What if we did away with healing duos...?

[lordcruxis]

Some very diverse reactions >.>. I feel like I should also state that this wasn't an emphatic "Everything would be better this way" kind of post, it was more of an idle musing to see peoples thoughts... I also feel like some posts didn't read that I listed the lack of a dedicated back-up resurrection in the Cons already. And that SE could potentially solve that through either a reraise or some other methods... some much more convoluted than others.

As for diversifying battle encounters, requiring two healers for certain mechanics would be really cool... if they still made mechanics that require two healers; they did in Ifrit EX kinda, but they haven't done something like that for a long time. Someone mentioned "splits" but really, splitting the party in two using healers as the targets isn't so much a "we need two healers" thing as it's "we need two people" thing. It could just as easily pick two random DPS. But it's likely easier for players, and programmers, to just have it target "two healers". I'd love to see a mechanic that requires both healers to solve. Really ANYTHING that throws a wrench into how I heal or requires me to do it differently.

But more than anything what I'm hearing is the need for that extra safety net that comes from an additional healer. Whether its a death, disconnect, poor skillset, etc. which is valid. A point of failure that can wipe the whole party is cause for concern.

But, if a DPS is bad or gets itself killed during a DPS check, or if the Tank fails or is disconnected during a Tank swap like say, the one in Seiryu, the whole party wipes as well... it's still just one person who has to mess up, but because it's not a healer... it's different?

I mean, true at least there's another Tank/other DPS. But that also feels like the problem when healing. When you're healing during a fight, you pretty much behave as if you're the only healer anyway. There's very little to no incentive to plan, coordinate, or strategize who heals who or what with the other healer. It's literally just "who get's there first". So it just feels.... unfulfilling? I guess?

Meanwhile, when I solo heal fights it feels very fulfilling... so...hmm

I think that this will actually be worse for healers, if solo healing was the norm, healing in general will probably be made significantly easier to accommodate. Solo healing should be kept as an optional challenge, but the design should still be for 2 healers

[kidalutz]

Some very diverse reactions >.>. I feel like I should also state that this wasn't an emphatic "Everything would be better this way" kind of post, it was more of an idle musing to see peoples thoughts... I also feel like some posts didn't read that I listed the lack of a dedicated back-up resurrection in the Cons already. And that SE could potentially solve that through either a reraise or some other methods... some much more convoluted than others.

As for diversifying battle encounters, requiring two healers for certain mechanics would be really cool... if they still made mechanics that require two healers; they did in Ifrit EX kinda, but they haven't done something like that for a long time. Someone mentioned "splits" but really, splitting the party in two using healers as the targets isn't so much a "we need two healers" thing as it's "we need two people" thing. It could just as easily pick two random DPS. But it's likely easier for players, and programmers, to just have it target "two healers". I'd love to see a mechanic that requires both healers to solve. Really ANYTHING that throws a wrench into how I heal or requires me to do it differently.

But more than anything what I'm hearing is the need for that extra safety net that comes from an additional healer. Whether its a death, disconnect, poor skillset, etc. which is valid. A point of failure that can wipe the whole party is cause for concern.

But, if a DPS is bad or gets itself killed during a DPS check, or if the Tank fails or is disconnected during a Tank swap like say, the one in Seiryu, the whole party wipes as well... it's still just one person who has to mess up, but because it's not a healer... it's different?

I mean, true at least there's another Tank/other DPS. But that also feels like the problem when healing. When you're healing during a fight, you pretty much behave as if you're the only healer anyway. There's very little to no incentive to plan, coordinate, or strategize who heals who or what with the other healer. It's literally just "who get's there first". So it just feels.... unfulfilling? I guess?

Meanwhile, when I solo heal fights it feels very fulfilling... so...hmm

You obviously haven't done much of the endgame content in PuGs I have trust me it's fullfilling enough especially when you almost never see the other healer do anything outside of dps and OGCD while your mp is dropping because people are eating AoE like tic tacs and running into groups with explode things on them or doing omega too close or T.G. in Monastery where you're a rez machine.

[Sebazy]

You obviously haven't done much of the endgame content in PuGs

This kind of highlights the issue.

To a healer used to Savage and beyond, healing stuff like Primals and Monastery is literally a snooze fest irrespective of what your co healer is doing. I've covered both my own group as well as another on many occasions in 24 man stuff. It's not that I'm better, it's just the pace that I'm used to working at and the APM I'm able to maintain under pressure.

I'd relish having to solo heal everything, but the other 3 healers I was having to cover for there simply wouldn't have a chance, and by proxy, neither would everyone else in their group. It'd be a huge spike in difficulty and pressure at the early end game for new and inexperienced healers.

I think it'd be a neat optional challenge, but it shouldn't be the norm.

[JunseiKei]

Honestly, I'd be in favor of solo healer parties. Before coming to XIV, I mainly played games that expected solo healing. Oddly enough, in a lot of these other games, usually a death to a DPS meant they messed up (out of position, mishandled a mechanic, didn't stock up on potions or other curative measures that could save them potentially) and a tank death was usually on the healer.

I don't live for the moments that I use oGCD heals and just DPS (why am I a healer again?).

It took me going back into synced T5 minimum iLvl and having a tankbuster that happens entirely too often for CDs alone to cover it to realize that's why I really enjoyed the role to begin with. As well as why I've been unsatisfied with healing and had switched to a DPS for two raid tiers this expansion. There's practically no emphasis on healing and all of the emphasis on DPS, regardless of your role.

However, XIV is set up to have 2 tanks, 2 healers as the norm in 8-man duties. Changing that would require a huge rework, so this would probably never happen.

[miraidensetsu]

I'm in for that. About sub ressing, why not enable the use of Phoenix Down into instanced content (like any potion)? It can have an great CD, but it's doable.

[Exiled_Tonberry]

I think it's less that we need to go to way of solo healing, and more that SE needs to make content hard enough to actually warrant two healers.

As it stands, a lot of the hardest content in the game is able to be solo healed fairly early on and with two healers there's less time spent healing and more time spent dpsing with the occasional burst heal. There really is something wrong when people can get away with using Cure/II less than 5 times a raid.

[Tanama]

I would not be oppose to content made for a party of six.

Default Setup

• Tank
• Healer
• DPS I
• DPS II
• DPS III
• DPS IV

[Kurando]

Though how long would it be when even there won't be a second healer, parties would expect a RDM or SMN to fill that co-support slot to assist the primary healer if necessary (with heals or rez). It's almost like one of the DPS slots would be forced caster (RDM/SMN) if it can be as opposed to having all DPS being whatever job they want.

We definitely need to see more damage heavy situations where both healers are actually giving heals/support more often, rather than having tons of downtime doing damage because things are barely hitting hard enough.

[MintnHoney]

What if they did away with Healing duos, in the sense that they started to give everyone in the party some healing tools, and, thus, free up healer's attention to allow them to focus on other things (like Damage, sure, or crowd control and debuffs/buffs)?
Not that I would necessarily like that, nor am I saying that it's ideal but, you know, what if?

[Sylvain]

Mhhh, I didn't say it would make them good. I said "promote" so, not solve, but encourage people to take the role seriously. Instead of using it to cheese their way through a trial or raid without pulling their weight by leaning on the other healer.

I mean, healer and tank are probably the two role that people take the most seriously.
In most party healer are the one dying the least because they pay the most attention as they know their death can mean a wipe. You rarely see a healer greeding an extra Stone and die to a mechanic.
However you see dps greeding and dying all the time.

This is just my experience ofc, but even when friends of mine who usually never heal, end up healing. They're very focus on the task. Even if that mean they end up doing very low dps (like 500-1000 if even)

I've heard "aah I greeded I thought I could squeeze a last GCD before moving" coming from DPS/tank very often. But not as much from healers.