Your healing preferences/methods

[Xander]

Just wondering how everyone likes to go about healing.

For example, do you use cure magic more than potions, or do you prefer to use one in battle and another out of battle. I know it may vary depending on the game but this is in regards to all the FF's in general.
How low do you let a character's HP get before you heal?

Lately I've found myself using potions a lot less. In battle I prefer to use cure magic, which I assign to one character if I have a choice (FFVII, FFVIII) or obviously I have a white mage to do that in FFIX and X. It generally cures more HP back and can be used on all characters in some circumstances.

The only time I've really been using potions is to top up health when not in a battle if I have spare ones left over, or if my mp is getting really low. Or if my curer can't use their magic for some reason.
I always end up buying about 99 anyway though just in case :p

I usually let my characters health go down about a third before I start bothering to heal them, for example if they are at 5000 HP I won't heal till they are about 3000, but of course it depends on the battle and how much damage the enemy is about to do.

In FFIX I made more use of tents than anything else cos I always seemed to be able to afford a lot of them.

And if you know a good source of ethers, eg. stealing, you can restore MP and have way more cure spells from one ether than if you used a potion.

Although Auto-potion on FFIX was helpful, except for random battles when I forgot to unequip it and a character used a potion when being damaged by about 10hp :rolleyes2

[SpikingZero]

It depends how much damage the enemy/boss does per hit, I suppose. Since Dragon Warrior VII has taught me to always be pre-emptive and heal, I usually heal even when somebody's HP is down even a little. I mean, I have plenty of Ethers to spend most of the time; if the caster runs low, I just give him/her one of them and then everything's okay again!

[Kenshin IV]

If I ever need to heal, I use Cure. Never need to do it more than a couple of times on each character before you get to a point where the game will automatically heal you completely. Items are near useless in most RPGs.

[Pancaek]

In battle I use whatever level healing magic that I need. I'll usually wait until their HP's about half gone and then blast everyone with Cure 3. If someone can't use healing magic, and it's an emergency, I'll use items.

Out of battle I use the weakest magic, because I find that casting weak magic lots of times is more MP-efficient. If MP's still an issue, I'll use items again. I'm not a big fan of items, but I'm learning to like them in FFT. Items are nice in that one.

[Kenshin IV]

I assume you mean the first Tactics? In FFTA, I haven't needed to heal a single time...... at all. I'm not sure, but I'm almost certain I didn't really use items in Tactics much. Auto-Potion was pretty cool, if not a bit unnecessary.

[i90east]

Early in the game I use items, late game it's all magic. I always heal my guys outside of battles so I don't have to waste battle turns curing. In FF6, I have Cure Rings on all my guys (which casts regen). With bosses and tough monsters, I'll cure when my guys lose 25% health or more (I'll target all characters for cure, unless a specific person is near death). When my guys get low on MP, I'll steal some from the enemy (Osmose).

A common newbie mistake in any RPG is not keeping your characters healthy. That's the first priority (your guys can't attack if they're dead). Don't wait until it's too late to heal your guys.

[Cz]

The ol' 99 heal potion trick works prety well for me. In the earlier games, magic spells are best saved for a dungeon's boss, but in the later games, you can get away with casting Cure3 every battle, and then using a tent or ether to restore your MP. In those games, I rarely use heal potions at all.

[crono_logical]

I rarely use items unless I have to, since they're rarely more efficient than magic (FF1 seems to be an exception to this :p ). I also prefer healing out of battles rather than in, and go on the offensive in battles unless it's not possible or I'm dangerously low on HP :p

[Rostum]

Originally posted by Kenshin IV
If I ever need to heal, I use Cure. Never need to do it more than a couple of times on each character before you get to a point where the game will automatically heal you completely. Items are near useless in most RPGs.

Although VERY usefull in Chrono Cross.

In FF games, I usualy just use items for healing outside of battles. When in battle, I defenatly use magic and/or limit breaks.

[Outsider]

In FF games I almost never ned to heal my characters, but later in the game I like to use some items like X-Potions, elixers, and megalixers and other stuff, so I can save MP to use powerful magics

But it depends on the characters you have on your team.

[Kenshin IV]

In Cross you could just use your left over magic at the end of each battle to heal...

[Radje]

In the earlier games i always seem to have a lack of mp so i usually stock up on items. In the later games however i usually cast magic in battle unless i need the mp so i use x-potions etc instead (Tip: Go to wutai in ff7 as soon as you have the tiny bronco. Most every battle ther gives you an x-potion or 2 at the end.) Although off the field i usually use my stocks of 9 high potions or potions or tonics or whatever to save mp.

[black orb]

>>> At the beginning I use potions because the HP is low, in high levels I use auto regen. I dont use Cure spells very much, they are more effective against undead.