Thread: Less enjoyment in 3.0 raidingas healer (compared to 2.0)

Originally Posted by Kerrigen

The only interesting mechanic directly related to healer roles Alex Savage has done is effectively forcing healers to heal with double damage down in A3s.

I feel like Alexander Savage has been really annoying as a healer because of the harsh DPS checks and relatively low damage on tanks combined with new DPS rotations (and stuff like Wanderer's Minuet) making it so we're already down to "healers do all mechanics because that's the smallest DPS loss". A4s is a prime example of that.

Yeah A3S Double Damage Down is quite an interesting mechanic. More like "This will ensure we make DPS do their job". I kind of wish the STDs started out that way but of course the other healer ends up being needed for the harsh equal concentration dps check when 210 wasn't generally available aside from how many weeks you cleared the earlier floors.

On the other hand I always liked the raid meta where the main healer is effectively solo healing as much as they can, because the pressure of the WHM/AST job always turned me on. Yet we would still put some damage points on the board too when possible. It's just like where you don't need two main tanks at all-times either, the off-tank picks up adds in phases, tank swap areas that would kill the other tank if not done in-time, and do as much damage when not tanking. The same capability is with the off-healer in a sense. Band-aid situations, shield mechanics, second tank getting damage, etc. Mechanics that require healer swaps, or that effectively diminish DPS capability from both healers I think are great.

But you can argue the tanking side of things, there isn't enough punishing damage where you need tank stance 100% of the time either when main tanking, and the highly-tuned DPS checks pushed the meta towards optimizing minimal DPS loss as possible. Obviously tank damage is changing somehow in 3.2, so we are likely to see some shift on this.

Originally Posted by BlackenedTiamat

Worry about dps when you start hitting enrage timers, or fail dps checks

Worst idea ever.

With respect to healing in this raid tier, I think dps and tanks could make the same thread. It just wan't a good raid tier in general. 1 and 3 are fun, 2 is boring and 4 is super annoying. Half the fights aren't fun. And to make it worse, it went super long.

1.) So, instead of winning, you'd rather hit enrage thus losing, and then go back and start dpsing. It would seem to be better to be dpsing and not hit the enrage?

2.) I mean - can people not walk and chew gum? An ideal rotation for an encounter has both heal spells and dps spells in it. You can learn it at the same time you are learning mechanics. They aren't mutually exclusive. If you wanna play it a little more conservatively as you learn thats definitely OK. But literally waiting for a dps check fail as your trigger to start dpsing is nonsensical, which is what that guy said to do.

I was responding to a quote that literally said "Worry about dps when you start hitting enrage timers, or fail dps checks." I think that's an awful idea, and was what I was addressing.

If it's your very first time in a fight, I get that you would hold off on dps until you know what's coming. But once you have an idea - it's best to start weaving it in an building your rotation for the fight. Every single example you gave, it doesn't take long to know exactly where they come so you can plan your needed heals and dps around them. It's the reason healer dps is a thing in the game in the first place, it's because tanks are rarely under the threat of death, and things that can kill the tank or need to be be party healed come at pre-determined times. I think we died to Thordan once, and the second time I knew I had time to AeroII and AeroII before the cleave 6 seconds in. Rinse and repeat as you move through the fight. You can learn your ideal heals and dps timings at the same time.

I used to love SCH, but now I have to DPS all the time and if my DPS isn't good enough then I get kicked. I like DPSing, but I don't like being forced to. I have to go spend millions of gil on materia and accessories and gear that are lower ilevel so I can reach the accuracy cap. I feel guilty for not healing, and I constantly worry about the WHM or AST not healing enough. WHM and SCH are still the best healing team, but before it meant so much more. I felt like I really was helping the WHM and party out, but now I just feel like a gimp DPS. If I wanted to DPS I would've leveled a DPS class. Some may say that providing more DPS is helping the party out, but it just feels lame to me. Maybe I never did understand SCH and it's best to work on another job.