Healers need an overhaul

[Shurrikhan]

GNB is probably the closest but I'll be the first (and likely only) GNB who despises the hells out of Double Down and wish it never existed.

Ehh, opinion seems split pretty evenly on that skill, honestly. You won't lack for GNB players who think similarly.

I have GNB leveled and play it every so often, since Double Down has been very "meh" but hardly disastrous to me; the biggest boon, imo, would be a second charge on Gnashing Fang (offset by potency siphons and some manner of soft CD, such as a 20s Haste buff from Wicked Talon, to keep it from being degened together into NM and raid buffs).

DRK? I'm afraid to touch it even after the changes.

Honestly, it's pretty well fine now. If you're into its aesthetic any amount more than the others, its gameplay should be about as compelling as PLD's or GNB's (and likely a bit above WAR's), and it no longer lacks for an immunity CD. Its sustain still falls short, but that just means needing a healer for certain dungeon pulls even if party DPS is high; there are far worse fates -- like playing healer.

[ASkellington]

Ehh, opinion seems split pretty evenly on that skill, honestly. You won't lack for GNB players who think similarly.

I have GNB leveled and play it every so often, since Double Down has been very "meh" but hardly disastrous to me;

I just prefer Hypervelocity over Double Down. It feels more of an addon to the original rotation, the animation is nicer and it just feels more fun to use.

Honestly, it's pretty well fine now. If you're into its aesthetic any amount more than the others, its gameplay should be about as compelling as PLD's or GNB's (and likely a bit above WAR's), and it no longer lacks for an immunity CD. Its sustain still falls short, but that just means needing a healer for certain dungeon pulls even if party DPS is high; there are far worse fates -- like playing healer.

Aesthetic was the only reason I got it to 80 I'll be honest. Well... and I wanted to know WHY 90% of my DRKs were absolute trash to heal when I got them at the time (answer was they were poor tanks for the most part) so I decided to learn the kit myself. I don't like how DRK plays and I feel extremely uncomfortable with its rotation (which admittedly can be fixed with practice).

I've resigned myself to suffer as AST since it is the most fun class for me in the game. Even with everything I want changed on it.

I'll give DRK another go though.

....When you realize that your favorite classes aesthetic wise are all of butchered HW classes whose original game play is exactly what you'd love to play.

[Nizzi]

just the though of tanks being regulated to 1 button for dps is... i mean i'd stop playing completely. frankly i don't know how healers put up with the disrespect they've been given by the developers

I love the game, but the treatment towards healers does make me feel worn out with the game. I've already taken a 3 month break since EW launched, and I took an 11 month break during ShB. I don't want to say I'll stop playing completely because I have friends who play and I still enjoy other activities, but the motivation to sub and log in does get harder to justify. I would really hate for this game to be one I only play at expac launch and on free weekends, but if it has to be that way, that's on SE and not me. Wanting more to do other than press 1 button and another 2 times a minute shouldn't be such a big thing to ask for.

[Deceptus]

just the though of tanks being regulated to 1 button for dps is... i mean i'd stop playing completely. frankly i don't know how healers put up with the disrespect they've been given by the developers

With enough salt to build an Empire.

[Bookkeepper]

My basic issue with healer design is this:
Currently, as a healer my enjoyment of all instanced content is greater when other players are getting hurt or dying a lot. It challenges me to deal with mana, and use my full kit of healing actions. But think about the other side, the player who is dying a lot and getting hit by mechanics - when I am in that situation, it feels bad, and I do not have fun.

So why is my enjoyment of content built on other people not enjoying it?

[Nizzi]

My basic issue with healer design is this:
Currently, as a healer my enjoyment of all instanced content is greater when other players are getting hurt or dying a lot. It challenges me to deal with mana, and use my full kit of healing actions. But think about the other side, the player who is dying a lot and getting hit by mechanics - when I am in that situation, it feels bad, and I do not have fun.

So why is my enjoyment of content built on other people not enjoying it?

Because if you had more than 2 buttons to hit in between the telegraphed raidwides, you might start deriving your fun from your DPS, and that might take you away from making sure DPS and tanks stay topped up at all times. /s

[ty_taurus]

My basic issue with healer design is this:
Currently, as a healer my enjoyment of all instanced content is greater when other players are getting hurt or dying a lot. It challenges me to deal with mana, and use my full kit of healing actions. But think about the other side, the player who is dying a lot and getting hit by mechanics - when I am in that situation, it feels bad, and I do not have fun.

So why is my enjoyment of content built on other people not enjoying it?

Honestly, I think the best way to summarizes what the issue is with healer design is that its only gameplay loop is dependent on the failure of the healer, their party, or both. If you and your party perform well, healing has no gameplay loop at all. Healing design has been in direct opposition to content design for years and creates an experience that's fun at first, but becomes boring and lifeless after someone gets better at the role and the game. Healers have far too many healing actions for the little damage players are forced to deal with and nothing to do with their GCD spells other than mash 1 button upwards of 160 times per 10ish minutes.

What's even more frustrating about the gameplay loop situation is that in harder content, the gameplay loop of failure largely results in wipes, not clears. The best and most fun parts of healing almost never result in victory. Many of the areas that players typically continue to mess up as well are things that healers cannot solve in Savage. Someone messed up P2S limit cut? There's almost nothing I can do about that. You can't heal through most of what continues to screw people over because the mechanics are largely pass/fail.

What healers want is not to be challenged at every step of the game from dungeons and solo instances all the way to Ultimate. We just want a solid gameplay loop at all times to ensure all content is entertaining all the time, not just when faced with failure. Healing resources need to be reworked to actually compliment the gameplay we have, and this can be done while also creating a stable safety net for casual healers. But the devs also need to acknowledge and respect that at the end of the day, DPS is the metric healers use to judge the value of their action usage. Not every healer needs to spend most of their time DPSing, but those that don't need to find a way around that to still contribute without needing to directly attack.

[Fukuro]

It‘s mind boggling and very demotivating to see the devs work against any suggestions even going so far to twist the meaning of complaints about healing in this game. (lol not difficult enough? just do ultimate). Your player base consists of about 80% casual players. Let us also have fun across all tiers of difficulty! You don’t need to raise the difficulty bar per se, just make the healer role enjoyable throughout all of your content - and don’t give suggestions about something that hardly one percent does (Ultimate). Healers are by far one of the most boring jobs in this game. Sage doesn’t help either, as it’s just a cooler looking Scholar at this point. As a healer you simply can ignore 90% of your healing kit up to savage level of difficulty and whats left is dumb repetition of 1 skill.Nobody can tell me that there is no clear job bias going on. I am a former healer main, it‘s just simply obnoxious that every opinion gets nipped in the bud or simply changed so much just to avoid the question. And as someone palying since ARR it just hurts to see healers getting robed of their identity.
I‘ve always appreciated what the devs have done for us, but I must say I‘ve been very disappointed and dissatisfied with a lot of things going on recently…

[Nizzi]

It‘s mind boggling and very demotivating to see the devs work against any suggestions even going so far to twist the meaning of complaints about healing in this game. (lol not difficult enough? just do ultimate). Your player base consists of about 80% casual players. Let us also have fun across all tiers of difficulty! You don’t need to raise the difficulty bar per se, just make the healer role enjoyable throughout all of your content - and don’t give suggestions about something that hardly one percent does (Ultimate). Healers are by far one of the most boring jobs in this game. Sage doesn’t help either, as it’s just a cooler looking Scholar at this point. As a healer you simply can ignore 90% of your healing kit up to savage level of difficulty and whats left is dumb repetition of 1 skill.Nobody can tell me that there is no clear job bias going on. I am a former healer main, it‘s just simply obnoxious that every opinion gets nipped in the bud or simply changed so much just to avoid the question. And as someone palying since ARR it just hurts to see healers getting robed of their identity.
I‘ve always appreciated what the devs have done for us, but I must say I‘ve been very disappointed and dissatisfied with a lot of things going on recently…

At the least, it took them years to address Living Dead, but they finally did. The more of us who make noise, the harder it is to ignore us.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

[...]And as someone palying since ARR it just hurts to see healers getting robed of their identity.

I see what you did there.

Until they make healers more engaging...I play my healers if I just want some quick dungeons and I can turn my brain off and still somehow get all the comms.

Sad to read, but I don't blame you. Just like some youtuber said: "You're only here just because Duty Finder says you have to be."