Nobody Really Wants To Heal

[Makeda]

People do love to play healer but truthfully nobody wants to be a full on healer as it's boring and quite frankly just not fun.

This is just false on so many levels.

There are plenty of people that want nothing more than to play a pure healer - they've just been told this is not the MMO for them. Often rudely so (assorted variation on 'git gud').

I used to be proud of getting a character to max level and almost through the MSQ in Guild Wars 1 with a lifetime total damage done of 0.

I used to main healers in many MMOs a decade back. But games slowly told me I was no longer welcome.

I saw healers get rarer... not because people didn't want to heal, but because one after the other MMOs told them to DPS, and changed fight design such that full-time healing was not needed and was a waste of a resource (left a player with downtime).

We didn't abandon wanting to heal - we got pushed out by the entire industry.

Thankfully for me, I discovered tanking.

But other people just left the genre.

I don't believe SE is actually willing to welcome real healer players back...the entire industry pushed us out after all... and if they did... I'm not sure if my fellow compatriots from the old days of MMOs actually having healers are still around anywhere... I think this is really just a panic from you 'DPSers that take one for the team' afraid some us who were actual healers might show up on the block again...

BUT... they did exist, and I have to believe many still do, as I keep seeing people try to do it before they get treated with extreme rudeness for the choice... Granted because the industry pushed healers out, the choice is a bad one to make 'meta wise'... so I get that people react badly when they see an actual healer player... Regrettable negativity, but I get it...

Don't ever say we don't want to heal...

YOU don't want to heal.

That's different.

[Kazrah]

As someone who has played healers in multiple MMORPGs, I openly welcome playing a more pure healer in this game.

Whenever I'm on a healer in this game, I'm always tired of looking at the DPS with the thought of "you had ONE job, and you're so terrible at it that I have to do it for you on top of cleaning up whatever mess your corpse left behind". It's why I always expect DPS players to barely know how to turn a computer on, let alone play the game with any higher level of competency as they whine non-stop about why I'm not doing damage when they're just sitting there in every single %@#&ing AoE.

With that out of the way, it's also why I don't see the loss of damage spells on healers as "nerfs": it's just been shifted over to DPS and (to an extent) tanks so they can do their job so healers aren't absolutely required to pick up the slack of DPS while doing their intended main task. Yes, they can still throw some damage spells out, but it won't be a requirement, and I think that's a good thing for both healer mains and players who want to pick up healing.

[Deceptus]

We didn't abandon wanting to heal - we got pushed out by the entire industry.

[/B]

The industry simply adapted to what a majority of the playerbase wanted. People playing healing for healing only are the minority, because most realized they want to be able to kill mobs outside of group content due to not knowing if that group was guaranteed to be there.

Over the years MMO's have embraced the single players and DPS healers are the result of it.

[Videra]

The industry simply adapted to what a majority of the playerbase wanted. People playing healing for healing only are the minority, because most realized they want to be able to kill mobs outside of group content due to not knowing if that group was guaranteed to be there.

Over the years MMO's have embraced the single players and DPS healers are the result of it.

It's almost like healers having functional DPS spells is a net positive, and FFXIV's main issue with healing comes from the game's inherent design, as opposed to that. Why people don't -realize- this is beyond me.

[Sanctify]

It's almost like healers having functional DPS spells is a net positive, and FFXIV's main issue with healing comes from the game's inherent design, as opposed to that. Why people don't -realize- this is beyond me.

It's easier to cry about being expected to provide damage during times where healing isnt neccessary than to just embrace your job functionality and get good at it. At least that's my attempt at trying to understand their rationalizations.

[Makeda]

It's easier to cry about being expected to provide damage during times where healing isnt neccessary than to just embrace your job functionality and get good at it. At least that's my attempt at trying to understand their rationalizations.

And...

There it is... the 'git gud' slam against people that want actual healing and mechanics designed around it...

We got pushed out, and it's been so long since we got pushed out, that many can't even conceptualize game design that needs healers anymore... So they just PRESUME that our desire for healing play is due to skill issues... and not a desire for more than one dynamic playstyle (not all dynamic play has to be around DPS).

I could basically make my entire last 2 posts swapping every reference to healer with tanking and... it'd still stand up. Because we've been seeing MMOs push tanks out too...

People are freaking out about job homogenization... well... maybe they should look at role homogenization first - that's what leads to needing job homogenization in the first place. And in the end... if that path gets fully tread - you end up with Guild Wars 2 before it added raiding: 8 identical classes each with 8 identical buttons on their action bar that just have different sound effects... and all you do is stack in one place and mash the buttons faster than the other bloke... because it doesn't even matter what order you mash them in once all this homogenization runs it's full course...

Imagine this scenario: Imagine fight design where there was NO DOWNTIME for healing. If you stopped doing something realated to heals, buffs, debuffs, CC, or CC breaking - wipe. Imagine fight design that had mechanics designed to keep you fully busy doing the role you signed up for, so busy that you had trouble keeping up with it... because it was just all over the place stuff to do for that role.
- DPS have that right now. But tanks and healers don't. And I think the last time I saw an MMO where they did might have been around 2010 or so...

Real Healers aren't worried about having to DPS during downtime. They're worried about there even being downtime in the first place.

[Deceptus]

And...

There it is... the 'git gud' slam against people that want actual healing and mechanics designed around it...

It's less "Git Gud" and more use your entire job kit instead of ignoring it. Standing around when no one needs healing benefits no one.

[Sanctify]

And...

There it is... the 'git gud' slam against people that want actual healing and mechanics designed around it...

We got pushed out, and it's been so long since we got pushed out, that many can't even conceptualize game design that needs healers anymore...

Its nobody's fault that the majority of players agree that if you only healed 100% of the time it would be boring AF. Instead of complaining, people should adapt. Fact of the matter is, pure healing is a relic of the past and it's better off that way. It wasn't fun only casting cure2 and 3 in ffxi, and it wasn't fun spamming only flash of light in wow, and it wouldn't be in this day and age either.

It's not a bad thing to be useful and do damage. I'd rather minmax than mindlessly heal up bars with nothing else to do.

[Awha]

Personally for me if SE went the route of more active healing then I simply would not bother healing. That is okay, I enjoy healing in FF because it is more aggressive and I understand that it is not it is not for everyone. So if SE switched it up then I am sure others who enjoy the new style of healing will pick up the role.

[Videra]

And...

There it is... the 'git gud' slam against people that want actual healing and mechanics designed around it...

There was no 'Git gud' anywhere in that post. Surprisingly, calling people out for not using their entire job kit is a good thing. Standing around doing nothing is bad play, and as said by Deceptus - benefits no one.