Is it fun?

[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.

[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).

[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.

[Rilifane]

I have my moments when I'm in the mood to play healer for a little bit they're rare and it's usually either trying to speedrun 80s dungeons or doing a bit of PF hopping with some people from my static. I had joined my current static on healer because that was what they desperately needed back then and it was kind of fun at first but lost its appeal within a few weeks when it left me wondering if that was truly all there is to healers.
And other players make it even worse. Wether it's DF or PF, people are really skilled at dodging aoe heals at all costs, not getting raid buffs/ mitigation and misaligning their own raid buffs.
It makes healer gameplay feel even more messy and disruptive than it already does because all you're doing is pressing 11111 while chasing people with heals to babysit them after they outranged all previous aoe heals yet again. Optimising with randoms is rarely possible so even what little there is usually falls flat.
In contrast, playing dps is always fun. Each has its own appeal. DNC is comfy, NIN is fast-paced, DRG has animation locks to consider, BLM has a lot of room for optimisation. Nothing feels more satisfying than barely getting that one more cast out and almost getting my leg burned off when sliding into a safe zone.
It can be frustrating to have other players constantly bait aoes into my Leylines or have me take positions that require the most movement because they have never played a certain position and are completely unwilling to adjust, but at least there's still a lot left I can optimise all by myself. It can even be fun to play around with the rotation to adjust for that poor position I just got. I fight against bosses and their mechanics while on healer I feel like I have to fight against a bunch of particulary stupid headless chicken deadset on making my life as hard as possible.
The former is a nice challenge, the latter is just plain annoying.
And there is no fluent gameplay to make up for it either.

[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.

[jlewiss]

When the party is a struggle bus sure. I'm not the best healer, I would say I'm above average/good. I just find the job boring, most of these healing jobs have been out for like what 6+ years? DPSing on healers was only really fun when cleric stance existed since then it's become progressively more boring. If the healing ticked up more that would be fun. At this point I'm ready for every mob to inflict infirmary so at least I have a reason to spam heals.