A good old boyish cott

[Gemina]

This sounds very much like, "WE'RE ALL GOING STREAKING!" And like one of my favorite movies, there is just one dude running naked in the streets. Sure, there are still some who were tempted. Maybe even slipped off a shirt before realizing what a dumb idea it is, or when they see no one is really interested.

Granted, being complacent won't solve healer woes either. But in order for healer issues to be addressed and fixed, the information that is taken needs to come from healers who play the jobs extensively. This is something healers on strike cannot provide.

You can attack a cold stick of butter with a hot knife or a plastic fork. I don't know what that means, but it sounds cool!

[Saefinn]

What radio silence? The last live letter literally had yoshi-p listing off proposed buffs for ast and mentioning improving the usability of sch.

The AST changes are balance ones. Balance is not the core of the complaints, though in fairness it is an issue for AST. Though it will end up making Noct AST better at healing to bring it more in line with others, but one of the issues is we heal too well to have justified some of their changes. I get they are necessary to balance them, I just don't think it addresses the problem as balance is not the crux of the complaint.

Usability I expect refers to the faeries, which is also a problem they've been looking at for SMN's pets as their new system for both doesn't work properly, I will wait to see what they actually mean by this. But as SMN is getting a rework this patch, I'd not be surprised if this is what they meant by usability.

They've not yet addressed how healers are to play, which arguably are where the complaints are.

[Nanami_Naniwa]

As someone who hates doing DPS as a healer and is happy that I don't have to bother with a "fancy" rotation anymore I'm going to play the hell out of healer. Not everyone despise the changes. Not everyone is unhappy with how it is right now. There are a lot of people who really enjoy their healers. And it is a little bit tiresome when people call for such "drastic" meassures. I mean - that's probably not even realistic.

Don't get me wrong. I can understand that there are people who are unhappy right now and who wish a change regarding the healing (or dpsing in that case...). But that doesn't mean that everyone agrees on that.

Personally I switched to AST with ShB because I finally could wrap my head around it and found it joyful to play which wasn't the case pre-ShB.

[Hysterior]

I enjoy WHM as it is right now so if you boycott, I will come back and thank you for the even faster queues <3

[Elladie]

Having great fun with my healers right now, thanks. Still don't care for AST much but I haven't liked it since they arrived.

I mean, okay some folks aren't happy but - and I have said this multiple times - I don't know a single person in game who has any complaints. We are all still maining our healers and enjoying the game. Stop using your personal opinion as though it's objective fact, a large number of players find the changes refreshing and helpful, a complex DPS rotation is the last thing a healer needs from our point of view.

If they could find a way to increase complexity for healers at Savage level and above, fine. But I can't think of a way for that to work and not impose the same expectations on all healers in all content. I'm not advocating lazy play but a lot of us - the majority I believe - don't have the co-ordination, memory capacity, speed of reaction and so on to be Savage level skill. The current level of healer play is perfect for me and has allowed me to thoroughly enjoy the MSQ dungeons and the Eden raid. I barely touched the Omega raid because it was way too stressful as a healer.

Anyway I certainly shan't be boycotting. Thanks for reading and please do try and consider the perspective of other people before you rant

[Saefinn]

On the note of those currently enjoying healers, I think there is definitely room for compromise, rather than those of us who dislike the changes taking an "all or nothing" approach. At least when I've given feedback, I try to consider how it plays now and people who like it. We liked how it played and you guys like how it plays. Both are perfectly valid.

This is why I think the best solution is to just give us more to do in our downtime. It doesnt mess with the current design from a healing tools, those who have less down time aren't going to be affected, but those who have a lot of downtime aren't getting bored. And whilst it may mean some wil be doing suboptimal play (which like most people do anyway), for content outside of savage, optimal play is not that important.

[fumofu]

I don't think there is a slightest chance of this boycott succeeding. It's not like healers are so bad and not fun to play that nobody likes them. I'm totally happy with how WHM and SCH is right now and I don't want any added complexity, therefore i'll not support this boycott.

[Brandedblade]

The AST changes are balance ones. Balance is not the core of the complaints, though in fairness it is an issue for AST. Though it will end up making Noct AST better at healing to bring it more in line with others, but one of the issues is we heal too well to have justified some of their changes. I get they are necessary to balance them, I just don't think it addresses the problem as balance is not the crux of the complaint.

Usability I expect refers to the faeries, which is also a problem they've been looking at for SMN's pets as their new system for both doesn't work properly, I will wait to see what they actually mean by this. But as SMN is getting a rework this patch, I'd not be surprised if this is what they meant by usability.

They've not yet addressed how healers are to play, which arguably are where the complaints are.

The fact they are even making balance changes means that they acknowledge theres some sort of issue with ast they're willing to address, which sounds like the opposite of radio silence. To me radio silence is literally that, them not saying crap at all.

[Saefinn]

The fact they are even making balance changes means that they acknowledge theres some sort of issue with ast they're willing to address, which sounds like the opposite of radio silence. To me radio silence is literally that, them not saying crap at all.

If we are talking balance issues then yes, this is something they are addressing and acknowledging. They also made adjustments for balance in a previous patch. But balance is something they almost always address, I've had no concern that they'd not do any balance changes. As an example, by the end of SB WHM was well balanced, yet little of what they complained about was no addressed and still not really addressed in ShB. There is also the concern they're sticking to the same pattern. In SB MCH and MNK also got the same treatment, balance patches that don't affect what their core complaints are. MCH got addressed with a rework at least. They're now making steps in the right direction for MNK in the last patch. But the difference is, they acknowledged MNK and MCH issues and then eventually started addressing them.

The complaints, however, aren't to do with balance. The only acknowledgment we've had here is for AST's cards, which was an offhanded "no we are not going to do something about it". But at least they communicated this.

But what we are hoping is that it isn't going to take until 6.0 for anything meaningful.

[Elladie]

On the note of those currently enjoying healers, I think there is definitely room for compromise, rather than those of us who dislike the changes taking an "all or nothing" approach. At least when I've given feedback, I try to consider how it plays now and people who like it. We liked how it played and you guys like how it plays. Both are perfectly valid.

This is why I think the best solution is to just give us more to do in our downtime. It doesnt mess with the current design from a healing tools, those who have less down time aren't going to be affected, but those who have a lot of downtime aren't getting bored. And whilst it may mean some wil be doing suboptimal play (which like most people do anyway), for content outside of savage, optimal play is not that important.

The point is, optimal play IS that important to a lot of people, even if they aren't that skilled a player themselves. Currently I'm comfortable with DPS as a healer even in Eden4 which, for me, is a duty that needs a lot of concentration to deal with mechanics. If you increase complexity of my DPS rotation, something is going to give. I will struggle to learn the next new fight because I'll be worrying about being judged for non-optimal play ( how many DPS or get kicked posts have we seen right here?) and I'll end up losing my confidence and going back to doing no content that involves other people.

I am not asking for carries, I am asking for basic content to be doable by all players as long as they take the time to learn their job and the mechanics of the duty. So I'm also asking that unnecessary complexity not be added to my healer DPS rotation so that I focus on said job (healing first and foremost) and executing mechanics. This may come as a surprise to a lot of people here, but a large number of players find boss fights demanding and not because they're lazy idiots. I am fifty eight, my memory isn't what it was and nor are my hands. I am also directionally challenged and have been all my life, by which I mean I don't know my left from my right without a great deal of thought, and I become lost very easily IRL as well as in game.

I'm not demanding SE make Savage or Ultimate easy so that I can do it, I accept it's above what I accomplish until I massively outgear it. Please don't ask for something I CAN accomplish - to DPS as a healer in regular duties - to also go back to being too complex for me