Is healing supposed to be this...hard?

[ForteNightshade]

Yeah, I went back at it today. I bought some new gear (480 ilvl) and just tried to relax a bit.

Expert is definitely much easier. I'm having the most difficulty with leveling. I think it's just a matter to getting back into it, and also checking the tanks ilvl before he runs into the thick of it.

This video from Momo Sama may help. He goes into a lot of depth for a beginners guide to max level healing.

[Risvertasashi]

As most of the threads in here show, healing is currently so easy that a lot of people actually get bored of spamming their one dps button for more than 60% of a fight.

And 60% is putting it lightly. Just checked one of my e8s kills - 80% of my GCDs are damage, a lot of the healing GCDs are regen, and that's with room to optimize further... bet the earlier fights are even more than 80% of my uptime on DPS.

...But leveling is a different ball game. In leveling dungeons, the sync points are low enough - and then combine that with lower end gear both the healer and tank might have - and sometimes big pulls can be a struggle, yeah. Small pulls basically never are even with crap gear now.

[Rilifane]

I recommend learning all the tank cool downs, and then calling out tanks that dont use them.

Every dungeon I ask a tank why they havent used arms length, reprisal, rampart, their 30% mitigation, or their job unique ability if I dont see it in their rotation.

I will let tanks die when theres 3 or less mobs left if they havent used mitigation, if they would have survived by using mitigation.

As a healer it's your responsibility to heal scripted damage. It is not your responsibility to pick up the slack of lazy players.

While learning tank cooldowns so you can spot them at a glimpse and know what to expect in terms of incoming damage is a good idea, the whole letting people die because healing extra damage is not your responsibility is bad advice for DF.

This mentality is completely fine for endgame content with a static or even in PFs when people repeatedly fail at the same mechanic. Healer dps matters, resource management matters and many deaths snowball into more deaths/ a wipe but that's not the case in DF.
Mistakes can happen for a myriad of reasons and DF brings all kinds of players together. Intentionally letting someone die when one hardcast could've taken care of it is griefing. Not playing perfectly is not.
Just because I know that I can heal through certain things or take so little damage that my healer doesn't need to heal at all doesn't mean I should hold everyone I meet in DF to the same standard. And it certainly doesn't mean I should intentionally grief and slow the run down by refusing to do more than the absolute bare minimum.

I don't condone things like not aoeing in big pulls, not using mitigation at all, not dpsing at all etc. but if someone is trynig but still unsure about how to best go about something and uses skills suboptimal, that's enough for DF. If someone makes a glaring mistake, I see that we get through it and speak up about it afterwards.

[Liam_Harper]

Leveling dungeons just aren't that easy. In particular ShB dungeons with low dps hit like a truck. I've seen wall pulls where a tank with a few cd's ate a Star, AspBenefic, ED, CE, CU, CI and then needed Synastry/Benefic II's on top. In terms of ease I'd much rather heal any current Savage fight than a lv71-79 dungeon. Experts and level cap dungeons (50,60,70) are a whole different story and can mostly be steamrolled with oGcD's and minimal attention.

It doesn't mean they're crazy difficult, just that you want to go into a leveling dungeon with the mindset that you'll likely need GCD's and to pay attention to the tank. Don't take the forums "healing is faceroll lol" comments to heart too much, for the most part it is but some leveling dungeons can certainly test you.

[AnotherPerson]

Healing in ShB leveling dungeons can certainly test your ability to play a healer but it is in no way very difficult unless you plan on carrying the whole run. If you're DPSing and healing in leveling gear, it's mainly difficult if tanks cannot rotate their mitigations properly and if the DPS aren't using their DPS skills properly because damage from enemies is a lot higher and the HP values increased in respect to the healing skills' potencies so healers can't cover and heal all the mistakes instantly if the players make very punishing errors. With big pulls, you will have to GCD heal no matter what even if the party plays well. Essentially, ShB leveling dungeons starts expecting a level of competency on all players on knowing their job and learning the mechanics of the dungeon - which should be the norm. A healer at ShB dungeons can no longer be babysitting the team and covering for all mistakes as it once did or you'd just run out of resources really quickly.

[tdb]

Every dungeon I ask a tank why they havent used arms length, reprisal, rampart, their 30% mitigation, or their job unique ability if I dont see it in their rotation.

This feels a little bit accusatory to me. I've picked up tanking relatively recently, and if I don't use a particular CD it's because I'm too busy trying to hold aggro from everything, dodge AoEs, manage my rotation and keep an eye on my mitigations. Any of those tasks by itself is easy enough but doing all at once requires enough attention that I haven't perfected it yet. Arm's Length is probably my least used CD, aside from Superbolide which is just annoying because it reduces my HP to 1.

Offering advice is fine but maybe try to put it in a bit more constructive way, like "you should use arm's length on pulls" rather than "why aren't you using arm's length?".

[Sqwall]

I feel like the direction in 6.0 should take us in the direction of no more zerging through the dungeons.

Offering a real tactical playstyle for each and every single engagement. As a tank I find it boring to just run to every pack of trash, collect it, and zerg it, which makes the dungeons boring and mountainous to run for my dailies.

To that point dailies should not be a slog to get through, but I should have to turn my brain on to finish them. A very difficult balance is needed.

Now as a healer I really have to evaluate the tank to see if they can handle the punishment so that I can effectively DPS. Healers have to thread the needle for DPS and heals while playing dual roles. No other class does this. A tank tanks and is frowned at when healing themselves (clemency is strong, but healers fume). A DPS just DPSes, crazy I know, but when they stand in stuff healers go ballistic...well I do anyway.

Healers have to heal the tanks pulling wall to wall and are sneered at when they don't DPS during large pulls. For Astro it's not so cumbersome to DPS, but when you need to heal hard on a tank that doesn't use CD's or is wearing grocery bags for gear....well it get's dicey.

That is why I believe 6.0 needs to ditch the wall to wall pulling to mix things up. Each trash engagement should feel like "it can go south rather quick" if you aren't paying attention to the mobs. Crowd control needs to be utilized MORE in the next expac to, and the trash pulls need to be more dangerous. We also need more dangerous status effects like: Poison that spreads to other party members, or bleeds that kill a tank in seconds, or Zombie (you heal them you kill them), or mobs that only target healers, or better yet mobs that are hidden and backstab healers or mages or target their MP reducing it to 0.

I mean look at Temple of Quarn... for most that is the real dungeon that used actual mechanics to just get through the dang thing....even FINAL STING made the "oh crap" moment come up when your tank just went *poof*. We need more of that to keep the trash/dungeons compelling and WAY less zerging

[YusiKha]

A tank tanks and is frowned at when healing themselves (clemency is strong, but healers fume).

Feel free to Equilibrium, Aurora, and Abyssal Drain.
I just don’t want to see tanks wasting Holy Circles for Clemency when I’m planning a essential dignity/benediction when you drop to 20%.

[Liam_Harper]

Honestly I don't mind Clemency below 50% anywhere near as much as my fellow co-healer spamming Medica II's blindly when there's no danger, wasting my Star's, Asylums, upcoming Assizes, lilies and what-not. I'll take the occasional Clemency of Distrust any day over a healbot.

[Sauteed]

Honestly I don't mind Clemency below 50% anywhere near as much as my fellow co-healer spamming Medica II's blindly when there's no danger, wasting my Star's, Asylums, upcoming Assizes, lilies and what-not. I'll take the occasional Clemency of Distrust any day over a healbot.

Hehe Clemency of Distrust.. I'm kind of steely these days I just let myself get murdered these days until I see the healer dance step into avoidable aoes and die themselves. I haven't seen people froth at the mouth and bemoan me for a c.o.d. lately tho I suppose I have learned to use them at understandable moments.