A summary of healer issues

[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.

[ForsakenRoe]

Gotta also make sure to, if given the opportunity to ask a question at a live Q+A eg fanfest or PAX, to swap your 'prescreened' softball question about 'will we ever get to see Emet's house in Amaurot' or whatever, to something as PR-damaging as the infamous 'is this an out of season April Fools joke' from the Diablo Immortal announcement. They'd start paying attention pretty damn fast if the situation was making them look bad to investors. I'd have done it myself but I got filtered by lottery (ultimate)

Maybe I should go back to being a tank main too, we should ditch the role and SE can watch the clear rates of Savage plummet as all the 'fed up skilled players' leave and all that's left are the people who couldn't hack it when Abyssos showed up with it's heightened HPS (but actually mainly mit) requirements

[ty_taurus]

Something that could be interesting as well would be getting a discord server going of healers in favor of DPS and setting up events where everyone mass queues as DPS for the same roulette over and over, clogging up the roulettes. You’d need a lot of people to make that happen though.

[ForsakenRoe]

Something that could be interesting as well would be getting a discord server going of healers in favor of DPS and setting up events where everyone mass queues as DPS for the same roulette over and over, clogging up the roulettes. You’d need a lot of people to make that happen though.

That already seems to happen, it's called 'daily reset'

[VentVanitas]

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.

I already didn't level my healers to begin with in EW, they're only at 90 now because of PvP xp. I am 100% not touching them if 7.0's job design philosophy is the same.

[Payadopa]

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.

Oh yeah, I'm not saying it's the only reason, but also a contributor. I know these forums don't like if you say that. lol You're supposed to only go against the devs who clearly don't understand their own game. I'd say the truth lies somewhere in-between.

I certainly remember number-minded players saying that if you don't fish for balance you're doing it wrong. Or that if you use the 'wrong' fairy you're trolling or whatever. Full disclosure, I'm raiding myself, so that's essentially my crowd. lol And guess what? Cards were all turned into balance and both fairies are the same now. It doesn't take rocket science to see where this idea came from. But, just to reiterate, I do agree with a lot of what's being said here. Like healers being the ones who are there so others can have fun (in low level content. As an AST main I enjoy savage).

For what it's worth I was pleasantly surprised by the healing requirements for Barbs ex. So there is that.

[ty_taurus]

Oh yeah, I'm not saying it's the only reason, but also a contributor. I know these forums don't like if you say that. lol You're supposed to only go against the devs who clearly don't understand their own game. I'd say the truth lies somewhere in-between.

I certainly remember number-minded players saying that if you don't fish for balance you're doing it wrong. Or that if you use the 'wrong' fairy you're trolling or whatever. Full disclosure, I'm raiding myself, so that's essentially my crowd. lol And guess what? Cards were all turned into balance and both fairies are the same now. It doesn't take rocket science to see where this idea came from. But, just to reiterate, I do agree with a lot of what's being said here. Like healers being the ones who are there so others can have fun (in low level content. As an AST main I enjoy savage).

For what it's worth I was pleasantly surprised by the healing requirements for Barbs ex. So there is that.

Trying to police player behavior by stripping away job mechanics so that it’s impossible for anyone to complain about your performance will kill this game if it continues. It fails to address the reality that some gamers will always be gamers, and only serves to punish everyone else.

[Aravell]

I certainly remember number-minded players saying that if you don't fish for balance you're doing it wrong. Or that if you use the 'wrong' fairy you're trolling or whatever. Full disclosure, I'm raiding myself, so that's essentially my crowd. lol And guess what? Cards were all turned into balance and both fairies are the same now. It doesn't take rocket science to see where this idea came from.

If you look back at that time, I can guarantee that almost every complaint about not getting The Balance and the SCH not using Selene all came from DPS mains. The rdps metric didn't exist back then, so the only way to get the funny number on the funny number site is for an AST to feed you The Balance. I personally remember a lot of DPS mains whining about not getting The Balance, but I most certainly have never seen any AST main worth their salt complain about the cards.

This shows that the card changes aligns with their aim of making sure the DPS players have as much fun as possible, regardless of what this does to the healer role.