#FFXIVHEALERSTRIKE

[RhodesToRome]

So I've read through quite a few of the replies on this post, but obviously not all of them. While I've been going through the comments I've also simultaneously been looking up people's characters to see what kind of content they are engaging in. And, to no surprise, the vast majority of the players complaining here are not doing high end content (Savage, Ultimate, and Criterion Savage). Maybe some Extremes here and there, but for the most part they do not seem to be raiding. There are high end raiders with concerns as well, but I feel that their concerns are a bit different, and are coming from a different perspective, compared to the majority I've read here.

Now this brings up an interesting question concerning the casual player. Is it a valid criticism on their part that they do not feel engaged playing the Healer role while they are doing the more casual content like Roulettes and Story? You could say that the game is designed that way. In order to cater to the broadest scope of players possible, the developers have intentionally put up as few road blocks and pain points as possible in everyday content. Opting instead to funnel the player towards raiding if they desire something more challenging and rewarding.

But as the jobs obtain more tools and become stronger over time, as the lines become blurred as to what a Support or a DPS is capable of, I can definitely see where a more casual player can start to feel bored and disinterested. After all, why would healing be interesting when you can primarily rely on powerful OGCDs to heal damage that already feels negligible? Why would healing be interesting when others Jobs are able to sustain themselves without you? Why would healing be interesting when any content, outside of the high end, provides absolutely no friction or challenge to the player?

As someone who has healed Savage and some Ultimate, I do not share most of the sentiments voiced in this post. I may have some gripes concerning the design of raid content and the Jobs, but overall I am still satisfied and I see a purpose for all of the roles in a raid setting. Personally, I don't think a re-work or re-imagining of the Healer role (or any other role) is the answer to a lot of the complaints I've seen here. I think the solution lies in the battle content itself. There needs to be more friction and challenge in casual content. I want to see healing checks. I want to see actual damage checks. I want a dungeon boss' attacks to do more than tickle you. I want dungeon trash to actually be a threat. I want to see more interesting encounter design. I'm not suggesting that we turn the knob to the complete opposite end and scare away these players from attempting anything, but there needs to be an outlet where the average (and below average) player can utilize the powerful tools they've been given and feel like they're contributing and feel good about it.