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

[Kabooa]

No. The fact that there is always fewer players willing to play tank or healer than are needed in an MMO is essentially a tautology.

Then you'd have absolutely no issue just posting a few sources to back up your claim. An updated Lucky Bancho perhaps? Been a while since I had some numbers to crawl through.

[RinaB]

I play DPS. I enjoy it but I avoid playing as dps because of long queues. Not to mention, dps players have no say in how much the tank should pull, if both the healer and tanks want to do baby pulls they can only leave, while if I am a healer I can pressure the tank into doing his job.

First of all the fact that you play healer for faster queue times is clearly an ongoing group problem in this game because of homogenization and accessibility. Second if all it damn right does matter how the dps performs because if they can barely down 3 efficiently then maybe pulling 15 is dumb. I'm going to assume you're already on my blacklist.

[Roeshel]

First of all the fact that you play healer for faster queue times is clearly an ongoing group problem in this game because of homogenization and accessibility. Second if all it damn right does matter how the dps performs because if they can barely down 3 efficiently then maybe pulling 15 is dumb. I'm going to assume you're already on my blacklist.

I never said that it doesn't matter how the dps performs. Of course it does but they really can't tell the healer or the tank to pull more. It could be literally beyond their skills to survive wall to wall pull. Some players are just not good enough. My dps as a healer is stronger than that of the dps in dungeons pulls when playing sch or whm in the majority of cases if the tank lets me DPS and uses their cds because most players don't actually know how to play their roles properly. While I was levelling my ast I got these funny dps players that wanted to do big pulls in dohn mheg when the tank was first-timer. He was not using the blackest night and was scarcely using his other cds. The tank was one thing, the dps of the dps players was just not good enough. It became visible at the last boss, where I used 3 divinations. Needless to say, I didn't suffer their lack of skills and we did small pulls after the second one cuz I let them wipe. I am not ever entering into benefic II spamming phase because you can't play but you want to do big pulls. I do that because I don't want my party members to be left with the wrong impression that they played well because everyone survived. It encourages bad play.

Also, thanks for the preemptive measures, never seeing each other in df is for the best.

[Dzian]

I have to wonder, are we playing the same game or do I just have (bad) luck? I see this assertion get thrown around here and there, and it seems like hyperbole. Oftentimes in current content, healers are everywhere. It is not uncommon to get invited into parties with 3+ healers out in Bozja, get matched with parties with 4+ healers in DR, and in the active weeks following a new EX trial's release, it can be an actual race to join a PF with a free healer spot... The only place I actively see people avoid healer like the plague is in PvP.

The healer player base is definitely smaller than it ever has been youncan see this just by looking at the AIN in roulettes. 2.0 3.0 4.0 nearly always tanks. Known as the insta queue jobs. Where healers would often be queuing alongside dps.

5.0 its not uncommon to queue expert or something on your tank and be told your 15th in the queue. Because so many people have dropped healers since 5.0. They've become the insta queue job because noone wants to play them since they got butchered to hell.

[Halfgeeek]

The healer player base is definitely smaller than it ever has been youncan see this just by looking at the AIN in roulettes. 2.0 3.0 4.0 nearly always tanks. Known as the insta queue jobs. Where healers would often be queuing alongside dps.

5.0 its not uncommon to queue expert or something on your tank and be told your 15th in the queue. Because so many people have dropped healers since 5.0. They've become the insta queue job because noone wants to play them since they got butchered to hell.

On my datacenter at least, it has been TANKs as the AIN consistently. Sometimes healers, very rarely DPS (only for raids). So one can't assume that the playerbase is uniform in their preferences. (I play on JP servers).

I'm probably the perfect candidate for these class changes as I am new to the game, I play tanks & healers as I like to see both sides of the coin.. When healing, the simple dps "rotation" is great as it makes it easy to contribute dmg while still healing everyone. I can see how it would be very boring end-game as you spend less time healing and more time dpsing though, but this is a flaw of the encounter design. They could easily change it to require more constant healing but then I'd imagine many players will then complain they can't dps anymore as healers.

[SweetPete]

nothing you've said here is correct

I been playing this game since the beginning. I saw lots and heard lots. So don’t tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m not saying everyone was like this but for the most part it was extremely toxic. I’m not here to convince you or anyone else otherwise. I know what I observed.

[Duskane]

Sure. The fact that they butchered every single healer had nothing to do with it. It's not like the forums and balance discord was on fire or something. Or that healers have been non-stop complaing ever since ShB release. And nobody ever admitted to quitting healing because of their terrible design choices for ShB.
Nah.
It was just because there was a new tank and it was only healer mains suddenly interested in tanking.
Man, how come I never realised this?

when is the balance not on fire.

[Rilifane]

when is the balance not on fire.

Rarely.
Healer channels are very civilised. People ask questions, people get answers. On some rare occasions a feelycrafter pops up and gives bad advice, gets corrected by more knowledgable people and that's that. I don't read other channels too often but they're pretty much the same.
Only time Balance is on fire is when they make changes to pander to people that don't care about something while angering people that do, e.g. ShB healer change overall, initial removal of ED, SD change etc.
So no, Balance is not constantly on fire. When it is, it has a very good reason to be.

[Rollout]

I do hope they bring some semblance of a rotation to healers in Endwalker. While I do agree that a healer's priority SHOULD be healing, making their rotation just upkeeping a DoT and spamming the same spell over and over again is quite, quite boring.

[Deceptus]

The main issue is, as always, The Developers vs The Players.

The developers want healers to be as the traditional Healer role. Maximize healing, minimize damage with JUST enough personal damage (DPS) to do complete the MSQ. The problem with this, as has been stated NUMEROUS times, is that they're not developing the game that justifies what they want to achieve. Mobs don't hit hard enough to warrant the kind of healing they're advocating for so good healers are DPSing 85+ percent of the time weaving in OGCD heals.

The players want healers to be more of a Support role and I think it would be healthy for the game to actually embrace that.

Support means buffing allies when they're healed. Support means debuffing enemies.

If a healer was allowed to spend GCDs on buffing allies instead of personal DPS they wouldn't need to be spending 85% of their time spamming a filler spell.