Please Nerf Shield Healer Pure Heals

[Dogempire]

Could players have a hand in this issue too? In that if a class has a high ceiling players then, in my experience, expect to be rewarded with higher performance if theycan hit that ceiling. Which can in turn cause stigma towards another class and lower it’s representation as folks refuse to take that job. It’s a conundrum that I don’t envy any game developer. Just wondering if and how much this comes into their design philosophy.

To make the barrier heals work I feel they are going to have to change the strength of the barriers and how content is fundamentally run by players. I love the barrier heal idea. Loved scholar from day one, but I can see some issues that they need to tackle to make this work.

Honestly, I don't see anything wrong with high performance on a high skill ceiling class being rewarded with more dps. That is to say, as long as the variation isn't too significant.

IMO when it comes to dps, the gap between the highest and the lowest should only be about 5%, that way player skill with said job is still a significant factor and so that an average player on a strong class isn't better than an amazing player on a weak class like how it is with physical ranged vs melee/magic dps.

With healing that's not as easy to answer because there is no set healing rotation, but it would probably be best if they focused on making every healer very strong in some regard rather than purposely weakening them to make them roughly equal. If everybody is overpowered then nobody is

[Semirhage]

Honestly, I don't see anything wrong with high performance on a high skill ceiling class being rewarded with more dps. That is to say, as long as the variation isn't too significant.

I do, but that's largely down to how FFXIV works. DPS is the most important metric in basically any encounter. It just is. The combat system revolves around it. Encounter design does almost nothing to discourage it. What does this mean? Right out of the gate, the class with the highest damage output is automatically way, way up on the meta pick ladder. Other factors can add to job desirability, but higher damage output is the game's golden snitch (as it were).

Now, you might think, why do I see that as a problem as it relates to complexity = more damage? Because in the healer role, this is the utility jobs trying to have their cake and eat it too. Caster DPS have a reasonably stable pecking order because they take the -opposite- stance. BLM has basically no unique utility, and therefore does the most damage. Reverse is true for RDM. If the "more complicated" healers got rewarded with more damage, congratulations you have Stormblood. SCH and AST have all the utility and better damage. White Mage has...uh...Cure 3?

If WHM isn't allowed utility, it's gotta get *something*. Damage is one of the easier answers.

[Dogempire]

I do, but that's largely down to how FFXIV works. DPS is the most important metric in basically any encounter. It just is. The combat system revolves around it. Encounter design does almost nothing to discourage it. What does this mean? Right out of the gate, the class with the highest damage output is automatically way, way up on the meta pick ladder. Other factors can add to job desirability, but higher damage output is the game's golden snitch (as it were).

Now, you might think, why do I see that as a problem as it relates to complexity = more damage? Because in the healer role, this is the utility jobs trying to have their cake and eat it too. Caster DPS have a reasonably stable pecking order because they take the -opposite- stance. BLM has basically no unique utility, and therefore does the most damage. Reverse is true for RDM. If the "more complicated" healers got rewarded with more damage, congratulations you have Stormblood. SCH and AST have all the utility and better damage. White Mage has...uh...Cure 3?

If WHM isn't allowed utility, it's gotta get *something*. Damage is one of the easier answers.

Honestly, healers are an entirely different beast and I agree with what you say regarding WHM needing its own niche so it stays desirable.

The kind of balance I'm referring to pertains more to balance among tanks and caster dps and how their numbers are very close within their own role, with both the caster role and the tank roles having a variation of about 500 rdps from top end to bottom end, with the top jobs (Gunbreaker, Paladin, Black Mage) requiring significantly more encounter knowledge to optimize.

That being said, White Mage being the less defensive but higher damage healer would probably be the ideal niche for the job considering that gunbreaker is a more squishy job than Warrior and Dark Knight, but has a higher damage potential if played right, giving it a spot in speedkills and more optimized groups