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

[FreeKingStefan]

I'm sorry, but what? Other healers get access to absolutely none of these while they are slept.

I'm sorry, but this feedback is not meant to open discussion based on the balance between healers, it is meant to open discussion about how the game systems of The Feast drive people away from playing the healer role, and my suggested fixes to make healing (and therefore learning how to heal) a bit less insane. So naturally, I thought you were speaking in terms of how white mage is too hard to deal with from the perspectives from all jobs, not just the other healers.

That said, yes, White Mage is the strongest of the three healers dude to its CC. However, the other two healers are much stronger at healing under pressure. SCH has free heals from Eos which are about equal to a ticking regen, and can be paired with whispering dawn. In addition to this, their Adloqium shields provide a bit of a buffer to get off more Adloqium casts to provide a constant stream of healing while getting pounded. To top that off, SCH has lustrates much more readily available than Tetragrammaton or Essential Dignity. Astrologian has Aspected Benefic in their arsenal, which is incredible for keeping yourself up while LOS-kiting back and forth around walls, or around pillars. Pair this with Essential Dignity, Lightspeed, and your choice of built in HOT stacking or shields? AST does a great job of surviving on their own.

WHM, without their CC, only have their HOTs and hard casts outside of a 5 minute benediction CD or a 1 minute Tetragrammaton CD. This is supplemented periodically by hard-cast kiting with assistance from POM, Equanimity, and Surecast.

As for your example of how badly WHM counters healers with fluid and sleep...Have you considered that you may be out of position and opening yourself up as an easy CC target? Any healer should be able to LOS enemy BLM/WHM to a great extent. And if you are getting chain slept with a fluid aura weaved in, that WHM is either blowing all their OGCDs to guarantee you are slept and that their team doesn't die...Or your team is not applying enough pressure which allows the WHM to "win more" and close out the game with intelligent CC's.

[Koltik]

As for your example of how badly WHM counters healers with fluid and sleep...Have you considered that you may be out of position and opening yourself up as an easy CC target? Any healer should be able to LOS enemy BLM/WHM to a great extent. And if you are getting chain slept with a fluid aura weaved in, that WHM is either blowing all their OGCDs to guarantee you are slept and that their team doesn't die...Or your team is not applying enough pressure which allows the WHM to "win more" and close out the game with intelligent CC's.

So you want me to stop hard casting my Bene 2 heals to run away from a whm who is running up to me to use their insta cast oGCD, and consequently let my DPS die while I am running from said healer? Or maybe I should sprint from him, and then not have it available when the DPS do a hard switch to me? Or maybe I should let the WHM chase me away from my team altogether, out of range from them, and then he just swift sleeps me there? Even better. I'll run from said WHM into my teammates, right ontop of the enemy DPS and tank, who can then easily swap to me and kill me.

There is no justifying whm having Fluid Aura, or sleep for that matter. It has no place in PvP.

[Nakanishi]

So you want me to stop hard casting my Bene 2 heals to run away from a whm who is running up to me to use their insta cast oGCD, and consequently let my DPS die while I am running from said healer?

If it's gotten to the point where the WHM has ample time to chase you around then there isn't enough pressure coming from your team, or any at all depending on how long you as an AST is kiting a WHM. In the situation in which you are kiting a WHM as an AST, AST can still heal while kiting while WHM is left with oGCDs and non-intial healing regen. Kiting a WHM just gives you the advantage. Also, take into consideration AST cards, 5/6 of them are useful in PvP.

[itsoni]

Great write up, very in depth. A lot of what you say does hold merit but I think your solutions are way off the point.

Honestly when I'm healing, most of the time the issue is the delay between my cast finishing and the heal being applied to my teammate. Paired with the Attunement and Bene/Lustrate/ED delay it creates a lot of inconsistency with how you're reliably able to deal with burst. I cant begin to explain how many times I've hit attune and still died to a a clean shot or BtE a good second or so after the status being applied on my screen - this leads to having to "pre-empt" the damage and does raise the skill ceiling quite a bit. A lot of it does come down to "git gud" but we've all died at least once because "wtf i pressed attune and it didnt work in time"!

I dont think healing in the game is outright "broken" because if you leave a decent healer alone to freecast, he'll be able to heal through all the damage until his MP runs out unless the burst is strictly timed, or, the dps does something stupid like B4B or stand and soak damage. Truth is, you can't save everyone. People are gonna die. That's what the game mode is based around. Reading your post I'm not sure you understand the precarious position a decent dps is in if he knows he has a useless co-dps against a decent healer. I know if your changes were introduced, there's 2 healers I have in mind that would actually become impossible to kill.

Here's an example. Lets say you have a DPS on your team that's a solid 10/10. Best DPS you know, you wouldn't prefer anyone else to be with you as that job. Now, the enemy healer is also a 10/10. Best healer you know, seems immortal. Who will win in a 1v1 situation? Always the healer by a mile, unless grossly misplayed. That's why there are 2 dps and 1 tank to "fill" with damage. In solo queue, it's hard to co-ordinate. This is especially true if only 1 of your dps is worth mentioning. An equally skilled dps vs an equally skills healer will always be in the favor of the healer.

Bottom line, I think there should be a skill gap that seperates decent healers from great healers. It's not a bad thing per se. It's 4v4. It's just as much about your dps killing the enemy and your tank supporting everyone as it is you healing. If they fail, it makes your job harder, punishing the whole team.

Side Note:
Medals aren't as bad as a punish mechanic as people make out. The game has no other way of attempting to "level" a playing field outside of its broken matchmaking, so it just gives an ample opportunity to allow the losing team to push back. It forces a gameplay change from aggressive to defense, reducing the chance the match will be over in the first 2 minutes.

[Koltik]

If it's gotten to the point where the WHM has ample time to chase you around then there isn't enough pressure coming from your team, or any at all depending on how long you as an AST is kiting a WHM. In the situation in which you are kiting a WHM as an AST, AST can still heal while kiting while WHM is left with oGCDs and non-intial healing regen. Kiting a WHM just gives you the advantage. Also, take into consideration AST cards, 5/6 of them are useful in PvP.

Of course there isn't enough pressure, I am Diamond stuck with Gold DPS. Any game where the healer is higher ranked than the DPS will have this problem, so I fail to see your point.

Cards are not hard counters to anything, they are mitigating counters. A knock back is a hard counter (interrupt + LOS), and a sleep is a hard counter (immobility + inability to cast) to the target.

All of this is getting away from the primary issue: WHM has something that is completely imbalanced and not counterable nor available to other healers. A risk-free oGCD knock back to get them out of position for up to 8 seconds, and a sleep to lock them down for up to 14 seconds.

A WHM casting Fluid Aura on a AST or SCH and then sleeping them is the equivalent of an adult slapping a baby. The baby can't contend for themselves, can't retaliate, or do anything to avoid the slap. It is not balanced, and is definitely not acceptable.

[FreeKingStefan]

Of course there isn't enough pressure, I am Diamond stuck with Gold DPS. Once again, I am talking about top-level matches.

So then the argument is not that WHM is too strong, it's that your dps are too weak to appropriately pressure a WHM?

[Koltik]

So then the argument is not that WHM is too strong, it's that your dps are too weak to appropriately pressure a WHM?

The argument is pretty clear. WHM has a hard counter to both AST and SCH, while AST and SCH have absolutely no reasonable counter of any kind to WHM, or the WHM's hard counter (hence why it is a hard counter).

Backing up a bit:

it is meant to open discussion about how the game systems of The Feast drive people away from playing the healer role, and my suggested fixes to make healing (and therefore learning how to heal) a bit less insane.

How is what I am saying any different? Healing as anything but WHM is miserable when you go up against a WHM with half a brain. It is not fun to be knocked around like a ping pong ball, slept, and watching your team die while you cannot do the same to the WHM. Want more healers? Balance the jobs.

[FreeKingStefan]

The argument is pretty clear. WHM has a hard counter to both AST and SCH, while AST and SCH have absolutely no reasonable counter of any kind to WHM, or the WHM's hard counter (hence why it is a hard counter).

You are mistaking "Hard counter" with "Crowd Control". CC is not a "hard counter" to AST and SCH, it's just a strength of WHM which everyone in the game needs to play around.

[Koltik]

You are mistaking "Hard counter" with "Crowd Control". CC is not a "hard counter" to AST and SCH, it's just a strength of WHM which everyone in the game needs to play around.

That's the problem, I should not have to "play around" a healer when that healer does not have to "play around" me. You want to CC me? Play a ranged dps or a tank, or give AST/SCH an equivalent.

[Nakanishi]

snip

For one, for the longest time you guys have said SCH is the best healer, why the sudden change? Also, Bole is not the only Card an AST can draw.

The other Healers have stuff WHM doesn't...lol... I could maybe understand if you said Sacred Prism is what makes WHM OP, but even then that has a ton of counter play to it.