Help with big pulls in newer content

[Minako_Nightsong]

When I started to level my white mage through Stormblood I was having a lot of problems on the first pull of Bardam's Meddle and the last half of Doman Castle. It got very discouraging and I got some of the meanest comments that frankly, made me consider stop playing altogether.

I then started to see a pattern. Almost all of these wipes were on multiple trash pack pulls, many had loose mobs, and these two dungeons were also "leveling" dungeons. I was getting tanks who were leveling and had the gear of a leveler that were pulling as a tank would at an endgame dungeon they out-geared or was synced into. A great many of them were also pulling these packs then running out of the party's range.

I know myself and I do have a problem with my focus/attention but after some honest reflection, these were mostly not my fault. So I would encourage you to examine your own play and be sure you are only fixing mistakes you are making and not over-correcting for the mistakes of others.

[EaMett]

Like many have said, don't use Bardam as a reference. It's much harder than most expert stuff.

When healing it's really easy to blame yourself for other people's shortcomings. Kinda comes with the job unfortunately. Minako speaks the truth you should listen to her.

If it's any help, my "pull rotation" is usually Largesse > Regen on tank > swiftcast > medica II > Asylum > Aero III > Assize > presence of mind + thin air > holy. Then I tetra, bene, divine benison, or cure II as needed. The combination of the 3 HoTs is usually good enough to keep the tank up with the assize, the HoT ticks during the first holy stun and tetra+bene.

I readjust if the tank is particularly squishy (less or no holy spam) or if the dps is low (keep an eye on mana).

I'm also on Faerie and on Eastern time so feel free to hit me up if you want to fool around in dungeons or go grab some omega normal gear. Sounds like you need a bit of fun time to get back into the vibe of healing

[Cynfael]

Medica II doesn’t really add value to a single-target healing situation; it takes a full 30 seconds of ticking to equal the potency of a single Cure II. The GCD, the MP, and the Swiftcast are best reserved for other uses.

It may seem desirable to have as many HoTs going as possible, but the math doesn’t work for Medica II just for the tank, unfortunately.

[EaMett]

Well, you get the PI ogcd as bonus 150 potency, and in practice it does make a difference since you can definitely notice when it isn't there. Considering the Largesse frame things add up to about 120 potency per second (~17% of which is medica II). Also lets not forget the various dps damage clipping that may occur.
As for the gcd argument, medica II is placed during the pull phase, so you're running. It's wasted time anyways. Having to cure II later on will however cost you a gcd at the very least.
The mana is pretty insignificant given the management tool set whm has.
Keeping Swiftcast is however a valid point. But honestly, I would rather use swiftcast in this manner 10 times rather than hold onto it and only use it a couple of times.

I understand your argument and where you're coming from but in light of the above I still think increasing your passive HPS is preferable to holding onto your mana and swiftcast. Of course the above is situational. Sometimes swiftcast + holy is a good combo so you need to adjust accordingly but I find those instances increasingly rare.

[Cynfael]

Well, you get the PI ogcd as bonus 150 potency, and in practice it does make a difference since you can definitely notice when it isn't there. Considering the Largesse frame things add up to about 120 potency per second (~17% of which is medica II). Also lets not forget the various dps damage clipping that may occur.
As for the gcd argument, medica II is placed during the pull phase, so you're running. It's wasted time anyways. Having to cure II later on will however cost you a gcd at the very least.
The mana is pretty insignificant given the management tool set whm has.
Keeping Swiftcast is however a valid point. But honestly, I would rather use swiftcast in this manner 10 times rather than hold onto it and only use it a couple of times.

I understand your argument and where you're coming from but in light of the above I still think increasing your passive HPS is preferable to holding onto your mana and swiftcast. Of course the above is situational. Sometimes swiftcast + holy is a good combo so you need to adjust accordingly but I find those instances increasingly rare.

If we're talking about trash pulls, pre-pull Medica II introduces another issue where the tank has to be concerned about mobs that haven't been tagged yet trying to stray. Medica II just isn't impactful enough for a single target to warrant all the fuss IMO; one tank doesn't require enough healing that the HoT component that equals slightly more than one Cure I (assuming all ticks over 30 seconds restore actual HP) is going to make a difference. I don't factor in Largesse because it works the same on all GCD heals.

MP management isn't a hardship for WHM these days, but if you're maximizing AoE, you'll still have to care somewhat about being efficient.

Swiftcast can always be used to good effect for DPS or to move while healing, so holding onto it shouldn't be an issue. On a side note, the healers who Swiftcast+Protect at the start of the dungeon and don't Swiftcast for the remainder drive me up the wall.

In the end, if you definitely prefer to use Medica II in this manner, that's fine for your playstyle. I'm only pushing back because I'd discourage newer players from using it this way.

[EaMett]

Well, like many large pull situations you usually need to get some healing in during the pull without grabbing aggro yourself, so all the usual rules apply. It's rare but does happen that the tank struggles with pull aggro. Adjust as required (healer motto).

A lot of it is situational anyways, if you have good dps in the party, your own dps window is usually tiny so you'll probably forego Aero III, asylum, and in my case medica II in exchange for a couple more holy casts.
I was merely giving a more comfortable, optional, opener for people to play with, and then built a case that it wasn't as insignificant as it might first appear and you made it out to be. Eyeballing it, it's about a 450-500 potency passive heal on the tank with an added 150 potency ogcd heal and an upfront 240 potency heal during the pull (+ any bonus healing on dps getting clipped by mechanics). The added dps uptime from this makes up for the drawbacks imo. Especially in light of the timing of your other skills which line up perfectly.

I certainly wouldn't discourage newer players from trying this. It -does- provide added comfort and a lot of the drawbacks to this are usually non-issues. If you ever find yourself gasping for mana or desperately needing/wanting swiftcast for whatever reasons, you can simply opt out.
I can also think of a few places where you will want to opt out. Like if your tank makes one pull from the first to the second boss of Ala Mhigo, you'll need your swiftcast.
Anyways, just so we're clear, don't refresh it for the tank's sole purpose, it's only good as a run up cast. And please don't use this strategy on bosses, the thread is about keeping the tank up on large-ish pulls. For all the rest Cynfael is 100% correct, it's a waste.

[tinythinker]

I know myself and I do have a problem with my focus/attention but after some honest reflection, these were mostly not my fault. So I would encourage you to examine your own play and be sure you are only fixing mistakes you are making and not over-correcting for the mistakes of others.

Like many have said, don't use Bardam as a reference. It's much harder than most expert stuff.

When healing it's really easy to blame yourself for other people's shortcomings. Kinda comes with the job unfortunately. Minako speaks the truth you should listen to her.

Thanks for the encouragement. I've run enough 4.x dungeons now (including one run with two FC members) to know that I am a large factor in what's happening. Yes some tanks aren't so great and some DPS are weak on AoE, but, I really just don't seem to be able to reliably pull off big pulls with holy spam. I have to try to just heal mostly or exclusively in the newer content. That's OK. I'm playing a healer and I like casting healing spells.

(Oh, and deciding to do a "simple" 50/60 dungeon on SCH to get the rust off and try something different confirms it's not just WHM I have issues with Though I *can* do big pulls with holy spam reliably in 50/60 roulette even if my Darkflare/Bane DoTS game is weak in those dungeons, so yay.)

UPDATE: Woohoo