Why is the healer class basically a one spell dps class?

[SieyaM]

I've said it a lot and I am sure people are sick of it but healers don't need a real DPS rotation what they need is to have support abilities rolled into their kit. That would make them more interesting to play and give them something to do with downtime between healing without turning them into more of a DPS job with heals just kind of added on to them. Support abilities are however incredibly hard to balance and can be difficult for players to optimize since they are an indirect way of contributing to the party. As it is though the only way to really enhance healer gameplay is to give them a whole DPS rotation and make them green DPS with healing abilities kind of sprinkled in their kit.

[Acece]

For me personally I actually enjoy being a green dps, I just wish there was more. If do want to go down the support type role I would like Whm to stay the green dps healer so we can at least keep the playstyle around (with a more robust rotation).

[Ayer2015]

Healers in this game have access to far too much spamable Aoe healing. It really dumbs down the job. More dps abilities along with aoe heals on a reasonable CD would go a long way imo.

[Absurdity]

Healers in this game have access to far too much spamable Aoe healing. It really dumbs down the job. More dps abilities along with aoe heals on a reasonable CD would go a long way imo.

You'll most likely never see a nerf to spammable GCD aoe heals. Simply because it would increase the difficulty of basic content for any healer that hasn't memorized incoming damage yet, something I don't see SE doing, and because it would mean your average cure bot would have to actually plan out their aoe healing, something I also don't see SE ever doing.

[Feidam]

You'll most likely never see a nerf to spammable GCD aoe heals. Simply because it would increase the difficulty of basic content for any healer that hasn't memorized incoming damage yet, something I don't see SE doing, and because it would mean your average cure bot would have to actually plan out their aoe healing, something I also don't see SE ever doing.

I wonder if the current ogcd heal quantity is part of the issue with healers. I’m sure that’s contrary to what some like, but I’m wondering if they bloated their kit in the wrong direction. Remove some of those ogcd heals and add differing support skills or even more dps skills. Maybe the choice should be learning when to rely on ogcd’s/dps vs times where I need cast harder hitting heal spells. As it stands now it’s ogcd above all so I can have an uninterrupted pew pew chain. This might open some differing identities for the healer types. Like the white mage assize spell. If their kit was about dps spells that also healed through minor damage, but required casted major heals at times it could possibly create an interesting mechanic.

[Absurdity]

I wonder if the current ogcd heal quantity is part of the issue with healers. I’m sure that’s contrary to what some like, but I’m wondering if they bloated their kit in the wrong direction. Remove some of those ogcd heals and add differing support skills or even more dps skills. Maybe the choice should be learning when to rely on ogcd’s/dps vs times where I need cast harder hitting heal spells. As it stands now it’s ogcd above all so I can have an uninterrupted pew pew chain. This might open some differing identities for the healer types. Like the white mage assize spell. If their kit was about dps spells that also healed through minor damage, but required casted major heals at times it could possibly create an interesting mechanic.

Oh, no doubt about that, the overabundance of powerful oGCDs has made healing easier than ever before.

[Rilifane]

I wonder if the current ogcd heal quantity is part of the issue with healers. I’m sure that’s contrary to what some like, but I’m wondering if they bloated their kit in the wrong direction. Remove some of those ogcd heals and add differing support skills or even more dps skills. Maybe the choice should be learning when to rely on ogcd’s/dps vs times where I need cast harder hitting heal spells. As it stands now it’s ogcd above all so I can have an uninterrupted pew pew chain. This might open some differing identities for the healer types. Like the white mage assize spell. If their kit was about dps spells that also healed through minor damage, but required casted major heals at times it could possibly create an interesting mechanic.

Absolutely.
But another problem is that all the oGCDs are very straightforward and don't interact with each other. COpp is a copy of Asp. Helios. Horoscope uncharged a weaker Helios. CU is a weaker Asp Helios with limited range. ED ~Benefic II unless you milk for potency like crazy and give your tank a heart attack while you're at it.
SS and WD are very similiar in terms of potency. Consolation a weaker Succor. Indom an ET Succor, Fey Blessing a weaker ET Succor. Lustrate an ET Adlo.
Rapture an instant MP free Medica. Asylum similiar to a ground target Medica II. Solace and Tetra are both Cure II copies.

The only interesting skill across all healers is imo Earthly Star because both its placement and timing needs to be planned ahead for full value.
Everything else is just basic spammable GCD heal with a tiny twist that doesn't really change anything. PI has a synergy with aoe heals but gets avoided because of its poor design, Horoscope has a synergie with aoe heals but that one usually gets either ignored or shifted to transitions. Synastry is... well, niche. A somewhat interesting skill but very, very niche. I think the last time I used it was on e6s when my co heal RPed as a carpet and I had to heal both tanks during tanknados.

Not only are our hotbars bloated with oGCDs, they are also pretty much just GCD heal copies, making them very straightforward and just as uninteresting as repeatedly using the GCD heal they've been copied from. SCH has the secondary resource management going on but that can be summed up with "hold AF in case someone screws up, dump everything shortly before AF comes off cd" in most cases.

GCD dps spells, heals and oGCD heals and dps spells interacting with one another would add so much. Instead of slapping a cooldown on everything that is x * 30s, less or shorter cooldowns but reduced potencies and added synergies would make it a lot more interesting because it means there is more room for improvement both for healing and dpsing effectively. Right now it's pretty much "heal as little as possible, keep oGCDs rolling for neccessary healing".

[Ursa_Vonfiebryd]

Because in the end, most if not all support skills weren't used for actual support but to enable more dps. During Stormblood, this came to a head specifically for Tank Meta, where it expected for dps/healers to manage their own enmity so the Tanks could perform at optimal. While there were stories of tank meltdowns in Savage, it was by FAR the worst in casual content, where if you grabbed aggro from a tank (or got to yellow at least) you could expect to keep it or occasionally get a shirk for your efforts.

This was the most extreme and prevalent example, but it's the reason why most cross-skill support was removed. -Even the niche skills like apocatostasis (sp) which was basically magic damage mitigation skill and whatever the mp gift skill was called for BLM. These were strictly situational but still got the axe. The roles became more focused and homogenized. Healers lost a lot of what made them unique and Tanks lost their ability to fine tune their damage/enmity control. It was an effort to define the roles as something not just dps but in the end it just made it a mindless button mash for the most part.

[Semirhage]

Because in the end, most if not all support skills weren't used for actual support but to enable more dps. During Stormblood, this came to a head specifically for Tank Meta, where it expected for dps/healers to manage their own enmity so the Tanks could perform at optimal. While there were stories of tank meltdowns in Savage, it was by FAR the worst in casual content, where if you grabbed aggro from a tank (or got to yellow at least) you could expect to keep it or occasionally get a shirk for your efforts.

This was the most extreme and prevalent example, but it's the reason why most cross-skill support was removed. -Even the niche skills like apocatostasis (sp) which was basically magic damage mitigation skill and whatever the mp gift skill was called for BLM. These were strictly situational but still got the axe. The roles became more focused and homogenized. Healers lost a lot of what made them unique and Tanks lost their ability to fine tune their damage/enmity control. It was an effort to define the roles as something not just dps but in the end it just made it a mindless button mash for the most part.

Square Enix would have to design a game where the end goal is something other than DPS for that to happen. Instead of doing that, they keep hacking away at support skills like that will somehow change the fact that damage is the only thing that matters in all of their design.

[Ursa_Vonfiebryd]

Square Enix would have to design a game where the end goal is something other than DPS for that to happen. Instead of doing that, they keep hacking away at support skills like that will somehow change the fact that damage is the only thing that matters in all of their design.

Actually the thing that matters most is teamwork, though that's always overlooked here (in NA) in favor of personal performance. Yes, tanks and healers can do damage (can even do very good damage) but for the most part its incidental--like for solo instances (from a design standpoint). IMO, the game is set up so that ideally a group of a certain iLvl, using basic skills from their kit can clear the duty in the allotted time. The only real exception being Savage and Extremes/Ultimates where time is a factor due to enrage.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for utility but I don't want to suffer through another optimization war where I'm suddenly expected to play someone else's role so someone else can play mine. (I do really miss manashift but mp management on healer seems to be less of a thing now.) Hopefully they'll give us back a little with Endwalker.