Developers : Healer design mentality needs to change

[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)

[Granyala]

I've become a sadist HOPING people suck and get hit by things so I can do this thing called heal.

Yep, I know exactly how you feel, lol.

[Gemina]

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

That is why I mentioned that the afore mentioned utility becomes more useful the more drawn out an encounter is; so yes, Ultimate, Savage, EX, and large pulls in dungeons all apply. Basically, the threat level has to be where high DPS will not be enough to reduce/eliminate it quickly, and other means to sustain the group become necessary. This is healing in a nutshell, and a big reason why healers easily get bored when the threat level isn't significant. The only utility they have left are one of two buttons they get to press to cause damage.

There does seem to be a gap with the role skills like Reprisal, Feint, and Addle because basically each role gets some variation of decreasing mob attack power. They could give Virus back to healers, and I don't think it's a lot to ask for. However, the healers already do quite well and have multiple means to mitigate and recover from damage. The question is, "Do you really want it back?" I ask that because more mitigation equals less healing required. I know it's a bit of a bizzaro world where healers would actually want more damage, but in FFXIV more incoming damage = more buttons to press.

The other issue I see with it is healers are looking for something to fill their downtime, and mitigative abilities are used during levels of high threat. While healers do damage during their downtime, this is a window where the enemy is already breaching their ogcd healing threshold. IOW, they are already pressing more buttons than just '1,1,1,1'. Basically while it is a little something; it's not enough to cure healers of their boredom.

[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.

[QooEr]

Basically while it is a little something; it's not enough to cure healers of their boredom.

My idea to give mitigation back to healers wasnt to cure them of their boredom but simply to give them back something they used to have. Since stormblood the devs have little by little taken things away from healers' kits. While its true that adding back just a dot, or just virus, or even just cleric stance would not "fix" healers, at least having a little something would be better than having nothing.

Additionally depending on dps on mitigation is dumb. There was no real reason to take away virus from healers to give it to casters. Dps most of the time dont even know when damage happens, and most of the time they dont even use addle. Its not quite as much of an issue in statics, but its still annoying having to depend on dps to do something that you used to be able to do.

[Rymi64]

My idea to give mitigation back to healers wasnt to cure them of their boredom but simply to give them back something they used to have. Since stormblood the devs have little by little taken things away from healers' kits. While its true that adding back just a dot, or just virus, or even just cleric stance would not "fix" healers, at least having a little something would be better than having nothing.

Additionally depending on dps on mitigation is dumb. There was no real reason to take away virus from healers to give it to casters. Dps most of the time dont even know when damage happens, and most of the time they dont even use addle. Its not quite as much of an issue in statics, but its still annoying having to depend on dps to do something that you used to be able to do.

I mean virus did originate from a dps so it being split into two and given to the dps is logical. Real question is will they combine them again and just give casters the full mitigation since they tend to do that alot

[Hyperia]

At this point, I don't see healing ever being really "fixed". Things are the way they are and that's the way they are going to be. I have given up hoping to see things change and I do not believe we will really ever see healing getting fixed. All of the new games I have seen have roles that are mostly DPS with some nice heal gimmick.

Though... I wouldn't be surprised if FFXIV converted healers into utility DPS and made healing potions a thing again. A DPS with a healer utility would pop a 2 or 3 min CD heal on the group and back to DPS. Otherwise, your on your own if you get hurt, use your pots and stack VIT.

[Gemina]

Additionally depending on dps on mitigation is dumb. There was no real reason to take away virus from healers to give it to casters. Dps most of the time dont even know when damage happens, and most of the time they dont even use addle. Its not quite as much of an issue in statics, but its still annoying having to depend on dps to do something that you used to be able to do.

I think if they took away Addle and Feint from DPS jobs, most of them really wouldn't miss it. There is also an overlap factor since 8-man will always have four DPS jobs as part of the comp. I do not think the effect of the same ability being used stacks, but either way, most likely there will be no coordination of their use in PUGs. I would agree and be on board if mitigation was the responsibility of just the tanks and healers, and hopefully this is something the devs will change up in the future as having this responsibility on the shoulders of DPS jobs in party play makes zero to no sense.

You might have to pardon the DPS jobs though. For quite a few of them, their rotations are so ingrained into muscle memory that all of a sudden tossing in an Addle or Feint can throw them off. With a little practice it's not that big of a deal, but if they are not accustomed to it, then it can potentially be a detriment instead of a benefit. They should, and eventually learn to improvise with their rotations, but unless you know the player, or they mention something; you don't really know how much experience they have playing the job they are using.

[lulunami]

No matter how you change the healer or damage output system, the fact remains that there will always be some healers that are much more efficient than other players. The better healers will map out their strongest heals in coordination with their healer partner, tanks, and rest of party to make it safe.

Let's take for example the potency nerf to Energy Drain on SCH. That will not make good SCH use Energy Drain less. The Energy Drains they were currently using were just a gauge dump because they already planned out Sacred Soil, Excog, Lustrate, or Indomiability usage relative to the damage and other defensive abilities available from the party. This is possible because of the scripted nature of damage.

If the damage or script has a slightly more random sequence, what would happen? SCH would maybe save 1 Aetherflow stack for a Lustrate or extra Sacred Soil? It would not change much.

Better healers will always be more efficient and get more casts and optimal resource usage. Please focus on designing healing fun to play again. Fun is what matters most!