Just wanna say, I really enjoy healing in this game.

[Denji]

I'm actually quite fond of it, too -- except for whm at low levels. I'm sorry but everyone else gets regens and shields and they get diddly squat. That said...

I have played many MMOs and honestly, complaints over healers always seems to be the primary focus. A small but vocal minority always screeches about the other healers having something they don't and just how much more damage they want to do. They always say just how broken healers are in -this- MMO but when you ask them to cite an MMO what had healers they liked, they can't. They just can't. There are no other healers they like. They are never satisfied. Ever.

[fulminating]

ARR, HW and SB scholars. As in something that was that is no longer. From this very game no less.

I’ll put current warrior in that list too, because it’s certainly more enjoyable to heal casual content on than it has any right to be.

[IDontPetLalas]

I'm actually quite fond of it, too -- except for whm at low levels. I'm sorry but everyone else gets regens and shields and they get diddly squat. That said...

I have played many MMOs and honestly, complaints over healers always seems to be the primary focus. A small but vocal minority always screeches about the other healers having something they don't and just how much more damage they want to do. They always say just how broken healers are in -this- MMO but when you ask them to cite an MMO what had healers they liked, they can't. They just can't. There are no other healers they like. They are never satisfied. Ever.

I can, quite easily, in more than one game. you probably haven't heard it about one of them , however it's still alive, although f2P and much smaller now- and for year, healers were one of the most popular jobs. In thht game, healers were THE job for years for the hardest content for healing, could carry groups in PVP healing, and wer not the highest DPS in PVE but were in the top tier- so not equivalent to a BLM, but better than a SMN. It's called Aion if you're curious.

So the only "screeching" that I see is from ill-informed people who are claiming that no one is ever satisfied anywhere. Please stop exaggerating. There are good examples to draw on elsewhere, when people say that FFXIV has really dumbed down some aspects of the healing job in this game it isn't without justification.

[Sebazy]

I have played many MMOs and honestly, complaints over healers always seems to be the primary focus. A small but vocal minority always screeches about the other healers having something they don't and just how much more damage they want to do. They always say just how broken healers are in -this- MMO but when you ask them to cite an MMO what had healers they liked, they can't. They just can't. There are no other healers they like. They are never satisfied. Ever.

Eh? Where's that come from though? I'll cite a few examples from other games I've sunk time into right now:

In Everquest, healer's were generally fine, clerics were the most indispensable healer for raiding whereas Shaman and Druids were stronger for, merit farms and soloing. The only time I actively complained was during one of the planes expansions, the Shaman kit for the new level cap was a literal copy and paste job of the previous to the point where they actually forgot to change some of the tooltips with the new names

In FFXI again, healers were in a similar boat, just this time they didn't have the soloing capabilities that EQ healers had but that was fine. This time round the Job system was actively used as a tool to find the right job for the situational at hand. Even the jobs themselves offered a good amount of flexibility. I mained BRD with a side of WHM, SCH and BLM, if I ever complained in FFXI, it was about RMT or Linkshell politics, that was it. What the game lacked in pace compared to modern MMOs, it easily made up in community, danger and immersion. It was a great time to be a support/healer.

Moving up to WoW, I mained a resto>elemental Shaman and almost exclusively PvPed throughout Vanilla, BC and early WoTLK only stopping with the release of Arena. My own 'complaints' here were rather tounge in cheek snipes at Tigole for the constant Rogue vs Shaman 'adjustments' that seemed to come each patch. In fairness most of them were needed even if a few of them were a bit lame. However in view of this thread, it has to be said that healing Shaman had 2 huge peaks during early WoW and playing during those points was an unforgettable highlight. It's why I have no interest in the PvP in this game, not because it's bad in it's own right, but because it just doesn't live up to what WoW had going back then.

Two more recent examples would be SWTOR and Warhammer Online, both games had excellently thought out healer implementations that did a fantastic job of feeling impactful and powerful in their own right without being quite as devastatingly capable as WoW pvp healers sometimes were. I've sung the praises of healers in both of these games on these very forums on multiple occasions TBH so I can only assume you missed that? Complaints here? IMHO These games both died for the same reason, not enough investment in content development.

And yes, I'll also chime in that FFXIV's early game healing experience is actually pretty great, leveling dungeons are a highlight for sure. Running Bardams for the first time when SB launched was a fantastic experience, so much so that I recorded my leveling grind in it.

They just can't. There are no other healers they like. They are never satisfied. Ever.

So there's 4 rather verbose examples for you right off the bat. Could you expand on where your view came from? It honestly feels like an opinion you've made purely from reading these boards and not much else, certainly not actually speaking to healing stalwarts elsewhere.

[Renathras]

I'm actually quite fond of it, too -- except for whm at low levels. I'm sorry but everyone else gets regens and shields and they get diddly squat. That said...

I have played many MMOs and honestly, complaints over healers always seems to be the primary focus. A small but vocal minority always screeches about the other healers having something they don't and just how much more damage they want to do. They always say just how broken healers are in -this- MMO but when you ask them to cite an MMO what had healers they liked, they can't. They just can't. There are no other healers they like. They are never satisfied. Ever.

Largely agree. Many people here have been pointing to WoW healers as healing done right, but I remember healing in that game (and loving it, outside of Cataclysm where they supposedly switched the healers to a "triage" model of healing...but forgot to tell the encounter designers, so heals were weak but damage was still as hard hitting as Wrath just now healers didn't have the tools to deal with it anymore), and I remember people in that game still endlessly complaining about it, even as I found healing fun on all the healers, and I played every one other than Shaman (didn't have one leveled, but a friend let me play his for a few hours and I was able to pick up on it just fine and enjoy it, too)

While the majority (and this true in FFXIV today) like healing in the game, there is always a group that doesn't and complains.

Now, this isn't saying some of the complaints aren't justified or should be dismissed without analysis. But it IS saying that the complaints generally don't represent the majority and that there ARE some people who cannot be pleased. The grass is always greener...

I’ll put current warrior in that list too, because it’s certainly more enjoyable to heal casual content on than it has any right to be.

Having just finally gotten around to getting WAR to 90...this is hilariously true. Though it doesn't have an on-demand direct heal like Clemency or Vercure. But the absurdity of Raw Intuition/Nacent Flash is just hilarious.

So the only "screeching" that I see is from ill-informed people who are claiming that no one is ever satisfied anywhere. Please stop exaggerating.

These two sentences shouldn't be in the same post, much less right beside each other. I can be charitable and assume this was meant as sarcasm (with an /s tag), but it's still reaching and it's still furthering this weird notion that only people who are stupid/trolls/badz/newbies/ignorant would like healing in the game as it exists today. Tall about exaggerating.

[Renathras]

...

I've always hated "Arena" PvP (unless it's a FPS, and then it's iffy), so I do FL's exclusively. If the Devs want me to use the tools, don't make them abjectly stupid. In a war, you don't strap a nuke to your doctor and tell him to charge at the enemy. That's just asinine. Though I DO use Seraph in one other place than objectives, which is if an enemy has been cut off from their team or yanked into our team by our tanks or charged into our team (with a Seraph Strike, Ifrit charge, etc) stupidly. That's a good time to smack into them and then plaster them with Misery, Nature's polymorph, and let my team finish them as I back off so I don't get plastered by the enemy front line myself.

Mumification is the worst though, since there's not even a charge. Meaning you have to waddle your happy butt into melee in the first place. XD

And none of this gets around the fact we have no spamable heal. We aren't really even healers in PvP, we're support. SGE is barely even that due to how its healing works (or, rather, doesn't work as healing). SGE is basically a DPS with benefits, more like PvP Ranged DPSers are.

I can see why a lot of people that are unhappy with PvE healers and want them to be support DPSers would like the PvP kits more, though, since it's kind of what they want in PvE anyway. I'm just the opposite.

EDIT:

So there's 4 rather verbose examples for you right off the bat. Could you expand on where your view came from? It honestly feels like an opinion you've made purely from reading these boards and not much else, certainly not actually speaking to healing stalwarts elsewhere.

Not the other guy, but I think they likely mean "in general" not "you in specific/every last person". As I noted, there were plenty of complaints in WoW about healers. Often it was about balance, but also their kits. Healadins were routinely complained about for having no AOE healing (before Cata, other than the Flash of Light/Beacon glyph that could be used for VERY light party healing and Judgement of Light, of course) and having a boring rotation that consisted of refreshing Judgement and chaincasting Holy Light on one tank while having Beacon on the other. That was in Wrath. Before Wrath (in BC) it was chain casting Holy Light (sometimes with downranking for mana preservation) while refreshing either Seal of Light or Judgement of Light (originally 30 sec buffs, later changed to 2 mins, LATER changed to 30 min) and Judging Light or Wisdom once every...30 seconds, I guess?

In Vanilla, the only healers that actually healed in raids were Holy Priests. Disc was for leveling, not playing, Druids were for using...oh gosh, I can't remember the name of it, but the mana refresh ability they had? They were for using that on CD on the Holy Priests. And Paladins/Shaman (faction locked in Vanilla) were exclusively for buffing - they didn't waste mana on heals and tried to stay out of combat entirely to maximize mana regeneration. Vanilla was...wild.

As I started my MMO healing career as a Healadin, I've never had issue with FFXIV's healers being "boring".

But I actually enjoyed that. I liked Druid healing as rolling HoTs across the party, and dabbled a bit in Holy Priest as well. I even did PvP, though only Battlegrounds.

The complaints from the community, though? Oh god, do you really not remember? OF THE TOP OF MY HEAD:

- Holy Paladins were TOO POWERFUL in PvP (though this was largely because of Death Knights and the synergy with Holy Paladins, but the Healadins were the ones eventually nerfed)

- Holy Paladins (all Paladins, actually) were too boring (Vanilla/BC/Wrath)

- Holy Paladins stay out of combat and cast buffs and don't even heal (Vanilla - again, all healers that weren't Holy Priests felt this in some way)

- Holy Paladins have no AOE heals.

- Holy Priests are too weak.

- Holy Priests have no niche.

- Lightwell (Holy Priest) sucks (despite the ability always being powerful and the Devs constantly buffing it to get more people to use it, because it had to be interacted with manually, players just wouldn't do it)

- Holy Priest is too powerful. (Yes, this contradicts the above point)

- Holy Priest ability X (there were many) is too strong/weak/niche/useless. (I mentioned Lightwell, but it was hardly the only offender)

I could go on for a while, but the long and short of it is, the WoW community AS A WHOLE complained quite a lot about WoW healers, and did so until I stopped playing in Mysts, which was arguably the point at which they were most balanced and complaints were the least.

.

So I don't think the other person was saying YOU are doing this PERSONALLY, but that in a general sense, there is a lot of truth that MMO healers in a given MMO, as a community, can and do often complain no matter what. As I noted above, this doesn't mean all complaints are invalid, but it does mean that complaints existing isn't as meaningful as it might otherwise seem.

[Nizzi]

but when you ask them to cite an MMO what had healers they liked, they can't. They just can't. There are no other healers they like. They are never satisfied. Ever.

I like Scholar. I love Scholar, actually. The old Scholar appeals to me more, but I like Scholar so much that's why it's practically the only job I complain about. I leveled every job to 80 in Shadowbringers, and I've almost got every job to 90 here, but I leveled all 4 healers first and found that yep, I still really love Scholar. I don't complain about WHM, SGE or AST because I don't like them. If there were no healers that I liked, why would I have threads posting my many thoughts on the Scholar and where it can be improved?
And what an assertion to say that "they are never satisfied" ever. You sure are good at making up imaginary enemies in your head and then painting them with a large brush; you would be a great politician. I have said numerous amounts of times that if they did something as simple as giving Scholar Miasma and Bane back I would stop complaining. Scholar appeals to me, but the older Scholar appeals to me more. It's not wrong for me to want my favorite job in this game and the one that keeps me subscribed to it to be as good as it has been in the past and as good as I know it could be now.

[IDontPetLalas]

Largely agree. Many people here have been pointing to WoW healers as healing done right, but I remember healing in that game (and loving it, outside of Cataclysm where they supposedly switched the healers to a "triage" model of healing...but forgot to tell the encounter designers, so heals were weak but damage was still as hard hitting as Wrath just now healers didn't have the tools to deal with it anymore), and I remember people in that game still endlessly complaining about it, even as I found healing fun on all the healers, and I played every one other than Shaman (didn't have one leveled, but a friend let me play his for a few hours and I was able to pick up on it just fine and enjoy it, too)

While the majority (and this true in FFXIV today) like healing in the game, there is always a group that doesn't and complains.

Now, this isn't saying some of the complaints aren't justified or should be dismissed without analysis. But it IS saying that the complaints generally don't represent the majority and that there ARE some people who cannot be pleased. The grass is always greener...



Having just finally gotten around to getting WAR to 90...this is hilariously true. Though it doesn't have an on-demand direct heal like Clemency or Vercure. But the absurdity of Raw Intuition/Nacent Flash is just hilarious.



These two sentences shouldn't be in the same post, much less right beside each other. I can be charitable and assume this was meant as sarcasm (with an /s tag), but it's still reaching and it's still furthering this weird notion that only people who are stupid/trolls/badz/newbies/ignorant would like healing in the game as it exists today. Tall about exaggerating.

I do not need your charity, thank you. On the contrary, my comment is a direct quote, and stating that "no healers anywhere are ever satisfied" IS an exaggeration.

On the contrary, you are in error, and should be more careful in your language towards me as my post does not, nor do my posts ever call someone 'stupid OR ignorant or badz" NOR do they ever imply as such.

[IDontPetLalas]

Eh? Where's that come from though? I'll cite a few examples from other games I've sunk time into right now:
SNIP
Two more recent examples would be SWTOR and Warhammer Online, both games had excellently thought out healer implementations that did a fantastic job of feeling impactful and powerful in their own right without being quite as devastatingly capable as WoW pvp healers sometimes were. I've sung the praises of healers in both of these games on these very forums on multiple occasions TBH so I can only assume you missed that? Complaints here? IMHO These games both died for the same reason, not enough investment in content development.
And yes, I'll also chime in that FFXIV's early game healing experience is actually pretty great, leveling dungeons are a highlight for sure. Running Bardams for the first time when SB launched was a fantastic experience, so much so that I recorded my leveling grind in it.So there's 4 rather verbose examples for you right off the bat. Could you expand on where your view came from? It honestly feels like an opinion you've made purely from reading these boards and not much else, certainly not actually speaking to healing stalwarts elsewhere.

Agreed on SWTOR, I didn't bring that up but we had a lot of flexibility there with the skill trees - full heal spec, more of a turret DPS spec and a very mobile dot spec if my memory serves.

[NorthernLadMSP]

The only place I actually enjoy playing as healers anymore is the new PVP. Otherwise, healing is, by far, the most boring role in the game.