Give your opinion on healer design!

Just a few questions regarding healers and your personal enjoyment of their gameplay.

-Are you happy with the current design of the three healers? Which one is your favourite?

-What keeps you engaged when playing a healer?

-Regarding healer identity, what gimmick or gameplay style would you give each of the healers? Both in terms of how the healing itself would work and what to do during healing downtime.

-Are you expecting a new healer job to be added in the next Expansion? If so, what job would you like to see and what type of gameplay would you like the new job to have?

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Originally Posted by GrimGale

-Are you happy with the current design of the three healers? Which one is your favourite?

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No. AST because it gives me more to do, even if it is mostly busywork.

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-What keeps you engaged when playing a healer?

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Trying to make up for other people's inadequacies when I'm in DF.
Seeing how close I can stand to untelegraphed aoes without getting clipped by them when playing with competent players

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-Regarding healer identity, what gimmick or gameplay style would you give each of the healers? Both in terms of how the healing itself would work and what to do during healing downtime.

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Make healing and damage components of the toolkit related to one another. Right now damage abilities feel like an afterthought that was tacked on to the healers' kits. Having damage empower or unlock healing and vice versa would unify the healers' kits' and would make the jobs more mechanically interesting.

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-Are you expecting a new healer job to be added in the next Expansion? If so, what job would you like to see and what type of gameplay would you like the new job to have?

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I suspect they will release a new healer next expansion because it has been so long since they last created one. It'll be full of half-baked ideas and hardly functional on release. The other three healers will be neglected as a result and remain in their uninspired state.

What I'd like (but will never happen) is for SE to hire some skilled healers to redesign the jobs for them. There are a lot of excellent players who understand the problems with healers and would love to fix them.

- Are you happy with the current design of the three healers? Which one is your favourite?
No, I'm not, definitly not. But I still prefer Astrologian because it's a more busy job with its card and ton of short oGCD.

-What keeps you engaged when playing a healer?
That's the role i've been playing since I started the game, and what I know how to do the best.
That's hard to say. I don't even know myself actually. I think playing with friends, specially with a co-healer make it less frustrating.

-Regarding healer identity, what gimmick or gameplay style would you give each of the healers? Both in terms of how the healing itself would work and what to do during healing downtime.
Time mage utility + old card system was fine on AST. Scholar DoT and Fairy oriented was fine. I don't have an opinion for WHM, even though having strong direct heal and hit looks to fit him the most.
But currently, just bring back some dots honestly. Encounters didn't change that much but I was less bored with maintaining DoTs than spamming a one dps button.

- -Are you expecting a new healer job to be added in the next Expansion? If so, what job would you like to see and what type of gameplay would you like the new job to have?
They'd better add one. I was expecting one this expac already.
As for what kind of gameplay, idk. Maybe a melee healer with other mechanic than what we have now ? Heal bomb ? Debuffing target ? Idk.

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Originally Posted by GrimGale

Just a few questions regarding healers and your personal enjoyment of their gameplay.

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-Are you happy with the current design of the three healers? Which one is your favourite?

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No. From a design perspective AST. I don't play it, as I personally don't like its aesthetic. I prefer SCH's theme.

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-What keeps you engaged when playing a healer?

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The prospects of finishing this Savage tier to get back to healing TEA.

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-Regarding healer identity, what gimmick or gameplay style would you give each of the healers? Both in terms of how the healing itself would work and what to do during healing downtime.

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SCH: Debuffs, Debuff manipulation, Aetherflow, Fairy
AST: Buffs, Buff manipulation, Diurnal/Nocturnal flexibility, Quirky OGCD heals
WHM: Raw power, efficient GCD heals, proc-based gameplay

Like in this rework I keep throwing around.

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-Are you expecting a new healer job to be added in the next Expansion? If so, what job would you like to see and what type of gameplay would you like the new job to have?

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Either:
1. SE finally listens to healer feedback and we get both a new job and good gameplay.
2. SE makes a new healing job just as bland as the ones we have right now.
3. SE somehow knows there's negative feedback, but still has no clue and we get a continuation of SB and ShB, so even more useless healing spells and no more DoT.

I'm expecting #2.

1) I am not happy with the design of any of the 3 healers, mostly because SCH and WHM bore me to tears outside of full-pulls and Savage, and AST's 'fun' comes from learning everyone else's rotation and carding the right person just before their burst phase (a hard thing to track without 3rd party tools and minimal buff-bar telegraphing).
I'd say AST is my favourite, if only because it has a higher opportunity for optimisation over 'stand still and broil/glare as much as possible'

2) Semi-unpredictable damage spikes in dungeons and planning out cooldowns in Savage. There's nothing else to be engaging.

3) Whew boy. This is a writeup.
First of all, I'd have all healers share similar opportunity costs for accessing their healing - either all have to give up damage to heal or none have to (I'm a fan of the latter personally). Healing spells would cost a lot of MP, but damage spells would either be free or cost little in comparison. MP regen would be done via a GCD skill - so overhealing would be punished by a lost damage GCD.
In addition, all healers' access to shields will be the same, and similar to Tanks (a single 90s cooldown each).

3) Cont.
WHM would heal with GCDs, all of them contributing to a damage return ala Misery. Most of the 'oGCD' (now GCD oGCDs) would also carry a +healing action buff, so that WHM supports their cohealer.
For damage, WHM would stay mostly unchanged, except adding in a skill akin to HW enochian (with charges, so you can save it for stuff) where WHM would gain access to stronger versions of its damaging spells for a time - similar to how Cleric Stance required you to preplan so that you could heal when necessary (except the cost here would be the buff on a damage spell rather than massively gimped stats)

SCH I'd have heal entirely through the fairy (Aetherflow reworked into entirely mitigation skills - so they support the Tanks), with the concurrent skill usage from ARR, HW, and StB returning. Eos/Selene would be split into 2 again, with an oGCD to swap them. Selene's heals would apply a status that increases Eos' healing done. (So efficient healing would be selene beforehand and Eos after)
For damage, SCH would have a suite of 4 DoTs, and have to cycle through Aetherflow skills to keep a crit buff up on themselves.

AST I have no idea. Really, they've been pulled in so many different directions that I have no clue. They'd use their infinite weaves for healing as well - all skills oGCDs. For mechanics, I like the timebomb heal that Earthly Star has, and the heal low HP of dignity though. More of those please.
Damage - again - no clue. Cards are a nightmare to balance, maybe if they go for a Corsair Blackjack system and left buff mixing to a new class, that'd be more fun to play with? Either way they'd need to support the dps in damage dealing.

4) Hell yeah I want a 4th healer. It's the role that has gone the longest without any fresh blood.
We currently have 3 'magicsparkles' healers, 2 with that as an identity (SCH's tactician stuff is cool as heck tho). I'd like to see a gun/tech-based healer just for a different aesthetic.
They'd bring back a fair amount of old MCH's reload and gun mechanics (also Dismantle's animation please - it was so great) and have a mix of the 3 healers' playstyles - some GCD heals with damage returns, a short-term deployable, and oGCD skills

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-Are you happy with the current design of the three healers? Which one is your favourite?

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No, they could be better. All of them could be considered my favorite, but AST due to it only having a healer job mechanic that fills up my attention other than one button spam.

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-What keeps you engaged when playing a healer?

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It's the only role I enjoy playing because I love healing people and keeping them alive. But I do love the job fantasies of each. DPS is fun too, but something about healing keeps me coming back.

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-Regarding healer identity, what gimmick or gameplay style would you give each of the healers? Both in terms of how the healing itself would work and what to do during healing downtime.

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Like Jaelommiss has mentioned, their kits need to correlate to their dps somehow. They've taken baby steps with the Blood Lily for whm, I'd like them to continue in that direction. Their entire fight design is very dps centric, and every job mechanic (tanks included) has related to their dps, I'd like healers to have the same. Reward dps with healing and vice versa.

AST should have it's SB iteration come back in some form if not all. I'd like to see the old card system come back, the current one is boring and a chore. I understand that it's made to be consistent for raiding, but raiding is not the core audience in ffxiv. Return the card effects and Royal Road, keep seals and Divination, change Balance to Direct Hit, Spire to Determination (or increased healing actions), and have Sleeve Draw fill out seals instead of cards during opener (swaps to 3 card stacks if seals aren't filled out).

SCH, I only started raiding with recently but I'd like for the fairy skill ghosting to stop for one. Make Art of War look visually interesting. SCH's dps consistent of rotating dots with Bane for AoE situations. Their healing is fine personally and Recitation was a great compromise for spread critlo.

WHM lost its charm after dealing with its lackluster kit and lack of movement. I would either make a lily spender that is shield related or dps related so that lillies are sitting waiting to be used. Alternatively they can increase the potency on Misery so that is truly is dps neutral.

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-Are you expecting a new healer job to be added in the next Expansion? If so, what job would you like to see and what type of gameplay would you like the new job to have?

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I am expecting a new one. IMO, if they can balance out the tanks and add a new tank in the same expansion, there is no excuse for why healers can't be treated the same. They also added DNC is that destroyed BRD's buff gig. Worrying about balance =/= adding new job. I do suspect it will the last healer they'll add which is fine.

It will likely be a problematic release for whatever this new job will be. It'll likely be to powerful or too weak (check AST release). I hope I'm wrong and that SE figures it out nicely.

As for job predictions, I suspect the potentials would be Chemist, Time Mage (lol), and Geomancer.

Chemist I can see, as its the most requested and it'll be the only other FF job that has a healer lore attached to it. Mixing could be like a Mudra situation but can be weaved inbetween GCDs would be cool.

Time Mage ideas has been thrown around. Although I personally believe that AST is a time mage since space and time are closely tied. I believe that Time Mage could work to some degree. Perhaps like accelerated regens (shortening the duration but increasing the potency per tick) or extend heals (stretching the duration but decreasing the potency per tick).

Geomancer I would say fits caster dps more but I can see it having a different elements attached to different mechanics. Like Earth is a ground AoE heal, Air regen, Water direct heal or shield, Fire for dps spells. It would probably the easiest to design for since it has no clear direction on a healer basis.

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Originally Posted by GrimGale

-Are you happy with the current design of the three healers?

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No.

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Which one is your favourite?

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WHM seems the least butt to play...

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-What keeps you engaged when playing a healer?

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A healer in general, or a healer in XIV? Since in XIV, nothing currently keeps me engaged. Heck, now that I have WHM and AST to 80, I don't plan on playing healer again this expansion.

In general, I like to manage cast priorities and targets. Picking the right heal to keep the person alive without costing too much MP, picking the right target to heal based on how important they are to continued survival of the party (I.e. Self > Tank > DPS)

You know, all the things that XIV doesn't do. Since MP management is not a thing even without stacking Piety. Damage is predictable and easily healed with 0 cost oGCDs and avoidable damage is often instant-death so its only recourse is Swiftcast Raise not an actual heal...

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-Regarding healer identity, what gimmick or gameplay style would you give each of the healers? Both in terms of how the healing itself would work and what to do during healing downtime.

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WHM - Cure, Regen, Protect, Shell, Esuna, Haste, Berserk etc. Using the iconic White Magic spells to heal and buff allies. Downtime would consist of throwing out damage spells while ensuring people are buffed up with relevant buffs.

SCH - Focus on working with Lily and employing different strategies, with a stance shifting gameplay similar to that of Holy Priest in WoW, where they can empower either ST or AoE skills. Uses shields to prevent damage. Downtime will focus on debuffing enemies to make them weaker and/or more susceptible to damage.

AST - Uses delayed healing effects. Things like Horoscope and Excog where you apply it and its effect can come later. Allowing them to have "oGCD-like" effects when it comes to reacting to damage. Downtime is spent playing with cards, no RNG though, just simple reading the fortunes of different allies providing different cards to use. I.e. Tanks give Bole, Healers give Ewer, physical ranged gives Arrow, melee gives Spear, magical gives Balance... Uhhh... Self gives Spire? Allies get buffed when you read their fortunes, allowing the cards to be more utility focused. Lord/Lady will be new CD's from reading the boss's fortune that either buff up allies or debuff the boss for burst phases.

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-Are you expecting a new healer job to be added in the next Expansion?

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Nope. I expect another year of "We need to focus on balancing the healers"

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If so, what job would you like to see and what type of gameplay would you like the new job to have?

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Some kind of Atonement Priest style healer could be interesting. Healing that is fueled by dealing damage. Though, I don't have high hopes that such a healer could be designed for XIV, as either it'd do too much damage compared to other healers or could find itself lacking agency/identity if it's damage is too low or if it has to rely on direct healing skills.

I've got all three healers leveled, but I usually focus on using WHM because it's pretty... for lack of a better word, brain-dead. My usual main is DPS rather than healing. I love that the Lily system gives it both mobility and weaving tools, and a little kick of damage too.

I find AST to be a lot of aesthetics with poor execution. Frankly its problem is that it still has too many moving parts; you're expected to use Lightspeed for mobility, card weaving with heals, and the vital cost-reduction AST lacks compared to other healers (so you have to use it both on-cooldown and as needed?), on top of having to cycle Seals on cooldown for Divination, all while trying to DPS and heal at the same time. It's exhausting and terribly unrewarding, and I would say the job isn't quite done.
I'm also somewhat annoyed at the fact that SCH has two fairies that are functionally identical, why not just give them the Glamour ability SMN gets? (They should anyway, just because Carbuncles have traditionally been a healing summon and even Alphinaud's do, but what do I know!)
Hell if anything, SCH should be the one with "too many moving parts", since they're mathemagicians who constantly parse all variables. On the other hand though, they're the only healer where I have every button on 3 action bars filled up, so... they could use a bit of consolidation. Not necessarily trimming, just figuring out which skills are redundant, y'know? Like, turn Seraph into Consolation when the former's active, fuse Summon Eos and Summon Selene into a sort of instant toggle ability, that sort.

I know a lot of people were hoping to see Chemist or Time Mage make appearances as the next healer, and frankly I say... no thanks. The attempt to make Chemist back in HW is why we have AST now, and the failings of AST's previous card system would continue through a Mix system. As for Time Mage, aesthetically it's the same as AST, and the unique elements of it that the devs would be willing to give a healer could just as easily be given to AST. If you replace Repose with Stop, what's the difference really? They already have Gravity, Regen, two delayed AoE heals, damage buffs and their own personal Haste...
If I were to give them new spells, I'd lean into the Time element heavily. A cooldown that snapshots the target's current HP/buffs and resets to those values when the timer runs out, for instance, as their own version of Benefic or Excogitation; or a spell that staggers out incoming damage taken into a weak undispellable DoT to make it easier to manage and heal through, as a variant on mitigation. Hell, add Slow to Gravity like Urianger gets.
Some quality of life stuff too. More refinement on Redraw so you don't end up with the same seal twice in a row, and better options if you keep drawing a card for a role your group doesn't really have. Damage effects like "chance to grant a charge of Stella/Comet Ready" where the spell is instant, to make it easier to weave without Lightspeed. Minor MP Regen on drawing cards so they're not MP starved and they're encouraged to keep dealing. That sort of thing.

Scholar, I want the fairies to be unique from each other once again; having options makes sense for the so-called Tactician job. One idea I had was for Selene to be more offense-oriented than Eos, so you can either choose to use Eos and focus on dealing damage yourself, or swap to Selene to output more damage as you heal, or vice versa. I don't mean for Selene to get a basic attack like a SMN Egi -- just that her unique skills could apply effects like damage countering. Cast Fey Union on the tank to apply Spikes that deal extra damage to each enemy hitting him, or maybe on a DPS to increase their output for a duration.
I also want to see the Scholar get some of the "weirder" classic spells that border on Black Magic -- which fits with their roots. Again, lean into being a Tactician, including being underhanded to the enemy and exploiting their weaknesses. Drop a cooldown version of Reflect on the tank right before a Tankbuster. Add Blind to their AoE skill. Swap Repose out for Toad.
Lastly, I'm somewhat surprised Scholar really doesn't have much in the way of medical practice in its healing? Like, of any of the three healers we have, you'd expect the one called a Scholar to know things like basic anatomy and biology, especially when their DoT spell is literally called "Bio".

Basically, for damage: WHM as the direct dealer, SCH as the counter-attacker, AST as the team buffer.
For healing: WHM as the recovery specialist, SCH as the damage negator, AST as the damage staggerer.

What kind of new job? Easy, Battle Healer. A job whose gimmick is literally weaving healing into their damage output.
One suggestion I've made many times is Necromancer: Drain health from enemies with their main attack to build the unique resource that can be used for oGCD healing or shielding (A loop that we notably do not have! And could easily be balanced to match other healers' resources like Seals, Lilies and Aetherflow!), give allies Vampire or Reverse statuses, summon and sacrifice minions or even their own health in order to burst-heal allies. If SCH is the mixed Black/White Magic healer, Necromancer would go full Dark.
Mix that in with some thematic effects like curses to reduce enemy damage output or increase their vulnerability; inflict Pain (paralysis), Fear and Zombie on crowds; a Phylactery as their response to Benediction; a cooldown to pull allies into the spirit world to evade damage; maybe even some traits to aid the act of resurrection. (What? RDM can chain it instantly, WHM can cast it free, AST can reduce the cost AND cast time, it's not really out of place!)
A necromancer would absolutely make sense to get a resurrection-based Limit Break, and Urianger already proved there's nothing keeping a healer from getting Death as an execute skill...