I'm bored when I heal because I need more complex DPS rotations

[Jirah]

I’m not bored of the rotation I’m bored that the damage output in all content is so rare and so light.

Healers can be hella fun under very very very specific circumstances core and savage do not provide

[ty_taurus]

I’m not bored of the rotation I’m bored that the damage output in all content is so rare and so light.

Healers can be hella fun under very very very specific circumstances core and savage do not provide

As has been said, and as I've said before, we can't just change up the formula to have WoW-like encounters where raidwides happen every few seconds. It's not how this game is built, it doesn't answer the issue of having nothing to heal and nothing to attack with in all the content that comes before, and quite frankly, the majority of FFXIV's audience can't handle it.

This game is built for combat healers: healers that are designed to feel like DPS-lites that are also responsible for party sustain. Healers should be designed to have the same level of offense as tanks--not almost as much or half as much--exactly as much. That is what this game's content would support. That is not everyone's cup of tea, but it's also an entirely valid and just as if not more valid than healers that only focus on recovery.

Having said all that, there are two key aspects that I believe are important that people who don't want offensive healers would benefit from:

1. We should have a healer who's designed in a way that enables them to contribute offensively as much as the other healers (which is to say, as much as the tanks do as well), but do it in a way that is indirect. I've used the example of making AST's cards GCD, having their effects be played on party members to activate later rather than triggered immediately, and having the acts of drawing and playing cards generate stars that orbit around the AST, which they can then pass onto their teammates through an OGCD action to detonate for Malefic-potency damage. There would still be some use of Malefic, but the majority of their GCD use, even in solo content, would be based around their card gameplay, and using both Malefic and Gravity on occasion. I even removed Combust in that concept to remove the need to manage a timer on an enemy and replaced it with something that just generated multiple stars. This is not the only way this could be accomplished, but having a healer who's DPS is filtered through other party members (or themselves when playing solo) would help give players who don't like offensive healers something to sink their teeth into.

2. While WoW levels of damage taken by the party is not sustainable without a massive rework to the entire game, that doesn't mean we can't have a higher frequency of damage taken by the party, even in casual content. While dungeons are often pathetically weak, max level dungeons should consider having a lower max ilvl so that they're on par with leveling dungeons in terms of how much strength you can have over the content. Additionally, I believe the 2nd and 3rd bosses of Dead Ends showcase how casual content can have a more satisfying frequency of damage taken by the party. Ra-la in particular hits the party with raidwides, spread markers, and stack markers between every mechanic, has one mechanic that is somewhat easy to get clipped by, and another that's easier to avoid, but inflicts max HP doom when you get hit. Meanwhile Barb EX and this tier of savage raids have shown a better frequency of damage to manage for their respective difficulties as well. If we use these pieces of content as the standard to shoot for in future content, I think that would help accomplish providing healers with more things to heal in a way that works with this game, and it's something that those struggling to keep up will be able to grow comfortable with if we stand firm and maintain this momentum rather than backpedaling come 6.3's alliance raid and EX and later 6.4's tier 3 of savage.

If we can rework the healers to fit into the combat healer molds that the content of this game is asking for while accomplishing the points above, I truly believe this would satisfy the largest groups of healers from all angles. Yes, there will still be some who will be dissatisfied, but there will always be someone dissatisfied, and what group we lose is significantly smaller than the group we would gain by fixing healer gameplay.

Additionally, those who want to heal more or who want to focus more on support-based gameplay would still have an avenue that generally encourages more frequent healing and reduces the amount of time spent attacking by supplementing that partially with a support-focused rotation, rather than a direct damage-focused rotation.