A summary of healer issues

[ForsakenRoe]

All this 'but the casuals' hyperbole is getting so repetitive and boring. Here's something to consider: we don't have tankbusters with no cast bar anymore for the most part. They're all clearly named and have a windup to them, even in Savage. Tyrant's Unholy Darkness, for example. But, against all odds, despite this design decision, casuals still somehow managed to muddle through Titan EX, where there were not castbars for Mountain Busters. It's almost like casuals CAN actually manage to do some tough content even with some hurdles to clear. So if they can manage that, why is it somehow the end of the world if they're given a couple extra damage buttons to press, which, and let me put this on a seperate line so it's obvious:

THESE EXTRA BUTTONS WOULD NOT MATTER FOR ANYTHING BELOW WEEK 5-6 SAVAGE, IF YOU ARE NOT DOING EARLY SAVAGE OR ULTIMATES YOU COULD PROBABLY IGNORE THEM AND STILL CLEAR

I don't get how many times we have to say it, or how many neon signs we have to have pointing to it before people get it, I could go clear P8S right now with full tome gear, Rubicante EX weapon (probably Barb weapon tbh), and use zero cards for the whole fight, and clear. If the cards, the defining feature for the gameplay of AST, is ignoreable because of extra gear, these extra buttons we keep hoping for would be too

[Tint]

All this 'but the casuals' hyperbole is getting so repetitive and boring.

Other roles have so much healing and mitigation tools now, there really is no reason to not increase the difficulty. If the healer is not good enough then tanks and DDs can step up their game.

[ForsakenRoe]

Other roles have so much healing and mitigation tools now, there really is no reason to not increase the difficulty. If the healer is not good enough then tanks and DDs can step up their game.

Weird isn't it, DPS get new selfdefensives like Arcane Crest? Sure, cool, skill expression tool to optimize (especially Third Eye). DPS gets healing like Bloodbath? Sure, helps them stay alive, makes healer's job easier!

Tank gets selfhealing out the ass? No problem, helps them stay alive in even the spiciest of wall-to-wall pulls! Tanks get more damage and burst like 1200p Double Down? Go nuts, helps them keep aggro (aggro does not exist anymore)

Healer gets a defensive like Aquaveil? Sure, helps them to do the 'good heal work' and keep their party alive!

Healer gets a new damage skill WHOA HOLD ON A SECOND we can't have that, the casuals! Only way you're getting that one past TSA is by attaching a heal to it and calling it 'damage neutral healing skill'!

It's only one specific role of the trinity, getting stuff that belongs to one specific OTHER role of the trinity, that is an issue. Anything else seems to be fair game.

My question, if 'casual healers won't be able to focus on keeping people alive if they have more damage skills', is 'why do tanks keep getting more damage skills then'. Not just because 'boo hoo the non-dps specs get treated differently we want equality', though that is part of it. No, what I mean is that while progressing P8S early (week 2 iirc), the DRK in one party straight up said 'im not f*** using mit during my 6min' (considering the DPS check prenerf, 100% justified take tbh), and was using Living Dead (and just Living Dead) for the tankbuster. Cue a 45k PER TICK DOT that he'd invariably die to, because not mitigating the TB = DOT is stronger. After dying despite me using Solace Spam on him, he eventually decided he'd use 'maybe a little bit of mit' or something, cos it went down to more manageable levels. But the fact he had to sac his own damage, to stay alive, means that surely tanks have hit the limit on 'how much more damage tools they can have without screwing themselves/their party over by choosing to do damage over mitigating'. And in that situation, of course 'use the mit then' is the solution, because you can't do your damage if you die to the TB. But the same logic tracks with the hypothetical casual healer: if you're not safe to do damage, then focus on healing.

So we're back to the original question: how is it that tanks are allowed to make the decision of 'ill prioritize mit over damage here', and they get to have more damage tools, despite being a doubleweave nightmare in their 2min windows, but the thought of adding another damage skill to healers has people up in arms over 'the poor casuals'? That the decision of 'ill prioritize healing and mit, over damage for this part' is too much for us poor petite princesses, and so the decision was made FOR us?

[ty_taurus]

4.X tanks: Can we get a tank that feels like a DPS and has a much busier rotation?

SE: Absolutely

5.X healers: Can we get a healer that feels like a DPS and has a much busier rotation?

SE: Absolutely not

[Aravell]

4.X tanks: Can we get a tank that feels like a DPS and has a much busier rotation?

SE: Absolutely

5.X healers: Can we get a healer that feels like a DPS and has a much busier rotation?

SE: Absolutely not

Technically, we already had a busy healer that felt like a DPS. We had 3.x SCH. But Yoshi P was under the impression that SCH is a healer that can only chad their cohealer to do maximum damage, so we got the sad state that we have right now. If only the dev team had a healer main that could've corrected their boss.

[Nizzi]

Healer gets a new damage skill WHOA HOLD ON A SECOND we can't have that, the casuals! Only way you're getting that one past TSA is by attaching a heal to it and calling it 'damage neutral healing skill'!

This made me think; when was the last time any healer got a no frills attached, only for damage, put in your rotation damage spell?

Things like Macrocosmos don't count as they're just damage neutral GCD heals, and things like Misery or Stormblood Lord /Lady don't count either as they have frills attached - there's healing associated with it, either through 'you must heal to do this spell' or 'there's RNG and it can be a heal or damage lmao' and isn't apart of your rotation.

So going on that, not a single healer has gotten a rotational damage spell since SCH in Stormblood with the reworked Miasma II, or arguably WHM in Heavensward with Aero III as that was an entirely new spell, which was 5 to 7 years ago, nearing 8 in a few months.

It's no wonder SE is so resistant to making things in line with how they once were; they fundamentally associate buttons that are solely for damage with the older design.

[Semirhage]

I say "What content do they even do where missing damage from one singular healer results in an enrage?"

Oho, I'd be careful touching that sacred cow. That's calling the rest of the party's competence into question. We all know it's always the healer's fault. Even when there's no enrage, it's still the healer's fault.

(Though to be perfectly fair, in Savage+ it's debatable. The additional damage from a 0-DPS healer trying even a little will often be a much larger gain than a DPS squeezing a little more uptime. It's a case-by-case thing).

[Payadopa]

People who screamed for bAlAnCe the loudest only have themselves to blame. Funny how the sentiment has changed over the last few years. All this damage neutral stuff and whatnot. That is exactly what happens when you balance the fun out of the game. Looking at you, Eos/Selene or AST cards/RR.

I agree with a lot of what is said here but at the same time I doubt it's happening. Look at the PvP forum to see how butt hurt people get over some numbers.

At this point SE should just introduce a trait that removes all damage aspects of every spell the second you're in a party. lol I find that scenario at least more likely then them reverting abilities back to, say, SB or whatever.

[Nizzi]

When it comes to healing, I'm not really sure that these changes are because of people screaming about high end balance, but rather I think they're based on people screaming "MY HEALER ISN'T HEALING ME AND IS ATTACKING! WTF I DIED BECAUSE NO HEALS?? FIX ITTTTTTTT" which is a persistent complaint from tank/dps players in both casual and high end content, even if it's not often times why people are dying.

This is a link to the forum post for the 5.0 job action changes, or the current design philosophy the developers have for the game. I'm linking that because I think it illustrates the point quite well, that the current healer design is not meant for high end balance (though I assume that the ease of balance because of homogenization happens to be something that quite pleases the devs) but is instead just meant because the developers do not like the idea of healers DPSing and focusing on that no matter how much the encounter design runs parallel to that.

See, for tanks they openly say "Job effectiveness will vary on player skill" which is a fair assessment and makes perfect sense, someone who is better at a job is going to be able to get more out of it than someone who isn't, right!
On top of that, the developers also said in regards to the tank role:

Generally, the role of a tank will be to provide defensive buffs to protect party members, as well as using a skill rotation optimal for the battle in order to deal damage.

So they directly mention damage when it comes to tanks, and also in the same post mention how Gunbreaker might be difficult to get used to, but it's enjoyable once you do.

For DPS, well...

The jobs that received changes to their core mechanic had elements that were difficult to control or manage, and in some cases weren’t very fun to play even at a high level.

However, we came to the conclusion that having fun was the most important aspect, and so we’ve added Greased Lightning IV this time around, as per popular request.

DPS jobs being fun at high levels and in general is the most important aspect when it comes to their design, according to the developers that it's directly mentioned as being part of DPS job design.

Now, finally for the healing role!

"Healers will be thoroughly rebalanced to emphasize a pure healing role. Offensive actions will be reviewed." Even for Scholar, which got its DPS gutted going into ShB, they had this to say:

However, its shield-based playstyle has been shifted to include more direct healing, and makes it easier for scholar to focus more on a heal-oriented playstyle. Instead of focusing on dealing damage while relying on the other healer to provide healing, both healers will be able support each other in the healing role.

Not once was mastering a healer job mentioned, mentions of a healer job being fun, enjoyable or even the difficulty of a healer job; the new design is for healers to have a "heal-oriented" playstyle and that's how SE wants it. I'm not sure who originally brought up this point - I think it was Semirhage, but regardless it's something that needs to be emphasized; the developers are all DPS/Tank players who think that their enjoyment of the game comes before yours and actively design the healer role around that. You aren't meant to have an enjoyable job or a fun one; you are meant to be a good little curebot who wipes their butts immediately and lets them be greedy if they want to.

You exist to facilitate their fun; giving you Glare/Broil/etc is just a concession so you're able to do the battle content in the game and to give you something to do when you don't have anyone to baby. Being good at mashing your 1 key over and over is the intended design; that's your intended skill ceiling and if you don't like that or think it's fun, you are genuinely meant to go play Tank/DPS, the roles that they design with the player's fun in mind. Healers are designed around making sure Tank/DPS players can have fun.

To anyone optimistic that we'll get a significant departure from this in 7.0, I genuinely hope you're right but I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you. I'm quitting the game after I clear the tier in 6.4 and TOP due to obligations to my static; after that I won't be coming back unless the job changes in 7.0 to healers have some much needed concessions and departure from this absolutely heinous design philosophy.
This game is not good enough nor fun enough to spend another 2-3 years spamming Broil, giving more time and thought to this role than the developers do on a forum that they neglect and giving feedback that they do not care about and are actively hostile or dismissive towards with comments such as "If you think healers aren't fun, go play Ultimate and suffer".

[ty_taurus]

Rather than quit the game, if healers don't change in 7.0, I'll probably just not level them anymore, not even for the role quest. I'll clog up the duty finder with more DPS. In fact, I'll put in requests to be able to clear the role quest as a DPS since healing isn't fun.

And I recommend anyone unhappy with 7.0 changes when they come around do the same. If nothing changes, then just cloud up the suggestions tab in-game with requests to clear the healer role quest as a DPS instead for a more fun and engaging experience.