Extensive Feedback: Healing in The Feast (4v4 Solo)

[Wetel]

(i agree with almost everything in the OP so i will try not to replicate too much)
I think the vast majority of people agree that melee lb is a mistake in any form of pvp in any game on any planet in any universe, so moving on. I myself started healing in feast this season because we literally do not have any healers on the Chaos DC and i'm beginning to understand why, the game-play as healer is... clunky at best to put it nicely, the major issues being, in my opinion, is:
1. the delay on heals (from the time the cast finishes to the player the heal was being cast on actually gets his hp bar up) is unacceptably long (and that goes for bene, lustrate and essential too) when i finish casting a heal i dont want to see my dps die 1sec later because the server lagg / animation is too long and the heal never made it through in time, it works in pve but it absolutely doesnt work in pvp.
2. Animation delay on crucial abilities such as purify and attunement, OP covered part of it, but the animation delay on purify is surprisingly long for an ability of that nature, it should be INSTANT, not a "it will happen in 1 second" ability because then it might just be too late, same goes for attunement.
3. the damage and healing is, generally, too high, there are many ways to fix it, certain class nerfs, we all know which candidates that might be, flat healing and damage reduction, it has been tested in some other games, it works wonders.

[Maxwell]

Good feedback.

Mechanics like limit break, culling time and heavy medal must be evaluated from a higher game mechanic standpoint. While flawed, they serve as stalemate resolution tools (stalemate resolution button anyone ? ) against unpleasant, dragged on matches or lack of participation/fowl play during matches. These mechanics can and should be improved, but cannot simply be removed without being replaced by something else. A real world analogy would be Judo where you are penalized for passivity or preventing progress in the match.

I'm sympathetic to the difficulty of balancing healers without bringing back what caused significant stalemates and discontent such as medica stacking and AST shield spamming. I think any changes should match SE's current short term "modus operandi" to bring more player into PvP by easing anything that feels like a brick wall (looking at you queue times ).

I quite like the idea of involving more cool downs for healers.

[FreeKingStefan]

Good feedback.

Mechanics like limit break, culling time and heavy medal must be evaluated from a higher game mechanic standpoint. While flawed, they serve as stalemate resolution tools (stalemate resolution button anyone ? ) against unpleasant, dragged on matches or lack of participation/fowl play during matches. These mechanics can and should be improved, but cannot simply be removed without being replaced by something else. A real world analogy would be Judo where you are penalized for passivity or preventing progress in the match.

I definitely understand what you're saying, and I've put much thought into it. The problem, however, with things like Culling Time and Adrenaline, is that they were put in for "bad" players (those that cannot get a kill without the aid of these mechanics) and are abused by skilled players. At high levels of player, there is an absurd power spike creating these unhealable numbers.

[Zojha]

I think any changes should match SE's current short term "modus operandi" to bring more player into PvP by easing anything that feels like a brick wall (looking at you queue times ).

I have my doubts enforcing the burst or bust meta that's already in place is going to ease anything truth be told. It only makes coordinated burst and CC that much more important and raises the skill floor dramatically, which makes PvP a lot less enjoyable for those without the necessary skill (which is everyone just starting out, so the people you're trying to get into PvP).

The main issue is that the healer role as such exists to undo progress in the game, to undo damage that has been done, to undo plays of the enemy - to create a stalemate. That's the entire point and purpose of the healer role. It goes so far that 4 healers vs 4 healers would break the mode (because all participants are working against the mode by design), whereas the same does not hold true for 4vs4 DPS or 4vs4 Tanks, those would just have an increased pace.

That wouldn't be so bad, if healers weren't powerful. They are. Nearly every strategy right now seems to revolve around preventing the healer to act, either by preventing them from acting via CC, Line of Sight, bleeding them dry from pressure, bursting someone before they can act or a combination of the four - the metagame seems pretty much warped around them. But I've never been a high feast player - maybe tactics are fundamentally different up there and disrupting a healer becomes a low priority. Who knows? The way I see it, their design and power forces mechanics into the game that are just as bad as healers themselves - what the quoted person nicely called "Stalemate resolution tools".
Be that as it may, this healer centric gameplay (at least at lower levels) makes healing not particularly enjoyable because frankly, they're the kid that gets bullied, one way or the other. And rightfully so. That's not going to stop if you remove the stalemate breakers.

Honestly, I don't think the issue can really be resolved. The OP's suggestions boils down to:"We have too few healers, please make healers OP to incentivize people to play them." On the one hand, yes, that might work. On the other hand, it's not exactly healthy game design. The better solution would be to balance the option of having a healer on the team against the option of having another DPS/Tank on the team and then remove the necessity of having a healer for the queue to pop once the two are roughly equally efficient. This is in line with the solution to remove GC restrictions for frontlines, rather than try to incentivize people to switch. But in the framework of a game where an AST can solo-heal an endgame raid during progression, that could prove a little difficult, unrealistic even.

I don't see any solutions to the issue that are both good and realistic to implement, only lots of foul compromises.

[Decoy_Wolff]

2. Animation delay on crucial abilities such as purify and attunement

BENEDICTION! I cannot stress enough how many times I have lost a layer because Benediction has the LONGEST animation for any healer clutch. It is ridiculous and should happen int he instant the move is casted. It is a waste having to spend it at about half HP, estimating if that player will drop dead if you do it too soon or if the damage on them stops in total and you just wasted your strongest clutch. It also would give chances for WHM's to recover from attunement.