"And at level 82, SCH/WHM/AST get NEW spells in the form of Broil IV/Glare III/Fall Malefic." - Every youtuber.
No they don't- Those aren't new spells, what are you talking about.
I was going to write something similar. I don't count how many times I'm with a co-healer spamming dps skill while a few people under 50% hp and/or there are dead people and I'm under 3k mp because I'm trying to heal and raize people alone. The DPS skill doesn't keep healers from healing, just some people who play healer role to probably fill faster and don't care at all for the party because there is an other healer in the party.
I already play the "correct" way, do I have to feel the "correct" way too? I'm not just some number on some ranking sheet, I have my own thoughts, feelings, opinions too. Optimizing my damage while keeping everyone alive is really stressful for me. I just want comfy easy gameplay as a healer
I've been thinking on Healers in FFXIV for a while now and what i find truly interesting, is the fact that Squeenix designs them exactly in the opposite way how theyre suppoest to work in a MMORPG, allow me to elaborate:
Healers have in their current state, roughly 10-12 Healing abilities (Buffs and Spells that influence potencies not included) and about 5 Dps Spells.
Don't you guys think that Healers would be far more interesting to play if those numbers would be switched? I dont mean it in a 1:1 kind of way, but roughly.
You dont need over 10 Buttons which all serve for Healing a HP bar back to full, having only a handful of them with Buffs and ways to influence those few existing ones, even with Dps Skills, is at least in my Book, far more interesting and fun.
I'm all for challenging combat, myself, but healers are supposed to struggle in solo content and only be of moderate assistance in damaging a boss. Otherwise there would be no appeal to playing a DPS class. It's lore correct that way; the bread and milk that formed group gaming as we know it today, and my fear is that players (well-known for their this-is-never-enough attitude towards any and all classes) will continue to drive towards the same sort of changes that made WoW's dungeons and raiding so terribly hectic and strange, which is why I'm glad that SE has put their foot down and so NO to yet more damage or more distracting combos.
Because they seem to understand that for those asking it'll never be enough. This reminds me of early tanking in the game, way back when they gave players attribute points to use and the option of equipping accessories of the players choice and any tank that didn't assign every last bit of strength that they could to their character, even at the cost of mitigation, was considered an idiot. I can see healers suffering the same fate, if in a different way, where it has become all about optimizing DPS over heals, because it's never enough and NEVER WILL BE ENOUGH.
The only acceptable change I could get behind is some other form of entertainment available during the supposedly loathed downtime, but not MORE damage and certainly nothing that will pull attention from healing because healers are coerced into feeling that if they can't squeeze out a full combo then they must be a failure at healing; a mentality that is sure to arise from any sort of combo that effects damage.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but WHM at least has five abilities at lv 80 that do direct damage and 10 (11 if you count asylum) that do direct healing. Despite people's complaints about healers being stuck with the 11111 damage rotation, WHM already has half as many damaging abilities as it does direct healing. Sure, you're gonna use glare the most, especially at lower levels, but there's a darn good reason the game doesn't want healers committing to combos.
That's why I will never be convinced that healers should get more in the area of DPS, because I KNOW that however hard and desperately players cry for a bit more, something, anything, from SE to make healers more fun to do things other than heal with, it won't be enough. And worse, if SE finally caves and for some reason gives the DPHealers more sparklies to fling at bosses and trash players will promptly rejoice and sigh saying, "It's about time. They DO listen"
and then
say
"Well, actually. This could use a buff, it's still not enough. It's still pretty weak. This combo is pretty short. I STILL have wasted downtime. Can we get better DoTs? What about more CC?"
Because, for players, it's never going to be enough. DPS abilities are like crack for players. One taste and they gotta have more, and better, and more.
*Dave Chappelle at the window* "Ya'll got any more of them DPS abilities?"
"They will inevitably optimize Dps over healing."
How do you optimize healing over Dps? Is it making sure you cast more healing? You fit more healing spells? You make sure you get the most out of healing spells, minimizing overhealing? You ensure you use exactly the right healing spell at exactly the right moment?
What do you think the natural consequences of optimizing healing are?
You guessed it, free time. Turns out "healing as little as possible" and "not wasting any healing" are in practice, the same thing.
What should a healer with free time do in your view?
"Any DPS abilities will never be enough."
Did healers ever complain they had "not enough healing downtime buttons" back in Stormblood?
There is no DPS downtime. Damage is always usefull. The game has been designed around this fact.We had more dps abilities before, our dowtime was more varied and equally as prevalent. Removing our dps kits hasn't fixed any of the so called tunnel visioning or made healers "heal more".
Also, not sure why you go about "combos", 1-2-3 is barely more interesting that 1-1-1.
We don't want to deal more damage numerically, just have more skill variety during dowtime.
We asked for more "interesting" healing downtime, seeing how prevalent it becomes the moment a healer gets some gear and experience. It only gets more prevalent, not less.
As to healer's obsession with DPS, blame game design. There is no other useful avenue for contribution when healing is not needed. (And healing is not needed when the incomming damage isn't enough to kill a player, so you can imagine that happens a lot.)
Again, healers want to feel useful all the time. Like any DPS player or Tank, we want to feel like we're constantly contributing.