Macro for "Stance Dancing"?

[ZhycranaDranix]

WHM will never stance dance in FcOB until like maybe i155ish when its farmable the damage is to consistent and the cleve needs to be timed. Even a coiling WHM won't stance dance if 1:their isn't a bard in the party 2:they aren't knowledgeable in the fight. I SCH and stance dancing is a thing I see more fighting of us because a high end Eos does heals as a regular i110 WHM SCH cure/physick would do so it helps.

SCH does majority of the stance dancing
WHM heals, in 4 man raids then yeah alot of people expect you to spam holy to speed up the process

[Kinseykinz]

Also, slightly off topic:

The pressure to Speed Run/Stance Dance as WHM in endgame dungeons:

The devs don't like it. I could dig and find the post where they basically said 'we are finding parties are placing too much pressure on healers to dd and we find this trend unfortunate and are looking into remedies' (the 'remedy' was they modestly nerfed Holy...and then made it so most level 50 dungeons now have 'gates' of some sort)

The main reason the devs likely don't like the stance dancing pressure placed on healers (esp WHM) isn't that they think it's 'game breaking' or 'OP' or anything, but rather it places more than 25% of the party burden onto the Healer. And I say this as a well-geared WHM main that basically ends up doing at least one PUG/DF speed run of some random dungeon a day. (IE I'm more than capable, and not really whining, just pointing out observations/what has been said in the past on the matter).

As a WHM, you are basically (esp in the newest dungeons) riding every CD/skill you have and praying that it all works out. And while many groups expect you to flawlessly DD/Heal ...very few groups will see the error as being their fault if there's a wipe (like if i have used PoM/Regen/medica II/ Swiftcast/ Cure II spam/Holy Spam (if able sometimes...people pull so much you can't even begin to breathe let alone Holy spam)/Benediction/Shroud and I run out of MP/can't keep up with the incoming damage...i am NOT the fail...tank either pulled to much/took too much to the face/didn't use CD's (yes many of them who do insane pulls...don't even give the healer so much as a Rampart for breathing room)/the DPS from the dedicated DD's was too low. Sometimes...all of these mistakes happen in the same pull....but even in a clean pull w/ skilled and geared players, as WHM, you WILL be blowing CD's and timing things will need to be exact. You need to rely on the Stuns from your Holy's to proc enough heals back from regen/medica ii...you need to know which pulls best are served with an Eye4 Eye...when to Shroud for MP (because even if you have an army of bards with you...it is rare, rare indeed for them to ballad you even between pulls)...when you can(and should) count on Bene to heal so you can keep spamming holy...and when you need to swap out for some quick healing action. And if you miss it...even by a second=wipe. Seriously. It's that tight.

And therein lies SE's problem with the 'Stance Dance' 'Healer DD' pressure.

No other role is THAT pressured doing mundane dungeon runs

DD's just do their thing, to the best of their ability. Sure, they should try to stay out of the AoE's and keep proper rotations/use CD's etc... but even a DD that plays top-tier in an EX roulette typically never has an 'OMG down to the second moment' on trash pulls.

Tanks...basically the same. Sure, a well-played tank will use his CD's etc effectively and will be working hard to hold hate against screaming DPS, but 1. As tank they can control the size of the pull/flow of battle and 2. They aren't being expected to do anything outside of hold hate/mitigate damage. They naturally do some dps while accomplishing their hate goal. A good tank also can avoid getting punched by everything in sight w/o spinning mobs onto the DD's (a really good tank can tightly stack them for AoE funzies). But again, tanks that don't do everything as well as they should can easily have (and expect) their shortcomings picked up by the healer.


So basically, what is happening (and what SE doesn't like) is the playerbase is more or less forcing Healers (esp WHM's) to play at higher standards/expectations for content that shouldn't otherwise require such standards. SE fully expects most dungeons to take 30-40 mins...of people playing as intended. (balanced play/ normal pulls/at or slightly above item level). This is even more so for content that is expected to be PUG;d with random strangers/party roles. And if SE designed dungeons so that everyone was working as hard as the healer in them....well, it'd be called coil. :P (kinda but not really joking)


And again, for the most part, I don't mind the whole 'speed run'/stance dance thing...I'm actually pretty good at it...but I don't always like that random parties basically 'use' me for faster clears/times....most of the time without even asking/stating they are doing a speed run first. They see 'WHM w/ decent gear' and they go balls to the wall...even if it's PLD/WHM with solid gear -gimpy drg gear and ninja...gonnna pull all the things anyway....because healer can do it for us.

[Cynfael]

The thing about DPS expectation is that it's something shared by the entire party. No encounter in the game is won by achieving max HPS or by tanking or mitigating X amount of damage.

While I can understand the logic behind not wanting to place disproportionate pressure on one role, I find healer DPS to be fairly simple: it's what you do instead of sitting on your thumb when heals are not immediately necessary.

When you're good at it, you can set up your own opportunities, but the basic idea is pretty straightforward.

[Nyalia]

When I WHM in endgame dungeons, if there's a big pull and my party is all healed up and I think I can get away with 3 seconds of not healing, I run in, hit Cleric Stance > Holy > let cast almost finish > Swiftcast > wait 1 second > Holy > Cleric Stance (That random wait after Swiftcast is, if I am lagging in the slightest (which I often am), I'll cast swiftcast and then start holy before the swiftcast buff actually applies causing me to slow-cast holy while still having swiftcast up - it's very annoying). The nice thing about using Holy to DPS is that it stuns everything you hit just long enough that it interrupts their current attack, and then again when the second one hits, and you're able to cast again by the time they can hit again. Your party only takes the hits that were done during your first holy cast. The DPS from double-holy is not insignificant, and if your party hasn't done too much stunning already, it doesn't really hamper your healing.

But yeah, if you aren't overgearing the dungeon, you shouldn't worry about DPSing with aero/aero2/stone2 too much.


Oh, and do NOT macro anything related to stance-dancing. Non-macroed skills will "queue" up if used <0.5 seconds before your GCD ends and go off immediately when they can. Macros don't do this. So, if you hit a macro with 0.5 seconds remaining on your GCD, you won't do anything, and it can really mess you up since stance-dancing requires you to use multiple skills in a short time (Cleric Stance has to be used when your GCD is cooled down, but it does not consume your GCD (it has it's own CD, but even that only activates when you turn it on, not when you turn it off (don't double-tap Cleric Stance, or you'll turn it off then right back on again!)))

[RogueJawa]

I appreciate both the support and the feedback.

Thanks guys.

[Kinseykinz]

One thing I did think of though...reading your FI, F2 etc kinda approach to healing/dding.... You might want to look into the <tt> macros for skills like Virus and your DD spells. Target of Target macros will make spells cast on whatever your tank is hitting (assuming you have your tank targeted). I personally, don't use these macros (because I prefer to manually target what I plan on attacking), but I know many healers do use them/enjoy them. Also, you can do the same thing with cures <tt> (if you have the mob targeted, it'll spit the cure onto whoever the mob is attacking/has aggro'd at that moment).

This isn't macroing CS, but maybe NOT having to switch your target between the tank and the mobs might make things easier for you.


Just a thought.

[radioactive_lego]

<tt> macros...

The logical counter to this is combining DD spells/skills "over" healing. This is mostly a hotbar space saver, but simplifies things as well. Examples:

1.
/ac "Stone"
/ac "Cure"

2.
/ac "Aero"
/ac "Regen"

Since you can't cast dmg spells on PCs (outside of PVP) and you can't heal enemies, you'll always get the spell you desire on your target, regardless of whether that target is friend or foe.

[Mikita]

Just a small thought, but if you feel you want to or should be DD'ing a bit as WHM, maybe just throw out a few attack spells when you can -without- turning on Cleric Stance? At least until you get more comfortable with it. Of course your DPS will be lower, but it's better than nothing and there is also less risk of things getting out of control and people dying.

I only stance dance when I am comfortable with the party... either they are people I know and trust, or if it's a random group, after the first few pulls and I see the tank is not squishy and the DD's are not getting themselves into trouble. Otherwise, I stick to my primary role as healer and keeping the party alive first and foremost.

[Divine_Intervention]

Speaking as a WHM main , i play only monk on off class when i'm really bored, I do like to stance dance now and then, but a few factors come into it:

1) Can I keep up with the healing needed on the main tank/other players easily?
2) Have I placed cleric stance and my dps abilities somewhere very comfortable and natural to get to them, without detracting from the comfortable access of my heal abilities?
3) Are we in a very high damage phase, or is the tank slightly undergeared or underskilled?

There are a few other factors , but those are what I can think of off the top of my head. If the answer to any of those is no, I don't dps. And I don't allow anyone to make me feel uncomfortable for not dpsing. My role is a healer. I won't as the paladin to use his (godsawful) cure. I won't ask the summoner to rez (although it's nice when they do!). I expect everyone to play a role to the way they enjoy it/the best of their abilities, and won't expect anything less of myself.

Now, that aside, if you do want to stance-dance, don't macro it mate. Your gonna want to have control instantly of when it's on and when it's off. The advice about hitting it before it's off GCD is a good one. But yeah, you want to know you can get straight back into full healing output instantly, which isn't really possible if it's macro'd up. Or, not possible that i know of or am comfortable with xD

Hopefully that helped a bit, good luck to you mate!

[Sanguisio]

cleric queues afaik or at least on the PS4 it does, so make sure you only press it once when youre done.