Healer Suggestions Megathread

[Calysto]

Simple barrier stacking solution : on/off stance ; if active, switch the crit barrier order.
that way you can have 2 barriers healers, and at most the equivalent of a crit barrier so not much cheeze
edit : If deployment only spread gavlanize (no matter the stance), no cheeze at al I guess

[Katish]

Simple barrier stacking solution : on/off stance ; if active, switch the crit barrier order.
that way you can have 2 barriers healers, and at most the equivalent of a crit barrier so not much cheeze
edit : If deployment only spread gavlanize (no matter the stance), no cheeze at al I guess

Why have it stack when they can already out-heal pure healers when it matters? Lel, the concept of pure vs shield healers is a travesty in that regard.
The pure healers are more like situational healers at best.
But healing altogether is a meme because we don't even need healers tbh [and this will continue moving forward with tanks and dps taking up more of the healing. (Which I'd like to see, just to bring the point home that we really aren't needed. Which will bring attention to issues more, making it more apparent.)]

[vetch]

But healing altogether is a meme because we don't even need healers tbh [and this will continue moving forward with tanks and dps taking up more of the healing. (Which I'd like to see, just to bring the point home that we really aren't needed. Which will bring attention to issues more, making it more apparent.)]

No, the playerbase is already so spoiled by having free healing tools everywhere and DDR fights that deal no damage when you stand in the right spots that there'll be a huge uproar if the devs so much as glance at restoring the trinity model to a balanced and healthy state.

For a free preview, check out what WAR mains say right now when non-Warriors ask about reining in WAR's ridiculous sustain.

Now extrapolate that outcry to all the healers who will have to give up their super-powered oGCD heals, and to all the tanks who will now be squishier so that healers will have more healing to do, and to all the players in general who prefer DDR battles to RPG ones because they get anxiety when the healer leaves their HP at 70% for ten seconds to triage someone else. It'll be a hurricane of "Balancing the game is all well and good, but can't you do it without making MY main job any weaker?"

Further worsening the problem won't make the changes any easier to make.

[Katish]

No, the playerbase is already so spoiled by having free healing tools everywhere and DDR fights that deal no damage when you stand in the right spots that there'll be a huge uproar if the devs so much as glance at restoring the trinity model to a balanced and healthy state.

For a free preview, check out what WAR mains say right now when non-Warriors ask about reining in WAR's ridiculous sustain.

Now extrapolate that outcry to all the healers who will have to give up their super-powered oGCD heals, and to all the tanks who will now be squishier so that healers will have more healing to do, and to all the players in general who prefer DDR battles to RPG ones because they get anxiety when the healer leaves their HP at 70% for ten seconds to triage someone else. It'll be a hurricane of "Balancing the game is all well and good, but can't you do it without making MY main job any weaker?"

Further worsening the problem won't make the changes any easier to make.

I'm just quoting the direction they're likely to take lel given what they have already done, I didn't say I supported it, in fact it's the opposite. As to why I'd want them to do so, is only to realize how bad of a healer design philosophy they have made. When healers are COMPLETELY replaced in everyday instance, all PF with nothing but DPS, perhaps then they'll declare something is wrong. We have to watch it burn before it can rise anew, and I'd rather they tarnish the role quicker to make that rebirth happen sooner. Though given they have signed off on this healing concept, Endtrail(Dawntrail) might make it happen quicker, we might see much needed changes within the expansion or next expansion hopefully. If they do nothing, well the role dies and then they have to figure something else out.

All healers imho need a redesign and re-imagining (shield and pure concept is absolutely stupid), because what they contribute in value is for naught, in a static and in normal content. When the tanks and dps do our job for us, what's the point? Healers need to have their combat brought up with new combat skills, heals considered in fights, removal of redundant heal skills, and other designs tailored just for the healer role. The tanks need some redesign. (they are not the healers, therefore they should not have heals) They should specialize in defending party members and guarding hits, and they need a new resource that isn't healing HP... (maybe removing their mitigating skills and combining it to make a new resource, with their different kit each manipulating it differently, might make for interesting tank design (unsure, though I've seen other games use Super Armor before so it's not unheard of). The DPS AOE heals need a longer cooldown, and should only act as support to the healers, not a replacement, save for single target heals (those are fine, although SMN could use their Physick converted over to INT).

[Shurrikhan]

Simple barrier stacking solution : on/off stance ; if active, switch the crit barrier order.
that way you can have 2 barriers healers, and at most the equivalent of a crit barrier so not much cheeze
edit : If deployment only spread gavlanize (no matter the stance), no cheeze at al I guess

...This seems needlessly convoluted. Any they probably shouldn't be allowed, at the least, to stack against the same hit anyways. Leave them as is, with the larger remaining absorb effect taking over, or have damage simply drain the larger one first and only use one at a time (the remaining damage from a tankbuster larger than the larger barrier would go through, rather than also consuming the smaller barrier).

As is, atop barriers not being as bottlenecked pure heals (are by max HP), "barrier healers" generally just output more sustain (damage nullification + HP recovered) altogether. Sage puts out almost a quarter more healing than White Mage. Yes, WHM's relative performance might increase faintly and SGE's would shrink if there were far more damage taken, but... there isn't.

I appreciate future-proofing for likely challenges or changes, but... this state looks likely to continue for the next couple expansions at the least. Given that, allowing barriers to stack can be pretty much irrelevant to those affected (who are overpowered enough not to care even if they frequently thus afflicted... which they aren't), while a bit of slap to the healers who'd be further made inferior by comparison. So, change it, sure, but... as part of a larger bundle that actually balances them down to the level of pure healers or vice versa.

[Calysto]

Balancing is another issue entirely ; just saying it wouldn't really break it more than it already is.
A barrier healer should want to cast it's shields.