If healers had a 3 Button GCD Combo like Tanks?

[Ramiee]

Uhhh I wouldn't want that.
At most for sage id have a 1-2 that has an effect that shortens the cd of phelma or psych I guess. But a 1-2-3 just really isn't it for me especially on spell casters, I'd prefer just a priority system for their DPS either with dots or multiple casting spells with different CDs.

[Silhart]

If the intention is to give healers more damage buttons, I don't think a 1-2-3 combo is the way to do it. It wouldn't add anything meaningful to their gameplay if it's just a copy+paste of what tanks already have.

But I don't think the idea should be shot down entirely. I'm going to adopt an unorthodox position and say that under the right circumstances, healer GCD combos have the potential to be more interesting than tank and melee combos. Before you call me insane, hear me out. The healer is essentially forced to commit to damage for n GCDs in a row without healing... doesn't that sound a bit like old Cleric Stance?

I can see GCD combos being an interesting addition to healer if:
- Broken combos are appropriately punishing.
- Using heals, including oGCD heals, break the combo sequence.
- Raid damage is frequent enough to make the healer worry about starting the combo at the wrong time.
- The combos are long--say, 5 GCDs long (and can be condensed to one button).
- The combo exists alongside the healer's one-button filler (Glare, Dosis), so that they have a weaker but safer GCD to fall back on if starting the combo is unideal.

All of this would put a bigger emphasis on planning fights: the healer would need to think ahead on when to heal and when to start a combo without breaking it. It could also open up more possibilities for decision-making - perhaps steps 3 and 4 of the combo can be instant casts so healers can time their combo to coincide with mechanics that force movement. Maybe the combo can also be mana-intensive so that resource management becomes an actual consideration again - in this case the healer would need to optimise the number of combos used without running out of MP for Glares, heals, and potential raises. In the case of Sage, maybe the last step of the combo can be melee.

At the end of the day I'm just a DPS main looking in from the outside, but this is the kind of decision-making I wish tanks and melees had with their combos. It feels a bit ironic that the one role where 1-2-3 combos could be most interesting is the same role that doesn't (and will likely never) have a 1-2-3 combo.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

For me dps is something I do because I have nothing else to do. I'd rather bosses including savage would have status ailments that need removed, new buffs to increase player damage or reduce cast times/actions, bring back paralyze, slow etc and just make the boss build immunity. Boss could then get a status effect immune for X minutes.

[Nero-Voidstails]

no thanks I do rather see enemy do more damage and heal a bit more not have my downtime being the only thing I do

[Atmaweapon510]

That’s basically Cleric stance.

[Emitans]

I don't want a 3 button combo, I want something interesting. Bring back SCH's dots! And Shadowflare, and Bane

[Tunda]

I see 1-2-3 could work with Astrologian

but in a different way

it is like 123 but you could mix and match different combos to get extra benefit

for example:
1 2 3 = party healing
2 1 3 = party sheilding
3 2 1 = party regen
1 3 2 = party mitigation

something like that

each combo will grant stack max of 4 stack that give you 1 extra random card draw

[Connor]

Absent of them somehow making healers need to gcd heal (which they can’t) I’d still rather have ways to support the party with gcds than a combo. Buffs, debuffs, dots, utility, all the traditional ‘healer things’. Anything that’s not what we have now lol (but ideally not a standard gcd combo)

[AmiableApkallu]

I can see GCD combos being an interesting addition to healer if:
- Broken combos are appropriately punishing.
- Using heals, including oGCD heals, break the combo sequence.
...

All of this would put a bigger emphasis on planning fights: the healer would need to think ahead on when to heal and when to start a combo without breaking it.

And what happens when a DPS player goes off script and needs a heal that wasn't in the plan?

The game, on its own terms, says that breaking combos is bad. It's one thing if you break a combo because of your own (lack of) skill, especially when fights are highly scripted. It's quite another to need to break a combo because of someone else's actions and the need to take care of your role's primary responsibility.

[LilimoLimomo]

I can see GCD combos being an interesting addition to healer if:
- Broken combos are appropriately punishing.
- Using heals, including oGCD heals, break the combo sequence.

If this system were added to the game, it would add an additional incentive for healers to DPS even if there is healing that needs to be done; that's the exact kind of system that's poison for a co-op game, because it would result in more conflict between players. Players will die because their healer was pressing the shiny combo buttons before getting to the healing, because the healer fell into the trap that the devs left for them.

And that's literally the point of combos in games: to incentivize players to commit to a course of action and not stray from it, by dangling the carrot of maximized rewards at the end of the combo. There's no reason to give healers this sort of incentive unless you're trying to incentivize healers not to heal. Which, to be clear, FF14 absolutely should not do.

Besides, Paladin has been updated to keep their combo even if they do a heal; so if healers do get a single-button combo, it would be backwards to use an out-dated design.

(I don't mind the idea of a single-button combo - similar to PvP combos - for healers, just to make the visuals and sound effects of Stone-Stone-Stone less tedious. Is it a fix to healers' problems? No. But it might be a mild stop-gap.)