Quote Originally Posted by Renathras View Post
And the casual WHM spamming Medica 2 isn't a good counter - you've argued yourself, regarding the more DPS buttons changes, that casual Healers would just not engage with those buttons and nothing of value would be lost. That would apply here in the case it worked, anyway.
I think you're looking at this from the wrong perspective. Being able to use Medica 2 as a crutch to the point where it renders the rest of the kit invalid is like having a DPS kit that does less DPS than simply mashing the Glare button. Neither is a good situation in my eyes. It's just not good design nor does it make for compelling gameplay in the long term.

I don't think our approaches are entirely incompatible here, though. I mean, reading this, it's not too dissimilar from what I've suggested, other than you want to focus more on CDs while I think general healing should be more GCD focused but CDs should be more rare to accommodate them being more impactful. Which...maybe be us saying the same thing in two different ways, honestly? Heck, you even mention your own version of 4 Healers.

I'm not sure there's as much daylight between us as it might sometimes appear if you really hold these positions.
I do agree, it's why I find it funny when you've pulled the 'you just want to DPS more' card at times. I genuinely don't. However, thanks to my time working at EA/Bullfrog, I gained a pretty good insight into how much game design is steered by the bean counters and top brass rather than the actual game designers.

I genuinely don't think we'll ever see even remotely challenging healing in FFXIV at this point because from a commercial perspective, it just doesn't make sense. We have a model in mainstream endgame content where our aoe heals are powerful enough to keep up with single target damage on a tank, and aoe damage is so low that we can easily cover it with our single target heals. Basically it's pretty hard to actually fail at healing. Rather it's failing at mechanics and avoidable AoEs that kills people. If you're pressing buttons and dodging the bad, you're almost certainly healing plenty enough. Pulling that rug out from underneath the casual player base and going back to a time like early ARR where people had to get through Titan HM just for a basic relic weapon would cause a riot IMHO.

This coupled with how dull solo content is as a healer is why I'm resigned to thinking that better downtime gameplay is the path of least resistance all told. It doesn't even have to be pure DPS either. Both Warhammer Online and The Old Republic managed to offer up meaningful and enjoyable healer gameplay in spades even in those times when your HPS wasn't being pressured.

I totally agree that going with 4 completely unique and diverse healers to see what sticks is the best move SE could make to start getting out of this corner, but again as I've mentioned elsewhere, I honestly don't think Yoshida has the resources on hand to actually pull it off. IMO they would need to hire another studio to brainstorm ideas for them, then have Sato's team pick and choose what to implement and integrated into the game proper.