Quote Originally Posted by Renathras View Post
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I do agree that giving healers oGCD buffs wouldn’t solve the issue, because as you say it would simply become ‘thing you use between dps casts’ as opposed to being a meaningful support option.

The thing is, we’ve actually had quite a few GCD buff spells in the past, the developers just will not stop removing them. Take Bard. They had Foe Requiem which was a standard cast, drained MP, increased damage taken by enemies (ok that’s a debuff but still lol), Mage’s Ballad and Army’s Paeon worked the same and gave a buff that gradually restored MP / TP. Warden’s Paean was initially a GCD spell (though weirdly no Mp cost), so Bards could actively remove status ailments or choose to proactively cast it on a party member (though it was kinda busted in PvP lol). There’s even more the further back you go. In the game’s alpha Archer has a ton of debilitating status effects attached to its weaponskills, Rain of Death even used to lower damage dealt to the enemy. Naturally these are all abilities for a different role, but at the same time they’re proof that ffxiv can have gcd based support abilities that actually affect a job’s playstyle and don’t fall into the trap of ‘just slap it between your dps spells’.

And yes, there is of course the trumpet in the room that all those support abilities had to get removed because it was like, disgustingly, game-breaking(ly), unstoppably over-powered in raids. But still, I feel like they could’ve worked to simply balance them more appropriately than just throw the entire concept out the window

I think spells like Bravery and Protect from Bozja should go into role skills for healers too. GCD support spells that can easily be utilised for optimal output, ignored completely, or used casually as and when required.