What I've realized about healing in XIV...

[RichardButte]

I think their issue is more how healing in this game is a total feast-or-famine style re: HPS requirements and that if the developers would move encounters more towards different types of damage dispensation like persistent DoTs, constant stack mechanics instead of a "cluster and get chunked for 90% of your health but only once every minute or so", and boss autos hitting significantly harder that it would give room for new types of healers to excel in this game. I mean, part of the reason SCH was changed so drastically from 2.x to now I feel is because they were a single-target oriented/sustain healer trying to survive in a burst damage world. Rather than change how boss patterns and mechanics worked, instead the developers just gave SCH a bunch of burst reactive healing tools too. Kinda dull, if you ask me.

Exactly this.

Damage in other MMOs goes out at a far steadier rate and is more fun to heal as a result.

I'd rather be healing as a healer and DPSing as a DPS, not being a poor man's DPS because auto attacks tickle tanks and there's nothing to do otherwise.

Healer DPS is 2 buttons?

It is on AST, and I sadly leveled AST because I wanted the added interaction of the card buffs but even those don't make the experience interesting.

And like Cynfeal said, the healing in this game isn't "wack-a-mole" because if you know a fight you know when to heal, outside human error.

I'm referring to human error.

And healing being immensely predictable is a strike against it being interesting.

Really, other MMOs do healing infinitely better than XIV does. XIV is the only MMO I know where the whole "Healers need to DPS more!" is even an issue because of how much downtime there is.

Healers in WoW almost never stop pressing buttons while healing.

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

Really, other MMOs do healing infinitely better than XIV does.

Almost wish I enjoyed MMOs more. I'd kill for a more engaging and rewarding healer experience in this game.

[RichardButte]

Almost wish I enjoyed MMOs more. I'd kill for a more engaging and rewarding healer experience in this game.

It's unfortunate because XIV's DPS rotations are easily 2-3X more complex than WoW's, but XIV's healers are a snooze in comparison (both to XIV's DPS classes and WoW's healers).

WoW's DPS tend to be 4-5 buttons, tops. Compare that to NIN or MCH and there isn't even a contest.

XIV's healer issue stems from how damage is dealt to players, and I don't just mean in raids but even dungeons in WoW are more fun to heal because of the more constant nature of damage.

In fact, all of WoW's healers (that I tried, anyway) have a constant "maintenance rotation" that they'll be using to heal up the damage the tank is nearly always taking, and even this rotation is more involved than just spamming Cure I over and over. It's typically a low mana rotation that allows healers to constantly keep busy while they watch for bigger spikes of damage being taken.

XIV doesn't really have an equivalent to the maintenance healing rotation (as pressing the same button repeatedly isn't a "rotation", plus auto attack tickles tanks), and again, this might be due to the 2.5sec GCD not really allowing for such a thing.

In any case, the end result is that you have healers standing around, having to decide whether they should DPS or conserve mana in case things go bad suddenly, and neither of these are "fun" to me.

If XIV could strike a better balance in how players take damage in all situations (even dungeons), healing would immediately become more engaging and the healer DPS debate would be a thing of the past.

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

Snip.

I'm pretty sure even Monster Hunter handles a possible "healer/support" role better than FFXIV ever could. Even single player FFs tend to have more engaging healer play, especially in Tactics with a WHM. I just don't understand how anyone can look at the healing in this game and go "Yup, that's a healer" when healing feels like more of an afterthought than Feint on SAM.

[MoroMurasaki]

I'm pretty sure even Monster Hunter handles a possible "healer/support" role better than FFXIV ever could. Even single player FFs tend to have more engaging healer play, especially in Tactics with a WHM. I just don't understand how anyone can look at the healing in this game and go "Yup, that's a healer" when healing feels like more of an afterthought than Feint on SAM.

You must just be doing it wrong. DPS as a healer is the same as DPS as any other role - manage cooldowns, watch for procs that might free up MP or a GCD, optimize movement to allow the most possible casts, etc.

Looking at your time spent DPSing as a healer as somehow separate from your time spent healing the party is a super basic mistake. It's all about killing things before they kill you. If you're bored doing it then find a way to do it better, if you think there is no room for improvment in your healing post a video of you solo healing V4S.

I don't know, maybe you just have a really short attention span or something so you can't be bothered to try to optimize your playing? With your posts about how well you tank though I have to assume that can't be the case.

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

I don't know, maybe you just have a really short attention span or something so you can't be bothered to try to optimize your playing? With your posts about how well you tank though I have to assume that can't be the case.

DPSing as a tank feels rewarding for good play. DPSing as a healer feels like being the average Joe Schmoe with how common it is in every party I've ever been in. I never not see a healer DPSing.

[MoroMurasaki]

DPSing as a tank feels rewarding for good play. DPSing as a healer feels like being the average Joe Schmoe with how common it is in every party I've ever been in. I never not see a healer DPSing .

So you are saying the rewarding feeling you get as a tank doing something more than minimal damage is greater than that of a healer because (in your view) tank DPS is rarer? This hinges on that being true which just doesn't seem to be the case.

Given your history on these forums I would think you would be aware of the constant healer DPS debate that has gone on at least since I came here. How could that debate exist on such a large scale if the opposition only consisted of a few, rare non-DPSing healers?

The short answer is that there are plenty of healers who contribute zero DPS and are proud of it while this is a much different dynamic among tanks who have their damage built in to their primary function as well as having their damage built into the expectations of actual fights.

Tank DPS isn't rare. Perhaps good tank DPS is rarer than general healer DPS but if you add up damage done by tanks and healers side by side in this game healers definitely contribute less because some of us do literally none.

Does this really need to resort to insults? Especially without some examples to back your case.

I wouldn't call that an insult, especially considering I literally say that isn't the case in your quote bubble right there. Sharing my impressions on someone else's playstyle isn't a crime.

Also is making a completely off topic post necessary? Especially when the thing you're criticizing is negated in the same post.

[Gameplayzero]

I don't know, maybe you just have a really short attention span or something so you can't be bothered to try to optimize your playing? With your posts about how well you tank though I have to assume that can't be the case.

Does this really need to resort to insults? Especially without some examples to back your case.