Brainstorming DPS rotation changes for healers

[Gullis]

How about no.

Seriously. The community needs to stop pushing for better DPS rotations on healers. I've been in a few too many dungeons so far this expansion where I wasn't healing and regretting it because the healer was way too focused on DPS to notice the tank was dead while I was trying to kite the mobs around to survive a couple of extra seconds to give the healer a chance to rez the tank just for all of us to end up dying because the healer was too busy playing DPS.

Healer then asks: what just happened?

Hello? You weren't healing. The tank died. I died. The other DPS died. You died. And you don't know what happened?

What's even worse is when it happens again 5 minutes later because they still can't be bothered to interrupt their DPS spam to toss the chain pulling tank a heal to keep them alive.

If this is how some healers are with a very limited DPS kit, there shouldn't be access to a more robust DPS kit. They need to focus on actual healing and not where they are in a DPS rotation.

This is the community's fault for pushing the "healers are required to DPS" mantra when they should be pushing "healers are required to heal, DPS should only be an afterthought" instead.

If a party is wiping, it's not because the healer isn't DPSing. It's because the healer isn't healing, or the DPS are bad at dealing damage, or anyone and everyone in the group is bad at doing the mechanics.

High-end raid healers may be able to pull off both healing and DPS in equal measure. The average healer usually can't.

If you're that obsessed with DPS rotations then please play DPS instead of healer.

How about yes.


coutner point: I do far too many dungeons this expansion where I was healing, and regretting it, because the tank was war/pld, so I was just a green dps for the entier dungeon run.

It has been really noticeable now this week too, now that people aren't running around in min ilvl gear anymore, and it will become even worse once the new tome and savage gear drops.
The whole "healers must heal" doesn't work in this game, due to encounter design and never will. more engageing dps option is the most realistic solution for healer boredom.

[Supersnow845]

Nahh, healer rotations are fine. Sure...could be more engaging...but healing is more then just spam your heals...watch the list if anyone gets damage, watch the boss mechanics, throw in some "easy" damage skills without to much thought behind. If we get rotation im 99 percent sure, healers would rather finish their combos like dps instead of healing the group up. Its designed so that you wont get to "stressed" out about thinking doing optimal rotations.

Which is why literally nobody is asking for combos that can break by healing

If you are watching health bars in this game you are already doing healing wrong, you aren’t spamming your healing buttons you are barely pressing them in the first place

[CaptainLagbeard]

My idea for a foundation to fixing WHM is kind of mildly borrow the base of BRD's gameplay with Straight Shot... With some other changes as well.

Keep Stone I to Stone IV as the primary attack spell, and just increase their potency through traits throughout the levels.
Make Glare I to Glare IV into a separate spell, one that requires stacks of Sacred Sight to cast as the way Glare IV currently does.
Entirely replace Freecure with a new trait with one that would grant a stack of Sacred Sight at about 30% proc chance on ever Spell cast.
Replace Planary Indulgence with Seraph Strike, make Seraph Strike cost 1 Lily to use and nourish the Blood Lily.
Because of a better alternative for nourishing the Blood Lily, Afflatus Misery's potency can be dropped as it no longer would have to be DPS neutral to Glare(or Stone with these changes).
Remove MP recovery from Assize, and add it to Afflatus Solace and Afflatus Rapture.


Maybe could work Fluid Aura as an additional attack somewhere there, with an Upgrade to it to make into Flood... Get some more elemental spells worked in there to have more links to Conjurer.

[aiqa]

I strongly dislike cleric stance. So the proposed WHM changes seem very much unfun to me.

[sharknado]

Scholar - tonberry squad to take instead of trust (bit more options) and for open world?, in non-trust instances few tonberry-based cooldowns (dps and deploy emergency tank)
WHM - option to summon or become a light guardian statue (not meaty sin eater, more like Amdapor hard last boss. It can DPS or tank in an emergency
Sage - light saber mode and high ground - combine two together, throw in a spinning motion around either as attack or defense force choke :P
Astro - Option to keep channeling a "song of fates" even while moving and during which cheat death would be available to one party member and astro, breaking upon use. Maybe some extra effect as we have with the increasing blessing of light on the ultima weapon - just to have +16 buff instead of -16

[Arrius]

In order for healers to be more engaging, the gameplay needs to be deeper again, filled with status effects and debuffs.

But it seems all what can be done for now is to increase punishments and have more moments where you need to dispell.
Maybe one could have fights where using the sleep spell is important ...

[LuciferMournstar]

People keep bringing up the possibility that people will hyperfocus on their damage buttons and refuse to do their main role if more damage buttons are added. Well guess what? It's already happening as it is with 1 single filler button so the massively simplified damage kit isn't forcing people to be good at healing either, so why be so stuck on keeping it?

Also, I want to point out that in HW (you know, the height of complexity?), content was being cleared regularly in DF, the most you'd get is a healer apologising for double-tapping Cleric Stance, then everyone has a laugh and moves on. Where was all the SCHs that mass-wiped every dungeon they were in because they had more than 1 DoT and 1 filler? Where was all the WHMs that couldn't heal properly because they had 3 DoTs?

People need to stop pushing this boogeyman that adding a couple extra buttons will immediately wipe the brains of every healer and turn them into DPS monkey brain. The people who are DPS monkey brain will wipe you no matter what the damage kit looks like.

In the words of Mimir from GoW : "Bollocks brother, respectfully, bollocks." As some who went through that crap in HW, there was more than "The most you'd get is a healer apologising for double-tapping Cleric Stance". You had "barse 95th percentile" healers, and absent minded healers that went melee brain regularly.

[LaylaTsarra]

No thank you!

And Cleric Stance is dead keep it that way.

[Aravell]

In the words of Mimir from GoW : "Bollocks brother, respectfully, bollocks." As some who went through that crap in HW, there was more than "The most you'd get is a healer apologising for double-tapping Cleric Stance". You had "barse 95th percentile" healers, and absent minded healers that went melee brain regularly.

Refer to the last line, DPS monkey brain healers will wipe you REGARDLESS of what their kit looks like. You could give them literally 1 single button to press to deal damage and they would STILL wipe you.

So why even bother designing around them? The dev team doesn't design around GNBs who say they don't want to mitigate during their burst. The dev team doesn't design around a NIN who says they don't want to Feint during burst. Why is only the healer role uniquely designed to accommodate idiots and failing at doing so?

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Nahh, healer rotations are fine. Sure...could be more engaging...but healing is more then just spam your heals...watch the list if anyone gets damage, watch the boss mechanics, throw in some "easy" damage skills without to much thought behind. If we get rotation im 99 percent sure, healers would rather finish their combos like dps instead of healing the group up. Its designed so that you wont get to "stressed" out about thinking doing optimal rotations.

Healer has always been 'heal as necessary first, dps second' under normal circumstances. Anybody that gets that backward are bad healer, no exception - incl. the ones you see nowadays who prefer to hard cast glaroilficosis 4 times over hard casting their raise when there are no movement required. Oh look! See how even 1 button rotation doesn't stop people from being bad?

Great double standard we have, as usual.