Dear Naoki Yoshida and the Battle Development Team,

[HyperiusUltima]

Know that I greatly appreciate the work that has been done over the years since A Realm Reborn to make Eorzea a better place to play in, along with the battle content that you’ve tested and shown to us. I still have favorites like Alexander Savage that were exhilarating to run through mechanically and with a team. Just being able to fight even Exdeath and Kefka was fun!

However, there is a fine line to be drawn between what you, the developers, have seen in testing and what people experience. In Stormblood, I’ve read about how many people have talked about White Mage not being as useful as Astrologian or Scholar, and the talk about the meta in terms of DPS.

As much as I think the correct route is there, the media tour feels like a major letdown after your media embargo was lifted. So, let’s start off with the good things that I think might have been done right:

Note - This is my opinion and is open to constructive criticism.

Removal of TP and Protect was the first things that got me hyped about the media tour from the Live Letter not too long ago. The fact that TP was becoming a redundant resource for all weaponskill users felt limiting, especially in the AoE Skills. With that gone, it gives more freedom to create combos as you have. As for Protect, it was a redundant buff that punished you for dying in raids a lot, and I’m glad it’s gone.

As for the bad news, there’s been a huge uproar in the Healer Forums recently(in case you didn’t notice, but you probably have) regarding Healers being reduced down to simple rotations and a lot of pure healing. Even though we do not know the damage output yet, this is a very drastic change given how the balance has been tipped at the mid-point in the expansion just about every time: 3.4 in Heavensward, and 4.5 in Stormblood.

What I ask is that you LISTEN TO YOUR FANBASE WHEN IT COMES TO JOB BALANCE. They’ve come up with a multitude of ideas to help fix balance issues and adjustments for QoL. White Mage also has been a big talk of discussion, namely how Lilies are even less engaging than before along with the Afflatus series being literally on the Global Cooldown. People are baffled how this came to be when the other Healers simply were reduced to simplify everything just for what you want to enforce on the entire FFXIV Healing Community. They still have things to do, but WHM is in dire need of a way to match the other Healers not in flat potencies, but handling their oGCDs(which they have more than they can swat a fly at).

With this amount of homogenization, it’ll be difficult to find Healers instead of Tanks, since the new Tank changes actually helped somewhat. So please, listen to the community as a whole to make the correct changes and make healing more engaging for everyone.

[Jeeqbit]

I just looked at the changes to WHM and don't see the problem. In fact it looks like one of the changes makes lilies consumable in exchange for oGCD heals like Aetherflow stacks are on SCH. I didn't see a problem with the changes to SCH earlier either.

In my experience healers did have simple DPS rotations already. They had a DoT, an AoE and a single target attack. Some of them had two of these things or an odd oGCD. Has it really changed in a way that matters?

[Risvertasashi]

I just looked at the changes to WHM and don't see the problem. In fact it looks like one of the changes makes lilies consumable in exchange for oGCD heals like Aetherflow stacks are on SCH. I didn't see a problem with the changes to SCH earlier either.

In my experience healers did have simple DPS rotations already. They had a DoT, an AoE and a single target attack. Some of them had two of these things or an odd oGCD. Has it really changed in a way that matters?

They are GCD heals.

That said I think lillies are an improvement. Afflatus Misery is a DPS loss compared to nuke spamming (you have to use 4 GCDs to set it up and then execute), but mitigates the cost of GCD healing.

Now... Are these the changes that WHM needed? As many people noted in SB, WHM didn't need more healing. More mobility is certain welcome, but probably not meta defining. It's more catch up to SCH and AST.

Still no rDPS buffs, so WHM will probably be off meta for another 2 years.

If WHM has the highest pDPS, I'll be OK with having that niche personally. But others might not be.

[RyuDragnier]

I just looked at the changes to WHM and don't see the problem. In fact it looks like one of the changes makes lilies consumable in exchange for oGCD heals like Aetherflow stacks are on SCH. I didn't see a problem with the changes to SCH earlier either.

In my experience healers did have simple DPS rotations already. They had a DoT, an AoE and a single target attack. Some of them had two of these things or an odd oGCD. Has it really changed in a way that matters?

From what I see, the changes can be worrisome, IF we go under the assumption that healing will be the same as it has been under SB. There's a massive problem with that assumption, however. Tanks will always have the passive 20% damage reduction from now on, meaning newer dungeons, raids, and trials for SH (SHadowbringers) will have to hit harder to compensate for that and force cooldown usage. This will force more healing not only for the tanks, but for the DPS and healers who will be getting hit by party wide damage, cleaves, or damage from failed mechanics (which is GOING to happen).

[Daralii]

From what I see, the changes can be worrisome, IF we go under the assumption that healing will be the same as it has been under SB. There's a massive problem with that assumption, however. Tanks will always have the passive 20% damage reduction from now on, meaning newer dungeons, raids, and trials for SH (SHadowbringers) will have to hit harder to compensate for that and force cooldown usage. This will force more healing not only for the tanks, but for the DPS and healers who will be getting hit by party wide damage, cleaves, or damage from failed mechanics (which is GOING to happen).

From what we saw of the 73 dungeon, healers will also need to spend a lot more MP on raises. That last boss is going to be as bad as Shinryu was at StB release.

[Jeeqbit]

Tanks will always have the passive 20% damage reduction from now on, meaning newer dungeons, raids, and trials for SH (SHadowbringers) will have to hit harder to compensate for that and force cooldown usage.

They were tuned to tanks being in tank stance already. In Pool of Tribute normal, tank stance stops you bobbing about with just 100 HP and a lot of parties wipe to the AOEs.

If they didn't hit hard it's because you weren't minimum item level. Leveling dungeons hurt a lot and they are synced to almost minimum item level. Leveling dungeons have often convinced me to use tank stance because the difference between 20% mitigation and self-heals on a DRK is very large in expansion leveling dungeons and significantly affects how squishy I feel.

A little gear goes such a long way that everything can tickle.

This will force more healing not only for the tanks, but for the DPS and healers who will be getting hit by party wide damage, cleaves, or damage from failed mechanics (which is GOING to happen).

Not if they only increase auto-attack and tankbuster potency, but not AOE potency. Not that I'd mind if they increased that too.

[EriShvakh]

This balance is the difference between over healing and someone being dead.
This won't change and so I believe it won't really influence the amount of users who love to heal.

It's really hard to destroy the core of healing, without outright removing healing itself. The problem is, when you learn how to keep this balance, you need something more to entertain you between heals. For SCH and AST it was their unique kits. Now it's going to be netflix.

you never know you might like it but instead come here try to make devs change mind when release is already coming soon and expansion is done.

not going to happen, if they notice bad changes they'll deal with it on their own.

I don't really need to play content to see that going from cards with unique utility to being dmg bot is a downgrade for the AST. (I am talking about semi-casual content here. I understand that in prog AST always was a dmg bot)

[Jojokomoko]

LISTEN TO YOUR FANBASE WHEN IT COMES TO JOB BALANCE. They’ve come up with a multitude of ideas to help fix balance issues and adjustments for QoL.

Isn't what happened right now to healers is due to them listening to players as well? Those people that believe that "Healers doesn't have to DPS."

[Darkpaw]

Alright. I get the frustration and I can actually appreciate how you worded yourself, but can we address one or two elephants in the room?

Firstly: This dev team probably does more to listen to it’s fanbase than any dev team of any game in history. If not it is right up there with the best of them.

Secondly: The “fanbase” is far bigger than the people you see on these forums as this is only the forums for english. Japanese forums are actually from my understanding happy with all the changes or waiting til they get their hands on them for feedback (something these forums could learn to do). So they are listening and implementing changes to best fit fan expectations and desires even if that is not clear to some people.

Thirdly: While you have some logical basis for your assumption on dungeon balance and the necessity of heals from the past lets remember two things. Each expansion they build is ontop of a rebuilt game with jacked coding they are still sifting through so there are times that they are very limited in their design choices. Also with each expansion they sort out a little more of it and have made great strides between each of the expansion and the mechanics and damage tuning. So while there is basis to be apprehensive there is equal basis to have some hope.

Fourthly: These changes could foretell a bigger picture at play that may come to fruition down the line and with everything this dev team has done for this community i think we owe them the benefit of the doubt.

Finally: Homogenization is a word that is getting thrown around far too lightly in these forums since live letter. While especially in regards to tanks and healers there are similar tool kits they all seem to feel vastly different to play which is the big difference. I get how it can appear that way but we really have a small basis to call things homogenization. Healers heal, tanks tank, dps do dps. So in some regards all of them within a set role are going to have similiar toolkits.

[Deceptus]

Alright. I get the frustration and I can actually appreciate how you worded yourself, but can we address one or two elephants in the room?

Firstly: This dev team probably does more to listen to it’s fanbase than any dev team of any game in history. If not it is right up there with the best of them.
.

I can point to multiple times the fans shouted that something wasn't right, only to be ignored, only to be proven right later.

Secondly: The “fanbase” is far bigger than the people you see on these forums as this is only the forums for english. Japanese forums are actually from my understanding happy with all the changes or waiting til they get their hands on them for feedback (something these forums could learn to do). So they are listening and implementing changes to best fit fan expectations and desires even if that is not clear to some people.

They're not completely on board with the changes as well, they're just less vocal about their criticism but if you can read between the lines it's there. They're much more respectful about it, dancing around the issue.

Thirdly: While you have some logical basis for your assumption on dungeon balance and the necessity of heals from the past lets remember two things. Each expansion they build is ontop of a rebuilt game with jacked coding they are still sifting through so there are times that they are very limited in their design choices. Also with each expansion they sort out a little more of it and have made great strides between each of the expansion and the mechanics and damage tuning. So while there is basis to be apprehensive there is equal basis to have some hope.

This is literally not our issue. That is completely on SE. They took the easy way out and it has been biting them in the @$$ for a while.

Fourthly: These changes could foretell a bigger picture at play that may come to fruition down the line and with everything this dev team has done for this community i think we owe them the benefit of the doubt.

Then share that vision. Stop the speculation with a statement.

Again stop throwing around the word homogenized. That’s an out right lie, you have similar basic kits. That is not homogenization thats actual basic design functionality..

Respectfully, you need to go look at a dictionary or google.

homogenized
adjective

Made uniform or similar.
"a homogenized society"

Give feedback based on your opinion but stop presenting your opinion as hard fact. Because you do not have any hard facts. .

We don't have hard facts? We have numbers and abilities right in front of us. Yes the numbers can change but the abilities aren't going to. We went through this EXACT same situation in Heavensward so we know exactly what to expect. I'm not saying the sky is falling, but to say that the jobs aren't homogenized is just being blind.