A List of Fixes and Ideas for Healers

[NocturniaUzuki]

You are semi correct, in that the healing can feel lopsided/disjointed, but her targets aren't random. If everyone, including her is at lets say 50%, you, are her primary target for heals, then herself, then the closest party member with HP below the threshold, which I think is 80%. That's why you have those instances where she'll heal a DPS at 75% over a Tank at 20%, they are just a smidgen closer. I think that in an update she was given a new threshold limit to counter this, but it still has its issues; like if the new threshold is 50% but the Tank is at 51% she'll still target the DPS at 75% if they are closer.

The system isn't perfect. I wont say that it is, but what you are asking for already exists, it just needs fine tuning.

So she will heal whoever is closest to her that is under 80% HP, or focus the tank if the tank's HP is less than 50%? If that is the case, I could then work around it by either:

a) Manually placing Eos closer to the tank during the times where I need her to focus on tank heals.
b) Maintaining the tank's health below 50% during that time.

Is that correct?

I'll give it a shot the next time I have a chance. It certainly is awkward to do, and simply changing Fey Union to Lv50 and adding a trait that buffs its heal potency at Lv70 would be a lot more straightforward, but if it actually works consistently, then it's still worthwhile.

One issue seems to remain though. Wouldn't she focus on me over the tank? Just like the DPS, I'm getting healed by the regens, so I'll be sub-80% for several seconds. Even if I put her right on top of the tank, according to what you said, she would still focus on me until I'm over 80%?

[Eloah]

One issue seems to remain though. Wouldn't she focus on me over the tank? Just like the DPS, I'm getting healed by the regens, so I'll be sub-80% for several seconds. Even if I put her right on top of the tank, according to what you said, she would still focus on me until I'm over 80%?

True, you are her primary target, but with you healing yourself, and her adding in an embrace you should be above 80% quick enough. And that's if she is following you, if you place her closer to the tank you may be out of her range. Don't quote me 100% on the values I mentioned, I just mostly wanted to let you know that her targets aren't as random as they seem. Don't forget that she is essentially a free Regen, you'll be doing most of the healing. So when you see a party member at like 50%, your heal and hers could be enough to get them above the threshold.

[NocturniaUzuki]

You can claim that these things are more important to you than dps buffs but when you're repeatedly wiping to 3% enrage on a fight you aren't going to be clamoring for an ability to reduce a cooldown- you want something to punch it in the face 3% harder.

On the contrary, I wouldn't be. I would either be clamouring for a better party, or reevaluating my own gameplay to see where I can increase DPS. Or both.

I have been thinking lately of making a video of some content clears where nobody uses any of their damage buffs, but rather only weapon skills and abilities. The main point I try to make about DPS being not that important is that, while you are absolutely right that the game is about "Kill the boss before it kills you (with it's enrage)", there is a great deal of leniency there in order to accommodate players of differing skill levels. Ultimately, DPS buff skills have two purposes in most cases:

1) To help players who can't clear the fight without a damage boost actually meet the damage checks.

This is the purpose that I refer to when I call DPS buffs "useless". Because in the grand scheme of things, they are not actually required to clear to the vast majority of fights in the game. You might need one or two of them, at times. But meeting enrage should be very much possible without them.

2) To simply make the game more fun. People enjoy using abilities to make themselves do more damage. If they didn't exist, DPS gameplay would not feel very impactful.

I am by no means advocating for the removal of all damage buffs. That would simply make the game too hard for the vast majority of the playerbase, and would also be anti-fun on an extreme scale. However, just because one or two buffs aren't considered "fun" by the majority of players, that doesn't mean they are necessarily bad on a global scale and need to be changed. There are also players who will be disappointed if those "useless" buffs are removed.

Also, be careful of assigning numbers arbitrarily. Just because my guild has "only" 180 members, that does not mean that there are only 180 players who share our values. My guild is just one group of players. There are surely others, and many more who have no group. It may not be a huge number, but I doubt it's as insignificant as you may think. And even minorities are valuable. If the game caters only to one view, it stagnates over time. In FFXIV, for example, as with many other games, vast portions of the population quit the game after completing the newest updates. Players who do things besides the mainstream are valuable in their own right for preserving player activity during down times.

So no, my suggestions may not be positive QoL changes just because I say so. Certainly, I believe they are. But that's me. The same goes for everyone else though, including the "majority". Just because the majority thinks something is a great idea, that doesn't mean that it is. It just means they like the idea. Game developers are the ones that have to make the final call. Ultimately, that too is their own opinion. But their job is to find a balance between what they feel is a good idea, and what they need to realistically do to keep the playerbase happy enough that they don't quit over it and subsequently damage the revenue stream. All we do is make suggestions in the hope that one of those developers will share our view, or be convinced by it, and have it shape their opinion going forward.

[MoroMurasaki]

It's becoming quite clear that my hope you had returned with a more sensible outlook was misplaced.

I stand by my statement that these proposed changes and indeed most changes proposed under a mindset such as yours are useless at best and detrimental at worst. The game should be balanced around how it actually plays, not how some random group of people like to try to fit a square peg into a round hole.

Best of luck o/

[NobleWinter]

I stand by my statement that these proposed changes and indeed most changes proposed under a mindset such as yours are useless at best and detrimental at worst.

This seems needlessly pessimistic. They yielded quite easily to real functional objections to their suggestions and everything else they mentioned wouldn't be "useless at best." Cool down reduction on Abilities for instance is really useful and a Role Skill that let you do this for a party member on one or multiple skills would be a welcome addition to many people. We all play and think differently and alienating a minority like crafters or technical raiders doesn't help anyone. The answer is to give everyone a way to enjoy the game on their own terms like how all 3 Roles have Classes with varying degrees of difficulty and mastery. Adding new Role Skills wouldn't be detrimental anymore than Lucid Dreaming having a terrible tool tip. Advice from other players can remedy any misunderstanding on a super niche skill.

[Lubu_Mykono]

I enjoyed reading your thread as it's nice to see the thoughts people put into the game. However, alliance wide heals and DPS buffs to healer to help "struggling" players ultimately defy the point of an MMO. To work together in a specific role to complete a task or an instance. The jobs in this game are "relatively" balanced for MOST content. Not talking about small pockets like end-game raiding etc.

[vVAstrAVv]

I mean
If se wanted cleric stance to be good all they had to do was put the cd after you exit it not cast it and nix the damn animation
That way if you need to pinch heal your finger panicking wouldn't trap you in cs for the next 5 seconds

And give a visual aura so you cant forget its on or off

But they don't want it good so its a joke waiting to be removed at this point

[zuzu-bq]

A smaller amount of "1 button fix everything" would be a good start.

[Whichi]

reducing cooldowns in this game will never work. It will either always be wayy too strong or be totally worthless. The last spear was absolute garbage. 5 % 10% off of the cooldowns is not nearly enough compared to a flat 10% increase in damage its very very hard to ever make that useful without making it blatantly overpowered.