Broil

[Sebazy]

I keep hearing this "barely need to heal" but am not seeing it in every day practice. Incoming parse from an established group farming an encounter.

My first Levi EX (E3S) clear, week 1

The last Levi EX I uploaded with my group, A few months later

I'd use a turn from a newer tier but my group typically tends to start a couple of weeks after each tier because we are slackers. For Eden's Gate the stars aligned and we actually managed to raid on week 1, we narrowly missed out on a week 1 Titan kill so I'll use Levi instead so that the results aren't being skewed by tome gear etc

Week 1 = 72 Healing GCDs vs 138 DPS GCDs over 10:44
Week x = 45 Healing GCDs vs 143 DPS GCDs over 9:06

By approximation, if the week 1 clear had have died at 9 minutes I'd have used 60 healing GCDs. A difference for sure, but it's not that huge a gap. A 'better' healer than myself would almost certainly optimise their GCDs more by week 8, but they would have also likely been much more efficient than me on their first clear as well.

The TLDR of this is that it's worth looking at some progression footage from pretty much any halfway decent healer. You'll see them nuking pretty much from the second pull onwards because fights tend to be so heavily scripted now. This isn't Extreme Primals or 24 man content, when people mess up and fail mechanics in recent Savage tiers the end result is usually either a damage down, a death or a raid wipe. From the healer's perspective, most situations will cost us a GCD. /shrug.

[NyneSwordz]

I agree! Spamming a sequence of three+ buttons is when the true fun starts!

You're being overly simplistic. 3 buttons isn't just "3 buttons," it also implies how those 3 buttons interact with each other and with the entire kit. Giving scholars something like bane to spread dots alone would make the job much more fun.

[Punslinger]

I agree! Spamming a sequence of three+ buttons is when the true fun starts!

If having a one-button rotation is good, fun gameplay for healers, it should also be good, fun gameplay for casters, right? If it's okay for WHM to spend half the fight casting Glare, then it's okay for BLM to spend half the fight casting Fire. Not Fire 4, or Fire 3, just Fire; we'll cut the BLM kit all the way back to Fire and Thunder, give them one nuke, and one DoT, same as every healer. No Astral Fire/Ice to worry about, no Enochian to maintain, no Xenoglossy procs to watch, no Ley Lines to worry about positioning, just the pure unadulterated fun of a 211111111 rotation.

How many people would still play BLM at that point? Would BLM be a fun, engaging class to play?

No? Why not? After all, BLMs are just "spamming a sequence of three+ buttons." And you said that wasn't fun.

[Kabooa]

No? Why not? After all, BLMs are just "spamming a sequence of three+ buttons." And you said that wasn't fun.

What are my other 20 buttons doing?

That's pretty important you know, seeing as a healer isn't just "21111111111".

[Drekor]

My first Levi EX (E3S) clear, week 1

The last Levi EX I uploaded with my group, A few months later

I'd use a turn from a newer tier but my group typically tends to start a couple of weeks after each tier because we are slackers. For Eden's Gate the stars aligned and we actually managed to raid on week 1, we narrowly missed out on a week 1 Titan kill so I'll use Levi instead so that the results aren't being skewed by tome gear etc

Week 1 = 72 Healing GCDs vs 138 DPS GCDs over 10:44
Week x = 45 Healing GCDs vs 143 DPS GCDs over 9:06

By approximation, if the week 1 clear had have died at 9 minutes I'd have used 60 healing GCDs. A difference for sure, but it's not that huge a gap. A 'better' healer than myself would almost certainly optimise their GCDs more by week 8, but they would have also likely been much more efficient than me on their first clear as well.

The TLDR of this is that it's worth looking at some progression footage from pretty much any halfway decent healer. You'll see them nuking pretty much from the second pull onwards because fights tend to be so heavily scripted now. This isn't Extreme Primals or 24 man content, when people mess up and fail mechanics in recent Savage tiers the end result is usually either a damage down, a death or a raid wipe. From the healer's perspective, most situations will cost us a GCD. /shrug.

To even further emphasize the point ...WHM is probably the heaviest GCD healer. If you look at that second log and go to the SCH he casted only 11 GCD heals vs 180 GCDs for damage.

[Mortex]

What are my other 20 buttons doing?

That's pretty important you know, seeing as a healer isn't just "21111111111".

Blm his other buttons give him proc change, mobility, rotation being faster with triple and swift, weaving addle for magic aoe if you want ( not needed in 99% of the content but you can if you want), extra fire IV and despair, not stacking more then 2 polyglot, using fire 3 proc too get back faster into your fire phase and at the moment because the proc duration isn’t that long you can’t use polyglot there (except if all the raid buffs are up for maximum dmg) or it runs out. On whm and astro all my ability heal (giving a shield or 10 % dmg reduce is just healing with extra steps except if the next ability is so hard hitting you actually need that too survive that, but the problem here is you never have these hard hitting abilities in 99% of the content) doesn’t matter if I put a bubble on the floor or if the heal comes from me. If I need to heal I have soooooo many options for it there is almost no weight behind any decision. On the dps side using a wrong skill or not using big cds makes you deal way less damage a lot of times, massively kneecapping you and the speed of clearing anything and even beating enrage timer.

[Kabooa]

Blm his other buttons give him proc change, mobility, rotation being faster with triple and swift, weaving addle for magic aoe if you want ( not needed in 99% of the content but you can if you want), extra fire IV and despair, not stacking more then 2 polyglot, using fire 3 proc too get back faster into your fire phase and at the moment because the proc duration isn’t that long you can’t use polyglot there (except if all the raid buffs are up for maximum dmg) or it runs out. On whm and astro all my ability heal (giving a shield or 10 % dmg reduce is just healing with extra steps except if the next ability is so hard hitting you actually need that too survive that, but the problem here is you never have these hard hitting abilities in 99% of the content) doesn’t matter if I put a bubble on the floor or if the heal comes from me. If I need to heal I have soooooo many options for it there is almost no weight behind any decision. On the dps side using a wrong skill or not using big cds makes you deal way less damage a lot of times, massively kneecapping you and the speed of clearing anything and even beating enrage timer.

no, you see, the thing is their version of Black Mage doesn't have any of that. None of it. They only specified Fire and Thunder, and through process of elimination, basically removed around 20 buttons from their conditions.

So what do my new 20 buttons do?

[NobleWinter]

no, you see, the thing is their version of Black Mage doesn't have any of that. None of it. They only specified Fire and Thunder, and through process of elimination, basically removed around 20 buttons from their conditions.

So what do my new 20 buttons do?

They all heal. Enjoy content now.

[Semirhage]

no, you see, the thing is their version of Black Mage doesn't have any of that. None of it. They only specified Fire and Thunder, and through process of elimination, basically removed around 20 buttons from their conditions.

So what do my new 20 buttons do?

If we're going with an analogy to the way healers work in this game, they'll be vital to the party's success and you'll spend about 10% of your time using them. Then it's back to Fire Fire Fire Fire Fire Fire Fire Fire.

[Kabooa]

They all heal. Enjoy content now.

Oof, I can't believe all of Astro's extra buttons only heal, and in fact all heal in exactly the same way with exactly the same cooldown and exactly the same targets with no other differences between them or considerations to make.

If we're going with an analogy to the way healers work in this game, they'll be vital to the party's success and you'll spend about 10% of your time using them. Then it's back to Fire Fire Fire Fire Fire Fire Fire Fire.

I'm confused. I thought we were changing how Black Mage's filler worked.