In this advanced guide I play to cover the Healers role in a party in Final Fantasy XI. This basically covers any class that can regenerate Health Points in any way, from White Mages and Red Mages to (in a lesser way) Bards and their Regeneration Songs.

For a basic understanding of Grouping, check my previous Guide, Grouping 101 - FFXI Grouping Basics.

This guide is mainly aimed at levels from 15 to 25.

The guide is broken into several sections, the first is for NON-HEALERS, and gives you an idea what to expect from your healer without you having to wade through this lengthy tome.

The second section is for the healers themselves, and is broken into sections covering each the Healer types separately and basics dealt with by all Healers.

The third section deals with a few generic situations with some recommendations on what to do in them.

Section 1: For the Non-Healer: Care and Maintenance of your Healer

So you have a healer in your party? Good for you. The most important thing you will need to know about caring for your healer is they are fragile, the better the healer, the less capable they are of surviving an attack from the nasties you face every day.

The second thing you should be aware of is if the healer dies, it is likely to be your turn next so here are some things that may help both stay alive so you can earn some of that desirable XP:

• The healer needs to have mana to heal: Watch for messages from the healers (They often macro MP status messages) and watch the little bars in the bottom right to see mana status before making any "pull a mob" decisions
  Remember that a Healer does not need be at FULL mana for you to pull, White Mages and others get mana regeneration bonuses at various levels, and often a healer at 70% mana can be at 100% by the time you get back with the mob.

• Healers are fragile: If a monster turns to attack the Healer, if you have the ability to, provoke or otherwise increase your aggro with the mob to attract it your way. Healers, especially TaruTaru, normally don't have much in the way of Defense or HP

• Healers can be interrupted: Similar to above, a healer being hit, is a healer who is probably getting their spells interrupted. This means even if you THINK the healer has plenty of HP's left and can handle tanking for a while, it also means they probably aren't casting anything. Even low level mobs who can not really harm the Healer CAN prevent them from healing via interrupts.

• Healers dislike aggro: For the reasons above, low HP and Interruptions, healers dislike getting aggro. The normal response to a mob aggroing them is the healer does *NOTHING*, rather just standing there to try and not gain any MORE aggro than they already have. In this state, there are no heals for anyone so voke that nasty!

• Healers don't like to stand next to Tanks: No, it isn't your Body Odor, but Tanks in melee tend to attract nasty Area of Effect spells which can harm or otherwise prevent the Healer doing their job. This means don't be surprised if your healers run away during combat and stand a long way away, healing you. Try not to drag the mobs to the healers (Not always possible I know) and certainly don't pull the mobs close to them initially.

• Healing spells are slow: It is normally only new players that don't understand this and get worried. Just be aware initially that healing isn't instant, and there will be a delay between when you get hit, the Healer even KNOWS about the hit (and sees your HP drop), they start the cast and finally the spell goes off.

• You are not a delicate little butterfly: With a good healer, it isn't necessary to tell them you need heals, the Healer spends most of their time staring at the HP bars of their party and the chat log to see who is casting what and what spells effects are on so they know (or should know) who needs healing. Calling for a Heal doesn't make it come any faster and just spams the chat log.

• Healing order is a complex business: Be aware that even if you are the worst hurt person in the party, the Healer may NOT heal you, rather spamming their heals on someone who is better off, but is losing lots of Health because they are the current mobs target. It is up to the healer to decide heal target orders, after all, they rely on you being alive to stay alive themselves so it is in their best interest to get this sort of thing correct.

• If the Healer uses Benediction, don't be surprised if your Provoke fails: Benediction heals the entire party (those in range) fully. This means if the party is badly wounded, which they will be if the Healer used benediction in the first place, then the amount of HP healed is a LOT. This equals a LOT of aggro. Provoking the mob off the Healer will be difficult if not impossible. If you have even a TINYEST bit of healing available, heal the healer now. Otherweise voke, voke, voke! Then find a raise for them?
  If you have a class specific "get out of jail free card" like the Paladins Invincible, consider using it now.

Section 2: For the Healer: You are a delicate little Butterfly

This section deals with information Healers need to know, but not necessarily anything a Warrior or a Thief really gives two hoots about.

2.1 Picking a Cure Spell

An important decision for all direct healers (WHM's or RDM's) is when you should start casting the various Cures. First let's look at the variables:

NOTE: Max HP is normal Maximum HP Healed for the selected spell; this can be increased during a LIGHT DAY by about 10%

NOTE: MP/HP Ratio is the HP's you can heal with a maxed spell per single MP used. It is a good gauge of the usefulness of a heal spell but is NOT the only thing to factor in.