Dear SE, I am a Healer

[rachcouture]

Because you can fall out of love with a job and role. Healing has been getting increasingly stale to the point that people often joke that it's a discount dps with extra responsibilities instead of being a full on role in it's own right. At the moment all red mage is missing is a AoE heal then it would be just like any other healer right now.

This is the crux of the issue for me. I've played two of these jobs for six years, and one for five. I find the existing DPS roles to be incredibly boring (3.0 BRD was my absolute favorite, but the direction they went in 4.0 ruined it for me; all I wanted was more songs for the priority-based bowmage), and while I like tanking, none of the current three really 'fit' my style or character considering they're all of the tin can variety, PLD being the most tolerable 'cause of the spell casting.

Healing and support are my favorite roles. Since the latter doesn't exist in this game (and no, ranged DPS doesn't count), that leaves only one option. The one option that's been criminally ignored despite being the most important piece of any party comp.

It's hard to feel inspired going into the next expansion when the only thing keeping you here is the story (which could turn south at any patch number; some of the 4.1-4.56 plotting choices were... questionable) and your character.

[Chiami]

Would I have liked a 4th healer, given healing is my main jam, too? Of course.

And I would have liked removal of all gender locks, inventory increase, more glam, expansion of the glam dresser, more options for the character creator, and and and.

We ALL, always want MORE. That's normal and fine, and it's good to keep asking. It's even okay to be disappointed or sometimes angry for a bit if our biggest dream doesn't come true.

But I think it's also good to remember that games have budgets and finite resources, and sometimes need to first focus on fixing existing problems before expanding in new directions based on that. We are not entitled to see all our dreams come true, and have to accept that our personal desires, or even priorities aren't always the priorities for a well-balanced game enjoyable for the biggest possible number of players.

So honestly... as much as I would have liked, scratch that, LOVED a new healer job... I approve they didn't do it. In recent interviews Yoshi-p himself said that they are struggling with healer balance as it is with these three existing jobs, and that they need to look at how they approach healing in this game. I agree with him there 100%, this is what they NEED to work on right now and first regarding healers. Once they got THAT right they can think about adding a 4th healer. 5.0: Healer Balancing done right. 6.0 or so: 4th healer pleaaase.

We can argue endlessly about how they caused the problem in the first place with bad design decisions and what not. I have heavily criticized them myself for things that happened with healers in 4.0 onward, baaaaad ideas.

But after that critique I think it's also time to remember that devs are humans and sometimes make bad mistakes, just as all of us. What I give them kudos for is recognizing they DID make mistakes there with healer balance/designs, and are now -- going by what was said in recent interviews -- at least TRYING to fix it (#MakeWHMGoodAgain ;p). And then maybe we finally get a new shiny toy (4th healer) in 6.0.

[Derio]

Honestly I would sacrifice a new healer if it meant all the existing healer jobs were getting a rework and overhaul. Especially WHM.

[FeliAiko]

If that arguement was to hold water, then why didn't they make a ranged dps for stormblood so then everything would've been 3?

Maybe because they'd already made a Ranged DPS in MCH and didn't want to release another one back to back. Not really surprising that they went Caster and Melee, the two roles that didn't get any new Jobs in HW.

[Physic]

This is the crux of the issue for me. I've played two of these jobs for six years, and one for five. I find the existing DPS roles to be incredibly boring (3.0 BRD was my absolute favorite, but the direction they went in 4.0 ruined it for me; all I wanted was more songs for the priority-based bowmage), and while I like tanking, none of the current three really 'fit' my style or character considering they're all of the tin can variety, PLD being the most tolerable 'cause of the spell casting.

Healing and support are my favorite roles. Since the latter doesn't exist in this game (and no, ranged DPS doesn't count), that leaves only one option. The one option that's been criminally ignored despite being the most important piece of any party comp.

It's hard to feel inspired going into the next expansion when the only thing keeping you here is the story (which could turn south at any patch number; some of the 4.1-4.56 plotting choices were... questionable) and your character.

An interesting thing i notice, is you want a certain theme/feel from your healer. Would you be satisfied with a healer that doesnt exactly fit your theme, but it still does the job of healer?

also, it seems like you feel healing as a whole is not that interesting in this game, would you have been ok if they added a new healer, but it played similar to current healers? (for reference, about as different/similar as the healers we have now)

Also, you basically said all classes seem a bit underwhelming to you now. Do you think they need a dramatic shift from the current job/class/combat design? Basically do you feel like, as long as they use the formulas they have been using the past 6 years, no job they create will be that entertaining?

[Barraind]

An interesting thing i notice, is you want a certain theme/feel from your healer. Would you be satisfied with a healer that doesnt exactly fit your theme, but it still does the job of healer?

also, it seems like you feel healing as a whole is not that interesting in this game, would you have been ok if they added a new healer, but it played similar to current healers? (for reference, about as different/similar as the healers we have now)

Also, you basically said all classes seem a bit underwhelming to you now. Do you think they need a dramatic shift from the current job/class/combat design? Basically do you feel like, as long as they use the formulas they have been using the past 6 years, no job they create will be that entertaining?

14s bard is one of the worst implementations of bard in any game I've ever seen, and it's still pretty popular. Dancer is going to be completely different from any incarnation of dancer in any game, and will probably be popular. (They really should have gone with bard as a healer and have range jobs be Hunter/sniper, Mech, Mediator / Juggler, but that ship long since sailed)

Blue mage... is blue mage. Red mage is really just dark gray mage.

People are used to 14s class system not being what they want or expect.

A lot of it comes down to watching new toys being handed out to everyone else (despite the two other roles that got additions in 5.0 having relatively garbage balancing for long stretches of time, including BOTH of those roles having a class set for a complete rework in 5.0 along with healers) while the healer role cant even get the balance changes it's been told it needs for 4 years.

I spend 80% of my time tanking, 19.9999% healing and the remainder as a dps, and it's been really silly watching us get more red jobs than the other two combined when the game is balanced around a 1:1:2 split at every level of content (which is one of the biggest problems with having 4 party groups and 8 party raids).

14 isnt like other mmos where every new class that's been added has at least 1 non-dps option. A dps job is a dps job is a dps job. Theres no emergency off-tanking or swapping gear and healing or tanking a boss fight in a pinch to let your raid run with 1 fewer tank or healer than youd normally need.

[Miste]

But after that critique I think it's also time to remember that devs are humans and sometimes make bad mistakes, just as all of us.

I don't think anyone forgot this. I am happy to say most of the people in this thread have been thoroughly polite and respectful with their feedback to SE about it. There hasn't been any vulgar terms or derogatory comments thrown at any of their team as far as I saw. It was some harsh criticism at some points, but it was just honest, and written in the most polite way possible.

[rachcouture]

An interesting thing i notice, is you want a certain theme/feel from your healer. Would you be satisfied with a healer that doesnt exactly fit your theme, but it still does the job of healer?

If I enjoyed playing it, and it wasn't a repeat of what we already have.

also, it seems like you feel healing as a whole is not that interesting in this game, would you have been ok if they added a new healer, but it played similar to current healers? (for reference, about as different/similar as the healers we have now)

I never said that, and I have no idea where you got that impression. There is a significant difference between being burnt out and dislike. And no; what we need is something that excels at something our existing healing jobs don't.

Also, you basically said all classes seem a bit underwhelming to you now. Do you think they need a dramatic shift from the current job/class/combat design? Basically do you feel like, as long as they use the formulas they have been using the past 6 years, no job they create will be that entertaining?

Finding the DPS jobs boring and tanks homogeneous doesn't equate to all. A dramatic shift? Not necessarily, but some actual creativity would be nice. I mean just look at the past three DPS jobs added. MCH is an inferior version of BRD. SAM does damage, and... damage, like everyone else. RDM lacks most of the support you would expect, and the rapier barely even plays a role outside of one AoE and a single combo after an overly long meter charge.

14 isnt like other mmos where every new class that's been added has at least 1 non-dps option. A dps job is a dps job is a dps job. Theres no emergency off-tanking or swapping gear and healing or tanking a boss fight in a pinch to let your raid run with 1 fewer tank or healer than youd normally need.

This is actually something I really want in FFXIV. Jobs with multiple roles would alleviate a lot of the issues, and make it more in line with the free-form approach of past Final Fantasy games. Let Bard and Dancer heal. Let Monk and Samurai tank. More variety, but with less work than a whole new class.

[WaterShield]

If I enjoyed playing it, and it wasn't a repeat of what we already have.



I never said that, and I have no idea where you got that impression. There is a significant difference between being burnt out and dislike. And no; what we need is something that excels at something our existing healing jobs don't.



Finding the DPS jobs boring and tanks homogeneous doesn't equate to all. A dramatic shift? Not necessarily, but some actual creativity would be nice. I mean just look at the past three DPS jobs added. MCH is an inferior version of BRD. SAM does damage, and... damage, like everyone else. RDM lacks most of the support you would expect, and the rapier barely even plays a role outside of one AoE and a single combo after an overly long meter charge.



This is actually something I really want in FFXIV. Jobs with multiple roles would alleviate a lot of the issues, and make it more in line with the free-form approach of past Final Fantasy games. Let Bard and Dancer heal. Let Monk and Samurai tank. More variety, but with less work than a whole new class.

"what we need is something that excels at something our existing healing jobs don't."
Any ideas as to what that could be? Cuz I'm coming up blank on that point.

"Let Bard and Dancer heal. Let Monk and Samurai tank. More variety, but with less work than a whole new class."
I would suggest that the devs be careful with that line of thought. I am certain many people play today that like the current way Jobs work. I personally would be quite upset if I got my damage heavily nerfed on RDM in exchange for greater utility.

[Penthea]

This is actually something I really want in FFXIV. Jobs with multiple roles would alleviate a lot of the issues, and make it more in line with the free-form approach of past Final Fantasy games. Let Bard and Dancer heal. Let Monk and Samurai tank. More variety, but with less work than a whole new class.

Sounds like you want to play a different game.

More variety, but with less work than a whole new class.

Yes I'm sure balancing classes so that they can be two different roles without being over-powered or under-powered is less work than balancing classes that do only one. Obviously it would be a much easier choice to make the individual classes more complicated than just add a new class.

/s in case that wasn't obvious