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

[Dzian]

The issue is the devs obsession for accessibility, balance and casualism. Means that ultimately everything is incredibly forgiving. Which in turn is the biggest issue healers have.

Incoming damage is so firgiving that Shields are rarely necessary.not just shields but gcds in general. (Cant tell you the last time my scholar used psychic) Hell most of the time it's so forgiving tanks don't even "need" cooldowns.

The other problem with Shields. For scholar at least is there all gcd. Which means if you don't 100% know the script of a fight they're useless, as 95% of the time if you started casting Shields the instant you saw a bosses cast bar its already to late to shield the damage.

[Eien713]

The issue the devs obsession for accessibility balance and casualism. Means that ultimately everything is incredibly forgiving. Which in turn is the biggest issue healers have.

Incoming damage is so firgiving that Shields are rarely necessary.not just shields but gcds in general. (Cant tell you the last time my scholar used psychic) Hell most of the time it's so forgiving tanks don't even "need" cooldowns.

The other with Shields. For scholar at least is there all gcd. Which means if you don't 100% know the script of a fight they're useless as 95% of the time if you started casting Shields the instant you saw a bosses cast bar its already to late to shield the damage.

I see your point and I agree with you.

[ForteNightshade]

The issue the devs obsession for accessibility balance and casualism. Means that ultimately everything is incredibly forgiving. Which in turn is the biggest issue healers have.

Incoming damage is so firgiving that Shields are rarely necessary.not just shields but gcds in general. (Cant tell you the last time my scholar used psychic) Hell most of the time it's so forgiving tanks don't even "need" cooldowns.

The other with Shields. For scholar at least is there all gcd. Which means if you don't 100% know the script of a fight they're useless as 95% of the time if you started casting Shields the instant you saw a bosses cast bar its already to late to shield the damage.

Tanks don't even need anyone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMgT..._channel=Cindy

Certainly makes you laugh all the more when someone insists healers should be healing and not DPSing. Dungeons are tuned so pathetically low, you literally don't need healers. Granted, this also highlights how comically powerful Nascent Flash and Clemency are.

In any case, this is why shield healing has especially been negatively impacted throughout Shadowbringers. In an effort to make everything accessible to even the worst of players, content just doesn't hit hard enough to warrant much (or sometimes any) shielding except at the Savage level. Healing as a whole this expansion has easily been in the worst state ever because of the dev team's obsession with accessibility above everything else.

[Rongway]

Not really. I've been in many encounters where after the raid-wide aoe, the party members take no damage for the next 30 seconds and the shields fall off. Also, is it useless then to pre-shield a tank about to get hit by a tankbuster? While doing Alphascape 3, I've seen the tank get deleted by the tankbuster more often than not because they didn't mitigate and the shield healer didn't shield. Granted, the main issue is the tank not mitigating, but in such cases, the shields would've prevented their death.

I already addressed all of this. Your reply adds nothing new to the argument and doesn't refute anything I've said.

I've been in many encounters where after the raid-wide aoe, the party members take no damage for the next 30 seconds and the shields fall off.

There is always another attack coming in the next 30s, or the heal could have safely been delayed 5s~10s so that the shield would last until the next attack, or it doesn't matter.

If the shields fall off before damage is taken, then you could even have waited 30s before healing at all.

Also, is it useless then to pre-shield a tank about to get hit by a tankbuster? While doing Alphascape 3, I've seen the tank get deleted by the tankbuster more often than not because they didn't mitigate and the shield healer didn't shield. Granted, the main issue is the tank not mitigating, but in such cases, the shields would've prevented their death.

Shields are only worth precasting if you would die without a shield.

If a full health tank or full health party would die to a hit or an immediate followup, precast the shield. Otherwise, cast it after the hit.

[Eien713]

Aggressive tone

The part you quoted was meant to talk about the case where the tank was mainly at fault for not mitigating. Since it can be tough to always predict/spot if the tank will mitigate in time or not, this means that it's probably always safer to pre-cast shields anyway just in case. I sure as hell always try to put Benison on tanks when I spot a tankbuster whenever I can. In any case, let's just drop this matter. I got some informative answers from some people around here and that's good enough for me.

[Kacho_Nacho]

I've been playing this game for a very long time, and in this very long time, I can probably count on one hand the number of shield healers I've come across and who were actually doing their job properly. At least 99% of shield healers treat it like normal healing, casting their shielding spells after the attack hits, which is pretty pointless. I'm really confused. Does the game not explain anything about how shields work?*snip*

I totally get where you are coming from, Eien713. I played a Holy spec/ Discipline off spec healer in WoW. When I dove into playing a Scholar this expansion, I expected it to be the same. I pre-shielded every encounter, kept up regens, etc...

Then, I found out this is the wrong way to play a Scholar. Quite simply, Scholars are discouraged from using their primary shield spells, Adloquium and Succor.

It's all about being a green dps with a 24 step opener! I wish I was kidding. It's a pretty messed up situation.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...de_to_scholar/

I blame Square Enix for this issue. Unless they are willing to provide content which promotes a proactive healer to be a proactive healer then you will continue to see Scholars and Noct Astrologians not using their shielding abilities proactively.

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

Aaaand there's the swipe at healers.

As if every other role was played perfectly.

[Ayche]

I would argue shields and hots are also about comfort for some healers.
Shields make people extra protected.

[ZedxKayn]

Aaaand there's the swipe at healers.

As if every other role was played perfectly.

Well, this is a thread about healers.

[Aelin_Ashryver]

People get the concept. But you need to have foreknowledge of mechanics to shield properly and... unless the want to spoil everything for themselves that is not going to happen. Add on to that the fact shields feel largely useless in most content. I hate scholar but I main AST, it is my main job. Noct ast feels like garbage to me though, it is so sub par. The shields are tiny and skill shields you would hope would stack for a fat fat shield for a tank buster for ex don't.. Scholar I know can make a beefy shield with the right prep but otherwise when I tried that job the shields feel tiny and not worth it at all compared to just blasting a regen after a raid wide and letting everyone passively heal while I spam malefic.

[Fland]

I blame Square Enix for this issue. Unless they are willing to provide content which promotes a proactive healer to be a proactive healer then you will continue to see Scholars and Noct Astrologians not using their shielding abilities proactively.

Unless every TB will one shot the tank even with tank mitigation and every raidwide AOE will one shot non-tanks without shield then I can't see how they make contents that require more proactive shielding than they currently are.