Famitsu Interview: Tuning encounters for healing

[Risvertasashi]

From a recent Famitsu interview:

I feel that it will depend mostly on player skill. Recently I’ve received feedback saying “There’s nothing much to do for healing” from the healers so we’ve increased the attack intensity on Eden Promise Savage, and made sure the damage received is tuned as tight as it can be.

These forums have seen some discussion on time spent healing vs time spent DPSing, and wider discussions of healing design philosophy. So, I'd like to open discussion around this interview comment and the most recent raid tier.

Have you healed Eden's Promise Savage?

Does it feel like the healing experience you want? Are there any particular parts of healing Eden's Promise Savage that you like, or don't like?

[Lastelli]

I was asked to prog this savage tier as a healer and yes, it did feel a little more heal intensive than previous tiers, especially the last 2 turns. This provided a little excitement in the first week, though everything went back to mind-numbingly boring after people had better gear.
Unfortunately this internew proves that yoship really has no clue when it comes to healera.

[Sylvain]

The issue with healing is that gear does a double nerf on the healing requirement

First, everyone has more armor/magicresist and HP, meaning that the overall damage taken has been reduced, making the content require less healing.
Second, we heal more, meaning that we also need to heal less.

When you combine both, the difference is so significant that you go from "we need preemptive shield + 2 ogcd to have enough hp before the next aoe" to "just 1 ogcd will be enough"

E11s and e12s did require more, my group rushed z bit more this tier and we cleared the 2 first week one. We could see week after week the impact gear had on us.
We had a replacement mid tier which was undergeared (500ilv)
When clearing e11s healers often had to add an extra layer just for him.

There is no easy solution to that problem as the extra defensive stats from hear are also a core reason why more casual group can clear the content as it act as a permanent raid mitigation.

Removing the defensive stats bump would mean everyone would always clear with the full damage taken , bit then that would mean more casual player would struggle a bit more.

However, unless fight start to incorporate more random form of damage (e10s cleave vs share) healer will always find a way to optimise their ressources making it "boring"
I guess that's the issue we're facing, damage taken is a bit too scripted.
Some variance , just enough to shaken your ogcd management , could go a long way

[Sylvain]

Side note, I wouldn't blame y.p too much on the healing, he plays a BLM and doesn't seem to be a master healer. He can't be a pro at everything especially considering the average player must have more free time in a week than he has in a month.

To me the fight designer are more to blame. It's specifically their job to design fight and be sure all 3 roles are invested.

If after so many tiers they keep being told "there is nothing to heal" then perhaps they need to have a new approach.
I do think this tier was better and not just more raid burster requesting over the top mitigation

[Raminax]

Speaking from a pugging perspective here.

Haven't gotten into Eternity very much yet (dipped my toes, got to the burly man statues), but my issue is mostly that healing checks feel more like mitigation checks than anything. I mean, I guess you could make a more than reasonable argument that a filthy monkeyman White Mage shouldn't be allowed to get away with bruteforcing damage intake through Medica spam, but co-ordinating mitigation plans usually starts with "ok ill try" (bless their hearts), works fine for two-three pulls, give it yet another three pulls and suddenly the Plunging Ice and Icicle Pierce combo on Junction Shiva is hitting the entire raid for almost 200k damage.

Otherwise, in general, with a co-healer that isn't completely chadding me, I haven't really felt the need to hardcast non-Afflatus heals outside of exceptional messups. Afflatus heals and oGCDs, with very sparse Regen/Medica II, have been enough to cover up the healing requirements, outside of stuff like Cycles of Faith and what little I've seen of Eternity so far (but I'll chalk that up to not having gotten a good feel for the fight yet). But I guess it is more than capping lilies the first two minutes of Iconoclasm.

(While on the topic of mitigation, people that use everything and the kitchen sink on the first Optimized Ultima instead of the orbs when doing Emerald Ex have a special place in hell waiting for them.)

[Recon1o6]

I have not, but this gives me a glimmer of hope tempered with caution. It confirms that they have received the feedback at long last about healers having little to do. Their first act has been to improve the savage healing and another thing by yoshida in the same interview said that sage and sch at least "On the other hand, Sage’s specialised weapon Nouliths, aren’t pets so their game experience will completely differ from Scholars when it comes to their offensive and defensive behaviour."

I haven't been into savage this tier on account of irl things, but a general boost to healing requirements over all duties not just savage would be welcomed.

perhaps we could get some more downtime buttons in 6.0? best to staytuned for now

https://www.akhmorning.com/news/fami...ng-the-new-job <the interview translated by the folks over on reddit and akhmorning

[Liam_Harper]

E12s is a decent step up from E8s, but it ends there really. E9+10s are just as easy as last tier to heal and e11s involves pressing Medica II for a few Burnished and a mitigation check for Cycles. I like Cycles, but it's one mechanic that some groups already skip.
E12s is definitely a mitigation check more than a heal check in some spots, where raidwides simply require a shield or you die.

Normal is just as light on damage as ever. Still, it's something that they're testing the waters on higher damage intake, so we'll just have to hope they develop on that.

To me the fight designer are more to blame. It's specifically their job to design fight and be sure all 3 roles are invested.

One issue is there is no proper heal designer on the team that we know of. They simply don't have a designer dedicated to healers, so healers are designed by developers who don't main the class.

[EaMett]

Before I say anything else, I just want to say that this is the first time in about 4 years (maybe 2nd if you count them adding sch ED back) that the devs have communicated over acknowledging feedback that we've made in this forum. So I'm really happy about that. I don't think they ignore us but I've complained here many times over the lack of communication with our community, so this is a big win in and of itself.

Now about what was said.

I was asked to prog this savage tier as a healer and yes, it did feel a little more heal intensive than previous tiers, especially the last 2 turns. This provided a little excitement in the first week, though everything went back to mind-numbingly boring after people had better gear.
Unfortunately this internew proves that yoship really has no clue when it comes to healera.

This has been my experience overall.
E9s and E10s were nothing out of the ordinary.
E11s did feel like extra healing was required.. But only the first 2ish weeks. After that it was business as usual in terms of healing requirements on a 3rd floor.
E12s gaia was pretty lackluster in terms of heals. Both week one and now. E12s gate boss on the other hand is the only one that got good treatment. I feel like the healing on that fight is right where it should be for a savage difficulty encounter. Week one you had to be on your toes with healing and still dish out substantial dps. Even BiS you still need to be meticulous with healing in a few phases. With that said, and I must insist on this, you still spend the vast vast vast vast vast vast (you get my drift) majority of your time hitting your 1 &1/2 dps spell. So even something that I would consider a well-balanced encounter when it comes to healing still doesn't solve the issue most people have been complaining about.

Side note, I wouldn't blame y.p too much on the healing, he plays a BLM and doesn't seem to be a master healer. He can't be a pro at everything especially considering the average player must have more free time in a week than he has in a month.

Sorry but, he should be getting feedback from people who do know. You can and should expect the spokesperson for the game to be fully aware of healer ins and outs when announcing an expansion including a healer. Like the person above said, they just don't seem to have anyone.

I haven't been into savage this tier on account of irl things, but a general boost to healing requirements over all duties not just savage would be welcomed.

Nothing much has changed, FYI. The problem is that increased damage output is not the solution. It has never been and them addressing it as is, is a pretty good sign that they are still pretty disconnected from the role.
Why do I say this? Because they will never push the healing up to ultimate fight levels for savage content. Most of their playerbase can't handle that level of healing requirements. And ultimate level fights don't require you to heal much in the first place. You're still hitting one button for 70-80% of an encounter.

In other words, the healing cap they won't go over is too low to make a sizeable difference in the amount of downtime healers have. So they need to focus on what we do during that downtime.


A few things from that interview (emphasis is mine):

I feel that it will depend mostly on player skill. Recently I’ve received feedback saying “There’s nothing much to do for healing” from the healers so we’ve increased the attack intensity on Eden Promise Savage, and made sure the damage received is tuned as tight as it can be.

Not promising (no pun intended)

For example, in the case of Scholar, they will be able to utilize fairy to heal and put up barriers when in combat.

I hope this is a translation quirk. I never know with this team.
I also fail to see how the fairy will feel different from direct skills with the current pet setup. So here's to hoping that they give us pet control back.

[Absurdity]

Before I say anything else, I just want to say that this is the first time in about 4 years (maybe 2nd if you count them adding sch ED back) that the devs have communicated over acknowledging feedback that we've made in this forum. So I'm really happy about that. I don't think they ignore us but I've complained here many times over the lack of communication with our community, so this is a big win in and of itself.

I wouldn't bet on that. We do know that even the japanese community is dissatisfied with healers in their current state, so it could be just as likely that they have the same complaints as us and SE noticed those.

[Gemina]

One issue is there is no proper heal designer on the team that we know of. They simply don't have a designer dedicated to healers, so healers are designed by developers who don't main the class.

How many designers are on the team? Is there one to represent every job in the game, or even every role? While I am one to pardon the devs from a lot of player gripes, I am not thoroughly convinced that the lack of one of them being a healer main is the culprit to this issue. While they could broaden the perspective on how to keep healer utility relevant as players get stronger opposed to someone who does not main the role; a healer main on the team is going to have the same tools to work with, and the same constrictions to work around as any other member on that team.

I think of it as someone who is perfectly qualified for a job, but they don't have the support or tools they need to perform to the best of their ability. IOW, a healer main on the team =/= anything changing at all.