Healers need an overhaul

[Aravell]

For the people saying that healing requirements should be increased to fix healer engagement issues, think for a moment, how much increase would the healing requirements need in order to fully engage a veteran healer and remove a large portion of downtime? Would the average healer be able to keep up at all?

In the end, wouldn't such a move be much more destructive to the healer population than just giving something more to do during downtime?

[ty_taurus]

For the people saying that healing requirements should be increased to fix healer engagement issues, think for a moment, how much increase would the healing requirements need in order to fully engage a veteran healer and remove a large portion of downtime? Would the average healer be able to keep up at all?

In the end, wouldn't such a move be much more destructive to the healer population than just giving something more to do during downtime?

I'll add that downtime management doesn't have to translate to direct damage also. I've designed my own concept of my own AST rework that makes the majority of your GCD management dedicated to setting up your buff windows with your cards, generating DPS contributions passively while you focus on preparing for large offensive and defensive party buffs. That's not to say my idea is specifically perfect or the only solution, but that a little creativity can go a long way at creating something that can feel like a more dedicated supporter while still adhering to the balance expectations of FFXIV. Basically drawing and playing cards was moved to the GCD, and both actions would generate stars that orbit around you. You could weave an OGCD buff onto either yourself or any other party member, and that target's attacks would cause the stars to attack enemies for you, dealing malefic-potency damage per star consumed. The buffs you place don't trigger immediately, but are set on your allies for you to later activate all at once.

[Beddict]

For the people saying that healing requirements should be increased to fix healer engagement issues, think for a moment, how much increase would the healing requirements need in order to fully engage a veteran healer and remove a large portion of downtime? Would the average healer be able to keep up at all?

In the end, wouldn't such a move be much more destructive to the healer population than just giving something more to do during downtime?

Don't forget to ask if the challenge will remain as players get more and more geared up, something Zebra and others have pointed out. They can make a healing check challenging for Week 1, but will it still be challenging on Week 8 once people are geared? Most likely no since players will have more Def/Magic Def, more HP, and Healers will be able to heal more per oGCD. Either the fight needs a hard IL Sync that stops players from overgearing it (like DSR) or all the damage is gravity/demi type where it deals a percentage of the player's Max HP (like Eden's Gravity in E1S). Downtime is always gonna exist, even if they do bump healing requirements, and that's downtime needs to be engaging.

[tearagion]

For the people saying that healing requirements should be increased to fix healer engagement issues, think for a moment, how much increase would the healing requirements need in order to fully engage a veteran healer and remove a large portion of downtime? Would the average healer be able to keep up at all?

In the end, wouldn't such a move be much more destructive to the healer population than just giving something more to do during downtime?

Agree, seems far easier to just add some extra damage CDs or DoTs in that downtime instead huh...Might be onto something here.

[LeonKeyh]

For the people saying that healing requirements should be increased to fix healer engagement issues, think for a moment, how much increase would the healing requirements need in order to fully engage a veteran healer and remove a large portion of downtime? Would the average healer be able to keep up at all?

In the end, wouldn't such a move be much more destructive to the healer population than just giving something more to do during downtime?

It also requires every single encounter being reworked. Every encounter from the base game and 4 expansions. I don't think that healing requirements will ever be increased, as you allude to.

Making a more robust DPS "rotation" for downtime is MUCH easier and can be done without any changes to encounters. You just need to make an "optimal rotation" with the new abilities deal the same amount of potency as 1 DoT and 12 Glare/Broil/etc. Maybe a bit more to reward good play and make room for mistakes.

ALSO, changing up the DPS abilities means that you're not raising the skill floor for the healer. Bad healers can still just sit there and focus on healing and not touch DPS. "OK" healers can maybe fumble around with it, etc.

[AnotherPerson]

It also requires every single encounter being reworked. Every encounter from the base game and 4 expansions. I don't think that healing requirements will ever be increased, as you allude to.

Making a more robust DPS "rotation" for downtime is MUCH easier and can be done without any changes to encounters. You just need to make an "optimal rotation" with the new abilities deal the same amount of potency as 1 DoT and 12 Glare/Broil/etc. Maybe a bit more to reward good play and make room for mistakes.

ALSO, changing up the DPS abilities means that you're not raising the skill floor for the healer. Bad healers can still just sit there and focus on healing and not touch DPS. "OK" healers can maybe fumble around with it, etc.

DPS abilities also help to improve the average level of healers who can't manage high DPS uptime as well. Having more DPS skills that hit harder means needing less optimal Malefic / Dosis / Glare / Broil hits to reach a similar level of DPS output as a top-tier healer -- which in turn grants more leeway to average or below-average healers to keep up with the best ones.

The only healers that suffer from this is the healers who refuse to DPS at all --- if SE is trying to balance 0 healer DPS with top-tier healer DPS rather than average healer DPS with top-tier healer DPS, then they're trying to make someone who does nothing for over 90% of the time comparable with someone who do DPS 90% of the time.
An actual fallacy in itself. No wonder healer role is in shambles.