A summary of healer issues

[AikenDrum]

nope, 123 is a little bit less dull

[NobleWinter]

And static 123s are no less dull than 111.

A 123 can be done incorrectly if your attention gets drawn elsewear by mechanics for instance. You can be forced to disengage from an untargetable enemy and then feel the frenzy of hoping they come back in time to complete the chain. A 123 is more visually appealing as it gives 3 seperate animations. Spamming a single button with no procs, no priority system, no guage building, no postionals, no weaving space, and no thought is definitely more dull than any 123 combo in the game currently. Even Warrior has a multipurpose combo in that it builds guage and you don't want to overcap your resources. Calling 111 equivalent to any other combo system in the game is just disingenuous. It's hands down the worse dps option of any class.

[GrimGale]

A 123 can be done incorrectly if your attention gets drawn elsewear by mechanics for instance. You can be forced to disengage from an untargetable enemy and then feel the frenzy of hoping they come back in time to complete the chain. A 123 is more visually appealing as it gives 3 seperate animations. Spamming a single button with no procs, no priority system, no guage building, no postionals, no weaving space, and no thought is definitely more dull than any 123 combo in the game currently. Even Warrior has a multipurpose combo in that it builds guage and you don't want to overcap your resources. Calling 111 equivalent to any other combo system in the game is just disingenuous. It's hands down the worse dps option of any class.

Branching combos are fine, but for example, RDM's enchanted combo has no business being 3 different buttons. You want to always use them one after another so there is no point to having three buttons for essentially a single chain.

As for animations, sure you can have different animations for each step, doesn't change the fact that mechanically it's still a dull sequence.

I do agree that 1,2,3 is still better than 1 button spam of the same spell/skill, but it's just barely above it.

[Dearche]

Branching combos are fine, but for example, RDM's enchanted combo has no business being 3 different buttons. You want to always use them one after another so there is no point to having three buttons for essentially a single chain.

As for animations, sure you can have different animations for each step, doesn't change the fact that mechanically it's still a dull sequence.

I do agree that 1,2,3 is still better than 1 button spam of the same spell/skill, but it's just barely above it.

Well, that's probably a legacy oversight at this point, since GNB made do with a single button for continuation. Then again, SE does seem to be concerned about the appearance of not having too small of a hotbar just as much as skill bloat.

[Raikai]

Branching combos are fine, but for example, RDM's enchanted combo has no business being 3 different buttons. You want to always use them one after another so there is no point to having three buttons for essentially a single chain.

As for animations, sure you can have different animations for each step, doesn't change the fact that mechanically it's still a dull sequence.

I do agree that 1,2,3 is still better than 1 button spam of the same spell/skill, but it's just barely above it.

TBH, I'd rather have condensed combos (for most of the cases) in order to free up space for new oGCDs or new tools instead of getting core stuff pruned to give space for something else.

It's just the nature of the beast. MMOs with this model of vertical growth per expansion will soon get bloated even with stuff that works, unless they stop giving new actions through new expansions.

[NobleWinter]

TBH, I'd rather have condensed combos (for most of the cases) in order to free up space for new oGCDs or new tools instead of getting core stuff pruned to give space for something else.

It's just the nature of the beast. MMOs with this model of vertical growth per expansion will soon get bloated even with stuff that works, unless they stop giving new actions through new expansions.

There are SO many skills that could be consolidated into a single button. Fey Blessing and Consolation. Aetherflow and Energy Drain. Summon Eos and Selene. And that's just Scholar. Any class with a strict 123 combo of course like RDM melee or Ninja's filler combo. There's so much opportunity for growth if they condensed it all.

[Dearche]

There are SO many skills that could be consolidated into a single button. Fey Blessing and Consolation. Aetherflow and Energy Drain. Summon Eos and Selene. And that's just Scholar. Any class with a strict 123 combo of course like RDM melee or Ninja's filler combo. There's so much opportunity for growth if they condensed it all.

I don't know about opportunity for growth.

I have a sneaking suspicion that SE feels like they have a hotbar quota and need every job to exceed it without reaching a bloat number.

The very fact that there's so many actions that are so similar but on separate CDs rather than just being one action with a shorter CD or with multiple charges (especially prevalent on healers but aren't the only ones) feels like proof of that. Its the same with how skills are spread so thinly across the whole leveling process rather than giving players a proper rotation representing the job by 50 and only getting a few here and there later on.

[Recon1o6]

While combos themselves will never be condensed like in pvp, yoshida has confirmed multiple times that wont happen which is good for many, one thing that should happen is an elimination of all these "single/aoe" versions of existing moves. On casters/healers due to their negligible auto attack, aoes that do higher damage on first target then less on the rest would be better.

Plus its lazy design that can be used for actual new actions

A smart targeting move 3+ enemies in range: use aoe would free up tons of hotbar space in every job.

There is a minimum quota for hotbars, and while some people exaggerate hotbar space problems, the main issue is redundancies that could be fixed with charges/mergers or completely useless bloat like fluid aura.


Healer hotbars are bloated with too much healing, not enough dps actions or meaningful buffs. There are also several skills that could be merged or in sch's case specifically, given back to the fairy and let her be an actual pet job.
A minimum number of buttons inc combos is neccessary to make gameplay meaningful. Too much and you can always switch hotbar. Too few you cant.

[Allegor]

Idk, I don't do EX and Savage, where they're all probably needed, but I personally never, or very rarely use Plenary Indulgence, Temperance, Cure III, or even Medica I [even Thin Air is niche ish, and Fluid Aura doesn't count because it's not even niche, it's straight up worthless] and WHM already has like, what, 4 less actions than SCH or AST?

[Truen]

nope, 123 is a little bit less dull

1,2,3
1,2-4
1,2-5

Things like that are even better; there's no reason why we shouldn't have function, fun options for dps when we're not healing.