Healers need an overhaul

[Darthgummibear]

I main AST. I love the healing kit to death and if they gutted that I would be heartbroken. A lot of the problems people have with healing stem from not having to heal enough outside of dealing with pugs. Maybe if bosses had more group/raid-wide damage that was unavoidable.

Having said that, it would be nice to do more than watch the "Fall Malefic" castbar so much. Maybe a second dot to manage, with dots having a chance to proc a refresh on one of the two draws. I have the other healers as well and all of them would benefit from a similar action playing off abilities already in the kit. Just one extra dot with an ability proc. Simple, easy, and would alleviate a lot of the angst regarding this issue.

[einschwartz]

A lot of the problems people have with healing stem from not having to heal enough outside of dealing with pugs. Maybe if bosses had more group/raid-wide damage that was unavoidable.

This is why I love healing Tower of Zot bosses (particularly the first and last). They throw dots at individual players, then raidwide, and then mechanics which require you to be mobile. A shame none of the expert dungeon is similar to the Magus Sisters.

[Ravor]

I think the problem with healer is not that the dev didnt have the ability to make it more complex or interesting, its more of trust issue, the dev didnt believe that most player will play healer if healing is harder than how it is today, like, how many healer actually remember to use lucid dream in order to sustain their MP anyway? Sage has many damage stuff to do and shielding will also reward you with extra damage kit, they should make all healer have fun stuff like this....

[Rilifane]

I think the problem with healer is not that the dev didnt have the ability to make it more complex or interesting, its more of trust issue, the dev didnt believe that most player will play healer if healing is harder than how it is today, like, how many healer actually remember to use lucid dream in order to sustain their MP anyway? Sage has many damage stuff to do and shielding will also reward you with extra damage kit, they should make all healer have fun stuff like this....

Sage doesn't has "many damage stuff" though.
Dosis = Malefic/ Glare/ Broil
EDosis = Combust/ Dia/ Biolysis
Phlegma has no 1:1 equivalent but is similiar enough to Assize/ Star/ ED as the "You push it roughly 1-2 times per minute" extra dps button.
Toxikon is just an instant Dosis in single target and thus a movement tool, not a damage tool. Only 3 guaranteed free stacks per fight, generation of any additional stacks is rare and the result of a last result healing. It's more like a really, really bad consolation prize than a reward. Even worse than Misery was pre 6.1.
Pneuma is used as a heal, not a damage button because it's the same potency as Dosis.

Sage is the exact same one button spam that other healers are. The only difference is that it flows better than the other healers. They tried to sell it as the "exciting dps healer that heals through damage with a kit full of cool stuff!" but in reality it's the exact same.

[GrimGale]

I think the problem with healer is not that the dev didnt have the ability to make it more complex or interesting, its more of trust issue, the dev didnt believe that most player will play healer if healing is harder than how it is today, like, how many healer actually remember to use lucid dream in order to sustain their MP anyway? Sage has many damage stuff to do and shielding will also reward you with extra damage kit, they should make all healer have fun stuff like this....

If the later census is to be believed, the healer role is the least played. Though, strangely enough WHM is one of the most played classes. I imagine that is a result of CNJ being the only healer that is available at level 1.

[Rilifane]

If the later census is to be believed, the healer role is the least played. Though, strangely enough WHM is one of the most played classes. I imagine that is a result of CNJ being the only healer that is available at level 1.

And it always will be because it's the posterchild of the healer role, a classic FF staple, starts at level 1 and is braindead on top of that. No fight knowledge required, nothing to manage, just spam Medica II.
As jaded as it sounds that is the reason many people chose WHM and freely admit to doing so. Least effort for same reward (instant invite, clear) and very reactionary.
It doesn't matter if it's the weakest of the healers, you'll still see DF and PF alike overflowing with WHMs compared to the other 3 healers. It's rare to see a comp that's not WHM/ X in PF.

[ty_taurus]

The history of healer treatment:

In ARR, WHM and SCH were the only healers. Together, they had a fantastic duality. Each had weaknesses that were covered by the other's strengths.

In HW, AST was added and made the healer that could be a substitute WHM or SCH. Initially, it was weak, but many players were also conflicted that AST had these two sects that mimicked the other healers rather than it having its own healing identity. Overall, though, healing was largely liked, and balance changes helped resolved AST's initial weakness. In patch 3.3, it received a significant buff to The Balance card, granting a 20% DPS boost to one ally that could be changed to a 10% DPS buff to the whole party. This made WHM feel invalid. With AST's healing being strengthened to match or surpass WHM, it having this incredibly powerful form of buffs made it clear it was the superior between the two. AST/SCH was the strongest combo. In lead up to SB, the player base was largely in agreement that WHM needed offensive buffs to compete with AST.

SB comes and the reception of healing is mixed. There are some great quality of life improvements, but all the healers lost DoTs without compensation, and SE responded to healers wanting offensive buffs on WHM by saying that would ruin WHM's identity as a "Pure Healer" (whatever the hell that actually means). A chunk of WHM's tools were removed and added to the new Role Actions but received nothing to compensate. None of it's new actions did anything to address the flaws it had that AST did not. It received the worst mechanic ever designed in the Lily system: a hilariously inconsequential mechanic of marginally reducing certain cooldowns when casting your weakest, most useless spells, and Plenary Indulgence which was a laughably terrible capstone ability. SCH lost Energy Drain and Miasma II initially but later got them back. AST and SCH were still largely fun to play despite the more negative changes.

ShB comes and greatly improves WHM's trash lily system with the new lily system, though that wasn't a difficult accomplishment and the mechanic had flaws. Many players brought up the glaring issue in its design in how it was a DPS loss and thus an afterthought rather than a mechanic worth working toward. Additionally, most players were quite unhappy to lose the earth, wind, and water aesthetic that separated FFXIV's WHM from the otherwise generic WHM of past titles. SCH was gutted, losing nearly everything that was considered a staple action and not offering anything in exchange. AST's card system was turned into an absolute clunky nightmare that both felt frustratingly unnecessary for what you got out of it while shitting on the core lore of the job's existence. Feedback on healing is extremely negative with very few white knights defending the new system, though this largely gets ignored by the non-healer parts of the community.

EW responds to player feedback by continuing to completely ignore it and every bit of criticism the role receives. Healing has become more optional than ever before with the egregious amounts of tank sustain added to the game. The issues with WHM's lily system--which was immediately obvious to the player base at the beginning of ShB--only now was adjusted nearly 3 years later. The new healer, SGE, is the healer designed for the players who want a more complex DPS rotation on healing. It accomplishes this by being exactly the same as the other healers, but with 1 additional button on a 45 second cooldown. SGE takes the glass of water levels of spicy that the other healers offer and raises that up to an astounding whole wheat bread level of spice.

[Raskbuck]

Additionally, most players were quite unhappy to lose the earth, wind, and water aesthetic that separated FFXIV's WHM from the otherwise generic WHM of past titles.

This was a great summary, and I think this is what stood out to me the most. I know it's just an aesthetic thing, but I really miss the elemental spells we had.

For the next expansion, I'd like to see a Thundercloud-like effect on our DoT that can trigger Tornado as an AoE DoT. Have Glare give us something similar to Firestarter to cast Quake. Let us expend lilies in Flood as an offensive option. Things like that.

I know this won't address the glaring (ha) issue of healing design, since the flaw lies on the fact that encounters as a whole require too little healing. It certainly doesn't help that tanks have acquired so much self sustain, we might as well be relegated to a lesser DPS category.

The latest PvP revamp makes me feel the design team really doesn't know how to make healing engaging. So they just decided to completely eliminate it from the equation by giving everyone self healing. Maybe the PvE and PvP are separate teams design-wise, but I found healing in Frontlines before the revamp fun, due to the unpredictable damage and how chaotic it was.

[ty_taurus]

This was a great summary, and I think this is what stood out to me the most. I know it's just an aesthetic thing, but I really miss the elemental spells we had.

For the next expansion, I'd like to see a Thundercloud-like effect on our DoT that can trigger Tornado as an AoE DoT. Have Glare give us something similar to Firestarter to cast Quake. Let us expend lilies in Flood as an offensive option. Things like that.

I know this won't address the glaring (ha) issue of healing design, since the flaw lies on the fact that encounters as a whole require too little healing. It certainly doesn't help that tanks have acquired so much self sustain, we might as well be relegated to a lesser DPS category.

The latest PvP revamp makes me feel the design team really doesn't know how to make healing engaging. So they just decided to completely eliminate it from the equation by giving everyone self healing. Maybe the PvE and PvP are separate teams design-wise, but I found healing in Frontlines before the revamp fun, due to the unpredictable damage and how chaotic it was.

What I think could've been cool would be to merge the elements with holy. For example, upgrade Glare to Quake, but the stone pillars are warped with white light and golden cracks. Tornado creates a white cyclone with golden ribbons swirling throughout. Flood creates an explosion of white water that leaves a rainbow behind.

[Raskbuck]

What I think could've been cool would be to merge the elements with holy. For example, upgrade Glare to Quake, but the stone pillars are warped with white light and golden cracks. Tornado creates a white cyclone with golden ribbons swirling throughout. Flood creates an explosion of white water that leaves a rainbow behind.

I like those ideas too! Seems like a nice blend between Conjurer and White Mage.