Another patch, another 4-ish months of healer suffering.

[SpiralMask]

Just a quick note of overall dissatisfaction with the still-ongoing ignoring of healer issues--downtime activities when healing isn't needed, lack of overall complexity/homogenization, and on and on--on top of class-specific issues like AST being reduced to a wretched pile of suffering for the entire expansion.

It's looking more and more like 6.0 is gonna be the cutoff point for healers with whatever inevitable combat overhaul SE is forced to do again due to butting up against their soft action limit again and not having done anything to address that, deciding instead to spread classes thinner and thinner over so many levels, to the detriment of anyone unfortunate enough to have a class they need to level.

Don't want to necromancy and old threads or just repost the more in-depth breakdowns of issues in other threads, just acknowledging that the same issues have persisted without any change (and a few "we know you're suffering, we want it that way" replies) for the past year and a half or so now? and that it sucks.

Doesn't really seem to be any hope at this point.

[EmpyreanHelios]

I’ve already given up on healing. I swapped to BLM and have become much happier. I’ll hold on till 6.0, but if nothing gets changed?... oof. The queues will have one less healer. Let’s hope square listens to all the grumbling that’s been going on in here since shb came out.

And a merry Christmas to us all.

[darcstar62]

I’ve already given up on healing. I swapped to BLM and have become much happier. I’ll hold on till 6.0, but if nothing gets changed?... oof. The queues will have one less healer. Let’s hope square listens to all the grumbling that’s been going on in here since shb came out.

Same here -- SMN for me. I still miss my HsW AST dearly, but I just enjoy SMN so much more. When I need my healer fix I'll break out my Holy Pal on that other game.

[Side-Eye]

Although I know a new healer will be thrust upon us in 6.0, I think the community overall would be happier if the current three healer jobs would simply be made more interesting (again) and for astro, if its class identity was restored -- too much was lost in 5.0, and many of us will be pissed if what we lost is tossed into a new heal job. Yes, I'm looking at you, time mage.

[RyuDragnier]

Although I know a new healer will be thrust upon us in 6.0, I think the community overall would be happier if the current three healer jobs would simply be made more interesting (again) and for astro, if its class identity was restored -- too much was lost in 5.0, and many of us will be pissed if what we lost is tossed into a new heal job. Yes, I'm looking at you, time mage.

Don't worry, it'll all come back as "new" moves.

[Genz]

It's beyond "healers". The over-cinematic battles with one-shot gimmicks means that "RPG" mechanics are out of place. Jobs, actions, healing, tanking, buffs, debuffs, equipments, etc. all of these are opposite to what the game actually wants, since, by nature, they should allow to bypass a gimmick in some creative manner. FFXIV devs hate players' agency.
The "RPG" components have always been a sugar coating on FFXIV ARR, but even this small agency we had, disappeared with time.
The culmination of this logic is obviously the lamentable QTE.

[Absurdity]

Although I know a new healer will be thrust upon us in 6.0, I think the community overall would be happier if the current three healer jobs would simply be made more interesting (again) and for astro, if its class identity was restored

I think while healer mains would definitely be happier with this the wider community unfortunately prefers a new job. Doesn't matter if it's just a palette swap of the existing 3 as long as it has new flashy light effects attached to it, because they never notice the incredibly stale design in the first place.

[Side-Eye]

I think while healer mains would definitely be happier with this the wider community unfortunately prefers a new job. Doesn't matter if it's just a palette swap of the existing 3 as long as it has new flashy light effects attached to it, because they never notice the incredibly stale design in the first place.

I agree -- but I'd love for Squeenix to do something truly unexpected, and restore some of the dps complexity in the old jobs while releasing a new heal job in 6.0. And for pete's sake give back AST's stun. Changing Celestial Opposition from stun to heal was not only unnecessary, it also doesn't sound like a heal name. :P

[Equitable_Remedy]

I recently started leveling a white mage, and I'm starting to quite enjoy it after level 60 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Gemina]

I am not sure why anyone would expect some kind of overhaul to healing mid-expansion. There is also no reason for you to "suffer" the remainder of this expansion. If healing is no longer your cup of tea, then play a different role. I know that sounds dismissive, but I don't have the ability to change the design of our healers, so it is the only valid advice I can give if you want to continue to enjoy PvE content within FFXIV.

I also don't know why anyone would expect an overhaul in 6.0 either. The issues the devs see with healing at the present time is likely more in line with redundant skills and passive job gauges than the downtime. Passive traits such as Maim and Mend, abilities like Repose and Fluid Aura, and granted buffs like Free Cure are very likely going to be looked at. I predict that healers will get their AoE DoTs back (in the case of AST, their first), but that's about it. I think there is a chance that updated job gauges will allow healers to build up a resource to cast a magic blast, but that is a far stretch.

I know I sound like a naysayer, but I am genuinely trying to keep expectations at a reasonable level when it comes to future patches and expansions with our healers. A good portion of the playerbase sees the downtime as a big issue, and I believe the devs don't see it as an issue at all.