But...I...I don't wanna DPS, I'm a healer...

[Normalizer]

The second scenario involved EX roulette yesterday in Neverreap. Warrior tank with two Bards as DPS...

Swiftcast Holy is not instance, it will take about 1-2 sec before it actually hits and stuns the mobs. So if you can't afford to get this 1-2 sec delay in healing, don't swiftcast holy. Beside, if the dps of the party is that low, it may not be wise to go dps mode and holy-chain those mobs (you alone cannot bring them all down, and the fight might take too long that you will go out of mana even without dpsing. Of course it's all situational.)

If the tank gets a lot of mobs and takes load of dmg, I normally stick to heal only while waiting for DS to be available again. This is also a good opportunity to use Eye for an Eye on tank.

[Cynfael]

Provided that your gear is not awful and your party not AFK, it is virtually impossible to run yourself so low on MP that you cannot heal for the duration of a trash pull. You can cast Cure I on fumes, not to mention free heals from Tetra, Freecure, Asylum, and Assize (the latter two might be up a second time if your party's DPS is truly poor and the pull large or continuous).

It's not outrageous to DPS and heal until you are down to low MP and then dial back to mostly healing near the end. I find that trying to play extra conservative with a low-DPS party tends to backfire; if you don't push personal DPS when the tank uses their initial CDs, you will have missed your good window to speed things along and reduce the overall healing requirement.

Of course, for your average party, doing this is just a way to play better and to save time. I never go into a duty with the mindset of "how can I make up for these people?" It's more "how can I do my best?"

[416to305]

Snip

I didn't even see the other questions you asked Saito sorry, so let me add my 2 cents. I'm a casual player, I play in bed at night prob an hour every day, so I play a lot according to my friends, am at WHM avg level 190, have done all of Alex normal but I'm not interested in committing to some nightly schedule to do savage. I like to just play and collect tomes upgrade my gear and so on being more casual.

When you are doing 8 person anything, you should have tons of time to DPS if you want. People don't take damage that fast that 2 healers can't manage as usually one person will still be healing when you flip to DPS and so on. It's a good idea at the start of pulls or bosses to even put a Regen on the tank, and then flip to cleric and then I hit the boss with Aero III, Aero II, and usually Virus when able to. They should not be taking so much damage that you don't have time to do that. Even on trash pulls in dungeons I'd try to get Aero III in as it does good damage and is AoE so hits all mobs in a group!

The only time I ever find it iffy is in the 4 person stuff especially level 50+ new dungeons when tanks are low geared or pull huge. It seems like sometimes I'm sitting there hitting Cure II over and over trying to keep up. That only ever happens to me on high level 50+ 4 person dungeons. When that happens I try my best, but I figure if the tank is taking SO much damage that I'm literally just sitting there draining my MP pool trying to keep them alive, then I figure that's their issue and not mine. If I can heal Alex 1-4 not have anyone wipe, but then be in Fractal or something and tank is just droping like mad (and assuming I have proper gear of course and don't just scratch by the minimum iLvl) then I know it can't be me. If popping all my cool downs STILL can't keep them alive, then it HAS to be their fault as what else could I possibly do? In hard mode dungeons people want out fast, so they pull huge which is fine as they aren't that hard anymore. It's the new ones, most tanks twink they can still pull massive when usually it's too much.

Lastly, don't be too worried about Titan HM, it has always been hard and especially now as people aren't really doing it as much unless they are new. The past 2 times I did it I ended up solo healing as the other healer would wipe so many times it wasn't worth raising them. Wastes my MP and they are too weak. Titan is very mechanic heavy, really comes down to knowing and memorizing the fight and knowing what is coming. Where to stack, pre-casting Medica II when he jumps in the air and so on.

I saw also another post talking about not to spam AoE heals. That was just if your MP is really low, but otherwise you definitely will do AoE otherwise you're wasting MP. It costs more to Cure/Cure II individual people vs Medica unless it's more than 2 or 3 people taking damage, then Medica or Medica II makes sense. Biggest thing to be careful of with Medica II is if its a fight where adds will come, as they will latch right on to you when they spawn, so I try to use it a bit less now.

Only other thing to say is that as mentioned I'm not hardcore at all, but I never run out of MP or even come close. You have Assize to help, Shroud, and then I even keep a few Hi or Mega Ethers or whatever they are, just in case I really need to get on there. It really just comes down to practice, which you might want to do on low level dungeons. The reason I DPS as much as I can is because leveling WHM almost a year ago pre-50 it was just boring and easy to heal those dungeons, so doing DPS would only help get through them faster. So it just feels natural to me now. You'll just learn when it's safe to do so, like someone else mentioned, if you hit the tank with a Regen etc and they seem to be somewhat stable, then sure flip over and Holy spam the mobs if you want. You'll also learn when Holy is best to use, as sometimes you'll use it on 5 mobs and they barely go down, where others are more the quick kill types where Holy just once even takes them to like 40%, where you do it again and take them all out. Just comes down to practice, but keep in mind you're not expected to DPS. So any time things are dicey or rough I just say screw it, better stick to JUST healing just to be on the safe side. Everyone plays differently and my point is, playing just casual the way I do now, I've never had a problem completing Alex 1-4 or most content, so must be doing something right.

[Critical-Limit]

For the record there are times where eating damage as a DPS from a mechanic is worth it. A monk losing grease lightning is worse than a whm missing a stone III.

So if a monk has to put himself in damage to keep it. It's worth it to heal through. But this case doesn't happen very often.

[Cynfael]

For the record there are times where eating damage as a DPS from a mechanic is worth it. A monk losing grease lightning is worse than a whm missing a stone III.

So if a monk has to put himself in damage to keep it. It's worth it to heal through. But this case doesn't happen very often.

You're absolutely correct. I'll make the same choice to refresh Enochian on BLM if necessary, though the Ward/Wall CDs and AM help reduce the need to eat avoidable damage. No decent healer will fault a DPS for eating occasional non-lethal damage to maintain their best rotation.

[416to305]

I say just practice and play how you want, it will come with experience. Most people on here are much more hardcore than the average player. I've never had issues and have completed all of alex several times. I have no interest in being a DPS so seeing a MNK take damage I'd have zero way of knowing or caring that they did it on purpose to get out some kind of combo vs just being lazy. The buffs on the party list are so small and playing PS4 it's not like you have a mouse to easily hover over one to see what each DPS currently has on the go. It's very different playing with a static or a group of good players where things like that make sense. But for most people that just do DF, you get a huge mix. Sometimes good people sometimes bad, you just adapt.

[technole]

For the record there are times where eating damage as a DPS from a mechanic is worth it. A monk losing grease lightning is worse than a whm missing a stone III.

So if a monk has to put himself in damage to keep it. It's worth it to heal through. But this case doesn't happen very often.

I look at the same way with DPS having Blood for Blood being up, or a BLM using Convert (sac 20% HP for 30% MP), all of which pushes their DPS and sometimes mechanical damage just happened to line-up with it. I don't think I once asked for anyone to click off BfB in a raid I would usually notice it and compensate as-needed.

[bounddreamer]

After seeing some other posts from OP I think his anxiety stems from the expectation that the tank and other party members should constantly be at, or near, full HP at all times and that's just not true. I have three healing jobs at 55, I main warrior, and I don't even start healing tanks until their health is around 50 percent unless something is going quickly, horribly wrong. Fairy heals, or cure/Benefic potency, mean healing them at greater than 50 percent risks wasting the healing toolkit you have to throw at them. And that healing toolkit, on SCH especially, allows for more downtime therefore more time to toggle cleric stance, put down shadowflare, and dot away.

Of all three healing jobs I'd say AST has the least time to dps due to card management and lack of good offensive skills so again, once OP gets to Heavensward I recommend switching to AST.

[Critical-Limit]

I look at the same way with DPS having Blood for Blood being up, or a BLM using Convert (sac 20% HP for 30% MP), all of which pushes their DPS and sometimes mechanical damage just happened to line-up with it. I don't think I once asked for anyone to click off BfB in a raid I would usually notice it and compensate as-needed.

Someone earlier in the thread made fun of dps taking damage during a mechanic as if it should never happen. No one corrected this person so I felt slightly obligated that sometimes DPS choose to eat damage than lose out on huge amount of dPS.

Example when sucked up by Alexander my grease lightning was about to wear so I shoulder tackled the left leg to get there ASAP, saved my grease lighting but I took AOE damage otw there. And I believe this was the correct decision for the team, even though I had to put stress on the healer.

[416to305]

Honestly just practice that's where you'll get better and learn it all. Everyone plays differently, the people on this forum are definitely more hardcore. Like I said before I've never had any problem doing any floor of alex, and I never pay attention what combos or whatever some DPS is doing. I get at least 1 commendation probably 95% of the time and I've never had anyone yell or say I'm healing wrong. Point is, this forum is great for getting help and information, but it's not the end all resource. Play however you want and practice and learn what works best for you.