WHM questions when to use Holy, Aero, Cure I etc.

[kartana]

I think I'll switch from AST to WHM. I have all three healers at 70+ and did play WHM here and there during SB but still have a few questions to improve my play.

1. Is there a number of enemies where Stone/Glare still makes more sense than Holy, or do you use it always if there is more than one?
2. Since Aero III is gone now, do you Aero II/Dia every single target or is there a number of enemies where you switch to Holy spam right away?
3. How often do you use Cure I? Does is have a place outside of "I am almost out of mana and this is the only way to heal now" (in other words when something went terribly wrong)?
4. Plenary Indulgence is basically for when I need all the AoE healing I can get?

Thank you.

[Gemina]

1. Rule of thumb is 3+ mobs for Holy, but use your best judgment. As an example Ala Mhigo has the two big iron giants before you face Zenos, and they hit like trucks, and also cleave. Hitting them with a couple Holys slows them down a bit.

2. The more HP a mob has, the more it makes sense to toss a DoT on them. This is why Aero 3 being pruned really isn't that big of a deal. It actually made more sense to use on bosses that are single target than packs of trash, because trash melts too fast to take advantage of Aero 3s duration. You were better off using those GCDs on more Holy. It just makes more sense from a simplicity perspective to consolidate that damage into Dia. With this in mind, also use it to determine whether or not to spend GCDs casting Dia on trash mobs. There really isn't much point if they can't survive the duration. However, since those spells are instant, you can often use that initial damage they cause to finish off the last sliver of health of a mob.

3. Spells like Cure 1, Physick, and Benefict used to function around being MP efficient. The idea is not to have to resort to them when you're running out of mana, but to use them strategically to prevent running out of mana in the first place. The reduced cast time and lower MP cost promotes the use of these spells, which SE clearly wants us to do.

4. In short yes. It's basic purpose is to boost your next AoE heal. In progession content, you will find few situations where Plenary is actually needed to get through the encounter. For content outside of savage I would look at PI as a means to facilitate your role.

[Yuyuka3]

1. Holy is only worth it on less than 3 mobs if you need the stun. However, since in dungeons having less than 3 mobs usually means the pack is almost finished, and stun immune, I tend to switch to Glare when that happens. Often they are so low that Dia would be wasted, too. If you are soloing and got two mobs, I would Dia them both, then switch to glare unless you really need the stun.

2. Depends on how many mobs there are. See above.

3. Practically never. It might be MP efficient as said above, but with how good our MP economy is right now, I just don't need Cure I at all. I can count the number of times I was close to running OoM on one hand, and in each instance something went horribly wrong beforehand.

4. Yes. I rarely need it right now, though, but in theory, if you use everything you got (Assylum + Temperance + Plenary) your AoE healing is off the charts in comparison. Also, Assylum buffs your co-healer AND works with abilities, too, so it's extremely powerful.

[IttyBitty]

This is why Aero 3 being pruned really isn't that big of a deal. It actually made more sense to use on bosses that are single target than packs of trash, because trash melts too fast to take advantage of Aero 3s duration. You were better off using those GCDs on more Holy.

This is absolutely flat out wrong. Aero 3 beat Holy after 4 ticks (~12s, ie 50+(40x4)= 210 potency per enemy v Holy's 200 [not even taking diminishing returns into account for this comparison]). In pulls of 3 enemies, it beat Stone 4 after 1 tick (~3s, [50x3]+[40x3] = 270 vs Stone IV's 250 in Stormblood) and 2 enemies in 2 ticks (~6s, [50x2]+[40x2x2] = 260). Only the trashiest of trash (usually adds in story mode trials) died anywhere near that quickly.

Even if stuff died before Aero 3 completed its full duration (little generally did), so long as it lasted at least that long? It was better. Anything beyond that was free damage.

[Dynia]

Barrier on tank > swiftcast > thin air > holy > regen and asylium on tank also your ogc heal if need > all mobs stuned > pressence of mind > spam holy like 3 times > watch your tank hp its still full ? keep spaming holy need heal ? heal ...then keep spaming holy

with lucid, thin air and pressence of mind you can cast holy like 30 times in row and keep mana for healing


and ... don't forget Assize ^^

[Gemina]

This is absolutely flat out wrong. Aero 3 beat Holy after 4 ticks (~12s, ie 50+(40x4)= 210 potency per enemy v Holy's 200 [not even taking diminishing returns into account for this comparison]). In pulls of 3 enemies, it beat Stone 4 after 1 tick (~3s, [50x3]+[40x3] = 270 vs Stone IV's 250 in Stormblood) and 2 enemies in 2 ticks (~6s, [50x2]+[40x2x2] = 260). Only the trashiest of trash (usually adds in story mode trials) died anywhere near that quickly.

Even if stuff died before Aero 3 completed its full duration (little generally did), so long as it lasted at least that long? It was better. Anything beyond that was free damage.

That is all well and good, but I was never comparing the two spells in terms of power. I never said Holy was more potent, I said it was the better GCD to use; stunning and damage mitigation also factor into the usefulness of this spell in comparison to Aero 3. Sure you can weave an Aero 3 between stun resistances, but after a tank pulls 3-4 packs of mobs which spell are you going to Swiftcast: Aero 3, or Holy?

I also said that trash packs die too quickly to take advantage of Aero 3's FULL duration. This doesn't have anything to do with Holy Vs Aero 3 potency; it's simply a factual statement. Perhaps your experiences differ from my own, but trash NEVER survived the full duration except in maybe progression scenarios where ilevels of players were all over the place.

Anywho, it's neither here or there anymore. Aero 3 is gone and is not part of the OPs inquisition.

[Sebazy]

I think I'll switch from AST to WHM. I have all three healers at 70+ and did play WHM here and there during SB but still have a few questions to improve my play.

1. Is there a number of enemies where Stone/Glare still makes more sense than Holy, or do you use it always if there is more than one?
2. Since Aero III is gone now, do you Aero II/Dia every single target or is there a number of enemies where you switch to Holy spam right away?
3. How often do you use Cure I? Does is have a place outside of "I am almost out of mana and this is the only way to heal now" (in other words when something went terribly wrong)?
4. Plenary Indulgence is basically for when I need all the AoE healing I can get?

Thank you.

1. - With Stone IV and Glare, Holy wins with 3 or more mobs. Glare wins with 2 mobs whilst Stone IV and Holy are tied at this point. My rule of thumb is that if 2 or 3 mobs are left and one particular mob stands out as having noticeably more HP, I'll switch to single target on that one sooner. Otherwise I'll usually keep Holying as long as MP isn't an issue. The beauty of Holy is it's not targeted, there's no risk of you losing a GCD to a mob dieing just before your cast completes.

2. - As things currently stand, yes. I'll try my utmost to get a Dia on every mob as the tank is pulling. If everything is dotted and the pull is still in process I'll either start burning Lillies to get a head start on Misery or reapply dots to whatever I think has the most HP (EG the Whales in Akadema). On a particularly massive pull aka the first pull in akadema, I'll start Holying before everything is Dia'd mostly just to get the pull under control before the tank gets flattened.

3. - About the only time I use it is if I want to top the tank up a little just before they start moving to the next pull (and don't want to burn Lilies), the quicker cast means that the tank gets less of a head start on me.

4. - I can't think of a single trash pull I use PI on. It's really neat for dungeon bosses that can do repeated AoEs though. It turns Rapture into 500 potency AoE and pumps Medica II up to 400 up front potency. Very handy on the likes of the first Twinning boss.

One bonus tip if you really want to maximise your dungeon play. Focus more on your positioning than your outright DPS at first. Keeping yourself glued to the tanks hip at the start of things can make things so much safer on particularly sketchy pulls. Making sure the Tank doesn't catch you napping when they sprint off for the next pack will avoid some really embarrassing wipes.

Here is a recording of one of my first few Twinnings clears to get a rough idea of how I go at things. It's not the greatest run by far but it'll do till I upload something better once I finish my healer gear.

For reference, that run was in just under iLvl 430 gear and came in at about 7.5k. My current PBs are around 9.1-9.3k in the two expert dungeons with 10k being an attainable target IMHO.