Main Healing when you're not a WHM

[Sabia]

This is sort of an off shoot of Answa's recent post about Main healing. I love main healing as a summoner in a good party, I'm not only doing my job but the job of another class which a lot of people can't really claim to do. I feel it warrents my spot in a party because if I wasn't there the party would have no chance of functioning. I'm one of those buffing/healing summoners with {Main} {Healing} {All Right!} in their search comment, I havn't really run into a blood pact as of yet that has a decent MP to Damage ratio at level 60. I suppose I havn't really even broken out the IV spells but they still don't even come close to a what BLM my level would be churning out so I'd rather keep my party alive and buffed than waste a crap load of MP on a 400 DMG blood pact.

Anyway that's not really the point of this post. I've been main healing since level 22 and think I've done a pretty killer job of it. There have been a few parties where I've struggled but it's just as much their fault as mine....crappy gear, bad subs, shitty weapons etc leave me in a position where I can't keep up. I had my first party last week that I couldn't actually main heal though. The set up was NIN/WAR, RDM/BLM (or whm...can't remember), BLM/WHM, SMN/WHM, THF/WAR and SAM/WAR, not the best set up but not the worst either - I kept up stoneskin for the NIN and the THF and threw in a Fenrir BP every chance I could and then it all went down the shitter.

At level 60 I'm using Cure III which only cures for about 200 HP, we were fighting Petryons and Raptors in the Valley which hit far harder than that and quicker when the Ninja's shadows go down. The THF/WAR would not SATA until he had 100% TP which didn't happen all that fast w/o dual weild and the SAM was doing his job by first voking for the SATA set up....and then we'd wait.

"SATA Please!" "TP not 100%" -_-

So the SAM would just be getting pummeled....in reality he shouldn't be hit more than 3 times, with stoneskin taking little to no damage...this however wasn't the case, he'd get low and eventually the ninja would just Voke it off of him screwing up hate all around. Red mage was Meleeing on things with AOE damage and that ailment that doesn't let you recover MP with no Viruna in the party and was doing nothing but refreshing and dispelling every now and then. She wouldn't cast haste on the ninja even after multiple requests by the ninja to do so and frankly I'm struggling at this point.

By this time the Ninja has eaten 2 R1's so I stop the party for a sec. I ask the THF to start doing SATAs at the begining of battle, tell the Red mage to haste the ninja and HELP ME HEAL! I've never had to ask a mage to help me heal...it's commen knowledge that I only have Cure III and it only casts so fast...it'd usually go like this.

Petryon uses Triple attack and the Ninja's shadows go down, she can't get her shadows back, Ninja gets hit for about 200-300 DMG while I'm trying to cure III, cure III goes off, get Ninja back up 200 HP, Petryon hits Ninja for another 200-300 DMG while I'm casting and I can't get it off fast enough, Ninja dies and somehow it's my fault when we had two other people in the party with Cure III and one with Cure IV who refused to use it. "But I thought you were main healer"

My point is don't ask me to main heal if you don't want to back me up. I may be good at it but people tend to forget I'm keeping the party alive with a level 30 white mage at level 60 and refuse to help me out. So for all you "I don't use cure" red mages and BLMs don't invite summoners to your group - just because as a BLM your job is to nuke and as a RDM it's to refresh/debuff doesn't mean that's the only thing you're supposed to do. If I took the same attitude you selfish people did the only thing you'd see me throwing out is blood pacts.

Sorry about the long rant...just really made me feel shitty and useless that night when there was nothing I could do to keep up.

 

[Sethala]

Yeah... I think SMNs are the NINs of the healing world. SE never intended them to be healers, but that's the role they fit best. They're much more difficult to use than the "standard" job for that role, but when played right can put any other job to shame. They're also more difficult to party with.

 

[CubsWoo]

Red mage was Meleeing on things with AOE damage and that ailment that doesn't let you recover MP with no Viruna in the party.

Spring Water?

 

[Sabia]

Red mage was Meleeing on things with AOE damage and that ailment that doesn't let you recover MP with no Viruna in the party.

Spring Water?

Seems like an awful waste of MP to do it every single battle for one Red mage doesn't it? :roll:

 

[Kat]

Sorry to hear you had such time it Sabs. Raptors and Perytons are tough mobs, but fun as hell when in a good party. That Red Mage shouldn't have been meleeing. Bottom line.

 

[CubsWoo]

Red mage was Meleeing on things with AOE damage and that ailment that doesn't let you recover MP with no Viruna in the party.

Spring Water?

Seems like an awful waste of MP to do it every single battle for one Red mage doesn't it? :roll:

Well, what the RDM was doing in the cone spread of Foul Breath is beyond me (if you're going to melee, don't freakin' stand in AoE range you can avoid, jeez) - but don't say you were helpless to do anything about it. Plus, with hate bouncing around, a Curaga II + Virunaga for ~100 MP doesn't seem like a waste to me.

 

[Sabia]

Red mage was Meleeing on things with AOE damage and that ailment that doesn't let you recover MP with no Viruna in the party.

Spring Water?

Seems like an awful waste of MP to do it every single battle for one Red mage doesn't it? :roll:

Let me clarify, I'm not doing Spring Water and wasting a pact and a stupid amount of MP for one silly red mage that keeps getting hit by it and SATA'd onto because she won't stay away from the Mobs ass. During the rare time that me and the BLM would get hit by it (when hate was messed up and it happned to face our direction) I'd do a spring water.

 

[CubsWoo]

"Wasting a pact" at the end of a fight notwithstanding, I see your point.

 

[Sabia]

"Wasting a pact" at the end of a fight notwithstanding, I see your point.

I'd rather toss out another Earthern ward that's beneficial to the entire party than a spring water for the only member in the party with MP that's getting hit by Foul Breath. And yes she was getting hit by it on every single fight with raptors because she practically stood on top of hte Ninja the whole time -getting SATA'd onto every now and then.

 

[meeze]

Howcome every thread flame or good times ends with sabs geting someone killed

 

[Taurothar]

Poor Sabs... I <3 you though. SMN are impressive at healing at 2/3 capacity of a WHM with half the levels in that skill. I'm sick of SE making that job so horrible at being itself. There's a few jobs that are forced to use certain subjobs because they are simply impracticle any other way, but only SMN is forced to do the job of its subjob. What if a NIN/WAR ONLY used Provoke, Berserk/Defender, and the abilites given by /WAR? What if a SAM/RNG only used Sharpshot and Barrage? It makes no sense that SE did this to SMNs but I guess they never thought too deeply into the job when they made it so that you had to be 60+ to get the Avatars (before the mini-fights). SMN was an important class in almost every game up until this one. This they just get forgotten for more useful classes such as WHM because of Raise II/III or RDM because of Refresh and Dispel. In conclusion, I feel ya Sabs, but in the end you choose to level SMN and you accept the role of healing. I wish that everyone would just realise the scope of the jobs they choose and know that RDM and BLM should backup heal during thier casting rounds if it is needed. Melee who can should bring Bow/XBow and Bloody Ammo for the times when the mages just can't afford that stray cure to bring them back up a little bit instead of keeping the tank alive. I see too many melee bitch about being in the yellow for an entire fight after an AOE or waiting for a SATA on the tank, when I, the tank, am actively getting hit for around 50-150 a hit depending on the mob and dropping to the orange.

 

[Sabia]

The thing is I love main healing on my summoner, I'll never bitch about it but I am sick of other Mage classes not at least backing me up on it. You're a red mage and have Cure IV where as I don't - If the fuckin NINs life is red and my casting is too long with cure III throw in one stupid cure. It'll save the NINs life and save us the time of waiting for Sickness to wear off. I'm not asking the mages in my party to main heal but just to back me up - if I'm in the middle of summoning and the shadows go down, cure, if someone's life is red, cure. It doesn't happen often but with no back up cures it can make or break a party.

Some mages are so full of themselves and think they're above doing someone elses job for a few seconds and it's really starting to wear on my nerves - I do what I can to make my party better.

 

[Taurothar]

The melee don't have this problem of "sharing" jobs... I have plenty of RNG and BLM that LOOOOOOVE tanking for me...

 

[Sabia]

Howcome every thread flame or good times ends with sabs geting someone killed

Hey hey hey!! This isn't fair....I'm usually the one that ends up dead :wink:

 

[Veteran]

Ahaha, same here.8) Actually though, I like it when RNG tank for a little bit--if the RNG pulls hate near the end of the fight I just let him tank it for 6 hits. Why not?^^ Saves the healer some MP, hehe.

 

[Veteran]

Ahaha, same here.8) Actually though, I like it when RNGs tank for a little bit--if the RNG pulls hate near the end of the fight I just let him tank it for 6 hits. Why not?^^ Saves the healer some MP, hehe.

 

[Veteran]

God damnit. >.>

 

[Answa~]

The thing is I love main healing on my summoner, I'll never bitch about it but I am sick of other Mage classes not at least backing me up on it. You're a red mage and have Cure IV where as I don't - If the fuckin NINs life is red and my casting is too long with cure III throw in one stupid cure. It'll save the NINs life and save us the time of waiting for Sickness to wear off. I'm not asking the mages in my party to main heal but just to back me up - if I'm in the middle of summoning and the shadows go down, cure, if someone's life is red, cure. It doesn't happen often but with no back up cures it can make or break a party.

Some mages are so full of themselves and think they're above doing someone elses job for a few seconds and it's really starting to wear on my nerves - I do what I can to make my party better.

This is so true. I've had plenty of RDMs and BLMs that never dish out a cure unless the tank has like 60 dmg, and that's usually too late. I hate it when the tanks suck, too, especially NIN tanks. I, oddly enough, prefer PLDs to the extreme, they keep hate in one place, and that's good enough for me.

(As I've said a million times, I hate healing, but I do it when necessary. I respect the hell out of you, Sabs. ^^ I'm glad you enjoy it so much. ^^b)

 

[deathsvengeance]

I personally think that you'd have done better having a pld tank, so that was part of the problem. My parties in the Valley some had smn main heal and some had whm main heal. I actually preffered the smn main heal because of the BP she could give to the melee.

I also preferred having a pld tank (Isotope, very good pld) over a NIN, and yes, I've had both, because 1) they can aid in curing (not only themselves) against these hard hitting and fast attacking mobs (that rip shadows apart like no other) and 2) they simply take hits better than a NIN that gets left with no shadows after a triple attack from the peryton or simply three fast attacks by the Velociraptor.

Now, lets not get me started on meleeing rdms.. especially against mobs that have a cone spray AoE like Virus... simply stupid if you get hit by that and its your own damn fault.

Against these, as a rdm, I would do the following:

Refresh PLD
haste war/nin or nin tank or some other DD
Refresh Myself
Gravity + Blind
Refresh SMN/WHM
Slow + Para + Dia II
Refresh BLM
MB the SC
/heal
Dispel as needed (Peryton do feather shield which = evasion boost)
Back up heal as needed.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

I used to keep myself refreshed first in my cycle, but when I started refreshing the PLD first and myself second, I found I liked that much better. However, if we had a NIN tank, I'd for sure be refreshing myself first. I watch battle spam like a hawke and I -rarely- let refresh drop. If I do, its only for a few seconds at best.

Moral of the story, a bad red mage can ruin an entire party, even if all the other members of the party are fully capable of functioning normally.

At one point, in Cape Terrigan, I xp'd with a party that had 2 RDMs and 1 SMN main heal. She would refresh and haste (herself) and melee the rest of the time while I pretty much did my job and hers.. she was completely non-functional in the party, yet we made good xp.. somehow lol I think she managed to catch dispel a few times, but not consistantly. Which annoyed me to no end, because I'd cast and she'd cast, so I'd either end up wasting my MP on a dispel she decided she'd throw out there -.-

2 RDM in pt = 1 too many... (Unless its RDM/WHM + RDM/BLM and the RDM/WHM is the main heal.)

 

[Rones]

I really like having a nin tank in valley of sorrows. Neophytal does a great job tanking raptors there as 58 nin, although preytons can be a bit of a problem for nins. However, nins still end up taking much less dmg than pld's against those. Raptors dish out so much dmg, but that's the price for faster kills from them.

Like Sabia has described, a smn with proper support from the rdm and blm can be very successful, and possibly better than a whm in the same situation. Raptors are a special case since you lack viruna, but those are rare. Shame the rdm wouldn't help you. :? Parties where the rdm helps cure and don't are like night and day for my whm. Sounds like you played everything right, just had a bad rdm and thf. Nin tanks need haste always, especially against raptors.