Word to the WHMs

[Sabia]

Hey there!

Now first off I love WHMs. I especially love them now that I'm a summoner because having them in the pt allows me to do my job - summon! Or does it? I've been playing in the god forsaken jungle recently trying to catch up to a couple of my friends. I'm having a lot of fun because I'm playing my summoner eventhough I know a lot of people don't like the class much, as of sometimes you're reduced to a "Cure Tank"...This doesn't bother me much. If there is no WHM in the PT I'll be main healer as long as there is a backup to help me out with the dreaded Bomb Toss's and such. I tell them I need about 20 seconds at the begining of a battle to summon garuda do Aerial Armor and then put her away.

Not a problem! I'm also noticing that I make the WHMs job a lot easier. Having the effects of Group Blink and Shining Ruby stacking ontop of Protect and Shell really brings down the damage in a party. It allows the WHM to save a lot of MP while also giving him/her more time to rest. I've been in a few horrible parties but with my Avy buffs even they were pulling off a few chains before we had to rest.

Now I've encountered a problem. It seems I'm making the WHMs job a little to easy - easy to the point that they just stop doing their job. I usually start the battle by running into the melee fray and casting Aerial Armor, I'll run back, sit for a second and then hit everyone with a Shining Light (I think that's what it's called) and Barsleepra, then I run back and start to get my MP back again. Now by this point just over half of my MP is gone. Aerial Armor is costing me 98 mp to cast, plus Shining Light and a few bar spells is bringing me pretty low. If given the chance I'll do this in every battle but I've gotta have the MP to pull it off. I'm all about standing up and helping heal everyone after a sleep/bomb toss and then sitting down again gaining enough mp back to hit everyone with Aerial Armor again.

The WHM has barely had to cure at this point, Maybe toss a few cure's at the main tank and one at anyone who happens to take a little too much aggro but really not too much work. They start tossing out more Banish's and offensive spells which I'm all about. It's fun to do damage a every once and a while. But when your MP is almost at full and mine is at 150/425 and you see that one of the Melee's life is yellow - stand your ass up and heal them! I'll be trying to recover some mp for the next battle and constantly I'm standing back up to heal the main tank when the WHMs MP is almost full and mine's below 150...then when they finally do stand up it's to toss out a banish or a paralyze. It's driving me nuts!!

Allready today i was in a situation (great pt btw) where I had about 30 HP and 4 MP left after trying to keep the PT alive after a really mean ass Gobbo, I had to tell the WHM to stand up and start curing!! I mean is this necessary? When the heck should you have tell a WHM they need to start curing? I have almost no Defense or life. I think my defense has to be about -40 with about 210 HP. A taru could kill me by hitting me with a Summer Fan so hate management is a really big issue for me. Two swipes from a Gobbo will usually kill me.

Anyway Like I said before If i'm Main healer I have no beefs about constantly tossing out Cures. Or if we just got hit by something bad and the WHM is struggling I'm right in there tossing out the Cure/CureII's. But Please do your job!! I love you WHMs but after getting Aerial Armor trying to get WHMs to do their job is like pulling teeth. :x

 

[Dalecooper]

You know? I've noticed the same thing, even at higher lvls.
In the nest ~lvl46 I was in a pt w/ smn and whm. I saw almost NO summons and the smn did at least half the healing.
It wasnt so big a deal becuase we had 2 drks for damage, a rdm for nuking and refresh, and a pld tank. We were smacking the mobs plenty hard, so we didnt really NEED the summons. Odd though. I chalked it up to the smn just wanting to up its healing skills, kind like when a blm get in the melee to up its weapon skill.
As long as the group gets xp and stays healthy and active, I don't sweat it. But now that you mention it, it IS odd that the smn's are doing a lot more healing.
Course, this might be because the class is more prevalent now that ps2 users are coming into their own. More people are trying adv jobs than the regular ones. As a ps2 user, i leveld my first two classes with hardly ANY advanced jobs in my pt's till about lvl 25 or so. NOW, as I start new jobs/lvl subjobs, its rare when there's only 1 adv job in the pt. So maybe there are more and more smns at low lvls. i dunno.

 

[Sabia]

You shouldn't see a lot of summons out anyway...anyone melee'n with them is wasting MP. BUT summoners should pull them out and do the group buffs as much as they can. These group buffs require a lot of MP to do (hence our incredibly large mana pool). It'll be awesome trying to balance Group Stoneskin, Hastega, Rolling Thunder and Aerial Armor later on - but if the WHM isn't doing their job the summoner isn't going to be able to do theirs. Like I said I don't mind being a cure tank as long as there isn't a WHM in the group but when there is a WHM, there's really no need for me to be main healer right?

 

[Dalecooper]

absolutely right
And I'll admit, I really don't have a great grasp on what summoners do

 

[Onidori]

It's not just the summoners, same thing with RDM / BLM

Well, I think the observation also apply to RDM / BLM. My main job is RDM, but I level WHM and BLM as my subs. As an RDM, other than Enfeeb and Group Buff, I spend a large portion of my spell reserve for curing even with a strong WHM in the group. I don't mind helping WHM, and sometimes, that allows the WHM to have less downtime. RDM are suppose to be back up healers anyway, so that doesn't concern me as much. What really becomes an issue for me is when I play BLM, and I spend more time curing than nuking. That's especially true for WHM who has low MP to begin with (hume / Galka, for example), and does not have all of the spells up to date.

Onidori
-- Windhurst Taru, RDM 31 / WHM 14 / BLM 14 <--- Time to level subs! :wink:

 

[Kat]

All I can say is if y'all ever catch up to me ... that won't be an issue ... I hate it when my melee's go even yellow ... and all my melee's get Haste and Regen II every fight ...

If anything I'm bad about enfeebling ... I hate wasting mp on enfeebling when you have a rdm there doin the same things ...

Good luck guys ... I hope as you level more things begin to even out for you ...

 

[Kitana]

Re: It's not just the summoners, same thing with RDM / BLM

What really becomes an issue for me is when I play BLM, and I spend more time curing than nuking. That's especially true for WHM who has low MP to begin with (hume / Galka, for example), and does not have all of the spells up to date.

Hey Oni, i have noticed this while lvling my blm sub as well..........i remember joining a pt where we had no whm but had a rdm and a few characters with whm subs...........in this case i would think the rdm would be the main healer, but nope......turns out that i ended up doing most of the healing instead of doing the damage that my blm spells were meant to do! 0_o

 

[Kyrial]

I hear hear stuff like this from my fiancé from time to time (he's a lvl 50+ SMN). The problem, I think, is people not knowing what the role of jobs other than their own are. This doesn't just apply to SMNs. I can't count the number of PTs I've had where people didn't know how Sneak Attack/Trick Attack (especially the latter) worked. And those two abilites are pretty much the whole reason a THF is there! Why would you invite someone if you don't even know what they bring to the party? As I've passed 30, I've noticed a lot more that tanks are tending to stay still more often, allowing me to Sneak Attack easier, so one problem solved. But lately I've been getting into parties where I'll ask who my Trick partner is, and they'll just ignore me. Fine, I can improvise. But then they all stand on every side of the mob EXCEPT the back, making it impossible for me to stack Sneak/Trick Attack! I try to get one of the tanks to stand behind the mob, and it takes 5 or more fights to get them to listen to me. Then I throw out a Sneak Attack+Trick Attack+Fast Blade for 300+ damage on an IT, and they get all amazed and ask why I wasn't doing that from the start. Arg! >_<

But I digress. Basically, my point is: people need to at least know the roles of jobs other than their own.

 

[alanon]

I just had kinda of a similiar thing happen to me last night. I was in a party in the crawlers nest with 2blm (1being me) pld, mnk, sam, and smn for healing. Well the summoner would can fenrir, cast the buff, and MAYBE throw in a few heals. I ended up being the Whm. Every fight was longer than it had to be, I missed many MB opportunities, and was drained which means downtime was also longer. Then the Smn leveled and promptly disbanded, taking the mnk with him. We waited awhile but we found a Thf and a Whm to replace. With the two Blm being able to fully nuke. it was amazing how quickly the xp was flowing. I dont think that the laziness is specific to class. Ive seen it out of Blm and Pld too. The worst was the poorman's pally (War/Whm) who refused to change subs because he "wannted to play that way" but then NEVER used his mp to cure himself. :x

 

[Sabia]

That's weird....If there is no WHM in the group, the Summoner should be healing =/

I know that we're the next best thing to a WHM when it comes to curing (as long as there is a backup) and that's a really shitty summoner not to fill the roll!

I'm just sick of it when there are 2 WHMs in the group (had this last night) and I'm still freakin curing!! So I'm curing, Casting Barsleep, Casting Frost Armor, Casting Aerial Armor, Casting Protect (the whm wouldnt), and hitting everyone with Shining Ruby - PLUS trying to get my mp high enough to buff for the next round - But nooooo I've gotta keep the cures flying out left and right. I mean...2 freakin white mages!!! I really need to get out of the jungle :evil:

 

[ThisIsHamburgler]

Well Sabia, you could always sub BLM instead... hehehe. I havent lvled smn enough to make it into the party stage, but I know it would make me mad to not be able to do my job to the best of my abilities as well. Hang in there taru!

-Ham :shock:

 

[Lokkin]

=/ my whm is at 23 (trying to get it to 25 so i can help a friend with Paladin quest, ya know invis/sneak and the like) and ill give you an overview as to why whm's do this (tho i dont)


Your makin' it too easy for em....
sorry im not dissin' the way you play but why would they cure if they will sit back and watch the smn cure and all the buffs

Dont let the whms rule you sabia, let the party member die if you must but dont let the whm get away with not doing his job

ok im done
go ahead and slap me now

 

[Sabia]

I"m not going to let my tanks/theifs/rangers die because the WHM doesn't want to cure. They shouldn't have to lose XP to drive a point home. Yeah I'm doing all the buffing and de-buffing but if there is a whm in the group why the hell am I main healer? I can only do my main job once per minute as in that's how long I have to wait between bloodpacts, hence me paralyzing/slow/silence and BACKUP healing inbetween. Makes me feel like a usefull member of my party. But when I"m trying to get back the 300 mp I just blew on the last battle in preperation for the next and the WHM is at, full they should stand their asses up and start curing. That's their job, not mine - I"m just there to help them out and make it a little easier.

 

[Lokkin]

OK then new approach tell the leader the whm isnt helping
if the problem persists ask the leader to booth the whm
problem solved
now you can get a proper whm ^^ like me for instance
just popped level 25 today baby!

 

[Kiere]

I have been leveling Paladin in the dunes. Last night I was in a party where the whm ran out of mp EVERY single fight. I died twice...the first time the entire party died. You know WHY he ran out out of mp...because he was enfeebling like a mad man. I wanted to suggest he check out rdm or even blm if he really wanted to do some damage. LMAO...we're all getting low on hp...mob is getting down there...but it's gonna be close and he throws out a banish...as if his 9 pts of damage is gonna make the difference. :?

 

[java]

i saw kiere in dunes.... im not sure if she was in the dumb-ass party... but.. there was a party (faedryth was in it for 5 mins.. till he died) and they were getting a plvl... fine and dandy, im not wasting my life for some asshole... they changed all macros into say mode so the guy would hear it... in SAY MODE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and then.... the leader.. bitched at us (yes... i said bitched.. because im pissed) for coming to the beech and in all caps goes "WE ARE GETTINH A PLVL AND R CHAINING THINGS LIKE *something.. i forget*" and he procedds to say everything EVERYTHING in caps mode. tells us to "GO THE FUCK A WAY" then... when our whm accidently hit alt+G instead of alt+H he yells "DO NOT HELP THEM!!!!!!" 2 fights later.... his party calls for help... and we watch every one of them die :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: his name is emmanuel or emmanual ask faedryth

 

[Lokkin]

ive come across him once or twice
:shock: never partied with him tho
and.... at this point i dont think i want to