#FFXIVHEALERSTRIKE

[TheDustyOne]

It's actually really important to think of balancing as something that is addressing content in its most virgin point - before gearing becomes too easy and the progression is saturated with Echo buffs. Again, this is not me saying it's "wrong" or "less legitimate", but it does make fights a lot easier.

Whenever content becomes too easy - and this is actually a pain point in FFXIV, stuff becomes way too easy with time, mostly because of intra and extra-patch power creeping - healers are definitely the ones that feel it the most. Having to effectively heal and plan mitigations is core part of the Healer gameplay in FFXIV; cut that out of the role flow without putting anything in it's place but a few Glares and some Biolysis and you make it the most dull and boring role. That much is true.

But, then again, balancing can't address that - if they were to balance down jobs every few weeks, there would be no feeling of progression overall. If they were to make healer DPS rotations harder, then the role would be saturated with responsibilities in early prog points, such as week one/week two progressions. If they were to remove or dampen the ability of self-healing from other roles, they would become too dependant. That dependancy would also become an issue in the long run.

So, as I see it, gameplay-wise, healers are in an "OK" spot. It just gets really awful as content becomes older, even within a patch.

Similar responsibilities are also on the tank in those early weeks to mitigate properly. Yet those tanks also have an engaging DPS rotation, WAR may be simple, but it still has 2 combos, a Gauge, 3 primary cooldowns, and a big burst button. The most "complex" healer doesn't even have half of that. The same damage healers heal is the same damage that tanks mitigate.

Reverse the roles for a moment, let's just say tanks only had 2 attacks, maybe 2 cooldowns, and the rest was all mits that you didn't need, and think if it would be okay for me to say "if they make tank DPS rotations harder, then the role would be saturated with responsibilities in early prog points". Savage content is already content where people should be comfortable in their jobs before they tackle it, so that responsibility is normal, every job has it.

Balance may be important, but fun should take precedence. People play unbalanced but fun games, but not dull balanced ones. Ideally we would be both balanced and fun (ironically, we don't have either).

[Elexander]

Similar responsibilities are also on the tank in those early weeks to mitigate properly. Yet those tanks also have an engaging DPS rotation, WAR may be simple, but it still has 2 combos, a Gauge, 3 primary cooldowns, and a big burst button. The most "complex" healer doesn't even have half of that. The same damage healers heal is the same damage that tanks mitigate.

Reverse the roles for a moment, let's just say tanks only had 2 attacks, maybe 2 cooldowns, and the rest was all mits that you didn't need, and think if it would be okay for me to say "if they make tank DPS rotations harder, then the role would be saturated with responsibilities in early prog points". Savage content is already content where people should be comfortable in their jobs before they tackle it, so that responsibility is normal, every job has it.

Balance may be important, but fun should take precedence. People play unbalanced but fun games, but not dull balanced ones. Ideally we would be both balanced and fun (ironically, we don't have either).

The thing is that tanks are not supposed to care for the whole party - it's mostly a boss-player kind of interaction. Healers, however, have to be constantly on the watch for all eight players in a full party. I get your point, but I still don't think giving healers a more complex DPS rotation would make it "better" - rather, it'd be just daunting for new players and something awful to deal with on early progression points. I, personally, wouldn't mind having a few more buttons, although I disagree with this kind of job design.

[TheDustyOne]

The thing is that tanks are not supposed to care for the whole party - it's mostly a boss-player kind of interaction. Healers, in the meanwhile, have to be constantly on the watch for all eight players. I get your point, but I still don't think giving healers a more complex DPS rotation would make it "better" - rather, it'd be just daunting for new players and something awful to deal with on early progression points. I, personally, wouldn't mind having a few more buttons, however, though I disagree with the design.

New players will have 100 levels to get used to a jobs kit, their first daunting task would be MSQ long before Savage is a thought.

I do get your point on boss-player, but that boss is also the one tossing the damage that healers heal, so by proxy that tank is still supporting the party by preventing further damage from that boss. The responsibility is still enough for people to have "tankxiety" over. But that responsibility does not and should not ever mean that they have to have their kits culled.