I am still very new to the game and yet the number one question on my mind is what will be the most efficient way to heal? I am not sure if there is a specific macro setting I need on all my healing abilities or a way to cast spells on specific players through a raid window. I know this is all a bit much for early gameplay, but I know the normal in game click to cast heals method isn't going to be enough in the end. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Couldnt think of any other trick, other then putting in name of the person you want to heal in the target box. At least, it works on my bards and paladin (for selfbuffs, jestercap and so on). Putting the name in the box, let you cast a spell on him without changing your target, thats why ^ ^ So should work for you to
I use prophet UI which has click to cure and the ability to click on the raid window for out of group heals and cures. I have also heard good things about drums UI but haven't tried it myself. You can check them out and download them or other custom UI's at eq2interface.com.
darqui is the one I use. Let's me set up custom macros (through a very slick and intuitive interface) to be able to case my point cures, heals and buffs on people in my group raid without retargetting. It also uses the spells icons, so I don't have to remember which button does which heal because it matches my normal buttons. Kalderon's suggestion also works, if you don't want a custom UI. But you'll have to change your macros as your group/raid changes and remember who each macro heals.
The click to cast and learning to swap targets via "F" keys or with game-made target macros ("/target playername") quickly will stand you in good stead later down the road. That method is what shortcuts and macros are built off of, but if you know how to do it that way, you will never have a problem. I'm thinking of several Game Updates that rendered custom UIs (like Profit) unuseable because they hadn't yet caught up with the changes. If you log in to raid or play and have no other frame of reference how to heal except via that UI, you will not be able to do anything 'the old fashioned way' and will be stuck till it's updated. I'm lazy, basically, and would like a UI that does all of that for me. Drums is a really good one, and the guy who designed it and keeps it updated plays regularly with a guild that pushes game tools pretty far. He's thought of pretty much every circumstance you'll run into because he's done it. It's really robust and customizeable (if that's a word...). Profit UI is a good one, as well, but the person that keeps it updated can't always do the changes right away (they do keep it up, he just can't always be instant). This game doesn't use a ton of add-ons, like WoW (thank god). The default UI is pretty robust, as well. What the custom UIs do for healing is put all your macros and click to cures etc all in one place. There's no 'right' way to do it from behind your keyboard. If you can keep people from dying and cure curses and whatnot in enough time for them not to be a fail condition...no one cares how you did it. As far as heal 'efficiency' is concerned: There's no such thing as 'overhealing' in this game...and mana regen in the higher levels isn't an issue (usually). A heal parse is going to show a good raid leader what you are doing - who you are healing and curing. They aren't going to carry on about your amazing heal numbers because healing in this game is 'chance to heal' - how the game reads whatever heal you have cast. Your efficiency will be shown by if your group is still alive, buffed properly and if they didn't have to deal with detriments that weren't cured in a timely manner. There are casting orders for heals that make more sense than others - but that's a combination of talking to other healers of that class and doing it for yourself.
