Tales from Duty Finder: Some make you laugh, some make you cry. Let's vent. 2.0

[Kikoten]

I really miss those days when that was the normal way of tanking him. But honestly its only a problem now if the healers are half asleep.

Well, I don't remember if our healers were asleep, I know I was kind of down for the count after it happened, along with half the party. I dunno what transpired in the span of those 5 seconds, but it was wacky. We didn't wipe, but it was by the skin of our teeth.

[Carin-Eri]

Wasn't sure whether to make a separate thread for this, but thought this thread would suffice.

Firstly, I'll note that I'm new to healing. Although have been playing for almost two years at this point, I avoided trying/playing a healer job as hated the idea of anyone else relying on me, and I tend to be clumsy/slow reacting to mechanics. Anyway - I bit the proverbial bullet and levelled White Mage to 90 and, more recently, decided to give Sage a try.

Which brings me to this thread. Still relatively new to both Healing in general and the Sage job in particular, I did the same as I did with WHM - doing a few Dungeons with Trusts, and then dungeons/trials/raids with some friends before branching out and joining general roulettes.
Yesterday, I queued Levelling roulette with a friend, who opted to play as DRK, and we got Tower of Zot. And to be honest, I had a pretty miserable time. The friend I queued with, again playing DRK, died quite frequently. I obviously put Kardia on them from the onset and worked my ass off casting shields and heals (and using Dyskrasia and Dosis) but simply couldn't keep pace with the damage they were taking Vs healing/shielding and attacking (to keep the Kardia buff active). We actually wiped a few times to both trash mobs and bosses - I kept Swiftcast/Egeiro handy when realised my Tank friend was taking damage faster than I could heal it, but myself and the two DPS still became overwhelmed a few times. We finally got to the last boss and wiped. I apologised for my poor performance and did imply that I could leave if they wanted someone better. However, my DRK friend took that as me saying I was going to leave, made their apologies and bailed. Wasn't sure what to do at this point, but a new player popped in - a Paladin. And the run went as smooth as silk from that point onward. The Paladin only needed minimal shielding/healing, seemed to have some self-healing, I was able to put more effort into keeping the DPS healthy and we finished the boss without much fuss. Also, thanks to the DPS in the team who were kind enough to comment that they could see I was doing my best.
Afterward my friend commented that I was "probably undergeared" before logging off. I'm not convinced that's the case - whilst level 81 I have equipped a full set of Augmented Cryptlurker weapons and equipment.

I mean, it's not as if I haven't encountered Tanks that seemed to need a lot of healer attention before, but hadn't really experienced it on this level. And I'm not saying I wasn't responsible - I'm still learning the job and more than willing to accept I'm probably not very good at it..... but I still can't help but think that the run would've gone more smoothly if that Paladin had been on the team from the start.

[Mosha]

replying to what Carin posted (see above)

Zot can be hard if the tanks haven't unlocked their 82 skill....oh it's a DRK. Now depending if they were using mitigation, if they weren't then that's not on you.
SGE has a lot of oGCDs to hand so what I do is Keracole on every pull because it mits 10% and adds a HOT, plus I can add Physis when I can, now your tank is getting a 230 pot HOT for 15secs.
That is a very powerful combination and we haven't even touched Haima, Duro or Tauro yet. Don't be afraid to use AOE oGCDs to cover a tank in a dungeon pull they are the hardest part for a healer.

A big thing with healing and tanking is planning ahead and that does take practice and experience. Keep at it you will get better.

[Tiramu]

Zot can be hard if the tanks haven't unlocked their 82 skill....oh it's a DRK. Now depending if they were using mitigation, if they weren't then that's not on you.
SGE has a lot of oGCDs to hand so what I do is Keracole on every pull because it mits 10% and adds a HOT, plus I can add Physis when I can, now your tank is getting a 230 pot HOT for 15secs.
That is a very powerful combination and we haven't even touched Haima, Duro or Tauro yet. Don't be afraid to use AOE oGCDs to cover a tank in a dungeon pull they are the hardest part for a healer.

A big thing with healing and tanking is planning ahead and that does take practice and experience. Keep at it you will get better.

I found the 3 sisters at the end the hardest to heal, it took me a fair few runs before I felt comfortable healing, dps'ing and avoing mechs. It might just be a me thing, but I find it one of the most demanding bosses in the MSQ and even a fair few of the old EX's because its so busy.

[OdinelStarrei]

Wasn't sure whether to make a separate thread for this, but thought this thread would suffice.

Firstly, I'll note that I'm new to healing. Although have been playing for almost two years at this point, I avoided trying/playing a healer job as hated the idea of anyone else relying on me, and I tend to be clumsy/slow reacting to mechanics. Anyway - I bit the proverbial bullet and levelled White Mage to 90 and, more recently, decided to give Sage a try.

Which brings me to this thread. Still relatively new to both Healing in general and the Sage job in particular, I did the same as I did with WHM - doing a few Dungeons with Trusts, and then dungeons/trials/raids with some friends before branching out and joining general roulettes.
Yesterday, I queued Levelling roulette with a friend, who opted to play as DRK, and we got Tower of Zot. And to be honest, I had a pretty miserable time. The friend I queued with, again playing DRK, died quite frequently. I obviously put Kardia on them from the onset and worked my ass off casting shields and heals (and using Dyskrasia and Dosis) but simply couldn't keep pace with the damage they were taking Vs healing/shielding and attacking (to keep the Kardia buff active). We actually wiped a few times to both trash mobs and bosses - I kept Swiftcast/Egeiro handy when realised my Tank friend was taking damage faster than I could heal it, but myself and the two DPS still became overwhelmed a few times. We finally got to the last boss and wiped. I apologised for my poor performance and did imply that I could leave if they wanted someone better. However, my DRK friend took that as me saying I was going to leave, made their apologies and bailed. Wasn't sure what to do at this point, but a new player popped in - a Paladin. And the run went as smooth as silk from that point onward. The Paladin only needed minimal shielding/healing, seemed to have some self-healing, I was able to put more effort into keeping the DPS healthy and we finished the boss without much fuss. Also, thanks to the DPS in the team who were kind enough to comment that they could see I was doing my best.
Afterward my friend commented that I was "probably undergeared" before logging off. I'm not convinced that's the case - whilst level 81 I have equipped a full set of Augmented Cryptlurker weapons and equipment.

I mean, it's not as if I haven't encountered Tanks that seemed to need a lot of healer attention before, but hadn't really experienced it on this level. And I'm not saying I wasn't responsible - I'm still learning the job and more than willing to accept I'm probably not very good at it..... but I still can't help but think that the run would've gone more smoothly if that Paladin had been on the team from the start.

To compliment what was said above me, I'll go further and mention that SGE has actual mitigative abilities beyond shields that are honestly more important than the direct healing GCDs are in situations likes this. Tauro and Kera are such short cooldowns, it's ideal to have them for every pull.

However, the difference really is the DRK. DRK dungeoning is seriously a mistake unless you are proficient in the job. Reasoning is that every other tank has way more self healing capabilities, WARs are practically invincible in dungeons because of how Bloodwhetting is designed. SGE/DRK is either a REALLY good combo, or a REALLY bad combo, and it's all up to TBN and proper cooldown cycling. If the DRK you were healing had zero MP during the pulls, chances are they dumped all of it on damage instead of pressing TBN on cooldown. Because it's such a massive amount of shielding on such a short cooldown, it synergizes with SGE's mitigation kit and standard Tank cooldowns to make very very strong shielding on short demand. This is the same logic for why Haima/Panhaima syngerize so well for tanks who are competent, as the same logic applies for the oGCD shields. Also, now that Living Dead is fixed, if they WEREN'T using it before they died, that's on them, no reason for it now, it's essentially another HP bar every five minutes. If they burned their Abyssal Drain at the start of the pull, overhealing themselves, that's a problem. If they didn't using Living Shadow on every other pull to kill adds really quickly, that's a problem. If all parties are doing their job, it's fine. But you can slam your face on a keyboard to survive wall to wall on any other tank. Only DRK takes a bit of familiarity with the job, no shame to the PLD, of course.

Also, Zot has the 2nd hardest wall to wall pulls in Endwalker at the end, only beat by imo, the 2nd wall to wall in Dead Ends. I think I have a post here, somewhere on dungeon healing for situations like this from EW launch, let me see if I can dig it up...

Oh, here it is.

SGE
I'm pretty sure a good SGE and a good DRK combination is absolutely busted. You get the DRK damage, you get the SGE damage, and you get the sturdiest TBNs. With the massive amount of oGCD, self-reapplying shields SGE brings, things like Kerachole, Holos, and Taurochole combine with Oblation, all of those oGCDs having short recasts that further amplify Haima, Panhaima, and TBN. The only thing I would ever have to alternate between pulls were Panhaima and Haima, everything else was easily handled by these other incredibly powerful oGCDs, with me spamming AoE the entire time, applying Soteria once the Panhaima/Haima shields fell off. Even on first pull where I would use the weaker Panhaima, it was more than made up for by a Krasis+Physis II and Zoe+Pneuma combo once I let the DRK get a little bit low after I had used the initial suite of damage mitigation. It's not like I needed weave slots, or that any of these had particularly long cooldowns. SGE is a true maverick in this department, and I not only performed the best using it, I had the most fun working together with general tank mitigation for mutual benefit. Seriously, this comp is brutally good if both players are playing at their peaks, I cannot recommend it enough.

You know what the problem is? I had to use my entire kit on all healers to heal a DRK in a way I thought was comfortable for both sides. Since I'm of the mindset, "Perfect practice makes perfect" I would play dungeon pulls like I'd be in an extreme trial or something. Use your entire kit, ABC, space out mitigation properly, do as much damage as possible, eat food (since it's so easy to make now/EXP), etc etc etc. This was MANDATORY. The same thing was demanded of the DRK, even when I play it. Reprisal, AL, doing actual damage, the works. It was actually quite enjoyable and easy when I found the right tank.

But when I healed the other tanks? I still did all those things, but it didn't feel nearly as needed, and if the DPS were slacking, as long as the tank pressed even a handful of mitigations, I don't think I'd be any the wiser. The high skill floor for basic adequacy on dungeon DRKing is not conducive to players who are not willing to put forth the effort to not be at a bare minimum competent in their dungeons on each party slot. If you get a Cure Iing WHM, or a Diagnosis-only SGE, or a single-targeting anything, you as a DRK are going to die, painfully, there is nothing you can do about it. Just take the penalty, it will be a lot less annoying.

When I had good DRKs, DRKs that would play like I would in dungeons, it was easier to heal them than all of these bandwagoning WARs who think that 1 Bloodwhetting is the only CD they need to press in an entire dungeon pull. For the casual player who doesn't press all of their buttons, healing DRKs or tanking as a DRK must be an absolute nightmare, which would explain the discrepancy in experiences. I've never had any problems healing DRKs or being healed as DRK if both parties were capable of playing at a high level. But you need all parts of the team to be doing that to really get the most out of it in dungeons, while other tanks are running around soloing things all day, carrying people with literally nothing inside of their skulls, no problem.

So that once leaves us with the tried and true DRK problem that we are all familiar with. Noticeably more effort for the same overall result as other jobs in the role, now extended to the entire light party. I don't really care if they adjust this, since I like being challenged, I'm just pointing out what I've observed now that all my tanks and healers are at 90. BiS DRK is going to shred Smileton and Sigma pulls to pieces though. With damage CDs, I'm already slicing some packs down in less than twenty-five seconds with a decent group, the damage is already pretty obscene with a i600 greatsword. I'm not justifying this, I'm just saying Living Shadow and two Shadowbringers/SaD/Floods are enhanced multi-enemy deletion devices.

Keep in mind, I wrote this during a time when I was way more passionate and way harsher, and angry at FFXIV in general. I'm not like that anymore, for the most part.

tldr don't be so hard on yourself in this matter, it's not even worth the thoughtspace in your mind

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

So... two days in a row I got Aitiascope as a GNB. Two days in a row our party gets Cure I WHM. Two days in a row they also manage to let one or two dpses die while also idling for the most of time. Me? I'm too salty to die. Having my DPSes die a couple of time surely drags the time spent, though.

/playdead

Wasn't sure whether to make a separate thread for this, but thought this thread would suffice[...]

DRK depends on healer for sustenance more than other tanks. Based on your account it seemed like the DRK simply weren't playing their cooldown game properly. I've survived plenty of time myself as a wall pulling DRK while paired with Cure I/Benefic I/Diagnosis/Physick Mages.

Can't add anything else that hasn't been said by Mosha. I do want to emphasize on AoE healing cooldowns: just use them, even if it's just for tanks in wall pulling. This is a fairly common mistake that I see beginner healers make when they're examining & devising their healing game.

A neat trick to have an easy heal plan is to group up these cooldowns by their timer. 30s will be up once or twice per pull depending how early they're used and which pull. 60s will be up once every pull. 90s will be up once and may be up on 2nd half of next pull. 120s will be up only 1 from 2 pulls, don't use all these on a single pull---spread these evenly on those two pulls. Fill in the blanks/mistakes with GCD healing or more of those cooldowns as necessary and you're gucci. Party's overall DPS plays a big part on determining the 90s and 120s availability, so expect some adjustment to be made as you learn better. This trick works wonder for any healers, not just SGE.

[...]Also, Zot has the 2nd hardest wall to wall pulls in Endwalker at the end, only beat by imo, the 2nd wall to wall in Dead Ends[...]

From a healer's perspective IMHO, it's the other way around because we have less powerful kits to deal with mistakes (No Lilybell, Macro, Pneuma, Exaltation, Krasis/Protaction synergy). Not much, but it's enough to be of a notice.

[Windfire]

Got Xelphatol for 50-80, me (tank) whm,sam & dnc. Dnc gave dance partner to the whm, just WHY? Then got Brayflox for lvling and got a cure 1 spammer, missing 3 health? *cure* Lil poison dmg? *cure* So I did what I always do when I get those-w2w the whole thing, if you're just going to cure bot then I'm going to make it somewhat worthwhile -.-

[Denji]

look blm
i understand. i play blm too.
but there comes a point where you lying dead on the floor hurts our dps more so if you have more than two vuln stacks then yeah i'm gonna rescue you. stop screamcrying about it.

[Cincierta]

Question: how on earth do you get to 90 mnk and into Thaleia and not understand your job?

Had a no-booster mnk in Thaleia earlier this week who literally would only press their 1-2-3 combos and occasionally Dragon Kick/Demolish, maybe Brotherhood if they were feeling generous or remembering that button exists.

No Riddle of Fire/Earth/Wind, no Mantra, no Instant Transmission skills. Hell, there were no Perfect Balance shenanigans to be seen or even any Kamehameha's. He would always be 8th in the aggro order, and as someone who leveled mnk to 90 on 4 characters this makes me sad.

[VictorSpoils]

Double rarity in P11 today:



I can only recall seeing a 4-melee party and a 4-pair party once each, so it was cool to see them appear together.