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

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Glare spam is economical.

Anyone can do the experiment of going to Bozja, chugging the Savior juice and slotting in some Lost healing spells. Then you go from CE to CE, acting as true DPS healer. And while an interesting experience, it can also be one of frustration because sticking to a strict rotation and being available on demand to heal the whole party with 1-2 GCDs of heals do not mix together. That is the key to it, Glare spam can be interrupted with no penalty at any cost, to save whoever just ate some raid mechanic to the face. So an "actual" DPS rotation does not fit into the healing lifestyle.

This is only half true. Incoming damage in BSF/Zadnor content is highly infrequent & scripted (as is in majority other content outside Ultimate—I can’t speak of that since I don’t play that).

Any class with simple 1-2-3 combo can safely wait long enough to finish their combo before tossing a Lost Cure III. At that point we’re basically playing a psuedo-CNJ who had to stop spamming Stone II to cast Medica. The cost of stopping to heal is, we basically stop doing damage for a GCD (or more). With Lost Cure II/IV, we don’t even need to break our combo nor finish them since they can be weaved. I can speak of this because I’ve chugged savior essence as all DPS classes except DRG, MNK & SAM into CEs & CLL/DRn/Dalriada. The number of times I needed to actually break a combo to stop & cast Cure III was very remote & mostly was my own fault for zoning out.

The only outlier is probably DRG (and possibly MNK) since DRGs has a long string of combo (5 GCD!) that continues to their next round of combo via Raiden Thrust. Healers can definitely use a simple 1-2 or 1-2-3 combo.

Honestly, DPS Job + Savior gameplay was refreshing & I wish we have that kind of ‘downtime busy’ in other general contents.

[Semirhage]

Why is there this attitude that devs don't know or can't design the game? Has it occurred to you that this is what the majority of players wanted?

Because of player feedback over the years, this is what the current game is a reflection of.

Spamming one button for the majority of an encounter sure is...exactly the opposite of what I've been asking for. At least.

[Crushnight]

Why is there this attitude that devs don't know or can't design the game? Has it occurred to you that this is what the majority of players wanted?

Because of player feedback over the years, this is what the current game is a reflection of.

Can tell you now, no self respecting Ast wished their dps rotation would be given to Whm and Sch, Ast may have had something to keep it busy to slow down the monotony but Whm certainly didn't and still doesn't, while Sch had it's thing that keeped it busy removed.

I still can't forget that Sch had the best pet system(responsiveness etc) back in SB and they actively made it worse in ShB rather than improving Smn's pet system to be on Sch's level.

[Acece]

Why is there this attitude that devs don't know or can't design the game? Has it occurred to you that this is what the majority of players wanted?

Because of player feedback over the years, this is what the current game is a reflection of.

I would really like to see the feedback you speak of.

[Sani2341]

Why is there this attitude that devs don't know or can't design the game? Has it occurred to you that this is what the majority of players wanted?

Because of player feedback over the years, this is what the current game is a reflection of.

Afaik, most feedback from healers asked for more balance by bringign each job up to par where they were lacking.

What the devs gave us was pushing everyone down to the lowest common denominator, so every healer was equally bad.

[Deceptus]

Afaik, most feedback from healers asked for more balance by bringign each job up to par where they were lacking.

What the devs gave us was pushing everyone down to the lowest common denominator, so every healer was equally bad.

Seriously. Every other role got step 4 and we got put back to step 1.

[Recon1o6]

even ast's wanted their rotation improved. Remember we had 2 dots and 2 attacks and gravity back in hw (Combust 2 had a cast time and Combust 1 was separate and instant) and in SB we got lowered to 1/1 but gained lord of crowns and earthly star as ogcd attacks. Now we have 1 of each and gravity

Why is there this attitude that devs don't know or can't design the game? Has it occurred to you that this is what the majority of players wanted?

Because of player feedback over the years, this is what the current game is a reflection of.

Really? lets examine the evidence.

No player asked for the excessive homogenisation in shb
No monk demanded a broken job or more useless clutter. The devs ended up going back to square 1 in 5.4 because they never thought about what players actually want from monk.
No white mages wanted to get reduced to chucking rocks in sb, nor have their elements removed in shb turning them into a pure healer
No scholar asked for selene to get deleted and their dots removed and shields neutered, turning them into a pure healer
No astro requested their time magic deleted, cards reduced to requiring a parser, all balance cards and come 6.0 nocturnal deleted, turning them into a pure healer white mage with a coin flip
No dark knight asked to be turned into warrior in shb nor all the good uses of dark arts in hw removed in sb
No dps asked for bard to get neutered and machinist still has ping issues
Not a single person every expansion asks for skills to be moved higher in the levelling tree with a new coat of paint leaving an increasingly large amount of levels a chore.
Nobody asked for SHB to be easier and "accessible" given SB was widely seen as very easy with barely any challenge outside of suzaku TGcid and tsuki
No player asked for glamour to still favour tanks by miles

[IceBlueNinja]

even ast's wanted their rotation improved. Remember we had 2 dots and 2 attacks and gravity back in hw (Combust 2 had a cast time and Combust 1 was separate and instant) and in SB we got lowered to 1/1 but gained lord of crowns and earthly star as ogcd attacks. Now we have 1 of each and gravity

gravity while being fast I wish it had something like slow or heavy. holy has stun and you dont have to look at something to use it. art of war is spammy and can be use while moving which is nice while tank pulls entire room It be nice if they touch up gravity. I tend to no lies be less willing on using gravity vs art of war or holy, also kinda why I miss old old speed where all spells was 50% less which made even res less taxing sure our spells are less expensive now yet at times I feel it was better off keeping old light and simply have draw giving 10% MP back and reduce draw cd to about 15secs would be better vs spell reduce mp cost. Example old light speed would put aspect helios 500 dirunal to 250 vs the flat 400 of this asp helios we have now. It kind feels some how we got cheated yet its at the same time its still working out fine currently for me lol. Even before mp reduction came I never really had a issue managing mp unless a very bad run/prog and needed intense chain heal/res.

[Liam_Harper]

Anyone can do the experiment of going to Bozja, chugging the Savior juice and slotting in some Lost healing spells. Then you go from CE to CE, acting as true DPS healer. And while an interesting experience, it can also be one of frustration because sticking to a strict rotation and being available on demand to heal the whole party with 1-2 GCDs of heals do not mix together. That is the key to it, Glare spam can be interrupted with no penalty at any cost, to save whoever just ate some raid mechanic to the face. So an "actual" DPS rotation does not fit into the healing lifestyle.

Why go to extremes to make an example? There is a massive difference between a full fledged dps rotation and spamming a single button. No one's asking to have a full heal toolkit plus an entire dps toolkit, but an in-between would be great.

There are plenty of ways to do it while being able to fit healing in. Combos don't have to break if you heal, look at how forgiving Dancer combos are for example. You can have several procs that could open weave windows that are ideal for oGCD healing. An extra DoT. A higher MP instant cast Glare/Broil for weave. Seraph Strike. More aoe. Lots of ideas they could try.

Their design philosophy wouldn't change either. If you just run Normal and MSQ, healbot and don't do much dps it doesn't even affect you, just do what you normally do. It's just something extra for the players who have learned the class.

[Ayche]

Why go to extremes to make an example? There is a massive difference between a full fledged dps rotation and spamming a single button. No one's asking to have a full heal toolkit plus an entire dps toolkit, but an in-between would be great.

There are plenty of ways to do it while being able to fit healing in. Combos don't have to break if you heal, look at how forgiving Dancer combos are for example. You can have several procs that could open weave windows that are ideal for oGCD healing. An extra DoT. A higher MP instant cast Glare/Broil for weave. Seraph Strike. More aoe. Lots of ideas they could try...

I wanted the thought experiment to skew towards the extreme to feel for what is considered more "neutral" as a change. But if I were to psycho-analyze how it feels like Unit 3 wants the game to be, weaving in more damage """for free""" will never happen. I could see longer cast time DPS spell being universally introduced, like a Healer Flare. 4 second cast time would mean you earned the time to cast it since that is time you cannot be healing and being pseudo-aoe it could be fit into both boss damage and mob clearing.

This is only half true. Incoming damage in BSF/Zadnor content is highly infrequent & scripted (as is in majority other content outside Ultimate—I can’t speak of that since I don’t play that).

Any class with simple 1-2-3 combo can safely wait long enough to finish their combo before tossing a Lost Cure III. At that point we’re basically playing a psuedo-CNJ who had to stop spamming Stone II to cast Medica. The cost of stopping to heal is, we basically stop doing damage for a GCD (or more). With Lost Cure II/IV, we don’t even need to break our combo nor finish them since they can be weaved. I can speak of this because I’ve chugged savior essence as all DPS classes except DRG, MNK & SAM into CEs & CLL/DRn/Dalriada. The number of times I needed to actually break a combo to stop & cast Cure III was very remote & mostly was my own fault for zoning out...

Half true? Harsh. it is after all based on what I have seen with my own eyes. CE damage might be scripted, but the amount of people being hit by those mechanics CE to CE is completely random, they are not your dungeons runs where nobody actually gets hit by markers.

My bozja dps healing experience has been on DRG, MNK, SMN and MCH. Machinist of them was the easiest to do it as, Summoner somewhere in the middle and Monk and Dragoon were the clunkiest. And I tend to use only Lost Cure I and Lost Cure III since ... that is what fragments tend to give me plenty I guess.