Help For A Nooby WHM!

Hello all,

Struggling new WHM here. When is a good time to curaga? Suppose someone in your party is getting a beat down, but the next TP move might possibly be AOE or single target massive damage. What do you do?

I'm usually spamming cure III on people, but then that's not enough and aoe eventually gets them. Also, during mega boss fights, I never feel as if I have enough time to do a haste rotation because I need to keep people capped to prevent them from being one shot.

I admit, I do need better cast time / recast gear, but I think the real issue lies in macros and player skill. When is a time to regen IV someone? Should I regen IV the whole party all the time if AOE will be an issue? Or should I just curaga them when they get hit?

I know a lot of the battle is knowing the monster, which, usually I research before hand if I know what we are going to do for the evening.

Thanks for the advice!

-Tin

what level range are you?

I am level 99, sorry I failed to mention that. I was healing in Legion the other day.

Someone died rather quickly, but everyone else was taking constant heavy damage. I was too afraid to Raise her, as other members could have possibly died as well.

Man WHM is stressful!

You mention curaga (lv 16) and Cure III (lv 21) and then jump into Regen IV (lv 86) - What level are you? lol

Are you using Afflatus Solace when casting cure spells?

I am using Solace. I meant Curagas in general. I use Cure III to help conserve MP.

I can cure and haste the party just fine when fighting normal Delve fodder mobs, but when we jump to Boss fights, let's just say it hits the fan sometimes. The AOE and single target massive damage is my main concern.

Which sub job are you using?

First off, you need to get familiar with mobs TP moves. AoE moves -> curaga, single target moves -> cure. You should anticipate all of those. A good time to raise is right after a TP move or during a spell. Try to pair it with Celerity if time is an issue or Penury. You generally should have about a 6-7 second casting time on raise/arise. If you got -50 enmity in curaga set, don't be afraid to use it when DDs are taking heavy AoE. They will generally pull hate back if they're properly buffed in the event you cap your hate.

Thanks, but it is so hard to see in the chat log when an enemy is using a particular ability. It's just like white text without anything interesting around it. Do you know if there is a way to change the color or perhaps make a sound indication? Using Windower 4.0 if that helps.

You can adjust the text colors. Abilities should be defaulted to yellow.

I presume the best time to haste is in between TP moves (after capping everyone out) as well? Also, should I be hasting if someone in my group is getting beaten on? IE, DRK doing massive damage with soul-eater and killing himself, when could I possibly haste during that? Maybe toss a Regen IV on him?

Also, how do you guys manage so many different spells? I have to manage MP with different cures, I have to regen IV, use /SCH JAs, use my -na /erase spells with the WHM buff. Sometimes it takes me longer to find the fast cast JA then it would have been for me to simply just start casting..

Should always be hasting yourself and your DDs. With proper Fast Cast and recast sets, there's really no issue in hasting as theirs wears off (or a few seconds before it does, which is preferred.) You shouldn't focus on Regen in large scale events where people are taking massive amounts of damage. Only time Regen is really effective in such situations is to combat certain DoTs (like Kaustra or potent poison.) I use spellcast, so the vast majority of my spells are used from merely typing them out (i.e. //erase) I have the /sch JAs actually macro'd.

So for an example, entire party is stoned (except you). You would just use your macro for Accession, then just target a party member and //stona? I'll have to try that, thanks!

/SCH. I would presume this would be the preference of most WHM healing in big boss battles?

I only know how to play old world WHM circa 2004-2009 and it is very situational and instinctual.

First of all always keep regen and haste on your tank/s. Save the high leveled regens if you know your tank will get hit alot..use the lower leveled regens if your tank is doing fine and on your DDs.

curaga gains alot of enmity. It should be used during "downtime" i.e near the end/at the end of a wave of mobs or when the party is resting. If you're in battle you can use it to heal the whole party but only if the tank has sufficient hate on himself (this is not going to be at the beginning of battle) or if you're on a sinking ship anyway, you have RR and you don't care if you die for the chance to win the battle (if this happens use Bene).

the spells you use depend very much so on the situation. You don't always need to use your highest tier'd spell if a lower one will work just fine. You pretty much have to know your mob.

Your tank and DDs don't necessarily need a CureV all the time and they don't necessarily always need to be in the white at the same time. If a cure2 will get them out of the yellow thats all you need. If my party was getting hit hard for some reason..I would first bomb the tank with my highest cure spell and give him whatever he needs to get his spells and rhythm back under control and then I may just hit my other DD's with a cure 2 or 3 and/or regen..or a low level curaga and a regen..they may not be instantly in the white but with regen they'll eventually get there so long as the tank has things back under control. It really depends on how many people are hit and how hard.


My normal routine when main healing was buff everybody first but pay attention mainly to your tank and then that loser damage dealer who makes it his life goal to take hate off the tank. The other damage dealers take a backseat to any whitemage care until the tank is ok.

so buffs on everybody, haste and regen the tank, remove status effects off tank, haste the primary DD douchebag and then prioritize hastes based on your other DDs capabilities (work with your supportive mage..split your duties but you as the primary for your tank).

if protect/shell wear off everybody in battle and it is unsafe for you to approach. I hit the tank with a singular protect/shell and screw everybody else until it is safe for my aoe buffs. Same deal with any other debuffs. If its unsafe for aoe debuff removal/sch abilities..debuff the tank and screw everybody else until it is safe.

mainly regen is your BFF it will save you alot of time and mp.

Who got haste was the bane of my existence as a whm. Tank always gets haste unless its a life or death instance..give cure over haste but haste afterwards.

the DD's I then give priority too were usually the high damage dealing melees with high delay'd weapons except I would first give it to wars over drks because in my mind they can tank better if a pld or nin dropped (yeah I said nin tank cause holla ol' school..back when I did salvage mnks were our tanks so they got haste over everything else)...everything else is pretty no1cur unless you are doing that great and you're bored in your party. Give the rest to your rdm to haste if your not doing great.

I think I am going to make a few direct keyboard macros. IE, A will be for accession, p for paralyna, etc. I think that will help a bit, as, having CTRL and ALT 0-9 is a bit hefty on remembering (maybe second nature once you use them quite a bit). Although, I do often find myself changing macros around depending on which monsters we are fighting.


Perhaps I should make a page dedicated to each monster type. That could possibly be useful.

havent played the game in over a year, maybe 2, doubt the content would have changed as much.
are you usually the only healer in the group? is there a rdm or sch etc to help back up cure when ***its the fan?
this can really help on hate management.

usually, I reserve Regen for the people that are not constantly taking damage (lazy so Ascension Regen3), use Cure 3 for light damage, Cure 5 for main source of heals, cure4 in between if needed an immediate cure in between, and rarely cured myself if I took damage.

as a fight starts, try to find an ideal spot(varies per fight), where you can get some distance between the Mob, your tank/dd's and other mages/bards/cor/etc. Positioning has been a key play for me, but I feel it maximizes your potential as a whm.

do you play other jobs? if it is not an issue, maxing merits on -Emn helps out a lot on your cure bombing.

one of my policies, my LS was well aware off (usually set me up in tank party for the same reason) was that a DD would pull so much reckless hate, especially from a tank, and take a lot of damage, id let them die. why? other people needed heals as well, wont drain all my MP curing his *** and let other people die (and him too) later, sometimes it was easier casting Raise3 than cure bombing his ***. (especially in older content, when you could kick a DD and replace him with a benched one).

Whatever makes you cast faster. My whm, smn and rdm main healing macros all looked identical so I didn't get my buttons confused.

and often I found it was quicker just to type /ma spell <t> if I needed to be quick acting. I actually did alot of typing

99.9% of the time (read that as, always, unless I am specifically in a 'tank' party, holding mobs, etc) I am curing DDs that have no tank, that spam berserk / souleater / hasso. It's just hard to judge if you should do a curaga vs spam cure that DD that is zerking / souleater / last stand. Either he drops in 3 hits, or entire party potentially drops in the next AOE TP move.

what Daus Said! [+]
also, dont over work yourself. focus on your party only unless things go critical for another party's healer, or you can spare the time/mp assisting him/her.

sometimes other healers get lazy when you take care of their parties and they slack off, or they get mad cause they over-cure someone you just healed.....

I would recommend spellcast if you can use it.

Haste: yourself at the start of the rotation and then go theough your dd's. If you have a rdm or sch, try splitting them up if you feel you are going to be too busy

Chat: decrease your chat so you can see the status ailments that are occurring on your party

Regen: I love regen but it is not sufficient for a drk using and keeping soul eater on. Ask your drk to let you know before he does this so that you can be ready to keep him alive

Cure5/6: use them, don't be afraid.

Curaga: really depends on the situation.

Raise: if someone dies and doesn't have rr (seriously?) use alacrity celerity (50% quicker spell cast) and raise the person.

I would also recommend practicing playing the healer in a group of friends xping or other parties so you get more familiar with the job.

That is an issue of mine... I tend to see other parties dying and cure them. I suppose I should only do that if my party is capped out and MP is not an issue at the time.

does sound like e-pen dbag dd's :P
go all out for a big number burst.
regen them and leave them to their mercy :D
believe me, they catch on and slow down!


yea, can always assist them, but not if it jeopardizes your own group, unless things are critial

Sounds like you need a designated tank..that drk sounds like a DD douchebag who deserves to die. You cant function as a party with a mp sucker.

if its one person who's doing it like that drk and you're trying to function because you know its going to happen like this every time then hit him with your highest regen spell first and then you're going to end up mashing cure3/V (is there a cure6 these days?) depending on the move.

if an aoe move occurs and its just going to be a drk tanking like that...then you're safe to use a high curaga because he's absorbing all hate anyway (after your done cure spamming him because he's acting as ghetto tank because curaga can take forever to cast) but to save time and mp you might be able to get away with hitting the whole party with a lower leveled curaga...or if only a couple people got hit use a regen on them and go back to cure spamming your suck-tank-drk. And he probably would not be getting a haste from me ever (and nobody else would either because of him).

Daus, I take off my whm hat for you <3

Stuff just hits the fan so fast these days... I'll go from a fully healed party to someone getting hit to red in an instant. This will be while I am casting something like haste. Then, because of that tiny delay between spells and not enough fast cast gear / reaction time, the guy gets hit once more and dies.


I cannot count the number of times that my GF would give me a kiss, then I'd look back and notice someone dead in my party, when they were at 100% and the kiss lasted all of 1-2 seconds. Very annoying :(

Guess no kissing for me while playing WHM.. And I thought WHM were supposed to get some lovin.. oh well..

do you usually get any backup? :/

maybe they die for a kiss too

That is annoying. You should be kissing for at least 15 seconds.