Thread: Healer identity in 5.0

Originally Posted by Feidam

Really depends on what their vision is for balanced healers. We know shield vs heals is an issue. Do they consider ogcds as they are currently an issue? Or that healers try to rarely use their gcd heals? Are healers having to much time to dps? Has their stance changed on utility? Because ogcds are the primary heal source do they want healers to have a different dps rotation? So many possible questions. Hopefully there will be good answers come May.

Of course, all my rambling is mostly what I assume is the logical path.
But seeing how they made SCH pet abilities instead of spells (thus making them less clunky and more reactive), addressed clipping on AST (thus making oGCD use easier), added more and more oGCD since Heavensward and no new GCD spells (just upgrades of the older ones) : I assume they are going that way for 5.0
Now the buffing component is another discussion, but based on the same assumptions we now have more ways to use them without clipping, they are highly valued in endgame content, they work well in synergies... I'd also assume it's a logical progression to go on that way.

That does not mean WHM has to become a buffer, but it definitely needs to see its clunkiness addressed. It could still rely on GCD, but they would need to add a tweak so that GCD use is more valuable for the job than oGCDs.

For me I am hoping they move away from ogcds some. The dps to healing ratio for the role is off imo. A great healer can always maximize their time and skills better allowing for extra from the class But when you can dps most of the time and only toss an occasional heal it just feels wrong on a healer. Something has skewed and messed up in my mind.

With how strong utility is in this game they are going to have to back away from “pures” imo. The pure classes are capable but they do not Bri g enough to outshine the utility. That utility can be clutch at times.

Originally Posted by Coltvoyance

But that's the thing, you can be a "pure" class and still have utility. The problem is that SE doesn't take the "pure" concept far enough. They stop at slightly bigger numbers. It never translates into exceptional new abilities. If my class has forgone any diversification in it's abilities and is built around doing ONE THING REALLY REALLY WELL, then I should be able to do things the other classes can't.

The issue with something like this is that in the healer role...

Everyone needs to be able to clear content.

So you can't make 1 job have more healing/more heal mechanics that make them able to bypass certain attacks from bosses or do some crazy things that for example, makes them much better at being able to solo heal encounters.

Since if you do that, then the other jobs become useless.

In the same vein, if you do dedicate all of a job's focus into "Healing" and niche things like raising, or being able to negate a tankbuster (Via cheat death mechanic) then you run into a problem where this utility is just not seen as worth it over other jobs who's focus gives them actual DPS gains.

Essentially, you get the RDM problem, where their utility is insta-raise capability. But, if people aren't dying (Also, aren't dying at a frequency where Healers/SMN can't keep up with Swiftcast CD's) then it's useless compared to taking another job that either deals more damage themselves, or has other damage increase utility for the party.

Like, at best, I can only imagine something like if there was a division between healing types such as Shield vs Regen or Tank vs Raid and thus a "Pure" Healer could then be able to flex between both roles, though even in this capacity, the "Pure" Healer would still need to bring something noteworthy in addition to this to allow it to compete with the other "Focused" Healers that can only do one role equally well but would likely have other benefits in their own right.

Originally Posted by Coltvoyance

And thats not fair? Right now WHM is the odd healer out with no utility, which I'm sure you agree is also unfair.

Yes, but the unfairness of the current situation doesn't justify creating an unfair situation the other way.

Especially since, really, there's no reason why WHM can't just get some utility that isn't pure heals.

Originally Posted by Coltvoyance

But in this hypothetical, the new abilities WHM gets don't have to be required.

Then they will be scrutinised against the other healers unique utilities to find out which two healers have the "Best" utility and whichever one doesn't make the cut will be considered "Bad"

Originally Posted by Coltvoyance

And SE can engineer a way to require two healers so WHM doesn't just solo heal (they do it for Tanks).

Then extra "Heal focus" means nothing. Since you're back to square one where WHM is better at healing people... But doesn't need to be.

Originally Posted by Coltvoyance

But if AST and SCH can help groups by providing more damage, letting the run end faster and reducing the number of mechanics they do, why can't WHM help groups clear by letting groups cheese through certain mechanics occasionally? Either way its fewer mechanics.

Because it has other ramifications than just healer balance.

For example, if WHM could negate a Tankbuster. What's stopping WAR from being able to now solo tank everything using their own tools in addition to this WHM mechanic?

What happens to a job like SCH who's current benefit is being able to provide shields to pre-emptively mitigate mechanics if WHM can just cheese through them instead?

What if WHM can allow for BLM to not have to move as much by simply negating mechanics and creating a meta around BLM standing in one spot and maximizing their massive damage potential?

What happens to Tank and Healer Limit Breaks if WHM can simply just do them as part of their normal kit?

Originally Posted by Coltvoyance

The only blasphemous part of the whole scenario is that there'd be a different way to tackle a mechanic or encounter and we apparently can't have that. SE is all about following a script.

The issue is not that it's a "Different way" to do things, but rather that balancing such a thing is difficult.

You have to make these unique (Non-directly damage boosting) utilities be worth as much as the 2 other healers (Direct damage boost) utilities. Whilst also not tuning them to the point of being broken in their core design (Thus creating another poor situation such as 1 Tank or 1 Healer composition metas)

And maintaining Healer parity so that WHM isn't inherently better with a particular co-healer (Such as if they could cheese mechanics, then SCH is less wanted because of their mechanic mitigation is less desired)

Not sure where it would fit as a healer identity, but having a disc style healer in FFXIV would be fun. Never been much of a healer fan, but disc priest in WoW was extremely enjoyable.

Originally Posted by Awha

Not sure where it would fit as a healer identity, but having a disc style healer in FFXIV would be fun. Never been much of a healer fan, but disc priest in WoW was extremely enjoyable.

What iteration of Disc Priest?

Bubble Priest?
Atonement Priest?
Penance Priest?

That spec has been through the wringer and then some xD

Which, I guess is to be expected on a class that has 2 healing specs... Gotta mix things up between them somehow.