Overwhelmed as a lvl 50 WHM

[smolgumball]

Hey all, I'm having some trouble.

I've been leveling a White Mage and really enjoy being "the healer", but as I hit lvl 50 and started to explore some of the new dungeons in the Duty Finder, I'm having a _lot_ of trouble keeping up.

My tank is dying often, DPS classes get lower than I can manage, and generally healing has turned into this extremely anxiety-inducing ordeal. Previously, below lvl 50, I felt challenged at times, but it was never so intense.

Right now, I'm feeling like I want to avoid dungeons or party content because either a) I'm just not good at this, b) I'm not "doing it right", or c) pick-up groups are playing too aggressively for me to keep up.

Anyone have any tips? Is this something other fledgling healers went through at some point?

XOXO,
Smol

[Alun1]

if you have trouble keeping up ask for smaller pulls, some tanks pull boss-to-boss and not everyone can handle it

[Crow Gracefang (M8B)]

gear helps alot. Current meta is as above stated so ask for smaller pulls. You can get tomestone gear in Mor Dhona by doing daily roulettes

[Liethkorious]

lvl 50 whm is good since you get to use tomestone gear however the dungeons you are doing have gimmicks at 49. dzemold has the stand in light to take reduced damage and aurum vale has poison stacks people need to remove from clicking on things but always go for one more stack then a healer can be reasonably expected to heal.

Just keep with it and the next series of dungeons are much better

[Oberon]

Originally posted by Crow Gracefang:

gear helps alot. Current meta is as above stated so ask for smaller pulls. You can get tomestone gear in Mor Dhona by doing daily roulettes

I'll second this, it's almost always gear in these kinds of situations.

[Arndell]

Yeah the issue you are having is the gear scaling.

Most other players you end up in groups with are going to be scaled down to the maximum allowed gear level for the 50 content, i think it's item level 120?

As a fairly fresh leveler you will have probably 60-80, lvl 90 if you do your class quests, but it's not really enough if the rest of your group is in max gear doing high pulls.


I'm not too sure how the system works but if you are playing in the light DC we can cross server party, I have lvl 80 tank classes and could queue rouls with you and help you with what vendors to go to and what gear to buy.

If we do the dreaded main story cutscene roulette alone you will get 300 tomestones for gearing up, but it's an hour of watching cutscenes lol.

[DarkFenix]

Even an undergeared healer should be able to keep up. I've tanked for many undergeared (or just slow) healers, and while I have to pop more cooldowns, it's manageable and I just need to adapt to pull a bit less or be a bit more proactive in my defence.

@OP: WHM at level 50 is exceedingly simple as far as skill use goes. Keep up with the tank as he runs through pulling, if he starts taking much damage during his run, slap regen on him. When he stops to fight, if his health is nearly full, cast medica II into regen (the latter only if you haven't yet cast it or it's about to run out). If his health has been chipped down a lot, go straight into cure II.

Assuming you stabilise his health and have HoTs on him, dive into the pack and start spamming holy, that stun will prevent him taking damage (it'll only stun on the odd numbered casts, and you only get 3 stuns before the monsters are immune, unless you're only after damage don't bother with more than 5 casts).

Against bosses and single targets, try to keep aero ticking on the enemy constantly, spam stone for damage while aero is still up.

As far as keeping the tank alive, use cure II, don't use cure I. Ever. Cure I is for topping up low hp classes who aren't actively taking damage. Cure II will burn through your mana, so you need to be liberal with lucid dreaming. Don't wait until you're low on mana to activate it, use it the moment it won't be wasted by reaching full, the downtime is only 39s, you'll have it back when you need it.

If the tank suddenly starts taking huge damage (beyond what you can keep up with), hit presence of mind and pump out cure II as fast as it'll cast (you WILL need lucid dreaming to offset the mana cost). If the tank is about to die right now, cast benediction, that's your number 1 "oh ♥♥♥♥" button, bind it somewhere you can reach it fast.

[yogurt]

the easiest thing to do atm is practice with some peeps at the wolves den, and practice on some dummies too. My number one tip for you is you've still got a ways to go, enjoy the game and enjoy the class! It's a simple and fun class once you've gotten the hang of it. If you're seriously overwhelmed by how the class works there's vids on youtube you can watch on summaries of the class as well if you want something simple but in depth. :)

[smolgumball]

Hey all, thanks for the words of advice. I'm going to make a spot of tea, remap my crucial skills (Benediction!) and get back to practicing. Maybe I'll make a "hey I'm new, don't hate me!" macro to spam at my party during dungeons :)

[Arabella Seren]

In the words of Larryzaur.

"Healers Adjust"

[нιт◈ᴘᴏɪɴᴛ]

Like Arndell said, it's gear scaling.

Your ilvl and having materia melded can make a big difference in your overall output in dungeon content past 50. I would advise staying away from hard/extreme tiers of dungeons/raids until your ilvl is a bit higher. Getting to 70+ and obtaining gear for that lvl range will significantly make content a lot easier for content that was current for 50/60 range (even though your lvl scales, your ilvl on gear will be much higher then basic gear for that lvl as it scales your ilvl to a preferred "maximum".