Healing Tips

[Ryuzaki]

Originally Posted by Kaey

LOL - niccccce. You don't happen to be the warrior I was monking for in Guild Wars do you :P His elite skill was Word of Healing and started healing me when I took damage :S

Lol, this happened to me as well in Guild Wars. :P

Good article btw.

[Boonitch]

Originally Posted by Nathreyx

I don't agree that using lower rank spells is a good idea, unless the mana cost difference is huge. Healers usually have lowcost/short casttime/less powerful heals in their arsenal, like Flash Heal for priests. Besides using less powerful heals should not be necessary if you are good at timing your heals. Since you don't have to use the spell as often if it is powerful your mana will have time to regen anyways.

I agree completely. Using lower rank spells clutters up your action bar and takes up valuable keybinds. In my opinion, if you use the right spells at the right time, you should never have to revert to using lower ranked heals. If you have to and can use lower ranked spells to heal your target and can do this comfortably, then the game is flawed. In that case it probably means you overheal your targets by a lot, when using the 'correct' spells.

[Kaey]

I think that if you actually feel your action bars are too cluttered with too many key bindings then you're making healing way to hard of a job than it really is. But I will have to say I disagree with your points on that you should keep people topped off. If you're constantly topping people off you will inevitably run out of energy/mana/points.

And I'm not going to comment on anything else seeing as I didn't write the original article. The work below it is mine.

[Raaka]

Very nice article. I enjoyed reading it.

I have 4-5 years experience of healing in Lineage2, WoW and WAR.

One thing I would like to add for PVP healing is to remain absolutely calm even if you are being targeted. Always evaluate how big the threat is and if the damage you are receiving can be healed by a HOT, needs some ocassional healing og needs your full attention. A healer needs to be able to heal his allies for as long as possible even when he is taking damage himself. Consider it carefully when you go into "Self preservation mode" and focus only healing yourself.

The less skilled healer tend to go into this "Self preservation mode" almost instantly while a skilled healer will change location, detaunt (if available in the specific game), seek help by the DPS and so on while keeping good healing up on the remaining group as well.

Just my 2 cents - and my first post on AionSource

/Raaka

[Malais]

Welcome Raaka.

I agree with what you said. Though when I heal in a siege(ala WAR) I always preferred to have a designated bodyguard. I ran with a good little Ironbreaker. He was the one who always saved his KB and taunt incase I ran into trouble. f I was targeted, I hit my shield, a heal while calling position in vent.

I never died if I only had 1 on me, occasionally if I had 2, and about 50/50 with more than that.

Ever since then every game I've played I gone with this kind of setup. Before the group even leaves I make sure to have a guard buddy. This allows me to be more focused on the group and less concerned with my own survival.

[Cocowoushi]

Originally Posted by Malais

I agree with what you said. Though when I heal in a siege(ala WAR) I always preferred to have a designated bodyguard.

That's a very good idea and will be helpful in Aion if you have someone who can pull peopl off you. I'm not sure how helpful this will be when in a 3D fighting field when really attacks can come from any direction. While I played Healer in RFO a lot of the time you were expected to know what you were doing by the time you got to the areas that depended on healers in the group. People were very independent in that while it was important to keep the Tank then the Healer alive, it was most important to keep the Rezzer alive (a different class all together) should the Tank eat the dirt.

I have to say Healing in RFO was pretty easy compared to what I've been reading here. You got 2 group heals and 1 single target heal and that was it. About 50% of healers I saw just put the group heals in a macro and wedged the key down and went AFK. Nothing infurriated me more than this. I was a dedicated healer and as a result was able to learn how to time very well when heals were needed and keep them timed so I didn't pull agro with them.

I'm planning to play with my Guild once this opens so if I do happen to mess up I'll be more comfortable and will be able to learn the system easier before I start to party with people I don't know. The worst thing that can happen is being labled as an incompetent healer. Sure people will still take you, but only if there is no one else. I want to be people's first pick, not the last.

[Notalented]

Communication is key; getting dps to notice you once enemy dps in on you is a must. Keeping track of cool downs and having a rotation is nice for easy pvp, and using cooldowns (ie: fear if there is one; i forget) when need to keep you healing or even savng an fc from diing right b4 a cap in Warsong Gulch. From my healing experience in wow I've always been a fan of faking a cast & getting them to use there interupt and then really casting in tough situations.

[feliciadragon]

My experience comes from 3+ years as a white mage on FFXI. I think that going into self-preservation mode is something a good healer should never ever do. As the healer, I will always heal myself last. The reason is very simply that I can heal myself and for the most part, everyone else can't. In a crunch situation, since they can't heal themselves, if they aren't sure that they can depend on me, then they start to panic, do stupid and irrational things, and end up getting everyone involved in more trouble. I know how much damage I can take, and if I'm being hit, can quickly assess how many times I can take more damage before being KO'ed myself. So most likely I will allow my HP to get much much lower than I would ever let anyone elses, because I don't want to send my tank or my DD's into panic mode while I am busy healing myself. Your tank and your DD should be paying attention and once the healer starts getting hit, they should do everything in their power to pull it off him/her.

In general, I thought it was a good article. My only experiece is with FFXI (possibly being the only person on the planet who has never played WoW-giggle) so my viewpoint is skewed to PvE and not PvP. I tend to focus on the tank as my main priority, and if the tank is doing their job correctly, I shouldn't have to be healing everyone else regularly. If the tank is doing his/her job, and someone else still continues to pull hate (usually because they are showing off) I will ask them to stop a couple of times, and if they continue to do it, I will simply stop healing them until they get the picture. If I am spending all of my mana healing the samurai who is just showing off, and its slowing the party down because I have to then rest before we can fight again, then the samurai is doing a disservice to the whole party and needs to stop. Just my 2 cents

[Trigdan]

I agree, from what I scimmed through seems true not just for Warhammer but for all games that have a type of healing class.

[Mastablasta]

Also from FFXI, a good healer(s) definitely changed the outcome of any type of event. I personally never was into healing classes; but on the flip side of what many are saying about keeping the DPS alive and/or mid to full health before themselves, healers should primarily focus on the tank and then themselves. If one or the other of those two classes fall, then the outcome of the event will be hard to resurface, unless you have many backups. On the other hand, if the DPS falls, then the fight will just last longer.

Now, I'm not saying don't heal the DPS, however, good DPS should know if you are getting to much hate/threat, they need to back off. DPS should not be pulling an overwhelming amount of damage unless it is planned, for instance (FFXI tactic) a K.club DRK has the highest DPS for a very short amount of time. In the cases of something like this are occurring, then a healer should just let them die. Game mechanics might be different in Aion on if you die, in FFXI when you die, you loose hate/threat. If you cure bomb, at least in FFXI, you'll aquire an additional amount of unnecessary hate/threat. Now, if the tank is unable to hold hate off of a DPS attacking in bare minimum, then odds are that you need to find yourself another tank.

I've found many times if a healer runs out of mana, it is not because of the healer, but it is because of the other players (normally DPS) that haven't matured enough to see that they are taking to much damage is hurting the overall objective and slowing the pace down. It is all about the management of the fight that will lead to the outcome. If a healer is cure bombing to many people, then it should reflect on the aspect of how the strategy is failing.

All in all, I'm just trying to point out that it is not always "bad healers", but sometimes it is also the tactic in which are reflected by their mana usage. Other aspects come into play as well, and this should be brought to the attention of the new MMO players.

Edit: Forgot to add a few words.

[Ecco]

In a huge pvp battle, with so many people going at each other at once, it tends to give a momentary shock for the healer, as the person decides who to support or heal, whereas in a premade group, a healer can focus on the group, while dismissing others to their fate.

For instances or dungeons, while DPS or DD classes are aplenty, not all of them watch hate/threat due to the amount of damage they are dealing and wanting to brag about how much DPS or damage they did. So the healer has to compensate for that, usually when DD classes pull aggro from the tank and the healer have to save his or her sorry behind, funny thing is, they sometimes won't admit to that mistake and continues doing it again and again. Sometimes as a healer, I end up carrying the whole group to finish the instance, while taking longer than it should, which is way I prefer premade groups or with people you are familiar with for those areas and can save some stress of dealing with pick ups.

DD (including AoE-oriented) classes can pretty much spam an average of 4-5 keys, maybe a few more on one or more. While DD or DPS classes duke it out with each other, I usually see healers tend to remain at short-range or mid-range in a open battlefield, because the opponents usually don't stay in one spot for very long, and the healer have to compensate by moving within range, for reason tends to be closer on the focus target. Usually the other would-be killer will get the message that his or her opponent is getting support, and switches for the healer or support, and since the support is close-by in some cases, the DD has usually, a free kill, can disrupt the support long enough for backup to arrive to finish the job or dies trying.

So the question stands to, what range do healers in general tend remain by: close-quarters (for the gutsy type or the looney), mid-range (maybe for utilizing their support spells besides just heal), long-range (safe usually, unless a stealther was nearby waiting for the healer to be away far enough from his or her group)?

[Celandri]

well i dont totaly agree on that post.
my experience as healer from ffxi was conserve mana. try to flow the mana the longest one could do and downrank.
i had heal 2-3 and 5 because they gave most hp per mana point. while using regen 1-2 and 3 for mana conservation.
usualy started with a regen before a pull rested mana to i saw he came around 75% hp then using a flash then new regen. mabye a heal there and here. if the melees got hurt with a aoe i started with rank 2 regen on the most dammaged player and a regen 1 on the player with low dammage on himself.
as a whm you got your own internal regen (yes it sucked) that helped yourself if you got dammaged. but if i got dammaged i usualy only used a regen 1.
if i got out of mana it was 1. pacing on fight was totaly wrong. / dps got overhit./ tank got asleep.

in wow im to used to overheal because we got way to much mana and to high mana regen so you can spam and just turn head away and see tv. something i hate. i want to be consentrated on doing my job. not getting hurt on my finger because i spam the same button every sec.

edit. forgot the reason i should write here.... XD.
well im usualy midrange in pvp im midrange because i need to hit everyone. in pve im usualy backrange or mixed range of back and mid because of aoes. also you can usualy have a few sec relaxation if youre in back on bosses but mid you can have a few sec controll of who need what in but less relaxations.

[feliciadragon]

Celandri I completely agree with you on healing in FFXI. I am curious to see how things are different in a PvP environment, since I don't have any experience in that area. In FFXI, the WHM can Raise other people, but also has ReRaise to raise themselves. Is that something other games have? I've only ever played FFXI.

Where I stand during a battle depends on what I'm doing. Usually, I stay far enough away that the AoE's won't hit me, but close enough that I don't have to move around to cast on anyone in the party. In big battlegrounds like Besieged (for those of you who are FFXI fans I in fact just typed Bes and then hit the tab button expecting the rest of the word to pop up in auto-translate-giggle- I never have to fully type out anything!) or Dynamis, where there is no one spot that you can be out of range of attack or in range of everyone to heal I tend to stand more mid-range and keep a close eye on my Stoneskin, knowing that I am going to take AoE damage. The only time I am really in the middle of the battle is when I am PLing a lower party (so that they don't have to chase the mob when I pull hate healing them) or when I run around as my WHM/NIN actually intending to be a DD.

Celandri - just curious - what weapon are you holding in your signature picture? I have Genbu's shield (which is what I think you have in your other hand) but I rarely use it, because if I'm actually going to use my weapon, I go /nin so I can dual wield.

[Celandri]

the weapon you see is a Allakhazam.com: Final Fantasy XI: Item: Gullintani
Gullintani 2nd last upgrade before Mjollnir.
i had bouth sea clubs also for dding.
But usualy i did go whm/war with my guillitani instead of /nin
the shield you see is the genbu shield.
i had regen set. barspell set. max mp/min hp. max hp/min mp. tp gain, max dammage set.
soloed all the avatars alone, soloed a few nms around too.

had ohat. speed belt. etc items before last day i deleeted my character. i was a lv 100+3 leather crafter so i feeled i was done with the game. would still played if not the linkshell broke in 2.

[Rem]

Nice healing tips! Very informative for new healers. Keep up the good job.