How would you improve the healer experience (UI, balance-wise, etc.)?

WIth 5.0 no doubt seeing a lot of active work but hopefully not being fully locked in, this seems like a natural time to contribute ideas. Personally, I would look into making healer dps more interesting (smartheals on damage like at least used to exist in WoW is one of the simplest ways to make dealing dps feel more meaningful for healers off the top of my head as an example), do some serious UI reworking/add features for much more heavy customization, re-do roll actions (as part of this rescue needs to be made more useful and maybe some interesting options like non-party locked aoes, different shapes and types of aoes, useful cc, and strong but non-obvious utility like rescue), and, um, well I'll try to go into more details in a few specific examples below.

1. Show us the time left on buffs on allies (even just a clock type of darkening/lightening so we can estimate how long a hot or other buff has would be huge).
2. make it so the party window can be split into two movable light parties when in 8 man parties (with my personal set-up this would leave me with one window having tanks/healers and the other having dps).
3. Add a proc that makes the next healing spell instant and not use a gcd say at a 5-10% chance on every cast of the default filler dps spell for each healing class.
4. Make rescue not feel laggy and actually fit the obvious use cases of the spell in real combat.
5. Allow macros to be queue'd so I can create 'smart' macros for my heals allowing optional mouse-over and other niceties!

UI option to cast on target of target without having to use the cumbersome macro system. Though I suppose the macro queue idea would work as well.

With all the topics on balance I'll stick with UI for now:

* Party frame: Highlight health bars with an estimate of how much HP the currently active HoTs will restore (perhaps best if it assumes no crits).
* Party frame: Grey out party members when they're out of heal range, or optionally when they're out of medica/helios/indom range.
* Maybe a telegraph of Cure 3's range. A la astral star.
* TELL ME WHO THE OTHER HEALER'S RES TARGET IS EVEN IF THEY UNTARGETED/TARGETED SOMEONE ELSE DURING THE CAST. Cough.

Here's my thoughts on the OP's suggestions:

1: It'd be really useful to not have to switch to the tank and check regen in between DPS spells when you're trying to be efficient.
2: I could see it being useful for some UI layouts. I personally wouldn't benefit from it, but that's just how my UI is set up.
3: That'd be nice, though I doubt they would ever do it with the devs' stance on healer DPS as it is.
4: This. Get rid of the stupid animation locks and delays, not just for Rescue, but across the whole game. Most of them are completely unnecessary. Many, many actions across all the jobs feel very unresponsive because of this. For those who don't know, this is why things like Benediction and Hallowed ground go on CD but don't activate in time sometimes.
5: Would be nice if they did it.

To add some of my own:

1: Make it so Raise can't be casted on someone who already has the status effect on them. Would at least eliminate some of the overlap, and its super easy to implement.
2: If not the above, make some easy way to tell who the other healer is casting raise on, without having to target them specifically. Sure, there's the aggro lines, but you're not going to see that in the middle of a giant pile of mobs blowing up. Maybe put the initials of their target on the cast bar or something.
3: WHM specific, make the lilies useful somehow. I honestly make more use of PI than lilies.

Honestly a lot of the things I wanted I just got, which were the better scholar pet response and better Fey Union, and more weaving options for astrologian (which is done via the shorter malefic time).
I also wanted access to all my role actions (well..maybe not break ;) ), and that's coming in 4.4

So right now I'm super happy and it almost feels greedy to ask for more.

But greed just means we care, right? ;)

So I definitely would like some of the things suggested here, specifically:
* Telling if someone is target for a raise
* Being able to see hot/shield timers on the party bars (at the very least my own, but preferably also my cohealer's)
* Rescue delay
* Dragoon jump animation lock. Improve that and it makes the healing experience better from having to do less rezzes.
* Queuable macros (benefits everyone really)
* Viewable HOT fill-in on the HP bar

What I'd like as well:
* Yalm from me next to party member icon. I don't want it greyed out since different skills do different yalms, but I just want a quick number to look at.
* "Remove Arcana" action for AST. While this is mostly for non-battle play, like if I'm trying out healing effects and I didn't go to a training dummy, sometimes I just want the ability to remove Lord.
* In-game way of telling boss magic and physical damage attacks so I can easily know whether I want to use Fey Covenant without having to look up a guide.
* More controller options for L3/R3.
Right now we have:
L3 - select premade action or macro
R3 - select premade action or macro
R2 + R3 - duty action
L1 + R3 - virtual mouse (nothing if virtual mouse was disabled)

That means there are many combinations of L1/R1/L2/R2 + L3/R3 going unmapped and I'd like to put some targeting macros in there, or if they make more premade options: Target Tank 1, Target Tank 2 (based on party list order from the top)

My few cents, in order of extremity:

1. Maximum camera distance for Controller increased to M&KB levels.
   
   
2. Ground-targeting AoEs will now ignore enemy selection hitboxes during placement, preventing their selection from being ignored or cancelled if/when a unit moves in front of your cursor. In short, you can now click through things that have no reason to be clickable at the time you'd be clicking (through) them.
   
   
3. "On release" targeting now available for ground AoEs.
   
   
4. Change to schematic or "trickle-down" targeting. A heal will use, say, your (1) party list mouseover target if available, else (2) your current target, then (3) your target of target, (4) previous (enemy) target, and finally (5) your focus target, skipping each step not available at the time of action/release, per the order you've set. You may also set toggle keys to adjust this order temporarily (e.g. Caps Lock to put Focus before Current or Previous before Target of Target, or to activate or deactivate the "will not nominally overheal by more than <50>%" restriction). Thus you can attack your tank's target or your last enemy target specified even while targeting the tank.
   
   
5. Allow players to change the behavior of modifier keys. Presently, if someone with a spell assigned to Shift-W is running forward (W) and hits Shift, movement will instantly cease and the spell will immediately start casting. I suggest players be allowed to reverse this, retaining the mod state attached to any normal key (e.g. continuing to run forward even while using Shift on other keys). If one wanted, then, to use the Shift-W spell, they'd have to release W for some infinitesimally small time and re-press it during Shift in order to actually activate Shift-W. This allows for far easier use of QWEASD, each of which would be highly convenient binds to double or even quadruple up upon via Shift, Ctrl, and Alt (or LB, LT, RB, RT), if not for how mod states currently function. This also allows use of any controller mod keys (RB, RT, LB, LT) + either or both analog sticks, if so desired.
   
   
6. Adjust casting. Rather than having a preset target, a target may be assigned or swapped at any time before release. Rather than each spell having a set mana cost at the end of cast, mana is drained continuously over the cast, to the same effect. Rather than having a fixed maximum cast time, one can continue to spend mana continuously to hold the spell at ready (for no additional effect) in case they precasted slightly too soon. By default, extended casting is done by holding down the spell key or by having no target on a spell which requires one (Gravity, not Succor, Cure III, not Medica, etc.), giving you time to select a (new, living) target without automatically cancelling your spell. (That part, especially, should be great for casters dealing with quickly-dying packs of mobs.) Spell interruptions or cancellations refund the mana that was spent thus far. Mana spent beyond the nominal maximum is not refunded; this is the only real penalty for precasting without perfect timing, thus buffing ease of precasting considerably and allowing casters the same level of immediacy as instant-attackers, even if at a small cost.
   
   
7. Spells can now be easily diverted to other schemas mid-cast via mod keys, even as an exception to the larger mod key direction (e.g. allowing keys not to be overriden by new mod states except to swap targets during an existing healing spell/attack spell/either). For instance, if you want to quickly swap a heal from your Target to your Focus Target, you can simply hit Alt or RT, etc, as per your customizations.
   
   
8. Spells will now highlight and "snap" -- to varying degrees -- between potential targets based on whether they are require a ground-target, enemy target, an allied target, or a party member target. Casting Cure II, for instance, without a target or with Soft-Targeting (Temporary Targeting) active will cause your cursor to "snap" between its potential targets. With Soft-Targeting active, as with Hard-Tasting the cast will be placed on your current target unless you specify a new one during the cast; the only difference is that selecting the temporary target does not actually change your Target. This should make it far easier to click on the target you actually want when working from combat's visuals themselves, rather than from a party or alliance list.

If you guys can help me come up wiht a cohesive list of complaints (I think it boils down to, quite simply, two things, personally ,but I'd love more input.... anyways those two things being basically 'green dps' and 'insufficiently customziable UI and controls') then I can have a friend translate it into japanese and post it in the japanese forum with links back to this one, but we've gotta be short, concise, and mostly in agreement before I ask for that. Trying ot be more concise and show a productive mindset rather than just complain I also came up with some tentative fixes for the problems I've tentatively identified:

1. Fix macros so we can just fix stuff ourselves. Alternatively or in addition to allow players to set 'target' modifiers so they can keep their current target but still cast on self (League and WoW I believe both have this feature) or focus or target of target by just holding a button while casting a normal spell.
2. Change encounter DPS patterns to be less predictable making healing more reactive so healing is more skill based and things like predictions are more valuable (separating the good scholars from the great scholars and giving whm more of a roll when compared to astro after prog as the best healer for when things go.... poorly....)
3. Redesign future encounters so that more raw throughput healing is required or else make healer non-healing more interesting (post-buff astro is a great start with the ability to play minigames between spell casts)
4. Allow us to choose to show more or less info on our GUI including more streamlined alternative looks so every healthbar, I want to see clean and fat (should be as big as the current thing is including number) with color coding for health percent and showing things like in need of dispell and HoT projects while showing, as I just said, health PERCENT which is the number I actually care about most of the time (and estimating it is tricky when you're trying to figure out if you want excogitation to blow or to adloquium and save it for a few more seconds instead).

Does that seem reasonable?

1) I want to see a gap between buffs I place on a player and the ones placed by other people. So I could pop multiple buffs on a target let's say Aspec Benefic, Balance and Collective, but if you include the targets own buffs (etc Deliverance, Unchained, Inner release etc) and stuff from other allies (BRD songs etc), it's easy for a lot of mine get lost in an them meaning I have to actually highlight the target to find and see the time remaining. This request could work for many other roles/jobs as well but they often have less buffs to deal with than healers. Same for enemy debuffs as well, I want my own to be prioritized then a gap showing everyone else's.

2) Allow HoT buffs to have a small but optional action icon next to them when they are in effect. So Regen would show it's icon along with the numbers each time it restores HP, I'd like this mostly so I can keep track of what's being outputted without always having to check the timers.

3) It would be nice to have two focus target options, so essentially I could have the boss focused for mechs etc, but also another focusing the mt or even the ot if necessary.

4) Not a healer issue but I would like the party list to have some adjustments. The lvl sync icon to be moved out of the name section (or even have the option to remove it all together, I mean we know if something is synced or not), and to allow more space for either an extra % number of the HP/MP/TP amounts or more space to fit in statuses, as at the moment they only go horizontal from the party members name.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

My few cents, in order of extremity:

1. Maximum camera distance for Controller increased to M&KB levels.

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I'm genuinely confused, could you explain this one to me?

Just asking because I play on controller (on PC, so I do have a mouse and KB hooked up but I don't really play on them) and I've never had issues maximizing my camera distance. I even went and tried after seeing this post maximizing on my controller and then seeing if I could go further via mouse and that didn't happen.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zanotam

If you guys can help me come up wiht a cohesive list of complaints (I think it boils down to, quite simply, two things, personally ,but I'd love more input.... anyways those two things being basically 'green dps' and 'insufficiently customziable UI and controls') then I can have a friend translate it into japanese and post it in the japanese forum with links back to this one, but we've gotta be short, concise, and mostly in agreement before I ask for that. Trying ot be more concise and show a productive mindset rather than just complain I also came up with some tentative fixes for the problems I've tentatively identified:

1. Fix macros so we can just fix stuff ourselves. Alternatively or in addition to allow players to set 'target' modifiers so they can keep their current target but still cast on self (League and WoW I believe both have this feature) or focus or target of target by just holding a button while casting a normal spell.
2. Change encounter DPS patterns to be less predictable making healing more reactive so healing is more skill based and things like predictions are more valuable (separating the good scholars from the great scholars and giving whm more of a roll when compared to astro after prog as the best healer for when things go.... poorly....)
3. Redesign future encounters so that more raw throughput healing is required or else make healer non-healing more interesting (post-buff astro is a great start with the ability to play minigames between spell casts)
4. Allow us to choose to show more or less info on our GUI including more streamlined alternative looks so every healthbar, I want to see clean and fat (should be as big as the current thing is including number) with color coding for health percent and showing things like in need of dispell and HoT projects while showing, as I just said, health PERCENT which is the number I actually care about most of the time (and estimating it is tricky when you're trying to figure out if you want excogitation to blow or to adloquium and save it for a few more seconds instead).

Does that seem reasonable?

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I think #1 should be more clear that it's not just about macros, but also people who want keybind/gamepad-combo built-in targeting modifiers for soft targeting (controller players know what I mean by soft targeting. Picking a second target to cast a spell on without actually removing the original target, something which doesn't even exist for M/KB players), and for soft targeting to include things like focus target (focus target 2), tank 1, etc....

Weapon Skills that give Healers dps options other than generic aoe spell and single target spell. The Warrior of Light should know how to do basic martial arts with that whitemage cane, and I can see AST doing long range attacks with the cards she pulls from her globe thingy, so how about some Trick Throws with her cards that work like weapon skills. In either case secondary effects like minor healing, or healing received buffs, or stat debuffs to the monster could be nice.

Scholar with its tomes could use the fairies as weapon skills and have them toss energy shots or something lol.

Allow the Focus target to have the same show only own debuffs like the main target, would help me immensely.

Oh and fix macro delay so I could actually make use of mouse over targeting, or add mouse over targeting without the use of a macro.