Why do so many healers not use specific abilities?

[Limonia]

Hello!

For a while now I've been noticing that many healers just don't use specific abilities. Either only very rarely or never. Recently, I've also been in many practice, clear and then farm parties for Suzaku Ex as a healer and I've noticed this about my co-healers even more.

I'm not even talking about players that only rarely play healers and/or only stand there while pressing a heal button every 10 seconds. I'm actually talking about players who have at least a decent understanding on how healing works, are usually able to keep people alive, many of them even dps like normal and a lot of them even only have healers leveled and aren't undergeared. So while they aren't the best, they aren't really "bad" in fulfilling their role.

Have you noticed something like that too? What do you think why some healers don't use these abilities? It's always the same ones. Here are the abilities I noticed them not using:

WHM: Divine Benison and Asylum. Many WHMs just ignore these abilities completely. There are some fights where you can't get everything out of Asylum, like the last boss from Ridorana Lighthouse, because most times people are too spread out or the boss moves around. But for example in Suzaku Ex it's great. And then there is Divine Benison. I usually play WHM and use it for every tankbuster in that fight. That means that I'm not using it on CD, but if I did I wouldn't have it for the tankbuster and I just can't trust my co-healer to shield the tank or the tank to use the right defensive CD. When I'm on AST and I get a WHM as co-healer they just never use it at all.
(Also, many WHM don't ever use Presence of Mind, and Thin Air only rarely. WHM has the least buttons but so many WHM players don't use like half of them.)

SCH: Excogitation. They either never use it at all (and also only use like 2 Lustrates at max and like 3 Indomitabilitys - even though it IS needed), or if they do they use it pre-pull once so that its duration is over like 1 second before the first tankbuster and then they never use it at all anymore.
(Another case is with healers who refuse to dps. If they are SCH, why don't they at least use Shadow Flare? It is FREE and oGCD and doesn't hinder them in their healing.)

AST: Earthly Star. Most times I got ASTs as co-healers and most times they didn't use Earthy Star at all (and no, it's not that I'm spamming Cure III for raid-wide AoEs and they think Earthy Star is not needed - they rather cast Helios 2x). Some of them used it sometimes. Very few used it regularly. Yes, it's kind of more difficult to use than a normal healing spell that immediately takes effect. But if they can't plan when to place it, they could at least use it for the damage instead of ignoring it completely.

[Belgianbeer]

I can't speak for others but personally I tend to go full throttle the first few times I clear some content and after a while just get lazy.

Most fights are way too easy once you are familiar with them and thus start to feel like a grind when you (have to) do them too often. How do you deal with a grind? By shutting your mind off and doing the bare minimum needed to succeed. Why carefully plan an earthly star if I just can go full braindead and throw easy aoe heals out there? I mean it's not like the mechanics don't give me enough time to do so.

So to me not using some abilities is more about not needing to and overdoing some content. Funny thing is, the worse my group is the more I stay on my toes and the better I play.

[HyoMinPark]

I actually see a lot of WHMs and Di ASTs not using their single-target HoTs on the MT. And it gets to be really annoying for me, especially if I'm rolling Noct AST because it's not MP efficient for me to spam a Noct Aspected Benefic or a single-target GCD healing spell to heal up auto attacks because my co-healer won't use their Regen/Di AST A. Benefic. And the majority of the time they aren't tunneling in DPS; they're just standing around, or I guess hoping the Medica II or Di Aspect Helios they spam is enough for the MT. It's a bit easier when I'm on SCH because I can try to place my fairy to keep up Embrace casts on the MT, but I still don't understand the allergy to Regens. I'm not expecting 100% uptime on it, but I expect to see more than 1~5 casts of it in an 8~10 minute encounter.

I've noticed some ASTs don't creatively use their Collective Unconscious for things like stack markers, and instead use them for an Ultimate (like Delta Cannon or Protostar), which they then top everyone off to full and don't let CU's HoT do it naturally. I personally enjoy doing a drive-by CU for stacks if I don't have Earthly for it, because being able to weave it between GCDs now is amazing.

Also, >ASTs not using Earthly Star.
/screaming

I can't speak for others but personally I tend to go full throttle the first few times I clear some content and after a while just get lazy.

Most fights are way too easy once you are familiar with them and thus start to feel like a grind when you (have to) do them too often. How do you deal with a grind? By shutting your mind off and doing the bare minimum needed to succeed. Why carefully plan an earthly star if I just can go full braindead and throw easy aoe heals out there? I mean it's not like the mechanics don't give me enough time to do so.

Once you do a fight enough, your careful planning of healing CD usage becomes automatic. Even in casual content: in V12N, I use my Earthly to heal large amounts of AOE damage, saving both myself and my co-healer the need to use a GCD heal and waste the MP (because we're gonna need it later for raising, typically).

For example, I use it to heal up after Omega-F's Laser Shower about a minute or so in, the one that happens right after the first Optimized Fire III. I also use it to heal up stacks, such as the one during Omega-M's second appearance where he does the donut AOE followed by the proximity AOE (this also helps because it detonates either automatically or at my command, and the party is topped off while moving out of Efficient Bladework - I can save my Swiftcast for something else, and I have no need to cast a GCD healing spell once the bosses stop being flashy; I can reserve my mana).

[tdb]

Most of the abilities you mention are powerful instant abilities with a long cooldown. My gut instinct is to save those for emergencies. It takes some time to learn when they are safe to use without risking them being on CD when they're needed.

Some WHM specific comments since I've been playing that class a lot recently:

Asylum: With the longest cooldown of all healing abilities aside from Benediction and the requirement for players to stay in the area it's hard to use optimally. Upon reaching Lv70 content a couple of weeks ago I taught myself to use it at the end of every big pull; killing the enemies generally takes long enough that it's ready again for the next pull. At bosses I still use it only sporadically.

Divine Benison: I try to use it for tankbusters but I'm often too distracted to notice the boss cast bar (rearranging the UI might help here). Or I may not remember what the tankbuster for each boss is called since I haven't done too many Lv70 dungeons yet (some of them only once).

Thin Air: I tend to save it for situations where I'm (close to) out of mana and need to do some emergency healing or raises.

Presence of Mind: Used for emergency healing or the occasional DPS burst. Often I just forget it exists because of the long cooldown.

Plenary Indulgence: This one seems to suffers from some design problems. It's supposed to be a followup to Medica (II) or Cure III, but those are powerful enough in themselves that Plenary is often not required. And the confessions usually run out before the next group-wide damage. I do use it occasionally, it's just that I rarely get a good chance to.

Incidentally, my rarest-used skill is probably Cure III. I've been trying to teach myself to use it in grouping situations, but Medica is more versatile thanks to the much bigger radius so I instinctively go for that.

[Limonia]

Most of the abilities you mention are powerful instant abilities with a long cooldown. My gut instinct is to save those for emergencies.

How would you save Asylum for an emergency though? It's a heal over time bubble without an instant heal. Or are people saving it for when they need slow AoE healing but are out of MP?
It's true that in dungeons it can have less uses when you have to move a lot. But for example in big pulls you can use it on the tank as another regen. Unfortunately, if you use it during dungeon bosses instead of Medica, ranged DPS often don't get inside. So I have to single-target heal them anyway.
I get that some WHMs like to save Benediction because it's a full heal. But I've actually seen more uses of Benediction than of Asylum.

Or I may not remember what the tankbuster for each boss is called since I haven't done too many Lv70 dungeons yet

That is understandable, I also don't remember every tankbuster in dungeons and so on. But if you're farming an extreme trial, doing it multiple times in a row, after a while you should know what the tankbuster is called. But even then they don't use it. This is what I'm talking about. Not dungeons where someone may be new, someone may be severely undergeared, you don't remember all mechanics and so on.

[MoroMurasaki]

Incidentally, my rarest-used skill is probably Cure III. I've been trying to teach myself to use it in grouping situations, but Medica is more versatile thanks to the much bigger radius so I instinctively go for that.

To be fair I don't know that the OP was necessarily referencing dungeons here but I do think that it's harder to keep your oGCDs on CD in a dungeon as opposed to a trial/raid. In dungeons there's a lot of down time running from pack to pack and you also don't have a cohealer that you're coordinating with.

The best advice I can offer us just to try to use things more. Using MP tools when youre low on MP is like putting a bandaid on a cut you made yourself - cut out the middle man, just use them whenever they're up and make sense.

For dungeoning on WHM I tend to Thin Air the first pull alongside PoM for Holy spam then rotate Thin Air and Lucid from there.

Overall the whole point is to stick as many abilities on CD as quickly as you can (while not wasting them) so that you get more uses out of them over the course of an encounter. Even something like Asylum when combined with a Regen on a tank can basically make him self-sufficent for quite a while during a boss fight, even better if you're popping DB as it comes up to give the HoTs time to tick up any missing HP. There you go, that could be a couple of Cure II GCDs that you can turn into Stone IVs now \o/

Cure III in casual content is often drastic overkill and I wouldn't worry about not using it much in dungeons specifically. I'd avoid Medica though - my rule of thumb is that it's a real last resort. If it isn't enough damage to justify a Medica II it can probably just wait for Assize to come off CD or get ticked up naturally. Or, again, there's always asylum.

As to the OP - yeah, it's sad when you see this. I still struggle to use Largesse more. I don't understand the concept of holding onto CDs without a specific mechanic in mind (like Bene for Holmgang/LD or something) but this is my personal struggle.

[Joe_Schmoe]

Why do so many healers not use specific abilities?

Can't speak for everyone, but probably the big one for me would be this perfect gem right here, which sums it up nicely. Anything longer than a one minute cooldown is pretty much this to me.

[tdb]

How would you save Asylum for an emergency though? It's a heal over time bubble without an instant heal. Or are people saving it for when they need slow AoE healing but are out of MP?
It's true that in dungeons it can have less uses when you have to move a lot. But for example in big pulls you can use it on the tank as another regen. Unfortunately, if you use it during dungeon bosses instead of Medica, ranged DPS often don't get inside. So I have to single-target heal them anyway.

I did say "most". Asylum is not very useful in emergencies because of the reasons you mentioned, and as such it went mostly unused for me until I learned to use it in Lv70 content. Note that I started playing around the time SB came out so I've never done Lv60 content when it was the current endgame.

I get that some WHMs like to save Benediction because it's a full heal. But I've actually seen more uses of Benediction than of Asylum.

Benediction is pretty much my last resort save button when someone takes a big hit, possibly there's another mechanic coming and all of my other instant heals are on cooldown.

The best advice I can offer us just to try to use things more. Using MP tools when youre low on MP is like putting a bandaid on a cut you made yourself - cut out the middle man, just use them whenever they're up and make sense.

That's more or less what I try to do with Lucid Dreaming and Assize. Sometimes I forget to watch my MP or CDs though. Having a BRD or MCH who uses refresh also makes me save my own restoration tools for later.

My brain handles Thin Air a bit differently because its benefit depends on what you do while the buff is active. In an attempt to optimize it I often end up not using it at all, which is certainly not optimal. Unlearning bad habits takes a lot of effort.

Cure III in casual content is often drastic overkill and I wouldn't worry about not using it much in dungeons specifically. I'd avoid Medica though - my rule of thumb is that it's a real last resort. If it isn't enough damage to justify a Medica II it can probably just wait for Assize to come off CD or get ticked up naturally. Or, again, there's always asylum.

I get skittish if the entire party has taken a significant amount of damage. If Medica II is about to end or already ended I use that; if not then Assize if it's available or will be in a couple of seconds; otherwise Medica. In many cases such damage occurs in situation where the party will be grouped up so Cure III would be a better choice, but I haven't quite finished wiring my brain to properly recognize those situations yet.

[HyoMinPark]

I get skittish if the entire party has taken a significant amount of damage. If Medica II is about to end or already ended I use that; if not then Assize if it's available or will be in a couple of seconds; otherwise Medica. In many cases such damage occurs in situation where the party will be grouped up so Cure III would be a better choice, but I haven't quite finished wiring my brain to properly recognize those situations yet.

A good rule of thumb to consider whenever you fret between “should I Medica/Medica II right now” and “should I wait for Assize to come up” is to consider the timeline of the fight. If, for example, Assize has 15 seconds left on its cooldown, and there are no instances where the party will have to spread or will take AOE damage that would otherwise be fatal within the next 15 seconds, then allowing them to sit at a level of HP that is not full is perfectly fine. Now, if Assize has 30 seconds left on its cooldown, and there is an incoming mechanic that needs people to be topped off, you should Medica (if the mechanic happens within the next 5~10 seconds and people need fast top offs) or Medica II (if there is enough time between your cast and when the damage comes out that the HoT tick will put everyone at a safe HP level to survive).

Same when you are judging when to use HoTs—if the regen ticks will tick everyone up to full and there is no incoming mechanic within the next 30 seconds, then you can allow them to tick without any extra top off.

Damage in this game is incredibly scripted, so once you do content enough times, you start to learn where there are lulls and when you need to get your party up to full HP (or close to full HP) to prepare for the next wave of incoming damage. You also get used to seeing just how much initial heals hit for (Medica, Medica II’s initial heal, Cure III) and how much your HoTs tick for every 3 seconds to determine which course of action you take when deciding your healing (HoTs? A GCD heal? Assize? Asylum? Etc.).

[Belgianbeer]

Can't speak for everyone, but probably the big one for me would be this perfect gem right here, which sums it up nicely. Anything longer than a one minute cooldown is pretty much this to me.

Indeed, anything above iron swords might get your units killed in hard or extreme mode. So better put your soft gloves on and relax