Final Fantasy XIV’s healer problem and how it’s kind of unsolvable

[Sighearth]

Why cant you make healers rotation more complex? Oh its because ppl gonna be bad at it then more noobs will let their party die? Rly? You cant make things more interesting because ppl learning the game will be bad (thats why they are learning in the first place)? I dont understand why its unsolvable, its is solvable. Have the healers with dps like rotations, why not? People that is bad in the game still gonna be bad no matter what. Besides, you can have a sprout healer doing terrible dps (with complex rotation) and still keeping their party alive, only the dps aspect will suffer. If ppl know that a healer primary objective is to keep the party alive, why the dps aspect (no matter how complex it could be) would interfere with their primary objective? At least that will give the healers something else to do when the healing is already planned other than casting the same 2 spells over and over.

[YusiKha]

Snip

I agree. Heck, we don't even need the complex rotation part to come in while they're still learning! Have the useful healing tools (Tetra, Excog, Assize, Indom, etc.) come in pre-50, as that's when people are learning how to heal, and have the DPS rotation develop intermittently post-50 instead of never.

[Saefinn]

Heck not even sprout DPS always do good DPS, they're still learning their rotations and nobody really bats an eyelid, especially as they the team are cracking down on people who use parsers to grief people.

Generally I only see people complain if people aren't doing anything. By the time their DPS matters, they're doing top end content and will be able to keep by that point. Even then clears are possible without optimal healer DPS.

Whenever I've help teach people to heal, I tell them to learn the mechanics of healing first, practice it until you are comfortable and then once you are, THEN start trying to work in a DPS, because it is better to have good healing foundations to build on when you're new to healing as it is your primary duty. Then you can start adding on top of it.

[Veis_Alveare]

Heck not even sprout DPS always do good DPS, they're still learning their rotations and nobody really bats an eyelid, especially as they the team are cracking down on people who use parsers to grief people.

Generally I only see people complain if people aren't doing anything. By the time their DPS matters, they're doing top end content and will be able to keep by that point. Even then clears are possible without optimal healer DPS.

Whenever I've help teach people to heal, I tell them to learn the mechanics of healing first, practice it until you are comfortable and then once you are, THEN start trying to work in a DPS, because it is better to have good healing foundations to build on when you're new to healing as it is your primary duty. Then you can start adding on top of it.

This is like trying to teach someone to ride a bike with training wheels on in an effort to prepare them to do extreme bmx tricks. Sure, they're technically sitting on a bike... but they're not learning to balance on it at all.

By doing this you allow someone to begin the game and build habits that they'll need to break later. You also teach them, even if not directly, that they need to be healing far more than they actually do because if all they've got on their plate is healing they may as well keep everyone topped off.

I'm all for teaching new players and I think it's great that you're taking the time to do so as well as eventually trying to have them incorporate dpsing into their play I just think you're going about it in a way that will make it difficult for them as they progress. Learning as you level how to use your whole kit is going to produce far superior results when compared to like... not doing that.

[ForteNightshade]

This is like trying to teach someone to ride a bike with training wheels on in an effort to prepare them to do extreme bmx tricks. Sure, they're technically sitting on a bike... but they're not learning to balance on it at all.

By doing this you allow someone to begin the game and build habits that they'll need to break later. You also teach them, even if not directly, that they need to be healing far more than they actually do because if all they've got on their plate is healing they may as well keep everyone topped off.

I'm all for teaching new players and I think it's great that you're taking the time to do so as well as eventually trying to have them incorporate dpsing into their play I just think you're going about it in a way that will make it difficult for them as they progress. Learning as you level how to use your whole kit is going to produce far superior results when compared to like... not doing that.

Not to mention, leveling is where you can afford risks without major consequences. Teaching a level 60 White Mage how to balance Holy spam and still keep the tank healed through Solace will go a long way to helping them improve naturally going forward, especially if they lack in confidence. If you're only introducing them to DPS by end game, they'll have less patient players to deal with should they attempt EX or Savage content.

Put another way, leveling is when people are most malleable because they're learning. Once habits are bit, you'll see more resistance since, from their perspective, everything has worked out so far. Why do they need to change?

[Kiarin]

As it is now, healers (SCH in my case) have essentialy no rotations, but instead have a lot of oGCDs that they try to pull through the fight with.
So at the end it becomes like, "if you had to use Adlo, you messed up at least a bit".

I personally think that one of the remedies to healers' problems is to make GCD healing rotation matter, be the primary healing tool, and oCGDs be needed for extreme burst healing or to counter some specific mechanics.
But as we talked about it in a FC, some said that they actually prefer "oGCD style" in healing.

So it seems that between players different opinions exist on that matter -_- . Maybe a via media, a good solution is to make all abilities, both o- and GCDs, more interconnected with each other.
For example, if Adlo can proc +1 aetherflow, while used on targer with Fey Illumination on, both will be used more often.
If Physick can decrease W.Dawn's cooldown by 5 sec if it is cast on target with shields on, both wil be used more often.
If E.Tactics, apart of it's main use, also places a buff on target that increases all shields' potency, it will be used much... and so on.

So maybe healers need something like this. Not "strict rotation" like Dps have, but a somewhat more intuitive "flowing rotation".

[althenawhm]

If Physick can decrease W.Dawn's cooldown by 5 sec if it is cast on target with shields on, both will be used more often.

No. No no no, I am not going back to Stormblood lillies.

[Saefinn]

As it is now, healers (SCH in my case) have essentialy no rotations, but instead have a lot of oGCDs that they try to pull through the fight with.
So at the end it becomes like, "if you had to use Adlo, you messed up at least a bit".

I personally think that one of the remedies to healers' problems is to make GCD healing rotation matter, be the primary healing tool, and oCGDs be needed for extreme burst healing or to counter some specific mechanics.
But as we talked about it in a FC, some said that they actually prefer "oGCD style" in healing.

So it seems that between players different opinions exist on that matter -_- . Maybe a via media, a good solution is to make all abilities, both o- and GCDs, more interconnected with each other.
For example, if Adlo can proc +1 aetherflow, while used on targer with Fey Illumination on, both will be used more often.
If Physick can decrease W.Dawn's cooldown by 5 sec if it is cast on target with shields on, both wil be used more often.
If E.Tactics, apart of it's main use, also places a buff on target that increases all shields' potency, it will be used much... and so on.

So maybe healers need something like this. Not "strict rotation" like Dps have, but a somewhat more intuitive "flowing rotation".

I think the beauty of having multiple jobs fulfilling a single role is we don't even have to think along the like of "maybe healers need something like this", as not all healers have to have the same approach as each other. We can have a healer that's more oGCD focused and ones that are less so. Jobs can be designed around the different ways people prefer their healers.

[AdamFyi]

So at the end it becomes like, "if you had to use Adlo, you messed up at least a bit".

Not necessarily. If that Adlo was the difference between people dying or not, then it’s a fair trade off. At the end of the day, you’re always aiming to clear the content, not pull the best numbers and wipe 20+ times just to get one clear. Could healing be more optimised? For sure, but it isn’t always necessary especially when you’re still getting used to the encounter.

So maybe healers need something like this. Not "strict rotation" like Dps have, but a somewhat more intuitive "flowing rotation".

That’s way too specific to get any used. It’d be just another case of Stormblood Lilies, and you know how that turned out. As Healers, they can’t give us anything complex like a “combo rotation” since we’d need to interrupt it if all resources are exhausted and you’d need to cast a GCD heal.

That said, a “flowing rotation” is possible. It could be something as simple as a 20 second proc that says, “using a Healing Aetherflow ability increases the potency of the next Ruin/Broil by x potency. Using this proc grants another proc that lets you use Energy Drain at no cost”.

[GrimGale]

In a heal sustain model of gameplay, it makes sense to have healing abilities that combo off each other as you are essentialy casting low cost heal after heal to keep the tank as healthy as you can and use CD's when damage becomes heavy. In games like WoW that have this model, healers need to carefully manage their mana as MP recovery skills are practically non existant and damage is random, constant and can quickly become overwhelming. AoE healing is weak and expensive and burst healing has a heavy cost.

But FFXIV doesn't have a sustain model. It has a burst model- Meaning damage comes in short predictable bursts. Tanks have enormous HP pools and the only true threat to their safety is the eventual and predictable Tankbuster. Considering how seldom damage happens, having to heal to unlock a stronger heal is just wasted effort- considering the rest of the healer tools are powerful enough on their own.