Give your opinion on healer design!

[Kraniel]

Just a few questions regarding healers and your personal enjoyment of their gameplay.

-Are you happy with the current design of the three healers? Which one is your favourite?

-What keeps you engaged when playing a healer?

-Regarding healer identity, what gimmick or gameplay style would you give each of the healers? Both in terms of how the healing itself would work and what to do during healing downtime.

-Are you expecting a new healer job to be added in the next Expansion? If so, what job would you like to see and what type of gameplay would you like the new job to have?

- I am satisfied with the current design, in that it is still good enough for me to keep playing WHM and AST. But i wouldn't go as far as saying that i'm happy with it. My favourite one has to be WHM, since it is what i played since the very beginning. When i discovered AST during SB, i started leveling it up as it was just such a blast to play, and i knew it was about to replace my WHM as main. However now i still enjoy playing AST, but it just isn't as much fun as it used to be. I have to see how it goes once i reach 80 with it, but i understand how it plays, and by looking at the few skills i'm missing i don't see it becoming that much more engaging. So, yeah, i would still say that for now, WHM is my favourite.

- (Just copy-pasting this from another post with a similar question) The reason i love healing is because, for example, when i know by heart the strat for a Savage trial, and do everything perfectly, and when i raise fallen party members while dodging AoEs, or use Rescue on a DPS who's just about to get kicked out of the platform, it feels SO good.
I just live for these moments as a healer, the moments where you know that the fight is going smoothly because YOU know how it works and YOU are making sure that the team will get to the end of it.
Every role is important, but personally only healing has been able to provide me with such a sense of accomplishment, and contribution to the group.

- I am not familiar enough with SCH gameplay, so i can only talk for AST and WHM. I think WHM is in a relatively good position, but i would give it a couple more buffs, maybe with interesting/uncommon gimmicky effects (pushback immunity for the whole team/that kind of stuff). However i know that if SE ever gives buffs to the WHM, it's going to be boring, standard ones, because they are too worried about the balance of the game. I would also like to see maybe one more shielding ability on WHM.
As for AST, just bring back the SB AST skills/mechanics and we're good.

- It would be logical that there's one, but i'm not sure if i would really get into it so deeply. I am still a bit salty with how they changed AST and to be honest, i don't want to invest myself in yet another healing class unless i know for sure that they won't change it completely in the coming months.

[MitsukiKimura]

Just a few questions regarding healers and your personal enjoyment of their gameplay.

-Are you happy with the current design of the three healers? Which one is your favourite?

-What keeps you engaged when playing a healer?

-Regarding healer identity, what gimmick or gameplay style would you give each of the healers? Both in terms of how the healing itself would work and what to do during healing downtime.

-Are you expecting a new healer job to be added in the next Expansion? If so, what job would you like to see and what type of gameplay would you like the new job to have?

-Sadly no. AST feels great but it's card system is at an all time low. I don't complain as much now as I used to but my feelings for it haven't changed. There's too much fishing in the system while trying to perform at your best with it. AST is my favorite so far because of how smooth it is to weave your attack between your OGCD's.

-How beautiful my character looks in healer glamour. Striving to be a better AST, I'll never be top tier but at least I know I'm pretty decent at it.

-I'd give WHM more damaging combo than just glare spam. I'd give SCH their DoT's back, AST needs the cards changed regardless of how long it takes. I never really played much WHM so I honestly can't give a good answer to it.

-If I were to see another healer I'd like to see Chemist. Would be pretty neat having a gun styled to heal people with. I'd honestly love that.

[Dogempire]

-Are you happy with the current design of the three healers? Which one is your favourite?

Not really, I think they shouldn't have moved towards making every healer a WHM reskin with super dumbed down kits, I still prefer scholar but I'd take bane anyday over art of ground slap.

-What keeps you engaged when playing a healer?

Micromanaging and split second decisions, and also an engaging/fun rotation that isn't overly complex but takes more attention than apply dot, now spam damage skill.

-Regarding healer identity, what gimmick or gameplay style would you give each of the healers? Both in terms of how the healing itself would work and what to do during healing downtime.

WHM: More regen oriented with a few options to decrease damage by a % but not actually shield, give them an extra dot but otherwise keep their damage rotation simple

SCH: Give them more pre-healing options like excog and critlo, and when they're not pre-healing give them more dots also GIVE SCHOLAR FRICKIN BANE BACK because losing bane and getting art of war in return feels like when someone takes your ferrari and gives you a toy model of a Honda Civic in return.

AST: Admittedly I don't know much about AST, but I'd rather they have their old cards back, and replace their tp card with something else, maybe something that makes a person's dots tick faster, it would also be nice if they added crit chance and dh chance cards instead of all just flat damage cards.

-Are you expecting a new healer job to be added in the next Expansion? If so, what job would you like to see and what type of gameplay would you like the new job to have?

It's 50/50, they might make another excuse for balancing healers, or they'll look at the healers that they neutered into WHM clones, but in a way that's "Copy my homework but don't make it too obvious" and decide things are balanced enough for a 4th healer. I'm hopeful they make healers actually fun again, but at the same time I won't be surprised if the new healer is also a WHM clone.

That being said, I want a ranged healer with no cast times or a healer that does healing through damaging enemies, that would be fun.

[Allegor]

Are you happy with the current design of the three healers? Which one is your favourite?

Gutting whatever few damaging skills we had was a bad call, I still deeply miss Aero III. AST was my favorite healer because of the tarot and star themes, but I do not enjoy the 5.x changes at all - I don't care if it was broken op regarding numbers, it just feels blegh to play as a literal Balance Bot.

What keeps you engaged when playing a healer?

It's the role I play in every game ever.

Regarding healer identity, what gimmick or gameplay style would you give each of the healers? Both in terms of how the healing itself would work and what to do during healing downtime.

If I'm being honest, as much as I feel comfortable with WHM...it's painfully generic. Ideally it could, idk, be given a stronger focus on healing over time and/or being the 'green DPS' healer - it is, afterall, the BLM of healers.

Are you expecting a new healer job to be added in the next Expansion? If so, what job would you like to see and what type of gameplay would you like the new job to have?

The most popular choices seem to be Chemist or Geomancer. I'm a little biased so I'd go for Geomancer. CNJ started as a "druid" archetype but completely abandons it later on, so there's space for a true nature-themed healer.
That said, Chemist can also be a fun idea - I always imagined they could be like Anna from OW and snipe heal people, skillshots are kinda rare in this game, or have a button mash mini game like NIN/DNC where the spell they cast is based on the buttons they press, that would certainly be more different than a second not-WHM.

Take into account I'm a filthy casual that has never done nor plans to do EX/Savage content and this is just my opinion based on...literally everything else there is to do in the game, which is apparently irrelevant for class balance.

[Gemina]

-Are you happy with the current design of the three healers? Which one is your favourite?
No. Though I should say that current healer design doesn't fit well with current encounter design. Healer downtime is a big issue right now. SCH continues to be my favorite healer, and the one I feel has the least amount of issues in terms with how it melds with my own playstyle.

-What keeps you engaged when playing a healer?
I am most engaged when my primary function in a party is called upon. IOW, I have to heal people and correct mistakes. If someone has a vuln stack, I need to make sure they are topped up until it falls off otherwise the next AoE will likely kill them. If someone needs to be cleansed, or to be raised. That is why I chose this role, and that is what I want to do when in a party.

-Regarding healer identity, what gimmick or gameplay style would you give each of the healers? Both in terms of how the healing itself would work and what to do during healing downtime.
Their current gimmicks are fine in terms of being part of their identity, but each of their gimmicks have problems. The AST cards need to be reworked completely... again. SCH fairy is really needed for two things: Union and Seraph. These are truly interactive skills that should not be on the pet hotbar. The other skills being taken off of the pet hotbar just make those skills feel like additional ogcds for the SCH. Lily gimmick for WHM only has two skills to use blue lilies up, which means Misery cannot be used optimally if players aren't taking enough damage to break the ogcd threshold which is quite thick for WHM already.

-Are you expecting a new healer job to be added in the next Expansion? If so, what job would you like to see and what type of gameplay would you like the new job to have?
No, and don't even want one at this point. But I think the devs will have to deliver in 6.0 or it's going to be riot in the streets. What this means is the time they have to get healing and encounter design ripe for a new healer is quickly cutting itself short, and I just don't see huge changes to either happening. I expect more of the same in 6.0 (encounter design never calls for the healing power FFXIV healers are capable of, downtime filled with lackluster DPS skills, and very questionable decisions that make little sense).

The main thing I want to see that would probably make me jump through the ceiling is to see the potency on OGCD heals reduced, and the potency on GCD heals increased. That would be a very positive indicator that the devs are finally starting to 'get it'.

[GUkraine]

Until they change how encounters actually exist within the game it really doesn't matter how they design healers. As current design exists it will always be "ogcd AoE on raid wide dmg" once per 30 secs+, spam dps in-between dmg phases and repeat.

As long as emphasis on "green dps" exists and there is not consistent (semi) unpredictable damage coming out from bosses, then healing will always be a gimped version of a tank trying to do damage. Healing as it now exists is literally no different or difficult than a tank using a 1 button cd for a tank buster.

The only thing they can implement design wise is a complex (or at least varied) dps rotation w/ AoE healing during raid dmg , or change encounters as a whole.

[Sylvain]

Just a few questions regarding healers and your personal enjoyment of their gameplay.

-Are you happy with the current design of the three healers? Which one is your favourite?

Yes and no - AST/SCH

Yes : I really like the current design for healer whereas we have really potent ogcd and with some proper optimisation, we can spend a lot of time dpsing. In a sens, being a good healer in ffxiv isn't just "keeping people alive" but "keeping people alive while dpsing as much as possible". It offers quite a lot of satisfaction and the fact that healer can actually do more than tanks makes for a great reward for our effort

No : Fight simply don't require enough heal overall. There are some moments where a lead of clutch heal is required but overall, most raid burster can be healed through ogcd and hot (fairy, asylum etc).
I think encounter should have more frequent damage, for instance it isn't normal that a SCH can heal with 100% ogcd the first phase of E6S Furor without breaking a sweat. The whole fight can easily be solohealed spare a few moments where, in fact, 2 healers are recommended. I would just like the same design but overall more damage to make more use of both healers tools. A savage encounter shouldn't be easily solo healed 90% of the time.
Also increasing damage on tank would be a solution, and could also open the door for lv 81-90 new healing spells. It isn't normal that every boss but Shiva and TEA litterally tickle tanks. Tanks on Ramuh can litterally keep themselves alives and thrive with AoE heals only.
I'm not trying to be an eletist jerk, but there's a fine line between "my fairy + period AoE heal from raid burst are enough to keep tanks alive" and "you need to spame cureII everysecond of the fight or the tank dies (aka WoW)

-What keeps you engaged when playing a healer?

As said above, the optimisation.
I really like seeing how the first time I heal an encounter I don't know what's coming next and then, as we go through pulls, i skim my healing and increase my dps.
I also really like the fact that DPS and Tank can contribute to the overall "keeping the raid alive" effort.
As a side note, I really like that most mistakes are punished by instant death (or at least sever injury+weakness as a proof of your mistake). In the sens that's it's really hard to blame a healer for your death if you died alone. Because when healer fail, usually it means all 4 dps+2healers die, not just 1 person. I like the fact that staying alive is everyone's job and not just "healers adapt" (which is actually a meme, you can't adapt a oneshot... and since almost everything oneshot in this game)

-Regarding healer identity, what gimmick or gameplay style would you give each of the healers? Both in terms of how the healing itself would work and what to do during healing downtime.

I personally really like the current direction
WHM : mostly GCD heals with lilies. (I would however add charges to Assize + Tetra). I don't want any more ogcd with the WHM unless those are related to gcd (like Plenary) or are some sort of utility like Temperance

SCH : During SB I really thought there wasn't enough fairy skills. ShB brought 2 new fairy skills so I would definitely go along that direction. Regarding Aether Flux I really think we've reach the end with that. I don't see what could be added that wouldn't overshadow current skills. However more fairy skills would be nice, and if possible a better way than Ruin2 to weave. A fairy gauge dump would be nice, Aetherpact doesn't feel adequat I often end up with a full gauge because there's just not enough healing needed (ofc increasing damage on tank would solve the issue)

AST : My favorite! However I am struggling with the card design. I like the new design, less potent buff (it was broken anyway), I like the seal system and I like the fact that they just bring dps. That was one thing that annoyed me in SB, the fact that 95% of the time, anything but balance was bad. However pulls are just too intense and Sleeve Draw is just a nightmare on controller during the opener.
I'm also a bit sick of AST eternal mp issue. Beside reducing mp cost, putting 2 charges on LightSpeed and reducing its CD + duration would help a great deal. I don't need 15s of instant every 90s. I just need 6-9s every 45-60s. That would be much much more useful, both in term of weaving, dps and especially mp management.

I really like the fact that spells change depending on the stance, and while I understand it brings its own share of balancing issue, I really would like more spells having 2 versions.
I love the visual and overall how the job plays. If anything I would like more spells akin to Earthly Star and Horoscope, (basically delayed spelled). Too bad Excogitation would have fit the bill perfectly.

-Are you expecting a new healer job to be added in the next Expansion? If so, what job would you like to see and what type of gameplay would you like the new job to have?

I am definitely expecting a new healer job in 6.0.
I would love to have the Potion Master. Many people proposed the geomancer but I don't want 2 healers based on earth/water/wind (altough, we can argue WHM strayed away from that path...)
In term of gameplay I would like some sort of mec where we mix stuff for various extra effect on spells (a bit like mudras). But yeah I would definitely like some sort of healer who add extra effect on current spells. Either by consuming ressource, using mudra-like charges, wathever.
Like they could use "infusion", with Astral infusion adding a Shield and Umbral infusion adding a HoT as a baseline. Then we could have some ogcd which add new effect like "Thunder Infusion" reduce the cd of your next infused ability by 30% or make it instant.


I don't think giving it 2 stances would be the way to go, since it would rob some of the AST identity. But they would need to be able to do both Shields and Hots (altough we can argue that SCH/WHM got a lot of regen/mitigation respectively. Perhaps adding an extra mitigation to WHM future toolkit to help make every healer able to both mitigate and apply hots effectively.

However I obviously do want all healer combination to be viable. I also want lines to be blurred between "shield healer" "hot healer", all healers have hot now, all have mitigation (WHM maybe would need a new lily AoE shield spell...).
I'm fine with some having stronger point, like if we give WHM a lily-succor, just add a 30s CD so that no matter what SCH would always be able to shield more, but at least WHM could do it. (the same way SCH could see a buff to emergency tactic so that if they need to dish out a bit more gcd heal, they could...)
I don't think "shields and hots" are good defining traits of a job, those are so... "old". Like, a SCH isn't a "shielder", i mean heck he has 2 shields. if anything AST has more shields. to me SCH is more about making good use of powerful ogcd with limited use (Aether flux) and fairy. For me, that's a SCH, Aetherflux ogcd+fairy. Not shields (I mean I don't even shield until E7S, and even there i barely shield, there's no need for it)

[Truen]

Each healer should have a dps kit. I like the idea of the AST getting a dot/debuff/dd nuke set, the White Mage getting the best nukes, and the SCH weaving dots like a boss. The idea that I'm supposed to struggle through content/quests without being able to dps adequately needs to end--it's just not fun at all. This needs to be understood by Square Enix. Once that's been acknowledged, I'm quite flexible with all other choices they make regarding class design.

[Dragonexx]

-Are you happy with the current design of the three healers? Which one is your favourite?
Scholar looked like it used to be fun in Stormblood. Unfortunately, I took a several years hiatus back in HW and came back in Shadowbringers, where the healers were gutted. Scholar is still my favorite.

-What keeps you engaged when playing a healer?
Hard to say. I'd like more offensive abilities, and more closely tying those abilities to healing.

-Regarding healer identity, what gimmick or gameplay style would you give each of the healers? Both in terms of how the healing itself would work and what to do during healing downtime.
SE needs to understand that there is healing downtime, so either radically rework combat to get rid of that or give healers more DPS options.

-Are you expecting a new healer job to be added in the next Expansion? If so, what job would you like to see and what type of gameplay would you like the new job to have?
I doubt we'll be getting a new one next expac, bu I'd like to see Green Mage. Albeit it's the last of my choices, as I'd rather that class as a Tank first DPS second.

[EaMett]

Things I learned in this thread. Nobody likes healers as they are. Oh wait I knew that already, nvm.