New Healer Question

[btug025]

I am trying out healing on a white mage. I know my main objective is to heal and dps while not healing. The problem I am finding is that in dungeons every tank is taking so much damage that I cannot even get a cast off that isnt healing. If I am not constantly healing the tank will die in 2 seconds.

Is this normal? I dont see how I am suppose to dps when 100% of my time is taken up by healing. Im not even talking about topping off or overhealing, I mean they will die within 2 seconds if im not constantly healing.

If anyone has any insight please let me know.

[Raminax]

Levelling up tends to be a bit rough in comparison to doing level cap dungeons, because the full skillsets aren't quite available yet for the cohesive mitigation and self-healing package (I'll admit that being synced below 60 feels dreadful as a White Mage). In addition, gear is pretty wild - you can't bruteforce dungeons below the level cap due to far more stringent ilvl caps (compared to lvl80), and in my experience people are pretty bad at keeping their gear maintained, often relying on a mishmash of gear available from the previous expansions or lucky drops to fill in the gaps.

Skill-wise, the best you can do is to ask your tanks to use cooldowns such as Rampart, Arm's Length, Reprisal and so on more proactively to help you out. Mitigative measures are generally better applied before they reach 10% HP remaining and pop everything simultaneously in a panic and then waste half the duration as the enemies drop dead. Especially during trash - considering that pulling multiple packs in one go is pretty much the norm nowadays, those segments are, quite frankly, often deadlier than the actual bosses. If your tanks usually save defensive abilities for bosses, try to convince them otherwise. Well, assuming you have the energy to do so.

Now, I'm not sure how far you've got as a White Mage, but in general, Holy is a godsend. Chaincasting it gives you up to 7 seconds of Stun on nearby enemies, which in practice becomes invulnerability for your tank. Try to rethink your approach on instant abilities like Tetragrammaton and Benediction as well - instead of saving them for emergencies, try to proactively use them to keep the tank healthy. Otherwise, just practice, practice and practice. We weren't all amazing at the start, either!

[Rongway]

If 100% of your GCDs are required to be heals, then one or more of the following is true:

• the tank is undergeared
• you are undergeared
• the tank is not using cooldowns
• the tank is pulling the entire dungeon at a level that either you or they yet lack the tools to pull the entire dungeon effectively

If you're just starting to heal, it's possible you're being paired with tanks who are just starting to tank. The burden of healing will ease up as you and they get level appropriate gear, unlock more oGCDs, and learn to manage your respective oGCDs effectively. The least straightforward part will be that last bullet, because it's not one of those things where once you reach a certain level, you have all the tools you need to mass pull every dungeon. Some dungeons are easier to mass pull than dungeons that follow, and vice versa. Recognizing when your tank is appropriately (or inappropriately) geared and knowing which dungeons can be mass pulled without having to resort to Cure II spam will come with experience.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

If anyone has any insight please let me know.

There are several factors that can affect your tank's survivability besides your own performance

1. Gears, both yours and the tank's.
2. Tank's defensive cooldown usage. Newer tanks are often guilty for letting these sit unused for too long, thinking healers can just bail them out from dangers.
3. Where they're standing (Yes, tanks who constantly eating AoEs like cookies actually exist, although not too widespread).
4. Incoming damage. Ironically, dungeons that falls into the category of 'Leveling Dungeon' almost always have larger incoming damage than those in '50/60/70 Dungeon' & 'Expert & 80 Dungeon' categories. This also leads to...
5. Synced level. This determines which toolkit that you and the tank may or may not have at certain level range when synced. You may or may not find that healing under lv50 or lv60 feels more intensive due to the fact you have much less access to powerful healing kits that a higher lv healer may have.

The last point is especially true for WHMs because they lack of any healing abilities to flexibly weave until lv50 where they'll learn [Benediction] which also have pretty lengthy cooldown. As a WHM, road to lv50 is pretty much 'Healing Spell or DPS spell?', almost no in-between. Abusing [Regen] when it's safe to do is extremely useful for WHMs under lv50 as it slows down the rate your tank's HP decreasing. Lv51 - lv60 is when the healing kits starts to improve the gameplay dramatically, as they unlock amazing abilities like [Asylum], [Assize], & [Tetragrammation]. Additionally lily system being obtained at lv52, meaning at that point you'll have more leeway to widen your DPS windows by the grace of [Afflatus Solace]'s being an instant cast spell. At this point and so on, healing as WHM gets much--MUCH easier.

Lastly, just in case... [Freecure] is a trap. [Cure I] is your primary single target healing spell for lv2-lv30. Beyond that their use will diminishes greatly to be even worthy of your time. Arguably still have their use at lv31-lv50, but close to obsolete beyond that point. If it's good for anything, it'll be generating enmity from your party member, specifically speakin': the tanks....lol. Still, lv syncing exists so probably put it somewhere quite far away from your main hotkeys if you've past this point.

Happy heeling!

[Tweets]

I am trying out healing on a white mage. I know my main objective is to heal and dps while not healing. The problem I am finding is that in dungeons every tank is taking so much damage that I cannot even get a cast off that isnt healing. If I am not constantly healing the tank will die in 2 seconds.

Is this normal? I dont see how I am suppose to dps when 100% of my time is taken up by healing. Im not even talking about topping off or overhealing, I mean they will die within 2 seconds if im not constantly healing.

If anyone has any insight please let me know.

There's unfortunately quite a lot to unpack despite this question being pretty straightforward, hopefully I don't get lost in rambling along the way.

Anyway, you're correct in your basic premise, but I'd like to expand it a little bit: As a party member - regardless of Role - your main goal is to complete the Duty. On top of this, you should aim to complete it as effectively as possible, because the better you perform, the more leeway there is in accomodating others.

This core concept is why Healers should DPS where they can - the more damage the group does, the faster the enemies are killed. This concept also works in reverse - if dealing damage would somehow make the enemies die slower or it leads you to be unable to clear the duty (for example, you're dealing damage at the expense of letting the party wipe, or letting the godly Black Mage die despite them massacring every enemy) then you should not do so (or rather in practice it's more that you sacrifice some DPS for the sake of clearing or keeping said Black Mage alive; you very rarely have to go all the way to 0).

Now, let's look at your scenario. I'm not sure exactly what level you are, but you say you're a White Mage and that you're new, so I'll assume somewhere between 30 and 50 - far enough along to have unlocked the class, but not so far as to have gotten out of what I'd consider the 'tutorial' stages of the game.

At this stage, there's a few things to bear in mind that will significantly increase the time you have to spend casting healing spells:

• White Mage has no 'oGCD' healing abilities at these levels.
• Gear variance in these levels is severe, with many sources of gear being terrible and the game simply not communicating this to the player well.
• Player skill in general is generally lower.
• The skillsets available to the party may not be fully 'formed'.
• Dungeon design in this level range is wildly different from the standard used today.
• 'Levelling' dungeons typically have more stringent item level syncs applied than 'Endgame' dungeons.

This forum has an extremely-limiting maxium post length so I cannot expand further on these. If anything doesn't make sense or you need clarification, however, I'd be happy to do so.

[Saefinn]

I am trying out healing on a white mage. I know my main objective is to heal and dps while not healing. The problem I am finding is that in dungeons every tank is taking so much damage that I cannot even get a cast off that isnt healing. If I am not constantly healing the tank will die in 2 seconds.

Is this normal? I dont see how I am suppose to dps when 100% of my time is taken up by healing. Im not even talking about topping off or overhealing, I mean they will die within 2 seconds if im not constantly healing.

If anyone has any insight please let me know.

There are many factors as already listed by others that could be causing this.

If you're learning to heal, I think balancing DPS and healing will be a struggle to begin with. I would see them as "goals" rather than as mandatory. And spend the time getting used to healing and improving your ability as a healer, as well as making sure your gear is up to date. Once you find you build confidence and are finding you've got a bigger gap when you're not healing then try adding some DPS. I wouldn't beat yourself up if you're not managing DPS just yet. The game if anything gives plenty of wiggle room before healers not DPSing can be viewed as a problem.

You'll find after a while a lot more becomes second nature and you'll be begging for something to do when you're not healing. :P