Healer Survey:

[Sebazy]

That's a good suggestion for the party bar, I like it++

Esuna is tricky though, because some debuffs aren't worth using Esuna on while others must be Esuna'd, like Doom

This is a bigger issue than SE realise IMO. A new player will go through the game generally seeing cleansable debuffs that aren't worth the GCD to Esuna for the most part, but every now and again we'll get a Throttle or Doom. Your hud element would go a long way to make it more apparent how important something is to cleanse, but I also think SE should pull their belts up and experiment with making poisons/bleeds actually worthwhile to cleanse as well. The majority of them aren't much more than our standing regen. And don't get me started on paralyse, if there's one thing that got neutered harder than SCH's damage kit, it's Paralysis debuffs =(

[ty_taurus]

That's a good suggestion for the party bar, I like it++



This is a bigger issue than SE realise IMO. A new player will go through the game generally seeing cleansable debuffs that aren't worth the GCD to Esuna for the most part, but every now and again we'll get a Throttle or Doom. Your hud element would go a long way to make it more apparent how important something is to cleanse, but I also think SE should pull their belts up and experiment with making poisons/bleeds actually worthwhile to cleanse as well. The majority of them aren't much more than our standing regen. And don't get me started on paralyse, if there's one thing that got neutered harder than SCH's damage kit, it's Paralysis debuffs =(

If you've not played FFXII, that icon flickers slowly and cycles through each debuff on your party members. You also see an icon near the health bar above their head, and the name of the debuff pops up on the character who receives it when its applied, not to mention most debuffs have a visual effect on your character. Poison turns you purple, slow turns your character's shadow red, oil turns your character mostly ink black, etc. Some combination of these elements could also go a long way at communicating what can be Esuna'd vs what can't, like a Vuln up.

As for Paralysis, I always Esuna it off BLM first, as well as SAM, SMN, and RDM since it can interrupt cast times, and for BLM that can be devastating potentially since it ruins your rotation timing, and with their long cast times, it's very likely to occur. Other jobs, I don't always remove it because it's not really a problem for MNK or DNC. It can techncially interrupt them but it isn't likely too and they have mobility to get out of AoEs. But it depends on the situation. If it's a single target Paralysis, then usually I'll do it regardless, but if the party is paralyzed, like in Puppet's Bunker, by the time I get to other jobs, it's probably not worth casting Esuna since the timer will be running out anyway.

[RyuDragnier]

If you've not played FFXII, that icon flickers slowly and cycles through each debuff on your party members. You also see an icon near the health bar above their head, and the name of the debuff pops up on the character who receives it when its applied, not to mention most debuffs have a visual effect on your character. Poison turns you purple, slow turns your character's shadow red, oil turns your character mostly ink black, etc. Some combination of these elements could also go a long way at communicating what can be Esuna'd vs what can't, like a Vuln up.

As for Paralysis, I always Esuna it off BLM first, as well as SAM, SMN, and RDM since it can interrupt cast times, and for BLM that can be devastating potentially since it ruins your rotation timing, and with their long cast times, it's very likely to occur. Other jobs, I don't always remove it because it's not really a problem for MNK or DNC. It can techncially interrupt them but it isn't likely too and they have mobility to get out of AoEs. But it depends on the situation. If it's a single target Paralysis, then usually I'll do it regardless, but if the party is paralyzed, like in Puppet's Bunker, by the time I get to other jobs, it's probably not worth casting Esuna since the timer will be running out anyway.

I feel like they should make Paralysis something you WANT removed quickly. Like making it so it has a 50% chance of interrupting your attacks, so it's a hindrance to everyone. This would encourage not only using Esuna quickly to remove it, but incentivizing people doing the mechanics to avoid it, as it's that much of a hindrance now. Slow is definitely something you want removed because of how bad it is, but I feel like every status ailment should pose a terrifying threat in its own right. Silence and Pacification are already 2 status effects that people dread getting hit with, why not make them all dreadful?

[ty_taurus]

I feel like they should make Paralysis something you WANT removed quickly. Like making it so it has a 50% chance of interrupting your attacks, so it's a hindrance to everyone. This would encourage not only using Esuna quickly to remove it, but incentivizing people doing the mechanics to avoid it, as it's that much of a hindrance now. Slow is definitely something you want removed because of how bad it is, but I feel like every status ailment should pose a terrifying threat in its own right. Silence and Pacification are already 2 status effects that people dread getting hit with, why not make them all dreadful?

The part about that which I think is troublesome is we have raidwide paralysis cases (though extremely rare), and it's not exactly a fun experience just casting Esuna 8 times. Perhaps if we expand upon debuff cleansing as a form of utilty though, that could be better. But the issue is if it's that dreadful, then it becomes a mandetory Esuna rather than a choice or a decision that needs to be made. The worse it is, the sooner you want to remove it as well, so it can feel quite binary in that regard. The best cases are situations where you need to decide how to approach a problem, such as Rescuing a heavied ally rather than Esunaing the heavy off them.

Or perhaps you include things like Warden's Paean that prevent debuffs, so timing an effect like that before you see a debuff coming could also play into more interesting decision making.

[ASkellington]

The part about that which I think is troublesome is we have raidwide paralysis cases (though extremely rare), and it's not exactly a fun experience just casting Esuna 8 times. Perhaps if we expand upon debuff cleansing as a form of utilty though, that could be better. But the issue is if it's that dreadful, then it becomes a mandetory Esuna rather than a choice or a decision that needs to be made. The worse it is, the sooner you want to remove it as well, so it can feel quite binary in that regard. The best cases are situations where you need to decide how to approach a problem, such as Rescuing a heavied ally rather than Esunaing the heavy off them.

Or perhaps you include things like Warden's Paean that prevent debuffs, so timing an effect like that before you see a debuff coming could also play into more interesting decision making.

There's also the issue of not being able to target the debuff you want. Don't even need to go to the extremes with Bad Breath. Deep dungeons usually combine Silence with Pacification. As a mage, you'd want Silence gone. But Esuna picks whichever one at random. If we want to make removing debuffs to have some decision making, that may be another thing we need to address.

[ForsakenRoe]

The part about that which I think is troublesome is we have raidwide paralysis cases (though extremely rare), and it's not exactly a fun experience just casting Esuna 8 times. Perhaps if we expand upon debuff cleansing as a form of utilty though, that could be better. But the issue is if it's that dreadful, then it becomes a mandetory Esuna rather than a choice or a decision that needs to be made. The worse it is, the sooner you want to remove it as well, so it can feel quite binary in that regard. The best cases are situations where you need to decide how to approach a problem, such as Rescuing a heavied ally rather than Esunaing the heavy off them.

Or perhaps you include things like Warden's Paean that prevent debuffs, so timing an effect like that before you see a debuff coming could also play into more interesting decision making.

Could have Esuna upgrade at some point to uhh, is it called Astra? The one that works like Warden's, where it blocks the next debuff that should apply. Then yeh, you could coat the raid in them and ignore Throttle as a mechanic I guess, but you're still spending GCDs to do so. And since Throttle only hits 6/8, you're spending 2 GCDs on people that won't even get debuffs, which is a damage loss and that is criminal behavior (apparently). Alternatively, make the upgrade to Astra be WHM specific so it has that as an advantage over AST, and watch as nobody gives a damn because it's not something that increases rDPS

[ty_taurus]

Could have Esuna upgrade at some point to uhh, is it called Astra? The one that works like Warden's, where it blocks the next debuff that should apply. Then yeh, you could coat the raid in them and ignore Throttle as a mechanic I guess, but you're still spending GCDs to do so. And since Throttle only hits 6/8, you're spending 2 GCDs on people that won't even get debuffs, which is a damage loss and that is criminal behavior (apparently). Alternatively, make the upgrade to Astra be WHM specific so it has that as an advantage over AST, and watch as nobody gives a damn because it's not something that increases rDPS

No, I don't think just having it be an upgrade changes anything. I'm talking more like Warden's where it's OGCD, or it has to come with some sort of resource element to it, for example, a lily spell that prevents a debuff and nourishes the blood lily, an option that Selene provides but Eos doesn't, a card effect on AST, and an alternative DPS spell that prevents debuffs on your Kardia target at a higher MP cost for SGE, or something to those effects. But those are also examples that really require you dive head-first into debuff mechanics in order to justify the additional hotbar space.

Even if healers only have Esuna, if we do have more instances of debuffs being important, it does also open the door for non-healer jobs to have another avenue of utility to set them apart from their alternatives rather than everything being about flat damage.

[IDontPetLalas]

The part about that which I think is troublesome is we have raidwide paralysis cases (though extremely rare), and it's not exactly a fun experience just casting Esuna 8 times. Perhaps if we expand upon debuff cleansing as a form of utilty though, that could be better. But the issue is if it's that dreadful, then it becomes a mandetory Esuna rather than a choice or a decision that needs to be made. The worse it is, the sooner you want to remove it as well, so it can feel quite binary in that regard. The best cases are situations where you need to decide how to approach a problem, such as Rescuing a heavied ally rather than Esunaing the heavy off them.

Or perhaps you include things like Warden's Paean that prevent debuffs, so timing an effect like that before you see a debuff coming could also play into more interesting decision making.

I always found esuna to be strange in this game. I'm used to other games where if I was using a healing spec - which in basically this game's ONLY option for healers- I had one if not multiple AOE versions of esuna, sometime combined with an AOE hield or even shield. The CD might be long (30 sec , even more). In those games it wasn't typical to have a "doom" even in more difficult content, but as it was coupled with other more useful effects I don't think healers got completely out of the habit of using it - plus in at least one game it happened to routinely be used in PVP.

[Rilifane]

That's a good suggestion for the party bar, I like it++



This is a bigger issue than SE realise IMO. A new player will go through the game generally seeing cleansable debuffs that aren't worth the GCD to Esuna for the most part, but every now and again we'll get a Throttle or Doom. Your hud element would go a long way to make it more apparent how important something is to cleanse, but I also think SE should pull their belts up and experiment with making poisons/bleeds actually worthwhile to cleanse as well. The majority of them aren't much more than our standing regen. And don't get me started on paralyse, if there's one thing that got neutered harder than SCH's damage kit, it's Paralysis debuffs =(

Honestly, the entire party frame is a cluttered mess of unimportant but emphasized information and vital information getting de-emphasized for whatever reason.
The grouping is terrible, the vertical and horizontal eye movement is far too high and unintuitive, the contrast between elements but also background and elements is terrible and especially for people with some form of impaired vision it's just horrible.

I'd be all for placing more importance on cleansing but they really, really need to step up their game with the party frames. Much older games, single player and MMOs alike, did a lot better job with grouping, proper emphasis, customization and accessibility options. And the design of the debuff/ buff bar on the party is one of the major offenders here.