How to easily have healers dps engaged ( yet another thread)

[Renathras]

quoting

My thing is we shouldn't have a ton of buttons that do EXACTLY the same thing. WHM is the simplest example. SB Lilies were glorified Freecure, so we'll ignore them. ShB Lilies were originally a "when you need to cast Cure 2/Medica 1 but can't because you need to move" tool. That is, SEMI-emergency buttons that were up frequently, but not all the time. In a way, it was a kind of shared oGCD system. Like imagine if Whispering Dawn and Indominability shared a CD or something, so you have the option of using either but either you use locks out the other for their shared CD. (I'm not sure of a good EXAMPLE of this in healers; WAR has a single target and aoe attack that are oGCDs but share a CD). This way, they're limited resources AND a choice. I think that was the original design for Lilies, not the EW "damage neutral instant cast healing movement tool to get Misery into a burst window" that they've become today.

But regardless, the issue is, they do the exact same thing as a GCD heal, Medica 1 and Cure 2 respectively. To make matters worse, Tetra is yet another Cure 2. Assize WOULD be another Medica 1, but for the damage.

SCH/SGE have a similar issue with Lustrate/-cholethatIcan'tremember (Durochole?) that are just a quick heal roughly comparable to a Cure 2 with no CD. These two spells that exist, and in theory are useful, but are seldom used because of other tools that match or exceed them. Excog and Taurochole have CDs, but they're still up frequently, so many times you might use their "lesser" version, you use them instead. And in emergencies, Adlo/Eu Diagnosis are more powerful single target heals anyway. And Ixochole is basically a non-Eu Prognosis (SCH doesn't exactly have an equivalent, though)

The point I'm making is, these special abilities are cool when they aren't already covered by the GCD kit. If they are, they just replace the GCD tools. Aquaveil doesn't replace anything because WHM doesn't have a GCD that does the same thing. Tetra DOES replace something (Cure 2) because it does basically the exact same thing. Solace and Rapture replace Cure 2 and Medica 1 because, again, they do the exact same things. Imagine if Rapture was Medica 2 and Solace was Cure 2 + Regen. (and remove Tetra and make Medica 2 what Cure 3 is). Now you have Medica 2(Cure 3) for large stacked heals, Medica 1 for spread party heals, Rapture for spread heals with a Regen tick (so for big damage you use this into Medica 1/2[Cure 3] spam), and for single target, have Cure 1 and Cure 2 for spot healing while you have Solace for spot healing + extra (from the Regen tick) which also would go a long way to making WHM have a niche as a Regen healer.

EDIT (for space):

Now each button feels distinct, burning Lilies to generate Misery isn't so bad if people are overhealed because the HoT is at least useful on the Tank if nothing else, and each of those buttons has a place/use in the kit based on the situation at hand.

Another problem is when different healers have identical things. AST and WHM have an essentially identical GCD kit other than WHM having Cure 3 and Lilies TECHNICALLY being GCDs, just AST's cost less MP. Imagine if WHM's were stronger but more expensive OR faster casts. Just something to make them...not identical. Same with SCH and SGE who have a NEARLY 1-to-1 for their AF abilities.

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Summary is: I think it'd be nice of the oGCDs actually did more unique things and didn't step all over the toes of the GCD heals by being "the same, but better without a DPS loss", which makes them the go-to tools. Either oGCDs need to be distinct from GCD heals OR they need to have longer CDs so they aren't the go-to tools as much.

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Oh, and as for the "one healer sacrificed" - I guess my thinking is, I don't consider it a "sacrifice". Many people WANT that playstyle. We have 4 healers, so I feel they all SHOULD play differently. Like I tri-main WHM, SCH, and SGE, and their DPS kits are MORE OR LESS identical. I also dual secondary (since it's my secondary preferred role) WAR and GNB. I also HAVE PLD at 90 and did have it as my tank in SB. It's so refreshing that when I play WAR or GNB, they both feel distinct. WAR doesn't feel any more complex to my brain than the healer kits do (I'm not optimizing it nearly as much as I try on my healers just because I understand the healer kits better from more hours on them), but it's pretty straightforward and gets pretty good results from dumping all your CDs in burst and otherwise pooling stuff while occasionally hitting an upkeep buff. Honestly, I'd be happy if the upkeep buff were removed, but people already say it's "braindead" (no Job in this game is, no matter the hyperbole). GNB, on the other hand, is way more rigid, and painful on fights like Ex4 where she kind of likes to make you disengage/run away from her every 30 sec +/- a few, making keeping Goring Blade's CD rolling an absolute pain in the Chocobutt. But some people love THAT. PLD is also rigid, but also has a lot of weird nuance (where you leave an Atonement off to keep the rotation lined up, for example) and that weird cursed FoF -18 second opener business.

But the point is, they're all DIFFERENT. I've only dabbled in DRK ("leveling" it some as a side project but only at 35 at the moment), but apparently it plays vaguely like WAR with a lot more oGCDs (gated by MP, not CDs) during its burst phases, making it kind of straddle between WAR and GNB's playstyles.

Four Tanks. Four completely different rotations and playstyles. And there's still an "easy" one - again, I'd prefer it a SMIDGE easier (just because I hate "upkeep" things in general as a mechanic, be they self-buffs or DoTs) - but they still get to be different so players can pick a different one that appeals to them.

With healers, most of the "different that appeals to you" right now is just based on aesthetics and whether you like more mitigation in your toolkit or not, and for AST, if you like getting carpel tunnel syndrome. I don't think having one healer with the present damage kits (which by comparison are about even in structure to WoW's Holy Priest or Resto Shaman using Balance subspec instead of Feral) is a bad thing. I just think having all four have it is silly.

And I think it would go over better with the community and Dev team if one (probably WHM) was left with the damage kit of today. UNLESS we just dump the heck out of oGCDs and make all healing GCD again like HW/ARR with relatively low damage. If that was the case, a second DoT like back then wouldn't be horrible, I guess? But I think if one was left as it is today in terms of simple damage kit, it would be way more palatable for the community as a whole who DON'T come to the forums and actually like healers today.