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Yes, we ALL hear it, on the forums, on the lodestone, in the game itself.

"Being a healer SUCKS, I NEVER get to really HEAL! People BARELY get hurt in dungeons unless big pulls are made, so it's ALWAYS DPS, DPS, DPS! "

"Even in Trials, unless they are new, NOT much healing involved!"

"And Raids? Um........What are THOSE?" ;p Just kidding, even raids, unless they are newer, you don't heal very much.

So, WHAT is a poor healer to do to be challenged? The answer my dear Healer lovers is PVP!


YES, That's RIGHT, PVP!


"OMG, she has LOST it!" My haters of everything Annabel, (but STILL read this), are saying. "ANNABEL, I KNOW you are a STUPID Blonde ditz, but this REALLY takes the cake! PVP SUCKS, sucks ROYALLY! I don't WANT to mess with people being MEAN to me ALL the time!"

Now Now, PVP and Annabel haters, it's REALLY NOT that bad, it REALLY isn't! Why? I will tell you.

Ok, PVP, run around with a bunch of people, doing various things, killing those who stand in your way or BE killed by them because you stand in THEIR way, back and forth, ebb and flow, a very chaotic mess.

Well, as a healer, if all you are doing is going around casting Dia and your attack spell, you are doing it WRONG!

You see, fighting ACTUAL people is DIFFERENT from AI monsters. People get HURT, they NEED to be healed. They need YOUR healing skills to keep them alive! That's right people, you ACTUALLY need to BE the proper SUPPORT class you were meant to be!

If you are with your group, you should NOT be ATTACKING, you should be HEALING. Your party NEEDS you to HEAL them! Your attacks are Garbage compared to the DPS's and Tanks. They NEED you to keep their health bar up so that THEY can deal out the tons of damage to your opponents.

And believe me, in a pitched battle for control or defense, you WILL heal your little heart out. You will heal so much, you might even run out of MP. White Mages have a bunch of little healing and defensive tricks to keep people up and fighting, and you WILL be using them. Ignore your 2 little attack buttons unless your party is NOT being taxed or there are attacks of opportunity. BE the support class you were MEANT to be and keep your party alive!

"But ANNABEL! I read that people in PVP are SOOOOOOOO MEAN to healers! They target them EVERY chance they can get and CONSTANTLY pick on US! I DON'T want people being MEAN to me all the time!"

And the answer to that my little 'Care Bear' world lover is, NOT if you play SMART!

Yes, PVPers LOVE to target healers and they are wonderful targets of opportunity. BUT, there in lies the thing. They got to TARGET you first!

See, in PVP, with a lot of people around, it is VERY hard to target individuals. There is really no easy way to do it in FF14. When you got lots of people in an area, it can be a real BITCH to focus on the one you want to.

As a healer, you are NOT in the forefront of the battle. You are a RANGED class with RANGED healing spells. Sure you got to be close enough, but not THAT close. With proper positioning, you can keep yourself from being a constant target while still supporting your party, and if your party is NOT dying because of your heal spells, they are harassing and killing the enemy. It's REALLY hard for someone to be focusing on you when they are getting whopped on themselves.

Also, there is TIMING! This is a VERY important thing for healer survival and can make the difference between a constant dead healer and one who is up and supporting.

Watch the flow of the battle, watch the health bars and timers of objectives. Know when to hit that mount button to get the HELL of the area before the chaos begins. After objectives are completed, people will start attacking one another. There is usually NO reason to DO this, a smart group will get out of there and regroup. As a healer, if you are still around, you WILL be targeted by someone! Hit that button early, get OUT of there and see what your group is doing. If needed and it is relatively safe still, stop and heal them so they can get free too. Sometimes though, they are dead meat because they were stupid, slow, or noble and did not retreat properly and there is no way to keep them up without you dying too. In that case, sacrifice them.

Yes, it sometimes IS callus, but it can mean the difference between having 0-1 deaths to being killed over and over. Remember, there are a usually a LOT of people to attack things, sometimes you are the ONLY healer in the group; YOU are NEEDED!

Also remember, you are a DEFENSIVE class! You have many spells to protect YOU from crap happening TO you! If you ARE being targeted, Divine Bension yourself to give time to heal. Use the big self heal when needed to keep you up. Push people away and bind them with the water spell. If on a mount and lamed, Drop real quick and cast the remove status spell, then mount up real quick again. The spell gives protection for it happening again for a bit giving you time to escape.


PVP can be VERY chaotic. Unlike AI creatures, people do things you do not expect. You GOT to be on the ball, be ready for anything. If you are a healer, STAY with your group as much as you can. This can be REALLY hard though because some groups break apart as people go separate ways. As a support class, you should NOT be doing this, stay with a big a group as possible for maximum usefulness.

It REALLY helps if there is a proper commander directing people. If there is, victory will probably happen. If not, well.....maybe next time will be better.

And if you DO die, don't take it personally, it's PVP, it WILL happen eventually! You WILL do stupid things to end up a target, you WILL sometimes be in the wrong place at the wrong time. You will sometimes be just unlucky. It REALLY isn't anything personal, just brush yourself off and go back into the fray. Like I said, if you play smart, this WON'T happen too often. I have gone matches with 0 deaths, AS a healer!

Healing in PVP is VERY challenging and quite different then PVE. Like I said, you WILL be healing and you SHOULD be healing your little heart out as you were meant to do. If you want to actually GET to be the class you signed up for, try it out, you might be pleasantly surprised that you are ACTUALLY challenged.