Why nearly no one is playing healers nowadays ?

[Liam_Harper]

I think a lot of it is anxiety. People come to these forums or other sites and get the constant barrage of "Healers are just Green DPS!" even though the devs have said other wise multiple times. Lots of people who play healers want to heal, and often like healing because it's less frantic than DPS or Tanking. But you have people whining Healing is boring unless they are frantically spamming abilities like a chimp on crack.

It scares off some of the people who would otherwise try healing out.

It's the exact opposite.

The veteran players and good healers who want to play their best have been discouraged away, because they've been told "healers only heal" while being refused anything to actually heal by the devs, while simultaneously having nothing else to do either except spam one button because the devs prefer to listen to the "healer should be the netflix and afk class" players.
The majority of healers are new players who moved to the class because they get away with only having one responsibility for 10-20% of the fight and can just do mechanics and stand there otherwise. Thus the quality of healers have plummeted.

"Frantically spamming abilities like a chimp on crack" is pure nonsense when even at the highest levels of play, healers don't do more than about 30-40 actions per minute, including oGCD's. That's not exactly rapid spam. Did the chimp break its hand or something?

No healers are not green DPS. They're a support class and I'm personally tired of people trying to defend not supporting your party to the best of your ability, like every other class and role in the game is expected to. Healing is support. Dps is support. You have both. Why wouldn't you use your full support toolkit?
In the majority of cases a dps spamming healer is miles better at healing than an afk Medica II spammer, because their goal isn't big damage numbers ...it's a focus on how they can be as useful to the party as possible for as much of the fight as possible. The Medica II spammer on the other hand frankly doesn't care, they just want an easy clear and free praise for less work.

[Sauteed]

"Frantically spamming abilities like a chimp on crack" is pure nonsense when even at the highest levels of play, healers don't do more than about 30-40 actions per minute, including oGCD's. That's not exactly rapid spam. Did the chimp break its hand or something?

I like most of the post sir, but I think the person you were responding, was just saying that there people who want the healer roles to be about frantically pushing buttons not that they believed it was that way. And like you I feel it's not breakneck apm stuff.

I am definitely not a healer main, I dps more than anything , and part of the reason I dont get into healing is the entirety of the role is boring, I guess is the best way to put it. The only healing class that had any "difference" in terms of gameplay was Astrologian for me, and when ShB came out that went right out the window, and from all the comments I saw from other healers they felt the same about their roles.

And people are opinionated, sure. I've seen some say it is boring because healing requirements are so easy, outside of savage that they struggle to stay awake and want more diversity in their dps options.. some say they feel like they have too many ogcds, and think more emphasis should be put on their actual hard cast spells etc.. having played other mmorpgs , and playing this one, what makes it hellishly boring for me is the rigidity of dungeon design.. it isnt that you can just do a dungeon 1 time and know what to expect and need in terms of healing/dps, it's that you can do 1 dungeon and know what to expect in all dungeons from that point on. The exceptions would be up to level 50 arr dungeons and maybe a select few hw dungeons.

It is not just boring for healers. It just gets stale, I dont even log in and hit roulettes up regularly like I used to. I'm just sick of that whole dungeon experience. Opinions on that whole subject vary as to why, to straight up comments like "maybe this isnt the game for you then" if you try to suggest any changes.. but I honestly do feel SE sees the staleness, and will be working to address it over the next 10 to 20 year period. > _>

[Brandedblade]

I mean everytime i check adventure in need , it is always healer .
It rarely tanks with is strange since , from my experience, healing is easier then tanking.
Tanks also shows as adventure in need but less often.
I am curious why is that.
Any clue anyone ?
Thanks for the hints.

Strange, I've been getting very fast queue times on my dps classes, which if I made the mistake of assumption means that there's still a healthy amount of healer players jumping into the queue.

And that's the issue. You can listen to these forums repeat the 5 same statements over and over again but the data we have on whether or not the majority agrees, disagrees, or could simply care less.

If there is a lull in healers, "Healer became boring so everyone quit" is a broad statement that can't be determined as accurate, it could be that the healer main's who do still enjoy healing are leveling their alt classes, or don't need to run roulettes because they're caught up for the expansion, or they're simply taking a break from the game until new content is added.

[IDontPetLalas]

I think a lot of it is anxiety. People come to these forums or other sites and get the constant barrage of "Healers are just Green DPS!" even though the devs have said other wise multiple times. Lots of people who play healers want to heal, and often like healing because it's less frantic than DPS or Tanking. But you have people whining Healing is boring unless they are frantically spamming abilities like a chimp on crack.

It scares off some of the people who would otherwise try healing out.

First of all, quoting the developers- well I can understand that while people read what developers intend in order to understand job design, and in order to help guide their job choice- however developers are by no means infallible, in addition developers are often not always permitted to follow their own personal preferences.

Secondly, I don't understand why you would think that you would feel that DPSing on a healer would prevent you from healing. Often, DPSing can allow you to heal more efficiently, and that is a more enjoyable experience for everyone, not only the healer. I would say that the only time I felt frantic was in a perfect storm such myself being new, the tank doing a large pull and not using CDs.

Other than that? I mean really , I would see more issues and frantic spamming if a healer just overheals and never DPSes, especially if one or more DPS are having issues,

[HappyHubris]

First of all, quoting the developers- well I can understand that while people read what developers intend in order to understand job design, and in order to help guide their job choice- however developers are by no means infallible, in addition developers are often not always permitted to follow their own personal preferences.

Secondly, I don't understand why you would think that you would feel that DPSing on a healer would prevent you from healing. Often, DPSing can allow you to heal more efficiently, and that is a more enjoyable experience for everyone, not only the healer. I would say that the only time I felt frantic was in a perfect storm such myself being new, the tank doing a large pull and not using CDs.

Other than that? I mean really , I would see more issues and frantic spamming if a healer just overheals and never DPSes, especially if one or more DPS are having issues,

Right, but developers create the current healing meta by their decisions:
-Low incoming damage
-Incredibly strong heals
-Choreographed damage

The point isn't frantic spamming to overheal, but rather more healing casts per minute in content so that you're not spamming glare or broil or whatever. Other games have things like anticipating damage spikes by cast-cancelling, mana management, and other healer responsibilities.

If a DPS class spent most of their time spamming one button (I mean, BRD gets oGCDs), they would burn out, too.

[IDontPetLalas]

Right, but developers create the current healing meta by their decisions:
-Low incoming damage
-Incredibly strong heals
-Choreographed damage

The point isn't frantic spamming to overheal, but rather more healing casts per minute in content so that you're not spamming glare or broil or whatever. Other games have things like anticipating damage spikes by cast-cancelling, mana management, and other healer responsibilities.

If a DPS class spent most of their time spamming one button (I mean, BRD gets oGCDs), they would burn out, too.

Well, I could see that there could be multiple approaches. I"ve healed in other games, I'm sure many people in FFXIV have, other games are great for inspiration.

I certainly hate one-button spam too. that's why I consider AST just a bit better due to card management, and it's a more fluid healer, but the DPS choices are so boring.

Do I find mana management interesting? Been there, done that, nope.

Will the game change from choreographed damage? I doubt it, so then as players learn a fight they will get more efficient at fight. There could be healing checks, but they'll remain predictable. So that will likely leave us with buffs and DPS as options, which is fine with me.

But maybe I'm completely wrong, in which case I'll have to adjust or play another job. Time will tell.

[Alpheus]

Right, but developers create the current healing meta by their decisions:
-Low incoming damage
-Incredibly strong heals
-Choreographed damage

The point isn't frantic spamming to overheal, but rather more healing casts per minute in content so that you're not spamming glare or broil or whatever. Other games have things like anticipating damage spikes by cast-cancelling, mana management, and other healer responsibilities.

If a DPS class spent most of their time spamming one button (I mean, BRD gets oGCDs), they would burn out, too.

The simplest solution is to have over healing/topping off party HP proc some buff that's a minor benefit for the party, like.... idk some minor DET buff or some such, but limit said hypothetical buff from over healing so that it can only proc every so often and have that cooldown of sorts be shared between both healers or make it two separate but stackable buffs that can only be proc'ed by shield and throughput healers to incentivize and cement their design aspirations with having two subsets of healers and wanting one of each subset present in all raid comps. That's the simplest solution and it's not a flawless solution either as it has its downsides.

The best solution however, is to give all the healers (individually) the same manner of fluff AST has with its cards and make the job gauges more engaging for WHM and SCH so healers don't lose their minds though imo. The buff idea above is dumb but I noticed the best way to make inroads in allowing for more support effects is to tie them into roles and into actions you're gonna be bringing and performing anyway (see the new various tank CD benefits coming in EW or buff maintenance that a number of DPS jobs have for performing their rotations) so I just pulled something off the top of my head that would be less invasive in terms of implementation (don't have to touch any kits) and tied to the healer role which is already mandatory and tied it to actions which are also similarly mandatory while adding a threshold that is more of a suggestion but if met can pay off for the group.

Healers biggest issue in their design is that the other shoe doesn't drop for them the way it does for DPS and tank design AND you don't feel engaged unless things go horribly wrong or mistakes are commonly made which together with the simplified DPS kit all just compounds into a "malaise of blah" for the role.

[Rayne6665]

Cus i dont play healer classes. They’re not my kind of thing.

[MintnHoney]

Cus i dont play healer classes. They’re not my kind of thing.

Surely you jest.
After all, Squeen made the healers so accessible and easy and simple for you to pick up and play! Surely that's everyone's thing.

[Recon1o6]

Surely you jest.
After all, Squeen made the healers so accessible and easy and simple for you to pick up and play! Surely that's everyone's thing.

just in case that's sarcasm remember the obligatory /s
though were they not a healer or someone interested in healing I do wonder why they are here on the healer forums

certainly for many of us here, the healer jobs atm are not our thing and that's why we're asking for changes back to what we did enjoy and future changes to follow the ideas and gameplay style that we did like


accessible does not equal fun. Accessiblility is just the measure of the skill floor