Developers : Healer design mentality needs to change

[Allegor]

I mean, to be fair at least AST can become a little hectic with managing the proper cards and their targets, Divination timing, dot, Earthly Star, buff uptime in case there's another AST, it's decently busy even if done right imo ...as WHM though? you literally have nothing else to do - Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, ohh, Assize is off cd!, Dia, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare...

[Gemina]

I mean, to be fair at least AST can become a little hectic with managing the proper cards and their targets, Divination timing, dot, Earthly Star, buff uptime in case there's another AST, it's decently busy even if done right imo ...as WHM though? you literally have nothing else to do - Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, ohh, Assize is off cd!, Dia, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare...

This is basically why I say that AST is the most complete healer currently playable. Their job gauge is interactive, so building the resource gives them at least one other thing to focus on. The job gauges of WHM and SCH are passive. SCH a little less so, but only has two skills to apply the gauge to; neither of which shield or cause damage, which is what the SCH primarily does. If they also had to focus some of their attention to acquiring their lilies and fey, then all of sudden they will feel as busy as AST.

Unfortunately, I still find Divination lack luster. The damage boost is nice, but they build up the resource to execute an ability that other jobs have variations to with the touch of a button every 120s. It would feel much more rewarding if it also did damage to the enemy. Then you have WHM's Misery, which feels rewarding even if generating the blood lily wasn't done optimally; as is often the case when the healing requirements of the content are low.

There is a bit of a caveat to AST design though. Their APM is higher than the other healers, which makes it harder to optimize. When things get hectic, or high healing phases are present, it can be difficult for an AST to multitask in this situation. The devs might have had this in mind with AST as a healer that is more difficult to play optimally for those who are seeking a higher skill ceiling. If the other two healers were given similar job gauge mechanics, or additional DPS abilities, then a healer suited for a player of lower skill will be gone. I am not sure if this is a good or bad thing, and the devs probably don't either.

[Deceptus]

This is basically why I say that AST is the most complete healer currently playable. Their job gauge is interactive, so building the resource gives them at least one other thing to focus on. The job gauges of WHM and SCH are passive. SCH a little less so, but only has two skills to apply the gauge to; neither of which shield or cause damage, which is what the SCH primarily does. If they also had to focus some of their attention to acquiring their lilies and fey, then all of sudden they will feel as busy as AST.

Energy drain does damage and increases the gauge.

[ItMe]

Energy drain does damage and increases the gauge.

(I'm pretty sure they mean the fairy gauge, not the aether pips)

[Gemina]

Energy drain does damage and increases the gauge.

As I stated in the clause you quoted, SCH's fey gauge is a little less passive than WHM. It still requires very little interaction from the SCH to fill it, and in most situations it caps out and the SCH has no optimal means to prevent it from doing so. It also becomes entirely useless while Seraph is out. Point being, it's not a very good or engaging job mechanic.

[Alisto]

If SE wants me to DPS as a healer they NEED to give me some semblance of a DPS rotation (and maybe something to actually heal). a DoT, a single target spell, and an AoE do not cut it. Feels like the entire game is built around making things fun for DPS and nobody else.

There isn't enough healing to do that, even if I had the most interesting healing mechanics available, I wouldn't get to enjoy it because there's almost nothing to heal and if I'm to spend most of my time DPSing doing THAT need to be way more interesting.

[Arkdra]

If SE wants me to DPS as a healer they NEED to give me some semblance of a DPS rotation (and maybe something to actually heal). a DoT, a single target spell, and an AoE do not cut it. Feels like the entire game is built around making things fun for DPS and nobody else.

There isn't enough healing to do that, even if I had the most interesting healing mechanics available, I wouldn't get to enjoy it because there's almost nothing to heal and if I'm to spend most of my time DPSing doing THAT need to be way more interesting.

This is where I am at, but I also have to admit that there's basically nothing they can do to get me to switch from dps to healer outside of like, maybe copy+pasting warrior priest/disciple of khaine from warhammer online into this game. In which case... maybe.

Nonetheless, for the times when I do play a healer, I really wish I had something akin to bloodletter and foul. A short cooldown ability to spice up broil spam and then a big hit to build up to (which whm's already have in afflatus misery). Maybe even a straighter shot analog where my glare spam will proc and let me do a cooler attack for more damage/whatever instead. Just.. something! I just don't think that the simplification of healer dps abilities has worked out the same way that doing things for tanks did. And I think this is born out by my dps queues usually being help up by healers these days and not tanks.

[Allegor]

This is where I am at, but I also have to admit that there's basically nothing they can do to get me to switch from dps to healer outside of like, maybe copy+pasting warrior priest/disciple of khaine from warhammer online into this game. In which case... maybe.

Nonetheless, for the times when I do play a healer, I really wish I had something akin to bloodletter and foul. A short cooldown ability to spice up broil spam and then a big hit to build up to (which whm's already have in afflatus misery). Maybe even a straighter shot analog where my glare spam will proc and let me do a cooler attack for more damage/whatever instead. Just.. something! I just don't think that the simplification of healer dps abilities has worked out the same way that doing things for tanks did. And I think this is born out by my dps queues usually being help up by healers these days and not tanks.

I know this is comparing oranges to apples, but holy priests in WoW have this instant mini nuke/stun on a 1min cd, and each time you cast your basic offensive spell its cd is reduced by 4 seconds. It has absolutely nothing to do with their healing kit but it's there to pump more damage when nobody's in danger and even that is more interactive than simply "spam this one button until someone needs healing".

[Absurdity]

I just don't think that the simplification of healer dps abilities has worked out the same way that doing things for tanks did. And I think this is born out by my dps queues usually being help up by healers these days and not tanks.

It didn't really work out for tanks either. Our dps rotations are incredibly simple and this made sense when we still had other stuff to manage, but now we press a cooldown every 90 seconds and spam 1-2-3 with the occasional 4 & 5. Tanks are only marginally less bored than healers are because we atleast have more to press than 1.

[QooEr]

The problem with non healing utility skills is they are totally redundant because there is no better utility and no better mitigation than raw damage.

not quite. mitigating an instance of damage to save you a gcd heal translates into damage, and that can happen in ultimate, ex primals or even un dungeons. i miss when healers had virus/disable because i could be the one in charge of the mitigation and i knew when i could save myself a gcd. that got moved to dps and tanks and is now addle/reprisal.

in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter, but it was something else healers had to do. i wish they stopped taking away things to do during downtime from healers