Famitsu Interview: Tuning encounters for healing

[Deceptus]

This provided a little excitement in the first week, though everything went back to mind-numbingly boring after people had better gear.
Unfortunately this internew proves that yoship really has no clue when it comes to healers.

This is the way.

[Adeacia]

I was asked to prog this savage tier as a healer and yes, it did feel a little more heal intensive than previous tiers, especially the last 2 turns. This provided a little excitement in the first week, though everything went back to mind-numbingly boring after people had better gear.
Unfortunately this internew proves that yoship really has no clue when it comes to healera.

How about instead, the players simply...not use the better gear? Most player complaints can be taken care of by the players themselves it often seems. Stop trying to optimize everything and watch it get harder.

[Thoosa]

Would it be hard for them to program something to scale with your gear? So for example as you get better gear, you can kill the boss faster, but the incoming damage and mitigation scales with you, so it still feels like it did at minimum ilevel?

[Absurdity]

How many designers are on the team? Is there one to represent every job in the game, or even every role? While I am one to pardon the devs from a lot of player gripes, I am not thoroughly convinced that the lack of one of them being a healer main is the culprit to this issue. While they could broaden the perspective on how to keep healer utility relevant as players get stronger opposed to someone who does not main the role; a healer main on the team is going to have the same tools to work with, and the same constrictions to work around as any other member on that team.

I think of it as someone who is perfectly qualified for a job, but they don't have the support or tools they need to perform to the best of their ability. IOW, a healer main on the team =/= anything changing at all.

As far as we know they have 4 people designing every single job, and none of those play healer (not sure about tank).

[Genz]

"healers say they're bored so we'll increase damage", usual simplistic view from Yoshi :|

He's not wrong ; just trapped in his own shallow game where healing has become some kind of side-activity because of the focus on one-shot.

If they want to make healing relevant : Ban one-shots, and start over from there.
Or, commit to what you're doing and transform healers to "green dps". It would be stupid but at least the jobs would be slightly less boring to play.

As shown by some answers in this topics ("don't use better gear", "sync gear"), FFXIV trying to keep a RPG paint-coat is becoming more and more ridiculous, since part of its players base don't care or don't understand it.

[DrWho2010]

seems like savage is tuned to the minimum item level to be a challenge. of course the more geared you are the easier it's going to be. if you find it's too easy, then you'll have to start making your own challenges i guess.

[EaMett]

How about instead, the players simply...not use the better gear? Most player complaints can be taken care of by the players themselves it often seems. Stop trying to optimize everything and watch it get harder.

Or they could design a better game. I know it's a crazy idea, but it might be worth considering? It's not like cognitive flow is a new game design concept. It's been around for forever now.

[Ultimatecalibur]

"healers say they're bored so we'll increase damage", usual simplistic view from Yoshi :|

He's not wrong ; just trapped in his own shallow game where healing has become some kind of side-activity because of the focus on one-shot.

If they want to make healing relevant : Ban one-shots, and start over from there.

It is not the number of one-shot mechanics that is the problem but the amount of avoidable damage. There is a big difference when properly performing mechanics decreases damage by 25%, 50% and 90%

[Adeacia]

I see it in every mmo. Players proceed to do everything they possibly can to make the fights as easy as they can possibly get, then they complain that they are too easy.

How about bosses use skills like players? They have the normal mechanics that they do, then they use 2 raidbusters between every mech with only 1 second between the busters? Lets get crazy!

[Absurdity]

I see it in every mmo. Players proceed to do everything they possibly can to make the fights as easy as they can possibly get, then they complain that they are too easy.

How about bosses use skills like players? They have the normal mechanics that they do, then they use 2 raidbusters between every mech with only 1 second between the busters? Lets get crazy!

So after "just use bad gear lol" you jump to "just heal 90k damage in 1 second lol"

Got any more of those sensible design ideas?