A summary of healer issues

[Recon1o6]

Yeah, it could be there for the loss of the old Cards. Could chuck WHM on the EW door a second time as well since the devs apparently forgot the Job existed at the start of the expac, BRD on the ShB door for when it's support kit got gutted going into ShB, MCH could probably go on every door, SMN for the rework that made the Job braindead. Wouldn't be able to see the damn doors if I chucked everything that's happened over the years on there so I opted to keep things simple.

Heres one I made just for Ast that I posted in the Ast adjustments thread

[Lyth]

Thanks. Though I admit I'm a bit unsure whether to put it in a new thread or not. On one hand new upvotes, on the other there's a not insignificant chance it won't get as much traction due to the massive volume of healer problems atm and given how many healers quit in EW

I think that your reworked post absolutely deserves a new thread. The real question is when to do it.

Have a think about what changes can be practically resolved in the short term (i.e. in a major patch) vs. what can be resolved in the longer term (i.e. next expansion). Perhaps put your ideas out at /r/ffxivdiscussion and ask for feedback before you formulate the final version - I don't think I've seen a solid discussion on healer direction in the past few months at least. Ideally, a thread like this needs to build momentum during the lead in to a Q+A Live Letter, because then the issue becomes very topical. If you're considering taking a break, then perhaps liase with one of the regulars here to see if they can spearhead it. But I do think it's a worthwhile cause.

[Recon1o6]

I think that your reworked post absolutely deserves a new thread. The real question is when to do it.

Have a think about what changes can be practically resolved in the short term (i.e. in a major patch) vs. what can be resolved in the longer term (i.e. next expansion). Perhaps put your ideas out at /r/ffxivdiscussion and ask for feedback before you formulate the final version - I don't think I've seen a solid discussion on healer direction in the past few months at least. Ideally, a thread like this needs to build momentum during the lead in to a Q+A Live Letter, because then the issue becomes very topical. If you're considering taking a break, then perhaps liase with one of the regulars here to see if they can spearhead it. But I do think it's a worthwhile cause.

My sub and as far as im aware my allowance for using this forum ends in 2 days.

I might be cynical but I really don't see much point sticking it on reddit tbh since they downvote any criticism to oblivion. I posted my original question from the q&a there and it was downvoted to bits

Anyone else is welcome to do so however if they think they can get btter luck

[currentlemon]

I never touched AST. Not when I first started in Stormblood, and I didn't touch it in Shadowbringers either. When I first started in 4.01, I played WHM and SCH. Got both to level 50 and enjoyed both to an extent, but I ended up playing WHM throughout the MSQ. Dropped WHM in 6.0 because it received no major changes. Haven't touched SCH since 4.01 because they removed everything that I liked about the job in 5.0. I played Sage, but the job is "meh" to me. It's playstyle so mediocre. If there were more ways to generate Addersting, I would've played it more.

AST is the only one left now.

[Raiya]

My own honest opinion is that the changes they made to the healers in Shadowbringers was a massive mistake. I never liked one bit how they gutted alot of DPS abilities from the healing jobs and essentially turned them into a 3 button DPS with 1 single target 1 aoe and 1 dot ability.

This was a major mistake. It's dumbed down the jobs and made them less engaging to the point we have Glare Mage as a meme as well as SCH ending up with the "look at what they did to my boy" too. It's also been acknowledged and said that Jobs at lower levels are lacking because so many abilities from ARR have been removed due to them being obsolete and it's made lower level play less entertaining.

The simple truth is that healing in the game isn't fun. It's boring and lacklustre. If anything the best way to approach healer's is to make it fun to both heal and dps at the same time. It let's people enjoy the Role but doesn't leave it stagnant and disinteresting. They made Tanking a bit more enjoyable in Shadowbringers though this was at the cost to healers. The best strategy I can recommend is to approach Tanks as Vanguard combatants who counter damage while retaliating, Melee DPS who obviosly excel at destroying opponents, Ranged DPS who bombard their enemies and Healers who should bombard their enemies while healing their allies. This Pure Healer stuff just doesn't suit the games design outside a small niche.

Changes I can recommend for the jobs based on my own experience.

For WHM there need's to be a rebalancing to have more of a mirror to it's BLM counterpart in terms of Role.

Give WHM Water at lvl15 (Potency 100 1.54 cast time) and give it an AoE effect similar to Gravity. Have it Upgrade to Water II at lvl45 (120 potency) and Water III (140 potency) at lvl60 before becoming Glare II (160 Potency) at lvl78. This give CNJ/WHM a castable water spell at lower levels, fits thematically with the job and adds the castable water element that's been missing from players spells from Day 1 that only Y'shtola has now.

Return Aero III. Have it function in the same way as Thunder Does on BLM and have it Upgrade to Dia III at lvl78. It made no sense to remove this and making the dot single target is cumbersome and annoying.

Change Holy from a spammable aoe to a High Damage AoE spell (800 potency) with a 30 second cooldown. This also solves the issue of WHM making mobs stunlock immune. Holy 3 adds an extra 200 Potency.

Remove Freecure and replace it with Tetragrammation at lvl32. Have Cure upgrade directly to Cure II. This frees up a button.

Additionally have Medica just strait upgrade to Medica II at lvl50 and increase it's potency to 400. This removes another Button.

Bring back Stoneskin at lvl24 with 10% Damage Reduction. Have this upgrade to Divine Benison at lvl66 adding in the 500 potency shield and add an extra charge then have this upgrade to Aquaveil with yet another charge. This reduces 3 buttons to one.

Change Lilybell to be a strait upgrade for Asylum and have it's duration match asylums. This free's up another button.

Give WHM Break and make it an AoE with a dot effect that weighs down opponents.

Make Afflatus Misery OCD with a 30 second CD (This makes no major change to it it just means it's not on the GCD anymore).

Additionally Give WHM back Eye for an Eye at lvl26 and change it to reflect 5% of damage received. Upgrade this to Reflect at lvl66 with 10% damage reflected.


For SCH there needs to be a return to the poison mage theme that was so much more popular with players of the job pre Shadowbringers not to mention SCH has only 4 DPS buttons and needs more variety.

In terms of functionality the Fairy Gauge should entirely replace Aetherflow at lvl30 and be the basis of the job entirely charging by 10 everytime the fairy uses her heal as well as with certain scholar abilities.

In addition change the fairy so that it upgrades as well, Eos stats at lvl1. Changes to Selene at lvl40 with higher potency cure and hot. Upgrades to Seraph at lvl80.

Remove Ruin 2 and Aetherflow. Have Energy Drain on a 20 recharge timer with 3 Charges that restores 700MP with each use as well as increase the fairy gauge by 20. Increase it's potency to 220.

Have the fairy gauge start at lvl30 and charge by 10 everytime Selene or Eos Casts her healing spell.

Have Physic Strait up upgrade to Lustrate at lvl30 keep the heal potency and instant cast but change it to GCD ability with 400mp cost that generates fairy gauge. Lower Adloquium's MP cost to 600.

Have SCH learn Broil at lvl30.

Return Shadow Flare as well.

Add a diseased effect to Art of War that slows mobs attack and movement speed but is separate from slow.

Return Miasma and Miasma III to SCH to act as their 2nd DoT.
Return Bio III and give it to SCH.
Change Recitation to make the next dot spell an AoE. Changes Miasma to Miasma II, Bio II instead of being an upgrade of Bio becomes an AoE Bio. At lvl72 Biolysis replaces Bio II as the AoE and Biolytic's replaces Miasma II.
Both of these abilities funtion like Thunder mechanically on BLM.
Move the critical HP restoration effect from Recitation over to Excogitation.

Remove Dissipation it's an ability that works against the job as well as being redundant without aetherflow. Instead have deployment tactics gain the 20% Healing recovery while doubling shield strength for 15 seconds while also charging the fairy gauge to full.

As for AST I'm going to hold off on recommendations on this for the time being since it's been announced that the job is getting a rework with 6.2. That being said if there's once change that needs to be done it's make all the cards AoE by default.

Also return the heavy effect to Gravity and Gravity II.

[Mesarthim]

Ever since Shadowbringers I cannot on the life of me bring myself to want to touch AST beyond the bare minimum now (leveling it). Even as of 6.2 they've confirmed they still can't stop messing with it (albeit it still needs fixes, of SE's own fault).

My main healer is Sage now though it's not like it's perfect, I just have less complaints about it compared to the other ones. Back in Shadowbringers during a brief static with a friend I even showed reluctance to heal for it, so I didn't. Strange since I was more than happy to heal for a savage tier (though in Stormblood the only tier I did was delta). Healing has basically become a dungeon grinding job for me for fast queue times for tomes, when in the past it was more than that to me.

[glamazon]

They need to hire a dedicated healer dev and fix all of them so we aren’t spamming one freaking button how hard is that? How can they think that’s fun? Makes no sense still.

[Lyth]

The updated OP from a few days ago is extremely well written and a significant improvement. I wish that it was presented in a fresh thread, such that the new upvotes would get the revision translated. As it stands it's easily missed.

[QooEr]

The updated OP from a few days ago is extremely well written and a significant improvement. I wish that it was presented in a fresh thread, such that the new upvotes would get the revision translated. As it stands it's easily missed.

i think so too

[GrimGale]

Just wanted to add something to the pile, it's just a copy paste of another post.

Currently, it is very hard to feel the impact of damage buffs/debuffs. Unless you have damage tracking software, the support abilities healers use provide very little feedback. What I mean is, in terms of feel, the game doesn't change much for an AST that has just used Astrodyne or Divination, or a SCH that has just used their Chain Stratagem on an enemy. The boss will still jiggle in the same way when its hit under Chain Stratagem, or the DPS will still look like they are just hitting things normally under a card.

It's very frustrating to see those supposedly signature abilities that have flashy animations only ring for a moment and then dissapear into numerical buffs that have a barely visually perceptible effect, beyond bigger damage numbers. To be clear I am not advocating for augmenting the potency of those buffs, just for their visuals to feel impactful.

For example, imagine if under Presence of Mind or Astrodyne, your Glare/Malefic spells had their animations changed or augmented with a screenshake and some additional particles, making them "feel" empowered. Imagine if the bosses flinched much more severely (Or grunted in pain) everytime anybody landed a critical strike under Chain Stratagem. Image the AST cards creating an elemental glow on the character weapons, adding some elemental particles to their attacks when under their effect.

The idea is to make support/utility abilities "feel" like they have an impact, rather than leave healers feeling hollow everytime they support their party with buffs.