Healers in Variant Dungeon

Are healers at a disadvantage compared to other roles in Variant Dungeons solo (or with a party)?

I pretty much only gear and play the healer role and Variant dungeon solo seemed a little slow to me. Spirit Dart seems kind of weak, even though it does make trash packs a little easier. It's definitely doable, but the bosses feel like they take forever and it gets a little boring.

Then I looked at Variant Cure and it seems so powerful? It kind of makes me wonder, if you have the option, why you would ever do it on a healer over a dps.

If I had a geared DPS I would try it myself but I don't and I'm not sure I want to quite yet.

Yes. Spirit Dart gives tanks and healers the same damage boost, but tanks already deal several thousand more DPS than healers do. On top of that, it's yet another showcase for how combat works, and especially how skewed FF14 makes it: damage is always useful. Healing and mitigation happen infrequently, and when they need to. This is just how it works, and it's not a paradigm unique to this game. But since HeALeRs sHOuLd HeAL oNLy according to the job designers, they have crap tools for dealing damage. So the way it ends up is, you have a healer given an ability they can use occasionally that bumps their damage up, and a DPS given an ability they can occasionally use to bump their healing up. Weird, the ability that falls in line with how the combat system actually works (i.e., you heal once a minute or so but deal damage constantly) is more useful.

Going solo is pretty much as fast as doing it with a group, even faster if you draw the short end of the stick and get a group that are incapable of learning mechanics no matter how many times you scrape them off the ground, or are incapable of hitting buttons and do less damage than your bog standard Sylphie. Worse if you manage to get an ungodly combination of both.

Do yourself a favor and gear up a melee DPS if you have one, Variant Rampart trivializes raidwides and practically nullifies tankbusters, and Variant Cure will pretty much carry you through everything so long as you don't eat like 2 or 3 mechanics in a row. Trust me, you don't want to solo a dungeon with a healer damage rotation, you'll be bored to tears like I was.

Thank you for your answers. I did all three paths, got the emote, and while it was neat to see the new locations and learn the mechanics I don't think it's something I want to repeat a lot with the slow healer dps. If I ever get around to gearing up a different role I will probably give it another try.

The hilarious thing is that Spirit Dart is actually pretty weak comparative speaking. The 2040 potency is actual potency, I compared this to my dia dot and dia would 2500 per tick compared to spirit's 2040. probably because they didn't want it to be too strong but indeed. solo healer variant is pretty slow so it would be far better to gear up a dps.

The mobs seemed to die quicker solo while bosses took longer. Also felt like enemies dealt the same damage regardless of party size, but that could be wrong. Though it could explain why mobs were no challenge at all in light parties, much less solo.

Is enemy HP tuned to role like it is solo MSQ duties or is it strictly based on player count?

I was still getting faster runs as solo healer with BiS then others were doing with full parties because of how much variance there is in gear level/player skill.

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Originally Posted by KageTokage

Is enemy HP tuned to role like it is solo MSQ duties or is it strictly based on player count?

I was still getting faster runs as solo healer with BiS then others were doing with full parties because of how much variance there is in gear level/player skill.

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It is based on player count. I've been unlocked all the routes with Sage and it's same speed as other tank and DPS jobs :)

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Originally Posted by BaconBits

Going solo is pretty much as fast as doing it with a group[…]

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Me giving some randoms ‘side eyes’ when they say “Man going with party is definitely way faster” in party chat.

Dunno about you guys, but i play regularly as a healer in the variant dungeons, doesn't matter solo or in a group. ^^"

I did it as far as getting the Silkie mount, and buying the emote (and a few extra), as WHM. It took about 18-20 minutes a run solo: about as long as an average DF dungeon run.

so far as solo is concerned I did the 4th route solo FIRST TIME as a sage, it was amazing.
I used the shield amd spirit dart, and I amassed 5 vuln stacks bc I didnt know what to expect but I did it without dying, and thats my proudest achievement in this game, I was totally expectibg to die but I only had to spam heals once despite my vuln stacks.

Pretty sure it’s scaled to take awhile no matter what. I did all 12 paths (9 solo) on my summoner and the bosses are sponges that take a long time to die.

I've not queued for it as a healer solo and I doubt I ever would. Combat is already pretty lame for a healer and I couldn't imagine sitting there and glaring a boss to death all by myself. I'd probably zone out and get blown away by a mechanic at 25% or less left to go because I fell asleep.

I did it, once. I got so bored. Just changed to SMN and started blasting enemies. Now that was way more fun than pressing the same button over and over.

It was definitely slow as healer and I keep full dps uptime. Spirit Dart is fixed potency, it's the same for tanks and it doesn't scale with gear at all, or bridge the gap between a healer and dps.

It was easy, but incredibly boring.

There's very little reason to bring anything but DPS to Variant. Variant Rampart and Cure completely trivialize any damage taken outside of getting oneshot by standing in like 3 mechanics at once, which might still be barely survivable with Rampart shield.

You might not even need Cure if you properly use Rampart, it's that busted.

Also your total HP seems to scale directly based on your ilvl regardless of role. I had more hp than Tanks in my group on my somewhat geared DPS.

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Originally Posted by ThaCa

There's very little reason to bring anything but DPS to Variant. Variant Rampart and Cure completely trivialize any damage taken outside of getting oneshot by standing in like 3 mechanics at once, which might still be barely survivable with Rampart shield.

You might not even need Cure if you properly use Rampart, it's that busted.

Also your total HP seems to scale directly based on your ilvl regardless of role. I had more hp than Tanks in my group on my somewhat geared DPS.

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That's very sad. I was considering maybe that they would feel more fun to do them in a group, but there really doesn't seem to be a reason you would want a healer in the group. I would just feel like a burden.

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Originally Posted by Renalt

I've not queued for it as a healer solo and I doubt I ever would. Combat is already pretty lame for a healer and I couldn't imagine sitting there and glaring a boss to death all by myself. I'd probably zone out and get blown away by a mechanic at 25% or less left to go because I fell asleep.

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Originally Posted by Midareyukki

I did it, once. I got so bored. Just changed to SMN and started blasting enemies. Now that was way more fun than pressing the same button over and over.

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A WHM main like me was used to all the glaring. :o

Depends, if alone, going as a healer will slightly take more time or feel like more time because you have three attacks lel ;—;...in parties you really don’t need any other role besides dps (so funny when people start fighting over making a tank/heal/dd/dd party).
And if you only main healers then you have smn levelled up as well, rotation is mindnumbingly easy so just get rampant and cure and have a happy farming time.

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Originally Posted by SturmChurro

A WHM main like me was used to all the glaring. :o

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I'm just waiting on the day a hot woman kills me with a glare.

Till then...Renalt shall continue to dream.

I actually had a lot of fun healing the variant dungeon. I was playing SGE, with a friend playing BLM. So I took the tank role skills in with me… Being simultaneous tank and healer was pretty interesting, if a little OP. Having godlike mitigation and shields between SGE and the variant Rampart meant there was basically no chance of my HP ever dropping, but it also meant I got to use a lot more of my kit than I ever really need to use on a regular dungeon. Anyone looking to have more fun on a healer might wanna try it!

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Originally Posted by Destatiredux

I actually had a lot of fun healing the variant dungeon. I was playing SGE, with a friend playing BLM. So I took the tank role skills in with me… Being simultaneous tank and healer was pretty interesting, if a little OP. Having godlike mitigation and shields between SGE and the variant Rampart meant there was basically no chance of my HP ever dropping, but it also meant I got to use a lot more of my kit than I ever really need to use on a regular dungeon. Anyone looking to have more fun on a healer might wanna try it!

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Yup! Noticed my sage take less damage than regular tanks in variant dungeons with our skills and rampant combined.

I soloed with RPR and SGE and RPR was definitely the faster option. Gear could have something to do with it though.

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Originally Posted by Renalt

I'm just waiting on the day a hot woman kills me with a glare.

Till then...Renalt shall continue to dream.

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You'll have to join a CC or frontline for that. ;)

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Originally Posted by SturmChurro

You'll have to join a CC or frontline for that. ;)

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Or at least convince us that he's worth the look.

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Originally Posted by SturmChurro

You'll have to join a CC or frontline for that. ;)

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Ew. Everyone leaves sad in Frontlines. Much like my inn room.

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Originally Posted by MintnHoney

Or at least convince us that he's worth the look.

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I'm probably not. Which makes it better.

Ya, just roll melee dps