Healers need an overhaul

[Knetik]

The issue with FFXIV healers is the fact that they are quite overpowered and have overly bloated healing toolkits for the majority of content in this game. Most content hits like a wet noodle, and healers have so many industrial-strength bandages for the booboos that the healing-to-damage ratio is even more skewed.

That said, I am not a fan of being a heal bot standing around healing for 90% of content. It would be just as monotonous spamming Medica 100+ times in a fight as it is spamming Glare 100+ times in a fight. I prefer a healthy balance. This game doesn’t have that—it’s 80% or more dealing damage and 20% or less actually healing. A more even distribution would be nice.

It’s unfortunate that the developers have zero plans to actually increase healing requirements, since apparently that would be “too hard”. Can’t say I appreciate the insinuation that players who enjoy the healer role have the intelligence quotient and skill level of a small rock.

I agree, I don't necessarily want to sit back and spam heals like back in the 90s by any means, but healing seems like such a backseat to dps as a healer - just feels off to me. But ive def always thought that if SE increased even just boss auto attack damage it would make a large difference in this area.

[Welsper59]

I agree, I don't necessarily want to sit back and spam heals like back in the 90s by any means, but healing seems like such a backseat to dps as a healer - just feels off to me. But ive def always thought that if SE increased even just boss auto attack damage it would make a large difference in this area.

From what I gather based on my experience from healing across many games, but most notably with XIV, XI, and WoW, the main thing that makes healers different here is the removal of any actual MP management as the game went on. That, in combination with many other things, is why healers are in the monotonous spot they are now. Back in ARR, Mage's Ballad from BRDs were often viewed as mandatory in many cases, but it was already evident that healers were pretty self sufficient in the MP department if they needed to be.

I do think that Sage is an early glimpse into the direction that healers will eventually change into (more buttons to press to complicate DPS rotation and healing options). Make no mistake that if healing became more complicated in the healer area, most healers would despise the change. A lot of the other games make AoE healing extremely high on the MP cost, to the point that you could wipe your group simply because you did one too many AoE heals. So those were often treated as occasional or rare happenings, while single target healing was the more efficient way to go most of the time, even for AoE damage. The same goes for having more frequent heavily impacting status ailments to remove (e.g. a potent group wide Paralyze).

The thing all healers need to come to terms with is what are they actually enjoying doing as a healer. Do you want to spend more time doing healer things or do you want more time to DPS? You can't have both and logically one will take away time from the other. Then the next question is whether or not you would stop healing if the choice you want wasn't picked and you now have to do more of that other thing.

Also keep in mind that healers and tanks are very simple for a reason. They're critical roles and the devs don't want to complicate that, which would result in less people playing them if they did.

[WaxSw]

From what I gather based on my experience from healing across many games, but most notably with XIV, XI, and WoW, the main thing that makes healers different here is the removal of any actual MP management as the game went on.That, in combination with many other things, is why healers are in the monotonous spot they are now.

At least in XIV case MP is not the cause of the problem, the excesive homogenization of both dps and heal tools are, especially the dps rotations as we end up pressing the same button hundreds of times more than any other.

I do think that Sage is an early glimpse into the direction that healers will eventually change into (more buttons to press to complicate DPS rotation and healing options)

Sage is none of that, it falls under the same 1 button spam as all of the healer and its gimmick of "complexity" in the form of eukrasia is very underplayed only working with the standard nuke to give us the standard dot every healer has and with the 2 GCD heals that barely see any use to give us their upgraded version a la Physick->Adlo, there is nothing unique or special about that.

The thing all healers need to come to terms with is what are they actually enjoying doing as a healer. Do you want to spend more time doing healer things or do you want more time to DPS?

We like both, as simple as that. Most of us come because we like the support style and are right now asking for more dps options because increasing the healing requirements at this point would require a game overhaul

Also keep in mind that healers and tanks are very simple for a reason. They're critical roles and the devs don't want to complicate that, which would result in less people playing them if they did.

Then they're failing, healers after the changes have become the least played role on all level ranges and that excuse of being critical is moot when content has been proven to be clearable without healers, we're a comodity not a necessity, and for the endgame (where this would matter) due to enrage timers dps are as important as the other 2 roles so that argument could be applied to them too. There is no justification for having an ENTIRE ROLE with the same gameplay of 1 button spam.

[IDontPetLalas]

From what I gather based on my experience from healing across many games, but most notably with XIV, XI, and WoW, the main thing that makes healers different here is the removal of any actual MP management as the game went on. That, in combination with many other things, is why healers are in the monotonous spot they are now. Back in ARR, Mage's Ballad from BRDs were often viewed as mandatory in many cases, but it was already evident that healers were pretty self sufficient in the MP department if they needed to be.

*snip*

The thing all healers need to come to terms with is what are they actually enjoying doing as a healer. Do you want to spend more time doing healer things or do you want more time to DPS? You can't have both and logically one will take away time from the other. Then the next question is whether or not you would stop healing if the choice you want wasn't picked and you now have to do more of that other thing.

Also keep in mind that healers and tanks are very simple for a reason. They're critical roles and the devs don't want to complicate that, which would result in less people playing them if they did.

1- I don't get your point about the removal of MP management as a facto to healers being more monotonous. Are you saying that we should need to rely on another job in order to assist with our resource management- if I understand you correctly, no pnly do I find MP management a fairly dated concept in terms of engagement, I also find that tying it to another job for critical skills would be a big "NO" from me.

I also disagree with the 'do you want to heal more or DPS more" in a sense, the game just doesn't require people to be at full health 100% all of the time. if someone wants to 'heal more", well the closest thing so far is the latest ultimate with a heal check , but even with fight- you can clearly see healers DPSing and healing.

OK, last point - this one to be honest is really annoying - tanks have *far* more interesting rotations than healers. Healers don't need to be dumbed down this much. in addition, when the game designers have added on so much mitigation and self-healing to tanks, and other roles are often there to raise- your argument that healers are *critical* and shouldn't be *complicated* really doesn't hold water.

[Nizzi]

Also keep in mind that healers and tanks are very simple for a reason. They're critical roles and the devs don't want to complicate that, which would result in less people playing them if they did.

If tanks are very simple just like healers, I am humbly requesting for an equivalent of PLD or GNB's rotation on healers. Thank you.

[Punslinger]

I've been a healer main in EVERY mmo I've played for 20ish years now and I have never been able to heal in FFXIV. It's like they are appealing to people who DON'T LIKE to heal. I don't want to dps the whole fight while weaving heals. In fact, it should be the opposite.

Let the HEALER role focus and prioritize HEALING!

This argument again? It must be Thursday.

Yawn. I've refuted this before, so I'll just link it instead of retyping it.

[Pepino]

I've been a healer main in EVERY mmo I've played for 20ish years now and I have never been able to heal in FFXIV. It's like they are appealing to people who DON'T LIKE to heal. I don't want to dps the whole fight while weaving heals. In fact, it should be the opposite.

Let the HEALER role focus and prioritize HEALING!

I’m new to FF14 coming from WoW, it was a huge adjustment, while in WoW you dps when you can it’s not the priority, while in FF14 it seems the opposite, which I personally don’t mind but I just wish if this was the route they taking I wish it was more the spamming Fall Malefic and maintaining combust, make the dps side more interesting.

I’m happy to DPS as a healer, and throw the off ogcd here and there to keep everyone alive, I’ve already gotten use to it just I wish they made the dps side of things more pleasing, personally I’m in love with the new PvP and currently ranked 20th on the Materia DC as AST and wish that the PvP abilities some how make its way into PvE, I feel like healers have to many heals for the content they’ve provided, maybe switch some out for the PvP abilities? AST for example gets double cast, WHM Seraph Strike, SCH mummification.

Or perhaps combo our DPS, make it atleast visually pleasing and satisfying to dpsing inbetween the occasional heal, perhaps when comboing our dps they can then buff our next GCD heal increasing its potency or increase our dps by a flat % reward us.

My issue is seeing Fall Malefic over 100 times becomes a little mind numbing.

Edit; Also wanted to say FF14 is amazing and I’m a fool for not trying this earlier, so many wasted years in WoW

[megamino]

IIRC, there are 3 types of DPS

1. Direct DPS
2. DOT
3. AoE DPS

I think that's enough though, if you want a rotation I suggest making it like GnB 1 button combo I think? I mean, I still want to focus on heal even though there's a DPS... DPS-ing can be quite hard in dungeon especially in W2W scenario where the tank could be just wanking and defending it and didn't use any CD (and mad at me in the process) or even the standard tanking with CD

But it's a dungeon scenario, I haven't played any savage or any ultimate so I put it as dungeon perspective first.

[HyoMinPark]

IIRC, there are 3 types of DPS

1. Direct DPS
2. DOT
3. AoE DPS

I think that's enough though, if you want a rotation I suggest making it like GnB 1 button combo I think? I mean, I still want to focus on heal even though there's a DPS... DPS-ing can be quite hard in dungeon especially in W2W scenario where the tank could be just wanking and defending it and didn't use any CD (and mad at me in the process) or even the standard tanking with CD

But it's a dungeon scenario, I haven't played any savage or any ultimate so I put it as dungeon perspective first.

There aren’t really three types of DPS—it’s more like three types of damage abilities. And the healer design was simply the developers going Ctrl+C > Ctrl+V for each one, changing the names, and then tweaking certain skills just slightly to give the illusion that this healer is different from that healer.

There are only a select few dungeons in this game that actually have any bite to them when it comes to being a healer—and several have been nerfed throughout the years due to gear scaling, job changes, and direct nerfs by the development team. Stone Vigil used to be an excellent dungeon for challenging a healer approaching level 50 in ARR. Even in HW, SB, and ShB it could have a bit of bite to it. It has since been adjusted to remove things like the patrolling Aevis mobs that could surprise an unsuspecting party and up healing requirements. Other notable examples include:

— Aurum Vale: Leeroying into the first room was a death sentence, and still is to some extent, but it certainly doesn’t hit as hard as it used to.
— The Vault: OG The Vault in HW was brutal in terms of the amount of damage tanks took and healers had to heal. It was actually a wonderful dungeon because of that. It got nerfed.
— Bardam’s Mettle: due to Stormblood gear stat scaling, Bardam’s actually ripped unprepared tanks a new one even in i270 or i274 stuff, which was the highest item level gear you could have at level 65. Even tanks that came in synced down from level 70 could get their butts handed to them by the first few trash pulls if they weren’t careful.
— Holminster Switch: the pulls leading up to the first and second bosses are honestly still a bit spicy. The ones leading up to the last boss are boring because they’re forced single pulls.

Other than that, all the other dungeons are snoozefests—especially any dungeon that was once a level-cap dungeon (i.e., 50, 60, 70, 80, and now 90 dungeons). I can heal the level 90 dungeons with oGCDs alone and never have to touch my GCDs on any healer that isn’t a WHM. The only time I have to GCD heal in most dungeons is either I’m level-synced and don’t have my oGCDs, or I have a paper tank. The latter is artificial difficulty; not genuine difficulty of the healer role being challenging.

Savage content has even less healing: to the point that decent healers don’t even touch their GCD heals, and heal primarily with oGCDs. This tier only had a handful of mechanics that were spicy heal checks, and that was primarily during Week 1 when you were at the minimum item level required for the content. With gear, they are trivialized, if not skipped altogether if the group has good damage (e.g., P3S Life’s Agonies). A healer’s most cast ability is their single-target nuke, and by a long shot. For Ultimates, they tend to be more mitigation check than anything else; only TEA has a real heal check in Living Liquid’s and BJ/CC’s phases, and during J-Waves. Perfect Alexander is resident sleeper though in terms of healing. DRU is more mitigation check than anything else, speaking as someone who is currently progging it on a healer. If someone misses a mitigation piece, people just outright die, and you can’t really do anything about that as a healer. You can’t heal one-shots. Which, is okay, I guess—until you consider that Yoshida told healers that, if they wish to be engaged in their role, to go do Ultimate. My engagement comes from the mechanic dance; it doesn’t come from performing my primary role.

The healing requirements in this game aren’t that high. It takes a seriously memey party to really make healers break a sweat—you’re more likely to find those in 24-mans versus any other piece of content. There’s a reason I run some of the old 24-mans routinely on healer: at least I might have a chance to be a healer over a damage dealer. And it’s honestly quite fun to get the clown fiestas. I love Day 1 24-mans for that reason alone.

I really don’t like how, when you have a good party, your job as a healer becomes more monotonous and more boring. You can only really perform your primary role when people are seemingly going out of their way to get hit by stuff or die to stuff. Tanks can suffer from this to an extent, but at least they have a damage rotation they can perform and focus on. DPS are engaging right off the bat in terms of their rotation. I don’t understand why healers have to be the only role treated as if everyone who plays it is a fragile human being that cannot string together more than a single button. Or who would fall apart at any sliver of difficulty.


All that said, healers are primarily dealing damage most of the time they are in combat. It’s simply a fact. At this stage, the developers need to give them an interesting damage toolkit instead of continuously bloating their healing toolkit with more oGCDs that are overkill for 99% of the content in this game. And each healer’s DPS kit should be slightly different from one another. WHM could have your basic 1-2-3 with Misery maybe being a powerful finisher if people want it detached from the healing (or they could leave it as is now, since it is finally DPS neutral). SCH could get its DoTs and Shadowflare back and be a DoT healer with a nuke they spam between DoT management. SGE could have more oGCDs in its kit that further expand on the healing via damage/Kardia job gimmick. Only AST really functions well with the current 1 DoT-1 nuke design due to having its own mini game in the form of the card system (as horribly gutted and clunky as it is).

1-button DPS rotations should be an optional configuration. Not everyone wants to just press a single button constantly—that’s literally the complaint healers have right now. I’d prefer separate skills since they simply feel more engaging to me over 111111111111111, even if said 11111111111111 is actually three different skills. Perhaps it’s because I play on controller and it just feels better to be pressing circle > X > square > left D-pad > weave in right D-pad and triangle > etc. over XXXXXXXXXXXX.

[Pepino]

1-button DPS rotations should be an optional configuration. Not everyone wants to just press a single button constantly—that’s literally the complaint healers have right now. I’d prefer separate skills since they simply feel more engaging to me over 111111111111111, even if said 11111111111111 is actually three different skills. Perhaps it’s because I play on controller and it just feels better to be pressing circle > X > square > left D-pad > weave in right D-pad and triangle > etc. over XXXXXXXXXXXX.

I do like suggestion to configure how you prefer to play, be a huge quality of life for those who prefer that style of play, be just like in PvP, I personally enjoy the PvP style where the buttons combo to the next, draw/play being together aswell. I just personally think SE could do so much more with healers then what we have right now, I’m actually very excited and nervous about this major overhaul coming to AST in 6.2, AST/SCH both being my favourite classes.

I think this AST overhaul is going to be a clear direction on where healers be heading and the future of healers.

But I strongly believe a combo for each healer would def help out, visually pleasing too, that’s what I love about this game, the animations and visuals are 2nd to none, they simply amazing and definitely would bring some more life into healers DPS, like for example WHM, Glare > Radiance > Blinding Light (I’m really bad at making up skill names), completing the combo then grants a DPS % increase/healing Potency increase or MP regeneration. This way we get rewarded for dpsing like every other job currently, new visuals and animations both be aesthetically pleasing bringing life and excitement into the respective healing job.

While yes it’s a Band-Aid fix, but it’s definitely more better then just being a Glare/Malefic/Broil/Dosis spam bot with the occasional refresh of your DoT.

I’m also hoping SCH steps away from its “Tech” visuals of Art of War, Biolysis and so on and really double down on its Fae abilities and visuals, Sage is the tech based healer, personally I think that takes away the uniqueness and identity of SCH now, but that’s for another post.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, Healers PvP skills I feel should make its way into PvE, I love AST double cast, imagine WHM Seraph Striking into melee to get into range for Holy, SCH Mummification debuffing enemies, it will bring a new uniqueness to each job.