Healers need an overhaul

[NekoMataMata]

The Devs already said they weren't going to make healing harder so there's really nothing left to discuss.

You're right, there absolutely is no discussion left then. They've essentially killed off the healer's role in that case. Turning the role into a dps is not the answer.

[Jovakim]

That's the thing though, it's a problem with the whole design. If healing is already so insignificant in this game, the solution is ... let's make even less of a focus? This sound like the joke of "a solution to the poor is to let's kill all the poor".

There are two big reasons why so many here in the forums have already given up on asking for more incoming damage/things to heal:

1. The devs explicitly said, multiple times (?), that they won't be increasing healing requirements;
2. If they DID increase them, they would either change nine years worth of content or leave everything outside of Endwalker as is;

Yes, making changes for nine years worth of content is a ridiculous thing to ask for, as well as asking for sudden changes on how healing works from Endwalker and onwards.

Believe me, I would love tank incoming damage and raidwides to hit much harder and be more frequent. But alas, the "damage" has already been done, and asking for more DPS skills seems to be the only feasible way to quench our boredom when it comes to healing in this game.

Also, I'm going to go ahead and assume that the devs mentality is something like this: "Everyone taking higher dagame increases stress on newer players!"
That's probably why they have been refusing to change things. As AngeliouxRein puts it well:

This game didn't attract the usual MMO crowd that would like all of the increasing dangers the higher level we got but a really casual/first time playing an MMO crowd instead. And some give vibes of this being their first game ever or something.

The casual/first-time MMO player is probably only going to brush off all the extra DPS buttons we've been asking for as being useless garbage, and they'll keep doing their "EZ clap" content stress-free! Can't you see that as a win-win situation?

[Deceptus]

You're right, there absolutely is no discussion left then. They've essentially killed off the healer's role in that case. Turning the role into a dps is not the answer.

Ok, that's fine. It's their game to develop. But we, as healers, need something fun to do in the downtime.

We used to be Buffers (AST) and Debuffers (SCH) but that was taken away. That needs to return if DPS options are off the table.

Perhaps regen healers can be the buffers and shield can be the debuffers.

[Anastaysia]

I am an altaholic, and the fact my thumb hurts from the spamming of our "rotation" after levelling the Healer classes to 90 on multiple characters. Why? I used to love healing.
Been here since 2.1, and back when we could heal in more fun ways. Stoneskin spam, controlling our faeries with macros. Astrologian was my favourite healer since it was released.
I loved the added card play, the planning and the many fun effects of each card.

But now? Just one card. Reroll and be happy. I really hope they listen, and play healers enough to see how lackluster the gameplay is from what it was.

[Hezhi]

I really hope they listen, and play healers enough to see how lackluster the gameplay is from what it was.

I don't think they really play the game anymore lol and if they do it's certainly not as glare mages

[Shurrikhan]

You're right, there absolutely is no discussion left then. They've essentially killed off the healer's role in that case. Turning the role into a dps is not the answer.

Returning to having more than a mere 2-3 rotational single-target spells that aren't (virtually never used) heals, as not to spend 91.7% of GCDs on a single button =/= "turning healers into DPS".

Or is, say, 5 offensive/supportive GCDs somehow the equivalent to having a full kit of them?


The devs refuse to give us more to heal.
The devs refuse to give us any support beyond mere shallow %dmg buffs.

So what else, then, is left if we want to use more than a single button for over 90% of our GCDs and the majority of our CPM (all oGCDs, pots, and Sprint also included) on that single button?

[Tlachtga]

Read my edit post above about tank stance. To repeat, I don't blame the current state of jobs sorely on SE's fault. That "direction" is a direct result of what happening in the community. Some may have the skill, but many had proven that they do not have the mentality to handle the responsibility.

did you even play in HW and SB lol? half the time you could rip from the tank even though they're in tankstance and doing aggro combos, even if you kept Quelling/Diversion on cd because your average tank was not good at the game. random SCH and AST would literally never use Fairy skills or DoTs/Cards and just spam Physick/Succor and Benefic/Helios.

but sure, fflogs and parse whores were the reason that got axed. they're the reason for everything bad when it comes to job design. FFLOGS BAD WAHHHH

[anhaato]

Dps rotation complexity is OPTIONAL DIFFICULTY in all levels of content, I’ll stand by this until the day I die. The devs full stop refuse to change encounter design so our only options are to either slash heal button potencies in half so you have to use them more or give them something else to do between heals. I stand by the latter, because weaker heals will result in more room for error in a life-or-death matter if some rando in df wants to greed. On the other hand, most normal content doesn’t require any high level of dps output, ESPECIALLY by a healer, to be cleared.

If thinking about which dps buttons to press is too hard or you’re too lazy to optimize then simply don’t. People with that mindset tend to remain localized in normal content either way. That’s the thing; it doesn’t lower the skill FLOOR at all if sch has to juggle 3+ dots again. All the removal of those dots did was lower the skill CEILING so anyone can do “””optimal””” dps by simply keeping their singular dot up; and tons of randos in roulettes don’t even do THAT.

[Raven2014]

did you even play in HW and SB lol? half the time you could rip from the tank even though they're in tankstance and doing aggro combos, even if you kept Quelling/Diversion on cd because your average tank was not good at the game. random SCH and AST would literally never use Fairy skills or DoTs/Cards and just spam Physick/Succor and Benefic/Helios.

but sure, fflogs and parse whores were the reason that got axed. they're the reason for everything bad when it comes to job design. FFLOGS BAD WAHHHH

Reading is hard. So let me repeat and re-emphasize for you.

Oh I certainly agree a player can be bad for many reasons. It's not like you don't have bad healers during Coil when healer DPS wasn't really a thing or the FFlog nonsense. The point is, that list of reason is already large enough I don't feel more factor being added to it.

[Lilapop]

ff14 has no "true healer" in the sense that its primary and usually only objective is to heal (hopefully this isn't gonna get anyone up in arms), the closest thing there is to a "true" healer is white mage. the whole "shield healer" vs "pure healer" is nonsense. a healer is someone who heals damage, a proper term for a "shield healer" is a mitigator which prevents damaging for even happening. don't get me wrong, i'm rather unsatisfied with how healers are here compared to what they have been both here and in older titles. but, they have come a long way from having to constantly spam heals. healer is and should stay a SUPPORT role. bottom line, a healer should be meant to heal (for those who played older titles, standing still spamming nothing but your heal spell as well as acting as a buffer should ring quite a few bells for you) and even then, ff14 healers are heavily spoiled and yet a lot don't know how to fully utilize their kit. healers have come a long way, this game is largely do-able without a healer, especially (primarily) in the main content). even more so with trusts being added to hop into dungeons with npcs that don't use even half of a full kid that players get. as a healer main, if it gets any more simple i would be disappointed, yeah. but on the flipside, how on earth is the healing hits (of sge and whm at least) so painfully simple, yet a large portion of them don't utilize their full kit? "you can't make the wrong choice if all your choices are heal" healers never, ever, ever, had a button that said "heal" and that was their only heal. at a base level, there's single target heals and group heals, nowadays theres heals on cooldown incorporated into what little "rotation" exists. fact of the matter? there is no "healer" rotation. this'll get some people up in arms for sure, but there is no linear way to play a healer perfectly. (there are OPTIMAL ways, RECOMMENDED ways, sure). a healer is larger a reactionary class (i.e you react mid fight), and yet, some how, no one can really agree on what the most optimal playstyle for a healer IS. for example, white mages (at least from what i've seen) are told to ALWAYS have regen on the tank... but i've also seen tanks say it makes pulling harder because of aggro, or something or another, personally, i slap it on whoever needs it when they need it. kardia is pretty near useless in my (and most parties i ran with) experience when it comes to higher tier content (that's not to say i don't use it, my point with kardia is it's not enough to be used as a primary source of healing). sage's specialty is mitigation.

tl;dr healer won't get harder, so many people can't play it as it is, yet its more in ff than it ever has been in other places.