Healers need an overhaul

[LestatXero]

I have a great respect for FFXIV and the devs that create it but I feel like the design of healers in this game is kind of ridiculous. Why is it that healers are the only role that get an extremely lackluster DPS rotation yet are still required to contribute significant amounts of DPS to clear difficult content? Like, in what world is a 1-button spammed DPS rotation okay for ANY JOB in PVE content? Well, after playing this game for 8 years now and weathering all the various changes to the jobs I honestly think we've hit the point where healers seriously need to be redesigned.

I believe that by redesigning healers to have simple DPS rotations not unlike tanks that more people will be attracted to the role which will boost the overall health of the game. This can be done in two steps: consolidate useless healing actions and add simple rotations that easily tie back into healing. Consolidating actions is very simple to begin with: there's no need for a cure 1/2 or a medica 1/2 when these abilities should simply evolve into higher forms. All the healers have redundancy in their healing kits that could be streamlined to make room for a few DPS buttons which could even add some of these abilities back in some way, shape, or form.

After this, each healer could have a simple DPS rotation that ties back into their healing in some way like increasing their healing potency or granting them a free heal, etc, in the reverse way to how using lilies grants a bloody lily at the end to restore lost DPS. And in the spirit of EW, they could even make it so that using your healing abilities don't break these combos so there's no reason NOT to heal when you really need it but also a reason to optimize your DPS to increase healing. But most importantly, it doesn't have to be overly complicated; just more than the one attack and one dot we've had for a while now. My mind is exploding with countless ideas about how this could be done inside of the current game's framework but I'd love the opinions of others on the matter.

[QooEr]

before the tired trite "if you want to dps play a dps"
healers have barely anything to heal. moreover, even if they DID add more things to heal, they will inevitably end in the same spot when they get accustommed to a duty. you only learn a fight once, but youre expected to farm/re do things a lot.


the game is also moving more towards a solo experience. unless the npcs are programmed to fail mechanics every 2 seconds, anyone trying to heal in this environment is going to fall asleep. doing the msq and solo duties as a healer is already extremely dull.

edit: exhibit case A

Here I present you the new healer tutorial in FFXIV :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlc-...4M_18NhpPR3ojs

[Insertusernamehere]

I think they intentionally made it.. any key you press heals, you can't make any bad choice if all choices same :3

[SeverianLyonesse]

After this, each healer could have a simple DPS rotation that ties back into their healing in some way like increasing their healing potency or granting them a free heal, etc, in the reverse way to how using lilies grants a bloody lily at the end to restore lost DPS. And in the spirit of EW, they could even make it so that using your healing abilities don't break these combos so there's no reason NOT to heal when you really need it but also a reason to optimize your DPS to increase healing. But most importantly, it doesn't have to be overly complicated; just more than the one attack and one dot we've had for a while now. My mind is exploding with countless ideas about how this could be done inside of the current game's framework but I'd love the opinions of others on the matter.

There are so many options they could open up healer DPS rotations with, but taking your idea, it's a no-brainer:

* AST - cards proc DPS spells.
* SGE - have more heal abilities generate addersting and have more spells to spend addersting on.
* SCH - bring back Miasma/Bane, maybe have a regen associated with it.
* WHM - Just give them more nukes. Quake, Tornado, Flood. WHM go kaboom. WHM don't need heal tie-ins.

[Alaray]

I'd love a more involved DPS rotation for healers, once my group last tier in ShB got their bearings the role began to really feel so dull and uninteresting unless a Catastrophe Level Situation occurred. Because -- Recovery? Fun, but rare to get to do. Blind progression as a healer? Fun, but you only get that round once. Bad, messy groups on healer? Amazing, though even in PF they slowly become rare (and, to be fair, most healers in PF don't know what to do when a group is struggling and tend to just instantly wipe themselves no matter how save-able a run might be).

With how rare those far more involved moments of gameplay feel, from using a healing kit to make it all work out, the vast (vast) vast majority of the time you're just kinda there. You hit Broil, or whatever your class equivalent is. You use an OGCD. You broil. And every so often you hit your DoT. It feels so... stale after like... an hour of doing it (and is why I quit the role the moment I got the chance to).

It just feels like a caster without anything cool to cast or strategy to think about except... glare/broil/malefic/whatever sage's is. Your huge, massive healing kit just feels very Overloaded with what the fights put you up against (maybe it's a different feeling in Ultimate Content, but even then TEA's been the current Ulti for... how... long... ?).

I can't say I have bonafide ideas for How to Specifically Change Them, but the role feeling so lackluster and uninteresting has kind of been on my mind for a long while now (not to mention all of the people I know, sans very, very few, who tend to mirror similar sentiments).

[Katori96]

I'm choosing to die on this healer hill until either yoshi-p changes healers role to support or he plays healer as a main for a year n realizes what he's done.

[Loonies]

If there is not much to heal in ultimate, why we do not see a lot of groups there without healer and just use self heal or heal pots? For me in the normal dungeons there is enough to heal and the small dmg i do as a healer is good enough with the 3 dmg spells, no button bloat needed here.
And yes if i like to do more dmg then i play dps.

[QooEr]

If there is not much to heal in ultimate, why we do not see a lot of groups there without healer

every single ultimate has been solo healed. ucob (widely considered to be the HARDEST ultimate) was done with 8 tanks years ago. UWU would've been cleared without healers years ago but theres one mechanic that needs healer lb3 but has otherwise very little damage.

For me in the normal dungeons there is enough to heal

good for you. for many there isnt enough. should the game not cater to many kinds of players? there are 4 healer jobs. thats a whole lot of design space.

and the small dmg i do as a healer is good enough with the 3 dmg spells, no button bloat needed here.
And yes if i like to do more dmg then i play dps.

for the 3249023492th time. its not about how much damage healers do, its about what skills there are to press. 2111111111111 isnt fun

[Alaray]

If there is not much to heal in ultimate, why we do not see a lot of groups there without healer and just use self heal or heal pots? For me in the normal dungeons there is enough to heal and the small dmg i do as a healer is good enough with the 3 dmg spells, no button bloat needed here.
And yes if i like to do more dmg then i play dps.

Because, even with a more involved DPS rotation you can still do what you're doing now in a normal dungeon and complete the content just fine. So even if a change of this nature did take place, the likelihood it'd affect people who play only normal content is pretty low since the bar to clear that content is a lot lower. I will say, though; most people are likely speaking in a general sense, I was coming from a Savage perspective in my original post and not an Ultimate one (but, even if Ultimate was the only place where you felt like you could really maximize your entire toolkit in a dynamic manner, the last one that came out was... three? Or so? Years ago? Even there, I imagine it'd follow the same formula of play as most other content does -- once the song and dance is known by you and your group, the pressure on healing it becomes lessened and when it comes to "well, with the way less healing I'm doing now, I can push more DPS" and that only tends to translate into hitting the 1 damage button more often and that's it).

[Allegor]

before the tired trite "if you want to dps play a dps"
healers have barely anything to heal. moreover, even if they DID add more things to heal, they will inevitably end in the same spot when they get accustommed to a duty. you only learn a fight once, but youre expected to farm/re do things a lot.


the game is also moving more towards a solo experience. unless the npcs are programmed to fail mechanics every 2 seconds, anyone trying to heal in this environment is going to fall asleep. doing the msq and solo duties as a healer is already extremely dull.

Little new player me: omg, healers actually deal damage in this game! and I don't hit like a wet noodle! awesome! now I can feel like I'm actually contributing to defeating a boss!

Current me: ...... 11111111111111111 ...... at least the music's good

Honestly though, I do not need an entire 8 button rotation and deal as much damage as a RDM or SMN, just give me back Aero III, and maybe an rng instant cast dps button that proccs off Stone/Glare and I'll be happy.