First time healing (AST) - what should I know?

[Freerider]

My advice for a new ast is don't let your card distract you at first. Use them, but don't get so focused on getting the right card you forget to heal.

[dotsforlife]

Don't forget to pick up conjurer and level it to 15 for cleric stance and protect, bare minimum; you also want THM to 26 to get swiftcast, and optimally CNJ to 34 for stoneskin.

This. OP, at the VERY LEAST please obtain Protect from the Conjurer class. You only have to level it to 8 and that takes less than an hour. It's also expected and the first thing you should be casting in a dungeon when entering, not to mention just having it on all the time anyways when fighting.

As a few have said though, just focus on healing for now. Be sure to read of each spell description thoroughly so you understand what it does. The cards will take a little time to get used to but you'll get the hand of it. Here's a useful guide for 8 man content for the AST cards: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...ayers_content/

[Cassandaria]

I think the best advice I can give a new healer is, if you get agro, run to the tank. If you start taking damage, don't run away, run to the tank. focus on your healing first and foremost. Adding DPS is nice, but if you can't keep people up, than you aren't healing. Though those are all common sense things, the most important, bar none is to never take your role as an easy one. Even if you are familiar with the content, something can always throw a wrench into things. Be ready, be adaptable and always ask advice!
There are tons of advanced healing methods to get into, but that first reply also has the best advice, get out there and do it. Make mistakes, overheal, ignore mechanics...but learn from those, so that you don't do them again! Have fun!

[Feyona]

after learning the cards... there is one point which really make the difference on the way to become a good AST: the knowledge and instinct to use the right stance.

It's more than choosing between "Reg or Shield", most of the random ASTs i met just don't care about being flexibel with stances at all... a few days ago had an experience most of the comm would never confirm with... i (ast) was thrown into a really novice-like grp on a12... co healer was a Sch so i switched to Diu stance (unwritten rule cause Noc and Adlo don't stack and negate themselves)... we wiped 3x times until I switched back to Noc - 4/7 player asked me if im serious about that and guess what... we cleared

Yes I ve had ast ruin my adlo spread a few times and wonder why It can be a bit irritating cos its a waste of my cds. Think theres also a bit of competition going on not sure, but yes can clear stuff with 2 sch or noct ast its not optimal though. Actually sounds more like sch was concentrating more on dps maybe as thats more their job, either that or not using their shields. in either case you may be almost soloing. Ast heals are higher in noct stance

[Misutoraru]

over healing is better than not enough healing
just healing is better than getting the team wipe
so basic stuff keep everyone alive
observe how the tank took dmg, soon you will know when to pop ur healing
keep an eye on the dps all the time, everyone make mistake, dont just focus on tank
situation awareness, see where all you party are, if u think one will get hit by AOE, be prepare for that
drawn card have a much longer uptime now, it can wait, focus on keeping everyone alive
forget about DPS until you are familiar with the dungeon mechanic and you know you party well
protect is a good tool to reduce some stress on healing, swift case is very useful in emergency, stone skin could save someone @ss in emergency

[The_NPC]

Focus Target the Boss incase u have to deselect it to heal or are using DMG attack marco's with <tt> in them so u can see when the boss is casting something u may need to prepare for (Tank busters, untelegraphed room AoE's, etc.) all other reply's have explained everything else better

[Mirch]

since u were a tank i dont think you will have problems healing, simply keep on doing content

[Tiva]

Unpopular opinion- go play conj. Start with sastasha. Get comfortable healing and dpsing in there. Move to he next dungeon. Etc. These ppl advising you to focus on healing and not dps at first are the reason why so many healers get to 60 and have no idea how to anticipate incoming damage and respond. They play reactionary. Dpsing as a healer is primarily what forces you to learn to play proactively and anticipate damage.

Theoretically you can do this if you start as Astro and just go level synchronize into baby dungeons. But since you will need 34 (?) conj anyway for stone skin you might as well learn that first. If you start as a low level healer you will have an easier time tbh. One of the greatest crimes on this game was allowing ppl to start a tank or healer at level 30 without requiring they already had a healer at that level. What you miss is the foundations. And these foundations are what you need to build your skill off of at higher levels. It is much much harder to try and dps later in content that requires more healing and you have a more complicated rotation. The easiest way is to start from day 1.

From you comment "what little damage I can do" I feel like you don't parse. This is a big misconception about healer dps from people who don't parse. If the healer has any understanding at all of thir dps rotation, they can do very considerable damage. Enough that in dungeons and 24mans its equivalent to adding another dps. It's is very substantial. But you need to work at it and the time to do that is in the easiest content of the game - the starting dungeons and then work up from there.

[Neela]

But you need to work at it and the time to do that is in the easiest content of the game - the starting dungeons and then work up from there.

the only problem with your recommendation is that either ast nor sch got a decent aoe-dmg skill on low lvl - and for dngs its the most useful dps-support a healer could give his grp. practicing single dmg dpsing won't help you to be confident in mass-pull dpsing... its way more stressful and way more dangerous than throwing out a single blow in low inis here and there.

But yeah Tiva is right as sooner as you try to get in touch with healer-dps the less stress u will get with this community... (a sadly fact...)

[Gunnie]

Do what "The_NPC" said and have some focustarget on boss battles. Seeing a castbar from a boss helps bigtime how to time heals. I made a macro for this and assigned a hotkey to it.

/focustarget (the macro).