Chat Filter/Keeping an eye on effects

[Marakii]

Ok, so I am lvling WHM to use as sub for my BLM main job. One thing I find difficult in the transition from DD to Healer is knowing who is infected by what. How do you guys do it?

I know just starting out it takes time to get it down, But I find it difficult keeping an eye on the chat window for spell effects, keeping an eye on everyone's HP, and quick targeting the heals.

So with all the data flying by, how do you keep track of whos poisoned and etc? i turned off mob and party misses on the chat filter, but the info still flys by...

Do you turn off parties damage dealt to mob? If you turn off the display of certain information, what do you turn off? Is there another way?


Was in a party yesterday that already had a WHM, but he was leader and wanted a second WHM in group. He was also subbing it for his BLM. However, he was spamming all of his spells. At one point we were fighting Clippers, and he was using all his Bar spells. Seriously, why would you need spells protecting you against sleep, poison, and etc when fighting Clippers????? All your doing is wasting MP.

Anyway, I have always been a DD and even I knew not to do that. But I dont want to be one of those people they say "WTF are you doing" to in a group. So if you could help out with this, that would be great! I havent caused any deaths yet lol, and I know to stick with lesser cures unless you need to cast Cure 2 for example.

But just how do you keep everyones "infections" straight???

[Drive]

I can give you a little help for knowing when status effects hit someone. I changed my font colors for buffs and debuffs so I notice when something happens. Helped a lot on bard when I wasnt' facing the direction to see the mob.

[Murphie]

I use a combination of chat filters and chat colors to make things easier.

[Demo]

It is funny that you asked that because I was wondering the same thing. I had been levelling WHM as my main and am now doing BLM. But I could never figure out who had status effects and who did not.

[Nakti]

Strange that this topic came up again. I was doing some testing with the Chat Filter today.

Sometimes you can see the bad status effect explicitly, sometimes you can't. I think the difference is if the mob's attack causes just the bad status or causes damage + bad status.

**In the case of just bad status:**

> Mob readies bad status move.
To see this, leave "Special actions started on/by party" unfiltered.

> PartyMember1 gains bad status effect.
> PartyMember2 gains bad status effect.
To see these, leave "Special action effects on/by party" unfiltered.

**In the case of damage + bad status:**

> Mob readies damaging bad status move.
To see this, leave "Special actions started on/by party" unfiltered.

> PartyMember1 takes x points of damage.
> PartyMember2 takes x points of damage.
To see these, leave "Damage taken by party" unfiltered.

Note that you don't see the actual bad status effect. You just have to know (or ask) what it is.

Btw, if you want to see
> PartyMember's buff effect wears off.
leave "Special action effects on/by you." unfiltered.

Play around with the Font Colors. As others have said, this will help.

[Sabaron]

Sometimes the window runs by a bit fast even with filters. If you miss one, just make sure your pt knows to yell {Erase}, {Poisoned}, {Blinded}, etc if they get an effect they don't like. If you see a negative regen rate or a lowered rate in the case of regenerating characters and your mob is poisonous just throw the {Poisona}. I sometimes have trouble watching for dispellables on occasion (usually during a vigorous Refresh cycle with debuffs) as a RDM, but I let the PT know to yell if I miss one. If they don't yell, then they can't really complain too much--no one can be expected to see every message that flys past.

> Mob readies damaging bad status move.
To see this, leave "Special actions started on/by party" unfiltered.

Shouldn't this one be "Special actions started on/by enemies"?

[Icemage]

Expanding the chat window in the Configuration to 8 lines helps if you haven't already done so. Making the background on the text opaque rather than semi-transparent is quite useful, too.

As a WHM, turn off Damage Dealt By Party to reduce spam (unless for some reason you are Magic Bursting).

Colorizing negative status effects helps a lot. In the case of damage effects that grant negative effects, that's just something you'll have to learn on a case-by-case basis. If in doubt, ask the people who got hit with an attack if they picked up a status effect from it.

Generally speaking you don't really have to stare at the HP/MP bars at all. Focus on the chat window. HP bars will turn yellow or red if people get significantly hurt, so you can just glance over to the corner of the screen when you see the colors change.

Except in the cases when people have red HP bars, getting split second fast healing magic to them isn't usually imperative:

- If the tank has red HP, fire off whatever high powered Cure spell you have available that will get them out of trouble - this means that if you're already prepared to cast Cure II, but your tank has more damage than Cure III will heal, go ahead and cast Cure II first, then follow up if you need to.

- If someone else has red HP, but does not have the monster's attention, hit them with a moderate Cure, then slap a Regen on them. This is particularly true with jobs that have to rest a lot (BLM) or can heal themselves (MNK with Chakra, for instance).

- If a non-tank has more than 100 points of damage, and isn't in immediate threat by enemies, just toss them a Regen and stop worrying about them unless they take more damage. The regen will bring them back to good health over time, while the missing HPs will keep them more conservative so they're less likely to want to grab a monster's attention and get hurt even more.


Icemage

[DakAttack]

You can easily watch the fight and see what's hitting the tank.

If you're still in the dunes there probably isn't a normal tank, so it's probably tough. Later it'll be a lot easier when there's only one person to heal.

[Nazo]

I think Nakti is right regarding status effects, if it's a damaging attack you won't see any status effects inflicted in your chat window. Poison breath by flys is an obvious example of this. Really it's a matter of remembering what attacks do what effects in these cases. If I'm fighting something I haven't faced before I usually ask the party if they know any status attacks the mobs have before hand so I know what to expect / macro.

[Marakii]

GREAT INFO everyone. You know, I have not messed with the font coloring, great tip there. AS well as what filters control what texts are showin.

I also think I will filter out the damage done by party to mob. Dont think I really need to know that.

Is there a great guide to show what monsters have what abilities?

[Nakti]

Is there a great guide to show what monsters have what abilities?

I think this guide on Allakhazam is excellent: Big List of Status Ailments.^^

[Kitalrez]

Ok, I'll admit that I'm a hp bar watcher on WHM. One thing that I find helpful is unfiltering "Damage taken by Party members". Usually, after a few rounds of the same mob, you start to get a feel for what kind of attacks it's going to use. Now, if I see the bright yellow text telling me a mob is using a particular WS with a built in status affliction, like say Poison Breath, or god-forbid Radiant Breath, I watch to see who takes damage from it. Some of your party will just evade damage, and these people you can ignore, since they missed the effect too. If I see more than one person get damaged though, I know immediately who's going to need statusnas cast and can quickly figure out in what order to cure them.

Sometimes melee jobs have a box of rocks instead of brains upstairs. They'll do things like stand next to the tank when fighting a mob that uses a breath attack, or stand directly in front of the mages and use big hate drawing moves. In these cases, knowing who's taking damage can really help sort out the cures, especially if your backup healer jumps up immediately and fills the hp bars again.

[Lasareth]

My opinion: Color everything first, worry about chat filters later. The only filter I ever use is any "on others" effect if there are more than 3 PTs in the area. Otherwise, I keep the Status ailments orange, Beneficial stauses purple, and everything else dull gray. What you want to check the log for is stat ailments and beneficial effects that wear out, that's pretty much it. Everything else is a combination of watching hp bars and looking at the fight itself. Coincidentally, coloring everything makes the only thing you can't color white--that is, whenever regen or another enchantment ends, or when slow ends on the enemy. Additionally, if you miss a status down effect, a quick + enter combo on your numeric keypad can bring up the chat quickly enough to look and get back to battle.

It's pretty easy once you get used to it.

I disagree with the notion that watching hp bars isn't something you should often do for exactly the reasons given subsequently afterwards. Knowing who has regen on and who doesn't helps a lot, especially when you've got a lot of spread out healing to do.

Watching hp bars is also a good way to figure out if someone's poisoned instead of waiting on them to say "yeah I'm poisoned" or something else. I've learned that although people are often eager to point out silly things (poisona on a warrior when i'm resting? Why should I even get up to waste that 9mp?) it's often a bad idea to rely on them to tell you when something's wrong.

Edit: In anticipation of someone pointing out that hp degen may be bio or some other effect, it's important to know the enemy you're fighting so you know what status effects you're looking for. Especially if the monster uses an obscure attack (plague breath imposing poison instead of disease? ok.) that you can't readily identify.

Also, HP bars often go down before you get the message as to who gets smacked with what. Seeing the tank's hp drop to critical, say from a stray sickle slash, before you see the damage being done is invaluable in throwing on a quick cure.

Here's an example of my chat colors:

[Murphie]

Chat colors is definitely first for me, but I also filter a lot of stuff out, because if there is too much unfiltered information, then things fly by too fast and I have to scroll back up to see if I've missed something (not something I want to be doing in the heat of battle).

There really need to be more specific filters in the game, IMO, but I doubt that'll happen.

[Olorin401]

The best change I ever made was switching the damage display from text to graphical. I originally made this switch due to the chat log being constantly flooded during fights (which creates an amazing amount of lag that is unneeded for a main healer).

Not only did that problem get solved, but I was able to see my party chat again without having to scroll back. I'd be able to see my tank calling for Paralyna or my DDs telling me they're blinded. This, along with learning to anticipate which status ailments occur from the various job abilities and weapon skills that mobs have, helped me immensely.