Healer design is still terrible and I'm tired of apologizing for it.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Unfortunately, the game will still be run by Riot which did very similar things to their employees as Blizzard has. Why people have given Riot a pass I can only chalk up to people liking their games more than Blizzard's so it's okay that they treated employees horribly and have had to deal with lawsuit after lawsuit over it.

I sure won't be giving Riot any of my money.

Honestly this most likely is a thing that happens to most companies. People like to think SE is this big shiny company full of amazing people but i’m sure even they have their own problems just maybe more subdued because it’s JP oriented. Personally i don’t care about any internal stuff. If the game is good i’ll buy it and at this point 14 has been nothing but disappointment beyond disappointment so i’m looking forward to any new mmo’s coming out. Personally i’m interested in Ashes of Creation as it seems to really bring back that old tank healer dps trinity where the healers not only heal but have their own form of utility like dispersing poison clouds around the overworld or dungeons etc. Far more engaging than any 14 healers.

[Lauront]

Honestly this most likely is a thing that happens to most companies. People like to think SE is this big shiny company full of amazing people but i’m sure even they have their own problems just maybe more subdued because it’s JP oriented. Personally i don’t care about any internal stuff. If the game is good i’ll buy it and at this point 14 has been nothing but disappointment beyond disappointment so i’m looking forward to any new mmo’s coming out. Personally i’m interested in Ashes of Creation as it seems to really bring back that old tank healer dps trinity where the healers not only heal but have their own form of utility like dispersing poison clouds around the overworld or dungeons etc. Far more engaging than any 14 healers.

Same. Although I do temper my expectations when it comes to new MMOs, I really hope that a decent competitor to this game emerges. Don't really care about the internal dynamics of the company provided it is putting out good work.

[Iaito]

Am I missing something? I've played WHM from day 1 in ARR and I've always found it to be a fun, challenging, satisfying class to play even up until now. I manage my mana, I use my full kit both on- and off-gcd. I contribute to DPS. I'm not 90 yet, though. Does the gameplay somehow change into a mindless zombie-mode rotation at endgame? Based on the complaints I'm reading about healers popping up lately I'm a bit skeptical about continuing at this rate.

[ASkellington]

Am I missing something? I've played WHM from day 1 in ARR and I've always found it to be a fun, challenging, satisfying class to play even up until now. I manage my mana, I use my full kit bot on- and off-gcd. I'm not 90 yet, though. Does the gameplay somehow change into a mindless zombie-mode rotation at endgame? Based on the complaints I'm reading about healers popping up lately I'm a bit skeptical about continuing at this rate.

I can't really answer this for you and I don't think anyone else can either. All I can give is my experience:

Day 1 of AST when I started I found it challenging and fun. When I got better with healing and got better gear (even if it wasn't BiS) I started to find it tedious.

Will that happen with you? The argument can be made for "yes". I can point the whys and wheres but that imo doesn't matter so much. The argument can also be said for "no". Perhaps you get to where I am as a WHM or AST or SGE or SCH and you find enjoyment with how things are. That solely depends on you.

Do what I did when I looked onto the forums - wait til you get there and experience it for yourself. Ignore what we have to say for now, ask us for advice on healing if you need and enjoy your time with WHM or whichever of the healers you gravitate to.

[AFuzzyMu11in]

Am I missing something? I've played WHM from day 1 in ARR and I've always found it to be a fun, challenging, satisfying class to play even up until now. I manage my mana, I use my full kit bot on- and off-gcd. I contribute to DPS. I'm not 90 yet, though. Does the gameplay somehow change into a mindless zombie-mode rotation at endgame? Based on the complaints I'm reading about healers popping up lately I'm a bit skeptical about continuing at this rate.

What you are seeing is what raiders/high optimize type players who only surround themselves with statics or high requirement PF stuff view the game. It CAN get boring at the highest level when it all becomes too easy so they seek their thrills from challenges via a kit etc. It’s like how league is always challenging cause you don’t know what champion/comp/level of skill/mental your team is vs theirs. BUT if you had the same team/same comp every game you would become bored and seek fun from within your champ not the game itself.

[WaxSw]

Does the gameplay somehow change into a mindless zombie-mode rotation at endgame?

Yes, once you get more experience you'll find that fights are scripted and gcds are rarely needed this would lead you to an optimal gameplay consisting on pressing glare over and over and over until the dot refresh to press glare again dealing with the low heal requirements with ogcds (and some afflatus heals in Whm case) and ending with things like for example glare being the most used action over 160 times and the second one being dia 16-17 times

[Azuri]

Am I missing something? I've played WHM from day 1 in ARR and I've always found it to be a fun, challenging, satisfying class to play even up until now. I manage my mana, I use my full kit both on- and off-gcd. I contribute to DPS. I'm not 90 yet, though. Does the gameplay somehow change into a mindless zombie-mode rotation at endgame? Based on the complaints I'm reading about healers popping up lately I'm a bit skeptical about continuing at this rate.

The better your teammates are the less engaging your role will be. Which is a completely asinine system.

[Jybril]

Honestly, part of the issue for me is that most heals are boring. Some heals are fun- I like Earthly Star...collective unconscious is cool.. it's kind of fun. This game is so bland with direct heals or shields that there isn't a ton of variation in heal styles that make healing actually fun. I can think of some other games with heals that were pretty fun to use. Prayer of Mending in WoW was great, Hymn of whatever in WoW was a fun channeled smart heal.... In Everquest 2 reactives were really fun, wards were just shields... Guildwars had reversal of fortune that was fun, they had one spell that just reduced damage by a lot that was fun. Reverse damage shields can be kind of fun.

It seems like all the healers in the game have the same toolkits with a regen or shield component.... not much variation and not much fun. I guess it's easy to balance, but it really makes things more "bleh". Divine arbitration from EQ was a neat way to handle things in some cases where one person (especially casters were in trouble).

It just seems there is lots of theme and little actual variety amongst the healers. Maybe they will get more creative in the next go around, but right now, it's pretty vanilla. every since AST, I have felt they have backed themselves into a corner with the heal/shield only dicotomy.

I like Sage a lot but I'm having more fun as a DPS. I've been maining heals in every game I play but I can't take the bordeom anymore. I just feel more useful as DNC/BRD/RDM because I can heal or support while pressing more than 1 DPS button for friggin' years. Every healer pretty much plays the same and have the same skills imo. SGE and SCH differ only because they shield a bit more, that's it. I miss TERA's combat and play style. Priest was fun and Mystic is one of my fave healers of all time.
Resto Druid is my fave healer from WoW and probably of all time.

Just so sick of healing in this game when they stripped every thing to make them fun.

[OtakuSempai]

Highly subjective.

I came from WoW.

Their encounter designs are uninspired and have been for a long time.

The only thing true in your statement, is that auto attacks from bosses are high damage, requiring a healer to be on constant tank duty. But you have to factor into their larger groups in raids and how aoe heals work.

Some healers want to be constantly busy with healing requirements like in other MMOs, I too am one of this mindset. But this game's healing requirement isn't like this... unless you pug hard content, early on in the patch cycle, before everyone knows the strats and over-gear the content.

Let me be more specific, their encounter design that facilitates everyone actually using their role SE could do well to emulate. Designing encounters around several people and roles being afk is just completely stupid imo, see current ex trials being completed without healers.

[Halfgeeek]

Am I missing something? I've played WHM from day 1 in ARR and I've always found it to be a fun, challenging, satisfying class to play even up until now. I manage my mana, I use my full kit both on- and off-gcd. I contribute to DPS. I'm not 90 yet, though. Does the gameplay somehow change into a mindless zombie-mode rotation at endgame? Based on the complaints I'm reading about healers popping up lately I'm a bit skeptical about continuing at this rate.

It's part of being jaded. Once they've mastered the role and play with those who also mastered the game, it all becomes quite unsatisfying and boring.

Repeating the same Ex, Savage or Ultimate no longer provides the same thrills. The encounters scripted, memorized to the second, the inevitable victories, hollow..

The only optimizations they're left with is getting in more Glare, Broil, Malefic, Dosis and to see how low they can let the party HP drops to without wiping. There's those who parse runs to compare rDPS, it's the wins here & there that provides the little joys that make it worthwhile, like when they use Dissipation and spam Energy Drain on cooldown & manage to rank up on fflogs.

Then there are those who find no joy at all to playing a healer, so they play other roles, or on the forums.