A warning from a place that once had "shield healers"

[Omedon]

Alright, so , full disclosure, I am SO not a healer main or an endgame player in any MMO, but part of my distance from the healing game is because of the damage done to my definition of fun in specifically WoW (Where I have over a decade of experience as a more casual player) by those overthinking the endgame and those effects trickling down through feedback-motivated game design.

WoW used to have "shield healers" coexisting with "regen healers." The discipline priest of old involved shielding people pre-emptively from damage, with interim time largely spent throwing damage at the enemy that would translate into lower end raid wide "smart healing" that would go where it was needed. Various designs of the class would lean into one aspect of that equation or the other, until you get to where the spec is today: a class whose shields are flimsy and intended just to be an applicator of the temporary buff that would serve as a designated funnel for that "damage into healing" that used to be "smart" but now only goes where directed. The result is a high skill floor class that new players pick up to enjoy the concept and end up failing at often, wiping groups because they chose the "hard to play healer" that's apparently a god in the hands of "skilled players."

Anyway, that's not what I posted to focus on, my point in that paragraph about discipline is to say that "the shield healer had to die" for one big reason: Regen "restore hitpoint healers" in later game content felt encroached upon and got bored because "everyone in the raid is shielded so why do you need me?"

The path to ruin here is "bored healers," and the design intent to appease them.

I post this as a cautionary tale: FFXIV is seemingly about to codify the idea of "shield healers" and "regen healers." They are going to be in the same raids. If you don't want your classes twisted beyond recognition, if you like the flavor of your healing jobs as they will be defined in this new paradigm, give all the feedback you want, but beware the following lines of gripe:

-As a healer: "I'm bored, make my life more exciting!"

-As a regen healer: "The shield healers are taking my job away!"

Understand something, please, better than WoW's community ever could: It is everyone's job to make everyone else's job easier, and no more is that true than when it comes to your healer. A bored healer is a tank's greatest compliment, and I say this as a "career tank" who guns for that badge of honor of "I'm bored" from PUG healers.

If you want excitement, in my opinion, play a DPS. If you want to heal, literally everyone's better performance should lower your stress level. Healers looking to break that paradigm are bad for the game, because that's how you get modern discipline priests.

But most importantly to this thread's main thrust: For the love of all that is decent, if you like most of the healing paradigm we end up with, please, please, don't go down the "shield healers make me obsolete" rabbit hole. That is the path to stressed out healers, longer queues and overall healing shortages.

Let the healers "have the game." We need them. Let their life be easy. That goes for non-healers and healers alike. Think, before you give feedback, where it is to lead, because I can tell you where some of this feedback leads: To a place where healers and non healers are miserable, but the thrill seekers that should be playing DPS are happy!

Just my two cents. I for one live with trusts from the moment I hit 71 on a job, so this won't affect me much except for one time for each trial or maybe one time per raid, but just as a PSA, as someone who's looking forward to trying sage, please don't break this.

That's all I got. Thank you for reading!

[Kes13a]

We have always had a 'shield healer' type though, so its nothing exactly new in the greater scheme of things. Scholars, and one of the newer Astrologian healer aspects give shields.

I main healers and prefer whm, which in your example would be a 'regen healer'.

at zero point have I felt that I am made obsolete by the shield healers, and I hardly find life boring running with people because, shielded or not, the shields do not make someone invulnerable. in 4 person dungeons, there is only me either way, in 8 person raids or alliance raids, you are one of many, but still looking after your group primarily. either way, with people of many different play styles and ability, I always have something to contribute.

in all fairness, WoW's big issue has always been any kind of balance... with anything. FFxiv does not have that kind of issue. yeah, some things could be better, but having a healer (sage) that gives a god level shield... I somehow doubt will happen. I could be wrong, but, I dont see the developers doing that since they havent previously

[Omedon]

We have always had a 'shield healer' type though,

Thank you for mentioning this, it's something I meant to cover in the OP but it was already long enough.

You are right of course, but the design going into Endwalker seems to be that they are leaning into that designation rather officially and rather hard, and I felt the topic worth highlighting just in case!

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Thank you for mentioning this, it's something I meant to cover in the OP but it was already long enough.

You are right of course, but the design going into Endwalker seems to be that they are leaning into that designation rather officially and rather hard, and I felt the topic worth highlighting just in case!

It's always been an official designation, now they just have 4 healers to split them.

You either went whm/sch, whm/ast, or ast/sch, with one having shields in all instances.

[Kes13a]

Thank you for mentioning this, it's something I meant to cover in the OP but it was already long enough.

You are right of course, but the design going into Endwalker seems to be that they are leaning into that designation rather officially and rather hard, and I felt the topic worth highlighting just in case!

I am waiting to see what they do with Ast though, since I think they are pulling shields from them. technically not a HUGE deal, but be interesting to see if they do anything with diurnal

[Omedon]

It's always been an official designation, now they just have 4 healers to split them.

You either went whm/sch, whm/ast, or ast/sch, with one having shields in all instances.

Well if you guys have already come to this point and opted not to break it, that's wonderful to hear! I'm only now getting into leveling healers and it popped into my head that "oh no, we're getting an honest to goodness shield healer in Endwalker and they might do the thing that killed fun disc priests!"

If that's already been averted, that gives me relief, so thank you for that assurance!

[VirusOnline]

A good shield healer will know to only to shield for incoming attacks and allow regen healing to do the rest.
Shield healer in WoW is not the same as shield healer here. In WoW, all you did was spam as much heals you could when the boss goes insane.

In XIV, we have a timeframe and timestamps. We know when and almost how much damage will be going out.
The excitement for healer in this game is that we can optimize to a point in end game raiding that we know exactly when to shield, when to regen. Anything else is overhealing.

[Kes13a]

in a lot of ways, the shield gives the other healer a bit of time to lay on a heal, because people will -always- stand in things.

in 4 person dungeons, one may have a big heal, and a heal with a regen, while the other has a big heal and a heal with a shield. unless they change that, I do not forsee a lot of "obsolete" issues. the shields, even applied as part of a direct heal, are bigger if a crit is involved, but they dont last forever and really, at the upper levels, may be good for a single hit (if that)

if I recall, the disc shields were rather substantial

[ZedxKayn]

Shielding is straight up avoided because regens or raw healing always have better potencies.
Diurnal AST is better than Nocturnal even with a WHM and SCH's shields aren't cast unless absolutely necessary or during downtime.

[VirusOnline]

in a lot of ways, the shield gives the other healer a bit of time to lay on a heal, because people will -always- stand in things.

in 4 person dungeons, one may have a big heal, and a heal with a regen, while the other has a big heal and a heal with a shield. unless they change that, I do not forsee a lot of "obsolete" issues. the shields, even applied as part of a direct heal, are bigger if a crit is involved, but they dont last forever and really, at the upper levels, may be good for a single hit (if that)

if I recall, the disc shields were rather substantial

They scaled it terribly.
Completely unusable before 50 and then it was god after 50. Very strange. And that's where WoW's balance issue comes into play.