Healers and 6.0; What we can learn from AST and what I'd like to see going forward

I'm going to try to keep this general (and somewhat short) to, hopefully, prevent the core idea here from getting lost in nitpicking specifics. Feel free to discuss specific ideas in replies, of course.

I've been playing some different jobs, and of those one thing especially stood out about the (non-healer) casters.

How smooth they play. How little they need to clip (if ever). How everything flows together smoothly - even for the pet caster, when pets are thought to be one of the more awkward things to control in FF14. They're all mobile - even black mage, relatively speaking - and can all weave. Venturing out even further, even that certain tank-caster just plays so smoothly and its kit works so well together.

Are healers entirely absent of this? Well, no, not entirely. Though saying this will likely provide a bit controversial here - I've been playing AST more since the most recent mini-rework. And, holy sheet does it play nicely - not to mention, offer a lot more than spamming one nuke so much. Just as I was starting to drift away from healing entirely, this has been rekindling my interest and fun I have with it.

So, 6.0 is on the horizon. But, I hope, it's not too late for suggestions to be heard/implemented.

I'd like for healers - all healers - to get the same attention towards refining their gameplay - towards making them play smoothly and naturally - that DPS casters get. Probably the best direction is one similar to AST (but I'm sure there will be ideas to improve AST's flow as well).

As is, well... I'm finding myself drifting further and further from playing healers regularly (I know I know, no one cares : P) - with the exception of my current AST binge, but I'm not sure how long that will last - simply because of how much better it feels to use a kit that plays naturally, than feel like I'm fighting with it. So I would love to see healers get the same sort of refinement, and I hope I'm not alone.

Not agree, we don't need more homogenization.
AST smooth gameplay with the 1,5s cast time is for his use of cards (and was already there since 4.3)

I know everyone want this for WHM, but I would go for a BLM treatment.
Both were compared before as a raw powerful job. I think WHM should follow the BLM path and have more tools to deal with movement, that's it
Why not a water ability where you can do a quick dash on a line and doing damages ? Even rework the Presence of Mind to have a kinda Leylines maybe if it can please people.

SCH should function the same as before, Fairies skills independent from SCH toolkit, so we don't have a tons of oGCD to throw (and so reducing largely the use of Ruin II).
One of the idea I like from me, is having an ability upgrading Medecine into Science (instant heal) and when using it, it transforms into Steel (instant damage), and vice-versa for 15sec.
So it adds a bit more instants, gives interest to Medecine, use the lore of SCH, innovate the healer and healing gameplay (interaction between skills, rotation changes, etc).

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Originally Posted by Ceasaria

Not agree, we don't need more homogenization.
AST smooth gameplay with the 1,5s cast time is for his use of cards (and was already there since 4.3)

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Disagree. Smooth gameplay is not a class identity and removing atrocities such as forced clipping, immobility, damage leaking and ghosting is not homogenization. DNC, BLM or SMN all play very differently for example, but all have smooth flowing gameplay that clicks together. They're not homogenized because they don't clip or feel clunky to play.

It doesn't have to be AST's 1.5s cast (although it would be nice because it feels great to play), but giving WhM the BLM treatment is much more than a random line dash. BLM has Triplecast, teleport, Between the lines and far more weave windows without sacrificing anything while WhM has a far smaller handful of weaves and has to sacrifice healing tools to move with them.

theres other ways to let healers have weave spots or smooth gameplay. think if white mage's dots had a proc like thundercloud, or if scholars had something like ruin iv so that theyre not so averse to using ruin ii. having another instant or low cast time dots would also free up weave spots for both of them.

Agree that clipping needs to be fixed.
Disagree that all healers should receive a 1.5 sec cast time on their main DPS GCD spell.

I don't want all the healers to play the same with a 1.5 sec cast time DPS spell. The reason why AST has that is because they also have cards in addition to their oGCD healing, so they need their weaving on every GCD to give a card at the best time for optimizing their card usage.

The way for WHM to have smooth gameplay is giving them weave windows - but this can be done by taking advantage of their GCD and MP economy by allowing their GCD healing to be treated as a more complicated oGCD heal. This can be done by 2 ways - one way is similar to misery where GCD healing abilities eventually pays the cost back with a strong DPS spell. The second is disabling their GCD DPS skill with a debuff for #X GCDs and giving the same DPS output that WHM could have done as a buff to another player for #X hits - like how Nin's Bunshin currently works - this frees up WHM to GCD heal and oGCD heal without DPS issues and gives them room to move around. The time locked away from DPSing also ensures MP is gained back and coupled with Thin Air + Assize, WHM's ridiculously strong MP economy will do just fine.

For SCH, Ruin II can prevent a lot of clipping, but using Ruin II is already a DPS loss compared to their nuke when used for weaving. Consistently using it to use healing skills means a huge sustained DPS loss overall. Unlike WHM with Afflatus Misery, SCH has no way to play catch up with the DPS loss depending on how the party performs. Aetherflow healing is very costly because using Aetherflow healing means you lose an Energy Drain (which gives +500 MP and makes Ruin II not a DPS loss). While Energy Drain should be used as a way to dump excess aetherflow, it also affects SCH's MP - which means SCH's MP economy is directly tied to the performance of the party - a party that doesn't dodge mechanics means less MP overall since SCH will have to use more aetherflow healing as opposed to Energy Drain (which gives the +500 MP per energy drain). This is in contrast to WHM and AST where Assize, Draw, Sleeve Draw, and Thin Air do not share a resource or cooldown to use. While I think having energy drain is a great way to dump excess aetherflow, Energy Drain currently restoring MP also inherently hurts SCH since it affects SCH's total potential MP regenerated based on party performance.

The less costly option would be to use Faerie skills, but it's still a DPS loss since Faerie skills require the use of at least 1 Ruin II to weave and some skills cannot be used back to back, making the SCH require multiple uses of Ruin II. Sometimes Faerie skills will also ghost or get consumed without activating (ex: using whispering dawn and then dissipation because dissipation erases the faerie before whispering dawn activates due to pet delay).

I don't think Ruin II is the issue here since there should be some form of limiting factor to prevent too much mobility for any one healer for optimal play. I believe the issue is how SCH's faerie skills and aetherflow skills work as a whole. I rather see SCH's faerie skills be independent from the SCH toolkit - something similar to the pets [Place] and [Heel] Actions being able to be used independently from SCH. As for the MP issue, I rather they adjusted/expanded on the SCH's Aetherflow gauge as well. Maybe give SCH 2 types of aetherflow gauges - the old ACN aetherflow that uses Energy Drain to gain 2 aetherflow stacks for DPS, and the current Aetherflow ability on SCH that gives 3 stacks for healing actions. The ACN energy drain + 2 aetherflow can be used for DPS actions and make Ruin II a feasible tool for mobility and for weaving. ACN Energy Drain can also get a trait that gives MP when using it. Meanwhile, excess Aetherflow on SCH's Aetherflow skill can give faerie gauge before being replaced with 3 new aetherflow stacks or be moved over into the ACN's aetherflow gauge.

Before I had this idea that WHM's "utility" should be added selfish dps, much as in a BLM mentality. But honestly after reading feedback on this, it's not ideal, simply because having extra DPS would basically make WHMs required, especially on high end fights where healers are expected to have a steady amount of personal dps as well. And as they are right now, of their bonus being just the extra healing... That also doesn't work because it's too much overhealing.

I think they need to introduce an utility niche to WHMs. Perhaps with the inevitable addition of a fourth healer, they can rebalance the utility each brings, while also revisiting their gameplay. I honestly believe they will clap back to healers having a more complex dps rotation once more. The thing I loathe right now is that every healer follows the same copypaste Nuke + Dot formula.

Yeah healer is pretty bad. When I need a fox I can go play Druid on wow.
Just give all three healers different ways of accomplishing the same thing. That’s the identity people want.

How can they get it so right with dps but fail so utterly with healers?

In general: Please, like, shape jobs by their themes/identity and lore around them better. A lot of what was thrown out was lore and their individuality as jobs. And, that extends to the Ranged Physical DPS, which went the opposite direction of stormblood bard's success (machinist feels unfinished but good, dancer does a lot of things but I totally can't understand what it's does, and Bard feels like they just don't really understand what they made or are afraid of it and just keep trying to make abilities for a ranger which they should just totally make already). Ast is totally playing the Balance only with zero time/space abilities, WHM is just recycling abilities and is really boring (they also didn't think about how the spells like glare should have been like "the first" exclusives with upgraded stone and aero spells on the source for lore purposes), and SCH still doesn't feel like a tactitian to me

I hate to sound stupid, but can someone explain to me what "Clipping" means in terms of gameplay mechanics? People keep saying that the clipping for healers is bad but I'm not following lol.

I'm assuming we're not talking about graphical clipping...right?

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Originally Posted by Kyeria

I hate to sound stupid, but can someone explain to me what "Clipping" means in terms of gameplay mechanics? People keep saying that the clipping for healers is bad but I'm not following lol.

I'm assuming we're not talking about graphical clipping...right?

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As an example, let’s take a look at how generic WHM starts a boss battle in first 10s. In first case, let’s assume the WHM is not using any oGCD. Most likely they would do something like this:
Glare —> Dia —> Glare —> Glare

Glare has the same cast time as its GCD duration
Dia is an instant cast but counted as a spell, hence keeps the GCD rolling (notice how the hotkey bar also telling you which skills are greyed out for that 2.5s duration as well). What we get here is, a WHM rolling a successful 4 GCDs without clipping.

Now second case: let’s add oGCD usage to the mix.
You will know a skill is an oGCD when the tooltip describes your tool as an ‘ability’ instead of ‘weaponskill’ or ‘spell’. These are the skills that are not greyed out while the default 2.5s GCDs are rolling & have instant casts as well, hence usable in said moments.

Do you see now where it’s ideal to use those abilities within first 10s? Exactly. Right after Dia cast when your GCD is rolling but you can move around, not locked in casting stance, thus maximizing the actions done within the first 10s.

Those ‘instants’ however are not an actual instants due to animation lock. These animation locks out character from casting any other actions, which give or take has about 0.7s duration depending on the players’ connection. Few exceptions that lasts longer exists. In the end, the first 10s rotation will look something like this:

Glare —> Dia + Assize + Divine Benison —> Glare —> Glare.

Glare = 2.5s cast
Dia = 2.5s instant & 0.7s animation lock
Assize = 0.7s animation lock
Divine Benison = 0.7s animation lock

Now moving on to clipping... The possible ways for this WHM 'clip' are:
1. Performing an oGCD after any Glares (swiftcasted are exception);
2. Adding the third oGCD after that Divine Benison;
3. Bad internet, prolonging the animation lock.

Any of these actions will cause this WHM’s GCD to stop rolling constantly and suddenly, their last Glare cast won’t go off within 10s. It will probably go off in 11s or later depending on how bad the clipping they had caused.

Basically, “Clipping” means using an oGCD (or literally any actions that doesn’t get your GCD rolling) while your GCD is idle. You are delaying yourself off from potentials casts by being locked in those few seconds of animations, unable to get your next GCD rolling. Over the course of an encounter, these small drifting can adds up to some potential missed casts.