Openly admitting to ignoring the players

[MariaSilberfaust]

Still very new to the game - or rather a returner after I left for good before Heavensward came - and I could really feel the difference in playing all healers across the board. I'm not on max level so my experience varies a lot, compared to seasoned players, but I can already feel how stale this gameplay feels. It is either casting dmg Button 1 + the occasional big heal at a very big pull or Spam Holy/ Art of War. I was really wondering if this is going to stay the same.
Looking into forums is often times not the best idea due to many people not being vocal about their opinion which often leads to small groups of players, mostly from vastly different spectrums. Naturally I'm a bit disheartened now. Though, what I simply wanted to add is that I had fun playing healer - when I started to play PvP, namely Frontlines. There I actually felt like healing can win the match and make the day. It was rather hectic and I did not care so much about Stone (Glare) because I was very busy keeping my party alive.
I wonder if this is actually happening in the "general" gameplay loop too.

[BaconBits]

These people were not necessarily wrong...Aside from the AST sect changes which some people may not like, every other changes announced for healers are improvements.

I don't think many people were hankering for Astro's 1 dot, 1 aoe, 1 nuke rotation, not even other Astros.

[Mortex]

These people were not necessarily wrong...Aside from the AST sect changes which some people may not like, every other changes announced for healers are improvements.

Yes but it’s only because yoshi and his team were the ones too make these things a problem in the first place. You don’t thank the exterminator for killing some of the rats when he was the one releasing them in the first place. All these healer “changes” were sorely needed and they still don’t fix the over arching problem healer have in this game, that the fight design forces for almost all content massive downtime’s in healing so you stand there with 2 buttons to press until a weak aoe comes that you can heal with ogcd anyway and then afterwards it back too 1 and 2 button spamming. And that the future for the entire healer class for another 2 years.

[Garnix]

And that the future for the entire healer class for another 2 years.

That's very optimistic. I think it is the future for at least 6 years. In 3 expansions from now, they will want to add a new healer and will wonder how to balance the amount of shield and pure healers if there are 5 healers, so they will go back to the drawing board for that.

[Mortex]

That's very optimistic. I think it is the future for at least 6 years. In 3 expansions from now, they will want to add a new healer and will wonder how to balance the amount of shield and pure healers if there are 5 healers, so they will go back to the drawing board for that.

I mean knowing the track record that pretty much is going too be the future and I don’t think a good one.

[AFuzzyMu11in]

I mean knowing the track record that pretty much is going too be the future and I don’t think a good one.

It's fine. The mindset in my mind is the first encounter is most healing and subsequent ones you get to dps more. Being able to dps more is exciting because it means you got stronger either with mechanics or level/gear. It doesn't really get boring as long as you are rewarded for it.

[ItMe]

That's very optimistic. I think it is the future for at least 6 years. In 3 expansions from now, they will want to add a new healer and will wonder how to balance the amount of shield and pure healers if there are 5 healers, so they will go back to the drawing board for that.

They have also expressed that there will come a time when they have to slow down and then stop adding new jobs.
Who knows, maybe the 4 healers we have will be all the healers we get. Based on the way he's talked about it there are already rumblings and rumors that 7.0 will only add one new job.

We can't just get more jobs forever, and they might not add a 5th one if their drawing board doesn't look promising or if they don't feel like they'd also be able to add a 6th healer further down the line to balance things out.

But yeah, who knows what this game will look like in 6 years.

[ToodlesElNoodles]

My hope for last things to add:

1) A melee-centric healer (maybe Green Mage or Geomancer?)

2) A dedicated DoT caster. (Oracle/Omnyoji/Time Mage?)

3) Maybe one more ranged DPS. (BST with a limited side content?)

[Aword3213]

My hope for last things to add:

1) A melee-centric healer (maybe Green Mage or Geomancer?)

2) A dedicated DoT caster. (Oracle/Omnyoji/Time Mage?)

3) Maybe one more ranged DPS. (BST with a limited side content?)

Melee healer might never happen due to raid designs.

when 8 people are targeted by unavoidable aoes, you will have to push 1 melee out in order to function. Melee dps will stay no doubt. MT should not move. You are going to have war with ST for that 1 spot

Despite that, I looking forward to see it happen. Sounds interesting to me

[Allegor]

Who knows, it's not like WHM and SCH don't already need to go melee to cast Holy/AoW (Gods I hate AoW so much tho...), not to mention DNC is technically a melee job when regarding their aoe rotation, RDM has a melee phase, SMN and SGE(?) have gap closers, and NIN is [jokingly] considered an honorary ranged job - I think that while making a pure melee healer a la WoW holy paladin or Diablo monk would be impossible, designing a healer with a kit heavily involved in short distance combat/healing can be done.