Tinfoil Hat Time! A new Lens to Look at Healer Changes!

[CaesarCV]

I kind of got a strange feeling about the Healer changes in 5.0. And this is admittedly a bit conspiratorial. So I'm going to put in a disclaimer that this is most likely not accurate or anything, and is just a curious observation. Now that we all have our tin foil hats on, let's discuss the idea!

It's commonly thought that the healer changes were made without even looking at or considering player feedback. To me, it seems that SE actually did look at player feedback when considering the changes made to 'fix' healers this expansion. However, they were looking at feedback from non-healer players. When looked at in this lens, a lot of the changes suddenly make sense. After all, consider the types of problems that they tried to fix with their changes.

"Ugg, it's annoying that I have to wait for the SCH to cast Aetherflow out of combat." Fixed! They can't do it outside of combat! Now you don't have to wait for that silly Scholar!

"Blugh. Why did that Scholar cast Energy Drain for MP Rather than heal me! They shouldn't be able to do that!" Fixed! Now they can't use them on anything but healing abilities!

"Ergh. Why did that AST give the tank a Bole rather than giving me a balance?" Fixed! Now all they can give out is balance!

"Healers should be healing not DPSing!" Fixed! We'll try to limit that as much as possible through making their rotations simpler!

Now, if this is compared to the problems that healers were generally looking for like more advanced healing mechanics, deeper DPS rotations, a bigger focus on support during downtime, or the myriad other changes, it becomes clear what were emphasized. If you take the idea that the 5.0 Healer changes were made for non-healers they suddenly make a lot more sense.

That being said, it doesn't make them any less boring or terrible. So what do you guys think? Is my tin foil hat simply ripping at the seams? Or is there some logic to the idea?

[Fawkes]

I don't think anyone would be surprised if the healer changes were made by people who don't play healers.

[NobleWinter]

I think there may be some real merit to your idea but I think the bigger picture is that they wanted both Tanking and Healing to be more accessible to new players. The aggro changes definitely made Tanking far more simple and pushing Healers toward healing with increased damage output across the game and simpler DPS options definitely cements the "healing" aspect of the role. Scholar is boring but much much easier to grasp and crossing from Astro to Scholar to White Mage is simpler than ever as they homogenized the skill sets so much. This seems to tell me they were more concerned with adding to the small number of Tanks and Healers without considering that the ease of play might not have been the issue but the fact that Healing and Tanking just weren't as fun or flashy as most DPS jobs.

[Naychan]

I could actually believe this since I have had multiple people ask me why I DPS in dungeons. Cause playing healer wack-a-mole isn't a full time gig and just sitting doing nothing is not enjoyable for me.

Hey, here is an idea, Tanks only need to hold aggro and defend vs damage. Why dont we change all their abilities to Aggro and defense only then give 4 of those abilities damage. I mean we have DPS classes that is their job to DPS so tanks and healers shouldn't have to. 1 Direct damage, 1 dot, 1 AE. that should be enough with all their tools to hold aggro and defend right.

Why don't we do this ? cause its a stupid idea! Then why are we doing this to healers? F.F.S.

[Yawnie]

Here’s the thing, I’m almost positive none of the dev team mains a healer. I remember them saying they talked to other players (I’m sure the “big” youtubers) and that they found the healer changes positive. Thing is I’m ALSO POSITIVE that none of them main healer either, mostly tanks and dps. I really hope they start listening more or find someone who actually does play healer because as much as I’ve stuck with the role since the time I joined in 2.0 this is the first expansion that I found myself not having fun with the role.

[Elgeron]

I think there may be some real merit to your idea but I think the bigger picture is that they wanted both Tanking and Healing to be more accessible to new players. The aggro changes definitely made Tanking far more simple and pushing Healers toward healing with increased damage output across the game and simpler DPS options definitely cements the "healing" aspect of the role. Scholar is boring but much much easier to grasp and crossing from Astro to Scholar to White Mage is simpler than ever as they homogenized the skill sets so much. This seems to tell me they were more concerned with adding to the small number of Tanks and Healers without considering that the ease of play might not have been the issue but the fact that Healing and Tanking just weren't as fun or flashy as most DPS jobs.

I really fail to understand why all classes should have the same level of accessibility. Look at casters, RDM is easy to learn, those that find it fun do so for their more relaxed gameplay style coupled with their support kit that allows for easier clearings. You want more challenge? BLM with its casting times and focus on positioning or SMN with its busy rotations and weaving. DNC is the more accessible Ranged, while BRD and MCH are harder. Don't know the state of tanks, but usually PLD is easier compared to the others and so. All of these classes are fun and offer different level of accessibility for players while retaining their unique game play styles. I cannot understand why the decided to change the dynamic of healers. Before WHM was the more straightforward healer while SCH and AST were more busy or complex. I think having different jobs with different complexities is good for the health of the game, and the healer changes just goes against it.

[Pbuckley818]

I've been saying this sense they announced the changes. Anytime I bring it up people act like I am kicking their cat or something. The way I see it the only people who are happy with the healer changes are non healers, and the people who like to play healer because they think it should simple, you know the kind of people who don't even cleanse because that's too much effort? Yeah those people. Also WHM's as honestly their changes where mostly just improvements.

[Solgath]

yeah, truth be told, i started playing as white mage back at the beginning, and got really good with it, so i changed to scholar, once i was good with that one, i went Astrologian and that was the most exciting and challenging job i had played in a long time, the RNG of the cards, determining when best to use them, all of that made for an extremely fun job for me to sink my teeth into, now it's basically first 3 cards do tanks and melee dps, other 3 cards do healer and ranged dps, just feels bland and totally unexciting or challenging any more, and that is really sad, been giving some thought to main tanking now rather than main healing because of how bad it is atm

[EaMett]

I think they're just dealing with higher expenses (servers) and deciding to spend their money in other areas of the game. They didn't make role quests instead of job quests to be user friendly, it was clearly to cut costs. They didn't solve the healer balance by thoroughly looking into the classes, they homogenized all of them instead. If you look around there are a lot of these little tidbits strewn around the place.
On the flip side the msq was super solid, thorough and had so many cutscenes. The zones are great, detailed and beautiful. The marketing was spot on and very present. The trailer was pretty crazy. Etc.
Just the woes of budgeting. Healers got the short end again, mostly because I suspect none of them play it in the first place. The absent are always wrong, and healer definitely weren't present during that meeting.

[Enla]

I think they're just dealing with higher expenses (servers) and deciding to spend their money in other areas of the game. They didn't make role quests instead of job quests to be user friendly, it was clearly to cut costs. They didn't solve the healer balance by thoroughly looking into the classes, they homogenized all of them instead. If you look around there are a lot of these little tidbits strewn around the place.
On the flip side the msq was super solid, thorough and had so many cutscenes. The zones are great, detailed and beautiful. The marketing was spot on and very present. The trailer was pretty crazy. Etc.
Just the woes of budgeting. Healers got the short end again, mostly because I suspect none of them play it in the first place. The absent are always wrong, and healer definitely weren't present during that meeting.

I desperately want someone on the development team to be a healer main. Or for them to elevate some of the top healer players as community advocates who can help brainstorm with the dev team if they want to just completely throw the problem at other people. Might be for the best at this rate honestly. The community knows this role better than the developer's do from the looks of it.