Healers need an overhaul

[zabu]

Just a reminder:

We've already had an "overhaul" in Shadowbringers and it put us in the terrible position we are in now. So the basic question remains:

Do we trust the developers anymore in their design of healers in FFXIV?

My personal answer to that is a resounding No, and it's a sad thing. It really seems like they have no idea on how to balance them or design them to be engaging.

totally agree , the problem is not just in ShB , they removed a lot of fun part on healer after ARR
Strictly saying , all class become easier and easier in each expansion to attract more “casual” player , same for a lot of content , this lead to average skill of a player is really low

[Anxin]

What are your thoughts about SE turning Glare, Malefic, etc into the healer auto attack?

* This would free them to add more dps rotations.
* Or we would press even fewer buttons, standing around waiting to heal while the auto-Glare did its thing.

What do you think about turning healers into Dancer-like dps with more powerful healing?

* I've moved to Dancer and noticed if the CD and potency of the Dancer heals were adjusted, Dancer could serve as a reasonable healer stand in. Add in a good single-target heal, and the Dancer would be a solid healer with the current, casual content design.
* Dancer offers a solid base for healer design. Thoughts?

[ty_taurus]

What are your thoughts about SE turning Glare, Malefic, etc into the healer auto attack?

* This would free them to add more dps rotations.
* Or we would press even fewer buttons, standing around waiting to heal while the auto-Glare did its thing.

What do you think about turning healers into Dancer-like dps with more powerful healing?

* I've moved to Dancer and noticed if the CD and potency of the Dancer heals were adjusted, Dancer could serve as a reasonable healer stand in. Add in a good single-target heal, and the Dancer would be a solid healer with the current, casual content design.
* Dancer offers a solid base for healer design. Thoughts?

Creating gameplay where the objective is to stand around and objectively not play the game is an atrocious form of game design. If I wanted to stand around waiting for something to happen, I'd go to the DMV, not log into an MMO. That said, even if you were to axe Glare/Broil/Malefic/Dosis, then healers would just shift to spamming Holy III/Art of War II/Gravity II/Dyskrasia II because it would be a DPS gain.

Every job needs some form of "filler" action or actions that they can fall back on when all other tools have been used, whether that means DoTs are ticking, cooldowns are spent, or action-specific resources have been used. You could make auto-attacks stronger by adding a mind-scaling additions to them in some fashion, and that in theory could increase the skill floor by redirecting DPS into an auto-attacks, but they also require you maintain uptime on targeting enemies, which I don't find difficult and generally do simply to see the cast bar, but other players might find it hard.

That said, I do kinda wish caster auto attacks were ranged similar to how Aerith in FF7R flings small magical projectiles by swinging her staff. Even if we add no scaling at all, I just think it would feel thematically more appropriate, especially on SGE who currently just palms the enemy rather than firing small jolts from their nouliths.

[ASkellington]

That said, I do kinda wish caster auto attacks were ranged similar to how Aerith in FF7R flings small magical projectiles by swinging her staff. Even if we add no scaling at all, I just think it would feel thematically more appropriate, especially on SGE who currently just palms the enemy rather than firing small jolts from their nouliths.

Can my auto as AST be throwing a card (at range)? We literally see Urianger doing it.

[Midareyukki]

Can my auto as AST be throwing a card (at range)? We literally see Urianger doing it.

Twisted Fate autos? Yes please Square. Heck, it'd make me feel a bit like Ace from Type-0

[Maltothoris]

I still find it kinda funny how according this interview https://sea.ign.com/final-fantasy-xi...-naoki-yoshida how it took SGE 6 months to develop and RPR 3 months while RPR has some interesting bits while SGE is just less janky and less powerful SCH.

Edit: Also shows how they are limiting themselves in keeping all the healers magical.

[Zebraoracle]

SGE is just less janky and less powerful SCH.

I've been saying this for months. As much as I love sage, it's a little disheartening to know it's just a less powerful scholar.

[Recon1o6]

I still find it kinda funny how according this interview https://sea.ign.com/final-fantasy-xi...-naoki-yoshida how it took SGE 6 months to develop and RPR 3 months while RPR has some interesting bits while SGE is just less janky and less powerful SCH.

Edit: Also shows how they are limiting themselves in keeping all the healers magical.

This is why everyone wanted chemist. A non magical healer

[Gember]

I know this post is older, but some things in the OP's post kind of made me wonder about some viewpoints here on the healer role.

I am a full time healer on FFXIV. I like to swap between the 4 jobs a lot, and do casual and higher end content with them. The reason why is because I actually do enjoy healing a lot! I think the designs of the jobs are very well done, but they are not perfect. Regardless, I think a lot of the problem stems from content more than anything.

What I mean by this is that a healer will perform very differently in high end duties compare to a healer who are just doing their roulettes for the day. Also to note, a healer progging will perform very different than a healer farming as well. Medica2 is every baby white mage's best friend, but they try to avoid it at all cost when they are very experienced into a high end fight.

As much as people might agree that some of the healer kit is useless... I just have to disagree because I think the healer role is very situational. During my P8S prog; I had to use Med2 and Cure2 during our prog just so we could survive to see the next mechanic. My co-healer encourages me to not use it, but I keep telling her that prog is prog and I will start to weed it out later once I figure out what works for the team when were not making so many mistakes.

I do understand that healer DPS can start to feel boring once every mechanic has been figured out, and every team member got it down, and I believe that is where these types of discussions start to pop up in the community. I can understand that because healers are typically the players who catch those who fall, and when things are great: we just kind of hang with the group in case something does happen, or fulfilling a mechanic that calls for us.

I believe having a more engaging DPS rotation isn't the solution, but more reasons to heal actually. This raid tier with all of their bleed and poison de-buffs was a real surprise and was really fun to work with. They also challenged the DPS and Tanks to do a bit of their end as well creating this teamwork in need to clear. Because everyone can do DPS already; having more responsibility in the survival department is really refreshing for me as a healer, and maybe the tanks too. Always having to boil down to DPS so hardcore doesn't make the game interesting, and I hope it starts to stem more away from that. That to me makes a healer role more exciting.

[KDSilver]

I've been saying this for months. As much as I love sage, it's a little disheartening to know it's just a less powerful scholar.

I love SGE too a lot but this is a sad fact and truth.