The Healers should be reworked? New player perspective.

[Renathras]

Wait what?

No, that makes no sense.

I thought you were suggesting BLU for your complex Healer.

I also think you consistently don't understand something:

If a change that leaves WHM alone hurts a portion of the community who DO want a damage suit but like WHM's aesthetic, then changing any OR ALL of the healers to have a more complex overall damage suit hurts EVERYONE who doesn't want that. Saying "people don't have to engage with it" doesn't change it's still there, on their Jobs, and still affects their gameplay experience. You may say it doesn't, but it does. No amount of you (who want it) saying it won't bother the people who don't want it changes the fact that, to the people who don't want it, it does bother them.

So if that's a valid argument for insisting WHM change, too, then it's also a valid argument for insisting ALL Healers DO NOT change.

Since it's an argument that supports both sides simultaneously - and yes, it does - you can't use it to support your position since I could just as easily point out a lot of people like SGE because of its simplicity who would be upset at no longer having access to the SGE aesthetic with the simplistic damage suite. So you cannot use that as support for your position.

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So setting that side:

BLU as the minimum DPS Healer makes no sense from a logical perspective. WHM makes far far FAR more. I've discussed this with WHM vs SCH/AST/SGE before, but we can add BLU to the mix now.

We'll start with your unlock requirement, which was to get BLU to level 100 - which takes at least SOME effort. Sure, you CAN have a friend powerlevel you, but we're talking "the easy player" here, and they likely aren't going to know how to do that or engage with the content in that way, meaning they have to level it from level 1 to cap on their own without the benefit of instance ques. In other words, it's not friendly to "Timmy Casual".

After that, to get BLU to that level and unlock "Unlimited BLU" means they probably had to go collecting spells, which isn't HARD, but it's not trivial, and most people are going to have to consult guides and such out of game, which, again, "Timmy Casual" isn't prone to doing.

Finally, because players who WANT a complex rotation already LIKE BLU Healer as it is, and so would like a derivation of that in Unlimited form. BLU, even Heal spec BLU, has an expansive DPS suite but a slim healing one. (Seriously, some Tanks come close to having as many healing buttons as BLU Healer does now!) It's robbing Jonny Hardcore of a BLU Tank, BLU DPS, and BLU Healer that he would prefer having right now anyway. So it's not only antithetical because Timmy Casual isn't the one leveling and unlocking it, but BLU is also tailor made for the Jonny Hardcore as it is. Even in a more limited "Unlimited" form, Jonny Hardcore would salivate at the options of having a Tank that doesn't work like regular Tanks or a Healer with an expansive and thematic DPS and Support suite.

So from both sides, it makes no sense for BLU to be the simple DPS Healer on any level. It makes less sense for BLU to be that than...honestly any other Healer. The only one that, in lore and aesthetic, MIGHT make sense to be more complex in its damage kit would be...MAYbe SCH? SGE makes some sense in the lore, but the unlock is kind of hit or miss (some schools of thought might suggest it should be the easy one since it's easy to unlock for alts, but I kind of disagree with that, personally; SCH being easier makes sense if you pair it with SMN and say "these are for people that like uncomplicated Jobs").

But even that's iffy.

BLU's much more of a RDM-like "jack of all trades", just with even more off the wall and thematically unique abilities, and that would be the identity to shoot for with it if it was given an "Unlimited" version.

But contrasting each of these points: WHM starts at level 1 and can be leveled through the normal process, and can even be a person's Class/Job when first entering the game. It's easy and straightforward to level. It has a simple and straightforward damage (and healing) kit, matching its history through the Final Fantasy series. It doesn't have customization or branching paths for hardcore players to min-max, and it doesn't appeal to the playertype who is really into that like BLU does.

There's no world where it makes logical sense to have BLU as the simple Healer and WHM as the complex one. That doesn't even make sense to me, even if BLU was somehow "the non-complex one" for Healing, Damage, and Tanking as a one-stop-shop for people that like simplistic gameplay. It just doesn't make any sense thematically, via lore, via history (franchise history or metagame history) at all.

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CNJ is an interesting idea, though it would require changing how they do Jobs and Classes entirely, and likey making another Job stone for it. It's just the way the game systems work right now. If it had a Stone+ Trait, WHM would also get it, meaning WHM's Glarespam would be as strong as everyone else's damage rotation, and WHM doing its rotation correctly would be doing 25-50% more damage than all the other Healers, which probably isn't what you're going for. A WHM doing 15% of a bosses health might be a BIT too much, I think you'd agree. So it would have to have a Job stone, meaning it would have to be given a separate JOB.

We'd have to add a new Job, maybe Druid or Geomancer (as a Healer - the in-game GEO's use WHM Wands as it is). But then we'd have this same problem again - all of you complaining that you like the Druid/GEO aesthetic but it has a simple damage rotation and how that's unfun and unfair to you guys. All the people right now complaining WHM doesn't have the earth/wind/water elements would be pissed if Druid/GEO got them and we'd still have this exact same complaint. So while they COULD arguably lock Druid/GEO as a Level 50 CNJ with just boosted ability power to keep it competitive with WHM, not only would they probably never do that in a million years, even if they did it, the people demanding complex DPS of every Healer aesthetic would STILL complain about it.

Indeed, if you're "willing to give" CNJ and BLU, that seems rather...well, CNJ is you giving up nothing (since you get to keep WHM) and BLU is you giving up nothing (since it isn't available now), while people in the camp opposed to you have to give up SCH, AST, and SGE to you, and get nothing from you except WHM without Holy spells - the aesthetic they currently enjoy. So in no way is that a fair solution to, honestly, anyone. But it also doesn't...work.


[For the record, what this would look like is a Job that has Cure 1, 2, Medica 1, 2, Stone 2, Aero 2, Raise, and the Job actions of Esuna, Repose, Swiftcast, Surecast, Lucid Dreaming, and Rescue. While an interesting thought experiment, I doubt this would work in any realistic sense. They don't even have an AOE attack or any instant casts other than Aero 2. Needless to say, this wouldn't appeal to people who like WHM as it exists RIGHT NOW at all.]

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I've given you the reasons why WHM staying as it is makes the most sense. And while you've tried to come up with any number of ways to get around this, the one thing you've never truly done is acknowledge it.

IF WE WERE going to leave one alone, WHM is the logical choice.

CNJ would be if and only if we had another branching Job from it or they completely changed how the Class system worked (which they COULD, mind you, but then we'd also be talking about MRDs and ROGs and the like - something I would personally love, but we both know isn't happening). And BLU makes no sense at all.

And if we AREN'T, then you have to defend why harming people that like WHM, SCH, AST, and SGE aesthetic not being allowed to enjoy their Jobs anymore and having exactly zero ways to escape the change ("not engaging with, you're just bad now" doesn't cut it) is acceptable. Because it is not, in fact, acceptable to rob people of those Jobs they like the aesthetic of - your argument, not mine.

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EDIT:

Unless you want to be locked out of PFs by every Tom Dick and Harry for playing the job you like? Being forced to play a 'proper, not baby' job you're not as much a fan of the aesthetic of? Or would this not be an issue, because DF doesn't care what healer you are or what the playerbase thinks, and so you can clear the EX roulette just fine

Wouldn't be.

He didn't say "make WHM unviable". If you watch the whole video, he points out several times how things aren't optimal but are viable, and even fun - Noctural AST, for example - to the people who played and enjoyed them. WHM staying as it is now means it would keep the Potencies it has now relative to the other Healers. Meaning it wouldn't be locked out of content. Moreover, you'd have the "too hard to play well" issue with the other Healers, meaning it's far less likely WHM would be the one locked out, since PF groups would more often think that WHM is the reliable one. It's like how SMN, despite being the "braindead baby DPS" isn't locked out of PF groups because people know it can consistently do more DPS than RDM and sometimes BLM if in the hands of an average or below average player, so people aren't locking them out because they bring a certain guarantee of "At least we'll be getting X level of basic performance out of it, which is sufficient to clear content."