7.0 copium has got to stop

[Supersnow845]

This is correct. You can communicate clearly and effectively, but if your ideas are unpopular, they are unlikely to end up being implemented. You have to be persuasive as well.

Which (as has been discussed ad nauseam on every piece of media related to 14) there is no evidence that a significant base exists who actually like modern healers for their actual design

The forums hate them, shitpostxiv hates them, ffxivdiscussion hates them, even mainsub outside of a few overplayed “blood for the blood lily” jokes hates them, Job satisfaction surveys hate them

Every piece of evidence we have shows that people overwhelmingly hate them, at best there is a measure of people who like support roles who play them because 14 has nothing even remotely close (even ignoring that squares decisions on healers and phys ranged is what destroyed support) to support but there is basically nobody who comes out and says “healer design is good and well designed”

[MintnHoney]

but there is basically nobody who comes out and says “healer design is good and well designed”

Except for Renathras on Tuesdays-Thursdays, and sometimes Fridays if he feels backed into a corner when arguing in the healer forums, that one player who I can't really remember that wants the jobs to stay the way they are because they are a disabled player who needs simple jobs to be able to play (fair enough), and that one Elezen guy who will apparently never run out of content, I can't think of many who have said this even once upon a time, either.

[Jojoya]

Every piece of evidence we have shows that people overwhelmingly hate them, at best there is a measure of people who like support roles who play them because 14 has nothing even remotely close (even ignoring that squares decisions on healers and phys ranged is what destroyed support) to support but there is basically nobody who comes out and says “healer design is good and well designed”

Personally, I don't think SE can make any real progress on healer design until they strip back many of the healing and mitigation tools they've given other roles, and better balance the importance of each role in content in general. Every role should need both of the other roles doing their jobs to clear content synced.

If SE's concern is "if we balance role importance and a healer dies there's no recovery while a party can recover if a tank or DPS dies because a healer can Raise them", giving other roles more healing and mitigation utility isn't the answer. The answer is to give the other roles an instant cast Raise with a 10 minute recharge timer or something similar - an "oh crap button" to get the healer up if needed without being so convenient it can be used for any death. That takes nothing away from the healer role as it's only useful after death occurs, not in helping to prevent death.

I don't get frustrated as a healer because I'm mostly playing with those who are skill challenged. I'm usually busy healing (even when tanking sometimes) so I'm not spending much time as green DPS. But I do empathize with those who are playing with the skilled players and get frustrated that being a healer doesn't feel more meaningful and engaging.

[Lyth]

Personally, I don't think SE can make any real progress on healer design until they strip back many of the healing and mitigation tools they've given other roles, and better balance the importance of each role in content in general. Every role should need both of the other roles doing their jobs to clear content synced.

If SE's concern is "if we balance role importance and a healer dies there's no recovery while a party can recover if a tank or DPS dies because a healer can Raise them", giving other roles more healing and mitigation utility isn't the answer. The answer is to give the other roles an instant cast Raise with a 10 minute recharge timer or something similar - an "oh crap button" to get the healer up if needed without being so convenient it can be used for any death. That takes nothing away from the healer role as it's only useful after death occurs, not in helping to prevent death.

The dev team tends to avoid announcing direct nerfs whenever possible. Jobs and roles typically get stealth nerfed between expansions, when there are so many other changes happening at the same time that it's often hard for players to pinpoint that a nerf has actually happened. I think that if at all the amount of self-healing and non-healer mitigation available were to be scaled back, the 7.0 transition is the most likely time for it to happen (unannounced, of course). I would be very surprised if this will get reverted entirely, however (WAR nerfs always have major backlash).

The reason why I think that a focus on 'role importance' is less likely is because pass-fail checks tend to be reserved for more challenging fights, where there is a mandatory attendance check at the start and end of a mechanic. Easier content is designed with a greater degree of cross-compensation in mind so that you don't arbitrarily get held back by one or two players who are struggling.

Improving the damage-dealing rotation of healers would be useful, as would the addition of more actions that serve both an offensive and defensive function at the same time. Healers will always at best be second-class DPS players, though, if that's all they have on offer. And some people want to keep it like that. Why swap to Caster when you can be compared against a Healer community that isn't even trying to do damage? Big fish, small pond.

I think what hasn't been explored is the role of support actions that indirectly bolster raid and party performance. Expedient was probably the first step in the right direction with this, and I wouldn't be surprised if at least one other healer ends up with a similar tool. There are probably other ways that a healer could improve teammates uptime through support actions as well, and I think that this is the best way to improve the role (short of introducing new healer jobs that break away from the the traditional WHM/SCH archetypes). You have so many different competing interests from the community though, so I don't envy the position of anyone invested in bringing a change.