Playing the Game and Respecting Other Classes/Jobs

 

As anyone in my FFXIV Free Company can tell you, I don't like being told how to play my toon. You don't pay my sub is a saying because it's true.

I've been playing my WHM since day one when I created my Conjurer. Conjurer turns into White Mage (WHM) at level 30. That's my job. I've spent the most time on her, done all of the MSQ through 6.1 with her (the rest was on my DNC because of her gear score). I play two classes of healer, White Mage and Astrologian.

As you can probably guess, I love healing. I've done it through many games. I dual boxed a caster and healer in EQ and WoW, Severine Wolfe and Stumpy Jeaux, and Severine and Muirneen, respectively. Not only am I damned good healer, I play a caster at the same damned time.

So, forgive me, if even eight months into the game, I don't particularly like a stupid, mitigationless tank telling me how to keep your sorry wall to wall pulling ass healed, complaining I'm spamming Medica II and never using Benediction.

WTF retard? Benediction is on a 180s timer on my GCD and I used it twice before you got us all killed.

I'm sure if I had concentrated solely on healing you, chewing through my very considerable mana pool, you would have bitched I wasn't doing any DPS.

Both of my healers are well geared and still working on it, trying to hit 600 and they are close. I stick piety on everything I can so I can regen mana faster as well as heal better. Compare and contrast.

White Mage Severine

Her base piety is 1296, and not all materia slots are filled yet. Just got new gear and haven't taken the time to get that sorted. I only use Piety and Quicktongue... more mana faster and faster spell execution. The sign of a competent healer.

My magic potency is 2440 as is my Healing Magic Potency. I really need to work on that. I'd like for it to be better. Which is why I'm grinding dungeons for better gear. Aglaia was kind to my Dancer. So I'm at one piece a week in Abyssos now.

Compare and Contrast Astrologian Severine

Because she doesn't have the WHM pants, and she seriously needs to update materia, her Piety is 1061 but look at her Attack and and Healing Magic Potency. Not far below the much better geared WHM at 2417. She heals far better in Full Parties and Raids than does her WHM better.  I rarely have to hit Lucid Dreaming with her unless I've had to be rezzed back.

Both of my healers regen MP like crazy and I love them for it. It's rare I have to pop a potion.

I will honestly say, while FFXIV is one the best communities I've yet seen in an MMO, it has it's share of assholes. They're always tanks, entitled and have never sullied their hands with any class other than tank. Hulk Smash, and it doesn't matter which sex they are. I've experienced it with both, mangina and shenis.

They don't know how to heal, never actually even tried it, just see the name of the spell floating down their screen telling them they are being healed. They have no idea that it's not the off tank or the DPS that are just under their name when/if they died or forget to keep agro. No, the healer's name is second on the list always. Hell, until the last patch, 6.2, we got agro for casting a heal over time (HOT) regen to help while they got control.

I have to say, I have been incredibly spoiled by the tanks in my Free Company (FC). Our leader and top tank are on the top tiers of Warriors in the game. I love them. They are teaching me where to put myself. Basically, unless it's a tank buster, I am joined at their hip to get through mechanics. Even for a tank buster, I'm close by and ready with a Benediction or Essential Dignity and whatever else everyone else needs.

On my WHM I get manafree heals and group heals. I also get the awesome Temperence which comes with an awesome graphic. White, electric wings? Sing me up! Plus, Liturgy of the Bell, our Lily System thing that supposed to do something I never see actually happen. 

On my AST, I get all sorts of group and raid heals, and Earthly Star... when it wants to work, independent of which ever card I draw or when I draw... It's not based on what I've cast for however long to build up lilies like the WHM and Earthly Star is now on a 60s timer. So is the awesome Collective Unconscious... best HOT dome in the game IMHO. Ever better than the WHM Asylum, with a smaller radius.

Get under my dome or you will remain unhealed!

I didn't even try to tell the gormless twit Dark Knight trying to tell me what I should be casting and when. I don't know his class, and fully willing to admit it outright. So I merely recommended we do smaller pulls at this juncture in a particular dungeon since he obviously didn't understand the small bit of mitigation he had pulling ten or twelve very heavy hitting MOBs. Then my partner from my FC agreed and said we were in no hurry.

We were summarily kicked from the instance by the pouty, angry toddler playing way above his understanding of the game. The real kicker? The dude is a MENTOR.

Drink that in.

If I'm having a hard time healing in a dungeon, my FC tanks will either slow down or ask me what the problem is. They want to get through it without a heavy repair bill just like anyone else. I've never felt the need to give them a verbal atomic wedgie or force me to call them an idiot when they don't get a clue from my initial suggestion. We talk it out, laugh and move along.

I know that there are times Kyrian has probably been screaming at his screen... "WHY ARE YOU PLANTED?" Because I'm yelling it at myself. My husband, on the other end of the house is yelling it at me. But, he's always suggested what I should do, shown me how to do it. I'm slow, but I am improving. 

Also, FFXIV is the first MMO where I've healed where I'm also expected to do damage while the shit for brains tank is over-pulling.  My husband is just learning to tank. He announces he's a new tank in every instance and he goes slowly, and methodically, because unlike me, he doesn't do a ton of roulettes or help a lot of others out when he's on call because he can't commit the time. Recently, he's opened up a ton more dungeons on all levels and he's learning on his Ninja, trying to get through the MSQ. When I can. I heal for him. Everyone in our FC is great about grouping up to help people trying to get through content and most importantly, to teach.

Our FC co-leader, Mei, plays a WHM and AST and I pick her brain whenever I get the chance. She's a busy woman, so I try to keep from bugging her. We're both trying to gear up for what's coming in 6.3. She has been great in answering my questions about drawing cards and getting god damned Blood Lily to bloom so I can set down my Liturgy of the Bell.

If I don't know, I ask. If what I've been doing has been working, I presume that IT'S WORKING WELL.

I don't tell my husband how to play his Dark Knight, his Gunbreaker or his Paladin. He just tells me to move in a dungeon. He has tried to play casters and just doesn't like it. We all have our druthers, don't we? I don't tell any DPS class how to play it. I may wonder something, but I ask them later or a person in my FC who plays that class what was going on, so I understand it better.

I also love how people will tell my DNC who to dance with. If I know one of the DPS I'll dance with them... if I don't I flip a coin in a full group or raid. In a light party, I don't have too much of a choice. With that said, I have been asked, in some RAIDS, by a tank, to dance with them.

Dancing with another person in your group doesn't mean you're waltzing around the platform. No, it links my buffs and heals with them so they can do a little more, and it boosts me as well. Devilment and Tilana are so very nice with a partner. The Batman Bandaid of Curing Waltz... sometimes it gets you through.

I've yet to have anyone tell me which of my weaponskills I should use, when or how. Ever. I've merely been asked to partner with someone and I was good with it. It's why I fled to my DNC for 6.2 because I was tired of having people who had no idea how to heal tell me HOW TO HEAL. 

Do I tell you which weapon to use? I may suggest tank stance (only one time and I just called out to my husband) or when to provoke, do I? Even when I'm getting gnawed on because I cast regen? No. I don't play a tank. I don't know what you have, what you can do and frankly, I'm too busy paying attention to health bars to see which skills you're using or how much damage you're doing. I sure as hell notice when you're using your mitigation skills.

If you are a learning tank, I have no problem with you taking it slow. I don't go into a dungeon unless I have the time. And here is the thing, I'm learning the dungeon and mechanics right along with you. Suddenly, I'm looking at it from new eyes and learning new things. 

Imagine that.