Do people in this game not comprehend the concept of shield healers?

[Saefinn]

Well, I'm not sure about the healers you've got but actually, shield healing nowadays is less efficient than not. It's one of my complaints as a (now former) SCH main, because when I started it was a play style now it's a safety net or a niche use or when stuff hits the fan. This is me assuming of course, they're not using their shields as pure heals. Because SCH has a decent number of non-shield heals and some tied to oGCD's and with the lower healing requirement for the vast majority of content and shield heals being on the GCD it's actually more efficient to NOT shield heal, unless of course you're stuck.

Hence I created a thread about it in the healer forums when SE mentioned it'd be 2 pure healers and 2 shield healers, but it's kind of moot in the current balance and I think unless they shift that balance, then it's going to undo their emphasis between shield and pure healer...especially as the devs still consider SCH a shield healer, but it's more a pure healer with extra shields.

[Cithaerias_pyropina]

Remove the health healing portion of shields and there you go (make them act exactly like Blue Mage's Gobskin). People will start applying shields preemptively instead of using shields as gcd heals.

And as someone earlier mentioned, Scholar's shields are pitiful and will only negate one or two attacks without the catalyze crit. Would be solved by increasing the potency of both Adloquium and Succor while removing the HP restoring effects, lowering their cast times by a fourth of a second and then lowering the cooldown of Emergency Tactics or giving that ability 2 charges (in the case Scholar desperately needs to GCD heal someone)

[AngelCheese77]

1. Alot has to do with not knowing a fight and what attacks go out
2. I think many don’t realize who are shield healers and regen ones. Something I forget occasionally

I try to do shields as I do my Medica regens. I keep my eye on the party window and my buff window.

It’s not perfect but it works

[KageTokage]

I like heals like Divine Benison, The Blackest Night, and BLU's Gobskin specifically because they're "pure" shielding.

I think Scholar would be more fun to play if it was redesigned as previously mentioned with having the healing/shielding aspects of its kit separated.

[Nethereal]

The real question is: If top would you die without shields? If no don't play a shield healer/use shield heals. If yes okay you can use shields now.

Shield healers are largely useless in this game compared to regen healers unless there are mechanics that actually require shields and content like that is too hard for people.

[SturmChurro]

Well, when most healers don't know how to heal in the first place, expecting good shield usage is hopeful

Not only do most healers not know how to heal, they don't know how to DPS!

[ZedxKayn]

Not only do most healers not know how to heal, they don't know how to DPS!

Damage is the best form of healing :P

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Imho, WHM's Benison and Diurnal AST's Celestial Intersection is far more superior shielding for general purpose compared to SCH's Adlo/Succor, which are mostly treated the same way as 675/405 potencies raw heals or for some niche uses like cheesing mechanics. Even at the time when you need to Succor, it's still better to summon seraph for Consolation, which again are treated more like a pure raw heals.

at level 56 you get to spread once every 120secs Adloquium you've cast by using Deployment Tactics on your tank (most probably) to everyone around IF everyone is around.

Actually, tank is probably the last person you'd choose to perform a 'spreadloquium' specifically because the way this game consumes 'Galvanize' before 'Catalyze' portion of shield. Deployment Tactic only spread the 'Galvanize' portion. If for some reason your tank is still actively taking damage, you will end up spreading a weaker shield (Except downtime, of course). I wish Catalyze portion gets consumed before Galvanize though, we do want THAT beefy shield to be on our tank to cushion as much damage after all.

[BaconBits]

Damage is the best form of healing :P

Can't get hurt if the enemy is already dead.

[Eien713]

Do you have helpful advise to provide? Your saying how they are doing it wrong but are not explaining what to do right.

If I had to explain applying shields before an attack to every single shield healer I get tagged with, I'd be there all day. It's not an exaggeration when I say 99% of them don't take full advantage of shields. The number of shield healers using shields like normal heals is so staggering that I wasn't sure if the game failed spectacularly at explaining the concept or if I was missing something since I don't play a shield healer. However, I have a friend who plays AST and particularly enjoys Noct AST and another friend who plays SCH, and they both confirmed that shields were meant to be used to negate incoming damage, so my understanding of the concept was correct.

I know that shielding is preemptive, which is why I don't blame shield healers when they don't shield in time when they're new to the content, though sometimes they can make an educated guess. But when the healer isn't new to the encounter, they should already have an idea of some of the attacks (not necessarily all of them, mind you). I mean, not shielding a stack mark is kinda blasphemous since we all know what that mark means by the time we reach a certain level. And what I noticed with SCH is that when they use their shields after a rather heavy attack hits, their healing doesn't do much and the shields will eventually fall off, thus rendering their spell kinda pointless. Not all casual content is a faceroll. I've been doing Alphascape 3 NM lately, and his stack and raid-wide attacks aren't to be taken lightly.

Shields are useless in casual content. Specially if your co-healer likes to overheal 99% of the time by chaining Medica II, Afflatus Rapture and Assize anyway.

Don't get me started on overhealing healers because that's a frustrating can of worms I'd rather not open.