Adding more Healer responsibility: Yay or Nay?

[ty_taurus]

So we have Repose as a role action--a currently useless ability.

Repose gives us a streamlined, interesting debuff with little-to-no application for its use outside of, at most, early-game shenanigans. It doesn't need to stay this way, though.

In the BLU carnival, there's a fight with an enemy that starts the fight by giving themselves a massive damage up buff. An acceptable strategy to combatting this foe is by putting him to sleep and waiting out the buff's duration.

This is one example of how Sleep can be useful in certain fights. There are other possibilities too, such as someone leading an add to a hotspot of some kind (like a switch or a trap), and the healer needs to put that add to sleep.

As healers, we're always on the lookout for more things to do when we're not healing. In many cases, it can feel like a DPS spam with some occasional healing for mechanics or when someone messes up, but if we're going to keep Repose, why not make it something useful?

[AnotherPerson]

This topic is really debatable mainly because of where healers fall on the healing spectrum in efficiency. I've seen healers who quit healing because they were told to do more things, and I've seen healers quit because there isn't much for them to do gameplay wise.

Personally, I would say no because of how putting more healer responsibility would make it seem intimidating like a tank's responsibility. With the limited number of healers that are already in the game, I would not try to discourage people from healing any further while juggling their member's HP bars and maintaining DPS. I rather see their DPS rotation to be adjusted instead to encourage DPS as a healer and adjust their skills to be more engaging in a battle.

[Tulzscha]

Yaaaaay for more to do, but not just for healers for everyone pls. :3

[Ceasaria]

I would say "yes !" particularly if it could extend the way of playing for the healers.
Obviously, it could be the case with Repose.
To not frutrate players because of the reponsabilities, missing Repose should not be too punishing, depending of the difficulty.
For example, we have 6 sec to sleep the add. If we miss it :
For a normal trial, it could result on a AOE damage.
For an extreme trial, it could result on a stronger AOE damage.
For a savage battle, it could result on a stronger AOE damage + 1 stack of vulnerability (which would increase if we miss every Repose)

[Connor]

I like the idea of any role having more interesting things to do.

I also think Repose could be a skill that opens up more diverse options in battle than just ‘deal damage’ or ‘use heal oGCD’.

One example I can think of is that it can take the place of Stun. If you’re doing a random expert dungeon and you know the enemy is doing an annoying attack that won’t be stunned for whatever reason, generally you can just throw Repose at it to interrupt the attack, regardless of whether it could be stunned in the first place (unless it’s a boss of course).

Maybe things like this could be implemented to open up more options to use it? Like an enemy that does a big attack that can’t be stunned, but can be interrupted by putting it to sleep? Though it’d have to be strong enough to warrant losing a dps GCD but not strong enough that it could kill the party because that would be too much for general content, especially if we’re just talking trash mobs.

But then if it’s in a high-tier raid, either people will be like ‘why do I have to sleep this enemy that won’t kill me instead of just dealing damage’, or ‘this enemy is too strong because if I don’t sleep it quick enough the party could die’. So it’s like, I think my idea sounds nice in theory, but I don’t know how something like Repose (or any debuff in general) could be implemented in a way that would be accepted by players

My own opinion is that I like the idea of having more responsibilities for healers, especially in regards to things that would make the healer role feel like more of it’s own thing than a variant of another role. But the idea that healers deal damage when not healing is still the main impetus behind the healing role, so I can’t imagine any further responsibilities beyond the damage/healing balancing act would be well-received on the whole. If not purely because of the difficulty with balancing around things like debuffs and the fact that the game’s design doesn’t really support these kinds of gameplay.

There is also the argument that there’s no point in fixing what isn’t really broken. Healers don’t need more responsibilities because if/when they get more involved damage rotations they’ll already have more than enough responsibility. So it’s like, they’d have to put a lot of development effort into balancing something out that might not be enjoyable, even though players already have something they could enjoy that’s much easier for the game to be developed around. Having healers focus more on things that already exist like the heal/damage balancing does seem more practical than trying to implement entirely different things

[Payadopa]

I'm all for more things to do. Not necessarily DPSing, tho. CC would be cool. It's just a shame that the game doesn't support that. Enemies are too weak to bother and bosses are immune to most effects. That's why I'm hoping we get a new Eureka (I know, I know lol) with a threatening overworld to make these spells viable again. Lord knows I've given up on Yoshi and team making the actual overworld threatening.

[Deceptus]

I'm torn on this.

Healers already have the most responsibility in the game.

They're expected to heal the tanks, fix everyone's stupidity, heal normal raid wide damage, and provide dps all at the same time.

How much more should they be burdened with?

[Risvertasashi]

Another anti repose thread?

It is one of the best abilities in the healer kit. It's just not for raids.

If you don't do content where it's used... just take it off your hotbar. Jeez.

[Billythepancake]

Another anti repose thread?

It is one of the best abilities in the healer kit. It's just not for raids.

If you don't do content where it's used... just take it off your hotbar. Jeez.

If you bothered to actually read the post, it wasn't an anti repose thread. It talked about making it better for all content and giving healers more to do.


Personally,OP, I wouldn't mind it, but I'm not the biggest fan. Would prefer the DPS aspect to be made more interesting, since I actually like the idea of "combat medics" and that's what the healers in this game are. Just wish the "combat" part wasn't broil x 100000

[Truen]

. I rather see their DPS rotation to be adjusted instead to encourage DPS as a healer and adjust their skills to be more engaging in a battle.

This needs to be done because I'm falling asleep with the role. Most of the 'fun' with healing is finding a balance between weaving dps and managing heals...FF14 has all but ruined that aspect of the game though, sadly.