For Shame, Mr. Yoshida - Being a Healer in 2026

[PercibelTheren]

From what I can tell, most of the healer mains here just switched to playing other roles (including tank which ironically let them heal while doing other things), or they heal only with friends/FCmates/statics and avoid the general playerbase. Personally I don't tank or heal at all, because despite everything done to make them "easy" I still don't like being responsible for whether or not the party wipes in a game where people don't tolerate death or failure, especially with anything they deem "braindead" because it makes them twice as mad that you failed something "so simple".

It still feels like healer quality has changed post-strike topic though, or how a lot of the names who were pro-stike either don't talk about playing healer anymore because they gave up on the role, or I don't see them around period because they did indeed quit the game over it.

While it might not have been some game-ending impact, its definitely left a "haze" over the game, the same way the overall player dropout has, and veteran healers were among them.

This is exactly what I did. It was a combination of the Astro rework that took the high APM component I enjoyed out of the job, and general healer gameplay getting even worse. I just switched to Dancer. I'm still a support, but I'm actually useful in casual content now.

[PercibelTheren]

What's obnoxious in my opinion is that people who don't like the game as it is pretend that their sub money is going to hit SE where it hurts and that their $12 a month is so valuable that Square need to change the game to suit you.

I see we're trotting out this nonsense again. The people who complain DO like the game. They care about it enough to go through the effort to reach out through different channels and offer criticism. Because they want the game they like to be even better. The people who actually don't like the game just quietly leave.

Also, if you enjoy MMOs, there isn't really much choice of where to go, especially if you don't like WoW. It's a dying genre and the current state of XIV is not helping that.

The game will stay profitable because no other mmo offers the RP of FFXIV (nightclubs, venues ect) the gpose and glamour opportunities, the unique housing aesthetic, Ultimate raids (which other mmos don't have an equivalent of) and many other things.

This just just incredibly sad, honestly. An MMO devolving into SecondLife.

[PercibelTheren]

Few weeks ago I actually did San'doria and it had a BUNCH of new people on the boss with the crystals, alliances were wiping left and right and the healers were working super hard to keep people alive and ressing people, it was fun, engaging and I felt like what I was doing mattered, I felt like a healer, which is something I don't get 99% of the time in this game.

This is my experience as well. I usually don't even bother doing roulettes anymore, but when I do, I'm hoping for the older ally raids because those frequently go sideways and I actually have something to do on healer, when I play it.

[Ankhira]

Yet, nobody is actually making you play something that you do not find engaging. Playing that class and yet complaining about it makes no damn sense. Absolutely, Karen's mentality and behaviour.

Ahhh, another sexist comment from Kohashi on the forums, what a surprise. As always, Kohashi, you are here just throwing snark and insults at people because you think you know everything because "Streamer/Youtuber said this". Unless you have ANYTHING of value to add to the conversation, please don't even bother. How hard is it to understand that healers LIKE the healing role but they wish it could be better? Do you not have anything in your life you enjoy but you felt could be better?

You said: "I dunno, I am def not the target audience because I frankly don't want to sit there and babysit Tank. I appreciate easy and fast clears after doing that dungeon countless times."

Why are you a healer then if you don't actually want to heal? Yeah, you probably are not the target audience and healers shouldn't be balanced around players like you.

[Supersnow845]

You said: "I dunno, I am def not the target audience because I frankly don't want to sit there and babysit Tank. I appreciate easy and fast clears after doing that dungeon countless times."

Why are you a healer then if you don't actually want to heal? Yeah, you probably are not the target audience and healers shouldn't be balanced around players like you.

Ironically he is exactly the target audience

For JP healer is the “I want to relax and let other people do my job for me role”

For EN it becomes the “fast clear frictionless” role and the crayon eaters role

[Ankhira]

You know, I think people need to stop beating on the healbot strawman, it's been through a lot, leave it alone.

I don't think anyone is asking to return to old MMO healing where you literally can't even level up solo and have to party up because you do absolutely no damage and just heal, people are more asking for old FFXIV healing.

Remember back in HW where a fantastic tank can at most solo 20% of dungeon boss HP before going down? People still managed to clear content just fine back then. Remember in old savages where it was literally impossible to do a no GCD heal run? People cleared just fine back then too.

I don't see why the pushback against bringing back a more balanced trinity, content was cleared back then all the same.

The pushback is mostly from Green DPS who don't actually want to heal nor do a lot of mechanics so they just go on healer to have quick ques, one button to press, a second button every thirty seconds, then press some healing if they're feeling generous and that's it. I understand some people play healer because it's chill, and I respect that (unless you're toxic like some people here), but I'm so tired of green DPS, literally, so tired. The amount of healers I see in alliance raids or dungeons or even savage who BARELY heal and let the other healer do 99% of the work because they just want to DPS is so obnoxious.

I'm also not talking about sprouts or healers who aren't as good at the game nor even casual content for that matter, but there's push back from actual savage players just because they've gotten so used to doing the bare minimum that they feel threatened they might not be able to play on "easy" mode anymore. Which to me makes no sense, idk. The game has gotten so parse obsessed it's actually sad. Most healers don't care about healing as much as they do about damage output, which kind of defeats the point of a healer. "Oh the team is dying but if I press a hardcast Cure III my parse will go down.. I'll let the other healer do it."

I agree with what another other person said, though, even in casual content a tank should NOT be able to do the healers job. Give them some sustain and mits, sure, but don't let them be pseudo healers. Maybe this is why I prefer healing DRK's because I actually have to heal them, and even then Square has added a bunch of self healing to them as well.

[Kohashi]

The amount of healers I see in alliance raids or dungeons or even savage who BARELY heal and let the other healer do 99% of the work because they just want to DPS is so obnoxious.

Anything else of value you want to add? Please go ahead..haha.

Also, you can do Healing AND DPS. They are not mutually exclusive from each other. If you don't know how to heal and DPS, maybe look to optimize because you are clearly lacking. That's where the mastery of the healer comes in to do crazy high dps AND heal AND do mechanics AND babysit, however, made mistakes

Ahhh, another sexist comment from Kohashi on the forums, what a surprise. As always, Kohashi, you are here just throwing snark and insults at people because you think you know everything because "Streamer/Youtuber said this". Unless you have ANYTHING of value to add to the conversation, please don't even bother. How hard is it to understand that healers LIKE the healing role but they wish it could be better? Do you not have anything in your life you enjoy but you felt could be better?

You said: "I dunno, I am def not the target audience because I frankly don't want to sit there and babysit Tank. I appreciate easy and fast clears after doing that dungeon countless times."

Why are you a healer then if you don't actually want to heal? Yeah, you probably are not the target audience and healers shouldn't be balanced around players like you.

Karen's attitude has nothing to do with gender, and unless you actually give the video a watch and look at Preach's take, which is super balanced and insightful, don't bother throwing baseless insults.

And I do enjoy healing, and I do enjoy the dynamic between healing, damage, and doing mechanics as well as knowing everyone's part as well, because there is not just 1 aspect that makes the entire experience. It's not JUST about the class, and it's not just about the encounter mechanics, it's EVERYTHING else in between as well. The overall difficulty comes from all the elements together.

I do love the fact that I am not just a healing bot, and I get to do other stuff as well. Also, I said am not the target audience for casual content healing. I find it boring and annoying. Reading and comprehension is hard, I know..

Casual content is good as it is; nothing else to add. If somebody is bored and/or finds the class annoying, either change the class or go in higher difficulties. The entire game is designed this way, and actually asking to change how the entire game functions is absolutely crazy talk to me.

[Reginald_Cain]

Sadly, DF has a priority system on who is "in need." It checks tanks first, if tank is in need, no other role matters. DF could be starved of healers, but if tank is in need, "healer in need" won't pop, ever.

I would also think that being a case as well if queueing as a tank does gave me instant queues on the dungeon roulos (not counting 8-mans because you require two to three anyway). But 7 out of 10 times, I did not. What happened instead: the moment I swap to healer while the icon still showing tanks, I got an instant pop. I know I'm not the only one who had been experiencing this since at least late ShB times.

A common speculation around the AiN bonus is as the following:

What people think: Players in queue = 20 tanks, 5 healers, 100 DPS. Therefore, the UI will show Healer AiN since by far they amount the least in the current frame.

What actually happens: Players in queue = 20 tanks, 5 healers, 100 DPS. UI shows Tank AiN because the system baked into the algorithm are designed to prioritizes Tank > Healer > DPS icon until they surpass an arbitrarily set number. Let's say, 20+. This means until there are 21 or more tanks, the UI will keep showing tanks irrespective to the amount of existing healers/dps in queue.

)[/I].

Its not that tanks are as unpopular as healers its the fact the game has become so oversaturated with dps jobs when dungeon content only allows 2 and raids 4. Tanks lost a lot of features from stormblood too like stance dancing, dark knight lost a whole lot like skill speed on blood weapon gcds, dark passenger, soul survivor for pve, dark arts and gcd abyssal drain combined with dark arts for warrior level healing in dungeons but with Massive mp cost to not be as spammable and infiringent on healer agency.

Tanks are definitely more popular than healers of you go by how many are leveled to 100 in oc.

Tanks may have lost a lot but unlike healers they have more than 1 dps tool and actual bursts for 2 minute (1 minute on all tanks now woo hoo lionheart spam baby!) . Meanwhile after 2 expansions of terrible dot malefic spam astro gets one tiny ogcd nuke with a 2 minute cooldown, scholar used to juggle 2-3 dots constantly but now spams broil and occasionally resets its bio that can no longer be spread via bane. Instead we have to wait two whole minutes for a little aoe dot you barely notice.

Sorry gang but with the exception of white mage most of the healers dps kits feel insulting to play when you're swapping from dps or tank. White mage isn't much better but getting to hit glare 4 more than once during 2 minute windows is really nice. Its like inner release just worse lol.

[Reginald_Cain]

Kohashi since you seem passionately heated do you agree healers should get a pinch of dps buttons back?

Reine since you seem opposed to whatever this guy is saying what I your opinion is the main problem with healing what would make it better. Sorry if yall already wrote this but im too lazy to parse thru the bickering xD

[Ankhira]

Anything else of value you want to add? Please go ahead..haha

If you’re going to post logs, at least be honest and don’t cherry‑pick only the ones where you performed well. (Deleted the picture I had posted here.)

I'm not throwing baseless insults, you started that by calling me a Karen simply for having an opinion. You don’t get to decide what is or isn’t sexist when you’re the one using the insult.
Calling me a Karen in the middle of an argument when in the past you made comments about my "boyfriend" that I don't even have carrying me, there's clearly a pattern. Since, if you didn't know, the term "Karen" is constantly used to criticize women. So yes, I'd say it's pretty sexist.

And no, I don’t need to watch a YouTuber to have an opinion about healer design. I can use my own experiences and base my opinions on that. I like Preach, I'm sure he has good takes, but it won't change how I experience the game. Regardless, if all you have are personal digs and deflections, then you’re proving my point for me again. ♥

Edit: I ended up deleting the picture of his logs as I didn't want to stoop to his level, regardless, I will be muting this thread as people are seemingly hellbent on just throwing insults and being dismissive. I've given my points and my impressions of the healer role as a healer main, I don't need to sit here any longer and endure the toxicity some people want to bring.

Have fun with that.