The Healer Double Standard

[Atlantasia]

In ARR SCH had Aero as a cross class and blizz 2 as well if they wanted some extra aoe.

But just like WHM, SE decided that skillful and optimal play shouldn't be rewarded.

True enough, it's been so long I forgot about that. ._. I want skillful play to be rewarded... *sigh*

[MizArai]

With regards to "what are you complaining about, your rotation has always been boring!": Yes. It has. I have tolerated it being boring because I foolishly listened when I was told that the fun was "coming". That I'd get something good "eventually". I don't believe that anymore. I'm not switching mains because my job is changing for the worse, I'm switching because my patience has run out waiting for something good.

My BF keeps trying to convince me to keep playing WHM, so he'll have a healer while he's leveling up Gunbreaker. "You kept playing in Stormblood, even though you didn't like the changes then." Yeah, I did. I was stupid. Yeah, it will still be playable in Shadowbringers. Yeah, it's not getting everything stripped from it this time around. (How much more could they actually take??? They were so desperate they actually took Repose as a role action this time.) But by this point, I think the only way SE will get the clue about how we players feel is not only vocalizing on the forums, but also by showing with the numbers of people no longer playing healers. Hello Trust System. I'd like to sign up for an instant DPS queue.

[Kabooa]

Go go Smite Healers.

[mishell_]

Thanks for writing this out and I agree as well. I don't understand why there is such a double-standard for healers in this game, almost to the point of outright hostility that healers want to do something other than heal. There are many people who don't play WHM, SCH, AST who maybe had one experience with a DPS-happy healer who probably didn't raise them after their fifth time dying to a telegraphed AoE and have this festering ire for DPSing healers since. But I'm mostly disappointed with Yoshi-P's statement that SCH has to be curbed because of unfair healing output/forcing an off/onhealer situation. There hasn't been an off-on healer dichotomy in any raid group for a very long time, and it seems even more concerning considering that SCH will usually be using their Aetherflow healing options first, other than AST's star.

I had some hope when I initially read the Mr. Happy interview with Yoshi-P where he admitted the shield/pure healer dichotomy wasn't working but now I feel like it's better to stick with the devil we know rather than the devil they're trying to sell to us now. Can we consider how ridiculous it is that SCH will be the only job in the game that can't use it's starting class's toolkit? One will be able to use Miasma as ACN but it will be made magically unavailable to SCH once they equip the job stone. That's just awful. There truly seems like there was no compassion, thought, or creativity put into the healer changes.

[Brightamethyst]

The real question about healer DPS has always been, and still remains: What else do they expect us to do during downtime?

Most people don't want DPS options for the sake of having big numbers, but because there's literally nothing else to do most of the time. Healing is so powerful that you spend the vast majority of any given dungeon or trial not healing. People want more DPS options because the alternative is pressing 2 buttons over and over for 80% of a dungeon. The removal and/or simplification of DPS would be fine if it was going to be replaced with something else (support abilities, harder dungeons the need more healing in the first place, etc), but they're not. The devs have created a huge void with no apparent plans to fill it with something else.

[KarnSalander]

Well considering that theres quite a few healers that are so DPS happy that they let the tank die after they've blown thier cooldowns I don't see the downside of the argument. a Tank can still keep aggro a healer thats DPSing when they should be healing is a liability.

You assume a competent tank with an incompetent healer. The reverse scenario is as bad: A tank that DPS but looses aggro while the healer that DPS/Heals properly can lead to a wipe rapidly.

For example, something I often see in dungeons: as a healer, if I DPS a pack of mobs (with sufficient but minimal healing), then the tank looses aggro and the mobs turn to me... In other words, if we wipe because mobs jumped on the healer, steeling aggro without even healing... then it is the tank's fault.

TL;DR: Tanks as much as Healers need to do their primary function before they move into DPS, but as long as that function is reached: DPS Away!

[Ceasaria]

It's becoming more and more clear that these developers have no idea how healers play or what to do with them:

I would be agree with that statement...if we were in ARR or HW.
But this is not true anymore.
Yoshida is 2 years (or more) late concerning the healers.
Is he aware that the removing of the old cleric stance broke the main/off healer term, and now the healers duo dps and heal together with the same amount ?

But with the changes we will have, it seems not.

[KarnSalander]

The real question about healer DPS has always been, and still remains: What else do they expect us to do during downtime?

I couldn't have said it better. Of course, whatever those numbers are, we will try to get them as big as they can be. But if the game is calibrated so that the best healers are doing 25% of what a dps is doing for damage, then we'll take it. But don't let me wait for things to happen. I want to play this game, not wait this game.

[IttyBitty]

I want to play this game, not wait this game.

Exactly this. I honestly don't give two damns about *what* I'm doing. Green button or red button doesn't matter to me at all. I just want to be *engaged* while doing it. DPSing provided that engagement, simple as it was. Now it will likely not.

But then again I really don't get where this whole "I pLaY a HeAlEr To HeAl" mindset comes from. I pretty much exclusively play healer in every game where I can, and in pretty much every single one of them I've played, I've also had pretty potent offensive tools. Be it bonesawing or needle gunning in TF2, or Magnus Exorcismus in Ragnarok Online, or even playing a Druid or Cleric in D&D. Juggling tasks, triage and knowing when to fight or when to support is what makes healing fun and engaging, not casting Cure.

[Ayesafaile]

Funny that people are raving now that SCH is getting this when AST has had it literally the entire time. 1 DPS button, 1 DoT button, and one AoE. Were you crying at the beginning of HW because of that too, or only now because it affects your main job?

AST had 3 DoTs in Heavensward: Combust II, Combust and Aero. All three were worth using.