Yoshi-P: "If you want more engaging content, go play Ultimate"

[Atelier-Bagur]

Speak for ya'll selves, I still get nervous having to heal in content, just because of the nature of healing alone. I think the issue they see if healers get more damage spells for rotations then healers in this game would start to focus more on DPS'ing rather than healing which just....negates the purpose of having a healer in the holy trinity the system was made for. I think we've grown too complacent with the idea that "healers are a dps" job when its in their job description to heal not to deal damage.

This is an extremely BASED opinion on my part though because I'm a controller user andy and having to add more buttons for full on damage rotations alongside your meaty healer toolkit will just overload the cross-bar hotbar setup into a complicated mess.

[AnotherPerson]

Speak for ya'll selves, I still get nervous having to heal in content, just because of the nature of healing alone. I think the issue they see if healers get more damage spells for rotations then healers in this game would start to focus more on DPS'ing rather than healing which just....negates the purpose of having a healer in the holy trinity the system was made for. I think we've grown too complacent with the idea that "healers are a dps" job when its in their job description to heal not to deal damage.

This is an extremely BASED opinion on my part though because I'm a controller user andy and having to add more buttons for full on damage rotations alongside your meaty healer toolkit will just overload the cross-bar hotbar setup into a complicated mess.

What holy trinity? Tanks can heal themselves AND the party now. DPS have healing tools built into their toolkit to contribute to healing. Some jobs that aren't healers even got more tools to help with mitigation this expansion. What about healers? Got some additional skills in the DPS rotation while everyone gets some healing or mitigation tools? Nope. None of that.

I want to see exactly - how many more people will enjoy tanking if they removed the 1-2-3 rotation, replaced it to 1 single target attack, 1 AoE, and 1 long range attack and give tanks only more mitigation skills like rampart every expansion. No Crit Fell Cleave, No Primal Rend, No Confiteor, No Blade of Faith, No Blade of Truth, No Blade of Valor, No Bloodspiller, No Flood of Shadow, No Shadowbringer, No Double Down, No Hypervelocity, No Continuation, No Gnashing Fang Combo.

GNB will now do Keen Edge on every attack from Lv 1 onwards, have it upgraded to Brutal Shell at lv 54, Solid Barrel at lv 64, Burst Strike at Lv 72, and Hypervelocity at Lv 82. They get Demon Slice at lv 10, and it upgrades into Demon Slaughter at lv 82. As a "DPS" tank like "DPS" healer Sage, you can also press Sonic Break OR Bow Shock at lv 62. You also get 2 charges of Camouflage, 2 charges of Nebula, and 2 charges of Heart of Stone/Heart of Corundum though to help mitigate damage!

DRK will now do Hard Slash on every attack from Lv 1 onwards, have it upgraded to Siphon Strike at lv 54, Soul Eater at lv 64, Carve and Spit at Lv 72, Bloodspiller at 82. Oh, for AoE, your Unleash is learned at Lv 10. It auto upgrades to Stalwart Soul at lv 82 rather than 72. You get 2 charges of Shadow Wall, 2 charges of Dark Mind, 2 charges of Abyssal Drain, 2 charges of Dark Missionary (that also shields the party with a potency of 500), 3 charges of Oblation. To facilitate the ease of tanking, you no longer have to worry about MP on Flood of Shadow and Edge of Shadow, because they'll be removed. Instead, you'll get Salted Earth at 62 and Salt and Darkness at 90!

PLD will now do Fast Blade on every attack from Lv 1 onwards, have it upgraded to Riot Blade at lv 18, Rage of Halone at lv 30, Spirits Within at 54, Goring Blade at 64, Royal Authority at 72, Atonement at 82. Your single target attack will always generate MP. For AoE, they get prominence at Lv 10, and it upgrades to Eclipse at 82. You get Sentinel, Divine Veil, and Intervention on a lower cooldown with 2 charges. Holy Sheltron still exists, but instead of generating 5 gauge on every auto attack, you naturally generate 50 gauge every 25 seconds in combat. Oh, and Holy Circle is learned at 62, but now on a 2 charge system at lv 90. This way, it doesn't affect your MP to spend solely on Clemency, which will now be an ability and instant cast.

WAR will now do heavy swing at Lv 1 onwards, have it upgraded to Maim at lv 18, Storm's Path at Lv 30, Storm's Eye at 54, Inner Beast at 64, Fell Cleave at 72, Inner Chaos at 82. For AoE, Overpower is learned at Lv 10 and it auto upgrades to Steel Cyclone at 82. Inner Release is a nice tank ability, except now you don't crit or direct hit because those don't do anything to tanking. Instead, you mitigate an additional 20% with all your already strong mitigations! Don't worry though, because at 80, you'll unlock Upheaval whenever you use Inner Release, or use Oregeny at 90!

You feel that your damage (rotation) is lacking? No, that must mean you think your AGGRO will be affected! No worries, now your NATURAL AGGRO GENERATION will be 20x instead of 10x! No fear of losing aggro. Isn't that great as a TANK? Now you can actually take ALL your time to make sure you PROPERLY POSITION The enemies in case it's too DIFFICULT to spare EXTRA energy on it! EVEN WHEN YOU DON'T NEED TO. SO YOU CAN IMMEDIATELY DO IT AT A MOMENT'S NOTICE.

That's basically healers, except you replace "AGGRO" with "HEALING", "NATURAL AGGRO GENERATION" with "TOTAL HEALING POWER", and "PROPERLY POSITION" with "PROPERLY STARE AT THE HP BARS".
If that sounds jaded, that's because healers basically dealt with this for multiple years. If the focus for healers was the same as tanks, it wouldn't be so bad. However, they basically implied that there are only 2 healers: beginner healers and ultimate-level healer raiders. No in-between. No 'average level healer that isn't amazing, but at least understands the core functions of their toolkit and have been DPSing often because tanks can keep their HP afloat with only a couple of additional heals on their part'. THAT's the big problem with the current healer design. The best of healers can DPS with 90%+ downtime. The worst of healers cannot because they use Cure I / Diagnosis / Physick / Benefic and it eats away at their MP. Where is the huge disparity gap from 0% to 90%? What about a decent player with 60% downtime? Just spam their single offensive button for over half the fight?

[Rhysati]

Speak for ya'll selves, I still get nervous having to heal in content, just because of the nature of healing alone. I think the issue they see if healers get more damage spells for rotations then healers in this game would start to focus more on DPS'ing rather than healing which just....negates the purpose of having a healer in the holy trinity the system was made for. I think we've grown too complacent with the idea that "healers are a dps" job when its in their job description to heal not to deal damage.

This is an extremely BASED opinion on my part though because I'm a controller user andy and having to add more buttons for full on damage rotations alongside your meaty healer toolkit will just overload the cross-bar hotbar setup into a complicated mess.

This is a very valid concern. The problem is that the game design doesn't support healers just being healers. The gameplay is so insanely easy that all there is left to do is hit your one dps skill over and over. That isn't challenging and isn't good game design.

I also would prefer healers to focus primarily on healing and not ever have to dps a single time in a dungeon. That would be my utmost preference just like it was going all the way back to my first MMORPGs like NexusTK and Everquest. Back then DPSing as a healer was a foolish thing to do and a massive waste of a very limited mana pool. It would make or break your encounter if you wasted mana on a weak attack over prioritizing keeping the tank alive.

But FFXIV's design isn't like this. We literally have tanks now who don't even NEED a healer to kill bosses from 100-0. That means all that's left is for healers to prioritize dps over healing and the design of the classes is the exact opposite of that. That's where the issue is.

[Mapleine]

Speak for ya'll selves, I still get nervous having to heal in content, just because of the nature of healing alone. I think the issue they see if healers get more damage spells for rotations then healers in this game would start to focus more on DPS'ing rather than healing which just....negates the purpose of having a healer in the holy trinity the system was made for. I think we've grown too complacent with the idea that "healers are a dps" job when its in their job description to heal not to deal damage.

This is an extremely BASED opinion on my part though because I'm a controller user andy and having to add more buttons for full on damage rotations alongside your meaty healer toolkit will just overload the cross-bar hotbar setup into a complicated mess.

Majority those heals are rarely/never used, this is the issue. The game design literally can't support an actual healing role as it is. If I didn't cast damage spells, I'd border on triggering the AFK flag on a lot of content.

For you guys with anxiety, you know that healing in end game is literally responding to damage with a couple of AoE instants and spamming one nuke with 90% of your GCD window, right? It would just have to play itself to get easier, there's just no other way to make it any more simple to execute.

Only thing that changes between healers are small re-shuffles of filler auto healing (Embrace, Kardia, Regen, etc.) and how part of your damage is distributed (Cards, Buffs, Nukes, etc.). I dunno why Yoshi P can't just courage up and have this conversation. We just want to heal or to do damage or have anything to press, good lord how is this design acceptable in any game? One renamed DPS key somehow justifies an entire role consisting of four job?

I've started to actually pick my EX farming healer of the moment by how sick I am of hearing the other healer nukes, because that's the most significant difference between the four.