Yoshi-P: "If you want more engaging content, go play Ultimate"

[Aravell]

Not to mention the fact that the dps part of healing is so boring that I full on zone out at times which ironically makes it harder to pay attention to the healing side @_@

This part here makes the dev team's decision to gut healers in the damage kit department to attract tank and DPS players to make the swap even more baffling.

Does the dev team really think that a DPS player would enjoy an extremely barebones damage kit on a job? They managed to make tanking attractive to DPS players with GNB, but then they go and do the opposite for healers and expect that to also be attractive to DPS players. Some of their decisions from ShB onwards have been bizarre.

[Roda]

This part here makes the dev team's decision to gut healers in the damage kit department to attract tank and DPS players to make the swap even more baffling.

Does the dev team really think that a DPS player would enjoy an extremely barebones damage kit on a job? They managed to make tanking attractive to DPS players with GNB, but then they go and do the opposite for healers and expect that to also be attractive to DPS players. Some of their decisions from ShB onwards have been bizarre.

I was really interested in sage conceptually since it sounded a bit like wow's disc priest or rift's chloromancer. Hell, iirc, chloromancer had a rotation similar to dps kits, maybe even a bit more complex than some, and it was my JAM back in the day since the mundane upkeep and mit worked best when you were going hard on pumping out your damage rotation which left me like some kind of side process in my brain know when to fling out the big heals when I really needed 'em. :^)

[ty_taurus]

I was really interested in sage conceptually since it sounded a bit like wow's disc priest or rift's chloromancer. Hell, iirc, chloromancer had a rotation similar to dps kits, maybe even a bit more complex than some, and it was my JAM back in the day since the mundane upkeep and mit worked best when you were going hard on pumping out your damage rotation which left me like some kind of side process in my brain know when to fling out the big heals when I really needed 'em. :^)

I love the fantasy that sage is trying to fill, but the actual job we have fails so miserably at achieving that fantasy that it makes me viscerally angry.

[Remember_The_Name]

Yesterday night, I was doing Fates with BRD and I came across an enemy NPC that could cast a really cool water spell.

I paused for a second as the spell went off and wondered, why the flying f*** does WHM not have something like this? If enemy NPCs can cast this AND a BLM Y’shtola, why not freaking WHM!!!

This post caught my attention.

So, there is Bozjan Southern Front. And there's a series of skirmishes featuring Dyunbu pyr Potitus, imperial mage. And through all skirmishes she was employing interesting elemental spells:

Tactical Tornado - circular AoE, reduces enemy HP to a single digit.
Tactical Water - circular AoE, inflicts Heavy on enemies
Tactical Aero - column-shaped AoE from her, applies DoT on enemies. And she uses that attack right after Water, so slowed down enemies cannot escape the Aero
Also, small self heal Field Medicine and interruptable long mega heal for all her allies Marching Breath, but that is not the point. (why there are so few enemies with self-heal by the way, Square?!)

The point is that, as a White Mage, I felt pretty damn humbled by her, because all I could was like "ugh, I was also a Conjurer, lemme see, ugh... I can cast a tiny flashbang called Glare! " "And five millions forms of sparkly heals, yay!..."

Game keep showing us such awesome looking combat spells that can easily compete with BLM Fire/Ice/Thunder, but because we have that on-going healer doctrine - WHM has nothing of this. No fun allowed.

Very fulfilling job fantasy, right? Stone IV looks better than Glare, fite me!

[AmiableApkallu]

I love the fantasy that sage is trying to fill, but the actual job we have fails so miserably at achieving that fantasy that it makes me viscerally angry.

ikr? SE should have just deleted Kardia and spent more time on making Addersting an interesting mechanic.

The notion that Sharlayan healers would laser the local wildlife to death to run their healing wards is comically absurd, and Kardia is a mechanic that gets approximately zero screen time. It clearly exists only to fulfill the checkbox of "SGE needs some sort of single-target regen," which, whatever.

Far more sensible is the notion that the nouliths would manipulate and absorb the "bad" healer of a patient, or "bad" incoming energy, which could then be discharged towards something whose life was less valuable. And that would fit in with all the instances/cutscenes of a sage putting up one of those bizarro cube shields.

[ty_taurus]

ikr? SE should have just deleted Kardia and spent more time on making Addersting an interesting mechanic.

The notion that Sharlayan healers would laser the local wildlife to death to run their healing wards is comically absurd, and Kardia is a mechanic that gets approximately zero screen time. It clearly exists only to fulfill the checkbox of "SGE needs some sort of single-target regen," which, whatever.

Far more sensible is the notion that the nouliths would manipulate and absorb the "bad" healer of a patient, or "bad" incoming energy, which could then be discharged towards something whose life was less valuable. And that would fit in with all the instances/cutscenes of a sage putting up one of those bizarro cube shields.

What gets me is that there's clearly some demand for a hyper offensive style of healer. Why not let Sage embrace that? I do understand not wanting to make every healer like that. I'd still argue there's absolutely more leeway in what you can do with the other three that doesn't necessarily make them hyper offensive while still making their downtime not feel like a punishment. But I don't understand why in a game that has a job system where all jobs are viable, and where the player can change jobs almost anywhere with no cost, why we can't have specific jobs cater to specific playstyles like that. Then again, I also don't get why Monk can't be allowed to be the one melee that kept its positional-heavy nature for the players who enjoy positionals.

[Supersnow845]

Because they don’t design healers as 4 jobs, they design them as one job then just slightly change the text on like 4 abilities and call it different

[ty_taurus]

Because they don’t design healers as 4 jobs, they design them as one job then just slightly change the text on like 4 abilities and call it different

For me, it's kind of like talking about a flat earther. I don't understand why in this day and age anyone would believe in something like the world being flat, and anyone can tell me that it has something to do with distrust in things like news and the government, but that doesn't make me understand it because at the end of the day thinking the world is flat is batshit crazy and makes a negative amount of sense. And that's kinda how I feel about the situation with jobs. The game is designed to be the perfect environment to experiment and be ambitious with new jobs because no players is stuck playing any one given job. So it makes a negative amount of sense why there's this paralyzing fear of things being different.

And I'm sure there will be someone who comes along and says it has to do with balance, but like, why do we care so much about balance that way? A job gets released and is really underpowered? So what? That feedback gets delivered and that job can get adjustments during the next update. Same in reverse. Why do we need to act like the real world is ending anytime a job is too strong or too weak?

[Aravell]

And I'm sure there will be someone who comes along and says it has to do with balance, but like, why do we care so much about balance that way? A job gets released and is really underpowered? So what? That feedback gets delivered and that job can get adjustments during the next update. Same in reverse. Why do we need to act like the real world is ending anytime a job is too strong or too weak?

It's always weird to me when people tout "balance" as the reason for any changes in EW, it's also very strange when they also say EW has the best balance.

Did people forget that SGE was so undertuned on launch that it required about 5 rounds of buffs to be as appealing as SCH in DSR? Did people forget how PLD and WAR were so undertuned for Asphodelos that bringing them was actively griefing your team? Did people forget how undertuned BLM was on launch and how overtuned SMN was? Did they forget that RDM was a straight up worse SMN for like 3 patches? Did people forget that WAR is currently just the best tank at almost everything? Do people not see that the melee and BLM are tuned so high that you can just bring 2 melee, 1 caster and 1 fixed BLM and still do about as much damage despite axing the entire phys ranged role?

I honestly fail to see how EW has the best balance.

[ty_taurus]

It's always weird to me when people tout "balance" as the reason for any changes in EW, it's also very strange when they also say EW has the best balance.

Did people forget that SGE was so undertuned on launch that it required about 5 rounds of buffs to be as appealing as SCH in DSR? Did people forget how PLD and WAR were so undertuned for Asphodelos that bringing them was actively griefing your team? Did people forget how undertuned BLM was on launch and how overtuned SMN was? Did they forget that RDM was a straight up worse SMN for like 3 patches? Did people forget that WAR is currently just the best tank at almost everything? Do people not see that the melee and BLM are tuned so high that you can just bring 2 melee, 1 caster and 1 fixed BLM and still do about as much damage despite axing the entire phys ranged role?

I honestly fail to see how EW has the best balance.

When things are as homogenized as they are, and balance is still wonky anyway, might as well just let jobs be different and fun because it's not like we're losing any sense of balance as a consequence.