Healing Direction - is the current design balanced?

[Monsalvato]

I dont remember needing to cast Cure 1 when i received my Cure II.

I did quite a lot of times, but that's not the real issue here.

The new healing model is single tier spells. To create a difference between "cheap spell that doesn't heal much" and "mp expensive spell that heals a lot" we already have Cure and Cura.
Such a model has been successfully deployed in many other MMORPG, among which the famous World of Warcraft.

The problem is rather that we're getting a single spell for 30 levels compared to what we did get before and to what you get in other games.


It's not really a problem of balancing with jobs, since jobs aren't in-game atm and won't be for several months, and since at max level (50) the thing I'm talking about is not an issue.
I'm talking about people who are levelling.
As fast as the process is, just how "balanced" is the choice of giving them a single spell for over 30 levels and no AoE spells for 48 levels?

Seems to me they're saying "who cares about game balance/game content before you reach the max level", which, in my view, it's a game design flaw.
Nobody says they should focus on balancing the game experience for players not at level cap, that would be ridiculous, but the way they seem to be going seems the exact opposite extreme.

[Soukyuu]

Seems to me they're saying "who cares about game balance/game content before you reach the max level"

Yeah, who cares? You get PLed to 40 anyway and then reach 50 in shortest amount of time... so "who cares" indeed.

[Monsalvato]

Yeah, who cares? You get PLed to 40 anyway and then reach 50 in shortest amount of time... so "who cares" indeed.

I do care, I don't have anybody PLing me nor I do want anybody to PL me, even for free.

I don't get why everybody nowadays seems to be in such a haste to level.
I'm not promoting the days of extreme grinding like in other games where you had to waste a week to gain a single level, that's definitely way too much and anachronistic in 2012.
But making so levelling doesn't matter anymore only generates the unavoidable consequence of players never being satisfied with the speed, wanting more and more, up to the point where you start wondering: why level at all?

If it's such a hindrance, an annoyment, why not making so there's a single level in the game? Let's make so everybody starts the game at max level, actually let's just cut levels out of the game.
I expect this to happen sooner or later from some of the upcoming big MMOs.

Really, I'm not saying developers should exceed in the direction of too much grinding -too much is always too much-, but the opposite excess is not satisfying either for me.
Levelling should be seen as an enjoyable experience that you're willing to do more than once, not as something "slowing you down" on the way to get to the level cap.
I really don't get why 98% of the playerbase see things this way nowadays, it didn't use to be like this 10 years ago.


The thing about THM being able to heal just as fine as CNJ (aside from the differences in job traits) on the first 30 levels really drives me mad. It's actually pretty true, and that's the reason why I'm getting angry.
They did all this class reform revolution to rightfully change the way classes "felt" and were perceived, because people were equipping actions from other classes and the threshold between one class and the other was really too thin. I felt that clearly levelling CNJ and THM, where I could equip CNJ spells on my THM and feel almost like a CNJ, an vice-versa.
So they *rightfully* decide to create a revolution to make so each class feels special and unique an different and what do we get is: "THM can heal just as fine as CNJ for the first 30 levels, using Cure, a CNJ spell".
Now, am I the only one seeing the irony in all of this?

[Kiara]

The thing about THM being able to heal just as fine as CNJ (aside from the differences in job traits) on the first 30 levels really drives me mad. It's actually pretty true, and that's the reason why I'm getting angry.
They did all this class reform revolution to rightfully change the way classes "felt" and were perceived, because people were equipping actions from other classes and the threshold between one class and the other was really too thin. I felt that clearly levelling CNJ and THM, where I could equip CNJ spells on my THM and feel almost like a CNJ, an vice-versa.
So they *rightfully* decide to create a revolution to make so each class feels special and unique an different and what do we get is: "THM can heal just as fine as CNJ for the first 30 levels, using Cure, a CNJ spell".
Now, am I the only one seeing the irony in all of this?

Hi Monsalvato,

Reading through this thread, I see your point. (BTW, you should probably update your Original Post to clarify that you're referring to the lack of variety of Cure spells, as some people are getting the vibe that you think there's only 1 Cure Spell with 1 Effect (no scaling potency, etc.).)

I agree with what you and Seif have brought up, that in the role of a "Pure Healer" that having more than 1 option would be good.

But at the same time, there are a few things to consider:

• Yoshida-san has stated that Classes (like Conjurer) are Generalist roles, and that Jobs (like White Mage) is where you get the Specialist role. So in this case, while you may be looking to be a "Pure Healer" at Level 1 immediately, that's not the case for Conjurer. That's why they've given Conjurer other spells as well before Level 30 (that you're listing as a demarcation point).

• Given the above about Generalist roles, we can see they're giving Conjurers Offensive abilities as well with Aero, Stone, and Stonera, as well as Cleric Stance (Increases potency of attack spells by 20% and reduces potency of healing spells by 20%).
  
  Add in that there's an Individual Combo with Stone --> Stonera, I can see new players learning and having fun activating:
  
  Cleric Stance --> Stone --> Stonera
  
  And having fun with Magic Combos like that early on. (In other words, that there's some Offensive actions you can try on Conjurer besides learning your role as Healer.)

• Enhancing Magic / Buffs / Raise: In addition to those things, there's also learning about Buffing parties and yourself, with Protect, Stoneskin and earning Raise (which is more valuable now than when the game first launched with the zero penalties early on).

So if we focus only on the idea of being a "Pure Healer," 'yes' it feels a bit limiting learning just one "Cure" spell. We'll have to see how effective cross-classing Cure will be on THM or other classes (if it's nearly the same as Conjurer, of course you have a right to feel like Yoshida-san took away some of the "distinction" of being a Conjurer, but let's see what it'll be like after the patch).


But looking at it as a Generalist role (which is what Yoshida-san had in mind), I think there are enough things on Conjurer to keep us busy through Level 30.


From that point on (unlocking White Mage Job), we'll have to see how effective and specialized it'll feel, but I remain cautiously optimistic that we might have a good set of classic Final Fantasy Jobs when 1.21 hits.

[Soukyuu]

I do care

So do I, but we're in a minority. Until most people, including the devs won't start caring, nothing will change. Just look at the PL thread.

[Alise]

I did quite a lot of times, but that's not the real issue here.

The new healing model is single tier spells. To create a difference between "cheap spell that doesn't heal much" and "mp expensive spell that heals a lot" we already have Cure and Cura.
Such a model has been successfully deployed in many other MMORPG, among which the famous World of Warcraft.

The problem is rather that we're getting a single spell for 30 levels compared to what we did get before and to what you get in other games.


It's not really a problem of balancing with jobs, since jobs aren't in-game atm and won't be for several months, and since at max level (50) the thing I'm talking about is not an issue.
I'm talking about people who are levelling.
As fast as the process is, just how "balanced" is the choice of giving them a single spell for over 30 levels and no AoE spells for 48 levels?

Seems to me they're saying "who cares about game balance/game content before you reach the max level", which, in my view, it's a game design flaw.
Nobody says they should focus on balancing the game experience for players not at level cap, that would be ridiculous, but the way they seem to be going seems the exact opposite extreme.

Ever since the old day when leveling took lot of time, I never need to use 2x type of cure until R50. So bare with one type only until R30 is nothing.

[Fiosha_Maureiba]

Ever since the old day when leveling took lot of time, I never need to use 2x type of cure until R50. So bare with one type only until R30 is nothing.

Although to be fair, we did have AoE cure at level 4 for 1/5 of the MP cost.