Quote Originally Posted by NorthernLadMSP View Post
DCUO also has wildly varying healing styles that make each style incredibly unique and fun.
So did Dark Age of Camelot, though that was arguably because of a variety of things like the build/skill system as well as the heavy PVP focus of the game allowing more niche support-esque classes and CC bots like Theurgist/Minstrel to be a thing.

DAOC is a bit of an oldie though, and I thought keeping my examples restricted to newer games might help readers relate better. I mean, I'll be honest, even in TERA their healers DPS a ton, but a lot of it either comes with pretty high risk (Shocking Implosion into Fiery Backstep on Priest for instance, Metamorphic Smite on both healers), high opportunity cost (Mystic's Thrall of Wrath being a TEN-MINUTE COOLDOWN that deals massive damage), or applies a valuable buff/debuff component that still makes you "feel" like a supporting/healing player even though you're hitting the boss (Corruption Ring on Mystic sucks HP from nearby enemies which then gets converted to positive MP for your party, and Energy Stars gives your party a crit buff and attack speed buff whenever it hits an enemy). I think there's absolutely ideas Square can borrow or take inspiration from when it comes to making healer gameplay in XIV feel better and more rewarding, without being a direct copy of those games or turning us into the dreaded "healbots" (even though I think that term is extremely specious and should die in a fire). The problem is that they seem afraid to branch out and both a.) make healers possible to fail at in this game outside of dying to mechanics, and b.) deconstruct every healer's kit a bit so that they're not good at everything and have actual strengths and weaknesses outside of "herp derp do I buff rDPS".