Healers need an overhaul

[Semirhage]

I already did though? Either you missed my point or you actually didn't read them.

I already stated:

- I am actually green DPS. I don't like it much, but I'm fully conform to the gaming norm. When I'm in party I will make sure I play to the most efficient as the class/role designed for, regardless of my opinion.

- That the games for years had been designed to ingrain the players base with the green DPS mentality.


I merely mentioned "traditional healing" as my prefer preference, as my wish and dream how the game would be designed. I think people are so vitriol and hostile toward my reference that they just skimped through and press me on stuffs that I had never said. To be clear, if you're in my Algaia run and you spam medica, I would consider you griefing. While I would not initiate the vote kick, I wouldn't blink if the party decide to kick you either. I do not ask people to spam heal in current contents. I wish content would be designed where spamming heal is a necessity.

Is ... that ... clear?

There's a litany of things wrong with the halcyon days of "traditional healing" as it's bizarrely defined by the Sylphie crowd.

First, that's not how "healers" work in the vast majority of RPGs. When's the last time you played something other than an attrition healing model MMO where the goal was to spam healing spells as often as possible? Healing is a means, not an end. You perform that task until it's done, and then you return to doing something productive. If that amount of time is half the fight, then it's half the fight. If it's two GCDs out of an entire 11-minute encounter, then it's two GCDs. Like it or not, there will always be downtime. If there weren't, the role would be the hardest in the game by a country mile. You'd have to play perfectly in order to keep the party alive, and Yoshida is plainly uninterested in doing that (as am I). He wants people who aren't skilled at the role to be able to pick it up. Large windows of downtime aren't some boogeyman people who are actually good at healing invent from thin air. They're the logical outcome to the existence of a skill allowance.

Second, spamming healing spells is boring. This game's healing kits, with VERY few exceptions, aren't interesting at all. They don't interact with one another. They're a hodgepodge of "push health bars rightward" spells. What's the meaningful difference between Druochole and Taurochole? I don't mean the potency difference or the small mitigation on one of them, what's the meaningful difference between them? Oh, they do basically the same thing, and the content in which the game will punish you for choosing one over the other barely exists? Yeah. Afflatus Solace and Tetra? Who cares? Healing in this game for more than a GCD or two at a time boils down to entertainment barely above Medica, Medica, Medica, Medica. It's so engaging I'm having a hard time keeping my eyes open.

What is this ludicrous balking at making the downtime interesting in the slightest? Glare Glare Glare Glare Glare Glare Glare Glare is B O R I N G. It's boring. I'm going to be doing it whether the healing requirements are Expert Roulette levels of pathetic or "so very engaging" like the current savage. Dedicating a few more of my GCDs to dipping into the boring, noninteractive healing kit isn't how you make healing engaging. You create kits that have actual interactivity and choices. But that's the exact opposite of CBU3's design philosophy when it comes to the combat system for the last several expansions, so instead they listen to the crowd screaming "the problem with healers is that they're not HEaLiNg enough!". Yeah, that's the problem. Glare Glare Glare Glare Glare Glare Glare Glare will totally be fixed if I have to throw a Medica 2 in there somewhere. The "DPS healer mentality" isn't something ingrained by the developers, it's how a skilled healer plays in any RPG. Overhealing is stupidity. Performing useful tasks is how you gain skill. This is how logic works, not some spooky "mentality".

Also what's this hilarious BS about "MP management" on WHM? A job would have to have choices in their kits in order for MP management to be interesting at all. There's nothing interesting about Glare Glare Glare Glare Glare Glare Glare Glare whoops I'm out of MP just from making the singular correct choice available to me.

[Rolder50]

First, that's not how "healers" work in the vast majority of RPGs. When's the last time you played something other than an attrition healing model MMO where the goal was to spam healing spells as often as possible? Healing is a means, not an end. You perform that task until it's done, and then you return to doing something productive. If that amount of time is half the fight, then it's half the fight. If it's two GCDs out of an entire 11-minute encounter, then it's two GCDs. Like it or not, there will always be downtime. If there weren't, the role would be the hardest in the game by a country mile. You'd have to play perfectly in order to keep the party alive, and Yoshida is plainly uninterested in doing that (as am I). He wants people who aren't skilled at the role to be able to pick it up. Large windows of downtime aren't some boogeyman people who are actually good at healing invent from thin air. They're the logical outcome to the existence of a skill allowance.

I mean, there's a good example with WoW, both the retail and classic versions. Heck knows I actually enjoy healing in those games because it has that model. In retail it's still more or less expected that you do damage with downtime if mana permits but those occasions are few and far between. Of course it helps that the groups over there are more dynamic, and if you have too many healers for a fight you can have them swap to their DPS spec no problem. Parses are also generally ranked on amount of healing done, rather then damage, which is nice.