Developers : Healer design mentality needs to change

[Shanst]

As someone new to the game, and have healed in plenty of more hectic games (plus I primarily love PVP and this is really the first MMO I've focused on PVE), I decided to level a WHM (which I'm currently still doing). It was to my surprise that I realized we're not really a healer, but rather a dps with heals. I've gotten used to pressing 1 button over and over and refreshing a dot, but I can tell you the game play isn't very engaging. Big incoming aoe damage? Medica II and let the hot top people before the next one because you know that's like 30 seconds away. Go back to spamming 1 ability again....

I've become a sadist HOPING people suck and get hit by things so I can do this thing called heal.

[SturmChurro]

As someone new to the game, and have healed in plenty of more hectic games (plus I primarily love PVP and this is really the first MMO I've focused on PVE), I decided to level a WHM (which I'm currently still doing). It was to my surprise that I realized we're not really a healer, but rather a dps with heals. I've gotten used to pressing 1 button over and over and refreshing a dot, but I can tell you the game play isn't very engaging. Big incoming aoe damage? Medica II and let the hot top people before the next one because you know that's like 30 seconds away. Go back to spamming 1 ability again....

I've become a sadist HOPING people suck and get hit by things so I can do this thing called heal.

Not even. You have to cast medica 2. Sometimes I'll wait until my assize is back up before I'll give the group any aoe healing. Not really necessary to cast medica 2 most of the time. All about the dps uptime.

Why if SE actually wants healers to heal, they need to change their encounter design mentality. All they are doing now is ruining healers.

[Gemina]

I'm personally a proponent that if they won't give healers more DPS capabilities, they ought to at least give us more non-healing party utility we or return some of our old ones.

However, I believe Yoshi said they were removing such abilities from the game to prevent classes from becoming too "meta." I can't recall where I heard that, but if so it's unlikely we'll ever get such abilities back unless there's a design philosophy change.

The problem with non healing utility skills is they are totally redundant because there is no better utility and no better mitigation than raw damage.

Non damage and non healing utility is really only warranted in prolonged encounters that are adjusted to current or near current BiS. That is why about 80% of the healer kit isn't really even needed in anything outside those parameters. Thus, with current encounter design the only viable utility give healers is more ways to cause damage. I don't like that fact, but it is what it is. I want to say that they backed themselves into a corner, but I truly believe the devs are content with the current state of healers and don't feel like that in even the slightest.

[Allegor]

I mean, to be fair at least AST can become a little hectic with managing the proper cards and their targets, Divination timing, dot, Earthly Star, buff uptime in case there's another AST, it's decently busy even if done right imo ...as WHM though? you literally have nothing else to do - Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, ohh, Assize is off cd!, Dia, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare...

[Alisto]

If SE wants me to DPS as a healer they NEED to give me some semblance of a DPS rotation (and maybe something to actually heal). a DoT, a single target spell, and an AoE do not cut it. Feels like the entire game is built around making things fun for DPS and nobody else.

There isn't enough healing to do that, even if I had the most interesting healing mechanics available, I wouldn't get to enjoy it because there's almost nothing to heal and if I'm to spend most of my time DPSing doing THAT need to be way more interesting.

[Gemina]

I mean, to be fair at least AST can become a little hectic with managing the proper cards and their targets, Divination timing, dot, Earthly Star, buff uptime in case there's another AST, it's decently busy even if done right imo ...as WHM though? you literally have nothing else to do - Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, ohh, Assize is off cd!, Dia, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare...

This is basically why I say that AST is the most complete healer currently playable. Their job gauge is interactive, so building the resource gives them at least one other thing to focus on. The job gauges of WHM and SCH are passive. SCH a little less so, but only has two skills to apply the gauge to; neither of which shield or cause damage, which is what the SCH primarily does. If they also had to focus some of their attention to acquiring their lilies and fey, then all of sudden they will feel as busy as AST.

Unfortunately, I still find Divination lack luster. The damage boost is nice, but they build up the resource to execute an ability that other jobs have variations to with the touch of a button every 120s. It would feel much more rewarding if it also did damage to the enemy. Then you have WHM's Misery, which feels rewarding even if generating the blood lily wasn't done optimally; as is often the case when the healing requirements of the content are low.

There is a bit of a caveat to AST design though. Their APM is higher than the other healers, which makes it harder to optimize. When things get hectic, or high healing phases are present, it can be difficult for an AST to multitask in this situation. The devs might have had this in mind with AST as a healer that is more difficult to play optimally for those who are seeking a higher skill ceiling. If the other two healers were given similar job gauge mechanics, or additional DPS abilities, then a healer suited for a player of lower skill will be gone. I am not sure if this is a good or bad thing, and the devs probably don't either.

[QooEr]

The problem with non healing utility skills is they are totally redundant because there is no better utility and no better mitigation than raw damage.

not quite. mitigating an instance of damage to save you a gcd heal translates into damage, and that can happen in ultimate, ex primals or even un dungeons. i miss when healers had virus/disable because i could be the one in charge of the mitigation and i knew when i could save myself a gcd. that got moved to dps and tanks and is now addle/reprisal.

in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter, but it was something else healers had to do. i wish they stopped taking away things to do during downtime from healers

[Arkdra]

If SE wants me to DPS as a healer they NEED to give me some semblance of a DPS rotation (and maybe something to actually heal). a DoT, a single target spell, and an AoE do not cut it. Feels like the entire game is built around making things fun for DPS and nobody else.

There isn't enough healing to do that, even if I had the most interesting healing mechanics available, I wouldn't get to enjoy it because there's almost nothing to heal and if I'm to spend most of my time DPSing doing THAT need to be way more interesting.

This is where I am at, but I also have to admit that there's basically nothing they can do to get me to switch from dps to healer outside of like, maybe copy+pasting warrior priest/disciple of khaine from warhammer online into this game. In which case... maybe.

Nonetheless, for the times when I do play a healer, I really wish I had something akin to bloodletter and foul. A short cooldown ability to spice up broil spam and then a big hit to build up to (which whm's already have in afflatus misery). Maybe even a straighter shot analog where my glare spam will proc and let me do a cooler attack for more damage/whatever instead. Just.. something! I just don't think that the simplification of healer dps abilities has worked out the same way that doing things for tanks did. And I think this is born out by my dps queues usually being help up by healers these days and not tanks.

[Allegor]

This is where I am at, but I also have to admit that there's basically nothing they can do to get me to switch from dps to healer outside of like, maybe copy+pasting warrior priest/disciple of khaine from warhammer online into this game. In which case... maybe.

Nonetheless, for the times when I do play a healer, I really wish I had something akin to bloodletter and foul. A short cooldown ability to spice up broil spam and then a big hit to build up to (which whm's already have in afflatus misery). Maybe even a straighter shot analog where my glare spam will proc and let me do a cooler attack for more damage/whatever instead. Just.. something! I just don't think that the simplification of healer dps abilities has worked out the same way that doing things for tanks did. And I think this is born out by my dps queues usually being help up by healers these days and not tanks.

I know this is comparing oranges to apples, but holy priests in WoW have this instant mini nuke/stun on a 1min cd, and each time you cast your basic offensive spell its cd is reduced by 4 seconds. It has absolutely nothing to do with their healing kit but it's there to pump more damage when nobody's in danger and even that is more interactive than simply "spam this one button until someone needs healing".

[Absurdity]

I just don't think that the simplification of healer dps abilities has worked out the same way that doing things for tanks did. And I think this is born out by my dps queues usually being help up by healers these days and not tanks.

It didn't really work out for tanks either. Our dps rotations are incredibly simple and this made sense when we still had other stuff to manage, but now we press a cooldown every 90 seconds and spam 1-2-3 with the occasional 4 & 5. Tanks are only marginally less bored than healers are because we atleast have more to press than 1.