A summary of healer issues

[AnotherPerson]

Yeah, the attack would technically be coming from you but it would be triggered by other players.
...

This is all speculation, but I do believe there may be a couple of instances where cutscenes and timing of the effect can cause the effects fall off assuming the timing is ~15 seconds. The current one that pops into my mind is Eden's Verse: Refulgence and its savage-tier counterpart. Funnily enough, the timing of the remaining buff timer and Time Dilation may be too spread apart if it can't be used again right before and after cutscene. These instances should be few and far in between though... I think?

That sounds like an interesting concept. Relativity of a time - essentially a multi-layered compressed barrier effect reduces/changes the speed at which an attack lands, breaking it into multiple chunks before it goes through the "barrier" and reaches you. It's basically extreme time dilation within the isolated barrier happening at different levels it acts as if it's slowed down when it hits us. That, or the barrier acts using a gravitational time dilation effect.

By slowing down the damage in the form of a DoT, how will that transition when multiple hits increase? Assuming there is a skill or status effect that mitigates incoming damage but spread it out over a DoT - Will the DoT just get stronger, will it lengthen, will all the incoming damage be transferred over the remaining duration of the skill's time period, or will it create a separate DoT per attack? There is a possibility that a DoT tick being too strong due to an Akh Morn-type of attack will inevitably kill a character from accumulating too much damage if DoT just gets stronger in the period it was used, so depending on the type of burst - long duration burst periods could also be too much (though this should be highly unlikely). There is also the possibility that too much mitigation meant the need for 2 healers in a raid doesn't feel needed. Mitigating a certain amount of damage based on healer's potency itself per tick could be a solution, like GCD buff damage but on the enemy's damage instead. Can't say if it would actually work in practice or if it will be too powerful though.

The bigger question is - how will Nocturnal Sect work in relative response to this? Shields are naturally more inefficient than healing regen. The duration increase on a shield doesn't refresh the power of a shield either. I don't think the idea of shields will be removed entirely because of how the AST's SB storyline goes, but mitigation with the current AST's Nocturnal sect doesn't seem to work well once you take into account of the effects of DoTs on a Nocturnal sect shield. The eHP aspect of the shield will be whittled away by continuous DoTs first. As a result, this time delay will make Diurnal sect always more beneficial due to regens.

[ty_taurus]

This is all speculation, but I do believe there may be a couple of instances where cutscenes and timing of the effect can cause the effects fall off assuming the timing is ~15 seconds...

If we're talking about long cinematics, you'll likely have your Draw off cooldown, so you can just reapply a defensive buff as soon as you regain control. The whole Time Dilation concept is there so that you aren't restricted from using your DPS buff/heals for 15 seconds after any given card falls off since Draw is a 30 second CD.

The slowed DPS barrier idea was kind of a sudden thought to address the issue you brought up. Honestly, Id want to just toss in the effect as-is to the private server and just experiment with how it impacts various attacks and circumstances. I imagine each instance of damage would be converted to a different 9 second DoT. Perhaps the effect itself is even shorter, say 5 seconds or so, that way you're not accumulating a laundry list of DoTs. I imagine though that as long as you could survive the initial attack without the barrier, you should be able to survive the entire DoT even without healing. it's only when you're mitigating attacks that would otherwise be lethal that you need that additional healing, not that you wouldn't set up regens and/or barriers anyway.

[FoxCh40s]

Exceptional write up, but guess what, SE isnt going to f***ing respond. They dont respond to Monks, Dark Knights, or Bards; they DEFINITELY wont respond to us.

Anyone remember the original ShB livestream? They spent 2 hours talking about Dps, like 30 minutes on Tanks, and a SINGLE SLIDE on Healers, and at the bottom it said "Healers damage skills are being reconsidered" they legit SKIPPED IT. When the stream called them out on it, they said "Uh we had difficulties with that slide, so we moved on, we didnt skip it." But then never returned to the topic of conversation, and f***ing haven't since.

Any questions that have been asked for Live Letters have been flat out ignored or completely dismissed, and when they feel like answering it, it was "Sucks for you, moving on?"

If 6.0 comes and it's more of the same, it's going to completely DESTROY the healing community, and people will legit leave the game over it and stop playing. Theyve artificially changed the "In Need" to Tanks so they cant be seen having our point proven. Even when it says Tank in Need, you sit and wait for 5 to 10 minutes, Healer - INSTANT QUE. It's obvious they dont care, and have no intention of saying anything, Yoshi P will be stepping down after ShB, so it's not his problem anymore, out of sight out of mind.

[Recon1o6]

I added a 10th to the summary: why the pure healer concept needs to be scrapped


also, thoughts, should I put this on the general discussion?

[Side-Eye]

Theyve artificially changed the "In Need" to Tanks so they cant be seen having our point proven. Even when it says Tank in Need, you sit and wait for 5 to 10 minutes, Healer - INSTANT QUE. It's obvious they dont care, and have no intention of saying anything, Yoshi P will be stepping down after ShB, so it's not his problem anymore, out of sight out of mind.

We're not supposed to notice the queue "irregularities"

But yeah, I haven't had to wait more than 3 seconds queuing as a healer, even though a vast majority of the time, 'tank' is the role-in-need. (And honestly if it wasn't for sometimes simply wanting to play without waiting, I probably wouldn't load healer at all. DPS classes are way more enjoyable in the game's current state.)

[Crushnight]

I added a 10th to the summary: why the pure healer concept needs to be scrapped


also, thoughts, should I put this on the general discussion?

Can do doesn't hurt but just know that by putting in general discussion anyone could join in discussion rather than people who are more likely to be invested in healers especially long term, it's a toss up if will get noticed as much too and if mods would just move it here anyway but more eyes/awareness can be very beneficial.

[Morningstar1337]

I'm gonna play devil's advocate a bit (I prefer if Healers have their DPS tools back, or at least AST and WHM) and suggest how SE could push the Pure Healer angle. the first step is for trash to use the same cheap tactics they placed on the bosses. Vuln stacks, Spicy DoTs, Raidwide HP to one mechanics, Doom, etc. All on trash mobs and a on a more frequent basis for Boss fights.

I bring this up because I feel like the game isn't...committed to the pure healer angle or the green DPS angle, resulting in an apparent majority of healers being being unhappy overall. Very much a cast where attempting to please everybody pleases nobody. And that it was the combination of fights being too easy combined with the removal of DPS skills that lead to the current problems and thus fixing one fixes the whole thing. This is one of those cases where the cake cannot be had and eaten too.

EDIT: Personal preference aside, granting back DPS tools would be the path of least resistance as there are systemic obstacles not just in this game but the entire genre that makes the pure healing angle unviable, as OP points out. And making changes to fit that angle would necessitate retcons to the lore, changes to all the quests involving combat and a way to gain EXP from the overwolrd mobs without killing them, lest it's be BLU all over again, but the changes made to the group content would at least allow something closer to what the original intention was (healer DPS limited to the skilled at best).

[Rasikko]

The only problem I have now, is healers who dont heal at all.

[FoxCh40s]

The only problem I have now, is healers who dont heal at all.

Or have absolutely ZERO clue how to use all of their kit, and will stand there and do nothing but cast Cure II and run out of mp.

[elioaiko]

Or have absolutely ZERO clue how to use all of their kit, and will stand there and do nothing but cast Cure II and run out of mp.

Exactly this. I literally hate players that wanna stand there and do nothing. Such a waste of time and effort. Healing damage in any content in this game will never be a full time job just due to SE too scared to make things harder for the casual crowd and of course the design.

Honestly I'd rather a co-healer that forced me to do more healing than DPS. It at the very least made things less monotonous. Irks me so much when lazy co-healer just spams healing on top of my GCDs.