Openly admitting to ignoring the players

[Elladie]

I know that I have said - possibly ad nauseam - that I continue to enjoy playing my healers, and I do. But yesterday I was informed (in a thread that seems to have been deleted) that I couldn't possibly have been playing SCH for 8 years as I claimed because of my running commentary of healing a level 80 dungeon sounded 'panicked'.

It is very true that people like me assume 'healer haters' on the forums are belittling, criticising and blaming us for their discontent with WHM and SCH, so it was very encouraging to read some more reflective posts here that recognise this.

I utterly and completely agree with the idea that the skill floor should remain as it is whilst endeavours are made to raise the skill ceiling. My own raiding days are long over, but I love this game which I've played since 1.0, and I don't want to be excluded from it because I'm getting old. I turned 60 this year, my reaction times are significantly longer than they used to be, and I have to use a mouse to click skills because of pain in my hands (my fingers can no longer extend across a keyboard). Any substantial rise in the skill floor - or in the difficulty of mandatory content - would exclude me from continuing my journey. I already only do content with friends/level all my jobs with Trusts/Squadrons because I don't want to be screamed at by a random person in a roulette because I took a few seconds too long to react.

It's rare I mess up, actually, because the current healing set-up is fine for me, but I understand that it can be boring for someone playing at a higher level. What upsets me - and often drives me away from the forums - is posters claiming that people like me are the problem. We're not lazy! We're just less competent for whatever reason (older age in my case) I don't doubt that there are a few lazies out there, but I haven't found them to be in the majority. Be that as it may, generalisations about poor play and the reasons for it can be very hurtful. Yoshi P wants the game to be inclusive, and so far he is accomplishing that. Bashing him for it causes the rest of us - the less competent hordes - to feel attacked and defensive. As a few, more reflective posters in this thread have already pointed out.

I enjoy my SCH and WHM. Maybe they are intended to be the 'poor man's' healers and AST and Sage more challenging. I'm cool with that. I have levelled all my jobs, even the ones I don't enjoy (because I want the Amaro mount) but I haven't inflicted my piss-poor SAM on any unsuspecting random, I've levelled it entirely with Squadrons and Trusts. I don't need to play it again once I've finished the last two levels. It's fine not to play a job you don't enjoy. I used to love BLM, it was my main in the Coils part of ARR but I've hated it since HW. So I stopped playing it. If you hate the current iteration of SCH, maybe don't play it? Or encourage a raising of the skill ceiling (as ty_taurus has done) without phrasing it in such a way as to denigrate and belittle a large portion of the healer player base.

We're not lazy. We're just not as skilled as you are. And I have no objection to getting my DoTs back either, just so long as you understand my DPS score won't be very impressive