General healing guides/mindsets

[TatoRazzino]

Everything is just DPS with added functionality, really. Tanks are just DPS that take the focus off other DPS at the expense of their own DPS, so that others can DPS even more.

That's wrong in so many levels. A healer is not a DPSer who has to weave heals every other time. Dealing damage is accessory when playing your role, not the core aspect of it. The same is valid for tanks. Only bad tanks behave like DPSes that focus aggro. Tanking is about control and mitigation.

Your problem is your approach, that puts DPS in the equation with the same weight as everything else. That's a DPS mindset, not a healer (or tank) mindset.

[FunkYeahDragons]

That's wrong in so many levels. A healer is not a DPSer who has to weave heals every other time. Dealing damage is accessory when playing your role, not the core aspect of it. The same is valid for tanks. Only bad tanks behave like DPSes that focus aggro. Tanking is about control and mitigation.

Your problem is your approach, that puts DPS in the equation with the same weight as everything else. That's a DPS mindset, not a healer (or tank) mindset.

Maybe I should have included the /s for clarity.

[Judge_Xero]

I think what you are finding is that if you have been playing a DPS class for a while your brain has to adjust to the randomness of healing. That is why it feels like a clusterfuck. You are not just popping skills in a rotational order.

Basically you just have to heal long enough to get different levels of healing experience which is not just something you can do on a Dummy.

[BeautifulNerf]

"I have no idea, either. Healing seems to be a clusterfuck of everything I do as DPS plus several more things and more people, which is where the beginnings of a headache come in. That's why I think it's more about my approach or theory. There just has to be an easier way."

You're thinking to hard about it. Just break it down like this. Can you handle the (whatever) dungeon easily if you only focus on heals? If no. Is it because you're not familiar with (said) dungeons boss's/abilities? Is the tank pulling more than you're comfortable with (like training the entire floor)? Are you having occasional MP issues?- All of these things can be addressed and simply fixed.

[BeautifulNerf]

If you answered yes to, "Can you handle (whatever) dungeon easily..." Then what is it that's causing you issues? The ability to quickly respond to main healing plus adding DD? If that's the issue. Maybe try DDing the first 25% of the dungeon (if that becomes too stressful), switch to main heals only, then switch back to applying DD the last 75% of the dungeon. Until you get comfortable enough to know when to DD, and if you can safely DD with that party (because some groups just suck).

[BroodingFicus]

The thing with healing is, it isn't often about you. As DPS its all about your rotation and your job and nothing else. If you screw up, you blow a cool down. If you screw up again, you expect to be (hopefully) healed and once you know the fight that's pretty much it. You can maintain your rotation and dodge/complete mechanics and all is well. If the tank or healer screw up, it isn't on you. Healers are reactive so none of that applies. Knowing the dungeon is important not because it'll be easier to maintain a rotation but because it better equips you to focus on fixing the 'whoops' moments of not just yourself but of your party members as well. At the point when you are well geared and knowledgeable about the fights, ease of healing can still fluctuate wildly depending on the party. Everyone is well geared and dodging mechanics? Beautiful. Usually I can DPS some and never fear anyone is going to drop dead. That usually only happens in premades. I'd say 90% of the time there are under geared party members, people who don't know the fights, tanks who speed pull without using cool downs and all manner of tom foolery going on in DF. Your comfort in a dungeon is only half the battle. My advice if you are finding you get stressed out while healing is:

A. Watch for the new to dungeon messages. Yes sometimes its just someone on an alt but having someone who doesn't know the fights means you should be much more cautious about stance dancing in bosses until its clear they aren't about to eat floor and twice as ready to heal them.
B. Examine party members. Especially watch casters that are barely the correct item level. Like you, they can't take as many hits so its nice to be aware of who might need a bit more attention if a massive hit is incoming. There are times I'll use eye for an eye on these sort of people instead of the Tank if I don't think they can survive.
C. On the same sort of note, if you notice a DPS is prone to standing in nasty orange markers be conscious of that fact and in dodge heavy sections, tag them with more HoT's/shields etc.
D. Wait a few pulls to start stance dancing unless you're running with friends you can count on (or who will laugh if you all drop dead). One pull at least gives you the opportunity to settle in and gauge how much damage your tank can take, how good he/she is at utilizing cool downs and the average DPS for the party which could effect how you need to manage you MP. During the first pull I'll sometimes cap a tank off and then start counting and see how many seconds they take to drop to half. Do that a few times and it'll tell you if you have time to DPS. If you notice during that first pull that it takes a lot longer than usual for DPS to kill things and your MP slipped sorta low, you know DPS might be harder because MP conservation is going to be more important.

Long story short, it takes a lot of watching and being ready to react. You may not always have the opportunity to DPS and it isn't always going to be because of anything you've done wrong or because your comfort level isn't at 100% yet. My WHM is item level 203 and I've run Void Ark over and over but I didn't enter cleric stance once in my run today because my co-healer was only on her 2nd run of the place and clearly still having a lot of trouble with mechanics. It'll happen no matter how good you are personally. I feel like to enjoy healer to its greatest potential you have to have a bit of that masochist in you that clicks 'join in progress' for low level roulette even when you don't need it just in the hopes that you can pull a win out of a hopeless situation and look like a magician.

[BeautifulNerf]

I love you Broodingfocus. Very articulate and correct. +1 on your comment.

[Seoulstar]

Sorry, but I don't agree with you. The problem is that healer job is terribly easy except in raid environment and some instances. That's why he probably finds entertaining DPS while healing, it adds another layer of complexity to the job.

I'm going to disagree and say no..it's not terribly easy. Constantly having to adjust to whatever situation happens isn't really a walk in the park. You can have a dungeon where you can dps your heart out as a healer. Then you can have a dungeon where you're throwing everything you have to keep the party alive. You can't really afford to screw up as a healer either. If you do, you have quite a scary chance of wiping the party as well. But if that's what you call being terribly easy, then I guess everyone has their own opinions.

[AlphaSonic]

snip

I should correct my statement. Healing is terribly easy when everyone is doing their job and dodging, using appropiate cooldowns or doing mechanics correctly.
But seriously if the run is going that wrong that you are about to wipe, maybe you should stop for a second and tell your other party mates, that they could at least dodge AoEs or try to do mechanics and if they are new try to explain the dungeon/trial so they don't wipe because they didn't know what to do.
And as a healer i'm going to try not to wipe the party, but if it happens because the others didn't do their job, Is Not My Fault.

[Ragology]

I should correct my statement. Healing is terribly easy when everyone is doing their job and dodging, using appropiate cooldowns or doing mechanics correctly.

And as a healer i'm going to try not to wipe the party, but if it happens because the others didn't do their job, Is Not My Fault.

NO. If people are taking excessive damage and you cant heal them through it then YOU need to get better at your job. Healers are there to provide unlimited hp to the party. Do your job. nub.