Healer training

[Craigtech]

I haven’t played in 8 years, hit level cap in heavensward maining a white mage and just stopped. I just found out I can run a dungeon using AI. I found it incredibly easy and my question is how effective is it to use the AI as training so I can learn to heal again. They seem to always execute mechanics correctly which makes healing it very easy.

[Zeastria]

Que for lower lvl dungs with players ( start with lowest).
and build yourself up from there..

[WaxSw]

The AI is simply not effective to train, sadly there aren't many places to actually train healing, as most of the tutorials in this game suck and as you have said healing is a very easy task, but if I were to tell someone how to properly learn healing try to do this in your normal content:

1-Forget any fear of deaths, they are part of the training and, in general content, the worst they are is just a mild inconvinience that wont bother the vast majority of people

2-Read deeply your kit, you want to make sure you know what each heal does, their cooldown and the effects that trigger/affect it. You don't want to be the kind of player that thinks cure 3 is better than 2 because 3>2. Luckily you can experiment with the heals out of instance so if you're not sure how a button works, just press it in the overworld and see what it does. I highly advice you to look to guides outside the game too.

3-When healing, try to keep the party alive with the least amount of GCD heals and Cooldowns you can. If you want to be a good healer, knowing how much you can stretch your kit is key. Keep track of what you use, where and when, and ask youself if that was the correct placement or if you could save a use of X heal in Y situation.

4-Do damage, as healer your job is keeping the party alive while dealing the biggest amount of damage you can. Learning how to maximize your damage will teach you what heals are the most efficient for each situation, when its better to use X heal and how to stretch them their most.

5-Once you catch up, go to harder content. As you have said the content on the game is very easy to heal and this does not change through the story, that's why, in order to truly learn how to push your kit, is better to do harder content that can offer a bit more of a challenge and put you to test. Something like trying the EW extremes or going to a savage if you feel ready

[Sebazy]

As above, trusts aren't really indicative of how dungeons actually go at the level cap, your first proper dungeon will be a bit of a shock as the rest of the team sprints off into the sunset.

I've got a slightly different recommendation set to Wax though:

First off, communicate++. Let the group know you're new to this. As long as you let people know in advance, they are generally very accommodating. Whilst they probably aren't going to single pull for you (and frankly it's best if they don't), it will generally give them a wake up call to use CDs and pitch in to make the run smoother.

Secondly, watch your tanks bars. If they sprint, you sprint. If they don't sprint, you don't sprint. Developing that habit now will make things a lot smoother and prevent you from getting into dangerous situations because you didn't keep up with the group at a key moment.

I'm more inclined to suggest that you don't worry too much about your DPS for the first pull or two whilst you adjust to the difference in pace, there are a few easy ways to get great contribution as a WHM even if you aren't slamming every last GCD. Holy is mighty on big pulls and you can prevent a good amount of incoming damage with its stun. Hitting mobs with your dot whilst on the run to the next stack point is literally free damage too, that's another skill you want to get into the habit of using.

Above all. Remember that healing/tank anxiety in this game is laughably silly. I've made mistakes and caused wipes in dungeons before, we all have at some point even if it is kind of hard to actually achieve it now But remember that the penalty for a full wipe is literally 30 seconds of the groups time. It happens, some idiots will froth at the gash over it but at the end of the day. Deaths genuinely don't matter. The point at which you are right now is the most fun you will ever have as a healer. Don't let pointless anxiety over literally nothing take that away.

[fulminating]

Just wing it. Don’t be afraid to hit your buttons. So what if benediction is on a 3 minute cool-down, if you hit it now it’ll be back in 3 minutes. Everything else is just practice. Level 60/70/80 dungeons tend to have a generous sync and you’re a healer so the queue time shouldn’t be a problem. 50 are also generously synced but can have less standard parts to them.

[Post]

If you're serious about trying to use them for training, you can probably challenge yourself healing a little bit with the AI by pulling all the enemies a dungeon allows (before being forced to stop via a wall that breaks once the enemies are cleared) and then keeping your tank alive. This is much easier with actual players.

I don't really know how feasible this is with the AI partners as I've never done it from the healer role (only as a tank and dps because boy do the AI partners take a long enough time to kill things already). They should have no issue holding aggro but they won't AoE, and I don't know how much mitigation the tank would put out. But, that'll probably challenge you to at least remember to use all your buttons, spread them out over time so you've always got something extra rolling and to weave them well, like Regen-> Tetragrammaton or Afflatus: Solace -> Assize. You'll be able to get out some damage and stuns with Holy, too, if you play well.

Don't forget buttons like Cure III or Asylum for cases where a dps or you take a hit while your tank is still getting wailed on. You can heal the damage on your party members not about to get hit again while still focusing your heals on the party member continuously taking damage.

Healing bosses and 8-man stuff is almost always easier than dungeon trash, just learn the fight and how to dodge, Thin Air exists now for free Rezzes, and remember that your co-healer will ALWAYS waste Swiftcast rez immediately after you do it, and your RDM/SMN too, probably.

[Sebazy]

Cure III in a dungeon is almost guaranteed to be either a bad time or a waste of time. There's nearly always better abilities outside of organised play.

Asylum is mighty though and really it should be getting used on cooldown on the tank in dungeons, especially for trash pulls in tandem with Regen if needed. That buys you a ton of time and space.

[Post]

I think you'll find that any time you consider casting a heal on a party member that's not the tank while the tank is taking enough of a beating that you can't spare a GCD, you can't beat Cure III for healing both of them. Medica 2 might be technically better, but if the damage is high enough there won't be time for the HoT to catch up.

I'm not saying "use cure III like it's your bread and butter," this is "the tank is taking lots of damage, someone else gets hit and might die because they still have aggro and I can't spare my abilities". If you had to cast two single-target healing GCDs where one AoE heal would have sufficed, then Cure III or Medica 2 would have been better. You can even use Plenary Indulgence for trash pulls this way, which is an Ability you probably wouldn't use during trash otherwise. Cure III is even available as low as Cutter's Cry, when you don't have any abilities other than Presence of Mind and Swiftcast available. I'm saying "don't forget your tools."

If you're having trouble aiming it, position yourself between the two targets and cast it on yourself. You should probably already be there because you're spamming Holy on your other free GCDs anyways.

Even with Afflatus Misery unlocked, optimally it's better to spend the Lilly GCDs in between pulls if you're not overcapping without spending them during battles. But, your mileage may vary in NPC AI dungeons, again. Not sure how much damage they take if you do giant pulls.

[Renathras]

A recommendation I always make to new Tanks AND Healers:

Try them out in PotD.

Why?

Because you have your level 1-60 kit, but not the more advanced buttons yet, and the content is designed to not require a Tank or Healer and be doable by 4x DPS, so no matter what you're doing, it's probably sufficient. You WILL NOT get the full experience, but TRAINING should start slow and build up. I especially recommend this to people that leveled SMN but want to try out their SCH but don't want to get thrown into something like Zot in their first Leveling que. You can start at floor 1 and work through your skills, or jump into a 51 que, but either way, you can experiment with your spells, see about how much health they give people, and just get comfortable with things like positioning and managing party health bars.

It's where I often go when I pick up a new Healer Job (I think the first thing I did on SGE after the intro quest was a PotD or two) or Tank Job just to try and get a basic feel for it. And for people brand new to the Role, it's SUPER low pressure since, as I said, the content is designed to not even need a Healer. Just being able to Raise someone who steps on a Landmine or Esuna some debuffs makes you worth the party spot.

After you feel like you have those basics down, you can try your luck in Alliance Roulette (24 mans), mainly Crystal Tower. Any of the three. There's more going on in those fights, and while you still have a limited kit, you have a lot of training wheels between your co-healer and even the other party Healers if things go super pear-shaped.

After that, you'll have experienced both small and large group content, simple and somewhat less simple mechanics while healing, and dealt with "live" players. If you still feel unsteady, you can run some higher level Dungeons with your Trusts or use story mode in the later ones (like the level 68 one in Elpis) so you can try out your full kit.

Once you've done all that, just jump into Leveling Roulette or 50/60/70/80 and you should be ready for things.

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One thing also to remember:

Despite the raiding community saying it's akin to murdering children, you ARE ALLOWED to use your GCD heals. They're good backup tools if you just can't think of something to do. If your brain freezes, have one button somewhere you can hit that does something useful. Medica 2, Succor, etc is what I used when I first started out. If ever my brain locked up, I'd hit that button. (1) It's generally always useful and, at least, never HARMFUL, (2) it gives you something to do, which is often enough to snap your brain out of freeze/stupor, (3) it gives you a few seconds of cast bar to think of what your next move is and get back on track. I've given a number of people that piece of advice and to a person they've told me later it was super useful. Medica 2, Aspected Helios, Succor, Eukrasia Prognosis - if ever you freeze, hit that and THINK and you can get through it.

GCD heals are also useful if you can't decide what oGCD to use or things are just going so nuts you can't think of a good way to proceed. In either case, you ARE ALLOWED to use your GCD heals if brown stuff hits the fan. It's better to be doing SOMETHING than doing NOTHING in almost every case in this game (the only exception being that overheat/fire status effect, but that's rare so don't worry too much about it - you'll get to know it when you see it later on). With that lone exception, doing SOMETHING is better than doing NOTHING, and if that means casting GCD heals, go for it. Worry about optimization when no one's dying and you're not standing in bad stuff. And if you have a healing CD that has less than a 60 sec cooldown on it, it's going to be up all the time, so use it. Don't think of the short CDs as emergencies, think of them as fun bonuses. Tetragrammaton, for example.

Finally:

Let people know you're new to healing. People in this game tend to be pretty kind and, at least if they know you're new, they might give you some tips. Just listen and do your best.

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[EDIT: Oh, one last ting, since your question was about the AI - the AI is decent for training dungeon fights because they show you where the safe spots are so you can learn mechanics. So they're useful for that. Also useful for trying higher end kits with less stress since you can try out your abilities "live" without worrying about other players. But you will probably want to try out parties of Humans sooner or later.

Healing in this game is GENERALLY not too hard outside of Extremes/Savages since the Healer kits are pretty strong. Just don't be afraid to use them! :ENDEDIT]

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So that'd be my #1, 2, 3, and 4 recommendations:

1) Try it out in PotD.
2) Have a useful AOE GCD heal that you can hit if you ever can't think of what to do.
3) You ARE allowed to use GCD heals, optimization can come with time. If a CD is 60 sec or less, use it all the time. 1 min isn't too long, so you don't need to worry about saving it for an emergency. Just have fun with them.
4) Let people know you're new, listen, and just do your best.

Oh, and do try to have fun out there: You're the Heart of the Party. \o/