Is it fun?

[Thoosa]

I ditched healing at the start of this savage tier and went to tanking but now looking at going to DPS.

AST is about the most interesting healer because you have cards and a more interesting kit, so at least inbetween Malefic spam you can hand out cards and when things go wrong you have more healing variety spells to use.

SCH was gutted and now IMO its really boring to play, just some Broil spam and a dot, plus some shields and nothing really interesting. The pets are now exactly the same and half their dps kit was removed (shadowflare and some other stuff) - SCH used to be the big DPS healer as the fairy was strong at healing.

WHM is glare spam and a dot, plus really high potency heals and some really situational spells (cure 3). They removed Aero 3 which was kinda fun.

Imo healers lost their identity and uniqueness. Let’s hope Sage is more interesting.

[Saefinn]

It's only fun when my healing is pushed.

Sadly that's only when doing progression runs of ex or savage, which as a semi casual I don't do regularly or have a static for. And tbh it's only fun on AST even then.

The DPS aspect is mind numbing you don't have to think about it. At least with AST you have to juggle, but it's still mindless because all of your cards do the same thing and it's pretty black and white where each goes because it tells you.

If it wasn't for AST's juggling I'd have given up healing entirely.

[Liam_Harper]

It's fun enough to play healer for my static, but I don't really enjoy it anymore in PF or normal content.

First of all healer is one of the least rewarding roles in the game to play with randoms. No one cares if you optimize. They don't care if you're pushing high damage, no one is dying, you're mapping the fight perfectly and managing oGCD's efficiently. They'll probably even panic or think you're bad because their health is at 50% for 15 seconds and they have no clue when the next raidwide is. The Medica II spamming healbot with less than 50% uptime and no damage however will be showered with comms and praised because people see HoT's and full health bars and feel safe. Even if they let 3 people die to avoidable damage that a good healer could have easily caught, the group thinks "wow they raised me and recovered after my mistake, best healer ever!". I've had more comms after screwups and hardcast Raises than I've ever had on my best runs.

Secondly, healer is not designed to play smoothly. Dps and even tanks are. They have the weave and movement tools they need and for the most part (there are a handful of exceptions, but overall) their toolkit has synergy, connects together and flows. WHM is clipping like crazy the moment unexpected heals are needed and blowing healing tools just to move. SCH's pet is quite frankly a mess and pays a hefty weave tax despite a wide oGCD kit. AST plays the best but card rng can still screw you over sometimes. Things like WHM plenary being an oGCD that has to be used before your weave window (Rapture), AST needing 30 sec pre-pull to use Divination properly and SCH fairy ghosting and needing re-placing frequently all function fine and aren't extremely important, but don't make it feel like you're playing a role that has time and effort put into how its gameplay feels.

[KDSilver]

To respond to the question...

I used to play AST/SCH a lot. DF, PF, dungeons, roulettes, Extreme, Savage.
A dedicated healer player lover.

Now, this is the first time/first expansion I take so many breaks from the game and avoid doing some battle content.

If it can help you and answers your question.

[Vivix]

I've tried it and I can't enjoy it without mouse over macros. Coming from a different mmo where that is how I healed has made me discard healing altogether here.

[Liam_Harper]

I've tried it and I can't enjoy it without mouse over macros. Coming from a different mmo where that is how I healed has made me discard healing altogether here.

It's fine to mouseover macro tbh, some of the top healers do. Even if it's not optimal, you can still push high end gameplay just fine especially if it's more comfortable. But it is clunkier than other mmos sadly.

What bothers me is that they haven't either made it an option we can toggle or even better, made it so macros only containing a single ability can queue. Macros intentionally cannot queue to avoid automated gameplay, but single ability macros are just QoL. Mouseover heal, shirk to co-tank, Holm on self, Salted Earth/Asylum/ect on target and so on. Also sprint and potions still not being able to queue after all these years is a pain.

[Mesarthim]

Well now that I got a roulette last night I can explain it here. "Is it fun?" was the question right?

I had a Xelphatol on SCH with a new sprout tank (nothing wrong) but it begs the question, what is even the point in having a healer? They were single pulling which of course means there is nothing to do. First boss I used whispering dawn once (wasn't needed). Second drawbridge with the 2 goobbues I used one lustrate which also wasn't needed, just gave them a sense of safety. I barely needed to heal on boss 2 and 3 but otherwise I was basically a dps. There was almost no need for a healer in Xelphatol.

Though Antitower is even worse I think. I remember doing a dungeon run and the healer... never needed to heal, at all.

[Teno]

At the moment, healer gameplay is at its worst. I come back to the game and want to play it, only to see what SCH has become (one button mashing, clunky and disjointed spells). And I don't want to play other roles. So I just log out. Shadowbringers has been the worst expansion gameplay wise. Heavensward was fantastic in contrast.


The silver lining is that endwalker can only get better so we'll see.

[LariaKirin]

It's subjective and entirely dependent on the content you do and how often you do it.

Content below Extreme is entirely braindead and no job changes will make it interesting.

Extreme and Savage become outdated very quickly because gear scaling is ridiculously powerful in this game. The numbers get diluted quickly in the case of savage or undertuned on arrival in the case of something like Diamond Ex. How is a fight like Diamond Extreme, tuned for i510, supposed to pose anything other than a short-lived mechanical challenge to a group of people wearing an i530 set?

Ultimate becomes mostly a mechanical challenge because by the time a full group gets consistent enough with the mechanics, they're on autopilot.

I don't think a silly little rotation is going to fix anything. I think the game needs some fight randomness (especially to incoming damage) and a massive gear scaling nerf. Alternatively, something like unreal scaling for new content (e.g. scale to i510 for Diamond Ex until 5.55).

[Teno]

It's subjective and entirely dependent on the content you do and how often you do it.

Content below Extreme is entirely braindead and no job changes will make it interesting.

Extreme and Savage become outdated very quickly because gear scaling is ridiculously powerful in this game. The numbers get diluted quickly in the case of savage or undertuned on arrival in the case of something like Diamond Ex. How is a fight like Diamond Extreme, tuned for i510, supposed to pose anything other than a short-lived mechanical challenge to a group of people wearing an i530 set?

Ultimate becomes mostly a mechanical challenge because by the time a full group gets consistent enough with the mechanics, they're on autopilot.

I don't think a silly little rotation is going to fix anything. I think the game needs some fight randomness (especially to incoming damage) and a massive gear scaling nerf. Alternatively, something like unreal scaling for new content (e.g. scale to i510 for Diamond Ex until 5.55).

I disagree, even in casual dungeons it always felt really satisfying to put on cleric stance, all dots, bane and shadowflare. Like it's all coming together. And I remember trying to get the most of my shadowflare/dots back on bahamut's adds, that was fun. The lack of so many ogcds also made our gcd shields more satisfying to pull, they had more weight.
The dps spells scholar had were perfect in terms of gameplay. No rotation, dots to manage and an aoe that could be that little extra dps for pushing a phase or just having fun with min-maxing.

I strongly agree with the need for randomness, especially if the gameplay remains what it is.