Why not make healers like Mercy from Overwatch?

[JackHatchet]

We did. It was in Heavensward and it was called Astrologian and it was awful. The only thing it could do was roll a d6 and hope for a Balance. If it got the Balance it was great, at all other times it was a subpar WHM.

Why not remove the RNG part of it? It sounds like you hate the RNG part.

Mercy from Overwatch doesn't do RNG. She channels a flat DPS buff into players. RNG shouldn't ruin a good idea.

[Daralii]

Why not remove the RNG part of it? It sounds like you hate the RNG part.

Mercy from Overwatch doesn't do RNG. She channels a flat DPS buff into players. RNG shouldn't ruin a good idea.

That's what they're doing in Shadowbringers. Every card is a damage bonus, and then they have two more skills that increase damage. Scholars also have Chain Stratagem.

[ADVSS]

Why not remove the RNG part of it? It sounds like you hate the RNG part.

Mercy from Overwatch doesn't do RNG. She channels a flat DPS buff into players. RNG shouldn't ruin a good idea.

Thats literally what the card changes did.

EDIT: For the most part. Theres still "rng" but its always going to be a wanted buff now

[Shurrikhan]

"Because Dancer is buffer."

(Also, Mercy is one of the worst designed healers in any FPS game)

She's no Ana, but she's far from low-skill or without moments of glory. It's just the metas she's been optimal in (Moth and then, post-nerf, Bunker) that make her feel so stale.

Extreme mobility, decent damage when swapped to, almost zero efficacy downtime (including for bonus damage). And, let's be honest, OW is every bit as much MOBA as FPS.

Why not remove the RNG part of it? It sounds like you hate the RNG part.

Mercy from Overwatch doesn't do RNG. She channels a flat DPS buff into players. RNG shouldn't ruin a good idea.

This is a fair point, but the imbalance of Balance-or-Fail is far too often overstated. Not only could the other cards in fact be better balanced against it, but they could easily be reengineered to give every card decent contribution through its various indirect options (RR, MA).
The devs has just chosen, time and time again, to do neither of those things as to excuse the sudden plummet in meaningful utility afforded to healers. "We had to gut you, because no one liked RNG!"

The RNG was only a small part of the issue. Having multiple things to Draw wouldn't be a problem if each had meaningful value in itself and meaningful indirect value possible towards the goal of your choice. E.g.

• Kill the card effect cap so that Extended RR isn't near-worthless.
• Allow for proportionate re-uptake of Card durations when replacing one with the same effect. 15 seconds left on an Expanded -> 4 more seconds [(15*(.05/.2)] of the Enhanced replacing it.
• Allow Draw to continue charging in the background even as a card is readied. By the time your currently drawn card fades, the next is ready to be drawn.
• Remove the cooldown from Spread.
• Two charges on Redraw.
• Balance Expanded RR to be as little as half potency AND half duration across 8 players. Still synergizes best with CO.
• Un-nerf Enhanced RR. It now properly doubles potency.
• Royal Road no longer casts automatically. Instead, it has a no-animation (simultaneously castable) trigger; hit it before using your Card to apply it, or select a card-affected party member within their first 5 seconds of having received the card and use Royal Road to thus affect their Card, adding a further 20/30 seconds, doubling its potency, or spreading it.
• Buff the non-tank applicability of Bole, but nerf its simple percentile mitigation as not to make up to a (pre-ShB) Sentinel on demand.
• Buff Spear.
• Buff Arrow.
• Make Spire useful.
• Buff Ewer slightly, at least on self-cast.
• To compensate, remove otherwise excessive (to simultaneous healing+tDPS) oGCD heals, effectively replacing them with Minor Arcana. For their flavor, add traits or Additional Effects to Lord/Lady by the lost oGCD's same name. Lady, for instance, could take on Essential Dignity.

There, now your every Card possibility is still nearly as good as the next, shuffling wastes no Card generation time, and you can consistently bank skills.