Healers need an overhaul

[ty_taurus]

I look forward to seeing the full rework idea(s). o/

If you are genuinely curious to see the entire thing, there's a link to it under the spoilers tag over here in this thread along with reworks to the other healers as well. SCH's is probably the most out there. I will state though that these builds include a highly experimental rework to how MP functions, but without actually being able to test the MP rework, I can't actually speak on how healthy it would be. Know that if I were in charge of job design, this is basically what I'd take into testing and see how it plays out (along with everything in these builds, naturally.) That said, the concepts could easily work within the existing MP system as well, perhaps cutting the GCD MP spells on each healer and just keep Lucid Dreaming in that mindset.

The Good: The new attack.
The Bad: Attaching the resource generation to the attack makes it feel less like an attack and muddles synergies that would otherwise come naturally to it (say, with small changes to how Kardia works). It does not, to me, make it feel more like healing and damage are intertwined.

I don't really understand where you're coming from on the point of muddling synergies and not feeling like healing and damage are intertwined. It's taking something that generates based on 0 interaction and expanding on your rotation by having you manually generate Addersgall instead. Is that not the definition of intertwining DPS and healing gameplay--generating healing resources through attacking?

One argument that I can understand is that you can't generate Addersgall during downtime. I think that's a valid critique, but I personally don't think is an objective negative. I myself would rather generate resources intentionally rather than have them given to me. And as I mentioned, you can always make an effort to go into phase changes after having spent your cooldowns on this spell.

The Good: More apm?
The Neutral: A spammable partial-potency-recovery tool is replaced by a 20s-recharge-gated full-potency-recovery tool. It therefore offers less mobility but increases Sage's advantage in healing generated at no damage opportunity cost. (I am not, however, sure it'd remotely need to increase that lead, and if it did, there are other places I'd prefer to spend that budget.)
The Bad: That APM comes with weave cost and prevents chained Toxicon casts. I do not see any need or reason to "discourage" chained Toxicon casts. The cost to weave space also discourages other APM-increasing additions; since this route seems to me unlikely to be particularly entertaining beyond its simply increasing APM, that seems a negative. Also, the suggested tuning for the Kardia Gauge (below).

:: Given the interrelation with the Kardia system (below), you might be better off with 2 oGCDs per cast, at half a Dosis each, in order to retain resource-generation parity (assuming you allow each follow-up ability to trigger Kardia).

One thing I'll note is I reworked Dyskrasia into a different AoE filler spell that doubles as a mobility tool at increased MP cost. This is something I'd do for every healer, and it reflects in the build ideas--adding functionality to AoE buttons in single target. These buttons exist but go unused, and I think there's value in making them work in all environments rather than just dungeon trash. For SGE, this changes their AoE to a ranged, instant cast mobility tool that heals your Kardia target and all allies around them in a fairly small radius, meaning it also works as a way to heal while the party is stacked, or perhaps helps you heal up the healers/DPS after a raidwide, then switch your Kardia back to the tank.

I bring this up because it would resolve the concern you mention about losing Toxikon's mobility function.

Ultimately on the number of OGCD weaves, that's something that would also be better resolved through testing.

Good: <Not sure>
Neutral: It's another gauge, on a barebone class. If it were used well, it'd be positive.
Bad: It seems a really poor choice of resource generator. Conflicts with itself in that the more potency-recovery EuD's it allows for, the less time you spend on Kardia-generating attacks (unless you have the follow-ups each generate at least 1 gauge apiece). Unless you make significant changes to Kardia, the tuning (2 per attack) would require it to take a little over 2 minutes to fill at base GCD speed, assuming perfect offensive uptime. You mentioned wanting this once per minute (as compared to WHM's thrice per minute, though ofc WHM loses free-healing sources elsewhere in turn), so I'm assuming you want more than what would be .8 gauge per second in pure attack-spam uptime. Finally, because the automatic spending on EuD/EuP forced undue constraints on future applications of the gauge.

Note that the only GCD spells that don't have Kardia effects are Diagnosis, Prognosis, and the new Holos (it's not important for the purpose of this discussion). With no spellspeed, there are 24 GCDs in a minute, and with spellspeed, that number can increase. If you are able to maintain DPS uptime, you generate 48 gauge per minute and need 50 to cast E. Diagnosis/E. Prognosis. The gauge goes up to 100 as well to allow you time to find the right moments for E. Diagnosis/E. Prognosis, and because these resources are generated in other ways as well, there's less pressure to just use these heals for burst window DPS gains, a problem WHM faces. It's true that both Diagnosis and Prognosis will not add to your Kardia gauge, but I don't know of any gauge spender that also increases its own gauge.

I don't really feel like comparing them to the lilies is the right comparison, because I see Addersgall as comparable to the lilies instead, it's just you use them off the GCD rather than on it. The Kardia gauge here is more about making it feel as though occasional barrier usage is rewarded rather than always coming at a DPS opportunity cost. You still of course have your Addersgall heals which are meant to be your primary source of healing like they are currently. Having said that though, I do agree that it's much better having gauges with options rather than specifical for individual actions. I ended up feeling content with this Kardia gauge concept for the sake of justifying your GCD barrier heals, and I do think it functions more effectively than you might, but it's not the absolute best option available either, I'm sure.

Ultimately, I do recognize some of your concerns. At the end of the day, theorycrafts like these are limited in that they have to be created entirely on paper and cannot be put in a testing environment, so I have no doubt there are areas that would inevitably need development, but some concerns are also issues that we can't actually no are issues without testing either, like if the Toxikon followups being 3 weaves would actually feel like too much when put into practice. It's more about creating core ideas and concepts to communicate a design.

[AnotherPerson]

I don't really understand where you're coming from on the point of muddling synergies and not feeling like healing and damage are intertwined. It's taking something that generates based on 0 interaction and expanding on your rotation by having you manually generate Addersgall instead. Is that not the definition of intertwining DPS and healing gameplay--generating healing resources through attacking?

One argument that I can understand is that you can't generate Addersgall during downtime. I think that's a valid critique, but I personally don't think is an objective negative. I myself would rather generate resources intentionally rather than have them given to me. And as I mentioned, you can always make an effort to go into phase changes after having spent your cooldowns on this spell.

Imo, addersgall regeneration shouldn't be affected since that's unique to sage and works well with Kardia itself (1 per 20 sec natural regeneration allows good sustain over time). When you're forced to decide between GCD healing with Eukrasian shields or charge addersgall because the tank is taking far too much damage (applicable at lower levels when tank's undergeared), not having addersgall generate naturally is a huge detriment since it's tied to the GCD - which directly limits the sage's healing throughput when damage greatly exceeds what Kardia can heal in the next GCD. I would actually have the tank die more times in Stone Vigil and Aurum Vale if addersgall generation is tied to a GCD spell and the tank isn't exactly great at mitigating, but chooses to do big pulls anyway.

On the other hand, I would be fine if addersting generation is tied to a DPS GCD spell since addersting generation is something you do when you have the time to charge resources (instead of using Dosis). It would be more preferrable to make addersting skills activate Kardion multiple times and keep addersgall generation separate. If there needs to be a connection between addersgall and DPS-to-heal, it would be more preferrable to have addersgall skills apply Kardion to the affected targets instead.



That being said, if they add more DPS skills with additional effects to our healing output, I would definitely prefer if there would also be a skill the sage can use to summon a mini target dummy during downtime or transitions. Hitting the target dummy will activate said skills' effects and also activate Kardion - which helps prevent any inconsistencies with not being able to use DPS spells that heals (example: Pneuma) for long periods of time if we ever get a case where the enemy becomes untargetable but is still inflicting damage. It would be even better if said dummy will also restore MP to the sage based on the number of hits it received at the end of its duration, making it a dual purpose skill that can be used during combat as well. Depending on how many more skills sage gets for DPS, it can open up a variety of MP-expensive spells to heal/shield as a caveat, and being able to hit a target at any point in time would fit in-line with this kind of playstyle.

[ty_taurus]

That being said, if they add more DPS skills with additional effects to our healing output, I would definitely prefer if there would also be a skill the sage can use to summon a mini target dummy during downtime or transitions. Hitting the target dummy will activate said skills' effects and also activate Kardion - which helps prevent any inconsistencies with not being able to use DPS spells that heals (example: Pneuma) for long periods of time if we ever get a case where the enemy becomes untargetable but is still inflicting damage. It would be even better if said dummy will also restore MP to the sage based on the number of hits it received at the end of its duration, making it a dual purpose skill that can be used during combat as well. Depending on how many more skills sage gets for DPS, it can open up a variety of MP-expensive spells to heal/shield as a caveat, and being able to hit a target at any point in time would fit in-line with this kind of playstyle.

You know, something that could be done in a theoretical environment where there's more Kardia effects granted through DPS spells and other secondary effects from general DPS effects, like the Addersgall/Addersting generation to rename Eukrasia to Dyskrasia, and add Eukrasia which turns your DPS buttons into GCD heals that can be used outside of combat or during downtime.

Eukrasia basically means "good" or benevolent whereas Dyskrasia is the opposite. So it's a little odd that Eukrasia turns your DPS spell into a DoT. In my concept, I'd rename the existing Dyskrasia to Paroxysm, and this would just make the naming conventions make more sense. But then you could make your "bad" spells worse with Dyskrasia, your "good" spells better with Eukrasia, and also convert your "bad" spells into "good" spells with Eukrasia as well. It's not something that would hold meta value, but it would allow for a more aggressive approach to building support and utility into their damaging spells.