What's with Medica 2

[Liam_Harper]

It's a crutch. Their idea is that keeping a HoT on the entire party will handle all the healing for them. Then they don't need to target people or react to damage, they just spam this every 15 sec and hope for the best. WhM is typically seen as the "easy" healer and attracts players with a lazy mindset even more. They love this carry ability.

Sadly, it often "works" too. A healbot WhM playing their class entirely wrong, overhealing like crazy, doing barely any damage and missing half their oGcd toolkit can get parties through most content from 1-80. In their eyes they're doing fine. A lot of people will even comm them because they see so much HoT and associate that with good healing. I even see healbot WhM's in Savage with 10+ clears. The game is reinforcing that bad playstyle constantly.

[Kurando]

Think it depends on the situation, it's common to see newer players using Medica II when it's not necessary, and some even using Cure III thinking it's more effective that Cure II. Though these kinds of habits really should stop by time the player has spent X amount of time in the game and figured out what is most effective. Saying this, I've had a few players in lvl 80 duties precast regen so there is always someone somewhere that makes you question the DF.

[AnotherPerson]

I had to tell that to a WHM who was co-healing with me to give them advice about how Medica II works because they were emptying out their MP way faster than they should. Some people think Medica II is just stronger because it's the second healing version like Cure II vs Cure but in reality it's the HoT that makes Medica II preferrable over Medica and they don't realize HoT from Medica II doesn't stack with itself.

The only times I would use AoE regen in addition to regen is when I have to play with undergeared tank in a dungeon run and their armor is really poor. HoT works as a subtle HP barrier assuming they don't get deleted. It allows the healer time to do other things or hardcast a heal if the tank should have died in 1.5 seconds rather than 2 seconds. These are really huge edge cases that really work around ARR lv 40 to lv 49 dungeons. Beyond ARR content, healers get access to oGCD healing so it's not so much of a concern.

However, GCD healing is always available, so when people panic, they usually end up defaulting to this.

[BlueMageQuina]

I see more and more of this in ShB than ever before, especially since SE reworked tanking so that tank stance is generally all the aggro any tank needs. WHMs throw Medica II pre pull whether you’re in a dungeon or a trial, in casual or in savage, and now ASTs in Diurnal Stance have slowly started to follow suit.

As a WHM main, this irks me to no end. This is one of my two great pet peeves in a cohealer: prepull healing / needless overhealing. If the battle hasn’t even begun, why are you casting Medica II or Aspected Helios? It almost always falls off before the first raidwide anyway, so please explain yourself. Do you really miss Protect that much? (I do too, sad face.)

The MP issues the overuse of Medica II generates is what is most worrisome to me. I understand that the healing ticks are comforting to inexperienced or undergeared healers, or in new content, but this runs quickly into having very little resources when you need them. This is related to my second pet peeve: healers who don’t cast Raise. Sometimes they prefer to DPS instead, some wait for Swiftcast because the party will just all perish violently if they so much as thought about hard casting, some are just plain inattentive—then there are those healers, the ones we’re talking about, who are out of MP because they’ve casted 17 Medica IIs / Aspected Helios in the first seven minutes of the alliance raid.

This is unnecessary and it’s problematic for me, your cohealer. And in four man content, this is why you’ve taken aggro and died before the tank realized that entering the duty has turned his tank stance off.

[Hikari_Kishimoto]

They probably do not have enough information about their skills.
Ofc Medica 2 is not the most helpful spell in any kind of situation.
They also might just be panicking when the tank drops at 5% health and press what comes to mind first.

[Gemina]

It's an outdated skill at 80. Arguably outdated at 70. WHM simply has better and more efficient means to restore MP both with the GCD as well as their MP. It still remains a very useful skill when synced to lower content, and if this is where you were seeing this WHM cast it, then I don't really see a problem with it.

Even if they are still using it at 80... Meh. Seriously. Such a silly thing to gripe about unless they're deliberately spamming it like a troll.

[Sebazy]

It's a comfort blanket mechanic, much like teddy bear braking going into a corner on a motorbike.

[Noryll]

Personally with my experience playing WHM in any non-savage/non-extreme content, I use Medica 2 a lot.

Mainly because what would I rather do? Use only regen and then basically have to do Dia > Glare > Glare > Cure > Glare > Glare > Cure, etc.
Or would I rather just do Medica 2 > Regen > Dia > Glare > Glare > Glare > Glare > Glare > Glare, etc.

More often than not, keeping both regen's up covers the damage tanks take in most content to where I can focus on pumping out as many Glare's as I can instead of worrying about targeting back and Curing. At least from personal experience that's how it's worked out and been for me.

My opener even in current content (which isn't perfected cause I don't do Savage) is pretty much: Medica 2 to put it on the tank (and possibly cover the first roomwide if it's early) > Regen > Assize > Dia > PoM > Glare spam for the entirety of PoM or until extra healing is needed like in certain alliance raid bosses with slow starts (like Engels in Copied Factory).

So no, Medica 2 is not always just a bad WHM's crutch, I use it cause it covers that tiny bit extra that Regen doesn't cover so I can focus on pumping damage at the same time, rather than having to occasionally Cure because Regen isn't enough at times. I do see other WHM's just use it at unnecessarily and then don't even do damage, but there is reasons to use it for more than just the obvious.

[Saefinn]

I agree in that I think people use it as a crutch. I don't think a lot of people think about overheal or optimising their heal kit, but perhaps think a constant up time is a good thing because it means if damage is taken then they will get topped off by it.

Safety netting your heals is useful if you're not confident in dealing with unexpected damage or are learning.

Scholars do it with Galvanise and this is the closest WHM has that's not on a cooldown.

It is all in the game of playing it safe, even if might not be necessary.

But I am surprised that it is all, but you might be being hyperbolic?

[Ekimmak]

Alright, consider me the terrible White Mage, as very recently, it's what I was doing.

Here's the story: I haven't really levelled White Mage that much. But my mother plays the game, and she's really not good with trials or raids. So, when the main scenario demands trials, I do them for her. Now, the healer I know better is Scholar, but I'm familiar enough with White Mage.
So, the recently released trial needed to be done. And I really am not familiar with the level 80 WHM toolkit.

The other healer is a white mage. So there's no sort of shields from all the raidwide damage. Medica 2 is my go-to mass heal here, because I know there will be mechanics requiring intensive healing over a short period of time, while mechanics I need to dodge are happening. I can't really stop and stand still, and people are constantly dying, so Swiftcast isn't available for any sort of bursty healing.

I use Medica 2 in advance, so that it has a few ticks of healing keeping everyone from dying to Pyretic while I'm busy backing off out of telegraphs. If I'm not supposed to use that, then what do I use instead? I'm not being sarcastic, genuinely, how should I be mass healing when there's massive damage going out in rapid succession?