A Newbie Guide to Healing
HALO~
I make this guide in the hopes that it will make new players less scared of healing, or at the very least, more mentally prepared for it. Also because the in game tutorial makes me do this (ಠ ∩ಠ)
SO! Suggestions encouraged, just remember this is meant to be a general beginners guide, so I won't be including anything specific to a single dungeon/raid/trial.
Everything under the cut!
Healing is understandably the job the player base finds the most intimidating. The Tank is sturdy, and the DPS nimble, but they depend on you to keep them alive, as none of them can compete with the sheer healing and resurrection powers you have! And that can be a lot of pressure, but we can break this down so its slightly less pressure!
Healing in its most basic form is all about multitasking and prioritizing your moves. Think of it like playing Invaders, you have to make sure you are taking out the closest threats before you can worry about the next - get rid of the first row, then the next row, and so on. In this case the threat is your party members health bars depleting XD
How to Heal
Know Your Skills
Let's start with getting familiar with your skills! The Healer classes all have pretty unique styles to each other, so I advise you READ YOUR TOOL TIPS. For the most part you will have two types of healing spells:
Regular Heal-this heals the player/party for a certain amount of points. Some will heal a little bit, some heal a good amount, and a couple will heal for a lot/all the targets HP. These come in both single target and Area of Effect [AOE] form.
Regenerating Heal-also known as regen. These are spells that initially heal a small amount of points, and then heal a small amount over time, for a few seconds or so. These also come in single target and AOE forms.
The Healer classes also all have unique class specific Heal spells that will have certain effects, or play with class specific mechanics. That is for you to learn as you get more familiar with the classes, as most of them are beyond Lv50 and at that point we're no longer in newbie territory. SO, from this point on I will refer to a "regular heal" as simply a Heal, and a "regenerating heal" as a Regen.
All Healers also have a Role skill called Esuna, a status or debuff clearing heal. These are also called DOTs or Damage Over Time. Keep in mind this will not heal any status, only the ones with a progress bar over them will be cured. You also will not be able to choose which status is healed if your target has multiple. Esuna is a single target skill.
Two of the Healer jobs [SCH & SGE] also have shielding or barrier granting skills. These skills do not heal the party, but instead negate damage for a certain amount of points. This will appear as a yellow section of a player's HP bar capping before their health points. If they have full health it will roll over to an extra line. Any damage taken will first have to go through the barrier before it can get through to the health points. These also can be single target or AoE.
Finally, every Healer has the ability to revive a fallen player, usually referred to as a "res". This will be elaborated on later, but know that you all get this skill very early, and that this has a pretty long cast time normally.
Learning to Cast
Yes I said cast time! All Healing jobs are also casting types! Meaning that for a majority of your skills are spells, and most of them require you to stand still until the cast finishes for it to work! This requires you to position yourself out of danger, but still close enough to heal.
Most of the time a good place to be is a short distance off to the side of the Tank. That way you have a good view of everyone, while being out of harm's way. This applies to both groups of enemies and Bosses.
Single target spells will have a longer range than the AoE ones, and most AoE heals/regens/barriers treat you as the center of the circle. So if you're planning to do a party-wide skill, you need to position yourself so others are in your range!
There is also a helpful tactic called slide-casting, that can assist you if you find yourself in harm's way. There is perhaps a half-second before your spell is done casting, that you can move, but the spell will still finish! It will take some practice to get a feel for it.
You and Your Tank
As the Healer you are responsible for your parties health, but most of all you are also the Tanks partner. They are going to depend on you to keep them alive as they do their best to soak up all the damage to keep the party out of harm's way.
This means you must keep up with the Tank for every pull. If they are running, you are running. If they pull the group around a corner, you have to run around that corner to target them for healing. If they fall, you bring them back up!
But also, if they are taking on too much for you to handle or going too fast, tell them! Very few Tanks will warn or ask if big pulls are ok, because it tends to be assumed. If you're nervous, let them know you are new/new to healing a particular encounter. Most Tanks will ease up and at that point you can tell them if you're comfortable taking on more. They might lead the charge, but you're the one keeping them standing!
The Tank in turn is supposed to be keeping everyone safe, especially you. They do this by generating the most enmity. Enmity is the in game stat that tells the enemies who to attack first, also known as Aggro in most other games. All enemies are drawn to who is creating the most enmity and who is doing the most damage. All Tanks have a Stance that will help them generate enmity, if they have it on, it will look like a little buff by their name called either Iron Will, Defiance, Royal Guard, or Grit. If your Tank is pulling and you don't see this by their name, tell them!
This is important because you as the Healer are also capable of generating enmity, because big heals also tend to grab the enemies attention. Especially regen.
The Pull
OK, let's try to put all that together!
1. The Buddy System
If you are a SGE, immediately put Kardia on your Tank. If you are a SCH, summon your Carbuncle/Fairy if they're not out!
The Tank is the front liner so they will run in first so that they can grab the enemies attention. Always stay behind the Tank, not just because you need to be there to heal them, but because you don't want the enemies to spot you first! You are mighty of mending but squishy of body!
Generally you have two options on your approach: if you are some distance away from an enemy group you can safely throw a regen/barrier on to the Tank without drawing enemy attention. OR you can wait until the Tank have picked up the Boss/all the enemies before starting up any skills.
2. Stay Alive
This is going to sound counterintuitive to your Role, but remember: you are the only Healer! The party might be able to take a few mobs and be okay until you return, but if you die in the boss fight, the rest of the party is often soon to follow.
Make sure you are out of harm's way and your own health is fine, before you start throwing out heals to the others! You can't heal anyone if you are face-planting the earth.
3. Keep the Others Alive
Once you're in a good spot and your own HP bar is okay, it's time to watch everyone else's! When you're the Healer you're going to spend most of the time watching these bars, so it might be helpful to change the size in the HUD to make them bigger. This will make it easier to select the player you want for individual heals.
SCH, your Fairy will also move independently of your commands to heal and shield other players. This is normal, and your game is not tweaking out. It also will not interfere with any of your spells, so don't worry about it!
Generally the Tank will be your priority and the one taking all damage if things are going well. Depending on the amount they are taking, you can heal them every so often, give them a big heal, or if it looks like they are doing fine, a regen may suffice!
Something to watch here also: make sure your Tank is using their mitigations! These are skills the Tanks have to lessen the amount of damage they take, and the skills will have many different names, but all of them will appear as a buff by their name and say they reduce damage. This is important because you are not expected to, and in some cases straight up cannot, heal through all the damage the Tank will take. This is a balancing act between you and the Tank and you both have to contribute for it to work! If you notice the Tank is not using mitigations, politely ask if they are/know about them.
4. Attack Whenever Possible
Remember, you also have attacks! FF14 wants all the players to be actively damaging foes. In fact they generally want the healer to be 30% of the DPS! If your party looks good and the Tank is not in immediate danger, be attacking as much as you can!
SGE this is why you pick the Tank to put Kardion on, for every attack you make it gives the Tank a bit of healing!
Again you are a caster class so most of your attacks will also require you to stand still! When you are fighting groups of enemies, stick to AoE attacks, when you are fighting single targets, use single target spells.
When you are using AoE attacks, some of them will also treat you as the center of the circle, forcing you to get close to your enemies. DO NOT stand next to the Tank. The Tank is only directing damage, they cannot actually shield you with their body. Attacks will go through them and hit you. This is called Cleave. A fair strategy is to follow the lead of the DPS who is experienced, as they also prefer not to die lol
Your DOTs or Damage over Time skills are instant cast! Which can come in handy, as sometimes you won't have time for much else. These are best saved for Bosses, but if you have time to throw them on a random enemy, don't hesitate! For bosses you want to try and reapply DOTs as often as possible.
AST, your Tarot Cards and Divination are specifically for buffing the attack power of yourself and other players, so keep whipping those out!
And remember, the slide-casting trick works on attack spells too!
5. Pick Up the Fallen
Despite your best efforts, someone has died. Don't panic! Even if it's the Tank, don't panic. Now is the time we learn how to play god!
All Healers have the ability to res: Raise for WHM, Resurrection for SCH, Ascend for AST, and Egeiro for SGE. Despite the different names these spell all function exactly the same and they have the same casting time. Which is long.
So when you need to raise someone in a pinch, you want to use the Role skill Swiftcast first! This skill makes it so the next spell you cast is instantaneous. Your priority if everyone else is dead will always be Tank first. If there is a need to raise more, you can use the res move again, but you will have to do it for the full cast time, until you are able to use Swiftcast again. So it's best to wait for a moment where everything is back under control, and you are out of harm's way so you won't be interrupted.
Keep in mind also, when you res someone, they will revive in the last place you were standing when you cast that spell, not where their body is. Also, players first have to accept the res in order to be revived, meaning there may be a delay between when you cast it, and when they actually get up.
6. Tank Busters
Every so often a Boss will think "well shit, if I just take care of this one mother fucker, the rest will fall like leaves!" and try to take out your Tank in one attack. This is the Tank Buster and you need to keep your eye on the Tank when this is happening!
You can tell when this is happening when the Tank suddenly has both a circular marker around their body, and an arrow over their head pointed directly down at them. This is usually coupled with a progress bar indicating a strong move is charging up.
Generally these moves cannot be stopped, your Tank will take damage. So do your best to make sure your Tank's health is at max before the attack hits, and once the damage is done, assess the amount needed to be healed after. Sometimes it's going to be a lot, sometimes they might just need a regen.
Making Good Choices!
As the Healer, you will in the end have to prioritize some Roles over others depending on your situation. There isn't any favoritism involved in these lists, it's purely from a "how do I get us back on track the fastest" standpoint. If it helps, think of it like you're a battlefield medic, they have to make choices based on the conditions!
For Light Parties
This will be most Dungeons and the early Trials. For the majority of in game content this will be the set up you will work with: 1 Tank, 1 Healer, and 2 DPS.
Heal Priority- 1. Yourself 2. The Tank 3. DPS
Res Priority- 1. The Tank 2. The DPS
For Full Parties
These will be Normal Raids and most trials after ARR. 2 Tanks, 2 Healers, and 4 DPS.
Heal Priority- 1. Yourself 2. The Main Tank 3. Off Tank/DPS
Res Priority- 1. One of the Tanks 2. Other Healer 3. DPS- Summoner [can help res at Lv12] or Red Mage [can help res at Lv64] 4. Other Tank/All other DPS
For Alliance Raids
These are Alliance Raid only. You will be part of an 8 player team, and there will be two other 8 player teams on the field. When you pick Healer in Alliance Raid, keep in mind that your skills will typically only affect those in your immediate party. For instance if you use an AoE skill. You can help players from the other parties, but only if you specifically select them, and only with single target skills. Your Party-1 Tank, 2 Healers, and 5 DPS. The Alliance- 3 Tanks, 6 Healers, and 15 DPS.
Heal Priority- 1. Yourself 2. The Main Tank [may not be your Tank!] 3. Your Tank [if not the main tank] and DPS
Resurrection Priority- 1. One Tank 2. Your other Healer 3. Healers from other parties 4. Any Summoner [can help res at Lv12] or Red Mage [can help res at Lv64] 5. Other Tanks/Your other DPS 6. DPS from other parties
General Tips and Etiquette
You will never need Repose. At this time, this skill is useful maybe in a few story instances, and if you're out in the field alone. But in any general dungeon/trial/raid run it has no use.
You can use the Role skill Surecast to ensure your next spell will not be interrupted by attacks, and it will also prevent most knock-back effects!
If you are having trouble managing MP consumption, you can use the Role skill Lucid Dreaming to steadily regain MP for a short amount of time. Likewise you can also use it after just having been revived to get your MP back quickly so you can use your stronger spells faster! Because your MP will be extremely low when you regain control.
Speaking of that, WHM and AST, once you guys get level up high enough to learn Cure II and Benefic II, stop using the first versions of these skills. Yes, there is a neat little bonus action combo that they do, but I'm telling you that is inconsequential. It is simply more time and cost effective to use the stronger Heal move, then to keep pumping out a tiny heal for a chance at something bigger. If you're having trouble just use Lucid Dreaming, or Presence of Mind/Lightspeed to help you out, it will be quicker I promise!
Don't forget about Esuna! Yes you could just heal through the DOT on your Tank, but that takes more time and MP than just cleansing them! Especially if the DOT is going to last more than 5 seconds. However, if the target has more than 2 status effects on them and they have short timers, it may be more cost effective to cleanse one and then heal. If ALL the DOTs have long timers, heal between cleanses.
On that note, let's talk about Doom [the in game debuff]. Cleansing Doom is not optional, as it can kill a player that has full HP instantly. Doom is not so much a DOT as a countdown to player death. On top of that, the way you must cure Doom is not always the same. Most of the time you can cleanse Doom by healing a player up to full HP before the timer runs out. Sometimes it has a bar over it, which means you can use Esuna to clear it. And then there's the ones that are completely out of your control, because it's a boss specific mechanic that required the afflicted player to do something [there's only one of these in main game content]. So yes when it comes to Doom, pay attention and do your best :')
For the Healers the use of the Limit Break is not common, but when it's time, it is crucial. For main game content with a 4 player party you will never need it, but in the Trials and Raiding content this is a potential tool to save your team if you need it. Because for the Healers the Level 3 Limit Break [LB3] results in a full party 100% heal and res. Meaning if you are the last man standing in the raid you have the power to turn the whole thing around! Keep in mind: You will still have a cast time for this move, and this move has a limited range. Make sure you are safe when casting, and be close to the party members you intend to res.
If a player has died and you didn't have time to res them before all the enemies/boss are dead, whatever the reason may be, it is better for them to teleport and run back. This might seem rude, but it's because when you res someone, they don't come back at full strength! They have a minute long debuff called Weakness that lowers their attack by 25%. If you've already ressed them in that time frame, doing it a second time will make it Brink of Death and then their attack is lowered by 50%. Some players don't know this and will just lay there. Politely explain it to them. If they stay there, then they can stay there :)
Rescue is a Role skill that you need to be the most careful with in its use. Yes, a timely rescue from the jaws of death is great and you love to see it! But this is also a move that can easily be used to cause grief in the wrong hands. Unless the player in question is actively in danger and they are aware of it, they are more often than not going to be a little bit terse with being literally pulled away from whatever they were trying to accomplish. Especially if they were in the right place and they just got pulled into death. You must be 100% sure when you use this move, that you are moving someone out of danger when you do it.
DO NOT pull for the Tank. Remember you and the Tank are a team! That means you both have to be comfortable with a big pull. Because you might be an awesome healer, but if they're still not familiar with all their mitigations, or even not familiar with the encounter, then they might die anyways. If you're feeling good about it, you can simply tell the Tank that they can grab more enemies. If they're not, then please continue to move at the pace they set. If the Tank wants to make a big pull they will either ask, or most just do it and see if you're able to keep up with their stride.
On that note, DO NOT use Rescue to make the Tank move forward faster. Do not use it to pull the Tank into mobs. The only thing this will accomplish is make the Tank mad at you. Again, this is a partnership, be considerate of the Tank!
NOW GO! PROTEC YOUR FRANDS FROM DANGAR ;3
