Macros
Been over this several times but this wouldn’t be complete without stressing the importance of macros once again. Your brain and the time restrictions on casting, lag, recasting and healing back MP and avoiding agro are the ONLY things that should come into play. If you are loosing ANY time at all maneuvering thru the interface to execute an action odds are you need better macros. I’m not going into specifics because by now that should be a dead horse if you have read any of the other guides myself and others have written on the subject.
Managing rest time
At low levels resting during combat is not much of a concern but as you go up in levels it becomes the difference between a good party and a bad party, if not a dead party. In a sticky situation the time it takes to stand from a resting position and begin casting can seem like an eternity. By the time you stand it may be too late to save the person you were going to heal. Standing around waiting for someone to get damaged enough to warrant a heal when you could have been resting means potentially not having enough MP to finish the fight or needing too much time to rest between fights preventing exp chains. Balancing these two extremes takes a lot of practice. Regardless of the reality of group synergy if you don’t do this job, up to the standards of your group, you will be blamed for any and all failures. Learn to shrug this off or learn to be perfect.
If a single person is tanking and there aren’t any or few AE effects you are better off doing your highest efficient cure spell in most cases. Sometimes you are better off doing the higher spell even if it’s not as efficient. I know this sounds strange but if you can sit and rest a tick or two of healing time and recover more than you lost by using a “less efficient” cure…you just came out ahead of the game. Proper use of resting up whenever possible can give you a lot of extra room for error in other methods of being an optimal healer.
Healing (resting) to recover MP is more effective the longer you can do it. From the point you hit the button to sit down until you get your first “tick” of MP is approximately 15 seconds and gives 15 MP. Subsequent ticks come every 10 seconds and give 1 + the previous tick in MP. At 15 seconds you have 15, at 25 seconds you have 31 (15+16), at 35 seconds you have 48 (15+16=17) and so on.
Here are five examples of resting and healing combinations to use Cure 7 times. None are either right or wrong methods. The situation may demand any combination of resting and curing. This just demonstrates the speed at which you can do each method and the MP you go thru in the process.
1.) You are at 0 MP, rest for one tick (15 MP), stand, cast Cure (7 MP), rest for one tick (22 MP), cast Cure twice (6 MP), rest for one tick (21 MP) cast Cure two times (5 MP), rest for one tick (20 MP), stand and cast Cure two times (4 MP).
It took around 100 seconds.
2.) If you are at 0 MP and rest for 2 ticks (31 MP), stand cast Cure three times (7 MP), rest for one tick (22 MP), stand, Cure two times (6 MP), rest for one tick (21 MP), stand, Cure two times (5 MP).
It took around 96 seconds.
3.) If you are at 0 MP and rest for two ticks (31 MP), stand cast Cure three times (7 MP), rest for two tick (38 MP), stand, Cure four times (6 MP)
It took around 93 seconds.
4.) If you are at 0 MP and rest for three ticks (48 MP), stand cast Cure six times (0 MP), rest for one tick (15 MP), stand, Cure one time (7 MP)
It took around 93 seconds.
5.) If you are at 0 MP and rest for four ticks (66 MP), stand cast Cure seven times (10 MP)
It took around 86 seconds.
With the exception of #3 and #4 you can see there is defiantly a time savings the longer you can rest between casting cures. Even in this demonstration #4 is better than #3 it’s just harder to see results in such a small time frame. Determining when you must stand and when you can wait 10 more seconds for an additional tick of MP is a very important skill for any primary healer in a party.
Now this example used only Cure 1 and had to wait for the recast timer before casting the spell again. If you mix and match different level Cure spells you can negate or minimize the impact of the recast timer and heal someone even faster. More on this later.
MP conservation and threat assessment
There will be times when you can’t sit and rest at all or need to switch targets often. It’s times like these that being efficient you’re your heals should be your primary consideration. You also need to learn threat assessment tactics. Do you really NEED to heal that party member who just got hit by a fluke attack or can you save that MP for the main tank? Are they in danger of getting killed right away or can they afford another hit or two before you have to take action? Are the odds good that the tank will keep it off them for the remainder of the fight? This is where the true art of being a primary healer comes into play. Mashing cure buttons and calculating up time, down time, MP : HP healed ratios is nice and all but tactics is what it’s all about. Knowing the capabilities of your team and your enemy can matter a lot more than your max MP.
If you are getting low on MP this skill becomes even more critical. You may not want to use the remainder of your MP healing the main tank to full just incase someone else gets hurt. Perhaps a lower heal may be enough to keep them safe and still hold some MP in reserve. These situations have way too many variables to give any cookie cutter answers or guides but hopefully some of this information will help you make an educated decision.
Managing casting time
Casting time and recast time of a spell are both very important, and very separate, things to learn. When you understand how these two things work you can save players lives with more reliability in bad situations, allow yourself to rest enough to win fights where a full MP bar is not enough and even allow your group to get chain exp on the next target because you didn’t need any (or as much) time to rest. At first glance this seems like an exaggeration but in a hard fight(s) every second counts.
My testing showed the following results and I based a lot of my tactics off of them. WARNING annoying math ahead.
*Any Cure spell takes approximately 4 seconds to heal your target from the time you press the button to start casting.
*It takes approximately 6.5 seconds from the time you hit the button to start casting a Cure spell until the refresh time is up and you can hit it again to begin casting the same spell.
*It takes approximately 5.75 seconds from the time you hit the button to start casting a Cure spell until you can hit the button to cast a different Cure spell.
*C1 (Cure I) costs 8 MP and caps at 30HP +/- modifiers. (1 MP : 3.75 HP ratio)
*C2 (Cure II) costs 24 MP and caps at 90HP +/- modifiers. (1 MP : 3.75 HP ratio)
*C3 (Cure III) costs 46 MP and caps at 176 HP +/- modifiers. (1 MP : 3.826 HP ratio)
Can someone verify max healing?
*First tick of MP recovered by /heal takes 15 seconds and gives 15 MP.
*Subsequent ticks come every 10 seconds and give 1 + the previous tick in MP.
For our example we will use a short period of time outside of combat. A fight has just ended and using the information above our goal is to cure at least 300 HP of damage to one target using any combination of C1, C2 and C3 then rest having as much MP as possible at the end of 90 seconds. We will not use divine seal or regen for this example. Here are some of our options.
a.) C1 + C1 + C1 + C1 + C1 + C1 + C1 + C1 + C1 + C1 = 65 seconds 80 MP and healed 300 HP.
Allowing for 25 seconds of resting to gain 31 MP. This leaves us at -49 MP from the start of healing.
b.) C2 + C2 + C1 + C1 + C1 + C1 = 39 seconds 80 MP and healed 300 HP.
Allowing for 51 seconds of resting to gain 66 MP. This leaves us at -14 MPfrom the start of healing.
c.) C2 + C1 + C2 + C1 + C2 = 27 seconds 88 MP and healed 330 HP.
Allowing for 63 seconds of resting to gain 85 MP. This leaves us at -3 MP from the start of healing.
d.) C1 + C2 + C1 + C2 + C1 + C1 = 35 seconds 80 MP and healed 300 HP.
Allowing for 55 seconds of resting to gain 85 MP. This leaves us at +5 MP from the start of healing.
e.) C3 + C2 + C2 = 17 seconds 94 MP and healed 356 HP.
Allowing for 73 seconds of resting to gain 105 MP. This leaves us at +9 MP from the start of healing.
f.) C2 + C3 + C2 = 16 seconds 94 MP and healed 356 HP.
Allowing for 74 seconds of resting to gain 105 MP. This leaves us at +9 MP from the start of healing.
g.) C3 + C2 + C1 + C1 = 22 seconds 86 MP and healed 326 HP.
Allowing for 68 seconds of resting to gain 105 MP. This leaves us at +19 MP from the start of healing.
h.) C1 + C3 + C2 + C1 = 21 seconds 86 MP and healed 326 HP.
Allowing for 69 seconds of resting to gain 105 MP. This leaves us at +19 MP from the start of healing.
i.) C2 + C2 + C2 + C1 = 24 seconds 80 MP and healed 300 HP.
Allowing for 66 seconds of resting to gain 105 MP. This leaves us at +25 MP from the start of healing.
j.) C2 + C1 + C2 + C2 = 22 seconds 80 MP and healed 300 HP.
Allowing for 68 seconds of resting to gain 105 MP. This leaves us at +25 MP from the start of healing.
k.) C3 + C3 = 11 seconds 92 MP and healed 352 HP.
Allowing for 79 seconds of resting to gain 126 MP. This leaves us at +34 MP from the start of healing.
If you can sift thru all the information here a few key points become apparent. With few exceptions it is best to cure using the least amount of spells possible. The sooner you are done casting the sooner you can start resting. Over-healing can sometimes be more efficient than casting more lesser heals to come closer to the target number. Rotating between different levels of Cure spells is faster than casting the same level repeatedly giving you more time to rest.
In a perfect situation we would always use the most efficient combination but much like our casting and resting exercise there is no single correct answer. Often times the most efficient method is also the least flexible. An AE effect, a crit or a random party member (or even yourself) gaining agro can all throw a wrench into your well oiled machine. At first glance a.) looks like a horrible choice compared to the others but if the entire party is getting hit for smaller amounts of damage instead of one person getting hit a lot it can be the correct choice.
Secondary healers
Now we need to step away from the math a bit. Working with another healer defiantly makes things more, shall we say, interesting for the primary healer. Sometimes it is necessary to communicate carefully with the other healer and develop strategies and define roles. Other times nothing needs to be said and things go off without a hitch. More often than not I rarely need to nothing but what debuffs if any they are casting and what if any that I need to cast. After that I normally just adapt to them.
One of the first thing to determine is what is the role of the secondary healer. Are they roughly equal to you and you will be sharing healing duty? Are they just there for backup if you need a break or for emergencies? After a little experimenting you also need to find out how much you can trust them to cover for you. What you could do with that 200 MP the other healer has doesn’t mean squat while you sit and rest. It’s what THEY can do with that 200 MP until you need to stand up.
Avoiding doubling up on heals shouldn’t be an issue but it can happen. It should not happen often though and some better planning may be necessary to avoid it. The only time this is really acceptable is when the enemy has someone in enough danger that they will die in a matter of 1 or 2 hits. Both healers casting a Cure II on the mage who just got agro doing 90 HP then 20 HP is wasteful. If they had however both cast Cure 1 and done 30 and 30 HP only to see the poor mage die to a 80 HP attack then the healers have failed. The phrase better safe than sorry is an important mantra to the healer. Now having one healer use Cure II and the other doing Cure I would be best in this situation but planning like that is difficult to say the least. Don’t let an obsession with perfection conflict with doing your job properly.
Aside from situations like the one outlined above a simple method to prevent overlapping heals is to wait until 2 heals would not put the target over their max. If a tank has enough HP to safely wait until they are down 180 or more HP then don’t cast your Cure II when he is just under 90. If you do you risk the other healer casting at the same time and partially or totally wasting one of the spells. If you can hold off until 180 or so neither of the spells will be wasted even if you both cast at the same time. The only risk is if the other healer is not paying attention and doesn’t heal when you do. Then the target is still down 90 and you must cast again. Maybe you can wait till they are down 180 again or maybe you needed the time to rest. Use your best judgment when employing this strategy.
Most healers past 20 or so require little prodding when working with other healers. If you notice them sitting with full or near full MP and you are starting to get low sit and rest. Sometimes you need to notify them you are doing so but most will take the hint they need to cover the heals while you rest up as soon as they see you sit down. I strongly suggest against running one healer dry of MP then switching to the backup while the first rests. Whenever possible try to hold some MP in reserves for emergencies and rest up before empty.
You never know when you will spend all your MP only to notice the secondary healer is AFK, their connection just dropped, the enemy may hit with a surprisingly large AE or critical hit or maybe they just aren’t up to the task. For these reasons and many more it’s nice to have a reserve of MP. Other times you may in fact need both healers casting Cures at the same time to out pace the damage the enemy is doing. If you are fighting at the very edge of the parties limits (and that’s where everyone wants to be) the random element is ever present and it can often surprise you with dangerous results. It’s best to have at least one ace up your sleeve.
Conclusion
Now hopefully we understand a little better when we can rest, who we need to cure, when we need to cure them and what combination of spells to cast. Tiny little net gains in MP is what keeps exp chains going longer or lets you avoid those nasty “We would have won if only I could have healed one more time…” These are all tough decisions to make, in the heat of battle, and you need to remember you are gambling with everyone’s exp and time, not just your own.
Regen spell, the Curaga line of spells, proper use of Divine Seal and how much you can heal without gaining agro can all complicate matters even more but a lot of this is difficult to present in a guide format. Coordinating these with a second healer is even more difficult. As they say practice makes perfect. And your group is counting on just that.
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