What would prevent 0/1 Healer clears of content?

[Sparkthor]

To be honest with the 1st question, nothing will prevent content to be cleared without heal, because no matter what they do, people will try and succeed into making run with 1 or no healer. DPS is always the role speed runner want the most, tanks are easily mandatory because all dps die in 2 auto from bosses and cannot stand TB, so 1 tank would lead into many inevitable deaths which are far worse than everything.

Healer on the downside double struggle with better ilvl, then people take less dommage and healer heal more. And nothing would change this.

If we can find root issue, it's FFXIV classic roles which tend to extend from their initial roles : DPS mitig and some bring some heal. Tank is heavy mitig and some heal. And healer is heal, mitig and dps. Role are less strict, But as healer are the only one who get heal on demand, they somehow act as safety net, as they are nearly the only who can save people then they do mistakes.

But i disagree when people say they are useless, it's not because some top crazy people can clear some hardest content without it means they are useless. Nearly all content could be cleared without DPS, what doesn't mean they are useless.

[IDontPetLalas]

To be honest with the 1st question, nothing will prevent content to be cleared without heal, because no matter what they do, people will try and succeed into making run with 1 or no healer. DPS is always the role speed runner want the most, tanks are easily mandatory because all dps die in 2 auto from bosses and cannot stand TB, so 1 tank would lead into many inevitable deaths which are far worse than everything.

Healer on the downside double struggle with better ilvl, then people take less dommage and healer heal more. And nothing would change this.

If we can find root issue, it's FFXIV classic roles which tend to extend from their initial roles : DPS mitig and some bring some heal. Tank is heavy mitig and some heal. And healer is heal, mitig and dps. Role are less strict, But as healer are the only one who get heal on demand, they somehow act as safety net, as they are nearly the only who can save people then they do mistakes.

But i disagree when people say they are useless, it's not because some top crazy people can clear some hardest content without it means they are useless. Nearly all content could be cleared without DPS, what doesn't mean they are useless.

Let's just look at your last line. I would agree that there is *some* content that can be cleared without DPS, for example there have been all-tank Nier runs, there have been all healer-Nier clears. Any job can even solo some prior patch content. However can you point to some examples where parties would routinely form without a DPS ?

Also, I would add that I don't believe that anyone would see these as "crazy" people- rather they are people who first of all are among the best players but secondly are smart enough and skilled enough to take advantage both of this fight design and each job's skills. In a sense they should in no way be faulted as it was SE who designed both the fight and the jobs.

[ty_taurus]

But i disagree when people say they are useless, it's not because some top crazy people can clear some hardest content without it means they are useless. Nearly all content could be cleared without DPS, what doesn't mean they are useless.

This comment is ignoring the most fundamental logic that applies to game design. Everything in a game is a tool for the player. Not all tools hold equal value. What defines value is how quickly, efficiently, and/or easily it helps the player win in the game. If we're talking about past final fantasy games for example, yes, a white mage or healer in general is one of the most important jobs to have as having a healer exponentially increases your party's ability to last longer in battle. Without a healer, HP bars are a timer that, when you run out, you lose. Giving the player considerably more time to win a fight contributes to the "easily" part of the quickly, efficiently, and/or easily pillars. But, if white mage is so useful, why wouldn't you want 4 white mages in FFIII or FFV, and why wouldn't you want 3 white mages in FFX-2?

Healing, as important as it often is, provides 0 vertical progression in gaming. Have you ever seen someone playing an RPG who gets stuck in a loop of only healing? That always ends in failure, because a boss will not go down if all you do is heal. No amount of healing actually does anything to build progress toward the completion of any given challenge, like a boss fight. All it does is stall your eventual defeat. Meanwhile, you know what does make vertical progress? Damage. The more damage you do and the faster you do it, the more quickly you can defeat your opponent and the less likely you are of losing to a mistake due to the fight lasting a shorter amount of time.

That is why DPS are not useless even though you can clear most content without them. If you can clear something without healers, you are shaving minutes off the time you need to win the battle. If you take only healers, you are padding out how much time it's going to take you to win a fight. You might not die, but why spend 20 minutes doing something when you can otherwise spend 10? Unless of course challenge is a valid factor. If a healerless run is so challenging to the point that you'd expect an average of 3-5 wipes, that potential 10 minute fight might realistically end up being a 30 minute experience, thus making the 20 minute composition more favorable, but that is no where near the case for this game.

[Sparkthor]

Healing, as important as it often is, provides 0 vertical progression in gaming. Have you ever seen someone playing an RPG who gets stuck in a loop of only healing? That always ends in failure, because a boss will not go down if all you do is heal. No amount of healing actually does anything to build progress toward the completion of any given challenge, like a boss fight. All it does is stall your eventual defeat. Meanwhile, you know what does make vertical progress? Damage. The more damage you do and the faster you do it, the more quickly you can defeat your opponent and the less likely you are of losing to a mistake due to the fight lasting a shorter amount of time.

I could respond what most of the time healer are the only role which can catch back mistakes. To me, bring a dps against a healer is going quicker but more vulnerable to mistakes. On a side note, on every game we tend to minimize the healing action as it's mostly a "wasted" action toward the completion of the game, and i'm pretty happy when games give me the possibility to do something else with my dedicated healer from time to time.
However, my remark was mostly against the usual shortcut : "if it's not mendatory it's useless".

That is why DPS are not useless even though you can clear most content without them. If you can clear something without healers, you are shaving minutes off the time you need to win the battle. If you take only healers, you are padding out how much time it's going to take you to win a fight. You might not die, but why spend 20 minutes doing something when you can otherwise spend 10? Unless of course challenge is a valid factor. If a healerless run is so challenging to the point that you'd expect an average of 3-5 wipes, that potential 10 minute fight might realistically end up being a 30 minute experience, thus making the 20 minute composition more favorable, but that is no where near the case for this game.

I really can't agree on this one, and also it's not something new. And the mentality of the game is thinking otherwise. Let me explain.
Going with fewer heal is not something new. I can't remember having 2 heal on Zurvan Ex back in time is most PF for it, most PF were also one tank. Same goes for Bismark. And here we are talking about casual PF for ex trials, not top players who challenge themselves with additionnals rules, contrary to tank stance that in pf and even in progress were ignored and considered as trap action. Sure there is also theses kind of PF now, but i saw less of them on actual content.

Also if we considerer healer to do half a dps in term of dps, bring one dps over one healer is about a 8% dommage increase against a standard raid composition, what is not this hudge.


But to answer better the initial question : to prevent content do be cleared with few healers :
-force 2 healers in composition, that is already something we can as more party stack are targeted on healers, but it's more an RNG check if we got one (and I also think tank are 2nd targeted by theses kind of share.
-Drastically increase the pressure on tanks by boss auto. This is also something noticable on savage. Tier one boss auto was laughable against tier 2 boss autos and TB. But as people already mentionned, OS raid wide are more mitig checks than heal checks.
-go back on FFXIV job design. Base on trinity, today roles are less boxed are everyone contribute to DPS, mitig and heal, and I can't think of this as a bad think, and I think most people feel the same as i've seen many nostalgic of SB era and all theses party utility (regen TP and MP and so one).

Lastly, I will add my feeling on something : it's not what there is nothing to heal today, but as everyone got some tools to do so and healers getting a bunch of ability to do so, ability becamed efficient enough to heal without gcd heal.