Dear Square Enix, do something with GCD healing please.

[Saefinn]

I do feel like the biggest shame with healing is that we don't typically get full use of our kit. And I know that if I end up playing SGE optimally then I'm going to be mostly oGCD focused and that would in effect make skills like "Toxicon" rarely used. Otherwise, I think Toxicon could be a step in the right direction and would fit with SGE's theme and that's where your DPS aids your healing, if you had a great DPS incentive on Toxicon, you will find that your SGE's will not play "how low can you go" to optimize their heals, because their optimisation then will be tied behind keeping people shielded...which I am pretty sure is exactly what the devs want people to do with SGE to fulfill this pure/shield healer relationship. All those people complaining that healers don't heal enough and risk too much and let people die for that extra DPS will love having SGEs.

And then they can add more incentives to other jobs. Maybe other ways of pushing DPS potential out of GCD's. Because at the end of the day, we don't use GCD's as much because they're an overall DPS loss.

Alternatively, if the incoming damage was big and frequent enough they we could burn through our oGCD's more and use GCD's more to complement them, that could work too. I think this is the case for those still learning to play and optimise the job. Like me trying to improve on SGE and with me starting out, my GCD's were complementary. However, this change would make it harder for low end healers if done to a degree higher end healers are engaged.

That said, tying a DPS incentive to using them I think is going to incentivise people regardless of skill then & the better option. And the beauty? They don't have to add new DPS kit to do this, because those heals end up being treated as part of the person's "DPS mode".

Then oGCD's might be better in tighter situations, or complementary to your GCD's, offer mobility when needed, can be weaved when needed or be used to handle specific mechanics they're useful for. This would be a fuller use of the kit IMO and lends to a busier feel and maybe less of a single button spam for DPS mode as of present.

I think having dual purposes to certain abilities too is a way of getting continuous use of your full kit, I remember back in ShB I did write up a SCH concept that would not add a single new ability, yet through offering certain abilities more dual-purpose, it was able to make use of a wider range of skills during downtime and having your healing kit ready for your up time. SGE somewhat uses similar ideas just not to the same extent I was suggesting, but it was a Eukrasia-like mechanic.