zvavi wrote: »

It sounds like you had vBRF as your dungeon.
Now then, let me first reassure you, that it wasn't your fault. Here are the reasonings.

1. If the dps is to far away, it is his fault.
2. If there are too many fires around so the dps can't position well, the amount of fire is because group dmg is low.
3. If the tank can't position well, it is his fault.
4. If nobody is using altars properly it can't be only your fault.
5. If most of the fire is in bad positioning it is the tanks fault.
6. If they are running away from your heals, it is their faults.

Now that we established it isn't your fault (or at least not entirely), gonna give you heads up, dlc dungeons are usually harder than non dlc by a large margin, so lack of experience also plays a lot in those cases. Don't beat yourself up, most of us had the shock of suddenly walking into mechanics, you get used to it.

Thank you for the encouragement. I did not realize I was in a vet dungeon, but that also helps explain why it was so hard compared to the others I have done. I am not entirely sure I am ready for vet content just yet. But I am glad that the issue isn't entirely that I was just not good enough.

I was reading your post and found it really thought provoking. Here are some of the thoughts that were provoked

Twilanthe wrote: »

I am really hoping someone can see some glaring thing I am doing wrong and can fix,

First, yes, you are struggling with a pain in the parts learning curve that is both "non-to-Vet" AND "Base-to-DLC" these are tough for everyone, including the DPS and tank. Everyone needs to work together.

So there isn't going to be one glaring thing, it's going to be a LOT of tiny tweaks.

I'll comment on some of what you have said:

Twilanthe wrote: »

In most cases I've been doing more DPS than healing because just my spirit mender and keeping combat prayer on the ground seems to be enough to keep everyone topped up

In lots of sections of the dungeon, this is pretty usual. Poorer DPS's will NOT see it and may think they are doing better than the actually are. This is not on you, it's just a thing.

You have identified a few things that can be improved:

Twilanthe wrote: »

I've got the Kagrenac's Hope set so far, but the rest of my gear is stuff I have gotten in dungeons.

Well, I do enjoy Alcast, but I would not have recommended that set for a healer. The DPS' should be doing the rezzing. My next thought is that even with this set (which may work for your build, so don't necessarily listen to me), I would want you to be wearing another 5-pc set AND a monster helm set (you may be doing this, but you don't mention them).

Spell power cure (drops in White Gold Tower) is a nice healer set, because when your healing is going well, you top off the DPS damage. Note that the last ability:
(5 items) When you heal yourself or an ally that is at 100% Health, you have a 50% chance to give the target Major Courage for 10 seconds which increases their Weapon Damage and Spell Damage by 258.

Sanctuary is another good healer set (drops in Banished Cells)
(5 items) Increases your healing received by 12% for you and up to 11 group members within 10 meters of you.
HOWEVER as you noted, if the DPS are kiting all over the map; this will not be as effective.

Depending on your Crit Healing ability, Combat Physician might be a possible choice (Drops in Wayrest Sewers)
5 items: When you critically heal yourself or an ally, you grant your target a damage shield that absorbs 8195 damage for 6 seconds. This effect can occur once every 6 seconds.
NOTE this is probably not needed in most situations, but a proc'ed extra damage shield can be handy when there is red all over the darn place. Your description of the above fight made me consider this.

Monster Helms:
There are a tone of good ones, and in non-vet it won't make a ton of difference. You can go two ways; either use a set that has an effect you like (I personally prefer Chokethorn, but the radius is going to decrease once Greymoor drops, so that's gonna be a bummer) OR you can layer sets, like use Shoulders/Head using one each of Earthgore, Sentinel of Rkugamz; Sympthony of Blades and/or Troll King because all of those have "+4% healing done" as the 1-peice bonus.

Twilanthe wrote: »

The other issue was the point in the fight where we kept going down, when the ground was pretty much entirely covered in bad stuff, I can barely find a safe space.

There are times when some kind of shield or damage mitigation can come in handy. Last night on Vet Wayrest I, I was really glad to have Harness Magicka (morph of the light armor skill "annulment") but depending on your build, the other morph might fit you better.

Damage mitigation can also be accomplished using the Fighter's guild skills that start with "circle of protection"; the "ring of preservation" morph mitigates damage AND helps stamina regen AND heals folks standing in it. However it can only be cast literally at your own feet, so if you have dancing/range DPS's it's less useful for them.

The other thing to consider is your ulti. One I really like is the Resto Staff Ultimate, which does more than just heal:
Release the rejuvenating energies of your staff to swirl around you, healing you or an ally for XXX Health every 1 second for 5 seconds. When you activate this ability you automatically cast Regeneration, Blessing of Protection, and Steadfast Ward at no cost. These will update based on which morph of each ability you have taken.

I also have to ask - have you messed about with Renewing Animation? It's a morph of Living Death. The description says "Bring your allies back from the brink of death, resurrecting up to 3 allies at the target location. You restore XXXX Magicka and Stamina for each ally you attempt to resurrect." Which implies you might be able to toss it from a distance. I don't know - I've not used this one, but it looks interesting.

Twilanthe wrote: »

I asked if there was any mechanics we were missing and they just said no I was a crap healer and it was my fault.

No it was not your fault that the DPS's were running around like chickens with their heads cut off. However, I would HIGHLY recommend that you talk about this (in zone or in chat) at the beginning of any run. If you have a heal/ability you can throw with a visible effect/border (and if they can't see it, remind them to go into settings and turn ON the ability to see other's abilities/animations).

It will depend on what you have: Templar "Cleansing Ritual" and all it's morphs have really easily visible boundaries. For a Warden, Healing Seed and it's morphs are also pretty visible. I'm not sure how visible Grand Healing (resto staff ability) and it's morphs are.

Basically you throw out something visible at the beginning of the dungeon, and you remind the others that if they are farther than that away from you, then your heals won't reach and they better have decent self-healing. You just focus on "these are the heals I offer" and then let it go (because if they are jerks, you can't change that).

If the DPSs need heals, they should be running toward the healer.
If the DPSs are being targeted/chased by adds/whatever, they should be running toward the tank.

If they are not doing either of those things, and are still fussing like toddlers, then you are not the problem.

My 2 cents.
YMMV