Why is the healer class basically a one spell dps class?

[elioaiko]

They don't want to give healers more utility outside of increased healing and damage reduction because it'll "stress" out players who have to heal so much (and waste their healing as a result). They think that healers can't handle the workload while we're begging to be more support-oriented.

But also SE does not want meta comps to form like it did in previous expansions so they removed debuffs like slashing, blunt, piercing (this one was especially bad since DRG was the only one who can do it). The consequences of this have stripped support oriented jobs into simply a dps battery booster. AST's cards were all turned into balance cards with different art on them, NIN no longer having an aggro management niche, PLD's cover being changed (though justified as it was very OP), Phys. Ranged as a whole got their MP refresh removed along with Palisade.

I mean just look at the SCH, they took away Selene because she was "niche" even though Fey Wind felt good to use and on top of that, the fairy is flying regen who's so weak now that her heal does nothing.

SE will likely never return to debuffs and actual skills (even though Phys. Ranged is severely lacking). The only thing that we could hope for is a more interesting DPS rotations for healers as that's the only thing SE can properly manage.

I'm 99% sure that the dev consist of dps mains who took don't even know how FFXIV are being played. They keep pushing that healers need to heal when there's nothing to heal and the fact that the combat design prevents GCD healing from being optimal.

I fully expect SE to destroy what little support AST has left for a one button Divination (no seals required). I don't expect WHM to have anything significant added. SCH will either be reworked into an OP healer again or remain as disjointed and boring as it is now. Sage is a toss up but I feel like it'll be pretty busted.

[Naoki34]

Hello,

To get to the point, why do the healer classes have so few utility spells. Everything is raw healing. And the amount of healing needed can be covered by your ogcds almost all the time. So you don't even need to break the glare/malefic/broil or Holy/Gravity/Art of War spam.

I get why so many people enjoy ast. It is probably the hardest heal job to learn to play optimally. You have to use ogcd for sustain or dmg buff every time you cast gravity or malefic to maintain your uptime. It's a little bit more complicated than back to back broil or glare spam with the occasional ogcd heal when reapplying DoT.

Don't get me wrong. I like demolishing the pack mobs with AoE spam. I just don't understand why the healers don't have more supportive spells.

Because Yoshi-P didn't like people harassing healers who didn't want to Dps, to go along with that, he removed the majority of offensive spells and even offensive healer stances.

To leave only the bare minimum for a healer to still do his quests, a dot, a aoe (nerfed) and a spell.
This must be from Stormblood.

[GrimGale]

There is literally nothing else the healers need in terms of healing. What else can they add to healers in terms of healing for their new spells and abilities for Endwalker? Another AoE oGCD? Another 2minute CD buff to healing for 10 seconds? Give AST and SCH their versions of Benediction? Give Excog to AST and WHM?

There is only an avenue for creativity and novelty in healers and that's either Utility or Damage.

[Truen]

Hello,

To get to the point, why do the healer classes have so few utility spells. Everything is raw healing. And the amount of healing needed can be covered by your ogcds almost all the time. So you don't even need to break the glare/malefic/broil or Holy/Gravity/Art of War spam.

I get why so many people enjoy ast. It is probably the hardest heal job to learn to play optimally. You have to use ogcd for sustain or dmg buff every time you cast gravity or malefic to maintain your uptime. It's a little bit more complicated than back to back broil or glare spam with the occasional ogcd heal when reapplying DoT.

Don't get me wrong. I like demolishing the pack mobs with AoE spam. I just don't understand why the healers don't have more supportive spells.

Because Joshi-P thought it was a good idea. Clearly, he was VERY wrong.

[Dzian]

....

The thing is its often those things that allow you to break the rules in some way that are actually the fun and engaging ones. And ultimately become a lot more interesting and engaging to use.

Holmgang as you mentioned did allow you to break the rules In certain ways but it was also heavily restricted in others. Such as actually needing a target in order to use it. Where pld could just pop hallowed whenever they feel like...

And as the famous slides from beta and stuff show.

FUN should always come first. If it isn't fun you're doing it wrong.

Not obsession with accessibility. Not obsession with balance. But actual fun, rewarding and engaging gameplay.

Stats are simple and boring,
materia is simple and boring. crit crit crit....
gear is simple and boring. only ilevel matters.
healers are simplified and boring everything that made them fun like 4.0 ast cards has been butchered.
tanks are simple and boring. they're basically all the same.
same again with dps.. so much homogenization. boriiing.

Simple and shallow is ultimately dull and boring. Which is not fun. which then means they're doing it wrong..

I really wish I could find it but someone did something about FFXIV and how it knows its ABC. Accessible Balanced Casual.. but totally forgets the rest of the alphabet. Deep Engaging Fun Gameplay etc etc. continuing all the way to Z

[SweetPete]

Because when healers had many dps skills it created a very toxic player base. If you healed more then dps then you’d be kicked. If the group thought you didn’t contribute enough dps they would bash you and kick you. The toxicity was all to real. Then some healers just dps and didn’t heal much. There was so much mess going on.

New players were horrified to play healers because the veterans created this healer dps toxic community.

Since healer dps changes. The community isn’t very toxic anymore. People don’t care to jump down a healers throat for dps anymore.

[Duskane]

Because when healers had many dps skills it created a very toxic player base. If you healed more then dps then you’d be kicked. If the group thought you didn’t contribute enough dps they would bash you and kick you. The toxicity was all to real. Then some healers just dps and didn’t heal much. There was so much mess going on.

New players were horrified to play healers because the veterans created this healer dps toxic community.

Since healer dps changes. The community isn’t very toxic anymore. People don’t care to jump down a healers throat for dps anymore.

nothing you've said here is correct

[NYCLouisGamer]

nothing you've said here is correct

Clearly, SweetPete is quite correct as SE responded to the situation that SweetPete illustrated. SE will absolutely move towards reducing toxicity in order to increase accessibility. SE is hostile towards elitism to the point where they are okay with dismantling fun in the process.

See: healer gameplay changes over time & persistent ban on DPS addons.

Reality agrees with SweetPete.

[Feidam]

Because when healers had many dps skills it created a very toxic player base. If you healed more then dps then you’d be kicked. If the group thought you didn’t contribute enough dps they would bash you and kick you. The toxicity was all to real. Then some healers just dps and didn’t heal much. There was so much mess going on.

New players were horrified to play healers because the veterans created this healer dps toxic community.

Since healer dps changes. The community isn’t very toxic anymore. People don’t care to jump down a healers throat for dps anymore.

This right here was a big problem for while. And then we can add on all the other elitist type things players did that led to utility removal. Enough people were requiring players switch classes to X that there were complaints all the time. So we lost utility and had nerfs to what stayed. I mean for all the complaints of AST card changes most AST just balance fished anyway. So this new system is now all balance cards.

[Azbroolah]

I mean for all the complaints of AST card changes most AST just balance fished anyway. So this new system is now all balance cards.

This is true to an extent, but only because the other cards were really just not very good most of the time. Balance and Spear (after it was changed to crit) were just straight-up better than the other choices. Spire was basically a dead draw (Royal Road/Minor Arcana fodder only), Ewer was only very situationally useful (making it also Royal Road/Minor Arcana fodder), Bole was not possible to intelligently play around (because if you need mitigation you need it on-demand, not RNG), and Arrow was actively bad for most classes other than BLM because it resulted in misaligned burst windows. AST players weren't Balance/Spear fishing because of "elitism" (whatever that means), but because it was the only choice that made sense 99% of the time.