This guide is an attempt to get a bit deeper into more advanced tactics and strageties for the different healing jobs. This is for people like minded as myself with one goal in mind... high EXP.
The first thing you will notice as a healer... when you run out of MP, the chain stops. Therefore you have 2 things to take into consideration. Your party's HP and your own MP. A nice MP base is important, which is why of the three jobs, RDM SMN and WHMl RDM is in terms of raw healing power limited in their traditional state.
Why is base MP important? Think of MP as ellasticity. When you have a ball, and you throw it, depending on its ellastic properties it will bounce a very short or far distance. It is potentional, but why is that important? Because the more potentional a job has the more it WILL do with effort.
Here is how it works for FF physics.
You're sitting there, 500/500 MP. Tank has 1000/1000 HP. You've got refresh on. Whenever the tank drops to 400 HP or below he nears dangerous HP.
There are two choices you have...
Stand up the entire battle, spam the tank with cure 3 whenever he takes a hit. Notice you will through this method always end up with less MP than you began with.. unless your tank is taking particulary low amount of damage... like a ninja who got hit once.
Method two... first off if it's a paladin, they are healing themselves, so you give them HP room to heal themself, and when they get into critical you heal them back up to full with a couple quick medium cures or one big cure. When you aren't casting, you're resting.
Unless your tank is particulary bad, this will give you something of a random result. Though more efficient than previous method, sometimes you will end up with less MP than started. Sometimes MORE MP than started, dependant on the damage dealt in that battle. Each battle is far from constant when you take into account things like...
The paladin using more MP to heal himself because he wants more hate.
The monster fighting.
AE damage.
Specials attacks.
Criticals.
How long the battle goes on for... e.g. a quick battle that was opened with a skillchain and ended with a powerful MB might not even require the WHM getting up from rest.
Therefore higher MP total allows you to drop lower and lower into your reserves while you wait for your eventual bounce back.
The harder you're thrown, the faster you'll bounce back. Why is this?
HMP. The most vital component to your bounce affect is the ability to bounce your MP levels up quickly again. Take for instance the dark staff. Instead of for example 14 MP back on your first tick, you recieve 24! With subjobs you recieve additional ticks back and other gear like for example seer's body at low level and errant at higher. For this reason the more experienced WHM will tell you that dark staff is in fact more important even than light staff, which works to simply make every cure you cast 10% more efficient. As well after the initial rest, your ticks will increase in speed, halved for future rests. Many WHMs use food designed simply to raise their HMP. If you had for example, 3000 MP your potential bounce effect would be enourmous... Let's say your safety level is 200 MP, because you might potentially need to burn 200 MP quickly or someone will die in a fight. I'd say up to 1200 of that MP is potentially useful.
While if your party is inefficient and someone you burn through 3000 of it, it's unlikely they will want to wait for you to regen all 3000 of that MP, although that would be the most efficient way. Having one several minute downtime instead of several short downtimes every chain or so. However in an efficient party you won't get much more use out whatever you might potentially use over a period of 6 fights in an emergency, or one chain of 5. Of course in a god or HNM fight the potential MP used is MASSIVE but in terms of XP all you are worried about is an efficient MP bounce back.
There are things as well you can do with all this MP you will be able to burn with an efficient recoil. First and foremost haste. You should at least no matter what be able to haste your tank. Next priority is going to be the slower TP of a skillchain, or in the case of a samurai chaining with 2 people they might need more. If skillchain isn't issue better to haste slower attacking jobs like dragoon and dark knight as it will affect their delay more than quicker attacking jobs such as thief and monk, as well they tend to get TP for their skillchain more quickly than others.
There is a haste delay so you'll have to try and guage MP rest efficient with how quickly you want to slap those hastes down. If you are burning few enough MPs on healing and getting enough back that you can haste as soon as possible and not run out, go for it. The only haste that is NON NEGOTIABLE is that you must always always keep Ninja's haste up. For the most part you mileage may vary on the rest, so find out what's efficient to do quickly and get into a habit throughout the party. Also when paired with no RDM the WHM may want to take over the job of enfeebling. Quite useful to have the magic capped.
For summoner there are different options. The MP bounce affect is where a SMN main healer can really shine. What's their advantage? Take Aerial Armor for example. 3 hits nullified. That's more than just 3 cures you don't need to do. That's three rounds you can be resting. Increase the bounce and increase your output ability. As well things like evasion up with a ninja tank will result in less damage being taken hence the BP pays for itself while having many other abilities like accuracy + for the DDs. Abilities like this are great because they pay for themself in terms of MP(if not more than because it allows you longer rest periods) while giving free bonuses.
Then examine the earthen ward for the ninja tank specifically. It decreases greatly the likelyhood the ninja will require healing at all for that battle while nullufying AE damage other party members may potentially suffer. Another MP efficent ability for the SMN healer.
Stat raises are a nice little bonus, while they give more vit to pld and agi to ninja their main benefit is more dex and str to the attackers, so like haste it is a benefit to add in after your healing duties are met.
What's nice is, all these BPs don't stack hate with your healing. Unlike a WHM or RDM who get some hate for all the things they do, SMN spreads the hate between themself as a half level WHM and their avatar. To be a good SMN you should be able to do both.
What RDM has going for it really is... well if you don't HAVE RDM already it gives you refresh. If you have for example a BRD as your support job, then RDM as you healer gives you refresh + a healer. As well convert can be a useful ability to cancel out their Low MP.
As far as equipment concerns, you're going to want a few important items. dark and light staff are a must If affordable for WHM you'll want vermillion cloak. For a RDM as a healer MP is your biggest concern. things like astral rings are useful or anything to increase MP. In normal circumstances RDM want to keep HP and MP balanced and use slots to increase MND and INT stats for enfeebles, but as a main healer concerns are normally different(once agian, dependant on setup that may change, so versitility in equipment is nice).
For SMN the gear choices are obvious, until you reach 50-60. You can go two ways, vermillion cloak or austere body/head. If you are efficient enough to keep tanks alive and BPs up with austere's, then it is the better choice because of the delayed BP timer. If you need to refresh from the cloak to output more than get the cloak. Despite the price differences neither is a sure thing. Other expensive gear like serket ring and astral earring may better compliment the austere because with the bounce affect you are able to output more BP without running out of MP to heal.
Hate level should rarely be a concern of the healer, an efficient tank should be able to easily outhate the person who heals them, but there are little tricks that can be used.
First you want to try to heal as much as possible bewteen the fight instead of during the fight. Worst thing you can do is start a battle off with a big heal. Don't save too much dmg from a preious fight that you have to heal in a next fight. The monster doesn't know it was from a last figt. If a puller is injured from a sloppy pull but isn't in immediate danger, don't spam cure them at the start. curaga is very MP and time efficient but it can get you killed mid battle. It's a nice thing to cast after the fight where hate isn't an issue.
Cure 4 will give you a nasty hate bonus, cure 5 is almost no hate. Curaga BPs like Spring water not only gives you no hate but takes off status ailments. As well Earthen Ward and Aerial Armor = reduced damage similar affect to healing, and no hate.
Next when fighting specific mobs all healers should be aware of what potential status affects they can inflict, what the names
Antica Family:
Sandstorm > Blind
Magnetite Cloud > Weight
Jamming Wave > Silence
Sand Trap > Petrify(short lasting)
Bat Family:
Sonic Boom > Attack Down
High Frequency Field > Evasion Down
Beetle Family:
Spoil > STR Down
Hi-Freq Field > Evasion Down
Buffalo:
Lowing > Plague
Rampant Gnaw > Paralyze
Crab Family:
Bubble Shower > STR Down
Cockatrice Family:
Poison Pick > Poison
Sound Vacuum > Silence
Sound Blast > INT Down
Coeurl Family:
Blaster> Paralyze
Chaotic Eye > Silence
Crawler Family:
Poison Breath > Poison
Sticky Thread > Slow
Dhalmel:
Sonic Wave > Defense Down
Cold Stare > Silence
Ghost:
Fear Touch > Slow
Dark Sphere > Blind
Terror Touch > Attack Down
Curse > Curse
Hecteyes:
Hex Eye > Paralyze
Petrogaze > Petrify
Lizard Family:
Baleful Gaze > Petrify
Plaguebreath > Poison
Infrasonics > Evasion Down
Brain Crush > Silence
Tail Blow > Stun(short time)
Mandragora:
Leaf Dagger > Poison
Scream > MND Down
Dream Flower > Sleep
Wild Oats > VIT Down
Pugil Family:
Intimidate > Slow
Taurus Family:
Mortal Ray > Doom
Frightful Roar > Defense Down
Mow > Poison
Worm Family:
Sound Vacuum > Silence
Rasp > Rasp
Wyvern Family:
Tail Crash > STR Down + Poison
Dread Shriek > Paralyze
Radiant Breath > Silence
Dispel Wind > Dispel
Ok.. Any Stat down you can cancel with erase. STR down, Evasion down, ext.
Poisona for Poison.
Paralyna for Paralyze.
Blindna for Blind.
Silena for silence.
Cure will fix sleep.
Stona for petrify.
Viruna for Plague.
For Slow haste or erase. For Spiders however only erase will work.
Erase stun or weight.
As well dia, bio, rasp, frost, burn, shock, choke and drown are erasable.
Some mage type beastman will cast direct enfeebles, like WHM or RDMs . The affect is the spell's name so it doesn't take much figuring out.
Not all enfeebles need to be fixed. For example a BLM's evasion down isn't important, a ninja's however is critical.
Once you know the result, when you see the attack you can have the cure already on the way.
Please post if there are any additions for mob enfeebles, I'm SURE I missed plenty.
The first thing you will notice as a healer... when you run out of MP, the chain stops. Therefore you have 2 things to take into consideration. Your party's HP and your own MP. A nice MP base is important, which is why of the three jobs, RDM SMN and WHMl RDM is in terms of raw healing power limited in their traditional state.
Why is base MP important? Think of MP as ellasticity. When you have a ball, and you throw it, depending on its ellastic properties it will bounce a very short or far distance. It is potentional, but why is that important? Because the more potentional a job has the more it WILL do with effort.
Here is how it works for FF physics.
You're sitting there, 500/500 MP. Tank has 1000/1000 HP. You've got refresh on. Whenever the tank drops to 400 HP or below he nears dangerous HP.
There are two choices you have...
Stand up the entire battle, spam the tank with cure 3 whenever he takes a hit. Notice you will through this method always end up with less MP than you began with.. unless your tank is taking particulary low amount of damage... like a ninja who got hit once.
Method two... first off if it's a paladin, they are healing themselves, so you give them HP room to heal themself, and when they get into critical you heal them back up to full with a couple quick medium cures or one big cure. When you aren't casting, you're resting.
Unless your tank is particulary bad, this will give you something of a random result. Though more efficient than previous method, sometimes you will end up with less MP than started. Sometimes MORE MP than started, dependant on the damage dealt in that battle. Each battle is far from constant when you take into account things like...
The paladin using more MP to heal himself because he wants more hate.
The monster fighting.
AE damage.
Specials attacks.
Criticals.
How long the battle goes on for... e.g. a quick battle that was opened with a skillchain and ended with a powerful MB might not even require the WHM getting up from rest.
Therefore higher MP total allows you to drop lower and lower into your reserves while you wait for your eventual bounce back.
The harder you're thrown, the faster you'll bounce back. Why is this?
HMP. The most vital component to your bounce affect is the ability to bounce your MP levels up quickly again. Take for instance the dark staff. Instead of for example 14 MP back on your first tick, you recieve 24! With subjobs you recieve additional ticks back and other gear like for example seer's body at low level and errant at higher. For this reason the more experienced WHM will tell you that dark staff is in fact more important even than light staff, which works to simply make every cure you cast 10% more efficient. As well after the initial rest, your ticks will increase in speed, halved for future rests. Many WHMs use food designed simply to raise their HMP. If you had for example, 3000 MP your potential bounce effect would be enourmous... Let's say your safety level is 200 MP, because you might potentially need to burn 200 MP quickly or someone will die in a fight. I'd say up to 1200 of that MP is potentially useful.
While if your party is inefficient and someone you burn through 3000 of it, it's unlikely they will want to wait for you to regen all 3000 of that MP, although that would be the most efficient way. Having one several minute downtime instead of several short downtimes every chain or so. However in an efficient party you won't get much more use out whatever you might potentially use over a period of 6 fights in an emergency, or one chain of 5. Of course in a god or HNM fight the potential MP used is MASSIVE but in terms of XP all you are worried about is an efficient MP bounce back.
There are things as well you can do with all this MP you will be able to burn with an efficient recoil. First and foremost haste. You should at least no matter what be able to haste your tank. Next priority is going to be the slower TP of a skillchain, or in the case of a samurai chaining with 2 people they might need more. If skillchain isn't issue better to haste slower attacking jobs like dragoon and dark knight as it will affect their delay more than quicker attacking jobs such as thief and monk, as well they tend to get TP for their skillchain more quickly than others.
There is a haste delay so you'll have to try and guage MP rest efficient with how quickly you want to slap those hastes down. If you are burning few enough MPs on healing and getting enough back that you can haste as soon as possible and not run out, go for it. The only haste that is NON NEGOTIABLE is that you must always always keep Ninja's haste up. For the most part you mileage may vary on the rest, so find out what's efficient to do quickly and get into a habit throughout the party. Also when paired with no RDM the WHM may want to take over the job of enfeebling. Quite useful to have the magic capped.
For summoner there are different options. The MP bounce affect is where a SMN main healer can really shine. What's their advantage? Take Aerial Armor for example. 3 hits nullified. That's more than just 3 cures you don't need to do. That's three rounds you can be resting. Increase the bounce and increase your output ability. As well things like evasion up with a ninja tank will result in less damage being taken hence the BP pays for itself while having many other abilities like accuracy + for the DDs. Abilities like this are great because they pay for themself in terms of MP(if not more than because it allows you longer rest periods) while giving free bonuses.
Then examine the earthen ward for the ninja tank specifically. It decreases greatly the likelyhood the ninja will require healing at all for that battle while nullufying AE damage other party members may potentially suffer. Another MP efficent ability for the SMN healer.
Stat raises are a nice little bonus, while they give more vit to pld and agi to ninja their main benefit is more dex and str to the attackers, so like haste it is a benefit to add in after your healing duties are met.
What's nice is, all these BPs don't stack hate with your healing. Unlike a WHM or RDM who get some hate for all the things they do, SMN spreads the hate between themself as a half level WHM and their avatar. To be a good SMN you should be able to do both.
What RDM has going for it really is... well if you don't HAVE RDM already it gives you refresh. If you have for example a BRD as your support job, then RDM as you healer gives you refresh + a healer. As well convert can be a useful ability to cancel out their Low MP.
As far as equipment concerns, you're going to want a few important items. dark and light staff are a must If affordable for WHM you'll want vermillion cloak. For a RDM as a healer MP is your biggest concern. things like astral rings are useful or anything to increase MP. In normal circumstances RDM want to keep HP and MP balanced and use slots to increase MND and INT stats for enfeebles, but as a main healer concerns are normally different(once agian, dependant on setup that may change, so versitility in equipment is nice).
For SMN the gear choices are obvious, until you reach 50-60. You can go two ways, vermillion cloak or austere body/head. If you are efficient enough to keep tanks alive and BPs up with austere's, then it is the better choice because of the delayed BP timer. If you need to refresh from the cloak to output more than get the cloak. Despite the price differences neither is a sure thing. Other expensive gear like serket ring and astral earring may better compliment the austere because with the bounce affect you are able to output more BP without running out of MP to heal.
Hate level should rarely be a concern of the healer, an efficient tank should be able to easily outhate the person who heals them, but there are little tricks that can be used.
First you want to try to heal as much as possible bewteen the fight instead of during the fight. Worst thing you can do is start a battle off with a big heal. Don't save too much dmg from a preious fight that you have to heal in a next fight. The monster doesn't know it was from a last figt. If a puller is injured from a sloppy pull but isn't in immediate danger, don't spam cure them at the start. curaga is very MP and time efficient but it can get you killed mid battle. It's a nice thing to cast after the fight where hate isn't an issue.
Cure 4 will give you a nasty hate bonus, cure 5 is almost no hate. Curaga BPs like Spring water not only gives you no hate but takes off status ailments. As well Earthen Ward and Aerial Armor = reduced damage similar affect to healing, and no hate.
Next when fighting specific mobs all healers should be aware of what potential status affects they can inflict, what the names
Antica Family:
Sandstorm > Blind
Magnetite Cloud > Weight
Jamming Wave > Silence
Sand Trap > Petrify(short lasting)
Bat Family:
Sonic Boom > Attack Down
High Frequency Field > Evasion Down
Beetle Family:
Spoil > STR Down
Hi-Freq Field > Evasion Down
Buffalo:
Lowing > Plague
Rampant Gnaw > Paralyze
Crab Family:
Bubble Shower > STR Down
Cockatrice Family:
Poison Pick > Poison
Sound Vacuum > Silence
Sound Blast > INT Down
Coeurl Family:
Blaster> Paralyze
Chaotic Eye > Silence
Crawler Family:
Poison Breath > Poison
Sticky Thread > Slow
Dhalmel:
Sonic Wave > Defense Down
Cold Stare > Silence
Ghost:
Fear Touch > Slow
Dark Sphere > Blind
Terror Touch > Attack Down
Curse > Curse
Hecteyes:
Hex Eye > Paralyze
Petrogaze > Petrify
Lizard Family:
Baleful Gaze > Petrify
Plaguebreath > Poison
Infrasonics > Evasion Down
Brain Crush > Silence
Tail Blow > Stun(short time)
Mandragora:
Leaf Dagger > Poison
Scream > MND Down
Dream Flower > Sleep
Wild Oats > VIT Down
Pugil Family:
Intimidate > Slow
Taurus Family:
Mortal Ray > Doom
Frightful Roar > Defense Down
Mow > Poison
Worm Family:
Sound Vacuum > Silence
Rasp > Rasp
Wyvern Family:
Tail Crash > STR Down + Poison
Dread Shriek > Paralyze
Radiant Breath > Silence
Dispel Wind > Dispel
Ok.. Any Stat down you can cancel with erase. STR down, Evasion down, ext.
Poisona for Poison.
Paralyna for Paralyze.
Blindna for Blind.
Silena for silence.
Cure will fix sleep.
Stona for petrify.
Viruna for Plague.
For Slow haste or erase. For Spiders however only erase will work.
Erase stun or weight.
As well dia, bio, rasp, frost, burn, shock, choke and drown are erasable.
Some mage type beastman will cast direct enfeebles, like WHM or RDMs . The affect is the spell's name so it doesn't take much figuring out.
Not all enfeebles need to be fixed. For example a BLM's evasion down isn't important, a ninja's however is critical.
Once you know the result, when you see the attack you can have the cure already on the way.
Please post if there are any additions for mob enfeebles, I'm SURE I missed plenty.
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and the tarutaru's running around are the worst at mp conserver cause they have so much they dont care about running out :?
Unless its with a ninja tank, which I won't dispute, I think summoner works best with.
even when they dumb asses would pull 2 at one time i still heald it cool and still had mp the keep going afterwards ^^
