Healing a11s advice?

[LadyKairi]

My group has been working towards clearing a11s for well over a month now. We tried again tonight for a clear before reset, but still no clear. Going into raiding, I felt confident in my healing ability. Now, I've been doubting myself completely, and I have begun to feel really depressed about it. Healing well was something I took great pride in... Even healing with a great main healer (whom I pick up some ast tricks from), I feel really crappy. I'm starting to wonder if I should even continue with raiding.

I'm reaching out to other healers who know a11s. Any tricks or tips for a scholar off healer? I need to learn, I need to know what I could be doing better T_T

[AmeliaVerves]

First of all, can you explain why you are wiping all the time?

• Are DPS dying because they can't dodge AOEs?
• Is the damage too low and you can't finish/skip phases?
• Are you/your teammates not able to handle mechanics? (And if so, which ones?)
• Is the general healing not enough?
• Is the healing not on point (for example for photon)?

There are various reasons why you can wipe in A11s and it might not even be your fault, because if people keep collecting vuln stacks or dying, there is not much you can do, even as an awesome healer.

[Taika]

I'm healing it with Astro in our static (and have also healed it with a WHM who was healing it for the first time). For us the biggest problem in that fight was our DDs being sloppy with Optical Sights and collecting vulnerability stacks, thus easily dying to next Opticals or Whirlwinds if we weren't able to provide them with extra shields. Based on this experience, I think the first key to beating this fight is people being really careful with Opticals (and boss Swords), so that the healers won't have to cover for other people's mistakes. Then for the rare occasion someone (other than tank) messes up and gets a vulnerability stack, we've Stoneskinned and Adlo'd them for the upcoming Opticals / Whirlwinds.

Second important thing is skipping the first Shield. Having to go through that mechanic gives boss a damage buff which will make the rest of the fight harder. So at the end of the Lapis Lazuli phase (when they're all dead) and the beginning of next phase (with the burning floor), focus on burning the boss low enough to skip it (I think it has to be under 54%). As SCH, I Succor everyone before and after Eternal Darkness and before Optical Sight, but other than that I don't think I do any healing there, just focus on DPS. Our DDs also use some minor cooldowns (not Raging Strikes) here to push the shield.

Last phase is all about pushing DPS and protecting the towers as much as possible. We start by everyone stacking North on the boss and we use potions (us healers too!) and everything we got (DDs should have all cooldowns here) to push as much DPS as possible during the OT buster. We also have one tower we try to never hit no matter what.

These are the main points that helped our group beat the fight. What issues do you have in particular? Do you feel certain points in the fight that feel particularly tricky for you? Are you healing with an AST or WHM partner?

One particular SCH tip: if you manage to Crit Adlo and spread it during the 2nd shield, you can skip the DoT from the boss Charge.

In case this might help, here's a video of our first time clearing this with our full static group (we had cleared it once before this with a visiting off tank) from my SCH PoV: https://youtu.be/ESM50TjcOFU. It's far from perfect and I'm now working on more optimised DPS and fairy use and less overhealing.

[technole]

Yeah good advice given so far, probably will help if you can tell us where you believe the majority wipes are coming from. I imagine it's the last phase (like I explained in the other thread)?

Protecting one tower at-all-costs is the safest strategy for a first clear. Sometimes it may get hit due to Shiva, or someone reacting on-the-fly. It's still okay to hit if you have to, just not abuse it. Just something to put in everyone's head. Don't hit the "C" one if you have to dodge stuff. The amount of raid DPS and tower health determines how much time you have left to kill Chaser until a soft enrage. So saving one tower with plenty of HP should allow the group to make it past whirlwind after the 2nd shield, and then the GA-100 soft enrage. After that whirlwind, it's a race to kill so pull out all the stops at that point.

In terms of healing, the last phase blaster circles/double Whirlwind/photon spam can be daunting. I Adlo Eos when we go out for the dps/tank hawk blaster circles, and do the Adlo spread as everyone comes back in so it covers the double whirlwind, and virus can help. Makes it easier on the other healer to not use more than 1 GCD of healing there. Then the photon is just perfect for Succor/Indom.

[lulunami]

Just DPS as much as possible on SCH. Keep DoT and Shadowflare uptime. Broil and Energy Drain when possible. Bane for EDD.

Healing is light for SCH except for certain parts. You need to heal for Whirlwind, Optical Sight, Photon, Eternal Darkness, dash DoT, and Laser Sword X.

Players with 2 vulnerability stacks or more: RIP

General tips for all phases
- If you need to do high burst AoE healing: Indomitablity + Emergency Tactics->Succor + Swiftcast Succor
- If you need more AoE shielding, Succor and Sacred Soil. You can use Deployment Tactics instead of Succor if you will not need it soon.
- Optimize Virus uptime to mitigate the most AoE attacks.
- HoTs all the time. Regen. Medica II. Aspected Benefic. Aspected Helios. Whispering Dawn.
- After breaking Cruise Chaser's shield and he dashes at a party member: Use Lustrate on that party member. Adlo and Regen that party member. Keep an eye on that party member's HP as they have a DoT debuff.
- Have the WAR maintain Storm's Path to reduce damage (especially for tough healing phases) and be a team player. Eye->Path combo rotation.
- Always reposition your fairy somewhere close to main tank and off-tank, so you can heal less.

Lapis phase
- Succor party for Whirlwind
- Shadowflare one Lapis. Miasma + Bio all the Lapis. If you have lower raid DPS, Bio II might be good to use. Otherwise Broil the 3 Lapis that the tanks are not hitting.
- Adlo main-tank for Laser Sword X tank buster

Pyretic (floor burn) phase
- Photon #1: Targets off-tank. Finish casting Adlo before Photon finishes cast. Immediately Lustrate off-tank.
- Photon #2: Targets 4 DPS players. Use Deployment Tactics to shield the DPS players before Photon. Sacred Soil for the following Whirlwind and EDD add. When damage for Photon resolves, immediately use Indomitability and Emergency Tactics->Succor.
- Photon #3: Targets 1 random healer. Try to have an Adlo on each healer before. If you are targeted, do not move and let other healer heal you. Use Lustrate on other healer if she is targeted.

The Three Tower Phase
- Shiva optical + Whirlwind: You can Deployment Tactics this Optical Sight. Virus + Sacred Soil the Whirlwind.
- Photon + orange Laser bits + Whirlwind x2: Emergency Tactics-> Succor + Indomitability + Sacred Soil for 1st Whirlwind. Succor again for 2nd Whirlwind.

Last Phase
- Photons and Whirlwind: No floor burn so not scary anymore. Make sure players are topped off for Whirlwind (AoE HoTs).
- Laser X Sword: Virus and Adlo main-tank.

Depending upon your group's DPS, you can skip a lot of phases. If you have to overheal to save a run, do it.

[KarstenS]

- Photon #1: Targets off-tank. Finish casting Adlo before Photon finishes cast. Immediately Lustrate off-tank.

If paired with a whitemage: Benediction is a good choice for this mechanic. Saves an aetherflow stack for something else.

Preshielding photons during pyretic is still mandatory. The photon targets will still drop to 1 HP. But the shields migitate some ticks of the pyretic damage. By this, the others don't have to stop and wait for healing.

BTW: The GA-100 in the last phase can be bypassed (just for the case towers are missíng). The target has to jump down at the right moment and it will deal no damage

[technole]

If paired with a whitemage: Benediction is a good choice for this mechanic. Saves an aetherflow stack for something else.

When my AST goes WHM, we would save Bene for the Laser X Sword that our DRK uses Living Dead for before the DPS photon, since that can be solo'd with an immunity. I still think a Lustrate/force embrace is best use since skipping the first shield is common once DPS gets higher.

[KarstenS]

we would save Bene for the Laser X Sword that our DRK uses Living Dead for before the DPS photon.

Hallowed Ground FTW :P

Saves Bene^^

We use it for the LaserX in the Lapis phase (Summoner DOTs and MT are enough for one Lapis, so the OT can go with the DDs) and in earlier days for a LaserX in the last phase a second time.

Is it just that one GA that it works for? Or does it work for the one before that too?

No. But at this point you don't "need" an offtank anylonger and having not all towers alive is a 100% wipe. So sacrifiring the OT is the onliest way to get some more seconds uptime at all.

We got this just one time to work and this try was a wipe anyway. At our first kill and later kills, we didn't got to that GA-100. This should be the focus of your group and the group needs to get even better for A12S, as there are some tighter DPS checks.

[technole]

Considering warrior is practically another dps, if you are already that far behind it doesn't make any sense to sac. Just man-mode those last few seconds if it comes down to it.

In speed runs because lots of mechanic skipping, the first GA-100 in the last phase is actually mitigated by AST+SCH skills keeping the warrior on Cruiser, and helps LB build up.

Hallowed Ground FTW :P

Saves Bene^^

I forget what Hallowed Ground is, PLD this tier is rather scarce.

[Taika]

I looked you up from Lodestone and I'm wondering if you're meeting the accuracy cap? With the gear you had on there it showed your accuracy as only 482 while the current cap is over 100 points higher.