Why do healers feel like they get a punishment for getting better.

[Irenia]

Changing encounter design wouldn't really help for one very basic reason: They would have to redesign most of the ENTIRE GAME in order to do so.

...

While I agree that redesigning the entire game is...awkward, you seem to sidestep the idea of making things unpredictable. The random mechanics/spawns/etc. would be simpler than the elaborate song and dance we have now, but the advantage is that there would be no fight timeline to follow, and you can actually emergency heal. No longer following a plan, the players are reacting, until the crisis is over.

Then again, people in this game sure love to dance to the plan, so getting something like this that is actually accepted as hardcore content is... hard.

[Urthdigger]

While I agree that redesigning the entire game is...awkward, you seem to sidestep the idea of making things unpredictable. The random mechanics/spawns/etc. would be simpler than the elaborate song and dance we have now, but the advantage is that there would be no fight timeline to follow, and you can actually emergency heal. No longer following a plan, the players are reacting, until the crisis is over.

Then again, people in this game sure love to dance to the plan, so getting something like this that is actually accepted as hardcore content is... hard.

Making things unpredictable would help less than you might think. Most healers I know already keep the tanks at a respectable level, and it's a simple enough matter to shift focus from DPS to heals when stuff pops up. Having the boss use AoEs, adds, and tankbusters randomly seems like it would help about as much as the occasional person failing to dodge. You crank up the heals for a moment, and then it's back to business as usual. The only possible way this would change would be stuff that hits fast enough back to back that one needs to save instant heals for those random spikes. I feel that'd change the dynamic less than one may think (A bit more GCDs spent on heals, but still most of them spent on damage), while also being needlessly stressful (being tensed up, ready to react at a moment's notice for 10+ minutes is going to wreak some serious havoc on people's nerves. Especially as I am also approaching this from the standpoint of dungeon and trial design, not just savage and ultimate.

[YusiKha]

While I agree that redesigning the entire game is...awkward, you seem to sidestep the idea of making things unpredictable. The random mechanics/spawns/etc. would be simpler than the elaborate song and dance we have now, but the advantage is that there would be no fight timeline to follow, and you can actually emergency heal. No longer following a plan, the players are reacting, until the crisis is over.

Then again, people in this game sure love to dance to the plan, so getting something like this that is actually accepted as hardcore content is... hard.

I wouldn't remove the scripting alltogether, that sounds like the perfect way to overcomplicate encounter design or remove all complexity from the mechanics. If you were talking about mechanics with random targets, then I can get behind that.

Though, if nontank targets are taking a lot of the hits and require single-target healing... Well, people are already complaining about AST's card targetting. This sounds like it could lead to the exact same thing.

[Billythepancake]

While I agree that redesigning the entire game is...awkward, you seem to sidestep the idea of making things unpredictable. The random mechanics/spawns/etc. would be simpler than the elaborate song and dance we have now, but the advantage is that there would be no fight timeline to follow, and you can actually emergency heal. No longer following a plan, the players are reacting, until the crisis is over.

Then again, people in this game sure love to dance to the plan, so getting something like this that is actually accepted as hardcore content is... hard.

There is nothing more frustrating as a healer than dealing with shit out of your control. I dont think I've raged harder than in ultimate when the boss randomly decides to do more damage and the tank dies despite me, my co-healer, and the tank all doing the same thing. The last thing I want is fights deciding to just start throwing curveballs all over the place so they can he "hard" that's not challenging it's annoying.

[tikiwiki]

I dont think I've raged harder than in ultimate when the boss randomly decides to do more damage and the tank dies despite me, my co-healer, and the tank all doing the same thing.

crits were a "fun" mechanic

[Irenia]

Maybe. I've enjoyed myself in Eureka (monster chaining) and the higher floors on the Deep Dungeons as a healer, even though I failed a few times on both of them. I definitely do understand the urge to leave nothing to chance, but that design has its limits.

[tikiwiki]

Maybe. I've enjoyed myself in Eureka (monster chaining) and the higher floors on the Deep Dungeons as a healer, even though I failed a few times on both of them. I definitely do understand the urge to leave nothing to chance, but that design has its limits.

neither of those contents you mention have variance though just hard hitting autos so you spam heals

[Irenia]

Nah, the variance is in the monster spawns

[tikiwiki]

Nah, the variance is in the monster spawns

but the monster spawns make no difference in how you heal in deep dungeons and during chaining theres no variance you're killing one mob type