A summary of healer issues

[elioaiko]

Honestly at this point, are we shocked? It just seems like SE doesn't know where to start.

They kinda just work really hard on DPS jobs, out some effort into tanks and then whatever energy they have at healers.

It's sad, the one thing most healers are asking for is transparency. We want to know that they understand that healers are not okay rather than ignore us again.

They really need to take their heads out the sand instead of forcing healer kits to be 99% healing. They make everything related to direct healing, regen, or shielding. Healers are more than that: supports with buffs and debuffs. And tbf, I think they just might remove buffs altogether for the sake of balance so healers can quite literally be WHM clones. Ironic since WHM has had so much of its kit taken away and reused like you said.

AST cards offend me the most. Honestly they could have just made all the cards utility and Divination the damage buff.

It shocks to this day as well that healers still have the worst clipping issues. I just wished SE gave healers the same energy in effort as they did for DPS jobs.

[BarretOblivion]

Honestly at this point, are we shocked? It just seems like SE doesn't know where to start.

They kinda just work really hard on DPS jobs, out some effort into tanks and then whatever energy they have at healers.

Eeeh, I would disagree with the tank part. They actually put no effort in tanks too this expansion. They have the same issues with healers of over homoginization, too many skills removed to take away job identities, nothing really to do other than hit a boss during tank downtimes with a rotation that is basically dry and the same across all 4 tanks. Then you have to look at all the skill tanks got from 70-80. Basically they all either got skills to give them something they were missing back in SB compared to other tanks, and then... passive skills that don't really add anything to their rotations or depth.

SE definately though did focus hard on DPS this expansion... perhaps far too much.

[Deceptus]

SE definately though did focus hard on DPS this expansion... perhaps far too much.

And still ended up with Red Mages in a terrible mana state at 5.0, where just doing their basic rotations was very mana negative and they couldn't finish long fights.

This gameplay concept has been rolling around the forums for months now.

-Flat out damage with personal abilities (WHM)
-Increasing the damage enemies take via debuffs (SCH)
-Increasing the damage allies deal via buffs (AST)

I honestly think this is the best solutions. Instead of the Regen / Shield things SE should lean into healers being Buffers / Debuffers. Next expansion: 2 buff based healers, 2 debuff based healers.

[ForteNightshade]

Honestly at this point, are we shocked? It just seems like SE doesn't know where to start.

They kinda just work really hard on DPS jobs, out some effort into tanks and then whatever energy they have at healers.

It's sad, the one thing most healers are asking for is transparency. We want to know that they understand that healers are not okay rather than ignore us again.

They really need to take their heads out the sand instead of forcing healer kits to be 99% healing. They make everything related to direct healing, regen, or shielding. Healers are more than that: supports with buffs and debuffs. And tbf, I think they just might remove buffs altogether for the sake of balance so healers can quite literally be WHM clones. Ironic since WHM has had so much of its kit taken away and reused like you said.

AST cards offend me the most. Honestly they could have just made all the cards utility and Divination the damage buff.

It shocks to this day as well that healers still have the worst clipping issues. I just wished SE gave healers the same energy in effort as they did for DPS jobs.

I do not believe it's a lack of energy but a fundamental disconnect, be it from ignorance or stubbornness, between the dev team and the player base. The dev team seemed to be stuck in their vision healers are intended to primarily focus on healing; everything comes as a secondary benefit. Alas, encounter design simply doesn't support this mentality. Perhaps the battle team isn't communicating that to the design team or some such, though at this stage I suspect stubbornness plays at least some role. We've seen in the past how they can cling to ideas the community insists will not work; only to inevitably relent. I'm reminded of Stormblood Red Mage where Yoshida maintained it didn't need a buff due to Verraise being its utility. A year later and Red Mage got its buff because, shockingly, people don't really care about Verraise when Summoner's a complete monster.

They also need to pick a lane because I suspect their obsession with accessibility just isn't working here. They're trying to appeal two opposing extremes. You simply cannot make healers so accessible even the White Mage spamming Cure I or Physick in 80 content while also making said content engaging for even the average players. It just isn't compatible. By doing the former, you have to make the latter completely trivial.

While Savage obviously puts more demand on healers, it too has suffered. As my BFF has said numerous times about E7S. "I forget the first phase because I literally do nothing for almost two minutes." And she isn't wrong. Idol of Darkness casts Empty Wave and then does a tank buster that will always be immunitied. All of this is covered by Bene for the tank and Whispering Dawn/Star/Assize. It then takes two full minutes for Idol to do a damn thing. That's absolutely absurd, especially for a third tier Savage fight.