How's my AST so far?

[Maeka]

So I'm only Lv44, but I think I'm getting the hang of this, it's far easier than I originally thought it would be.

Dunno why I didn't do it sooner, lol.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/305178835

I felt that this dungeon run went pretty well, despite the tank being in a hurry lol. But then it's the first time I actually felt any challenge healing a dungeon.

[ArianeEwah]

I watched the first third of your run, then rushed through it for a bit less detailed insight.

Overall your healing with AST is pretty solid.
You kept regen on the tank, used your cards on the right party member, or for the whole party when you got an arrow or balance.
(Except this one time you used it on yourself.) :P
This tank didn't seem to use CDs often...
I wouldn't say the run was rushed, but the tank definitly didn't help making it much easier for you.

You draw cards almost constantly. Try to keep it more on CD, and draw that monster... eh, balance card!
(For optimisation): Don't "Draw -> Royal Road -> Use" in a row, use every step between your GCD or use Combust to double weave.
The recent balance changes to AST allow you do that without clipping your GCD.
Also, you can use Combust on big adds, after 4 ticks (12 sec) it's more damage than Malefic I, and big adds live longer.

You can hold Essential Dignity until your tank drops 20-30% HP. Essential Dignity is your Benediction 2.0 on 40 sec CD, treat it as that. The less HP your target has the more it heals.
It's specifically strong in (low) leveling dungeons. (You can "bene" someone with Essential Dignity if it's going to crit.)

But one thing I noticed: You never used Lightspeed! I dunno why you kept it untouched. This ability makes every cast instant (except Ascend) and cuts your mana cost in half.
If you need to move, or need an instant heal while Essential Dignity is on CD, use this. Or use it whenever it's available, just use it.

(You don't need to heal the flame breath from the dragons in the first part of the dungeon, you and your mates will regenerate it over time, just focus on tank.)

On a side note: Do you always play with your camera so close to your char? Do you not want to zoom out further?
I had a lil' trouble keeping my overview in this. Especially when you stand behind a boss and they show you their big "yo mamma"'s butt.

Well, that was a lot of nitpicking and more than I intended. Overall you are "getting the hang of this".
(Don't take anything in this post too hard, I am just a nitpicker. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )

[Maeka]

I'm rather guilty of saving cooldowns for "oh crap" moments that might never come, and Lightspeed is in the same vein as Swiftcast, a "If I need to Res someone...." button. It's just... I don't know why I always do that lol.

As for the zoom, well, I like to see my character, though I will zoom out on fights where I need that (such as the last boss of that dungeon).

Uh. *reads*

Yeah, sometimes I do forget to draw cards, I'll not notice the cooldown is up right away, and I'll try to keep the 'don't use the abilities back to back' thing in mind. Kinda wondered that myself a few times, but got distracted or something lol.

As for Combust, it's something I have trouble remembering to do yeah.

Thanks for the replies!

[Gemina]

I'm rather guilty of saving cooldowns for "oh crap" moments that might never come, and Lightspeed is in the same vein as Swiftcast, a "If I need to Res someone...." button. It's just... I don't know why I always do that lol.

I know why. The fear of fault. It's easy to play healer safely. However, to play it optimally is to live a bit on the dangerous side, but you can reduce risk through acquired knowledge and anticipation of how your group is going to perform.

When you do a lot of PUGs as a healer, you start to notice a trend with players. As an example, any player who mentions they are new to the instance will likely fail mechanics if they are not explained before engagement. It is in this case where it is a good idea to hold onto Swiftcast/Lightspeed etc. when you know the mechanic is coming.

When you hold on to abilities like Swiftcast and Lightspeed, you're holding on to a crutch that may never serve any purpose. Eventually as a healer, you have to walk the tight rope without a safety net if you want to optimize your toolkit. You must know that mistakes will happen when learning to optimize, and mistakes are a very good thing when you learn from them.

Improvisation is also key and healers have many ways to do so. Also keep in mind that even the best healers can't heal through EX stupid. OGCD "oh crap" abilities are not going to keep these players alive, and are actually better used on a player who is already good at staying on their feet. You increase the chances of success this way.

[ArianeEwah]

Yeah, sometimes I do forget to draw cards, I'll not notice the cooldown is up right away, and I'll try to keep the 'don't use the abilities back to back' thing in mind. Kinda wondered that myself a few times, but got distracted or something lol.

As for Combust, it's something I have trouble remembering to do yeah.

Any ability or skill with a long CD or duration (e.g. dots and Lightspeed/Draw) will get into your head with practice over time. It's purely muscle memory.

You can help yourself by getting an additional, large scaled hotbar with those abilities to keep track of their CDs. It also may help you keeping an overview for your "oh crap" or "high heals" abilities, such as Synastry, Largesse, Essential Dignity and so on.

In my opinion, 14 levels into one job is barely enough time to achieve that. It's no shame. On the contrary, I am rather surprised you kept Draw on CD in the heat of battle.

As for holding abilities for emergency: Gemina already said it, you might end without ever using them.
e.g. take PLD's Hallowed Ground: It can be used for emergency when healer can't keep up with heals, or CD management is screwed up. The chance that such an emergency ever occurs, is probably around 1-3%. It's better used for "normal" mitigation rotation.

...well, and if we apply it to Murphy's law, once you used it, everything goes down the hills

[Maeka]

Any ability or skill with a long CD or duration (e.g. dots and Lightspeed/Draw) will get into your head with practice over time. It's purely muscle memory.

That, and deprogramming the 'save it for emergency' lol.

In my opinion, 14 levels into one job is barely enough time to achieve that. It's no shame. On the contrary, I am rather surprised you kept Draw on CD in the heat of battle.

I kept glancing down at the Draw timer during spellcasts... can't move or use abilities during a 3 second cast, and Draw is like... a huge part of the job so I kept glancing at the button now and then while casting other stuff.

...well, and if we apply it to Murphy's law, once you used it, everything goes down the hills

Ever watched Aliens vs Predator? There's this scene where this gun nut girl is packing a gun and a mountain climber tells her that she's never seen a situation in which a gun actually helped... and the girl goes "It's better to have it and not need it... than to need it and not have it".

I rather like that philosophy.

But yeah should use the skills at least some lol.

[Risvertasashi]

Ever watched Aliens vs Predator? There's this scene where this gun nut girl is packing a gun and a mountain climber tells her that she's never seen a situation in which a gun actually helped... and the girl goes "It's better to have it and not need it... than to need it and not have it".

This is a fine philosophy for things like emergency/disaster preparation and the like. But when it comes to games, no real lives are on the line-people tend to think more along the lines of "If you've held a CD for longer than it's cooldown duration, you've effectively wasted it."

FWIW, I added a callout for my longer CDs. Just simple stuff like "presence of mind ready" or "lightspeed ready" (and I definitely have one for Draw, lest I get caught up in mechanics etc and forget). Even for bigger CDs if I don't pop it right then, the aural cue helps remind me to find a good place to use it-start of next pull, or when a boss's attack patterns let me make the most of it, etc. May or may not help, but something to think about. Another thing I've seen some people do is clone their important CDs on a hotbar close to the center of the screen, so they can keep an eye on their timers.

[Maeka]

How do you add a "callout"? I've never heard of that before.... is that like doing a macro with a <se> in it? Do macros in XIV work better than ones in XI, I remember XI macros being very fickle that if you start a 2nd macro while one is already running, it just... stops running and such.

Audio cues work rather well with me; I have rather good hearing and sound recognition/memorization, so if there's a way to do that, that would be awesome.

[Risvertasashi]

I remember XI macros being very fickle that if you start a 2nd macro while one is already running, it just... stops running and such.

Although you can use macros to make a timer that shows in the log window... I don't think it's very good visibility and macros have a lot of issues, including the one you just mentioned.

Audio cues come from raid addons which, unfortunately, we can't discuss directly on the official forums due to the 'no 3rd party apps' rule. But if you google it or ask on an FF discord/reddit/etc, I'm sure you'll figure it out pretty fast. If you want a purely in game indicator, I think adding a partial hotbar near the center of the screen is the best that can be done - but that's visual instead of aural.

[Maeka]

Ahh, yeah, third party... I think I'll stay away from that. If anything, I might do the whole "buttons next to my character" or something or just keep glancing at it during spell casts or something.