Stancedancing Techniques

[Classikal]

I just revived WHM 2 days ago to help with my Zodiac dungeon item farming for BRD. And I am really quite enjoying it again.

The thrill of trying to balance Cleric Stance and Holy spam while keeping the tank alive during fights, and knowing when/where you can get away with damage, is exhilarating.

I have found a new love for Presence of Mind and Benediction during trash pulls to help extend the amount of time I can spam Holy on bigger pulls before I need to heal the tank again.

I do admit though, that I still have some fine-tuning to do. I've done about 40 dungeons or so since I brought WHM back to the playing field, and in those 40 dungeons there have been about 2 times, (individual pulls) where I got a little ahead of myself and misjudged the amount of Holy's I can get off and missed the tanks heal by like a split second and let him die right at the end. ><; Which is honestly 2 times too much.

Most of the trash pulls my tanks are straight, I prep them up with a combination of Eye for an Eye, Divine Seal, and Regen make sure they are topped off and then go into spamming Holy. I'll keep an eye on their HP while doing it though and keep my finger ready on Benediction if it is up on bigger pulls, if needed. I honestly really wish Benediction was a lower recast though, 5 minutes is a lot. But it's really nice how I can use it perfectly even with Cleric Stance up. 95% of the time my tanks never get below 5k HP before the pull is dead. Cure them back up and move on.

My question though, is what kind of limits do you set on yourself to be able to maximize the amount of time you can DPS, while not endangering the party?

The addition of WHM DPS in a party helps a lot. And if you have good DPS already the mobs just absolutely melt when you add Holy on top of it.

[Yumi_umi]

Meh it only shaves a few minutes on an overall run, only useful if ur planning to do a bunch of dungeon runs but if ur just doing the daily roulette then meh. Heal bot mode activate.
A good combo is
To
1)stoneskin tank -> tank engages
2) divine seal + medica 2 & regen on tank
3) cleric mode on -> swiftcast + stoneskin on tank
4) PoM holy x3-6 use shroud in the middle
* save benediction incase.
I do this in t11 etc on all the trash pulls cuz y not.
I dont have E4E so apply that probs on initial pull.

[VanilleFang]

Heal bot mode activate.

That's called being lazy.

medica 2

Medica II isn't needed. It's a waste of MP and you risk pulling aggro if you cast it too early. Also, Medica II is AoE... Why would you cast it just for the regen effect on one person?

I dont have E4E

That's an unneeded gimp. E4E is a nice mitigation tool to have. Why would you not have it set on a WHM? It's one of there 3 or 4 useful Cross Class spells.


@OP: Generally what I do is what you do. You just get better at it as you learn it and muscle memory can help too. People make mistakes (I know I do) so don't let it get you down. I sometimes don't even bother casting Regen on the tank and jump right into Holy. I generally let the tank get pretty low if I have Bene off CD. I'm a little risky. :P

[MXMoondoggie]

To
1)stoneskin tank -> tank engages
2) divine seal + medica 2 & regen on tank
3) cleric mode on -> swiftcast + stoneskin on tank
4) PoM holy x3-6 use shroud in the middle
* save benediction incase.

Step 3 is a waste just swiftcast and use holy it stuns all the mobs and the Tank will probably have a CD on anyway. Considering i have everything and it's a large group pull I'll start with stoneskin and eye for an eye on Tank. Cleric stance,pop sprint to keep up with what the Tank is doing while mobs are being grouped up pop presence of mind then swiftcast + holy to stun everything start holy spam until Tank is at 25% divine seal cleric stance off cure II cleric stance on holy anything left over and drop cleric stance to cure as needed. If it's a really slow dps run I'll use regen and medica II so i can stay in cleric stance more.

If you have benediction and know you won't need an emergency heal for the Tank you can just use it to stay in cleric stance the whole pull just remember it has a long animation so don't use it too late.

[VanilleFang]

Step 3 is a waste just swiftcast and use holy it stuns all the mobs and the Tank will probably have a CD on anyway.

I was gunna point that out too. Stunning everything is more effective than recasting SS. Especially at the cost of Swiftcast... I would never use Swiftcast for Stoneskin in a trash pull.

[Cynfael]

Meh it only shaves a few minutes on an overall run.

That's like saying you only got "a few dollars off" of something that normally costs you 15-20 bucks. Still a savings of ~20%. A stance-dancing WHM can out-DPS most Jobs on a trash pull where they can get off several Holybombs, and refreshing Aero/Aero II + Fluid Aura during boss fights still adds up to a noticeable chunk in the end.

If you enjoy wasting time, however, I suppose that heal bot mode is always an option.

And no, Medica II and Swiftcast+Stoneskin are unnecessary. Swiftcast the first Holy to Stun everything ASAP and PoM Holy it up until the tank actually needs fluffing.

When I see any healer practically on auto-follow through dungeons that are obviously faceroll for their party, I want to smack them, but especially WHM since Holy is such an elegant solution to trash pulls.

[Cynfael]

My question though, is what kind of limits do you set on yourself to be able to maximize the amount of time you can DPS, while not endangering the party?

The addition of WHM DPS in a party helps a lot. And if you have good DPS already the mobs just absolutely melt when you add Holy on top of it.

1) I balance my DPS time with how quickly I expect the tank's (or the party's) HP to drop based on what I know of the encounter. If the mobs frequently stop actions to charge up big, telegraphed AoEs, then I know that the tank shouldn't be eating frequent, large hits. If, like with most encounters, the party takes damage almost entirely from infrequent, unavoidable AoE, I don't worry much about them unless someone messes up. On SCH you can camp DPS mode more safely, but done well on WHM it's both an enjoyable mini-game and quite rewarding for trash pulls.

2) Yes, WHM DPS is quite helpful, especially where trash is concerned. Don't listen to people who try to pooh-pooh healer DPS, because the numbers don't lie.

[spelley]

For SCH, I'm still learning the best way to do it myself. Currently what I do is:

1) Adloquium just before the pull. (Will also Stoneskin once I level up my WHM)
(Lustrate?)
2) Switch to Clerics, Precast Shadow Flare as they are gathering up the mobs to their final location
(Lustrate?)
3) (optional) switch back and add another Adloquium depending on how hard they are hit
(Lustrate?)
4) Eye for an Eye, Switch to Clerics
(Lustrate?)
5) Bio II -> Miasma -> Bio -> Bane -> Miasma II
(Lustrate?)
6) Switch back and heal.

I'm finding if I'm in a really AoE heavy group (2 BLM for instance) that I don't end up bothering with dots aside from Shadow Flare as the mobs don't end up taking many ticks of damage regardless. Am I missing something I should be doing?

[spelley]

2) Yes, WHM DPS is quite helpful, especially where trash is concerned. Don't listen to people who try to pooh-pooh healer DPS, because the numbers don't lie.

People never seem to remember that Holy is damage mitigation, not just damage as well. Stuns + Damage == less time the mobs spend hitting the tank. It'll be interesting to see how "Holy II" (Deals damage + Heals) will fit in. In super-speed runs I can imagine Swiftcast Holy + Holy + Holy + (Shroud) + Holy II + Holy II until they are out of MP being a "thing"

[Leigaon]

You pretty much have it down just need to get use to the feel of it. You're going to have people die due to some things you can't prevent but most of the time these things aren't your fault.

I've had DPS stand in everything, tanks who don't use any cool downs.

I do use Medica II, the argument can come by how it's a waste but I've had it cure the odd ball DPS who gets hit so I don't have to jump out of stance and cure them individually. It lets me keep up a damage dealer who is taking damage, without having to focus on them. I'm not saying it keeps them at 100% health, I just know what I can handle cure wise with the time I'm given..it helps me better manage that. It's allowed me to perform an additional holy on a lot of occasions.

Sometimes the run doesn't need the medica II and I just use regen, all thanks to the wonderful tanks.