Healers need an overhaul

[Fukuro]

Boss, you and I both know that'll just be White Mage because XIV devs wouldn't know how to make a proper "easy to learn, hard to master" healer if it walked up to them butt-naked, covered in baby oil, and slapped them across the face with a trout.

Healers would be right back where they were with White Mages being "goo-goo ga-ga babby's first heawer" with the other healers averting their eyes and hoping to God Yoshi-P doesn't come after them next, and I genuinely think Semirhage will travel to Japan to challenge all of SE headquarters to a bout of fisticuffs if it does happen.

It was an emotional rollercoaster reading this and I must agree!

agreed. I mained Sage in SWTOR as well. I had three , yes THREE skill trees to pick from - a dot spec, a lightning spec as well as the healing spec - and those were available in PVE and PVP. How does someone even say that it isn't "all that different from healing here"?

I have no clue about SWTOR but are the fights also so heavily scripted, that makes you not use 90% of your skills?

[IDontPetLalas]

It was an emotional rollercoaster reading this and I must agree!



I have no clue about SWTOR but are the fights also so heavily scripted, that makes you not use 90% of your skills?

The short answer to SWTOR- although I was primarily playing that game in group content for PVP, not PVE - is no. I have never played any game as a healer where I literally spammed one skilled hundreds of times.

Incidentally, I played Aion for over 10 years, starting from closed beta, and while my main was a DPS, I did have a cleric alt for years, primarily as a PVE healer. That game was way more interesting to heal than FFXIV, given that in some cases you would have to be on your toes to heal and raise people or in some cases you could run as backup heals or you could be a really decent DPS. That doesn't even speak to the PVP side where a good cleric could be a beast in solo PVP and was a major asset in OW PVP and group PVP.

[Frodnoxx]

If the community is so split on whether to change or keep healers the same, could they not just make the changes on one or two of the jobs. They had a perfect opportunity to make SGE a job to appeal to the people who have been asking for changes while keeping the 1111111 crowd happy with the other healers as they are.... but instead they cloned SCH.

Why does SE insist on this homogeneity within every role. With a player base as large and diverse as this, they're shooting themselves in the foot.

[MintnHoney]

If the community is so split on whether to change or keep healers the same, could they not just make the changes on one or two of the jobs.

It's not so split, though; what you're seeing in these last few pages is basically the forum's equivalent of "one guy" coming in here with the express purpose of picking fights and speaking in self-indulgent contradictions, but being unable to finish what they start and seeking more trouble to help push past their fulfilment issues.

Ignoring that, healers tend to resonate on the idea that healers are designed poorly with excessive yet redundant tools and can, and should, be updated; preferably with a finer-tuned kit for the role, which includes fleshing out the gameplay cycle for the downtime between healing (which tends to stretch more the higher the skill level of the group one plays with rises, or exaggerates when the healer plays solo) in order to have a more engaging and fun experience while also allowing for various skill levels, particularly those struggling with the skill floor, to succeed.

[Nizzi]

Here's my claim and I'm sticking by it. As the official and true Warrior of Light (ask Yoshida, it literally thanks ME SPECIFICALLY in the credits, replay Endwalker if you don't believe me) I say healers are objectively boring and my opinion is the one that matters. I dislike it so I am right. Thus sayeth your Warrior of Light.

[Nizzi]

Alright G'raha just let me go Broil them to death because solo duties don't require me to heal literally anything to complete the MSQ in this critically acclaimed single player MMO storyline

Then I'll do the next story duty where I fight a key character in the Endwalker story and I broil her to death

And then I'll finish the final duty in the game, the climax of the story and the end of a 10+ year old story line, I am spamming Broil and not healing anything

Award winning RPG experience

[Colt47]

Healers are problematic anyway just because of having to target something other than opponents. Think about it: If an enemy attacks a player in this game, the enemy is usually auto targeted so there's no need to think about having to move and click the target or tab to it. For healers, there is no equivalent for players. If someone is getting hit by a monster, the fastest way to swap to the player is sometimes to target the monster and then do target of target. Then you have to pick out what healing skill to use, which typically means prioritizing OGCD heals first before those with mana cost and/or cast times. That's before including the decision to use something that cuts MP costs down or allows instant casting like swift cast.

Cutting back on the total needed healing skill bloat and giving healers a similar design to tanks (only for healing) probably would help with the popularity, but I think the player targeting aspect would make them more complicated to run than a Tank under any kind of situation.

[GrimGale]

Healers are problematic anyway just because of having to target something other than opponents. Think about it: If an enemy attacks a player in this game, the enemy is usually auto targeted so there's no need to think about having to move and click the target or tab to it. For healers, there is no equivalent for players. If someone is getting hit by a monster, the fastest way to swap to the player is sometimes to target the monster and then do target of target. Then you have to pick out what healing skill to use, which typically means prioritizing OGCD heals first before those with mana cost and/or cast times. That's before including the decision to use something that cuts MP costs down or allows instant casting like swift cast.

Cutting back on the total needed healing skill bloat and giving healers a similar design to tanks (only for healing) probably would help with the popularity, but I think the player targeting aspect would make them more complicated to run than a Tank under any kind of situation.

With the GCD being around 2.5 seconds, the time a player has to switch targets is quite generous. You can start casting a GCD action and switch targets comfortably before you are lagging behind your GCD usage. Weaving oGCDs might require a bit more attention, but even with controller, flipping through the 4 other players in the party takes at most 1-2 seconds (Consider that you will always flip through 4 targets at most even in 8 man parties if you start from the bottom or the top of the party list).

I'd say target switching from Tank to Enemy is quite seamless, even with a controller (I'd argue its even faster on a controller as it just requires 2 inputs: Pressing down on the pad, which switches your target to the first member of the party list and then pressing the appropriate action button.)

That being said, fumbling with your target has happened to me on occasion, especially when I play as an AST, which is a problem that is not really expanded by more DPS actions, as you currently are constantly switching between DPS and Healing anyway. It would just increase the variety of the DPS actions you'd press rather than the frequency of healing downtime.

[LeonKeyh]

Healers are problematic anyway just because of having to target something other than opponents. Think about it: If an enemy attacks a player in this game, the enemy is usually auto targeted so there's no need to think about having to move and click the target or tab to it. For healers, there is no equivalent for players. If someone is getting hit by a monster, the fastest way to swap to the player is sometimes to target the monster and then do target of target. Then you have to pick out what healing skill to use, which typically means prioritizing OGCD heals first before those with mana cost and/or cast times. That's before including the decision to use something that cuts MP costs down or allows instant casting like swift cast.

Cutting back on the total needed healing skill bloat and giving healers a similar design to tanks (only for healing) probably would help with the popularity, but I think the player targeting aspect would make them more complicated to run than a Tank under any kind of situation.

That's a decent point. I play on PS5 (with controller), so switching targets is really easy for me, it's definitely designed VERY well. Need to heal the tank? Down Down, Heal and I'm back to targeting the enemy I was targeting.

I don't know if it's an option (I don't think it is), but I used to play Everquest 2 and the "Target of Target" system was quite a bit more advanced than it seems to be in FFXIV. Basically, if you used an ability, it _tried_ to use it on your target. If your target wasn't valid, it would use the ability on the target of your target.

So, what ended up happening is everyone just targeted the tank the entire time. Any beneficial single target spells (e.g. heals) would hit the tank and any attacks would hit whatever the tank was targeting. It didn't require the swapping that you're describing.

I don't want to assume, but I would think that using F# (which I think is default for targeting on keyboard) would be a better way of targeting party members than targeting an enemy and then doing target of target.

[Semirhage]

Alright G'raha just let me go Broil them to death because solo duties don't require me to heal literally anything to complete the MSQ in this critically acclaimed single player MMO storyline

Then I'll do the next story duty where I fight a key character in the Endwalker story and I broil her to death

And then I'll finish the final duty in the game, the climax of the story and the end of a 10+ year old story line, I am spamming Broil and not healing anything

Award winning RPG experience

This always gets a giggle or two out of me during the MSQ. "I heard you were the most masterful warrior on the battlefield anyone had ever seen, but I had to see it to believe it. I'm blown away by your skill!"

"We need her here to turn the tide. We can't hold on much longer without our best fighter at the front. I don't know how she does it!"

Archmage chosen warrior of light:
Magic missile. Magic missile. Magic missile. Magic missile. Magic missile. Magic missile. Magic missile. Magic missile. Magic missile. Magic missile. Magic missile.

Yeeeeeah Alisaie. I'd tell you my secret to success, but I don't think you could handle the tactical genius I've got going on here.