Returning White Mage - Healing Advice

[JinnRemona]

So I need some help with playing my White Mage. I'm returning to the role after having levelled it to 60 in Heavensward. I've been levelling the class up and I'm level 68 now, but I feel like I'm not healing properly, or using my skills properly enough to heal as best I can.

My current way of healing, which naturally feels wrong, is to use Regen and Aero 2 at the start of a fight, and keep their health around half to 2/3 using Cure 1 and any Afflatus Solace I get as the fight goes on. When I find I have time, I also find time to attack with Stone 4 as well.

I only really use my other skills like Thin Air, Assize or Asylum unless the group is in trouble or I know I'm going to need a lot of group healing.

Does anyone have any advice on how to improve my current Healing skillset, such on when or how to use certain skills properly, or what my main healing rotation should be during a fight?

[Gemina]

I can only give you general healing advice with what I have to go with from your post. If you have specific questions you can relay those in this thread as well.

Healing in dungeons is going to differ than healing in 8-man or 24-man, but the objective remains the same. Keep players up as best you can, and try not to over heal as best you can. Avoiding overhealing entirely really isn't possible, nor is it the demon everyone makes it out to be. Just try not to do it, and you should be fine.

Regen is for sustained healing when the threat level is low to moderate. Use the level of threat to determine whether or not you slap a player with a regen to recover lost HP, or bomb them with a healing ability. Apply the same concept to Medica II when wanting to utilize an AoE regen. A lot of healers make the mistake of thinking regen needs to be up 100% of the time. It doesn't. Much like just about every other healer skill, regen is situational.

Abuse Divine Benison. It's free mitigation and one of those abilities that you should be using every time it is up. Protect the tank, yourself, someone marked. Just use it!

Abuse Assize: Do not wait for needed healing to use Assize. There are very few situations where you want to hold onto it, and those situations require that you know the fight you're in.

Asylum: See advice about regen. However, don't be afraid to use it just for the tank during large pulls in dungeons, where most will need all the help they can get. Placement is also important in 8-man. You want to net as many players as you can it without forcing them to sacrifice their position to get in there. However, there will be times where you can't be bothered and you simply say, "You want heals? Stand in this!" Totes kidding.... maybe ;p

Now you're order of healing should be ogcd>>>afflatus>>>gcd. However, if you find yourself in situations where very little healing is needed, I may use Afflatus prior to ogcd to charge up Misery. You don't have to worry about this until post 70 though, but it is something to consider once you get there.

Do your best to keep your DoT up, and stone the crap out of your enemies when there is nothing else for you to be doing.

Last bit of advice is I hope you are also abusing Holy in multiple target scenarios. Don't be afraid to get dizzy out there, which will open up your window to use Thin Air quite a bit.

[Urthdigger]

Gemina largely hit the nail on the head here. The biggest problem I see newbie healers make is thinking their abilities are "in case of emergency." They really aren't. The truth is, you want to use them early to PREVENT emergencies. By using oGCDs as your primary heal, then GCD heals if you need it, you save on MP in the long run and save GCDs for dealing damage, which can push phases and end fights earlier, reducing overall damage.

[Lodi]

One thing I'm surprised to not see mentioned here is Holy's stun.
Holy your way through everything, use it at least thrice on every pack. Spamming Holy will stunlock mobs for ~7s in total, and cancelling all damage is the best form of healing.

Holy every single non-boss you see.

And if you feel like the tank pulled too much and will die before you can attack, Swiftcast Holy then heal the tank while everyone is stunned, then Holy some more.

And as the other said, your CDs and lilies should be your standard tools, not emergency tools. Solace+Tetra, for example, are 1400 potency in 3 seconds, enough to get anyone back on their feet.
Benediction is a massive heal, it can buy you some precious time too.
Use Asylum as soon as the tank stops pulling. It won't save you in an emergency situation, but it will help avoiding said emergency.
Assize is a fantastic ability, use it whenever. It's free heals, massive damage and makes MP management easier.
Divine Benison is basically painkillers, your tank will feel nothing for a few seconds. Again, use it very often as it'll make your life easier.
Thin Air should be kept for MP intensive moments though, like Holy or Cure II spam.
And make sure to use Lucid whenever possible. Being out of MP is the worst thing that can happen.

As for Regen, keep in mind it is your most MP efficient spell, granting a total of 1200 potency over 18s. So casting it before the pull isn't a bad idea, it'll make healing considerably easier. Casting it during a fight also opens a weaving window, in which you can use CDs if you need more instant healing.

[Enkidoh]

As for Regen, keep in mind it is your most MP efficient spell, granting a total of 1200 potency over 18s. So casting it before the pull isn't a bad idea, it'll make healing considerably easier. Casting it during a fight also opens a weaving window, in which you can use CDs if you need more instant healing.

I just want to point out this can actually be a very bad thing, because of how Regen generates hate - not only does it generate a surprisingly large amount of it, every tick of HP it restores on the target it actually is sending the hate created back onto you the healer, so if you cast it before the tank pulls it can actually backfire in causing the enemy to ignore the tank completely and start munching on you instead, which can be compounded even more with normal healing and DPSing.

So it usually pays to hold off casting it on the tank until after they've pulled and built up initial hate first to stop getting too much hate on you right off the bat. I found this out the hard way numerous times levelling WHM and finding Regen was doing more harm than good when cast prior to pulling (which in FFXI was a perfectly valid strategy). A lot of WHMs are not aware of this though so please don't feel bad about it!

[Lodi]

I just want to point out this can actually be a very bad thing, because of how Regen generates hate - not only does it generate a surprisingly large amount of it, every tick of HP it restores on the target it actually is sending back to you the healer, so if you cast it before the tank pulls it can actually backfire in causing the enemy to ignore the tank and start munching on you instead, which can be compounded even more with normal healing and DPSing.

So it usually pays to hold off casting it on the tank until after they've pulled and built up initial hate first to stop getting too much hate on you right off the bat. I found this out the hard way numerous times levelling WHM and finding Regen was doing more harm than good when cast prior to pulling (which in FFXI was a perfectly valid strategy).

I've been on both ends of this, and it's honestly easy to manage. The tank just needs to run ahead of the group and aoe every enemy before they rush the healer, and that's it. A single aoe skill will generate more aggro than a regen tick, so if you're careful and don't let mobs slip past you then the healer is safe.

[RopeDrink]

An ability is doing you no favours if it's sitting unused on your bar. I understand the desire to hold 'emergency buttons' for legitimate emergencies, but holding them forever is healing nothing.

As an aggressive WHM main, a typical dungeon goes as follows:
Party spawns, Tank is gunning for a mega-pull -- plop Benison on them before they touch anything and stick with them like glue until they position where they want. QC-Holy the entire pack and then setup any safety-nets I feel is appropriate during the stun (beit Asylum, Temperance, Regen, or just more Holy). If it's a particularly nasty pull, like triple-pack at the start of Akademia, I often weave in a MedII as an additional safety net, but not repeatedly - healing needs go down as packs shrink after all. From there, rotate between your wealth of tools to ensure Tank remains at 50% or higher, unless most enemies are dead and/or are incapable of burst, in which case you can just DPS them and let OOCombat heal them up on the way to the next pull. Rinse-Repeat.

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Regen is Regen. Save it for when things are positioned and the consistent damage begins. Don't do it before or during pulls because there is nothing gained - the tank won't take enough damage to justify it if they're sprinting for a big pull (most enemies can't even keep up, and if they're good they'll even pop Arms Length), thus you risk just peeling enemies with aggro and getting yourself in trouble. Above post is irrelevant to me because plopping a regen before or at the start of a pull is healing barely anything and will drop off mid-way through, forcing another cast if things are slow enough. Using regen when they're actually positioned means it'll heal relevant damage more consistently and, in most cases, needs no reapplication. There's no point using it early if they're any good, and whether it attracts aggro can be tank-dependant. Just let them set themselves up, Holy everything and then apply your safety buttons. Infinitely easier.

Asylum is essentially a +Healing dome masquerading as a light regen. If you anticipate big damage and need +healing pep, or you want to cover a group and prepare to heal big incoming raid/AoE damage, Asylum should be plopped when you get the chance. I don't hold back on it because see below...

"Wings". Whenever I'm not healing, I see a lot of WHM's who rarely (if ever) use Temperance, which is irksome as it is essentially mitigation for the party along with healing potency. Even in dungeons, popping wings will ensure less damage taken, thus making things easier to heal, so don't be stingy. Raid-wise, you'd pop them in a more reactive manner, but for generic dungeons I'd rotate between Asylum and Temperance during massive pulls to ensure any healing needed is bursty and giving me more freedom to Holy. Just don't overlap them unless absolutely necessary, which it should never be.

It's good practice to utilize your oGCD's early and allow yourself to build up some Lillies. These then become more of an emergency resource than the oGCD's are and thus you can rotate between them. For added pep, you can use Plenary to make your next ST or AoE Lilly more potent. Plen-Solace is a nice bursty ST heal, much like Plen-Rapture is a nice juicy AoE heal which you can utilize with Assize for massive party healing on demand. It also peps up things like MedII, but in most cases that is overkill outside of specific mechanics. If you know someone's going to need a big phat heal, you have oGCD's, lillies and Plen in your pocket when needed, enough to rotate between them as necessary and without 'waiting for a rainy day'.

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Honestly, there's no catch-all answer because MMORPG's will always be variable dependant on gear, playstyle, and to some extent, overall skill. Low DPS, or a squishy tank, or poor reaction times (from you or your group), or even your own gear will make X dungeon or raid feel much different than the same one with different variables, so the best advice is to sit down, mouseover and read all those skills you have, and learn the content with repeat-play. Reactions become less prevalent when you know all the telegraphs (but they still help of course). Eventually, you will get to a point where you know 'what to expect' and your own limits - and knowing is 90% of the battle.

I can enter any dungeon and know exactly when I'll need to heal, when no healing is require at all, when X or Y mechanic happens, and know my own limits very well. You'll get there too with practice, so just start by understanding what your buttons actually do (and not being stingy with them). Oh, and DON'T PANIC. That helps nobody.

[Averax]

Holy's stun is great mitigation for the tank. When diminishing returns makes holy stop stunning every few seconds, maybe focus more on healing the tank. Them adds can't do damage if they're stunlocked. It's way easier to cast holy in this expansion because they reduced the MP cost and cast speed.

Use regen to babysit the tank once they're done pulling

Use asylum to babysit the tank when regen isn't quite doing it enough

Use benison on cooldown, it's free. Pair it after an instant GCD ability, like afflatus solace, for minimum downtime after using said instant gcd ability.

Use tetra as needed, don't hold it. Cooldown's short.

Use benediction when you feel you're starting to lose control on the situation and the tank is getting dangerously low.

Avoid using solace when the pressure is on if you're trying to spam heals UNLESS you have an OGCD ability to use during the GCD, because the wait for the GCD and then the cast time of your next ability could kill your tank. Because that's like waiting 5 seconds between heals (particularly if you're doing solace into a cure 2).

Use assize whenever, absolutely no reason to hold onto it. Even later on.

[Hysterior]

oGCD healing > GCD healing
Always be casting (if you are not healing, you are pewpewing)

[Rasikko]

I just want to point out this can actually be a very bad thing, because of how Regen generates hate - not only does it generate a surprisingly large amount of it, every tick of HP it restores on the target it actually is sending the hate created back onto you the healer, so if you cast it before the tank pulls it can actually backfire in causing the enemy to ignore the tank completely and start munching on you instead, which can be compounded even more with normal healing and DPSing.

So it usually pays to hold off casting it on the tank until after they've pulled and built up initial hate first to stop getting too much hate on you right off the bat. I found this out the hard way numerous times levelling WHM and finding Regen was doing more harm than good when cast prior to pulling (which in FFXI was a perfectly valid strategy). A lot of WHMs are not aware of this though so please don't feel bad about it!

It's perfectly fine to do this 70+, because if you don't, the tank is going to be most likely near death by they time stop, unless you swiftcast + tier 2/1. If there has ever been the question of whether Regens are useful or not, it's during the pull where they really shine. I've had mobs beat on me, but even the worst tanks have gotten aggro back right away.

To be fair there are ways to get around this, though of course, WHM gets it the earliest.. Divine Bension. AST gets Celestial Intersection - I immediately slap that on the tanks pre pull now.