New to healing in FFXIV, looking for WHM help

[Sida]

Welcome to healing ^-^

One thing I'd like to say first is that healers first responsibility is to stay alive. It's only their second responsibility to keep the tank alive. These can be swapped on consideration on some special cases especially with co healer.

As for advice, a lot has been covered. I restate what many have said, know the fights. The 24 man thing you mention, especially if you have co-healer who can be depended on, don't be ashamed to pay extra care for learning the mechanics on first few runs. Dead healer helps no one, so don't pause to heal if you need to run. WHM has long cast times (for non instant, obviously) so learn to precast. When you get a hand of your cast time, you can make a heal land less than a second after a big hit lands. This is good in case there's something following soon.

Also something I think is not said yet, experiment with your UI. A healer has their eyes on party cage a lot of the time, while they also need to see what's happening around their feet. Try moving the party cage a bit closer from the far edge of the screen. It will feel weird at first but if it works for you it'll help a ton. I have mine about 1/4 from the left. And 1/3 From the top. Same for my enemy agro list. Not only to see how my agro is, but as it now has the enemy cast bars, its good to have nearby instead of the far edge.

[Deado]

Hello,
i am new in FF14 at all and got WHM, but have question, why need do DMG as healer? for that is dps no? thank you.

[Kurando]

Hello,
i am new in FF14 at all and got WHM, but have question, why need do DMG as healer? for that is dps no? thank you.

Usually because there is nothing else to do when healing isn't needed. If you have time to throw Aero/Stone or any other DPS action when no one needs healing, it can help a lot to make the duty go a little quicker. No one will force you to DPS as a healer if you are not comfortable, but it is always appreciated by the rest of the party and you'll find eventually you will just do it because you may get bored doing nothing else. Try DPSing a little between heals

[Elleia]

Hello,
i am new in FF14 at all and got WHM, but have question, why need do DMG as healer? for that is dps no? thank you.

You don’t have to, but it’s generally encouraged by the community. Unlike other MMOs, damage in FFXIV is really scripted and predictable, and there is a lot of downtime where there is no or very little damage going out. During this downtime, it is beneficial for healers to throw out some DPS instead of doing nothing.

Healers in this game also do a pretty substantial amount of damage, and played optimally, a healer can output 1/3 to 1/2 the damage a dedicated DPS can. This isn’t a huge deal in most content, where healer DPS really just speeds up a run, but in endgame savage and ultimate content it can be the difference between beating the enrage timer or failing.

[Deado]

Usually because there is nothing else to do when healing isn't needed. If you have time to throw Aero/Stone or any other DPS action when no one needs healing, it can help a lot to make the duty go a little quicker. No one will force you to DPS as a healer if you are not comfortable, but it is always appreciated by the rest of the party and you'll find eventually you will just do it because you may get bored doing nothing else. Try DPSing a little between heals

Ok, i will try, but i have a bit problem with MP at lv 51, and switching target on gamepad is a bit uncomfortable. thank you

[Elleia]

Ok, i will try, but i have a bit problem with MP at lv 51

That’s okay - you will get more MP management tools as you level. For now, mke sure to use the role skill lucid dreaming pretty much on cooldown. At level 56 you’ll get Assize, which does damage to enemies in an aoe as well as healing party members, but it also gives you a percentage of your MP back. Later on at level 62, you’ll get Thin Air, which allows you to cast without using MP for 12 seconds.

[Sida]

Hello,
i am new in FF14 at all and got WHM, but have question, why need do DMG as healer? for that is dps no? thank you.

The performance of the party is the sum of the performance of the people. And in this game healers pack a considerable punch comparing to some other games so they actually do increase to the damage of party when they have time to damage. If healer would find themselves standing around doing nothing (And casting heals where majority of the healing is overheal counts as nothing) they are not doing something when they could. Would you like summoner stand around doing nothing when dots are placed and call it done? I myself consider damaging as healer "pre-emptive healing". The sooner things are dead, the better health the party will be in.

[Gavanri]

I DPS at trash mobs (Holy) whenever I see that the tank can deal with it. You can also do Holy - Cure (II) - Holy - ... since Holy needs no focus target (cursor stays on tank). Never had any complaints (yet). Also at bosses I´m comfortable with. If you are insecure about mechanics, better don´t.

The performance of the party is the sum of the performance of the people.

See this as a general rule not only for DPSing - even if your party keeps wiping at a boss chance is that you were only partly at fault.

Every role should know to dodge stuff with mediocre to high damage, do mechanics in longer drawn battles to avoid damage (i.e. Aurum Vale fruits).

A single healer only has so much MP, cast speed and focus - so if someone tells you "why didn´t you heal me in time" don´t take it to heart - they are partly responsible too for either not dodging 70% of the stuff or having very weak gear for that dungeon.

[Insomniaq]

Hello again all, I felt that it was time to post an update on how I'm doing, as well as ask for some more advice geared towards more current content. With somewhere around 6 weeks of healing in FFXIV and a total of 9 weeks playing the game in general, I am still loving the game and I'm sure it is one that I will finally stick to playing. I feel I have become a decent healer, and hope to continue getting better. The advice given to me in this thread, as well as by reading other posts has been a great help. So to all the healers out there who have been happy to help here on the forums, THANK YOU!

That being said, I am currently in the process of getting ilvl 390 gear and upgrading it to 400. This has led me to having to run Rabanastre, Ridorana and ofc, Monastery... This is where my story gets a little grim sadly, as I have a habit of always doing my first run of any instance without watching a guide. This is so that I can experience it the way everyone does when the content is new and people are trying to figure out what to do, also, because I do not like having my hand held through things as I feel that making mistakes is the best way to learn. This mentality has led me to some rather unfortunate experiences in the above mentioned raids sadly, and a few others. That being said, I will still always do a first run without any ideas of what I'm getting into.

Rabanastre: My first time was a bit disastrous, but did not discourage me from keeping on trying. I failed at almost every mechanic and ended up dying far too much. This ofc put strain on my co-healer but we did not end up wiping at any point, and got through it without too many hiccups. Big up to that SCH (can't remember name), for being able to carry on despite me not being of too much help. Now, after about 10 runs, I am a lil more confident in it and will only make a few slip-ups, sometimes silly errors from being too invested in watching HP gagues or from the dreaded DPS tunnel vision. So this is not my problem (at least I like to think) Only thing i still fail everytime is the "pointy hand" (??? idk what to call this mechanic) that makes my toon run wherever its pointing. In time, I hope to overcome this!
Ridorana Lighthouse: My first run went surprisingly well, failed at Mr. Math with his lazer beams, tidal wave killed me a few times on first boss and few other things went wrong along the way (can't remember it all atm) but all-in-all, not a bad run. Done it 4 times now and getting better!
Orbonne Monastery: Seeing as the novel I have written for this post exceeds the 3000 character limit, I will have to post the story in a following post. Please see below.

[Insomniaq]

This is a continuation of the previous post http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post4895279

Orbonne Monastery Continued:Sigh... where to begin here. This was an utter disaster! I spent at least half the raid hugging the floor. Ofc, this caused our alliance to really pull the other 2 down and there were many wipes. Even with the knowledge that it was my first time there, I had people yelling at me, telling me I was useless, belittling me and much worse. All this, compounded with my inability to stay alive, made me unable to think clearly and therefore make even more mistakes. However, I am no quitter and stayed to at least clear the raid and get the fudge out of there (pride definitely not intact) knowing at least I had tried. Of course, after having all that thrown at me, I have been avoiding Monastery at all costs. Everytime someone invited me I refused to go even after watching guides many times. Had friends and fellow FC members trying to boost my confidence, telling me I am not a bad healer, yet still, I refused. 3 weeks without another attempt, and I finally did it again yesterday. With the memory of my 1st run flashing before my eyes, I did not perform to my full potential. None the less, I was not a liability in the raid, failed only a few mechanics and did a decent job keeping out alliance up (as well as helping other alliances who's healers were downed a few times) Still, with the experience of my first run still haunting me, I dread doing the raid again. I am hoping that this will get better with time, and i can move beyond my nightmare.

To anyone that has been unfortunate enough to have been with me in any of these, or other occasions, I do apologize. I will not give up on healing though, and I will somehow overcome my fear or Monastery. 3rd run incoming sometime after the reset tomorrow.

With all this in mind, I could really use some advice for the 3 raids. What are things i need to look out for as a healer, rather than in general, and are there certain mechanics i should be more aware of? Any help and advice would really go a long way to getting my confidence up and improving my ability to not only keep the alliance alive, but actually make a significant contribution to progressing the whole raid.

TL;DR: I am terrified of running Monastery still, that first run has left me with a bit of a phobia. Despite all that, I am trying to get over this!

Thank you again to all my fellow healers for helping me, as well as a big thank you to all the people who, despite my stubbornness about running Monastery again, kept on trying to help. Once again, any help or advice will not fall on deaf ears.

Happy healing!