A question about healing!

[Aikeiko]

Hello =D I was wanting to try healing, but I was told that I needed to be able to dps and heal at the same time, which kind of makes me nervous, especially in higher dungeons. I was also wondering when I should use Cure 2 over Cure on my White Mage (I don't have the healer I want yet, Astrologian)

[SpiritualOcean]

The expectation to DPS is that you should cast a damage spell if you don’t need to heal. Rather than wait around doing nothing until someone needs healing.

As for which spell to use, that often depends on the amount of incoming damage. A DPS at half health might be fine with a Cure. A tank who’s getting hit hard repeatedly might need a bunch of Cure 2s.

As you gain levels, you will have access to abilities that replace those spells. So don’t sweat it.

[ReiMakoto]

Generally on a white mage you can just bin cure 1 out of incredibly niche scenarios, both cure 1 and 2 cost a gcd, and the mana difference is inconsequential (especially because whm has essentially infinite mana unless they need to chain res). Also in the case of damage, all the healers have powerful aoe attacks (especially whm) so contributing to the party damage essentially means you nee to heal far less and everything goes a lot smoother at basically no cost.

[Recon1o6]

basically, when you dont need to heal keep your dot up, if you dont need your dot to be refreshed, you need to use stone/glare, ruin/broil, malefic or your aoe if its a dungeon with 3 or more mobs alive

use cure 1 until you get cure 2, once you get cure 2, you can forget about cure 1 after about level 40 as its not worth diddly squat with whm's infinite mp and cure's poor potency

[Risvertasashi]

Hello =D I was wanting to try healing, but I was told that I needed to be able to dps and heal at the same time, which kind of makes me nervous, especially in higher dungeons. I was also wondering when I should use Cure 2 over Cure on my White Mage (I don't have the healer I want yet, Astrologian)

I would suggest that you don't try to "force" DPS.

You'll notice, if you only heal, you'll end up sitting there for periods of time doing nothing. This is a good time to pop some Holy's (Or Gravities, when you get Astro). If you don't have the AoE yet, then just stone is fine.

Now at higher levels of play, you can use your abilities to squeeze DPS out of situations that at first don't seem possible. And that's cool, but my advice is to get walking down before you run. When you have nothing to do, fill in with DPS, for now. As you get more confidence in this, then try pushing your limits.

Good luck!

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edit: There's one thing I kind of want to set straight. People seem to be thinking that how WHM plays at low level is now somehow the same as how it plays at max level.

It isn't. Your MP is not effectively infinite or even close at lower levels.

You can still probably use cure 2 over cure 1 most of the time. But if your MP gauge does start getting a bit low - and a medica 2 into a few cure 2s can do that - then you might wish to revert to cure 1 until Lucid Dreaming is available again.

The reasons some people are saying this is because WHM has a number of tools that give it good (but still not effectively infinite...) MP at max level, but you won't have these yet unless you're close.

[Seoulstar]

It is not necessary unless you are doing content like savage or whatever else high end. It is merely recommended but some people will overreact if you don't. My best advice is to ease your way into it when you are comfortable enough. A dot here and there and so on. In terms of cure and cure 2..that really depends on the incoming damage.

[Liam_Harper]

As mentioned, it's not that you always have to heal and dps at the same time. It's more that it's expected you weave in dps spells when there is no healing needed. Avoiding unnecessary overheal makes your dps more efficient. However if your group is taking high damage and you're spamming heals and can't fit in any dps, that's fine. Do what you must to keep the group alive first.

It isn't. Your MP is not effectively infinite or even close at lower levels.

You can still probably use cure 2 over cure 1 most of the time. But if your MP gauge does start getting a bit low - and a medica 2 into a few cure 2s can do that - then you might wish to revert to cure 1 until Lucid Dreaming is available again.

People advise dropping Cure once you get Regen because healing tends to fall into one of two scenarios.

-Light damage. In this case you aren't going to empty on MP and Cure II is more GCD efficient.
-Heavy dangerous damage. In this case Cure spam won't save your tank and you need beefy Cure II's to keep up, regardless of mana cost.

[IDontPetLalas]

1- I think that it's very important to say that healing at low levels isn't the same as at end levels, with all of the skills that you will get, no matter which healer you pick. So it's fair to say- don't stress at the very beginning with too much DPS, just throw out a dot (if you're very nervous)

2- saying that DPS is "not necessary except for savage content" while being technically true, would also end end up being incredibly boring, and potentially cause a wipe. That is because, dear friends, it has happened that you (a healer) can potentially do more DPS than the occasional DPS. Many strange and wonderful things can happen in DF.
3 - By the time that you get to higher dungeons, the more you can personally contribute, the less stress you can actually have. Tank CDs only last so long. If combine prep pre-pull then do damage during the pull then you can deal with larger pulls. Otherwise, if you weren't to add your damage large pulls can be hell.

[Saefinn]

Hello =D I was wanting to try healing, but I was told that I needed to be able to dps and heal at the same time, which kind of makes me nervous, especially in higher dungeons. I was also wondering when I should use Cure 2 over Cure on my White Mage (I don't have the healer I want yet, Astrologian)

Hello!

The healing & DPS thing I'd say take it at your own pace, it's not a huge deal if you don't feel confident mixing the two to begin with, it's good practice for later and can make runs go quicker, but is not real requirement until much later, meaning you can learn at your own pace. The priority is that everybody is alive and if you have space where you're doing nothing throw in some DPS spells. The good news is, especially for a lot of lower dungeons the healing requirement is low and your variety of abilities is low so you have less to think about whilst you get the hang of it. My usual advice is to start small and build on it rather than try to learn everything at once. The main reason people pick up on healers that don't DPS is because there's often big gaps where you don't need to heal and people prefer their healers to be not sit back and do nothing during that periods. So I wouldn't worry to much about if you struggle with the balance as long as you keep healing your number 1 priority. With time you'll get better and more confident with it.

When the healer & DPS balance becomes most important isn't until you're in high level content, by which point I'd expect you'll have got the hang of it by the time you're trying to heal there.

With regards to Cure/Cure II, Cure II is your big heal. Cure I will gradually become more and more redundant as you level. The main downside to Cure II is that it uses more MP, but WHM is generally good for MP management. So at a lower level you might want to use Cure I before Cure II in the chance you trigger a free Cure, but the moment Cure I feels laborious to get people's health up start using Cure 2 more.

Eventually you'll probably remove Cure I from your kit entirely.

Something else to consider is that your journey learning to play a healer might be a little odd, because of how healing jobs have evolved. To begin with you're going to learn you core spells that make up your bread and butter. Cure, Cure II, Medica, Medica II, Regen. Then you'll find you'll get nifty abilities that make up your filling like Assize, Asylum you Afflatus spells, Divine Benison and so on - all your oGCD's.

You will start to find that your core spells become secondary to your oGCD's, you might see this this 60-80 but mostly in 70-80. oGCD's give mobility and can be weaved between abilities, which will likely be between DPS moves. That's something for later to think about, but main thing. Learn your core abilities and build from there.

[Seoulstar]

1- I think that it's very important to say that healing at low levels isn't the same as at end levels, with all of the skills that you will get, no matter which healer you pick. So it's fair to say- don't stress at the very beginning with too much DPS, just throw out a dot (if you're very nervous)

2- saying that DPS is "not necessary except for savage content" while being technically true, would also end end up being incredibly boring, and potentially cause a wipe. That is because, dear friends, it has happened that you (a healer) can potentially do more DPS than the occasional DPS. Many strange and wonderful things can happen in DF.
3 - By the time that you get to higher dungeons, the more you can personally contribute, the less stress you can actually have. Tank CDs only last so long. If combine prep pre-pull then do damage during the pull then you can deal with larger pulls. Otherwise, if you weren't to add your damage large pulls can be hell.

It may be boring, but at the same time. They are playing at their own pace..and a healer not DPSing in a dungeon won't result in a wipe..at least so far I haven't seen in my entire time of playing this game. But who knows..I can not speak for everyone. But anyways, I say it's not necessary because it truly isn't. I also said they can ease their way into it when they are comfortable. It is better to tell someone that than to say it is expected all the time. I use to be a healer that was extremely nervous to DPS. Until someone told me the exact same thing. Now, I DPS all the time. It doesn't hurt to be truthful to someone that is new than to give them this impression that it's DPS or be severely punished for it. Which sadly..I have seen far too many times on this forum.