#FFXIVHEALERSTRIKE

[GartredZW]

I'll play devil's advocate a bit and say that those sorts of players have a point, just not in the way they think they do.
I think we all have an intuitive sense of how we think our job should play. What we think about when we imagine our warrior of light in canon doing all these cool moves and abilities like an action movie or anime. For some people, it's way different than others.
If I were to redesign white mage, it wouldn't center around the Dots being lower duration, it would be by making the core GCDs more varied with less of a focus on the dot. Maybe that's just me as I don't play White Mage, but I would think it could play as a sort of foil for Black Mage, with a similar sort of spend and replenish style rotation (not using MP) where the Dot is just something to break up the rotation and keep you thinking on your toes. (RIP Sharpcast)
But yeah, like I said I don't play White Mage. Maybe that's not what people think of when they want to play the class. Dots and timers seems more like a Scholar or Astrologian thing to me.

The healers are all so barebones in damage that anything would be welcome. that's what I'm thinking first and foremost. If they make Scholar more interesting in a way I don't like, well I just hope that at least one healer becomes something I do like so I can go play that instead. Of course, I'd like for my favorite healer to also be my favorite to play after a rework, but at this point I'll take what I can get. (even if that means I have to retire my running joke about hating White Mage.)

[ForsakenRoe]

If I were to redesign white mage, it wouldn't center around the Dots being lower duration, it would be by making the core GCDs more varied with less of a focus on the dot.

For sure, we all have different 'mental images' of what our ideal version of the job is. For example, I would have the DOT be lower duration in order to make it feel more 'bursty' compared to the more lingering effect of a 30s Biolysis on SCH, and to also respect the 10 years of design where WHM's had Aero as a DOT. It could, however, just as easily be a strong GCD that does all of its damage all at once with a separate CD (but that would step on the toes of another action I'd add)

The question is, taking WHM as the example, how many people have the mental image that this WHM is their 'ideal version' of WHM, compared to what I expect is the more likely situation, that people just think 'this is how WHM is, no point thinking about it any more than that'

[Jidka]

To me, the ideal WHM is a glass canon with strong and long casting heals and damage spells but few mobility.

How would you describe WHM as he is now ?
I've read people describing WHM as weaker and less interesting AST.

[Supersnow845]

To me, the ideal WHM is a glass canon with strong and long casting heals and damage spells but few mobility.

How would you describe WHM as he is now ?
I've read people describing WHM as weaker and less interesting AST.

So basically ShB WHM

Yeah unfortunately people couldn’t figure out that Lilys=weave space so now we have “bad AST” that is current WHM

[Aravell]

So basically ShB WHM

Yeah unfortunately people couldn’t figure out that Lilys=weave space so now we have “bad AST” that is current WHM

I don’t think people couldn't figure out that it's weave space. I think people looked at lilies back then and said "Ew, this loses me damage" then threw the lily spells off their hotbar.

[Supersnow845]

I don’t think people couldn't figure out that it's weave space. I think people looked at lilies back then and said "Ew, this loses me damage" then threw the lily spells off their hotbar.

Proceeds to lose even more damage to clipping assize

Checkmate roulette mains

[Aravell]

I imagine one's "ideal version" also hits a snag if someone wants job fantasy/lore in there.

Reminder that White Mages were the opposing rival force to Black Mages in an actual war, or that Scholars were the core member of an entire nation's military unit that likewise made Black Mages think twice about conquering them. Now look at them... heals that go unneeded and DPS you could manage with an auto-clicker. It's like those meme pictures comparing a majestic wolf to a pug in a silly hat, lol.

Funnily enough, you don't actually need a super complex job kit to solidify lore identity within gameplay.

Let's take WHM for example, they could get really high potency on their attack spells because they're said to be equal to the BLMs, but to balance that destructive power, ALL their heals are on the GCD (but also very powerful).

Or let's take SCH for example, they could get some buff fields to place or special stratagem as they're meant to be a tactician (not a fairy mage), then their DoTs could have debilitating debuffs tied to them, like healing down or slow or heavy, which, while not being useful in challenging content, do provide flavour and identity.

It's also worth noting that SE nailed job identity according to lore before ShB. WHM's Holy was one of the strongest AoE spells in the game, MNK was a fast brawler that ramps up in speed but stalls when there's nothing to hit, WAR hit really hard in damage stance but was required to lose damage to access a powerful heal+mit skill. Every job had strong identity and it's unfortunate that the team threw that away in favour of chasing the ever elusive "perfectly balanced game".

[Kohashi]

When it came to FF14, I always thought (still do) that combat is its weakest point. The combat itself is shit regardless of class because the base design is trash.

To me, it feels clunky, bloated for the sake of artificial complexity, without real depth, and doesn't feel rewarding enough when you do a correct sequence.

Sure, you can drop your combo and do a little bit less damage, but does it really mean anything? Not really, unless everyone is equally bad and somehow the boss enrages, that is if the entire party doesn't wipe beforehand.

[ForsakenRoe]

Funnily enough, you don't actually need a super complex job kit to solidify lore identity within gameplay.

Let's take WHM for example, they could get really high potency on their attack spells because they're said to be equal to the BLMs, but to balance that destructive power, ALL their heals are on the GCD (but also very powerful).

Or let's take SCH for example, they could get some buff fields to place or special stratagem as they're meant to be a tactician (not a fairy mage), then their DoTs could have debilitating debuffs tied to them, like healing down or slow or heavy, which, while not being useful in challenging content, do provide flavour and identity.

Unfortunately, it would seem that SE prioritizes 'let's implement the new gameplay idea we have, and then contort the lore to fit the new gameplay', rather than letting the established lore naturally guide the gameplay design. We can see this most clearly with AST, where it once was a job based on something that is inherently 'random' (drawing a card from a Tarot deck and interpreting its meaning), now the gameplay has changed to 'you know exactly what you'll draw and when'. And previously, the initial quests had to be rewritten due to making every card functionally identical for SHB/EW's effects

Same with SCH. Some of the quest dialog still refers to curing debuffs from NPCs with the line "Traditional restorative magicks may treat the symptoms, but not the underlying cause. To balance their humours, you must leech the impurities from their bodies." At least, so says GamerEscape's articles on the quest dialog. I have no idea why they felt the need to remove Leeches/Exalted Detriment and force us all to use Esuna, because it didn't save any buttons on the hotbars in the end

And let's not get started on WHM, who abandoned the 'elemental damage' aesthetic in favour of twinkly lights, which is fine if if were a burst phase or something, but Glare/Dia being the whole game for WHM now causes a conflict with RDM's lore. If RDM was made from the knowledge of WHMs and BLMs working together, surely we'd have VerGlare instead of VerStone? or VerDia instead of VerAero3? Some might say 'oh it's cos we went to the First and there was lots of Light there to use', to which I'd counter A: We're no longer on the First, and B: We had access to Glare 3 in The Void, the place where there is literally zero Light aether remaining, and bringing some back is the whole plot point of 5 patches worth of story

[Tigore]

It does make me concerned if some of the higher ups and / or shareholders have the Devs by the leash to prevent the classes from actually being fixed. You know, the threat of being fired and all for not complying to the decisions.

Some of these actions mirror the concerns with what happened in Warcraft before. The moogle store and mobile game versions (cough Diablo Immortal cough) are a couple. One explanation for the strange class changes could be to rope in as many new players as possible to milk the cash cow quickly for the short term. The "new" players may eventually notice over a year what's going on, but some higher ups won't care since they expect fresh blood who doesn't know anything to replace them too. After that, Blizzard then had the "free" shiny mount if you specifically purchase at least 6 months of sub time after that. Self explanatory why it had to specifically be at least 6 months with the previous single month purchases totaling 6 not counting.

All of these reasons have a strong impact for why I think we may need to push harder than we are currently doing.