Because why not: A Moderate Proposal - SCH

[Semirhage]

edit: i did some maths on my WHM proposal on the above topic (healer filler spell lacks impact), I'll whack it in HB because I don't want it to derail the thread too much

I wouldn't say no to fewer casts of the filler spell. Not really so much a criticism as a comment that springs to mind though. One of the tiny but incredibly important bits sorely missing from the healer kits that makes the sheer number of Fire 4 casts feel WAY better than the healer filler casts is just that: Fire 4 isn't filler. It actually flows naturally with how the kit works. It's letting your MP bar fill in ice mode so you can swap to your mega blaster mode and start firing on all cylinders, riding that attack wave as long as you can, using your Umbral Hearts and such to ensure you can ride that wave as long as possible before cooling off again. You get the feeling that it's what you're supposed to be doing. The healer kits do the opposite. They do their damnedest to make you feel like healing for its own sake, the floor of your skill, is what you're "supposed" to be working toward. The downtime activity is tacked on there as an afterthought because *grumble grumble* fine I guess healers have downtime after they've become skilled at it or something *grumble grumble*. This utter reticence to acknowledge that creating downtime is your goal just murders the hell out of their endgame engagement. The downtime doesn't even have to be dealing direct damage, but it's the easiest thing to aim at in FFXIV's damage-centered combat system. Downtime exists, it exists in large quantities, and these quantities only get larger the longer you play and the more skilled you become. Every time I look at these kits as they exist in Endwalker again it makes me wish they were designed with that consideration in mind, instead of as a resentful afterthought that the person tackling them grudgingly admits that FINE, maybe you need a wimpy attack spell or something because these healers keep telling me that spamming healing spells all day isn't the only thing they want to do for some kuh-raaaaaaaaazy reason. I fully appreciate that generating that feeling is far more than an adjustment to a skill or two. It's a matter of whole-kit cohesion that's much easier to nail on a DPS than it is on a healer.

tl;dr the healer kits are designed to make you feel like your downtime is just sitting and spinning on your thumbs waiting for the next outgoing damage instead of a reward for playing well. That's why they're not fun. You feel like you're working toward more sit-'n-spin instead of something that actually feels good to do.