The Unofficial "Why is this still a thing" Thread

[KisaiTenshi]

Protect is a useless ability. It grants defence and magic defence, sure, but it wastes a slot that is better suited for something else. If they changed Protect to function as a defensive CD (a la Protect in PvP) it would be much more useful. As it stands now they could just grant Protect to everyone for free in a dungeon and nothing will change.

FFXIV's protect is a combination of previous FF's "Shell" (Magical damage reduction) and "Protect" (Physical damage reduction), when Scholar takes it from WHM in 2.0, it's "protect" not "Protect+Proshell". There were even different icons for it.

The system that they turned into the role actions owes it's original design not to V1.0 but to how FF1 had cross-class aspects lifted from Wizardry. Essentially you could level up to X in some job, then change to a new job and take a few skills with you, and because leveling and permadeath were a thing, you would take whatever from the class that was most valuable. If FFXIV had this system as it was originally designed, you would not be able to take skills like Protect and Stoneskin from WHM without getting WHM to a level that allowed you to take two skills from it first, and then if you changed class, you would have no incentive to switch back. So the ultimate character setup might be one where you picked every long-lasting defensive skill from all the healers, and then stack them to be the ultimate healer. That is not the game we are playing.

Where the healing aspect of FFXIV falls apart is that changes made to the healers resulted in LESS to do. If protect doesn't really serve any purpose, then why is it in the cross-role set? Because people were always taking protect instead of other things from WHM. Hence the mistake was taking Esuna and Protect out of WHM's kit. They should have just changed the levels for equal skills in the AST and SCH kit, but because SCH is half a DPS, that can't be done. Protect is level 16, Esuna is 20. What does ACN get at 16 and 20? Drain and Diversion from the current role system. In the previous 2.0, WHM had protect at level 8, and Esuna at 18, Scholar had leeches at 40, and 3.0 kit for AST, Exalted Detriment was level 18. The problem pre-4.0 was Protect, Stone skin and Cleric stance were all considered "required" and you'd get yelled at for not doing at least Protect and Stone Skin before every fight.

You know how I'd fix Protect? Move protect to WHM-only. Bring Stone Skin back, Scholar and AST don't get it at all. They have their own shields. Now make stone skin overwrite regen/medica II. Make Protect be the long-term cast thing that WHM brings to the table. Make AST have a long-term Haste or buff-extending type of cast, and Scholar have a long-term cast like Reflect (allow stacking different long term effect casts, but not the same effect.) Put an exhaustion time on those long-term casts where they end if the healer runs out of MP or dies the effect is removed from the party. Once all three healers have both a long-term and a short-term shield, start putting mechanics in fights that party-wide shield mitigation is required or wipe/heavy damage is sustained.

It's of course difficult to balance because you can't give healers anything unique, otherwise it makes them the preferred healer. AST has RNG buffs, Scholar has the Fairy which can buff. WHM presently has no party-buffs unique to it's role, and that could be restored by deleting protect from the role actions and giving it back to WHM.

[KaivaC]

You know how I'd fix Protect? Move protect to WHM-only. Bring Stone Skin back, Scholar and AST don't get it at all. They have their own shields. Now make stone skin overwrite regen/medica II.

While I am under the opinion that all healers should have their own versions of the basic 'required skills' such as Protect and Esuna, this is a bad idea. It's already bad enough when I use AST and I cannot be sure if my co-AST or co-SCH will cooperate with me to not overwrite whatever buffs I have up. Adding Stoneskin II into that mix with WHM will just make this needlessly complicated. Also...while we have our own shields, yes, it's not a long-lasting defensive mitigation. Honestly, I'd prefer if all three jobs had their own protect version, and they each brought something different to the table instead. Not sure how you justify removing protect from AST/SCH because 'they have their own'. It's not the same thing.

[KisaiTenshi]

While I am under the opinion that all healers should have their own versions of the basic 'required skills' such as Protect and Esuna, this is a bad idea. It's already bad enough when I use AST and I cannot be sure if my co-AST or co-SCH will cooperate with me to not overwrite whatever buffs I have up. Adding Stoneskin II into that mix with WHM will just make this needlessly complicated. Also...while we have our own shields, yes, it's not a long-lasting defensive mitigation. Honestly, I'd prefer if all three jobs had their own protect version, and they each brought something different to the table instead. Not sure how you justify removing protect from AST/SCH because 'they have their own'. It's not the same thing.

I worded it that way because we're all so fond of nitpickery. I actually hate the entire "overwrites" thing on AST and SCH, but without it, you get two shields, and that ends up bringing the "lazy healer, with nothing to do" issue back into focus. I'd like to see SE find a way to make the regen and shield effects "stack" but only cut their potency in half when stacked rather than over-write them, but I suspect the real reason they made the shields overwrite was to reduce the buff clutter on screen.

Still, the point I was trying to make was that by removing Protect and Esuna from the WHM kit, they can't make content designed around those skills existing because players may not have them. They need to give protect back to WHM-only, and have AST and SCH have their own flavor that can stack with it. So that logically requires giving WHM back stoneskin in some way so that content can be designed for party shields, otherwise the AST and SCH have "Bonus shields" that just contribute more to the "lazy healer" problem.

Like it would make more sense in the long run to just give up on making the healers "unique" in any aspect that would tilt the healing balance. Like you can see the thought that went into AST originally, and how it backfired (like really, a slight nerf to the healing potency, but has to be made up with RNG-based buffs?) The healer needs 6 skills, everything the healer does should be connected to either keeping the shield up, keeping HoT up, or casting party/spot heals, while doing no overhealing:
Spot Heal
Party Heal
Spot Shield
Party Shield
Spot HoT
Party HoT

With any shields at all, with WHM means the Lilies and confession stacks for Plenary Indulgence aren't available, as those are only given for healing, not overhealing. AST brings RNG buffs, so you may as well assume they won't use them, and the SCH brings a fairy that has buffs that they may forget to use, or use at the wrong time, or may not even use the fairy that benefits the most. The WHM brings no buffs presently that you can't get with AST, and even SCH has access to protect.