[Opinion] Why I'm disappointed by most changes to healers.

[Sebazy]

A healer cannot force DPS to do mechanics.
A healer cannot force DPS to move out of AOE's on the ground.
A healer cannot force DPS to move out of avoidable hits.

These are ALL on the DPS. If a DPS dies to these, that's ALL ON THEM.

If a DPS isn't even trying to keep themselves alive, why should I?

Like many things in life, compromise is king really, Savage (and coil before it) is full of examples where it was always to the groups advantage if there was a way for DPS to flat out ignore mechanics where possible. A11S was a good recent example of this where stacked barriers and a cooldown allowed BLMs to outright ignore major movement mechanics during their opener at the start of the encounter. Stuff like this was a big part of SE's growing disdain for stoneskin and it's eventual removal IMHO.

[RichardButte]

Like many things in life, compromise is king really, Savage (and coil before it) is full of examples where it was always to the groups advantage if there was a way for DPS to flat out ignore mechanics where possible. A11S was a good recent example of this where stacked barriers and a cooldown allowed BLMs to outright ignore major movement mechanics during their opener at the start of the encounter. Stuff like this was a big part of SE's growing disdain for stoneskin and it's eventual removal IMHO.

While this is true, these are situations where the group has decided ahead of time exactly which mechanics the DPS are going to get hit by so the healers know to anticipate it.

There's a huge difference between that and DPS deciding on their own to stand in the bad in dungeons/raids and saying "healers adjust".

Also, as an aside, I feel lile your attitude towards healers and party reaponsibilty needs a real check. It is not my job to keep stupid players alive. Do people make mistakes sometimes and need a hand? Yes. If someone refuses to perform mechanics that are explained to them (and frankly are quite intuitive in most situations) and dies the responsibility for their death is 100% on them. Hell, Mizzteq has a guide on virtually any fight in the game, if people die to avoidable things even when they arent explained it is their fault! We can and should be a buffer for newbies/bads/whatever but eventually it is easier to leave them on the floor and there is nothing wrong with that. We are already extra DPS, the default off-off-tanks and the lifeblood of the party; we can't also be their mom.

This cannot be restated enough, seriously...

And if we were their "mom", we'd be setting a terrible example by healing them while they refuse to follow mechanics, which is the in-game equivalent of picking up after your children instead of teaching them to put things back from where they got them.

[HPDelron]

Getting hit by avoidable mechanics is part and parcel of learning an encounter. Making errors is just a basic part of being human. Being ready and able to heal through those problems enables seeing more mechanics and learning. Being ready and able to heal through those problems helps to otherwise wipes into clears.

While this is especially true at the extreme/savage+ tier, it should be kept in mind at all levels of play. Every encounter in the game is designed around the idea there will be some degree of error in execution and that a large part of healer contribution will come in correcting for those errors.

There is a reason why the game calls for two healers when with exceptional execution almost everything can be solo healed: The baseline assumption even for the toughest content is not perfect or even great execution. All other issues aside, the idea that healers should only heal avoidable damage and that doing otherwise somehow constitutes coddling or poor play is farcical to the point of bordering on self-parody.

[MoroMurasaki]

Getting hit by avoidable mechanics is part and parcel of learning an encounter. Making errors is just a basic part of being human. Being ready and able to heal through those problems enables seeing more mechanics and learning. Being ready and able to heal through those problems helps to otherwise wipes into clears.

While this is especially true at the extreme/savage+ tier, it should be kept in mind at all levels of play. Every encounter in the game is designed around the idea there will be some degree of error in execution and that a large part of healer contribution will come in correcting for those errors.

There is a reason why the game calls for two healers when with exceptional execution almost everything can be solo healed: The baseline assumption even for the toughest content is not perfect or even great execution. All other issues aside, the idea that healers should only heal avoidable damage and that doing otherwise somehow constitutes coddling or poor play is farcical to the point of bordering on self-parody.

I'm going to address this as if it was aimed at me, my apologies if I am wrong.


I have never said healers should only heal avoidable damage, I've said the only damage healers should have to heal is unavoidable damage. Also in the rest of my post it was restated to the point of redundancy that my entire view was trying to come from where the majority of the playerbase plays which is certainly not in Savage.

Yes, in any normal dungeon I should not be having to break out Medica II on every boss because the vast majoroty of the time there is not that much unavoidable damage going out. In a perfect world no one (healer included) should be eating AoE. Do we clean up small mistakes? Yes, but always in the interest of killing the boss faster. Once I discover that a player is an mp sink becauss they are not performing any mechanics if I think I am going to need that MP for healing roomwide AoE, tankbusters, etc. I am not going to throw it on that suicidal DPS who did not take the time to watch a 4 minute guide before queueing.

The job of a healing, at base level, is no different than any other party member. Kill the boss before it kills us. The only difference is how we get there. Yes, some of it should be our personal DPS but the rest is keeping people alive who are going to do that damage for us (DPS) and keeping people alive who are going to eat the majority of the damage so it is easier to heal (tanks). Once you stray outside of this (say, taking tons of damage while not being the tank) you are not always cost effective for me to be raising and healing.

I have both been carried through things (my first couple titan ex clears) and carried people through things (most of my RM runs) and I am not saying that is intrinsically bad but at the end of the day if people have a healer that is really great at keeping people up through huge mistakes that just coddles them into being okay with making those mistakes. We are harming the growth of the playerbase if we always raise them up despite them making stupid choices that get them killed.