A summary of healer issues

[Shurrikhan]

Honestly, this game's never been about interesting gear decisions, but that's often been to its benefit. It's almost always been 'pick the thing with the most weapon damage/primary stat', and then 'the thing with the most crit.' They even got rid of Accuracy because it was too intrusive for their otherwise streamlined system. The main reason materia exists at all is because it was a holdover from 1.0, and since crafters and gatherers could make use of it they eventually decided to expand it to all gear (while also making sure they were easy to obtain) back in 3.2.

Given...

• the havoc that SkS thresholds can play on XIV's ultra-rigid rotations (especially for melee),
• the massive inventory bloat caused by the Materia system, and
• the chores required for use in tracking Spiritbond, extracting Materia, adding materia, and overmelding...

...can we really even say it's "streamlined"?

Despite it offering the least customization of any additional system I've seen, it also has the highest cost in inventory space and routine player annoyance.

Gameplay-wise, they could do everything Materia does --which, honestly, is just the SkS/SpS thresholds' impact on optimal rotation-- by just, say, having different sub-classes of weapon and having that follow one's Glamour instead of their actual weapon, in order to give more choices at a time. Bigger sword, slower but harder swings, with (just like SkS now) no impact on ability damage not ultimately influenced by GCD speed (Ninki, Kenki, etc).

Ultimately, I always want them to make it easier to swap jobs. Anything they can do to support this is good imo, from merging more gearsets together, or streamlining materia further. I think more uniform rez availability to non-healers helps this as well, at least for someone that's swapping based on their group's composition.

Same.

[Rollind_Montorgueil]

I recently posted in another thread about not being able to complete "A Requiem for Heroes" duty with my AST, one of the reasons being the low dps output. While I've been told that it is possible to complete it on an AST, this solo duty is easier using another class. That surprised and disappointed me. Being fairly new to the game, I was under the (now mistaken, I know) impression that every class had an equal shot to complete it. Reading this thread - and other articles outside these forums - I see that it is not the case.

If I read it correctly, Astrologians have already had one rework since the class was introduced and will get another one with patch 7.0. If SE wants to continue with the concept of "pure" healing classes, there's pretty much nothing that can be done about it. But forgetting that there will be times where higher damage output will be needed (yeah, I'm looking at you, forced solo instances) is a real head-scratcher.

If the powers that be don't want to raise the dps amounts on healers for fear of a balance upset, then maybe giving a companion along the lines of carbuncles to healer classes who don't currently have one? Or slowing down meters where a certain amount of damage must be done within a time limit? Of course, there's still stuff about the AST class I've yet to uncover, so maybe there's some info I'm currently missing.

[Renathras]

...

The main issue with AST - particularly - is that it's so heavily balanced around buffing other party member damage that it has its own damage balanced around being low. If you look at high end 8 person party damage, ASTs contribute a lot through their buffs on their party members, which makes their total damage (personal attacks + buffs to party) very good. They have a wider spread because of RNG and player skill, but the top damage an AST can output is on par with SCH (which also has a party buff) as the highest of the Healer Jobs.

...the problem, of course, comes when you're in content where you DON'T have strong party members to buff. Or no party members at all. In those situations, you have your low personal DPS, and sure you can buff it, but you're buffing...your low personal DPS to be slightly less low.

In order for AST to do more personal DPS, it would need to do less party buffing (have weaker buffs) OR alternatively, all Healers would have to have their damage boosted (not a terrible proposition) which would make encounter design require bosses to have more health/tighter Enrages (which...would be pretty terrible). Alternatively, they could do something like make AST buffs stronger when used on themselves to make up that gap (something people have proposed), which is not a terrible idea since it would still be better to use them on DPS and Tank party members in 8 mans, but make soloing stuff or doing MSQ solo fights on AST less trouble. All around probably the best solution.

Note that pretty much every Job is capable of doing everything in the game outside of some hyper crazy stuff (generally only Tanks and sometimes RDM can solo prior expansion boss fights or stuff like that), some are just harder and some easier than others. Like WAR is great in solo Deep Dungeons because it has strong defenses, good healing, and good enough damage, but they can and have been cleared with every Job.

In any case, here's hoping the coming 7.0 rework fixes AST up. I'm always against the "advice" of "swap to another Job and do it", personally.

[Rollind_Montorgueil]

In any case, here's hoping the coming 7.0 rework fixes AST up. I'm always against the "advice" of "swap to another Job and do it", personally.

Agreed. I got into Final Fantasy XIV Online because the concept of the Astrologian fascinated me. I really didn't have any problems with the solo duties until I got to the ones at the end of Stormblood and beginning of Shadowbringers. I totally accept the fact that as a sprout I haven't nailed down all the mechanics and rotations of the class. However, some of the comments on my other thread where I asked for advice on how to complete "A Requiem for Heroes" on my AST were quite revealing. For the record, my favorite response so far on the subject comes from forum member "AnotherPerson," who put it like this:

"Simply put, AST's solo throughput is absolute ass." (Thanks, AP!)

[Renathras]

Agreed. I got into Final Fantasy XIV Online because the concept of the Astrologian fascinated me. I really didn't have any problems with the solo duties until I got to the ones at the end of Stormblood and beginning of Shadowbringers. I totally accept the fact that as a sprout I haven't nailed down all the mechanics and rotations of the class. However, some of the comments on my other thread where I asked for advice on how to complete "A Requiem for Heroes" on my AST were quite revealing. For the record, my favorite response so far on the subject comes from forum member "AnotherPerson," who put it like this:

"Simply put, AST's solo throughput is absolute ass." (Thanks, AP!)

Well, a word to the wise: These forums can be kind of negative/salty. The Healer subforum is PARTICULARLY bad at this. To take it with a grain of salt.

People have cleared PotD on AST (apparently it IS the hardest/most grindy to do, but HAVE done it), and if someone can do that, everything else in the game you want to do with AST you can do with AST. But I am hoping they do something about the soloing with Healers bit. I always level on Healers and do new expansions and MSQ stuff on Healers generally (in the very rare instances I don't, I do it on Tanks, the second lowest DPS Role), and have often done so without BiS gear, especially before ShB back when I was often in dungeon greens since I didn't do a lot of harder content, so it is all doable.

And yeah, AST has a pretty neat aesthetic and class fantasy. I'm more of a SCH kinda guy, but I can definitely see the appeal of AST and am glad to hear you're having fun with it in general.

[ty_taurus]

Well, a word to the wise: These forums can be kind of negative/salty. The Healer subforum is PARTICULARLY bad at this. To take it with a grain of salt.

People have cleared PotD on AST (apparently it IS the hardest/most grindy to do, but HAVE done it), and if someone can do that, everything else in the game you want to do with AST you can do with AST. But I am hoping they do something about the soloing with Healers bit. I always level on Healers and do new expansions and MSQ stuff on Healers generally (in the very rare instances I don't, I do it on Tanks, the second lowest DPS Role), and have often done so without BiS gear, especially before ShB back when I was often in dungeon greens since I didn't do a lot of harder content, so it is all doable.

And yeah, AST has a pretty neat aesthetic and class fantasy. I'm more of a SCH kinda guy, but I can definitely see the appeal of AST and am glad to hear you're having fun with it in general.

I don't see anything wrong with his post. What's there to be salty about?

[Renathras]

I don't see anything wrong with his post. What's there to be salty about?

I didn't say there was anything particularly wrong with it, but it was a bit salty.

[Post]

Healers having less throughput for dps was less of an issue when the game launched and solo duties were more limited in scope, usually not having dps checks. Most of the battle content while leveling took place in the world with those little purple quest circles that spawn enemies and via FATEs, so you'd just as likely be able to do the whole healing thing for actual players.

Solo duties could still occasionally be tough; I remember getting my butt kicked in 2013 by the level 30 GLA duty with the bridge and level 20 CNJ duty where you have to help some Adders fight a buncha goats. Keeping them alive eventually led to a steamroll, which is good if they wanted to emphasize healing, but I had to deal a lot of damage, too. Then again, my gear was probably awful cuz I kept picking gil rewards from quests instead of upgrades.

Even when that quest Rollind's talking about was current though, I wiped on WHM once because I didn't save anything for the three swords. I was returning to the game so I wasn't in full i400, but I'm a veteran player at this point. That part of that duty has just always had a pretty tight timer for healer jobs. AST had stronger card buffs and more DoT damage back then, too, though maybe it balances out if you save Astrodyne and Divination for it.

[IDontPetLalas]

Well, a word to the wise: These forums can be kind of negative/salty. The Healer subforum is PARTICULARLY bad at this. To take it with a grain of salt.

People have cleared PotD on AST (apparently it IS the hardest/most grindy to do, but HAVE done it), and if someone can do that, everything else in the game you want to do with AST you can do with AST. But I am hoping they do something about the soloing with Healers bit. I always level on Healers and do new expansions and MSQ stuff on Healers generally (in the very rare instances I don't, I do it on Tanks, the second lowest DPS Role), and have often done so without BiS gear, especially before ShB back when I was often in dungeon greens since I didn't do a lot of harder content, so it is all doable.

And yeah, AST has a pretty neat aesthetic and class fantasy. I'm more of a SCH kinda guy, but I can definitely see the appeal of AST and am glad to hear you're having fun with it in general.

The oft-quoted "people" have cleared PotD on AST. Well- so what? How many out of all the jobs have done it on AST, and of those people, how much longer did it take them on AST in comparison to the other jobs? I would be willing to bet that it's the least number in comparison to any other job, and it took the longest to clear. So it could make it interesting for someone from an achievement point of view (i.e. they want to complete it on all jobs) - but it could be really off-putting for many people who find it a miserable slog. Which is similar to other things that you might want to solo on an AST- are they possible? Yes- are they fun? - not necessarily, in comparison to other jobs.

T

[ty_taurus]

The oft-quoted "people" have cleared PotD on AST. Well- so what? How many out of all the jobs have done it on AST, and of those people, how much longer did it take them on AST in comparison to the other jobs? I would be willing to bet that it's the least number in comparison to any other job, and it took the longest to clear. So it could make it interesting for someone from an achievement point of view (i.e. they want to complete it on all jobs) - but it could be really off-putting for many people who find it a miserable slog. Which is similar to other things that you might want to solo on an AST- are they possible? Yes- are they fun? - not necessarily, in comparison to other jobs.

T

I recall this person who cleared PotD on AST, and I believe he does every job for deep dungeons, and this clear run was his 90th attempt.