Optional, yet better solution for Healing roles

[Absurdity]

In regards to the tunnel-vision argument.

For every single wipe that I've had because a healer was dpsing instead of healing I have also had a wipe where the healer was doing nothing else but heal, except the only heals they were using was Cure (or the equally useless equivalent on AST & SCH) and Medica 2.

What do we do about that? Reduce the amount of heal spells to "big single-target heal" and "big aoe heal" so those types of players can't tunnel-vision the wrong spells? Make healers auto cast because some people can't be bothered to use more than 2 buttons?

[ty_taurus]

In regards to the tunnel-vision argument.

For every single wipe that I've had because a healer was dpsing instead of healing I have also had a wipe where the healer was doing nothing else but heal, except the only heals they were using was Cure (or the equally useless equivalent on AST & SCH) and Medica 2.

What do we do about that? Reduce the amount of heal spells to "big single-target heal" and "big aoe heal" so those types of players can't tunnel-vision the wrong spells? Make healers auto cast because some people can't be bothered to use more than 2 buttons?

You're not being extreme enough. We clearly need to just make enemies not do any damage at all. People don't like even considering the chance that a wipe can happen in a game, so if we make it so that enemies can't actually KO your party, then we eliminate the problem at its root.

[Gemina]

This. I'm so tired of this. Every time I come into this forum it's the same "BUT WHAT IF HEALERS ARE DPSING INSTEAD OF HEALING AAA??"... There are DPS out there not doing their rotation, or tanks that don't use their cooldowns, it sometimes happens, some people play the game badly, or sometimes they do mistakes and forget to do something they should - doesn't really mean that it's a good excuse to keep pushing us into a AoE heal > burst heal > glare&dia forever and forever till the keycap 1 in your keyboard breaks. The mental gymnastics people do to defend this is amusing.

Besides, everyone has to do mechanics. If anything, I would say that most fights aren't that mechanic heavy on healers? I'm not saying that healing doesn't have its own sort of pressure - but acting like it deserves to be treated as a three-button class just because you have to do the stuff that everyone else does... *sigh*.

That's fine. You can feel however you want to feel. There's a couple of problems with that though. The first is if you think just because you disagree with an argument it automatically invalidates it. The second is when your emotions prevent you from seeing where the other person is coming from.

I get tired of things too. Such as players pining for 3.x gameplay to return; players who trivialize content and echo the words of others instead of formulating their own arguments. However, I understand that my feelings don't invalidate their arguments, nor do I dismiss them. I am among the frustrated healers out there wanting more engaging gameplay, and find things like what happened with SCH at the LL totally unacceptable. I also understand the complexity this entails. It's very easy to say tanks and DPS have to deal with mechanics too, so WTF? Again, even though I recognize this argument as dismissive, I also understand that it is 100% accurate. So my rebuttal is while this is true, tanks and DPS don't have to deal with mechanics while also correcting the mistakes others make dealing with those same mechanics. Healing is easy, until it isn't.

I also tire of the "2-button rotation" argument. Good lord has that argument been used over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over. To the point where I just say, "Don't like it, then play something else." This does not invalidate though. I understand that with encounter design the way it is, this dev team needs to figure out how to keep healers engaged as players out-gear the content. It is not fun to sit there smashing one button. Not one freakin bit. But don't give me more DoTs. For the love of all that is holy please do not give me more DoTs.

[ItMe]

TBH, i really don't understand the people who's idea of enthralling healer dps is simply to add more dots to it. Applying and maintaining dots has never been engaging gameplay for me. It's different if they proc something more exciting to use.

But don't give me more DoTs. For the love of all that is holy please do not give me more DoTs.

Same.
I don't understand the fascination with DoTs.
If they're gonna give us a button we push occasionally, instead of a move you push relatively thoughtlessly I'd prefer one you push contextually.

[LanFangHua]

You actually have a point. That would give each healer its identity and so to say "mastery" in different types of content.
Excellent!

[LanFangHua]

I'm really not one for giving buffs to all healers because I feel like that cuts into astro's identity a little too much, and if it's buffs that isn't just straight dps then I feel like we would be taking physical ranged dps thing. I think every healer should have it's own offensive style. ast it's buffs, whm it would be self buffs and burst, sch would be debuffs and dots, and sage it should be it's interaction between its heals and dps. I also hate relying on other people for my damage.

Each healer having its own offensive style it's pretty much what I was heading towards with my post. Poorly explained, but you got it.
On the other hand, I understand people like you who don't like to rely on others for damage, but that's not what was meant.

A buff should be a tiny push, nothing else. I feel like this game for being called an mmorpgs, offers to little to it, to the point that people have more interaction outside of the gameplay mechanics itself (role-playing, socializing, story talking, Ect...)

One of the things we underestimate and make us feel good is to feel the synergy. The connection to others and accomplishments as a team.
I also understand that others do not like that, but I mean, that's one of the reasons why the trust system was implemented for.

The thing is, I noticed a disconnect in classes on each expansion. Some skills that are supportive and cover each other weaknesses.

They deleted a lot of cool skills that some might call "gimmicks", but I found them to be very fun and interesting. But you know, after all the stuff they removed, "SLEEP" is still there. This is why I find so confusing the direction in which the development is going.

[ty_taurus]

Each healer having its own offensive style it's pretty much what I was heading towards with my post. Poorly explained, but you got it.
On the other hand, I understand people like you who don't like to rely on others for damage, but that's not what was meant.

A buff should be a tiny push, nothing else. I feel like this game for being called an mmorpgs, offers to little to it, to the point that people have more interaction outside of the gameplay mechanics itself (role-playing, socializing, story talking, Ect...)

I agree with healers having different offensive playstyles. Some of us want to be green DPS and push the boundaries of our ability to keep the GCD offensive. Others wish the healers never had to DPS at all. There are boundless ways we can approach this issue if we were willing to let each healer play differently to one-another, and as long as the numbers add up, there's no reason it couldn't be balanced either.

For example, I'd further define pure healers as more passive healers that contribute to RDPS through more indirect methods while barrier healers focus more on DPS methods.

WHM: Moderate DPSer with burst damage gated behind properly used GCD healing
- Essentially, we want Afflatus Misery to be more advantageous than Glare spam and make lily generation and usage more involved to reward proactive healing. I'd add a little more direct DPS options, but the goal is that you'd want to prioritize GCD healing over DPS and be the party's main healer as much as possible.

AST: Low DPSer that focuses on dealing damage while healing and GCD buffs.
- AST doesn't actually suffer from the same healing downtime issues as WHM and SCH because of how frequently you're weaving in card actions. That said, though, I think there's a greater opportunity to make AST appeal more to players who would prefer to not DPS as much if at all. I imagine you'd at least want to keep your Combust DoT up, but I'd refocus cards to be more consistent utility buffs while redirecting damage buffs onto the GCD, only instead of % buffs, you instead have ways to heal or support while applying stacks of "Light Arrows" to your party. When an ally uses Spells or Weaponskills, a Light Arrow stack on them is consumed, dealing a 100 potency attack to the first target they hit based on you. This makes buffing more consistent and not dependent on that ally's job. They also already have actions like Earthly Star and this new "Starshower" ability that do DPS while also healing. I'd want to make it so that Malefic is largely for soloing purposes when you place Light Arrows on yourself, but you'd otherwise want to avoid it in raid situations most of the time.

SCH: High DPSer that focuses on DoT management and gauge management to maximize DPS uptime
- I'd like to see Scholar return to being a hyper-offensive healer that not only has some of its DoT potential restored, but also have its DPS tools reworked to have more meaningful interactions with one-another. I'd repurpose the Fey Gauge to be your main source of healing--buffing the faerie, make Eos all about burst healing while Selene focuses on debuff utility and Fey Gauge generation--and repurposing Aetherflow to be more for offensive purposes. You want to manage your Fey Gauge to enable you to rely on your powerful OGCD healing so that you don't need to stop DPSing. Unlike the WHM and AST, your GCD healing causes your DPS to grind to a halt, so you want to avoid it outside of niche or dire circumstances.

SGE: High DSPer that heals by doing damage.
- We'll want to see its full kit come the media tour, but so far this is looking to be a really solid addition to the healer roster. I definitely feel like they were playing it more safe with SGE's DPS options, but perhaps if the Sage maintains a strong playerbase throughout the expansion, the dev team will see that we want healers that have more meaningful GCD usages.

[GrimGale]

There is so much goddam design space.


--------------------------------Personal DPS---------------------------------------

WHM <----------------------------------------------------------------------->SGE


Regen Healer--------------------------+------------------------------ Shield Healer


AST<-------------------------------------------------------------------------->SCH

-----------------------------------Raid DPS-----------------------------------------

[Melorie]

That's fine. You can feel however you want to feel. There's a couple of problems with that though. The first is if you think just because you disagree with an argument it automatically invalidates it. The second is when your emotions prevent you from seeing where the other person is coming from.

I'm not here to validate or invalidate your argument. You can have your own opinion regarding things, and I can simply think that you're wrong. For some things, there's no need to be a lengthy discussion in which we consider all point of views - we can just disagree. At the end of the day, this is just a game forum, and it doesn't really matter what you think about my own thoughts and vice-versa. Sometimes we literally just want to vent about things, it's not deeper than that.

[Hurrican]

Same.
I don't understand the fascination with DoTs.
If they're gonna give us a button we push occasionally, instead of a move you push relatively thoughtlessly I'd prefer one you push contextually.

Neither do I.
Managing dots is also a mindless task once you get used to it