Goodbye, and good luck.

[Gember]

Well, that's what the dev team wanted, isn't it? They wanted to absolutely gut the healer role down to its basic parts so DPS and tank players can "give healers a try".

Well, let's hope that those players "giving healers a try" can keep up with all the veterans bleeding out of the role, eh?

This is exactly what SE wants. New players are important, and filling the roles needed are important for fluid gameplay. They know veterans will stay because they have been here for 6+ years already. They don't need to advertise to the old players; they already sold the game to them. First time experiences in FFXIV can be quite amazing, and I think that is the priority to the company's eyes. Not some old jaded healers complaining on the forums because they got too good at the game. <- I jest as I say this, but it makes perfect sense as to how they see things. They are not worried about us, because baby healers and good healers are two different worlds, and SE just does not know how to balance that without toxic behavior brewing from it. -shrugs-

[Zaytex]

Healers are just prog jobs at this point with how awful they feel to play outside of high-end content on patch. I would frequently take AST into my roulettes or literally any content in the game (50+ at least), because optimising the cards and rotation was engaging enough and felt fun to do every time without fail. Sadly, AST will no longer have this type of gameplay choice and will instead be streamlined closer to WHM, so I can be forced to mash one button with no mental thought put anywhere else - because that was never complained about right for years on end?

But to that, I say no. I implore other healer mains to just play the job in prog, and don't bother with it in all other areas of the game. Let the DF queues and reclear PF's stagger with a continued healer shortage, since the developers will not listen to us until they're forced to. Maybe when tanks and DPS aren't able to play the game, they'll think about improving the role properly.

[DBriggs304]

I still like AST, but that's about it. They have taken all the challenge out of the game. I'm just returning after spending most of my time for the last 18 month, in WoW. This is the first time in years I've been excited about their expansion and not even remotely confident ours here will be interesting. The devs seem to be phoning it in, and a lot of the older players are leaving now.

[Supersnow845]

This is exactly what SE wants. New players are important, and filling the roles needed are important for fluid gameplay. They know veterans will stay because they have been here for 6+ years already. They don't need to advertise to the old players; they already sold the game to them. First time experiences in FFXIV can be quite amazing, and I think that is the priority to the company's eyes. Not some old jaded healers complaining on the forums because they got too good at the game. <- I jest as I say this, but it makes perfect sense as to how they see things. They are not worried about us, because baby healers and good healers are two different worlds, and SE just does not know how to balance that without toxic behavior brewing from it. -shrugs-

The real question to be asked though is do baby healers actually enjoy the healers either

I get it; the support roles have a “scary stigma” attached to them because you are a fail point in your party and overcoming this fear and doing a dungeon right is a good feeling the first few times you do it

But is that enough to hold any of these people to the role for it to be sustainable. I’m sure a not insignificant amount of new players that feel that way go “well I’m happy I got over my fear but I think I’ll stay on DPS and just play healer occasionally”. Sure some would also become healer mains but would they stay for long either

Going into a double DPS expansion with a job that’s generating the most excitement out of any job since SAM (in pictomancer) are these transient “I’ll play healer just to give it a go” people plus the jaded healer mains that refuse to give up the role enough to actually hold the role together.

You all know me, I’m one of the top 5 most jaded healer mains on the forums. Even I am using a friend who is on healer to run the day 1 roulettes on PIC because I genuinely am that over dealing with this trash fire of a role

[Zaytex]

The real question to be asked though is do baby healers actually enjoy the healers either

I get it; the support roles have a “scary stigma” attached to them because you are a fail point in your party and overcoming this fear and doing a dungeon right is a good feeling the first few times you do it

But is that enough to hold any of these people to the role for it to be sustainable. I’m sure a not insignificant amount of new players that feel that way go “well I’m happy I got over my fear but I think I’ll stay on DPS and just play healer occasionally”. Sure some would also become healer mains but would they stay for long either

Going into a double DPS expansion with a job that’s generating the most excitement out of any job since SAM (in pictomancer) are these transient “I’ll play healer just to give it a go” people plus the jaded healer mains that refuse to give up the role enough to actually hold the role together.

You all know me, I’m one of the top 5 most jaded healer mains on the forums. Even I am using a friend who is on healer to run the day 1 roulettes on PIC because I genuinely am that over dealing with this trash fire of a role

It's definitely the worst role for sustainability. I remember my journey from when I first started to right now. Initially, I adored WHM and healing in general and found dungeon runs to be difficult (ShB era). I stayed away from AST because the card mechanic was too difficult for me to comprehend, and I didn't like the gameplay loop of SCH (I still dont).

Then I got better at the game, and (excuse the ego) very good at healing when I began delving into extremes and savage on patch. It got to the point that I got bored quickly and started to dislike healing on WHM. I shifted to AST and began to play it optimally and ever since, even during casual content, I have fun and enjoy healing. I've only stuck to AST when healing and WHM is so painfully boring I can't stand to play it. I ended up going from a hardcore WHM enjoyer to an AST lover, which is an interest retrospective.

I definitely think this contributes to why I see the healer role genuinely only played by newer or bad players, whether in my roulettes or PF's. It's honestly a miserable role if you're good at it, with only AST optimization being an option which isn't for everyones liking.

I wonder how bad the queues in DT will be.. 2 new DPS jobs, healer is still awful but now current AST mains will probably drop the role entirely.

[Aravell]

I definitely think this contributes to why I see the healer role genuinely only played by newer or bad players, whether in my roulettes or PF's. It's honestly a miserable role if you're good at it, with only AST optimization being an option which isn't for everyones liking.

I wonder how bad the queues in DT will be.. 2 new DPS jobs, healer is still awful but now current AST mains will probably drop the role entirely.

A lot of people have definitely left the role already, we've even had some new healers come to the forums and ask if healing ever gets better or if it stays boring.

But despite the lower healer numbers and the vast amount of veteran healers quitting, the players who enjoy the massive simplifications believe themselves the majority and they're ecstatic that they've claimed AST into their ranks. Guess we'll just have to see how the healer population fares in DT then.

[Supersnow845]

A lot of people have definitely left the role already, we've even had some new healers come to the forums and ask if healing ever gets better or if it stays boring.

But despite the lower healer numbers and the vast amount of veteran healers quitting, the players who enjoy the massive simplifications believe themselves the majority and they're ecstatic that they've claimed AST into their ranks. Guess we'll just have to see how the healer population fares in DT then.

It would be nice if we couldn’t predict in advance the excuse will become “it’s a double DPS expansion, of course the healer population will be lower”

[GoatOfWar]

I recommend you try healing in WoW. It's a blast and respects the player's intelligence.

[SweetPete]

See you in 8.0 when they redesign all the jobs and make them unique and fun again. Have a great break sugar bear.

[Absurdity]

It would be nice if we couldn’t predict in advance the excuse will become “it’s a double DPS expansion, of course the healer population will be lower”

Which would be the saddest excuse I've ever heard. If the role actually appealed to people enough to main it they wouldn't swap to the shiny new DPS at the drop of a hat.