So, what's your opinion on current healer jobs

[Billythepancake]

healers are fine right now i guess. devs prolly levelled them out in preparation for the 4th healer in 6.0 that they'll ram in to try placate the healer mains and spend all expac balancing...

playing devil's advocate, they tried making healers challenging and interesting (in terms of XIV) in HW and the majority of people hated it.

even today, when playing a healer is braindead, you still get people not dpsing. you still get people using Draw once every 4 mins. you still get people spamming Cure II every time the tank takes an auto.

when you have a playerbase where the majority eschew literally any form of challenging content, and where lazy play is practiced and actively encouraged by the community, why is it surprising we're only pressing 3 buttons for our dps rotations?

Really? I see most people begging to go back to HW healers more than I see people saying HW healers were bad. (except for maybe launch AST, which was just laughably weak, not complex.)

[Risvertasashi]

Really? I see most people begging to go back to HW healers more than I see people saying HW healers were bad. (except for maybe launch AST, which was just laughably weak, not complex.)

It really depends.

HW was the worst balance healers had ever seen. When seesawed from AST being utter garbage to WHM being utter garbage. SCH god tier the whole way through. End of SB was a bit comparable, but not as bad.

But it was also a time when a good healer could out DPS a bad DPS (which can't really happen now even if the DPS is dead for a minute+). And some people may have liked certain elements from HW. But anyone that wants a wholesale return to that period is looking at it through *very* rose tinted glasses.

[Ayesafaile]

Healers in Shadowbringers are dull, uninspired and overpowered.

Job identity has been stripped. Offensive play has been simplified for the second expansion in a row. More unnecessary off-global healing abilities have been added. Despite player health pool inflation, healing in Shadowbringers is the easiest it's ever been.

I get no joy out of playing healer outside of a raid environment, and even then my enjoyment is limited. I no longer want to push the envelope of my job, because the non-healing gameplay is utterly devoid of any aspects that could be considered interesting.

The current healer jobs feel like they're designed for people who don't play healer, and it's frustrating.

HW was the worst balance healers had ever seen. When seesawed from AST being utter garbage to WHM being utter garbage. SCH god tier the whole way through. End of SB was a bit comparable, but not as bad.

Healers were pretty balanced prior to 3.4. Problem was, there wasn't enough reason for career WHMs to give up and switch to AST, and SE are far more concerned with player metrics than they are with game balance, so AST got buffed through the roof and made "mandatory" for serious play with the release of Creator. Let's not pretend like anything has changed, though. AST is still the least played healer, despite clearly being the strongest.

If you're really concerned with Noct AST being viable, it's been fine since the start of Stormblood, but no one really wanted to push the envelope with the job after SCH was hotfixed to be less terrible.

AST is just a terrible healer from a conceptual standpoint. How do you balance a job that is supposed to be able to fill the role of two fundamentally different healers on equal footing (WHM and SCH) AND provide raid buffs? In Shadowbringers, the answer is to make it the best at everything. The complete reluctance to scrap Noct Sect has been a terrible design decision.

[Liam_Harper]

But it was also a time when a good healer could out DPS a bad DPS (which can't really happen now even if the DPS is dead for a minute+).

I'm all for that.

If a skilled healer utilizing an engaging dps toolkit can out dps a bad dps while simultaneously healing the group, then that's great. Good job. That dps was simply outperformed by a far better player. If the bad dps doesn't like it, then maybe they should play their class properly. I never understood giving tanks/healers terrible damage to try to protect the ego of players putting in no effort.