A Guide to Healing - Attitude and Mana Management

Let me put it to you this way, if you know even a 'cure light wounds' spell and you're the only one around who does, be prepared to be tethered to someone for a while. You might be thinking "doesn't that mean I'll get a lot of exp and I'll hardly have to do anything?" Maybe you'll get a lot of exp. And yeah, you don't generally have to hit as you have to save your mana to heal everyone, but you'll be stuck in situations where you'll be expected to manage and divide your mana and keep everyone safe. You'll have five people zerking asking for an 'area refresh' every two seconds, and by the time the mob is even killed, you'll be out of mana and someone in your group will be dead. It'll be your fault if you have a horrible group; alternatively, people will realize that these things happen, and you shouldn't automatically blame the healer when things go wrong.

Suppose you get stuck in an exp group and when someone dies because you were too busy area refreshing everyone and you're getting the blame, there's some things you should do.

First of all, the group should have more than one healer for these situations so nobody dies and everyone could be area refreshed. Let's say though for some reason there's only one and you're the lucky duck on the leash. If you have other group members spamming you "area! area! area!", ignore them unless that's what the leader wants you to do. Of course, this all depends on your regen, your sets, and your mana and everything to see how effective you would be but even if you have max stats and the best regen, if your group leader says don't do it, don't do it. You're basically listening to the leader, unless you are the leader.

If you feel you have enough mana and you'll be fine in case someone gets hurt, go for it but don't oblige the spammy requests. It will just encourage more.

Now below, I'll give you some situations I have personally been in, and some ways to handle it if people give you a hard time.

Situation One: Your group is regenning after running a particularly difficult area and the leader wants it sped up, so she asks you to cast 'haven', a spell you don't know yet due to your stats being too low. While the group leader doesn't react, the other group members start saying you're useless and one even suggests kicking you out of the group. Here are some things you can do:

• Just leave if they're going to be disrespectful.


• If it's just one person doing it, get the group leader to help you shut him up or kick him out. If he won't, insist on it or you'll leave. Don't worry about leaving a group, you'll have a valid reason, and you can always run exp with someone else.


• Cave in like a wimp and apologize. If you do this, you'll be easy to walk on so DON'T DO IT. Leaving is NOT A WIMP thing to do though.

Situation Two: You have three group members zerking and one becomes mortally wounded. Two of them keep asking you for areas while you have just enough mana to heal the wounded person but not do both. The two are getting angry because you're not doing anything.

• Ignore them. They're not your leader. A healer's job is to make sure everyone stays alive over anything else.


• If you have enough mana for even one area after healing the person, THEN area. Never do it first if there's someone who's about to die. They put their trust in you.

Situation Three: Your group consists of a tank, three hitters, one mage (blaster), and two clerics (the healers). The hitters has been spelled up already, thanks to the other cleric, and the only people unspelled are the two clerics and the tank. The other cleric wants to try something cool (like cursing) and asks for you to spell them up.

• It's okay if they want to try something cool, just ensure that the leader agrees and remember that the tank takes priority.


• A good rule of thumb to use as the order of priority when it comes to spelling someone up: Tank > Hitters > Blasters > Healers > self. If you do not spell your tank up first, he dies and everyone else is fair game to be killed.

• Don't intentionally go looking for a fight. Nobody will want you to heal for them and you'll miss out.


• Don't intentionally let anyone die just because you hate them. If they die on their own, then you can laugh but you have a job to do. If you really don't want to heal them ever, don't be in a group with them.


• Restores are nice. If you're lucky when you ask for one, you'll get them and not have to worry about healing immediately. But if you ask for them over and over, you'll probably be smitten and thrown into the Bog of Eternal Stench.


• If you have people giving you conflicting orders, either listen to your leader or just trust your instincts. Depending on how good they are. The instincts, I mean.


• If someone is dying in recall and they're not in your group, heal them anyway. They'll usually be grateful.


• Remember, never let an annoying group get to you and you too can have fun while running EXP!

With the groupcasting skill at their disposal, clerics make natural leaders. If you find yourself leading a group, it will be up to you how to manage the group's mana. Follow the tips provided in this article and remember what it was like to be a healer follower. Don't be the kind of leader no one wants to heal for!