A summary of healer issues

[Garnix]

This has been my thoughts lately… like do I just not understand the meaning of a casual player the same as others or what? To me, as someone who considers themself as a casual, casual just meant you did casual content ( story, house, side mini games, relic, craft, gather, etc). No where in my thoughts did I think it meant for things to get so simplified to where I mainly press one button. Even when thinking about all the other MMORPG I played in the past that had about 6-10 skills we managed, their gameplay was never this level of simple. The encounter we had in those games made up for it as we advance through levels, gear and what not. Healers never felt like I was spamming only one button for half a fight. We were always using almost out entire kit no matter what…

So what am I missing here on what they are trying to achieve? None of the interviews have been helping me understand the goal… in one of them he even said he didn’t want healers to do constant healing..but only want to increase that a little so not stress people out… I’m really at a lost ..

I think that on top of the hardcore vs casual issue, there is also a difference between "casual experienced players" and "casual players who are just playing a tiny little bit without any desire to become good".
And this is why the dev team has no clue how to tackle the healing issue without having it balanced too much on one side or the other...
You see all those casual tanks who never pop a defensive cooldown? Those can play healers, and you still need to be able to clear content with them. lol
But even in that case, I don't see how that hurts to add a couple DPS buttons here and there...They just wouldn't press them...

[AikenDrum]

I don't see how that hurts to add a couple DPS buttons here and there...They just wouldn't press them...

Well yoshi said why? It's not about what casual players could and couldn't press, it's about what they would feel pressured to press. Absolutely can't have that!

[HappyHubris]

I really, really want to love FFXIV healing. WHM really brings that fantasy archetype to life: the animations, spells, outfits, everything. I want to stride in wearing white robes and save my party from peril. It looks and feels so good to use my kit...

But nope, instead I'm spamming glare over and over and over, even when I beg groups to let me solo heal 8-man content. Incoming damage is choreographed and often completely avoided by people staying out of the fire. Incoming tank hits are minimal outside of a few scripted abilities. Party damage is completely blown away by my many massive AoE buttons and mitigation cooldowns.

I have faint memories from other MMOs about doing things like cast-cancelling big heals to keep ahead of huge tank spikes, blowing my mitigation cooldowns to keep tanks alive, and rationing mana just to survive encounters. But those are just faded impressions. Now I keep the dance going and glare glare glare glare glare glare dia glare glare glare...

I've been bouncing back and forth between BRD and WHM on the same content and it's night and day how much more DPS keeps me on my toes. With BRD, the skill ceiling is high to optimize my DPS during the dance, and I can always pick out moments where I could do a bit better next time. On WHM? Unless I literally die in the fire I'm just doing maintenance on my party.

As much as I want to be a healer, I'm likely going to hang up my hood and cane for Endwalker, as I want to be active more than I want to be immersed in my class.

[Deceptus]

Out of curiosity, how is everyone feeling about some of the extra healing the tanks are getting? I'm not sure how I feel about it, personally. My initial reaction though is... why need healers?

To me it just shows the developers have no idea what they're doing with jobs because Tanks used to have good healing (Steel Cyclone, Abyssal Drain). Then it got removed in ShadowBringers, only for it to come back in Endwalker.

It's like they don't understand that people have memories and can remember this stuff and speak up.

[Garnix]

Well yoshi said why? It's not about what casual players could and couldn't press, it's about what they would feel pressured to press. Absolutely can't have that!

But why would they feel pressured to press it is my question?
As I said, bad tanks who do not use their cooldowns have the cooldowns on their bar, but they still don't seem to "feel pressured to press them".
Not to mention that we have a counter example with Energy Drain, which is not an MP regeneration tool and is probably the least "casual friendly" ability, as you basically sacrifice your healing to deal damage.
So, if Energy Drain can be a thing in that form, why not more?....

[Hanayumi]

For the most part think healers are alright, there is at least a sence of variety with them, not as overly homogenized as tanks are, Whm pure healer, Ast atk buff support, Sch def buff support, and Sge dps healer. It still blows my mind that player subject themselves to just 1 job, but that just my opinion... Anyway from various interviews with Yoshi P it would seem like they are planning to continue the increase in healing mechanics, might just be why tanks got a whole lot if self healing?

[currentlemon]

snip

I'm dropping WHM as well. It was the first job that I levelled to max level back in Stormblood and I thought I could handle the 5.0 changes when Shadowbringers came out. But it got boring eventually. Hanging up my cane for 6.0, but I will not drop healing. I will still give AST and SGE a try.

[Absurdity]

It's like they don't understand that people have memories and can remember this stuff and speak up.

Maybe they just secretly hoped for everyone with a functioning memory to have left the game at this point lol.

For the most part think healers are alright, there is at least a sence of variety with them, not as overly homogenized as tanks are, Whm pure healer, Ast atk buff support, Sch def buff support, and Sge dps healer. It still blows my mind that player subject themselves to just 1 job, but that just my opinion... Anyway from various interviews with Yoshi P it would seem like they are planning to continue the increase in healing mechanics, might just be why tanks got a whole lot if self healing?

I don't know in what world you're living where the actual healer gameplay has any variety between those jobs, but it sure as hell ain't the one I'm living in.

[AngeliouxRein]

I think that on top of the hardcore vs casual issue, there is also a difference between "casual experienced players" and "casual players who are just playing a tiny little bit without any desire to become good".
And this is why the dev team has no clue how to tackle the healing issue without having it balanced too much on one side or the other...
You see all those casual tanks who never pop a defensive cooldown? Those can play healers, and you still need to be able to clear content with them. lol
But even in that case, I don't see how that hurts to add a couple DPS buttons here and there...They just wouldn't press them...

Yeah, this is pretty much the circle I keep going into when I try to process their logic. No matter how they phrase it, the players it seems like they’re trying to be accessible to are the ones where the skill floor would have to be lowered to some place deep in hell…

Sigh…

The only thing I can hope for at this point is that AST and SGE is as busy as everyone is claiming to be. Of course, I have to keep in mind that everyone was playing goofy since they didn’t have their usual setup and SGE is brand new but from the vids it did look like people were doing a whole lot on SGE to function… or just struggling due to lack of time to really get the hang of it..

[Recon1o6]

Yeah, this is pretty much the circle I keep going into when I try to process their logic. No matter how they phrase it, the players it seems like they’re trying to be accessible to are the ones where the skill floor would have to be lowered to some place deep in hell…

Sigh…

The only thing I can hope for at this point is that AST and SGE is as busy as everyone is claiming to be. Of course, I have to keep in mind that everyone was playing goofy since they didn’t have their usual setup and SGE is brand new but from the vids it did look like people were doing a whole lot on SGE to function… or just struggling due to lack of time to really get the hang of it..

Actually I got some bad news. The majority of Sage gameplay was done by journalists, the ign one comes to mind where i saw some level 15 sastacha mistakes (no tank stance, not doing damage, aoe healing ot heal a single target etc) I quit that video as soon as i realised it.
there is some actual decent sage gameplay about and its currently a 1 button dps because its just not worth the gcd to get an Addersting past prepull as it stands. If they buffed the potency of that move to at least 2.5x or even added an ability that converts a addersgall into an addersting then it would get better. The former since it would actually be worth using a gcd heal which is a step in the best direction for healers. The latter would be a bit of extra movement you gain at a pull or repull when the boss leaves for a bit