They can be only if it's a perfect run, the DPS is top parse and the instance allows it. Your average DF run will require healing, maybe even a lot, and some rez as well.
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I recently completed an admittedly idiosyncratic thing where I took SCH through every piece of instanced content normally done via DF (on Crystal, if anyone thinks that makes a difference).
It was quite depressing to see how often Eos + (Recitation_if_available_)Excogitation was sufficient to sustain the tank through wall-to-wall pulls. Sprinkle in some random Lustrates, Protractions, and fairy abilities, and I'd argue that ye olde DF tank doesn't actually need that much assistance from the healer to handle "real" trash pulls.
It was also quite depressing to see how often my existence in the party is to raise the other party members or else concoct some amazing combination of mitigations and shields so that they could face-tank a mechanic with 392 vuln stacks.
The core problem I see is that the devs have a tank dev and DPS devs but no healer dev. The dev responsible for healers happens to be the caster dev and that is why DPS comes up so much as that is what they are familiar with.
Until we get a dedicated healer dev, we will always be in this situation and even then, the healer dev must be strong and willing to stand their ground to get things for healers fixed properly by addressing excessive self-healing and mitigation.
I still don't get why it's so difficult for people to understand that higher healing requirements doesn't preclude a better damage kit and vice versa. Why do people always have to come in and say "No, I want A! I don't want B!" when A and B can coexist just fine (and did coexist just fine in Stormblood).
I don't know about everyone else, but I personally find 'Cure x 9 > Medica > Repeat' as boring as 'Glare x 11 > Dia > Repeat'.
It is. I mean, it's just the equivalent of filler attack, banked-damage attack, filler AoE, and banked-damage AoE. They're no more interesting than any other variety of otherwise dull actions. Mixed up, they're maybe okay; imbalanced (spamming just Medica between Medica IIs for 8-man content or Cure IIs between Regens for 4-man content -- if AoEs were ever nerfed enough not to be the spam for everything), they're boring.
But at least if we had to use both healing and attack GCDs frequently, that variety could be doubled. Mix in priority conflicts within time constraints, moreover, and those individually dull actions get some decent optimization depth in context.
Unfortunately the vast majority of suggestions in this game get the same response. I can think of countless instances in the past where potentially great ideas get lambasted because of a lack of ambition. It almost feels a little stockholm syndrome at this point.
Let's just think about...
- The glamour system. A glamour catalogue is 100% doable, WoW did it like 8 years ago. Apparently it's too much spaghetti code or takes too much time to implement or too much data or whatever. Let's sweep under the rug you can go to sleep in the inns and view all Mogstation paid content in realtime literally right this second. The system exists.
- The housing system. Unlimited districts is absolutely possible. Multiple MMOs have and do it actively. They make bank with this game, invest in some back so people can have a freaking house. GW2 is launching it - that's a F2P game. LOTRO has private wards that scale infinitely - also a F2P game. No excuse.
- The job identity. It's too hard to make jobs interesting because then the devs can't balance it. Like, isn't that just a huge failing of the talent at CBU3 if they're the only MMO incapable of balancing jobs when they aren't the Spiderman pointing at himself meme?
- Healer design. See above. Too hard. Too much time. Etc. etc.
- Almost every vestigial system left to rot in the game. Which is many.
- The level sync problem. Too difficult to change the system, too time consuming. Let's just keep the crap system we have. Other MMOs have solved this more effectively years ago.
- The ping and latency issues. Third-parties have fixed this in various ways. It's doable.
Every problem is another form of - think of the dev team, it is spaghetti code, too much server strain, data volume per character, hard to balance, too much time investment. It's no wonder nothing changes, and the patches are always the same, and the train keeps moving until the track stops getting laid in front.
Ya know it baffles me to see players (actual Healer mains) try to defend a job that is really so........irrelevant. I mean take a look at the other support role, Tank. Compare the number of Duties that can be completed without a Tank with those that can be completed without a Healer. It's sad imo. Don't get me wrong, I love a Healer that really cranks out damage in a Dungeon, but if the role restrictions were removed, 3 DPS and 1 Tank would be so much faster (most of the time). I was tanking a dungeon with two melee DPS the other day and the healer died pretty early in one of the boss fights and we still cleared with no issues. This actually made me feel bad for the Healer just laying there dead for 8 minutes or so. Of course I have no idea how to fix this, I just know it needs some attention :)