Are there enough variation of spells to make it fun for a dedicated healer (CON)

[Favz]

In http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/topics/detail?id=d2cece285e513f2dad7042cd5f91b15892e610bf
You can see that that kind of role the FFXIV's player like to have in combat.
Melee DPS 37%
Range DPS 22%
Tank 18%
Healer 12%
Buffer 12%

So in a group of 5-6 people there is less than one that likes to play healer. But in a group of 10 there is one.
Personaly I have liked Crowdcontroller or/and Healer in MMO.

The problem that there are not enough people that like to play healer in small groups. That problem has been solved diffrent in diffrent games.
A nother problem, classes that are only is good at healing will be bad at playing solo.
One way of solving of the two problems is that you combine healing capcity with a damage capacity (melee DPS or DPS from a distance).

Solving the problem combining healing capacity with a damage capacity can be done in two diffrent ways:
1) Create only a few healing spell so that that the person that play the class are expected to use other abilities while healing are on "cooldown". Then the people that like to play healer and DPS from a distance (or healer and melee DPS) are happy.
2) Create lots of healing spells (Diffrent targets: Area of effect, single target, group. Diffrent casting time: short and long. Diffrent effect time: heal when the spell is casted, healing over time. etc).
and the person that plays the class are expected to be full time healer in the group. This making the people that enjoy the healing role happy.
To make him good at solo at the same time : a) He changes his ablities/spells between group and solo b) He is slightly more powerfull than the other classes.
Obvious (a) is the better choice.

There is also a 3rd option:
3) Create only a few healing spells. But the most effective way is that one person in the group only use healing spells. In that way you takes the bad from (1) and (2) and don't get any benefit.
Basicaly you make healing less fun for the dedicated healer without giving the "healer and" person the option of playing a healing and DPS stile.

What are the current state of FFXIV ?
Are there enough variation of spells to make it fun for a dedicated healer?
Or are healing spells on long enough cooldown to make a "healer and" work better than a pure healer?
Or have the solved it in a nother way (ex by making Crowdcontrol better in some situation and so favour "healer and").

I understand it from "Conj needs to be split - WHM and BLM" that Conjurer is a "healer and burst Range DPS" class while Thaumaturge is a "healer and Range DoT/debuff".
And there is only 1 pure ranged DPS class and it's a none magic class (archer).
And that one reason people like to split Conjurer in white mage and black mage is that they want to play a none-healing class that is magic user (black mage).
If you like to have a none-healing class that is magic user is not the subject of this thread.
If you have a none-healing DPS Mage, it is possible to combined with both the options (1) and (2) above.

[cannonball]

I dunno.. but I have always felt that allowing a Art of War class to cast heals would ruin any healer class.. Stop War classes from healing then... well you know

[Fios]

There are so many spells available to all users that a dedicated healer is not even needed. Since all players can get almost all the spells there is almost no reason to not have good communication and have all players keep all players healed. That goes for debuffs and buffs.... a good team would co-ordinate this effort and maximize their damage/tanking so no dedicated healer is needed.

I've noticed that as I attempt to dedidcate myself to healing so others can dps:
1. If I try to dps I'll get to that "almost oops" stage and miss a heal so others almost die
2. If I try to only heal I get chewed if I don't DPS "USE your spirit dart... that's what it's there for!"

So I just do what I can and raise who I let die at the end of battle. Most of the time, they don't notice if I only use spirit dart once or twice during the battle but everyone lives so that's how I attempt to play.

*Recently our party has been way OP because we have all archers, one tank, one-three healers/magic dps. This lets me do more magic DPS.

[Wyngale]

What are the current state of FFXIV ?
Are there enough variation of spells to make it fun for a dedicated healer?

Unfortunately no. You use 1 or 2 spells for healing (usually alternating between Cure and Sacrifice). Due to AOE you can usually hit all the injured people together. The status effect situation is a mess. Except for paralyze, curing status effects is pointless, and the most serious status effects (like petrify) don't have cures.

Or are healing spells on long enough cooldown to make a "healer and" work better than a pure healer?

Heals have the shortest cast time and cooldown of all spells, you can almost spam them continuously once you have Fastcast. This means that healing can always be done on-demand freeing you to do other things if everyone is topped off.

Or have the solved it in a nother way (ex by making Crowdcontrol better in some situation and so favour "healer and").

They have solved it by making every mage an on-demand healer. Because healing is so easy due to AOE and short cast times they can get away with this.

[TempestReve]

@ Wyngale - I am going to respectfully disagree on the "curing status effect being pointless", poisona is very helpful when doing any of the leves involving zombies or Djigga's - especially when you have some of the melee AoEing regardless of the nasty side effect.

That being said, i have no issues at least getting 2 AoE spells off and healing/buffing my group of 5-6 people that i do leves with every reset.

[Wyngale]

@ Wyngale - I am going to respectfully disagree on the "curing status effect being pointless", poisona is very helpful when doing any of the leves involving zombies or Djigga's - especially when you have some of the melee AoEing regardless of the nasty side effect.

That is a good counterexample. Usually though, I find that once the initial burst damage from the breath/explosion attack is healed, the poison tick is offset just by using AOE when healing the tank.

If there were a cheap single-target heal and an expensive AOE heal, it would be worth it to use Poisona in that situation, but since everyone is kept at full health for free anyway, there's no point in casting it.

[TempestReve]

^^ i cast it just by force of habit i suppose. That and it annoys me when my party members have little skulls near their names.