Isn't playing WHM optimally going completely against what SE wants healers to be?

[loreleidiangelo]

dpsing as healer is NOT looked down upon by SE. if anything i feel like theyre trying to push it otherwise they wouldnt give all the healers such powerful dps kits (and significantly reduce the mp costs for dpsing too)

theyre also not rewarding unoptimal whm play. they changed what it means to be optimal. just because using cures is good it doesnt mean that using regen is bad. if people cant figure out what is better to use when, its entirely their problem.

and fyi, to many people, a healer that doesnt dps is a detriment to the group. balance or chain strategem aside.

To me, they've done conflicting things wrt healer DPS this expac. Sure, they removed Cleric Stance, making it "easier" for healers to DPS...but said removal was also a nerf to our straight numbers. They also condensed healer DoTs, making them easier to keep up on a mob while still healing...but that was also a nerf. They also only gave each healer an upgrade to their basic "spam" ability, and in some cases that ability was only a RETURN to the potency they had pre-SB (case of AST, old Cleric Stance Malefic II was as powerful as our current Malefic III).

Yoshida has also said a few things such as "disliking" Cleric Stance (this is kinda ambiguous and could mean anything), and stating that "healer DPS isn't factored into DPS checks for raid clears". Now, those statements have been discussed to hell and back and in some ways it doesn't matter what Yoshi says cuz it's obvious his team has no clue what the heck they're doing with healers anymore, but what I infer from that collection of statements is that the healer DPS meta wasn't really intended, the devs just have no idea how to "put it back in its box", so to speak. (At least not without pissing off the playerbase en masse.)

You can see some of their desire to push healers more towards healing with mechanics like Charybdis and White Hole in O1S and O4S, respectively. The problem is, they're not understanding that any healer check they add will be completely trivialized even at min item level just because of how ridiculous it is for healers to fill health bars in this game - DPSing out of lack of anything else to do is a total consequence for the company of that said flawed design.

[Finkledoodoo]

Isn't whm supposed to be the solo healer so we can have different group makeups? I don't think there is time to dps during solo healing... I like the old cleric stance, I became an Astro just because I liked how hectic it was trying to do everything. Now healing seems boring to me. I'll try tanking I guess... There seems to be a lot of talk about the game being wrong in itself for healers. What could be done to make the game more healing active/entertaining? What is it I'm missing? Because I'm an alt healer, I don't know the nuances or veteran healing...

[Silver-Strider]

Snip.

This would be fine, if WHM was the only healer that could solo heal endgame. Since they aren't, however, that just leaves their higher Healer DPS as their only real contributing factor to a group composition as SCH and AST both bring much more utility than DPS numbers alone.

Honestly speaking, I'll keep my DoTs up on WHM as much as I can during any encounter, throw in some Stone 4s as well but my main priority is to heal and unless I see an Excogitation on the Tank or I know there isn't going to be a lot of damage going out any time soon, I usually stop DPSing and just focus on making sure everyone is in a good spot health wise before I even try to DPS, which is what I've noticed a lot of healers NOT doing because they focus too much on DPSing and forget to look out for oncoming mechanics until it's too late and people start dropping.

[Finkledoodoo]

snip

Really!? I wasn't sure if astro could solo heal. I'll have to give that a try; sounds fun...

[Ghishlain]

Yoshida has also said a few things such as "disliking" Cleric Stance (this is kinda ambiguous and could mean anything), and stating that "healer DPS isn't factored into DPS checks for raid clears". Now, those statements have been discussed to hell and back and in some ways it doesn't matter what Yoshi says cuz it's obvious his team has no clue what the heck they're doing with healers anymore, but what I infer from that collection of statements is that the healer DPS meta wasn't really intended, the devs just have no idea how to "put it back in its box", so to speak. (At least not without pissing off the playerbase en masse.)

I personally always felt that YoshiP has gone on record to say these comments as a means to discourage disparaging remarks from the community towards non-DPSing healers. I do feel they have always recognized that the top tier raiders looking to push early clears based on other comments YoshiP has made and they know one of the most efficient means to do so is to have healers contribute DPS. It's easier for a healer who's doing 0 DPS to add another 500-750 DPS but much more difficult for a DPS who's already pushing 4.0-4.5K+ to add the same 500-750.

I've also always felt that if the development team truly wanted to shut down the healer DPS, they could easily do so in a significantly heavy handed way (ie, making it impossible to use DPS abilities in 4- or 8-player content and/or destroy DPS spell potencies). Of course this would basically crush the healer playerbase for a temporary period of time until players got used to the shift but if the community continues to be as divided as it is regarding healer DPS (you're damned if you do, damned if you don't), the developers may just be forced to resolve this in a heavy handed way.

I certainly hope not though - I enjoy how healing is done in this game overall and I like having that freedom that the other two roles don't normally have.

Really!? I wasn't sure if astro could solo heal. I'll have to give that a try; sounds fun...

Omega - Deltascape 4.0 (Savage) has been solo healed by a Nocturnal AST. It's certainly not for the faint of heart and requires a good coordinated group effort to minimize damage as much as you can but I've always enjoyed watching these sort of videos.

Just note that not all fights are conducive to solo heals as there may be mechanics that require two healers to resolve but it doesn't stop creative teams from trying to work around these challenges or taking the intentional handicap and seeing if they can survive the resultant "miss".

[RichardButte]

SE also wants us to spam Cure I, and Cure II for lillies but optimally we want to use as little as possible, and use Regen as much as possible.
Same goes with Scholar. I don't think anyone on the Dev team even plays a Healer.

Back in vanilla WoW, it was revealed that no one on the dev team had ACTUALLY leveled a paladin to 60 and they drew straws and some poor schlub had to do it on a PvP server.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that no one on the XIV team plays a healer at endgame. Tanks and DPS have these amazing rotations with all kinds of procs and interesting, engaging mechanics. Healer gameplay, on the other hand, is comprised of placing a regen on the tank before spamming your boring DPS abilities, then topping off the party every 10-15 seconds or so, or whenever the boss throws out unavoidable AoE damage.

I shelved my 70 AST because healing was soul-crushingly boring, and the threads we're seeing now asking "Where are all the healers?" echos this feeling through the community.

You can see some of their desire to push healers more towards healing with mechanics like Charybdis and White Hole in O1S and O4S, respectively. The problem is, they're not understanding that any healer check they add will be completely trivialized even at min item level just because of how ridiculous it is for healers to fill health bars in this game - DPSing out of lack of anything else to do is a total consequence for the company of that said flawed design.

Yup.

They need to decide if healer DPS is going to be a thing that's needed and balance around it accordingly, or if healer DPS shouldn't be significantly contributing to encounter DPS checks and figure out some way of preventing healers from doing this DPS.

Every additional raid they release where they can't decide is literally just making things worse.

[Exiled_Tonberry]

I personally always felt that YoshiP has gone on record to say these comments as a means to discourage disparaging remarks from the community towards non-DPSing healers.

Agreed. Though while this does make the healers who choose not to DPS feel better about their choice, all it does is make you question why they have such incredible DPS capability. Especially in AOE situations, where it's not uncommon for a healer to outdps an actual DPS.

It feels like they're too afraid to hone in on what they want healers to be, so they just leave them in this weird middle spot and leave it up to the community to make of them what they will.

Tanks are not like this. They're tanks sure, but it's made obvious that you should be doing respectable damage. It's what they decided, and the tanking role is able to progress forward now that they have a clear role identity.


Healers meanwhile will never move forward in this game until SE themselves decides on what they want all healers to play like, and design content around that vision.

[Sebazy]

They need to decide if healer DPS is going to be a thing that's needed and balance around it accordingly, or if healer DPS shouldn't be significantly contributing to encounter DPS checks and figure out some way of preventing healers from doing this DPS.

Every additional raid they release where they can't decide is literally just making things worse.

As per your other thread, care to expand on how/why this is such an issue now? I legitimately don't understand what makes you feel it's such a huge problem as things stand currently.

[Elamys]

As per your other thread, care to expand on how/why this is such an issue now? I legitimately don't understand what makes you feel it's such a huge problem as things stand currently.

Because people want to play healers to heal, not to play gussied up DPS. This is the only MMO I've played where healers are expected to DPS like this.

[Aetherstar]

I don't think anyone on the Dev team even plays a Healer.

Careful. Hear that? SE's White Knights™ are coming.