New respect for healers!

[ckq53]

In an earlier post I descibed getting over my severe Tankxiety by repeating something Work to Game said in a video, "Stop being a P***Y"! I rolled a Paladin and had a blast leveling it up and got a ton of comms for my performance in duties. Also my Tankxiety is well diminished but still present. So I must have been doing something right... Right?

If there was one thing that made my anxiety go straight through the roof it would be playing a healer. So what did I do? I got bored over the weekend and rolled a WHM! I leveled it to 15, did the Novice Training for the gear and it took two days to cue up for Sastasha. Terrified was an understatement. But those words rang in my head over and over and I queued up. Insta-Queue.... Stomach dropped and mouth got dry. Got in said my hellos and finished the duty. Did it a couple of times to level to the next dungeon. Queued and finished. No deaths, no wipes, and on more that one occasion I got all the comms.

Granted Im only level 35 and I know the worst is yet to come as far as difficulty (and I can't wait for that! LOL!) I read a few times that Brayflox was an early healer check and you had to be on the ball for that one. Healed it 5 times like a champ. (I wanted the chest piece cause it looks bad ass) Even had a tank stop half way through and type: BTW..." (I was waiting for some kind of scolding or better yet a tip or two) but he finished with: "Nice freaking heals!" Not gonna lie this 43 year old black heart got a little warm and fuzzy. LOL!

So on to the title of my post. I have found a new appreciation for healers when I play other classes now especially tanking cause in the short time I've been leveling/dungeon grinding WHM I have seen some doozies! (Please don't think I'm bashing people cause I'm not some sprouts will be sprouts. Now I just see what everyone is talking about) Tanks using no CDs through the entire dungeon causing me to rapid fire cures the entire time just to keep them on their feet. Tanks running mobs around in circles causing me to spam Cures and Medicas till I was damn near OOM. But we made it. We never wiped and no one ever died. The best were the ones where I could cast one or two cures the entire pull and proceed to Stone everything to death!

So far I'm enjoying the heck out of it at the moment. Its fun, sometimes relaxing (read:a bit boring) with just enough stress to keep me on my toes.

Just Thought I'd share my "getting over further job related anxiety issues. I also think in the end it'll make me a much better tank, seeing it from the other side too.

[Recon1o6]

it will make you a better tank, speaking from experience, glad to see you trying out healers

The boredom only gets worse sadly

[GrimGale]

it will make you a better tank, speaking from experience, glad to see you trying out healers

The boredom only gets worse sadly

Indeed, while there are people that love the simpler gameplay, healers are a job that only gets progressively more repetitive as your mastery of off global cooldown healing allows you to open more time for casting damaging spells.

At that point, unless you're playing AST, you'll essentially be spamming spell with some other butttons in between.

[Gemina]

Indeed, while there are people that love the simpler gameplay, healers are a job that only gets progressively more repetitive as your mastery of off global cooldown healing allows you to open more time for casting damaging spells.

At that point, unless you're playing AST, you'll essentially be spamming spell with some other butttons in between.

Ehhh. Yes and no. I really rather not give the OP the impression of only one side of the healing spectrum. There are indeed plenty of situations where you are just spamming your ST/AoE and waiting for someone needing to be healed. However, Alliance raids and NM trials are where healers will find themselves in situations where they can literally bring the group back from the brink of death. Because these encounters usually don't have hard enrages, a healer can sustain a group indefinitely so long as certain fundamental elements of the encounter remain intact.

The OP expresses what I call the "healer instinct", and her words reminds me so much of myself when I also started out healing in this game. She's the kind of healer I want by my side when crap does hit the fan.

Unfortunately, healing isn't always the sunshine she experienced. The road to becoming a good healer has a lot of uphill climbs, and that entails dealing with wipes that both could have, and could not be prevented. It's important she knows she's not alone, and even veteran healers still make mistakes and catch unnecessary heat.

OP, keep it up and don't allow your accomplishments to be trivialized by those who forgot they were beginners who shared your enjoyment at one point as well. If you have any specific questions along your adventures, feel free to ask.

[ckq53]

Thank you for the kind words! I had to take a break from the game for a bit as I was feeling a bit of burn out (1300+ hours since December, LOL!) so as you can see by my sig I haven't quite hit 50 yet. Which I plan on remedying this evening. I know i'm still in the "Honeymoon phase" and it goes uphill from here. But I'm still enjoying the experience, and don't mind taking a lump or two for screwing something up. No one's perfect as much as some of the people in the game lead themselves to believe. I'm also not that "I hold the power of your life and death in my hands" kind of person. Though I will admit If I see a tank not using their defensive CDs AT ALL I will give them a little pucker butt then ask them to please use them though never maliciously.

I also don't mind a bit of mindless boring. The job I use most is DNC and you're CONSTANTLY moving and pressing moving and pressing (at least the way I play) everything's ALWAYS on cooldown. Both standard and technical steps and Flourish. So the downtime I get mindlessly spamming a button or two playing WHM is very welcome ATM.

I actually do have a question though. It's from a healers perspective of PLD. When I play PLD I use HG as a CD for extra big pulls even though it may not be needed. Like the second pull of Holminster Switch or the two groups of ninjas you can pull together before the last boss in Doma Castle. Before the spider tank miniboss and before anyone asks yes I'm a FIRM believer in the Reprisal/Arms Length combo) I got slapped on the hand for doing that more than once by healers, like they were offended by it. It's not like GNB or DRK where they have to be healed up after it or anything. It's just a few seconds I don't need to be tended to. It's not the fact i "don't trust my healer" at all, if i can give you a bit of breathing room or you need a few seconds to generate some more mana I'll do it! I've been thanked more than once for being the guy that will wait at a boss door for your mana to max before I go in a start the fight. IMHO those things are on the hot bar for a reason, use them! Bloodbath, Clemency, etc. I don't mind! It gives me a bit of time to freshen up a DPS that like s to stand in AOEs for a second or two. I guess what I'm asking is should I be offended by that? Is the fact that I'm not in the slightest a big deal?

Any input would be appreciated!

[Recon1o6]

that other healer was in the wrong, HG is great for healers as it means more aoe spam instead of heal spam which means mobs die faster in dungeons. Tanks that use CDs are good for healers, as they are doing their job properly and making the healing easier so the healer can get back to glare/malefic/broil spamming

waiting at the boss door for mana regen is very thoughtful of you ^^ glad you came into that on your own, wish more tanks would do that, even though I put down my healer stuff for this expansion

also be please don't be upset by the seemingly large portion of "I am god of life and death" healers. Healers have the most stressful primary role and some healers end up in that phase purely because of either abuse from the other roles (you weren't healing your shit!/your not dpsing enough, your shit! etc etc) or selfish/shit players (healers adjust!), they usually snap out of it when a good group comes up. Its worse than usual this expansion given the current state of healers- its where all this chatter of a hall of the intermediate comes from mainly.

Case in point of poor playing, you saying the tanks that don't use CDs. That's usually the first one you'll notice, if not the second (dps standing in orange puddles constantly)

[Ezlin]

Perhaps the other healers were somewhat annoyed at the thought of the Stun from Holy being rendered ineffective? Honestly it doesn't matter. That Stun is still preventing AoE. Use HG if you want to.

Clemency would annoy me, however. I'm most likely going to use a lily heal or a tetra on you and it'll be wasted if you pop Clemency to heal yourself at effectively the same time. OTOH if you manage to sneak it in before I burn one of my resources then I'll notice, but I'll probably forget 0.5 seconds later.

Sprint is a damage mitigation tool for big pulls. Mobs can't match the speed of Sprint and they can't hit you when they can't catch you. It may be a preferred alternative to using HG on big pulls, cool down allowing.

[Sqwall]

Always nice to see other enjoying the game and other sides of the fence. When Astro dropped I knew that would be my healer as it had support rolled into it. I love support classes.

Honestly when I compare AST to WHM...I have to pick AST. The job is fast, fluid, and complex. It's a healer/dps/support and it's really crazy how strong AST is with heals. Still stormblood ast was the best imo, but them's the brakes.

WHM to me was just boring as all heck and somewhat really OP in the heals department. I'm really hoping in the future I can level WHM all the way up to 80, but for now I'll stick with one healer.

Tip:
-don't over heal
-not everyone needs to be 100% if the tank is good at tanking
-get comfortable with your tank, and find their "squishyness factor"
- Tank mitigation Cool down's are a lot stronger then you think, and really help you DPS more
-You need crazy self control to heal Warriors late game. I learned to pump the brakes after a tank buster/high dps on warriors as you see them just gain health back very fast. I love healing warriors and paladin is close 2nd.
-Stack your Heal over Times, and catch a DPS break while they do the job for you.
-target-through-target macros can be a real time saver during boss fights. Albeit not all that efficient but great in a pinch.
Example:
/macroicon "Aero"
/macroerror off
/ac "Aero III" <tt>
/ac "Aero II" <tt>
/ac "Aero I" <tt>

This macro will literally run the Aero macro-skill that you currently have without having to target the mob, by just sending Aero to the tanks target. There is no wait needed as it runs down the list of available Aero's traits you have available and selects the correct skill automatically based on your level. Works really slick for skills that have no cast time, and I love the level sync where I never have to update it.

[ckq53]

I actually do use those macros for Stone and Aero. but mine is a two step so I can target my own or my target:
/ac Aero II <t>
/ac Aero II <tt>

that way I can apply Aero to individual mobs in trash pulls and then Aero/Stone my targets target during boss fights and other trash. It works pretty good IMO. I will change it to I, II, III version though. I didn't think about the level sync issue. I just updated the macro as the skills upgraded. I agree with the warrior statement. I saw it myself last night in Dzemael Darkhold, He got hit by that last bosses spinning attack like twice in a row and was way low and while I was casting his health bar jumped up to almost over halfway full. Most of the time I've found just a regen on them (mind you I'm only level 52) is plenty! GNB too. Throw a regen on them and i can Holy everything into the ground. DRK are the ones I have to pay attention to at the moment. At this low level (without TBN) their HP tanks sometimes.

I am having the 100% issue though, so I tend to slightly over heal. Like using a stronger Cure than they need, or whatever I guess its just the OCD in me that everything has to be perfect and full. (Sort of like when I pump gas the cents have to be either .50 or.00 or I panic. LOL!) I do think it is a legitimate OCD triggering thing though. It's just something through time I'll have to come to terms with and stuff down. I just got Asylum last night in my job quest and as long as I've played XIV I've loved that skill as a DPS or tank so That'll always stay on cooldown! I was like a kid at Christmas when I got it! LOL!

I've been doing fairly well as far as deaths go so far. I think I had my first 2 last night in Darkhold , but the first was a GNB racing through and went through the 2nd boss teleporter and grabbed the mobs while I was passing on the equipment chests and when I zoned into the room he was already 3/4 dead, so it wasn't exactly my fault. Then I had a DPS standing in one of the magitech "Key Ring" thingys in that same room while everyone else was fighting the group at the other one, and I didn't notice his health tank as he was getting hit by the crystal explosions. But all in all I'm still learning and having fun with it, and I appreciate everyones advice!

[Sqwall]

I actually do use those macros for Stone and Aero. but mine is a two step so I can target my own or my target:
/ac Aero II <t>
/ac Aero II <tt>

I agree with the warrior statement. I saw it myself last night in Dzemael Darkhold, He got hit by that last bosses spinning attack like twice in a row and was way low and while I was casting his health bar jumped up to almost over halfway full.

I am having the 100% issue though, so I tend to slightly over heal. Like using a stronger Cure than they need, or whatever I guess its just the OCD in me that everything has to be perfect and full.

I've been doing fairly well as far as deaths go so far. I think I had my first 2 last night in Darkhold , but the first was a GNB racing through and went through the 2nd boss teleporter and grabbed the mobs while I was passing on the equipment chests and when I zoned into the room he was already 3/4 dead, so it wasn't exactly my fault. Then I had a DPS standing in one of the magitech "Key Ring" thingys in that same room while everyone else was fighting the group at the other one, and I didn't notice his health tank as he was getting hit by the crystal explosions. But all in all I'm still learning and having fun with it, and I appreciate everyones advice!

Yeah that works great as well! I use that for gravity if the tank doesn't have a target, also have the macro to put me in my DPS hotbar so that I can use cast lightspeed and DPS mode. Can be clunky but works for me All macros are subjective though.

I can sympathize with you on the 100% (everyone must have no boo boo's mentality), it is really hard to train yourself to understand the tank will be ok and they are using cooldowns, and as a tank I even have that thought to use Hallowed or Superbolide without faith in my healer. So it's a two way street there.

Yeah that tank just wasn't paying attention. You will run into tanks that expect you to keep up with them, the good tanks will wait before engaging until they see the healer. The bad ones blame you for not being there to heal them, or the worst tanks of all...think they are stronger then they really are. These types continue to pull wall to wall, don't use CD's or don't spread them out evenly, and just generally blame you for not being able to heal there undergeared butt. To counter this just simply let them know your new and specify large pulls or normal. Most tanks won't ask at all! (I look at healer gear when I tank to know experience and inverse when I heal) I have got more comms by just simply being more understanding rather then having high expectations.

Keep up the good work!