Macrocosmos completely invalidating the P3S heal check is stupid

[Ironthorne]

The fact that SE refuses to adjust the mechanic or how the skill works at all can mean either they don't care enough about healers' balance to fix it, or it's working as intended and it will happen again. I don't like it either way.

[pinkbubblegum]

This is the same as Lillybell during FoF though haha. That's 4 GCDs your bell is covering for an entire area every fountain soak that neither healer has to do anything other than DPS xD

Only thing Lily can't do is shield for the next 2 Scorches but like honestly, one job having an advantage over one part of the fight is fine for me.

[Semirhage]

This is the same as Lillybell during FoF though haha. That's 4 GCDs your bell is covering for an entire area every fountain soak that neither healer has to do anything other than DPS xD

Only thing Lily can't do is shield for the next 2 Scorches but like honestly, one job having an advantage over one part of the fight is fine for me.

So...why does Benediction, which is a far, far weaker, jankier ability than Macrocosmos, have the same cooldown? Why does Astrologian get AOE Benediction plus damage on the same cooldown as Benediction? Could it be because healer balance is in the spot it's been for literal years, i.e. Astro has a whole flying boatload of free healing, infinite MP, higher total damage output than a "selfish" job, buffs, mobility, and a partridge in a pear tree?

Awful design decisions aside, the balance within the healer role has always been pretty bad ever since Astro was introduced to the game. You don't have jobs complementing one another with different strengths in different places. You have one or two jobs that can do everything extremely well with zero weaknesses, and one or two jobs that are strictly inferior in almost every single category except maybe one or two. That's not balance.

[pinkbubblegum]

So...why does Benediction, which is a far, far weaker, jankier ability than Macrocosmos, have the same cooldown? Why does Astrologian get AOE Benediction plus damage on the same cooldown as Benediction? Could it be because healer balance is in the spot it's been for literal years, i.e. Astro has a whole flying boatload of free healing, infinite MP, higher total damage output than a "selfish" job, buffs, mobility, and a partridge in a pear tree?

Awful design decisions aside, the balance within the healer role has always been pretty bad ever since Astro was introduced to the game. You don't have jobs complementing one another with different strengths in different places. You have one or two jobs that can do everything extremely well with zero weaknesses, and one or two jobs that are strictly inferior in almost every single category except maybe one or two. That's not balance.

I'm not saying WHM isn't in a bad place right now, because it is, given that it's being punished for even using any of its GCD heals (including Lilies) without being given many other ogcds to remedy that but for me to look at this thread and be like "Oh yeah man Death's Toll should just be taken out" isn't something I agree with haha.

[eagledorf]

I'm not saying Death Toll should just be removed, lol. I'm saying if SE is unwilling to fix the mechanic so Macrocosmos is as weak as all other healing skills then they should just remove it because it's not doing anything by being in the fight.

What, the party has to sit through this whole 20s song and dance just to set up a mechanic that is handled with one button? That's just dumb.

[Semirhage]

I'm not saying WHM isn't in a bad place right now, because it is, given that it's being punished for even using any of its GCD heals (including Lilies) without being given many other ogcds to remedy that but for me to look at this thread and be like "Oh yeah man Death's Toll should just be taken out" isn't something I agree with haha.

I don't think Death's Toll should necessarily be taken out. I think Astro having AOE Benediction is complete BS and the ability should be fixed so it doesn't generate a fifty gajillion potency heal in response to mechanics that overkill the party and then healblock them for flavor reasons.

WHM needs a fundamental redesign, but it's never gonna get it. It's been horribly designed for several expansions now, and the fact that the other healers keep getting tools that allow them to continuously do whatever they want, for free, has backed Square into an ugly corner. If you fix WHM the easy way and just hand over oGCDs, well now you're "stepping on everyone else's toes". The whole role needs the table flipped. The amount of zero cost abilities half the role has makes them much stronger than the other half, in pretty intractable ways. Strengths and weaknesses are only fun if you don't have a class or two in the role that go "weaknesses? What are those?"

[Liam_Harper]

I don't think Death's Toll should necessarily be taken out. I think Astro having AOE Benediction is complete BS and the ability should be fixed so it doesn't generate a fifty gajillion potency heal in response to mechanics that overkill the party and then healblock them for flavor reasons.

And then what? The Devs continue to ignore WHM and the Sylphies go "hey, WHM is ok in p3s now!" and it continues being the most popular class on all fights, solidifying its position as being "fine".

I actually disagree on this one, because as ridiculously good as Macrocosmos is, it is a 90 capstone ability and at least one healer is getting some nice toys. I don't think asking the devs to take away toys from other healers is a good way to get attention for fixing WHM. It's sort of like when some people here became fixated on nerfing tank heals, despite the fact it'd solve none of our own issues or the fact bosses hit like wet noodles.

Death's Toll and the fact it made WHM the least popular healer on a fight for once is actually a tiny spark of hope in that here's a mechanic that requires some heavy healing and the toolkit of the supposed "healing powerhouse" is falling flat. Rather than ask the devs to nerf AST and call it a day, I'd rather draw attention to the actual proof of WHM falling flat on heavy healing.

[AnotherPerson]

So...why does Benediction, which is a far, far weaker, jankier ability than Macrocosmos, have the same cooldown? Why does Astrologian get AOE Benediction plus damage on the same cooldown as Benediction? Could it be because healer balance is in the spot it's been for literal years, i.e. Astro has a whole flying boatload of free healing, infinite MP, higher total damage output than a "selfish" job, buffs, mobility, and a partridge in a pear tree?

Awful design decisions aside, the balance within the healer role has always been pretty bad ever since Astro was introduced to the game. You don't have jobs complementing one another with different strengths in different places. You have one or two jobs that can do everything extremely well with zero weaknesses, and one or two jobs that are strictly inferior in almost every single category except maybe one or two. That's not balance.

Because the general level of healers can't use macrocosmos as a benediction button to save their life in majority of the content because they have to start being aware. Delayed heals? I still see ASTs using Benefic II without touching their oGCD heals because they start panicking when everyone suddenly loses a chunk of HP immediately. Sad but true.

I'm still of the mind that AST doesn't need to get its heals nerfed. If they do, they might as well reduce button bloat instead first before nerfing a unique skill like this one. I'd rather they bring WHM to the same level as AST for the "Pure Healers" to be competitive, because as it is now, WHM needs a decent amount of healing redesign to be competitive.

Heck, all healer toolkits need a big re-examining. I'm fine with tanks getting more self-heals and party heals, but it leaves healers with only one or two offensive skills in a weird place still.

[Silver-Strider]

Healer balance is in the gutter this expansion

WHM's MP economy is in shambles while also being the weakest healer
AST single handedly invalidating Healer checks with a touch of a button.
The nerfs to Energy Drain to disincentivize its usage in ShB have been completely undone with the cast time changes and is once again in contention with SCH's healing toolkit, all while still being the most jank class in the game.
Heal checks in general have become so lackluster we have people running dungeons and clearing extreme primals without healers and even soloing still relevant normal 8 man.

I left ESO because Healers in that game were unnecessary and balance was garbage. Now it looks like FFXIV is following a similar mindset and it sucks.

[Risvertasashi]

I left ESO because Healers in that game were unnecessary and balance was garbage. Now it looks like FFXIV is following a similar mindset and it sucks.

It's this that bugs me the most.

Healer balance is the worst it's been for a pretty long time yet the devs are silent and make inscrutable changes. But what bothers me even more is just that healers are becoming so much less necessary to have and I don't think the clock is going to turn back on that one.