How to be a successful healer?

As an E/Mo it's my job to patch up the other party members. Normally this isn't too bad - selecting party member names from the list and casting the appropriate spells. But when it comes to Escort Duty, things start to go horribly wrong.

There's been a couple of quests/missions where allies are fighting and I can't select them accurately enough (they should all keep still!) by clicking on the names to get a target. Or worse the idiots run into a battle and when I do click on them to target, my character runs right up to them into the thick of the battle.

Can anyone offer advice on how to quickly identify how wounded an ally is (those tiny little health bars are too darned hard to see), and how to target wounded allies without running right up to them and cast healing spells from a safe distance?

I am a healer, and I have my party list enlarged, and right next to my health bar, so its easy to see and click on. I also used the keys to cast my healing spells, and try to stay behind other people, but close enought o heal.

I'm a Mo/Me that just finished the game. I have a Lvl16 E/Mo that I'm trying out too to compare the effectiveness.

For some pointers:

Enlarge your health bars, I missed most of the game playing my monk since I only watched the bars.

Stay moving (in PvP) and near the back in PVE. If you click on someone to heal them and your char starts running toward the lvl28 Titan... heal someone else. If they can't stay close enough for you to heal, they can be rezzed.

While you are running toward them, you are only a running man, not a healer. They'll figure it out quickly or just die a lot.


As an E/Mo, you miss out on DF bonus. So spamming Orison won't be super effective since you miss about 40 pts of health on it. Pick larger spells that utilize your large energy (heal party, heal other...etc). An E/Mo can really crank out Heal Party. Bring things like that are fast to cast.

Also in PvE Elmos make the best taks in the game. I know your interested in healing, but Why not use Earth Magic and Protection prayer. No one could out tank you then.

RAther than trying to heal them by clicking on their name in battle, try clicking on their Health bars instead (in the party window) It's a lot easier.

I wish there was a way of cycling through party members in the party window other than clicking them, but I keep my fingers on the number keys of my healing spells and click the names in the party window. However, if they keep moving out of range they are out of luck. Tell your party members to try to stick together and hit the same targets as much as possible. Mind you, if they are off doing their own thing and I am getting mobbed, all bets are off. They protect me or they don't get healed.

Just practice dude. You'll have a few bumps, but figure out what feels right to you and stick with it. Since you chose Elmo and not Monk primary, you lose the DF bonus so take quick casting spells. If you are constantly pulled by someone charging into battle, the team isn't working right, not necessarily you.

I think the OP was talking more about NPCs that you need to escort and keep alive, they dont always show up in your group window. Basically it just takes practice.

I believe that you can bind keys that will allow you to select your party members.

e.g. F1 = Target first party member, F2 = Target second party member, etc.

Yes, in the "Options" menu you can assign keys to target party members. By default no keys are assigned to target party members. You can assign keys on the numeric keyboard separately.

Next to the F1, F2, ... scheme mentioned above, another commonly-used scheme is: Num. 1 = First party member, Num. 2 = Second party member, etc.

Thanks for the suggestions. I have been limited to playing a firey Elmo for now but with more spells becoming available I'll need to experiment.

Though as has been mentioned, healing party members is okay for me. It's NPCs I'm supposed to be protecting who give me grief! From the sounds of it there is no 'select injured ally' option (I've made mention of this in the requests forum though it disappeared quickly - dunno if it got noticed) and my char automatically runs in. I guess clicking an NPC in combat is treated the same as clicking them out of combat - run towards them to talk. This really needs to be fixed I think.

Ho hum. What I might do is rejig my skills a bit more for escort duty to make a more monkish char, and leave the party to do the bashing. Keeping a little bit of fire for the icicles!

Oh... non party NPC's? Yeah... they are annoying. The Ghosts in UW are the worst. I still have never successfully escorted them. Shiverpeak Stragglers was another tough one, but once you figured it out, and everyone always does eventually, it was the easiest exp you earn in the mountains.

The amount of people that have posted with out fully reading the first post makes me sad.

The only advice I can give, is to hold alt to see their names, and I think holding shift before clicking them would make you not run to them.