Please fix protect

[Tridus]

It's a free fire and forget buff. What's the problem?

That in itself is the problem. Who thinks that fire and forget extended duration buffs are even remotely interesting in this day and age of game development?

Any skill that's best used with a macro that casts it and then replaces it with something more interesting to use is inherently flawed by design.

PvP Protect is inherently better designed because I get to think about when to use it and that actually matters. PvE Protect is effectively a passive thing that I put up and then forget exists for the entire dungeon.

[Ghishlain]

I am in agreement as well that Protect needs to feel more impacting in PvE content. As others have stated, it basically acts as a second form of weakness and should be brought as an essential buff but it doesn't feel like it has any impact on the fight after it's been reapplied, and it burns more than a GCD of the healer in the process.

I'd be very happy if it worked like the PvP and gave a temporary mitigation buff on the target, even if that buff may only be a 5% increase for PvE purposes to ensure it's not too busted as a cross role ability.

[Ceasaria]

The problem I have with healing, is all arround the Resurrection.
7,5 sec of cast time (remember the time where invocation of the fairy was the same, ouch) if there is no Swiftcast.
2,5 sec for Protect.
= 10 sec of time lost on my DPS

Something need to be done about this, specifically when Red Mage are better to Rez than Healers. It is normal ?

Either get ride of Protect or lower the cast time of Resurrection to 3 sec (like pet invocations).

[LeoLupinos]

The only way to "fix" protect is to change duration to 60 seconds, so healers need to keep the buff, and not just buff and forget.
FFXII protect was not that long duration too, I don't know why protect got so much duration on FFXIV.

[Llus]

You could remove it entirely, increase all defenses by 15%, and functionally thered be no difference.

We could also make everyone's self-regen more powerful and remove all casted regens and functionally there'd be no difference. Prior to SB, WHM was the only class that gained access to protect w/o having to burn a role slot so if you had a WHM in your party you could get away with not having to bring it. All these great changes SB introduced like reducing the complexity of skill chains, removing the requirement of a 2nd class before you get your job stone and the really super confusing role actions that allowed you to select something like stoneskin for a PLD o.O??? So this is what you get when you beg for easier content, easier classes and less flexibility in your role builds. You get useless, limited or 1 use role actions some of which have a niche use (silence, anticipation, break, low blow, etc). All the improved "choice" you get with class based role actions is simply smoke in mirrors. The traited version of cross-class actions in HW and SB meant bringing certain classes gave a benefit and since SE has made all classes in SB 100% equal in terms of utility and synergy you no longer have to worry about taking a WHM for their bonus to stoneskin and can take the classes you really want to play with, not because ASTs and SCHs have more utility or anything it's all about player choice and who you chose to take protect over cleric stance. /s

I'm not saying protect is worthless, it's very useful and required in a lot of content. The extra defense down death penalty is a key part of the game play - I miss the older penalty that would affect all your stats and not just your primary stat; it made death an even more punishing mechanic since you had to babysit someone with weakness until it was gone and in many cases forced a change in strategy if a tank or healer died. The issue I see is that you're left cucking one person for certain mechanics. For healers, it's always "who's going to take protect". For certain mechanics, "who's going to take silence if we don't have a ninja?" or Can the monk silence pls? The fact that at level 50 we had 5 cross-class skills and at level 70 we still only get 5 role slots is the real issue. For the majority of content, there's a set 5 role actions that you MUST take and again in many cases there are 6 role actions that you MUST take so you're left depending/forcing someone to drop their 5th action for the required 6th putting them front and center when they fail to use it when they're supposed to. This was stated before the SB role changes, but the role actions are an illusion of choice designed to make it look as though all jobs in every role are equal, but all it does is force you to change your role actions for each fight just in case nobody else takes it.

[basketofseals]

You may be don't know, but others do.
+15% of current defense values.
You are welcome.

+15% defense does NOT mean 15% less damage taken. The actual value if that defense is like....3% mitigation if I remember correctly?

It's pretty useless, but I mean it's free so we're expected to use it. If you were forced to have it equipped to have the effect persist, I wouldn't bother in dungeons, and maybe not even in raids. Assuming I would need surecast of course.

[NobleWinter]

We need baseline Role Skills AND also truly optional Role Skills. Protect, Esuna, Lucid Dreaming, and possibly Largesse should be baseline skills that all Healers would get as they level with no option to discard or trade them. Role Skills would then be all the other junk we never use because of taking the mandatory ones. I wouldn't even mind being limited to 2 or 3 Role Skills if Sure Cast and Rescue weren't competing with Esuna and Protect. I hate that Healing macros to swap out skills are just accepted as common practice.

[Tint]

+15% defense does NOT mean 15% less damage taken. The actual value if that defense is like....3% mitigation if I remember correctly?

It's pretty useless, but I mean it's free so we're expected to use it. If you were forced to have it equipped to have the effect persist, I wouldn't bother in dungeons, and maybe not even in raids. Assuming I would need surecast of course.

yes, you are technically not forced to use Protect, because it's a rather weak buff. at least in casual content - in raid progression it's a different story, when every little bit counts. but you will have two healers there and only one needs Protect.

however, actually you are forced to use Protect, because a dungeon will not start without you casting it. we are just so used to wait for the Protect at the start of a dungeon that a healer will land very often in a situation where he has to defend himself why isn't casting Protect. and of course has to explain every time when a dungeon starts that he will not cast it, otherwise people will stand there useless waiting for a while.

[NobleWinter]

Protect is the least engaging ability ever. I would be happy if the duration was reduced to like 5 minutes because then at least you would have to use it more. An entire Role Action that only gets used once per Instance is retarded. Its even worse that no one complains in casual content if they die and don't get protect again. It really needs to be more impactful and not just as a mandatory tool in top tier savage survival.

[basketofseals]

yes, you are technically not forced to use Protect, because it's a rather weak buff. at least in casual content - in raid progression it's a different story, when every little bit counts. but you will have two healers there and only one needs Protect.

My point is that the mitigation is so insanely minor, that if you were forced to choose between protect or other cross class skills, Protect would be thrown into the bin without a second thought. Mechanics wouldn't even need to be rebalanced around not having Protect.