What is healing like in this game?

[Veritus7]

I've done my share of healing in WoW, and I enjoy it, however I cannot heal worth a damn without addons. With FFXIV, how is healing since addons are not allowed?

[RohanV]

It probably depends on what you use the addons for.

In general, though, the pace of FFXIV is slower than WoW. In some ways this makes it easier to heal. But you are expected to deal damage as a healer. I have a healer in both games. In WoW, the challenge is keeping people alive. In FFXIV, the challenge is dealing significant damage without letting people die.

Basically, if you spend 100% of your time healing in FFXIV, keeping everyone alive is fairly easy. But only healing is frowned on and considered poor play.

[Super Kami Dende]

Healing is a lot stranger in FF14. For one, you have to be much more proactive as long GCD's can screw you if you need to quickly top someone that shouldn't have been standing in shit.

I do like the damage dealing aspect though, since when I play with a good tank/dps I can mostly just spam damage as well.

The 'T' button is your best friend.

[Sesshomaru]

You have three options, although only two of those are optimal ones:

• Mouseover macros, although this does not show the MP cost and thus you would have to remember it and know the side effects of said spells, as some healing spells have a secondary or additional effect, like Benefic which provides a 15% per cast to give you a buff to get 100% Crit healing with Benefic for one cast. Aetherflow spells akin, although these cost Aetherflow stacks and thus you have to watch your Aetherflow before deciding to do your thing.
  Depending on experiences on WoW (in which most use mouseover macros), you might feel most comfortable with this one, but beware, as you cannot see the resource cost using this method. Opposed to WoW, there are no "#showtooltip" command in which you can use to mouseover to check the effects, although you can change the macro to the same icon of said spell you'd like.
  
• Directly clicking their bar name to the left (by default), but you can place the nameplates/avatar names wherever you'd like. Clicking on the characters also does well enough, but depends on playstyle and if you use keybindings. This is what I usually do when I am in alliances/above 4 party members.
  
  And lastly
• Keybindings. You can bind said nameplates/character names to specific keybindings to get to that number. Say I am in a 4man party and see the BLM at 3rd spot in my list, I'll just press "F3" and then I'll target him and can use my healing spells on him (non-mouseover ones). This is what I usually do when I am in 4man parties, in dungeons and guildhests.

Healing in this game is more tactical than WoW, as there are plenty of avoidable mechanics and other players themselves can somehow hold out if you happen to miss a healing spell or two, depending on that specific player's skill and/or role actions.
You are meant to deal some damage when there's downtime, depending on the dungeon and said player skill, as it can go from healing all the time to throw a heal once every 10th/20th second. It's a game-within-the-game play as a healer, as you are the God/Goddess of your party, the only one whose job can't be neglected, but gets for some odd reason the most enmity from your party members.
As a veteran healer in WoW and FFXIV, I can vouch for the discomfort when people don't even attempt to make a run go any better.

My best tips that I can give is (try) to be positive, despite wipes. Throw out some damage spells (at the very least instant DoT spells) as the faster a mob/boss dies, the less total healing is required and not matter what people say, Protect is not required, especially in low level dungeons, but is a huge plus if you cast it at the start and then swap for another role action.

[Well]

Sadly, healing in FF14 is incredibly boring.

- You got one AoE that blankets the whole raid with each press, and SCH blankets the raid with shields, WHM with hots etc.
- SCH's pet needs macros to be handled and use properly.
- With the new expansion they have added some new toys for each healer, but they are ultimately the same.

Lastly, and this is the most important thing that got me out of FF: the delay on the actionbar. It's UNBEARABLE if you've played WoW.

[Leih]

I've healed in both games and while I enjoy playing a healer in WoW, I didn't like it in FF. In FF I ended up rolling a DPS instead because I felt like that's mostly what I was doing as a healer anyway, except actually fun.

Most of the time in FF as a healer your job is to do as much damage as possible without anyone actually dying. Unfortunately, "doing as much damage as possible" as a healer tends to be spamming like 2-3 spells over and over and isn't very fun or interactive compared to one of the real DPS classes.

On the bright side the lack of addons and good responsive mouseovers wasn't as big an issue because the GCDs are so long in FF you should have plenty time to change targets and back. That said, I did make mouseover macros but in FF the macros were a bit unreliable and didn't show enough information (no mana costs for example).

[ukrainium]

Healing isn't bad, but you'll be expected to DPS just as much as you heal in dungeons. I main a WHM and I cast Stone IV just as much as my healing spells.

It's not exactly challenging - knowing boss mechanics beforehand will help tremendously. A lot of healing you do as a WHM is HoT based, so really you just blanket the raid/party in HoTs and then DPS, throwing the occasional heal to the tank every once in a while.

[Wrecktangle]

Healing isn't bad, but you'll be expected to DPS just as much as you heal in dungeons. I main a WHM and I cast Stone IV just as much as my healing spells.

It's not exactly challenging - knowing boss mechanics beforehand will help tremendously. A lot of healing you do as a WHM is HoT based, so really you just blanket the raid/party in HoTs and then DPS, throwing the occasional heal to the tank every once in a while.

You mean Holy right?

Right?

[icausewipes]

It is ok, but expect the delay to make you wanna uninstall.

WHM is BORING.

[Indigenously Abled]

Healing isn't bad, but you'll be expected to DPS just as much as you heal in dungeons. I main a WHM and I cast Stone IV just as much as my healing spells.

It's not exactly challenging - knowing boss mechanics beforehand will help tremendously. A lot of healing you do as a WHM is HoT based, so really you just blanket the raid/party in HoTs and then DPS, throwing the occasional heal to the tank every once in a while.

Quoted for truth. WHM is incredibly potent, but probably the least engaging of all three healers.

- - - Updated - - -

I've done my share of healing in WoW, and I enjoy it, however I cannot heal worth a damn without addons. With FFXIV, how is healing since addons are not allowed?

Your toolkit isn't designed with things like grid+clique/mouseovers or healbot in mind, but you can get the same functionality by building your own macro suite.

[RotDog]

I ended up healing with mouse overs, I much prefer it. My role preference between wow and ff are actually switched - I love healing in ff, and am decent I guess at tanking, I suck at healing in wow and much prefer to tank. I have mained scholar and white mage, and I would say go scholar for sure. A lot less standing around because cleric stance allows you to deal more dps and feel like you're actually contributing as one, rather than WHM.

[Sorrior]

Can also just go controller and use up and down to swap between allies