Counter Heal

Counter Heal is a buff in Xenoblade Chronicles 3. A character granted with this buff will receive automatically when hit with the next several attacks, unless the attack incapacitates them.

At base, Counter Heal heals the affected character on the next 3 hits of damage they take, for 5% of their maximum each. The amount of HP restored can be increased using effects that give bonuses to HP restored, but is unaffected by increases to Healing Power. Both the amount healed and the number of hits can also be increased by buffs such as Swelling Blessing, although non-integer values of hits are rounded down, so 33% additional buff power is required to make this value increase to 4 hits.

Counter Heal lasts for 15 seconds at base, up to 30 seconds with buff-duration-increasing effects.

Healing 15% of a character's max HP is usually negligible, especially considering that one must take 3 hits of damage to do so. Counter Heal is therefore not to be relied upon as a main means of healing. It does benefit especially strongly (quadratically) from buff-strengthening effects; at a maximum buff strength of 1.85 (achievable using Swelling Blessing with Strength Support), it heals 9.25% of the target's maximum HP on each of the next 5 hits, for a total of 46.25% of maximum HP. However, even at this maximum power it is still unreliable as a major source of healing unless damage comes in the form of a great many small hits (which is rare). It is generally to be treated as a bonus, not a crutch.