Letter from the Producer LXII

[Coltvoyance]

Mh. We don't really get much new information from this letter other than the Headgear update on Viera and Hrothgar... (shout out to the overtime devs for that) A majority of the letter though is verbatim language used after or during the FanFests.

Unfortunately, these responses have done little to reassure me of their efforts to "Rebalance Healers". I'm fine with their explanation on why a new healer wasn't added, that's not my beef; it's really their lack of response on how healers will be fixed that worries me.

Their reasoning for adding a new tank to create, essentially, two MT classes and two OT classes is sound in terms of "This is how we'll balance them". I can wrap my head around that. It's a plan of action; a structure to cling to; a methodology to follow. It informs and at least gives me an inkling of an expectation.

But "Healers are a complex situation and we decided to focus on rebalancing them" does nothing to inform me of what's actually happening; what their plan is. It really only tells me "Somethings wrong. Something will change".

As someone who mains the games most maligned healer (WHM) this really just makes me nervous about the whole thing. What is the something that's wrong? Are they even looking at the same problems with the role that I am? How are they fixing it? Are they moving in a direction that makes sense to me or are they completely missing the point? "What will my class look like when all is said and done?" is not a question I can even speculate about because there's literally nothing to go on. At least a Tank player can think "Well they'll either make me like this so I can MT. Or they'll do something like this so I'm an OT.

Information on healer changes is just a big void at this point. And when you acknowledge that an entire role is broken and needs fixing, and then say nothing else... people get a little ancy... Imagine if they just said "DPS is broken in FFXIV. We're changing how all of them work. That is all." and then left everyone in the dark for 5 months. There'd be SO much panic and people making posts going "PLEASE DON'T CHANGE [X] SKILL / [Y] CLASS!"

Just trying to keep my optimism up until the next Live Letter....

[Vahlnir]

Just trying to keep my optimism up until the next Live Letter....

This letter was meant to address some of the more pressing matters, and Yoshi P did that for better or worse. The next letter is supposedly about the battle system changes so if they are going to discuss healer changes at all, it'll probably be in that LL.

[Coltvoyance]

This letter was meant to address some of the more pressing matters, and Yoshi P did that for better or worse. The next letter is supposedly about the battle system changes so if they are going to discuss healer changes at all, it'll probably be in that LL.

Oh I know. With all the information that came out during the FanFests and the fervor that followed, many of their answers to questions got lost or buried for most players. This letter is essentially a compilation of statements to help set the record straight on their position to these matters in an effort to calm the player base.

My post was more to just draw attention that their lack of communication on Healers has had a negative effect and that it hasn't really been acknowledged. Since y'know, everything's been drowned out by all the gender/race chants.

[savageink]

Imagine if they just said "DPS is broken in FFXIV. We're changing how all of them work. That is all." and then left everyone in the dark for 5 months. There'd be SO much panic and people making posts going "PLEASE DON'T CHANGE [X] SKILL / [Y] CLASS!"

Lol! I think that happened with Bard and Machinist when Stormblood started. Totally grey hotbars on log in are not an exaggeration. They did warn us a little right before the expansion came out. I'd expect the same thing for healers this time.