Healers Exist for DPS fun only?

[ForteNightshade]

id very much prefer if theyd put heal checks and harder mechanics in the middle of fights than at the very end so you cant skip them as the tier gets older

Same. Take Voidgate, which is easily the most interesting mechanic of E10S. Any good group will skip it entirely by week four at the latest. Although, it's skipable as early as week two, I believe. Without Voidgate, Shadowkeeper only has one noteworthy mechanic, which just happens to be the worst one—that being the orbs. Cloud doesn't quite suffer from this as her last phase is essentially a repeat but all the others do.

[Boizinho]

Same. Take Voidgate, which is easily the most interesting mechanic of E10S. Any good group will skip it entirely by week four at the latest. Although, it's skipable as early as week two, I believe. Without Voidgate, Shadowkeeper only has one noteworthy mechanic, which just happens to be the worst one—that being the orbs. Cloud doesn't quite suffer from this as her last phase is essentially a repeat but all the others do.

Cloud is an excellent example of doing it right. Empty Plane is the highlight of the fight, and I really enjoy the fact that I still get to do it even this late into the tier where everyone is horribly overgeared. E10S and E11S are just kind of sad now though. You mentioned Voidgate already, but E11S arguably doesn't really test you until Cycles which you just don't see anymore. E2S had this same problem as well, with a mechanic of the same nature and with the same name.

Backloading the mechanics is obnoxious no matter when you're doing the fight. Early prog? Every wipe takes 15 minutes. A bit later when people are geared up a decent amount? It takes until the very end of a fight to find out if your PF "farm" group is actually going to be a farm group. Near the end of the tier? You get "savages" with less going on than Cloud Deck EX.

For anyone familiar with TCGs/CCGs, these fights feel like playing against a beginner's insanely greedy deck with nothing to play for the first 10 turns. The whole game they threaten to play their amazing high-cost, game-winning card, and then unceremoniously die on turn 8 without having ever done anything.

[ForteNightshade]

Cloud is an excellent example of doing it right. Empty Plane is the highlight of the fight, and I really enjoy the fact that I still get to do it even this late into the tier where everyone is horribly overgeared. E10S and E11S are just kind of sad now though. You mentioned Voidgate already, but E11S arguably doesn't really test you until Cycles which you just don't see anymore. E2S had this same problem as well, with a mechanic of the same nature and with the same name.

Backloading the mechanics is obnoxious no matter when you're doing the fight. Early prog? Every wipe takes 15 minutes. A bit later when people are geared up a decent amount? It takes until the very end of a fight to find out if your PF "farm" group is actually going to be a farm group. Near the end of the tier? You get "savages" with less going on than Cloud Deck EX.

For anyone familiar with TCGs/CCGs, these fights feel like playing against a beginner's insanely greedy deck with nothing to play for the first 10 turns. The whole game they threaten to play their amazing high-cost, game-winning card, and then unceremoniously die on turn 8 without having ever done anything.

E11S is just sad nowadays. Granted, PF still sees the beginning of Cycles despite having echo but even a casual static should be easily skipping that. At which point, he's basically a glorified normal mode fight with higher damage. E2S at least has enough going on that skipping Quietus cycles doesn't feel quite as bad but I agree. They sort of get it right in E8S, though I can't tell you have many times I've wiped to Icelight Dragonsong or Mirrors. Granted, E8S' problem is the lengthily cut-scene but that's a different argument. E3S is probably one of the worst examples this whole expansion on gear ruining a fight. It's so heavily backlogged. Levi does practically nothing for 5-6 minutes, which means the majority of his fight, you basically auto-pilot.

The third fights in general were not great this expansion; with Idol of Darkness being one of the worst fights they've ever designed, especially as a healer. But I digress.

While I hated the repetition of Stormblood raids, I actually would be okay if more fights were setup like Cloud where the "highlight" mechanic is repeated only at the very end with the expectation you'll skip in a static.