SE FINALLY ANSWERED THE HEALERS COMMUNITY LONG ANSWERED QUESTION

[ty_taurus]

A couple of things. Yoshida is responsible enough to take accountability when he acknowledges a mistake his team has made which has lead to a lot of disappointment. You saw this when he directly apologized to all SCH mains for their lackluster showcase in the LL. He then went into great length to assure SCH mains that they have not neglected them, and to look forward to EW. Now that's when they acknowledge a eff up. Obviously he's not going to come out directly and say that, but it is a much different response than how he responded to everyone who asked about the healers.

My interpretation about that response was he realized that the SCH’s section of the job actions trailer was poorly executed. Even if not much changes, they still want the job to look cool. An example would be something like MCH where very little is changing, but they still show off things like the Automaton Queen, Flamethrower, Auto Crossbow, Ricochet… i.e. things that look cool. SCH admittedly have very little interesting looking actions these days, but they could’ve at least used things like Fey Union, Scared Soil, or Summon Seraph. It also just didn’t even showcase the sprint buff well at all.

He seemed to be apologizing more that he didn’t oversee the trailer more meticulously to ensure that the SCH looked better and displayed their new capstone more effectively, but followed up by saying that SCH will still be fun to play, or at least that’s what they say.

For the record, I don’t necessarily think the healer changes are a fuck up, at least not universally. I was more just using that as a hyperbolic example of the other extreme. Because if he actually did feel like they fucked up healing, hypothetically, he would still need to promote it as a positive direct for the role.

It needs to be understood that the direction they have taken healing is not a mistake, or it is not seen as one by this dev team. It was a deliberate design choice that some healers don't agree with. I emphasize on some, because the healers upset by this design choice is not shared across the entire community, and are in fact, not even the majority of it.

So what? It’s clear that there’s a fairly significant chunk of the player base that is upset. It’s bubbled to the surface so much so that influencers who don’t care at all about healing asked legitimate questions on behalf of their fans who do play healer. We’ve had back and forths before and you keep taking this stance of “us vs them” in regards to casual players and experienced players. We are not your enemy. We are not trying to ruin your casual experience.

Over the years, the healers who do not agree with raising the requirements of them have been ostracized and their views drowned out. Some have even been shamed and told they condone inferior gameplay; so now all you hear for the most part are the frustrations from being bored by the game's advanced healers, as no one dare object or risk the wrath of the pitchfork mob. Meanwhile you have this enormous portion of the healer community who won't touch anything outside NM difficulty.

We need to break this down a little because there’s an important distinction between healers that try and struggle vs the section of healers that were demanding the role change so that healers never DPSed and would outright refuse to DPS in any content no matter the circumstances. The later were basically selfish players who wanted to play a different game with FFXIV’s aesthetic, because that’s not how FFIXIV is designed, and it will never be that way.

For the healers that would try and have a difficult time, I get that. There are changes that I think were really good in Stormblood to make their experience easier, such as removing Cleric Stance. I firmly believe Cleric Stance was terrible because it was a system based on punishment. If you don’t use it, your punished because you can’t DPS. When you do use it, if you mess up your timing, then your healing is punished and you could have the team killed because you forgot to press a button, or because your latency prevented it from being turned off.

And guess what, the people who were complaining about healing being too hard largely stopped. Stormblood’s addressing of that issue was perfectly fine. There was no reason to further cauterized the healed wound with what Shadowbringers did specifically to SCH. Yeah WHM lost Aero III too, but SCH was basically disemboweled to resolve issues that no one was complaining about.

What I just mentioned about all the healers who stay away from content EX and above is reason enough for them to not raise the skill floor by giving healers additional responsibility. This is why every once in a while they release a dungeon, NM raid, or wall boss in an alliance raid that is a bit more spicy than the rest to see how players do. What do you think it means if they latter go in an nerf one or more of these encounters, especially well after additional ilvs are released? A boss like Cid in Orbonne could be considered a trial of the playerbase, and guess what? We failed it. And you want to raise the skill bar? SE has yet to release an Alliance Raid we wipe to since Orbonne.

Here is another way to look at it, and this is most certainly how Yoshida does: If you raise the skill floor, what do you think happens to all the players residing on that floor currently? Sure, all the healers who stay above ground will benefit and thrive, but it comes at the cost of exclusion. However this dev team has to be indiscriminate of skill level when it involves decisions that affect the game on a global scale. You need to zoom out. Way the eff out. Those players on the current skill floor are also paying subscribers and have to be accounted for.

I don’t understand how we’ve specifically talked about this before, yet you keep bringing up this skill floor debate. How can I make it any clearer that…

WE. DON’T. WANT. TO. RAISE. THE. SKILL. FLOOR.

At this point, I’m inclined to believe one of three things: either you don’t understand the difference between a skill floor and a skill ceiling, you’re misunderstanding the difference between then, or you’re just intentionally ignoring what we’ve been saying in order to paint a narrative. If it’s the former two, please tell me. I will be more than happy to find you a number of examples and explain in greater detail what they are to help you understand what we’re talking about.

I'm not bringing all this up to smash hope before it can even sprout, but rather to broaden the perspective so suggestions on how to improve healer gameplay can go beyond the unsolvable puzzle it has been thus far. If you keep trying to solve a puzzle the same way, you will never get anywhere. Try another path.

I think if there is something to truly take from these interviews, it should be that Yoshida cares about each and every one of you. This is also something he does indiscriminately. So if you are aware now that his ear is open, you should know it has always been open. Be mindful of your suggestions. Try to be pleasant and inclusive, and it is totally ok to voice what you disapprove of and provide criticism. However anyone who chooses to berate the team, attack others who disagree, and rattle off like a broken record should not be surprised if hey are not listened to, or "ignored" as I see tossed around a lot.

I agree here. Criticism is important because it helps us improve and identify problems where we don’t see them. I totally understand the frustration and passion a lot of experienced healers have on the topic, but there are times where some people (not all) cross a line into defaming the team when people are likely working 60+ hour weeks to make this game a reality.

What this team wants now is feedback from all the healers after getting their hands dirty with EW, especially those who try Sage. Why do you think he's telling you to go an play Sage?

I think there are absolutely things we can talk about and criticize now, but this is also true. I’m speaking generally now, but when EW comes out, play Sage. Ignore the healers you think aren’t developed enough even if it’s a job you love. You’ll do more good for SCH leaving it alone and showing the team in numbers that SCH players are leaving the job than you will digging your heels in the sand and pouting about it. That said, I can’t tell you what to play as that’s each person’s individual decisions, but know that actions speak louder than words, especially when money is involved. And if Sage isn’t enough, continue to bring that up.