Developers : Healer design mentality needs to change

[linayar]

it can remain simple because it was simple before.

The devs apparently disagree or they wouldn't have changed it.

And when you think about it, why would having more buttons break the monotony if they're all independent buttons with no combo relationship? In the end, it'll still be spamming the same buttons, even if there are more of what you spam. So I think the reason why you feel less buttons to spam is suddenly monotonous is what makes it not so simple for others to have more buttons, and why the devs decide to simplify it. Maybe they've gone too far, so we'll see next expansion if they think so as well or if they do want this.

Even if tanks and dps dealt 10x as much dps as a healer does and a fight is 2min instead of 10min, you would still have a significant amount of downtime as a healer. Because it doesn't change the fact that GCD heal is rarely required, not even with a party that doesn't mitigate. Unless you reasoning is "Well, if a fight is only 2min long and a healer spends one GCD on healing, they obviously spent more time of the fight healing than compared to one GCD in a 10min fight" - which is true but doesn't adress the core problem at all. Because significant amount downtime is still just that: significant amount of downtime that gets filled by spamming one button.
The insanely powerful heals relative to the low incoming damage is what causes most of the problems coupled with very little to fill the downtime caused by the strong heals, not how much dps a tank or dps deals.

Yeah, but a reduction in downtime is still a reduction in downtime. And I don't think they plan on reducing heals or increasing need for healing as that would qualitatively be worse for parties unless everyone is on top of their game.

[Rilifane]

The devs apparently disagree or they wouldn't have changed it.

And when you think about it, why would having more buttons break the monotony if they're all independent buttons with no combo relationship? In the end, it'll still be spamming the same buttons, even if there are more of what you spam. So I think the reason why you feel less buttons to spam is suddenly monotonous is what makes it not so simple for others to have more buttons, and why the devs decide to simplify it. Maybe they've gone too far, so we'll see next expansion if they think so as well or if they do want this.

Yeah, but a reduction in downtime is still a reduction in downtime. And I don't think they plan on reducing heals or increasing need for healing as that would qualitatively be worse for parties unless everyone is on top of their game.

But it's still the worst way of "reducing" downtime.
The fights are shorter, so we only press one button over and over for, say, 8min instead of 10min. Doesn't adress the core problem at all.
I think at this point everyone knows that SE won't increase the required healing in fights because they want to keep the skill floor low to make healing accessible. Kinda agreed. While higher healing requirement does work in other games, they have introduced it early on and everyone learned to handle it from the start.
For FFXIV, it's definitely too late. healing has never been an (almost) full-time job and you spent less and less time healing with each expansion and patch.

But making dps more "optional" by increasing tank/ dps output will not change the fact that healers have an insane amount of downtime and want to fill said downtime. SCHs Dissipation is a de facto 30 potency gain over not using it. They're still using it. Because it gives something to do and it's more useful than not using it.
At this point, the only real way to make healer gameplay more interesting is finding more interesting ways to fill the downtime, not gut healer dps even more by not only keeping it as boring as it is now but making it incredibly insatisfying by making it less impactful aswell.
Keep the skill floor low while raising the skill ceiling.

[linayar]

But it's still the worst way of "reducing" downtime.

I said simple, not best. And do remember that I also don't think that's what they're trying to do in the first place.

[ForteNightshade]

Yeah, but a reduction in downtime is still a reduction in downtime. And I don't think they plan on reducing heals or increasing need for healing as that would qualitatively be worse for parties unless everyone is on top of their game.

They don't need to increasing healing requirements to an absurd degree. But it should be enough to at least make both healers feel as though they are contributed. I just ran E9N with my friend and literally spend 95% of my time spamming Glare not because of greed but due to how the fight simply doesn't deal enough outgoing damage to warrant two healers. And it wasn't as though she didn't DPS either. We were both spamming Glare/Malefic. Astro simply has so many oGCD tools nowadays that anything below Savage is a complete joke. Hell, even Savage is not immune to be comically low on healing requirements. E7S literally did not require anything beyond Whispering Dawn for two full minutes; in a fight that didn't last ten.