Yoshi-P: "If you want more engaging content, go play Ultimate"

[IdowhatIwant]

Their philosophy regarding healers is why people don't like playing it outside of high end duties. Hell, even in the latter, once you get past the prog stage where you were picking up mistakes left and right and head to farm stage where you end up dpsing more than healing, you start feeling underwhelmed again. Their refusal to try to meet even one-quarter of the way with healing and dpsing tools is why the role becomes the most unappealing of them all.

You know things get really ironic when people avoid the role not because it's a responsibility like they usually are in other mmos but because it's boring.

Sadly there philosophy is actually that healers should be healing and there dps is negligible. Yet the content does not reflect this philosophy now. Healers or required to dps in savage content +. Tanks can now heal themselves through an entire dungeon with no need for a healer. IMO they are slowly killing there game by not taking the same level of risks as they used to. Hell with them adding trust to the MSQ from 1 - 90 there will be no need for parties anymore this will just become a single player subscription based game. They are about to kill the game TBH.

[MsQi]

He said that it was the beginning of the expansion when things are intentionally easier and that there would be adjustments as the patches come out.

[Deceptus]

He said that it was the beginning of the expansion when things are intentionally easier and that there would be adjustments as the patches come out.

They've been saying that for years now, at least 2 expansions, and it's has yet to happen. If anything, the problem has gotten worse over the years and healers are being sidelined more.

[HisShadowX]

They've been saying that for years now, at least 2 expansions, and it's has yet to happen. If anything, the problem has gotten worse over the years and healers are being sidelined more.

I think they know the moment the make an entire expansion hard like World of Warcraft's CATA people will start fleeing. Also making the joke race real and making the next expansion a disney movie to make fun of the customers who wanted things easy helped more people deciding to drop their subs.

Ulimate is for like you said the 1% of players and no one cares about that content. Trying to get a random group for this content as a Tank or Healer is impossible. You have to be in a guild or have friends into BDSM and hardcore content who like that sort of thing.

[ASkellington]

I think they know the moment the make an entire expansion hard like World of Warcraft's CATA people will start fleeing. Also making the joke race real and making the next expansion a disney movie to make fun of the customers who wanted things easy helped more people deciding to drop their subs.

Ulimate is for like you said the 1% of players and no one cares about that content. Trying to get a random group for this content as a Tank or Healer is impossible. You have to be in a guild or have friends into BDSM and hardcore content who like that sort of thing.

I mean, SE acts like we're asking for Savage content in dungeons.

I've said that all expert dungeons in Shb, for instance, should be the same level of difficulty as Mt. Gulg and Amaurot. Both leveling MSQ required dungeons and ones that were CERTAINLY more challenging than Heroes' Gauntlet and the laughable Pagalthan.

For EW they've gotten WORSE in their experts. I studied the bosses in the Lunar dungeon and I need to record it to verify but the time between unavoidable AOE damage and tank busters on the last two bosses can CERTAINLY be reduced its laughable.

We aren't asking for much as far as increased healing goes.

[SeverianLyonesse]

increased healing

The problem with "increased healing" requests is that there is a wide disparity in how non-healers play. Between not gearing up properly, not popping mitigation, and not respecting mechanics, it is too easy for the average casual player to keel over if they aren't bothering to learn how to play. And FF XIV is designed around the accessible notion that players really don't need to learn how to play the game.

While I would like to think that we could balance some X amount of more damage to heal, the reality is that it is *extremely* probable that any more damage would result in on average more wipes, which in turn would result in more conflicts between players, more complaints lodged at the game for slowing grinding down, and more players quitting the game for it being too difficult/toxic. The way the game is designed now is to create robust party composition by having so many redundancies that it is difficult for players *not* to clear as long as they have either a decent tank *or* healer and ideally at least one decent DPS.

And here's the rub. I don't mind wipes (most of the time), overcoming them shows character and cameraderie. I don't play content unless I am prepared to have to work for it, and when I do have to tap out I generally recognize that it due to *my* preparedness, not my parties'. So I think the game's community *could* benefit from being less grind-oriented and more okay with slowed down content. I think the game's community *could* benefit from being encouraged to communicate more.

But I also recognize that this is a pipe dream for two reasons. The first is that the majority of people who engage in online content generally want to avoid social responsibility, so the toxicity is never going to go away no matter how easy or difficult the content is. And the second is that, even if toxicity were minimized and players adulted up and learned to communicate and respect each other better, any increase in difficulty would still result in a drop-off of subscriptions because players would either get frustrated at not being able to do the mechanics, or simply wouldn't have the sort of low-brainpower destressing activity they might be expecting from XIV.

And I recognize that is huge amount of defeatism to infer from just wanting to do more healing, but it is the reality we are facing. FFXIV's success has been soundly defined by *reducing* complexity and difficulty. The game it is now just doesn't want to overburden players with strategy, at least the sort that requires optimal use of abilities. Instead it has decided to *downplay* the importance of which buttons players are clicking in casual content, and instead *upplaying* a more visceral, visual, and direct form of gameplay that is effectively just attacking and dodging. And while I definitely have doubts as to the longevity of this paradigm, they do appear to be sticking it for the immediate future because it *sells*.

[Deceptus]

I think they know the moment the make an entire expansion hard like World of Warcraft's CATA people will start fleeing.

Difficulty and engagement aren't the same thing.

Content can be easy and engaging. Pressing the exact same button in 90% of content from level 4 to lvl 90 isn't engaging.

[ForteNightshade]

He said that it was the beginning of the expansion when things are intentionally easier and that there would be adjustments as the patches come out.

We already know their adjustments. They'll be exactly the same as they were in Shadowbringers: incredibly easy outside Savage prog.

He still dismissed the primary complaint that healers are bored and basically said to go do Ultimate if they still find things too easy. It doesn't actually address there are virtually no healing requirements in 90% of the content and that healers have one button to spam. Even in casual content where there's basically no tank mechanics, they can at least full back on a simplified rotation. Healers don't even have that. Outside Savage and Ultimate, they have absolutely nothing. For example sake, I got Copied Factory the other day and pressed Dosis II 513 times. That's ten more than almost all my healing combined. You wanna tell me the upcoming 24 man is going to be any different? If so then I have lakefront property in Arizona to sell you.

[SeverianLyonesse]

If so then I have lakefront property in Arizona to sell you.

Random aside, there are many man-made lakefront communities in Arizona.

[MisterNublet]

He said that it was the beginning of the expansion when things are intentionally easier and that there would be adjustments as the patches come out.

Spams malefic harder.

They would have to rework the combat system and move away from timeline mechanics if they want to make healing truly difficult and engaging in this game. Even in Ultimate content, healers spend less time healing and more time spamming their one dps ability.