Dawntrail's dungeon design has been questionable.

[TheInsomniac13]

I like to watch often content about Games (MMOs too) who have failed and why. And a Problem that keeps poping up again and again is a Product designed to appeal to everyone, ends up appealing to no one. And this is what I have to always think when some one sayes Black Mage is now so much more accesible to unskilled players. Firstly you should never lower the standards to make it more accesible for people who cannot be bothered to put in any effort, secondly we now have the job that is piss easy to play and gives out big damage numbers playable by even by a cat... so the tourists will have there way with it and once something new with bigger numbers will pop up now one will stick to it and then the Devs will wonder where are all the mains?

In the end Gameplay and Jobidentity is sacreficed for encounter designe which gives you the feeling the Devs want us all to see Savage and Ultimate content the be all and end all of Gameplay, I for one couldn´t care less for this typ of content.
And with the lackluster reception of Dawntrails story not even that keeps people in the game anymore. I can certainly say once my playtime runs out I will not renew it and the only lament I have that I never got to see this game in it´s glory days when Jobs were not this!

[Mawlzy]

I like to watch often content about Games (MMOs too) who have failed and why. And a Problem that keeps poping up again and again is a Product designed to appeal to everyone, ends up appealing to no one. And this is what I have to always think when some one sayes Black Mage is now so much more accesible to unskilled players. Firstly you should never lower the standards to make it more accesible for people who cannot be bothered to put in any effort, secondly we now have the job that is piss easy to play and gives out big damage numbers playable by even by a cat... so the tourists will have there way with it and once something new with bigger numbers will pop up now one will stick to it and then the Devs will wonder where are all the mains?

In the end Gameplay and Jobidentity is sacreficed for encounter designe which gives you the feeling the Devs want us all to see Savage and Ultimate content the be all and end all of Gameplay, I for one couldn´t care less for this typ of content.
And with the lackluster reception of Dawntrails story not even that keeps people in the game anymore. I can certainly say once my playtime runs out I will not renew it and the only lament I have that I never got to see this game in it´s glory days when Jobs were not this!

Correct, because if everybody engaged with that sort of content (never going to happen), it would make the devs task so much easier. It greatly reduces content droughts if everyone wants the same thing from a game. Unfortunately, SE has this completely backwards by emphasizing EX+, which is never going to appeal to the bulk of the NA/EU player base unless 75% of them leave.

[ddwarbird]

Yeah, I feel sorry for Black Mages who have spent 10+ years honing their skill with that job. Personally it never appealed to me because of the Astral Fire and Umbral Ice switch mechanic. I could never get the hang of it but that's "Ok", not every class appeals to everyone. What annoys me is how much people slag off my main class (White Mage) for being "basic". I like the class BECAUSE it has few gimmicks and is straightforward, not every class should require you to do a MENSA puzzle in order to play the game effectively. (I also liked Yuna, Garnet and Aerith in the classic FF so the class appealed to me anyway). If Black Mages want their class to be challenging and the way it was, then that's fine... I don't want to play Dark Souls because my reaction time is bad but I won't demand From Software lower the game's mechanics and difficulty to appeal to me.

[Supersnow845]

Yeah, I feel sorry for Black Mages who have spent 10+ years honing their skill with that job. Personally it never appealed to me because of the Astral Fire and Umbral Ice switch mechanic. I could never get the hang of it but that's "Ok", not every class appeals to everyone. What annoys me is how much people slag off my main class (White Mage) for being "basic". I like the class BECAUSE it has few gimmicks and is straightforward, not every class should require you to do a MENSA puzzle in order to play the game effectively. (I also liked Yuna, Garnet and Aerith in the classic FF so the class appealed to me anyway). If Black Mages want their class to be challenging and the way it was, then that's fine... I don't want to play Dark Souls because my reaction time is bad but I won't demand From Software lower the game's mechanics and difficulty to appeal to me.

Honestly a lot of the complaints against WHM more come from the perspective of the fact that it actively makes the other healers job harder because WHM is so antithetical to 14’s healer design that WHM makes the shield healers job harder

I have no problem with WHM in a vacuum in terms of it existing for other players (I still don’t like it at all and think it has a history of negatively affecting the other healers) but it really can negatively affect the other healer

(Sorry I know this isn’t really on topic)

[ddwarbird]

Honestly a lot of the complaints against WHM more come from the perspective of the fact that it actively makes the other healers job harder because WHM is so antithetical to 14’s healer design that WHM makes the shield healers job harder

I have no problem with WHM in a vacuum in terms of it existing for other players (I still don’t like it at all and think it has a history of negatively affecting the other healers) but it really can negatively affect the other healer

(Sorry I know this isn’t really on topic)

No, that's a fair comment. White Mage does feel antithetical to FFXIV's design, we have a lot of "Emergency Heal" but don't really offer much else whereas Astrologian has damage buffs and Scholar has barriers etc. Personally, I think White Mage should have higher damage potential then other healers, so can do more personal DPS then other healers because we have "Holy", an extremely powerful spell in Classic Final Fantasy. I'd like to see White Mage be given more damage options or buffs to party members (Something like Aerith's "Planet Protector" from FF7) because its clear at this stage that Square Enix are not interested in redesigning content to make healers relevant again.

It's funny because even in the FF7 Remake, Aerith is much less of a healer then she was in the original, she's more of a support/dpser now in the remake so this design philosophy is not unique to just FFXIV. Square Enix seem to have a problem with healers in general (probably because they take away from flashy damage numbers).

(Blood Lilly is a nice gimmick but it does not come round fast enough to be a viable damage option and Astrologian kinda stole that uniqueness with Oracle)

[TheInsomniac13]

In my humble opinion Healer Jobs in general are to bloated in the healing Department. I as White Mage main have healing skills I nearly never use simply because there is rearly ever a need for them. The Simplest fix I would suggest in that department would be to bring back Cleric stance I heard old game design has.
To take a dip in healing potency in exchange of getting a short time Damage Buff. I would even add to it that by activating Cleric stance some of your Healing action could be Modified to be offensiv actions, for example Imagine Asylum instead of giving healing ticks to other players acting like an oversized version of Dark Knights Salted earth damaging all enemies coming in contact with it.
By tying this damage buff and attacks to a switch button would also give freedom to new players who do not feel secure letting go of there potent healing kit, while experienced Healers get some options to support the team in the damage department.

Because first lesson of a Healer, your job is it to keep the party alive... best way to archive that is by taking out everything that could do harm in the first place.