Healer dps is unfairly boring

[Lastelli]

I'm not even really asking for encounter design to be changed all that much either with the exception of reducing DPS uptime.

They cannot do that. The current healing kit allows to dps 60+% of the time in the first 2 phases of TEA, and that is the most healing intensive content ever released in the game, because there are too many oGCD heals. The only way to reduce dps uptime for healers without reworking them are the following:
1) Make MP management relevant, meaning that healers playing efficiently by today's standards will go OOM no matter what -> bad idea, this would force healers to do nothing and that's not very engaging;
2) Increase damage output to the point healers are forced to use their GCD healing spells more frequently -> most healers won't be able to keep up and they would have to significantly decrese the mp cost of every healing spell because they're so inefficient right now. Of course this would result in many healers switching to dps.

Either rework healers or rework content, specifically incoming damage patterns (or both), there's no other way to force healers to focus on their GCD heals. And by the way, the reason why healers currently focus so much on dps is because that's the only measure of a healer's skill level...because the devs are too afraid to make healing challenging enough to be itself a measure of a player's ability.

I mean, it's very telling that all the ultimate fights could be solo-healed, wouldn't you agree?

[ForteNightshade]

2) Increase damage output to the point healers are forced to use their GCD healing spells more frequently -> most healers won't be able to keep up and they would have to significantly decrese the mp cost of every healing spell because they're so inefficient right now. Of course this would result in many healers switching to dps.

The irony here is many healer mains abandoned them to DPS this expansion because they find them boring now. I'd be curious just how big an impact this would have since I suspect plenty of players would return to healers if they were harder.

Personally, I think the dev team could strike a decent middle ground if they tried. Unfortunately, you're very much correct. They'd rather focus on players who spam Medica II for everything than push healers in Savage. Which is why they've been struggling to balance them for four years now. Their current design philosophy can't work at the higher level. But now even players with no interest in raiding are complaining how boring healers are. So something has to break. Either they give in and make healing harder or fully embrace the DPS route. I suspect the latter, myself.

[Gemina]

They cannot do that. The current healing kit allows to dps 60+% of the time in the first 2 phases of TEA, and that is the most healing intensive content ever released in the game, because there are too many oGCD heals. The only way to reduce dps uptime for healers without reworking them are the following:
1) Make MP management relevant, meaning that healers playing efficiently by today's standards will go OOM no matter what -> bad idea, this would force healers to do nothing and that's not very engaging;
2) Increase damage output to the point healers are forced to use their GCD healing spells more frequently -> most healers won't be able to keep up and they would have to significantly decrese the mp cost of every healing spell because they're so inefficient right now. Of course this would result in many healers switching to dps.

Either rework healers or rework content, specifically incoming damage patterns (or both), there's no other way to force healers to focus on their GCD heals. And by the way, the reason why healers currently focus so much on dps is because that's the only measure of a healer's skill level...because the devs are too afraid to make healing challenging enough to be itself a measure of a player's ability.

I mean, it's very telling that all the ultimate fights could be solo-healed, wouldn't you agree?

I don't think they have to increase outgoing damage to force healers to use more GCD heals. I agree that the philosophy here isn't very good. I think all they have to do is adjust ogcd and GCD heals. I think ogcd heals should support the healing requirement, not outright take it completely over. I know this would result in healers doing less overall damage. I know this would affect encounters and put more pressure on DPS and tanks to push phases. And I say good. Where do I sign up?

I think a healer being able to solo heal in any encounter to be quite telling, and it happens in just about all content.

[Semirhage]

I don't think they have to increase outgoing damage to force healers to use more GCD heals. I agree that the philosophy here isn't very good. I think all they have to do is adjust ogcd and GCD heals. I think ogcd heals should support the healing requirement, not outright take it completely over. I know this would result in healers doing less overall damage. I know this would affect encounters and put more pressure on DPS and tanks to push phases. And I say good. Where do I sign up?

I think a healer being able to solo heal in any encounter to be quite telling, and it happens in just about all content.

It would take -way- more than a simple adjustment to GCD and oGCD heals to engage me. I don't think replacing Glare Glare Glare Glare Glare Glare Glare Glare with Cure Cure Cure Cure Cure Cure Cure Cure would be some refreshing groundbreaking shift. The way GCD healing kits are designed is as boring as the DPS kits.

[Corbeau]

Either you give healers a DPS kit with greater complexity or you ramp up the constant attrition damage in encounters. Either one could work by putting more buttons into consistent use.

[CrimsonGunner]

Either you give healers a DPS kit with greater complexity or you ramp up the constant attrition damage in encounters. Either one could work by putting more buttons into consistent use.

agreed, that is pretty much the two things we can think that might solve the healers boring gameplay.
either all the runs will have much more frequent damage intervals making healers spam their heals more frequent with less downtime ,or give healers additional skills to use during downtime.
this is pretty much the only 2 ways that could solve this.(if SE would do both ,it would be the best really)

healers should be designed with 2 parts in their kits, their heals and their non-heal skills. healers need to have a kit that allow fluid swap between those things.
u have skills u spam normally like dps,buffs and debuffs and when party is in danger u swap to your healing skills.
u cant make a class gameplay be 70% 1 button smash ,no matter what excuse SE gave ,that is simply wrong design plain and simple.
dps skills should be simple for healers but with the lack of actual skills to use such as applying buffs and applying debuffs ,combine with the fact that 70% of the time in all content is not healing there is not denying the fact that these are the 2 major issues in healer gameplay that must be changed for healers to be fun.

[ForteNightshade]

I don't think they have to increase outgoing damage to force healers to use more GCD heals. I agree that the philosophy here isn't very good. I think all they have to do is adjust ogcd and GCD heals. I think ogcd heals should support the healing requirement, not outright take it completely over. I know this would result in healers doing less overall damage. I know this would affect encounters and put more pressure on DPS and tanks to push phases. And I say good. Where do I sign up?

I think a healer being able to solo heal in any encounter to be quite telling, and it happens in just about all content.

Unless you straight up nerf healing potency by upwards of 50% or remove several oGCDs entirely, increasing the outgoing damage is the only way to force GCD healing. We simply have far too many tools at our disposal; many of which are comically overpowered given how low the outgoing damage actually is.

Ultimately, replacing Glare spam with Cure II spam simply moves the goal post without addressing the actual problem. This is one of the reasons I wish they'd abandon the typical "healer" role and make them Support instead. Let Healer/Support have everything from buffs, debuffs, healing and etc. That accomplishes the same thing—less focus on DPS—but makes your downtime far more engaging. Alas, the devs will never do this as it adds a pretty decent degree of complexity to the job. And if Shadowbringers has taught us anything. They want to make jobs easier, not harder. Much as I dislike that approach.

[Crushnight]

Another thing that goes against healer kits that also increases hlr downtime is the overabundance of self healing/survivability tools non healers have access to.

Plds can solo dungeon fights(and I am talking ShB dungeons here) if no dps check in place or keep dps alive too for far longer due to Clemency, great for plds but hurts healers. Gnb regen is good enough for decent health back and then brutal shell is baked into combo for ammo so constantly getting health back regularly just low. Not sure on NF on war but Equilibrium was always potent heal.Drk however lost a bit of its hp regeneration tools Abyssal drain no longer spammable also no more DA soul eater.

Melee have second wind and bloodbath for self healing, range have mitigation + second wind, brd gives healing up making our strong heals stronger, dnc has curing waltz aoe which when used right is free hlr aoe heal. Rdm with vercure can save lives (shouldn't need to but it is a very potent option), blm has manaward and smn has titan shield both good mitigation reducing heals, smn also getting phoenix regen which is good(ever have 3+ smns in your C.F. party if all on rotation massive health regen whenever phoenix is out).

Literally every job has ways to reduce healing needed, good for self survivability, lowers amount healers can contribute healing however, more so in higher end play but can happen in lower content, ik I get annoyed at plds using clemency in dungeons especially with excog on them.

I think for healers to have to heal more they would also need to look at all the healing tools non healer jobs have and cut down a little. I think 1 survivability tool(as in getting hp back) per non hlr job is enough no more no less would be fine.

[Corbeau]

With the exception of Clemency, which is a huge DPS loss, the self-healing tools for other roles are laughable compared to what a healer can output. The existence of those tools isn't the problem, it's how powerful healer abilities are relative to the incoming damage.

[kujoestars]

Depends on the MMO or the RPG, but as this is FFXIV, if we look at the track record not just for XIV but the series. Healer down time is a thing and in their down time they do damage or support in non-healing ways. This game gave a variety of damage spells to WHM and SCH to weave and it flowed and worked well, with WHM doing more burst and SCH more sustained. Then AST with its party/self buffs. This game had a really good balance with its healing spells and what it does in its downtime and the game arguably was designed to take advantage of our downtime. It’s not so much how MUCH damage they do but in how that is dealt, because nowadays it feels like a single button spam.

Then looking at a track record into other FF games, the majority of the time you had a job or character with a healing focus they had some extra choices for support and damage, because you don’t have a big continuous push for healing (and is true for this MMO).



As an example when I felt SCH was at its peak for DPS variety:
Miasma
Miasma 2
Bio
Bio 2
Shadowflare
Bane
Energy Drain
Broil
Ruin II


SCH now:
Biolysis
Broil 3
Ruin II
Art of War
Energy Drain

Energy Drain was given back after complaints.
Your AOE rotation has been reduced to 1 button. Whereas it was 6 before (miasma, bio, bio 2, bane, shadowflare, miasma 2)
Your single target has been reduced to 2 buttons with the occasional 1 extra thrown in (broil 3 + ruin 2, with occasional biolysis or energy drain), whereas before, technically your entire arsenal (minus bane) could be useful to put on a single target, which I count 8

So it makes a massive difference to how it feels to play. and overall DPS wise, healers were still the lowest.

Fair points. And it finally occurred to me in at least one RPG-type game that the healer class still has a good damaging attack even if the majority of their kit consists of heals/buffs/etc. Of course it still isn't made for DPS, but having at least one good damaging move (especially if it's both an AoE and DoT) would help counteract a smaller DPS kit.

At the very least, it would make solo'ing content as a healer more bearable; still not over the fact it takes forever to Malefic and Combust anything, lol. So yeah, either we have more stuff in the kit or make what we have more powerful.