What are the games that make healer interesting?

[ZephyrMenodora]

EverQuest Cleric - 1999-2004 (so much interdependence on other players couldn't even solo much of anything)
EQ2 Cleric - 2004-2009
Aion Cleric - 2009-2017 off and on

All of these were super fun to me and most of the focus was on healing.

I tanked in Tera, so can't comment on healing there. Rare game I liked tanking due to real time shield blocking.
Chose Paladin in Lost Ark, but didn't play long enough to comment either.
ESO has a lot of focus on buffing and support through heals - but a lot of comment they aren't needed like here.

[Bloody_Kenny]

I enjoyed playing Resto Druid and Shaman in WoW, Mercy in Overwatch, Soraka in League, Malfurion and Anduin in HotS, Healer Warden in ESO. Healing leveling parties in FFXI was stressful, but in a fun way. There is something that speaks to me when i play healers and supports in all those games, and same feeling was in FFXIV during ARR-HW. At least for me.

[Graveyardprincess]

tbh ffxiv healer issue can be fixed in 1 easy step ADD AND GIVE ONLY HEALERS 1MIN buff abilitys, like protect/shell bravery/faith there, healers have interactive game play and bring something to the table noone else can and grant bosses the ability to dispell a benfitinal buff on players.


Like ast is about the only fun healer or was in stormblood since you had cards to constantly use and buff ppl

[Moxxi]

Can't really comment on most mmos or games since i only really healed in FFxiv for the most part, WoW felt like a mixed bag of wrath of the lich king being a horrible experience to try level one due to how toxic the community is.. Legion got a bit better but holy priest just felt like a more spammy white mage, all i did in dungeons were throw out heals with no real care for mana with the occasional damage spells when i felt i could safely do that.
But can say for an fps overwatch in it's early days felt pretty fun depending on character you picked, some had to really be on top of things to keep the others safe but you could be boring too and just healbot the tanks.
Did play a healer in dragon age: origins and had fun with that as a mix of CC, heals and buffs, but it is a more tactical game where you can pause combat to make sure you and the npcs do the right stuff.
It may be a me thing but i don't like to always be stressfully casting heals at all times or the rest of the group goes splat ^^" Give me utility like crowd control and buffs to mix in too to help.. Gosh i miss the old rng astrologian cards..

[DPZ2]

The model for White Mage is always the DnD type Cleric, so any game that expressly "needs" the cleric is probably a better design, however it really depends if you are talking about a TTRPG, CRPG or some other type of game (eg RPG mods for Minecraft or GTAV)

Oddly enough, I've played a lot of Clerics over the years in D&D 5e. None of them have been "healers". What little I've played in Baldur's Gate 3 as a Cleric indicates that rings true in video games as well as TTRPG. A Cleric is a DPS with some fairly spectacular (but seldom necessary) heals. Clerics rely on cantrips for the majority of their damage. So, yeah, White Mage.

Note: Cantrips do not use up spell slots, which are highly coveted by Clerics for doing, well, actual healing. When necessary. Bringing back some poor player from near death is generally when spell slots are useful.

[ZephyrMenodora]

Oddly enough, I've played a lot of Clerics over the years in D&D 5e. None of them have been "healers". What little I've played in Baldur's Gate 3 as a Cleric indicates that rings true in video games as well as TTRPG. A Cleric is a DPS with some fairly spectacular (but seldom necessary) heals. Clerics rely on cantrips for the majority of their damage. So, yeah, White Mage.

Note: Cantrips do not use up spell slots, which are highly coveted by Clerics for doing, well, actual healing. When necessary. Bringing back some poor player from near death is generally when spell slots are useful.

My clerics in BG3 just rely on hula-hopping Spirit Guardians and running around.

[Kaixern]

The Disciple of Kaine in return of Reckoning (a private server Warhammer MMO from the one called reckoning)
Fun thing with this class, it's a melee healer capable of healing and buffing allies while attacking, really cool concept.
(the gameplay of classes in this game is really great)

[Avoidy]

Healing in Tera was so good that even after the game shut down and private servers popped up, the actual queue time as a healer was longer than it was as a dps because people were actively queuing as healer since it was just that enjoyable. Your responsibilities included buffing the group, debuffing the boss, managing the group's MP, cleansing debuffs, ressing the dead, and occasional dps among some other stuff I'm likely forgetting. Since it was an action game, the snappiness was very satisfying; for example, you could actually pull off some seriously clutch heals without a janky "server tick" deciding that your heal actually didn't go off in time to save that one guy who can't stop getting hit. Or you could do that game's esuna equivalent but so quickly that it would be like the debuff had never even occurred if you timed it right.

There were 2 healers if I'm remembering right. One of them had a skill that made the party attack faster and on a reduced cooldown; another of the healers increased the entire group's critical hit rate just by existing. Both applied (iirc) debilitation debuffs on bosses. In other words, unlike XIV, going into an encounter with no healer -- even if your team were skilled enough to never take damage -- was often a detriment because you would attack slower, or crit less, or run out of mana, or take longer to down the boss because no debuffs, etc. In some cases it was fun and very quick to take both types of healers because of the benefits they provided. Really skilled healers could let their parties ignore certain mechanics because their team would just trust them to heal through it reliably. There were different forms of skill expression and people felt proud when they mastered it. Likewise, a group noticed quickly when their healer was new, because they'd run out of MP during their burst or the debuffs would expire on the boss or the team buffs would never go out, etc. Tanking was really good too. You could actually block incoming damage if you could read the boss well enough, and you had loads of support options for your team. Aggro was maintained through raw force; you had shouts you could use as a crutch, and you could apply augments to your skills (called glyphs) to boost aggro if you were still new, but those were like training wheels. If you were good enough, you'd hold aggro against your team by being really aggressive or by outgearing them. It was a lot more engaging than tanking in this game, where you just turn on your stance and fall asleep. I fear if we ever got a similar gameplay setup in 2024, modern MMO gamers would hate it because they don't want to be dependent on anyone. Everybody wants to be an island. Never mind the fact that there are thousands of single player games these people could play. No, they have to ruin this.

In a just world, Tera would not have been mismanaged by idiots. The combat in that game was so good that it kept it alive despite the constant stupid developer decisions. They would release a dungeon and then remove it from the game a few months later. They only ever wanted to have 3 dungeons in the game at a time. Then they'd limit how many times you could run it per day and that number would be like 1-2 times a day. These people were absolute morons. They had lightning in a bottle and they sucked on the bottle like cavemen until it broke.

[Puc]

Being priest in TERA was so enjoyable. Bouncing around healing 2/3 people and casting debuffs/buffs was exactly what i wanted in an action gameplay. Then having mystic where you drop motes with more emphasis on doing damage and debuffing was peak. What a shame its gone when I finally get a good computer.
Making scholar fairy drop healing/shielding orbs where the fairy is put at would be godly.

[LilimoLimomo]

I have fond memories of ARR. Keeping the tank alive, responding as-needed to AoE's and other damaging mechanics, and using Esuna to keep my party free of debuffs was a genuinely fun triage experience.

In theory FF14 could still get back to that kind of experience someday; they just need to better balance the capabilities of healers versus the rate of problems they're actively asked to solve.