Healer is in need because they didn't add a Healer since 3.0

[Brarry]

Good thing they took one out in 5.O

[Deceptus]

Jup, Tank was in need for 6 years... nobody cared.
Also i see Tank being in need as much as healers the last few days again.

Nobody cared because that's standard in almost every mmo since they've existed. Tank role is the hardest to fill.

[Dogempire]

It's because healers aren't diverse anymore.

WHM - Strongest healer in game
SCH - WHM with a pet and weaker dps
AST - WHM with cards and weak heals

You can't just turn all other jobs into a reskin of a job and not expect that role to become unpopular.

No offense to current healers, but healing is too easy and braindead now, I want to feel busy juggling healing and dps, not bored because of how easy it's become.

Honestly I think SBr made a lot of good healers quit their role to look for something more engaging.

[TankHunter678]

Why would you want a 4th healer when they have issues with 3?
So we have 2 working healers and 2 broken ones?

The Theory works like this:

With 4 Healers you can design healers around pairs and break up their healing types. You can have Sustained, Burst, Mitigation, and Utility designs which each would want a different kind of co-healer.

A sustained healer would pair up well with a mitigation healer, a utility healer pairs up well with a burst healer.

A sustained healer paired up with a burst healer would mean less opportunities for the burst healer allowing them to DPS more and if shit hits the fan they got all of their options ready.

A mitigation healer paired with a utility healer could result in compounded mitigation, making what healing that is going out more effective even if the raw numbers are not as high.

So on and so forth. It changes the dynamics around. Of course there would still be a top 1% meta, nothing you can really do about that. Though things can be more easily shaken up by improving the pair that is on the lower end.

[kidalutz]

Why would you want a 4th healer when they have issues with 3?
So we have 2 working healers and 2 broken ones?

I think thats thier goal.. I really do sometimes. atm we need a fourth healer like we need another hole in the head even with the changes people are still complaining because AST isnt immediately bumped up to META rank on first savage instead of accepting that change will come gradually until all three are in a position that they are ready for a fourth healer to move in. they need to make things a bit more interesting and synergystic with one another then move onto a fourth that doesnt disrupt that synergy as for OP it's easier to just ignore them.

[DawnSolaria]

Why would you want a 4th healer when they have issues with 3?
So we have 2 working healers and 2 broken ones?

So what they just never add a healer and keep on pretending to balance healer? That was the excuse they used to not add a healer this time , and look at how balanced healers are at launch?

[Billythepancake]

So what they just never add a healer and keep on pretending to balance healer? That was the excuse they used to not add a healer this time , and look at how balanced healers are at launch?

That's exactly the point. They need to learn to juggle 3 healers before they even consider a 4th. When dancer was announced as a dps I was bummed at first, but after seeing the healer changes, I'm glad they made it dps. SE has made if abundantly clear they dont have the first clue on how to handle their healers.

[Hawklaser]

As much as a new healer could help with the getting more people to try out a healer, with the struggle to get the current three in a relatively good spot balance wise that is also fun to play. I just don't see it happening anytime soon. As the balance would need to be pretty spot on, or it would need to be incredibly fun to not be tossed aside by those not normally into healing. And the simpler healing slot is already kinda filled by Whm.

I am actively looking for a new main as I just don't get the same enjoyment from Sch anymore. I might mess with Ast a bit, Whm never appealed to me, so guess where that leaves me looking. Outside the healing role. Even if there was a 4th healer, I'd probably be looking outside the healer role due to the balance direction they are seeming to go down for healers. Homogenization. The closer they all get to being the same, the less I want to play any of them.

[LariaKirin]

It's confirmation bias.

Adventurer in Need is an extremely bad metric and dissatisfaction with healer changes is only one variable.

There are two very important and much more impactful variables in play:

1) New DPS/Tank jobs, which many are checking out. At release, people were going as far as logging out next to the unlock NPCs to play the new jobs.

2) It's leveling season. Everyone is leveling jobs. With 10 dps jobs, 4 tank jobs and 3 healer jobs, which do you expect to see most? Are you queuing for Leveling/Alliance/MSQ on your level 80 healer main or that other job you're trying to get to 80?

Because I want free materia, I'm waiting for Adventurer in Need to level up AST. I've seen Tank in Need and DPS in Need plenty of times in Leveling/Alliance roulettes. But you won't see me going around claiming that no one plays Tank/DPS.

When I'm queuing for leveling roulette on my RDM, is it because I hate the healer changes and I'm quitting healer? No, it's because I want to level RDM.

If you want to make the healer shortage argument, you'll have to account for as many variables as you can identify if you want to be taken seriously.

[KanameYuuki]

I do wonder if having AST be either a regen or shield only and then the 4th one be it opposite would help balance things a bit, so would always want a Regen + Shield. that way then have:

"Strong" : WHM and SCH.
Utility "weaker": AST and 4th healer.

Since everything always ends up SCH + a filler.