Why healing is broken and terrible, and how to fix it...

[Kazrah]

This is unfortunately why raiding in WoW >>>>> raiding in FFXIV, despite XIV's DPS classes being far deeper and more involved.

So go raid in WoW then. Just because you don't know how to heal in this game doesn't mean the system's broken.

And please stop saying the system's broken because you don't know how to heal in this game. Again, it's okay not to be a good healer in FFXIV, and admitting is the first step.

[RichardButte]

you don't know how to heal in this game

I'll tell you what I don't know how to do: get the maximum value out of MCH's overheat, or nail NIN's rotation. Those are things I definitely cannot do yet, and that makes them engaging and interesting

But healing is neither of those things.

Compare the way a healer functions to a class like MCH or NIN and it's like they're not even classes in the same game. Healers literally press a heal button once every X seconds, where X changes depending upon how much damage the tank is taking. We also start casting AoE heals when we know the boss is about to deal raid-wide damage.

But other than that, you're going to spend the rest of the time DPSing, and that's MOST of your time.

RDM can cast heals, and can actually do a decent job of it, true, but they're still a DPS because a RDM can expect to spend the vast majority of their time dealing damage.

So what is a "healer" in XIV? A class that spends ~20% of it's time healing and the rest of the time dealing damage. Should we even be calling them "healers" when they spend most of their time dealing damage?

Tanks spend 100% of their time tanking (unless they're an off tank, but they still want SOME aggro in that case), DPS spend nearly all their time DPSing (RDM and SMN raises excluded).

Healers are the only class type where players can expect to spend more time dealing damage than the ACTUAL intended purpose of their class.

Am I the only one with whom this doesn't sit well?

[Mirateski]

If that were the case, healing would be interesting and exciting.

I actually find healing to be way more interesting, exciting and engaging than a dps class, where I spend more time looking at my buttons than actually experiencing the fight. Although in SB I prefer it more on whm then sch, when it used to be the other way around, but you can't have everything. (Maybe your problem is that youre playing ast, which is boring as hell dps-wise?)

[hydralus]

Am I the only one with whom this doesn't sit well?

I think so, yeah. Pushing a button to heal, pushing a button to deal damage; realistically the healer role is the only one with the skills to do the first but what would be the gameplay advantage of needing to heal more when everyone is playing optimally?

[RichardButte]

I think so, yeah. Pushing a button to heal, pushing a button to deal damage

...Except that your average DPS rotation is 10X more complex than that.

You don't just "press buttons": you build resources, generate procs, wait for openings, weave in oGCD skills, and use every last trick you can in an effort to maximize your damage output.

As a healer, you refill the HP bars, then go back to DPSing. Hell, if it took more than 1-2 GCDs to top off the entire raid, healing might actually make you scramble a bit.

As for a gameplay advantage, you'd have the advantage of being able to do the thing you actually leveled the class to DO.

I didn't level AST to DPS, yet that's all there is to do 80% of the time. :\

Uh, WoW world first clears typically don't last more than a day either.

That is DECIDEDLY untrue.

Compare these world firsts to when the content released for the tier:
http://www.sk-gaming.com/content/163...rld_first_list

The fastest I recall happening recently was Mythic Emeral Dream which took about a week. Deltascape Savage was cleared the very same day.

[hydralus]

As for a gameplay advantage, you'd have the advantage of being able to do the thing you actually leveled the class to DO.

Coming from older final fantasy games and D&D that's not what appeals to me about a healing job at all. Having the utility of being able to keep people alive while putting out respectable damage is awesome.

[Naunet]

So go raid in WoW then. Just because you don't know how to heal in this game doesn't mean the system's broken.

It has nothing to do with not knowing how to heal. It is stupidly easy to heal in this game, and that is the problem. I want challenge. I want to spend the vast majority of my time actually healing, instead of occasional burst healing and then going back to spamming two buttons for damage.

[RichardButte]

Except that (as evident in this thread) it is working for most people.

It's working for some people on the forums, and you're conveniently ignoring all of the other players who have echoed what I have: a healer that barely needs to do any healing shouldn't be called a "healer".

Like this:

It has nothing to do with not knowing how to heal. It is stupidly easy to heal in this game, and that is the problem. I want challenge. I want to spend the vast majority of my time actually healing, instead of occasional burst healing and then going back to spamming two buttons for damage.

(Maybe your problem is that youre playing ast, which is boring as hell dps-wise?)

AST is definitely boring AF to DPS on, but I played SCH all through HW and I pretty much DPSed the entire time.

I'm only now realizing that I should just play a DPS if the game is going to have me DPS 80% of the time anyway.

[SpiritMuse]

It's working for some people on the forums,

You could say the same thing the other way around - only some people on the forums are complaining, which would mean most people are totally fine with the way healing works currently. And I'd wager this is more true than the reverse, since the forums are skewed towards complaining. People who have no complaints generally don't speak out about the thing they have no complaints over, there's no reason to - they're just quietly enjoying the thing. If healing were really as problematic as you claim it is there would be 1. far fewer people playing healers and they would be limiting factor far more than tanks and 2. a huge outcry in the forums rather than just a couple of threads with lots of disagreement.