Hello tanks. Healer looking for some feedback

[Gemina]

First I just want to say how much I respect your role. I believe it entails a lot of responsibility, and mindfulness of the field and status bars. Some of you might say it isn't so bad, but I am outright intimidated by the role, and won't go near it. I am so much better at keeping you lot from falling!

Anywho, I am still very new to the game, and just wanting to get better and faster. I play both whm and sch and just unlocked Qarn. It's obviously a very broad question, so I guess if I can ask for something more specific is with you as a tank, what have healers done to make things easier for you? Make you smile, and leave a good impression? What helps you confide in your healer?

I'm hoping for elaborate answers as my brain is a sponge.

[AriaEnia]

Any healers that can keep me and other party members alive til the end of the dungeon is enough to get my commendations. If you can throw some DPS here and there while topping everybody up is a big bonus, but sadly I can only give 1 commendation.

[Janhyua]

1. Never ever leave a tank near 30% hp it make us feel very unsafe and make us pop out hallow ground, living dead, holgang before we die

2. Don't put regen on us before a pull please for the love of god just don't... It Aggro everything before we get hate on them

3. Do not I repeat do not medical 2 before a fight spam aoe like a crazy person before a boss pull unless you trying to kill yourself

4. Acommenda me (ok that just me but you don't have to)

5. Please stone skin me during tank buster it really save my skin

6. Once you able to keep the tank hp full during a mass pull, go shift cast and holy and spam it 4 time and back to healing

7. Hmmmmmmmmmm hmmmmmmm I got nothing else for you :0

[The_Last_Dragoon]

snip

in addition to Janhyua's advice, from a DPS, I really only look for 3 things from a healer.

1. You should be able to keep everyone from dying. There are some circumstances where the player makes that impossible, and trust me when I say that I'm right there with you when I see them. What I expect from the healer at that point though is a swiftcasted resurrect, which is a MUST for healers.
2. If we are doing a duty roulette and the tank is so overgeared that they can go through an encounter with no heals, then please try to help with damage. It always makes a run go faster, and it will keep the duty interesting for you too.
3. Learn which debuffs to remove and be quick with their removal. You don't even need to jump out of cleric stance to remove debuffs, and it shows that you're attentive and knowledgable to the group.

[Jim_Berry]

1. Never ever leave a tank near 30% hp it make us feel very unsafe and make us pop out hallow ground, living dead, holgang before we die

2. Don't put regen on us before a pull please for the love of god just don't... It Aggro everything before we get hate on them

3. Do not I repeat do not medical 2 before a fight spam aoe like a crazy person before a boss pull unless you trying to kill yourself

4. Acommenda me (ok that just me but you don't have to)

5. Please stone skin me during tank buster it really save my skin

6. Once you able to keep the tank hp full during a mass pull, go shift cast and holy and spam it 4 time and back to healing

7. Hmmmmmmmmmm hmmmmmmm I got nothing else for you :0

2. Especially with Divine Seal

3. Same as Number 2.

5. Agreed. I prefer Swiftcast + Stoneskin on me, then Virus the tank buster.

6. I'd rather the healer (assuming WHM, since that's the only healer I have at Lv60) use Divine Seal + Swiftcast + Medica II + Regen on me then proceed with Cleric Stance + Holy.

[Nezkeys79]

1. Never ever leave a tank near 30% hp it make us feel very unsafe and make us pop out hallow ground, living dead, holgang before we die
2. Don't put regen on us before a pull please for the love of god just don't... It Aggro everything before we get hate on them
3. Do not I repeat do not medical 2 before a fight spam aoe like a crazy person before a boss pull unless you trying to kill yourself
4. Acommenda me (ok that just me but you don't have to)
5. Please stone skin me during tank buster it really save my skin
6. Once you able to keep the tank hp full during a mass pull, go shift cast and holy and spam it 4 time and back to healing

I couldn't agree more. 99% of the time the reason the healer gets aggro is because they don't follow these things. I'd like to add some things though...

7)If you get aggro at any point run towards the tank, not away from the tank. A good pld will, cover you and take the agro back immediately with provoke+flash. A healer who runs towards me when they are low on health or have aggro will most likely get my commendation every time. Standing still out of range trying to tank them, or kiting them...you won't get my commendation.
8)Time a heal so that it goes off immediately after a "tank buster" move, rather than reacting to it when you see it. This is just down to experience of that boss and timing though, and I appreciate this is difficult. No good tank would deprive you of a commendation if they died during a tank buster either
9)Consider levelling a tank yourself so you can see exactly what is involved with GCD timers, distance range of abilities, enmity they generate etc. I appreciate this is a little overkill though and what you are doing here is enough.

[Ebonwings]

Tanking isn't that bad I always entrust my back to the healers so they all get my commendation if they keep me alive as Janhyua said as long as our hp is nowhere near 30% we are best buddies xD I'll be happy to tank for you guys anytime if we meet in DF.

[Februs]

You're right. This is a pretty broad topic. It's also a topic that's not always about what you should be doing, so much as what you should not be doing. That said, we should be able to give you a few basic pointers.

• One of the biggest things is for you to be mindful of our status bars.
  
  I can't tell you how many times I've seen healers spam cast cure and completely ignore my status bar. It's great that you're keeping me up and all, but that doesn't do me much good if I'm paralyzed, for example. Mobility and positioning is huge for a tank, and negative status effects can stack up really painfully if you don't take care of them.
  
  There's also a few Tank buffs you should be aware of. The first, and earliest, is called "Convalescence." It's a green icon. Get to know it, because every tank can use it (though Pld's get the best mileage out of it) at a low levels. This buff boosts your healing dramatically while it's active, so don't waste it.
  
  Much later (above lvl 50), Pld's will start using "Divine Veil." It's blue and is activated by a direct heal. They can self activate it now (thankfully) with Clemency, but it's still most efficient if the healer activates it as that keeps them up on Dps and Mp. They typically use it before room wide AoEs.
  
  For The Warrior icon you want to look out for is called "Vengeance" (purple at lvl 46). Dark Knights have "Blood Price" (also purple and at lvl 35). Both of these moves require the War/Drk to be hit by the enemy to be at their most effective. Blood Price, in particular, does absolutely nothing for the Drk if they don't suffer dmg. So avoid stunning mobs (you get "Holy" at lvl 50, which Whm's tend to spam cast whenever possible) if you see either of those two icons up. Focus on healing instead.
  
  
• Remember your HoTs.
  
  Healing over time (Regen, Medica II etc), can make a huge difference in how much direct healing you need to actually do. Healing is your first priority, but it's always nice to see a Whm speeding things along by helping the Dps. You'll be able to do this easier if you keep HoT's up on your tank, but remember that auto healing does not deal with spikes in dmg. So be sure to pay attention to the tank's status and hp bars. Focus targeting them can help with that.
  
  Keep in mind that you can also stun and sleep targets to reduce the amount of dmg being caused to the tank (stunning is by far more effective). This is a great way to help with mitigation ... just remember to check the tank's status before you do it, especially for Drk's using Blood Price.
  
  
• REMEMBER YOUR HoTs
  
  This gets a second mention for a totally different reason. In this game, it is possible for a healer to generate enmity by over-healing the target. A lot of inexperienced healers will pop Regen on a Tank to cap them between pulls, and then they get shocked when the immediately steal aggro when the Tank pulls the next mob. It's not the tank's fault when this happens. It's the healer's. Tanks can remove the status themselves, but it's annoying and takes a ridiculous number of touch pad taps on Ps4. Rule of thumb is to avoid using HoT's when the tank isn't actually in combat; so, just hold off on them until you know the tank has hit every target with an enmity gain of some kind (Flash, overpower, ranged hits, etc).
  
  
• Come up for air.
  
  A lot of healers keep their eyes glued to the party window. Take a look around from time to time so that you know what's actually happening around you. You should never be too far or too close, and standing next to the tank unless a boss mechanic requires it. The tank's physical space is a BIG no no for squishy players like healers. It sounds straight forward, but you'd be amazed how many healers I've seen eat AoE's because they weren't paying attention to where they were standing.
  
  This can be particularly annoying for Tanks, because we have to position the entire mob. Moving your single character is easy. By comparison, when a Tank has to move it's like trying to parallel park a semi-trailer truck with multiple trailers hooked up to their asses.
  
  
• Triage.
  
  Aside from the Tank, your life is most important. Dps tend to stand in a lot of stupid, but you should never be prioritizing their lives over yours or the tank's. If you have to let a dps player die to prevent a wipe, so be it. It can be really frustrating when the tank is dying and sees the healer desperately trying to save a Dps who is going out of their way to kill themselves. Please don't do it.
  
  
• Speak up.
  
  Don't be afraid to speak to the party. If the tank is going too fast for you, tell them. If you're running out of Mp, tell them. You should be managing it well enough at the best of times, but bad things happen. A lot of high end healers play their game close to the wire, so the tank might no know something is wrong unless you say something.
  
  
• Know you're dungeons.
  
  Aside from the tank, the healer has the biggest responsibility in the party. You should get to know the dungeons really well so that you can anticipate how much healing the tank will need, how big the average pulls are, etc. Having a healer who is unprepared for what you're going to do can lead to disastrous results, especially post lvl 50 where tank pulls start to get much bigger and faster.
  
  
• Remember that you are also ranged.
  
  This puts you in the position to handle a lot of boss mechanics in place of the tank or dps, should the need arise. Focusing on healing is great, but making the most of your freedom of movement can save a lot of people a lot of unnecessary trouble. This is really all about party utility, which healers have a lot of.

That should give you A LOT of things to sponge up and think on. A lot of this stuff only comes into play in the much later dungeons (lvl 50 and higher). Your job gets a lot more interesting after that, but this is as good a place to start as any. If you have any specific questions let us know. A lot of Pld's, myself included, have moonlighted as Whm, so we should be able to give you some insight.

[Gemina]

Ooohh. Ok @Janhyua. I've heard the term "tank buster" tossed around here and have no idea what it is. Ugh, feel so ignorant but can you elaborate? Is it just a hard hitting mob?

I also just got regen and have yet to use it in an instance. I am aware about not casting it on the tank pre pull. I know some tanks have a macro asking for it, but I won't rely on that. My impression was to use it on pulls resulting in longer engagements, mini boss, and boss fights at the level I am at now. I KNOW I can't rely on all tanks to cancel their regen out prior to next pull.

And I don't like ugly mobs trying to kill me. Tanks who keep that from happening always get a comm from me

The stay above 30% is very helpful too, and generally keeping everyone alive I am sure is always good.

[Ebonwings]

Tank busters are move that bosses use to deal a high damage on tanks, that's when you see tanks pop their cooldowns. If no cooldown the tanks will only have about 30% hp left from full hp. If a mob runs to attack you, just run toward the tanks and they will take it off you.