Thoughts on the Yoshi P AMA?

[Caro178]

My suspicion is that when they get to the point where they realise that the role is a burning dumpster and simply walk or switch role. Those that stick around and persevere are a pretty wild minority at this point IMO, I'm not going to deny that.

IMO it's a question that's progressively going to get more and more important as the steady influx of new players starts to dry up. Seemingly that's not an issue just yet, but that point comes for every MMO eventually and as it stands I don't think Yoshida will have an answer.

Your average person who rolled dps or tank as their first job tends to be more of the persuasion that healers are intimidating due to potential wipe causing factors and increased visibility of mistakes. I've had that exact conversation with sprouts and even players at endgame who refuse to touch healers because they believe due to either word of mouth or past experiences that it's an intimidating role where your mistakes can lead to your party failing to clear a boss and having to restart which to them is a mortifying possibility. Statistically healer has also been the least played role at endgame from the beginning before and after the supposed guttings. That has never not been the case so your theory that people quit healer due to simplification doesn't hold much weight. The role is no less popular now than it was in the past - the stats are about the same as ever.

TLDR it's true that your average player doesn't care as much as you might think because they believe healer jobs are intimidating anyway. Overall it does not surprise me to see this entirely ignored when they could ask about Viera/Hrothgar headgear or glamour plates.

[Iscah]

TLDR it's true that your average player doesn't care as much as you might think because they believe healer jobs are intimidating anyway.

I think that's quite possible, although another factor that might lead to low healer numbers is the tendency for "adventurer in need" icons to display tank most frequently (even when actually queuing might reveal a queue for tanks and an instant pop for healers) leading to the general mindset that tank is the job that will get you into duties faster. And of course DPS is both naturally popular and comes in more flavours.

If anything, the simplification of healers is probably the devs trying to balance out these factors and get more people playing the role.