Should healers now be allowed to play how they choose to play?

[Neela]

I'm only optimal when I raid. But in dungeons, I'm relaxed and having fun. I don't care if the DPS is optimal or not or if there is the occasional wipe. I do care when someone is doing bugger all and the rest of the team have to pick up their slack because of poor reasoning. We might have fun differently but I see a huge difference between "being optimal", as you say, and being pretty inactive during the dungeon.

+1 thx! - opinions like yours are really hard to find in this forum :3

[Lauren]

Very kind, thank you

[Spiroglyph]

you are so right some are mdiocre players though and that may be their limit, or they may belazy but please let people enjoy themselves, is it so bad if some arnt as good as others? Your enjoying yourself too if you clear content? I really dont even mind if some are lazy I just love helping the 'bad' players out and seeing them happy.

I've posted numerous times in this thread, and in ost of my replies I've said the same.

YOU ARE FREE TO NOT DPS, IF THAT IS HOW YOU HAVE FUN. I am not disagreeing with you here, at all. It is not "bad" that some people "aren't as good as others" - it's something a great deal of people are aware of, and don't care.

There's even a chance that people who might eventually kick you for not DPSing are just... you know, having a bad day. It happens to everyone, it happens to me - if some days I'll be chill with spending full timer in any instance in mentor roulette teaching players, or running that Sohm Al HM while telling the tank how to be more confident and rotate his cooldowns, other days I simply will NOT, and will get annoyed and leave an instance for way less than lack of defensive cooldowns.

What I have been trying to point out is that, this being an online game where you have to interact with different people, you WILL be confronted with people who don't approve/like, will not put up with your style of playing. I'm not saying to have to do whatever they tell you to - I'm telling you that you need to accept that some people simply will not like it, and I assure you that you WILL find players like this.

I would also like to point out that, as Lauren said, being optimal is NOT the same as being active. I don't do maths to see if I should reapply my dots for packs of mobs if they run out, instead of spamming Blizz2 - instead I 'll do whichver option looks more fun to me at the time. I'm a huge lootw*ore, so chances are, I'll stop DPS altogether if the team has passed by and ignored a treasure chest - I'll place my fairy and sprint off, have fun stayin' alive suckers !

At the end of the day, it's important to remember that this being a game, you're here to have fun - however, it's also important to remember that this being AN ONLINE MULTIPLAYER game, you'll not always agree with everyone.

[Kitfox]

They need to make fights more healer intense in my opinion.

As a design choice, only healing has this exact problem. There's only a limited amount of healing that is ever going to be needed, and better gear just makes people take less damage and healers heal more, which means healers become increasingly useless in all content as level/gear progresses. That's bad design because that makes all gear upgrades pointless overhealing. Healers would have no progression. At least by giving healers other options gives them a venue where their overhealing can instead bleed into DPS. That gives healers a reason to optimize their healing, heal more time and mana efficiently, and allocate the overhead healing power into other useful areas. You can then never be gear "capped" and all gear upgrades will actually provide something useful.

[IttyBitty]

On another note people who vote kick a healer for only healing are knobs. Being able to vote kick a player not playing your play style in a random selected group is aaaaaall kinds of stupid. They pay exactly the same per month as you do.

"It's my sub so I'll play as I want" is the most ridiculous statement you could ever bring to an argument. Unless you think that one person's subscription is worth more than the subscriptions (and time!) of the 3/7/23 other people in the duty with them, then I really have no words or time for you.

Just as I would kick a tank who isn't using his cooldowns/is failing to hold aggro, or a DPS who is AFKing/not putting any effort into their rotations, I will votekick a healer who doesn't touch half of their skillset because they have the ill-conceived notion that healers in FF14 aren't supposed to do anything other than cast regen/cure 1/cure2 while standing around like lemons waiting for something to happen.

Sometimes for the hell of it, I mentally count just how many healing spells I need to use to clear a boss when running a dungeon. Often it's a couple of medica 2 casts, a few regens, and some tetra/asylum here and there. What the hell else are you doing with all the time you have in a fight if that's all the healing you actually need to throw out? You can say that you're always doing -something- useful if you're not DPSing, but I'm not going to believe you, because healers don't -have- anything that will fill that much time beyond their DPS skills. Their utility skills are nearly always oGCD. You don't need 30 seconds to look at your party list to see that, yes indeed, there's -still- nobody hurt enough to require any healing.

They would have to change encounter design DRASTICALLY to make it so that healers have no room to do nothing but heal. Given how potent healing skills actually are, such a change would end up being far too challenging for most players in this game (and I would be willing to wager it'd be the "only want to heal" crowd who'd be struggling far more than those who stance dance currently). Alternatively, they would have to reduce healing potency pretty heavily while also toning down the frequency/potency of spike damage. This would make the game so -incredibly- boring.

To put it into perspective, an enemy would have to be doing something like Bahamut's Claw -constantly- to output enough damage to require 100% of the healer's time.

[Feyona]

"It's my sub so I'll play as I want" is the most ridiculous statement you could ever bring to an argument. Unless you think that one person's subscription is worth more than the subscriptions (and time!)

To put it into perspective, an enemy would have to be doing something like Bahamut's Claw -constantly- to output enough damage to require 100% of the healer's time.

this is why , I fell that SE should stepin and to at least make it an offense for people not to be kicked for not playing to somoene elses standards. Because some can do all these things you think they should be foing and some cant 1. because they are learning, 2. cos they havent learned their class yet, and 3. because why shoul people like you be the judge, jury and exocutioner of other people's right to be in an instance

[bounddreamer]

There is a big but here, can I start dpsing in a 15 sec window on Zurvan ex or a10s? No I cant.

Calling B.S. here.

1. Zurvan phase one: very little damage going out. Crit a shield on the tank, switch to CS, co-healer casts a regen, both of us are in cleric stance for the full opener, maaaaaybe a tetra or essential dignity for one of the dps who ate an aoe to keep dpsing (perfectly acceptable). Both healers have about 99% dps uptime.

2. Zurvan phase two: reapply party shields, reapply tank shield, disable Zurvan, as the off healer I have almost 99% dps uptime in this phase unless someone Does A Dumb. As the main healer I reapply dots and focus target and cast a regen and keep the tank topped off, and reapply dots during/after Biting Halberd.

3. Zurvan phase three: adds phase requires good synergy with your co-healer. As off healer I can usually throw out some gravities on groups, apply dots to wiles, then synystry the tank through the critical hit adds until they're dead, then more dots and gravities. As main healer that phase is mostly healing.

4. Zurvan phase four: Even as main or off healer in this phase there is time to apply dots if you're in there with a good co-healer.

Is healing the first priority? Yes. But there's a reason this fight can be solo healed; the healing requirements are not difficult if you have a good party and your co-healer is worth their job crystal.

Source: my 74 Zurvan EX clears

[Feyona]

Calling B.S. here.





Source: my 74 Zurvan EX clears

Yes for sure and how many healers have solo healed it? Im speaking for mself here and possibly tha majority of players that may just be in the 'mediocre' bracket of skill level. but that may be too general, and subjective. Well done on your clears btw I cleared it 10 times on Ast I didnt need to dps to clear, skipped soar cos of buffs, team effort everyone happy, could we be more 'optimal' sure but everyone just wanted clear. Just pointing out, apart from beginning didnt dps its not a nessessity. Its just what some may prefer.

[bounddreamer]

Yes for sure and how many healers have solo healed it? Im speaking for mself here and possibly tha majority of players that may just be in the 'mediocre' bracket of skill level. but that may be too general, and subjective.

You seem to be trying to have it both ways here. On the one hand you're advocating not having to dps in difficult content. On the other hand you're advocating that only people optimizing endgame raids/extremes should have to dps. Then saying you don't have time in any fifteen second window in Zurvan EX to dps.

I'm disagreeing. Even when I've farmed with mediocre healers there is time to dps. And I'm saying it's possible to solo heal the fight because the healing requirements are low with a good party - not that it's the general practice. Though I expect, like Bismarck and Ravana and Thordan, that it will be when people are better geared and most of the community knows the fight.

[Lauren]

this is why , I fell that SE should stepin and to at least make it an offense for people not to be kicked for not playing to somoene elses standards.

Just so you're aware: This logic also means that if a DPS only does auto attacks in dungeons you should not have the ability to kick them. Or if a tank doesn't take aggro when mobs latch onto you. Because they're playing how they wish.

The whole "It's my sub so I'll play as I want" statement is insane. "Play as I wish" is insane. I know full well if I wanted to "explore" the dungeon backwards, while the rest of my team continued the main dungeon fights, I'd be kicked. It's a fair system. 99% of the time I've seen people kicked, it's been for very justifiable reasons.