adlo, rouse...) that I can always be experimenting.

[EzKatka]

It's really fun! Especially if things go wrong but somehow your group still clear the duty.

[Lemage]

Healing is fun, if you understand when to heal, what to heal with, and how to read.
suprisingly, there are a fair amount of healers who don't.

[Kinseykinz]

Every role has it's pros and cons. Yes, in a new fight (and or with people who are new to the battle), as a healer you will likely be watching the party list and status bars more than anything else. But that's okay, that's your role...to monitor the party. What you CAN do if it helps is 'Focus Target' the boss, and then move your focus target bar to being near your party list (I have my Focus Target bar set to be beside the tank's hp bar for example so I can see boss move charges+ keep my eye on the party).

Also, if it bugs you, you can try different screen layouts to see if you can make it so the party list is 'closer' to the action, where you'd prefer to look. (I moved mine from the default top left position for example, to the middle of the far right of my screen. This makes it so it's typically at the same 'level' on my screen as most of the game action/bosses etc. Also, it was just more fluid for me (KB+M user) to use my mouse on the party list on that side. My point, mess around with your HUD until you find something that suits your needs.

So yeah, as a healer, there will be times/battles where you see little other than the party list+your immediate area.

Still that all said:

DPS commonly 'tunnel vision' too....especially when new to battles. It's why people 'blame' them/laugh at them so much for missing an AoE/forgetting about adds etc. It just feels different as a DD because your eyes are focused on mobs as opposed to people (party list). But it takes dps the same time to adjust and get comfy with a battle to be 'looking around' as it does a healer. It's just instead of tunneling onto the party list, they tunnel onto a boss.

Tanks also have 'tunnel vision' sometimes too...it's less noticable as a tank, but sometimes they miss grabbing the adds, or stepping out of avoidable damage b/c they are so focused on threat, and control, and positioning of the boss. I am positive most tanks who've tanked any Primal for example, but esp Titan could tell you 'dude, I had no idea where the party was/couldn't see them for large portions of the battle....I just saw his big ugly mug (actually they spend the battle looking at his 'wee') but you get the idea.

So yeah, it's totally normal to zone into the party list and miss a lot of the action (this is a common healer MMO dilema tbh), but once you're more familiar with the content, you start looking at party lists less and the actual gameplay more. And also, there are ways to adjust your HUD layout to make it even easier to have your eyes on both the battlefield and the party list (the party list in the top corner imo is the WORST location for it to be for healers to be able to monitor their cooldowns, the battlefield and the party...make it so everything is in your line of sight and you'll likely see improvements).

[Raiff]

Not everyone likes Healing. Me, I like healing and tanking, when i play a DPS, I get bored. Different strokes for different folks.