Skipping Healer Slide Again?

[Rilifane]

My WHM and SCH are both 80. I don't really play SCH but I do play WHM and I honestly don't see the issue. I always play with random players so I never know what to expect with each group. Sounds like complaints from statics. You also admitted to causing the problems yourself in this post.

Playing well isn't a problem and has nothing to do with statics or randoms. Good players are good players.
It makes existing problems more apparent because casually playing something isn't a good benchmark for whether a class is well designed or not. Healers function. That's not the same as being well designed or having interesting gameplay.

[Mortex]

My WHM and SCH are both 80. I don't really play SCH but I do play WHM and I honestly don't see the issue. I always play with random players so I never know what to expect with each group. Sounds like complaints from statics. You also admitted to causing the problems yourself in this post.

Yes but causing the problem myself because I wanna play the job better sounds already so dumb. And even in random groups fights are boring as hell as healer you either have a healer who doesn’t heal or heals that spam heal when the party has lost 1 % hp. Also I don’t find it fun to scratch the same player of the ground who dies too all mechanics.

[FoxCh40s]

Playing well isn't a problem and has nothing to do with statics or randoms. Good players are good players.
It makes existing problems more apparent because casually playing something isn't a good benchmark for whether a class is well designed or not. Healers function. That's not the same as being well designed or having interesting gameplay.

I always hate thus arguement. "They function fine, what's the issue?"

I hate hate hate HATE that arguement, as if the same thing was done to us as DPS, the whole game would be shut down and there would be profuse apology statements, and massive overtime and overhaul to fix it, and a huge PR train to announce it.

With Healers, we get Jack SHIT and zero care.

[Allegor]

I always hate thus arguement. "They function fine, what's the issue?"

I hate hate hate HATE that arguement, as if the same thing was done to us as DPS, the whole game would be shut down and there would be profuse apology statements, and massive overtime and overhaul to fix it, and a huge PR train to announce it.

With Healers, we get Jack SHIT and zero care.

The argument is even worse considering even dps jobs (namely MCH and MNK) have had cases where they're good in numbers but the jobs themselves just feel 'blegh' to play, and even then hesitated to give them overhauls, controversial as they'd be, because they were "fine as is"

That said, I think now more than ever they've gotten the most negative feedback regarding healers so maybe, hopefully, finally, they get acknowledged and addressed.

[Daws]

I'm not getting my hopes up. I would love to be surprised, though. Make me excited to play healer again!

[KDSilver]

What bet ?

We already know the answer.

[Mortex]

The argument is even worse considering even dps jobs (namely MCH and MNK) have had cases where they're good in numbers but the jobs themselves just feel 'blegh' to play, and even then hesitated to give them overhauls, controversial as they'd be, because they were "fine as is"

That said, I think now more than ever they've gotten the most negative feedback regarding healers so maybe, hopefully, finally, they get acknowledged and addressed.

The Problem is they at least try to fix these somehow and yes maybe they didn’t do a good job but they still did try. Healer are just not getting touched. Like they made absolutely bad Lily’s into something you can use and that was badly necessary that being the only change the entire time. Sch got fluffed really hard 1 fairy ai being dumb as bricks and the ghosting and then the audacity too take away energy drain when it was clear that you don’t even need the stacks for healing in 90 % of the content. They killed astros job thematic when they had so much possibility’s too build on that (like saving heals in a time loop so you can use them when you need it like horoscope but also with single heals and card buffs maybe). And yes the also have no clue what too do with monk since 3 expansions

[Saefinn]

I really hope they don't, but I'm so pessimistic about the state of healers in the game that I am expecting disappointment. I can see potential in the slithers of information we've got, but I also can see what direction that might go in too, where it's more-or-less the same problems we have now.

My wish:
Splitting out healers into "shield" and "pure" healer concepts allows them to address a balance issue that's existed since Heavensward by applying a concept that worked well in 2.0 and building an evolution on that for current day content. A situation where Scholar only needs to be balanced against Sage and White Mage against Astrologian and this then gives room for more interesting forms of gameplay for healers because now it's easier to balance, because before SCH had to be balanced against WHM, Di Ast and Noct AST and the same principle across all healers. And the removal of Nocturnal Sect not only accommodates this balance, but allows AST to grow its own identity more as a healer, rather than fulfilling "WHM mode" and "SCH mode" mentalities. The stat crunch they're also doing helps address some of this balance where maybe healers don't feel like they're spending 80% of a dungeon DPSing.

My expectation:
The distinction of "Shield" and "Pure" healer is superficial and only makes a difference at high-end content. They'll make us heal more for high end content but all other content remains the same dull repetitive and uninspiring experience. My basis of this assumption is partly founded in that they still consider Scholar a "shield" healer, when it is far more dependent on oGCD's than it is on shields. Its priority for shields is low when it used to be high and felt like its own healing style. I expect this design philosophy to carry over on Sage, which will at least have the novelty of being new and fresh. Sage will be an adaptation of Noct Sect. AST's sacrifice means it gets closer and closer to being like WHM. They'll try to get rid of Energy Drain again.

I end up saying "I'm maining DNC" again, the later switch to being a semi-healer main again so me and a friend who also hates the states of healing can tag team, so one of us is a healer and the other DPS and swap out.

I also predict that we get the repeat of "wait and see" every time wee hit a goalpost. Granted at this stage, it is kinda valid but at the same time, you can get the pessimism. But once we do know what we're getting, I don't find it applies.

[Anhra]

The whole "shield healer" and "pure/regen healer" announcement already destroyed any hopes i had for any decent healer changes.

Squeenix isnt going to reinvent the wheel on Healers with those changes. They should focus more on individuality on Jobs, rather than category everything.

Mark my words, before we know it, they will pull off this stunt on tanks next.

[Saefinn]

The whole "shield healer" and "pure/regen healer" announcement already destroyed any hopes i had for any decent healer changes.

Squeenix isnt going to reinvent the wheel on Healers with those changes. They should focus more on individuality on Jobs, rather than category everything.

Mark my words, before we know it, they will pull off this stunt on tanks next.

I don't think necessarily a "reinvent the wheel" but an attempt to return to a design philosophy that used to work quite well in this game. During 2.0 the shield and pure healing had a dichotomy and complemented each other well with SCH's shield healing still working fine in solo heal set ups, but due to shield stacking not being a thing the only problems really occurred in a SCH/SCH set up, which still worked, but weren't ideal. AST was then design to fit into that dichotomy with WHM and SCH modes, but it became a mess to balance and in them improving SCH's pure healing they've gradually made this whole thing not work as it should and it's a mess, especially as SCH became OP and AST treaded on WHM's toes a lot.

Their direction since has seemed to favour the idea of having healer jobs be more rounded. I think they could then take it in a direction where all healing jobs are well rounded and embrace other parts of their identity, so WHM could be designed to feel strong and powerful, SCH could be designed to feel tactical and AST to feel technical. But they failed to take that opportunity in ShB and just made them 'eh' with their identities feeling watered down.

My biggest worry is that it's going to be a mix of both. They're going to try and return to this time where healer dichotomy was a thing because they know that worked but not be willing to give shield healers more dependence on their shields...which will mean said dichotomy won't work.