The Healer Double Standard

[KarnSalander]

The real question about healer DPS has always been, and still remains: What else do they expect us to do during downtime?

I couldn't have said it better. Of course, whatever those numbers are, we will try to get them as big as they can be. But if the game is calibrated so that the best healers are doing 25% of what a dps is doing for damage, then we'll take it. But don't let me wait for things to happen. I want to play this game, not wait this game.

[IttyBitty]

I want to play this game, not wait this game.

Exactly this. I honestly don't give two damns about *what* I'm doing. Green button or red button doesn't matter to me at all. I just want to be *engaged* while doing it. DPSing provided that engagement, simple as it was. Now it will likely not.

But then again I really don't get where this whole "I pLaY a HeAlEr To HeAl" mindset comes from. I pretty much exclusively play healer in every game where I can, and in pretty much every single one of them I've played, I've also had pretty potent offensive tools. Be it bonesawing or needle gunning in TF2, or Magnus Exorcismus in Ragnarok Online, or even playing a Druid or Cleric in D&D. Juggling tasks, triage and knowing when to fight or when to support is what makes healing fun and engaging, not casting Cure.

[ForteNightshade]

I couldn't have said it better. Of course, whatever those numbers are, we will try to get them as big as they can be. But if the game is calibrated so that the best healers are doing 25% of what a dps is doing for damage, then we'll take it. But don't let me wait for things to happen. I want to play this game, not wait this game.

The crazy thing is it isn't even the top tier healers who barely have to heal nowadays. When my old static cleared Ultima, both healers combined for roughly 50% of their casts being DPS abilities. This is Ultimate and healers still aren't being pushed to heal. The devs can prattle on about how they want healers to focus more on healing but until they make content demand it, no one will care. I get it. They don't want to scare off baby healers. Instead, those babies are told to DPS because they have nothing else to do otherwise. What irks me is when Yoshida says they don't expect healer DPS. To put it bluntly, the community does. Why? Because people typically don't appreciate when someone stands around doing nothing while they have to press every button in their kit.

So the devs either need to push healers towards healing and maybe gate off people who aren't willing to improve beyond "spam Medica II" or expect the current DPS meta.

[Ceasaria]

It's becoming more and more clear that these developers have no idea how healers play or what to do with them:

I would be agree with that statement...if we were in ARR or HW.
But this is not true anymore.
Yoshida is 2 years (or more) late concerning the healers.
Is he aware that the removing of the old cleric stance broke the main/off healer term, and now the healers duo dps and heal together with the same amount ?

But with the changes we will have, it seems not.

[Urthdigger]

I am legitimately angry at that answer to the SCH question. He might as well be saying "If you're at the bare minimum for clearing content on healer there's no point in gearing or optimizing further."

[Lordfurious]

Personally I like the idea of the changes. As a Healer I've had multiple tanks pull more than they can handle during that large pool decided to drop stance and died quickly. After their death they proceeded to complain that I should have been DPS'ing and that would have made a difference. 1 now with the healers doing the role that they are in the dungeon to do in the first place which is heal it is a lot less stress on the healers. As a White Mage the only DPS I will do is Aero. Because I don't believe I should blow my cool downs and mp on DPS. There are instances where mobs come around the corner and now we have extra mobs and if I have no MP to sustain the tank because I've blown it DPS and it's a wipe. I wish everybody would stop complaining. These changes were brought on by complaints. So now when the developers decided to make the changes due to the complaints more people are complaining about that. To me it's simple I play all three classes. Do the job you're in the dungeon to do. Let's face facts there are a lot of healers that would rather DPS but go healer because they get quicker queue times. Who cares is tanks do damage I don't. I care that they stay in stance stance to take less damage. If they do that I can focus my efforts on Keepin the DPS from dying. Inevitably these changes should help balance the negative experience we have all had using Duty Finder. I'm excited for the changes and I wish everybody would stop complaining.

[LadyKairi]

snip.

How in the Twelve do you need to save EVERYTHING to keep people alive? There’s no surprise trash mobs, no surprise boss attacks. Literally everything is scripted. Raids, dungeons, everything. You KNOW what is coming. The only time it’s a surprise is if you’re new, and even then you do not need your entire mp pool and every single CD to keep anyone alive. Even with non maxed gear lol.

I love how healing works in this game. I hated being a heal bot in WoW, which is why I’ve played healer in XIV for so long. The incoming damage could be upped so we arent dpsing 90% of the time, but I do not want to take away our dps completely. I do not want to be a heal bot. Let us keep what separates the good from the bad, and not all “Lol I spAmmY spAm hEalY buTtoNs aNd mAke GreEn bArs Go uP.” And no matter what they do, we are always going to have negative experiences in dungeons. It is the downside of playing an online game with real people.

Literally the ONLY healers who get stressed in casual content are those who aren’t very good. Healing is so powerful right now, it requires very little effort lol. All we want is the way we deal damage to be more interesting than a button spam. I do not understand why heal only healers get so mad when we ask for an improvement for our desired play style. It LITERALLY does not change your play style. We get more enjoyment out of how we like to play, and you get to keep the way you like to play. Why is having options so bad?

Oh and it’s the public forum for giving feedback. We are more than welcome to voice our discontent. Got a problem, no one is forcing you to read our posts.

[Lordfurious]

How in the Twelve do you need to save EVERYTHING to keep people alive? There’s no surprise trash mobs, no surprise boss attacks. Literally everything is scripted. Raids, dungeons, everything. You KNOW what is coming. The only time it’s a surprise is if you’re new, and even then you do not need your entire mp pool and every single CD to keep anyone alive. Even with non maxed gear lol.

I love how healing works in this game. I hated being a heal bot in WoW, which is why I’ve played healer in XIV for so long. The incoming damage could be upped so we arent dpsing 90% of the time, but I do not want to take away our dps completely. I do not want to be a heal bot. Let us keep what separates the good from the bad, and not all “Lol I spAmmY spAm hEalY buTtoNs aNd mAke GreEn bArs Go uP.” And no matter what they do, we are always going to have negative experiences in dungeons. It is the downside of playing an online game with real people.

Literally the ONLY healers who get stressed in casual content are those who aren’t very good. Healing is so powerful right now, it requires very little effort lol. All we want is the way we deal damage to be more interesting than a button spam. I do not understand why heal only healers get so mad when we ask for an improvement for our desired play style. It LITERALLY does not change your play style. We get more enjoyment out of how we like to play, and you get to keep the way you like to play. Why is having options so bad?

Oh and it’s the public forum for giving feedback. We are more than welcome to voice our discontent. Got a problem, no one is forcing you to read our posts.

Oh you're right I must KNOW an undergeared tank is not going to use cooldowns. I must also KNOW that a DPS is going to accidentally pull another group of mobs that isn't going to be picked up right away because the tank isn't paying attention. You're right it must all be my fault. I'm so glad the forums has people like you to tell the rest of us how horrible we are and how wonderful you are. Thank you for your wonderful insight.

[Deceptus]

I love how healing works in this game. I hated being a heal bot in WoW, which is why I’ve played healer in XIV for so long. The incoming damage could be upped so we arent dpsing 90% of the time, but I do not want to take away our dps completely. I do not want to be a heal bot. Let us keep what separates the good from the bad, and not all “Lol I spAmmY spAm hEalY buTtoNs aNd mAke GreEn bArs Go uP.” And no matter what they do, we are always going to have negative experiences in dungeons. It is the downside of playing an online game with real people.

And most importantly in WoW if you wanted to level, you had a dedicated DPS spec to do that. We don't have those here in FFXIV. One dot and one filler spell from level 2 to lvl 80 is going to get really old REALLY fast.

Oh you're right I must KNOW an undergeared tank is not going to use cooldowns. I must also KNOW that a DPS is going to accidentally pull another group of mobs that isn't going to be picked up right away because the tank isn't paying attention. You're right it must all be my fault. I'm so glad the forums has people like you to tell the rest of us how horrible we are and how wonderful you are. Thank you for your wonderful insight.

No need to be so condescending. I've run enough dungeons to know that the above has definitely happened more times than I'd like to count. Generally just like you laid out. Undergeared tanks not using CD's (AV, Vault, Bardam's anyone?), DPS pulling because they're impatient.

[Lordfurious]

And most importantly in WoW if you wanted to level, you had a dedicated DPS spec to do that. We don't have those here in FFXIV. One dot and one filler spell from level 2 to lvl 80 is going to get really old REALLY fast.



No need to be so condescending. I've run enough dungeons to know that the above has definitely happened more times than I'd like to count. Generally just like you laid out. Undergeared tanks not using CD's (AV, Vault, Bardam's anyone?), DPS pulling because they're impatient.

I don't find that condescending at all I find that an adequate response to a user in the Forum telling me I am a bad player for the way I play. I see a lot of these hateful people in the forums that don't actually contribute in a positive manner but rather become argumentative and call other players bad because we do not conform to the way they think the game should play and not the way the game is designed. That is the reason for these recent changes. The devs are tired of the tanks and the healers fighting in dungeons all of us have seen it at one point in time. It has to stop it's a total team effort. And the comment to me about being a bad player for conserving MP just proves what type of people are Community have in it and unfortunately there are a lot of negative people who just want to spread hate I want to spread positivity and joy in the game. But go ahead and call me condescending if you must. But I will not sit back and listen to other players say that those of us who conserve MP are bad players as there are a lot of us that do it.