Healers need an overhaul

[ASkellington]

All I've ever wanted was for WHM to be fun and well-designed. I've been arguing for it for years. If we're throwing blame around the playerbase, I've seen PLENTY of AST/SCH mains arguing that WHM should "stay simple", or "get something...but we don't want homogenization so not anything *I*'m good at (....which is everything). Good luck designing that well!"

Not saying I've seen a lot of direct "WHM should suck" posts (though I've seen those too), but there's definitely been a have-my-cake-and-eat-it-too with AST/SCH mains where they'd like to have seen WHM improved in a vague Hallmark sympathy card kind of way, but also list out constraints on that improvement that overlap in such a way that you can't actually improve it.

Yeah I do think WHM should stay simple as in "easier to heal with than the other 3". Its the starting healer it should remain that way.

That does not mean I do not think WHM shouldn't be complex in other areas or that it shouldn't have a higher skill ceiling than it does currently.

For example a healer that focuses wholly on HoT style of healing is more challenging for a newer play to learn versus a healer that heals up front. This is what I'd like to see from AST and WHM. AST gaining more delayed healing in their base (sub 50) content while WHM keeps its on demand heals.

I also think that WHM's damage by comparison should be upfront as well. Vs SCH's previous DoT gameplay.

Tl;dr - "Simple" as in easy to understand and execute and not barebones and giving nothing to experienced players who want to challenge themselves.

[Silver-Strider]

Yeah I do think WHM should stay simple as in "easier to heal with than the other 3". Its the starting healer it should remain that way.

That does not mean I do not think WHM shouldn't be complex in other areas or that it shouldn't have a higher skill ceiling than it does currently.

For example a healer that focuses wholly on HoT style of healing is more challenging for a newer play to learn versus a healer that heals up front. This is what I'd like to see from AST and WHM. AST gaining more delayed healing in their base (sub 50) content while WHM keeps its on demand heals.

I also think that WHM's damage by comparison should be upfront as well. Vs SCH's previous DoT gameplay.

Tl;dr - "Simple" as in easy to understand and execute and not barebones and giving nothing to experienced players who want to challenge themselves.

It's a nice sentiment but rings hollow when we consider AST has a much easier time healing starting off than WHM

[Nizzi]

I think a huge problem XIV has is that there aren't interesting ways to heal. Sure, you can press 1 button for big heal on WHM or chain 5 together for big heal on SCH, but it delivers you to the same end, you healed and now you're waiting for the next thing to heal with 1 button or more. It's why the developer's identity for WHM as a "big heals healer" fundamentally does not work, and why that's been expressed many times before by people more informed, versed and smarter than me on the subject. If that much healing is needed, then WHM is mandatory, and if it isn't, then WHM offers nothing the other healers don't, and it just so happens those other healers can also heal a crap ton too and have buffs, meaning you'll never ever be meta. WHM has even been pushed out of it's "selfish DPS" 'niche' by SGE, so really; what IS the benefit of WHM over any of the other healers?

I don't really know how to solve this problem for WHM, though. I'm meh on the aesthetic, but I really don't like the playstyle, so anything I could say would really just be from a SCH player's perspective, and that's not really fair or needed feedback for anyone. It's why I mostly try to just talk about SCH, that's a job I know and love, and because of how much I've played it and love it my opinions on it come from a different place rather than a general "yeah healer DPS really sucks" disinterest when it comes to SGE, AST or WHM.

[QooEr]

I think a huge problem XIV has is that there aren't interesting ways to heal. [...]

i disagree about this bit, at least from an ast's perspective (doubly so by me having to play sge temporarily and loathing how brainless it is on the other jobs) sure we are still fundamentally only filling up a green bar or preventing it from falling in the first place but at least ast some somehting to it which i really like: timing heals precisely for maximum value.
i love how you can tweak earthly star timings even down to a margin of error of ≤1 second to get the most out of that one ability (for example, in e12s p2 i could use star to heal all the raidwides, the damage in every apoc and to help after relativities too without drifting).
i love how i could use horoscope to basically have infinite ranged healing if i timed it right (eg in e12s during shiva or intermediate relativity)
i love how you can make macrocosmos a infinite range party wide benediction that goes off without using a weave slot. my fav spot to use it is for p4s act 2, healing everyone to full right after it ends, which also lets people survive if they mess up the last tower since theyre at full health.
i loveD how i could extend regens, even more if i had multiple regens stacked on the same person.

i know these things get more devalued the less pressure there is to actually go to such lengths to optimize, but i find it very enjoyable when i can save a scholar energy drains by working extra hard.


im sure the other healers could maybe get something to make healing actually interesting again that lines up with how people play those jobs. i sure as hell miss optimizing embrace ticks on scholar which is what led me to play sage... even though kardia is more of an afterthought than anything.

[Payotz]

I think Square has kinda designed themselves into a corner in regards to how damage and healing in FF14 works.
They're all mitigation checks that are designed around the fact that healers have access to very strong heals on their GCDs that affects the whole party, for pretty much no cost other than less glares.
There's really no build up to how much healing they can output. No prep work needed other than specific stuff like Earthly Star and Macrocosmos, and even then I think these two spells are too strong.

If I can kinda compare it to DPS, it's like having access to Midare or Phantom Rush on the GCD at all times, without anything building into it, no stickers or Blitz needed.
If the DPS has instant access to a 1k+ potency move all the time, then of course phases like E8S intermission, EX2 Intermissions or DSR Rewind is gonna be a snooze fest.

I think nerfing the GCD heals and some OGCD heals to be weaker "quicker" lower cooldown heals and having a system around proactively building resources to gain access bigger heals would introduce something like a "healer rotation" into the game. Kinda like DPS rotations, but for healing instead.

A sample napkin rotation for Scholar would probably be something like this:

- You'd still have Adlo, and Succor but those are pretty weaker but faster casting shields.
- Adlo and Succor Critting would increase the effectiveness of the shields, and grant you an extra Recitation stack.
- Pressing Aetherflow would give you Aetherflow stacks that you can use on a weaker version of Lustrate or a weaker version of Indom, or weaker version of Excog, or Energy Drain, basically a weaker heal or shield version of your current Aetherflow toolkit.
- Using an Aetherflow stack would give you Recitation stacks, up to maximum of 5.
- Recitation would be on the gcd, kinda like SGE's Eukrasia, Pressing recitation would give you a "Recitation" buff
- Under recitation, your next GCD (shields, heals, and dps) and next OGCDs(shields, heals and, dps) will have a 50% increase in potency and will guarantee the crit.
- Aetherflow actions under Recitation will also be free of cost.
- And if for emergencies, the Scholar can also use Fairy gauge to generate Recitation stack. Maybe 40 fairy gauge for one Recitation stack.
- Dissipation will both give you full Aetherflow stacks and Recitation stacks.


Now I'm not the best at job design, nor would I think this will 100% work in the game without HUGE encounter design changes and huge changes for a lot of content in the game, but I think designing healers by having this DPS rotation mindset of having to "build up resources to give access to stronger heals" and having the option to convert those resources to big boy dps if you don't need it, will also reintroduce a lot of decision making to the role itself, and increase the skill ceiling.

Now, would I think this will actually be introduced to the game? Probably not. This will increase the skill floor of the healer role substantially, and Yoshi-P ain't gonna be happy about that.

[elioaiko]

It's a nice sentiment but rings hollow when we consider AST has a much easier time healing starting off than WHM

THIS! The sheer fact that WHM is considered the "easy" healer is such a bold-faced lie. It is the one healer with the less amount of oGCDs to heal with and has to use their GCD heals to heal if their co-healer doesn't have something up which feels awful.

Perhaps now that Misery is DPS neutral that lily usage makes it easier for WHM to actually heal without feeling bad.

AST and SGE are examples of healers in XIV's design that aren't handicapped by old aging design.

I've seen PLENTY of AST/SCH mains arguing that WHM should "stay simple", or "get something...but we don't want homogenization so not anything.

It's not just WHM players but those who want WHM to stay "simple". All this says to the devs is to keep the status quo of WHM staying the same and rotting away because it can't be anything more than what it is now. It has no clear future because at its core, it's the building foundation for the OTHER healing jobs. The difference here is that WHM doesn't have anything special about it other than Misery maybe. And because of this obsession to have WHM simple, is the reason why they keep dumbing down the other healers. Because WHM players are so happy according to the devs that they should also make SCH and AST work similarly to it. I love WHM but wanting it to be simple is 100% not enough anymore. The devs are getting too comfortable with how they treat the healer playerbase and I'm honestly so done. The fact that I enjoy playing tank and dps more these days is depressing.

[anhaato]

I’ve been looking into trying out ESO and a cursory glance of warden’s healing skills made me think “this is what WHM would look like if the devs had any ounce of creativity.” Stuff like planting magical trees that pulse an aoe heal, healing the lowest hp person the most. Mushrooms that release a cone shaped aoe heal. A flower that places a healing circle like asylum, but the circle also debuffs enemies that step into it. Heavy on the nature aesthetic with highly creative effects. Why can’t the devs be creative like that?

[pikalovr]

I’ve been looking into trying out ESO and a cursory glance of warden’s healing skills made me think “this is what WHM would look like if the devs had any ounce of creativity.” Stuff like planting magical trees that pulse an aoe heal, healing the lowest hp person the most. Mushrooms that release a cone shaped aoe heal. A flower that places a healing circle like asylum, but the circle also debuffs enemies that step into it. Heavy on the nature aesthetic with highly creative effects. Why can’t the devs be creative like that?

listen was bonking enemies with a stone not naturey enough for you? joking aside if they actually planned on making a elementalist job or a geomancer i could understand them waiting this long to go more into the elemental/naturey side of WHM but sine they didn't it is quite baffling how we didn't get unique stuff like lilly bells and lillies til like SHB and EW

[Silver-Strider]

Snip

There's also a Vine that will pull you towards an ally that heals both of you. Think Icarus with a healing effect attached.

As someone that played ESO for a few years, the healing in that game suffered from a handful of major issues and while ZOS tried to give every healer tools to keep them at a minimum, they never fully resolved a lot of them. Chief among them was that Resource Management was the Healer's responsibility and Templars had the best tools to do that with, making it the overall best healer in the game. From throwing a Holy Spear that would rdo damage, provide a damage buff for the Templar and restore Magic/Stamina, to having a huge consecrated ground AoE that would provide a HoT, an Esuna, Snare enemies, and restore resources for allies, to having just no strings attached burst healing capabilities, it really made the other healers seem kind of lackluster in comparison.

Warden Healer were the next best healers, providing a 10% extra health buff to everyone they healed as well as passive stamina/magic regen on allies that they healed with their conal healing mushrooms. The Icarus Vine skill was a very potent skill but in a game without tab targeting it was a nightmare to actually land the skill and pulling yourself towards the Tank that is currently looking down a behemoth of a boss with a OHKO cleave attack is not exactly the best place for a healer to be. It was still a solid healer though

Dragonknight, Sorcerer and Nightblade healers though had a lot of problems.

Nightblade Healers were HoT based for the most part. The only utility they provided was a Movement speed buff, kind of like Expedient but only if an ally ran thru a small ground based area to get it and it only lasted maybe 2 seconds after leaving the ground. You got a Regen tic out of it when players moved into the ground but the point of the skill was for people to stack in the ground for the HoT to work, which is hard to do when people end up running thru the damn thing with the speed boost it gave. There was also Minor Magicsteal, which effectively functioned as Bloodbath but for restoring Magic that they could apply to enemies via one of their DoT skills but Minor Magicsteal was also attached to a universal skill that everyone had access to call Elemental Drain that would lower the target's resistances to magic damage on top of the Minor Magicsteal effect, while costing 0 Magic to actually cast it, unlike the one Nightblade healers had access to in their class, making it inferior to the other option. They had access to a burst heal but it would cost the healer's HEALTH to use and could legitimately kill the Nightblade themselves if their health was too low.

Sorcerer Healers were.......odd. They tried to make it a pet Healer, utilizing one of the 3 pets that Sorcerer had access to but the primary issue with this is how pets worked in that game. ESO only has 2 hotbars that you have access to and in order for a pet to remain summoned, the skill to summon the pet had to be on both hotbars, else it would be unsummoned it upon switching hotbars, effectively limiting the number of skills you had at your disposal from 12 down to 11. The pet could also die so it was even more troublesome.

Dragonknight healers are meme status. They were designed so poorly it'd be laughable is it wasn't so sad. So, DK healers are the only healer that had access to group shields. This sounds like it would be great and the shield did provide some good benefits, like boosting the amount of healing people with shields received. The problem was, the Shield's strength was based on Max HEALTH of the caster. Dragonknight Tanks were the best tanks in the game and one of the benefits of the shields was that, they restored Stamina to the caster when used. So Dragonknight Tanks were applying these shields and overriding the Dragonknight Healer's shields making it unnecessary for the DK healer to even use them. The rest of their healing toolkit was also very lackluster. Their best burst heal was to throw a rock at an enemy and it would, somehow, heal an ally, even if the rock missed because the enemy dodged but there HAD to be an enemy that they could hit for the skill to be used at all. Their next best heal was Cauterize, which would summon a little ball of fire around the DK that would shootout heals to allies, once every 5 seconds. The skill lasted for 15s, meaning you only got 3 heals out of it and you had no control of when the Fireballs went out, they were set on 5s intervals with no way to prematurely fire them, other than recasting the skill to refresh it and force a heal out of it. Then, they had a ground based HoT effect, which healed a respectable amount, except it's AoE was even smaller than Nightblade's Healer Speed buff effect. It was Leylines levels of small it was that bad. It had a lot of range so you could fire it from a distance to heal a tank if you could hit them with it but you could only have 1 up at a time and there is a lot of movement involved in ESO's battles that you couldn't really get much value out of it.

Never got to try Necromancer Healers though. Quit before they were a thing.

Healing in that game was diverse but it had its own can of worms to deal with.

[RyuDragnier]

Never got to try Necromancer Healers though. Quit before they were a thing.

Necro healers are the flavor I love the most from ESO, as they used corpses on the ground to augment their skills, and everything had a pro and con.

You had Render Flesh, which gave you Minor Defile (lower healing input and output) but healed a single ally. Can be upgraded to give resistance equal to half of the healing you did, or consume a corpse nearby to hit another ally.
Expunge, which removes debuffs from yourself at the cost of health. Can be upgraded to restore Magicka and Stamina per debuff removed, or remove more debuffs.
Life amid Death, which you put an AoE down to heal you and your allies, and it could consume a corpse to give an HoT as well. Can be upgraded to remove 3 debuffs from everybody in the AoE, or to increase the duration of the HoT for each corpse consumed.
Spirit Mender (criminal act), which summoned a ghostly spirit to heal yourself or the person nearby with the lowest health, creates corpse when effect ends. Can be upgraded to make the ghost take some of the damage you take, or to heal 3 times as much for lasting half the duration.
Restoring Tether, which pulls a tether from a corpse to you, healing yourself and anybody between you and the corpse. Can be upgraded to also heal in an AoE around you, or you restore stamina while tethered.
Reanimate (Ultimate), revives up to 3 allies at the target location. Can be upgraded to restore your magicka/stamina for each player revived, or you consume other corpses in the area to create Blastbones (skeletons that run to an enemy and blow up).

You add in the skills from the other lines that can create and mess with corpses, and you have a really fun healer that creates corpses, exploits them, and basically plays chessmaster with the field while doing the fast paced combat. It's an addictive healer IMO, especially since anybody that dies (allies/enemies) will leave a corpse you can exploit for your skills.