A summary of healer issues

[Renathras]

I guess I just don't get the desire in general for continued evolution of damage dealing on a non-damage dealing class, especially since I liked the DPS Jobs before they had their "evolutions", most of them I honestly prefer the old versions of them, which had a lot less "just here for the sake of it" type stuff, so I don't see those as positives. For example, I liked NIN better before Ninki, which seems to be a gauge there just to introduce something else to juggle for no reason other than to just have something else to juggle. (Like, seriously, instead of that, just make Ninjutsu 15 sec CD and the Job would be better, numbers adjusted for the change in burst aside, and for the life of me, I'm not sure who thought they needed a stinger attack on Raiju but that had to be used before any other ability or weaponskills...like...WHY??)

Part of it definitely comes down to player preference, and I don't just mean in "simple vs complex", but also type of rotation. People like pointing to Melee, which is why I started a thread about rotations that no one seems interested in touching, so I'll just talk about it here instead, I guess. /shrug Melee all have different formats of rotation (though all based on the core "combo" system, with MNK being the one to most stretch it). Within this framework, there are five variations, each with a different level of rigidity. DRG is extremely rigid, for example, while the opposite end of the spectrum is...I dunno, RPR maybe? RPR has this weird "rigid but/or flexible" thing going. I don't think any of the Melee have a proc system, though, unless RPR does (since I haven't touched it). The rest aren't all rigid, but they're planned. Like abilities give the exact same amount of gauge ever time, etc. It's like how PLD technically has a "proc" after Royal Authority combos (two, in fact), but they happen with 100% certainty every time (empowering a damage spell cast and granting three stacks of Atonement), so there's no randomness.

To wit, some people like randomness. DNC, for example, as you said before, I'd hate, but people like you love because it requires constant adjustment. That's not really a matter of complexity as much as it is some people prefer rote and others...well, not. I actually am kinda in the middle in the sense that I like having a baseline pattern, but one that is flexible and allows moving around pieces of it. It's why I like post-6.3 PLD and why I like SMN. It's not the "braindead", it's that both have a "set" rotation, but the pieces of the rotation can be moved around. PLD vs GNB is a good example of this, since GNB is on a rigid schedule with a set rotation within that schedule vs PLD which has a set rotation, but where you put your Holy Spirits is kind of up to you and can be anywhere from the GCD after Royal to after the 1st Atonement, the 2nd, the 3rd, the next Fast Blade or the next Riot Blade. Even the burst phase is "Use Goring, Confetior combo, and then '3 other GCDs, 1 of which should be an empowered Holy Spirit'". The "optimal" rotation is to use FoF/Req whenever they come up, no matter where in the combo you are, and just roll with it. While the rotation is static, it has pieces that can be moved around within that static framework. But unlike something with random procs to it, the rotation itself is always the same. Contrast if the buffed Holy Spirit proc had a 25% chance from procing off of any of the Riot Blade + Atonement 6 GCD strikes, such that you'd get random uses of it. I wouldn't care much for that, but some people might. WAR is vaguely like that (just barely) in the sense of the Beast Gauge spenders knocking some off the Infuriate CD. While that's still pretty set, the it does change when Infuriate comes up, making a slightly moving target. (Best example I could think of since the Tanks don't really...have...a proc based representative.)

I don't think Casters actually have a GNB/DRG representative of rigid rotation, since BLM has procs to react to, RDM does as well, and SMN is like PLD with a set overall rotation whose pieces can be moved around.

This is probably also part of why I dislike DoTs in general - as they CAN'T be moved around, they're either up or they're down, and you refresh them on their duration, not before outside of situational circumstances - and even when they are tied into the Job, it's generally just to make it into a proc system - which I dislike even more.

The only time I don't mind them is when they're things like Sonic Break or Circle of Scorn, where I just treat them as a damage ability with a CD instead since...that's how they're used anyway. Like I wouldn't mind WHM having an 18 and 24 sec DOT if the way they worked were having 18 and 24 sec CDs as well. Then I'd just treat them like pseudo-Plegma/Assize type abilities and be done with them, which isn't great, but is at least not as annoying as the current system with the game's UI that makes seeing when they fell off completely obnoxious.

I don't find "the shorter DoT timers and being required to manage them" engaging. I find it tedious and annoying.

[ty_taurus]

Well it's more just most people want to see each job look stronger, to feel like they've "leveled up" since you are quite literally leveling up another 10 levels with each expansion, and to also add something new to each job's gameplay. That's one of the dilemmas of a live service game--each major update kind of asks you to reinvent the wheel because if you don't, you'll run the risk of people losing interest over time. And to be fair, they have been doing that with healing and support actions, but there's a problem with that because they have never scaled up the content to match these new healing and support tools. Our healing libraries largely feel bloated and excessive because there's rarely a reason to use half the stuff we have these days. Extreme and Savage might push us to using more or all of those cooldowns, but many of those could just be supplemented with GCD healing if we didn't have those extra cooldowns.

And it's not that there needs to be another layer of complexity added every expansion, but things that can seek to smoothen out different aspects. For example, maybe you change Afflatus Misery from 1 button that's 1240 buttons to, with regards to Glare III being 310 Potency, 2 spells that are 775 potency each, or even 3 spells at 620 potency each, with each spell being on the same button similar to RDM's Verflare/Verholy, Scortch, and Resolution. Something like that would make your blood lilies feel more exciting for some, but functionally could make crit variance less polarizing.

[Shurrikhan]

I don't find "the shorter DoT timers and being required to manage them" engaging. I find it tedious and annoying.

Okay. Again. Would you still feel this way if they were simple (soft) CDs, with the available frequency of (unpenalized) applications shown on your hotbar?

...Because that can be done, just fine. Plugins have done it for ~5 years now.

(Which would then leave only the issue of whether you despise rotating in actions other than your filler attack.)

To wit, some people like randomness.

Yet, there is a huge difference between "Hit the flashing thing," which can feel rote, and "Find the way of meeting the present, shifted context that best sets up the upcoming, more known circumstance," which tends to actually feel adaptive.

[ForsakenRoe]

Okay. Again. Would you still feel this way if they were simple (soft) CDs, with the available frequency of (unpenalized) applications shown on your hotbar?

If you have two skills, one a 15s DOT that is on the GCD (50p per tick, total 250), and one a 15s CD GCD that is 250p, the function is pretty similar in a training dummy scenario. They're both 'use once every 15s for 250p. But the DOT comes with additional nuances. You can use it on multiple enemies at once with multidotting (assuming your AOE skill doesn't dwarf it at certain target counts), you can purposely clip it if you need to for...whatever reason (eg if it has on-cast damage like Dia and you're needing to move), and you can make the call to not refresh it, if it's duration won't fully tick. As an example, in P12S doorboss, there's a point just before limit cut where the DOT falls off. I don't know if it's worth refreshing it there or not because the boss jumps before it resolves, but I've not looked close enough to see how many ticks I'd get out of it (and whether that beats another Glare). Dia being a standard 30s CD GCD ala Goring/Sonic would not have that option, it'd just be 715 potency burst and the question answers itself instantly

I think because of this, the issue to solve, that of 'DOTs are annoying to manage', should not have been addressed with 'convert some to burst hits, and consolidate others so there's only one DOT per class left'. Rather, improving the UI that allows you to track DOTs, would probably have been better. Like if you could see 'only your DOTs' on the enemy frames, emnity list, whatever it's called. Hang on, it's Paint time again:


Being as we're mostly asking for 3 DOTs as a maximum for healer redesigns (mostly), this means that the number of icons shown on the list would be, at maximum, those 3 DOT icons. Other player debuffs (Trick, Mug, ally DOTs) or your own effects that are not DOTs (Chain Strat for example) would also not be shown

oh edit: in case it's not clear, this is two examples in one picture. If you're a SCH, the WHM Dia would not be visible to you. Instead you'd see the Bio/Miasma/SF icons (if they're present) on both targets, similarly as a WHM you wouldn't see the SCH stuff, just whether or not each enemy has Dia on them.

[vetch]

All of this is very anecdotal, but my point is that there are other driving forces to why someone would level a job other than because they enjoy playing as that job, more now than there was during Stormblood.

Global pandemic lockdown.

[ty_taurus]

You know, something occurred to me earlier that I’d be very interested to know the answer for. I really wonder what the healer population would look like if FFXIV did not feature the ability to change jobs and you were locked into your choice. That would completely eliminate non-healer mains from ever filling that role, and likely would’ve forced out former healer mains that swapped to DPS or tanks.

[Shurrikhan]

You know, something occurred to me earlier that I’d be very interested to know the answer for. I really wonder what the healer population would look like if FFXIV did not feature the ability to change jobs and you were locked into your choice. That would completely eliminate non-healer mains from ever filling that role, and likely would’ve forced out former healer mains that swapped to DPS or tanks.

I'd guess that the number of healer parses and standard composition parses would drop significantly but not to the point of a crises, while the portions of each healer job relative to each other wouldn't really change (except slightly insofar as it became known ahead of time that the likes of AST would be underpowered or the likes of WHM would likely become overpowered in the upcoming expansion based on the pre-patch notes / job guide website changes).

snip

Aye. Again, I basically see the heirarchy of available/maximal complexity in that regard...

Least: Hard CDs
(These days there's scarcely really even a difference between 1-charge and multi-charge, as you just bank as able until the raid buff window, effectively acting like you have only 1 charge until then.)

-Mid-: Soft CDs
(This would be like "Deals 65 potency. Additional Effect: Deals up to 650 additional potency based on charging time, which has a maximum of 30 seconds." [Read: Dia in single-target.])

-Most: DoTs
(They do everything soft-CDs do, but also have additional complexity in multitarget situations that are not yet mass-AoE situations and require TTD (time-til-death) estimation.)

And yeah, plugins have for quite a while now provided (highly filterable, even) Enmity List DoT trackers and the ability to place a mock-cooldown (standard darkening and wheel) or [further-]charge (ring, no darkening) indicator over DoT actions to reveal the time until their respective durations end on your current target if one is selected and hostile, last target if not.

There's no reason the base/default game couldn't steal that idea for use by everyone who wants that functionality.

[Semirhage]

I don't see why it's so baffling that someone wants the part of their kit they spend the vast majority of their time interacting with to be more engaging than mashing one button over and over and over and over again with an occasional interruption by something twice a minute.

As you get better at healing, you do more of this. This is a fact. This is how logic works. The downtime rotation is b o r i n g. This constant "but why would you want your damage on a HEALing class to be interesting?" is just peak silliness. Healing. Downtime. Thing that happens. All RPGs. Becomes more frequent. More you improve at it.

[vetch]

I don't see why it's so baffling that someone wants the part of their kit they spend the vast majority of their time interacting with to be more engaging than mashing one button over and over and over and over again with an occasional interruption by something twice a minute.

As you get better at healing, you do more of this. This is a fact. This is how logic works. The downtime rotation is b o r i n g. This constant "but why would you want your damage on a HEALing class to be interesting?" is just peak silliness. Healing. Downtime. Thing that happens. All RPGs. Becomes more frequent. More you improve at it.

Please look forward to having even more of your uptime shifted into new, powerful, free, thoughtless oGCDs at level 100 instead.

[Semirhage]

Please look forward to having even more of your uptime shifted into new, powerful, free, thoughtless oGCDs at level 100 instead.

If they want healers to be foolproof, I don't know why they don't just make Assize into an instant GCD with a 2.5-second cooldown. Healing is so difficult, after all. Assize, Assize, Assize, Assize, Assize, Assize, the rotation for 7.0. I want to see it.