In FFXI, healing damage is just as crucial as dealing damage to enemies. You never know in the game when the fight can shift towards either side in just a blink of an eye. Several players are unaware of the importance of healing in FFXI and its impact on the overall fight’s mechanics. Opting for a healing character is recommended so you can heal in encounters along with the damage dealing and tanking. There’s no doubt that healers can turn the game for you. Players often get exhausted with healers, but there’s much to learn about FFXI healers.
In this guide, we’ll be looking at how healers operate in FFXI. We’ll also discuss some of the best healers available in the game.
Important Aspects of Healers You Should Know In FFXI
It’s always good to have a healer in your party. One of the essential things that every player should know is that the healers are fragile and absorb less damage, so you need to take care of your healer. It would not be wrong to say that the better the healing ability, the more fragile the healer will be. In short, healers are less capable of surviving attacks as compared to other classes.
Another critical aspect of healers in FFXI is that you should give much importance to your healer because if your healer dies, you will also die.
Following are some things that will familiarize you with healers in FFXI, plus how you can use them to your advantage.
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:
Healers Require Mana to Heal
In a fight, keep an eye on the messages from the healers presented MP status messages. Also, look continuously for the mana status before making any decision. You don’t need full mana for a healer to pull. Instead, healers, including White Mages and several others, acquire mana bonuses at different levels. Healers can quickly regenerate mana after reaching 70%, so you don’t need to worry about getting back with the mob.
Fragility of Healers
As aforementioned, healers are less capable of surviving attacks and damage. So, whenever a monster attacks a healer, try to increase the aggression of your party and divert the monsters. Healers like TaruTaru don’t survive attacks as they feature less HP.
Interrupts Effects of Healer
Just like the fragile nature of healers, their spells can also be interrupted when they are hit. It means that even if a healer has a lot of HP left or can heal your mob for some time, low-level mobs can quickly interrupt them.
Healers Are Not For Aggression
The exact reason why healers are not suitable for aggression is they are inefficient against attacks and interrupts. You will see that a healer does nothing except stand in the air or ground and try to heal the team. They are not designed for attacks and aggression, so they find it difficult to heal while aggression is going on.
Healers Are Incompatible With Tanks
The problem isn’t associated with the body odor of tanks, but the tanks attract the areas of spell’s effect, which can hinder the abilities of healers or disturb them doing their job of healing. In short, healers do not like to stand close to tanks, travel a long way, and heal you from there.
Healers Are Comparatively Slow
Don’t be surprised to see if your healers are slow, as healing spells are usually slow. New players often get worried after seeing this scene. Remember that healing is a slow process, and you will experience a delay after getting hit. Good healers can automatically sense the hit, track your HP, and cast the healing spells.
Good Healers Are Intelligent
Not every healer is equal, and not every healer is delicate as a butterfly. Some good healers can sense that you need healing and spend most of the time tracking your HP bars to see what’s going on in the fight and who needs what. In short, good healers know who needs healing, so there’s no specific need to call for healing. It doesn’t make them fast.
Controlling Healers Can Be Tough
There’s no doubt that healing is really a complex business. Please remember that some healers don’t have a brain. You will see that they will heal the worst hurt character instead of healing someone who is better off but is losing lots of health as they are current targets. Healers decide on their own about which one to heal first. They choose the healing targets' orders by themselves. If you control the healers in the correct way, they can be of great interest to your mob.
Five Best Healer Options in FFXI
The prominent healers of FFXI are:
WHM (White Mage)
White Mage (WHM) is considered one of the best healers in the game. White Mage is a complete package of potency and access to the highest tiers, magic, and regens. White Mages are the premier healers of FFXI. They are nearly indispensable when forming a party. The main goal of White Mage is to keep everyone alive, and she makes sure that everyone in the party comes out of a battle alive. They can also equip themselves with mighty hammers and durable shields to rain down punishment upon their enemies.
RDM (Red Mage)
Red Mage is a frequently used healer in FFXI. However, the specialty of Red Mage is enfeebling. Red Mage often opts as a healer given their numerous spells, including Refresh and Haste spells at higher levels. For solo jobs, Red Mage is excellent as they are capable of doing various sub-jobs and healing spells they can cast.
SCH (Scholar)
Scholar is a decent healer for the end game. As you reach level 30 or above, they suddenly become potent healers thanks to their more spells, job abilities, and healing effects. In addition to their Accession job ability to increase party defenses and mitigate damage, Scholar also uses magic instead of casting cure magic. Scholar can also use nukes to deal damage. So whenever you are tired of healing, you can also use SCH as a damage-dealing character. Scholar is great for solo jobs, as well as they have the most extensive spell list than any other mage in FFXI.
DNC (Dancer)
Dancers are not conventional healers; they are pretty different. Dancer doesn’t use MP for healing. Instead, they use the TP to cure the team and enfeeble the mob. The TP gained from melee attacks is used by Dancer for healing. A Dancer is a combination of a part-time healer and a damage dealer. Having a Dancer in your team is excellent as it can help the allies sustain their MP for a bit longer and takes the pressure off the healers.
SMN (Summoner)
Summoner is another healer in FFXI that becomes powerful at higher levels, but also it is the weakest on our healers' list. They are great in casting AoE defensive magic, just like the Scholar. Summoning them costs a massive amount of MP.
Some Notable Healers in FFXI
Other than the healers, as mentioned earlier, there are also some of the best healers and party’s best friends. They are helpful in early and mid-game.
Apururu
Apururu is one of the most liked healers in the FFXI. Undoubtedly, Apururu is the best healer trust in the game and is also one of the easiest to get. You can get Apururu by just signing up for her Unity Concord. You also need to earn at least 5000 accolades from completing RoE objectives in a period. You can also use Gil to buy accolades in FFXI. Apururu is one of those intelligent healers that, in addition to converting, also uses a skill called Nott. This skill is responsible for restoring additional MP.
As compared to any White Mage trust, Apururu has the best mileage in terms of MP. In addition to that, she also features Curaga, Haste, and cure status effects.
Ferrous Coffin
Ferrous Coffin is a preferred healer in FFXI. This healer trust is even capable of reviving fallen player characters. This effect only works for White Mage trust. This skill can be handy when two or more characters are suddenly dead. Unlike other healers, he is good at absorbing attack damage, all thanks to his massive HP. Ferrous Coffin is a heavy-duty healer that works excellently in groups. It is excellent when you need to deal with an enormous amount of damage in less time.
Kupipi
Kupipi is a great and charming healer trust that is also easy to get. Several FFXI players prefer this healer over others, given its ability to apply debuffs in several forms. This ability is lacking in every other White Mage trust. She’s an intelligent healer that prioritizes the healing order based on allies' HP rather than overhealing a single character. Whenever a flurry of status ailments comes your way, it would be great to choose Kupipi to cast some emergency healing. It has naturally high MP reserves, so she doesn’t run out of MP.
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