Developers : Healer design mentality needs to change

[Saefinn]

While I agree that devs do listen to feedback, I think that's more likely on specific job changes. A change in "healer mentality" is a little more doubtful given that it fits with the rest of the mentality for other changes they've made in the rest of the game. And while I agree that your specific feedback may fit somewhat, I think it'll still also be a somewhat significant change in terms of direction.

That said, we're coming up on a new expansion (EXCITING!), so we'll see what it brings in terms of job and role designs.

That's the problem, the mentality doesn't fit their direction. Their desire and direction is to see healers heal more and DPS less, things they've eluded to when talking about healers.

Their changes in 5.0 meant we heal less, DPS more and the DPS is dull
Their 5.4 SCH change happened because the devs want people using Aetherflow stacks for healing instead of Energy Drain, a DPS ability. Their change makes no difference to it, it just means it does less damage, but is still more net damage than if they didn't use it.

This is my point about them focusing on the wrong numbers. I'll demonstrate, all figures are made up for demonstration purposes to explain how their healer design does the opposite of what they allegedly want to achieve.

An average dungeon run was:
70% DPS, 30% healing.
You have 8 DPS Abilities and 8 Healing abilities at your disposal.

If you're looking at this, you might conclude that there's too much DPS going on here. Which, from their previous comments, I think the devs have identified and want to deal with.

So, if you're wanting to rebalance this, what numbers do you focus on? Let's look at what the devs did.

They took down the 8 DPS abilities and brought them down to 3 and increased the healing abilities to 15.

What that achieves is:
70% of the run you've got 3 DPS abilities to spend
30% of the run you've got 15 healing abilities to spend.


For that 30% you don't need all those 15 healing abilities.
For that 70% you're doing very little.

Except there is a second thing to consider.
The extra healing tools you now have available makes you more efficient as a healer.
So that 70/30% split? That becomes an 80/20% split.

Then in the midst of this, they decide they want to nerf one of those DPS abilities because they'd rather you use more healing abilities. But without addressing what the actual problem is that nerf doesn't make a difference to how people are using the ability.

So if they are wanting to achieve what they've set out to do, what numbers should they be focusing on?
The 70/30%.

They need to ask: why is it 70% DPS and why is it 30% healing?

The answer is twofold:
- Content mechanics & the damage people take
- How efficiently your healing spells handle it.

The main reason being: if a person's health is high enough then there is no reason to heal them.

Whilst I am of the opinion, the best solution is the one I've lined out (evolve on the original design philosophy for healers)
They've not actually delivered on the direction change they've set out to do. If they did, I'd probably be okay with that.

However, you are right that new expansion is coming, so who knows what that'll bring?

[Hazama999]

I can only speak for myself but to be honest... the only way they could make healing engaging in this game, is to have a revamp of how damage works. For a game that exposes the player to so many fantastical settings and encounters, damage is painfully binary and boring. Your number is either low or high. That's it. Perhaps having different types of damage that require different actions? This would likely require a complete re-structuring from the ground up.

Idk... Complicate things a little bit. That's where my engagement comes from.

[Gobio]

Imagine being DPS and all dps has cure 1 and a regen, and boss jumped off screen constantly, like every few seconds, and you must abandon your DPS rotation and spam cure 1 / regen...

That is why there is no meaning healing mechanics...

[ASkellington]

They need to ask: why is it 70% DPS and why is it 30% healing?

The answer is twofold:
- Content mechanics & the damage people take
- How efficiently your healing spells handle it.

The main reason being: if a person's health is high enough then there is no reason to heal them.

Say it louder for the people in the back.

[ItMe]

I can only speak for myself but to be honest... the only way they could make healing engaging in this game, is to have a revamp of how damage works. For a game that exposes the player to so many fantastical settings and encounters, damage is painfully binary and boring. Your number is either low or high. That's it. Perhaps having different types of damage that require different actions? This would likely require a complete re-structuring from the ground up.

Idk... Complicate things a little bit. That's where my engagement comes from.

Were you around when this game had damage for each of the different elements?
And if so, what did you think of that?

[linayar]

That's the problem, the mentality doesn't fit their direction.

By direction, I meant simplifying things.

...

If they don't require more healing but provides less DPS abilities, to me, that's not necessarily about wanting you to DPS less, but about something else, like making the role potentially easier to pick up due to simplification of the mechanics (powerful healing spells and simple DPS abilities).

[Anhra]

I also think that besides reducing overall damage output from Jobs, which becomes more and more with every incoming large Patch (which makes revisiting old content even easier to cheese thanks to overmelding and overall stats), every single non-healer Job has way too much self sustainment for themselves which is amusingly high enough, that you don't even need a healer for pretty much any Dungeon up to at least Ala Mhigo (even E4S has been cleared by a chinese team of 7 SMN's and a PLD). I think a good way to fix this would be to remove skills such as second wind, bloodbath, all the tank healing skills except for PLD and DRK (PLD being self explainable and DRK because of his focus on lifesteal) and put more focus on Healing Potions.

"But Anhra, that would just be too much of a grind for self sustainment!"
Why yes, you're playing a MMO in case you have forgotten and the grindstone is a key element in that genre.

[Absurdity]

I also think that besides reducing overall damage output from Jobs, which becomes more and more with every incoming large Patch (which makes revisiting old content even easier to cheese thanks to overmelding and overall stats), every single non-healer Job has way too much self sustainment for themselves which is amusingly high enough, that you don't even need a healer for pretty much any Dungeon up to at least Ala Mhigo (even E4S has been cleared by a chinese team of 7 SMN's and a PLD). I think a good way to fix this would be to remove skills such as second wind, bloodbath, all the tank healing skills except for PLD and DRK (PLD being self explainable and DRK because of his focus on lifesteal) and put more focus on Healing Potions.

"But Anhra, that would just be too much of a grind for self sustainment!"
Why yes, you're playing a MMO in case you have forgotten and the grindstone is a key element in that genre.

The thing is, it would not just be a grind but also a pointless change that does nothing but make solo content slightly more of a chore.

The self sustain is probably the least of the issues. Sure, you might not need a healer for dungeons but you didn't need one in Stormblood or Heavensward either, dungeon difficulty has been a joke for a long time and is intended to be one anyway.

In the more difficult content you do not plan around Second Wind or Bloodbath, just like you don't plan around random blocks or parries, so whether or not they exist changes nothing about healer gameplay.

The only healing that actually has a noticeable impact would be warrior's Nascent Flash and it's cooldown is also too low and it's healing too varied to really take it into account when planning out your oGCD usage on certain mechanics, besides being the only thing warrior has going for it atm.

[Anhra]

The thing is, it would not just be a grind but also a pointless change that does nothing but make solo content slightly more of a chore.

The self sustain is probably the least of the issues. Sure, you might not need a healer for dungeons but you didn't need one in Stormblood or Heavensward either, dungeon difficulty has been a joke for a long time and is intended to be one anyway.

In the more difficult content you do not plan around Second Wind or Bloodbath, just like you don't plan around random blocks or parries, so whether or not they exist changes nothing about healer gameplay.

The only healing that actually has a noticeable impact would be warrior's Nascent Flash and it's cooldown is also too low and it's healing too varied to really take it into account when planning out your oGCD usage on certain mechanics, besides being the only thing warrior has going for it atm.

It might be a smaller problem compared to others, but it still does it's contribution towards the big picture that is the current healer, and the excuse of "it has always been like that in dungeon's" doesn't mean it should stay this way just for convenience's sake. As Saefinn already said, most of the time, you'll be doing DPS inside a dungeon, and dungeons are something every single player does. Removing those self sustain Skills might not be able to fix the problem in one go, but it tilts towards the desired outcome by one step, which might turn that 70% DPS & 30% healing maybe into something like 50% DPS and 50% healing.

And i dont think that investing a few Gil's into Potions which any NPC could sell in low quality could be any issue. If you want something stronger, then you better be ready to invest into Alchemy.

[Saefinn]

By direction, I meant simplifying things.

If they don't require more healing but provides less DPS abilities, to me, that's not necessarily about wanting you to DPS less, but about something else, like making the role potentially easier to pick up due to simplification of the mechanics (powerful healing spells and simple DPS abilities).

The direction I stated is the one they've eluded to in their comments about healers and healing changes. A direction that if achieved would be in contradiction of the one you state, because it'd be less simple than it is now.

However, in terms of keeping things simple. Most of the suggestions I have made about healer roles over time has respected the low skill floor of healing in this game and only asks that the skill ceiling be raised for experienced healers to feel like they're doing something.

And adding to healer bloat if anything means that it is more of a hurdle for new healers because it's more to learn because they have to learn what each spell is for and how it works in their kit. I mean yes, once over that hurdles, it's not complicated because of how efficient the skills are.

So I don't think simplicity was their aim, but rather a means to an end with the DPS side. Because it is seems they misunderstand the balance I mentioned before.