Suggestion: More dynamic gameplay for healing

[Daedae]

At r50, it seems healing consists of spamming Cure III and Sacrifice III in rotation. There are virtually no viable spells to add in the mix to make healing more challenging or dynamic. And before it's mentioned, Stoneskin is pretty much useless. The only time where it is not a bother is before a pull, when buffing initially. As a 50THM, Stoneskin takes 6 seconds to cast(add in 1-2 seconds for the casting animation,delay,lag) and cannot even absorb a full attack from one of the higher tier of NMs. Those 6-8 seconds casting are much better spent letting the tank receive a full blow, and just casting Sac III in about three seconds. I'm guessing the only reason healing is so watered down is because of the incredible job-homogenizing the original team envisioned, so there would be no pure healer archetype, and the time in between my Cure/Sac spam should be used to assist with damage or buffs/debuffs(which is what I currently do.)

I personally would like more set role definitions, as my intent is to play a healing job, not some Frankenstein meets MacGyver mash up. A few ideas I have to make healing a bit more interactive:

-Increasing the amount of damage Stoneskin absorbs. Yes I know MND directly affects it, but It's not enough still to make it viable on the high tier NM's currently in the game. Speeding up the cast speed and increasing the cool down timer to say, 90 seconds to two minutes would totally make it more viable.

-Giving either CON or THM an special ability that can be used every 20,30, minutes or so, such as:
-a powerful HoT that could only be placed on a single target.

- a transfusion of HP from one designated player to another target(much like Sacrifice, but a greater amount of health lost, and between two targets--excluding the caster.

- a spell that placed a DoT on the caster, and heals everyone in vicinity, or a designated target, for the amount the caster receives, while under this effect, the caster receives 50% less health from healing effects.

- a barrier spell that has a chance of healing the target each time he/she receives damage, with a duration similar to Protect or Shell, and the healing received on the low end of the spectrum.

These are just a few oddball ideas I came up with, of course if any were to be implemented they would have to adjust the potency of spells, the effects received, the increase of potency from stats and abilities and so on. I'm sure many of these things will come with the revamping of the job system, but these are just my opinions and suggestions. ^ ^

[Shiyo]

Your suggestions are cool, but I'd like to also add my own:

1)Make managing MP matter, make us not able to mindlessly spam spells forever.

2) Fix AOE, make it generate more enmity, cost more mp, whatever, just change it.

3) Make heals, and all spells get interrupted by being hit physically. You can EASILY cast inbetween mob hits in this game, why was this not added? Mobs attack very slow, this would add more skill to playing a caster. Not really on topic, but still related to it.

4)Add more healing spells ._. You suggested a bunch, I agree, 2 spells is boring.

[zaviermhigo]

Agreed healing blows at this point. Make enfeebling matter.

[darkstarpoet1]

if all you are doing is spamming heals in rotation you are not doing your job as mage effectively.

[Daedae]

if all you are doing is spamming heals in rotation you are not doing your job as mage effectively.

There are no mages in this game--not yet. No black mage, no white mage, no red mage, no blue mage. My job as a healer is to heal. The options in this game are as follows: spam cure, spam sacrifice. I'm not sure if you read my post, but thats pretty much FFXIV healing in a nutshell. Yes I buff when i need to, and yes I toss out debuffs in between heals, so i don't know what you're trying to get at.

[Roaran]

hopefully the new job system will adress this, would be nice to be able to specialize by becoming a White mage, lock out certain offensive abilities and learn new healing/buffing ones.

But for soloing purposes, I think it's important for healing to be relatively limited to allow those classes to have some offensive capabilities; while still allowing the players the option of specializing down the road.

[darkstarpoet1]

There are no mages in this game--not yet. No black mage, no white mage, no red mage, no blue mage. My job as a healer is to heal. The options in this game are as follows: spam cure, spam sacrifice. I'm not sure if you read my post, but thats pretty much FFXIV healing in a nutshell. Yes I buff when i need to, and yes I toss out debuffs in between heals, so i don't know what you're trying to get at.

if you are buffing and debuffing in the party then you are not just spamming cures as you put it. you can either cure/buff/debuff or you can cure only. quite frankly i have went to almost full time mage since i leveled thm because i do more in party than i did as my pug.

[Daedae]

if you are buffing and debuffing in the party then you are not just spamming cures as you put it. you can either cure/buff/debuff or you can cure only. quite frankly i have went to almost full time mage since i leveled thm because i do more in party than i did as my pug.

I cast Protect and Shell once--maybe twice an NM fight. Once at the beginning, and a refresh during. It's not a very prominent part. And debuffing as a healer holds two obstacles: 1. My debuffs don't stick and hold well because my piety is low, and 2. CON/THM who are dealing damage are more than likely debuffing as well, and their piety is higher than mine, meaning their spells stick, and override any of the few I get to stick leading up to...3! its a waste of my MP(as easy as it is to manage). So yes, I basically just do spam cures. ^ ^

[darkstarpoet1]

I cast Protect and Shell once--maybe twice an NM fight. Once at the beginning, and a refresh during. It's not a very prominent part. And debuffing as a healer holds two obstacles: 1. My debuffs don't stick and hold well because my piety is low, and 2. CON/THM who are dealing damage are more than likely debuffing as well, and their piety is higher than mine, meaning their spells stick, and override any of the few I get to stick leading up to...3! its a waste of my MP(as easy as it is to manage). So yes, I basically just do spam cures. ^ ^

if they have better stats by setting themselves up better then that proves my original point. i have my sats set to even 84 top to bottom and do as good a job as anyone else in party. if you want to make those arguments you are just making up reasons for being lazy and spamming cures. it wouldn't matter it they had 40 cures if that's all you do that's all you do.

[Eldaena]

Right now in this game it is not efficient to only heal and buff...you are not doing as much as you could in battle if that is the case. You can't even constantly over heal because your mp would be diminished...there are not enough things to keep a person active as a healing only role, in my honest opinion. Do you heal and buff then put away your weapon and just wait til someone gets hit? How is that fair to the other players you are playing with that can't just put down their weapons and watch while their mp regens?