Should healers have DPS burst phases?

[Irenia]

I've been thinking to myself for awhile about the monotony of healer gameplay as you and your group outskill content and I'm actually thinking that this might be a good idea.

High tier fights are often described as a dance, which I find slightly lacking as a metaphor. More accurate would be to call the fights musical performances where you dance, yes, but also play music. And your job is your instrument.

Using this metaphor, we can view the rotation as a song, lining up buff windows as harmonizing, and boss damage as more improvisational sections. As long as you do some combination of healing and mitigation, the song goes on. But outside of those sections, what are healers doing? What 'song' are they playing?

There have been arguments whether or not 1,2,3 is actually better than 1,1,1... and I think it is - I've levelled low level LNC during a time where some level ranges only had you spam a single button. It definitely feels worse than having even a single combo. But that is just a baseline rhythm - it won't do much in the end. For DPS and tanks, they are building up to the crescendo that is the burst phase... and perhaps healers should join them.

The burst phase need not be complicated - we aren't DPS after all, it just needs to break up the pattern for a good 12 seconds or so. But healers have a special consideration - they still need to heal. Perhaps preshielding before burst becomes a thing. Perhaps healing skills unique to burst windows appear. Whatever the case, no matter how a burst phase is achieved, this break from the base rhythm would be useful.

Now this is just some thoughts, so feel free to critique if this is just a brain fart. I'm just one hoping that monotony isn't inevitable.

[Acece]

the way other games let healers have bursts phases is that they have a way to dps and heal during that burst phase. For disc priest they had to set up all their atonements before the mech happened. In FFXIV it probably would be something like pressing a cool down to heal through damage or the spells themselves would heal like assize, earthly star, or the big laser safe is getting.

[Roeshel]

Yes, they should and they already have one burst window with WHM. I think Misery is actually a DPS increase if you use it when you have Mind pot active. It most definitely is a DPS increase if you land a direct crit hit. With BiS it is somewhere around 220k-250k, the numbers are good. White mage would benefit greatly from a buff that secures that the next attack will be a direct crit. I would trade it instantly for Presence of Mind.
For dungeons, you can use lilies instead of Holy to get a blood lily during the pull. However, most dungeons don't even require a lot of healing so you can use them before the pull. Misery + Assize = 1k AoE burst potency that other healers cannot match and most DPS will struggle to out dps you even if they are decent. Potency wise that combo equals slightly more than 7 normal Holy hits and whenever I play Scholar or AST I wish I had something similar.

I am pretty sure that SE has added additional burst phases to the other healers as well. For AST, the new Gravity looks like something that fits being used against ST. If it is a spell that's available only during the self-buff that consumes the aligned seals it would be great.

Sage already has something that should be working as a burst phase with their Adder's Sting resource, though I am not sure how exactly because the numbers don't add up.

Scholar most probably has Chain Strategem expanded on or at least I hope so. The job trailer didn't reveal much so there is that. I personally don't like the fact that we are getting a new oGCD that is not interacting with the gauge. It might do something different once broken but we will see. I am expecting the new AoE to hit hard if they are not going to give them a burst window.

[Pyitoechito]

I don't think healers need a "burst phase" per se. You can look at a job like Black Mage for an example of a job that just flows and their "burst" is just using one or two cooldowns to increase damage during raid alignment.

Have a healer with a burst phase would be neat, though (with Acete's suggestion of it being a heal and damage burst). Like, if Sage had a 2 min CD that augmented their kit for 15s, but also added AoE healing to every DPS skill for the duration of a raid burst window.

The main problem is there would still be the monotony during downtime between bursts.

[VictoriaLuv]

Hello! Sage ... if want to burst dps here your healer Cardia Phew phew

Lol play sage

[Roeshel]

Hello! Sage ... if want to burst dps here your healer Cardia Phew phew

Lol play sage

Cardia has nothing to do with burst DPS.

[Acece]

Sadly cardia is actually really, really boring. It's not converting damage into healing it's just a flat pot every gcd which makes it way less interesting.
A really simple way of doing it to whm would have a 60 sec CD that makes your next 3-4 spells instant cast at the end it would buff holy by a certain amount of pot and add a heal component to it.

[Nintendroid]

But healers have a special consideration - they still need to heal.

I think that if abilities that are cycled through during a DPS burst phase did both damage and healing (I know it sounds broken or unfair) and the difficulty to attain said burst phase was pretty high, it might balance out that which is gained from the burst phase.

[Gemina]

Any phase where a healer can freely DPS is technically a burst phase, and healers have a very interesting approach to their burst phases because their initiation and duration are not in fixed windows of combat.

I know that statement isn't going to sit well with many of you, but when comparing kits between Healer, Tank, and DPS roles; there is actually very little a healer has to worry about when the raid's buff windows are open. They don't have an array of high potency skills that they need to try and fit in there, and some abilities like WHM's Misery can and will miss those windows due to the passive nature of acquiring lilies.

That doesn't mean they are completely left out. WHM has Presence of Mind, and most WHMs will use this inside burst windows to churn out more offensive GCDs. Divination+LightSpeed+Lady of Crowns into Gravity spam on dungeon trash is a very satisfying burst window for AST. And SCH is kinda screwed here, but yeah.

To give healers a burst phase more in line with how they work for DPS jobs will likely not happen. That is taking the healing role in a direction they are clearly avoiding. I think they should go with rewarding healers with offensive abilities, and healers can aim to get those skills ready so they can get higher returns when used inside raid buff windows. That's about as burst-y as it's going to get I think.

[Calysto]

I think the main point of a "burst phase" has to be accumulating ressources for it.
Right now, it's mostly "wait for the CD" and toss your lily/cards/stratagem ; then your normal kit for 15s.
There is almost no synergy for attack (and not much for heal either).

As for sustaining the party during healer dps burst phase, yeah ; just take it from SGE I guess : have WHM weave 3 stack of assize, AST stooting star regen or SCH pixie mass heal