Remove the GCD cost from on-demand healing.

[YusiKha]

snip

I'm not sure you understand. I just want to be able to use GCD Heals without sacrificing the DPS from the lost Glare/Broil/Malefic so that healing (our job) never interrupts dealing damage (also our job).

[Eclipse12187]

I'm not sure you understand. I just want to be able to use GCD Heals without sacrificing the DPS from the lost Glare/Broil/Malefic so that healing (our job) never interrupts dealing damage (also our job).

I have a couple questions then, how do you propose we do it? Do glare and broil get the malefic treatment (1.5s cast time), does whm get a ruin 2 equivalent? Do they make our nukes instant cast so we can weave in those now ogcd heals? Since they’re ogcd do they have a cooldown? Do they still cost mp or another resource?

If our healing spells don’t have some cost to them whether it’s time gated or mp/resource gated then every fight becomes a solo heal fight and endgame becomes who can solo heal while also dealing the most damage. Like others have also said this won’t stop bad healers from standing there mashing their ogcd heals and not dealing any damage either, that comes from a drive to get better, to play better. And for some it’s more they don’t have the experience or confidence to handle dps while healing.

[YusiKha]

I have a couple questions then, how do you propose we do it?

White Mage:
Lily Gauge and Water 1 gained at level 2 alongside Cure.
Lilies are now generated every time you cast Cure(1/2/3), Regen, Medica(1/2). Can hold 1 max (2 with Mend and Maim at 20, 3 with M&M at 40)
Water 1 is instant cast, deals double Stone 1 damage, requires a Lily. Water is upgraded alongside Stone, eventually turning into Afflatus Misery with Glare.

Scholar:
Eos and Selene's actions would return to being independently cast from the SCH's, with an emphasis placed on response time
Fey Gauge is now a measure of the MP that you've sacrificed to the Fairy via an oGCD action (or maybe make the Aetherflow skill cost MP instead of granting? Either way the important part is that you're funneling MP into the fairy through dps-neutral mechanics)
Eos and Selene now get gauge spenders that act as physik, adlo, succor, etc. with 2s recast times

Astrologian:
Make them oGCDs with 2s recast times.

Next Healer:
Probably a combination of all 3. If we get a tech-based healer, it could be enhanced bullets and reloads mimicing WHM, a temporary dispencer placable mimicing SCH, and oGCDs like AST.

If our healing spells don’t have some cost to them whether it’s time gated or mp/resource gated then every fight becomes a solo heal fight and endgame becomes who can solo heal while also dealing the most damage. Like others have also said this won’t stop bad healers from standing there mashing their ogcd heals and not dealing any damage either, that comes from a drive to get better, to play better. And for some it’s more they don’t have the experience or confidence to handle dps while healing.

I never said to remove the MP cost from healing. I'd actually remove the MP cost from DPSing (or at least reduce it to an insignificant amount like 50-200 or something) and increase the cost of healing spells. That way the cost of DPSing will be consistently low, and place MP's emphasis entirely on healing actions.
I'd replace Lucid Dreaming with a Role action called 'Focus' or some such - it would be a mana regeneration GCD without any kind of refund. So the damage cost of healing turns from mismanaged cooldowns to mismanaged MP.
oGCDs could interact with MP as well, decreasing or increasing regeneration rate to give them a phantom 'cost' or ways of interacting with themselves.

[Lyth]

There should always be an opportunity cost for healing. The sheer amount of oGCD healing and barriers that we have access to trivialises things as it is. If healing isn't about resource management, and if it isn't about knowing how to maximise your damage output while still successfully keeping everyone alive, then what's the challenge in being a healer? Anyone can do it then.

Just give everyone potions without recasts, let them heal themselves, and let healers be dps with a one button rotation. Then you can feel happy about your numbers without having to work for them.

[Sloprano]

I'm not sure you understand. I just want to be able to use GCD Heals without sacrificing the DPS from the lost Glare/Broil/Malefic so that healing (our job) never interrupts dealing damage (also our job).

Then maybe something more akin to Chloromancer is the closest of already existing rpg jobs. Something I could see very well work here aswell: Where the general idea is the more you do damage the more you healer and comes with the limitations of being reliant on having party members (Chocobo?) around for various tethers for healing and mana regen. But also have fun stuff life constant damage leeching to the party and a debuff on an enemy and that enemy's next attack will heal their target for 200% of what the damage was. It would be a fun anti-tankbuster.

While WHM seem to have cornered the market on Lilies I think we could make room for a Chloromancer, say it's from a Garlean region of gardeners and being shit at magic find some way to to manipulate greens and growth of plants, going with the Roman theme, call it "Phytologist". Which at first was made for making it easier to grow and splice plants, the Empire naturally found a way to weaponize it.

I could envision a ton of fun with something like this: Constant leeching effect going on so one need to keep up the attacks to heal. Take root, both on self and party member's buffs, that the longer you can stand in place the more the buff grows. Chow down on seeds to grow thorn spikes, barkskin, transform arms into wood logs for melee attacks, get a sprout on top of your head with a little mini-game for growth until it's in full bloom with various effects like healing, damage or various debuffs.

From the word "go" you learn that damage = healing, so no mp bar. For when the boss fucks off can have something similar to Dissipation or use HP, tap into and cripple yourself for when you need some emergency healing.

[EaMett]

There should always be an opportunity cost for healing. The sheer amount of oGCD healing and barriers that we have access to trivialises things as it is. If healing isn't about resource management, and if it isn't about knowing how to maximise your damage output while still successfully keeping everyone alive, then what's the challenge in being a healer? Anyone can do it then.

Just give everyone potions without recasts, let them heal themselves, and let healers be dps with a one button rotation. Then you can feel happy about your numbers without having to work for them.

This. I just don't understand why you would ever want to remove the DPS cost from GCD heals. Also, while we're at it. You hardly need GCD heals in the game in the first place. Though that might be some circular reasoning, dunno, it's late and my brain is hazy.

[Mansion]

There should always be an opportunity cost for healing. The sheer amount of oGCD healing and barriers that we have access to trivialises things as it is. If healing isn't about resource management, and if it isn't about knowing how to maximise your damage output while still successfully keeping everyone alive, then what's the challenge in being a healer? Anyone can do it then.

Just give everyone potions without recasts, let them heal themselves, and let healers be dps with a one button rotation. Then you can feel happy about your numbers without having to work for them.

100% agree. That's one of the few little things I enjoy that remain in healing, the decision making. What do I have available, what do I need to heal and when? Being able to virtually have two GCDs happening at the same time, one for DPS and one for healing trivializes healing even more. And It would make DPS GCD uptime event less challenging. It's just plain getting rid of the only interesting dynamic in current healing for no reason, I don't get it.

I know WoW has like oGCDs you can use while casting spells, so it's potentially interesting to see this added in FFXIV somehow, but otherwise I don't see the point

[Rilifane]

There should always be an opportunity cost for healing. The sheer amount of oGCD healing and barriers that we have access to trivialises things as it is. If healing isn't about resource management, and if it isn't about knowing how to maximise your damage output while still successfully keeping everyone alive, then what's the challenge in being a healer? Anyone can do it then.

Just give everyone potions without recasts, let them heal themselves, and let healers be dps with a one button rotation. Then you can feel happy about your numbers without having to work for them.

Absolutely agree.
The opportunity costs need to stay unless they find another way to make healing really engaging and add decision making. The most interesting part about healing right now is using your oGCDs in a way that lets you get away with minimal (if any) GCD healing. Planning ahead, learning damage patterns, experimenting with how little healing you can get away with so your oGCDs are enough. And in 8man cnotent, taking into account the way your co-healer's toolkit works adds another layer.

During ARR and HW it was arguably much more difficult to push dps as healer and it was still, for the most part, the norm. And that was when one misclick on cleric stance could really screw you over.
Dpsing on healer is easier than ever but if people don't want to, you won't be able to make them just by making it even easier. Hell, I have seen people in WoW spec out of talents that encouraged dpsing on discipline priest even though that was the whole point of this particular healer.
People already get taught to dps by HoN and other players if they really can't think for themselves that standing around and idle for 30sec in a pull isn't really productive. No need to dump down healer gameplay even more to get the most stubborn "I'm a healer, I want to heal!" people to dps.

[Kabooa]

No need to dump down healer gameplay even more to get the most stubborn "I'm a healer, I want to heal!" people to dps.

See, on the other side of the fence here, it's a damning facet of their design philosophy that there is no healer for those players.

[Payadopa]

I want to be able to use the most basic of my healing tools without sacrificing DPS uptime.
I want the game to subconciously teach new players, from the very start, that DPSing is free and that you should be doing it all the time.

I think you are confusing a DPS who heals with a healer who DPS. It's your job to heal first and DPS second.